I was surfing over at The Movie Blog (One of the few sites these days sporting the name “blog” that actually is one… though really they could easily become a kickass, full-blown movie site) and found them talking about a possible movie version of the TV show “Lost”. I know the show’s a hit… but come on it isn’t that big of a hit is it?
According to the story they had from IMDB, three studios are bidding on the rights to the property. But what’s most disturbing is the reason ABC is shopping it in the first place… they’re making the movie in order to pay the “Lost” cast the extra salary they’re demanding. You’ve probably heard about that, the “Lost” cast is complaining that they aren’t being paid as much as their counterparts at “Desperate Housewives”. This is of course, a rather stupid complaint, since their cast is at least three times the size of the “Desperate Housewives” cast, their show is more expensive to shoot since it’s in Hawaii, and “Lost” isn’t as big a hit as “DH”. Somehow I don’t think they’ve thought their demands through.
But making a movie to satisfy a money-hungry, greedy cast is really a bad bad move. Plus, part of what really makes “Lost” work is the episodic, slow way in which the stories and characters unfold. As a movie… it could easily be a disaster. And then there’s the fact that the show is still new. They’ve only done one season! It’ll take at least through Season Two to figure out if this thing is going to work over the long haul, regardless of how brilliant the first season was.
Adding a little more info to the story, Cinema Confidential adds the word that the film may actually be the series finale. That makes a little more sense but still... it seems way too early to be talking about any of this. And besides... aren' tyou kind of holding you audience hostage? They stick with your show loyally season after season, and then you ask them to PAY you to see the big payoff? Crappy way to treat your fans really.
If any of this is true, everyone over at ABC and “Lost”, the cast, the executives, the producers, need to take a seriously deep breath, step back and look at what they really have in front of them logically and calmly before the show utterly implodes from overreaching expectations.
