Mar
31st
2020
Quarantine Chat: Colony – The Film (Or Show?) · 6:54pm Mar 31st, 2020
Hello readers! As we settle into the second (or for some, third or fourth) week of pandemic quarantine, I figured it’d be nice to help ease the stress of things to talk about something amusing and entertaining, even if, at this time, only hypothetical:
What if … a studio bought the rights to make Colony a feature of some kind?
It’s a fun hypothetical because there’s a lot of different ways you could do it. Film. Series. Animated. Live action.
Which one would you want to see? Or better yet …
Who would be the actors? Who would you want to see playing Jake, Anna, and Sweets? Who do you think could fill the shoes of the trio?
First off, I would never want anything of mine made into a film/show and not be animated. There are far too many boons to going the animated route. Characters can look exactly how you want without having to worry about things like choosing the right actor, make-up, CG add-ons, etc. And if a voice actor leaves the show for whatever reason, at least you can find someone else who sounds reasonably similar to play the role and, again, not have to worry about an entirely new actor gumming up how the character looks. And while live action can certainly achieve amazing special effects these days, I can't imagine it being cheaper or more effective than doing it through animation as the base medium in the first place.
In terms of how it's animated? In the case of Colony and Jungle, I'd totally go the Titan A.E. route. The film had its flaws, but in terms of presentation it was downright beautiful. Aesthetically speaking, it could certainly capture the style I'd imagine being required for your stories. You might also consider that of Disney's woefully underrated Treasure Planet.
No preference for actors. It's never something I ever thought about even for my own characters. I might be picky about such things if this wasn't a hypothetical, but I dunno. Then again, Chris Pine could make for a good Jake or Sweets. I know everyone only thinks of him in terms of the latest Star Trek films, but if you check his overall filmography he's quite a talented actor with a lot of variance in his roles. Seriously, check him out in 2016's The Finest Hours; he might look like the same guy, but as a character he's totally unrecognizable.
Last but not least, given the story's size and what all would need to be contained, I'd suggest a Mini-Series. A Feature Film would force things to get cut for time-consumption purposes, but a regular 20/30-episode series would require you to add more to fill up airing time, especially if they're hour-long episodes as are so typical these days. A Mini-Series would allow you to make the show exactly as long as it needs to be, since there is no formal length required for them.
5232593
Ooh, Chris Pine is a good pick for Jake! I didn't think of that! I'd agree, he's got range and he could definitely bring him to life!
And yeah, the old format of "26 episodes, half of them filler?" NEVER. Like I said, I much prefer the Amazon/Netflix approach of "however many episodes you need, as long as you need them to be." Eight episodes, for example, could probably do the show pretty well. Let me think—
Etc. Maybe ten episodes. But no, old TV seasons are dying for a reason. We all hate filler, and we all hate being sold ads.
EDIT: You should throw your comment on the site proper.
5232602
Done!
5232608
Thanks! I'll add my response as well!