sf/f TV development news - 2013

[Temis the Vorta]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

It's definitely not Ghostbusters - I have an earlier summary that may actually be a little spoilery so I'll code it.

Spoiler: 666 Park premise

666 Park (ABC) - drama about an innocent couple from the Midwest that moves to New York and gets hired to be resident managers of a building on the Upper East Side where unbeknownst to the couple, the residents have all unwittingly made deals with the Devil to have their deepest needs, ambitions and desires fulfilled.

This one is more Ghostbusters:

Ghost Ghirls (SyFy) - executive produced by Jack Black, Ghost Ghirls is a comedic take on popular paranormal procedurals like Medium and Ghost Whisperer about two women - Heidi, who has self-proclaimed psychic abilities, and Angelica, who is a tech wiz - who attempt to solve paranormal mysteries each week while trying to prove to themselves and their customers that they are competent ghost hunters.

I don't get the sense that CBS is as big on genre stuff as the other networks are. That show they have about the doctor who sees his dead wife or something is more their style - afterlife-oriented spiritual stuff, which is technically sf/f but very different in its appeal.

 

[Christopher]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

I don't get the sense that CBS is as big on genre stuff as the other networks are.

They never have been. Of all the broadcast networks, CBS has historically been the one with the lowest ratio of genre to non-genre shows in its lineup. (If by "genre" we mean SF/fantasy/supernatural, that is. They've had plenty of stuff in the mystery genre, courtroom genre, etc.)

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

...and the other Beauty and the Beast pilot gets a greenlight. This is from ABC, based on the original fairy tale (as opposed to the CW version, which is a remake of the series with Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman.)

...the drama project is described as is a period/fantastical reimagining of the classic fairy tale set in a mythical, dangerous world wherein a beautiful and tough Princess discovers an unlikely connection with a mysterious beast. It is eyed as a potential companion for Once Upon A Time in the Sunday 9 PM slot. Both Once Upon A Time and Beauty And The Beast feature characters from classic Disney movies, including Snow White, Prince Charming, Belle and the Beast.

I vote for Josh Holloway to play Gaston. He'd also make a good Beast, but it would be a crime against humanity to hide him under all that makeup.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

Well, we can thank the success of Once Upon A Time for adding a little variety to TV. And I say "little" because I guess we'll now be in for a spate of fairy tales.

 

[JD]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

I wonder if maybe we'll be able to get that Fables adaptation they started on a few years back. Or would that be deemed to similar to OUAT?

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

I could see another network (CBS or FOX is all that's left without any fairy tale shows) picking up a series that is very similar to OUAT. Networks like to copy each other rather than be stunningly original. Cable might get into the act - TNT or SyFy for instance.

However, I haven't heard of any fairy tale shows in development other than the ones that have been picked up. Lots of witches and ghosts going begging, tho.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

CW is riffing on Hunger Games! They just greenlighted the pilot for...

The Selection, which until recently had flown under the radar, also hails from WBTV. Based on the forthcoming series of books by Kiera Cass, it is described as an epic romance set 300 years in the future that centers on a poor young woman who is chosen by lottery to participate in a competition to become the next queen of a war-torn nation at a crossroads.

Also going to pilot at the CW:

...romantic time-travel musical Joey Dakota ... based on the successful Israeli half-hour series Danny Hollywood, it centers on a documentary filmmaker who travels back in time to the 1990s, where she meets and falls in love with the rock-star subject of her film. When she unexpectedly returns to present day, she must find her way back to the past to reunite with her love and prevent his untimely death.

The Selection sounds interesting, Joey Dakota a lot less so.

Pilot season is winding down a bit early this year, but there are a few sf/f series still in contention.

A "Jeckyll & Hyde" drama at ABC - I've heard of two in contention, one of which centers on "a female criminal psychologist in San Francisco who is drawn into the mysterious world of a brilliant but inhibited scientist and his volatile alter ego."

The "Jon Favreau/Roberto Orci/Seth Green/Michael Dougherty sci-fi drama" at ABC is Ex-Comm, or used to be called that, basically a government-backed X-Files (sorta spoils the fun, doesn't it? )

Hieroglyph (FOX) and Revolution (NBC) - action-adventure series that may have sf/f elements, details as yet being skimpy.

With the CW picking up several pilots, looks like they've passed on Deadman.

So far, not much news from cable-land...

 

[Christopher]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

The "Jon Favreau/Roberto Orci/Seth Green/Michael Dougherty sci-fi drama" at ABC is Ex-Comm, or used to be called that, basically a government-backed X-Files (sorta spoils the fun, doesn't it? )

Umm... huh? The X-Files was about a pair of FBI agents. They were government-backed, weren't they? (Although, granted, grudgingly so.)

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

They were rebels and powerful folks in the big bad gubmint were against them, so they got to be the underdogs. People like stories about underdogs. Here's how Ex-Comm is described:

Ex-Comm (ABC) - follows a newly-elected President and his top secret “Executive Committee” (a.k.a. Ex-Comm), the government’s covert team of America’s most elite minds who investigate and protect our nation from the strangest occurrences and “conspiracy theory truths” out there.

Might work, but it strikes me as taking a familiar story and then deleting a big part of the reason it was so successful.

Then again, maybe the new Prez is a starry-eyed idealist who doesn't realize that aliens already control everything.

 

[bullethead]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

They were rebels and powerful folks in the big bad gubmint were against them, so they got to be the underdogs. People like stories about underdogs. Here's how Ex-Comm is described:

Ex-Comm (ABC) - follows a newly-elected President and his top secret “Executive Committee” (a.k.a. Ex-Comm), the government’s covert team of America’s most elite minds who investigate and protect our nation from the strangest occurrences and “conspiracy theory truths” out there.

Might work, but it strikes me as taking a familiar story and then deleting a big part of the reason it was so successful.

Then again, maybe the new Prez is a starry-eyed idealist who doesn't realize that aliens already control everything.

They better not have aliens, otherwise they might give 2K grounds to sue them for ripping off the X-COM franchise.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

Also going to pilot at the CW:

...romantic time-travel musical Joey Dakota ... based on the successful Israeli half-hour series Danny Hollywood, it centers on a documentary filmmaker who travels back in time to the 1990s, where she meets and falls in love with the rock-star subject of her film. When she unexpectedly returns to present day, she must find her way back to the past to reunite with her love and prevent his untimely death.

The Selection sounds interesting, Joey Dakota a lot less so.

Presumably, the time travel is some kind of unexpected and uncontrollable event. If somebody had the ability to travel through time, I think the 1990s would probably be pretty low on the list of destinations.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

If Ex-Comm doesn't have aliens, they might as well not bother. But they should change the name - it sounds like something embarrassing you buy at the drugstore.

Couple more pickups at ABC.

Michael Green’s Gotham, from 20th Century Fox TV, centers on a female cop who, after pursuing a seemingly unsolvable case, discovers a magical world that exists within New York City.

Zero Hour, written and executive produced by Paul Scheuring is through ABC Studios. A bizarre twist of fate pulls a man who’s spent 20 years as the editor of a skeptics magazine into one of the most compelling conspiracies in human history.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

Here's a Cartoon Network show that could be a lot of fun, if it's not pitched solely to the kid audience:

Nep League.

game show which transports contestants into magical, videogame-like worlds

For the sake of fairness, I am forced to report that Zombies and Cheerleadershttp://www.thefutoncritic.com/devwatch/zombies-and-cheerleaders/ has gone to pilot. From Disney.

The story follows Zed Necrodopolis, a typical high school student with one small caveat; he happens to be a zombie. Despite a high-tech wristwatch designed to curb any appetite he may have for his classmates, he and his zombie friends remain unpopular with the school's most influential group, the pom-pom wielding cheerleaders. Never one to back down from a challenge, Zed sets out to improve zombie student body relations and win the attention of Addison, the cheerleading squad's newest member.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

Yeah, right. Over her dead body.

Oh, wait....

 

[Enterprise is Great]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

More Beautiful People casting

The Ghost Whisperer alum David Conrad and Tovah Feldshuh round out the cast of NBC’s drama pilot Beautiful People. Conrad will play Jerry, the head of Universal Kinematics, a Steve Jobs-type of entrepreneurial genius, expert at both high-level design and higher-level marketing of sophisticated Mechanical servants. Feldshuh will play the head of the Mechanical Control Division of the police department who is determined to keep them a cowed, servile underclass.

First casting for Last Resort

Daniel Lissing (The Cure) is the first actor cast in ABC’s drama pilot Last Resort, from Shawn Ryan and Karl Gajdusek. The Sony TV-produced project centers on the crew of the U.S.S. Nevada, a nuclear submarine, who, after disobaying a suspicous order, become fugitives. They land on the island of Sainte Marina, where they take over the NATO Listening Station and declare themselves an independent nuclear nation. Lissing will play a member of the crew, SEAL officer James King, a lethal killer with no ties back home.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

S'funny, as familiar as Tovah Feldshuh's name is, I can't recall having once seen her in anything before.

Daniel Lessing looks just like Duke from Haven.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

Kevin Bacon To Star In Kevin Williamson’s Serial Killer Fox Pilot

Kevin Bacon is headed to primetime. In a big casting coup, I’ve learned that the feature actor is set to topline Kevin Williamson’s Fox drama pilot. This marks the first major series role for Bacon who had been heavily pursued by broadcast and cable networks for years. But in a twist, I hear that Bacon has committed to doing 15 episodes a season vs. the standard 22 for a broadcast series.


The untitled Kevin Williamson project, from Warner Bros TV and Williamson’s studio-based Outerbanks Entertainment, is described as an edge-of-the-seat thriller about a diabolical serial killer who uses technology to create a cult of serial killers, and a retired FBI profiler (Bacon) who finds himself in the middle of it.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

That is awesome news about Kevin Bacon, but I wasn't exactly sure that show was "genre" (I think by "technology," they just mean the internet, not something sci fi) so I haven't been following it.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

JJ Abrams' Revolution has been picked up to pilot at NBC, and sure enough, it's sci fi.

...a high-octane action drama following a group of characters struggling to survive and reunite with loved ones in a world where all forms of energy have mysteriously ceased to exist.

Weird concept, not sure how that's going to play out in a weekly series, but at least it's different, and it's nice to see an ambitious premise for a change. No magic cops or vampires.

PS, I'm sure that description means "man made" forms of energy because if the Sun has ceased to exist, that's going to be a very short series.

My first question is whether this scenario is "natural" - a product of humans running through all energy sources - or does it happen as a bolt from the blue, and nobody knows why? I figure it's gotta be the latter because the former is pretty crazy. We'd screw up the climate beyond repair before we used up all the oil and coal deposits on the planet. Which means there's bound to be an overarching mystery element.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

Re: sf/f TV development news - 2012

^^^

That reminds me of the novel Ill Wind. In that book there's a huge oil spill and the oil company tries to clean up the spill using this organism they've created that eats oil. It winds up destroying all the oil in the world including rubber products or anything else oil based. Everything after that goes all Mad Max.