Battlestar Galactica reboot visionary Ron Moore just took another step forward to bringing a fantasy series to broadcast TV.
NBC just picked up his pilot, which could be described as “Harry Potter for grown-ups.”
The Sony Pictures TV project takes place in world ruled by magic instead of science. The working title is 17th Precinct and it’s basically an ensemble police drama set in the fictional town of Excelsior.
Precinct is not the only ambitious Moore project in the pipeline at NBC. The writer-producer also has The McCulloch, about the men and women of a fictional Coast Guard cutter as they travel around the world (that project, we’re told, is still kicking despite the Precinct pickup…). See our 2011-12 development slate for more pilots in contention for next fall.
Hmmmmmm…. This could be interesting!
indeed!!!
Cold opening of Episode 1
INT: Studio apartment. Two police detectives are standing over a dead body with a foot-wide hole in the abdomen. The older cop, WARREN LOCKE, is close to retirement. He’s seen it all. His partner, TOMMY MAGNUS, has just been promoted to detective. He’s a cop on the edge but still wet behind the ears.
———– MAGNUS
What is this, the third victim this week?
———– LOCKE
Fourth, kid.
———— MAGNUS
Whoever’s doing this is fond of the krispikremus curse.
———— LOCKE
Yeah, but we’ll catch him soon, and you know what’ll happen then?
————- MAGNUS
What?
————–LOCKE
He’ll go away. For a long spell. Spell! (laughs) Ya get it, kid.
————– MAGNUS
Yeah, I got it the first dozen times.
——–LOCKE
Frak, frak, frak, frak, frak.
——–MAGNUS
Frak?
——–LOCKE
Frak.
——–MAGNUS
Frak!
Not usre if it was intentional or not but you managed to mock Battlestar and The Wire beautifully.
you must have never watched the wire.
Rest assured, Jen B, it was intentional, lol. Two of my favorite shows…ever.
Nicely played.
—–MAGNUS
What?
—–LOCK
He’ll go away… (puts on sunglasses) for a long spell.
—–MAGNUS
YYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
fixed it for ya.
If it’s innovative genre tv and on NBC…it will be canceled after one season.
Mmhmm. Without doubt.
No! It will be good for one season, and then it will get really bad for about 3 or 4 more before they finally cancel it.
ITA! While BSG is still one of my favorite tv series of all time, they kind of lost their mojo after season 1. Kara was a what?? Ridiculous.
Not sure if that’s a fate worse than being horribly mis managed by SyFy.
As soon as I saw NBC as the network I smelled trouble.
I think inventive series like these need to start on cable or they are doomed to die or destined for mediocrity.
But Harry Potter already is for grownups!
No, Courtney.
Good God, no.
(But capitalizing the first letter of one’s name is for grown-ups.)
Harry Potter is for everyone. If you’re too stuck up to embrace it that’s you’re problem. Seeing as you have a stick up your ass over capitalization, I’d say you’re a sad lonely woman.
well said Jenna, Harry Potter is for everyone, I grew up with the series and love it just as much as a “grown up” and I did as a kid
I agree with Jennifer. Harry Potter is for kids. And even then, you’d make your kids dumb by letting them indulge is this drivel.
Drivel eh..? Well its the book that revolutionized reading for a lot of children in the late 90′s who are now in their 20′s or late teens. That is an ADULT. My Mother, Aunt. Several Adults I know have read the books. It starts out as a mild and friendly book series but it gets serious and a little scary. THAT’S WHY its in the children’ s section of the bookstore. But its under ” classics” so…Besides now-days anyone can read anything. If we are going to be so trivial and say That’s a kids novel that’s a grown up novel..sounds so stupid. OH the movies just made 6.3 Billion.
I was in my late 30′s when I started the first novel and loved every one of them. Much rather read them than ‘grown-up’ stuff like Grisham.
Please Bill tell me a children’s novel that meets your high standards.
Harry Potter is for everybody! Well, the later books might be for tweens and up rather than smaller kids, but still. HP has no exclusive age demographic, because those books are fantastic. But I get courtney’s point…I guess this show is more along the lines of “exclusively for grown-ups.”
Yes! Harry Potter IS for everyone!
Prefer science in all honesty.
Comma splice, bud.
The Dresden Files… the next gen?
Totally my first thought as well
Actually it sounds like a rip-off of Neil Gaiman’s InterWorld.
Are you kidding? In what way is this like Interworld?
That’s what I was thinking.
That’s exactly what I thought of when I read this. XD Too bad it’ll be on NBC. If you blink, you’ll miss it. *facepalm*
Bingo, sounds like Dresden Files to me as well.
So, kind of like Cast a Deadly Spell?
Exactly what I thought when I read this. Guess I wasn’t quick enough at ripping that movie off myself…
Would be cool if it wasn’t another cop show. Once they added police, I was like ehhhh…ohhhh…noooo.
Actually, JBD, if you think about “police” in Harry Potter-like terms, then this would mean adventures in the Auror or Magical Law Enforcement offices of the Ministry of Magic — which is what Harry, Ron and Hermione end up doing for a living. If one thinks that way, it’s actually not so terrible a concept.
Of course, the chances of this show having the same level of imagination and culture as HP is unlikely, so I suppose the cop idea is still a risky one…
It could be interesting though. I wonder what they would use as weapons, a wand, staff, or their hands(for spellcasting)? I’m guessing a wand?
If it takes place in the US, they use wands. In the UK, the cops only use their hands.
I don’t know…if the shows first selling point is “it’s just like…”, that is usually trouble
Not to mention how difficult it will be for this show to be original. I suspect Rowlings lawyers will be at the ready if this pilot airs. Not sure how it can be successful and not steal her original ideas..(and still be good)
I would love to see Jason Dohring as the lead…
After the way RDM fracked up the ending of BSG this is going to be a bomb. I see Potteresque w/ heavey relig tones. I love the series. I love the realm & pottereque ideas but in the hand of RDM I will not be watching this show online.
Haters gonna hate…
I’m sick of the people that hated the finale of BSG! Most obviously did not get the premise of the whole series!
if you didn’t get the heavy religious undertones beginning with the miniseries, then methinks your powers of comprehension are lacking
The difference is at the beginning of BSG religion was used as a way to develop character depth, but by the end it was nothing but a cop out for the corner they had painted themselves into. It was a cheap and undeserved ending to what was some of the best television on at the time, sci-fi or otherwise.
Loved BSG, but the Kara hand-waving explanation was pretty crap, and all the visions of the temple were just that scene of them running around at the end trying to save the kid… I think they painted themselves in a corner with some of their mythology, the same way Lost did. BUT, I thoroughly enjoyed the mythology and have no real beef with the series. I prepare for series endings to be a disappointment.
The two that weren’t:
Angel
Six Feet Under
Rowlings lawyers will be at the ready because of a ‘cop’ show in a world where there is *magic* clearly violates the fact that she was the first author ever to have conceived of such a world? Not so much.
The amount of wild speculation on display here from an absolute dearth of actual information given boggles the mind.
The only reason that the ‘just like’ labels surface it seems (more often than not) is the absolute terror that anyone in Hollywood has of saying “it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen!”
If Moore is still on a path that continues his penance for the Next Gen stuff he was guilty of (BSG and Carnivale specifically) this could have potential. Let’s hope it manages to be good despite being on ‘Network’ television.
Could not agree more!
So a show of Aurors catching Death Eaters? Lol, cool..
interesting…lol the simpleness of your sentence had me giggling