For some reason the other day, I was thinking about the glut of tv-to-movie remakes there have been over about the last 15 years or so. The Fugitive, Mission Impossible, Wild Wild West, Starsky and Hutch, Miami Vice. Mainly from the 1960s and 1970s, though some more recent (Miama Vice, for one) and some even older (Maverick). Some straight remakes, some spoofs, some hits, some misses. And then I got to thinking about what current or recent shows would or could be adopted in another 20 or 30 years. And I pretty much hit a blank...
I think it's the arc-based nature of many modern shows that mean they wouldn't work as a straightforward 2 hour cinematic movie. Imagine trying to explain all the back story, flash forwards and flashbacks in Lost in that time. Or trying to fit in all the characters and storylines from The Wire. A 2 hour long 24 (2?) would be fairly indistinguishable from many other action adventure spy movies. The Sopranos would be just another gangster movie. Heroes might work, but it'd just be another big screen comic-inspired movie, X-Men meets Unbreakable.
What current or recent shows do you see being updated or adopted for the big screen in the future? I'm not talking about movies like Star Trek: TMP, The X-Files, Sex and The City or Serenity, where the original actors from a show reprise the roles for a story that fits into the continuity of or is a sequel to the original show. Rather I'm thinking of the sort of movies I've named earlier - where someone takes the original idea or concept of the show and either updates it (in the case of M:I or The Fugitive) or remakes it and sets it in the same period but with a new star (Maverick, The Untouchables).
Here's some other possibilities:
Buffy The Vampire Slayer - started as a movie, so why not? Angel might also have scope for a remake, though you'd have to do away with the Buffy backstory, unless it was a spin off of the BTVS movie.
Babylon 5 - basic concept would work, though you couldn't cram the 5 year storyline into one movie. It would have to be a series of movies.
Boston Legal - a quirky lcomedy awyer movie, in the vein of My Cousin Vinny. Why not? Might miss out on a lot of the long-running stories and jokes, but the basic buddy concept could work.
Fringe - that whole X-Files/ Night Stalker concept seems to work in any decade.
Burn Notice - the ongoing thread about why he's been burned might have to be shortened. But if Harrison Ford's Richard Kimble can be exonorated in one 2 hour movie, as oppose to the several series it took David Janssen, then I think it could be done.
My Name is Earl - I'd be surprised if there hadn't already been some movie with a similar sort of plot.
Breaking Bad - chemistry teacher dying of cancer, uses his knowledge to make crystal meth.This could be adopted for a 2 hour storyline, though it'd lose a lot of the subplots of the tv version.
Prison Break - could be done as a movie (with sequels where they're on the run?). Would probably lend itself quite well to a movie franchise. But I don't know that a tv movie of PB would be any different from any of the numerous, er prison breakout movies there have been over the years - the Great Escape, Shawshank, etc.
Anyone else got any thoughts?
I think it's the arc-based nature of many modern shows that mean they wouldn't work as a straightforward 2 hour cinematic movie. Imagine trying to explain all the back story, flash forwards and flashbacks in Lost in that time. Or trying to fit in all the characters and storylines from The Wire. A 2 hour long 24 (2?) would be fairly indistinguishable from many other action adventure spy movies. The Sopranos would be just another gangster movie. Heroes might work, but it'd just be another big screen comic-inspired movie, X-Men meets Unbreakable.
What current or recent shows do you see being updated or adopted for the big screen in the future? I'm not talking about movies like Star Trek: TMP, The X-Files, Sex and The City or Serenity, where the original actors from a show reprise the roles for a story that fits into the continuity of or is a sequel to the original show. Rather I'm thinking of the sort of movies I've named earlier - where someone takes the original idea or concept of the show and either updates it (in the case of M:I or The Fugitive) or remakes it and sets it in the same period but with a new star (Maverick, The Untouchables).
Here's some other possibilities:
Buffy The Vampire Slayer - started as a movie, so why not? Angel might also have scope for a remake, though you'd have to do away with the Buffy backstory, unless it was a spin off of the BTVS movie.
Babylon 5 - basic concept would work, though you couldn't cram the 5 year storyline into one movie. It would have to be a series of movies.
Boston Legal - a quirky lcomedy awyer movie, in the vein of My Cousin Vinny. Why not? Might miss out on a lot of the long-running stories and jokes, but the basic buddy concept could work.
Fringe - that whole X-Files/ Night Stalker concept seems to work in any decade.
Burn Notice - the ongoing thread about why he's been burned might have to be shortened. But if Harrison Ford's Richard Kimble can be exonorated in one 2 hour movie, as oppose to the several series it took David Janssen, then I think it could be done.
My Name is Earl - I'd be surprised if there hadn't already been some movie with a similar sort of plot.
Breaking Bad - chemistry teacher dying of cancer, uses his knowledge to make crystal meth.This could be adopted for a 2 hour storyline, though it'd lose a lot of the subplots of the tv version.
Prison Break - could be done as a movie (with sequels where they're on the run?). Would probably lend itself quite well to a movie franchise. But I don't know that a tv movie of PB would be any different from any of the numerous, er prison breakout movies there have been over the years - the Great Escape, Shawshank, etc.
Anyone else got any thoughts?
