Remember back when Corey Feldman and Corey Haim were box office mega stars and vampires didn't sparkle in the sunlight? The Lost Boys quickly became a cult classic upon its release in 1987, earning a cool $32 million at the box office while developing a following even larger than the casts hair.
However, attempts to continue the legacy of The Lost Boys have been mixed — When a sequel called The Lost Boys: The Tribe finally hit shelves, the bargain bin quickly beckoned thanks to a number of biting reviews, despite the casting of Corey Feldman and a brief cameo from the late Corey Haim.
Despite a poor critical reception, The Lost Boys: The Tribe surprised everyone by earning nearly $6 million in sales for Warner Premiere, which prompted an inferior sequel called The Lost Boys: The Thirst soon after, which also starred Feldman.
Now that The Vampire Diaries is coming to an end, the CW needs to find a new program to fill the teeth marks left by the hit vampire show and it looks like they may have found their answer in a TV remake of The Lost Boys that's just begun production.
How Will The Lost Boys TV Show Link With The Movie?
Written by Rob Thomas, the show runner behind iZombie and Veronica Mars, the new remake will be set before the events of The Lost Boys film, which means that we won't see the two brothers played by Jason Patric and Corey Haim in the original story.
Instead, this new take on The Lost Boys has been envisioned as a seven-season, anthology show that spans 70 years. Each individual season will follow the vampires in a specific decade where everything changes, but the central characters remain the same, never growing up.
The first season will be set in San Francisco during the Summer of Love in 1967, but what we're really excited to see is how the show will tackle the events of the movie in the third season, which should logically be set in the same time frame of the '80s too. If the producers are clever with this, then The Lost Boys program could give us a different point of view on the film told through the vampires perspective.
How Will The Lost Boys Be Like Vampire Diaries?
The Vampire Diaries and its spin-off The Originals have both been huge hits for CW — all those young vampire hotties certainly didn't hurt ratings — so it's probably not a coincidence that the network has begun developing another vampire-themed show around the same time that the likes of Stefan and Damon are hanging up their prosthetic teeth for good.
What this means is that The Lost Boys is likely to feature a strong emotional angle that should appeal to fans of The Vampire Diaries. Reports suggest that a central theme of the show will take a look at what it means to be immortal, outliving everyone you love while continuing to remain the same throughout.
It's certainly a strong angle and if handled right, The Lost Boys could be an even bigger hit for the CW than The Vampire Diaries ever was, appealing to a wider demographic that will be hooked in thanks to the nostalgia factor.
How Will The Lost Boys Be Like Stranger Things?
While the impending final season of The Vampire Diaries probably had a part to play in the development of The Lost Boys remake, the phenomenal success of Stranger Things should be taken into account too.
After all, a huge part of the Duffer Brothers smash hit is the shows ongoing nostalgia factor, pulling in '80s references from a wide array of sources including E.T., Stand By Me and a number of other iconic movies that featured big hair at some point. To be honest, we're shocked that a reference to The Lost Boys itself didn't sneak in at some point. Luckily, there's always Season Two.
Paying homage to previous decades paid off for Stranger Things in a huge way and so this is something that The Lost Boys will surely capitalise on as it moves through the '60s towards the present day.
Expect to play 'spot the reference' as the shows first season makes the most of its '60s setting in a nostalgia fest that's sure to bring in an even wider array of fans beyond those initially interested by the source material.
What About Rob Thomas's Involvement?
While it's likely that The Lost Boys will draw inspiration from both The Vampire Diaries and Stranger Things, the final product looks set to be a far more original show than this would make it seem.
After all, show runner Rob Thomas has a very unique sense of humor and style that's already begun to develop a fan following thanks to his work on iZombie and Veronica Mars, two cult favorites that both deserve a far wider audience.
The anthological approach has been popularised recently by Ryan Murphy's American Horror Story, but we imagine that The Lost Boys will turn out more like a cross between The Vampire Diaries and Stranger Things with the wit of iZombie and the gory, deadpan humor of the original film.
See also:
CW's 'Arrow', 'The Flash' and 'Supergirl' Will Exclusively Fight Crime From Their Brand New Home On Netflix
The True Story Behind 'Stranger Things' — 3 Secret Projects The Government Didn't Want You To Know About
'Stranger Things' Is The 'Stand By Me' Remake You Didn't Know You Needed
We have high hopes for this remake thanks to the talent involved, but no release date has been announced as of yet. While we wait for The Lost Boys to appear on our screens, remember to check out the comic book sequel that's set to hit stores on October 12 and re-watch the film's trailer to reacquaint yourselves with 'The Bloodsucking Brady Bunch'!
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What would you like to see happen in The Lost Boys TV remake?
Source via The Wrap and Fan Art via Killer Inc Designs