Pages

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Television Woes for Paramount?

-->
Back in March I posted about Paramount getting back into the television industry with a new series based on its movie franchise Beverly Hills Cop.  There was a ton of controversy around this decision because just eight years prior Sumner Redstone, the executive chairman of both Viacom (which owns Paramount) and CBS, made the decision to split the movie and television branches of the Viacom-owned media group giving Paramount Pictures movies and CBS television shows.  So when it was announced in March that Paramount would be seeking to make one of its most popular comedy movie franchises a series, which would plunge the movie studio back on to the television scene, it was nothing short of entertainment headline news.  However, now it seems like those big plans will not go as… well… planned. 

TVBizwire recently posted that CBS passed on the highly anticipated Beverly Hills Cop series pilot.  Keep in mind that there are always concerns when a movie or movie franchise is being turned in to a series.  Past statistics show that this is not always a smooth or successful transition.  This could be one of the main reasons CBS said no to this pilot.  However, and this is just my not-so-humble-opinion, I think it’s because Paramount’s rekindled television ambitions never had the Redstone stamp of approval.  It may be that this is just a way to keep Paramount exclusively in movies.  But again, that’s just my opinion.  The word from TVBizwire is that the pilot will be shopped elsewhere. 

I just got wind that Joss Whedon has been given the green light to bring Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to series at ABC.  Now, maybe it’s just the Law & Order: Criminal Intent marathon I just had talking but it wouldn’t be too much of a leap to speculate that since Whedon wrote the screenplay for and directed The Avengers, which was a Paramount movie, that this project could be the movie studio’s plan B to get back in to television.  One could speculate.  Like I said in my last post, we’ll just have to wait and see.    

No comments:

Post a Comment