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May 15, 2007

1165: How do we make this happen?

HBO seems to be suffering heavily, but it also seems to still present an interesting format for television programming. Not having commercial interruptions or network censors to worry about, that's nice, but so is being able to conceive of and produce a cinema-quality series without being limited to a window of 2-3 hours in which to present an entire story. There are other obvious benefits to this format, but I won't bother to list them. My point is just that although HBO is arguably struggling for relevance, there's so much potential for really exceptional programming.

Pete and I are always discussing movie ideas and, increasingly, HBO-style program concepts.

Some of our favorites include:

I suppose Carnivale was the closest HBO came to doing something fantasy-based (correct me if I'm wrong), but that didn't work out terribly well. The popularity of Lost has obviously proven that the general public can get into something of this nature, so why can't it also like something a little closer to horror?

By avoiding "sci-fi hokiness" I mean avoiding falling into a category of B-list sci-fi TV programming that I'll avoid beating up on because a) it's not wrong to like that stuff, and b) I don't feel like it. Obviously, the key there is to really push for top-notch writing and production values. Producing such a show would be expensive, I've no doubt, but that doesn't mean it's impossible. Producing Deadwood was expensive, but not so expensive that it didn't get made in the first place; partnering with others (such as the BBC) to make Rome, for instance, made what would otherwise be an insanely expensive production possible. As The Incredible Amoeba and I discussed the other day, 28 Weeks Later manages to horrify and amaze without having to show too much gore -- and gore done well can be pricey. Aside from an incident involving thumbs (say no more, say no more!), most of the violence is implied through editing, sound, and creative blood-splattering, and benefits heavily from the tension created by other directorial decisions.

I really, truly think it's possible to stretch something of this type out into a TV series, spanning multiple seasons. Lost presents the ideal means for accomplishing this transition, by telling the bulk of the story through flashbacks and an extensive backstory for each character. Although that show obviously has its problems and watching it has become a bit of a trying (and up until recently, fairly unrewarding) experience, it's a good example of what's possible in TV and what audiences are ready to accept. (I mean, obviously, because after Lost's first season, the networks all pushed out poorer versions of the same.) It wouldn't be necessary to start out a horror program from the start, and starting from a point further down the storyline and glimpsing backwards might even be more financially prudent.

But why horror as a category? Because there's so little quality horror out there, because audiences have indicated an interest, and because... I want it.

Another thing I want, as I mentioned above, is to see Pusher adapted for TV. From what I assume to be a Fall 2006 interview with Pusher's director, Nicolas Winding Refn, that seems to be a vague possibility...

RS (Reverse Shot): And initially you were ambivalent about returning to Pusher…

NWR: Oh I hated it. I despised it, but that’s because I was afraid. Having to go back, what if I couldn’t do it? What if I couldn’t make a better movie? I mean could you imagine anything more terrible than going back and realizing that you burned yourself out?

RS: That makes sense in that Pusher is the kind of film, where the suggestion of a sequel sounds ridiculous.

NWR: But I wouldn’t be sitting here if we hadn’t done it. It needed a different approach, and I think that came out of television, and my love for TV, especially The Sopranos, which basically set a whole new standard for making fiction for the small screen. Television is probably is a lot more inventive than cinema is right now. Pusher II and III were conceived like a television series, but instead of making it for TV, I made them as features. I’ve just been contacted by one of the major networks in the U.S. about doing Pusher as a television series.

I don't think it would need to be re-written to take place in America, either; I think US audiences would accept the story just as it is and have no issue with its taking place in Denmark. I suppose my point with all of this is that TV audiences are far more willing to accept the seemingly unfamiliar than networks may imagine. So give us horror! And Danish people!

* Naturally, I suggest Michael Mann to direct this, and for Winding Refn to direct the TV-adaptation of Pusher.

Posted by ashley at May 15, 2007 11:22 AM

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