After decades of undergoing slanderous brutalities, being branded with tasteless monikers like "the idiot box," television is finally, albeit gradually, getting the credit it deserves. We've recently seen film directors like Martin Scorsese and Gus Van Sant donate their talents to TV series (Boardwalk Empire and Boss, respectively). And now, we'll be welcoming another familiar big screen helmer to our world: Jon Favreau.
Favreau, director of Made, Elf, the Iron Man movies and Cowboys & Aliens, is working on two projects for television at the moment. The first is a comedy series for CBS called Tweaked, about single parents re-entering the dating world—Favreau wrote the pilot script. The second is a sci-fi dramedy for ABC called Ex-Comm, which will team a newly elected president with a secret group of executive men in black-types to explore and uproot different "conspiracy theory truths." Favreau will produce and possibly direct this series.
But why this sudden shift in attention toward TV? Because, thanks to series on networks like AMC, HBO and Showtime, people are finally starting to realize just how much can be done with television.
TV is an art form like no other, because it is the only art form that is inherently non-static. When you create a film, that film is, largely, a self-contained entity, as are its characters and themes. But the nature of TV commands its characters, themes and stories to change and grow. This, plus the extensive amount of time invested in a series (people dedicate ten years of their lives to certain shows—in some cases, a TV show might be the only thing kept constant in one's life from one end of a decade to the other) make for a more engrossing and meaningful experience.
Although Cowboys & Aliens was in large part a letdown, Favreau gave us some terrific movies over the years. We should look forward to what he intends to do with each series.
Source: AV Club