What a difference a day year makes. Around this time last year not a week went by without us hearing about the various networks mining their movie catalogues for TV series adaptions, this year it looks like we have a new theme, namely “let’s re-imagine classic literature with a twist” – and in this case twist is literal.
We’ve already we told you about Fox’s spin on the legends of King Arthur, this week it’s the turn of NBC as they (as per Variety) plan to adapt the Charles Dickens classic ‘Oliver Twist’ into the modern day-set Twist. Details are fairly sparse at the moment but here’s what we know:
A pilot script has been ordered for the tentatively titled Twist which aims to be a “sexy, contemporary” take on the classic novel. It will feature a “struggling, twenty-something female” lead (Olivia? Or Oliver for laughs because “that’s a boy’s name!”) who “finally finds a true sense of family in a strange group of talented outcasts who use their unique skills to take down wealthy criminals”.
Please sir, I’ve had enough. That sounds more like Leverage than ‘Oliver Twist’ to me. I’ll hazard a guess that this’ll be set in New York and presumably we’ll get all the standard trope-y characters like the charming bad boy, the smooth cool guy, the tech nerd and the one with the mysterious past. And between them they’ll tick all the boxes on the “look how unique/edgy/hip I am” list.
The team of Chad Damiani and J.P. Lavin have been tasked with the dubious honour of writing the pilot script and, much like the team behind Camelot, they have little to their names to give any real sense of their writing ability – Anchorwoman, The 59th Primetime Emmy Awards, and the upcoming Fruit Ninja mobile game adaption. Yes, colour me unimpressed by that resume. Someone attached to the project who does have a good resume, in fact a very impressive resume, is executive producer Joel Silver – hopefully titles such as Lethal Weapon, Predator, Die Hard, The Matrix, Tales from the Crypt and Veronica Mars ring a bell.
I’m really not expecting much, so just maybe there could be a pleasant surprise if this sees the light of day?
What do you think?
Last Updated: September 5, 2016
