Tv shows and themes that you think should be developed

[GodfatherIV]

This is a thread just to get creative thoughts flowing. What are some tv shows or series that you would like to see developed? It could be based on comics, history, whatever

[godisawesome]

Twilight Of Rome: The last decades and change for the Western Roman Empire, featuring their gradual decay, final bouts of infighting, and complicated relationships with the successor “barbarian” kingdoms, who also take center stage. Start in 408 with the betrayal and execution of Stilicho, the “half-barbarian” Roman General, followed up by riots and mass murder of “barbarian” women and children throughout Italy... which pushed their formerly-loyal-to-Rome husbands to join Alaric and sack the city of Rome in 410. Introduce the main Roman protagonist, Flavius Aetius, here, as he gets the news while a hostage/guest/exchange student with the Huns, alongside his main “barbarian” friend/rival/frenemy, Attila.

Follow those two as they grow older and rise in power, with Aetius paying and using the Huns as his primary enforcers as he dances between the various tribes and kingdoms in and around Rome and grapples with his rivals in the Roman court, including the regent empress Galla Placidia and the General Bonifacius, and Attila growing more ambitious and consolidating his power as the main Hun oligarch. Include some of the weird drama both guys experienced, including Aetius ending up marrying Bonifacius’s widow at Bonifacius’s dying request when they were mortal enemies beforehand, his supposed willingness to allow his daughter to marry one of his Hunnish bodyguards, and Attila slowly turning in and murdering his brother in a “hunting accident.

Have the penultimate season end with the Battle of the Calataunian Plains, when Aetius and Attila have finally gone to war, and the perfect culmination of Aetius’s ability to juggle various grudges and alliances but also the perfect endorsement of Attila’s overall military prowess, as it’s a tactical draw. Then have the last season deal with the ironically banal end to both men - Attila dying of a nosebleed right after being talked away from Rome by the Pope, Aetius being murdered in court by the puppet emperor he’d served - and the actually kind of mind-blowing consequences of both death: the massive Hun vs Barbarian battle of Nedao, where the Hun empire was broken, Attila’s main heir killed, and the collapse of Roman court intrigue, when the emperor who killed Aetius is murdered, and his wife and daughter desperately plea for help to... the Vandals, who arrive and sack Rome again.

[AndrewCrossett]

I still want to see the TV adaptation of Stephen King's Dark Tower series... faithful to the books this time, dammit. I know that was in development, but who knows what's been derailed thanks to Captain Trips?

The undeveloped property I most want to see done is Roger Zelazny's The Chronicles of Amber. Tailor made for television. You could adapt the books, and hang any number of original stories and characters on it besides.

Would love to see a live-action Forgotten Realms series, set in that D&D gameworld. The classic Ed Greenwood Realms, not the time-jumped 4th & 5th edition one. I wouldn't center it on any of the existing characters, but on an original party of adventurers. They could meet and interact with some of the "celebrity" characters from time to time.

Also, a live action adaptation of Dragonlance. Adapting the adventures of the Heroes of the Lance, starting with Dragons of Autumn Twilight.

A less well-known urban fantasy: T.A. Pratt's Marla Mason stories.

And what about Fafhrd and Gray Mouser? Elric of Melnibone? Conan? A limited series based on Asimov's "I, Robot" and possibly leading into the novels?

Lots of fantasy in there, but with the success of Game of Thrones the studios should be ON this. And all of the above have the advantage of being already written.

[godisawesome]

A two-few, using a property I really wants to see, and some speculation for what types of superhero shows I’d kill for on the Batman forum.

Red Rising

Seriously, this series has everything you’d need to make a high concept and potentially timeless scifi story, and especially has a cool way to integrate politics and sociology. You’ve got a genetically engineered caste system, a compelling and yet flawed protagonist in Darrow. And the entire concept of the first books comes off like Game of Thrones meets Hunger Games.

It would almost certainly work better as a show than a movie, all things considered.

Gotham Knights (Robin, Spoiler starring series)
Basically, set the story during an extended and more developed portrayal of Bane’s reign in the immediate aftermath of Knightfall.

Bruce is off trying to get his back fixed and recovering with Alfred, Bane has installed Bird as his “steward” over Gotham while he goes off to conquer other cities and make them pay tribute to him, and Tim?

Tim’s basically running a guerrilla campaign against Bane’s underworld hierarchy, having to avoid direct confrontations with most of the big name baddies, and do what he can to help the city as it slips back into corruption, picking off low hanging fruit and trying to contain crossfire from the occasional “court politics” in a city where Bird presides over a “Gotham Commission” that’s divided up neighborhoods and districts and have court politic-style backstabbings and infighting: Black Mask, Penguin, Riddler, the Falcone remnant, Councilman “Boss” Thorne... and Catwoman as a reluctant leader of the East End after she “stole” it from the Falcone’s.

And Tim’s secret weapon? Spoiler. She joins him because she sympathizes with his plight, and so her scrappy, can-do attitude is what’s keeping Tim going in an otherwise hopeless situation. I might also make a joke by having her end up as Catwoman’s de-facto disciple in stealth, sabotage, and flirting with a stoic goody two-shoes.

The main week-to-week villains would be low level hoodlums, C- and D-list Batman rogues, and maybe even Tim and Steph’s own personal enemies in some shape or form - Cluemaster as someone’s bitter second-in-command against the Riddler for Steph, and maybe King Snake as Tim’s personal enemy.

And since Bird is Bane’s representative, the de-facto big bad is another sidekick - just a villainous one.

You could have brief cameos or mentions of Nightwing and Oracle as they seek to stop the expansion of Bane’s empire outside of Gotham. And maybe have Cass appear at some point and join them.

[Thezmage]

Don’t have a good title but the working title would be CSI of the Dead:

An unspecified number of years ago, the dead began rising. Everybody who dies comes back as a classic Romero style zombie. The first night was rough, but humanity survived and civilization has been largely restored. Maybe outside of the big cities there might be roving zombies or something but most people these days go months without even seeing a zombie. When somebody dies, you destroy the brain to keep them from rising. But did the injury happen pre- or post-mortem? How do you distinguish between a murder or self-defense when the body will show injuries either way?

[marshal88]

another george r r martin fantasy works except this time , in the world of the superheroes in his wild cards series. the world of aces and jokers.

astro city should be developed into live action

[TriggerWarning]

Fray by Joss Whedon

If you didn't read it when it came out it exists in the Buffyverse by a couple hundred years in the future making it sci fi. All the slayers have disappeared and vampires are beginning to take over again.

They are talking about a Buffy reboot and then they danced around the topic giving a vague answer when there was furor over the possibility of rebooting instead of doing a sequel. While I'd be good with a sequel I'd even rather more have that sequel be Fray.

[TriggerWarning]

I still want to see the TV adaptation of Stephen King's Dark Tower series... faithful to the books this time, dammit. I know that was in development, but who knows what's been derailed thanks to Captain Trips?

Hopefully they learned their lesson from the movie debacle and if there is ever another try they will be faithful to the books within reason. Hopefully not a movie at all but a TV series instead. And pick the right actor for Roland - Scott Eastwood would be perfect since Roland is based off of Clint Eastwood. Idris Elba is a fine actor and would have been fine except the plot of the Dark Tower requires Roland to be white. For those who haven't read the books, racism is a major plot element in these books as one of the main supporting characters is a black female who lived through the civil rights era and was crippled by a racist - it fractured her mind as well giving her multiple personalities and one of those personalities hates all white people and Roland especially as another "white master." Its this hatred when this personality takes over that drives the plot of multiple books. None of that works if Roland is black.

[Vakanai]

Ninjas vs Dinosaurs

A ninja clan and their ninja dojo/castle are transported to the age if the dinosaurs and must battle ravenous, hungry prehistoric beasts to survive.

I don't have much plot thought up yet, but hey, it has ninjas and dinosaurs! Two of my favorite things!

[AndrewCrossett]

Hopefully they learned their lesson from the movie debacle and if there is ever another try they will be faithful to the books within reason. Hopefully not a movie at all but a TV series instead. And pick the right actor for Roland - Scott Eastwood would be perfect since Roland is based off of Clint Eastwood. Idris Elba is a fine actor and would have been fine except the plot of the Dark Tower requires Roland to be white. For those who haven't read the books, racism is a major plot element in these books as one of the main supporting characters is a black female who lived through the civil rights era and was crippled by a racist - it fractured her mind as well giving her multiple personalities and one of those personalities hates all white people and Roland especially as another "white master." Its this hatred when this personality takes over that drives the plot of multiple books. None of that works if Roland is black.

Yeah, it definitely needs to be a TV series. The one in development was going to start with the prequel books about young Roland and his ka-tet, and then (if ratings warranted) jump ahead to the quest for the Dark Tower. Yes, Roland would have to be white but Susannah would be black, as could be any number of other characters. You'd have to be careful with Detta Walker, though.

[GodfatherIV]

A two-few, using a property I really wants to see, and some speculation for what types of superhero shows I’d kill for on the Batman forum.

Red Rising

Seriously, this series has everything you’d need to make a high concept and potentially timeless scifi story, and especially has a cool way to integrate politics and sociology. You’ve got a genetically engineered caste system, a compelling and yet flawed protagonist in Darrow. And the entire concept of the first books comes off like Game of Thrones meets Hunger Games.

It would almost certainly work better as a show than a movie, all things considered.

Gotham Knights (Robin, Spoiler starring series)
Basically, set the story during an extended and more developed portrayal of Bane’s reign in the immediate aftermath of Knightfall.

Bruce is off trying to get his back fixed and recovering with Alfred, Bane has installed Bird as his “steward” over Gotham while he goes off to conquer other cities and make them pay tribute to him, and Tim?

Tim’s basically running a guerrilla campaign against Bane’s underworld hierarchy, having to avoid direct confrontations with most of the big name baddies, and do what he can to help the city as it slips back into corruption, picking off low hanging fruit and trying to contain crossfire from the occasional “court politics” in a city where Bird presides over a “Gotham Commission” that’s divided up neighborhoods and districts and have court politic-style backstabbings and infighting: Black Mask, Penguin, Riddler, the Falcone remnant, Councilman “Boss” Thorne... and Catwoman as a reluctant leader of the East End after she “stole” it from the Falcone’s.

And Tim’s secret weapon? Spoiler. She joins him because she sympathizes with his plight, and so her scrappy, can-do attitude is what’s keeping Tim going in an otherwise hopeless situation. I might also make a joke by having her end up as Catwoman’s de-facto disciple in stealth, sabotage, and flirting with a stoic goody two-shoes.

The main week-to-week villains would be low level hoodlums, C- and D-list Batman rogues, and maybe even Tim and Steph’s own personal enemies in some shape or form - Cluemaster as someone’s bitter second-in-command against the Riddler for Steph, and maybe King Snake as Tim’s personal enemy.

And since Bird is Bane’s representative, the de-facto big bad is another sidekick - just a villainous one.

You could have brief cameos or mentions of Nightwing and Oracle as they seek to stop the expansion of Bane’s empire outside of Gotham. And maybe have Cass appear at some point and join them.

Im 100% with on Red Rising. Those novels were amazing and I think it would be on Game of Thrones levels

[GodfatherIV]

So I got a few

Tv shows

Red Rising- great novels see previous post

Partials- this was a good trilogy by Dan Wells good sci-fi and manufacturing breeding humans, genetic plagues etc. Good YA story

Conqueror- series based on Conn Iggulden books about Genghis Khan and his brothers sons etc


Salt- Thought Angelina killed it in the movie was hoping for a sequel but lets flesh out her past and pick up where we left off in the present with an Evelyn Salt tv show. Sure we had Americans and the Black Widow movie coming but who can get enough of Russian spies? How many cop shows and detective shows do we have right?

James Bond- so many novels and stories besides just the big budget movies. Tv shows could ground things and tell even more

Lazarus- based on the comic. Helluva dystopian that set up like a mafia megacorporation takeover future. Love the comic and if I can have Gina Carano as Forever Carlyle I'd be a happy man. Maybe Heidi Moneymaker as her trainer

Saga- the next great sci-fi in the stars. Bring over the star wars and star trek fans

Aphrodite IX- more sci-fi perfect female android assassin with memory wipes.


Alexanders Legacy Diadochi- Talk about a game of thrones but with elephants. A lesser known but intense period. Follow up to Alexander the Greats life but this is arguably more interesting with all the wars, alliances, killing. I think fans of Vikings and Last Kingdom and Game of Thrones etc would be in for a treat exploring this time

The Crusades- Nuff said. Think they should be detailed great battle scenes the corps of knights everything

[GodfatherIV]

On the Superhero side of things....

I'd be cool with a Batman live action series kind of in the vein of what Daredevil and Punisher were on Netflix.

Xavier files- This is how I'd bring the Xmen to the MCU introducing them with their solo origins and backstories and having Xavier recruit them. A lot to unpack but by the time we got to the movie we could hit the ground running because people would know the characters

[TriggerWarning]

Yeah, it definitely needs to be a TV series. The one in development was going to start with the prequel books about young Roland and his ka-tet, and then (if ratings warranted) jump ahead to the quest for the Dark Tower. Yes, Roland would have to be white but Susannah would be black, as could be any number of other characters. You'd have to be careful with Detta Walker, though.

If it was me I'd do the first two books together in the first season. Tell the first book via flashback at the same time as Roland is collecting his ka-tet in the 2nd book. The first book is so thematically different than the rest that it could drive off viewers.

[DrNewGod]

Dodge City Days: A show about Wyatt Earp, set before his relocation to Tombstone. Begin at the end, with Wyatt discussing his decision to accept his brother Virgil's invitation to join him in Tombstone, having never quite reconciled himself to killing George Hoyt, and then flashback to Wyatt's travels that eventually lead him to Dodge. He worked both sides of the badge in his time, and crossed paths with a huge number of The Old West's most celebrated along the way. Tons of material to work with.