A particular classic book, story, movie, or even a cartoon creation spawns out a
whole new creation; a successful T.V series and I mean live action, not animated. For example, from the
1960 psychological thriller Psycho came
the
currently running series, Bates’
Motel (2013 to present). Thomas Harris’ books Silence
of the Lambs, Hannibal & Hannibal Rising have movie adaptations
and now a prequel series,
simply called Hannibal (2013 to present) starring Hugh Dancy as Will Graham, Mads Mikkelsen as Dr. Lecter and Laurence
Fishburne as Jack Crawford- Graham’s (and much much later Clarice Starling’s)
superior. There’s the series about fairy
tale characters (Snow White, Prince Charming, Cinderella, Pinocchio,
Rumplestilskin, Red Riding Hood, etc) who are all stuck in the modern real
world thanks to a curse by the Regina the Evil Queen a.k.a Snow White’s stepmother;
Once Upon A Time, now going into its
fourth season.
There was also the little remembered 1992 movie that later
evolved to the supernatural series Buffy,
The Vampire Slayer (1997- 2003) plus its spin-off Angel (1999-2004), a 1996 T.V movie which brought about the
Australian series McLeod’s Daughters (2001-2009),
Stephen King’s The Dead Zone (2002-
2009) based on his 1979 novel (it already has a 1983 movie adaptation), a 2001 Australian
series about a very notable Oliver Twist character, Escape of the Artful Dodger, which picked up from where Oliver Twist left off and the one
everyone’s currently raving about (based on
the DC comic character Green Arrow)
Arrow which began in 2012.
As a person whose had
more than enough of her share of books, movies and series which turned out to
be disappointments I’m really impressed at how the T.V world seems determined to
keep its status by getting new ideas despite the debut and now popularity of
web series. The ones I’ve seen so far is Venice: The Series, The Inn and Beacon
Hill; all very good and well written.
What kills soaps’
rating these days are bad story lines, unnecessary characters, drastic change
of a character and bad pairings. I stopped watching Days of our Lives after the end of the Bo Brady and Carly Manning story line
then moved on to One Life To Live but
alas... it ended up cancelled! So I made do with telenovelas which- trust me- are lot more satisfying than American soaps and past and present T.V shows I was able to come across; Desperate Housewives (2004-2012), Criminal Minds (2005 to present), Sex & The City (1998-2004), Alias (2001-2006), Prison Break (2005- 2009) and Once Upon a Time (2011- present).
With more T.V series being introduced these days, examples being Homeland,
a Sex & The City prequel The Carrie Diaries and the upcoming prequel of Batman Gotham, there are so many ideas for even more T.V series- from old movies and books.
One good idea for a T.V series would be one based on a movie I remember very well; the 1984 The Never Ending Story of the young warrior Atreyu and the boy who read the book itself, Bastian. The movie was adapted from Michael Ende's novel of the same name and apparently deviated too far from the book so probably The Never Ending Story T.V series could make up for that by following its original concept. I for one hated the part 3; it was more comic than adventurous.
Another good idea for a T.V series would be from the Harry Potter books. Not about Harry himself ( we fans would rather let the adult Harry have a peaceful life) but a prequel about Voldemort's life as Tom Riddle, until his evolution to the Dark Lord and the various people he encountered and destroyed along the way; the season's final episode would naturally be the night the curse meant for Harry rebounding on him! (People, why not???)
If Superman, The Hulk, Wonder Woman, The Flash and now Batman can have a T.V series each, why not a live action T.V series Dare-Devil? Back in 1989 there was the T.V movie The Trial of The Incredible Hulk which was meant to be a backdoor pilot for a Daredevil series since it featured Matt Murdock/Daredevil who acted as David Banner's defense lawyer after he is arrested for murder and they both go against the Kingpin. But the idea was scrapped and years later after several animated series came the 2003 film where Murdock/Daredevil was played by Ben Affleck.
Or...
How about a live action series about Ghost Rider? And why not, Ghost Rider's dark, supernatural tones plus the fact that Ghost Rider is an anti-hero(es) would made it a great series with high ratings, depending on the writing.
Another idea I can think of is Stephen King's The Dark Tower books; the series of course would be about the central character, Roland Deschain; the mysterious Gunslinger and his quarry, The Man In Black. I've read three out of the eight books and I honestly feel it deserves to be adapted for T.V.
Like I said earlier, a lot of possibilities!
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