Ron Howard and Brian Grazer are developing a reality show pilot for TNT called The Great Escape. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the series would put ordinary people in “cinema-inspired settings,” and, together, they’d work as a team to get out of them. Possible scenarios include being blindfolded and dropped off in the desert, the mountains, or a prison, or on an island. (If this sounds like a kinder version of the series Michael Bay is peddling, One Way Out, it should — they didn’t use the phrase “death-defying challenges” to describe it.)
So, from what “cinema-inspired settings,” would you like to see people escape? My first thought was from a city bus that can’t go below 50 mph — but I’m guessing that’s too dangerous. I wouldn’t mind watching ordinary people try to flee a small-town bank heist while evading real local cops, who could use the scenario as a training exercise. Again, maybe too Bay-like. I just don’t want to see Cast Away 2, 3, and 4. Let’s get creative!
Maybe someone in a cave trying to get the gold idol and then having to outrun a giant boulder? Too risky?
I wouldn’t mind rounding up the very most vapid of these reality show “stars” and having them try to escape one of Jigsaw’s traps. (Like they wouldn’t show up if you paid them enough.)
Also, it might be cool to see a group of people compete in the hedge maze from “The Shining.”
How about the actual Great Escape? the movie? Put the contestants in a Nazi POW camp and tell them that they’ve got to get out any way they can. If caught, they’re sent to the Cooler! They could tunnel, impersonate officers, jump into trucks of branches and hay, all sorts of ways.