Entertainment Weekly Online article: 7 Books That Would Make Great TV Shows
I’m reposting a few choice bits here with my thoughts.
#7 Gotham Central by Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka
Pitch: A semi-realistic police procedural set in Batman’s hometown.
Upside: It’s the most reliable of TV formats — the big city crime drama — paired with one of the most popular franchises in entertainment history.
Downside: Batman rights owner Warner Bros. prefers to make Batman films. Even though Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan has finished his trilogy, The CW’s entertainment president told me earlier this month that the studio won’t yet permit a TV spinoff. Also, remember Nikki and Paulo on Lost? Viewers like to focus on a story’s most interesting characters, not the background players, so that could be a creative challenge. Still, this CSI: Gotham is worth a shot.
Perfect Home: The CW or Syfy
While a CSI: Gotham would be interesting, having Batman return to his roots as ‘The World’s Greatest Detective’ would probably be a better bet. Batman has already proven he can carry a tv show with the Adam West series, plus that fact that he has such a wonderfully large and memorable rogue’s gallery means you have plenty of room to work to keep things interesting. You’d have to play it smart though, take a few lessons from the Batman: The Animated Series and learn from Arrow’s mistakes.
#5 American Vampire by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque, Stephen King
Pitch: Comic series about a notorious outlaw in the Old West who is transformed into the first of a new kind of faster/stronger sunlight-proof vampire who eventually teams with a Hollywood silent movie actress (in this tale, studio moguls are vampires who feed on struggling actresses — nice).
Upside: With an awesome title like American Vampire, I’m amazed this isn’t on my DVR already. Ridiculously easy for a network to market. HBO’s True Blood and The CW’s The Vampire Diaries are modern-day hit vampire shows. A historical tale could be the next step.
Downside: The decades-spanning tale could be too ambitious (read: expensive and complicated) for a TV show.
Perfect Home: AMC
I think the upside is actually the downside. Don’t we have enough vampire stuff in movies and television? Surely we’ll hit the saturation point here any second now. Especially since this sounds a bit like Blade, only old timey.
#2 Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
Pitch: The ultra-violent Japanese cult hit has basically the same setup as The Hunger Games, only with lots of guns and without the ’70s glam makeovers.
Upside: Nowadays, it’s tough for a TV show to feel dangerous. The first season of CBS’ Survivor pulled it off. Starz Spartacus, which stretched the boundaries of gore and sex for a cable drama, did it too. And so did AMC’s The Walking Dead — remember that first scene with Rick Grimes shooting a child zombie in her bunny slippers? If executed correctly, Battle Royale would be a must-watch, high-buzz show. With The Hunger Games blowing up the box office with the teen-friendly two-hour version of this concept, there’s room for an R-rated, uncompromising multi-season version. It’s like a reality show where being voted off the island means a character dies; a structure that can be re-set each year. Writers could drizzle in serialized nuggets (such as who is running the games and how to stop them) while previous “winners” could return to the competition (which happened in the book too).
Downside: Do you need to ask? Teen gun-play on TV is radioactive in the wake of Sandy Hook. One could argue that such sensitivities are exactly why this subject is worth candidly exploring in a commercial art medium like television, but that’s one of those intellectual-sounding points that tend to get shouted down during a media frenzy. Still, if I’m making an honest list of a books that could make great TV shows, Battle Royale should be on it. One option: Having “contestants” of all ages and from all walks of life instead of just a high school class arguably has more dramatic potential and will draw a wider audience while making the story less about kids killing kids.
Perfect Home: Starz (The CW recently looked into the rights, but, yeah, not happening).
The simple fact that they can say a plot line involving kids killing other kids “[blew] up the box office with the teen-friendly two-hour version” should make everyone worry. The fact that they want an R-rated blood-soaked version is even worse. Sure, an honest discussion on teen violence and the cause of it is needed, but in a situation like Battle Royale you’re not going to get it because the characters are being forced into killing. Even those kids who want to participate in the games do so for the game/rush/etc aspect which is removed from the realities of every day life. In a Battle Royale tv series there is no room to look at why kids would willingly hurt each other in everyday life.
#1 The Stand by Stephen King
Pitch: Only the greatest post-apocalyptic novel ever written, and one of the most popular. When a super-flu virus kills more than 99 percent of the world’s population an eclectic group of survivors struggle to control the fate of humanity.
Upside: The Stand has all the components for a great pay cable series. There’s compelling end-of-the-world hook, a lengthy narrative, a diverse ensemble cast and beloved source material. Like AMC’s adaptation of The Walking Dead, the original story would need to be expanded, but there’s enough components in King’s “dark chest of wonders” to support five cable-length seasons (the spread of the flu and survivors coming together in Nebraska and Las Vegas could span the whole first season).
Downside: The Stand was already adapted once (successfully) as a miniseries in 1994. It’s currently in development at Warner Bros. as a feature film (films?). Even King has expressed doubts that this sprawling story will work as a single movie. Here’s a prediction: If CBS’ adaptation of King’s Under the Dome is a hit this summer, The Stand will get a green light — either as a film or TV show.
Perfect Home: HBO. You don’t need HBO-level sex and language to pull off The Stand, but you do need plenty of money (and HBO has more of it than anybody else). Another network I could imagine wanting this project (though fans probably wouldn’t call it the “perfect” home): Fox.
The 1994 mini-series was indeed fantastic… so can we leave it as a monument and call for a moratorium on post-apocalyptic tv-shows/films? The USA channel is the biggest basic cable channel in the US with top rated and critically acclaimed shows. The secret to their success? “We always go for a blue skies feel” and they “Keep it light.” [Source] Also, the #1 rated tv-series on network television who just reached 25 MILLION viewers? NCIS. A procedural drama that is as light and fun as it is dark and gritty. Even I can do this math.
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