Now that all the good stuff is on TV, big-shot movie producer Irwin Winkler (Rocky, Raging Bull) has decided he wants in on that small-screen action, recently signing a first-look deal with Sony Pictures TV, according to Variety. And while his one-year contract will mostly focus on developing new projects, Winkler’s also raiding his own back catalog for features that can be adapted into series. Which, uh oh.
Fortunately, Winkler’s not interested in trying to make Raging Bull or Rocky into a show (yet), but he is currently developing one based on The Net, 1995’s Sandra Bullock-starring espionage-and-laborious-typing thriller set in the seamy, garishly pixilated underworld of Internet chat rooms. Winkler believes The Net will “make a great TV series” because “a lot of people said it was ahead of its time anyhow,” which is one of those statements you can safely make 15 years after the fact knowing that no one will be able to disprove it. But okay, sure. Of course, The Net has been adapted for TV once before, in a short-lived USA version starring Brooke Langton. But unlike that incarnation, this reboot will be handled by the screenwriters behind the original film—the ones responsible for prescient lines like, “No one leaves the house anymore. No one has sex. The Net is ultimate condom.” And remember, they wrote that before Chatroulette even existed.
Here are the opening credits of 1998's The Net TV show. Hope this one also has a zany skateboarding slacker hacker to keep Angela hip to the lingo.