The comic book Fables is heading to television. ABC has given a pilot commitment to the show.For those who haven't heard of it, Fables is an excellent comic. The concept is that the characters in all the fairy tales and folklore, some that Disney subverted (Snow White, Cinderella, etc.) and a few that they haven't (the Big Bad Wolf, Jack and the Beanstalk) are living in modern New York after having fled their homeland of Fabletown, which had been conquered by someone known as "The Adversary".
One of the beautiful aspects of the series (which creator Bill Willingham made his mantra) is that all of the characters are in the public domain. No entity has the rights to any of the characters so they can all be freely used. I give a minor spoiler as an example: Peter Pan was originally supposed to be the villain of the comic until Willingham learned that the character is still privately owned.
This concept has a lot of potential. I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully, it won't end up being another example of The Charmings.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-09-2008 @ 9:40AM
Harish said...
That's great news! Fables is one of the better comic series I've ever read, and every story gets better than the one before. IMHO, it's up there with Y: The Last Man, and almost, if not just, as good as Watchmen. I just hope ABC can do it justice. The story is fantastic, but the execution needs to work too.
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12-09-2008 @ 10:32AM
Jeff said...
This scares me a little. Fables is soooo good. I hope they do this right.
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12-09-2008 @ 9:53AM
Greg said...
If ever a series NEEDED to be on Showtime or HBO, it's this one...
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12-09-2008 @ 10:16AM
moreartplease said...
I have to concur with Greg. I have only read the first 4 or so of the compiled books, but these books are definitely TV-MA, or should be. Hopefully ABC will keep to the dark tone in times when mainstream TV (and ABC in particular) sweetens everything up.
12-09-2008 @ 1:02PM
puffin said...
My wife said the same thing when I told her about Fables being made into a pilot. She said "Why couldn't HBO do it... they would do it right".
Such a great series of books, it would be shame to see not done well.
12-09-2008 @ 11:56AM
theJohnnyspot said...
Why bother, they'll simply get you hooked and then cancel it, ala "Pushing Daisies." No more "quirky" network shows on the big three for me, I'm sticking with canle shows that don't need a zillion people to keep it alive (USA's "The Starter Wife"). BOO ABC!
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12-09-2008 @ 1:02PM
litehousebeacon said...
I like what I've red of this book so far, but I don't know that it would work on ABC.
As for the book, I do have to say that Peter Pan as the villain sounds like it might have been very interesting.
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12-09-2008 @ 2:53PM
edgore said...
If done well it would be great, but I have to agree witht he previous poster that the first thing I though of was the death of Pushing Daisies. I can't see a Fables show lasting too long on ABC these days.
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12-10-2008 @ 5:45AM
Luis Palacios said...
This perfect with ABC since the network is owned by Disney...it a match made al la Enchanted...Question, Well we get Disney characters or a complete different set.
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