I’ve learned that ABC has given pilot orders to two drama projects with big auspices and big commitments from Sony Pictures TV — medical drama The Good Doctor, from House creator David Shore and Hawaii Five-0 co-star Daniel Dae Kim, which had a put pilot commitment, and Doomsday, a thriller drama from producer Carol Mendelsohn (CSI), writers Mark Bianculli & VJ Boyd (Justified), which had a production commitment with a series penalty behind it.
Written by Shore based on a South Korean format, The Good Doctor centers on a young surgeon with Savant syndrome who is recruited into the pediatric surgical unit of a prestigious hospital. The question will arise: Can a person who doesn’t have the ability to relate to people actually save their lives?
Shore executive produces via his Sony TV-based Shore Z alongside Kim, Sebastian Lee & David Kim. Shore Z’s Erin Gunn co-executive produces, along with Lindsay Goffman of Daniel Dae Kim’s 3 AD.
The original series, written by Park Jae-bum, aired on Korean Broadcasting System’s KBS2 in 2013. The Shore-created House, starring Hugh Laurie as the brilliant but flawed Dr. Gregory House, was one of the biggest medical dramas of the past two decades. It ran on Fox for eight seasons.
In addition to The Good Doctor, Shore has an action drama loosely based on I Spy at Fox with McG directing, from Sony TV, 20th TV and Davis Entertainment, which also has a put pilot commitment. 3 AD also has legal drama Exhibit A in consideration at CBS.
Written by Bianculli and Boyd, Doomsday starts in the aftermath of 9/11, when the U.S. government institutes a secret think tank featuring the most creative minds in science and entertainment that is tasked with dreaming up man-made disaster scenarios and their possible solutions. Because the hypothetical ideas are deemed extremely dangerous, the list is sealed and the program shut down. But when a catastrophe occurs that’s ripped from the pages of the missing doomsday book, the team is brought back years later to prevent the disasters of their own making.
Mendelsohn and
Doomsday reunites the principals behind drama The Jury: Bianculli, Boyd, Mendelsohn and Sony TV. That project also landed at ABC last year, had a significant penalty and went to pilot starring Jeremy Sisto and Archie Panjabi.
The pickups brings the number of ABC drama pilots to 6, in addition to the straight-to-series Marvel drama The Inhumans.