I have not yet seen all of Doug Liman’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith. This is due to a couple of reasons, but the biggest one is that Fox doesn’t always like to invite me to their press screenings. I did catch some of it on a plane, a couple of weeks back, and while I was in LA I was trapped in the Beverly Center for six hours and paid money to go see the film (just the second film I paid for all year – the truly wonderful Me And You And Everyone We Know was the first), but managed to pass out four minutes in or something. I woke up for the big action finale, loved it and eagerly await seeing this whole thing on DVD.
But that film won’t be the only small screen love I give to Mr. Liman soon – he’s developing what sounds like a perfectly excellent TV series for NBC called Heist. The premise is simple – Ocean’s 11 for TV. A group of thieves get together and plan to rob three Beverly Hills jewelry stores – on the night of the Oscars. The show will follow the team as they plan and implement the heist, taking the whole season to tell the story.
Seriously, I love this. I love that maybe TV shows will no longer be about these long, open ended stories where the status quo must be maintained. I love seeing the shows coming out that have built in shelf lives, that have a central story to tell, and that have a beginning, middle and end. I really love that TV shows are being conceived as long stories with an eye on DVD sales.
The show will be a midseason premier, and will have 13 episodes. Future seasons would have different heists in different cities. Sounds good to me.