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EXCLUSIVE: Andrew Meieran and his Bureau of Moving Pictures has acquired rights to make a movie about Rod Serling, the Twilight Zone creator who left behind a remarkable legacy of sci-fi and fantasy work. Stanley Weiser, who wrote Wall Street with Oliver Stone, will script the movie. Serling’s widow Carol Serling will be a producer along with Meieran.
Before he became an iconic TV figure, Serling had a life of struggle that included a stint as a paratrooper and member of the demolition squad in the Army during WWII. Stationed in the Philippines, he saw more than his share of death as the US battled the Japanese, and his experiences would inform much of what he would write later. He worked his way into radio and then became a TV writer who found his niche with the CBS series Twilight Zone, a series that elevated scripted television with thought-provoking science fiction tales, each with a great and unexpected plot twist. The segments have influenced a legion of TV and feature writers to this day. If you don’t understand the reference “It’s a cook book!,” you could do worse than go back and watch the original episodes.
Serling hatched another memorable TV anthology series a decade later in Night Gallery. Movies were made from both series, there’s a lively Tower Of Terror theme-park ride that incorporates Serling and a haunted hotel, and Serling also co-wrote with Michael Wilson the script for the 1968 sci-fi classic Planet of the Apes, based on the Pierre Boull novel. Serling died at 50, from complications stemming from chain-smoking cigarettes his entire adult life.
“Rod Serling was one of the true visionaries in television history,” Meieran said. “He single-handedly broke the mold and established television as a powerful artistic medium capable of changing the world when used wisely.” Meieran, who comes from a real estate investment background, (the Edison in downtown LA is his, and he’s acquired Clifton’s Cafeteria and is restoring it), has wrapped his directing debut. Highland Park stars Danny Glover, Parker Posey and Billy Burke in a drama about a group of lifelong friends whose jobs fall victim to budget cuts. The film’s in post-production.
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Meieran is the guy who owns the Edison club downtown (among other properties). He’s got ton$ of cash and WME support behind him so let’s see what he does with it.
Cash it doesn’t mean anything so bigdeal he has tons of cash so what I see people that have alot of money eat ham sandwiches and chicken… So they have a big house so thay have 10 cars a swimming pool are they really happy? I don’t know..
Fantastic! I’ve always thought Rod Serling’s life would make for a really interesting film.
Congrats Hollywood – sometimes you do get things right!
cast Liev Schreiber in the role, please…
Dream casting.
Nestor is for the telepic.
Nestor Carbonell should play Serling.
Serling is good but where’s my Johnny Carson bio pic?
Rod Serling was fascinating man and a huge inspiration. Love his quote on his imdb page, ‘If you need drugs to be a good writer, you’re not a good writer.’
I’m looking forward to this biopic already.
Awesome news. Rod Serling was a genius.
Serling was one of a kind, what that guy wrote for one half hour show, people still to this day cant pull off with two hours and a 200 million dollar budget.
now this is a movie I would pay to see
Serling wrote some of the most important teleplays for television anthology series back when TV was mostly done live.
You know who should have been hired for this? Christopher Weekes. Anyone who has read “Muppet Man” knows that he could have done something incredible with this story. Weiser just seems way to down the middle for this.
“Well, Anthony, you wished them away into the cornfield and their mommy and daddy were real upset.”
Finally!
Serling always creeped me out when he popped out of nowhere. You never saw any minorities on the “Zone”.
I don’t understand, are you saying you would have preferred to be creeped out by a “black guy” popping out of nowhere?
You speak from complete ignorance. There were plenty of minorities. Try watching, “The Big Tall Wish” for starters.
There were in a few episodes.
But then, just how many were there on TV at all in those days?
Ivan Dixon was in two episodes: The Big Tall Wish & I Am The Night-Color Me Black, others had a single appearance.
The networks didn’t want many minorities as the sponsors would cancel if a show had them.
Serling had to buck the network to get many shows done at all, let alone have the cast he wanted.
What about the George Takei episode, “The Encounter”?
The Twilight Zone was actually the first television program to have a black family cast in a non-specific role – meaning they could have been any race and it wouldn’t have changed the story (The Big Tall Wish). Serling himself was a lifelong champion against prejudice.
And don’t forget how many strong, independent female roles Serling wrote for The Twilight Zone for so many great actresses (off the top of my head, Lois Nettleton in “The Midnight Sun,” Anne Francis in “The After Hours,” Inger Stevens in “The Hitch-Hiker,” Agnes Moorehead in “The Invaders”), at a time when the only women on TV could only be one of two models: the Donna Reed housewife or Lucille Ball comedienne/clown. Even Serling’s (and The Twilight Zone’s) greatest episode, “The Eye of The Beholder,” features a woman wrapped in bandages, standing in for ALL of us. Serling was a true pre-60s visionary who anticipated the 60s themselves, an avatar ahead of his time in this and so many other ways.
…Or the Mexican lead and his Mexican father and family in the episode “Dust”. For the era Serling made sure there were an incredibly large numbers of minorities and female leads… unheard of in the late 50s and early 60s.
No offense to Rod Serling or The Twilight Zone but really, who cares enough to pay money to see this? What is so compelling about his story? What am I missing?
Really?
Rod Serling was an incredibly fascinating man. From his service during WWII to his legendary battles w/ the censorship of the 50′s & 60′s so many aspects of his life are fascinating. I, for one, would love to see a major talent like Ron Howard (who w/ his dad probably knew Serling) or Scorsese or even Aronofsky tackle such an interesting character. His contribution to complex thematic exploration in modern television narrative & how he fought to achieve/keep it is enough to make a compelling film.
Who would want to see a Rod Serling biopic? At the very least, all the people who shelled out for a movie on Ed Wood, Jr. Not to knock either Ed Wood the man nor the movie, but he was, as presented, someone who dreamed big, led with his heart and who fell way short when it came to talent. Rod Serling, however, influenced an industry as well as a multiple generations of fans and filmmakers … how is that not worthy of the big screen?
P.S.: Hopefully a movie celebrating the life of Jack Webb is not too far off.
If you feel this way . . . then you are missing nothing! We are all creatures of differing interests! You probably find the same things we do here in other areas that you gravitate to. Thank God for our differences. What a boring world it would be otherwise.
I’ve watched quite a few of the classic episodes with my 12 and 9 year old kids. They love the show and actually REQUEST to view it often. Proves just how powerful Mr. Serling’s work still is today.
Really? Serling had an interesting life, I’ve read a lot of cool anecdotes, I’d probably half-watch a documentary if it ever came on television, but a feature film on Serling? Yes, he was a genius, but it kind of feels Monty Python took care of this with the sketch about watching Thomas Hardy writing “The Return of the Native.”
How about Jon Hamm?
DING DING DING!
Will be curious to see if the film touches on the accusations of plagiarism that followed Serling throughout his career at TZ.
Well, if it does, I hope it balances any allegations or even proof of plagiarism by showing it through the accurate prism of the pure envy/jealousy/resentment so many petty, cloistered science-fiction writers exhibited towards Serling both in front and behind his back–especially the granddaddy of them all, Ray Bradbury, who maintains and harbors the grudge against Serling and the overwhelming success of The Twilight Zone to go beyond the sheltered, shallow walls of science fiction writers, under the thumb of “real” literature, full of self-hating loathing (they were the internet bloggers of their day), and crossover into the mainstream of American Popular Culture, far beyond the combined efforts of Bradbury and his lessers.
Yes, I too would see this. Thank-you!
All of the Actors mentioned above are too tall. Serling was vertically challenged in size, but a Giant in brain power and creativity!
He spoke at my college shortly before he died. I grew up watching him so you better believe I hung around afterwards to meet him. I went up to him and told him I really enjoyed his work. He looked and dressed exactly like he always did. Constant cigarette in his mouth. I was 20 years old at the time, 5’4″ 98 lbs. He was about my size. He was nice! Shook my hand and said thanks. I get a lot of mileage out of that when talking to sci-fi fans.
He was on the college circuit in the ’70s… I’m guessing he spoke at your school around that time. As a member of the Arts and Events Board at my university, I also had the opportunity to meet him when he was part of our lecture series in ’71/’72. In the week leading up to his talk, we had showings of Twilight Zone episodes every night. Of all the speakers, musicians or performers, Sterling was the most exciting for me!
I thought Nestor Carbonell, mentioned above, was a great suggestion!
Hamm is too handsome and way too tall.
what period of his life are they going to focus on?
About time Hollywood! Now that was a well written series.
Yes, Jon Hamm is an excellent suggestion. There is a great doc on Serling already. A fascinating man. He was tortured by his war experiences so there’s a lot of drama to be had. I would be interested in seeing this.
You may be refering to “Rod Serling: Submitted For Your Approval” which, I believe, originally aired on PBS stations as part of the American Masters series. It is excellent and I would highly recommend it to anyone who may question whether Serling is worthy of a biographical motion picture.
You’re absolutely right: I remember watching that and remarking that if anyone who didn’t know Serling or the TZ wanted to find out what made them both great, watching that doc would give them the answers! It was one of the most dramatic doc films I’ve ever seen, which is why a well-made theatrical biopic would absolutely work!
David Strathairn would make a fine Serling.
Serling is one of the few and true geniuses of TV and storytelling overall.
Can’t even talk about how great Spielberg and Lucas, and scores of others are without mentioning Serling first and foremost.
The main reason so many of the reboots of the TWILIGHT ZONE series didn’t work as well as the original?
Someone as talented and serious as Serling wasn’t running the ship.
And no…it has nothing to do with budgets and stars.
Serling was successful because he found and hired storytellers first and foremost, many of whom had no previous writing in the narrative structure of teleplays.
He found the talented short story fiction writers in sci fi, fantasy, horror, pulp – crime fiction and playwrights…and taught them how to write around commercial breaks.
He limited the bulk of his production logistics to on studio lot, interior sets.
He limited the bulk of his cast to talented, up coming theatre actors…or vastly experienced actors, who had the talent, but who he could get for cheap.
But they had the basics of the craft and training of real acting.
Not just looking good in front of the camera. Or on a bill board.
And more important than anything else, he had social messages,
themes to get across about the human condition.
He just wrapped it all up in great candy.
A story folks.
A great story with a great message.
Yeah…learning lessons.
This was never meant to be rocket science.
Just a lot of hard work.
Don’t overlook one of the main reasons why every TZ reboot has failed: they don’t shoot in black & white! TZ was “the middle ground between light & shadow,” which is the very definition of black & white and all those beautiful grey tones in between, that TZ’s telephotography was the epitome of. For everyone to miss this essential aspect of what we love and remember about the TZ is to overlook its essence.
Finally someone hit the nail on the head, the black and white cinematography is essential to the tone of these stories.