Dune: Prophecy premieres this weekend, so with that in mind, our crew got together to pitch some other movies which should get TV spinoffs! Let us know your ideas @SiftPop!
Whenever the question comes up about box office flops that are well regarded or films that deserve a sequel, you won’t get too far into the list before Dredd comes up. And what’s not to love? The action and the world are awesome. Yes, Karl Urban is the perfect casting as the titular judge, but if we’re going to take things in a slightly different direction, the idea is right on the page. Alex Garland — whose exact role in the film will likely never be officially confirmed — is always a name that draws interest, and his screenplay introduces us to Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), a judge with psychic powers. Just think of the possibilities! Urban could pop in on occasion, but if there’s not enough enthusiasm after more than a decade to give us a sequel, a crime procedural or miniseries with a psychic judge at the center of the crime-ridden world of judge is something that should be intriguing enough for a green light in this era of television. It’s just too bad Garland doesn’t have any TV experience. Wait… (Jake Bourgeois)
“Emma Woodhouse…had lived nearly 21 years with very little to distress or vex her.” Then she married. Arguably a bit selfish and spoiled but generally well meaning, Emma is now married to her lifelong friend and neighbor, the pragmatic and down-to-earth, Mr. Knightley. Navigating married life as a team will certainly present its share of challenges, given their differing views on both propriety and excess. The inaugural season of Harmony At Hartfield will have an overarching plot, beginning with Emma and George (how weird to hear Emma address him as “George”?!) preparing to host a Christmas Ball in the village, and how they manage their differing views on obligation versus opulence during that process. Throughout the season, we’ll see how the relationships evolve amongst all the newly married couples of Highbury, as some changed social status and others continue to grow within them, including Emma’s former governess Mrs. Weston adjusting to life as a mother to her own daughter. At the same time, Emma’s role within the relationship shifts to that of a supportive friend rather than surrogate daughter. In preparation to attend the ball of course Emma and George’s siblings will come to stay at Hartfield with their ever-expanding brood, putting a strain on their day-to-day lives, in addition to the always opinionated medical musings of the live-in patriarch Mr. Woodhouse. Mrs. Bates, Harriet, and of course the always over-the-top Eltons will all make regular appearances as George and Emma go about living a privileged existence as Highbury’s elite. (Patrice Downing)
Imagine you are in a situation where you don’t know how to handle a problem because you are in someone else’s brain. The architects in Inception have become a dying art, and now people have to explore the inner recesses of someone else’s dreams by breaking into their minds. You suddenly find yourself in a situation where certain breaks work in different ways, and the evolution of extraction has come down to pulling off a heist in a brain that is not firing correctly. For instance, if someone has mental health issues or is straight-up insane, how would that affect the extraction team? Or if someone is a pacifist and violence isn’t the way to go, would they need to use a different method like seduction or persuasion instead? Inception is a world that has unrealized potential, because there’s so much of the mind left to explore. Each season would have a 10-episode arc with a different team from a different area of the world, and a different mission. All of this would culminate in a high-stakes season where all the teams are assigned to the same project, and it’s a race to see who can extract the information first. (Mike Hilty)
Dr. George Miller took his own experiences in the emergency room and brought them to the highways of a post-apocalyptic world to conceive of Mad Max‘s Wasteland, one of the most impressive worlds ever created for film. The oil wars destroyed the old world, and a leather-clad, high-octane one replaced it. The possibilities are endless for The Wasteland, specifically for our nomadic former lawman Max Rockatansky. There are infinite journeys, missions, or conflicts that Max could get involved in, as well as countless figures in The Wasteland, like Furiosa, Dementus, and Immortan Joe. Praetorian Jack, the Gyro Captain, the Feral Child, the Lord Humongous could have countless stories told about them as well. That is why Stories From the Wasteland is the most necessary television show ever. What would be even more Mad Max would be having The History Man passing along these tales each episode. This would be the most heavy metal epic show to grace the small screen. (Shane Conto)
While Sky High is massively underrated, I’m not suggesting this world or characters get a TV show; I’m more suggesting the basic premise of a superhero high school as a TV show. With the studio that made this film now making quite a bit of cash from a specific superhero-based cinematic universe, coupled with that cinematic universe now killing it with its TV shows, it’s pretty surprising this idea hasn’t already come to pass. Disney has already tried to do the high school thing for their animated films with the Descendants franchise. Could they also do it with Marvel? It would be Harry Potter but with superpowers instead of magic, or X-Men without them being called mutants. There is the potential for many funny gags involving powers, a teacher yelling “no powers in the hall,” a boy using invisibility to sneak into the girl’s locker room, a shapeshifting kid getting detention for pretending to be the teacher; you get the idea. It would also be interesting to see kids learning to master their powers in an environment where everyone has powers — so they don’t feel they have to hide them, but also don’t feel special for having power. The kids’ social status and self-confidence could also have much to do with how “cool” their power was, and at the start of every school day, the teacher could yell “AVENGERS!” and the class would say “Assemble!” (John Tillyard)
He hates the A.M., he hates the P.M., he hates labels… Hobie Brown, or Spider-Punk, became a runaway favorite from Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse thanks to Daniel Kaluuya’s hilarious voice performance and the low frame rate, Sex Pistols-inspired, newspaper clipping-enhanced animation style. The success of Nicolas Cage’s Spider-Man Noir in the first film has already led Sony to green light the live-action spinoff show Spider-Noir, so a similar spinoff for Kaluuya’s character is certainly not out of the question. Hobie works so well as a supporting character that casting him as the lead of his own show does have its risks, but with a simple 20-minute episode format, a straightforward villain-of-the-week plot structure might be the best thing for Spider-Punk. So long as they keep the brilliant animation style consistent from the film, bring back Kaluuya, and allow Spider-Punk to be his naturally anarchist self, Spider-Punk’d would be an easy win for Sony. (Foster Harlfinger)
Thor: Ragnarok introduced audiences to a medley of menacing, mischievous, and morose new onscreen MCU characters. An eclectic group to say the least, Hela, Korg, and the Grandmaster all surely have backgrounds worthy of exploring further. But one brooding figure stands out as the character I want to go backtracking with more than the rest. Valkyrie, the last of Asgard’s fierce female warriors, is living an existence filled with pain in all its iterations. Source material from the original Thor comics, as well as the limited run of The Fearless Defenders, provide the beginnings to explore endless storylines as the Valkyries lead the spirits of fallen Asgardian heroes to Valhalla, honoring their deaths. As time goes on, the series can elaborate on the fissure that develops between Odin and Hela, leading to the obliteration of all but one of the Valkyrior. How did she escape death? Where does she go following the massacre of her comrades? How does Valkyrie come to be a Scraper on Sakaar? All questions to be answered on Plight of the Valkyrie. (Patrice Downing)