Here are a few concepts that honestly got past us over the past few months. It happens. Will any of these shows get past this stage? We will have to wait and see, but you know, HBO does not have a great success rate at making a concept happen. That is why we don’t hesitate to clump this news together in one report. We start with a Ray Bradbury classic.
- HBO is Adapting FAHRENHEIT 451 Film
It could be quite interesting if one of Sci-Fi’s greatest authors, Ray Bradbury, had one of his most acclaimed and controversial works adapted for HBO. Such plans are in the early stages for FAHRENHEIT 451 to so just that. Looking at bringing the story to HBO is 99 Homes’ Ramin Bahrani as writer and director. He’ll also serve as executive producer alongside Alan Gasmer (Vikings) and Peter Jaysen (You Me Her). This announcement came out this spring evidently and we missed it; nothing has been stated since on the project so we just don’t know what chances it has at this point.
If you are not familiar with the Bradbury story we include the following:
In “Fahrenheit 451”, Ray Bradbury’s classic, frightening vision of the future, firemen don’t put out fires–they start them in order to burn books. Bradbury’s vividly painted society holds up the appearance of happiness as the highest goal–a place where trivial information is good, and knowledge and ideas are bad.
Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. But he undergoes a crisis of faith. His wife spends all day with her television “family,” imploring Montag to work harder so that they can afford a fourth TV wall. Their dull, empty life sharply contrasts with that of his next-door neighbor Clarisse, a young girl thrilled by the ideas in books, and more interested in what she can see in the world around her than in the mindless chatter of the tube. When Clarisse disappears mysteriously, Montag is moved into a different direction.
If this is all new to you then [amazon_link id=”1451673310″ target=”_blank” ]get the book[/amazon_link], first printed back in 1953, as we await the news if HBO’s version is going forward or not.
(Source: EW)
- Comedy Called PREP In Development
You know you must be doing something right if your debut novel has been picked up for a development deal. Such is the case for Curtis Sittenfeld and her work PREP. She has written other works since, but HBO likes her first one from 2005.
The book, published by Random House, follows a Midwestern girl’s coming of age as she navigates an exclusive New England boarding school. Here is a little help on the plot details:
Lee Fiora is an intelligent, observant fourteen-year-old when her father drops her off in front of her dorm at the prestigious Ault School in Massachusetts. She leaves her animated, affectionate family in South Bend, Indiana, at least in part because of the boarding school’s glossy brochure, in which boys in sweaters chat in front of old brick buildings, girls in kilts hold lacrosse sticks on pristinely mown athletic fields, and everyone sings hymns in chapel. However, as you may of guessed, the school is not quite like its brochure.
Ultimately, Lee’s experiences–complicated relationships with teachers; intense friendships with other girls; an all-consuming preoccupation with a classmate who is less than a boyfriend and more than a crush; conflicts with her parents, from whom Lee feels increasingly distant, coalesce into a singular portrait of the painful and thrilling adolescence universal to us all.
Colleen McGuinness (30 Rock) will write the comedy series adaptation and will executive produce. Carolyn Strauss (GAME OF THRONES) also will serve as executive producer. [amazon_link id=”081297235X” target=”_blank” ]Here is the book if you are interested[/amazon_link]. The rest of it is a waiting game.
(Source: Deadline)
- Ava DuVernay To Direct ‘The Battle Of Versailles’ At HBO Films
Wow, how did we miss one way back from March? It seems, though nothing new has been reported yet, that Selma helmer Ava DuVernay is going to war. It is not what you think. THE BATTLE OF VERSAILLES is not some epic Napoleonic war scene but..get this…a fashion revolution!
The movie will chronicle the November 28, 1973 fashion show that took place at the Palace of Versailles. A fundraiser for the restoration of King Louis XIV’s palace, it pitted the top five French designers (Yves Saint Laurent, Hubert de Givenchy, Pierre Cardin, Emanuel Ungaro, and Marc Bohan of Christian Dior) against five then-unknown Americans (Oscar de la Renta, Bill Blass, Anne Klein, Halston, Stephen Burrows and Anne Klein, who brought along her then-assistant Donna Karan) in front of an audience of the world’s social elite. By the end of the night, American fashion would be born, racial barriers broken, and the industry would be left forever transformed.
DuVernay is executive producing the HBO Films project with Karen Glass and Angela Mancuso and the chronicler of the fashion event, via the nonfiction tome [amazon_link id=”1250062322″ target=”_blank” ]“The Battle Of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled Into The Spotlight And Made History,[/amazon_link]” Robin Givhan serves as a consultant. It is an unique topic that HBO Films could be happy to market.
(Source: Deadline)
- Cinemax Considers Showing THE BOYS
That headline sounds a bit better than saying “Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and Neal Moritz Consider Showing THE BOYS. Those guys seem apt to take that phrase south, if you know what we mean.
Actually what is happening is that the trio is working on bringing some comic book action to the channel. After bringing Garth Ennis’ Preacher to TV Rogen, Goldberg and Moritz alongside Eric Kripke are bring THE BOYS to us. It will be written by Kripke based on the graphic novel written by Ennis and illustrated by Darick Robertson. The series is set in a time where most of the superheroes are corrupted by their celebrity status and often engage in reckless behavior, compromising the safety of the world. It centers on a CIA squad, known informally as “the boys,” whose job is to keep watch on the proliferation of superheroes and, if necessary, eliminate some of them.
Everyone, if they haven’t already, is getting into the comic superhero scene in one way or another. We will see it Cinemax gets it done and will still continue to wonder whether HBO will get in the mix with WATCHEMEN.
(Source: Deadline)
- HIGH RISE Series in Development at HBO
I guess we were too busy trying to like VINYL that we missed this concept in the works back in March. Written by Cami Delavigne (pictured) of Quantico & Blue Valentine, HIGH RISE is a character drama set in the world of high end New York architecture that follows a brilliant, but struggling architect who gets seduced by a billionaire’s daughter as she takes him under her wing and launches his career into the world of celebrity architecture.
Who knew there was such a world out there that had a story to tell? There does not seem to be anything new to report since this, so it is either slow-paced or a dead concept already for HBO.
(Source: Deadline)
Fusion Content Comes to HBO
The Spanish-language media company Fusion is looking to bring some of its non-fiction fare to HBO. Two projects are already in the works. First is OUTPOST. It is a series of 10 half-hour episodes which are called an “immersive exploration of Latin America” looking at various aspects of the culture that make the continent unique.
Also planned is a documentary special entitled HATE IN AMERICA WITH JORGE RAMOS. It examines the state of hate groups in the United States with a focus on why intolerance seems to be spreading and is hosted by top Univision news anchor Ramos. With Fusion, VICE and HBO Documentary Films HBO will have the non-fiction field covered.
(Source: Variety)
That fans gets us all up to date on the development front. We hope we don’t let too many more get past us. Details if any of these projects moving forward will be addressed. Like any of them?
