A Chinese production company has purchased the rights to remake FOX’s hit drama Prison Break. The deal is reportedly for around $1.2 million. One of the interesting components of this deal is that the company is not going to be making a TV series, but will just be doing a one-off movie based on the show. The first question that came to my mind is this: Why pay a million dollars to make an escape-from-prison movie when you don’t have to? If their not doing a serial drama, then they wouldn’t be infringing on the American show, it would just be one of many films in that genre.
I suppose the answer is simple: Prison Break is a popular show, and they want to use both the name and the same characters in order to ensure popularity. Still, taking a show like Prison Break, which needs a 22-episode season to tell its epic, complicated story, and turning it into a two-hour movie is not an easy proposition.
The film is set to begin filming in mid-May, with a completion date by the end of June. Wentworth Miller is supposedly going to visit China as part of a promotional deal, but that may just be empty speculation by the Chinese press. Regardless, it could end up being a cool project for all the Chinese Prison Break fans out there.
Another interesting facet to this story is that production company is planning on releasing the film on line, as well as in theaters. This makes me believe that the film will be relatively low-budget, but it’s hard to tell. I’d be willing to bet that the Chinese production company is hoping to turn this film into a franchise. Then again, you don’t know what the film will entail. Will it be a condensed version of the first season? Will it be a continuation of the second season? Will it be something entirely different, only the name and characters remaining the same?
-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Source: Pacific Epoch)
(Image Courtesy of
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
