If at all possible, you should try to be a legendary multimillionaire television producer who has personally buoyed a major television network for over 20 years, because that seems pretty fun. At least that’s the main thing I take away from this brief Hollywood Reporter interview with Law & Order and Various Chicago Public Services creator Dick Wolf on the subject of his upcoming limited series about the Menendez brothers. Dick Wolf truly, truly is not interested in dancing around a diplomatic answer. You got questions, boom, you get Straight Wolf.
Hey, Dick. What inspired you to make a series about the Menendez brothers?
You want me to completely candid? [The People v. O.J. Simpson] was like, ‘Oh, this is a good idea’. (Laughs.)
Cool. And why brand it Law & Order: True Crime instead of giving it a different title, seeing as it has like nothing to do with the series, unless you plan on surprising us by having S. Epatha Merkerson reprise her role as Anita Van Buren, who has left the NYPD and moved to Southern California and also gone back in time?
I learned the lesson when we did the movie which started all the branding which was Exiled. It was the highest-rated movie of the year. Barry Diller said, ‘I don’t know who’s going to watch this? Why don’t you call it Law & Order?’ When it did the numbers it did, it was the highest-rated movie of the year, and I don’t think it was because it was called Exiled.
So, to recap: Dick Wolf watched The People v. O.J. Simpson and thought to himself, “Hmm, good idea” and then decided to make his own version with the phrase “Law & Order” slapped in front of it because, hey, ratings, baby, and yupppp that’s it, now it’s a show. I choose to believe the entire process took 10 minutes.
(via The Hollywood Reporter)
