I heard ABC is thinking of doing a show on the book and having it go on for several seasons. How can that work? Do you think it'll have a chance of becoming an instant hit or a quickly cancelled flop?
The Time Traveler's Wife, the TV Show: Chances of Success
- Thread starter Joe Washington
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doubleohfive
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Having read the book, I don't know that it could stick very closely to the narrative for very long... without stretching things out, without changing things.
Having read the book, I don't know that it could stick very closely to the narrative for very long... without stretching things out, without changing things.
Journeyman was a total flop, the movie was a flop... so I'd say very little.
Didn't some TV show already try ripping off this book before failing miserably and getting cancelled?
I suppose it could work, it's just a matter of execution plus an element of luck if it can gain an audience foothold early on. It might be better if they approached it as a mini-series rather than an ongoing affair. Without spoiling it for those who haven't read it, part of the book's appeal is that there is a definite end to the story that's telegraphed and woven though the narrative.
I suppose it could work, it's just a matter of execution plus an element of luck if it can gain an audience foothold early on. It might be better if they approached it as a mini-series rather than an ongoing affair. Without spoiling it for those who haven't read it, part of the book's appeal is that there is a definite end to the story that's telegraphed and woven though the narrative.
The great problem in translating The Time Traveler's Wife to television is that the novel is reactive. The characters in the story aren't actors, they don't have agency to do anything to alter their lives or their fate, and so they don't. Henry and Claire are passive characters who react to events because they feel that they are powerless to do anything except accept what happens to them. I deliberately use the word "feel" in the preceding sentence, because the novel doesn't address whether or not events are, in fact, predestined; Henry worries at one point that time has been altered, but when he discovers that things are not, in fact, altered, this discovery confirms what he's always believed, that time cannot be altered.
Any TTW television series would have to address the agency question head on, and the question of "predestination versus free will" would be a powerful dramatic engine for the series. Television audiences aren't exactly going to be receptive week after week to tune in and see Henry and Claire of different ages talking about their feelings, because there's no drama inherent in that. That works in a book, where these scenes create mood and tension, but on screen they would be deadly dull and the show would be heading for a quick cancellation.
The series would also need an antagonist. The vicissitudes of fate isn't sufficient, because it's too abstract. There are several possibilities. An "evil Leaper," since we're told in the novel that Henry and later his daughter aren't the only Chronally Displaced Persons; perhaps in his travels Henry crosses paths with someone else who is also displaced in time, only this person is a bit amoral. Or a determined police officer, who tries to establish who this mysterious naked man is that shows up at random and vanishes at random; over the course of the series, he attempts to pin several of Henry's CDP burglaries on "present" Henry.
Finally, a television series would need, like all good genre television series today have, a story arc across the season.
The obvious story arc? Henry attempts to prevent his own death, the accidental shooting by Claire's brother. That wouldn't be difficult to structure across thirteen episodes; the question is whether or not it would be worth doing. Obviously, it violates the book massively, but it would also have undeniable dramatic appeal, which a television series requires.
A less obvious story arc? Henry attempting to control his chronal displacement. Perhaps he tries meditative techniques. Perhaps he tries experimental drug therapies. (And I know who I'd cast as Henry's doctor -- Andre Braugher. That's who I pictured when I read the book.) Perhaps Henry even tries to find a way to make his leaps into the past more directed, eliminating the random element. Again, it's contra the book, but this is a development that a television audience would probably expect.
If you can't tell, I've given this a fair bit of thought. I'd also make Henry and Claire's daughter more central, and I think that, in an early episode, I would want a scene where the young Henry, when he doesn't quite understand what happens to him, displaces into the future and meets Claire as she is in her mid-thirties. (I feel like that's in the book, but I don't think it is.) Beyond that, I'm not really picky.
The television series is going to be a variation on the theme, because to work as a television series it's going to need to be altered; things that work on the page won't work on screen, and audience expectations over a long haul, as a television series has the potential to be, are going to be vastly different. A TTW television series is not going to be the emotional tone poem of the book, and for people who don't (or won't) like the changes a television series will make to the source material, the source material is still going to exist. Just pull the book down off the shelf and read it.
Finally...
Any TTW television series would have to address the agency question head on, and the question of "predestination versus free will" would be a powerful dramatic engine for the series. Television audiences aren't exactly going to be receptive week after week to tune in and see Henry and Claire of different ages talking about their feelings, because there's no drama inherent in that. That works in a book, where these scenes create mood and tension, but on screen they would be deadly dull and the show would be heading for a quick cancellation.
The series would also need an antagonist. The vicissitudes of fate isn't sufficient, because it's too abstract. There are several possibilities. An "evil Leaper," since we're told in the novel that Henry and later his daughter aren't the only Chronally Displaced Persons; perhaps in his travels Henry crosses paths with someone else who is also displaced in time, only this person is a bit amoral. Or a determined police officer, who tries to establish who this mysterious naked man is that shows up at random and vanishes at random; over the course of the series, he attempts to pin several of Henry's CDP burglaries on "present" Henry.
Finally, a television series would need, like all good genre television series today have, a story arc across the season.
The obvious story arc? Henry attempts to prevent his own death, the accidental shooting by Claire's brother. That wouldn't be difficult to structure across thirteen episodes; the question is whether or not it would be worth doing. Obviously, it violates the book massively, but it would also have undeniable dramatic appeal, which a television series requires.
A less obvious story arc? Henry attempting to control his chronal displacement. Perhaps he tries meditative techniques. Perhaps he tries experimental drug therapies. (And I know who I'd cast as Henry's doctor -- Andre Braugher. That's who I pictured when I read the book.) Perhaps Henry even tries to find a way to make his leaps into the past more directed, eliminating the random element. Again, it's contra the book, but this is a development that a television audience would probably expect.
If you can't tell, I've given this a fair bit of thought. I'd also make Henry and Claire's daughter more central, and I think that, in an early episode, I would want a scene where the young Henry, when he doesn't quite understand what happens to him, displaces into the future and meets Claire as she is in her mid-thirties. (I feel like that's in the book, but I don't think it is.) Beyond that, I'm not really picky.
The television series is going to be a variation on the theme, because to work as a television series it's going to need to be altered; things that work on the page won't work on screen, and audience expectations over a long haul, as a television series has the potential to be, are going to be vastly different. A TTW television series is not going to be the emotional tone poem of the book, and for people who don't (or won't) like the changes a television series will make to the source material, the source material is still going to exist. Just pull the book down off the shelf and read it.
Finally...
I'd suggest watching two Doctor Who stories: "The Girl in the Fireplace" (the Doctor and Madame du Pompedour have a romance out of linear sequence) and "The Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead" (the Doctor meets his future wife, and she carries a notebook of their non-linear meetings).
The movie wasn't a huge hit, but it was by no means a flop. It made $100 million worldwide on a production budget of $39 million - a successful return on investment.
That sounds like a tough assignment for a TV series - which doesn't "do" internal states and passive protagonists nearly as well as novels.
"Predestination vs free will" would be tricky to pull off but I guess it can be done - have the characters always be trying this or that to shape their fate, and of course, mainly run up against failure. But how do you communicate to the audience that the failure was because of predestination vs plain old bad luck?
Flash Forward shows us how not to do that story: by relegating "predestination vs free will" to dialogue rather than action, and have the action instead revolve around soap opera, standard cop show scenes and convoluted conspiracy. The premise is a tough, ambitious one - but regardless, they've gotta stick with it, and not slide back into more familiar, comfortable territory.
The (deliberate) miniseries format seems to have fallen way out of favor. Probably because it's hard to amortize the expense of starting up a series when you know you're going to "cancel" it after several episodes, even if it's a ratings hit. Either they'll try to shoehorn the premise into an ongoing series format or they won't try it at all, and instead find another premise they can shoehorn into an ongoing series format. The financial reality of TV production demands it.
Definitely. It doesn't have to be "human" but it does have to be personifiable, via an actor.
No.
Just no.
The movie was decent. They did the best they could translating the novel's resonance to film. Taken by itself, the movie presents an evocative romance very well. But there is just no way to put the raw, exposed nature of the book onto the small screen in 42-minute increments. It's just a bad, bad idea.
I'm not sure how I feel about the charges of Journeyman ripping off The Time Traveler's Wife. Frankly, I enjoy them both very much. I wish Journeyman had been given the opportunity to continue. Its handling of the premise of the unwitting time traveler Dan was quite different from Henry's arc in the book. The emotions were just not as deep, not as visceral in Journeyman, which I think gave the premise much more potential as a series.
I can see, though, where people suspect and even assume that Journeyman came from The Time Traveler's Wife. There are some pretty significant parallels between the two. We'll probably never know for sure if the one inspired the other.
Just no.
The movie was decent. They did the best they could translating the novel's resonance to film. Taken by itself, the movie presents an evocative romance very well. But there is just no way to put the raw, exposed nature of the book onto the small screen in 42-minute increments. It's just a bad, bad idea.
I'm not sure how I feel about the charges of Journeyman ripping off The Time Traveler's Wife. Frankly, I enjoy them both very much. I wish Journeyman had been given the opportunity to continue. Its handling of the premise of the unwitting time traveler Dan was quite different from Henry's arc in the book. The emotions were just not as deep, not as visceral in Journeyman, which I think gave the premise much more potential as a series.
I can see, though, where people suspect and even assume that Journeyman came from The Time Traveler's Wife. There are some pretty significant parallels between the two. We'll probably never know for sure if the one inspired the other.
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