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Richard Hatem’s four-year old drama project Wrecking Ball is getting a second go at the CW. The network has given a script commitment to the drama, about a JFK Jr.-type brash young man from a well known political family who teams with an idealistic twenty-something girl volunteer from his failed Congressional campaign to solve underdog cases of the week through their own legal firm. Hatem (Grimm) is writing as well as executive producing with Ross Fineman (Lights Out).
The project, described as “Moonlighting meets Erin Brockovich”, was first put in development at the CW during the writers-strike-impacted 2007-08 development season when it was produced by Fox TV Studios where Fineman was under an overall deal. It was greenlighted to pilot right after the end of the strike in March 2008, but the network pulled the plug a month later after not being able to close a deal with cable-focused FtvS. The script is now owned by the CW sibling CBS TV Studios, which is producing.
I hear Wrecking Ball has been a favorite of the CW’s head of development Thom Sherman who was instrumental in bringing it back for a second go-around. New CW president Mark Pedowitz has been high on giving passion projects second chances. His first pilot order at the CW was to Rockne S. O’Bannon’s Cult, which had been first ordered to pilot by the WB in 2006 but became a casualty of the UPN/WB merger. He also has been looking to add more close-ended shows to the network’s lineup. WME-repped Hatem and Fineman produced the CW’s 2011 pilot Heavenly, which was in serious consideration for a series pickup. Hatem also did a stint as a co-executive producer on the CW’s Supernatural.
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Sounds okay, but the title needs work.
They should resurrecting projects like Amy Sherman-Palladino’s “The Damn Thorpes.”
Still can’t believe they passed on that when it’s from a lauded producer AND fits right in with their demographic. Idiots.
Politics? Moonlighting? Erin Brockovich? Are we talking about The CW right?
Sounds bad.MP has picked up &help pick up the worst shows-Framed/The Frame(which luckily and wisely was cancelled before it aired).The Next,OhSit,H8trs,Remodeled.,La Complex. None of these shows have gotten a million viewers an episode.Also, if Cult & Wrecking Ball weren’t picked up cause they’re bad the first time around, they’re not gonna do better or be better written,better produced,better quality this time.Plus he’s copying other networks show ideas: Beauty & Beast(abc had one) & Sleepy Hollow(Foxhas theirs).Arrow and Cult sound and look bad. I wish he wasn’t trying to totally forget the young women’s demo that made CW successful in the first place with shows like Wrecking Ball,Sleepy Hollow,Arrow,Cult-(aimed more at males)after 2012-2013 season they’ll be no good shows left on CW probably.
A lot of those terrible reality shows were already developed before MP even got there. But he is trying to make the best of a horrible situation.
Saving the CW will take him a while after all that damage Dawn did in 5 years.
Cult & Wreaking ball weren’t not picked up because they were bad. If you read this article carefully, you would see that the reason it didn’t work out was because “the network pulled the plug a month later after not being able to close a deal with cable-focused FtvS” It had to do with money, not the quality of the show.
Cult didn’t make it on our screens back then was because of the WB/UPN merger. A lot of shows didn’t make it that year since 2 networks worth of shows had to be jammed into only 1 network.
Tv and film studios constantly have competing ideas with a similar premise. It doesn’t mean one is copying the other especially if they are executed very differently.
But if that’s still bothering you, the CW green-lit their Beauty & the Beast project before ABC, (so didn’t ABC copy the CW? -_-) and the ABC show wasn’t even picked up so there shouldn’t be a problem.
Dawn focused on the woman’s demon that led to the erosion of ratings. Instead of trying to be a wannabee Lifetime, they need to try and broaden their horizons if they want to be a real broadcast network.
Arrow is actually a very well produced show, it is very cinematic. I was pleasantly surprised at how high quality it looks. It does not look like a little CW show. and Cult is a very lofty endeavor and will surely make the audience think and draw the viewer into a carefully constructed plot. However, since it’s such a serialized series it might do terribly in the ratings. It’ll probably go over the head of most of the CW audience.
But it’s a great idea to bring in older viewers instead of the “high-school” crowd. It will take a long time for the network to evolve, but i hope it does. Everyone likes an underdog story.
What a sincere and truthful comment my friend. I feel the same way to be honest. If anyone doesn’t like where Mark is taking The CW, then they can head on to ABC Family and Lifetime because The CW isn’t an “All Women” network anymore.
Brandy was to busy laying out Mark’s flaws that she forgot to mention how many of Dawn’s precious “women focused” shows failed.
Privileged, Runaway, Hidden Palms, Stylista, MELROSE PLACE, The Beautiful Life, Life Unexpected, HELLCATS, The Secret Circle, RINGER. All of these were advertised with the word “sexy and intrigue” at one point and they all received the boot. Women are not shallow enough to have crap like these shoved in their faces and that’s why all of these shows failed because that’s what they were.
You want an all-women network? Go to ABC Family and Lifetime. The CW isn’t all about women and shouldn’t be all about women either. The WB was never like that and it was practically the same youth skewing network.
The network needs a broader appeal and shows that were once hits with young women on the network (9O21O, Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill) are all phasing out and losing viewers by each week. I’m surprised he picked that crap looking Carrie Diaries up but at least he was smart enough to save it for midseason(hopefully it’ll be gone after its 13 episode order).
The CW desperately needed a change and that’s exactly what he’s doing. He clearly stated that he’s not focusing on “Women 18-34″ but on general “Adults 18-34″ which is the perfect especially due to the state of The CW.
It isn’t clear from the blurb but Googling finds it’s a legal drama.