K.T Simpson
TV series based or inspired by feature films isn’t anything new but they do seem to have made somewhat of a raging return in recent years, what with television now considered the home of quality premium entertainment.
Currently on the air, we’ve TV shows based on such films as “Westworld”, “The Mighty Ducks”, “The Karate Kid”, “Snowpiercer”, and “Child’s Play”, and in the coming months we’ll see small-screen adaptations of “MacGruber”, “The Suicide Squad” (with John Cena reprising his role from that film in a “Peacemaker” spin-off series), “The Sandlot”, “John Wick”, “”White Men Can’t Jump”, “Cobra”, “Marley & Me”, and “Dune” – to name but only a few of the hundreds of projects in the pipeline.
Today, two more to add to the list : “Blade Runner” and “Point Break”.
Hot on the heels of the “Alien” series they’re doing at FX, Ridley Scott has revealed that another of his films is also coming to the telly.
Speaking to the BBC (via Variety) on Monday, the “House of Gucci” director said : “We [have already] written the pilot for ‘Blade Runner’ and the bible. So, we’re already presenting ‘Blade Runner’ as a TV show, the first 10 hours.”
Scott did not say whether the series will be connected to either of his “Blade Runner” films.
Meanwhile, the writer of 1991’s “Point Break” said he has a sequel series in the works.
W. Peter Iliff, who for years tried to get a sequel off the ground to the Patrick Swayze/Keanu Reeves classic, tells The Script Apart Podcast that the new series would fix on the daughter of Reeves’ character Johnny Utah.
She would be a former athlete like her father – though an Olympic snowboarder as opposed to a footballer – who beats alcoholism to become an FBI agent.
“Johnny Utah has been missing. His body’s not been found. He’s [been reported] dead for years. There’s a mystery around where he is, and you’re going to find out – he’s not dead. There’s a bigger story that evolves around that, while she gets involved in this eco-terrorist movement, which of course is now a big thing.
There are two sides to the movement. There are those who are trying to get corporations to do the right thing to save our planet. And there are those who’ll put a gun in their hand and maybe rob a bank to fund their more violent approach. The FBI is after these people. She’s sent to go deep undercover with this group and it’s the same [question as in ‘Point Break’]: which side of the badge are you on?”
Alcon Entertainment, who released the “Point Break” films (the original and the 2015 remake), hasn’t been keen to pony up cash for the project though after the last movie tanked at the box office.
