News, updates, and (mostly viable) rumors relating to development of science fiction / fantasy television productions. If you have tips or more info on these or other productions, please pass them along in the comments.
Plenty more development announcements and updates on existing projects keep coming out. Here is a roundup of what I have tracked over the past couple of weeks, including a couple of big updates.
Updates:
Marvel’s Most Wanted: ABC has ordered a pilot for the on again, off again, now on again Agents of SHIELD spin-off series. Titled Marvel’s Most Wanted, it will focus on Adrianne Palicki and Nick Blood as Mockingbird and Lance Hunter. According to Deadline Hollywood, this one will be thrown into the mix of next year’s pilot season and Fall 2016 is likely the earliest this show could end up on the air. And AoS fans should take note that ABC might be considering this as an alternate/less expensive option for keeping the Avengers franchise on television in place of the parent series which performed poorly in the ratings during its second season. So if Marvel’s Most Wanted gets the greenlight, it could be seen as a replacement for AoS if that show keeps lagging in the ratings.
Galaxy Quest: The previously announced Galaxy Quest TV series adaptation now has a home as Amazon is picking up the project that was started with Paramount TV earlier this year. According to Entertainment Weekly: “It’s not clear if members of the film’s cast will be sought for the show, or if the series will be a complete reboot.” It is also not known at the moment if Amazon will put this through their regular pilot process (in which viewers vote for it), or whether they intend to go straight to series. I will post an update in this column when more information is available.
Wes Craven Projects: With horror legend Wes Craven having passed over the weekend, his death left several of the television shows he was working on in question. But Universal Cable Productions (the production company he was working with) has claimed that they will move forward with all of the television shows he had in development. This includes the previously announced People Under the Stairs and We Are All Completely Fine projects that he was doing for Syfy.
The Frankenstein Code: FOX’s upcoming series about a cop who is brought back to life Frankenstein-like (which is slated for a mid-season debut) is getting a name change to Lookinglass. According to Deadline Hollywood, this seemingly odd title-shift is coming because the producers want to “distance themselves from the famous moniker, stressing the fact that the series only takes inspiration from the basic Mary Shelley mythology of a man brought back to life by scientists playing god”. The name of the company that performs the resurrection is Lookinglass, thus the name change. Whether that helps or hurts the show’s prospects remains to be seen.
Development:
Future Man: Hulu continues to ramp up production of original shows and has ordered a pilot for this sci fi comedy from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. According to Entertainment Weekly, the show is about a man who is tasked “with saving the human race from exinction [sic] after visitors hailing from the future ‘proclaim him the key to defeating the imminent super-race invasion'”. If Hulu picks this up to series, it would likely be looking at a 2016 debut.
Protocol Orphans: FOX is working on a television adaptation of this BOOM! Studios graphic novel co-created by Peter Facinelli. Deadline Hollywood describes the premise as being “about a foster family of orphans who are trained by the US government as covert operatives, protecting their country during the day and battling each other at night”. It is not clear at this point if they are going straight to series or if this will be a pilot that they will consider for the 2016-17 season.
Tag: FOX also has another BOOM! Studios property on its development slate as they are working on adapting this series created by comics legend Keith Giffen and Kody Chamberlain. Comic Book Resources gives the following description of the story:
The horror comic centers on a man who’s ‘tagged’ on the street by a stranger, and saddled with an ancient curse that causes his body to begin to decay. He’s faced with a dilemma: Watch himself die, or find somebody else to tag.
It will likely follow a similar development path as Protocol Orphans above.
