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OCTOBER ROAD Creators To Serve As LIFE ON MARS Showrunners??
I am – Hercules!!
ABC is reportedly talking to Josh Appelbaum & Andre Nemec (“She Spies,” “Fastlane,” “Alias”) and Scott Rosenberg (“High Fidelity,” “Gone In Sixty Seconds,” “Imposter,” “Kangeroo Jack”) – creators of the network’s widely reviled (and apparently soon-to-be-cancelled) “October Road” – about serving as showrunners on the American remake of “Life On Mars.”
Based on a British series, “Mars” deals with a contemporary cop who suddenly finds himself transported back to the 1970s.
David E. Kelley (“Boston Legal”) has been developing the American version, but is reportedly looking to scale back his involvement.
Read all of The Hollywood Reporter’s story on the matter here.
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who best to return to the 70's style crime fighting. I liked the original show.
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the Spin off "Ashes 2 Ashes" is terrible..... The bad news is it got picked up for a second season. To Samuel Jackson....Shaft: the series? No way... What about putting the guys from "the Shield" in the 70s. That would be really cool!!!
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Was passable but the mistake they made was putting Gene front and centre. Yes hes a great character played very well by Glennister, but when he got the acclaim he did for Mars the producers underestimated just how much the chemistry and relationship between Sam and Gene (and the actors who played them) contributed to the show.
Plus the 70's era Manchester setting really provided an amazingly stark contrast to the modern policing/cultural ethic. The show had a heart. Ashes to Ashes mimics the style over substance culture of the 80's a little too literally. Still I'll watch series 2 as it's still better than most of what passes for homemade drama on this small crazy island. -
Life on Mars was amazing. Ashes to Ashes is pretty good too, but why remake it??? What's wrong with the brit version?
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I agree. Although I enjoyed Ashes to Ashes it didn't have the 'what the fuck' feel that Life on Mars had. Alex wasn't as strong a character as Sam, and I found her 'in with the joke' banter annoying. Plus, I'm from Manchester and there were a few 'local' jokes in there that my friends from outside Manchester didn't get.
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Before you start crying like you did over The Office 'Waah waah! Why? Ours is better...' etc.
WE do this as well - remake tv shows.
Ever watch 'Mother & Son', from Australia? That we remade as 'Looking After Mum'? Just coz you don't remember it / it got cancelled, doesn't mean it don't count! Remember that crapfest 'Who's The Boss', that we remade as that crapfest 'The Upper Hand'? Huh?
EXACTLY!
And this year we had 'Honest'a so so remake of 'Outrageous Fortune' - a top show from New Zealand.
If they wanna remake 'Life On Mars' let em. Ashes was shit BTW. -
will have to have the ending changed. Anyone who knows how the original ended, knows this to be true.
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But I see bringing in talentless showrunners will do the same.
And - me, Brit - prefers the US Office.
And Ashes to Ashes most definitely DIDN'T have Gene front and centre - it relied on Alex - a badly written character badly acted by Hawes screeching continuously. A badly realised series, badly written with occasionally superb one-liners. And they, in themselves, can't make a great show. A bad one, in fact. They squandered all the good will from the original. -
An interesting remake. British 70s Cop shows and American ones have a completely different aesthetic and style. So far from just being a lazy remake, this will have to be a complete do-over from the original concept. Life On Mars was based very much on The Sweeney, so will the American take be based on "The Streets Of San Fransisco, or Starsky and Hutch, or even the Dirty Harry films?
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Having grew up in and around Manchester, seeing it portrayed that way in Mars almost gave the show an additional character besides Gene and Sam.
Sam was very well written, and wasn't just a 'by-the-book' stereotype to bounce on Gene. He was flawed in non-traditional ways and the surrealist flourishes to the episodes suprised and felt fresh
In contrast Alex in Ashes is an annoying protagonist, is whiney and indeed the 'in with the joke' banter kills off any kind of empathy you may have with her. The development of Sam's progressive attachment (and ultimate acceptance) of his 'friends' elevated Mars above the sum of its parts. Ashes' 'got to fight for my daughter' motif is just plain lazy.
Tied on my favourite Mars episode. Hmm. 'Oh dear. Is that Gene Hunt kicking in some Nonce' in Camberwick Green fashion maybe my favourite opening to any show ever though. -
"a badly written character badly acted by Hawes screeching continuously" ;
Got to call you on that one. You got it right the FIRST time - badly written. Hawes is a fine actress, and if she screeched her way through it, that's the way the character was written. AWFUL female role. It's like they were living in the 80's when they wrote it. "What do you mean cops don't wear off the shoulder stuff love? It'll look good!" -
If I want to see a pseudo (tread TV version of cops in the 70's) I'll just watch reruns of The Mod Squad or The Streets of San Francisco.
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And my opinion is the only one that counts, so there.
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But I assume that the reason that Sam and Alex gravitate towards Gene is that he also is in a coma, in the present day, remembering his life as a copper...
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But Hawes was awful. Which was why Glenister eventually went public trying to defend HER from the criticism - not just the writing.
Watching her little lips quiver every time she met her 'mum' and her poor takes on overreactions. It was really awful. Maybe she should have stuck to that terrible Boots ad she did at the same time?
Not a new opinion either - I stopped watching Spooks early because she and hubby were such presence bypasses and only went back to the start when I was persuaded to try again at the start of season 5. There was a dramatic improvement as first his then her character dropped out.
But Kudos played favourites and helped ruin the sequel. The only acting worse than hers in their stable is that plank of wood on Hustle who nearly ruined S2 of Dexter. -
I really loved it and I'm looking forward to the second season, I just hope it doesn't have a shit ending like Life on Mars did.
Ashes' biggest problem was the weak first episode, all the dramatic music every time Gene Hunt entered the room was totally over the top and out of character for who he is. Thankfully they sorted the tone out for the rest of the series. Plus it really picked up steam as it progressed and when it found its voice (talking about '80s issues like Thatcher re-developing the East End, attitudes to homosexuality and the indifference to rape) it really shone just as brightly as Life on Mars.
And finally, Gene's speech in the last episode about people cowering in their homes in 25 years time because the streets won't be safe without coppers like him was a perfect indictment of today's lacklustre policing that's been hamstrung by political correctness and bureaucracy. -
I can't help the feeling that in the pilot they'll just have to make a pop-cultured Quantum Leap reference to drive the point home for the US audience. "What am I, some kind of Sam Beckett?" "Who's Sam Beckett?" "It's a TV show from the '80s...WILL be in the '80s." Ick!
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Did have its moments but wasn’t in the same league as Life on Mars. The American Office is the worst thing to happen to American TV in a long time. Even though I think it’s funny. And Yes, I do realise that remaking British shows for the American market isn’t anything new but The Office has caused a sort of renaissance of them lately.
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until I read who will be creatively involved. First off, Kelley is a hack who has been remaking the same show for 15+ years. I bet they change it so that it's now set in a law firm in the 70s, and there are all kinds of wacky characters who make you want to poke your eye out. Then the creators of October Road, possibly the worst thing on TV right now? No thanks. It's already risky remaking a brit show here, because they almost never live up to the original, but it's really doomed with this pile of shit running it.
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Stupidest idea ever.
I liked ASHES TO ASHES. I thought it started off a bit rough but improved as it went on, and the final three episodes were very good indeed. I don't think Hawes "screeched" her way through it by any means -- I think her character is *meant* to be more unsympathetic than Sam Tyler. And Hawes herself has enough other successful roles under her belt to fend off any claims that she's just a bad actress. -
Was great but I think, like tomdolan04, that they made too much of Hunt, he shouldn't be front and centre and the weak link in the series was the otherwise decent Keeley Hawes. It was certainly watchable but it could have been better.
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and lets not forget Kangaroo Jack!!" These are credentials that inspire trust??
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Is that Life on Mars already seemed like a UK attempt to copy American style shows. So bringing it to the US, it will feel like nothing special. I liked Life on Mars though, don't get me wrong.
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They should have just continued the adventures of Gene Hunt without bringing yet another person back to the "imaginary" past. The new chick is hot, but an awful actress. The only ray of hope is that Sam Tyler may miraculously cameo someday.
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but the higher-ups at Lost (Cuse) and the Shield (Ryan) are also responsible for Nash Bridges, and I'm sure one can find other examples out there, so you never know...but you're probably right, situations like that are more the exception than the norm, and this remake is highly likely to be shitty.
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Anyone who thinks that her acting was shitty in Ashes to Ashes should watch some of her Spooks work, specifically season 3. It's not her fault, clearly.
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