Cameron Crowe, John Cusack Slam ‘Say Anything…’ TV Series

In the footsteps of MTV’s successful Teen Wolf, networks have begun circling teen Eighties movies as inspiration for new television series. It was recently revealed that a show based on Tom Hanks’ Big was in the works, and now Deadline reports that NBC is planning a series that would revisit Cameron Crowe’s cult romantic comedy Say Anything… for the next generation. The Aaron Kaplan-produced series already received a script commitment from NBC with Better Off Ted‘s Justin Adler onboard to write it, but immediate objections from Crowe has reportedly thrown the Say Anything… series “in jeopardy.”

Deadline reports that 20th Century Fox TV is legally within their rights to transform their parent company’s cinematic property Say Anything… into an NBC series without consent, but networks typically only proceed when they have the original filmmakers’ blessing. A miscommunication between parties left Crowe out of the loop, and when the director and Rolling Stone writer found out about the series that was based on his directorial debut, he loudly shared his thoughts on Twitter.

“Regarding the announcement of a “Say Anything” tv show… @JohnCusack, @IoneSkye1 and I have no involvement… except in trying to stop it,” Crowe tweeted. John Cusack, who starred in the film as Lloyd Dobler, added on Twitter, “No end to the exploitation of other people’s sincere efforts in shameless slime.” Skye, who portrayed valedictorian Diane Court in the movie, has yet to chime in on the reboot. Following Crowe and Cusack’s public displeasure concerning the new series, Deadline writes that it’s unlikely the series will get the go-ahead to proceed, despite the blind script deal.