In what is possibly a first, ABC are developing a drama based on a drama written by a character in a drama. Castle starring Nathan Fillion has been a long-running success for the network, but the idea that fuelled its premise is now being utilized for new pilot Derrick Storm. CIA expendable-of-choice Storm was the creation of Fillion’s Richard Castle, an author who killed him off, resulting in the writers’ block that led to him shadowing the NYPD on cases over six seasons (a seventh is on the way).
Actual books were published such as A Raging Storm and, er, A Brewing Storm. Let’s hope this doesn’t become a Sh*t Storm when scribe Gregory Poirier fleshes out the derring-do into script form. MilMar Pictures (a fusion of Castle creator Andrew Marlowe and co-exec/wife Terri Edda Miller) will produce for ABC Studios. Though not described as a spin-off I’m really not sure what else you’re supposed to call it!
Casting is too early to call at this stage, but with roughhouse Firefly lead Fillion heading up the source show, could he be persuaded to take a dual role? The novels seem pretty generic, but who knows? A promising forty-five minutes may well be gleaned from a project that appears to be a variation on the “scribbled on the back of a fag packet” concept writ large.
Source: Variety
