UPDATE, 02:21 AM: Fox has now picked up a further three drama pilots to series in addition to Almost Human. The other three to get the nod are Gang Related, Rake and Sleepy Hollow.
Created by Chris Morgan, Gang Related follows a gang member who is sent to infiltrate the San Francisco Police Department and rises through its ranks. He soon learns that he must balance his obligations to his crime family with an increasing sense of loyalty to his new “family” — the SFPD’s Gang Task Force. The series is produced by 20th Century Fox Television & Imagine TV and stars Ramon Rodriguez, Terry O’Quinn, Sung Kang, Inbar Lavi, Jay Hernandez, RZA, Cliff Curtis and Shantel VanSanten. The pilot was directed by Allen Hughes, with Chris Morgan, Scott Rosenbaum, Brian Grazer and Francie Calfo serving as executive producers.
Penned by Peter Duncan and Peter Tolan, Rake is based on the Australian series of the same name and follows a brilliant but self-destructive criminal defense lawyer named Keegan Joye. The series is produced by Sony Pictures Television, Fedora Entertainment and Essential Media & Entertainment with Duncan, Tolan, Sam Raimi and Michael Wimer serving as executive producers. Rake stars Greg Kinnear, John Ortiz, Miranda Otto, Bojana Novakovic, Necar Zadegan, David Harbour and Tara Summers.
Written by Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci, Sleepy Hollow is based on The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow and follows Ichabod Crane as he partners with Sleepy Hollow’s local female sheriff to solve the mysteries of a town ravaged by the battle between good and evil. The drama series is produced by 20th Century Fox Television & K/O Paper Products and stars Tom Mison, John Chu, Orlando Jones, Katia Winter and Nicole Beharie. The pilot was directed by Len Wiseman, with Orci, Kurtzman and Heather Kadin serving as executive producers.
PREVIOUS, 1:52 AM: Fox has just made its first pilot pick up for the 2013-2014 season. Network sources have confirmed to TVWise that they have picked up the J.J. Abrams/J.H. Wyman Robot Cop Drama Almost Human to series with a 13 episode order.
Created by J.J. Abrams and J.H. Wyman, Almost Human (formerly known as Untitled J.J. Abrams/J.H. Wyman Project) is a buddy cop drama, set in the near future, when all LAPD officers are partnered with highly evolved human-like androids. The series is produced by Warner Bros. Television and Bad Robot and stars Karl Urban, Michael Ealy, Mekia Cox, Minka Kelly, Lili Taylor, Mackenzie Crook and Michael Irby. The pilot was directed by Brad Anderson, with Abrams, Wyman and Bryan Burk serving as executive producers.
Human is the first project to get a series order at Fox for next season and becomes the second series for the 2013-2014 season from all 5 networks to have been picked up from a pilot, the other being The CW’s Vampire Diaries spin-off The Originals. In total, 4 shows have been picked up for next season. Two (Human and The Originals) were given pilots, while another two (NBC’s Untitled Michael J. Fox Comedy and Fox’s Dads) were handed straight-to-series orders.
