Tag Archives: pilot order

Eye ‘The Walking Dead’ season 5 poster; plus AMC orders companion series pilot

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Here we have The Walking Dead‘s season 5 poster (or key art), and as is tradition, it features Rick Grimes alone: arriving, surviving, and thriving on his newfound confidence and brutality. I’m not sure which is more intimidating–his silver pistol or that ever-growing beard (didn’t Michonne find him a razor awhile back?). The season’s tagline: “Hunt or be hunted.” The Termites of Terminus are, in a word, screwed.

In other Walking Dead news, AMC has ordered a pilot episode of the Walking Dead “companion series” that was originally announced last September. Let’s not call it a spinoff because although the new series will take place in the same zombie apocalypse universe as the flagship series, it will not feature any characters from it. It will follow a completely different band of survivors in a different, still unknown location (read: not in Georgia where the current series takes place). The creatives behind the flagship, namely Robert Kirkman, Gale Anne Hurd, and David Alpert, will also serve as executive producers of the companion series. Dave Erickson (Marco Polo, Sons of Anarchy), who co-created and co-wrote the companion series pilot with Kirkman, will serve as an executive producer and showrunner. The pilot is scheduled to shoot later this year, and if all goes according to plan the network will air a second Walking Dead show sometime in 2015. You want to know what I can’t wait for? Since the new series will take place in the same universe as The Walking Dead, you can bet there will be a crossover episode where Rick and co. intersect with the new survivors and that day will be epic. Jump after the break for press quotes from AMC head Charlie Collier, Kirkman, and Erickson.

The Walking Dead returns Sunday, October 12 at 9PM on AMC. Click here to watch the incredible season 5 trailer. Continue reading Eye ‘The Walking Dead’ season 5 poster; plus AMC orders companion series pilot →

FOX orders futuristic drama from J.H. Wyman & J.J. Abrams [Update: Another Abrams pilot a-go at NBC]

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With Fringe in his rearview mirror, showrunner and sometimes writer and director J.H. Wyman has a new drama at FOX to work on. Today FOX ordered to pilot an hourlong drama from Wyman and J.J. Abrams, the same auspices that brought us Walter Bishop and the rest of the Fringe family. The untitled project is being produced by Abrams’ production company Bad Robot in collaboration with Warner Bros. TV. It’s being described as “an action-packed buddy cop show set in a near future when all LAPD officers are partnered with highly evolved humanlike androids.” Yeah, count me in. Wyman is writing the script and serving as executive producer, a title he shares with Abrams, Bryan Burk, and Kathy Lingg. After the script is locked in and casting choices are made, the pilot will be made and if all goes well we’ll have another Abrams/Wyman futuristic drama on the air in the fall.

Update: Mere moments after wrapping this post news broke that another pilot headlined by J.J. Abrams was ordered by NBC. (After landing the Star Wars directing gig and two pilots at two of the major broadcast networks, somebody is having the best week ever.) This project also falls under the Bad Robot/Warner Bros. TV banners and Abrams is working closely with Alfonso Cuarón (director of Harry Potter and the Prison of Azkaban). It’s working title is Believe and the script is currently being penned by Cuarón and Mark Friedman (Home of the Brave, The Forgotten). Believe is about “the unlikely relationship between a young girl in possession of a great gift/powers — which will come into their own in seven years — and a man sprung from prison who has been tasked with protecting her from the evil elements that hunt her power.” Abrams, Cuarón, Friedman, and Bryan Burk are executive producing. Cuarón is on tap to direct.

Frank Darabont finds solace in new period project ‘L.A. Noir’

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Frank Darabont is a name you should be familiar with. He directed movies like The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. Most recently he developed the TV adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s comic book series The Walking Dead. For reasons not made public, Darabont was sacked and replaced by writer Glen Mazzara at the AMC zombie show during the time between season 1 and 2. He moved on, clearly, and today his next project was revealed: L.A. Noir. TNT has ordered a pilot for Darabont’s next TV venture which is based on a book (not the Rockstar video game) by author John Buntin’s titled L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America’s Most Seductive City. The story “chronicles the epic battle between Los Angeles Police Chief William Parker and mobster Mickey Cohen.” Also behind the project is Michael De Luca (The Social Network, Moneyball) and Elliot Webb (Tall Time Tales).

In a press release Darabont expressed his vigor in developing this new bold series. “Noir is a passion of mine, so I feel blessed to delve into a project that speaks in the hardboiled vernacular. John Buntin’s superb book, though non-fiction, is our touchstone and inspiration for the stories we’ll be telling, weaving fiction throughout the facts and facts throughout the fiction. The book provides elements that are irresistible, a big canvas with endless possibilities. The goal is to deliver on the tone that the title L.A. Noir promises: a smart, gritty, authentic, period noir drama. Also a blessing is the warm welcome we’ve gotten from Michael Wright and TNT, a great bunch of folks with huge enthusiasm for the source material. The best bonus of all is getting to work with my friend Mike De Luca. He’s terrific, a tremendously smart and talented producer, a gem. Partnering with him on this marvelous project after knowing him for so many years is an absolute treat for me.”

TNT’s Michael Wright had this to say about the cable channel’s latest pilot pickup. “The story of L.A. Noir is inspired by an incredibly dramatic period in the history of Los Angeles. This project is a sweeping tale of the battle for the soul of the city that was waged between the forces of the LAPD and the West Coast mob. We’re thrilled to be working with Frank Darabont and Michael De Luca, two award-winning storytellers behind some of the most entertaining films of the past two decades, as they to bring this intense and exciting crime-drama to TNT.”

If there’s anything we’ve learned from The Walking Dead, it’s that Frank Darabont knows how to develop, executive produce, and run a show. Keep L.A. Noir on your radar. Full PR after the break.

[Via Collider] Continue reading Frank Darabont finds solace in new period project ‘L.A. Noir’ →

NBC greenlights Bryan Fuller’s ‘Munsters’ remake

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In October of last year, news broke that Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller was interested in developing a modern-day reboot of the classic 1960s sitcom The Munsters. After reading Fuller’s script, today the Peacock network gave The Munsters remake the greenlight. Fuller will shoot a pilot, show it off to the network, and if all goes well it will air on NBC sometime next year. It will be produced by Universal Television, and it’s being described as an “imaginative reinvention of The Munsters as a visually spectacular one hour drama.” I added emphasis to those words; after watching Pushing Daisies come and go far too quickly, we all know that Fuller’s ability to paint a colorful and visually splendid picture is extraordinary. So what do we know about The Munsters circa 2012? So far, not much. Rumor has it that the reboot will be less campy and more frightening and darker than its 1960s counterpart. Also, Fuller has expressed interest in bringing on Kristen Bell to play Marilyn, the “plain” cousin of the wacky Munster clan. Since then, however, Bell has moved on to star in the new Showtime series House of Lies. Who knows if this puts a chink in Fuller’s plans. For now, be ecstatic that The Munsters are coming back with a hugely creative talent backing it up.

[Via TVLine]

Bryan Fuller is bringing back The Munsters!

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Bryan Fuller, the brilliant mind behind Pushing Daisies, is creating a “modern-day reboot” of the classic 1960s sitcom The Munsters.  According to EW’s Michael Ausiello, NBC has ordered a pilot and the reboot is being described as “Modern Family meets True Blood.”  And there’s this: Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pans Labyrinth) is rumored to have a behind-the-scenes role in the show.  Uhhh…count me in!  I wonder what The Munsters will look like in beautiful HD technicolor, don’t you?

[Via EW-AusielloFiles]