By Kirk Lowe
(originally published online; CMA, August 2009)
Is it a good idea to take a product from the film or DVD market and try to sell it to the commercial TV market, and vice versa? Can a story that’s a commercial success, make the leap from one format to the other successfully and profitably? The examples discussed here are merely a sampling of the kind of show-turned-movie, movie-becomes-13-episode-TV-contract fantasies and fiascos we have been subjected to by the industry we love to study, and pray to one day be a part of. Let’s take a closer look at Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Film-to-TV), Star Trek (TV-to-Film), The Addams Family (TV-to-Film), and Stargate (Film-to-TV).
Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a horror/comedy film produced by 20th Century Fox in 1992. The film version of Buffy was about a teenage girl who learns that she was destined and designed to fight vampires. The catch was that Buffy was an unlikely heroine. She was a prissy/cheerleader-type, and not a rough-and-tumble vampire fighter.
The film pulled in $16.6 million US dollars in revenue. Measured against a contemporary film in the horror/comedy genre, The Addams Family (1991), the Buffy movie was not very successful. The Addams Family (1991), for example, generated revenue of $113.5 million US dollars. The Addams Family (1991) movie generated nearly ten times the amount of revenue as the vampire slayer did.
Through an undetermined course of events, however, Buffy was translated from the film/DVD market into commercial television. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The TV Series ran from 1997-2003, using basically the same basic characters and scenario as the movie. The main characters were (no pun intended here) re-vamped to be less campy … more reality-based. That is, the series was as realistic as you can get in a small town in California that’s overrun by the undead. Produced by 20th Century Fox and broadcast via the WB network, Buffy the TV series won 21 awards during its six-year run, and spawned the TV series Angel. By comparison, the movie version of the same was never nominated for any awards.
Reasons for the success of the TV series, in general, in comparison to the film version may include the new cast, completely different than the movie except for one credited actor who did not even appear in the final version of the film, better direction[1], the director of the movie did not direct the TV series[2], and a concentration of more “…melodrama, metaphor, and morality…” and less cliché[3].
The TV series Star Trek and the Addams Family fared much better when they were converted to the Film market. The original Star Trek TV series ran from 1966-1969 after the 1965 pilot. Star Trek has spawned five other TV series with a combined run of 24 years and counting.
The Star Trek franchise has produced eleven motion pictures from 1979 to 2009. The sheer number of movies produced indicates the success of the Star Trek product when converted to the film market.
The Addams Family TV series, produced by ABC, spawned three other TV series and two movies. The Addams Family movies pulled in a combined estimated 160 million dollars in box office profit and garnered four awards. The first movie alone pulled in an estimated 75 million in profit.
Yet another film-to-TV conversion product, Stargate, did well enough at the box office to warrant a TV series spinoff. According to online sources, Stargate SG-1, the TV series, has had ten successful seasons, and has developed a cult-like fan following. Its longevity rivals the successful run of the Buffy TV series. In addition, the MGM-produced show has helped the Sci-Fi channel to its best ever summer ratings. Also, the show has garnered at least one award (Gemini Award for best visual effects).
MGM made plans in 1996 to turn the Stargate property into a TV series. As with the Buffy conversion, different producers were brought in for the TV series. While Dean Devlin produced, Roland Emmerich directed, and both wrote the movie, Jonathan Glassner and Brad Wright were brought in to run the TV series. Also, much like the Buffy conversion, different actors were hired for the TV series. In the TV series, Richard Dean Anderson held the title role, while Kurt Russell held the lead in the movie.
In conclusion, it may be a good idea to switch a film product to a TV product and vice verse if you handle it correctly. The Buffy and Stargate examples here converted well and did better when they were translated from film to TV. Likewise, the Addams Family and Star Trek examples did well when they were converted from TV to film.
If you are offered the opportunity to have your work cross over into a new area of media, it might be a good idea to build a client base first; over many years (or decades) like Star Trek and The Addams Family, for example. Your patience may be rewarded. Fan loyalty plays an important roll in the success or failure of your work, whether on screen or on paper.
When translating from film to TV, you might, as the makers of Buffy and Stargate did, bring in fresh ideas and new people who are used to working in the newly introduced medium. The same ideas you have for a movie may not work once you try to stretch them into a TV series. On the other side of that, some film ideas cannot fit into the 90-minute allotment for screen, and may have to be considered for a much larger project like a television miniseries or a regular seasonal series. With strong, relatable characters and a solid team of creative people, crossovers in the media industry can be successful and bring joy to viewers generation after generation.
[1] Rolling Stone [2] IMDB [3] Sonic Cinema; Startrek.com, Stargatesg1.com, http://www.rollingstone.com.
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