Welcome back to the round up of news about adaptations, remakes, and reboots. Each month, Lost in Translation brings a selection of links to news items related to the focus of the column. Enjoy!
American Gods picked up by Starz
Starz has picked up the series now that HBO is out. Fremantle Media is still developing the Neil Gaiman novel for a TV series.
Lifetime to air sequel to The Omen
Lifetime, of all networks, is working with The Walking Dead showrunner Glen Mazzara to create Damien, which follows the young terror of The Omen as an adult as he faces his destiny.
Yet…
The Omen is to be remade again. This will be the second remake from Fox, the previous being the 2006 version. I got nothing here.
Predator also getting a remake/reboot.
Shane Black, of Lethal Weapon and Iron Man 3 fame, will write the treatment and then pass on the writing to Fred Dekker. Black is also slated to direct the reboot.
Audition getting an American treatment.
Takashi Miike’s Audition will have an English langauage remake with Mario Kassar, one of the people behind the Terminator franchise. The Japanese horror movie was originally based on a novel by Ryu Murakami, about a lonely man who holds fake auditions to find a girlfriend.
NBC’s Peter Pan musical announces casting for Captain Hook.
Christopher Walken will play Hook in the musical. NBC saw success with The Sound of Music last November, giving the network confidence in further musical adaptations. Walken started in musicals and can be seen dancing in Fat Boy Slim’s video for “Weapon of Choice“.
Trailer for Ouija out.
In the scraping-the-bottom-of-the-barrel adaptations, a movie based on the Ouija board seems like a weak premise. The trailer for the Michael Bay-helmed adaption isn’t helping.
HBO’s Westwood remake adds to cast.
Anthony Hopkins and Evan Rachel Wood are joining the cast of the remake of the Yul Brynner film. The switch from feature film to TV series will give writers time to explore the ramifications of Westworld.
Sinister Six gets release date.
Sony, following in Marvel Studio’s footsteps, is branching off the Spider-Man license and spinning off Sinister Six, to hit theatres November 2016. Sony also announced The Amazing Spider-Man 3 for 2018. The Sinister Six are a group of villains in Spider-Man’s rogues gallery.
You’re tearing me apart!
Oh, hi there! Tommy Wiseau, creator and star of The Room is getting his follow up, The Neighbors made as a sitcom. The show, which has an official website, is supposed to be out in September. The Room, which can be seen at repertory cinemas, is considered to be one of the worst films ever.
Orphan Black to spawn a comic book series.
IDW Publishing will release a comic book series based on the Canadian hit science fiction series. The title is expected out next year.
Amazon places order for The Man in the High Castle
Amazon has picked up the Philip K. Dick novel after the SyFy Channel‘s plans fell through. The original novel won a Hugo in 1962.
The Empire Strikes Back getting the Shakespeare treatment.
William Shakespeare’s Star Wars did well enough to get the next movie adapted the same way. An educator’s guide is also available.
Neil Gaiman updates on American Gods TV series.
HBO is out. Freemantle Media is in. No network has been announced. From the same journal post, Anansi Boys will be made into a TV miniseries for the BBC.
Help put clues together with Sherlock LEGO.
LEGO is still reviewing the idea, but a set of Sherlock minifigs are making their way through the review process. Other sets being considered are the Macross VF-1 Valkyrie and a Back to the Future DeLorean.
Barbarella TV series sets up at Amazon Studios.
A pilot script has been written and is now waiting for a showrunner. Amazon Studios is run by the online bookseller. Gaumont International Television, the producing company, is also involved with NBC’s Hannibal and Netflix’s Hemlock Grove.
Gal Gadot to play Wonder Woman in three films.
Besides appearing in Batman Vs Superman, Wonder Woman will appear in two other movies, so far unnamed. Ideally, one of the other two movies will be a Wonder Woman movie, but this is Warner, who can shoot their own foot at a hundred paces.
Transporter: The Series to air in US in fall.
This slipped right by me. Season two of the series, based on the Transporter movies, begins filming in February.
The Astronaut Wives Club gets ten episode summer run.
Based on the book of the same name by Lily Koppel, ABC will be airing the drama over the summer. Both the book and the series follows the lives of the women who were suddenly elevated after their astronaut husbands on Project Mercury made history as the first Americans in space.
Redshirts to become a limited TV series.
John Scalzi’s Redshirts is being adapted by FX as a limited series. Casting has not started yet. It’ll be interesting to see how the novel is adapted.
Black Widow solo movie in the works.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe keeps going. The Black Widow will be played, again, by Scarlett Johansson. The movie will delve into the background of the character.
Speaking of Marvel… Which studio can use which Marvel character? An infographic.
The surprising one was Namor over at Universal. He started as a Fantastic Four villain, has fought the Avengers, has been an Avenger, and has had his own series. The overlap is Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, who are tied heavily to both Avengers and X-Men continuity. Fox could easily commit to a Cable & Deadpool movie, while Power Pack falls under Marvel Studios.
Raving Rabbids to invade silver screen.
Ubisoft has been busy, getting deals to have Assassin’s Creed and Ghost Recon adapted to film. The latest of the efforts is Raving Rabbids, who already have a TV series.
And an update! A month ago, I reviewed the Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight animated movie and the problems it had at adapting the original novel. Over at io9 this past week, Lauren Davis posted an argument on why Dragonlance should be the next fantasy franchise to be filmed. She has strong arguments. The only thing that could hold back a new adaptation is the failure of the animated movie. However, if ninety minutes was only enough for a shallow adaptation, two hours isn’t going to be enough time, either. Will people go for a six-movie fantasy series based on three books? Going back, I argued that TV may be better for some works than movies; Dragonlance is definitely one of those works. The television format allows for the development of longer arcs, such as Laurana’s growth from elf lass to military leader.
