5. The Matrix (1999)
The Matrix is one of the greatest science fiction films and science fiction ideas of all time, and something TV is seriously lacking something at the moment is a truly great science fiction show, and more than that, a truly thrilling action show. Perhaps you are thinking The Matrix would perhaps be too difficult to translate over to the small screen, and even worse still, need too big a budget for this ever to become a reality? I would disagree. The Matrix has the potential to be a really easy science fiction show to create for television. If you really think about the film, there aren't all that many complicated, expensive sci-fi set pieces... The Matrix looks identical to our own world remember... this isn't a film set in space or on alien worlds. The scenes set on Zion are also pretty low budget; pretty much just small metallic rooms and sandy caves. Very easy to replicate well on the small screen. Obviously, you couldn't really create this TV series as a sequel to the film because after the end of the trilogy Zion was saved, and the war between the machines and the humans was over. If I were creating this show, I'd just completely ignore the films story, though I'd keep many of the same elements. I'd start off, much like the film does, in The Matrix, following a normal, everyday kind of mundane character as he is pursued by mysterious people who end up offering him the chance to leave the Matrix and see the world for what it really is, then fight along side them in order to save Zion from the machines. However, despite making the lead character the "one" like he is in the film, I'd make them discover pretty early on that this character isn't actually the one, and then for the rest of the series show a group of people, of which the central character will be one of them, as they search the Matrix for the chosen one who will save Zion and stop the machines. For a twist, I'd make the chosen one a woman, for whom the central character develops feelings towards, but who is at first reluctant to leave the comfortable life the Matrix world offers her, and for all of the first season the characters spend their time both trying to convince "the one" that they aren't crazy and that the Matrix isn't reality as they also spend time trying to make sure no harm comes to her as she is tracked down by viruses in the Matrix computer system. I'd love to see a truly great, purely action orientated film back on TV again, and I think this is the film franchise that could pull this off. Plus, an added benefit would be the TV show would have a lot more time to explain all the crazy goings on that many people struggled to grasp in the film world. Added character development wouldn't go a miss either.