For years, the small screen has become a playground on which everyone wants to bet, even if it means doing it in ease rather than in originality. Series taken from the “Rambo” and “Expendables” licenses are under study, and one of them may see the light of day.
Rambo Where Expendables could slip away on the small screen
Hollywood continues to have this unfortunate tendency to fall into recycling instead of trying to come up with new ideas. We can no longer count the many licenses that are subject to abusive exploitation or even small successes on which producers try to capitalize to the maximum, without necessarily that the public finds interest. It is not tomorrow the day before that the American system will cease to act thus, even less with the advent of platforms and the explosion of productions for the small screen. You only have to see the latest release from Jeffrey Greenstein, president of Millennium Media, to be convinced.
Indeed, the latter revealed to The Hollywood Reporter (via Screenrant), than series Rambo and Expendables were under consideration. The studio wants to exploit the potential of its popular licenses and is also considering a similar treatment for Hellboy and the saga The Fall of.
We have always focused on feature films, we have a list of projects for TV that we are developing. But my plan is to focus on our TV licenses, and develop La Chute de la TV, Rambo TV, The Expendables TV. We’re thinking about Hellboy TV too. So there are a lot of opportunities, but I really want to start something around licensing before I start developing original content.
A strategy, from an economic point of view, which is understandable. Working on titles known to the public allows you to save time, to settle more quickly in the middle of the small screen, to take less financial risks and, quite logically, to have a more certain return on investment. Nevertheless, the artistic interest seems limited.
It should be noted, however, that Jeffrey Greenstein speaks of contingencies and thatno project has yet received a green light. In the heap, it is estimated that at least one of the four licenses will experience a passage on the small screen. It remains to be seen which one or which ones, and whether there will be anything satisfying to get out of it. What is certain is that the Expendables will be back in theaters with a fourth installment expected in 2022.
