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I Still Believe: CW Orders Pilot for Lost Boys Series

Four stand in a row dirty in The Lost Boys

Joel Schumacher’s The Lost Boys was an absolute smash of a film upon its release in 1987 and has only amassed an even larger legion of fans in the decades since. From its soundtrack featuring such icons of the era as Echo and the Bunnymen and INXS, the casting of Corey Feldman and Corey Haim in their first on-screen appearance together, to the California boardwalk setting, Schumacher’s vision helped cement the vampire as a rock star archetype. Most memorably, the depiction of glam-punk vampires portrayed by Alex Winter and Keifer Sutherland. One of the hurdles this series will ultimately face is finding a cast that resonates with its audience as well as the original lost boys did.

The film itself does exude its own form of creepiness, but it’s all style over substance. These vampires have more in common with rock star excess than they do with Nosferatu or anything written by Richard Matheson or Bram Stoker. Their hangout/lair even has a Jim Morrison poster on the wall and the boys themselves look like roadies for Judas Priest or Quiet Riot. It’s safe to say that The Lost Boys is one of a handful of films that forever changed the way that the world views vampires.

Fast forward to January 2019 and the CW has just announced that they ordered a pilot for a series based off of, and also titled, The Lost Boys from Rob Thomas (iZombie creator/showrunner). Not much else is known of the project at this point. The official synopsis of the show keeps the California setting and the basic plot description of the film, seeing a mother and her two teenage sons moving to a smaller, boardwalk town with the notable difference that in this iteration, the family at the center of the story relocates to California due to the death of their father whereas in the original film he left the mother character.

I found this interesting because Dianne Wiest as single mother, due to divorce and not death, to Corey Haim and Jason Patrick is a focal point of the film and what propels much of the overall narrative forward throughout. Wiest’s  Lucy is led straight into the lion’s den on a job hunt to support her family. Haim’s Sam, left to his own devices, teams up with Feldman’s Edgar Frog to rid the town of its alleged vampire infestation. Patrick’s Michael falls prey to David and his gang of vampires when he is out chasing the beautiful and mysterious Star (Jami Gertz). It will be interesting to see how they drive the plot forward and what changes will be made as the project unfolds.

There has been no casting as of this time, but it certainly has the potential to be the type of project that the CW has consistent success with. The Lost Boys as a property could be updated quite easily for a teen to early twenties audience, and if done correctly will also see fans of the original stick around for the long haul.

The themes at the heart of the film: isolation, teenage angst and rebellion, the need to fit in, the search for family, combined with the current resurgence for all things horror makes this project seem like its destined to come to fruition and make it on the air.

Written by steve wandling

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