American Gladiators: The Movie?
Growing up as a kid in the ’80s, American Gladiators was must-see TV. Watching underdog challengers like Wesley “Two Scoops” Berry go up against mammoth bodybuilders in the most ridiculous events ever invented was pretty awesome at the time, and in retrospect, kind of a precursor to some of the reality and game shows that we see on TV today. When NBC brought American Gladiators back in 2008, it seemed like a great idea… until everyone got bored of it after the first few episodes. I lost interest completely after going to a live taping of the show in L.A., which was basically the most boring three or four hours of my life. Anyway, this whole preamble is merely to help set the stage for the most hilarious news story we’ve heard in a while: that’s right, they’re making an American Gladiators feature film!
According to Variety, series creator Johnny Ferraro is teaming up with former Legendary Pictures producer Scott Mednick (300, Where the Wild Things Are) to bring the gladiators to the big screen. Apparently the plan is to somehow fictionalize the characters with “an action story that takes place inside the world Ferraro has created”. Oddly enough, Ferraro says that American Gladiators was originally pitched as a film, but then ended up on TV instead. Someone should get WWE Films involved in this… I think they’d know exactly how to make a mindless action flick about muscular men and women in spandex. What do you think, is there any chance American Gladiators could actually work as a movie?
Comments (2)
Could it work as a movie. No idea but I just re listened to an episode where you, sean, had this as your #1 top game show turned movie directed by michael bay. Fingers crossed hey? =)
Posted by AdamH on May 12th, 2009I really have trouble understanding how an American Gladiators movie would work. Would it just be a feature length episode of American Gladiators? Would the contestants be real people or actors? Would it be more of a spectator-type sport movie like Death Race? Would a fight last until somebody falls into pit of foam balls or razor edged spikes? Are they still going to fight with giant q-tips? All of these questions that, really, don’t deserve to be answered because this is a terrible idea all around. I really liked American Gladiators, when I was, like, 5. There’s a reason it got canceled. Wrestling existed already. And an American Gladiators movie has already been made. It’s called The Running Man.
Posted by Matt on May 13th, 2009Leave a Reply