# Hey! This will make a great Movie Series! ---- not **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 24, 2018, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-this-will-make-a-great-movie-series-not/816677 "2018-06-24T20:21:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2018, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-this-will-make-a-great-movie-series-not/816677/41 "2018-06-25T17:33:49Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > I have argued before and will argue again that the _first_ film was a actually a good light movie overall. At least partly because they had the good sense to limit Schwartzenegger’s dialogue and let [James Earl Jones ham it up](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIfHU9LUqJ0) :). But, but _Conan_ had the greatest [Schwarzenegger line of all time](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V30tyaXv6EI#t=22s)! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2018, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-this-will-make-a-great-movie-series-not/816677/42 "2018-06-25T17:38:01Z")
I’ve mentioned this one before: _[Push](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push_(2009_film))_. The 2009 movie was supposed to be the first movie is a series (I believe a trilogy was planned). I really enjoyed this movie but apparently I’m not part of the consensus on this one. The movie did poorly and the sequels were never made. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2018, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-this-will-make-a-great-movie-series-not/816677/43 "2018-06-25T17:58:02Z")
Percy Jackson was looked at as the next Harry Potter-like film franchise, but seems to have stalled after only two movies. A Series of Unfortunate Events never became A Series of Movies. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2018, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-this-will-make-a-great-movie-series-not/816677/44 "2018-06-25T18:00:43Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > I am pretty sure the hope was that Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow would spawn a series. It did not. If I remember right, the director got the gig because of a great effects sequence that he did at home on his Mac. It showed. The movie was gorgeous to look at, but the characters and staging just didn’t work. The fight scenes were too video-gamey (a problem I have with lots of flims) and Gwyneth Paltrow’s character was played all wrong. I’ve always wondered how much of that was due to Paltrow or the director. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2018, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-this-will-make-a-great-movie-series-not/816677/45 "2018-06-25T18:16:10Z")
I don’t mean to pile on the _Chronicles of Narnia_, but as a fan of the books since I was a pre-teen I was beyond disappointed and downright _irate_ with the filmmakers. They took all the best parts, and all of the emotional heft of the books and left it out. _The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe_ was adequate, although they left out some key dialogue and went for over-the top action instead. _Prince Caspian_ was a mess, with the White Witch shoehorned in for no reason and a complete upending of the themes of the book. _Voyage of the Dawn Treader_ apparently jettisoned the entire framework of what is my favorite book of the series, dropping the idea of a sacred quest to find the Utter East and again making wholesale changes to the hear of the book on which is was based. I couldn’t even get through the reviews let alone watch it. I was glad they weren’t going to make any more. My only hope now is that Douglas Gresham (CS Lewis’ stepson who signed off on these changes) has learned his lesson and returns to Lewis’ vision for the next books. _The Silver Chair_, IMO, is the weakest of the books so good luck to them. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2018, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-this-will-make-a-great-movie-series-not/816677/46 "2018-06-25T18:24:06Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > A Series of Unfortunate Events never became A Series of Movies. I think Netflix is turning it into a television series starring Neil Patrick Harris but I haven’t seen it. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2018, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-this-will-make-a-great-movie-series-not/816677/47 "2018-06-25T20:09:48Z")
Bulldog Drummond was a tough-guy adventurer in a series of novels in the interwar period. The novels eventually got turned into a series of films that ran from 1922 to 1951. Along the way, Drummond was played by Ronald Colman, Ralph Richardson, Ray Milland and Walter Pigeon (!), among others. In the 1960s, with James Bond being a big box-office draw, they thought that maybe they could revive him. But after two movies – _Deadlier than the Male_ and _Some Girls Do_, they pretty much let that drop. Drummond was pretty much of an anachronism. A lot of those Bond wannabes fizzled out. James Coburn’s Derek Flint only had two outings. I’m surprised that Dean Martin’s Matt Helm (based on Donald Hamilton’s book series) got as many as four films. They were awful. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2018, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-this-will-make-a-great-movie-series-not/816677/48 "2018-06-25T20:18:20Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > But, but _Conan_ had the greatest [Schwarzenegger line of all time](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V30tyaXv6EI#t=22s)! Stolen from Genghis Khan? I’m still waiting for a final Conan movie starring Schwarzenegger, one where Conan is already king by his own hand but has to go forth on one last mission, bla bla bla… ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2018, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-this-will-make-a-great-movie-series-not/816677/49 "2018-06-25T21:10:08Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I think Netflix is turning it into a television series starring Neil Patrick Harris but I haven’t seen it. [They’ve already done so](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4834206/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_1); they released Season 2 of it in March (Season 1 came out last year). I watched Season 1 – very strange, but very funny. Barry Sonnenfeld worked on it, and it has a feel that reminds me of _Pushing Daisies_ (on which Sonnenfeld was executive producer). ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2018, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-this-will-make-a-great-movie-series-not/816677/50 "2018-06-26T12:35:49Z")
Thought of another one. Supposedly the Guy Ritchie film from last year, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, was meant to be the first in a six film franchise. But it was a colossal flop, the series didn’t proceed and the studio lost tens of millions. Incidentally, Charlie Hunnam, the star of this film, turned down the lead role in the film adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey to star in this. (Sure that was an awful film but it was profitable and led to two sequels.) We could probably do a whole thread on actors who made the wrong choice of one role over another. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2018, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-this-will-make-a-great-movie-series-not/816677/51 "2018-06-26T12:43:00Z")
_Judge Dredd_. Both versions were meant to be a new series of movies, and neither succeeded. Which is a great shame, as the second one was quite excellent. There is a TV series planned, but who knows if and when that will see the light of day, and it’s going to be a new reboot again anyway. I also suspect there won’t be another _Tomb Raider_ movie after the recent one kind of fizzled, but I guess it’s too soon to call. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2018, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-this-will-make-a-great-movie-series-not/816677/52 "2018-06-26T13:19:42Z")
With the (horribly adapted) movie [_City of Ember_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Ember), they optioned the second book in the series for a movie, too. The first bombed. Also, this topic is a bit radioactive, but the _Ghostbusters_ reboot was supposed to be the start of a new franchise. (And now that I think of it, _Ghostbusters II_ pretty much killed the original franchise.) ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2018, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-this-will-make-a-great-movie-series-not/816677/53 "2018-06-26T13:19:55Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > The 1990s Dick Tracy movie had plans for a sequel, but looks like the rights got tied up in a lawsuit. They killed off every iconic Dick Tracy bad guy at the end of the first one. Who the heck would he battle with, Tess’s in-laws? A growing waistline due to the drop in crime increasing his time behind a desk? ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2018, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-this-will-make-a-great-movie-series-not/816677/54 "2018-06-26T13:24:16Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Three have so far been filmed, _The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe_ (2005), _Prince Caspian_ (2008), and _Voyage of the Dawn Treader_ (2010). The fourth, _The Silver Chair_, is scheduled to start filming in late 2018. The sequels have been sufficiently successful that the series will likely continue, provided _The Silver Chair_ isn’t a total flop. They did [The Silver Chair](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098912/?ref_=nv_sr_2) in an earlier Narnia series for the BBC, but that’s as far as they got in the series. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2018, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-this-will-make-a-great-movie-series-not/816677/55 "2018-06-27T16:12:54Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > A lot of those Bond wannabes fizzled out. James Coburn’s Derek Flint only had two outings. I remember the Flint movies from my youth with great fondness (I have the president’s red phone ringer on my cell phone) but I saw them recently on Netflix. They have not aged well. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-this-will-make-a-great-movie-series-not/816677.md?page=2)