Defamer
When we briefly worked through the ramifications of the interim deal that Lionsgate struck with the WGA late last week, our thoughts immediately turned to the eventual resumption of production of the company's critically acclaimed, hit TV properties like Mad Men, daring to dream that our favorite hard-drinking, secretary-despoiling ad execs might find their way back to AMC in the not-too-distant future. But we never thought to consider the potential dark side of LG's television business lurching back into action, and so were shocked to learn this afternoon that the studio is partnering with Starz, our go-to premium-cable movie outlet when HBO seems to be showing nothing but Just My Luck and The Devil Wears Prada, to adapt subtle, multiple-Oscar-winning L.A. race-parable Crash for the small screen. The good news: according to Var, "high production values" and the participation of the original, uniquely heavy-handed creative team will ensure a viewing experience every bit as fulfilling as your original trip to the multiplex. The bad news:
None of the major characters from the movie, including the ones played by Matt Dillon, Brendan Fraser and Sandra Bullock, are likely to make it to the series, said Beggs. "We'll use the style of storytelling from the movie," he said, "but there'll be new characters and new stories to get into the subjects of race and class, and the bigotry that's simmering under the skin of a city like Los Angeles."
Though the jettisoning of Crash's beloved character-types is certainly disappointing (surely, someone at least considered the possibility of making an offer to Kevin Dillon to reprise brother Matt's Oscar-nominated performance), we're sure viewers will embrace the fresh players Paul Haggis uses to expose the prejudice-riddled underbelly of Los Angeles on Starz, open-mindedly accepting the secretly racist firefighters, Hollywood agents, or middle-class housewives who find their lives improbably intertwined by the we're-all-just-trying-feel-something fender-bender that opens each episode.
- Starz braces for 'Crash' [Variety]
- Previously: Lionsgate Pulls WGA Into A Negotiation Room For A Spat-Ending Quickie [Defamer]
Comments
OMG, that was one long Oscar night.
If each episode is like Mad Libs with racial slurs, this will totally make up for a lack of new South Park episodes.
Would you rather . . .
. . . sit through a screening of the Crash director's cut (along with all DVD value added materials, deleted scenes, and wacky bloopers), followed by a Q&A with Paul Haggis, Matt Dillon and Al Sharpton, OR
. . . have Tom Cruise personally -- personally -- teach you all the nuances of the Scientology Tone Scale.
The awesome thing about Crash is how it showed that some people that are racist are sometimes not racist! and vice versa! For 113 minutes!
But seriously though, remember that one scene where they explored racism? That was amazing.
@Double Banger: It's questions like that that made me quit Buddhism and take up the bong.
Maybe the could do the logo C*R*A*S*H*
Maybe now we'll see if something can be just as over rated on television as it was in the movie theaters. I swear, Haggis has as much subtlety as Dick Cheney.
It would be better if the race / class commentary were integrated withing within the confines of people car-crashing in slow-motion amidst orgasmic fury.
@Cultmember: Ah - orgasmic fury. The last time I experienced that was when my cat jumped on my back during those frenzied final moments with my g-friend. Fur everywhere.
Funny. Of all the shows to be based on a GEICO ad, you'd think it would be this one. Not - of course - to say that Cavemen wasn't also a humorless heavy-handed exploration of racism.
I'm sorry, did you just call Crash SUBTLE???
@adam807: That was the funny part.
@Cultmember: Yeah, I hope there's wound-fucking like in the slightly less shitty Crash.
Ryan Phillippe, on the other hand, is totally available, and Officer Tom Hansen (not the one Johnny Depp played on 21 Jump Street; the other one) will be there with not-racist bells on.
CRASH a TV series?! Great! Hack writing, over-the-top acting, reactionary themes, stupid coincidences, now in regular installments! Visual root-canal for the masses!
@Double Banger: I'll take option "c", a bullet in the head.
That might be enough to make me give up television altogether.
Stop hating on that movie! I loved it! And if Haggis can crank out half the great drama he did in EZ Streets (oh, how we mourn you, EZS), we are in good hands.
But if he farms it out to whomever was responsible for that dreadful dated Irish mob show (not that one; the other one), then we're in a world of hurt.
Did this have to happen right after Heath died? My wounds are being fucked right now.
Two years later, and with Heath Ledger's death, "Brokeback Mountain" is more powerful and heartbreaking than ever, and an entirely new audience has discovered one of the best performances in one of the best films of the decade.
Out of decency and respect, the makers of Crash should hide the stupid award they bought, and content themselves for having somehow "bait and switched" its way past four better films to steal the academy's top honor for a film didn't even deserve a nomination. It seems decency and respect would be too much to expect of these low lifes.
To be promoting this in the wake of Heath Ledger's untimely death is beyond tacky -- it's like pissing his grave.
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