Today's News: Kosinski goes to... the Twilight Zone

Hot off MovieScene:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/149343/oblivion_regisseur_betreedt_de_twilight_zone

You can't keep a good idea down. I'm currently still working my way through the classic Twilight Zone series (just started Season 4 with its eerie one-hour episodes) and I continue to be amazed by some of the mindblowing stories they got away with in the early Sixties. Granted, there's a fair share of not so intriguing or even downright boring episodes too, but show me an episodic television series that does not suffer from the occasional yawner. Considering the series has been rebooted twice and made into a movie as well, it's not surprising it would crop up again sooner or later. Every generation needs its own Twilight Zone. Okay, we had one only ten years ago but that lasted only one season so apparently it wasn't very good (I intend to watch it someday to judge for myself though), but in this day and age where television has outdone feature films in terms of quality and popularity, we can do better. And hopefully we will. Few will disagree The Twilight Zone works best as a television series, but I'm not averse to the idea of another big screen adaptation either (preferably one without horrible helicopter accidents this time), but to present only a single story sounds like a mistake, unless it's a really good one. Though the notion of stuffing it with references to Rod Serling's other classic stories is a fascinating one, I can only see it work as a way of pleasing the fans while potentially confusing the general audience. I much prefer the route of telling multiple stories and interweaving them to only a minor extent á la Sin City, briefly connecting but not getting in each other's way more than needs be. As for the director, Joseph Kosinski is neither the best nor the worst pick (though I would rather have seen Matt Reeves picking up this project). He has shown to have some affinity for telling intricate stories with hardcore Sci-Fi ideas (not that The Twilight Zone is a science fiction show per se, as it also incorporates various other genres), but both Tron: Legacy and especially Oblivion suffered from flaws in execution. Whether that was the case because of flawed writing or studio interference remains unclear, but I'm willing to cut Kosinski some slack. After all, though both of the films he directed were big budget action flicks, he's still a fairly inexperienced director and he may just need a bit more seasoning. Third time is the charm perhaps? We'll have to wait and see, but as long as they stick close to Serling's original writing (which really requires little improvement), it's hard to go wrong entirely.

And now for another week of vacation. But not in... the Twilight Zone. Dum-dum-dum-dum, dum-dum-dum-dum, dum-dum-dum-dum. Be sure to try Oasis,