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3RD UPDATE: ABC just greenlighted six drama pilots, including Marc Cherry’s Hallelujah, the Mark Gordon-produced Identity and Once Upon a Time, from Lost executive producers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. Also picked up are the Oren Peli/Steven Spielberg collaboration The River, co-produced by DreamWorks TV, the Darren Star-produced Good Christian Bitches and the Count of Monte-Cristo-flavored Revenge, co-produced by Twilight producer Temple Hill. All six pilots hail from ABC’s sibling ABC Studios.
ABC programming chief Paul Lee received Cherry’s script, the Desperate Housewives creator’s first since the hit ABC dramedy, over the weekend and quickly moved with a pilot order. Hallelujah is set in the town of Hallelujah, Tenn., which is being torn apart by the forces of good and evil. Its fortunes change when a stranger comes to town, bringing justice, peace and possibly restoring faith. There is a music twist: the episodes of Hallelujah will be punctuated by songs sung by the gospel choir, which serves as a sort of Greek chorus. In addition to writing, Cherry is exec producing with Sabrina Wind. This marks the first production order for Cherry and Wind’s new production banner Wind Prods.
Identity, written by Eagle Eye scribe John Glenn, is based on an ITV/ITV Studio format and is an action procedural centered on an elite police unit formed to combat the explosion of identity-related crime. Glenn and Gordon are executive producing with Deb Spera and ITV’s Paul Buccieri.
Once Upon a Time centers on a woman with a troubled past who is drawn into a small town in Maine where the magic and mystery of Fairy Tales just may be real. Lost co-creator/exec producer Damon Lindelof, who was involved in the development of the project alongside creators/executive producers Kitsis & Horowitz, is not attached to the pilot at this time. Kitsis & Horowitz recently wrote TRON: Legacy for Disney, supervised the TRON animated series for Disney XD and are awaiting green light at Universal for their Ouija script. Magical/fairy tale pilots are hot this season with Once Upon a Time joining NBC’s Grimm and 17th Precinct.
After a bidding war, The River, a horror drama in the mold of Paranormal Activity about a family who travels to the deep Amazon to locate and rescue their missing father, landed at ABC in September with a big put pilot commitment. Paranormal Activity writer-director Oren Peli co-wrote the first draft with Paranormal Activity 2 scribe Michael Perry. After ABC was not quite happy with the script, Heroes veteran and Kings creator Michael Green did a p.1 rewrite, which the network now greenlighted. Peli is executive producing with his producing partner Jason Blum and DreamWorks TV’s Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey. This is the third pilot for DreamWorks TV this season, along with Smash at NBC and Locke & Key at Fox.
Revenge, written by Swingtown creator Mike Kelley, is a contemporary re-imagening of Alexandre Dumas, pere’s The Count of Monte Cristo, which explores the classic tale from a female perspective and chronicles the story of a mysterious young woman who comes to the Hamptons to exact revenge on the people who destroyed her family. Kelley and Temple Hill’s Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen are exec producing. This is the first production order for Temple Hill under the overall deal the company inked with ABC Studios in December.
Good Christian Bitches, which has received a presentation order, was written by Steel Magnolias scribe Robert Harling based on the book by Kim Gatlin. Described as “Desperate Housewives in Dallas,” it centers on Amanda Vaughn, a recently divorced mother of two who, to get a fresh start, moves back to the affluent Dallas neighborhood where she grew to find herself in the whirling midst of salacious gossip, Botox, and fraud. The project was one of Lee’s first buys this season and landed at ABC in September with a put pilot commitment after a bidding war. Harling, Star and Aaron Kaplan of Kapital Entertainment are executive producing.
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Sounds a little like Carnivále.
I just needed to reply and say how much I miss Carnivale. Lots of shows have come and gone, but that one leaves me with the most questions.
I started watching Carnivále a while after it was cancelled, and am so upset I got so attached! It was such a terrific series, and the cliffhanger, while it answered some questions, left WAY to many unanswered!
Sounds like it could be good.
It sounds a lot like Happy Town and other shows that crash and burn for ABC. Not excited by it. What’s going on with Carlton Cuse and the Kitsis/Horowitz pilots?
This looks like so much fun! It’s always fun when good and evil duke it out.
looks like they just pikced up Kitsis/Horowitz. So any word on Carlton Cuse?
Yet another middle-aged white guy selling a pilot. I think the count is now 26 pilots by middle-aged white male writers and 5 pilots by diversity writers. My count could be off, but the ratio is right. And it is a sad ratio when ABC has a diversity program run by great execs.
you obviously don’t know the role the diversity department plays at ABC – it’s for staffing, not development. please learn about the subject you’re posting before subjecting us to further diatribes about which you even admit you don’t even know the facts
@ please I couldn’t agree more. After all we know how middle aged white male writers are all jumping to hire from their vast pool of non-white and female friends. Why, that and the diversity department at ABC are why there are so, so many black, latino and asian writers on television now!
Nobody cares what color they are; they’re successful writers whose reputations suggest they can earn the studios money.
I CANNOT get staffed on a show precisely because i am a white guy…so BOO HOO back at ya….write a spec someone wants..maybe that will work for you.
Amen.
Can’t get staffed, Ronko? Maybe you should take your own juvenile advice and write a spec someone wants too.
Another clarion call for quotas. Unbelievable. I thought we had evolved beyond this sort of nonsense but clearly I was wrong.
Define middle-aged.
So tired of these complaints about race. You demean all writers when you suggest their race determines whether or not their pilots are good enough to be shot. About 3/4s of the population is “white”. By that measure, a 26-5 ratio isn’t so out of balance.
I’m a showrunner. I would LOVE to find a diversity writer who can deliver. I’ve actively sought out non-white, diversity writers, because their salaries don’t count against my writing budget. Guess what? Not one of them has worked out. I’m not going to pay someone to sit in a room if they’re not up to the task. That’s an irresponsible use of the studio’s money, and it’s not fair to the other writers who are actually doing the work.
I have worked with many talented, more experienced minority writers, by the way. I’ve just been unable to find young minority writers who are any good. Sad, but true.
Any showrunner will tell you, we don’t give a crap what color a writer is, so long as they can contribute to the show. But hiring someone just because they’re a minority isn’t doing anyone any favors.
I don’t want someone hiring me because of my race. In fact, I’d prefer if my race didn’t mean that people like you would automatically assume that I wouldn’t “work out”. Alas, now that you’ve sought out all the non-white writers and found them to not exist I suppose I’ll have to reexamine my career aspirations.
I’m sorry that the 2 black MBA’s your studio’s diversity office told you to hire back in 2006 couldn’t “deliver” but perhaps if you ventured outside your comfortable racially homogeneous existence in Brentwood and actually organically interacted with people who are different from you you’d meet some people of color who could help you find that rare, endangered “diversity writer” you profess to seek.
I find your self-serving and thinly veiled racial prejudice debilitating.
Okay, folks, I’m pretty sure you missed the basic point behind what FedUp said. Here’s a bit of an analogy that conveys what I think he meant:
Imagine, if you would, that you see a button that says “try me” on it. So you press it, but when you do so you get poked by a needle that was embedded in the button. How many times are you going to press it before you walk away and look for something else? Maybe you have some gloves you think will protect you, and try again with them on, but still get pricked. And so on. No method you attempt succeeds in protecting you, and the needle always gets you.
We all make decisions influenced by past experiences. Sometimes we will try new things, but when something repeatedly turns out badly, only the insane continue to make the same decisions that led to that path.
In my experience, the most prejudiced people I have ever known were those same people who think that everyone is prejudiced against them. It’s rarely true. During a disagreement with a black man I lived with, he angrily proclaimed “It’s because I’m black!” Calmly informing him that two of my 6 best friends were black fizzled his anger a bit, I think mostly because the statement had previously worked often enough.
We make decisions based on our experience and memories. I really think that’s the core of FedUp’s comment. Though, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, FedUp.
@Fed Up: “I’ve actively sought out non-white, diversity writers, because their salaries don’t count against my writing budget.”
Since you refer to the above as the only reason you seek out diverse writers perhaps this is also what some of the commenters on this site are raising as an issue? Assuming of course that talent is the baseline requirement, I also always thought that a showrunner would want a wide variety of voices would only add to the layers of a story and depth of character to create a show that we want to watch and rewatch…
Oh sorry. I lost my train of thought as a unicorn flew by my window.
My writing partner and I are both minorities and we just signed with Paradigm on the strength of a spec pilot. I wish there was some way to get it to u.
To Fed Up… if you really would LOVE to find a diversity writer/talent that can measure up, maybe you aren’t looking outside your pristine white walls. We are out there. Romeo, for starters. You just have to actually do the work of looking. It’s like saying, “I would really love a good steak.” Check your internet. Check FOOD AND WINE, SAVEUR, etc. Jez, check your friends. I will bet they can point the way to a good steak. But if you’re just a lazy sack who talks and doesn’t DO (most probably since you’re a showrunner have other people do the work), then that’s on you. Get the f-up and look.
@fedup,
Ironically, I’ve worked with a minority show runner who felt the same way you do. She thought the diversity program is helpful to giving young minority writers a leg up at landing a staff job. But truth is, she gave a shits less what your background or “voice”. All she cared about was a writer who regularly and consistently contributed to the room and could turn a script around quickly. The writers out of the diversity program didn’t help our staff and in fact prevented some other writers she would have preferred (who happened to be white) from getting a job. She abandoned the diversity program our second season.
“The diversity program hurts minority writers more than helps them,” Her words. Not mine.
“Diversity writer” — God, I’m seriously laughing my ass off. You are ridiculous.
How about this: stop worrying about the color of people’s skin and learn how to write. That’s how you succeed in life. Become good at something. No one cares about anything else — certainly not the color of your skin. I mean, seriously, are you for real???
It does sound like Happy Town. Cherry not exactly playing to his strengths. And ABC not playing to theirs. Are there any relationship show pick-ups?
Kitsis/Horowitz is getting a pick-up, I heard, though it sounds similar to the Fables one at NBC
ABC actually had or has the rights to produce a Fables series.Last year, when Lost ended, we heard news that Damon Lindelof was helping to develop a fairy tale based series.We all assumed they were finally doing Fables, but it turned out to be this.
Identity has to be the remake of the UK show with Gillen and Hawes. It was horrendous. Don’t think it’ll be any better in the US.
That marc cherry project looks urg and didn’t ABC try the magic route and failed with Eastwick ?
yes, it is the remake of the UK show and the UK version wasn’t that great but maybe this will be better than the original.
Hallelujah is set in the town of Hallelujah, Tenn., which is being torn apart by the forces of good and evil. Its fortunes change when a stranger comes to town, bringing justice, peace and faith.
What on EARTH does that mean? Sorry, but all of these pilots sound like they either won’t see the light of day or will see cancellation fast. Wtf is up with these premises? Are these TV shows?
In complete agreement. WTF?!
A lot of white guys on one page. But I guess the Hollywood adage is true. They like to see a lot of white on the page.
Is it just me or do all of these pilots sound terrible?
That pilot by Marc Cherry sounds TERRIBLE. I’m thinking ‘Desperate Housewives’ will be his last hit for a while… in a country where more people are being turned off by religion than on, I do not think this show has a chance. Also, an almost-Greek chorus? No thank you, that will be pulled off horribly and that sort of idea would fit more on a premium cable channel. Sorry, but I’m not feeling this… I don’t have high hopes for it… but maybe once the pilot is done, it will look a lot different than it does on paper?
If more people ARE being turned off by religion, it would likely make the show MORE appealing, as I assume that it doesn’t portray these Christians in the most flattering way. However, Disney-owned ABC having a show called “Good Christian Bitches” is somewhat surprising, as they are just asking for a really nasty reaction with that title, from one of their core audiences. LA is far removed from a large section of the TV audience, which is both Southern & Christian. It will be found offensive by many.
I wonder how a novel/show called “Good Jewish Bitches” would fare?
The title is quite offensive and will alienate much of their core audience. After the bad publicity – picketers and campaign against ABC by the Christian coalition, I doubt if it will fair well. Are networks trying to get racy with their titles to compete with cable…WTH? Try well-developed characters, great story and writing that makes you tune in! I’ll watch U.S. Tara Season 10 before I watch this crap.
Dear ‘I like to write’,
I one hundred percent agree, but unfortunately well-developed characters, great stories, and writing that makes you want to tune in is too smart and obvious for the ABC development team. Hollywood Intelligence is an oxymoron.
Remember, ABC has ABC Family–which still is contracted to air The 700 Club. We’ll see what Pat Robertson has to say about Good Christian Bitches. ABC needs hits.
A procedural police show fighting identity theft?! Really?! I cannot picture 10 seasons of cops vs. forgers much less one season of that.
just read once upon a time – it’s f-ing awesome.
Mike Kelley is a genius. Just ask Mike Kelley.
These all sound dreadful. The last one sounds like Dallas and Dynasty and could Mark Cherry look more like a creep in that picture? ABC might become “Always Big Crap” after this development cycle.
Love Carnivale. God I miss it.
But The River… Oren Peli is smoke & mirrors. A hack. There’s a reason why his draft got rejected and latest film – Area 51 – will Never see the light of day.
Hire me because of my race (Latino), please! I don’t care why but just hire me! My writing parter (Asian) and I have six tv projects in the works with our producer looking for showrunners to package with.
Now, I’m not one to usually judge a book by its cover. But ABC, who has never been good with choosing names for its sitcoms (Courgartown, “It’s like, you know…”, etc.) has probably hit on a very offensive title. I get they like to play the controversial card but that might be taking it out of bounds. If it was any other religion other than Christianity (say Buddhists, Muslims, or Scientologists) they would have a law suit on their hands. Christianity seems to be the whipping boy of Hollywood, but they stand to lose viewers because with THAT title, ABC is very upfront with who they wish to offend.