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Hollywood Cannibalism: The Way Of The Future?

by Jason Hellerman on October 25, 2014

With the recent announcements that TV shows based on the movies Hitch and Bachelor Party were both purchased and with Fargo cleaning up at last year's Emmy awards, it's safe to say Hollywood has found a new trend. This year also marked sales of television adaptations of Minority Report, the now aborted Uncle Buck and Say Anything series, Rush Hourand Real GeniusAnd let's not forget about The Transporter and  About A Boywhich is now in its second season at NBC.

While many have chagrined the decline in new ideas and lamented the uncontrollable surge of IP, Hollywood has sat back and decided that the best way to get you watching television is to make it all about movies. I guess it was inevitable; if The Fugitive, Miami Vice, The A-Team, The Equalizer, The Adams Family, 21 Jump Street, The Brady Bunch, M*A*S*H*, Charlie's Angels, Dark Shadows, The Dukes of Hazard, Edge of Darkness, State of Play, Firefly, Get Smart, Maverick, Mission: Impossible, Star Trek, The Saint, The Twilight Zone, The Untouchables, The X-Files and many more were (mostly) successfully adapted for the big screen, it was only a matter of time before Hollywood would start swinging the other way.

Still, the sudden and massive proliferation of film-to-television adaptations is staggering. It's also amazing. In a little over 100 years, the entertainment industry has put out so much product that now it's cannibalizing itself as its own IP. For a town that used to turn to books, legends, and even sometimes songs for its story ideas, it now has found a source close to home that continues to make everyone involved money and often times can expand on characters or situations we loved, updating them for new generations.

The worst part is that this trend is another factor working against writers with original content. We've seen it in movies already - the decline in spec sales and actual jobs for writers in film has significantly dropped off since the heyday in the 1990s. The new Golden Age of Television has actually been extremely fruitful for writers. Not only have we seen growth in networks (cable and streaming!), but each of these shows usually has a room and even shows with one author like Fargo usually employ several other writers to help break the story beforehand.

The cannibalism of films doesn't mean jobs for writers on TV will go away, but it does mean that it will be harder to get your original ideas on the air. One thing that has differentiated TV from film in recent years is that it has been a place where new ideas could thrive. Hollywood starts behind the eight-ball when it makes movies that cost hundreds of millions of dollars and it takes them years to recoup these amounts.  TV was the place where a high school teacher cooking meth was a premise you could take a chance on because the initial investment was smaller. If the paranoia of IP and marketing spreads into television, we could see a significant drop-off in these outside-the-box ideas.

While this is speculation, it can be frustrating for people working on pilots. The obvious dream for a lot of writers is to write and sell their show and have it take off. What's more likely is that that pilot will be loved by a lot of people and you'll get staffed on an existing television show where you'll be able to make a name for yourself and be able to pick your favorite movie to pitch to networks. Once you've established yourself, it's much easier to get people to listen to your brilliant original ideas.

So where does that leave us?

With the film industry focusing endlessly on franchises and tent poles until the bubble bursts, many writers have flocked to television. As you work on your own material, it may be useful to check out older movies and have an idea for shows you think could have excellent potential for adaptation. Keep your list handy; when you take meetings it's useful to be ahead of the curve.

No matter what, keep writing and keep an eye on the trends.

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