The story between Jamal and Forrester is one that’s played out a dozen ways over the years since it’s a classic story, a young and very talented individual finding an aging but brilliant master of their craft who has pulled away from society for one reason or another. This kind of tale is one that people are drawn to because there tends to be something that calls to them for a personal reason since they want to be inspired or want to see how things turn out. This particular movie isn’t everyone’s favorite but it is a very touching story that a lot of people might find important. Maybe that’s why NBC is picking it up as a TV show that will be coming sometime in the future. The thing is, the show might be based on the movie, but it does sound as though there will be a gender swap for the part of Forrester, and Jamal might become a teenage orphan, which means that the idea and the dynamic of the whole thing could change in a big way. The initial thought is, ‘why bother?’, since if things are going to change this much then it’s hard to think of why one would even associate the show with the movie. It’s fair enough to state that it will be the inspiration, but if it’s different enough, taking the name sounds a bit pointless. But we’ll likely have to wait and see just what will come in order to find out if it’s that big of a deal.
Right now there’s no word on when this project will begin so at this point it’s simply a mention that it is happening, not that it will be expected at a certain date. But considering the work that the late Sean Connery and Rob Brown put in on this movie, it feels fair to state that anyone that’s selected for the role should be able to bring the characters to life once again and sustain them for a while to come, especially since the idea is one that feels more lively as a single movie and not a running series. This has been tried with several movies and depending on who one talks to the rate of success has either been good enough in such an instance or not that great. There have been several big success stories when this has happened, but some of the edge that the movie has is still taken off when it comes to TV, as the story stretches out in a way that doesn’t always hit as hard since more and more content has to be added. This can be a good thing, or it can feel as though it’s too much for the original story to expand in such a manner, as it can detract from the main point of the movie after a while.
There is a way to do this that will preserve the movie and make things work in a much more orchestrated fashion, but a lot of this is up to the writers since they’re the ones having to make certain that everything fits and that the story flows in a way that will keep it alive and keep the fans entertained long enough to keep watching. With a gender swap, it’s a little easier to think that there might be more material and a different direction to go that could help to keep the show afloat, as the idea is just different enough that it could open up a new line of possibilities and even breathe a new life into the story in a way that people will respond to in a positive manner. Finding Forrester was a touching tale of a young kid trying to connect with an individual that had left society behind as much as he could and found that sticking up for himself wasn’t that easy, but was important all the same, which then inspired the recluse to rejoin the world in a way to defend the young man that had coaxed him out of hiding. Giving someone a kind of silent encouragement is like granting permission to keep living each day as much as they can, and the results tend to be overwhelmingly positive sometimes.
Finding Forrester is one of the many stories that kin of needs to be handled carefully, in my opinion anyway, since it’s one of those that won’t fly apart at the seams if it’s tampered with, but will change in a big way if too much is done to it without paying attention to the overall story. As one of Sean Connery’s best movies, it does feel as though it should be afforded some respect and left more or less the way it was, but again, we’ll see how things turn out.
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