The CW has given pilot orders to two potential new shows it has been announced. The first is a female-led remake of classic series ‘Kung Fu’ from the team behind ‘Blindspot’. The second is ‘The Republic Of Sarah’, a comedy from ‘Elementary’ writer-producer Jeffrey Paul King and director Marc Webb, about a woman who sets up her own country.
If you are unfamiliar with ‘Kung Fu’, the original series ran from 1972 to 1975 and starred David Carradine as Kwai Chang Caine, a Shaolin monk who treks around 1880s old west America in search of his half-brother, armed only with his skill in martial arts and Taoist wisdom.
This latest version follows a young Chinese-American woman who drops out of college and goes on a life-changing journey to an isolated monastery in China. When she returns to find her hometown overrun with crime and corruption, she uses her martial arts skills and Shaolin values to protect her community and bring criminals to justice, along with searching for the assassin who killed her Shaolin mentor and is now targeting her.
The new iteration of ‘Kung Fu’ is written by Christina M. Kim, who was writer/exec producer on ‘Blindspot’. She will also EP the potential series alongside ‘Blindspot’ creator Martin Gero, with ‘Arrowverse’s Greg Berlanti & Sarah Schechter from Berlanti Productions. This is the second time Berlanti Productions has tried a female-led remake of the show, with the previous version landing at Fox, but failing to make it to the pilot stage, so this iteration is already fairing better.
‘The Republic Of Sarah’ follows the story of high school teacher Sarah Cooper. Faced with the destruction of her town at the hands of a greedy mining company, the rebellious teacher utilises an obscure cartographical loophole to declare it as an independent nation. Now she must lead a young group of misfits as they attempt to start their own country from scratch.
The series comes from writer-producer Jeffrey Paul King (‘Elementary’) with producer-director Marc Webb (‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’, ‘Limitless’). Fulwell 73 and CBS TV Studios produce the series. ‘The Republic Of Sarah’ was originally piloted at CBS last season but wasn’t picked up.
The CW is not short of content at the moment, having given 13 existing shows early renewals, along with picking up the Arrowverse series ‘Superman & Lois’, and the Jared Padalecki led ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’ reboot straight-to-series. They also have the ‘Arrow’ spinoff ‘Green Arrow & The Canaries’ and ‘The 100’ spin-off (now titled ‘Anaconda’) in contention for pick up this season, both of which air as backdoor pilots. We will have to wait and see if either ‘Kung Fu’ or ‘The Republic Of Sarah’ make the cut. We’ll let you know when we hear more.