UPDATE: 'Say Anything' Series Is Off After Cameron Crowe's Objections
UPDATE: Well, that was fast. Deadline reports that 20th Century Fox TV has shelved the planned series version of Say Anything because of Cameron Crowe’s objections to it. (Apparently there was some serious miscommunication between the director’s camp and the studio.) Either way, it means Lloyd Dobler will continue to live on only in our hearts.
Don’t hold up that boombox just yet.
As Deadline reported Monday, NBC may have ordered a script for a television series follow-up to the iconic 1989 teen romance Say Anything, but now the project is in jeopardy over objections from the film’s writer and director, Cameron Crowe, as well as star John Cusack.
Twitter erupted over the news (the general reaction from fans: no bueno), and Crowe and Cusack added to the fire in hopes of burning the project down. Crowe tweeted today: “Regarding the announcement of a “Say Anything” tv show… @JohnCusack, @IoneSkye1 and I have no involvement… except in trying to stop it.” And when a fan asked Cusack on Twitter if he and Crowe were involved in the series, he replied “Hell no!!” and then, “No end to the exploitation of other people’s sincere efforts in shameless slime.”
The follow-up series would be set in the present day, 10 years after the original movie. The hero of the movie, Lloyd Dobler, and his high school love, Diane, are long broken up and his life isn’t in great shape. But “when Diane surprisingly returns home, Lloyd is inspired to ‘dare to be great’ once again, get Diane back, and reboot his life.”
While production studio 20th Century Fox and NBC don’t need to clear the project with Crowe, it’s unlikely that they’d move forward now that Crowe has voiced such strong opposition. Other TV adaptations of movies usually involve or have the blessing of their original overseers: Ron Howard executive-produces NBC’s Parenthood, which was based on his own movie; Joel and Ethan Coen executive produce FX’s Fargo; and the potential Minority Report series comes from director Steven Spielberg.
Watch a trailer from the movie:
