UK drama 'Eleventh Hour' gets Bruckheimer deal

Variety reports a huge, big bucks deal's been done between Hollywood honcho Jerry Bruckheimer and US TV network CBS for an adaptation of the recent British thriller series Eleventh Hour, created by Stephen Gallagher. Numbers being bandied about include $4 million to make the pilot, and a guaranteed run of at least 13 episodes costing nearly $2 million a piece.

Variety stresses all of this is hearsay, but Bruckheimer's got considerable clout in TV thanks to his involvement with smash hit series like the CSI franchise, plus Cold Case and Without a Trace. CSI director and executive producer Danny Cannon [yes, the man who directed the Judge Dredd film twelve years ago] is involved as well, giving the US version of Eleventh Hour considerable clout. Variety speculates nearly $30 million could already be committed to the new series, seen as a post-millennium X-Files.
Eleventh Hour was launched on ITV last year, starring Patrick Stewart as Professor Hood, a man battling science-based threats to humanity. His bodyguard and sidekick was played by Extras star Ashley Jensen, now making a name for herself across the Atlantic in Ugly Betty. Alas, the show didn't connect with the ITV audience at the time, probably arriving a year or two ahead of the cuvse for ITV.

There's been a lot of blog talk among North American TV writers about a wave of nostalgia for The X-Files among network executives, wishng they had a show that hit many of the same marks but with a fresh twist. Looks like Eleventh Hour is definitely being lined up as the natural successor to Mulder and Scully. British comedies and light entertainment shows have been hitting big in the US lately. Now UK dramas are following them across the Atlantic. Wild at Heart and Viva Blackpool are both reborn as US versions this autumn, with the American Life on Mars to follow. Looks like Eleventh Hour is next.