Get Pumped Up for the 'American Gladiators' Movie

I'm trying to figure out exactly what form this will take, but perhaps I'm overthinking it: American Gladiators will become a feature film. Not a documentary, but an honest-to-goodness dramatic adaptation of one of the first competition shows on television. Show creator Johnny Ferraro is working with former Legendary Picture marketing executive Scott Mednick to bring the weekly David vs. Goliath battles to a theater near you. All we can tell you is that the film will bring characters into an action story that takes place in the world of the Gladiators. Here's where it gets interesting...well, relatively. Ferraro tells Variety that American Gladiators was first envisioned as a film but then "took a detour and became a TV phenomenon." The show originally aired in 1988, when steroids, mullets, and spandex were decidedly more socially acceptable, and it enjoyed a revival on NBC in 2008. That version was co-hosted by Hulk Hogan, who hadn't exactly let the steroids, mullets, and spandex go. The question I have is whether it will operate like a Running Man sort of thing, where the story focuses on contestants in the game or if it will center around the Gladiators themselves. It would make more sense to turn the attention to the Gladiators, because that enhances the possibility for return engagements from those characters down the line. That is, if you want that sort of thing. I don't know what this means exactly, but I remember 20 years ago critics and casual viewers alike decrying that the success of American Gladiators meant there were no original ideas left in television. Now, that same idea will have a $10 ticket price.

Comments

[txtracer]

I thought American Gladiators was inspired by The Running Man. They came out at about the same time, late 80's. So it would only make sense to have a story that paralleled TRM to some extent; but then again this is Hollywood so who knows.

Is "the world of the Gladiators" a post-apocalyptic wasteland? If it has that and a soundtrack by Survivor or Night Ranger or some other 80's-metal also-ran group, it could be a hilarious cheesefest.