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Kelley’s Wonder Woman Not Happening

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Remember that potential new Wonder Woman TV series from legal eagle writer/producer David E. Kelley? It’s an official no-go.

Kelley got as far as writing a pilot script and shopping it around to all five broadcast networks, but for varying reasons, none of them were able to give him a greenlight. Their reasons were largely political or mechanical:

  • ABC had to pass on DC Comics’ leading lady because ABC’s owner Disney now also owns DC’s chief competitor, Marvel Comics, with whom the alphabet network is currently developing Hulk and AKA Jessica Jones.
  • CBS reportedly came the closest to signing on, but its executives couldn’t come to a consensus on taking the plunge.
  • The CW, which would arguably be the best fit for the show — since DC and The CW are both owned by Warner Bros., and CW has already proven it can find success with a DC Comics superhero — can’t afford the project’s effects-heavy budget.
  • Fox said no because it wasn’t a good fit there.
  • NBC might have been able to give the show a suitable home, but everything is in a wild state of flux there due to its changing of the guard.

Since most of the reasons were rooted in timing issues, Kelley is considering letting the project cool for a while and then shopping it again at a later date.

NBC Snags Spielberg Musical

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Now that Glee has proven that there’s room on the small screen for musicals, it’s inevitable that more song-and-dance series will make their way to television screens. But I don’t think anyone expected Steven Spielberg to be behind the next one.

Spielberg has just sold a musical idea to NBC called Smash, which follows a group of characters as they put together a Broadway musical. Reportedly, new NBC honcho Robert Greenblatt first tried getting Smash on Showtime, where he formerly worked. But now NBC has greenlit the pilot, which was written by playwright Theresa Rebeck and is being produced by Broadway heavyweights Craig Zadan and Neil Meron of Hairspray, along with Spielberg and DreamWorks TV.

Unlike Glee, Smash will utilize original songs written for the show, from award-winning songwriters Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman.

Glee hit on such a unique formula: a situation that calls for music to believably enter the drama, witty/quirky high school characters, and fun remakes of established hit pop songs. I’m unconvinced that its success can be so easily replicated.

ABC Orders 7 Intriguing New Pilots

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ABC has made a bold move in the current pilot season, announcing a whopping seven new dramas that have gone to pilot and could get picked up for full seasons. Most of them are from high-profile writer/creators, and almost all of them feature genre elements of scifi, fantasy, or horror.

First up is Georgetown by Josh Schwartz, who’s known for creating The O.C., Chuck, and Gossip Girl. Written by Will Fetters (Remember Me, The Lucky One), Georgetown is a soap following the young people who operate behind the scenes of Washington, DC’s most powerful players. Real-life journalist Ashley Parker is on staff as a consultant for this, Fetters’ first TV series.

Next is a show with a title that’s sure to raise some eyebrows (and some controversy from the Bible Belt), Good Christian Bitches, from Robert Harling (Steel Magnolias). It’s based on a novel by first-time author Kim Gatlin. Her tale of “Desperate Housewives on steroids” finds a recently divorced mother of two, Amanda Vaughn, moving back to her old stomping grounds in Dallas where she witnesses first hand the dangerous side of gossip.

Hallelujah is a mythical tale of good and evil, where the endless battle between the two is being waged in the small town of Hallelujah, Tennessee. When a stranger comes to town, he bears the power to change the place’s dynamic with his benevolent mixture of peace, justice, and faith. Each episode is said to end with a song sung by the town’s gospel choir. Hallelujah is created and written by Desperate Housewives‘ Marc Cherry, marking his first new show since that ABC hit.

Identity is an action procedural that follows an elite police unit that fights the 21st Century crime of identity theft. It’s written by John Glenn (Eagle Eye).

Next, Once Upon a Time is about a small town in Maine “where the magic and mystery of Fairy Tales” is real. The main character is a woman with a troubled past who’s mysteriously drawn to the town. Once Upon a Time is noteworthy because it was co-developed by Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof, though he’s not expected to have an ongoing presence on the show. Instead his co-creators (and former Lost staff writers) Edtward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, who most recently wrote the feature film Tron: Legacy, are overseeing this high-profile series.

Revenge is a modern retelling of Dumas’ classic The Count of Monte Cristo, wherein a charismatic, mysterious young woman takes on the role who returns to her home to exact revenge on the people who destroyed her family. The twist: her home is the Hamptons. Revenge is written by Mike Kelley (Swingtown).

Finally, The River, which like Good Christian Bitches was won after a bidding war, is about a family who travels deep into the Amazon jungle to locate and rescue their missing father. The River is described as a “horror drama” written by Paranormal Activity‘s Oren Peli and Paranormal Activity 2‘s Michael Perry. But ABC asked for a rewrite of the pilot script to hone the concept, so Michael Green (Heroes, Kings) was brought in, after which ABC gave it the green light.

Fox Has Found Its Next ’24’

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As reported a month ago, Ethan Hawke really wants to be television’s next Jack Bauer. His new starring vehicle, Exit Strategy, has gotten an official pilot order from Fox, which should put it in line for a Fall 2011 premiere, should it get a full series pickup.

Exit Strategy is produced by Alex Kurtzman and Robert Orci — co-creators of Fringe, and two of the hottest writer/producers in Hollywood — but it sounds like it has more in common with Alias than 24. Hawke leads a 5-member team of special CIA agents who are sent into the field to extract fellow operatives when a mission goes bad. Exit Strategy is expected to tackle a different crisis in a new country in each episode. No word yet on whether the show will showcase any of Kurtzman & Orci’s signature love of mythology (which they likely picked up from pal J.J. Abrams).

What’s more, the pilot will be directed by big-screen director Antoine Fuqua, who worked with Hawke on Training Day and Brooklyn’s Finest. David Guggenheim wrote the script, and Hawke himself will serve as the show’s producer (much like Kiefer Sutherland did on 24).

HBO Planning Wikileaks Film

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Is there anyone in the world more controversial than Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks? Perhaps the President could qualify, but I don’t think there’s anyone as notorious and severely divisive as Assange.

HBO is pretty much thinking the same thing, because they’ve just put an Assange biopic into development alongside the BBC that will be based on a New Yorker article from June of last year. Raffi Khatchadourian, author of the article, spent time following Assange as he and WikiLeaks worked to leak a classified video filmed inside the cockpit of an Army helicopter. Presumably, part of the film would depict this scenario for the tension-filled, high-stakes work it is.

The untitled movie will be executive produced by Joshua Maurer and Alixandre Witlin of City Entertainment, and David Stern of KippSter Entertainment, who owns the film rights to Khatchadourian’s article.