Tuesday, April 1, 2008

NBC's Kings

Ian McShane, best known as the Al Swearengen from HBO's Deadwood, has been cast as whatever character is representing King David in the pilot for NBC's Kings. Kings, written by Heroes writer and co-executive producer Michael Green, is a re-telling of the reign of King David in a modern setting. (if that link doesn't work try the Google Cache version). The pilot will be directed by Francis Lawrence, director of I Am Legend and Constantine, two films that turned out to be much better than they looked, and he seems to have a deft hand on weaving religion into stories well. The pitch sounds promising: Set in present day, "Kings" centers on "a regular small-town guy who gets mixed up with the upper crust social and political elite of a monarchy and eventually would become the new king," Green said. "It's a Cinderella story and a story of struggle for power." The plot of the soap, which will feature magical elements, loosely parallels the story of the biblical David, a shepherd boy who went on to defeat the giant Goliath and become Israel's second king. " I'm guessing that McShane's casting means that it will be eschewing the familiar "David and Goliath" story to be more focused on his reign. As great as David and Goliath is, it is more than over-done and the rest of David's reign has plenty of meat for a juicy soap opera. It sounds like it could be a sort of organized crime tale, Sopranos-esque perhaps. Unless they go all out and make it a alternate universe where America is ruled by a king? And there I go, assuming it will be set in America. Who knows at this point? Heroes success, McShane's TV cred and Lawrence's directing skills all point to this as having good chances of being picked up for a series. Lets hope so, because un-sold pilots usually disappear into nothingness and I'd like to at least see this take on the Bible. Anyone have any other Bible stories they'd like to see brought into the modern day? I think Jeremiah could work well as a story in the modern US. Save This Page Add to Technorati Favorites

No comments: