Perry Mason. It is just me or have I heard that name somewhere before? These Hollywood writers never cease to amaze me (with coming up with something new.) No. no. no. no. no. Please leave Columbo alone. Just one more thing... there will 'never' be another Peter Falk.
Television today is so much more interesting that the motion picture works for the most part. You can develop a character mire deeply over ten or so hours.
I agree that there will never been another Peter Falk, but I think it is possible that someone else could take on the role of Colombo. Like with other roles, it's just a matter of the right actor, someone who can make the role his own without coming off as trying to be a clone of Falk in the role. However, I'd only like to see a new Colombo if they can bring something new to the basic series. It should be more than "let's just bring Colombo back because it was popular once" (likewise with other series). Still, I'm sure there are other literary fictional detectives that we haven't seen on the big/small screen before. That would give someone a chance to make a detective his/her own without comparisons to a previous version.
It could be great. He won't mimic Raymond Burr but instead create am original Perry Mason from the original books and hopefully great stories and screenplays.
I'd rather see an HBO series based on Gardner's "A. A. Fair" novels. . . Donald and Bertha would be a hoot done correctly.
I would like agree with you, but two things: 1) Hollywood will take the easy way out. The money is too easy to take, especially with pay cable. They don't have to do any creative work, Erle Stanley Gardner took care of that for them. And while it is strictly a guess, my money is on this happening to the "new" Perry Mason series 2) Inevitably, people will always compare a new Columbo to Peter Falk and Downey Jr. to Raymond Burr. Again, no one is filling Peter Falk's shoes and if I could bet, I would take the under on Downey Jr. filling Burr's.
Just my opinion but the Cool/Lam books are among Gardner's best. Great plots, snappy dialog and very memorable characters. A couple TV pilots failed largely because the books would never pass standards and practices back in the day. Elisha Cook Jr would have made a great Donald Lam and Kathy Bates (when heavier) would have been an ideal Bertha Cool. Obviously that pairing never could have happened but it gives a sense of what the characters would be like. There were some comments about PM already being done. The same could be said about Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marble, and Nero Wolfe. Popular detectives never go out of style, they just get reintroduced for new generations.
I totally agree, but does the guy need to play a character we've already seen in 300 TV episodes? The word is that Downey tried to develop it as a feature and got nowhere (for several years), but Netflix jumped up and said they'd do it as a 10-episode series... so there you are.
Well if they go back to the original source material and style then it's Perry Mason or Raymond Burr) in name only. And there is the obvious thing about name title recognition gets a larger initial audience If this thread was about Downey to star in an HBO legal show then it probably would have already died.
I'm just saying... it's been done. We already know who and what Perry Mason is. It makes as little sense as making a new Tarzan movie (and they tried that, too). My question is: why not try a new idea that's never been done before? New stories, new characters, new situations? I'm guessing they don't do that because it's too hard and would take more trouble.
Exactly! I have said this ad nauseam in virtually every remake thread. Peter Falk is forever Colombo and Raymond Burr is forever Perry Mason. I should have been a Hollywood writer. I coulda been a contender.....
No, like Ripper Street. That was loosely based on a well known figure, but the story and the characters were new, interesting and exciting.
Though that is not the character of the Earl Stanley Gardner novels or of the classic 1950s/1960s TV show.
I hope this one has some action,the original show was..Booooooooooooooooooooooriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!!!!!zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!
The thing about Perry Mason that I don't think people will accept any more are: the confessions. We'll see - I have HBO and I'll give it a shot.
