Aside from perhaps The Originals, the most talked about CW pilot in development may be Amazon, a Smallville-like take on Wonder Woman that is being written by Allan Heinberg, who also wrote Wonder Woman comics for a short time.
Yesterday at the Television Critics Association press tour’s CW Executive Session, network president Mark Pedowitz revealed that they are still waiting on a script, and that they’re busy casting for Diana “as we speak.” He also addressed differences between Amazon and the failed 2011 Wonder Woman pilot by David E. Kelley that was done for NBC.
“Hopefully the script works the way we want,” he says before revealing he hasn’t seen David E. Kelley’s version. “I heard David gave us a shout‑out and thought it was a good idea for us to do it. By the way, if David ever wants to do a project for The CW, we’ll graciously and willingly be there for him,” he says.
As for The CW’s Amazon, “it’s an origination story in a sense of Smallville was an origination story,” he says.
Pedowitz was also asked if the success of Arrow might help the profile of a project like Amazon, and if any other DC Comics were in the pipeline. “Arrow’s success ‑‑ again, when you have Greg Berlanti and Mark Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg as your showrunners, that’s a lot to do with that success. We hope Allen Heinberg will have the same success with what Amazon will be. But it does help, you know, in terms of that. In terms of other DC characters, we will explore other DC characters, but we also do a lot of exploration, a lot of other material with a lot of other great producers,” he says.
Later on in the day, IGN’s Eric Goldman caught up with Pedowitz, learning that Amazon is done carefully with the cooperation of the Warner Bros. theatrical division, so that there are no conflicts with the potential Justice League film. Goldman also learned that at this time, there are no plans to see Batman on Arrow or on his own series. You can read the interview here.
For more on the Amazon project, visit our Wonder Woman portal, WonderWomanTV. Hopefully more information about Amazon is coming soon… on a good note, Pedowitz did say in the IGN interview that if the right script and right casting come through, the network will go forward to a pilot. Stay tuned….
