Top 10 Movies That Should Be Made into TV Shows

Nearly thirty years after their Saturday in detention, people still wonder what became of the Breakfast Club. Given the untimely death of John Hughes, we’ll likely never know. Nevertheless, a show set at Shermer High School can explore how all the cliques and insecurities that accompany young adulthood have and haven’t changed since the original Brat Pack graced the big screen. At its best, a “Breakfast Club” show would be smart, funny, and speak for every generation of teenagers. At its worst, we’ll get something like the short-lived “Ferris Bueller” and “Uncle Buck” shows.

With its first six movies, “The Fast and the Furious” franchise perfected its formula for success. Take a few macho guys, give them fast cars, sprinkle in some beautiful women, chases, and explosions for good measure, and you’ve got a kickass action blockbuster. That’s pretty much all Universal Studios would have to bring to the table for a “Fast and the Furious” series to work. The franchise will feel right at home on television since so many shows center on heists, automobiles, and outlaws being pursued by the police anyway.

In two and a half hours, Christopher Nolan packed more exposition, ideas, and philosophies into “Inception” than most storytellers incorporate into the entire run of a TV show. With that said, imagine what Nolan and company might accomplish with a series set in the “Inception” universe. Each week, a team of dream-stealers ventures into a new target’s mind and implants an idea into their subconscious. Seeing how dreams have unlimited possibilities, so would the story ideas and settings for “Inception: The Series.” Plus, maybe we’ll at last find out if Cobb’s top stopped spinning.

When FX adapted “Fargo” into a series, audiences were shocked by how faithfully the showrunners recreated the film’s writing, tone, and dark humor. Since they managed to do one Coen Brothers masterpiece justice, a “Big Lebowski” TV drama isn’t out of the question either. “The Big Lebowski” series could work as a prequel concerning how Jeff Lebowski became The Dude and Walter Sobchak’s Vietnam days. Of course, we’d also abide a sequel series about The Dude getting acquainted with the little Lebowski and replacing his valued rug.

The “Alien” franchise has already been further explored in sequels, prequels, crossovers, video games, and comics. A TV show just seems like forgone conclusion. As for the plot, how about we finally get a proper origin story that reveals where the Xenomorph species came from, what happened on the derelict spacecraft carrying all those alien eggs, and what the deal with “Prometheus” was...or just show us cool spaceships and aliens attacking people. As long as Winona Ryder’s not involved, we’ll tune in to watch.

With eight movies in the canon and a spinoff trilogy in development, we should be content with “Harry Potter.” On the other hand, you can never have too much of the boy who lived. The Potter-verse is open to numerous TV concepts, from a drama about an underdog Quidditch team going for the World Cup, to a sitcom about Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan sharing a flat in London, to a reality show starring the Dursley family. Dedicate an entire channel to original Potter-themed content while you’re at it.

It’s probably too late for the original mean girls to reprise their roles for a TV continuation along the lines of “Clueless.” Since high school hasn’t changed much since 2004, though, a sitcom can always follow a new class of Plastics. The only person who must return is Tina Fey, whose screenplay so hilariously captured the teen lingo with one-liners people still quote to this day. If the project is left in anyone else’s hands, we’ll just get another ABC Family sequel. Come on, Tina, let’s make fetch happen already!

The cast of this nostalgic classic might be more ancient than One-Eyed Willie himself, but that doesn’t mean “The Goonies” can’t still make a small screen comeback. The series could follow the adventures of the grownup Goonies and their children, as proposed for the long-awaited theatrical sequel, or the gang could return in animated form. The latter would benefit from never having to age the kids and being able to send them on exploits too costly for live-action. Either way, we’d be guaranteed more exciting treasure hunts and truffle shuffles.

“The Matrix Reloaded” didn’t quite live up to expectations and “Matrix Revolutions” was flat-out garbage. Even if the Wachowskis’ alienated some fans with “The Matrix” sequels, the universe they created still has an immensely alluring lore. Television might be the ideal venue for the franchise to redeem itself, allowing more time to flesh out characters and ideas. Be it live-action or in the spirit of “The Animatrix,” it’d be great to see the series cover anything from the creation of the Matrix, to Morpheus’ origins, to the machine war’s aftermath.

Before we pitch our top pick to the TV networks, here are a few honorable mentions:
- “Looper” (2012)
- “The Last Starfighter” (1984)
- “Sin City” (2005)
- “Groundhog Day” (1993)

Of all the standalone movies that have come out in the past decade, none has left audiences pining for more more than “The Incredibles.” Brad Bird’s instant classic was tailor-made for further adventures in movies, comics, and television. The potential for an “Incredibles” animated series is endless, pitting the superhero family up against villains like Bomb Voyage and The Underminer every week. With Bird’s masterful creativity at the show’s helm, an “Incredibles” cartoon would surely deliver the comedic wit of “The Simpsons” meets the colorful action of “The Avengers.”

Do you agree with our list? What movies do you want to see turned into TV shows? For more entertaining Top 10s published every day, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.