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‘Bones’ Creator Plans Spinoff

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Bones creator Hart Hanson is introducing a new recurring character on his show this December that could lead to a spinoff.

On the December 6th episode of Bones the new character will be introduced, and his name is Walter Sherman. A former MP who served with Booth in Iraq, Walter is someone Booth doesn’t get along with, but Brennan will be fascinated by the eccentric man, who is said to be able to find anything. Walter suffers from acute paranoia due to brain damage he suffered during the war, which has made him skeptical of everything, and prone to asking questions that are seemingly offensive and irrelevant while trying to get to the truth.

According to TV Guide, the spinoff will be made or broken based on casting the right actor to play Walter Sherman.

But wait, wait… a Fox series… starring a mad/eccentric genius… named Walter… This character sounds vaguely familiar. Might I humbly suggest Mr. Hanson consider a different first name for his new character? And of course, this would hardly be the first Fox series to star an abrasive ingenue who uses a seemingly cruel personality to help people.

As for Hanson’s new show, I’ll certainly give it a shot. Bones is currently the only procedural I can stomach — mostly because I ignore the murder-of-the-week and focus instead on the sparkling chemistry between the show’s enjoyable characters.

JJ Abrams Shops 2 New Shows

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His new NBC show Undercovers hasn’t even premiered yet (that happens September 22nd), but J.J. Abrams isn’t content with just two TV shows on the air. (The other, of course, is Fox’s Fringe, which is about to debut its 3rd season on September 23rd.)

According to EW.com, Abrams is currently shopping around not one but two brand new TV hour-longs for broadcast networks. The first is Alcatraz, about the famous prison island of the same name. The idea is said to come from writer Elizabeth Sarnoff, who worked on almost the entire run of Lost; Sarnoff wrote the script.

The second is untitled, but comes from an extremely popular writer: Jonathan Nolan. You may not recognize his name, but you definitely know his work: he wrote the screenplay for The Dark Knight, which his brother Christopher directed. He also co-wrote his brother’s The Prestige, and he wrote the short story that the movie Memento was based on. All that’s known about Nolan’s TV series concept is that it’s a crime/thriller (and everyone who saw The Dark Knight can attest that Nolan knows how to write that genre).

As for Abrams, you’ve gotta respect a guy who has a major career ahead of him in film directing, yet still loves television enough to create new properties for it. If Abrams were to get both shows on the air, he could conceivably have a show on all four major broadcast networks: Fringe is on Fox, Undercovers on NBC; Nolan’s crime/thriller might make a good fit for procedural-loving CBS; and maybe ABC could take Alcatraz, based on their existing relationship with Lost‘s Sarnoff.

Sam Raimi Producing 3 New Pilots

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ABC, CBS, and Fox have ordered three new pilots from Sam Raimi‘s Stars Road Entertainment. These three new hour-longs represent the first TV commitments from Stars Road, which is looking to expand into all aspects of TV, including cable, now that they’ve appointed Robert Zotnowski (formerly of CBS) as head of their TV division.

For ABC, former The Good Wife showrunner Dee Johnson is developing an untitled project about a female lawyer who moonlights as a vigilante.

CBS has ordered a pilot for Lancaster, about a detective who migrates from Scotland Yard to the LAPD. CSI writer Andrew Lipsitz is the creator.

Finally, at Fox, acclaimed comic book writer and Lost screenwriter Brian K. Vaughan has created an original scifi concept called Smokers. The premise follows a team of working-class heroes who exterminate alien threats in space, and is being filmed documentary style.

Abrams’ 2 New Shows Get Pilot Orders

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CBS is about to go into the J.J. Abrams business for the first time, while Fox will soon be getting its second helping of Abrams-y goodness.

As I predicted, CBS has decided that Person of Interest, the crime thriller Abrams is developing with Jonathan Nolan, might just be a good fit for their lineup. They’ve given a pilot order to the series. Nolan is best known for writing the script to The Dark Knight, which his brother Christopher directed. Next to nothing is known about the plot, but this will be the first time that CBS has broadcast an Abrams show.

Fox, meanwhile, has put in a similar pilot order for Alcatraz, the new Abrams show from Lost writer Elizabeth Sarnoff. Just like the CBS show, next to nothing is known about this drama, other than it focuses on mysteries and secrets surrounding Alcatraz prison. Before Sarnoff wrote the spec script, earlier versions were written by Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt of Kyle XY.

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.