Based On The Hit Movie: 34 Movies Adapted For TV

Making a TV pilot is undoubtedly frustrating.

Pumping tons of time and energy to create a compelling premise, crafting characters that are interesting right from the get go, and leaving enough room open to explore a complex story over the course of a season, just to have a network pass?

That sounds like hell.

Maybe that’s why it seems much easier to adapt other works for TV. Why start from scratch when you can adapt another property, with all of the heavy lifting done already and a fan base already built in?

That seems to be the million dollar question these days as TV executives keep reaching into their respective studios' vaults, using beloved movies as source material for the moving pictures on the small screen in your living room. Movie to TV adaptations have been around forever, but lately announcements for new movie-inspired pilots pop up Hollywood trade publications as reguarly as announcements for the lastest crop of superhero films.

Many of these cinema-inspired shows are already on the air, and we’ve compiled a list of those, and all the other movies bound for TV that are in development, to put a microscope on TV’s latest trend... 

Fargo

Fargo the TV series takes inspiration from the Oscar-winning film of the same name, and even takes unique liberties to tie itself to that story’s universe and characters without being a complete rehash. Series creator and head writer Noah Hawley expertly recreates the tone, humor, twists and turns of the Coen Brother’s 1996 masterpiece, but tells his own fake true-crime saga that made for one of 2014’s most pleasantly surprising viewing experiences. The series will be taking the anthology route, telling new tales with different characters each season, but those stories will all be attached to the world the Coen Brothers created. Season two will take us back to 1979 and focus on a younger version of Keith Carradine's character from season one, Lou Solverson, now played by Patrick Wilson. The cast will also feature Nick Offerman, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Jean Smart, and Ted Danson. The show is expected to return fall 2015.  

You can read all our Fargocoverage right here.

The Odd Couple

Technically, CBS’ upcoming Odd Couple comedy series is an adaptation of a popular movie, starring Jack Lemon and Walter Matthau, but the film, which spawned a sequel, was inspired by Neil Simon’s hit play, and was later turned into two television series and a short-lived cartoon. The reason for this is because the premise is basic and familiar enough to be resonant in all eras; slobbish Oscar is forced to be roommates with finicky, clean freak Felix. CBS iteration will see Oscar portrayed by Matthew Perry, who will also be co-writing and executive producing, still looking for his first post-Friends hit. Felix will be played by Reno 911 alum Thomas Lennon. The show will debuts February 19.

The Penguins of Madagascar

TV adaptations of popular films occasionally focus on fringe or supporting characters to tell new stories while also being connected to a films universe or brand. It’s easy because writers get to work in an established world without the pressure of screwing up the film’s main characters. When the animated film Madagascar hit big with kids in 2005, DreamWorks knew they had a franchise on their hands, churning out sequels that also went on to do good business.

The time came to work on a TV version and animators turned to the film’s Penguins, a group of militaristic, mischievous zoo animals that scored big laughs in the films without being the main players. Nickelodeon’s Penguins of Madagascar has been so successful for the network that now the Penguins had their very own big-screen movie. It is unkown whether the show will return.

Teen Wolf

Michael J. Fox’s Teen Wolf film was a silly high school picture where werewolves served as a metaphor for the changes that teenagers go through. MTV’s TV version is vastly different. Darker and more dramatic, the Teen Wolf series is more in debt to Buffy The Vampire Slayer than the original picture that inspired it. The series also features more wolves and a pays closer attention to werewolf mythology. Season four of the series just wrapped, but season five is on the way, which will consist of 20 episodes.

You can read all our Teen Wolf coverage right here.

School of Rock

One of the classic films of the 2000s, School of Rock became a box office and critical success after its 2003 release, giving a hope to a generation of students that if their teacher was absent, a rocking substitute would turn the classroom into a stage. Jack Black, in maybe his most memorable role, transforms a group of uptight private school kids into divas, guitar shredders and Battle of the Bands legends in one of those kids movies that adults can love too. A long-rumored sequel never panned out and more than a decade after its release, Nickelodeon jumped on the chance to reboot the film into a series and give a new generation a lesson on rock history.

The original director, Richard Linklater, and producer, Scott Rudin, will executive produce the 13-episode straight-to-order series, which will closely follow the plot of the film. School of Rock is set to debut in the spring of 2015 on Nickelodeon with actor/comedian Tony Cavalero taking over for Jack Black as Dewey Finn. The legacy of the film will also extend to the stage. Andrew Lloyd Webber is bringing a musical adaptation of School of Rock to Broadway. 

About a Boy

Based on Nick Hornby’s book of the same name, About a Boy was a 2002 film that starred Hugh Grant, if that’s any indication of the quality, and then newcomer Nicholas Hoult, as man and boy who are brought together to teach Grant about life and to enrich Hoult’s, or something. Not the likeliest of films to be made into a TV show, which of course is why NBC turned it into one. Americanized and now starring New Girl’s David Walton, the show has proven to be an unlikely hit for the network, but after a middling second season, co-star Minnie Driver announced the show would be airing its last episode of February 17, 2015.

From Dusk Till Dawn

When Robert Rodriguez launched his Latin-tinged network El Ray, he needed a series to launch with it. Having already produced an unlikely film franchise with From Dusk Till Dawn, Rodriguez turned to the already well-known film to adapt to TV. The new series expands upon the criminal Gecko Brothers and their run-in with the Mesoamerican Vampire pack, including more depth to the Aztec mythology. Season one proved to be a modest hit for the network and season two will see 13 more episodes coming sometime in 2015.

Scream

After the last installment in the popular horror franchise failed to capture the size of the audience that the original garnered, Wes Craven has decided to let his baby venture to TV. After the success of Teen Wolf, MTV snatched up the rights to a Scream series, and the new adaptation will be based around several grisly YouTube murders. The new series will debut likely in the summer of 2015. Filming of the series began in August and the show is slated to premiere October 2015.

Sin City

When the latest Sin City movie, A Dame To Kill For, went into production, the Weinstein Company, which produced the film, said they were eager to see a TV version follow. But A Dame To Kill For was met with a shrug from audiences and critics alike, so it’s possible that the demand for such a series is now nonexistent. However, with the success of the noir-ish, comic-inspired Gotham, a Sin City series doesn’t sound like such a bad idea.

[related article: Sin City - The Complete Timeline]

The Mist 

For a long time, Frank Darabont’s dream project was bringing Stephen King’s The Mist to the big screen. It wasn’t nearly as successful as Darabont’s other King adaptations (The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption) but the film had its place as a chilling horror mystery with moderate box office success. In 2013, there was talk of The Weinstein Company making a jump into TV production, and one of the main projects was a Darabont-led mini-series based on The Mist.

There hasn’t been much talk about the project recently, but with Under the Domejust wrapping up its second season, it may be the right time for another King adaptation to hit the small screen.

12 Monkeys

Terry Gilliam’s 1995 dystopian sci-fi thriller might be the best movie dealing with time travel ever made, so when SyFy expressed interest in adapting the film to TV, critics scoffed, that is, until they saw the first trailer, which brings an eerie, dramatic tone that matches that of the original picture. Starring Aaron Stanford and Amanda Schull, TV’s 12 Monkeys premiered January 2015 and was met with enthusiasm from fans and critics.

You can read all of our 12 Monkeys coverage here. 

Parenthood

After finding success adapting Friday Night Lights for the small screen, Jason Katmis set his sights on converting Ron Howard’s 1989 film to TV, adding a modern twist on the family dramadey. Only loosely based on the film with the same name, Parenthood has survived widely fluctuating ratings and night and time switches to become a widely heralded program for NBC. The show premiered its sixth and final season in September, and the show bowed January 29, 2015 with an outstanding finale.

The Devil’s Advocate

One TV trend that is more widespread and has a longer history in television than the movie adaptation is the legal drama. So creating a legal drama based on a movie seems like a no-brainer, but add in a supernatural twist?! I bet it’s ordered right to series! The Keanu Reeves, 1997 legal drama, The Devil’s Advocate, where a lawyer begins working for Satan (Al Pacino standing in for the devil), is currently being developed for NBC by Warner Bros. TV. A procedural where the lead character’s boss is actually evil incarnate sounds like it could be a hit.

Shooter

In another book to film to TV series, -- Shooter, the 2007 thriller starring Mark Wahlberg -- is coming to TNT. Based on the novel Point of Impact, the film follows Gunnery Sergeant Bob Lee Swagger (how perfect is that name?) after he’s framed for murder. Never, ever, frame someone named Bob Swagger. Wahlberg clearly wants more of the character. He’ll be executive producer on the project and Underworld: Awakening screenwriter John Hlavin will write the series.

Minority Report

Here’s a project that’s gone through the circle of life -- from short story to big budget film now to network television. Minority Report by Philip K. Dick was the source material for Steven Spielberg’s 2002 blockbuster starring Tom Cruise. Now Spielberg is helping bring the story of an elite PreCrime unit to the small screen for Fox. Godzilla screenwriter Max Borenstein is writing the series, which is to be set 10 years after the original film and will feature a female lead. Fox gave the series a pilot order January 2015.

Shutter Island

Author Dennis Lehane’s books -- from Mystic River to Gone Baby Gone and Shutter Island -- have fared well on the big screen. The latest one, the Martin Scorsese directed Shutter Island, is getting a prequel series at HBO. The 2010 film follows U.S. Marshals investigating the strange happenings at a mental hospital on a creepy offshore island. The HBO series, tentatively titled “Ashecliffe,” will document the early days of the hospital and its founders. Lehane is penning the pilot episode and Scorsese will direct the series.

Ghost

In November of last year, Paramount announced that they had hired Akiva Goldsman and Jeff Pinkner to start scripting a television series based on the 1990, Oscar-winning film, Ghost. The original film starred Patrick Swayze as a murdered man who tried to avenge his death from beyond the grave as a ghost, while also romancing his widow. No planned release date is in place yet.

The Truman Show

The idea for a series based on The Truman Show, the Oscar-nominated 1998 film that explored America’s reality TV craze, came out of Paramount’s desire to mine their film canon for the next big TV hit. Still in it’s very easy stages, a television version of The Truman Show may be just hot air, but it would certainly be intriguing to see the story of a man whose entire life has been manufactured for a worldwide audience fleshed out over several seasons.

Real Genius

Based on the 1985 comedy starring Val Kilmer, NBC is developing a single-camera comedy out of Real Genius. Kilmer played an incredibly smart and suave super genius in the original picture, and NBC has hired Workaholics co-executive producer Craig DiGregorio to develop the premise as a workplace comedy, where a genius must work together with a sheltered, square co-worker. The show has received a script commitment from NBC, so you may be seeing it sooner than later.

Monster-In-Law

Fox recently announced their plans to develop a multi-camera sitcom about, ““a happy couple about to learn the joys and horrors of parenthood while managing the most challenging relationship of all—the one between a wife and her husband’s mother.” Sounds like a lot of sitcoms, right? Well, inexplicably, the project is being touted as “loosely inspired” by the 2005 Jennifer Lopez vehicle Monster-In-Law.

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