New 'Lucifer' TV Show Coming, Trailer Released

shaneb

So the decidedly underwhelming trailer for 'Lucifer' has now been released: http://vertigology.com/2015/05/23/trailer-for-lucifer-television-show-based-on-vertigo-comic-and-sandman-spin-off-from-neil-gaiman/

For those who have not kept up with this, Lucifer was a spin-off from Sandman and ran for quite a while at Vertigo. The TV show, on the other hand, looks as though it is going to be a police detective show where Lucifer helps them solve crimes. This seems to be a big swing and a miss, though some have noted that the show runner is the same as that from Californication, so even though it is a failure as an adaptation it could still be a decent show.

Anyone have thoughts on this?

David_D

They...

They turned Lucifer into a supernatural crime procedural? Yikes.

This is like a parody of what can happen once a comics property gets into the world of network development.

bralinator

Who at DC keeps letting this happen? First it was Constantine...

Rider_Philze

Constantine's a much easier fit into the paranormal investigation mold, so I didn't mind it on his show. But as fun as this looks, they're marketing it as an adaptation of the comic series, and it just... isn't that at all.

David_D

Rider_Philze said:

Constantine's a much easier fit into the paranormal investigation mold, so I didn't mind it on his show. But as fun as this looks, they're marketing it as an adaptation of the comic series, and it just... isn't that at all.

Agreed. I only saw the first episode of Constantine. And while it was a watered down, more superheroish John, it was still recognizable. For the most part the idea was still the same.

Where this Lucifer show just seems like they are trying to drive a square peg into a test marketed round hole. Like, if they had made this 10 years ago, they would have made a show where Lucifer was working at a hospital.

bralinator

Good point.

shaneb

It just seems that for both of these properties, a premium cable adaptation makes perfect sense and its kind of shocking no one at DC thought that taking them over to HBO or FX or AMC or something made more sense.

David_D

Re: @shaneb - I wonder whether there is something about the way that WB runs things, or negotiates, that has made them better get along with the broadcast networks rather than cable. Looking at the list of what Warner Brothers Television has made (which is the studio making Lucifer for Fox), they have barely made anything for places other than the broadcast networks. (And, of course, the networks have been around much longer, so that is likely always going to be the case, but I would have thought the WBTV studio would have at least a few more credits for cable by now than they do). And Jerry Bruckheimer Television has similarly been focused almost entirely on the broadcast networks.

Maybe there is just something about how WB wants to make things, or the terms they demand, that just doesn't fly with the HBOs, AMCs, and FXs of the world? (Which, as brands looked to as premium providers of TV right now, might be in a position to pass. They have a lot of choices.)

This is anecdotal, but when I saw Garth Ennis at a NYCC panel a few years ago, he alluded to how difficult it was to get Preacher made into a TV show when Warner Brothers was still involved. It was after a show didn't launch, and the rights reverted back to he and Dillon, that they finally got out of development hell and actually into pilot production at AMC (this time with Sony Television as the studio).

shaneb

There is always going to be the fact that the networks just have more money, and so I am imagining that their limitations seem worth it for a lot of the superhero properties. I'll give on that, but why bring many of the darker and Vertigo titles over to the networks when it seems to be harming the brands and titles in general. Take Lucifer, I can't imagine that having a bad rendition of a police procedural is going to do anything for trade sales of Lucifer over the next several years. Those trades, like with many of the classic Vertigo series, sell continuously and regularly, so it just seems like a bad move. If this was done even on something like FX and the high fantasy elements were maintained, it could really carve itself out something unique where the entire brand would be elevated and given a place in pop culture.

The other thing it is doable. Walking Dead kind of proved that you can do something with the same challenging tone and themes. I think you are probably right that the networks they are dealing with are making it easier on them, but this is just going to make things more difficult in the long run. I actually said the same thing about Arrow and the Flash in the beginning, and can say I was proved wrong. So I think that with the superhero properties it has more potential on the networks, though any move away from doing a connected DCU in tv/movies is a bad idea. But with Vertigo, it can do real harm to their properties.