  English Member Username: English Post Number: 672 Registered: 10-2003 |
With the ending of the popular cable series "The Wire", I keep thinking about how Detroit would be the ideal setting for the next great drama series. My roommate led to me thinking this. I live in Ann Arbor (which is why I've got a roommate - rent's high out here!) and grew up in Detroit. She grew up in Novi. Her reaction to Detroit's current and enduring woes? "They should write a book. I'd buy it!" I took her thinking one step further... and visions of DVD series danced through my head.  So... tell me why it can't be done? | ||
Mayor_sekou Member Username: Mayor_sekou Post Number: 2001 Registered: 09-2006 |
Well with that new legislation on the way to passing that would make Michigan the most film friendly state in the union it might just happen sooner than you think. I'd watch it. | ||
Redvetred Member Username: Redvetred Post Number: 195 Registered: 04-2007 |
There's not enough material for a "great drama series" based in Detroit. However, with the jokes that abound, you might have material for a comedy if it wasn't so real and pathetic. | ||
Viziondetroit Member Username: Viziondetroit Post Number: 1502 Registered: 11-2003 |
I think someone should make a movie about the past 8 years in Detroit. Between the mayor, the school board, city council, the school system, police corruption, drama in the neighborhoods, and the general political climate it would be great. | ||
Rb336 Member Username: Rb336 Post Number: 5511 Registered: 02-2007 |
"There's not enough material for a "great drama series" based in Detroit" what a thoroughly absurd comment. there is certainly more than they have in Joisey | ||
Miguel Member Username: Miguel Post Number: 4 Registered: 02-2008 |
I'm pretty sure "The Wire" was based in Baltimore | ||
Viziondetroit Member Username: Viziondetroit Post Number: 1504 Registered: 11-2003 |
Yes it was based in Baltimore. I don't think we could do a series, but more so a movie. | ||
Higgs1634 Member Username: Higgs1634 Post Number: 375 Registered: 10-2005 |
quote: There are multiple threads dedicated to indignant letter writing campaigns seeking to rectify every real or perceived slight in the national media about Detroit. Yet, now we have thread advocating a T.V. series or a feature film which would chronicle the shenanigans that go on around here? Somewhat inconsistent, no? | ||
Paulmcall Member Username: Paulmcall Post Number: 748 Registered: 05-2004 |
Shhhhiiittt!, Have Mr. Davis from The Wire play Coleman Young...it's a natural. | ||
Detroitrise Member Username: Detroitrise Post Number: 1801 Registered: 09-2007 |
Someone should make a movie on the rise and fall of Detroit (from the 50s to now). We'll probably have some young woman or man in their 20s (in 1950) growing into her 70s talk about how nice the city once was and how things changed. They will show scenes of the bustling streets andf walkways in Detroit from back in the 50s-70s and Detroit now. | ||
Mayor_sekou Member Username: Mayor_sekou Post Number: 2006 Registered: 09-2006 |
We need a Spike Lee of Detroit because I love the way he romanticizes Brooklyn in his movies, I wish someone would do that with Detroit. I would love to see a Detroit version of Crooklyn or Do The Right Thing, wouldn’t yall? | ||
Bragaboutme Member Username: Bragaboutme Post Number: 69 Registered: 02-2008 |
That would be good for the city. Mayor where would the location be filmed at? I think you would have to get a couple of locations together to make the city more dense, but it definitely would be a good idea. | ||
Eastside_cat Member Username: Eastside_cat Post Number: 23 Registered: 02-2008 |
To all on this thread These are all great ideas of the incredible story that is/was Detroit, I know I have very fond memories of my old Jeff/Chalmers neighborhood growing up on the lower eastside in the 60s and 70s and I look back at those days as my "Good old Days". Now fast forward to today and give this a thought, can you imagine that the Kids growing up in those neighborhoods of vacant lots and of burned out, boarded up, semi demolished homes will grow up to refer to this current point in time and life as their "Good Old Days" 20 years hence. I mean why shouldn't they… they love, laugh, play, go to school and grow up just as we did, the only difference is their physical environment is much much different and they are not to blame. Yes my friends it would make an incredible heartbreaking story. | ||
Karl_jr Member Username: Karl_jr Post Number: 232 Registered: 06-2007 |
Instead of putting bodies in the vacant row houses, we use vacant lots. Anyone know who's playin' Marlo? Sheeeeeeeiit. | ||
The_recycling_people Member Username: The_recycling_people Post Number: 73 Registered: 11-2006 |
We got the vacants - MLK and the Lodge.... Take some homeless, drop the hammer and board those suckers up. | ||
Dds Member Username: Dds Post Number: 567 Registered: 10-2006 |
quote: And contradictory. | ||
Hornist9 Member Username: Hornist9 Post Number: 92 Registered: 05-2005 |
We'd probably end up like The Wire in the end with Valchek in charge. Who knows, maybe the writers based his character on Chief Hart of long ago... Where's Freamon and McNulty to clean up the King's corruption? Can we get a wire up? Can we raise Omar from the dead to take out the King of Detroit. Or could some young hopper take out the Mayor and Beatty? | ||
Illmatic774 Member Username: Illmatic774 Post Number: 99 Registered: 02-2006 |
enough with the damn spoilers, i haven't finished the show yet. "Shhhhiiittt!, Have Mr. Davis from The Wire play Coleman Young...it's a natural." I understand the Feds chiming in, because that's all in the game, but the city po-lice? SHEEEIT! | ||
Vantanna Member Username: Vantanna Post Number: 8 Registered: 08-2007 |
Ahem... you already have Detroit's "Spike Lee" (shameless plug) www.cornerboyfilms.com Top Ten Things I Love/Hate About the Hood | ||
Illmatic774 Member Username: Illmatic774 Post Number: 100 Registered: 02-2006 |
Would MCS be our Hamsterdam? | ||
Mayor_sekou Member Username: Mayor_sekou Post Number: 2008 Registered: 09-2006 |
No Delray would. That trailer was hilarious Vantana. Bragaboutme, I don't know. I suppose just do it in the regular neighborhoods so you can actually get a feel for them. Any aspiring film makers on here got any input they wish to add. | ||
Funaho Member Username: Funaho Post Number: 33 Registered: 11-2007 |
I vote for a miniseries or made-for-TV movie about the text messaging scandal. They can call it "  ". | ||
Hornist9 Member Username: Hornist9 Post Number: 93 Registered: 05-2005 |
Illmatic774 Shhhhiiiiittt, Sorry but the series finished over a week ago! I know watching The Wire is like enjoying a fine wine, but get to the bottom of the bottle, it's worth it...LOL. | ||
Paulmcall Member Username: Paulmcall Post Number: 751 Registered: 05-2004 |
Wanda Sikes for Christine Beatty. | ||
Hornist9 Member Username: Hornist9 Post Number: 99 Registered: 05-2005 |
Paulmcall, what you got against Wanda? Halle Berry could probably do a better job as Beatty, especially if she and who ever plays KK does a nude love scene. | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 4513 Registered: 02-2005 |
Most movie makers don't need urban prairie scenery...when they do, they'll come to Detroit. | ||
Paulmcall Member Username: Paulmcall Post Number: 764 Registered: 05-2004 |
I want the guy on the you tube of textual healing to play Kwame. | ||
220hendrie1910 Member Username: 220hendrie1910 Post Number: 81 Registered: 02-2006 |
I believe the series the poster is wanting would be EZ Streets. You should have seen it! Rewinding in Ottawa. | ||
English Member Username: English Post Number: 673 Registered: 10-2003 |
bot | ||
English Member Username: English Post Number: 674 Registered: 10-2003 |
BTW, I definitely don't think it's inconsistent or contradictory to do a show like this. The Wire didn't show Baltimore as a hellhole; the show was about corruption at all levels of the city. The criminals weren't the only ones in the wrong, shady characters were everywhere. And there were no clearly demarcated heroes or villains. Everyone was a shade of gray. I liked the Wire for its complexity. I don't think Detroit is as 2-D as one might think. Let's talk about the city government and police force, but also the media and their motivations, the business establishment, political powerbrokers from elsewhere in the metro, etc., how race and class and other factors shape this region, etc. I think it would be a good show. People here on Michigan's campus were standing around small TV sets in offices and streaming podcasts on computers, all but passing the popcorn. I also agree that we need chroniclers of post-riot era metro Detroit. This place is ripe for the next great American movie or novel. The problem is that we don't nurture our artists, writers, or filmmakers. So they move elsewhere. |
