For last few years, television adaptations of popular movies have been saturating the TV screen, but it actually has been dwindling down this season. There are fewer reboots this season than there were in the fall, with the CW's Dynasty and NBC's gender swapped What About Bob? being the more notable ones this year. Now that number may increase by one, because FOX has ordered the pilot for an adaptation of Behind Enemy Lines.
According to reports from TV Line, FOX may be bringing the war movie Behind Enemy Lines to the small screen. The 2001 war movie starred Owen Wilson and Gene Hackman, and followed a soldier who was trapped behind enemy lines and forced to survive until a rescue mission can be organized to bring him home. The TV project is said to only be "loosely based on the hit movie" and is described as "a military soap thriller" wherein a group of U.S. soldiers find themselves trapped behind enemy lines.
The "distinctly patriotic series" (if picked up) will follow a multi-perspective story with different groups of characters ranging from the soldiers on the ground, the officers and service men and women on a nearby aircraft carrier, along with intelligence officers in D.C. as they all work toward the goal of bringing the soldiers home safely without causing an international incident. The hour-long pilot will be directed by McG (Supernatural, Lethal Weapon, Chuck).
Behind Enemy Lines is an interesting pick for a TV series, mostly because the movie did not receive favorable reviews when it was released. It's got a score of 37% on Rotten Tomatoes with its critic consensus calling it "more jingoistic than credible, and the overload of flashy visual tricks makes the action sequences resemble a video game." There's also the fact that the premise of the movie isn't easily stretched over multiple seasons, assuming it gets multiple seasons. Is the show going to keep the soldiers behind enemy lines for three plus seasons? If it saves them then what's it supposed to do after? We'll have to wait and see how the pilot works out to know more.
Though the project won't be a direct adaptation, here's a look at the trailer for Behind Enemy Lines to give you an idea of what we're in for.
There's no word yet on when the pilot is expected to be presented to the network, but keep it here at CinemaBlend and we'll keep you updated with more information as it becomes available.
