That certainly seems to be the case. It is just difficult for me to believe that not one single network is showing an interest in DS in light of the horror/supernatural genre making a big comeback on tv. Perhaps the problem is with DC not wanting to give up control after he was burned by the WB fiasco. At this point you would think that the networks are calling DC and not the reverse. Perhaps they just don't want to deal with him. But in any event, there is something terribly wrong here. A new DS series should be under discussion with a network. I just refuse to believe that "nothing is happening at the moment". The timing for a new DS series could not be better.
Well, while the supernatural genre
may be making a big comeback on TV, (I keep hearing all over the web, but we have yet to see an actual trend of actual success in these upcoming shows. There's the anticipation that they'll be successful, but whether they'll do well or not is still an unknown.), it doesn't immediately indicate that networks are running around with the intention of scooping older series for remakes. That seems to be the overwhelming trend in feature films right now, but not in TV and there are a multitude of reasons...
Networks have dozens of on-going production and SERIES DEVELOPMENT deals with a multitude of producers, people like John Wells, JJ Abrams, Marc Cherry etc. People that for the most part have ongoing hit series, or have a track record of producing recent successful TV shows...Sprinkle in a few creative folks like a few writers and show runners who are eager to take the next step and produce their own series.
Network heads have a vested, creative and primarily
financial interest in luring and acquiring the most cutting edge talent and visionary producers to their network in the hopes that they will continue their golden streaks (ie: John Wells and ER and Aaron Sorkin and WEST WING) and give their golden touch to a new show...Networks need hits and they pursue creative and successful producers aggressively and bend over backwards to keep them at their network.
Their jobs depend on it.
Would you want to be a network CEO responsible for not renewing a development deal with Aaron Sorkin only to find that the network that he jumped ship to now has his hugest hit on their network...And all that success could have been yours if you had kept him happy and continued his deal...
Now, if you're a creative producer you want to put together a few different series pitches and pilots each year to run by the network. Now, 95% of writers and producers want to create something new and tell the stories or create the characters they have had a burning desire to create and really don't have an interest in redoing an old show or recreating someone else's vision. As Orson Welles says in ED WOOD "Why waste your life making someone else's dreams?"...J. Michael Straczynski didn't want to do a new STAR TREK series...He wanted to do BABYLON 5 and realize his characters and tell his stories.
There are also solid financial reasons why an executive producer and network would desire
original programming over remakes. A fresh new series is an easy profit share between the network and the executive producer. An old show like DARK SHADOWS reduces the amount the network and the executive producer make because a substantial portion of the profits would go to ABC for originally producing and co-owning part of the original series and for the original executive producer DAN CURTIS and whatever other entities have a piece of the pie (Art Wallace's estate etc.).
So, if you were going to make a series and endure the grueling hours, stress, uncertainty and intense politicking, public spotlight and criticism would you go through it to redo an old series or would you make your own new series and make 20% more for both you and the network?
Clearly Wells is successful enough and had enough interest and passion in the property to get Warners to commission the pilot script, then produce the pilot. As an executive producer with a production deal, they had a responsibility to keep him happy. Plus, they loved the script.
Even if the show had been picked up, it would have been a tough series to produce. With three executive producers (Wells, Curtis and Verheiden) trying to find a single vision between them AND get the network to agree on a daily basis would have been a grueling challenge, and very tough to deal with politically. The network execs and I'm sure Wells is well aware that it was not going to be an easy series to do, by any means.
Curtis and co. are in the unenvied position of being on the outside of the network development system which means they have to knock on doors and pitch their ideas each season in the hopes of getting a network head to show interest enough to put up script development money to take the next step toward a possible series. There are very few networks, ultimately and you can only try to sell the same idea so many times before they stop taking the meetings.
The Fox script got developed from an outside pitch by Curtis to Fox because there was a fan at the network I believe. The Wells pilot got made solely because of Wells' development deal and his interest in doing it.
There aren't rooms full of network execs anxiously looking through old series with the hopes of bringing them back...
There are no plans for further revivals of GILLIGAN'S ISLAND, THE MUNSTERS, THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, STAR TREK, I DREAM OF JEANNIE, BUFFY, ANGEL, BABYLON 5, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST either...it's just the nature of the town...
They want something NEW, SHINY and FRESH and they're looking to their on-contract producers and the occasional outside pitch to find it...Remakes of old series are flukes, really, the new NIGHT STALKER especially...Curtis has been trying to get a NIGHT STALKER film, tv series of telemovie off the ground for decades and no network has ever bit. For Frank Spotnitz, yes, for Dan Curtis, no.
There's no current signs of interest from any of the networks in doing Dark Shadows again, and while it may happen again, it'd have to be another Wells type situation where a contracted producer pitches it to his network, not another outside pitch from Curtis.
I think that Curtis is hoping for interest in the feature film arena, anyway, and is hoping Depp's soft, as of yet insubstantial interest in the property comes to something...
