sf/f TV development news - 2013

[Temis the Vorta]

But why would fans go outdoors and kill people when they can stay indoors on the internet and argue people to death?

Nah, I want Cult to be a front for recruiting humans into an extradimensional alien army. The Following will be as boring as it looks and I'll probably drop it after the first episode.

[Temis the Vorta]

Marvel projects on the way from ABC?

"The Hulk is in development," said Lee. "It wasn't going to be ready for this season, but we hope it will be ready for next season. We would like to see some Marvel projects move to television."

Lee also revealed that another Marvel project - AKA Jessica Jones - has stalled at the network.

"We did not pick it up for this season [and] we have another development which is further at the front of the queue," he said.

Other Marvel series may also be adapted for television by ABC Studios, but Lee refused to confirm specifics.

"We've got some in development, but none that I can talk about at this point," he explained. "Of course, we're immensely proud to be in a company with The Avengers and... we're going to continue to develop aggressively."

That makes sense, since OUaT began life inspired by Disney's fairy tale movie tradition. Now Marvel is Disney's pet.

They should do Dr. Strange - great synergy with OUaT and 666 Park Ave! Kick Revenge out of the 9pm Sunday slot and sub in the Sorcerer Supreme!!!

[RJDiogenes]

I'd rather see Doc Strange than the Hulk. I think Jessica Jones would have been a better choice, too, because she would have a lot of guest heroes.

[Wereghost]

Guy Gardener wrote:

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I wonder if Moffat is wondering if this will interfere with the DVD sales of his Jekyll series from a couple years back?

I'm not sure that it did too well. A sequel was planned but hasn't materialised. Also, it's now on Netflix (over here anyway).

RJDiogenes wrote:

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I'd rather see Doc Strange than the Hulk. I think Jessica Jones would have been a better choice, too, because she would have a lot of guest heroes.

No comment.

[Temis the Vorta]

Here are the genre show trailers (and a buncha other crap about country music and firefighters.)

ABC: 666 Park Ave, Zero Hour, Last Resort and Neighbors, but do yourself a favor and skip that last one.

NBC: Revolution and Do No Harm.

[JD]

Definitely a no on Neighbors, but 666 Park Avenue and Last Resort both look like they have potential.
EDIT: Zero Hour looks pretty cool too.

[Caliburn24]

Last Resort and Revolution are by far the most interesting looking of next Fall's crop. But both look so front loaded and expensive that they are going to have to pull great ratings to survive.

Plus(and it is just speculation) I very much doubt either show really has a concrete idea what they are going to do after their big expensive pilot episodes. Last Resort especially does not seem like a show that can sustain that premise for very long. At least not if it hopes to maintain the sense of realism that the trailer indicated.

[Temis the Vorta]

Last Resort especially is one where I wonder, how far did they think this through? If Andre Braugher is aghast at the idea of killing innocents, his nukes aren't much of a threat. I can't imagine how he'd be able to find a target that's guaranteed to hit only "the bad people who are behind all of this."

Also: didn't he know that taking orders to nuke a country, no questions asked, would be a possible part of the job when he took it?

Anyway - TNT and TBS have announced their future development slates, with some genre stuff mixed in.

TNT - The Last Ship – In this exciting action/adventure project based on the popular novel by William Brinkley, the crew of a naval destroyer is forced to confront the reality of a new existence when a pandemic decimates most of the earth’s population. Michael Bay (Transformers) intends to direct the pilot if it is green lit.

TBS - Zone Lord – Conan O’Brien serves as executive producer on this sitcom with an intergalactic twist. Three roommates awake one morning to discover an evil but very hip alien has moved into their building, along with his diminutive navigator.

Zone Lord sounds like it could be fun, depending on casting.

As for tone, we won't be getting TNT mixed up with AMC anytime soon:

At TNT, whatever the form or genre, we’re using what we call the ‘popcorn mindset’ as the guiding principle behind all our development

And that goes double for TBS:

TBS’s original series are being developed to be compatible with the cable network’s two marquee off-network acquisitions, The Big Bang Theory and Family Guy.

[Temis the Vorta]

LA Noir news.

The show sounds like a sure thing, with the boss touting it already, but from what I can deduce, it won't appear till Summer 2013? I was hoping to see it sooner than that.

Frank Darabont's L.A. Noir isn't ready to be ordered as a series, but [TNT/TBS president/head of programming Michael] Wright expects to air it on Sundays, where the network is specializing in genre shows like Falling Skies.

"We're trying to build a great, fun genre night. Falling Skies, Leverage, L.A. Noir. It's Frank Darabont doing a mob LAPD crime drama set in 1940s L.A. It's smart, intense and fun. So Sunday we go big genre."

TNT's overall plans, from a different story.

As part of both networks [TBS and TNT] going to a year-round schedule in 2013, TNT we've been focusing on two pretty specific areas. Just as L.A. Noir is a Sunday night genre show meant to go after that dual gender, younger audience we have on the weekend, and our procedurals are targeted more to mid-week, a little bit older and more female. We're taking a similar approach with our unscripted stuff. We've been chasing two different categories for our first efforts. Big, cinematic exciting competition shows for Sunday night and unscripted dramas in the crime and mystery space for mid-week.

[Angel4576]

Last Resort looked interesting, but it's going to get killed in that timeslot.

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

According to Deadline Hollywood Gotham "still has a pulse at ABC and also is exploring a potential cable play" and the CW is looking to redevelop The Selection.

Preview clips for Arrow and Beauty and the Beast:

[Temis the Vorta]

Rejected pilots never just die anymore, do they? Here's the Deadline story about several pilots still kickin'.

Gotham on cable is a good idea; Grimm already has that concept covered in broadcast fashion. Something darker and crazier on FX or even AMC would be nice. It also sounds ready-made for Syfy, though probably too redundant with what Syfy is already developing.

I wish NBC would revisit The Frontier and Beautiful People, but since what I liked most about those was the premise, there's nothing stopping those concepts from coming back around.

Angel4576 wrote:

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Last Resort looked interesting, but it's going to get killed in that timeslot.

Ouch, yeah - CBS has the male audience locked up with their comedies, and ABC is going to have a challenge attracting that audience anyway, with their soaps heavy schedule. I guess the X-Factor is also an obstacle? I haven't really been following its ratings.

If anyone wants to assess the competition for any of these series, here's the schedule.

666 Park Ave would be better positioned with OUaT as the direct lead-in, but it still should do very well against older-skewing CBS and male-skewing NBC competition.

Revolution is in a good place to attract the young male audience vs Castle and Hawaii Five-0. Given the buzz it's getting, it stands a good chance of drawing people back to TV who have been alienated from it and wouldn't even consider the competition.

[Temis the Vorta]

The Selection may be in contention for midseason. New story w/additional details. I wonder what about the pilot is fudged up?

I hear the CW brass are planning to sit down with the producers of the project next week to discuss its redeveloping...instead of staying close to the source material as they did this season, they will likely use the books more of a jumping-off point the second time around.

Anyone know what the books are like? Is this a good thing or a bad thing? (My hunch is that the whole thing revolves around how much prominence is given to the romantic triangle.)

The casting is expected to change, but the CW and The Selection producer Warner Bros. TV are trying to keep the lead, Friday Night Lights’ Aimee Teegarden.

I hope they keep Gregory Peck's grandson, too, he's a serious hottie.

Also, CW's Deadman series - not heard from in a while - is ironically not dead. That one wasn't even officially picked up to pilot:

Small screen take on the DC Comics hero, the spirit of a murdered man who lives on as he inhabits other people's bodies and helps them solve crises in their own lives.

USA has a vaguely sci-fi-ish show in development...about my people, the synethetes!

FALLEN – After an accident, a gruff, macho cop — known for his “act first, ask questions later” approach — develops the rare condition of synesthesia and suddenly finds himself seeing “emotions.” His partner doesn’t quite understand this “touchy-feely” approach to solving crimes, but there’s no doubt that this new insight is helping clear cases.

[bullethead]

Last Resort kinda has the major problem of making the captain look like a loon when he refuses to launch against Pakistan and then launches a missile at Washington DC (even if he's not intending to detonate the warheads). Wouldn't that just ensure that everyone would try to bomb the shit out of the island and the sub?

[Temis the Vorta]

And didn't he know when he took the job that he might be called upon to bomb a nation, no questions asked? A bit too late to be having second thoughts now.

Plus if he's not willing to harm innocents, exactly what does he plan to shoot with his nukes? And if he's not planning to shoot anything, then his nukes are a threat to everyone around him, not a shield.