As we mentioned yesterday, superheroes and comics on the small screen are only going to keeping coming, and NBC and Fox both have projects in the works hoping to get geeks to tune in each week.
It’s no secret that, Batman aside, Warner Bros. has had trouble turning DC properties into successful franchise — both Bryan Singer’s “Superman Returns” and last year’s abysmal “Green Lantern” failed to catch on — and with Marvel setting their sights on the small screen, the studio is making moves of their own. WB is developing a TV series for NBC based on the graphic novel series “Midnight, Mass.” which follows “a sophisticated, sexy, globe-trotting husband and wife paranormal investigator team – based in Midnight, Massachusetts – that takes on supernatural foes, macabre mysteries and the most frightening creature of all: marriage.” The series, which will be guided by “Snow White And The Huntsman” co-writer Evan Daugherty and “Gran Torino” producer Bill Gerber, had an earlier failed attempt at a series with NBC in 2009 but with the network still lagging behind literally everyone else — and the studio with still no clear plan for their numerous DC properties — it’s likely that this will at least make it to pilot stage. There’s also an audience for a show like this, as the modest successes of “Supernatural” and “Grimm” can attest.
Riding high on their respective surprise successes, “Homeland” for creator Howard Gordon and “Chronicle” screenwriter Max Landis have teamed up for the original superhero series “Vigilant” for Fox. Landis is the show’s creator — with Gordon acting as a guardian of sorts and executive producing — and will write the pilot, which “is described as a ‘superhero’ origin story told through the unlikely point of view of a smart 20-year-old woman who happens to be a social outcast. After an honorable veteran detective is brutally coerced into working for the corrupt head of Internal Affairs, the detective’s daughter plans her revenge by creating a fictional vigilante persona to take on the criminal elements within the police department and the city.” Although the serialized format of most comic book series naturally lends itself to network TV, outside of the late “Smallville” there haven’t been any successful television iterations in recent memory (NBC’s “The Cape,” anybody?). Let us know your favorite superhero-themed TV shows below. [Deadline/THR]
