Heroes is the brand that keeps on giving for NBC.  A cutting edge HD-DVD release, the immersing online experience, an upcoming graphic novel, a spin-off, and more.  Not bad for a show practically fresh from the womb.  Despite the phenomenal success of the show as a character piece, however, the hardcore comic book pundits have been kvetching about the lack of on-screen superhero action, particularly in the wake of Heroes season 1 finale.  For fans expecting the level of special effects driven action usually seen on the big screen, though, Heroes would need a feature film budget and shooting schedule to deliver.  So will Heroes make it to the big screen?  We asked Tim Kring and Masi Oka that very question.

Heroes, without a doubt, delivers some of the best executed effects sequences on television.  It probably doesn’t hurt that the show has Masi Oka, an ILM special effects mastermind, to rely on for advice when he’s not grunting his way around the world and through time. Still, being above the bar on television does not mean matching the pinnacle of the big screen, which comic oriented fans tend to use as a measuring stick.

Heroes makes up for the lack of $30 million effects budgets, and 90-day shooting schedules by crafting intense stories that rely more on the heightened dynamics of the story then the on-screen razzle and dazzle.  I had the opportunity to ask both men if they thought a big screen Heroes movie was in the cards for the near future.

“There’s been no serious discussion about it, and I think mainly because the show is doing everything that a movie would do,” Kring told me. “I’m not sure what story we would tell.”

Kring’s line of thinking on the show, as it has been since the inception, is that it is a character piece.   Much of the conversation was focused on the idea of using powers as a catalyst to tell a character’s emotional story, a sort of Jung like approach to character psychology.  In this sense, Heroes is as rich a story as anything on the big screen, but Heroes is still nowhere near that level of visual action that fans of movies like Fantastic Four, Spider Man, or The X-Men crave.  Of course, those films would barely be touching the richness of character if it weren’t for their print laden bedrock.

“I think it’s also very dangerous to spread the brand of a show too wide, too quickly, so we are constantly trying to sort of manage how big the brand can actually get.” Kring added, suggesting the very good point that once Heroes did become a big screen success, maintaining it as a television show may become inversely expensive and difficult.

Masi Oka was quick to point out, albeit whimsically, that ultimately such a move was up to corporate greed. “Well, with what The Simpson’s movie did, Universal might get some ideas.”

Don’t get your hopes up, though.  That example gave Kring the perfect opportunity to put the concept on ice for a while. “… after 14 years, yeah.”


- Jon Lachonis, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of NBC/Universal)