In a story we could have sworn had already been reported but it turns out it was just our natural cynicism kicking in, the creators of Dynasty say the 1980s drama is headed for a big-screen adaptation—just in time to coincide with TNT’s update of Dallas, and once again have everyone asking whether we really need two soap operas about rich, arrogant, prone-to-disaster oil families. (Answer: Catfight in a lily pond.) However, this version of Dynasty won’t be so much remake or sequel as prequel, as it transposes the action to a 1960s setting that, according to Coming Soon, “creators Richard and Esther Shapiro liken to Mad Men,” which is another thing that is popular and worth copying. Good to see that the Shapiros’ business acumen remains sharp as ever some 30 years on.
In an interview with E!, Richard Shapiro says the story will be about “how young Blake doesn't realize he's the son of Tom Carrington, but then he finds himself at the head of this company and surrounded by assassins and people who want to do him in”—a plot, you may remember, that’s reminiscent of Blake’s attempted assassination by The Consortium, as detailed in 1991’s miniseries Dynasty: The Reunion. (You remember that, right?) Presumably this new film would expand on the Consortium mythology, and explain why a guy who spent nearly 30 years as the target of shadowy underground organizations didn’t just go ahead and retire, well before all the kidnappings-of-infant-sons and Moldavian-massacres-at-weddings took place. Though if not, Shapiro optimistically promises that this film is the “first in a Dynasty franchise.”