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EXCLUSIVE: Fox has bought The Spectre, a drama series project based on the DC Comics superhero character co-created by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and Bernard Baily. Brandon Camp (John Doe) will write the adaptation and executive produce with feature producer Bill Gerber (Gran Torino). The Spectre, which has received a script commitment, centers on a former cop serving time in afterlife limbo who hunts down earthly 
criminals on behalf of the dead — and mortals soon to be dead if ultimate justice is not served. DC Entertainment’s sister TV studio Warner Bros TV will produce with Gerber Pictures. The Spectre character first appeared in an 1940 issue of DC’s More Fun Comics. Since then, he has been featured in a number of other DC titles and has headlined his own comic book series. Camp was introduced to The Spectre property by DC Entertainment’s chief creative officer Geoff Johns. The project marks Camp’s return to TV and reunion with Fox; he co-created the network’s 2002 mystery drama John Doe. On the feature side, UTA-repped Camp co-wrote and directed the 2009 Jennifer Aniston movie Love Happens. The Spectre also puts Fox back in the comic book adaptation business and reunites the network with DC following their recent collaboration on Human Target.
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After NBC mid season failure the Cape and the mishandling of Human Target Season 2 by Fox and Warner Bros(also Matt Miller). I really don’t think this will be pulled off.
I could not agree with George MORE! The atrocious decisions that turned Human Target from the most engaging, terrific new show in its first season to the absolute disgrace of a second season had to be one of the worst examples of decision making. And The Cape had potential imho – but if it didnt work for them is The Spectre going to work?
The Cape had potential, but never lived up to it. It just couldn’t get anything right.And they screwed up Human Target. What some company needs to do is get a “Keep your corporate noses out of our bloody show,” clause.
What happened to Human Target in-between its first and second season is like a textbook case of what a network shouldn’t do to a show that had a niche audience. Fox is such a double-edged sword. I am glad Human Target got greenlit and were given a second season but boy did they manage to screw it up.
Agreed.
I think a big budget, good direction and cinematography can make a costumed hero watchable. It seems to me that this isn’t work on the small screen these days…
I thought The Cape was ridiculous and I felt like the creative team only figured out how campy it was way too late.
As for The Spectre, I am begging for yet another overdone, busy origin stories pilot if it indeed happens. If they just put the audience in the middle of his situation and get to the origins later, I think the show would be in good hands.
Brimstone. Fox has already had this series.
Weekly television drama is based on characters confronting situations that challenge their limitations in knowledge, and ability, and their struggles to overcome them.
Spectre has no limitations, he knows all and can do all, literally reshaping reality to his will. The only way I can think of that they can do aside from changing almost everything except his name, is to make the show center on either the victims he is avenging, or the criminals he is punishing. But there are hazards inherent in that approach too.
I’m just not feeling it.
Brandon Camp still owes be $22 for taking my girlfriend to see LOVE HAPPENS. Holy shit.
Please please don’t screw it up. Currently re-reading the Ostrander run from the 90s and its head and shoulders above the standard superhero fare, intelligent, literate and great characters. Done correctly it would be more suited to a cable channel like HBO.
Darn straight. The Ostrander run was brilliant. If they used that
as a template, then they could have an awesome show. Probably a show better done on HBO than Fox, but a show with serious potential.
any news on the cw development
Come on Fox, you can do better than this. Did you see The Cape, Green Lantern, or Love Happens???
I remember the days when Brandon was Scott Rudin’s Assistant!! Good job Brandon, hope all is well.
CW doesn’t develop… They just raid the been there, done that closet.
I don’t like this as a TV series. As a movie, I thought it was something that would get a writer soon after Green Lantern, had that movie been the success WB wanted it to be. On TV though, I don’t think it’s going to feel very original, more like a combination of shows that have already been cancelled.
Sadly I think Green Lantern as both a production, critic, and financial failure scared off DC/WB from pushing forward their tier-2 characters. I still think the re-launch of their titles is almost a direct attempt to give focus to other non-Batman/Wonderwoman/Superman titles. I actually read an Animal Man comic for the first time based on the great word of mouth from its re-launch.
This would work if Corrigan and the Spectre are kept separate, and have to work and interact with each other (rather than Corrigan being a ghost); and if the Spectre has morals and some power limits. Otherwise it just becomes a repetitive horror/vengeance melodrama every week.
Research shows that audiences (especially young adults) want some cool action shows but are sick of heroes, vampires and werewolves. Seriously – it’s saturated. Do the networks do research in a vacuum?
What research are you referring to?Look at what’s currently popular.True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural, Being Human and Teen Wolf.
And besides, The Spectre isn’t anything like that.It has nothing to do with superheroes, vampires or werewolves.
It’s a story about a good cop who was murdered and his soul isn’t allowed to rest.He is bonded with the spirit of vengeance and has to track down criminals and administer horrific “justice” upon them.It’s more of a supernatural horror-thriller.
We don’t have any shows that are really like The Spectre.
Heroes and The Cape were the only recent ‘superhero’ shows I can think of, and neither were good (except Heroes in the first season and then the creative team ran out of ideas). Unless you want to count Misfits (in which case is great) as a superhero show.
The Spectre, however, goes back to Silver Age comics. The creator of Superman is also responsible for him for goodness sakes! It is an interesting character who I could easily see working based on the themes since the character’s inception.
They should do Gotham Central – cops in Gotham City with superheroes and villains mostly in the background. Very cool book by Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka. Maybe after WB runs thru the Batman feature franchise….
Yes! Yes, to all of this. Rucka and Brubaker are my favorites and they somehow added another layer to the Batman universe that was always interesting to read.
I honestly got excited seeing the second cover of a Gotham Central title. It probably would have made CW (when it was WB) 10 years ago when there was somewhat of an effort to push adaptations of DC titles but it does not fit the CW now nor would it really fit on CBS either. That said, the comic series is begging to be adapted and as you said, it is more detective work, office politics, and showing the people caught in the middle between Batman and the villains. I cannot believe DC lets stuff like David E. Kelley’s Wonderwoman or Aquaman slide but any talk of a Gotham Central adaptation goes into creative purgatory.
interesting. choice though given how the spectre is more suited as horror show then a drama plus what fox did with the second season of human target. sadly this show is going to not have a long life. though intrigued given the Spectre powers how fox are going to pull this off are they going to have the spectre require a human achor to find who he is after or no human host at all.
By day a cop by night the ghost who walks. Easy concept! Easy to produce cops and robbers procedural.
Hmmm…the more I think of it…the more I LIKE! Has a bit of the ‘Medium’/'Ghost Whisperer’ concept with a procedural vibe…perhaps like a more masculine ‘Saving Grace’ (Remember THAT TNT Cable Gem? To bad it didn’t get picked up for season 5).
Ideally, when you hear “based on DC Comics” one hopes to get something of the ‘Smallville’ variety, where the comic-book stuff doesn’t show right away, but grows into the storylines, but that type of show only happens once a generation (lasting 10 years at that!)
I know CW was working on a ‘Deadman’ series, which frankly has a similar concept (biggest difference was how that was being developed by the creator of ‘Supernatural’ so it would most likely ramp up the horror aspects)
Finally, to all those ‘Cape’-haters out there, you guys really don’t have an appreciation for TV escapism anymore. Same goes for ‘No Ordinary Family’. Those shows are really the only brave attempts today to give a proper successor to classics like ‘The Greatest American Hero’. Why they are so risky is that they, unlike the few successful superhero-based properties, are ALL-Original and don’t have an already-developed fan base (QUITE HARD for genre TV without it)
I think the Spectre is a great idea. Hero movies are so hot right now and have the potential to appeal to a large audience especially in this case. We have a character based in the DC universe that’s a a mysterious ghost and a cop without the campy “cape” and he’s not there to save the world, he’s just doing his part. Look at cameo possibilities to help boost ratings. I’m looking forward to the series.
As someone earlier suggested, a Gotham Central show would be so much better — oh, so much better — but I would definitely settle for a Spectre series if it were the Crispus Allen Spectre. The chapter in which he was murdered was probably the most intense thing I’ve read/seen in a graphic novel in a long time. There’s just so much story there.
But dammit, I’d go for a Gotham Central show in heartbeat. Not only would it have just enough Gotham City characters to make it enticing for the fans, but it would be a welcome return to classic crime dramas like Homicide, NYPD Blue, and The Wire. Just do Gotham Central. And put it on HBO. Boom.
Nah. The Spectre is far too powerful; almost god-like. It won’t work unless they significantly de-power his character.
Yes it would be easy to screw up a great character like the Spectre , but I would enjoy it if set in the 40s and not updated. Let the Spector kick ass and scare the crap out of criminals and forget all the politically correct stuff. The Spectre is his own forensics expert and could be shown how and where he gets his evidence and clues. Let the criminals worry about civil rights, not the Spectre.
Wow—I liked the first season of Human Target but I liked it even more in the second season—it was on fire ! The Spectre is a cool character—hopefully they make a good show out of it.
I am a huge Spectre fan. And would love a series like this. I have been waiting for an animated version–little disappointed because there were limited parts and only one short. It does have potentail so long as it gives credit to the storyline and not cross over too much into the DC Universe. JUst don’t screw it up.
The Spectre is great. It could go anywhere, riffing on Night Stalker, X Files, all those great old supernatural crime shows. Gotta have that green hood and white skin, no tan coiffed actors walking around calling themselves The Spectre without the hood.