Last year, NBC found some success with their live Sound of Music broadcast. Now. they’re trying it again with their upcoming Peter Pan extranaganza that will star Allison Williams as Pan with Christopher Walken’s impression of a Christopher Walken impression set to play Captain Hook.
These aren’t shows that I’m going to watch by choice, but I get the appeal. People love musicals. Do they love tense military courtroom dramas that are written in Sorkinese? Apparently we’re going to find out.
NBC is said to be eyeing a live staging of Aaron Sorkin’s play “A Few Good Men.”
The Peacock is in the early stages of working out an agreement with Sorkin to mount a live telecast of the play that put him on the map as a writer when it hit Broadway in 1989. The 1992 feature starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore was a hit for TriStar Pictures.
The story revolves around the court-martial case against two Marines accused of killing another serviceman. The film helmed by Rob Reiner earned four Oscar nominations, including best picture and supporting actor for Nicholson.
Producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron are involved with the NBC effort, as is Sony’s TV division. The idea is that Sorkin would do another pass on the play to tailor it for the TV staging. It’s understood that Zadan and Meron suggested the possibility of doing “Few Good Men” to NBC Entertainment chief Bob Greenblatt, who got the ball rolling over the summer with Sorkin.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but wouldn’t it have been better to try and adapt A Few Good Men into some kind of high profile event series sans the live gimmick? Also, while I don’t get the desire to stage a dramatic play on television, I really don’t get why NBC chose this particular play? Though it was well-recieved in its time and the movie is certainly considered a new-classic, I just don’t feel like this is going to make the impact that NBC thinks that it will. Maybe they would have been better off going with a play that has a bit more heat on it right now. Hell, NBC already has Neil Patrick Harris in its clutches, why not air a live staging of Hedwick and the Angry Inch? That would certainly get some tongues and fingers waging.
Source: Variety
