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This just in: #OnceUponATime Creators Will Now Oversee Apple's #AmazingStories Reboot. Edward Kitsis and @AdamHorowitzLA are moving from Storybrooke to 'Amazing Stories': https://t.co/Vz0LLY8l9W via @IndieWire pic.twitter.com/4IuLy2mDy7
— Michael Schneider (@franklinavenue) May 22, 2018
Now that “Once Upon a Time” has ended its lengthy run at ABC, executive producers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz are moving on to a new adventure. The duo have signed on as writers and executive producers of Steven Spielberg’s revival of “Amazing Stories” for Apple.
Kitsis and Horowitz fill the void left by Bryan Fuller and Hart Hanson, both of whom departed the project in February. They’ll serve as executive producers and showrunners on the show, which is also executive produced by Spielberg and Amblin Television’s Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey.
“Amazing Stories” originally aired for two seasons on NBC from 1985 to 1987. Apple has picked up 10 episodes of the reboot, described as a “reimagining” from Spielberg that “will transport the audience to worlds of wonder through the lens of today’s most imaginative filmmakers, directors and writers.”
Fuller and Hanson departed after what were believed to be creative differences, as Apple aims for a more family-friendly take, similar to the original. That would seem to align with Kitsis and Horowitz, given the tone of “Once Upon a Time.”
http://www.indiewire.com/2018/05/amazing-stories-apple-showrunners-once-upon-a-time-1201967147/
[adrotate group="5"]"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"I think this anthology format will work well for them. They’re good at worldbuilding, an impressive skill on its own. I think anyone would have trouble keeping a story premise going for seven years, but that’s not an issue if it gets reset every episode.
Gaultheria's fanvids: http://youtube.com/sagethrasher
They are fine writers for episodes. They are terrible show runners. They should not be in charge of a show ever again. I think they are terrible at world building and character building and story building. They might do better at a show where they don’t have to worry about continuity of characters and story, but i will never watch a show that they show run ever again.
I sorta agree/disagree with both of your points, HJ and Gaultheria.
I think they’re good at worldbuilding in short bursts They aren’t the sort of writers who can maintain a lengthy story that is intricate and has to have established rules in order for the story to flow. But if you think of each arc and season as its own thing and not connected to any other arcs or seasons, they no they aren’t terrible.
I think anyone would have trouble keeping a story premise going for seven years, but that’s not an issue if it gets reset every episode.
And this is where I disagree with you. Look at fantasy novelists who spend years, decades, heck even entire careers in one world that must be carefully maintained in order for the story to progress from A to Z. And usually that’s not collaborative, JKR for instance did not have a writing partner. A and E have each other and entire room full of other writers.
TV and books are different mediums but good writers should flesh out their world well in advanced, which is why I think S1 is the most structurally sound–they had years to plot that one. S2 and S3 to an extent benefit from the long prep period for S1. As we got closer to the end, that’s when the cracks began to show and then fall to pieces utterly.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"I sorta agree/disagree with both of your points, HJ and Gaultheria.
I think they’re good at worldbuilding in short bursts They aren’t the sort of writers who can maintain a lengthy story that is intricate and has to have established rules in order for the story to flow. But if you think of each arc and season as its own thing and not connected to any other arcs or seasons, they no they aren’t terrible.
I think anyone would have trouble keeping a story premise going for seven years, but that’s not an issue if it gets reset every episode.
And this is where I disagree with you. Look at fantasy novelists who spend years, decades, heck even entire careers in one world that must be carefully maintained in order for the story to progress from A to Z. And usually that’s not collaborative, JKR for instance did not have a writing partner. A and E have each other and entire room full of other writers.
TV and books are different mediums but good writers should flesh out their world well in advanced, which is why I think S1 is the most structurally sound–they had years to plot that one. S2 and S3 to an extent benefit from the long prep period for S1. As we got closer to the end, that’s when the cracks began to show and then fall to pieces utterly.
One key is planning things ahead of time.
Funny thing is I thought they should have gone the anthology route for OUAT Season 7. But I agree with some that maybe this will be a better type of show for them. Both because of the anthology format, and because this is a series with limited episodes per Season for a streaming service. Streaming shows have the luxury of more creative freedom and more time to work on each episode. The traditional 22 episode broadcast format is a very rushed affair.
I sorta agree/disagree with both of your points, HJ and Gaultheria. I think they’re good at worldbuilding in short bursts They aren’t the sort of writers who can maintain a lengthy story that is intricate and has to have established rules in order for the story to flow. But if you think of each arc and season as its own thing and not connected to any other arcs or seasons, they no they aren’t terrible.
I think anyone would have trouble keeping a story premise going for seven years, but that’s not an issue if it gets reset every episode.
And this is where I disagree with you. Look at fantasy novelists who spend years, decades, heck even entire careers in one world that must be carefully maintained in order for the story to progress from A to Z. And usually that’s not collaborative, JKR for instance did not have a writing partner. A and E have each other and entire room full of other writers. TV and books are different mediums but good writers should flesh out their world well in advanced, which is why I think S1 is the most structurally sound–they had years to plot that one. S2 and S3 to an extent benefit from the long prep period for S1. As we got closer to the end, that’s when the cracks began to show and then fall to pieces utterly.
I don’t think the half season arcs are well put together. That was one of the ways in which i really thought that the show was completely falling apart. The first couple episodes were usually okay of each arc, then like one in the middle and then sometimes the end connected to the beginning, but not always. The whole rest of an arc would many times be redundant and boring. Often the ending would be a trick instead of what the arc was building towards which is just bad writing because once you know the trick with no build there is nothing to go back and rewatch and find the hints about because there was no build, there were no hints. The long season arcs were much better on this show, meaning Season 1 and 2.
For me, the biggest change for the half season arcs were that they started giving large portions of the screen time to completely pointless characters. In the first season, it was only Red and Grumpy that got a random episode, all the rest were focused on the regular characters and the development of those characters. They then started giving all this screen time to characters that had no connection to the main characters instead of introducing characters that were going through the same thing that our characters were going through. They gave a bunch of screen time to villains, that always just ended up dead and we always knew they would end up dead. The show just stopped having character development and therefore had no plot. This show hasn’t had a plot in years.
If the writers can’t write character development and can’t write story and can’t write and keep their world building, then they are done. Those are the three things and if they can’t do any of them well then they just need to stop. I actually think it is story they do the best. The idea of let’s make Emma the dark one or showing Emma’s past via Lily or making the dark one dagger be Excalibur or let Emma interact with Elsa who felt like an outcast are all pretty good ideas. The problem is that they have to then be what would Emma do here, what would be her struggles, how would Snow react to Emma being the dark one, and ask all those questions for all the regulars and sort of work out from there and build the narrative around that, and choose what each episode is about based on those questions, and build the world and the objects in the story around the answers to those questions. These writers cannot do that.
I think there three best world building things were probably the apple with the bite in it coming through the hatter’s hat and being used to try and curse Emma. That hatter’s hat being a portal though that was sort of inconsistent and never properly explained. Those and the poppy’s will make you sleep like from Wizard of Oz though that isn’t really something they came up with. They never really did anything to build a language or a culture or any sort of religion or even differences in culture between realms or just anything like that at all. Even the way characters dressed was inconsistent to the world build at times.
World building is hard too. It is so very hard, but the world never felt real, it never felt peopled, because they never built the world. I really think the reason the show lasted this long was entirely on the help they were given in building the world and the characters and the stories in Season 1. They were completely unable to deepen the world build or to figure out what their characters would do next and develop them that way or to even figure out the basic structure of the beginning, the middle, and the end of a story. For me, they can’t be unable to do all of those things and run a show.
Just think about all the stuff we always complained about. How did their government work in the Enchanted Forest? Was Snow’s kingdom in charge of the other kingdoms or were they all separate little city states? In Storybrooke where did they get their food? Where did they get their gas? Why are there empty houses? How did their society not just completely deteriorate because everyone quit their jobs? With language, the characters constantly calling each other their cursed names and how in the early seasons Snow would say stuff like worry not or talk about the gods, but that happened like twice and that was the end of anything interesting language wise. There seems to be no religion except that there was a guy that married Snow and Charming. How do the duke and the royal navy’s kingdoms during Rumpel and Hook’s time connect to the kingdom’s now? Think about all the different creatures. The werewolves? The ogres? The dwarfs? The fairies? Seriously, how did they never really explain anything about the fairies except that they exist.
For me, they just can’t do that. I think about the show The 100, which is not a perfect show. It has some acting problems and character problems and directing problems, but the world building on that show is so amazing. They have another language. Each of the clans dresses differently. The mountain men dress and spoke differently. They have different weapons. The skaikru have language things like go float yourself, or may we meet again, different words they say when someone dies. The grounders definitely have a religion and have religious leaders and such. They talk about where they get their food and their weapons and their tech all the time because it is important. They have shown their various systems of government and leadership over the different groups, on the ring, in Polis, in Arkadia, and now with Octavia. And all of that isn’t what the show is about, it is the world in which the show exists, and it makes the world feel real, and it is so important because when it isn’t there then a show just doesn’t work, in my opinion.
Moving a bit away, back to the topic, but someone on Tumblr pointed out that the quickness of this announcement suggests that this has been in the works for awhile and could only officially go public once their non-compete clause from OUAT was lifted. It might explain why we saw so few episodes from A and E in this last season–they knew ABC was going to cancel the show and took the gig, working on it in tandem with ending OUAT.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"
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