While filmmakers more often than not tend to be a group that skips around from one genre to the next, TV producers are often known for sticking to what they’re good at, and that’s very much the case for Howard Gordon, the former showrunner and executive producer for Fox’s 24. His newest project, according to The Hollywood Reporter is a series adaptation of the terrorist attack-centered comic book miniseries Unthinkable, written by Mark Sable and illustrated with cinematic style by Julian Totino Tedesco. Thankfully, this series has an interesting hook that isn’t solely “terrorists making people’s lives a living hell.”
First published in 2009 by comic company Boom! Studios, the five-issue Unthinkable series takes place after a government think tank was tasked with coming up with different possible scenarios in which terrorists would try taking over the country. Years after the think tank has been disbanded, one of its members, a screenwriter, is teamed up with an FBI agent to figure out what to do when some of the proposed attacks actually start happening. I’m not sure how 20th Century Fox TV is going to stretch this story out to cover an entire season, much less multiple seasons, but Sable’s story leaves enough blanks for TV writers to fill, and I’m sure additional plots will be included.
Executive producer credits go to Boom! Studios founder and CEO Ross Richie, as well as Ben Queen, who will also be scripting the series. Queen is best known as the creator of the Fox’s 2007 illegal racing series Drive, as well as the screenwriter for Pixar’s Cars 2. While I’d love to revel in making fun of both of those credits, I’m pretty excited about this project and hope that Queen can leave his vehicle-minded writing skills behind.
While the developmental slate for new dramas is pretty thin, given the vast amount of dramas currently in production, Gordon is behind quite a few of them. Beyond his past writing and producing work for series such as The X-Files, Awake and The Inside, Gordon is currently a writer/producer on Showtime’s terrorist-themed drama Homeland, and he’s also on board as a writer and producer for the upcoming 24: Die Another Day miniseries. He is also developing the CBS drama Anatomy of Violence, the TNT drama Legends, and the FX drama Tyrant. Comic book-to-TV adaptations don’t always fare well past the pilot process, but this is one that taps into what American television generally bites down on.
Below is a video about the Unthinkable trade paperback, as well as an interview with Sable.
