David Straitharn - lead role for Alphas?

[Temis the Vorta]

Straitharn in talks for Alphas lead.

Alphas follows a team of ordinary citizens possessing extraordinary and unusual mental skills who take the law into their own hands and uncover what the CIA, FBI and Pentagon have not been able or willing to solve.

Sounds like it could easily take a shallow, silly approach but...

Strathairn would play the overseer/team leader/prescribing doctor and all around mother hen to the team: an eccentric, absent-minded professor at times, who is also a cunning and manipulative power-player willing to bend the rules in pursuit of his objectives.

So is this really the story of a guy who decides to take the law into his own hands, surrounding himself with rationalizations and a cabal of superpowered underlings, some of whom might just be in it for the fun of kicking butt? Sounds like it could be a decent premise for a series.

 

[Canadave]

Alphas follows a team of ordinary citizens possessing extraordinary and unusual mental skills who take the law into their own hands and uncover what the CIA, FBI and Pentagon have not been able or willing to solve.

"Agent Smith, any progress on that triple homicide?"

"Meh."

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Straitharn and his intrepid band of vigilante mutants will solve even the cases that are "too hot to handle!!!" They may be going for a Batman-type "lone crusader vs a corrupt society angle." I just hope they keep a healthy and mature dose of skepticism about that mentality.

 

[Anwar]

Maybe they'll finally have some character who aren't morally conflicted at all and just give us one or two that are sociopaths with "hero complexes". Guys who realize "Holy sh*t, we have super-powers beyond normal people" and just go crazy with it because they just know how awesome it is.

And I don't mean fanboy types, I mean Sin City Marv types with superpowers.

 

[Myasishchev]

^Now, I never was able to read all of JMS' (really good) Supreme Power series, but up until 17 or 18 that's how Mark "Hyperion" Milton and Zarda came off. Something like that?

Or more like Jenny "kills millions, laughs about it" Sparks and her Authority cronies?

 

[Anwar]

I mean guys like the Getter Robo pilots, where basically only people who are already crazy can handle piloting the mechs so they choose a hot-blooded vicious streetfighter, a psychopathic terrorist and a lecherous mountain bandit who scares wild bears with his roars.

Dudes who aren't concerned with the morality of their actions (much) and just realize how FUN superpowers are.

Of course, they can't be the only characters. That would get boring fast as well.

 

[Python Trek]

In the real world, most people with super-powers would be like a drunken fratboy driving a flaming dunebuggy: "Oh, shit! I think I mighta just killed that busload of kindergarteners! Oh, well...my dad'll get me a good lawyer...".

 

[Temis the Vorta]

The first question that comes to mind is, why don't these people work for the CIA/FBI/whoever right now? Why weren't they given every imaginable inducement? Maybe some supers do work for the authorities and Straitharn's guys are the ones who don't like the restrictions or are anti-gubmint tea party types or whatever.

Because you know the CIA/FBI/whoever is going to be wildly PO'ed at vigilante superheroes tromping on their turf. If this show is written with a decent amount of intelligence about how this stuff really would work, it could be great.

 

[Anwar]

If it gets past the first season, they can have a storyline about them running into a Government team meant to do the same stuff they do. Like how the 90s X-Men cartoon had them run into the Government team X-Factor a few times.

Or maybe a secondary plot in the first season would be how their actions get the government's attention and this leads to the government team's formation when they see that the idea of superhuman operatives is too good to pass up.

One thing I hope they do is realize what Heroes didn't: You can have more than one "Big Bad" operating at the same time. There can be multiple villains introduced in the first season alone (they don't HAVE to have tons and tons of depth, just enough for their initial arc and then more can be added later), just don't kill all of them. Have multiple villains co-exist instead of there always being one "Big Bad".

 

[jefferiestubes8]

Alphas

Syfy just made its final decision, giving Alphas a 11-episode order in addition to the 90-minute pilot. Production is slated to begin in Toronto early next year for a summer 2011 debut.

http://www.deadline.com/2010/12/syfy-picks-up-alphas-pilot-to-series/

Well it's a go.
Let's hope that another SyFy scripted series goes somewhere...
Any Summer debut isn't the best time for a series to start airing and we all know it.

The story is rather interesting in how it came to a series:

The series pickup is a happy ending for Alphas' long journey to the screen. In its original incarnation as Section 8, the drama was taken to NBC more than 3 years ago

the link has more details and how ABC had issues with the sci-fi (again!) when it was in development over there.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I have a feeling this is going to be just more Skiffy lightweight fribble in the Warehouse 13/Eurkea/Haven vein. I guess I'll root for AMC to do more sci fi. The Walking Dead is the kind of show that Skiffy should be doing, but rarely is capable of.

 

[Anwar]

Didn't Walking Dead have their entire writing staff fired a while back? I wasn't into the show very much, but that's definately a sign of write-off for me.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

That struck me as an odd move, but I doubt it means The Walking Dead is doomed. From what I heard, Darabont wrote or rewrote practically all the episodes anyway. Maybe he figured his staff wasn't pulling their weight and freelancers could do better at less cost.

 

[Anwar]

After "Rubicon"'s failure my faith in AMC's near perfect record was shaken. I haven't even watched WD very much to be honest.

I'm waiting for the day a network like AMC is willing to do a horror/sci-fi anthology series with a good budget. Like a modern day "Outer Limits" or "Tales from the Darkside" show that doesn't pull its punches (like those shows weren't afraid to do).

On-topic: Made in Toronto? I'm moving there next month, lucky. And also it'll give Canadians who aren't in Vancouver the chance to shine some more after "Blood Ties" ended.

 

[Aragorn]

Straitharn and his intrepid band of vigilante mutants will solve even the cases that are "too hot to handle!!!"

Too hot to handle, too cold to hold.
They called the Alpha Team and they're in control.