What's up with all these movies being turned into TV-series?

First From Dusk till Dawn, then Fargo and now I'm reading about 12 monkeys being turned into a 12 part series. Is this becoming a new trend or something? I would think these stories don't work that well when stretched to over 10 hours, but then again I haven't yet seen any of these so... I don't really know what to think. What do you guys think?

I've never heard of this recent trend.

Still, my 2 cents: It also depends on the movie, I guess. I think we can all agree that there are at least a few movies that were followed by pretty good or descent TV series or cartoons.
On the other hand we nowadays get to see a lot of reruns, remakes, sequels and prequels so it feels kinda bad and uncomfortable when producers now also get the "genius" idea of making TV series out of movies (and some that are already a couple of years old).

Tabascofanatikerin wrote:

I think we can all agree that there are at least a few movies that were followed by pretty good or descent TV series or cartoons.

I agree, but those are usually further adventures of those characters, or some sort of prequels or in general different stories set in the same universe usually with the same characters. Rarely (if ever?) have I seen shows that are basically remakes of the movies in TV show -form. Although I don't really know any details about Fargo and 12 Monkeys so I can't be sure if that's the case with those, but I'm guessing it is.

*shrug* This isn't really a new thing. THE ODD COUPLE, MASH, ALICE, were all movies before they were shows. I also remember watching HIGHLANDER and DANGEROUS MINDS in the  90s. BATES MOTEL and HANNIBAL have been pretty well received. I think they even tried to make a show based off of CASABLANCA, which failed hard. And there was the FRIDAY THE 13TH show, which if I recall didn't really have that much to do with the movies. How well it works really depends a lot on the characters: The people in MASH & THE ODD COUPLE, for example, were interesting enough to carry a lot of extended adventures. HIGHLANDER introduced new characters but extended the universe; DANGEROUS MINDS gave the characters a lot more nuance b/c it had more time to do so. Bottom line is, Hollowood doesn't like taking risks; if something's an established "brand" they'll try to keep cashing in on it.

I hadn't heard about 12 MONKEYS; that doesn't seem like such a great idea. I've seen promos for the FARGO show. I don't know what to think of it.... looks kind of intriguing and I like Billy Bob Thornton, but the movie mostly works because of Marge. I don't know about removing that factor.

"HANNIBAL" is a pretty good TV series, even if it's still inferior to the SILENCE OF THE LAMBS movie. I don't care much for these other new shows, though.

i've noticed this too. and it depends on who is being cast and who is working on the show as well. there is some books i think would make good tv series,  for HBO is Annie Rice's The Mayfair witches' series i'd love to see that as an HBO series. there's even some Stephen King books that i can see that happening too.

yes Under the dome is on tv . but that wasn't the book i was thinking of. i think it'd be Interesting if the dark Tower was another one that would be perfect for HBO. starting with book #1 and have it be fucking faithful!

Dangerous Minds a good flix and my dad used to watch the tv show. i dunno how or bad that was. my mom liked it too. i never watched it though. in short there have been some good tv shows from books and some shitty ones  too.

I hear that they turned The Greatest Story Ever Told into four books. With lousy continuity.

AstaKask wrote:

I hear that they turned The Greatest Story Ever Told into four books. With lousy continuity.

That's what happens when you've got multiple writers who don't collaborate   

Now they're making a series from Shutter Island:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/08/25/martin-scorsese-directing-shutter-island-tv-show-pilot

The "Fargo" television series won an Emmy.

I think television has kind of shown itself to be the foremost venue for dramatic fiction now more than ever. The shows coming out on HBO, AMC, Showtime, etc. are proving to be more engrossing, cerebral and critically acclaimed than most Oscar winners in the last few years. You can do more with a whole season of episodes than you can with a two-hour film, so from an artistic standpoint, I don't think it's all that bad an idea to expand the universe of a particularly exceptional film. Of course, now that it's becoming a trend, I'm sure there will be many misfires along the way.

TV series can bring in a wider audience as opposed to film as some believe that going to the theater is to expensive to go to and with movies turning into TV series' this gives it a sense of continuing the already born plot in the movie or create a new one off of the movies ending or with a situation present in the film. It's been an ongoing thing for a long time a there are good examples and bad examples of this experiment but lately a situation like this is becoming the norm and it really isn't turning out so well.

School of Rock is getting a TV show.
http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/news/school-rock-tv-series-headed-nickelodeon-20140805

Can't say I saw that one coming

Was I the only one who read this thread title in a Jerry Seinfeld voice?

"What.....is the deal....with all of these movies turning into TV shows? Who ARE these people?!"

Was I the only one who read this thread title in a Jerry Seinfeld voice?

"What.....is the deal....with all of these movies turning into TV shows? Who ARE these people?!"

TV show remake of Scream coming to MTV:

http://variety.com/2014/tv/news/mtv-orders-scream-tv-show-1201341402/

Knowing how much Brad dislikes the movie, I so want to hear him talk about this series whenever it comes out

This isn't a new trend in fact it's been happening for a long time I can name some examples:

-Nightmare on elm street TV series

-Batman TAS (Success of Mask of Phantasim led to TV series)

-Aladdin TV series

-Lilo and Stitch TV series

The top 2 are both critical standards for it's long time run while one became a classic the other just faded into obscurity.

metateen wrote:

-Batman TAS (Success of Mask of Phantasim led to TV series)

Actually the success of the animated series led to the MASK OF THE PHANTASM movie. It was the Tim Burton film that pretty much led to the cartoon.

metateen wrote:

This isn't a new trend in fact it's been happening for a long time I can name some examples:

-Nightmare on elm street TV series

-Batman TAS (Success of Mask of Phantasim led to TV series)

-Aladdin TV series

-Lilo and Stitch TV series

The top 2 are both critical standards for it's long time run while one became a classic the other just faded into obscurity.

These are not the same thing, I was talking about a movie being remade as a TV series.

edit: And usually it's a movie that was made quite a while ago (Fargo, From dusk till dawn, 12 monkeys, Scream)
Again, I'm not even saying this is a bad thing, I haven't even seen any of these shows (although I am now really interested in seeing Fargo), I just think it's a bit odd.