Thanks to Mr. Edmodo for the heads up.
Fox’s drama pilot Luther, a remake of the acclaimed British series, has been rolled and will be produced off-cycle. The project had a cast-contingent pilot order and the decision to push it beyond the traditional pilot season was made after difficulties casting the lead John Luther, played in the original series by Idris Elba — a near-genius murder detective whose brilliant mind can’t always save him from the dangerous violence of his passions. Elba is executive producing the U.S. remake, written/executive produced by the British series’ creator Neil Cross for 20th TV, studio-based Chernin Entertainment and BBC Worldwide Prods.
Source:
Well ha sucks !!
ReplyDeleteI think Blair Underwood would be good or Wood Harris.
ReplyDeleteI hope they end up just not making this. It's pointless. The original is excellent and you'd think they'd learn from Gracepoint.
ReplyDeleteGracepoint was inferior to Broadchurch but I dont think it was a bad show. I would agree that finding an actor that can pull of the role 1/10 as well as Idris Elba seems highly unlikely and on top of that the show will probably be a boring procedural. Even in series 3 Luther would take two episodes to solve a crime which gave a lot of time to spend on character moments, those moments will be few and far between on network TV.
ReplyDeleteCasting Alice Morgan may be even harder. They should just give up.
ReplyDeleteYou're right in that they'd be hard pressed to find anyone who could be Luther but Idris Elba... which is partially why they just shouldn't make this show. Gracepoint was just insulting to viewers. The first few episodes are practically shot-for-shot remakes of Broadchurch. It's not even as if Broadchurch or Luther were originally made in languages other than English and both shows are popular British exports here in the U.S. already. It's also not a decade ago, when getting shows from other countries was more complicated. There's no need to remake these shows in the U.S.. because you can go watch the originals online right now.
ReplyDeleteSomeone needs to give Blair Underwood his own show. Though not this. I can imagine they must be having trouble casting this not for lack of talent but more for who wants to be the sacrifical lamb by taking on a role that will do nothing but get him constantly compared to Idris Elba. Probably not a lot of takers there.
ReplyDeleteIt won't beat the original.
ReplyDeleteJust... Give up. Don't bother. Please.
ReplyDeleteHe would be great for something like True Detective.
ReplyDeleteI dont get how it is insulting to do a remake/adaptation. The original writers for both Broadchurch and Luther are involved with both series, though that might be partially because the US version was going to happen regardless of their involvement so they might have figured better to have some control over what happens. I can agree that the remakes/adaptations at least of English language series are largely pointless. I am not looking forward to the news in a year or so for the inevitable Happy Valley or Hinterland remakes.
ReplyDeleteIt's mainly insulting, I feel, if the original series is already in English and is being remade for American audiences. It's like saying that Americans are so dumb that they'd find British or Australian (in the case of The Slap) accents challenging so they require their own version of what is, by and large, *the exact same show* as the original. What was especially revolting about Gracepoint atop that was that they then kept David Tennant but had to cast Anna Gunn instead of Olivia Coleman. Sexy Dr. Who was okay to produce and keep on as an actor-- provided he did an American accent-- but Olivia Coleman had to be replaced with an American actress. From soup to nuts, Gracepoint illustrated how little they valued their audience.
ReplyDeleteHaving just finished my Wire rewatch Wood would be a great choice! Or Michael K Williams or a number of the great actors on that show.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure others would agree with you. I'm the wrong girl for that one. True Detective for me was like reading what a bunch of stoned college freshman came up with for their first play.
ReplyDeleteI think they really shouldn't bother unless they somehow find an actor that suits the role as well as Elba and an actress as terrific and terrifying as Ruth Wilson. Does the world need another cop drama? Probably not.
ReplyDeleteThanks GOD! A remake is pointless.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why they want to make this when we can watch the original?
ReplyDeleteHe had his own show, Ironside, and it flopped badly.
ReplyDeleteThe last show that he was in that lasted more than one season was L.A. Law in 1987. That could be telling in itself..
ReplyDeleteEven though I am a huge fan of True Detective your description of it made me laugh out loud. Nic Pizzolatto does seem like a philosophy freshman.
ReplyDelete... and there was much rejoicing.
ReplyDelete;) I took a ton of philosophy, so no complaints about that here.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that despite disliking S1, I'll be watching S2, if only to see if they learn how to write women. Or remember that the women are, you know, there. For the record, I disliked it because I felt it could have been so much more. I've got nothing wrong with some trippy philosophy and the cast was insanely good. By the time I realized I really couldn't stand it, I was too many episodes in not to finish just to see how it ended.
Yes, I watched the first two episodes. I watched two and not just the pilot because Blair Underwood can act his way through anything and he's easy as all bleep on the eyes. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have even watched the pilot. But Ironside actually fits in with the theme of this conversation as it's an other example of a completely unnecessary and vaguely insulting remake and the audience that looked at that offering with disdain and so refused to watch. What was new and edgy about the Ironside remake, if we were to believe NBC, was that the dude in the wheelchair was now black. Holy bleep! He's *black*, you guys, can you believe it?! Black people exist and things and they're even in terrible remakes of anything to which the networks happen to own the rights! *eyeroll*
ReplyDeleteAlso, Ironside had an absolutely terrible timeslot so that's probably another reason why no one cared.
Yes. It's telling that there aren't a hell of a lot of leading dramatic roles on television for men who aren't white.
ReplyDeleteMichael K Williams is about the only one they could cast who would actually get me to watch this.
ReplyDeleteSo true. Luther wouldn't be anything special without Alice and casting her would be difficult to say the least.
ReplyDelete