Cole Haddon,
Jan 15, 2008
With Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles debuting this week, I thought it would be interesting to wonder aloud what other movies should be seriously considered for TV spin-offs. I’ve come up with a few, and would love to hear what you think of them. Some of them I probably deserve to be strung up for suggesting.
Beverly Hills Cop
Eddie Murphy would be hard to replace, but it’s a lot of fun to imagine a weekly satire of wealth and excess – especially in an era with reality shows like The Real Housewives of Orange County – as seen through the prism of a tough, wise-cracking Detroit cop.
Van Helsing
It’s hard to imagine a movie sucking more than Van Helsing. Nevertheless, the idea of a paranormal adventurer taking on literary history’s greatest monsters every week could make for a hell of a good time if Stephen Sommers wasn’t allowed anywhere near the series.
Mission: Impossible
This would be an adaptation of the movie, which was an adaptation of the television series, which makes no sense, really. But it would still be cool.
Casablanca
This is one of my favorite movies and I probably deserve to get my ass kicked for suggesting this, but I’d love to see how Rick and Captain Renault’s “friendship” develops after Ilsa and Victor Laszlo get on the plane. The drama that would come out of each of the morally ambiguous characters walking the line between freedom fighter and self-serving scoundrel every week would make for unforgettable television, if done right. Which it wouldn’t be, of course.
Animal House
Picture it: Animal House every week. Just stupid, brainless, raunchy college shenanigans starring a bunch of CW cast-offs.
The Bourne Identity
No, I don’t want a weekly series based on Jason Bourne’s zany super-spy misadventures. Yes, I do want a spin-off series based on the Treadstone idea and, specifically, on another super-spy gone rogue and the fanatical CIA types who try to bring him back onto the reservation, the plantation, or whatever the hell it’s called these days.
Men In Black
It’s X-Files, but with a sense of humor.
The Vampire Chronicles
Okay, I’m kind of cheating with this one, but the source material behind Interview with the Vampire (which was a great movie) and Queen of the Damned (which was not) is solid stuff. Anne Rice’s pantheon of vampiric fiends, like the infamous Lestat and Louis, could make for great time-crossing scares, romance, and bloodletting.
XXX
Superman Returns pretended Superman III and IV didn’t happen, so why can’t XXX: The TV Series pretend XXX: State of the Union, the ridiculously bad sequel to the 2002 original, doesn’t exist either? This way, Xander Cage (Vin Diesel) would not have been conveniently written out of the series and we could watch the extreme-sports-enthusiast-turned-spy kick more foreign ass every week.
Blade Runner
If you’ve seen Blade Runner, I shouldn’t have to explain this one to you. Every week, android hunter, Detective Rick Deckard, would, you know, hunt down rogue androids while, of course, wondering if he himself is actually an android. As long as there’s no bad faux-noir narration, I’ll be tuning in.
