Something Old, Something New

The drama business is awash with reboots, remakes, sequels and prequels.

Does the burst of horns heralding the Hawaii Five-0 team conjure a frisson of excitement, reminding you of your 1970s self? Do you ever find yourself wondering if The X-Files’s Mulder and Scully discovered if the truth was out there? Are you still mulling over the fate of Dale Cooper in Twin Peaks? If the answer is yes to any or all of these questions, then the primary reason for the spate of drama sequels, remakes and reboots is evident: audience curiosity and audience recognition. Trading on the name and reputation of a tried-and-true show is an invaluable shortcut when connecting with viewers, new and old.

Marion Edwards, the president of international television at Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution, has the much-anticipated new season of The X-Files on her slate, as well as Minority Report, the television series based on the book and movie. She says the sheer volume of new content means dramas must find ways to cut through the noise, so a point of reference can be a crucial marketing tool.

“You’re vying for the attention of people in a world that’s crammed full of information and content of all different lengths, kinds and styles,” says Edwards. “You’re trying to convince them to spend some time with you, and it’s getting more and more difficult with a younger audience to get them to spend more than just a couple of minutes with you. It’s a different process.”

RISK MINIMIZATION
Inherent in the value of audience recognition is a desire to minimize the risk in high-cost drama, notes Joel Denton, the managing director of international content sales and partnerships at A+E Networks, which is heading to MIPCOM with a remake of Agatha Christie’s classic And Then There Were None.

Denton explains, “It’s much easier for broadcasters to make a decision to go back and look at shows that have been a success and try to work out what those ingredients were and reimagine them 10, 20, 30 years on for a modern audience. There’s a reason those shows were successful and the underlying story and themes were popular and well done at the time.”

Sarah Doole, the director of global drama at FremantleMedia, suggests another reason for the trend: writing talent is at a premium in some territories. Doole, who has the Prisoner: Cell Block H remake Wentworth in her portfolio, notes, “Some territories find it difficult to access local writing talent. So when there’s a great story being told and they can access those scripts, that’s like gold dust. Whether you’re in the U.S., Holland or France, the one thing everyone’s chasing is great writing talent. Over the last few years, we’ve seen that if there’s a great story with a universal element to it, the script will work in different places.”

As far as reversions are concerned, exploiting existing IP can also be a springboard for a whole new creative process that excites writers and buyers, according to Katie O’Connell Marsh, the CEO of Gaumont International Television, whose NBC series Hannibal ran for three seasons.

“Bryan Fuller had a ton of inspiration from the Thomas Harris novels [that introduced the character of Hannibal Lecter] first and foremost, and then from the movies,” says O’Connell Marsh. “But he absolutely authored this version and made some really important changes that made sense to him. It’s not simply, ‘I have the rights to this product, let me go through a cadre of writers [to make it].’ Bryan had been a student of Harris his whole life. That’s the secret sauce.”

A NEW SPIN
Creativity and invention are paramount when approaching a reversion. “Some of our buyers don’t remember the original,” says Barry Chamberlain, the president of sales at CBS Studios International (CBSSI), of the Hawaii Five-0 reboot, which has been a big seller for the studio. “It is one element of a sales pitch or an element of what the show is about, but it’s got to deliver on its creative and ongoing story.”

Charlie Higson’s Jekyll and Hyde is an inventive reinterpretation of existing IP. Set in 1930s London, the show focuses on the grandson of the original Dr. Jekyll and is described as combining mystery, fantasy, horror and sci-fi. ITV Studios Global Entertainment (ITVS GE) is bringing the ITV commission to MIPCOM alongside the brand-new Poldark. It will also be introducing the Prime Suspect prequel, Tennison.

“The core of Jekyll and Hyde is very much about having that character and the alter ego; the good and the bad,” says Ruth Clarke, ITVS GE’s executive VP and director of acquisitions and co-productions. “You can create new nuances because you’ve brought it into a different era with a different character. You can bring the audience on a journey that still has the core original at heart. You have to evolve with the audience and engage with what a modern audience is looking for.”

The Frankenstein Chronicles has a similar instantly recognizable concept at heart. From Rainmark Films and sold by Endemol Shine International, it also incorporates a modern twist—this time in the form of a crime story. Sean Bean takes the role of inspector John Marlott, who is pitted against a “chilling and diabolical foe.” Cathy Payne, CEO of Endemol Shine International, says the crime element has helped broaden the original Frankenstein story. She adds that there are also pitfalls that must be avoided when reimagining classic IP.

“People know what Frankenstein is, but you have to make sure people don’t assume it’s horror,” says Payne. Using as an example Humans, based on the Swedish original Real Humans, she explains how to break down preconceptions about genre. “When we were marketing Humans, a lot of buyers were saying it was sci-fi—but it’s more than sci-fi,” says Payne. “It’s really about the relationship—how someone can be as threatened by a synthetic robot as they are by a real person. The mother feels the same type of anguish from having a robot nanny look after her daughter as she would a real nanny. We wanted it to be considered broad and didn’t want people to put it in a sci-fi box. When you’re doing something that is a remake or has been adapted, the way you market it to prospective buyers is really important.”

Like Frankenstein and Jekyll and Hyde, Agatha Christie is a classic brand with a global reputation; but for And Then There Were None, a story that is set in 1939, the challenges were slightly different. The big question is how contemporary you go. “It’s not easy and it’s much debated about whether you really contemporize those pieces and bring them forward or just change the style of writing and themes and the pacing,” says Denton at A+E Networks, which is handling distribution of the BBC One and Lifetime co-production. “People’s attention spans have shrunk over the years. There’s more advertising in a lot of these pieces, which makes it more difficult to hold and keep an audience. The way you tell the story has to change.”

BRAND RECOGNITION
Prequels, sequels and spin-offs are also creative ways of trading on the success of a known brand. This August, for example, AMC premiered Fear the Walking Dead, a so-called “companion series” to its megahit The Walking Dead.

“On the back of the 17 million fans who watch The Walking Dead in the U.S. alone, AMC put out a trailer [for the spin-off] at Comic Con and within 48 hours, 7 million people had viewed it,” says Stuart Baxter, the president of Entertainment One Tele­vision International, which is showcasing the series. “Fear the Walking Dead has audiences all around the world salivating. It’s really well done. If you’re a fan [of The Walking Dead], it gives some insight into how the virus started. It creates a parallel world with different characters, but very much the same audience, the same drama, the same tension.”

Westside, a prequel to the TV3 New Zealand dramedy Outrageous Fortune, will be on offer by all3media international this MIPCOM. Maartje Horchner, the head of acquisitions at the distributor, notes that the key benefit of a prequel is that it trades on the loyalty of the original brand but isn’t encumbered by its story history. Outrageous Fortune was a contemporary series, but Westside is set in the 1970s, so as to create distance from the original show. “A sequel has a layer of history that maybe you don’t understand if you haven’t watched the previous show,” says Horchner. “It’s an easier sell as a prequel than a sequel.”

In this instance, the new proposition, Westside, also created renewed interest in its parent show, Outrageous Fortune. At ITVS GE, meanwhile, Tennison, the prequel of the global hit Prime Suspect, is starting to echo the sales pattern of the original series. “Those people who had [Prime Suspect] before and for whom it worked, they’re already thinking it’s great that they can get this back in their schedules,” says ITVS GE’s Clarke. “It’s a crime piece with a strong character in Jane Tennison. [Broadcasters] know how it walks and talks because they have a pre-existing history with it.”

Clarke continues, “It’s set in the ’70s and Jane Tennison is becoming a policewoman. [Creator] Lynda La Plante is having a lot of fun imagining what Jane would have been like as a young woman. That’s when we join her. It was an interesting world back then as she’s fighting her way through the police ranks. It’s about how she becomes the woman we already know.”

GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Inevitably, a reboot is going to be held up and compared to the much-loved original. “The good news is that you have an audience that is already engaged and hopefully optimistic,” says Gaumont International Television’s O’Connell Marsh. “The challenge is that you’ve got an audience sitting in judgment.”

The more iconic the show, the riskier it gets—and you don’t get much more iconic than The X-Files. Fox’s Edwards says that bringing the show back for a limited season in 2016 is “a very smart move and I believe it would never have happened if all the creative individuals, from [the show’s creator] Chris Carter to the actors, hadn’t agreed to do it.”

She continues, “When it’s a fan favorite and a show that people are still very, very interested in, you run the risk of making changes, but you also reap the rewards when it’s done properly. We have all the faith that we’re bringing something to air that will be equal if not superior to the original.”

Online chatter about a reboot can help in a publicity campaign, says Rachel Glaister, who heads up marketing at all3media international. “The debate between the virtues of an original versus a remake with core fans is all useful publicity, so long as an overriding positive slant can be the louder voice. All manner of social media can aid that, of course.”

Amid all these remakes, one does have to ask, is the focus on exploiting these known brands to the detriment of creativity and original ideas? O’Connell Marsh says no. “Reinventing, elevating and enhancing have to be part of the conversation, and not just in a cursory way,” she says. “It has to be in a visionary way or it will feel opportunistic as opposed to an artistic endeavor.”
CBSSI’s Chamberlain says that, as far as franchises are concerned, there are both risks and opportunities. “The risks haven’t come into play with us, because we’ve been successful in extending series into franchises or portfolios with NCIS and Star Trek. But you have to be really careful that you’re making a quality series that can stand on its own and just happens to have the built-in recognition of an overarching brand.”

CBS Television Studios’s NCIS now has two stablemates—NCIS: Los Angeles and NCIS: New Orleans—but how far can a premise be stretched?

“I don’t think anyone is looking to make five nights a week of NCIS,” comments Chamberlain. “The network [CBS] needs to ensure they offer viewers enough variation to keep them interested, or you get too niche. The studio is looking to ensure that the creative community knows it can come to them for a variety of projects.”
How long will this spate of remakes last? As is the nature of trends, their longevity is reliant on their success in delivering audiences. “As long as it’s working, we’ll continue to make them,” Fox’s Edwards concludes. “When we start to see more misses than hits, we’ll move on to something else. That is how Hollywood functions.”