CBS Eyes Van Helsing FBI Drama, With Elementary Creator Among EPs
With a Sherlock-less Watson series set to premiere at midseason and a procedural about Albert Einstein’s great-grandkid already in the works, CBS is also eyeing a crime drama that will appropriate the name of Professor Abraham Van Helsing.
Penned by Jonathan Lee (of Netflix’s upcoming Lockerbie miniseries) and with Elementary creator Rob Doherty also serving as a writing executive producer, Van Helsing is described as “a contemporary take on literature’s greatest monster hunter, Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, who uses his uniquely inquisitive mind working alongside his ex, relentless FBI Special Agent Mina Harker, to solve New York City’s most harrowing cases.”
Carl Beverly and Sarah Timberman also serve as EPs on the Lionsgate Television project, which is now in development for CBS. (Deadline first reported on the prospective series.)
Van Helsing of course previously was conceived as a proper (if post-apocalyptic) horror series that ran for five seasons, from July 2016 to June 2021, on Syfy.
Bram Stoker’s vampire hunter character also was brought to life in a 2004 horror film that was set in 1887 Transylvania and starred Hugh Jackman in the title role, while Kate Beckinsale played Anna Valerious.
Are you excited for CBS’ fresh take on the Van Helsing character? And where is my Captain Ahab naval crimes drama?!
Is this show going to have supernatural elements? If the title suggests Dracula and only have normal killers, that will be disappointing. Also making this revised Van Helsing have a romance with Mina is kind of weird given that the original version was much older and had a fatherly relationship with her.
— Quirky-genius consultant teams up with by-the-books investigator to solve crimes in New York or L.A.? Check.
— Potential for will-they-won’t-they romance? Check.
— Vague references to well-known intellectual property? Check.
— Slight variation to make the whole thing seem sort of different? (“And this time, there’s monsters!”) Check.
CBS didn’t have room for Todd, huh??
Since there is a trend of turning a existing character into a crime solvers, I would like to pitch my own show. It’s Brainy. It is about Brainy Smurf going to San Franscisco or New York (because you know these are the only two cities in America due to tv writers) where he teams with his partner Smurfette to solve crimes. And yes there will be a will they or won’t they slow burn relationship that will last till the 100th episode. Brainy will get special help around sweeps from his Mentor Papa Smurf and take down Mayor Gargamel in a two part season finale.
I actually would like to watch that though I was thinking the setting of a more Midwestern city. Chicago’s over done so maybe Detroit or Cincinnati.
Did Michael Musiello write this comment? I just read Spoiler Alert cover to cover and front to back and it reads very Michael Ausiello.
So 3 shows that are essentially the exact same thing? Wow. They really are getting creative over there.
Why not? They already run multiple ncis and clone shows.
I wouldn’t mind the Van Helsing show. After Grimm, Supernatural and Lucifer finished I’m looking for another occult mystery show.
Make van velsing supernatural and stuff like.Maybe it’s gonna be in a world where supernatural stuff exists but the humans don’t know about it.
Why is it always a majority amount of cop shows and few medical shows?Why can’t they have a syfy fantasy supernatural show? Broaden your creativity executives.
SciFi Fantasy doesn’t really work. SciFi supernatural apparently doesn’t work. (See Tom Swift.) (And there was Nancy Drew for good supernatural.)
And apparently not enough will watch those shows anyway, but Supernatural, Evil, Rings of Power, Wheel of Time, The Expanse all existed.
not sure what u mean by they dont work.
But yeah I could see viewership numbers play a factor.
It is for a few reasons, basically budget in that the effects stuff costs alot of money and for like pete wilson said viewership numbers as well as lack of demand from the studios.
to put it in perspective if the studios had the option of keep producing these expensive sci fi shows that alot of people arent tuning into watching or produce these less expensive non sci fi shows that get alot more eyes on it they are going with option 2.
and yes there is exceptions to the rule like stranger things, game of thrones but for most part sci fi has not had a good track record in the past few decades on tv.
even if they do incorporate supernatural elements it will probably be the same old crap we’ve seen in like a dozens of these shows-vampires, werewolves, witches, ghosts and curses.
like I get it budget forbids you go outside that barrier but can these networks at least make a disclaimer you will never see dragons or sea monsters or minotaurs, that kind of thing so I dont feel manipulated?
I would rather have CBS try and adapt the Agent Pendergast series for tv – he is such an interesting, unique character and there are supernatural type elements throughout the series. However, (I could be wrong) it seems to me that Paramount, who own the rights to the character, can’t be bothered to make a proper effort to make something intelligent that is worth watching. I only know that around 2016, there was progress on the script for the pilot, which then fizzled out into nothing for some unknown reason. I feel sorry for the authors Preston and Child, as they have no way of getting the rights back and taking them to a streamer. Instead, CBS and the other networks churn out childish rubbish like this Van Helsing drama, with the usual mismatched duo of cop and civilian as the focus, which has been done to death so many times. Also, if people want dark drama, they should stop watching the endless The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones spinoffs and demand something original of the networks, like Pendergast. Just saying.
I would only watch Van Helsing series if it was a supernatural show. Something like Grimm and Lucifer someone suggest above. Does anyone know if CBS, NBC, ABC or Fox care any such shows currently??
So this is why all my shows were canceled, so they can push this stupid stuff on us viewers. NO THANKS, uncancel the good shows and scrap this predictable dung.
Nope not watching
CBS cancels Blue Bloods and So Help Me Todd, and replaces them with a spinoff and sequels, plus a female Matlock and a Black Watson. Why? Blue Bloods was one of the top ten shows last season, and that includes reality shows and sports. Yes, it’s more expensive to produce than other shows, but it has a very large fan base. Makes no sense to me.
on cbs? that’s not going to last long. the people who watch there don’t like to watch anything not cop show or medical shows or legal shows or reality shows.
Nope I will be excited when they stop lying about being old series that could only fall on streaming because no one watched them. Every time they cry about developing or bringing back something people don’t care to see but blatantly ignore the fact they have and had every opportunity to give Magnum PI a proper ending with a season 6. If it weren’t for sports they would have lost even more viewers. Stop CBS trying to cover their failures. Now to see Paramount CBS and Universal all have failed viewers in programming and now they scramble to find in the bottom of the barrel anything to bring that connection of perfection family and charismatic love back to grow and be prosperous again.