Hulu orders pilots about superheroes, small-town murder
According to Deadline, Hulu is finalizing orders for two pilots that both hail from Paramount Television and Anonymous Content.
According to Deadline, Hulu is finalizing orders for two pilots that both hail from Paramount Television and Anonymous Content.
The first, Citizen, is a “fresh take on the superhero origin story” that mixes “magical realism and gritty vigilantism.” Given that description, the obvious guess is that the show is about a character who only imagines being a true superhero and in reality is a lonely insurance salesman who dresses up in tights and gets beaten to a pulp by local criminals. So like Kick-Ass, minus the c-word. The pilot takes place in a “supernaturalized” Los Angeles, though, so perhaps uncanny superheroes and supervillains actually do run amok. (We still vote insurance salesman.) Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, director of Me And Earl And The Dying Girl, is attached to the pilot.
The second pilot is based on Chris Hutton and Eddie O’Keefe’s 2011 Black List runner-up screenplay When The Street Lights Go On. Described as being in the vein of Stand By Me, the pilot is a coming-of-age thriller set in a small town that follows the aftermath of the brutal murder of a high school girl and her teacher in the summer of 1983. Anyone want to take bets about whether a discontented adult narrator will speak over a shot of long-abandoned train tracks? Documentarian Brett Morgen (The Kid Stays In The Picture) is attached to direct the pilot. If it becomes a series, Street Lights could prompt many water-cooler discussions and amateur-quality podcasts contemplating the layers of its mystery. Let’s hope the characters are as compelling as the whodunit.
GET A.V.CLUB RIGHT IN YOUR INBOX
Pop culture obsessives writing for the pop culture obsessed.