sf/f TV development news - 2013

[RJDiogenes]

Strange Fiction is a little higher on my list due to the connection to Eureka, one of my favorite shows.

I agree. That makes it worth checking out.

 

[TheSeeker]

CW Developing Mars Colony Drama

The 400-year-old Roanoke Colony mystery is getting a galactic twist with Colony, a drama project at The CW from CBS TV Studios and the studio-based Kennedy/Marshall Co. Written by Ian Goldberg (Once Upon A Time), Colony is a thriller about a group of explorers sent to colonize Mars, willing to leave their lives behind to brave the dangers of another planet, and the terrifying reality they discover. It is inspired by the story of The Lost Colony, the 16th century British settlement on Roanoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina, whose inhabitants vanished without a trace, sparking a slew of theories about their fate.

So they're all going to go native martian then?

 

[Enterprise is Great]

The Tannenbaum Co. Sells Drama Penned By Mark Steven Johnson To CBS

Johnson’s Generation Next is set a year after a deadly outbreak caused ordinary citizens to fly into a mindless rage. After a cure is discovered, these “Carriers” are finally allowed to return to society, and to solve crimes committed by or against the infected, the Infectious Crimes Department is formed.

 

[lennier1]

Sounds like an extremely watered down version of Psycho Pass.

 

[JD]

Not sure what to make of that one.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

NBC Buys Time Travel Dramas From Josh Friedman And Deborah Pratt

Friedman’s Lighthouse, which he is writing and executive producing through his Universal TV overall deal, is an ensemble drama set at a mysterious hotel for wayward time travelers. Pratt’s Timeless, which she also is writing and executive producing for Uni TV, centers on Alexandra King who, time traveling between earth’s future and present day, finds herself caught between two men she desperately loves, the worlds they each inhabit and the secrets that could destroy them all. “Timeless is… about provoking thought and asking the proverbial question, ‘What if?’ which is a feat and I believe that we did that incredibly well on Quantum Leap,” Pratt said. “The availability of visual effects and great human story telling happening in TV opens the medium to a whole new set of dimensions.”

 

[superdeluxe]

Love this thread, but my eyes really get peaked when I see Sci fi/fantasy + Premium network

 

[Enterprise is Great]

A & E's Occult pilot is dead

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

A & E's Occult pilot is dead

Damn. I was looking forward to seeing a James Wong original show. Guess I'll just have to make do with the episodes of AHS: Coven that he occasionally writes.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

Excalibur Drama From Jason Fuchs, Berlanti Prods.

Written by Fuchs, Excalibur centers on a young Brooklyn man who is forever changed when his life is saved by a beautiful stranger who reveals that he is the last living descendant of the very real King Arthur and that he is now at the center of an eons-old shadow war between the descendants of the Knights of the Roundtable and the forces of dark magic.

‘Wizard Of Oz’-Themed Drama ‘Red Brick Road’ In The Works At Lifetime

Written by Tim Schlattman (Dexter) based on an concept by artist Rob Prior and executive produced by Roy Lee and Adrian Askarieh, Red Brick Road is described as an edgy, Game Of Thrones take on the world of Wizard Of Oz. In the classic 1939 feature, when Dorothy set off for the Emerald City, she followed the Yellow Brick Road. But among the yellow bricks at Dorothy’s feet, there was also a swirl of red bricks. They’ve been there the whole time in plain sight. Unnoticed. Unexplored. Which raises the question — just where do they go? Red Brick Road will answer that by following Dorothy down that fateful path, taking her to the oldest, darkest and most dangerous parts of Oz to find what became of her friends who all have gone missing.

another OZ themed pilot...must be because this is The Wizard of Oz's 75th anniversary.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ I've always wondered about that, so I'm a bit intrigued. Unfortunately, the buzz words "edgy" and "dark" make me want to nod off.

The mysterious hotel for wayward time travelers piques my interest, though.

 

[JD]

Lighthouse and the Arthur drama could be cool. The other time travel show has potential, but I'm not sure what to make of the Oz one.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

Seth Gabel Cast In WGN America’s ‘Salem’

Fringe alumnus Seth Gabel is set for a lead role in Salem, WGN America’s first scripted series, from Brannon Braga, Adam Simon, director Richard Shepard and Fox21. Set in the volatile world of 17th century Massachusetts, it explores what really fueled the town’s infamous witch trials.

Gabel will play Cotton Mather, a local aristocrat who makes it his business to oversee the witch hunts in Salem.

Fox Adventure Drama From Sheldon Turner & Ken Nolan Searches For Atlantis

The project follows two estranged brothers, who — along with a ragtag crew and a billion dollar state-of-the-art vessel — begin a search for the lost city of Atlantis, discovering mysteries of the deep sea along the way.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

Cult Drama ‘Babylon Fields’ Resurrected With Pilot Order At NBC

Before AMC’s smash The Walking Dead, hit French series The Returned and ABC’s upcoming Resurrection, there was the 2007 CBS/20th Century Fox TV pilot Babylon Fields, from Michael Cuesta, Gerald Cuesta and Michael Atkinson, about a town’s residents coming back from the dead. Though it had a momentum, it missed the cut for fall 2007 and then midseason 2008, but the demise only cemented its instant cult status. Now Babylon Fields is getting a second chance at NBC, which has ordered a new pilot.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

http://www.deadline.com/2013/10/ber...with-writers-nicholas-wootton-and-julia-hart/

Greg Berlanti’s Warner Bros. TV-based company has sold two more drama projects, both to CBS: The Shrine, written and executive produced by Nicholas Wootton, and Black Oak, written/exec produced by Julia Hart (The Keeping Room)

The Shrine

The Shrine, based on the upcoming book of the same name written by Wootton’s father, Gareth Wootton, is about a struggling Catholic hospital in Los Angeles, which becomes a sensation when patient after patient is miraculously cured of cancer. Could it truly be divine intervention? A young female doctor investigates these “miracles,” to discover that there may be a murderous impostor in the hospital.

Black Oak

Black Oak centers on a woman who inherits the haunted hotel that has plagued her family with a curse for generations, forcing her to confront her dysfunctional family’s many secrets, ghosts, and demons.

 

[dansigal]

'Hieroglyph': Fox Orders Ancient Egyptian Action Adventure Straight To Series

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/...odes_n_4118598.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

 

[Vendikarr]

ABC Adapting Young Adult book series 'Beta'

Beta... is set in the near future when clones have become the enslaved work force for the wealthy. But when a new Beta model is introduced and discovers the dark truth about her own origins, she also begins to uncover secrets and lies within the utopian island community she’s serving.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

BBC America Orders ‘Intruders’; Original Series From ‘X-Files’ Alum Glen Morgan

BBC America has greenlit Intruders, an eight-episode original series based on Michael Marshall Smith’s 2007 novel The Intruders. Glen Morgan (The X-Files, Those Who Kill) is the writer and executive producer on the series that’s about a secret society devoted to chasing immortality by seeking refuge in the bodies of others.

 

[JD]

Hieroglyphs could be cool. But I'm assuming they'll go with a mostly white, and probably British, cast, instead of, you know, people who look like they could have actually lived in ancient Egypt.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

Yep, The Ten Commandments all over again.