Fox will cancel it mid-flow
I just got a wooden ball carved with the note that Fox will murder the show, no matter how good it is.
Fox gives Minority Report the nod – precog goes primetime on tellybox
Hollywood director Steven Spielberg has thrown his weight behind a hotly-anticipated Minority Report TV series. According to Deadline, Spielberg – whose 2002 Minority Report movie starred Tom Cruise – was impressed enough to attach his name to the project after watching a pilot of the show. Fox confirmed on Friday that it had …
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Sunday 10th May 2015 18:28 GMT Tony J Smith
Re: Fox will cancel it mid-flow
Almost Human says hello. An excellent show, with a very similar premise and an impressive cast, cancelled by Fox less than thirteen months ago, after they failed to advertise it, and aired the episodes out of order.
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Monday 11th May 2015 09:41 GMT P. Lee
Re: Fox will cancel it mid-flow
>So are you intimating that Fox (We're Not News) is buying the rights from Steven in order to make sure it is not a success? How Machiavellian/Murdochian.
They don't need it to be a success, they just need it to not be a success for anyone else. Its like the blanket advertising around "You Aint Got Talent Factor." Its mostly there to prevent anyone else from looking significant.
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Monday 11th May 2015 11:12 GMT King Jack
Re: How Machiavellian/Murdochian.
Terra Nova by Steven Spielberg was binned after one series 13 episodes. Billed as the most expensive TV series ever. Fox at it's finest. The track record of Pox TV execs is there for all to see. They specialise in destroying sci-fi. God knows how they ever turn a profit.
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Sunday 10th May 2015 21:51 GMT Haku
Sci-fi shows too often have a rough ride and a short life
I love sci-fi, I watch too much tv, and too often I've been really getting into a show only for those short-sighted damned execs to cancel it because it doesn't get the instant ratings that usual tv dross will often get (ie sitcoms, 'reality' shows, gameshows etc.), they have no faith that a show will gain a large and devoted following (see Firefly).
Another reason I read that shows often get cancelled is that when new heads of programming/execs etc. get into power they cancel the predecessors shows because they want to be the one to gain recognition (and a higher wage) for bringing in a new hit tv show that will keep them in their job for longer.
Some of the sci-fi shows that I'm really pissed they cancelled - Firefly, Alphas, Almost Human, Stargate Universe, Dollhouse, Caprica, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, V, Flashforward, Threshold, The Event.
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Monday 11th May 2015 11:33 GMT Brewster's Angle Grinder
Re: Sci-fi shows too often have a rough ride and a short life
I loved SGU, but it was doomed from the start. The attempt to do an adult show for fans who'd got to use to Stargate levels of characterisation and plot was going to be an uphill struggle; that audience wanted heroes not flawed characters.
Many of the fans are female and yet there's no strong female character. If you're a geeky boy you empathise with Eli. If you're father, probably Young. If you're gung-ho you empathise with Greer. And there's Scott for the modern man.
But if you're a woman? If you want a maternal figure Johansen was great. Otherwise there was Chloe, who was pathetic; James, who was peripheral; and Wray who was perpetually incompetent and unsympathetic, even though she was morally right.
And for those of us who wanted an adult show, the constant lapse into one-bound-and-they're-free plotting was dispiriting. And I'm sure the luke-warm mysticism would've pissed off the rationalist sci-fi fans while seeming trite to those with knowledge of metaphysics or theology.
And then there's the ethos. I loved that they were always on the edge and barely surviving. But I wonder how well an ethos of "hanging in" went down in the land were everyone is a winner.
You can see the way the writers are trying to satisfy existing fans while roping in non-fans. But those two horses were always going in opposite directions. Still, I'm glad they tried. And the lights turning off at the end of S2 is moving.
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Monday 11th May 2015 18:01 GMT cambsukguy
Re: Sci-fi shows too often have a rough ride and a short life
> Some of the sci-fi shows that I'm really pissed they cancelled - Firefly, Alphas, Almost Human, Stargate Universe, Dollhouse, Caprica, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, V, Flashforward, Threshold, The Event.
I think that's all of them
Wasn't Caprica meant to be a limited set of episodes filling in the pre-BSG timeline?
And at least Firefly got finished in a compressed, and excellent, form.
I thought Dollhouse finished, was it cancelled with a few episodes to cram all the remaining plot arc into? Still better than between season cancellation.
These days I prefer to wait a full season before committing to anything and then generally only if it is considered 'good' and I something else I watch has ended to avoid way too many shows on my list.
Breaking Bad gone, Justified gone, room for one more I think.
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Monday 11th May 2015 00:02 GMT Kharkov
Quick! I have to stop the terrible thing that... might not happen!
So the movie clearly showed that the future is NOT certain, no-one is absolutely going to kill someone, there's just a (sometimes high) likelihood that they will. It took a movie to show that but now there's going to be a TV show? About a murder that might not happen?
"Gotta run, Jim. A man might beat his wife to death. I've got to kick in his door & run up to his bathroom (It's Fox, you know there's going to be a nearly-naked woman in a bathroom) and stop him just before he hits her over the head with an item that's getting some product-placement."
"Ok. Er, so won't this end with BOTH people screaming about the home intruder who's burst in on them when they're both stripped down for slippery fun? Both of them calling the police? Two to three years for B & E? Sit down, have a beer, call a bookie & make a bet on where they'll find a body tomorrow."
"You're right, who needs that hassle? Buy me that beer and I'll split the winnings with you."
TV gold... it's not. And yes, Fox has a fully-deserved rotten reputation for screwing over successful TV shows. Family Guy, Futurama, Firefly...
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Monday 11th May 2015 07:16 GMT Haku
Re: Quick! I have to stop the terrible thing that... might not happen!
For those who love Futurama and were saddened by it's demise when they cancelled it, twice! I strongly urge you to check out Rick and Morty
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Monday 11th May 2015 11:21 GMT Teiwaz
Re: Quick! I have to stop the terrible thing that... might not happen!
Did they cancel it again?
I don't watch TV any more. I've my DVD collection for when I want to watch something. I'll pick up a new series once in a while if I hear good things or it appeals (my tastes are usually out of phase with most people I know in some way or other).
At least with books, of a certain genre, you only really have to worry about the author dying before he finishes a story (usually after the third, fifth or twelfth book) which is a hell of a lot less inconstant than TV channel execs habit of chucking out tv series that don't get 'x' number of viewers by episide 'x' of fthe first series.
It's a crime against storytelling.
(The rick and morty 'show? (that sounds so dated) was quite good though. Not Futurama level, but better than bobs burgers...)
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Monday 11th May 2015 18:07 GMT cambsukguy
Re: Quick! I have to stop the terrible thing that... might not happen!
Futurama is NOT cancelled! It is on a (very long) Hiatus. I am sure that some salary negotiation will happen and another new series will be commissioned.
After all it is sooo much better than the Simpsons (which I still watch and find amusing often).
When I think of what Julie Kavner gets paid for voicing Marge and that she was just a sidekick in Rhoda so many moons ago - talk about a lucky break.
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Monday 11th May 2015 09:34 GMT Cliff
Re: I'll wait to see if it survives a second season
7 series is what your hoping for, or at least what the network is going for. 100 episodes makes the world of difference to global TV syndication (ie free money for life) which is why cast sign 6½ season contacts as by that point they'll request (and deserve) $1M/show. This makes 7 series the moon shot, with anything shorter being prematurely cancelled.
This has a vulgar side-effect, that series like LOST set off with no intention to tie up loose ends - the ONLY thing that matters is the overnight figures, so they spawn dozens of arcs they will never satisfy to keep you watching. I, personally (like that counts for anything), believe it's a fundamental breach of trust between the producers and audience. If I'm going to give you 100 hours of my life, your side of the deal is to act without cynicism and in the best interests of the story and characters I'm investing in.
This is why I don't join in on the first wave of hyperbole, nor the second... I've been cheated before and you don't get to do that twice to me. Better Call Saul is somewhat different as it's entirely character-driven, and that's so rewarding by comparison.
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Monday 11th May 2015 11:44 GMT Ledswinger
"Minority Report is a seriously whacky and underrated film IMO."
But sadly the premise for the series is merely about one of the characters. It'll be handed over to the lightweights of Amblin, get little input or love from Spielberg, and then be crafted to fit the interests of the commissioning network.
Every week Agatha will have some premonition of some dreadful occurrence, and then have to find some way of saving the day. But her talents will rouse a bit of popular resentment plus a suspicious sheriff, and she'll have to move along swiftly. Lassie on steroids, all designed for the easily pleased, packaged and sold to the highest bidder.
It's simply a cash-in to pay some of Spielberg's bills.
This has got my juices going
You're a Fox executive, then?
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Monday 11th May 2015 09:12 GMT TheProf
New exciting direction
So the programme will have little in common with the movie which had little in common with the story it was 'based' on. I can hardly contain my excitement.
Also: Why do movie companies buy the rights to books and then turn out a film that doesn't resemble the book? 'I Robot' spring to mind. I can only watch enjoy that if I keep in mind they should have called it 'Rampaging Robots'.
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Monday 11th May 2015 16:04 GMT AbelSoul
Re: buy the rights to books and then turn out a film that doesn't resemble the book?
One of the most outlandishly unrecognisable examples of Book != Movie has to be The Lawnmower Man
Not that the original was necessarily any better than the movie (both pretty poor IMO) but undeniably a completely different story.
