Aeon Flux being rebooted by MTV as live-action TV series

[Spidey_62]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/aeon-flux-live-action-tv-reboot-set-at-mtv-1119290

Figured I'll start a thread for this one.

Being written by Jeff Davis of Teen Wolf, and produced by Gale Anne Hurd. Hurd has an impressive resume but she was also attached to the 2005 live action Aeon Flux movie with Charlize Theron which was crap. I hope they can do something less linear than the movie and more freaky like the cartoon, but I just wonder why they don't go and make a new animated version instead.

I feel like doing this in live action could be possible but the people doing it have to really be fans of the original. Peter Chung hasn't been consulted yet about the series yet, either.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

The only version of AF that I know is the Theron film, which I thought was pretty poor

 

[Sithborg]

I thought they were out of the scripted show game...

 

[psylockolussus]

Charlize was fierce in the film!

 

[Jh7058622]

I thought they were out of the scripted show game...

MTV still trying to get their Game of Thrones I see.

 

[LibSuperstar]

Never saw the film but IIRC MTV did re-run episodes of the animated series some years back.

 

[legendkillin]

Charlize was fierce in the film!

I forgot AF even had a movie.

 

[Thome216]

After The Shannara Chronicles I have little faith in MTV to do it right.

 

[Spidey_62]

https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/mtv-studio-daria-real-world-aeon-flux-1202853249/#article-comments

MTV Studios official announcement with several show's loglines. They're doing a reboot of Daria, too. Why in the logline for this show do they refer to the original as an anime lol? It wasn't an anime.

 

[Pennywise]

'Aeon Flux' Live-Action TV Show Reboot in the Works at Paramount+

 

[Spidey_62]

'Aeon Flux' Live-Action TV Show Reboot in the Works at Paramount+

For a while there I thought this thing was dead, we hadn't heard a peep since 2018. Paramount+ makes sense, hope it'll at least be better and more on-brand weird than the movie.

In the late 2000s after the animated DVD set sold well they wanted an animated movie from Peter Chung but weren't so accommodating on the same hand. Ideally I wish they'd just throw a bunch of money at Peter Chung, give him free reign to make that animated movie for Paramount+ and have it on there to accompany the live-action show they're making.

 

[Spidey_62]

Some related cool news, original creator Peter Chung is setting up a Patreon with lots of exciting sounding stuff to offer, like peeks at stuff he's never shared before and what he's been working on recently. Also sounds like he's hoping on making a splash on YouTube and Instagram with some animated projects.

I'm here for the Aeon Flux renaissance that better happen in the 2020s!

 

[Deck Rickard]

I hope this thing turns out better than that awful Charlize movie. It’s a tough property to adapt, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

 

[Spidey_62]

A couple new opinion articles from ScreenRant talking about the live-action TV reboot:

https://screenrant.com/aeon-flux-reboot-changes-mistakes-2005-movie-every/

https://screenrant.com/aeon-flux-movie-reboot-animated-series-good-do-justice-finally/

Also, original creator Peter Chung has an Instagram now where he's been posting all kinds of really cool behind the scenes looks at projects he's worked on. It's fun seeing all the folks be like "whoa you did this??!" I knew he did the opening theme for Rugrats and the pilot but I didn't know he actually did the iconic designs as well. Or even the designs from the 80s TMNT cartoon, or even storyboarding Optimus Prime's death in the 80s Transformers movie. Dude's done so much great stuff. I'd post a link to his IG but ya know, there's some pretty risque drawings on there that probably wouldn't fly being linked. His handle is peter_k_chung over there.

He's also been sharing some looks at the canceled Heavy Metal 3D movie which was to feature a pretty hardcore looking Aeon Flux segment. I feel sad we could have gotten more Peter Chung Aeon Flux in the 2010s and missed out but it's great seeing what could have been. That Heavy Metal 3D project ended up being retooled into Netflix's Love, Death, & Robots- which is fitting because that series drew a lot of comparisons to AF.

 

[Deck Rickard]

I want so badly for this to be good. Also, I think they really need to lean into the fetishism for this property. I’m generally against giving female superhero characters sexed up, impractical costumes but Aeon Flux did a pretty good job of being sexually exploitive to the male characters too. So as long as this series balances it out, I think it’s okay? Because it will only feel like Aeon if it’s kinky AF. And maybe push it a bit further a make all or the majority of the characters Pansexual. I don’t remember for sure if they were in the animated series but I always got the vibe that Aeon and Trevor weren’t constrained by gender when taking lovers.

 

[Spidey_62]

I want so badly for this to be good. Also, I think they really need to lean into the fetishism for this property. I’m generally against giving female superhero characters sexed up, impractical costumes but Aeon Flux did a pretty good job of being sexually exploitive to the male characters too. So as long as this series balances it out, I think it’s okay? Because it will only feel like Aeon if it’s kinky AF. And maybe push it a bit further a make all or the majority of the characters Pansexual. I don’t remember for sure if they were in the animated series but I always got the vibe that Aeon and Trevor weren’t constrained by gender when taking lovers.

I agree big time. That was a big part of the show's world and they really made it feel super vanilla and sanded down in the movie. My impression is that the design highlighted her unrestrained nature, and the nature of the show in general- whatever they try this time it's all gotta be exaggerated, weirder, more dangerous feeling. Make people uncomfortable lol.

There's a lot of hints in the show that Aeon had romantic relationships with women as well as Trevor wanting to go down on androgynous future humans and ornate bird creatures. I wasn't a fan of how the movie took all the complexity out of Trevor by making him just noble and giving him a brother to cleanly put the more evil aspects onto. The whole thing is they're interesting/difficult people, that's something that absolutely needs to be maintained for the show too- their relationships can't be dumbed down into simple good vs. bad.

I hope this is good because most of all I'd really just like to see some more of the animated version happen too. I guess at least the showrunner they've got has a track record for successfully rebooting things into shows so there's that. Peter Chung said in a comment on one of his Instagram posts that he'd actually just recently spoke to MTV about doing more again since they're reviving a lot of old toons, but they're only interested in animated comedies at the moment. He's optimistic it could change, that'd be nice cause they're sitting on cool stuff they don't seem to know what to do with.

 

[Deck Rickard]

I agree big time. That was a big part of the show's world and they really made it feel super vanilla and sanded down in the movie. My impression is that the design highlighted her unrestrained nature, and the nature of the show in general- whatever they try this time it's all gotta be exaggerated, weirder, more dangerous feeling. Make people uncomfortable lol.

There's a lot of hints in the show that Aeon had romantic relationships with women as well as Trevor wanting to go down on androgynous future humans and ornate bird creatures. I wasn't a fan of how the movie took all the complexity out of Trevor by making him just noble and giving him a brother to cleanly put the more evil aspects onto. The whole thing is they're interesting/difficult people, that's something that absolutely needs to be maintained for the show too- their relationships can't be dumbed down into simple good vs. bad.

I hope this is good because most of all I'd really just like to see some more of the animated version happen too. I guess at least the showrunner they've got has a track record for successfully rebooting things into shows so there's that. Peter Chung said in a comment on one of his Instagram posts that he'd actually just recently spoke to MTV about doing more again since they're reviving a lot of old toons, but they're only interested in animated comedies at the moment. He's optimistic it could change, that'd be nice cause they're sitting on cool stuff they don't seem to know what to do with.

Yeah I didn’t make it all the way through the movie but what I did see of Trevor I absolutely hated and Charlize wasn’t great as Aeon either (she’s excellent in most things but she couldn’t save that garbage script). It doesn’t surprise me that they sucked all the moral ambiguity out of Trevor and transferred it to that villainous brother character.

And hell yes to more animated adventures. As great as it could be to finally get a worthy live action version, I would also be perfectly happy with more toons.