CNN Entertainment: NBC, ABC developing 9/11 miniseries

[GreenPartyVoter]

LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) -- NBC and ABC are developing miniseries revolving around the September 11 attacks, using the "9/11 Commission Report" as the blueprint for dramatic retellings of the events that led to the devastating strikes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

NBC said Wednesday it has cut a deal with "Speed" screenwriter Graham Yost to develop a limited series exploring the circumstances surrounding the attacks that claimed nearly 3,000 lives and spurred the United States to mount a global war on terrorism.

NBC entertainment president Kevin Reilly said the network intended to produce a "seminal" event for network television on par with the 1970s miniseries "Roots" and 1980s nuclear-attack TV movie "The Day After." The project will take at least a year to develop and might not be ready to air until the 2006-07 season, NBC brass said.

ABC, meanwhile, is understood to have been developing a similar concept for the past several months. ABC declined comment on their project Wednesday, but network sources suggested that the timing of NBC's announcement was motivated at least in part by NBC's desire to be the first to unveil plans for a September 11-focused miniseries.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/28/television.miniseries.reut/index.html

[aden_nak]

1. 3 Years. That's how long it took for 9/11 to turn into Joey Buttafuco.

[bluestateguy]

2. It's too soon for movies

I understand that someday movies about 9/11 will be made. That's fine because it will be necessary to tell the story to younger generations and we have used movies for over hundred years to teach Americans about many significant episodes in American and world history (though some movies are negligently inaccurate). Still, it's too soon to be doinn this. The familes are not ready to have their hardships used as entertainment and we should right now be more focused on the real world.

[K-W]

3. It is not too soon at all.

If it is too soon to make a movie about it, how is it not too soon to talk about it, or write columns about it, or talk about it on Democratic Underground.

You dont respect the families of 9/11 victims by pretending it didnt happen for years, you respect them by finding the truth about the event.

[aden_nak]

5. Miniseries movies will not "find the truth".

They will be poorly written, poorly acted, piles of rat droppings with mid-budget CGI effects. An attempt to remake The Towering Inferno with all of the cultural stereotypes of modern television and all of the clever introspection of General Hospital.

[K-W]

6. The quality of television production is a seperate issue.

But indeed, they wont find the truth I am sure. Regardless, they have just as much right to broadcast a bad miniseries as we do to talk about the causes on DU. Anyway the miniseries wouldnt air for years. There is no respect for the victims issue here.

[aden_nak]

7. Oh, they have a RIGHT to do so.

What they lack is taste, class, or common sense. I'm always in favor of the free speech of assholes, just as I am in favor of my own personal right to lambast them with shameful criticisms over the fact. ;)

[nostamj]

4. too soon? uh, Showtime already did one!

it sucked big time and was pure repuke swill that made the insipid chimp look like a hero...

on the funny side, they used the same actor (Timothy Bottoms) who played the chimp in the comedy series "That's My Bush!"