Despite what I try to tell myself, “Klout” on social media does not actually amount to much; real, spelled-correctly clout comes from making or doing great things, which leads to people trusting you to do other cool things as a result. Right now, with two mondo successful Captain America movies under their belts and a pair of Avengers on the way, the directing team of Joe and Anthony Russo have enormous pull in movies, as well as on TV, where they honed their chops. Now, the brothers are turning their attention to adapting the cult film The Warriors into a drama series for Hulu.
The Russos are teaming with writer Frank Baldwin, according to the exclusive from Deadline, for the television adaptation of the Walter Hill film from 1979, which was in turn an adaptation of the 1965 novel by Sol Yurick, which was again an adaptation of the Greek Myth Anabasis by Xenophon. Lotta ‘dapting going on. The series will be co-produced by Paramount and Hulu for airing on the subscription streaming service. There’s not a whole lot of information, but Deadline says the show will honor the original while spicing things up with “its own unique brand of grit, pulp, sex, and violence.” Sounds very promising.
The film is set in a near-future version of New York City, and was filmed there at a time when it still had the grime and danger of the pre-Giuliani days. It supposes there are dozens of street gangs all vying for supremacy but are all called to Van Cortlandt Park for a meeting with Cyrus, the head of the City’s most powerful gang. He aims to unite all the gangs in New York against the cops, whom they outnumber considerably, allowing them to truly run the place. But Luther, the leader of the gang the Rogues, shoots Cyrus dead and in the mêlée that follows, blames the Warriors for the breach of peace. The Warriors then have to get back to Coney Island (not easy to do) where they’re from before every single gang in NYC kills them.
It’s a really great movie (which I wrote about here), and one that’s met talk of a remake for many, many years, but a television version might be just the thing to do justice to the story without besmirching the original. And at this point, with the Marvel movies under their belt—plus episodes of Community and Arrested Development—if the Russos are selling, I’m buying. Here’s hoping we have a great TV show to come out to play-ay!
Let me know in the comments below if you can dig a TV version of The Warriors, and who you might want to cast in the pivotal roles.
The Russos think they can get Wolverine in the MCU!
Featured Image: Paramount
Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. He writes the weekly look at weird or obscure films in Schlock & Awe. Follow him on Twitter!
