This news is a little old, but I wanted to post about it anyway because I have a feeling it's going to be big. Deadline.com is reporting that former CSI executive producer/co-showrunner Naren Shankar and Battlestar Galactica developer/executive producer Ron Moore are planning on rebooting the Wild Wild West for CBS. This is very good news, if you have seen Moore's new version of Battlestar Galactica you know that he can reinvision a property in a very new and interesting way! I hope he brings this much love to The Wild Wild West.
Long time readers of the Emporium know that I have a love/hate relationship with the film version of Wild Wild West. It should have been an amazing film. It had the chance to not only redefine Western Steampunk, but to be the pioneering film for new generation of Weird Western films. In many ways its gorgeous look at and the amazing machines might have saved it from being totally forgotten. The humor, for the most part, fell flat on its face and making the main villain, Arliss Loveless, a racist just made him incredibly uninteresting. He had plenty of motivation for destroying the United States without being a cartoon stereotype also...but one thing the film did do right is lay the groundwork for what a great Wild Wild West TV show could look like!
I hope Moore and Shankar take their cue from the film in terms of design and fantastic Steampunk machines, and put the humor and story into the capable hands of good writers.
Until then however, HERE is the original story at Deadline.com. I will be following it very closely, so expect to hear more when I do!
