Your scent. It’s like a drug to me. You’re like my own personal brand of heroin. Or perhaps it’s just that Lionsgate simply refuses to let sleeping dogs (shape-shifters?) lie, even now that we’re more than a decade removed from the peak of “Twilight” fever. The studio has already revealed its intention to reboot Stephenie Meyer’s YA fantasy romance phenomenon for the small screen as a TV series, which begs the question: how exactly does it plan to go about trying to rebottle the “stupid lightning in a stupid bottle” that was the original movie adaptations of Meyer’s books, to quote /Film’s BJ Colangelo? We now have part of the answer and, incredibly enough, it’s not at all a bad idea.
Speaking during a Q&A at this week’s Morgan Stanley media conference (as reported on by Variety), Lionsgate vice chairman Michael Burns casually dropped the bombshell that the “Twilight” TV show won’t be live-action. “We’re going to go out with the ‘Twilight’ series, an animated series, I think there’ll be a lot of interest in that,” Burns explained. Yes, it seems that “Twilight” is following “Scott Pilgrim” in going from a story on the printed page to a live-action film and then a cartoon years later. And, honestly, the “Twilight” revival series following in the footsteps of last year’s animated “Scott Pilgrim” adaptation would unquestionably be the best route to take with this project (if it has to happen at all, natch).
Bella Swan takes off
Where Netflix’s live-action “Avatar: The Last Airbender” series suffers from trying to rejigger a story to a medium that it doesn’t readily lend itself to (read /Film’s review by Jeremy Mathai for more on that), the streamer’s “Scott Pilgrim Takes Off” applies anime aesthetics and tropes to the already-heightened “Scott Pilgrim” universe with much stronger results. It’s easy to imagine “Twilight” doing something similar. Heck, Meyer’s romantic high school fantasy is practically already a reverse harem, i.e. a story about a lone female protagonist being courted by multiple male love interests. One need only watch the anime musical “Dance with Devils” to understand how “Twilight” could thrive in this format.
A more impressionistic visual style would also allow the “Twilight” animated series to go further with the truly messed-up aspects of Meyer’s novels than the films ever could. The movies, of course, had to hold back on those stranger and more violent elements in order to hit that sweet PG-13 spot … and what it did include was often pretty wonky. (Bella’s human-vampire hybrid baby, anyone?) Animation, on the other hand, will free the series up to really delve into its story’s body horror and the creepier parts of its spin on vampire lore. Just think of Alucard sadistically grinning as he’s torn to shreds in a hailstorm of bullets in the “Dracula”-inspired “Hellsing” anime, and you’ll have a firmer grasp on precisely how twisted an animated “Twilight” could get.
Best of all, being animated means the show’s stars can better avoid comparisons to the actors from the “Twilight” movies. I’m assuming the series won’t pull a “Scott Pilgrim Takes Off” and bring back the original cast — though, really, how amazing would it be to have Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson playing Bella and Edward again at this stage in their careers?
Keep it tuned to /Film for further updates on the “Twilight” TV series.
