The former showrunners of Star Trek: Enterprise are both cutting new deals with Fox. Manny Coto has sold Fox a new genre series promising to be ’24 meets the X-Files, and Brannon Braga has closed a new overall deal with the network. Details below.
Coto sells Fox New Genre Series
Former Star Trek: Enterprise executive producer and showrunner Manny Coto (who most recently served as EP and showrunner for 24: Live Another Day) has sold Fox a new supernatural series. Deadline has this description:
[The] untitled project centers on an Iraq war vet who experiences a supernatural attack that leaves his wife in an unexplained coma. He embarks on a desperate quest to unravel the truth behind hauntings. Though a determined and acerbic loner, circumstances force him to work with a media-hungry, but not very successful team of ghost hunters. The team is led by a former university professor fired because of her research into mysterious phenomena, who is now determined to restore her reputation and academic career. Together, they chronicle dangerous, violent and truly terrifying occurrences.
Coto is writing and executive producing the show with his 24 colleague Evan Katz.
Coto and Katz at "24: Live Another Day" premiere in May 2014
Braga Signs Development Deal With Fox
Also cutting deals with Fox is Coto’s former Enterprise (and 24) colleague Brannon Braga. Deadline is also reporting that the veteran Trek writer/producer "has closed a new overall deal with 20th Century Fox TV that is focused on development." Braga has had a lot of success in 2014 with the award-winning Cosmos and the popular WGN witches show Salem, which were both produced by Fox. Accoding to the report "This deal keeps him on that important show as well as allows him to develop other hits for both cable and broadcast."
Braga doing publicity for "Salem"
Some one please resurrect the Lone Gunmen.
#1 Disinvited: You know, Braga would be just the guy for something high concept like a Lone Gunman revival.
The premise of Coto’s show sounds a little like a late-90s show called “The Others” that I liked, but I was one of about eleven people who watched, and it was quickly canceled.
Man, I’d love to see the Lone Gunmen again! It might be fun with frequent guest appearances by Duchovny, Anderson and Mitch Pileggi. Heck, I’d love to see them working with Agents Doggett and Reyes too.
I mean, the Lone Gunmen’s deaths could have been faked in some vast conspiracy, couldn’t they?
I have to say, I like the X-Files so much more than today’s super-violent-gory-weird-conspiracy shows.
I tried watching “Sleepy Hollow,” the Orci/Kurtzman show with Ichabod Crane, but I could see it was unfolding into some long conspiracy arc, and the violence and gory discoveries were far worse than the ’90s ’00s X-Files. A shame, because I really loved the lead actors Mison and Behairie and their characters, but the show was getting way over the top. Every week a violent act topped the violent act of the previous week, y’know? I just thought “what, are we eventually going to see a live demonstration of drawing-and-quartering?”
The one thing that [to me] was the downfall of X-Files was the “mythology/conspiracy” storyline. Sure, I’m okay with some 6-episode arcs with resolutions, but to drag the thing over the series’ entire life eventually toppled it. Conspiracy theories get kind of boring after awhile. Although I did really enjoy Oliver Stone’s ‘JFK’ … but that was based on something many of us believe in real life.
#4.
The “X-Files” — especially during seasons 1-5 — was outstanding. There were some pretty gory moments, but it wasn’t over the top. It was all done for story reasons, and not just shock value like what happens in today’s horror-themed shows and movies. And yeah, the government conspiracy thread was fun and interesting for a few seasons, but by season seven it was clearly played out.
And season 9 sucked. The series finale was boring. The show went on about a couple of years too long, in my opinion.
Anyway, it looks like Braga has a hit with “Cosmos”. Great show, and I can’t wait for more.
@ 3. Thorny, I ran across The Others a few years ago when Chiller used to run episodes and I loved it. Another example of poor promotion by the studio/network that it aired on. I wish they would have wrapped up the show with a TV movie since it ended with a cliffhanger.
Poor Phlox, John Billingsly, sure does have some bad luck with shows. He was in The Others, Threshold, and the recent show Intelligence and they all lasted one year. At least Enterprise made it 4 years.