TV pilots
In August 2016, a television adaptation of The Lost Boys was revealed to be in the works at The CW, to be developed by writer Rob Thomas in association with Gulfstream Television and Warner Bros. Television (WBTV). In addition to writing, Thomas was to executive produce the project via Spondoolie Productions, alongside his frequent collaborators Danielle Stokdyk and Dan Etheridge, as well as Gulfstream's Mike Karz and Bill Bindley. Juliana Janes, the head of Gulfstream Television, was instrumental in putting the project together and oversaw the project for the company. Gulfstream originally pitched the idea to remake The Lost Boys as a television series through the company's overall deal with WBTV. Also under an overall deal with WBTV, Thomas later boarded the project with a new take on the film and, with two networks pursuing, Thomas' pitch landed at The CW.
A re-imagining of the original film, the series was imagined as a seven-season anthology-style story spanning 70 years, with each season chronicling a decade. The first season was to be set in San Francisco during the Summer of Love in 1967. The series' setting, antagonists, human characters, and story would change each season, with only the titular vampires remaining the same as the series was to explore what it really means to be immortal. While the project did not go to pilot during the 2016-17 development season, the network remained invested in the property. As Thomas became preoccupied with his work on his Veronica Mars revival, Heather Mitchell joined The Lost Boys as a writer and executive producer to redevelop the project, which landed a pilot order in January 2019. The new logline for the series read:
"Welcome to sunny seaside Santa Carla, home to a beautiful boardwalk, all the cotton candy you can eat…and a secret underworld of vampires. After the sudden death of their father, two brothers move to Santa Carla with their mother, who hopes to start anew in the town where she grew up. But the brothers find themselves drawn deeper and deeper into the seductive world of Santa Carla's eternally beautiful and youthful undead".
In February, Catherine Hardwicke was hired to direct the pilot episode and two of the three lead roles had been cast with Tyler Posey as Michael Emerson, one of the brothers, and Kiele Sanchez as their mother, Lucy Emerson. Medalion Rahimi and Dakota Shapiro were additionally announced in main roles as Stella and David, respectively. Posey, Sanchez, and Shapiro took on roles that were previously played by Jason Patric, Dianne Wiest, and Kiefer Sutherland in the original film, while Rahimi's Stella is a version of the Star character played by Jami Gertz. Casting continued with Sarah Hay, Cheyenne Haynes, and Haley Tju added as series regulars. Hay was cast as Mollie, a vampire turned by David who has become his rival for leadership of the vampire gang. Meanwhile, Haynes and Tju were tapped to portray the Frog Sisters, Liza and Cassie, respectively. The characters are a gender-flipped version of the Frog Brothers, Edgar and Alan Frog, played by Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander, respectively, in the original film. In March, Rio Mangini joined the main cast as Sam Emerson, one of the lead brothers, alongside Del Zamora as Frank Garcia, Lucy's father.
After The CW passed on the pilot in May, once again deciding to retool the project though this time off-cycle, Warner Bros. Television released the entire cast of the pilot the following month with the exception of Rahimi and Shapiro, whose options were extended. The duo were set to co-star in the new, reworked pilot, which was scheduled to film by the end of 2019. The second pilot began filming but was affected by the 2019 COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this the pilot was pretty much finished, but was also not accepted on 15 May 2020. Nonetheless, CW continued to emphasize the project as a passion project. In January 2021, the latest pilot was stated to still be in consideration, but in September, it was officially confirmed that The CW would not move forward with the project.
