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EXCLUSIVE: With Smallville ending its 10-season run this past May, the CW has made launching a new superhero franchise based on a DC property a priority. The network’s first effort this development season is Deadman, a drama based on the DC Comics books by Arnold Drake and Carmine Infantino, which will be written and executive produced by Supernatural creator Eric Kripke. The project is about the spirit of a murdered man, Boston Brand, who lives on as he inhabits other people’s bodies and helps them solve crises in their own lives. It is produced by Warner Bros TV, which handles the mining of the DC catalog for TV series.
“We’re looking next year to do a superhero show if the right superhero comes to be,” CW president Mark Pedowitz said at TCA last month, noting the advantage of having Time Warner-owned DC Comics in the family. (CW is a joint venture of Warner Bros Entertainment and CBS). Getting Kripke to develop Deadman seems like a no-brainer as he is the man behind CW’s longest-running scripted series on the air. Sci-fi drama Supernatural enters its seventh season this fall and Pedowitz recently indicated that it is not intended to be the show’s last. While no longer a hands-on showrunner (Supernatural is co-run by Sera Gamble and Robert Singer), Kripke continues to serve as an executive producer.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
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One tree hill has been on the air longer than supernatural
Also, lol, to thinking deadman and smallville are in the same category
Quantum Leap comes to mind.
And yes, I know DEADMAN is older than QL.
Mark Schwan has been running “one tree hill” for 9 years, so smallville is there second longest running show
A Supernatural Quantum Leap… Nice
Because QL was hard SciFi with a docudrama bend.
AAAAAARGH! What is DC Comics doing??? Marvel is coming out with movie after movie, they’re making a fortune, and a lot of the movies are pretty darn good.
DC is… developing shows for the CW??? Will this one go the way of Wonder Woman and Blue Beetle, totally mishandled, DOA?
Get your act together DC. Yes, Chris Nolan’s great — but you have to let other talented people take a whack at your heroes. Whoever it is over there who pushed for, then kept-their-hands-all-over-and-ruined Green Lantern,and Wonder Woman — sack ‘em. Give someone else a shot at bringing the DC heroes to the big screen.
Marvel is worth billions, and DC is sitting on a huge catalog of some of the most popular characters of all time — but they’re trying develop Blue Beetle, and Deadman for the CW?
DC is developing shows for the CW for one simple reason: they are both owned (or co-owned, in the CW’s case) by Warner Bros. That great early aughts word: synergy.
And also because the CW’s target audience are youths… who theoretically are more open to comic book properties.
All the ideas are dependent upon the execution. You can make a lame series out of an iconic character and a great series of a third-tier one. I look forward to seeing how this turns out.
Warners also have a MOVIE STUDIO.
The CW gets TINY ratings, and makes very little money, relatively speaking. Smallville ran for years because there was no pressure to get real ratings. It averaged around 1.3 in the demo. That’s NOTHING.
DC should stop playing AA ball. Marvel’s mopping the floor with them, they sold to Disney for, what — 4 BILLION bucks? DC has way more pop culture icons than Marvel — the CEO of DC just doesn’t seem to know what do do with them, or how to bring them off the page (Unlike Marvel.)
Shazam, the Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, the Atom, Hawkman, Adam Strange, the Team Titans — where are the movies? they’re all hung up in development, waiting on the “plan” for a justice league movie that DC’s been talking about for YEARS, and STILL isn’t anywhere near pre-pre-preproduction.
But they’re TRYING to develop a show for the CW??? DC is a joke, and they need to fire the person who’s fault that is. He shoulda been fired last year, after WWoman, Blue Beetle, and the Green Lantern “franchise” disaster. that’s all SOME GUY’S fault.
The Man in charge at DC?
His name is Geoff Johns, and he’s the greatest comic book writer alive.
So back off.
The woman that’s in charge of Geoff Johns? Her name is Diane Nelson and she’s the president of DC Entertainment. So get your facts in order.
Nelso is the one that needs to shepherd DC properties to the big screen the way Kevin Feige (and Avi Arad) have done for Marvel.
Marvel tries to use their properties to make movies, Warner Bros. licenses DC characters to producers. BIG BIG BIG difference. Marvel licensed out characters like the Fantastic Four and X-Men so those films are handles OUTSIDE Marvel like the vast majority of DC films.
DC does very well with their animated efforts but their cash cow of Harry Potter has left them blind to the other riches to reap.
His track record off the page is abysmal. 0 for… 10? 15?
If that’s true, then Geoff John’s track record may mean that the “greatest comic book writer alive” should absolutely not be in charge of movies or TV shows.
You can’t back off from the facts. Other than Batman, everything attempt they’ve made at film and TV for the last decade has flopped and/or not even made it to air.
While I don’t see Deadman being a hot property (there’s not that much mythology to mine so basically they’d just have to make stuff up, which would probably serve them better than having to hew to decades long continuity – and would boost sales of a Deadman book) but it’s kind of nice that the CW is exploring material that’s off the beaten track. As much as it’s a Quantum Leap update, it’s still not that common of a storyline for a network show.
I might actually forgive them for the Sex and the City prequel. Almost.
This could be a very good thing. Comparativley speaking, Deadman would be less expensive to produce than Supernatural and has the whole carny culture thing to draw on – not to mention its obsure yet compelling philosophical underpinning. I just hope they keep the costume…
And, sorry, Tommy, but Smallville was on for ten seasons, while OTR is just entering its ninth [and hopefully last] – so it’s OTR that is the netlet’s second-longest-running series.
I’m confused. For such a generic idea, why use the comic book as source material and have to include DC at all?
warner brothers owns dc and the cw.
they dont have to pay other people for their ideas this way.
Great character and a great concept for episodic TV. DC has always had better luck on TV than the big screen (four TV series based on Superman, totaling 24 seasons, alone!) so its understandable that they’d want to continue to produce work for TV.
Comic book series like Deadman and 100 Bullets are both faaaaar more suitable for episodic programming than a one-off movie.
“Comic book series like Deadman and 100 Bullets are both faaaaar more suitable for episodic programming than a one-off movie.”
Yes, agreed. Deadman’s basic premise is ideal for TV, whether it be long-form or short-form. Not only did he possess people, but he hopped into superheros from time to time too.
Also, he’s a character no one has heard about — TV is the perfect place for him to get grounded.
You can say DC made the terrible mistake of listening too much to fans when making the Green Lantern movie. And based off general public knowledge they probably would have been better off making a Flash, Wonder Woman, or even Aquaman movie first. And then you can counter that argument by mentioning Blade.
It isn’t about what character you adapt — it’s about how you adapt them. Do it poorly and don’t be surprised that the masses respond likewise.
Can’t wait to see what happens with Superman: Man of Steel.
I dunno if they were listening to “fans” so much as listening to the fanboys INSIDE of DC, the one who controls the gates that release any property from DC comics over the Warner Brothers.
And yes, that is how it works, for some reason. (UNLIKE Marvel, which has a team of comic consultants, but lets MOVIE people control the movies.)
They’re the ones who screwed up GL. and the wonder woman pilot. … and killed the Flash Movie (that had a studio approved script and a director attached,) and the Captain Marvel and JLA movies (ditto.)
And convinced WB to do a Blue Beetle pilot (wtf?). Oh, and did that Terrible CW aquaman pilot.
If Deadman gets to the air, it’ll be the first DC property to do so in 11 years.
Deadman — at least the original Neal Adams version — is one of the most dramatic and visually compelling comics of the 1960s.
Essentially The Fugitive with a dead Dr. Richard Kimball hunting for his own killer, Deadman can possess and live in the bodies of others for short periods of time.
Amazing comic book.
Just keep the big red collar. Keep the big red collar.
@Sheldon W
Yes, “Smallville” ran for 10 years. But in the article they are referring to “Supernatural” as the CW’s longest running series as it’s going into its seventh season.
H ya it has E K on it.
Awsome!
Deadman could be a great show, it was always a great comic book concept.
Nellie is correct — “the CW’s longest running drama” is Supernatural.
All three noted in the comments above: Supernatural, One Tree Hill and Smallville came to the CW at the same time (with differing numbers of seasons under their belts on the WB)– Smallville ran for 5 seasons on the CW – OTH will run for 5 1/2 seasons on the CW (as it is slated to end this year with 13 episodes) and Supernatural will complete its 6th season on the CW — with no ending date set.
I hope thos goes to series — I would like to see another Kripke series take off.
Deadman could work, but it has to be done right.
And yeah, CW’s longest running (active) show is One Tree Hill, though Smallville ran 10 seasons. I’m sure Supernatural will reach that plateau as long as the ratings don’t take a nose dive.
About as many people want to see Deadman as wanted to see Jonah Hex.
What’s next Hawk and Dove: The Series?
We shall see.
First reaction: meh.
Maybe some DC titles don’t warrant a show or movie. No way this lasts anywhere near as long as Smallville.
Matt Cohen for dead man!!!!!
All the great DC characters,and they choose DEADMAN?
Yes.
Deadman concept is pretty good.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadman
Not sure why they are not looking at Nightwing. Get the right star to appeal to the Tom Welling type crowd and your half way there.
Robbie Amell from the Scooby Doo live action Toon movies comes to mind.