2.11- MOVIES THAT SHOULD BE TV SHOWS
MOVIES THAT DESERVE A TV SERIES SEQUEL

1-25-2001

There are some movies that never get a chance to explore of the universe they created because they never got the big money at the box office. let's offer a case study of the shows that deserve a new life as TV series. A sequel in a ways in 22 installments a year.

THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI: this has to be one of the most quirky and interesting cult movies to come out in the 1980s. The movie has recently been released on DVD as a special edition that includes 14 deleted scenes. There has been talk of FOX developing a TV series and a pilot script has been ordered one to two years ago. This show has many roads to explore as a series and there are countless unfinished scripts and a never filmed sequel to explore for story ideas. The show would be perfect on cable or syndication.

THE LAST STARFIGHTER: This movie is the pioneer of CGI special effects and the effects still hold their own against today's CGI effects. there are many roads to explore with a series like picking it up years later with Alex and Maggie and their grown up kids (maybe they joined the rebuilt Starfighter Legion). You have new threats from Zhor, the Kodan Empire, and a few new ones. Stories could range from battles, intrigue, a return visit to Earth to see Alex's younger brother, a rescue mission or a downed Starfighter, and so much more.

ENEMY MINE: There is an unexplored universe for this 1980s movie directed by Wolfgang Peterson. The universe has been explored in novels, but a TV series could explore the continuing struggle to maintain a peace between Earth and the Dracs.

NIGHTBREED: This Clive Barker movie only had a sequel in a comic book series, but it would be cool to have a TV series. It would be basically a quest series as Boone searches for a new place for the Nightbreed and at the same time protect the breed from the humans who fear them and want to destroy him. Of course, there is the threat of the serial killer/psychiatrist who's been revived by that crazy priest that wants to destroy Boone and the Nightbreed.

There are numerous possibilities in many movies for a series. Some would work as series while others might not and I know there are some that wouldn't. Some ideas work best as a movie series while others would have the danger of becoming too repetitive like I think a Scanners TV series would do. Any good TV series has to have big worlds to explore and good writers to create them effectively.
I even have an idea for a TV series that would serve as a sequel to a 1980s sci-fi movie, but I will not tell you about it now. I think it is best to leave it unsaid until it hopefully becomes a TV series one of these days.
See you next week and continue to check Enterline 2.12 for a growing collection of photos from sci-fi movies coming in 2002.

this article is (c)2002 David Blackwell