The CW’s The Lost Boys show floats along, neither truly alive nor truly dead. The Joel Schumacher (RIP) 1987 classic gave us a pack of sexy vampires led by a young Kiefer Sutherland sucking blood in a beautiful resort town. How hard can it be to bring that straightforward concept to the modern day? Well, if the show’s productions troubles are anything to go by, very hard.
However, we at least have an idea of what the series could be like. Gerard “G Tom Mac” McMahon, who wrote the original movie’s song “Cry Little Sister” is writing and arranging tracks for the show and discussed it in an interview with SYFY Wire, revealing:
“I’m sure it’s gonna be torn down by the hardcore fans; there’s just no way that this show can win. But it wasn’t designed for the hardcore fans. It was basically trying to keep the essence of what the film projected … It’s a reimagining and it’s an adaptation of the film because all the characters are in place.”
He also added that the show is aiming for a more diverse cast, saying:
“Cast-wise, it’s more diversified in coordination with the times, as it should be. It’s a little bit more female-driven in its way.”
But what of the production complications? It had already shot a pilot episode, but it seems that this simply wasn’t very good. The CW said at the time that “not all elements in the pilot came together in the execution, including casting.”
So, back to the drawing board. Earlier this year, a second pilot was in the process of being shot, only for it to be shut down by COVID-19. It seems that, once again, this wasn’t what The CW was looking for, either, as they announced that The Lost Boys was being “rolled” and reevaluated as a prospect for the 2021/22 season.
McMahon discussed these frustrating delays, too, saying:
“It’s stuck in limbo, even though they agreed to all the new script writing and all of that. It’s hard to know; it’s a day-by-day thing for all these shows, when you can go back in [and shoot]. They were starting to go back, it looked like they could go back into production, and [everything shut down].”
C’mon guys, teen vampires at the beach? This isn’t highbrow stuff. How difficult can it be to make it work in a fun, sexy and contemporary way? Honestly, who knows when we’ll finally see The Lost Boys, but I hope at some point those failed pilots go public.