Executive producer and sometimes showrunner Graham Yost has had a pretty good run over at FX in recent years, and now it looks like he may be hopping to Fox for his latest project. The Justified creator and Americans executive producer is writing the script for brand new drama project The Code, a political thriller that could move forward on Fox for the next TV season.
The Code is currently still in the early stages. Fox has ordered a script with a penalty for the drama, which is expected to follow two brothers, one with a journalism background and one who is into hacking, who find some sensitive political information that Deadline says some politicians would “kill” to keep secret. If all of this sounds familiar, it’s because there is already a series with this same premise and title that was put together for Australian TV. That six-parter actually was told from different perspectives—one episode follows an accident, another follows political staffers, a third looks at the journalism department, etc. I’m guessing if it moves forward at Fox, the narrative structure won’t be able to be that interesting, but the basic premise still sounds pretty intriguing.
Graham Yost, Fred Golan and Michael Dinner are all executive producing The Code. In addition, Golan and Yost are writing the script for Fox and Dinner is going to direct the project. Interestingly, all three men worked on Justified together, so they’re basically getting the team back together, and doing so quickly. Justified just ended its run on FX this past spring, so it makes sense Yost and co. would be busy pitching new projects. Please tell me they can find a way to get Walton Goggins on board.
Not all shows translate well when they are remade for American TV. Last year, The Returned (originally a French series) and The Slap (originally an Australian program) were both flops. On the bright side, The Code hasn’t even been picked up to series yet, so we have no gauge for its quality other than its creative team, and obviously there are several very big names involved. We’ll let you know if The Code ends up moving forward at Fox.
It’ll be a while before we hear about network pick-ups. Usually a lot of those come down the pipeline in May. For now, you can check out what’s coming up at midseason with our winter premiere calendar.
