Thursday, January 03, 2008

London calling for Law & Order

Variety's reporting plans for a London-based remake of venerable US cops and shysters drama Law & Order. Made by Kudos for ITV, the new show will use tweaked versions of American scripts, relocated to the British capital. They'll have plenty of material from which to choose, as close to 400 episodes of original flavour Law & Order have been produced across the Atlantic. The commission isn't set in stone, according to Variety, but negotiations have been ongoing for a year.

It's been common for Brit dramas to get a US remake, with varying degrees of success. Blackpool infamously became one of 2007's worst flops when remade as Viva Laughlin, while Life is Wild [the American redo of Wild at Heart] struggled to find much traction before the writers' strike halted production, but others have had more success. British remakes of US dramas are rarer, though a few sitcoms have crossed the Atlantic. Will UK audiences will embrace Law & Order: London? Time will tell.

2 comments:

Lucy V said...

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AndyDecker said...

Wow, all successful crime novels series filmed, no new ideas on the horizon?

Seing the quality of british tv in terms of craft this can only be better than the british stuff which got a remake. The things I have seen were beyond awful. Cracker anyone?

L&O is insofar interesting to watch as it conveys a certain kind of feeling how their jucidal system is perceived in the eye of the viewer. And it is not a pretty sight.

At least sometimes they have the balls to do episodes which are truly anti-system and very cynical.