Fox has just bought a script that is loosely reminiscent of ABC’s Alias, sans the weird mythology and science fiction stuff. Not that Fox is classless enough to take a direct premise and call it something else. I’m sure the project from Bones co-producer Karyn Usher is only similar at its very basics.
Here’s where the as-yet-untitled project is reminiscent of the Jennifer Garner vehicle. According to Deadline, the project will follow a 17-year-old girl who is recruited to the CIA after exhibiting mad skills. One of the girl’s parents was also a CIA operative, so that’s how the system kept tabs on her in the first place. That’s a decent percent of the Alias backstory, minus the 17-year-old part, and the fact I failed to mention the protagonist will also be an orphan.
Not that I’m knocking on Fox for trying to put a CIA drama out into the universe. We might be saturated with cop shows, but for some reason CIA shows are fewer and farther between. Apparently, this one came about because Karyn Usher and producer Mary Adelstein were considering similar ideas before putting their two heads together. I’m surprised with two heads the idea ended up in the conventional CIA spectrum. With Night at the Museum’s ever-strange Shawn Levy and Twentieth Century Fox also producing, perhaps it would be better to reign in all judgment before more information is made available. Stay tuned to Cinema Blend for further Fox CIA project news.
