Back in 1987, the horror-comedy film ‘The Lost Boys‘ was released. This movie was directed by Joel Schumacher and co-written by Janice Fischer, James Jeremias, and Jeffrey Boam. It is about a pair of boys who move to the coast of California and end up fighting against a group of vampires. The name of the movie was inspired by the Lost Boys in Peter Pan, by J.M. Barrie. This movie starred Corey Haim, Kiefer Sutherland, Jamie Gertz, Barnard Hughes, and Edward Hermann. The film was a commercial success and is considered a cult classic of the 80s. It inspired two sequels and, more recently, plans were put in place to launch a television series based on ‘The Lost Boys’ film.
The CW first began trying to make a television series of ‘The Lost Boys’ a few years ago, and Rob Thomas began to work on a pilot that was intended for the 2016-2017 season. Thomas then got distracted by his involvement in the reboot of ‘Veronica Mars’ for Hulu. Following his early separation from the project, Heather Mitchell wrote a script for ‘The Lost Boys’ pilot and the studio thought it was great.
The CW first got the pilot back in May 2019, says Bleeding Cool. Unfortunately, the execution of the pilot was not as great as they had imagined, and they decided to pass. However, they were still interested in running the series, so they came to a rather unusual decision. They recently announced that they are re-piloting the pilot and that there are some changes being made. This statement initially made it seem that they were merely making a few tweaks to the pilot, but it now appears that the changes are much bigger than first believed.
According to Science Fiction, Warner Bros. have decided to let the entire cast go with the exception of Dakota Shapiro and Medalion Rahimi. In the pilot, Shapiro was cast as the lead vampire David, which is the character that was originally played by Keifer Sutherland. Shapiro is probably best known for his role in ‘Valley of the Boom. Rahimi was cast in the role of Stella, which is a variation of the original character Star that was played by Jamie Gertz. You may recognize Rahimi from ‘NCIS: Los Angeles’.
The cast of the original pilot who will not be in the reboot of the pilot included Tyler Posey, Kiele Sanchez, and Rio Mangini. These actors were cast as Michael, Lucy, and Sam respectively. The Frog Sisters were being played by Haley Tju and Cheyenne Haynes, while Del Zamora was playing Lucy’s father. Sarah Hay was cast as Mollie, which is a character that was specifically created for the new series. Mollie is a rival for David for the leadership of the vampires. Others who were cast in the pilot but have now had their contracts ended include Preston Vanderslice, Courtney Paige, Jerry Trimble, and Jaycie Dotin.
Overall, that is a pretty big change from the original plans. However, not everything about the original pilot will change when they make the reboot. It is believed that both Mitchell and Thomas will remain as executive producers of the show. Also acting as executive producers are Bill Bindley and Mike Kartz for Gulfstream, along with Thomas and Dan Etheridge for Spondoolie. The production team includes Juliana James from Gulfstream and Rebecca Franco from Spondoolie.
It is also believed that Mitchell’s script will remain. The script that Mitchell has rewritten is basically a rehash of the original story. If you have not seen the film, then this is about brothers Michael and Sam Emerson moving to Santa Carla with their mother after their father’s sudden death. The town to which they have moved is where their mother grew up. However, things are now a little different in the fictional coastal town as it is now home to a group of vampires who are surprisingly beautiful. Like in the film, the boys take on the vampires.
One element of the new pilot that seems uncertain is whether Catherine Hardwicke is returning. According to CBR, she was the director of the original pilot. It has not yet been confirmed whether she will also direct the rebooted version of the pilot, or if someone else will take on the task.
For now, that is all that is known about the upcoming ‘The Lost Boys’ television series. It is likely that plenty more information will follow as it has not yet been revealed who the replacement cast includes, or even if any casting decisions have been made. Although there have been some hiccups along the way, there is still hope that it will finally make it onto The CW’s schedule. Once the necessary changes to the pilot are put in place, it has the potential to become a captivating series and will probably appeal to many people due to the current trend for vampire-themed series.
This is not the only series that The CW decided not to pick up. Another promising pilot that The CW was set to make was for ‘Glamorous’. Unfortunately, the plans for this are now dead as the holds on the cast expired. The network has not disclosed whether there are plans to rectify this situation in the future or not.
There are some things to look forward to on The CW network though, other than the upcoming ‘The Lost Boys’ series. In May, the network ordered new series of ‘Nancy Drew’, ‘Batwoman’, and ‘Katy Keene’, the latter of which is a spinoff of ‘Riverdale’. This is a diverse mix of new series for the network, so future schedules are likely to include lots of variety that will appeal to different cohorts.
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