The Weinsteins want TV shows based on Sin City, The Mist, and Silver Linings Playbook
In 2011, the Weinstein Company announced the launch of a TV division, hoping to develop a future for the production powerhouse on the small screen the same way it had planned one for the big screen the year before: by taking all its old hits and rehashing them, either as sequels, spinoffs, or TV adaptations. It’s so far made good on that with projects like Bad Santa 2 and shows based on Scream and From Dusk Till Dawn, and in this New York Times profile, Bob and Harvey Weinstein now say they’re prepared to do the same for Sin City, The Mist, and Silver Linings Playbook—all of which they feel have the potential to help “add stability to the company,” presumably by putting its film and television divisions to work on homogenous product.
A TV version of Sin City has been in the company’s sights since at least 2005, and Weinstein now believes Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez could deliver a series to “quickly follow” next summer’s Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, despite the words “quickly follow” and “Sin City” being natural enemies. The other two are a little more surprising: Frank Darabont is apparently involved with developing The Mist series, based on his movie adaptation of Stephen King’s novella, in what’s described as a “10-part series,” owing to the story’s necessarily short timeframe that would surely be abandoned if the show became popular. Meanwhile, Harvey Weinstein said he could see August: Osage County writer Tracy Letts becoming involved with “an episode or two” of a TV version of Silver Linings Playbook, which would allow viewers to spend more time with its deeply psychologically scarred characters on a weekly basis, as they shriek at their families and maybe occasionally dance.
All are only in the early planning stages, but considering the Weinsteins’ other shows in development—a remake of British crime series Peaky Blinders; a small-screen version of Italian gangster epic Gomorrah; new retellings of The Ten Commandments and War And Peace—it seems pretty obvious that the company’s TV division remains committed to betting on familiar material. Probably not betting on that Rounders sequel, though.