Just a few quick newsbites today — all of which, as it happens, are about brand new TV shows that will be spin-offs or reboots of existing films.
1. The Hollywood Reporter says New Line Cinema and the BBC are collaborating to produce a new TV series adaptation of the His Dark Materials trilogy. New Line previously produced a film version of The Golden Compass, the first book in the trilogy, back in 2007; it was a hit overseas but did so poorly in North America that the sequels were never made, and the men who had been running New Line Cinema ever since they founded it 40 years earlier lost their jobs. I wrote extensively about the books and the film at that time, and compiled a list of links to all my articles and blog posts here. I also interviewed Philip Pullman, the author of the trilogy.
2. CBS announced yesterday that it will premiere a new Star Trek series in 2017 that will play exclusively on the network’s live streaming service CBS All Access. The good news is that Roberto Orci, who co-wrote the last two movies and oversaw the comic books between them, apparently has nothing to do with this series. The bad news is that Orci’s former writing partner Alex Kurtzman — the non-Trekkie half of the writing duo — is producing it. There is no word yet on whether this series will take place on the original timeline or the timeline of the new movies.
3. Deadline reports that NBC, the network that aired A.D. The Bible Continues, is taking another stab at “faith-based” television with a TV series based on Heaven Is for Real. This series will be based on the book Heaven Changes Everything, which Todd and Sonja Burpo wrote as a follow-up to their best-seller, and it will explore what happens after news of their son’s near-death experience “begins to capture worldwide attention.” One can’t help but wonder, will the TV series eventually show the Burpos fielding offers from Hollywood studios for the film rights to their book?
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