Fox is the next network to look at a superhero drama for the near future it seems. They’ve picked up a new project from the creator of 24 and Homeland Howard Gordon, giving it a script commitment with penalty. Vigilant is described as a “superhero origin story” chronicling how a young woman takes on police corruption from within.
The project is about a 20-year-old woman who lacks social skills but makes up for it in brains. When her father, a veteran and a man of honor, is forced to work for the corrupt man at the head of the police department’s Internal Affairs, she formulates a plan. It involves the creation of an alter-ego, a vigilante superhero type who hunts down both the criminals in the city streets as well as those within the police department.
Vigilant wouldn’t be alone in the superhero genre; the CW’s Arrow is set to premiere next month. Meanwhile, ABC has a pilot in production for the Joss Whedon superhero project S.H.I.E.L.D., a live action drama that born from the Marvel comics world of the Avengers. While both of these projects are backed by a ready-made following thanks to their comic book origins, this new Fox version won’t – as far as I know it isn’t based on an already known superhero.
Howard Gordon’s company, Teakwood Lane, has only been in business for two months, but Deadline points out that this is the fourth project they’ve sold already. Also at Fox is an untitled comedy written by Shaun Cassidy. Then there is a legal drama called Ritter, and an untitled futuristic thriller, both of which landed at NBC.
