The CW Orders 6 More Pilots Including ‘Roswell’ Reboot
Back in October, we announced The CW was working on a reboot of 90’s sci-fi series ‘Roswell’. Today the US network has announced they have placed a pilot order for the show, along with 5 others. Here is a rundown of the new series they are looking at:
Roswell
Once again, the show is based on Melinda Metz’s ‘Roswell High’ YA book series, but has a slight twist from the previous version, by adding in an immigration element.
In this version, we follow the daughter of undocumented immigrants who has reluctantly returned to her hometown of Roswell, New Mexico. Settling back into the little tourist-trap town, she uncovers the shocking truth about her teenage crush turned local police officer… He is actually an alien who has kept his unearthly abilities hidden his entire life! As the duo reconnect, they begin to investigate his origins, whilst keeping his alien background a secret. But when a violent attack and government cover-up point to a greater alien presence on Earth, the politics of fear and hatred threaten to expose him and destroy their deepening romance.
The End Of The World As We Know It
This one comes from ‘Powerless’ showrunners Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker, and sound like a particularly odd story pitch! When a prison spaceship carrying the universe’s most deadly aliens crashes in Southern California, two young women with bigger dreams than working at a kids’ pizza place in The Valley are recruited by a space cop to hunt down the escaped criminals, who have camouflaged themselves as eccentric Angelenos. It’s based on a book of the same name by Iva-Marie Palmer, with Rob Thomas (‘iZombie’), Danielle Stokdyk, Dan Etheridge, Leslie Morgenstein and Gina Girolamo exec producing, along with Halpern & Schumacker.
In The Dark
The next one comes from Corinne Kingsbury (‘The Newsroom’, ‘Back in the Game’), and follows a flawed and irreverent blind woman is the only “witness” to the murder of her drug-dealing friend. After the police dismiss her story, she sets out with her dog, Pretzel, to find the killer while also managing her colourful dating life and the job she hates at Breaking Blind – the guide dog school owned by her overprotective parents. Ben Stiller is one of the exec producers, along with Kingsbury, Jackie Cohn, and Nicky Weinstock from Red Hour Films.
Skinny Dip
Based on the 2004 novel by Carl Hiaasen, the show follows a couple who set out on, what seems to be, a romantic cruise to celebrate their second wedding anniversary. But when the husband tries to kill his wife whilst sailing the oceans, she teams with a jaded ex-cop to exact her own twisted brand of revenge on her cheating spouse, and winds up uncovering a wider conspiracy in the process. The series is written by Russel Friend and Garrett Lerner (‘House’, ‘Dirk Gently’, ‘Glee’) who exec produce with Peter Traugott and Rachel Kaplan from Keshet Studios.
Playing Dead
Written by Rina Mimoun (‘Mistresses’, ‘Everwood’) and Josh Reims (‘Mistresses’, ‘Jane the Virgin’) this show is a dysfunctional family dramedy about a mortician and his son whose lives are turned upside down when the woman who abandoned them 15 years ago returns and asks them to fake her death. Mimoun and Reims exec produce with Tariq Jalil and Lucas Carter from Intrigue.
Spencer
Written by April Blair (‘Shannara Chronicles’, ‘Reign’) and inspired by the life of pro football player Spencer Paysinger, it follows a rising high school football player from South Central L.A. who is recruited to play for Beverly Hills High. The charts the wins, losses and struggles of two families from the vastly different worlds of Compton and Beverly Hills as they begin to collide. LA Galaxy football player Robbie Rogers is set to produce.
These are on top of the ‘Charmed’ reboot and ‘Dead Inside’, which we mentioned a few days ago. If you include the ‘Supernatural’ spin-off, ‘Wayward Sisters’, which aired as a back-door pilot recently, it makes it a record high for the number of pilots The CW has ordered in a single year.
