We've only managed to catch little tastes of Fox's remake of THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW that is set to hit network television in time for Halloween. Fox has been playing this fairly close to the vest thus far, but they've opened up the doors to Frankenstein Place a little wider for us to see what's going on inside. And it's… a bit strange? Stranger than even the source material would have you anticipated.
Right now, Laverne Cox looks like she's going to absolutely kill it as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, adding to the overall legacy of the iconic character that Tim Curry established. But then what strikes me about Fox's version is that it's almost too nice. It's shiny. It's colorful. It has a lot of money clearly invested in it… and gone is that down and dirty vibe that we all associate with ROCKY HORROR. It's like the family-friendly version, which does seem to take away from it a bit.
But what is truly strange is the virtual audience participation that the broadcast is seemingly going to incorporate into the production. Audience involvement is a big factor into what has made THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW the long-lasting success that it is… but can you really fake that? Can you try to make that a faux element of the show rather than something passionately organic? We'll have to see in the final cut, but, for now, it does seem weird.
THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW premieres on Fox in October.