http://www.deadline.com/2010/11/cbs-to-remake-the-wild-wild-west-series-with-writers-ron-moore-and-naren-shankar/

EXCLUSIVE: In one of the highest-profile reboots this season, CBS is looking to revive the 1960s action-adventure Western The Wild Wild West with former CSI executive producer/co-showrunner Naren Shankar and Battlestar Galactica developer/executive producer Ron Moore. The network is negotiating a deal for the project, which will be co-produced by CBS TV Studios, where Shankar is based with an overall deal, and Sony Pictures TV, where Moore is under an overall deal. The project originated at CBS TV Studios, which has the rights to the original series that ran on CBS from 1965-1969. (My new colleague Michael Ausiello broke the original story about the project when he was at EW and helped with this one too.)

Shankar and Moore are writing and executive producing the remake, which follows two Secret Service Agents who investigate federal crimes in post Civil War America. The original series, which creator Michael Garrison described as "James Bond on horseback," was set during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant who served from 1869-77. It centered on Secret Service agents James West, a gunslinger played by Robert Connrad, and Artemus Gordon, a gadget-maker played by Ross Martin, who traveled the country aboard their luxury train, the Wanderer, as they did missions to protect the President.

In putting together the Wild Wild West remake, CBS is taking a page from its recent successful Hawaii Five-0 reboot which also paired well-known writers with sci-fi background, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, with the co-showrunner of a CSI series, CSI:NY's Peter Lenkov. The Rothman Brecher Agency-repped Shankar left the mothership CSI series in April after 8 years, the last five serving as executive producer/co-showrunner alongside Carol Mendelsohn. This is Battlestar Galactica alum Moore's second high-profile project this season. His fantasy drama 17th Precinct landed at NBC with pilot and series penalties totaling almost $2 million. He is with CAA. Wild Wild West reunites Shankar and Moore who worked together on Star Trek: The Next generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Considering H50's ratings compared to CSI Miami last year I'm not sure if it's all that much of a success.

I don't see the point of these remakes. I definitely don't see why they would take a fun show and give it to Ron Moore, who only writes depressing, navel-gazing roads to nowhere.

I read about this earlier today and this madness needs to stop already. How many remakes are in the works? It's like Hollywood's not even trying anymore.

And none of these remakes work. Over and over we hear that this is a modern, edgy, daring update, because the original was just so old and inferior. And viewers don't want to know. I still laugh at the Bionic Woman flop, where the producer said he didn't even watch the original show. And we got yet another ponderous, empty-headed nothing.

*screams*

It's ridiculous.

At least the original "Hawaii Five-O" was a good show. The original "Wild Wild West" was (IMHO) simply awful and probably one of the last series that needed to be rebooted.

I dunno. I mentioned in the Hawaii 5-0 thread a while back that I'm not against the concept of remakes, if they are well done and have some resemblance to the original show and concept. I mean, my favorite show in all of creation is the original Star Trek yet I enjoyed the 2009 film even though my beloved characters all had new faces. Should they ever decide to turn this incarnation into a series, I'd give it a shot.

To me, H50 is nothing more than a generic cop show set in Hawaii, with a nostalgic title and theme attached to it. I couldn't watch it anymore beyond 2 1/2 episodes. Likewise, I found The Bionic Woman so far removed and darker from the original that I knew it was doomed. And yet a show like Battlestar Galactica succeeded. I'm not sure why they (the networks) are so gung-ho about remakes, especially if, for instance, there haven't been films or tv-movies done to see if there's even an audience. For instance, if they were gonna do remakes, why not capitalize on The Addams Family or Batman when those movies came out, reviving interest and creating new fans? I mean, a western? Talk about reviving a genre.

The danger with remakes is you can end up turning off fans of the original and you can't bank on younger viewers who have no predisposition to watch something they never heard of anyway.

Actually, one remake I would have been curious to see was another go at Mission:Impossible (even though it was attempted a couple of decades ago)....based on the series, not on the movies. On the one hand, that was sort of a "procedural" drama long before shows like CSI came about in the sense that it focused on the assignment and not on the characters' lives. But, in this technological age of being able to be watched, tracked, surveilled, videoed, published, researched everywhere, how undercover can people be anymore?

Sigh....no wonder I'd rather watch classics more than what's on now.

Edited November 11, 201015 yr by applcin

I think the BSG remake succeeded because the original was not all that fondly remembered. Even then, it was only a niche show, and one which I think experienced steady ratings erosion before going out with a whimper.

If you're going to remake something then try to remake something people don't remember all that fondly. They can remake "My Mother the Car."

Any day now, I expect this network (CBS) to announce they're rebooting "Murder, She Wrote" as well.

Any day now, I expect this network (CBS) to announce they're rebooting "Murder, She Wrote" as well.

They'll never do that. It had an old person. Cooties!

They'd probably recast the role with Jessica Stiles or somebody.

Edited November 11, 201015 yr by CarlD2

True that.

Even worse, they'd refashion it to make it look like "CSI: Cabot Cove" or some crazy [!@#$%^&*] like that.

Dead Harbor

Ha, I was just thinking not too long ago, that one of the networks should try to revive the Western and if any network, it be CBS. At least they aren't trying to remake Gunsmoke (yet, lol). I think it could work, I don't the think the Original series or the Will Smith movie are all that fondly remembered the way most other shows/movies the networks try to remake are, so this remake probably won't have this huge bar to jump over. Plus, the steampunk/scifi element could the twist to make in more intersting to younger viewers that might find your typical western boring. (although Firefly tried the Western/scifi combo and didn't work)

I think this has the potential to be good and a success, whether it will be, we'll have to wait and see.

Edited November 11, 201015 yr by wingwalker

Remakes do not suck anymore or less than original programming today anyways.

I am always down for a remake, if for nothing else other than opening my eyes to the original. In this case, i do not much care to see the original (or remake) tho.

I still think its funny ABC was legit thinking of remaking Alias. I wonder how long until The CW tries to remake Buffy, Dawsons Creek, and 7th heaven.

Ha, I was just thinking not too long ago, that one of the networks should try to revive the Western and if any network, it be CBS. At least they aren't trying to remake Gunsmoke (yet, lol). I think it could work, I don't the think the Original series or the Will Smith movie are all that fondly remembered the way most other shows/movies the networks try to remake are, so this remake probably won't have this huge bar to jump over. Plus, the steampunk/scifi element could the twist to make in more intersting to younger viewers that might find your typical western boring. (although Firefly tried the Western/scifi combo and didn't work)

I think this has the potential to be good and a success, whether it will be, we'll have to wait and see.

I think the original is somewhat fondly remembered.

The real question is why this is being remade at all, since Moore doesn't seem like someone who would enjoy any of the more lighthearted elements of the show. Why not just make a new show entirely? If an entire episode is devoted to a greasy-haired West sitting in a pitch black room staring into his own misery, then there's not much to do with the original version.

So will Will Smith be starring in the lead role? *ducks and runs*