NBC Plans New Mini-Series For Rosemary’s Baby And The Tommyknockers
With networks getting back in the mini-series game, its not too surprising that NBC exec Bob Greenblatt unveiled plans for two new reboots in mini form while talking to the Television Critics Association this weekend. Greenblatt offered that We need to be in the event business and went on to back this up by talking the Diane Lane Hillary Clinton biopic and then revealing that the network intends to adapt two horror novels for mini-series, despite both having adaptations already. The most obviously controversial of the two is Ira Levins Rosemarys Baby, adapted as an incomparable horror film by Roman Polanksi back in 1968. Why the understated and creepy tale needs to be a 4-hour edge of your seat thriller is unknown, or why for that matter, the setting needs to switch from Manhattan to Paris. Its going to be hard to gauge what will come of this project, but its certainly not the first time a classic horror flick got a po-faced mini-series redo. Look at ABCs The Shining, coming some 17 years after Kubricks film, and see at which one people are still watching today. Speaking of Stephen King, that other miniseries on NBCs roster is none other than the authors 1980s behemoth novel The Tommyknockers, about the residents of Haven, Maine digging up an unusual object that then gives them strange abilities, including the knowledge necessary to build futuristic technology. Not necessarily one of Kings better books, The Tommyknockers was already adapted by ABC in mini form some twenty years ago, but there wasnt much to write home about in that one outside of a supremely stupid glowing-eyed Marg Helgenberger/Jimmy Smitts love scene. With Kings fictional town also the site of supernatural powers on SyFys Haven, it will be interesting to see how NBC manages to sidestep familiarity with it or the original production. No word on any stars, but the production will be directed by Yves Simoneau ("Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee").One assumes that CBS current success with Under the Dome is inspiring the decision, but why not another King source, preferably one that's yet to be adapted? What do you think? Is NBC barking up the wrong tree here, or are both of these stories ready for a fresh coat of paint? Is it possible that a great adaptation of one work and a mediocre-to-terrible version of another are all that either really needs?