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Sci-fi TV pilots, part two: The CW and Fox shows that will live or die
TV pilots, the sequel. Today it's on to The CW and Fox to see what sci-fi pilots have a chance at going to series. (Yesterday we dug into the television pilots that might just have a chance to make it onto the fall schedule at ABC, CBS and NBC in part one.)
After the jump, our list of hopefuls and how they stack up.
The CW
Vampire Diaries High school girl Elena falls for a 200-year-old vampire named Stefan and becomes caught between Stefan and his brother, Damon, as they struggle to claim her soul. Based on the novel series by L.J. Smith. Vampire Diaries comes from writers Kevin Williamson (Dawson's Creek) and Julie Plec (Kyle XY). Nina Dobrev plays Elena, with Paul Wesley taking on the role of Stefan and Lost's Ian Somerhalder playing Damon.
Will Vampire Diaries stake out a spot on The CW's schedule? It's got a chance. While Twilight may have made the whole teenage-girl-meets-and-falls-in-love-with-a-vampire-hottie angst thing popular, the Vampire Diaries novel series actually was published first. Nobody cares about that. Except The CW, which cares a lot about all the teenage girls who might tune in.
But ... The CW already has announced pickups for Supernatural and Smallville, along with several other series. There's not a lot of room on the schedule, and the competition is fierce among the network's six pilots.
Fox
Human Target Christopher Chance offers a special security service: He hires himself out to people in danger and assumes their identities, becoming a human target. Based on the DC Comic, Human Target comes from new writer Jon Steinberg, executive producer McG (Chuck, Supernatural) and director Simon West. Mark Valley (Fringe) takes on the lead role, with Chi McBride and Watchmen's Jackie Earle Haley also cast.
Can Human Target hit the mark? It's a sure thing. Anything based on a comic book these days is gold, and Fox is in love with this pilot.
So ... Why does it sound so familiar? Could it be because ABC had a version starring Rick Springfield in 1992? And didn't that one last only seven episodes? Yes, it did.
Masterwork This globe-hopping National Treasure-meets-The Da Vinci Code—with a bit of The Librarian tossed in—lumps an FBI agent and an MI5 agent together for a mission in a race to recover the world's most cherished artwork and artifacts. From creator Paul Scheuring (Prison Break). Masterwork stars Matt Passmore, Scott Porter (pictured above), Natalie Dormer and Tom Ellis.
Will Masterwork unearth a series? It's not a front-runner. This pilot sounds like it could be fun, especially with the new Angels & Demons movie coming soon.
Unfortunately ... Masterwork sounds like it would be a pretty pricey series to make, and these days an expensive series is one that doesn't get made.
Eva Adams When a chauvinistic womanizing sports agent crosses a witch, she casts a spell and transforms him into a woman so he can suffer the same type of harassment he's been doling out. Based on the Argentinean telenovela Lalola. Eva Adams was written by The West Wing's Kevin Falls and stars Rhea Seehorn (pictured) in the title role. The cast includes James Van Der Beek, David Denman, Kat Foster, Steve Harris and Alex Borstein.
Can Eva Adams transform from pilot into series? It seems unlikely. A What Women Want-meets-Switch-style series sounds like it might have potential. The big challenge with Eva Adams looks to be doing this type of material without comedy.
Which means ... This pilot's a drama.
Virtuality When the Earth's first starship, the Phaeton, heads off on a journey to explore a distant solar system, the people on board have to do something. Luckily they've got virtuality, which means the ability to embrace the limitless possibilities of a virtual-reality world. From creators Michael Taylor and Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica, pictured). Peter Berg directed the two-hour pilot. The cast includes New Amsterdam's Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, James D'Arcy, Jimmi Simpson, Joy Bryant, Kerry Bishe, Nelson Lee, Omar Metwally, Richie Coster and Sienna Guillory.
Does Virtuality have a shot at reality? No. We knew the stars were obviously not in alignment when Fox ordered the two-hour pilot cut down to one hour because it was considered too dense.
At least ... Ron Moore won't be out of a job. He has SCI FI's upcoming series Caprica.
Untitled Reincarnation Project Why hasn't anyone thought of this one before? A group of past-life investigators attempt to solve their client's present mysteries by digging into their past lives. Created by David Hudgins (Friday Night Lights). The pilot stars Kelli Giddish (pictured), Nick Bishop, Ravi Patel and Richard Schiff.
Can this pilot reincarnate into a series? No way. This ever-so-low-concept idea with no decent title and a silly premise means that Fox won't take a chance on this one.
Nevertheless ... with the working title, Reincarnationist, it'd be fun to see how Fox would market this one.
To see what pilots ABC, CBS and NBC have developed, check out part one, which ran Wednesday.
By KelDez at 1:27 PM ON 04/23/09
Before Switch was a movie named Goodbye Charlie, with Debbie Reynolds & Tony Curtis. Cute as a comedy, but the setup is just too ripe for comedy to be serious. Even Heinlein's I Will Fear No Evil had some fun with it.
By Captain America at 1:43 PM ON 04/23/09
Wow. Virtuality sounds like it sucks. So it's set on a spaceship that never actually gets anywhere, and because the crew have nothing else to do, they spend all their time on the holodeck? Realistic? Sure. But I hated the endlessly stupid holodeck episodes of Star Trek. Why the Hell would I want to subject myself to a series that's all about the friggin' holodeck, and which involves NO space battles, NO visiting of other worlds, NO meetings with unusual aliens, etc? That's the equivalent of basing a series around a family going on an RV trip across the country, but they never arrive at their destination nor meet anybody during the trip. So we base the series off of seeing what video games the kids play along the way. Yeah, not gonna fly.
By Zaphod at 1:56 PM ON 04/23/09
Sheeesh! When are we going to get over this "teen girl falls for a dark, brooding vampire" trend. It worked, mostly, for Buffy, but it's getting old.
And leave it to FOX to screw up a potentially great series before it even gets to see the light of day.
By AdmNaismith at 2:19 PM ON 04/23/09
Cross Human Target with the Untitled Reincarnation Project and it sound an awful lot like a series already running on Fox called Dollhouse (which has a better science-fictiony hook than either of these two).
MasterWork sounds like Warehouse 13 (which also has a better science-fictiony hook) which was already Friday The 13th.
No Vampires, no way.
Virtuality has an intreresting idea, but what does the spaceship have to do with it?
Ron Moore need to work for Japanese television. Can you imagine his writing talents crossed with beautiful animation and focused by the 26 or 52 ep limit? Pure gold, baby.
Eva Adams could work, but it has to be light soap opera like Desperate Housewives or Ugly Betty- melodrama cut with some comedy.
By GoblinRevolution at 3:26 PM ON 04/23/09
I will watch anything with Natalie Dormer in it. A talented actress and a luscious woman.
By Baff at 3:47 PM ON 04/23/09
Yesterdays list was much more interesting. Most of these barely fall into the sci-fi/fantasy catagory.
You left some sci-fi off the FOX list, or have they all been shot down already? "Defying Gravity", "Boldly Going Nowhere", & "Persons Unknown"
By Bova at 4:49 PM ON 04/23/09
Is hard science fiction too much to ask for? Would a realistic series about near- future space explorers who actually end up exploring space be so terrible?
By ctmm at 5:08 PM ON 04/23/09
Bring back startrek:Enterprise series with same cast
.got to be better than whats on tv..
By Gill Avila at 6:29 PM ON 04/23/09
"Eva Adams?" Sufferin' Jayzuz--am I the only one to remember "Turnabout" by Thorne Smith, a novel about a magic idol that implements the body-switch of a husband and wife?
By PBMom at 7:47 PM ON 04/23/09
Seriously need to bring back Jericho for a Season 3 (now showing on CW).
By Shaddoe at 10:44 PM ON 04/23/09
Virtuality? Something tells me no one is going to want to buy into that one, largely because of the recent ending to ABC's 'Life on Mars' pulling a very similar trick to explain the whole of what Sam went through to what 'Virtuality' wants to do on a weekly basis.
By johnny zed at 10:55 PM ON 04/23/09
I know World War Z is in production for a movie, but I think it would work better as a series. it would last only for three years maybe, but it could allow for various different stories apart from a central story. Wish list, i like to see Harry Potter as a series, as the movies leave out so much of the other story lines (fred & george, dursleys, spew, etc.).
By TauCetiPrime at 8:50 AM ON 04/24/09
Virtuality - It would make more sense to put all non-essential personnel in some form of stasis or cryo-suspension to conserve on consumables. (But then, there'd be no plot. eh?)
By eric kripki at 10:12 AM ON 04/24/09
OMG!!!!!!!!!! SO MUCH ROMANCE!
I'm in heaven! Can't wait to see the vampires fight for the gulr! Yes to all these shows!
I ship: clark/lana, kelly/dylan and sam/ruby!!
WINCEST IS WRONG!
By jbs780 at 2:01 PM ON 04/24/09
Eva Adams: I recall a movie along these lines from several years ago...Uber Chauvanist is murdered by vengefull women. God...manifested by a booming voice that fluctuates back and forth from male to female sends him back to Earth...as Ellan Barkin...until one female...likes him/her. His/her best friend is playe by Jimmy Smits. I thnk Jobeth Williams was one of the murderesses. Anyone else seel this?
By Dion at 2:43 PM ON 04/24/09
Leave it to the mavens at Fox to hire Ronald D. Moore who comes up with with something vaguely original in "Virtuality", only to change their minds, ordering the pilot chopped in half because it's ". . .too dense. . ." The term dense applies, but certainly not to Moore's show.
By Tidora9 at 4:37 PM ON 04/24/09
I love L.J. Smith, and I'm glad her work is being recognized because her books were the "twilight" of my teen years. However, I know the CW will kill the Vampire Diary series...I know that show will suck; don't bother watching, you'll be better off reading the books, trust.
By meh at 4:46 PM ON 04/24/09
It's good to hear that CW is picking up Smallville for another season... the bad news is that it looks like they will once again disappoint their longtime supporters and refuse to give Clark his long-needed cape and tights. They started that whole series on the premise that the whole series was about Clark Kent BEFORE he becomes Superman and now the execs are acting as though they never have to ever make that leap. That instead of this being the story of Clark Kent BEFORE he becomes Superman, they want it to be the story of Clark Kent if he NEVER becomes Superman.
BTW: "Untitled Reincarnation Project"? Wasn't that Fox's master plan to bring back all of their old shows?
By jbs780 at 8:14 PM ON 04/24/09
Well I Only recently saw the "Legion" episode, but in that one the pretty much stated pretty clearly that the cape and tights are coming. Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad come calling...not exactly wearing skin tight unis themselves and LL asks about the cape, then later mentions the tights and even Clarks GLASSES!
Problem is the day "Red-Blue Blurr" becomes Superman is the day the show ends. Also...hasn't Welling gone on recoard that he WILL NOT where the suit. dogone it all...they aughta give it to us at least one time...if only in the last scene of tghe series finale.
By sketch at 2:57 AM ON 04/25/09
Virtuosity (or whatever its called) sounds just like that old BBC show Red Dwarf with just a small twist to it. Big whoop The rest mostly looks like crap too. Another bumper crop of crap scifi and repetitive reality shows on tv again. Yehhhhh! If you want to watch reality, talk a walk outside where the real people are.
By crimsonblack at 9:07 PM ON 04/25/09
All of these would be short lived series. Human Target the most viable but they all seem to beat the same rehashed path of series already gone by.
By Realist at 5:46 PM ON 04/26/09
After the lame "God made me do it" ending of Battlestar I'm very uninterested in anything Ronald D. Moore writes or produces.
By Belchfire at 9:40 PM ON 04/27/09
Hey TauCetiPrime! You've given me a idea for a great series! It starts on a ship on its way to another planet. To cut consumables, the crew is in stasis. That makes it a reality show! But wait! Two ( or more) of the crew are vampires! They are far enough from the sun to be in what amounts to eternal night. ( and since vamps only sleep during the day, they really grouchy, due to a lack of sleep. ) So, to keep from going nuts, they spend most of their time in virtual reality. But, due to cutbacks in NASAs budget, the only Virt Reality programs they have are ..........
...................(yeah, you guessed it) ...................
Star Trek, The Latest Incarnation!
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Belchfire:
Hey TauCetiPrime! You've given me a idea for a great series! It starts on a ship on its way to another planet. To...More »