The CW’s dry spell might be over. Lacking a big breakout hit since 2009′s Vampire Diaries, the network boasts a pilot roster this season filled with head-turning ideas from top producers like J.J. Abrams and Greg Berlanti. “The overall quality is as high or higher than we ever had,” said CW’s development head Thom Sherman. “Everybody is really jazzed.”

The first full CW slate developed under the network’s new entertainment chief Mark Pedowitz, the lineup aimed for broad-appeal, promotion-friendly concepts while still sticking within the network’s adults 18-34 demographic. Noted Sherman: “When people came in to pitch ideas we asked them, ‘What’s the billboard?’”

Below, Sherman offers some tantalizing new details about each of the projects. There’s a Sex and the City prequel on Carrie Bradshaw’s high school years, a grounded adaptation of the DC Comics hero Green Arrow, a future-set fantasy that’s “The Hunger Games meets The Bachelor,” and even a time-traveling musical. READ FULL STORY »

Carrie Bradshaw’s first love isn’t a boy…

The CW’s Sex and the City prequel pilot The Carrie Diaries stars a young Carrie Bradshaw coming of age in the 1980s. When the project was first announced, some readers wondered how it would distinguish itself from Carrie Diaries executive producers’ Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage’s other CW soap Gossip Girl (romantic prime-time soap, New York City setting, voiceover narration…). CW’s development head Thom Sherman ran down the ways that Carrie Diaries will feel unique from the network’s previous shows.

“The focus is so much on the Carrie Bradshaw’s character and who she was at 16, 17 years old,” Sherman tells EW.com. “We weirdly compare it to Smallville because it’s an origin story — how she started writing, how she came to love Manhattan. Basically how we frame the show is: ‘Carrie at 16 found her first love and it’s not a boy — it’s Man-hattan.’ The other unique aspect is obviously the time period.” READ FULL STORY »

Image Credit: Amell (Getty Images) / Hartley (CW)

The CW’s Arrow is going to be pretty different from the Green Arrow character on the network’s recently retired hit Smallville. Think Bourne Identity with lots of arrows.

Fans of the DC Comics archer figured they were in for a change the moment the project was announced. The producers include Greg Berlanti (Everwood), Marc Guggenheim (FlashForward), and Andrew Kreisberg (Vampire Diaries, Fringe). Then the formidable-looking Stephen Amell was cast, taking over the role from Smallville‘s Justin Hartley.

CW’s development head Thom Sherman tells EW.com there will be several other differences as well. READ FULL STORY »