Before he wrote his now-famous book series, A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin wrote several episodes of the TV series Beauty and the Beast, which starred Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton. And now that the CW has announced a reboot of the series, Martin has weighed in on the new show, and is a little peeved that he wasn’t consulted. And also, he is “not a fan of reboots,” and the original cast and crew had been hoping to reunite for a movie. (Non-spoiler spoiler: That is not going to happen.)
Martin keeps an online journal (which is not to be mistaken for a blog), and last night, he discussed a casual gathering that took place with the cast and crew of Beauty and the Beast, including Perlman, Hamilton, Armin Shimmerman, “composer Don Davis, producer David Schwartz, my fellow writers Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon (the Lads) and their wives, and of course B&B’s creator and showrunner, Ron Koslow (who does not look to have aged a day since the show ended, and surely must have a portrait in his attic).” There, they talked about how not one of them had been told about the new show, and how he’s skeptical about some of the terms used to describe the new show, like “procedural element” and “modernize,” and something Martin had really treasured about this show was how timeless the stories and setting were. He avoids writing off the new scribes completely, saying their credentials seem “good.” But to this day, Martin is very protective about the series he wrote for from 1987 to 1990:
“… [G]enerally speaking, I am not a fan of reboots. I don’t know the writers they have selected, but they seem to have good credentials. I hope they’ve seen the original series. I hope they love it as much as we do. I hope they keep the fantasy, the whole tunnel world, not just the Beast. I hope they keep Father and Mouse and Jamie and Pascal and all the other characters we peopled the tunnels with. And I hope they keep the poetry: the sonnets, the readings from Shelley and Keats and Kipling, the deep love of books and words and literature that was so much a part of Vincent.
Most of all, I hope they keep it smart.
But I must admit, the announcement makes me nervous.”
As for the movie, this was something the entire cast and crew was hoping would come to pass after the show was canceled after a mere two seasons (and seven Emmy nominations, two wins), but obviously, those hopes would remain just that. Martin says that maybe he has no reason to be nervous, that perhaps the reboot will be on par with that of BattleStar Galactica or Star Trek. But does he have every right to be overprotective of his baby? Totally. In the meantime, he has a watchful eye to keep over Game of Thrones.
But also, how cool is it that George R. R. Martin was hanging out with all those people? Just chilling? Oh, to be a fly on that wall!
(via Blastr)
