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sf/f TV development news - 2013

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

I don't understand why you're so ferociously resisting this idea. You haven't even seen the damn show, so it's not like you're actually qualified to make assumptions about what it will or won't be. So why can't you just wait and see instead of being so pointlessly stubborn and argumentative? I'm done wasting my time trying to reason with you. When the show actually premieres, you will find out what it's like.
 
Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

Well, see, if you look back, you'll notice that I'm not ferociously resisting anything. I just made an offhand joke and you went off on one of your defensive rampages again. ;)
 
Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

"Defensive rampage?" Hardly. I have no reason to be defensive when I have no personal stake in this. I was simply trying to clarify the facts and explain to you why Weird Desk was more similar to SHIELD than the glib X-Files comparison would suggest. But as so often happens on the Internet, we ended up talking past each other or not hearing each other.

Frankly, text communication sucks. It's not how we evolved to interact. Without nonverbal cues, misunderstandings become inescapable and it's all too easy to perceive hostility or negativity where none was intended.
 
Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

^^ That doesn't sound promising for RHW. :(

That is unfortunate. I guess I can cut down to just Defiance in the list of new SF&F programs I'm looking forward to.

I see The Almighty Johnsons advertised a lot on Syfy - the original, presumably - but it never looks that interesting.
 
Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

So does that leave Starz's Incursion as the only prospective space adventure series on the horizon, even possibly?
 
Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

^^ As far as I can remember, unfortunately.

Frankly, text communication sucks. It's not how we evolved to interact. Without nonverbal cues, misunderstandings become inescapable and it's all too easy to perceive hostility or negativity where none was intended.
That is certainly true. :)

^^ That doesn't sound promising for RHW. :(

That is unfortunate. I guess I can cut down to just Defiance in the list of new SF&F programs I'm looking forward to.
Very unfortunate. The guy is a great talent. If given the chance, he could create something in the same league as Star Trek, Stargate, Babylon 5, Farscape, Firefly....
 
Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

It's worth pointing out that these glib comparisons to old shows are just part of the TV-pitch vocabulary, a shorthand for conveying the genre the show belongs to, and shouldn't be taken as a literal indication that the creators intend to copy the specifics of the shows being referenced. For instance, Gene Roddenberry pitched Star Trek as "Wagon Train to the stars," because Wagon Train was a successful television show that had the kind of format and tone he wanted to emulate, and saying that was a quick-and-dirty way of conveying that to the network execs because they'd know what kind of show it had been. But ST was a very, very different show from Wagon Train.

As a veteran of countless sales conferences, marketing meetings, and pitch sessions, I'll cop to using this kind of shorthand all the time. Like Christopher says, it's a quick-and-dirty way to get an idea across to a room full of jaded sales reps . . .

"It's THE HUNGER GAMES with elves . . ."

"It's TEN LITTLE INDIANS meets HARRY POTTER."

"It's LES MISERABLES in space . . . ."

In reality, of course, those are usually wild over-simplifications of very interesting, complicated stories, but when you only have two minutes (or less) to present a pitch, you can't get into detail about the book's nuanced exploration of the social implications of genetic engineering, not to mention the heroine's complicated, morally ambiguous relationship with her undead clone . . . .

"It's like BLADE RUNNER, but with vampires."
 
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Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

Zen koan for the day: how do you "reboot" an anthology series? Redo all the stories but change the endings? (Turns out it wasn't a cookbook after all!)

EXCLUSIVE: The Twilight Zone is eying a return to primetime. X-Men director Bryan Singer has closed a deal to develop, executive produce and possibly direct a reboot of Rod Serling’s classic. The drama series project, now in early stages, is set up at CBS TV Studios, which has the rights to the original series. Search is underway for a writer to pen the new Twilight Zone. The project has not been pitched to networks yet, but CBS is an obvious destination since CBS TV Studios only supplies CBS and the CW on the broadcast side and CBS carried the original series as well as the first revival.
 
Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

So is this the third or fourth Twilight Zone?
 
Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

Actually I tend to think of the syndicated third season of the '80s series (whose writing staff was anchored by J. Michael Straczynski, a pretty good Serling mimic) as virtually a different show from the first two seasons on CBS. So maybe five and a half versions.

Oh, and I gather Leonardo DiCaprio is developing a TZ-branded movie, although it would be based on just one TZ episode rather than being an anthology like the previous movie. Plus Real Steel was based on a short story previously adapted as a TZ episode.
 
Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

Well, this is interesting, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I'd love to see another well-done Twilight Zone series. The 80s revival (both the network and syndicated pieces) was very good, but the more recent one sucked (and the movie was mediocre). Seeing Bryan Singer's name gives reason for cautious optimism.

Secondly, if CBS studios is developing a new Twilight Zone series, that makes it seem more likely that they will want to develop a new Star Trek series-- perhaps even as a companion to Twilight Zone as a night of classic revivals. Fingers crossed....
 
Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

I didn't care for the CBS version of the '80s TZ. It had some good installments here and there, but overall it didn't really feel like TZ to me. The syndicated season that followed came the closest to the original, I felt. I believe it even adapted one or two unfilmed scripts from the original show. (Although Spielberg's Amazing Stories did one too, a Richard Matheson piece called "The Doll.")
 
Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

"Button, Button" was an episode of the '80s revival, though, not the original show.

True. But it does count as another movie based on a TZ episode, if not based one of the classic originals.

(And I published tie-in editions for both!)
 
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