Much like the Say Anything… television series that recently saw an early demise, the proposed Uncle Buck series is seeing some negative reactions from the talents behind the original film. No, that doesn’t mean John Candy and John Hughes have risen from the dead to feast on the producers of the new ABC show. It just means that their families got wind of it and aren’t very happy.
The main sticking point is how they got wind of the television project. There was no early warning, no discussion, and no agreement. They just found out like you did: through the media. From Deadline:
Disappointment has been expressed by both the John Hughes and John Candy families over the conduct and decision by the ABC Network and Universal Television to develop a comedy series based on the feature film Uncle Buck. Rather than either entity providing advance information to the Estates, the families learned of the project’s potential via the media.
The families feel a strong attachment to the original film which symbolized the great and unique collaboration between Hughes and Candy. Recalling that the director was displeased with first Uncle Buck TV show effort which failed on CBS in 1990, it is well expected that he would not be supportive of this current attempt.
I would have to chalk this as yet another reason we shouldn’t remake anything. Why piss off two separate families in an attempt to cash in on a project that clearly means a lot to them and was already a miserable failure the last time it came to television. Good work, Will Packer. Why’d you have to go get Kevin Meaney’s hopes up?
(Via Deadline / The AV Club)
