On The Big Screen

You've heard the rumors. Mere seconds after a television show's cancellation, the loyal fanbase stops sending millions of little bottles of Tabasco sauce and starts spreading the word that there's gonna be a movie.

Did the showrunner say in an interview that he or she planned to make a movie follow up? Doesn't matter. It's gonna happen. And the more rabid the fanbase, the louder the rumor.

Are any of these rumors legit? Who knows. But they certainly are loud.

Arrested Development


Why it will never happen: Think how many really talented people have to come together to make this movie a reality. As far as I’ve heard, nobody except Michael Cera has expressed hesitance, but Arrested Development was a magic constellation of awesome the first time. Think about how difficult it is to organize dinner out with a few of your friends from different groups. And let’s face it, your friends are nowhere near as awesome or in demand as the cast and crew of AD.

Why it will be awesome if it does: This show was violently ripped from the airwaves before many people, myself included, even got around to watching it. Network interference crippled the final season, and while the big-screen treatment might change the dynamic of the show, at least they’d have the freedom to do whatever the hell they wanted. Plus, The People Of The Internet would finally shut up about it. I'd chalk that up as a win.


Gilmore Girls

Why it will never happen: Nobody has ever really said it would. As far as I can tell, it’s all fanwank. Alexis Bledel and Lauren Graham hadn’t heard anything about it last I saw them interviewed together, and Amy Sherman-Palladino is currently going from show to movie trying to match her Gilmore success. Nobody involved has made any promises, or even really hinted at a movie, as far as I know. Plus, the show outwore its welcome—season seven was a mess, and those of us who grew up on the show in high school and into college may have outgrown its charm. Is there even still an audience, or is the original audience too old and the new crop of adolescent girls too unfamiliar with Devo and Yul Brenner to ever hope to understand Gilmorespeak?

Why it will be awesome if it does: As I mentioned above, Sherman-Palladino hasn’t yet succeeded at replicating the Gilmore magic. There is a dearth of well-written, well-acted, intelligent female characters on TV, and even fewer well-written, well-acted, intelligent female driven TV shows. A Gilmore movie might be a welcome reminder that something like that is possible amongst all the Gossip Girls. The show also bowed out on a relatively open-ended note. I’m thankful it didn’t go on for another season, but I think there’s enough to be mined for a movie, particularly if Milo Ventimiglia’s schedule is clear now that Heroes is over. That, I could get behind.

Veronica Mars

Why it will never happen: Because nobody wants to see it. Okay, that’s not exactly true. I want to see it; so does my roommate. So do the fifteen or so people I’ve personally turned onto Veronica Mars. So does Kristen Bell—she’s offered, via Twitter, to pay for the movie to get made. Bluffing? We’ll see. Basically everyone involved in VM and everyone who ever got hooked on it would kill for this movie to see the light of day, but not one other person in the world cares. If we, the loyal fanbase, each convinced 1,000+ of our closest friends and family to accompany us on opening night, maybe it would stand a chance. But is Warner Brothers or whoever owns the rights going to bank on that? I wouldn’t. I had a hard enough time convincing the 15+ people that I have to watch the show. 1,000+ is a bit of a challenge.

Why it will be awesome if it does: Are you kidding me? This is the Rodney Dangerfield of the CW/UPN generation—never got the respect it deserved, never got the audience it deserved. A chance to spin a new Veronica story, and to tie up those remaining loose ends, would be epic. Plus, since a few years have gone by and Kristen Bell can play a tad older, it could break the obnoxious barrier of always being about a high-schooler (even when it wasn’t anymore). I’m not sure if Rob Thomas (no, not THAT Rob Thomas) would go the FBI route as planned or come up with something new, but the man who went on to bring us the also-cancelled-too-early-but-amazing Party Down (aka The New Joss Whedon) can do little wrong in my eyes.

Is it really such a good idea?

Why, when a show is cancelled (too soon or even not soon enough), does everyone cry out for a feature film? This didn’t used to happen. Nobody was begging for the big screen when Friends went off the air—were they? In some cases, I think a show as a creative work can benefit from a filmic epilogue. In the case of Firefly, Serenity finished telling the story. Sure, maybe it was a bit jarringly different in tone, but it’s a different medium. And maybe that’s my problem with this new movement to bookend quality TV shows with films—not everything translates into a new medium. The stories told on TV versus in film are, by nature, very different. I think a movie sequel to a TV show is always going to feel just a little bit off.

But in the end, a lot of these are passion projects. And that’s what matters, really. If Rob Thomas and Kirsten Bell care so much about this little 3-season show that went off the air when I was still in college that they finance a movie themselves, if Joss Whedon has so much story left to tell about Buffy and her friends that he moves into a completely new medium—graphic novels—to let them live on, then I think their stories will be worth telling. There’s not enough passion in television today, and so if someone is willing to fight for these films to get made, then I’m willing to shell out my $8 to see them.

No guarantees on those 1,000+ friends, however.