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British comedy 'Spaced,' about a couple sharing an apartment, will be renovated for Fox.
Fox has locked its orbit on "Spaced," a U.K. comedy being retooled for American auds.
Net has given a put pilot order to the project, originally created by the "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz" team of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright (as well as Jessica Stevenson). "Will & Grace" alum Adam Barr is set to adapt the show for the U.S.
"Spaced" revolves around a young man and woman (played by Pegg and Stevenson in the U.K. version) who pose as a couple in order to rent a cheap apartment. They're soon surrounded by colorful neighbors and eventually begin a flirtation.
The single-camera comedy is particularly known in Britain for its frenzied use of pop culture references -- particularly when it comes to sci-fi, horror, comicbooks and videogames.
Wonderland Sound and Vision is behind the project, as well as Warner Bros. TV (where Wonderland is based) and Granada, which holds format rights. Wonderland TV prexy Peter Johnson first discovered the show while talking to someone at a comicbook store; as a "Shaun of the Dead" fan, he quickly looked to seal the rights.
Wonderland's McG and Granada's Robert Green will exec produce alongside Barr; the extent of Pegg's and Wright's involvement is still unclear. But Johnson likens the effort to NBC's adaptation of Ricky Gervais' and Stephen Merchant's "The Office" for the U.S., with Greg Daniels in charge.
"Spaced" has been nominated for a BAFTA and an Intl. Emmy Award, among other honors. Channel 4 aired seven episodes of season one in 1999 and another seven segs of a second season in 2001.
Barr's other credits include "The New Adventures of Old Christine" and "Desperate Housewives."
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'Spaced' remake irks Wright, Pegg
"Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz" director Edgar Wright, co-writer and star Simon Pegg and producer Nira Park didn't exactly embrace the news that Fox TV is planning a U.S. remake of "Spaced," the cult sitcom they made for Channel 4 back in the late '90s.
In fact, they're rather irked.
Fox has teamed with McG and "Will & Grace" alum Adam Barr to develop the U.S. version with Granada, the U.K. company that owns the format. But no one bothered to consult or even inform the original creators about the deal before they read about it last week.
As fans of the show howled their dismay in Internet chatrooms, Wright himself weighed in with an acerbic posting on his MySpace page. He scorned the suggestion that the original "Spaced" team, which also includes co-writer and co-star Jessica Stevenson, might collaborate in any way with the American version, as Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant did so effectively (and lucratively) on the redo of "The Office."
"I don't really want to get involved, but it infuriates me that they would a) never bother to get in touch but still b) splash me and Simon's names all over the trade announcements and imply that we're involved in the same way as Ricky and Steve were with the Office," he blogged.
"It's worth stressing that I will not be profiting from this reversion, nor do they have to get permission from me to make it," he added.
"Spaced" is a surreal comedy about a man and woman who pretend to be a couple in order to get an apartment. But the situation is secondary to the pop culture references that saturate the show, and foreshadow the parodic elements of "Shaun of the Dead" (zombie movies) and "Hot Fuzz" (police/buddy actioners).
Park told Variety, "'Spaced' is such a personal show, not just to Edgar but especially to Simon and Jessica. It's not just a format to be sold. The show is all about Simon and Jessica and a group of friends that made it. Of course you can remake it without them as just a flat-share sitcom, but it would be so different that it begs the question why they needed to buy the format rights."
U.S. auds can make their own comparisons. The original "Spaced" is almost set to be released Stateside, after a long delay over the clearance of music rights.
Nonsense. At least the US version of The Office managed to branch out on its own eventually, but as Nira says, I can't see how they'll change it without wrecking the essence of the show.
If it becomes another generic comedy just about two people flat sharing - it'll be awful. However, there is an absolute plethora of American Pop Culture that could be used to help make something like this a success. It'll take a very good writing team to be able to do it justice in my opinion.
They couldn't redo Spaced for the American market as the majority of Americans wouldn't get the style of humour (our resident Colonial cousins are ofc exempt from this generalisation).
its probably an even more specific style of comedy than the Office, so it will either have to copy it outright (in which case it may be okay but suffer from direct comparison to the original) ... or if it branches out away from the style, then may as well just do a random sitcom and not link it to Spaced at all.
Yanks to remake Spaced :( :( :( 
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