I saw a brief mention yesterday of “America’s Son” being picked up by Fox:
This project focuses on a Kennedy-esque political family. When the family’s favorite son and presidential hopeful is killed in a car crash, his son (described as being a JFK, Jr. type) returns to D.C. to find out the crash that killed his father wasn’t really an accident.
But I was unaware of ABC’s venture into a similar (potential?) space with Westside:
ABC also has a Shakespeare-based project on tap called Westside, which is generally referred to as being based on West Side Story.
The Cinema Blend article goes on to talk about how far removed the projects are from Shakespeare, so that they “don’t suffer too much.” Fair enough.
But perhaps we should point them to Sons of Anarchy, which will be heading into its sixth season? The show about a motorcycle gang has long been seen as drawing upon Hamlet for its inspiration. Though I’ve never seen it (not really the kind of thing we watch at my house), I did spot the connection back in 2009.
I’ve also just realized that in my article, the creator said that he planned a 5 year run of the series to mimic the 5 acts of Hamlet. And that it’s now been renewed for a sixth season. Hmmmm.