CBS Orders A Bunch Of Drama Pilots Including ‘L.A. Confidential’ Adaptation, ‘Magnum P.I.’ & ‘Cagney And Lacey’ Reboots
CBS has completed it’s pilot orders for this season by adding a tv adaptation of ‘L.A. Confidential’ to its slate, along with reboots of classic crime dramas ‘Magnum P.I.’ & ‘Cagney And Lacey’ and a pile of original content too. Here is a rundown of their current pilot offerings.
L.A. Confidential
Based on the James Ellroy’s novel and 1997 feature film, this adaptation comes from Arnon Milchan, producer of the movie, and is written by Jordan Harper (‘Gotham’, ‘The Mentalist’). Interestingly, it will have the tone, music and style of a modern-day drama but will still be set in the 1950s, which it’s going to make for an “intriguing” juxtaposition. The story premise is still similar, as it follows 3 homicide detectives, a female reporter and an up-and-coming actress as the detectives pursue a sadistic serial killer among the secrets and lies of gritty, glamorous ’50s LA.
Magnum P.I.
This new version of Magnum, screams as being a potential replacement for ‘Hawaii Five-0’, which seems to be slowly winding down. It’s from Peter Lenkov and Eric Guggenheim, two of the people behind ‘Five-0’, with Lenkov also having successfully rebooted ‘MacGyver’ too. The basic premise is the same as the original – Decorated ex-Navy SEAL Thomas Magnum returns home from Afghanistan and repurposes his military skills to become a private investigator. He’s helped by ex-Navy buddies TC and Rick, along with Higgins, who is gender-switched in this version to becomes Juliet Higgins, a disavowed former MI6 agent. Obviously, it’s also set on Hawaii, so even if ‘Hawaii Five-0’ does carry on a few more seasons, I would expect to see some crossovers.
Cagney and Lacey
A reboot of the classic 1980s police drama which starred Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless. The original was set in New York, but this version moves the action to L.A. as it follows two female police detectives and friends trying to keep the streets of the City Of Angels safe.
The Code
The drama follows the military’s brightest minds as they take on the US’s toughest challenges, inside the courtroom and out. Each attorney is not only trained as a prosecutor, but also a defence lawyer, an investigator, and a Marine! It’s basically every procedural drama rolled into one! What has me really interested in this show is that it comes from ‘Limitless’ co-creator Craig Sweeny, along with Craig Turk (‘The Good Wife’, ‘Boston Legal’), so it has some very good people behind it.
Red Line
After a white cop in Chicago mistakenly shoots and kills a black doctor, the show follows 3 different families that all have connections with the case as the story is told from each perspective. It comes from writers and executive producers Caitlin Parrish and Erica Weiss, with Arrowverse’s Greg Berlanti, Ava DuVernay and Sarah Schechter also serve as exec producers for Berlanti Productions.
Main Justice
The show is Sascha Penn (‘Power’, ‘Survivor’s Remorse’) and is based on the life and work of Eric Holder, the first African American to hold the position of U.S. Attorney General. In this fictional version, it centres on a U.S. Attorney General in the tumultuous world of the 5th floor of the Department of Justice where he takes on the biggest legal and investigative cases in the country, all while being the youngest person to ever hold the position.
These are all, of course, just pilots at the moment, so some might not make it to series. We’ll let you know when we hear more.
