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Bourne Spin-Off Coming from CSI Creator

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Anthony Zuiker, the man best known for creating CSI, is developing a new series for CBS called Treadstone.

Viewers of the Bourne films — or the Robert Ludlum novels upon which they’re based — remember Treadstone as the black-ops wetwork unit that just won’t leave Jason Bourne alone. Treadstone was depicted as a rather ruthless organization that brainwashed and programmed their operatives to be precision instruments at dealing death. Zuiker’s hour-long drama is said to put the focus on the work of this clandestine agency, presumably pitting the team that works there as its protagonists, not its villains.

Screenwriter John Glenn is writing Treadstone‘s script and will executive produce the series alongside Zuiker. The show has not yet been greenlit by CBS, though CBS has a first-look agreement with Zuiker and has committed to funding a pilot script.

Should it go to air, it ought to be interesting to see if audiences will buy into a series set in Jason Bourne’s world, but without Bourne himself appearing in it.

CBS Planning Another Twitter Show

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God help us all. CBS’ $#*! My Dad Says has been deemed a success after healthy ratings for its debut, so of course CBS is applying the standard Hollywood playbook to any money-making venture: “if the public loves one, they’ll love two even more!”

Yes, another thoroughly unnecessary sitcom is in the works from CBS that’s based on a Twitter feed, and it’s a rather similar-sounding one. Where $#*! My Dad Says is based on a guy that tweets the profane, politically-incorrect stuff that his father spews round-the-clock, Shh… Don’t Tell Steve, the new show CBS is working on, is based on a Twitter feed by a guy that secretly tweets the kooky activities of his lazy, drunken roommate. The show will similarly follow an average guy who has to put up with an outrageously immature roommate.

CBS has signed a deal for a pilot script, which will be executive produced by avid Twitter user Ashton Kutcher.

Watchdog group protests $#*! My Dad Says

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In a press release that includes repeated use of the word “excrement,” the Parents Television Council has issued a stern warning to potential advertisers of CBS’ new sitcom, $#*! My Dad Says. (The show is based on a wildly popular Twitter account where a twenty-something guy living with his dad tweets the profane, offensive things his grouch of a father says to him.)

The PTC has put advertisers on notice, warning them to stay away from $#*! My Dad Says, “unless they wish to associate their hard earned brands with excrement.” “The Second Edition of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use; yet CBS decided to use the ‘s-word’ in the title of this show, putting its blatant contempt for children and families front and center,” says PTC President Tim Winter.

The organization will inform its members of which brands advertise during $#*! My Dad Says, and warn them not to support those products.

Sela Ward joining CSI: NY

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Well that was fast. Mere hours after it was announced that Melina Kanakaredes was leaving CSI: NY, CBS now says that actress Sela Ward will be joining the cast as Kanakaredes’ replacement.

According to producers, Ward will be playing a new character who’s “an experienced investigator from Washington, D.C., whose work is driven by her empathy for the victim.” She’ll first appear on the show during the Season 7 premiere in the Fall.

CBS signs deal with Scott Pilgrim publisher

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CBS has signed a first-look deal with Oni Press, the publishing company behind Brian Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim graphic novels. The same graphic novels upon which the endlessly-buzzed-about Scott Pilgrim vs. the World film is based.

More properly, it’s CBS Television Studios, not the broadcast network, that’s inked the Oni Press deal. Which means that CBS now has the first rights to look at Oni’s library of comic books and graphic novels and consider using them as fodder for television shows and made-for-TV movies.

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