Direct-To-DVD Movies
So this Babylon 5: Lost Tales thing is Direct-To-DVD, huh? I'm not a fan--everyone knows Babylon 5 sucks--so I probably won't see it, but I have to say, it might be worth buying for another reason entirely.
If it makes money, it proves the financial model works. It proves there's money to be made in resurrecitng cancelled TV shows with small but passionate audiences as original, straight-to-DVD content. All of us who have spent ... decades, actually... wishing that our favorite shows could continue (or just wrap up) on home video should support this project.
Same for the upcoming straight-to-DVD Stargate movies -- If they make money, MGM (and other studios) will be considering whether any of its other "dead" TV properties might do likewise. (And at that point, Universal will obviously entertain the possibility of doing Serenity 2.)
But there's also the possible Battlestar project -- a direct-to-DVD movie released while the show is still in production. Maybe this time next year we'll be hearing that Universal is thinking of doing one for Heroes. They could call it an Annual.
Lost would be a good fit for this treatment, too. A few years ago, TNG-era Trek would've been a no-brainer (and something a lot of us wanted to see pretty badly), but I think that time has passed. If the relaunch is successful, spin-off content would probably be based on the new movie.
What other shows, live or dead, would be good canddiates for direct-to-DVD releases?
If it makes money, it proves the financial model works. It proves there's money to be made in resurrecitng cancelled TV shows with small but passionate audiences as original, straight-to-DVD content. All of us who have spent ... decades, actually... wishing that our favorite shows could continue (or just wrap up) on home video should support this project.
Same for the upcoming straight-to-DVD Stargate movies -- If they make money, MGM (and other studios) will be considering whether any of its other "dead" TV properties might do likewise. (And at that point, Universal will obviously entertain the possibility of doing Serenity 2.)
But there's also the possible Battlestar project -- a direct-to-DVD movie released while the show is still in production. Maybe this time next year we'll be hearing that Universal is thinking of doing one for Heroes. They could call it an Annual.
Lost would be a good fit for this treatment, too. A few years ago, TNG-era Trek would've been a no-brainer (and something a lot of us wanted to see pretty badly), but I think that time has passed. If the relaunch is successful, spin-off content would probably be based on the new movie.
What other shows, live or dead, would be good canddiates for direct-to-DVD releases?
posted by Scott at 9:08 AM
6 Comments:
I'd have to say that FIREFLY would be a no brainer. THE PRETENDER and ANGEL left a lot of unanswered questions and have pretty sustantial fan bases to support this sort of thing, too. 24 is going the big screen route with Jack Bauer, but this format might not be a bad idea for some of the second and third tier characters to get some exposure. I wouldn't mind seeing a Green Arrow effort from the SMALLVILLE team. Justin Hartley is mighty fine...
Of course, my dream Direct-To-DVD movie would be a wrap-up to TWIN PEAKS, but I know that ain't ever going to happen.
Yeah, I'd give up on seeing any newly-produced Twin Peaks content -- ever. Then again, there *is* all that never-used footage from Fire Walk With Me (using most of the rest of the TV cast, who didn't appear in the final cut of the film) that Lynch has sporadically attempted to release as "sketches."
We still might get those someday.
If they did more with Firefly, it would almost certainly be with Universal, not Fox, so they'd call it Serenity.
If we see Angel continue, I'd wager it will be in the same form Buffy is -- via comics.
There *was* all that talk about direct-to-DVD movies for supporting characters (Faith, Willow, Spike & Illyria -- etc), but that seems to have died down for now.
I hope Warners changes their minds on that score, but it seems like if there was any chance of that happening, Whedon wouldn't've moved forward with the Season 8 project -- which is supposed to be canon.
And, BTW, I thought Angel had one of the best series finales of any show I've ever watched. The "I want to slay the dragon" ending, honestly, wasn't the sort of cliffhanger I need to see resolved -- How that fight turned out wasn't the point. The point was that they went out fighting.
(Course, I imagine when we see Angel & Spike in the Buffy comics, we'll find--at least indirectly--how they survived, so...)
I would love a DS9 follow up.
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Hey, Pete--A buddy of mine who used to write for Andromeda said today that it always dumbfounded him how Paramount didn't get into the Direct-to-DVD gave with Trek.
They had (and still have) an audience willing to pay hand-over-fist for this stuff. They had (still have) warehouses full of costumes, props, sets & hard drives full of rendered spaceships.
And they had (still have) writers who'd go to town -- So, agian, perplexing that they'd coose NOT to go this route.
'course, they still could, but as I said earlier, if the JJ Abrams Trek movie hits (Thanksgiving 2008), look for spin-off content to be based on *it*, not on previous incarnations.
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