Hello, everyone! It’s One Of Us’ weekly article series, “The Weekly Wrap-Up.” Covering everything from film announcements to comic books, “The Weekly Wrap-Up” ensures that the biggest stories of the week are analyzed and discussed by our team of writers. This week we cover CBS’s Island of Dr. Moreau television series, Konami’s mobile game future and an Evel Knievel movie that could star Channing Tatum getting an interesting new director…
The Island of Dr. Moreau TV Series
Though CBS’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Under the Dome came to an unceremonious end, the network has already greenlighted another sci-fi property to develop for prime time. The new series entitled Moreau, will be a “loose” adaptation of H.G. Wells’ 1896 novel, The Island of Doctor Moreau. For those unfamiliar with Wells’ original novel, the story follows a lone survivor of a maritime disaster. Eventually washing to shore on a mysterious island, the man soon discovers that the island is inhabited by genetically manipulated animal/human hybrids and their creator, the enigmatic Dr. Moreau.
The series is being developed by Sleepy Hollow creator Phillip Iscove and “will follow the fiercely intelligent and fearless Dr. Katherine Moreau as she expands the boundaries of medicine through bold and revolutionary scientific experimentation and treatments in her privately funded island hospital.”
Even though this is a somewhat interesting premise, CBS hasn’t exactly been the best producer of original content for quite a while, having been responsible for such programs as The Big Bang Theory, Scorpion and Two and a Half Men. Still, it’s not like this adaptation could be any worse than the 1996 film that featured Marlon Brando wearing a mumu, right? Right?! Hell, at this point, I’m sure we’ll be lucky if this on the same level of quality as Nickelodeon’s Animorphs.
Darren Aronofsky and Channing Tatum to Defy Death in Evel Knievel?
Evel Knievel, the legendary stuntman known for his insane stunts that wowed a generation, will soon be getting his biopic. Channing Tatum and his producing partner Reid Carolin will be producing the project, with Tatum having been quite vocal about his love for the man. The Tracking Board reports that Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky is in early talks to direct after Peter Berg recently vacated the position. Carolin, who wrote Magic Mike, wrote the initial script which is currently being re-written by The Fighter and 8 Mile scribe Scott Silver. Tatum is also currently in talks to star as the prolific man of danger.
Being a big fan of Darren Aronofsky’s filmography, the idea of him doing a project like this honestly surprised me. Aronofsky specializes in dark character pieces that have explore truly dark avenues of the human psyche, like Black Swan or Requiem for a Dream. The idea of a film centered around Evel Knievel doesn’t seem like it’ll explore territory quite as demented and disturbed. Yet, after thinking about his work with self destructive entertainers in both Swan and The Wrestler, it made so much more sense. Both explore how much dedication to craft can damage a performer and no one did as literal an example of this than Knievel.
Plus, the idea of casting Tatum is sensational. Sure, he doesn’t look much like Knievel and maybe looks wise fellow modern daredevil Johnny Knoxville fits the bill. However, Tatum has a far more of a grasp on the type of charming personality that made Evel Knievel the icon he was. When he wasn’t doing stunts, Knievel had the type of devil-may-care attitude that made gave him little to no reason to care what others think. A true superstar that didn’t bat an eye at screwing over others or even making out with women right in front of his wife. It’s the kind of role that can show Tatum’s range and cement him as more than just a funny buff guy. Now, we just gotta see him on that motorcycle.
Konami Halts Console Game Production
Konami has been doing one hell of a job alienating gamers for the past several years. In addition to their fallout with Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima, reported abuse and mistreatment of employees, and complete mismanagement of the Silent Hill and Castlevania franchises, it has now been reported by French gaming site Gameblog that Konami has halted all console game production with the exception of the Pro Evolution Soccer series. Though surprising for some in the gaming community, Konami’s new CEO, Hideki Hayakawa, had previously stated that the company was allocating the majority of their efforts to the mobile game market. In an interview with Nikkei Trendy Net (NeoGAF), Hayakawa talked about Konami’s efforts to pursue mobile gaming, hoping to eventually move their biggest franchises onto mobile platforms.
“We will pursue mobile games aggressively. Our main platform will be mobiles. Following the pay-as-you-play model of games like Power pro and Winning Eleven with additional content, our games must move from selling things like ‘items’ to selling things like ‘features.’”
“Gaming has spread to a number of platforms, but at the end of the day, the platform that is always closest to us, is mobile. Mobile is where the future of gaming lies. We hope that our overseas games such as Metal Gear Solid V and Winning Eleven continue to do well, but we are always thinking about how to push our franchises onto mobile there too.”
Whether you’re a fan of Konami’s franchises or not, this is incredibly frustrating and disheartening news. Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania and Silent Hill have played an extremely important role in the history and evolution of gaming, especially in regard to delivering unique narrative and gameplay experiences. If Konami wants to pursue a different gaming marketing, then that’s their business, but the idea of them forcing their biggest and most popular franchises on to phones and tablets is not only disappointing for fans of those properties, but it is an insult to developers like Hideo Kojima, Koji Igarashi (Castlevania) and Keiichiro Toyama (Silent Hill) who originally brought those properties to life decades ago.
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