Just when you think Hollywood has hit bottom creatively, they grab shovels and start digging.
Two stories this week illustrate the entertainment industry's ongoing war against originality.
FEUD, WONDERFUL FEUD
The History Channel took a gamble on originality recently by not only resurrecting the long dormant genre of the miniseries, but by making a miniseries about the oft referenced, but little understood feud between the Hatfields and McCoys.
That gamble paid off big time for the History Channel earning them record ratings.
Now you might think that other channels would look at this and think: "Ah, doing TV miniseries based on history and/or literature can find a healthy audience," but if you did, you'd be wrong.
WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!
NBC saw this and thought: "A-ha! Hatfield & McCoys are the ticket to get us out from under the all cricket channel in the ratings," and they bought a modern dress re-telling of the feud for a TV series.
Let's look at this idea, it's a blatant rip-off of the History Channel mini-series, and if you read up on the details of the premise, it's ripping off Dallas as well. That will turn off audiences, and the inevitable lawsuits by the descendants of the real Hatfields and McCoys over the bastardization of their family's history will turn off audiences even further.
When we boil it all down, it's doubly unoriginal, and doomed to fail, which means it's the perfect project for NBC!
Remember their attempt to rip-off Mad Men & merge it with the "hot" brand of The Playboy Club? Very few do, since nobody watched it.
I thought the new broom was going to change things over their, but it's like that Zucker guy's still running things.
But that's not all....
WARNER BROS. BREAKS WORLD RECORD FOR MOVIE UNORIGINALITY!
Warner Bros. pictures took a break from dumping yet another Justice League movie into development hell to announce that they're developing a movie based on the Guinness Book Of World Records.
Apparently this is not a joke.
What is it with Hollywood's mind-set that having a familiar name is all you need? The practice has dropped more bombs than Curtis LeMay, but they won't quit, because it seems safer to them than trying to do something original.
Well, it's only a matter of time before we get to this...
See how long it takes folks....
Rainforest Giant,
ReplyDeleteMaybe Brits could do something with the book of world records along the lines of 'The Man Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain'.
If it was TV you could do something like a comedy 'X-Files' weird record of the week that was really a show about the two leads relationship. Still it would be a weak premise.
Some of the records and the holders would have to be good comedy fodder.
It depends on "Guiness" if its about a group of friends trying to make it in the Book through various stunts then it could be quite good -if told well.
ReplyDeleteAnd quite harm warming in the "its not the goal its the journey" kinda way.