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EXCLUSIVE: J.J. Abrams is headed to the CW. In his first stint at the 5-year-old network, the top writer-producer-director has teamed up with Mark Schwahn, creator/executive producer/showrunner of the CW’s long-running drama One Tree Hill. The power pair has sold a hotel drama to the CW, which will instantly become one of the the 
network’s highest-profile projects this development season. Schwahn will write the show, tentatively titled Maine, which is set at an inn in Maine and revolves around the staff and the inn’s guests. Abrams and Schwahn will executive produce with Bryan Burk for Warner Bros TV, Abrams’ studio-based Bad Robot and Schwahn’s Mastermind Laboratories. In scope, the character-based drama, which has received a script commitment, harkens to Schwahn’s OTH, which will end its nine-year run early next year, and Abrams’ Felicity. This also marks a homecoming of sorts for Abrams, who started his TV career on the CW predecessor the WB with Felicity. For Schwahn, the project stems from a script deal with WBTV.
The deal reunites Abrams with the CW president Mark Pedowitz and EVP Development Thom Sherman, who worked with Abrams at ABC and ABC Studios. Most recently, Pedowitz was president of ABC Studios where Abrams was under an overall deal before moving to WBTV in 2006, and Sherman ran Abrams’ production company Bad Robot for two years before joining the CW, also in 2006. If the project goes to series, it will make for a seamless transition for WME-repped Schwahn, who is wrapping the ninth and final season of One Tree Hill. He is the second creator of a long-running, hit CW series to be writing a high-profile new project for the network; Supernatural creator Eric Kripke is adapting DC Comic Deadman. Coincidentally, Schwahn and Kripke have projects with Abrams this year. Beside the CW hotel drama, Bad Robot’s other project in contention for next fall is Revolution, an epic adventure thriller at NBC penned by Kripke that has a pilot production commitment.
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JJ Abrams + creator of show that runs 9 years = script commitment? No put pilot? Series commitment? Hope it didnt start as an if/come deal.
Hell yes. Mark Schwahn is underrated and J.J. Abrams is a legend. Really looking forward to this one now. This may actually be too good for the CW though.
Can you sound any more fake?
@lol, Can you be more Jaded?
I have to agree with Michael. On other networks this pilot would get lost in the shuffle but it may be the best bet the CW has going into next year. It’s mainstream enough, got Abrams to keep the quality in check and has Schwahn who has proven that he can continue a story for nearly a decade…
Schwahn has proven he can never get his shows above sub-basement ratings for a decade. That you can post that dribble is laughable. This show sounds terrible. Schwahn really is terrible.
Surely with Abrams attached the hotel with have a supernatural theme.
Either way those two = WIN.
That description for this show is as bland and uninspiring as saying it’s a “family drama.” I guess once you reach a certain level in the industry you can get anything greenlit.
A show about a hotel….in Maine….
i almost fell asleep just reading the description. When I think of Maine, the words “sexy” and
18-28 demographic” don’t exactly come to mind…..bear hunting does, however
oh really? I will guarantee that with mark and also jj abrams writing this show, especially schwahn, this show will be not only the highest rated on the cw by next fall, it will last 5-7 years at least without question, one tree hill fans will make sure of that trust, and this is even more in concrete if the show were to film in Wilmington, north Carolina like tree hill did. Everyone loves the wilmy!!!!!
What you smoking? Mark has never had the highest rated anything and One Tree Hill fans can’t even make One Tree Hill the highest rated show on CW, so how the hell are they going to do that with something else?
Well it’s managed to be on air for 9 seasons despite ratings.
Being from North Carolina and a fan of NC film making, I hope this new show is filmed in Wilmy too. Wilmington is the perfect town to film in.
I usually like anything that has JJ’s name over it, but this just seems like a “current” Pan Am.
A show about a New England inn and its staff/guests? Is Bob Newhart available?
Has J.J.’s nose grown even longer or is it just the photo?
Everytime he’s part of a film it seems his nose grows another foot longer.
You can fool some of the people some of the time…
One Tree Hill has always been low rated garbage. Every year it teeters on the cancellation bubble and prays for some other show on the network to bomb, so it can live another day. Saddling Abrams with Schwahn is mystifying. It’s conceding low rating defeat before the show even starts.
Sherman will make this team go to #1
What are they gonna call it? “One Tree Hilton?” “Howard Schwahnsons?”
And you wonder why your agent isn’t taking your calls anymore.
Angry much?
mark schwahn is a joke. he didn’t manage to do one other project in 9 years of having a show on air … seems odd, no? will be very interested to see how this turns out.
This is not entirely true. He wrote “Coach Carter” and “The Perfect Score” as well as produced several unsold pilots durring his tenure w/ “One Tree hil”.
Where is the CW going to fit all of these shows? They can’t possibly be canceling all 3 of their new scripted dramas this season, maybe one of them. They might be giving the boot to another series. Let’s not forget the producers of Gossip Girl are also developing the Sex and the City prequel series. Now they have 2 other series in the works, and honestly, “Maine” sounds kind of boring and done to death. JJ does good with his shows, but Schwahn doesn’t know how to let a series end while it is still good. One Tree Hill has been declining in quality for about 4 seasons, let alone being on the bubble every single season. But who knows, this might a decent series, if it gets picked up.
Hell no, this plot sounds entirely lame and I refuse to subject myself to anything Mark is associated with ever again after OTH even if JJ Abrams is a part of it. I know the CW only has a few shows which are actually worth watching, but I still think this sounds worse than any of the other crap they have on there right now. If they pick up this series to cancel one of the few good shows they have, I really am done with this network for good.
I’m guessing JJ never watched Gilmore Girls? It be smarter (and cheaper) to just dust of the GG sets and call it Gilmore Girls: The New Generation.
Exactly what I was thinking. What’s Alexis Bledel doing these days? A continuation of the Gilmore Girls sounds like a much better take on this concept.
i am looking forward to this one. say what you will about one tree hill but what other CW show has gone 9 years with virtually no promo beating tentpole shows like gossip girl in the ratings? excited to see what these two come up with.
Smallville. Top Model. Supernatural. Any show that has been on longer than 3 years basically. But Smallville would actually beat shows on other networks occasionally. I’m not sure OTH ever did that. One Tree Hill spent most of its life in the bottom tier of the CW’s ratings, without ever being so terrible as to be the absolute worst in the ratings.
I personally think Mark Schwahn is a great writer, and to be honest, I don’t know a person who took the time to watch One Tree Hill who didn’t love it. The fact is it isn’t a big show, and it wasn’t promoted like others, but the fact is, it DID last 9 seasons. It did make it. I think Schwahn writes characters people relate to, and Abrams is great too, so that combination will create something good, maybe not something everyone thinks is great, but I bet it develops a LOYAL fanbase that will stick with it. Look at Wilmington, the tourists One Tree Hill brought there, the revenue that town got because of that show, the fans loved it, and Maine will probably get those same fans.
No show on the CW gets promotion beyond the first couple of seasons. Why should Mark Schwahn get to throw himself a pity party over it? Why does he get to blame his abysmal ratings on that, when every other show on the netlet can claim the same crutch?
Sounds like North Shore…