Rarely does anything in the TV world get accomplished as quickly as this series of decisions. Not 24 hours after NBC announced their script commitment for 20th Century Fox TV's small screen version of Say Anything, the studio has completely dropped the project. This backpedaling came after Say Anything director Cameron Crowe and the film’s star John Cusack shared their distaste for the televised project on social media. Whether it was a classy move or a fearful move on 20th Century Fox TV’s part, this news is bound to make some people breathe a little easier.
This strange turn of events, according to Deadline, began not that long after the initial story broke, with Cameron Crowe calling producer Aaron Kaplan to make his objections to the semi-adaptation loud and clear. Now fully aware that Crowe apparently wasn’t in the know about the project’s existence, Kaplan and the pilot’s writer Justin Adler (Better Off Ted) flew the coop. Without anyone to put anything in motion, the studio then decided to leave well enough alone and axed it.
The exec in charge of the project wasn’t interested in moving forward without Crowe’s consent, regardless of any actual involvement. Sources from the studio say that 20th Century definitely reached out to Crowe and that work was being done to bring him in, but Crowe’s camp says no news of the sort ever reached the director’s ears ahead of time. Crowe had talked about heading back to Say Anything for a sequel in the past, so one has to wonder whether he would have backed this series' existence had he known about it. Here’s how he reacted to the news on Twitter late last night.
The Say Anything series was going to take place in the present day, though only ten years after the film. It would have followed Lloyd Dobler (originally played by John Cusack), who has spent his years since being dumped by Diane Court (originally played by Ione Skye) following a different path from the one he would have predicted for himself. He sees a chance to turn his life around, however, when Diane returns home, and he intends to win her back.
Had this been a direct remake of the film, Crowe’s involvement and/or naysaying probably wouldn’t have had as big of an effect on it. But in the case of a sequel, someone else putting words into the mouths of the characters that put the filmmaker on the map would have been weird indeed. Do you guys think 20th Century Fox TV did the right thing here?
