Television networks are increasingly looking at established movie franchises for their next big hit. Every year, some network orders a series based on an older movie. Minority Report, Limitless, Teen Wolf, Transporter and Dominion are just a few of the shows based off movies on TV right now and studios are circling projects based off of Taken, Rush Hour, Galaxy Quest, and the Jack Ryan movie franchise (yes, that was originally a book series). Since TV is always looking for more ideas, here’s five more movie franchises ripe for a TV remake and/or adaptation:
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Django Unchained
Django Unchained was a bloody Quentin Tarantino period piece about a freed slave turned bounty hunter. While Quentin Tarantino’s movies are usually full fleshed out and completed by the end of the series, Django Unchained had an unfinished feel to it, in part because the director had to leave ninety minutes of material on the floor. Tarantino’s expressed interest in writing more stories involving his stoic bounty hunter and a Django TV series would give the director more room to build on the movie. A Django Unchained TV series actually might be closer than we think. Tarantino recently expressed interest in re-releasing Django Unchained as a four part television miniseries featuring the cut material.
The Mask of Zorro
While pulp heroes have largely faded from pop culture, Zorro has retained at least a little of its popularity due to the character’s roots in the Californian independence movement. The character has appeared in countless television series and movies, most recently The Mask of Zorro, a moderately successful action franchise starring Antonio Banderas as the masked outlaw. Given that high quality historical dramas are “in” right now, a new Zorro television series could be very successful. A new Zorro series would have the added bonus of appealing to Hispanic viewers, an underrepresented and growing demographic in television. Both Sony and Fox are circling new Zorro projects, so it might be a while before we see more Zorro on television.
Lucy
Starring Scarlet Johansson, Lucy was a 2014 action movie about a woman who gains a variety of extranormal abilities and uses them to deliver harsh vengeance on a drug cartel that imprisoned her. The movie centered on Lucy using her entire brain, playing on the popular myth that humans use only a fraction of their full brain capacity, and discovering that her abilities push her to the boundaries of physical existence. While Universal is looking at a sequel to Lucy (which seems tricky given the ending of the film), a Lucy television series would also be a logical next step to develop the franchise. A readaptation of the movie could tease out Lucy’s abilities, add time and suspense to her drive for revenge and explain more of the weird pseudoscience seen in the film.
Attack the Block
Attack the Block was a British comedy/sci-fi film about a street gang attacked by aliens in London. While the movie wasn’t successful financially, it did gain a cult following and earned acclaim in part for the performance of John Boyega, one of the leads in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Given the movie’s modest budget, a television studio could replicate the special effects seen in Attack the Block without much of a drop off. Depending on what direction the movie took, we could also see the origins of the bizarre eyeless aliens who terrorize the protagonists of the movie, since the movie just introduces the creatures without explanation.
Van Helsing
One movie franchise that never really took off was Van Helsing, a 2004 movie starring Hugh Jackman as a monster hunter fighting classic monsters from classic Victorian books like Dracula and Frankenstein. While the movie didn’t really take off, series like Penny Dreadful and Dracula show that there’s still an audience for old fashioned Victorian horror and adventure on television. A rebooted Van Helsing series could take the movie’s moody atmosphere and setting (Van Helsing is portayed as a Victorian monster hunting agent of the Catholic Church), while getting rid of the awful script and everything else that made the movie a box office bomb.
