Warner Bros.’ Gotham City Origins Tale Lands at Fox

Warner Bros. continues to reach deep into the DC Comics vault to develop not just film properties but TV series. The latest project, “Gotham,” has a the sizzle of being associated with the Batman franchise and has landed a big commitment from Fox.

Project is a Gotham City origins story shepherded by Bruno Heller, creator of CBS’ “The Mentalist.” Story will explore the roots of Commissioner James Gordon, a regular figure in Batman tales, and the villains that put Gotham on the map.

Heller is writing the script and will exec produce. Fox has given a series commitment to the project, which is not quite an on-air order but a hefty down payment that puts “Gotham” on the fast track to pilot production.

EXCLUSIVE: In one of the biggest drama deals this season, after a bidding war, Fox has landed Gotham, from Warner Bros. TV and The Mentalist creator Bruno Heller, with a series commitment. For Gotham, Warner Bros TV is mining one of DC Comics‘ most popular character universes, Batman. It explores the origin stories of Commissioner James Gordon and the villains who made Gotham City famous. In Gotham, Gordon is still a detective with the Gotham City Police Department and has yet to meet Batman, who will not be part of the series. The Gordon character was introduced in 1939 in the very first Batman comic. Created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, Commissioner Gordon has appeared in comic books as well as Batman films and series, including in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, where he was played by Gary Oldman. Along with the Superman franchise, the Batman universe is probably the most prized DC property.

While Superman spawned the long-running series Smallville, this is the first series featuring a character from the world of Batman in a very long time as WBTV had been exploring a Gotham City-set show for more than a year. It is the second high-profile WBTV/DC drama in the works for next season, along with Flash at the CW. In addition to Gotham, WME-repped Heller has the Mars drama Red at the CW. Gotham joins CBS’ sci-fi drama Extant as the two hottest drama projects this season, both sparking bidding wars and landing a series commitment and series order, respectively.

yeah I'm down for this. Would be cool to see a young Gordon and then have characters like Harvey Dent (not Two-Face) and vilains like Penguin, Black Mask, etc.

I think this whole project sounds like "Oh, look, the Marvel universe expanded into TV with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., let's do that too!!"

The O.C.

How? They're not gonna magically jump the storyline 20 years.