I was going to try and report this story through a ham radio from the future, but it turns out that’s not a justifiable excuse for “plenty o’ spending money” from the powers that be here. So it is with less fanfare that I tell you guys Gregory Hoblit’s subdued sci-fi thriller Frequency is getting developed as a TV series. The remake train trudges on, dismissing nothing in its path.
NBC has granted a script-plus-penalty commitment to this small screen Frequency reboot, which is coming from Warner Bros. Television. As you might imagine, the central conceit of the film is being brought right to the surface and expanded for episodic purposes, which should make for initially interesting viewing.
According to THR, this version of Frequency is being called a character-driven drama about an NYPD detective who crosses time to connect with his son, 30 years in the future. Here’s where things get fuzzy, as “the two must work together to change the history of tragic events to come while also getting the chance to heal their complicated relationship.”
That already sounds rife with paradoxes, including the fact that the father figure probably hasn’t even begun to make his relationship with his son complicated yet. And if things get better for the dad afterward, wouldn’t they already be better in the future, towhere the son wouldn’t even still hold any grudges? Man I hope this NBC drama can answer all my time travel questions with an expert eye towards detail. (Heavy sarcasm.) I’m just hoping they don’t go the procedural route with this.
Frequency will be scripted by Jeremy Carver, perhaps best known for his work as a writer and producer on Supernatural, for which he is currently a showrunner. He was also the creator of the Americanized Being Human. Genre fiction is in his blood, apparently.
Carver will be executive producing alongside John Rickard, Dan Lin, Jennifer Gwartz and Toby Emmerich, the screenwriter for the original 2000 film. (Lest anyone thing they were making this without the original creators’ blessing.) In the film, Jim Caviezel played the detective who mysteriously contacts his father (Dennis Quaid)on the day before his death, 30 years previous. Take a multi-timelined trip to movie trailer history below.
As a sci-fi fan, it’s hard to get angry at this, even if it’s a seemingly unnecessary reboot. I’m equally intrigued by the upcoming Minority Report series, as well as 12 Monkeys, Ascension and everything else Syfy is bringing to audiences over the next year. There are worse movies that could have been revisited that Frequency, right?
