Hollywood is king when it comes to everything old being new again. And a new film is hoping to launch the trend of reanimating classic actors with CGI—anybody who’s seen Grand Moff Tarkin in Rogue One or the face de-aging in The Irishman knows that trying it on one-tenth the budget is guaranteed to be perfectly life-like and not creepy at all—while WarnerMedia reinvents the soap opera wheel with comedy to up the streaming wars ante yet again.
WarnerMedia Tries To Stand Out With A Daily Sitcom
If you look at the broadcast network offerings each season and see more of the same, then you’re about to be thrilled. Wet Hot American Summer creator David Wain is teaming up with frequent collaborator, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon head writer and Horrible People creator A.D. Miles to put a new spin on the sitcom formula. WarnerMedia has given a four-episode order to Today’s Special. The single-camera comedy will operate much like a soap opera, airing daily, and will follow characters in a 24-hour diner who discuss current events. No network has been announced, but this would most likely end up on HBO Max where it can build a following without having to worry about ratings. How the writers balance building out character arcs and long-form plotlines with jokes ripped from the headlines will be interesting to see, especially because they have to do it on a daily basis. As the streaming wars heat up between the big media companies, you can expect to see more big swings on unique ideas like this to try and get subscribers to open up their wallets for another streaming service.
James Dean Is Back, In CGI Form!
James Dean, the most successful actor to only be in three movies and the world’s second most talented James behind Van der Beek, will be making his return to the big screen. Magic City Films secured James Dean’s image rights from his estate to digitally insert him into the movie Finding Jack, about the relationship between Vietnam war vets and their service dogs. The backlash was swift, with actors like Chris Evans and Elijah Wood, and Robin Williams’ daughter Zelda (who I imagine has a lot more invested in this fight), speaking out against the use of a dead celebrity to sell a movie. The film will still go ahead as planned now that the backlash has made the world aware of the project’s existence, which isn’t hard to imagine was the entire point. If the movie is actually produced, released and manages to be successful, you can expect to see more independent production companies bring back dead celebrities to get buzz for their film. And something tells me there will be more than enough estates run by distant cousins who would be happy to take that money.
Whenever you find yourself asking, “I wonder what the future of traditional television is?” take a gander at what the industry’s leaders think of that very question. With Disney’s purchase of 20th Century Fox now in the rear-view mirror, the studio is making big moves as Bob Iger and John Landgraf not only announced Hulu as the official streaming service for all FX productions, they went one step further. The four biggest shows that were supposed to hit the basic cable network next year will now launch as Hulu exclusives. The Dahvi Waller created Mrs. America starring Cate Blanchett, Ex Machina writer Alex Garland’s Devs, Hannah Fidell’s TV adaptation of her feature A Teacher, and Jon Watts’ Spider-Man: Far from Home follow-up The Old Man starring Jeff Bridges will no longer air on FX—instead, they’ll be Hulu exclusives, a service FX intends to use as a way to compete with premium networks like HBO and Showtime. This also puts Hulu in a good position for when Disney becomes sole owner and all Comcast and AT&T content is pulled to be put on their new streaming services, Peacock and HBO Max. Having FX’s incredible library will soften the blow to long-time subscribers who saw Hulu slowly move away from being the next-day destination for all network shows. So, when you wonder what the future of television is, remember that FX, one of the biggest cable networks, is pulling its new shows from cable television and moving them over to streaming.
Format Sales Prove A Good Story Transcends Language Barriers
K7 Media released its data on the top-selling scripted formats for the 2010s, and the number one show may come as quite a surprise. In Treatment, the Israeli show from 2006 that was remade by HBO in multiple territories, is the best-selling format of the last decade, with newer shows like Doctor Foster and Skam quickly rising in the ranks with remakes hitting countries all over the world. Canada is represented by the number one format of all time, as Quebec’s 1997 hit Love Bugs has been reformatted in 34 countries. The rise in foreign format remakes proves that a unique narrative can overcome language barriers. There’s a reason when you tell somebody to watch a new show the first question they ask is, “What’s it about?” Everybody is looking for a good story and production companies are desperate to get their hands on the next show that audiences all over the world will connect to. Format sales prove that the best stories can seamlessly be adapted for different countries and different time periods.
Series Regular Characters Who Are LGBTQ Hit 10% For the First Time Ever
GLAAD announced its most recent inclusion figures for the 2019-2020 television season and found that LGBTQ representation hit a new record high. The current season has 10.2% of series regular roles belonging to LGBTQ characters, with women outnumbering men for the first time 53% to 47%. LGBTQ people of color on network and cable television were also up 2% each, showing that representation is growing in all sectors. The leading broadcast, cable and streaming networks were CW, Showtime and Netflix respectively. Inclusion isn’t just important for audiences. From a storytelling perspective, it opens up many doors that were previously closed to the writers. A wider variety of characters leads to a wider variety of possible narratives. This is something that Greg Berlanti, Lena Waithe, Ryan Murphy and Shonda Rhimes realize, as those four producers account for 14% of all LGBTQ characters on television. Although, to be fair, they probably account for 14% of all characters on television.