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Live-Action Powerpuff Girls Update Is Being Reworked at The CW

Astral

Astral

Member
Oct 27, 2017
28,031
CaptainKashup said:
2021-05-24_21_24_14-ppg.pdf.png


It never stops, ever. Jesus christ.
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Oh god my childhood.
 
VinylCassette64

VinylCassette64

The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
2,419
All of the comments that describe this script feeling like somebody penning their personal wish fulfillment into words feel extremely on point.

I get the impression this is one of those scripts that is written exclusively for, and only makes sense to, the writer and maybe their like-minded inner circle of friends. But it's somehow been accepted by a major studio to be produced for a mainstream audience.

Congrats to the writer I guess, they probably got the easiest paycheck of their entire career. But I can't fathom why the fuck the CW is even trying to salvage this, let alone why they greenlit it to begin with.
 
The Adder

The Adder

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,087
As a rule, if you were not in the demographic a program was meant for at the time of its original airing, you have no business writing a reboot of that program

Powerpuff girls came out in 1998 when Diablo Cody was 20 years old.

Powerpuff Girls aired for a demographic of kids to early teens

Powerpuff girls was written by a person who was 27 to 34 during its original run

Diablo Cody is currently 8 years older than McCracken was when PPG ended
 
Dice

Dice

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,214
Canada
Jon Carter said:
It happens. I did some work on the original pilot for the 2017 show Powerless, and the show was taking place at a generic insurance company. They completely reworked it so it would take place at "Wayne Security" so that the show would have more of a connection to DC. Must have been costly making those changes, and the show was quickly cancelled anyway. It's never a good sign when you don't have a clear idea what the show you're making is, so I'd take this as a bad sign, but then again this is the CW. 90210 went through major troubles that would have killed any other show, but they kept it on the air for five years.
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Im still a big fan of Powerless' opening haha
 
Firmament1

Firmament1

Member
Aug 15, 2019
1,287
Kegels said:
If it's getting reworked I'll post the script so people can read what it was beforehand, I talked about what was happening in the draft I had before, it started interesting but kinda petered out imo

EDIT: Here it is, the version from a couple of months ago

[removed]


They're obviously gonna change quite a bit, but even if they had gone through with this version its important to remember a lot can change between drafts and between writing, filming, and editing etc.
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holy fucking christ, this is wild
 
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Jarmel

Jarmel

The Jackrabbit Always Wins
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,297
New York
I would like to personally thank whichever exec put this on ice. Dude did the world a favor.
 
Pop-O-Matic

Pop-O-Matic

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
12,861
The Adder said:
As a rule, if you were not in the demographic a program was meant for at the time of its original airing, you have no business writing a reboot of that program

Powerpuff girls came out in 1998 when Diablo Cody was 20 years old.

Powerpuff Girls aired for a demographic of kids to early teens

Powerpuff girls was written by a person who was 27 to 34 during its original run

Diablo Cody is currently 8 years older than McCracken was when PPG ended
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This is an incredibly gatekeepy, "only TRUE FANS should be allowed to work with this IP." take. This script being terrible has nothing to do with Diablo Cody not being a kid when PPG was new, but simply that the creative instincts and interests of her and the other writers & producers on this simply don't fit with the IP (and, let's be honest, are just bad in general).
 
Jarmel

Jarmel

The Jackrabbit Always Wins
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,297
New York
The problem isn't that Diablo Cody wasn't a fan of the series when it came out or even now. The problem is Diablo Cody is a dogshit writer. You absolutely can tell superhero stories about adult females without it coming off as tryhard trash.
 
CrocodileGrin

CrocodileGrin

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
3,154
I like the concept of creating a version of this that is self-deprecating and isn't afraid to make fun of itself or take plots or characters from a different perspective point. I just wasn't expecting the script to come off like some young person's DMs. It's like someone took a Twitter feed and threw up all over it, and passed it off as a script. It's not edgy, it just reads like it's trying too hard to sound edgy.

Edit: Wait, Diablo Cody is writing this? Oh...now the crappy writing makes sense. That was mistake #1.
 
Korigama

Korigama

Member
Oct 25, 2017
20,482
Being deemed too godawful even for CW is rather damning. And yes, the fact that Diablo Cody wrote it explains everything.
 
Chinner

Chinner

Member
Oct 25, 2017
520
Imo this is very well written. Anyone who DOESNT like this doesn't get the nuances of the script and is not a real Powerpuff girl fan.
 
El Bombastico

El Bombastico

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
36,028
Pop-O-Matic said:
This is an incredibly gatekeepy, "only TRUE FANS should be allowed to work with this IP." take. This script being terrible has nothing to do with Diablo Cody not being a kid when PPG was new, but simply that the creative instincts and interests of her and the other writers & producers on this simply don't fit with the IP (and, let's be honest, are just bad in general).
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The problem I think we've with all these remakes/reboots by people who didn't actually experience the original product is that far too often they have NO FUCKING IDEA what made the original product so beloved/successful in the first place. Now, the shouldn't be a problem is said writer is willing to invest time into finding out more about what they're writing about and WHY is was so beloved in its times.

Just from those few excepts, its clear that Diablo Cody knew nothing about PPG besides what one can gleam from checking Wikipedia and maybe watching a couple clips on Youtube. I'd be very surprised if she watched the original show in its entirety.

EdenOfTheEast said:
They mush have played the pilot in front of a focus group and got torn to shreds
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God I hope we find out more. When even CW tells you your pilot is shit, you KNOW you fucked up bad...
 
Royalan

Royalan

I can say DEI; you can't.
Moderator
Oct 24, 2017
11,927
Pop-O-Matic said:
This is an incredibly gatekeepy, "only TRUE FANS should be allowed to work with this IP." take. This script being terrible has nothing to do with Diablo Cody not being a kid when PPG was new, but simply that the creative instincts and interests of her and the other writers & producers on this simply don't fit with the IP (and, let's be honest, are just bad in general).
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I don't know if I would say it's gatekeepy. Only because after reading the script myself, the central takeaway I have, before I can get into any of the many flaws, is that it just doesn't seem like whoever wrote this (Diablo Cody, apparently) knows the original show, or liked it if they did.

And I really don't want this to come off as fanboyish entitlement. YOU'RE NOT CATERING TO THE FANS!!!

I don't care about callbacks. I don't even care about minor details.

There just seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding about what made The Powerpuff Girls such a loved franchise.

First off, reading this script, this shit is waaaay too fucking jaded. That was the first thing that jumped out at me.
 

addik

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,527
Kegels said:
If it's getting reworked I'll post the script so people can read what it was beforehand, I talked about what was happening in the draft I had before, it started interesting but kinda petered out imo

EDIT: Here it is, the version from a couple of months ago

[removed]


They're obviously gonna change quite a bit, but even if they had gone through with this version its important to remember a lot can change between drafts and between writing, filming, and editing etc.
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Lmao thanks for this. My friends and I were literally just talking about this over drinks last night and it was good news to actually wake up to news it's not being retooled
 
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diakyu

diakyu

Member
Dec 15, 2018
17,525
These excerpts are absolutely hilarious in how each one finds some new way to be bad. Truly remarkable.
 
The Adder

The Adder

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,087
Pop-O-Matic said:
This is an incredibly gatekeepy, "only TRUE FANS should be allowed to work with this IP." take.
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Nah. We're talking about products being created purely to bank on the nostalgic love of the original IP. This isn't comics where the characters have all existed in an unbroken perpetuity for nearly a century, meaning everyone was the demographic for some iteration. Nor is this a completely new, original take on the characters derived from someone's love of the concept and desire to do something with it. This is a cynical corporate ploy to play on the nostalgia of people who loved the program when they were kids.

As such, there is literally 0 opportunity for a script written by people who were never young enough to unironically enjoy the Powerpuff Girls to turn out well. They are literally just taking blind guesses at what they think people want to see.

I'm not even talking about the poor quality of the dialogue or the lame, jaded, cynical premise. A cynical, jaded PPG show with bad dialogue written by someone who knows what made the show good in the first place is infinitely more likely to still hit the right beats than someone who looks at the original show and brushes it off as kiddy shit because they were never kids when it was around.
 
Jintor

Jintor

Saw the truth behind the copied door
Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,402
i'll be honest if this script was pitched as "This is the Powerpuff Girls... but edgy" and didn't have the straight-up powerpuff branding or whatever I think I'd like it a lot more. It goes so far over the edge it starts to circle around to being kinda funny again.
 
Schlorgan

Schlorgan

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
14,932
Salt Lake City, Utah
deadline.com

‘Powerpuff’: The CW Boss Mark Pedowitz Expands On Decision To Rework, Repilot Live-Action Reboot: “This Was Just A Miss”

The CW's Mark Pedowitz expanded on the decision to rework 'Powerpuff,' the channel's live-action reboot of the Cartoon Network original.
deadline.com deadline.com

"The reason we do pilots is sometimes things miss, this was just a miss," he said during The CW's upfront press call on Tuesday. "We believe in the cast completely, we believe in Diablo and Heather, the writers… in this case, the pilot didn't work."
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tenor.gif
 

Deleted member 3208

Oct 25, 2017
11,934
I just want to know who thought this was a good idea.
 
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