With its focus on reality shows, A&E is not well known for having scripted series. However, the network continues to stretch its boundaries. Most recently, A&E announced that it just went into development on a series titled ‘Bates Motel’, based on Alfred Hitchcock’s classic shocker ‘Psycho’.
According to A&E, ‘Bates Motel’ will be a prequel to Hitchcock’s classic and will follow young Norman Bates (played to creepy perfection in the original by Anthony Perkins) on his psychological journey to become one of the most famous screen killers of all time. In the 1960 film, Norman’s past with his mother was only alluded to. ‘Bates Motel’ is planning on delving into the specifics of what turns a nice mommy’s boy into a literal lady-killer. The script for ‘Bates Motel’ is written by Anthony Cipriano.
I’m torn on this one. It’s intriguing to see what can turn a man into a killer and the idea has been put to film many times. But looking into the past of a famous film slasher can go horribly awry. Director Rob Zombie gave viewers a wonderfully shocking origin for Michael Myers in his ‘Halloween’ remake (even if the second half of that film was so bad it’s not worth watching). Meanwhile, ‘Hannibal Rising’ attempted to tell the origin of Hannibal Lecter from ‘Silence of the Lambs’ and fell disastrously short of even being watchable.
I guess we’ll find out which way A&E’s ‘Bates Motel’ will go when and if it makes it to our televisions. Stay tuned for more details as we get them.
What do you think? Do you want to know exactly what makes Norman Bates tick? Or, will knowing too much (as was the case with ‘Hannibal Rising’), make Bates less frightening and more of a sympathetic character? Comment below and let us know!
