ABC has purchased a pilot from Saw IV and V writers Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, tentatively titled Monstropolis. Set in a world where monsters live among humans in New Manhattan, unofficially known as Monstropolis, one disgraced detective must stop someone killing monsters or become the next victim. Despite seeming like a rip-off of Monsters, Inc. and Blade Runner and also sounding quite expensive to produce, ABC has agreed to a “put pilot” deal, meaning the network has to air the pilot or will owe monetary penalties to the studio (something that greatly helps the show’s chances of going to series). So perhaps they’ve found a way to do the show without an overblown budget—maybe the citizens of Monstropolis are only monsters on the inside and can be played by dead-eyed, no-name actors with great hair.
Besides this project, Melton and Dunstan are currently writing Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark for CBS Films and Halloween Returns for Dimension, cementing their position as the guys who write things that somebody else thought up years ago.