The New Twilight Zone movie (Rumour)
 

So the word on the grapevine was that Leo DiCaprio's production company has picked up the rights and will be making a new Twilight Zone film.

Any thoughts? How should they do it? Should they modernise it or try to mimic the 50's-60's show? Should they go the route of the previous film by mostly remaking old episodes? Should it be multiple stories or just one long story?

Should they be doing it at all?

Thoughts?

It's a tough one to call...

On the one hand, I think the method of having 3/4 directors on board was the best idea for the original movie - however my issue with it was their takes on the stories. With the exception of Nightmare, the stories didn't feel right.

If I was behind the project (and bloody hell I wish I was), I'd bring on three directors and have them write their own episodes. The film would also need a Rod Serling - not just as a voice over, but as a screen presense. Which is something I also thought the 80s film was missing.

Great point, I agree, they definately need that presence again.

Especially seeing as I'm sure, like with most things these days, they'll be looking to go beyond just one movie. It would be nice to have that throughline of one person introducing each story. Back in the day I always thought of Serling as more than just a narrator, if you strip away what you know about him being the creator etc, his presence was like that of some sort of entity, or custodian from The Twilight Zone. It would be nice to see that mantle passed on to someone with a suitable presence (Not you Forest Whittaker).

As to how the movie as a whole should be presented, I'll have to give that soem thought, like you say, definately a tough one to call.

It would be nice if they do the show... if any of the show were to be modernized, the speech would have to be slightly changed (since the speech from the 1950s & 1960s have changed now).

It would have been interesting to see Spielberg's take on "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" rather than "Kick the Can". I feel that would have been a better story and more inkeeping with the other 3 stories being told. As it stands, its the weak link and sticks out badly.

I heard you mention in one of the podcasts Tom that they should set it in
1950's/60's and I totally agree. The wonders of modern film making could make this look great. You only have to look at the likes of Mad Men or Boardwalk Empire to see how well they can recreate period pieces. They could bring in current directors who have obviously been influenced by TZ. The likes of M. Night Shyamalan, Richard Kelly and J.J. Abrams to name a few. I hope this happens.

Me too!

Here's a couple of questions....

1. Who would you like to see as the narrator/host of a new Twilight Zone?

2. And (and I'm putting this out purely as a discussion point) CG can do wonderful things, and is getting better all of the time, but re-creating a convincing human seems to be just out of reach. If they could, should they re-create Rod Serling as narrator? And is it ethical to do so?

I know they kind of did this for an episode of Medium, but I've never seen it, and I can't find the clip anywhere.

what about Mark Heap? but then i recommend him for everything...

I'm pretty sure they could do it with CG. They did it in recent adverts with John Lennon and Marilyn Monroe, also with Oliver Reed as he died halfway through filming Gladiator. As long as Serling's family were ok with it I think it would work.