Since Twilight was arguably a contemporary recasting of Dracula, I suppose it only follows that the production company behind it would do more take-offs of seminal literature. Deadline says Temple Hill has got two TV shows coming to ABC; one drawing from The Count of Monte Cristo and the other from Romeo and Juliet. The latter, as per the earlier report, will actually be set in historical Verona, and I imagine the period-appropriate set dressing just might be a touch more involved than Mad Men’s.
The former, however, is going to transplant Alexander Dumas’ post-Napoleonic swashbuckler into the Hamptons, of all places. And it’s going to knock off the old “Y” and add another “X” for some gender swapping with a plot about a “mysterious woman who comes… to exact revenge on the people who destroyed her family.” Unless they’re planning on having this chick dig her way out of Guantanamo Bay with a spoon, I expect this is going to have about as strong a list of novelistic parallels as Romeo Must Die and The Phantom of the Paradise did.
Somehow, I’ve managed to get along this far without having to see any Twilight movie - - not a one - - so I don’t have too strong an opinion about these. However, I will take this opportunity to heartily recommend 2002's Count of Monte Cristo (the one with Jim Caviezel.) Period actioners - - especially those in any era of France's history - - can often get pretty stuffy, but this was a truly-gripping adventure. It isn’t weird by any stretch of the word, so I won’t be welcoming it any time, but it definitely deserves some attention from the ever-eager eyes of the Screened community.
But I have a strong feeling the show is going to suck.