Over recent years, TV has been talked about as the new cinema, due to the storytelling of such shows as Game Of Thrones, The Wire and our personal favourite, Breaking Bad. However, it appears this has now come full circle with our cinematic favourites now being turned into the new TV!
Of course this idea is not new and can work, one of our favourite TV show’s started its life in cinemas before TV, Buffy the Vampire Slayer! Animated films of the past have headed for their own TV shows, Disney, in particular have had Hercules, Stitch and Lion King’s Timon and Pumbaa get their own shows, with DW Animation following their lead with Puss in Boots, Kung Fu Panda and How to Train your Dragon all getting their own shows. Horror has also been a great source for film to TV with Poltergeist, Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street all getting spin-off shows and even Sandra Bullock’s film The Net headed to TV too!
Currently doing the rounds on TV after their cinema adventures are, to name just a few, Dusk till Dawn; About a Boy; Constantine; Daredevil, Scream and the Transporter despite this franchise still alive in cinemas albeit without Jason Statham.
Forthcoming shows include Limitless, Minority Report, School of Rock and after many attempts for a fourth film, Bruce Campbell will return as Ash to finally fight the forces of the Evil Dead on the small screen this Halloween.
It can be a source when diminishing box office returns occur to reignite interest, it has been announced just this week that the adventures of Jack Ryan will now happen on the small screen and the X-files returns to the small screen after their last cinema outing, ‘I want to Believe.’
Other films announced for TV recently have included Damien, a spin off from the Omen franchise; Stephen King’s The Mist; Shadowhunters which will hopefully give the Mortal Instruments books the success they never found on the big screen; Bryan Mills will show us how he got the skills he used in a TV prequel to the Taken franchise.
And it doesn’t have to be just the film to create the TV show, it can be just the characters, Marvel have turned Agent Carter from Captain America into her own show as they did when they used Agent Coulson to head up the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D TV show, Star Wars has used its clone wars for an animated show, Freddy Krueger introduced us to his Nightmares weekly and films such Tremors, Police Academy, Robocop and even home grown Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels had TV spin-offs.
Animated shows have also worked for Beetlejuice, Bill and Ted, Dumb and Dumber, The Mask, Ace Ventura, Napoleon Dynamite and again Robocop.
It is obvious that it can work for TV shows because of the established fan base and why not? It’s only fair, as Cinemas has taken many a TV hit to the big screen, most recently Man from U.N.C.L.E; Spooks; and even TV comedy Bad Education.
So our question is, what film would you like to see hit the small screen or TV show hit the big screen or would you prefer just to see more original content?
We would love to hear from you so let us know below =)
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