CBS is drawing from classic horror for its latest cop show– ‘Frankenstein’. The network behind the ‘NCIS’ and ‘CSI’ franchises has ordered a pilot that recasts the famous monster as a San Francisco homicide detective who is killed in the line of duty, but of course, that’s just the beginning of the story.
“[The detective] is mysteriously brought back to life after being killed in the line of duty. But as he resumes his old life and he and his wife realize he isn’t the same person he used to be, they zero in on the strange man behind his resurrection – Dr. Victor Frankenstein.”
This series, simply entitled ‘Frankenstein’, comes from writer Jason Tracey, who previously delivered CBS’ hit ‘Elementary’ based on another classic literary figure, Sherlock Holmes, as well as USA’s ‘Burn Notice’.
In 2016, FOX aired the shortlived series ‘Second Chance’ which was also about a cop who is killed and brought back to life by a billionaire scientist. But during development, this project was known as ‘Frankenstein’, then ‘The Frankenstein Code’, and later ‘Lookingglass’, before it was actually released under the name ‘Second Chance’. That series was created by Rand Ravich (‘The Astronaut’s Wife’), and starred Robert Kazinsky. There doesn’t appear to be any connection between these two shows.
This followed the 2015 British series ‘The Frankenstein Chronicles’ starring Sean Bean and AnnaMaxwell Martin as Mary Shelley. Before that, Victor Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway), the Creature (Rory Kinnear) and the Bride (Billie Piper) were all major characters on Showtime’s ‘PennyDreadful’.
CBS has only ordered a pilot, so it’s unknown at this time whether it will make it to series.
CBS also ordered two more pilots, ‘The Republic of Sarah’, about a small New Hampshire town where a rare resource is discovered, prompting the town to form their own nation, and the self-explanatory ‘Courthouse’.
Does a crime-solving Frankenstein’s Monster sound intriguing?
Source: Entertainment Weekly
