Bridget Jones: the TV show?
Bridget Jones, Billy Elliot and Nanny McPhee are characters already well-known to cinema-goers. The ambition of Hollywood studio NBC Universal and its UK subsidiary Working Title is bring them to TV as well in a series of drama adaptations.
Last week NBC Universal International and Working Title announced they were moving into TV production with new joint venture Working Title Television. One of the aims is to make TV adaptations of Working Title's library of more than 90 theatrical releases, which includes the Bridget Jones movies, Billy Elliot and Nanny McPhee, along with Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Shaun of the Dead.
These TV adaptations would initially be aimed at American audiences, but with the potential to be exported, or remade in a range of countries.
Pete Smith, president of NBC Universal International, speaking at the Media Summit conference in London yesterday, said the company had been greatly encouraged by the successful remakes of its long-running US crime drama, Law & Order, in Britain, France and Russia.
Law & Order UK, screened on ITV1, has just finished its second series, attracting audiences of more than 5 million viewers. A third series is in production.
NBCU now wants to do the same thing with film titles and has struck the deal with Working Title's founders, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, to set up a TV arm of the UK movie production company.
Smith cautioned that there were still a number of hurdles to overcome, because the rights to the properties under debate were not yet cleared, "but that is our ambition".
He said there is a tremendous appetite for dramas tailor-made for individual national audiences and that it was a good business opportunity to build up production with local actors and programme-makers in a range of countries.
The resulting TV series, if carefully adapted, are cost-effective because they are basically reusing the same scripts. TV audiences are also already familiar with the properties from their film versions.
"We have a tremendous reservoir [of content] at NBC, yet this hasn't really been done much before," said Smith.
Other vintage detective dramas in the archive of NBC, which have in the past proved popular with British viewers and could possibly undergo the same remake treatment might include Columbo and Murder, She Wrote.
The scope for recycling successful formats was also a theme of this week's annual BBC Showcase event in Brighton, at which 500 buyers from around the world spent millions of pounds buying UK programmes in all areas.
Top Gear is one of the most popular sellers, and Channel Nine, the Australian TV network, is considering remaking the BBC2 format with Australian presenters. Channel Nine has been in talks with former Australian cricketer Shane Warne about becoming the show's equivalent of Jeremy Clarkson.
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Source: Guardian Online