We, The Infected

I know nothing about A&E or any of the makers of the soon to be LTROI series so whenI saw TV series I was rather excited/hopeful.
It could be suprising I look forward to seeing if it will add elements of the book that weren't in either films but...
If it does turn out to be terrible I'm gonna make a drinking game out of it.
5 predictions:
1 actors way too old for the roles.
2 Zombie Hakan is brought in and dragged out as a bad guy across multiple episodes.
3 It will spend the majority of the episode recapping the last then being mainly filler while having an exciting ending (i.e walking dead)

I'm still woking on the other two but I'm gonna add a bonus wild card if I may and say added laugh track.
EDIT:

My fear is that you would wind up with something more like the comic book version

That gives me 4 OTT violence and gore.

Well, anyway . . .

I for one would love to see a mini-series based on the novel. I like even better that it would be set in Vermont, but not the way it is being done here. From the early signals it sounds like a tv series based on Let Me In (maybe). My fear is that you would wind up with something more like the comic book version of Let Me In rather than the novel. In other words nobody involved seems to be taking this seriously and certainly they are not doing their homework.

By the way, "a small town in Vermont" is a terrible hiding place for a juvenile vampire and his/her guardian. They would really stick out as weird suspicious characters. Better to be in a large town like Burlington or maybe Rutland with apartment buildings etc.

According to this article:http://www.enstarz.com/articles/74145/2 ... ampire.htm, the policeman is now going to be a Federal Marshall.

BravoHotel wrote:...but I'm gonna add a bonus wild card if I may and say added laugh track.

gattoparde59 wrote:...By the way, "a small town in Vermont" is a terrible hiding place for a juvenile vampire and his/her guardian. They would really stick out as weird suspicious characters. Better to be in a large town like Burlington or maybe Rutland with apartment buildings etc.

Wuhl, and because a small town could quickly become a much smaller town.

dongregg wrote:

gattoparde59 wrote:...By the way, "a small town in Vermont" is a terrible hiding place for a juvenile vampire and his/her guardian. They would really stick out as weird suspicious characters. Better to be in a large town like Burlington or maybe Rutland with apartment buildings etc.

Wuhl, and because a small town could quickly become a much smaller town.

I dunno, I thought the small New England town vibe worked well in that 70's adaptation of Salem's Lot. I actually am a little bit excited by this. Yes, it could turn out horribly, or it could actually turn out pretty well. So far there is no indication of which way it will go. I have seen no comments of any kind from any of the principals. I never saw Teen Wolf (the series. I remember seeing the film and thinking that it was basically a high budget After School Special). No one here seems to have seen it either, so we have no firsthand reports as to its quality. We cannot necessarily use it as a gauge of the two writers' talents.

Also, I will admit that there are many ways in which it could go wrong. It could be poorly cast, poorly directed, or poorly written. Or they could just not understand the story, or not care about it and pursue A&E's demographic goals instead.

On the other hand, as well can agree, it is a powerful story. Many here disdain Matt Reeves' telling of it, but still LMI managed to Infect people. Who is to say that this television series cannot? I think there could be benefits even if I don't enjoy watching the series, so long it achieves only some modest success. It won't take much for the series to to cause interest in the original story to spread. It could drive a bump in sales of the novel, and DVD sales (or at least rentals) of both films. Maybe LTROI would make it back into some cinemas for a few showings. Maybe it would spawn a US stage production. None of these things would be regrettable.

There is only thing the really bothers me about this series: If JAL still has some raw feelings about the rights to LTROI (and I suppose he must), having Simon Oakes license the rights to anyone for any reason must only be salt in JAL's wounds. JAL has given everyone some wonderful things in his works - in LTROI in particular - and it sucks if anything related to them should cause him grief.

I have seen Teen Wolf. It's nothing like the strange M.J. Fox '85 film or even stranger '87 sequel. New Teen Wolf is an MTV show directed at young people who enjoyed Twilight series and older folks who remember Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Lots of flashy special effects and "cool" choppy editing abound here.
Will LTROI make a good show or will it be another brainless TV pastiche. It is very hard to tell since it's just only in development stages. I don't hold much hope because of the people involved and because A&E is such a hack channel these days.
I remember very clearly what A&E used to be before "Duck Dynasty" became it's most popular show. But that was years ago...before reality show boom. I really don't expect much from a channel that presents shows like "Wahlburgers" and "Surviving Marriage". A&E has very little art and even less entertainment. Chances of LTROI being something interesting are slim to none since most of the programming on that network is barely watchable scripted productions and inane reality shows. It's akin to endlessly looking through "National Enquirer"issue in search of Pulitzer prize winning material ...You're not going to find it.
Maybe if Showtime had won the bidding war I wouldn't be so pessimistic...
Gee, I really wish that A&E's Let The Right One In will be a smart, well written and well cast show, that respects it's audience and it's material. Good television that does not blindly follow trends and tries to appeal to the lowest common denominator...You know, the kind of television that does not exist anymore.
Anyway, only time will tell.

One thing I am afraid of is that the TV series is going to do what Reeves did with LMI, instead of going to the source, the original novel, he simply aped, pardon the pun, TA's movie, and I am afraid that the producers of the TV show are going to use the play as a starting off point, and the final product will be a jumbled mish mash of it's three previous adaptations, plus what ever changes they make.

I commented on this over on WTI Facebook. The guys who are heading up this project seem to have impressive bonifides. I think it all comes down to how much respect they have for the story and the fans thereof. After that, as with the Swedish film, it's going to come down to who are chosen to play the leads. If this is intended as a sustained series, as opposed to a mini-series, the producers are going to have to go with actors who are no younger than 15; otherwise, puberty is going to quash believability pretty quick. In the best-case scenario, these will be actors who look even younger.

For A&E to be able to beat out Showtime, these folks must have wanted this opportunity pretty bad. That is encouraging to me. Remember how we fretted over LET ME IN when that was being made? OK, it didn't hold a candle to TA's film...we all knew that ahead of time. Still, it did no harm. Same with the play...THAT proved to be a great boon, spreading the Infection far and wide. It does well to remember that there is a lot of material available in the novel. Most of that, up until now, needed to be left out. But with a series...that's a real game-changer.

So...I for one am willing to give these A&E guys the benefit of the doubt, at least for the moment. Although, I have to say, it does trouble me that A&E did not see fit to even contact JAL and attempt to solicit his input. Whether they were required to or not, I feel that would have been a smart move on their part.

[Post submitted on 3/22/15]

The words "television series" and "made for US viewers" don't bode well from the start.
Seinfeld - Brody: "I got another project for you. It's a movie called [Let the Right One In]. I was gonna give it to my other guys, but it's an arty movie and quite frankly, they don't have the sensibility." Enough said.
But what will kill all hope is pointed out by BravoHotel - actors will way too old for the roles - think Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale, or Dominique Swain as Lolita -epic fails.