Friday, July 11, 2008

AMC to do sci-fi - Watch out Sci-Fi channel!

In an effort to one up the Sci-fi channel, AMC is looking to, as general manager Charlie Collier puts it, actively looking to mine classic genre TV shows and SF movies for miniseries, movies and remakes that would appeal to viewers in their 40s or 50s...

As an example one can look to their upcoming project, the remake of The Prisoner miniseries. The thinking is solid. The shows that those 40+ grew up on are a virtually untapped goldmine resource that can be updated and served to a new and older audience alike. Collier said that the network is looking into the acquisitions of past science fiction, both movies and television.

Sounds good to me and no wraslin! woooooooo hoooooooooooo

Check out the article on Dvice

4 comments:

Dave Tackett said...

Keeping my fingers crossed. I've been disappointed so often that I'll just wait and see. I wonder what else they can find from that era.

Anonymous said...

Even some of the campy sci-fi from the 60s can be grist for this mill. Hell, who wouldn't sit still for an updated Lost in Space? That they are doing the Prisoner is enough to get my vote. Look, the Sci-fi ch. took down Charlie Jade and put up....Joan of Arcadia? WTF!!! I watch 4 hours a week on the Sci-fi channel now. Dr who, Atlantis, and the anime on Mondays. I love sci-fi but there is very little on the Sci-Fi channel that qualifies now. Looking forward to any project that AMC has up their sleeve. The people at Sci-fi should hang their head. They are already being outdone by the cartoon network and now AMC is joining the fray?! And Sci-fi answers with wrasslin, ghost huntin and juvi scares? loosers

Dave Tackett said...

I'm with you. I'd love to see a Lost in Space series as long as Matt LeBlanc is not allowed near it and the first writer who even suggests a "dysfunctional family" aspect get canned immediately.

Anonymous said...

I'm with you, Wolfkahn - Lost In Space (well, the early black and white first series episodes, before the show largely devolved into a two-character series) had considerable promise.

I've had similar thoughts about revisitng old SF ideas and themes from the 40s-60s, with the same target audience that originally grew up with them.

Would they still appeal now? Would they be cast with technology as it was in the 'old days', or would they be updated? I think a fine line would have to be tread, lest they lose some of the original magic with the original audience.

But, the upshot is that, as they were mostly shot on small budgets in their heyday, this bodes well for revisiting them now :-)