News Briefs: Fox Wants to Make a Predator Series
IF IT BLEEDS, WE CAN KILL IT BUT ALSO FRANCHISE IT INTO A TELEVISION SERIES
... Fox is plotting a television series based on Predator, the badass 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger film featuring the Governator fighting an alien who came to Earth to hunt for sport. Iron Man 3 writer Shane Black is attached to bring it to television, but details on the specifics aren't available yet. But given current TV trends, I'm thinking it might be about the Predator, recently divorced, who is forced to move back in with his parents, who are superheroes. Get this reboot to the choppah! [THR]
BUSINESS TIME
... True Blood returned Sunday to start up its final season, and it did better AND worse than last year. Let me explain. The 9pm initial airing drew 4 million viewers, down about half a million from last season. But overall for the night, the Season 7 premiere outdrew the Season 6 premiere 5.8 million to 5.6 million. Still, steady is something to celebrate nowadays, but one would also hope that the Truebies would rally for the show's final season. So congratulations and condolences, I guess? I'm so confused! [Deadline]
... Lifetime, you're serious about this being serious, aren't you? The home of movies like The Craigslist Killer is adapting Steven King's novella Big Driver into a made-for-TV movie with Maria Bello (Prime Suspect) starring. In the book, a writer (of course, this being King) is stranded on the side of a road when she's helped out by a stranger who turns out to be not so kind. In fact, he gets all punchy and rapey with her. So naturally she goes on a quest to kick his ass. Olympia Dukakis and Joan Jett will also star. [TV Guide]
... Here's that preview of Downton Abbey's fifth season that you've been dying for.
... Animal Planet has renewed The Pool Master after one episode. So now Animal Planet has a pair of new shows it's high on—Treehouse Masters and The Pool Master—featuring the world's most deadly animal... MAN. Specifically, men who like to improve backyards. [THR]
CASTING ROUNDUP
... Carrie Brownstein, better known as one half of Portlandia and one third of Sleater-Kinney, is headed over to Amazon to co-star in the upcoming dramedy series Transparent. In the indie-as-F series, about a family who bonds after a father's secret is let out, Brownstein will play the best friend to Gabi Hoffman's character. Good for Brownstein, Transparent was easily the best of the five Amazon pilots that were released earlier this year. [The Wrap]
... Season 4 of Showtime's Web Therapy will stage the 120 billionth Friends reunion. Matthew Perry is among the stars on the guest list for Lisa Kudrow's comedy, marking the fourth consecutive Friends star to drop by Phoebe's show (Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, and Matt LeBlanc have all appeared on the show). Also dropping by for Season 4 will be Lauren Graham, Dax Shepard, Jon Hamm, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Allison Janney, and Craig Ferguson. [Showtime via press release]
YOU CAN'T SPELL TYRANT WITHOUT RANT
... Daniel Fienberg of HitFix talks about the decision to cast a white actor in television's only lead role for a Middle Eastern character. He doesn't like it. [HitFix]
... The Huffington Post's Mo Ryan is over the use of rape as a lazy means to vilify a character. Be warned: Tyrant uses rape with gusto. [Huffington Post]
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... And if you're still watching 24: Live Another Day, Cory's got your review right here.
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Not to forget, those preditors will be hunting zombies and sensitive emo vampires and one of them will be a total nerd. ;)
At the end of the day FOX = FAILURE pure and simple
I bet Laurence Fishburne changes the subject whenever asked about Predators. Thats even more embarassing than have a daughter working in porn.
I'd rather watch the original Blade Runner than watch a half assed reboot. Whats the point?
The inherent problem with networks cancelling so many of their shows is that people learn from past mistakes and I know a lot of people (myself now included) that will wait until a show gets the back 9 pickup, or even wait until a full season 2 is announced before watching. We're sick of getting invested in something only to have it torn away. This markedly effects ratings of the first batch of episodes.
Very few s.f. shows last past one season on any network.
At least Fox airs more of them. If they cancel more, it's because they try more. I think ABC/NBC/CBS draw straws to see who has to air the one s.f. show for the season, and then maybe a second drawing in January.
"Okay, so... NBC, you've got The Event this year. In a few years, CBS, you've got Intelligence."
The sad part is, once in awhile the networks get lucky... and we get Under the Dome. Oh joy.
The Big Three gave us Flashforward and The Event. Woo. Hoo.
To give safibwana credit in the reply below, "If you type 'sci fi shows c' into google in a fresh browser it autocompletes to 'sci fi shows cancelled by fox' as the third option. Just sayin'."
Secondly, sci-fi shows have rarely been successful on the big networks. The X-Files was one of the very few examples. Star Trek was only successful once it had moved into syndication with TNG and DS9. Other sci-fi shows from the past decade that had failed on the major networks included Invasion, Threshold, The Event, Flash Forward, Surface, and V (note none of those shows had aired on Fox). Agents of SHIELD is one of the only recent sci-fi heavy shows that has been relatively successful, and that's in large part to the fact that it's an established property connected to The Avengers.
I've never understood why Fox is the network who gets the bulk of negative comments on sites like TV.com from fans. So what if Firefly tanked? Do you really think it would still be on the air now if it was handled differently? It premiered back in 2002, so it would be around season 13 by now if it was still on the air.
Also, do you not see the irony in waiting for news to break whether a new series will receive a back 9 order or a second season in order to give it a chance? It won't get to that point unless people start watching it right away. I was quite bummed that Last Resort tanked heavily, but I don't regret watching it. I just wish the final episode didn't cram about 9 episodes' worth of plot into a single hour.
Terranova, Alcatraz, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Dollhouse, Tru Calling, Dark Angel, The Lone Gunman, and most recently Almost Human - just a handful of cancelled Fox Sci-Fi shows.
In general Fox is the network I defend - NBC is usually the network I scorn. When it comes to Sci-Fi shows Fox's track record on the whole is worse than other networks when considering the number they've cancelled and the number of seasons they were given. Granted, Fox takes more chances on Sci-Fi shows than most but the network still doesn't understand that with the genre you generally have to do more world building and character development than the average show and it takes more time to do that. So cancelling after a season (or a 13 episode abbreviated season) doesn't allow for this. It's a waste of their money if they're not going to really give it a chance.
No, I don't think that Firefly would still be on the air. Maybe it would've only gone for 2 or 3 seasons. Who knows. That wasn't my point in bringing up Firefly. In my point above I used Firefly as an example of airing episodes out of order and how it can hurt a series like it did with Almost Human - especially in the Sci-Fi genre where continuity is very important. My days of pulling out a soap box and demanding more Firefly ended long ago (a decade ago to be more exact).
Yes, I do see the irony. However, whether I watch live or not doesn't matter really as I'm not a Nielsen household. Until the networks start using other methods of tabulating ratings, a few handfuls of people across the country represent our viewing habits. Last Resort is one that I watched live every time it aired and was quite upset when it was cancelled. Revolution, regardless of whether or not it deserved another season, I continued watching because I had already invested in it - but the second I heard it was cancelled and that they didn't have time to change the season finale into a series finale I stopped watching. I watch SO many shows (as so many people do) that if I watched every single one I wanted to it would take up my entire life. Having to pick and choose is the nature of television - that's why networks stack schedules up against certain competition - to make us choose. I know I'm not the only one who opts for something that won't inevitably be a waste of my time. A great example is Halt and Catch Fire (though it's not Sci-Fi). I've been watching every episode and every week when I see the abysmal ratings I honestly consider stopping due to the cancellation likelihood and kick myself for not waiting to watch it until it's been picked up for a second season.
The big networks have largely gravitated towards cop, lawyer, and/or doctor dramas for the last 30 years or so, since that's what the general viewing public will watch. Those genres can be done without being heavily serialized, whereas sci-fi shows almost always are serialized. You're absolutely right - a sci-fi show has to build the world in which it exists very slowly and gradually in order for the audience to care about it. The problem is, the mass TV viewing audience can't do that. People who have families can't consistently devote an hour on a specific night to keep up with a show that has continuing plot lines every week. Once the kids are in bed, parents may occasionally have an hour or two to watch a random show that has a beginning, middle, and an end. That's why NCIS and CSI are so successful.
It's a sad, but honest, reality. I give NBC a lot of credit because they're the one big network that has actually tried veering away from the traditional cop/lawyer/doctor dramas over the last few years. Their attempts haven't always worked, but that's why they gave series like Revolution, Crossbones, Grimm, Hannibal, Awake, Crisis, and Kings chances.
Of cause if you Fox makes it and air it means it will lose everything that made the original and even sequel good films which = failure and cancelled after one season.
To steal from other entertainment...
"I got a bad feeling about this."
Scotty, beam me up, there is no originality left in hollywood anymore.
I am a leaf on the wind... please let it blow me away from this idea.
A TV show could have been interesting. A movie reboot, not so much.
Dis you mean “It might be about that Predator that survived the crash, was raised by human parents, who are divorcing now, forcing it into to foster system and attend public school?”
Since then, The Hunter has seen more movies, a couple of wicked video games, even entered the twisted world of H.R. Giger, yet the sci-fi cinema world has not evolved enough to keep pace with The Hunter, who keeps finding himself reborn into laughable and embarassing movies and scenarios.
Now comes what will likely be the ultimate slap in the face: The small screen death of the most lethal hunter in the sci-fi universe. The thought makes my ass hurt.
I don't think those involved in taking the shoulder cannon were with an agency, the military just confiscated it and the colonel turned it over to Ms. Yutani.
Isabelle was Israeli and in the IDF. She said she read a report from Dutch's (though she never mentioned his name) debrief, which was probably some sort of information exchange between agencies of allied countries.
Maybe it has Roman Polanski and Woody Allen becoming roommates in a New York apartment.