“What happens to the Chief after he escapes”: Producer Paul Zaentz confirms One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest TV series in the works

Miloš Forman's 1975 American psychological comedy-drama film One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is getting a TV adaptation. The movie was based on Ken Kesey's 1962 highly popular novel of the same name.

The TV adaptation is being developed by producer Paul Zaentz, the nephew of Saul Zaentz, the original film's producer.

Zaentz recently appeared on the indie filmmaking podcast CK Café and announced the TV adaptation of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest:

“Just now, I’ve signed an agreement with Ken Kesey’s widow to develop a TV series which we’ll make through the point of view of the Chief for the first season. Following the first season, we’ll see what happens to the Chief after he escapes [from the psychiatric hospital].”

While the 1975 film was praised and enjoyed by critics and audiences alike, Kesey infamously did not support this adaptation of his work, as it deviated from his book's point of view.

Forman's movie largely stayed true to the source material but deviated by changing the point of view of the main character.

More on the One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest TV adaptation in our story.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest TV adaptation is officially confirmed

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest follows a group of patients in a psychiatric hospital, where some of them feign mental illness and are managed by a cold and passive-aggressive nurse.

While Kesey's novel is told from the point of view of Chief Bromden (played by Will Sampson in the movie), the film deviates from this detail and is largely from the point of view of the rebellious convict Randle McMurphy, played by Jack Nicholson.

In One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, after Randle is incarcerated for the statutory rape of a minor, he feigns mental illness and is sent for an evaluation in a psychiatric hospital in Oregon. There, he resists the tyrannical head nurse and also influences his weak companions to fight back.

One of these companions is Chief Bromden, a half-Native American patient, who is just pretending to be deaf and mute. As he is coaxed out of his disguise, he becomes an important symbol of emancipation as Kesey intended in his novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.

While the movie does not take much account of Chief Bromden's character, the upcoming TV adaptation will be more in tune with Kesey and might do justice to his original vision and the source material. No additional details about the film have been disclosed yet.

Over the years, there has been much interest in adapting One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest into a TV show or spin-off series.

However, Netflix's 2020 psychological thriller television series Ratched is the only official spin-off series of the film, based on the head nurse, played by Sarah Paulson. The series was cancelled after one season..

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