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I recently discovered that one of my favorite sci-fi feature films, Limitless got a continuation as a series.

Then I discovered a new sci-fi topic in Sense8, which is a series. It was created by Wachowskis, who have much experience in starting as successful feature films, e.g. Matrix.

I want to understand why a series format was chosen in the fist place this time by them. I did a web search for "sense8 why series not feature film", which gave several links, one is the wiki on the film and others are https://www.wired.com/story/sense8-finale-death-of-weird-sci-fi/ and https://www.tvovermind.com/sense8-turned-feature-film/.

The second link states there is a strong case for a feature film now. But I wonder why they did not make one in the first place rather than a series.

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    Because TV is where it's at for great character driven story telling. The ensemble cast would get nowhere near the screen time or exploration of their characters' stories if it were a film. Netflix was also looking for niche projects when they started out, so it seemed like a good fit.
    – Darth Locke
    Commented Jan 6, 2020 at 13:39
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    The interesting thing about Sense 8 is how much it's like David Mitchell's work, which he came to work on Sense 8 at some point. And as some may know, the Watchowski's also adapted his novel, Cloud Atlas. Cloud Atlas itself, like Stephen King works, all tie into other work, as The Bone Clocks really started to let readers see the bigger picture and the war at large. What Sense 8 was doing was similar and the TV format let them world build in a good way.
    – Darth Locke
    Commented Jan 6, 2020 at 13:45
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    @ Darth Locke, Cloud Atlas movie I liked, it is a long one, I see you making point that for sense8 even 3 hours would be too short. I actually not sure I grasped meaning of Atlas from movie; does book provides clear understanding?
    – Marisha
    Commented Jan 6, 2020 at 14:08
  • I would say the book does make some things more understandable (the connection between time periods/reincarnation), but I give the Watchowski's credit for not spoon feeding the audience a ton of exposition---however Cloud Atlas is kind of an aside to the bigger picture that The Bone Clocks opens itself up to. There are beings trying to decant human souls and there is a war going on throughout time...A character from Black Swan Green & another from Cloud Atlas show up in the novel too. I also can't wait for his next book coming out this summer: Utopia Avenue.
    – Darth Locke
    Commented Jan 6, 2020 at 15:01

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J. Michael Straczynski said:

Andy and Lana began looking for new challenges and thought it could be really cool to try their hands at television

source

Apparently Lana called him up and said

Why don’t you come up to San Francisco and stay at the house for a few days, and let’s figure something out to do together for television?

source

So it seems that the original plan was to make a series, and that the specific ideas for Sense8 were fleshed out afterwards.

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