ABC’s new drama pilot sounds kinda familiar if you ask me.
The pilot, called Once Upon a Time, has just snagged Ginnifer Goodwin from Showtime’s Big Love to play the lead role…Snow White. From Deadline:
[Once Upon a Time] centers on a woman with a troubled past who is drawn into a small town in Maine where the magic and mystery of Fairy Tales just may be real. Goodwin will play Snow White/Sister Mary Margaret, a beautiful woman with dark hair and very pale skin who has been placed under a wicked spell by the Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla), and is brought back from a living death by Prince Charming.
It’s not exactly the same as Fables of course, but awfully fishy when you consider ABC optioned the highly-successful Vertigo comic series for a pilot just a few years ago. Back then, Stu Zicherman and Raven Metzner were writing the script that would follow the fairy tale characters in their exiled home in modern day New York and feature Bigby and Snow White. Fables creator Bill Willingham did in fact read the script for the pilot but nothing more came of it from the network.
Once Upon a Time comes to us from Lost executive producers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. And it’s a well known fact most of those Lost guys are big comic fans. In fact, Kitsis and Horowitz produced and wrote for the short-lived Birds of Prey television series. Time will tell if the duo were simply inspired by the comic or are borrowing directly from it.
March 4th, 2011 at 9:10 am
ABC integrating Snow White into the modern world is nothing new – consider The Charmings, a series which predates Fables by a decade-and-a-half (and which also predates ABC’s purchase by the Snow White specialist at Disney.)
March 4th, 2011 at 9:12 am
Wouldn’t be the first time. Won’t be the last.
ABC’s “Murphy’s Law” was lifted in toto from Warren Murphy’s (co-creator of The Destroyer) character Trace (formerly Digger when he was with Pinnacle). Naming the character Murphy was just salt in the wound. Warren got the last laugh – he sued, and got credit on the show. Pity it didn’t last long.
JMS pitched the Star Trek folks a series about a space station where a number of races interacted. They said no, he converted it into Babylon 5, and at the same time, the Start Trek folks “came up with” the idea of a show about a space station where a number of races interacted.
Anyone else got one?
March 4th, 2011 at 9:20 am
I would rather have a rip-off that I might enjoy than a poor adaptation of something I already enjoy.
March 4th, 2011 at 1:14 pm
And lest we forget, Fractured Fairy Tales was doing it long ago.
We all drink from the same water. The fairy tales are constantly being revisited, reinterpreted, reinvented.
Which doesn’t mean that Willingham might not be unhappy.
March 4th, 2011 at 4:10 pm
Harry Potter being pretty much Books of Magic.
July 25th, 2011 at 7:36 pm
Are there any inspirations from Fables? Kitsis: “Again, this was our own idea. I’ve only read a couple issues of that, which is amazing. We’re trying to do something different completely.” Horowitz: “This was really born out of our love of these stories.”
THAT WAS MY QUESTION AT THE PANEL!!! >=| they totally avoided it. later on at the fables panel the creative team TOLD US THAT THEY HAD PITCHED THE IDEA TO MANY NETWORKS AND THEY ALL DECLINED. SUDDENLY THEY HAVE SOMETHING SIMILAR TO IT? also that was not the full answer they gave me. they beat around it in a defensive manner and then established the stories were public and they could do with them whatever they wanted.
October 4th, 2011 at 2:55 pm
So here I was all excited to learn that maybe a Fables adaptation was going to be a real thing. However I am wondering what is really going to happen with this….ripoff. I mean, who can not love the Bigby Wolf character right? And whats up with this Snow White? Is that kid supposed to be the Pinocchio from the comics?? Hmmm, They should have just stuck with using the Fables outline. I guess it was too cool for school and the people of the world could not handle the awesomeness? So they dumbed it down for the wide media?
Lame.
October 23rd, 2011 at 7:24 pm
ABC and the LOST creators can hide behind the “public domain” excuse, but the characters are not the main gripe concerning Fables fans.
With Once Upon A Time, the whole concept of Fables has been watered down and remolded into a very similar story, with fewer characters. Anyone who has read the Fables book series can see this from a mile away when watching Once Upon A Time.
Isn’t it odd that Once Upon A Time, a show with an extremely similar plot to Fables, premieres on ABC four years after a script for a Fables television show was supposedly “rejected” by ABC???
Even the shows creators have admitted to reading Fables and being fans of their work.
COME ON!!!!!
It’s real sad that nowadays so-called television writers can’t think of an original idea to save their lives.
It’s one thing to make a show based on a book and change around the plot. Its another thing to make a show based on a book, then try to play it off as if you were the one who came up with the whole concept yourself.
If I were the creator of Fables I would be pissed. However the fact that Fables is based on fairy tale characters everyone has used for TV and Film, the chance of any legal advantage for Fables in court is slim to none. This is something I’m sure ABC is well aware of which is why the LOST hacks can say whatever they want and get away with it.
I truly hope that one day soon the creator of FABLES gets an adaptation with a network who understands and respects the concept of original storytelling. FABLES would make a great show with the right creative team involved.
October 24th, 2011 at 2:06 am
I have a personal dislike for Willingham’s personal intentions with Fables, but read the books and respected his crafting of them. I think he got screwed and feel bad for him. ABC definitely took his concept and in an even more messed up way than just hearing the pitch, and then rolling out a similar concept. They bought the option for it, which they still own, did nothing with it, and then magically, the writers from “Lost” have this show that’s like Willingham’s concept yet different enough that they claim to have come up with it themselves… They stole the concept and reworked it into a show different enough not to have to involve him and can creatively control.
What I really feel bad about for Willingham, is the fact that he can’t even shop around his TV adaption to anyone else, because ABC owns the options to keep him from competing with their show that they took from his work.
October 25th, 2011 at 12:24 am
Fables is hands down my favorite comic book series. When I initially heard that ABC had bought the option to the show I was really excited to see what would be done with it. Now we get no fables and we get a crappy watered down version instead. I watched the pilot episode of Once Upon a Time. More than once I was shocked at how close the plot came to the plot of fables. We have fairy tale characters banished to our world for starters. *sigh* I may watch a few more episodes just to see where it goes. I am kind of a sucker for adult fairy tale adaptations(though i don’t know how adult it will be on abc). I hope it pulls away from the fables storyline though. Also they really need to do something with fables or let Willingham shop it around. Its kind of bullshit, especially with the fan base the series has. We want to see fables on tv or in theaters!
Daniel, just out of curiosity what do you not like that Willingham is doing?
October 29th, 2011 at 11:34 am
The really sad thing is if the whole fairytale thing takes off and he wants to shop it around again, no one will buy it. They will all point to “Once Upon a Time” and say: “Oh no thanks, it’s just like that show on ABC” Basically a ripoff of his own work will prevent him from selling his work.