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HOLLYWOOD TV ADAPTATION SHORTAGE EXPECTED SOON!
With numerous established cinema
franchises like Charlie's Angels, The Addams Family, and
upcoming motion pictures based on The Bionic Man and Get
Smart, film experts are warning the big studios that if TV to
movie adaptations continue at this rate, there won't be any shows
left to use by 2012.
"It's a grim reality we simply aren't
prepared to face", says Bewitched director Nora Ephron. "When
Star Trek, which was one of the industry's first successful TV
to film adaptations, was released there seemed to be a seemingly
endless supply of shows that we could make into movies." Ephron
stressed during a phone interview, "But all the good shows have been
made into movies already, and Hollywood has had to dip to B and C
level shows. The industry is frankly draining the supply too
quickly."
Ephron may have a point. Warner
Brothers is already showing evidence of the TV show drought when it
announced plans to make a Joanie Loves Chachi film, and as a
bizarre cost cutting move typical of the industry as of late, they're
still going to use original cast members Scott Baio and Erin Moran in
the lead roles. Moran, who was last seen in a 1998 episode of
Diagnosis Murder disagrees, "Making a movie of 'J loves C' is NOT
scraping bottom. It's one of the more important and nostalgic shows
of the '80s."
Many agree that Hollywood needs to
ration adaptations of better shows and start utilizing some of the
lesser known and least nostalgic to "spread the wealth". Columbia
pictures is already taking a cue, optioning such unlikely shows as
Small Wonder, Holmes and Yo Yo, and Hello Larry.
Even Michael Mann, who directed last
year's Miami Vice is worried, snapping up the rights to
numerous obscure titles as Shields and Yarnell, James at 15,
the '70s Kristi McNichol classic Family, and a yet untitled
project loosely based on Donna Pescow's Angie.
Michael Bay, director of this summer's
Transformers, is also concerned that the shortage may spread
to toy oriented movies as well. "I'm really concerned if the
Transformers trend creates a demand, we're gonna be stuck with
Go-Bots, Mr. Bucket, and Slinky movies before we know it. Now is the
time to conserve so I don't end up having to make Hungry Hungry
Hippos: The Movie!"
Many directors are considering the
tremendous archive of underutilized videogame properties as an
alternative, as well. Controversial director Uwe Boll, who has
already directed such gaming movies as Bloodrayne and
Postal, plans to make films based on Asteroids, Atari's ET, and
some yet unannounced film versions of Odyssey 2 and Intellivision
games.
Fortunately, there's still one
resource Hollywood will never run out of...a lack of creativity.
-Robert Berry
rberry@retrocrush.com
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