Hammond On Cannes: Robert Redford’s Brave New Role … 
Hot Trailer: Jennifer Aniston And Jason Sudeikis’ … 
Warner Bros Tells Space Story, From The Bra Designers Who … 
Brad Pitt’s Plan B Banner Promotes Jeremy Kleiner As … 
Hot Trailer: ‘Don Jon’ 
Billy Crystal-Starring Comedy From Matt Nix & Larry … 
UPDATE: Toronto Lands World Premiere Of Godfrey … 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Dancing With The Stars’ … 
CBS Reups Tony Awards Through 2018 
HBO, FX Lead Critics’ Choice TV Awards — But … 
Hammond On Cannes: A New Day Comes To The Fest As HBO and … 
Cannes: Lionsgate Acquires U.S. On Guillaume Canet’s … 
Cannes: Radius-TWC Buys Keanu Reeves’ Helming Debut … 
Cannes: Fleming Reflects And Finds Talented Trio A Breath … 
Hot Trailer: ‘Man Of Steel’ 
Former Digital Domain CEO & Auditors Sued For Fraud By … 
Fox Acquires ‘Narc’; Zac Efron Attached To Play … 
ABC’s ‘Nashville’ Undergoes Production … 
CBS Wins Season & Ties Sweep In Demo; ABC Tops Adults … 
Mike Lobell Adds Cast To ‘Eisner,’ Plots … 
Sony Shares Rise On Report That It Will Consider … 
Off the Map creator/executive producer Jenna Bans and executive producer Shonda Rhimes are teaming for a new ABC drama project created by Bans. The untitled legal drama centers on a young, idealistic defense attorney who, after being ignominiously fired from his high-powered Minneapolis law firm, struggles to start his own firm with an eclectic group of lawyer misfits, while starting to realize that he may have been fired from his old job because he got too close to a deadly cover-up. ABC Studios and Shondaland are producing, with Bans, Rhimes and Betsy Beers executive producing. Before she created Off the Map, Bans worked on Rhimes’ veteran medical drama Grey’s Anatomy and now serves as a co-executive producer on Rhimes’ midseason ABC drama Scandal. This marks Shondaland’s second ABC sale this season. Last month, the ABC Studios-based company set up Gilded Lillys, a 1895 drama written by The Nine co-creator KJ Steinberg. Bans and Rhimes are with ICM.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
Loading ...
Oh, thank God, a show about lawyers.
Diversity women writers scoring a deal!!! YOU GO, GIRLFRIENDS!!!
Yeah, you go GIRLFRIENDS… back to your computer and come up with an original idea. This show won’t get a series. There’s no way.
Where’s the diversity in Shonda? This sounds like the idea of every 40 year old lawyer turned writer working in the business.
But nice try.
Lisa, ever hear the expression, “New boss, just like the old boss”? While Shonda Rhimes’s success is heartening and wonderful, and she’s great on diverse casting, one of the reasons “Diversity” was pushed was the hope that if we went beyond the usual suspects, we’d get different kinds of characters and stories. I’m going to play right into Schadenfreude’s hands here, but yet another lawyer drama (which sounds almost exactly like Harry’s Law from you know, a white guy) really isn’t diverse at all.
By contrast, even with the overwhelming success of The Big Bang Theory, no one’s put another series about physicists on the air. Now, *there’s* diversity!
where’s the diversity on screen? aren’t all lawyers just white sharks?
Once the casting is done, I believe a writer-producer like Shonda would be very open to having a diverse cast. Take a look at all her shows. The cast is very diverse. My point about cheering for women and diversity is behind the camera, at the source i.e. the creator(s). If the creator is open to diversity, then the creator(s) will push for more diversity. And with ABC partnered with Shonda, this network/studio has a great track record for putting diversity on screen.
With all due respect, I’m-Confused,Lisa, if you think all lawyers are WHITE sharks, then you should really get out more.
Cue:
1) People bitching about yet another lawyer show
2) People bitching about yet another show from Shondaland
Readyyyyy….GO!
PS @ Lisa, your whiteness is showing. The CORRECT usage is: “You GO, girls!”
“Girlfriend” is so ’90s.
Because it’s true, schadenfreude! Too many medical shows. Too many
legal shows.
Oh, and get a new handle. “schadenfreude” is so ’90′s!
Wrong, “schadenfreude” is timeless
ABC= The Shonda Rhimes Network
@LISA: Enough with this DIVERSITY crap. You shouldn’t even say that word. It’s BS, and no one should be able to get ahead based on being hired so a show or network can be “diverse”, as opposed to getting hired based solely on talent/working hard.
SHONDA is a talent and deserves all she gets and works for, yes, absolutely. But “Lisa”, your comment pisses me off. White writers aren’t getting hired because networks/shows needs to fill quotas, and that is absurd.
Everyone gets read at one point or another. And based on their writing, and their ability to get along well with others on staff — that should be all that matters in this day and age.
YAY! One more unwatchable show on TV!
I feel like these two women don’t try at all with ideas. Grey’s Anatomy was inevitably a rip-off and Off the Map was basically Grey’s Anatomy meets Lost, now they are ripping off more shows. It sounds too similar to “Harry’s Law” and “Outlaw,” if you don’t think so, look them up. If they just tried to do a more original show, they may actually be able to pull it off.
“Off the Map” was Grey’s + Lost? Are you nuts? Did you ever watch “Off the Map”? It was about a medical center in a poor Latin American country. How the hell does that have anything to do with Lost?
I knew someone would say that because I realized my comment was not explained at all and seems stupid without explaining. I can admit that. I meant they tried to market it like Lost in the sense that it was this epic series set in a tropical location with danger and adventure, which it was for the most part. I mean, even the promo poster which is now the DVD art looks like Lost. Also, having watched Grey’s Anatomy thoroughly for the first 4 seasons, Off the Map felt pretty much like the first few seasons of Grey’s, with some of the same storylines even. So yes, I did watch it and I actually liked it, but it was not 100% original.
Really, ANOTHER show about lawyers??
ANother good thing about diversity is that is shows that everyone is capable of being completely formulaic and non-creative, regardless of race, gender, etc.
“Off The Map” was a dud and thankfully gone in a season. While “Grey’s Anatomy” started with promise, it now belongs on the Lifetime channel. And those tow are merely just another procedural drama (medical).
Regardless of their sex or ethnicity, giving these two writers and producers ANYTHING proves the small screen is just as uncreative as the big screen.
I’m no Shonda fan, and I haven’t really liked the clone shows that followed (Private Practice and Off the Map). That having been said, these comments here reflect a complete misunderstanding of the TV business. Shonda isn’t getting shows because she’s a diverse woman writer. She’s getting shows because she’s getting ratings, and the network believes in her. Furthermore, the reason you see medical shows, lawyer shows, and cop shows all the time is because each of those settings has high stakes stories that change from week to week. It’s very difficult to sustain a show for multiple years when there isn’t a built-in story engine like a patient of the week or case of the week. It isn’t that writers can’t come up with anything else. It’s that these kinds of shows are much more sustainable.
Jenna Bans is a great writer, and a lovely person. Personally, I think she’d be better served going off on her own, than continuing to develop under Shonda, whose shows all have the same bent: whiny characters delivering self-absorbed monologues.
Maybe this new show will be as good as Scandal a.k.a “Six and Gone.”
In a year or two, she’ll have nothing left on the air.
Good riddance.
Still mad at Bans/Rhimes….for wasting the TV return of Caroline Dhavernas. Not optimistic that this will be any better.