‘Powers’ TV Series Still Alive, Says FX President

Since Brian Bendis announced that a TV show based on his indie superhero comic "Powers" was in the works for FX -- the cable home of the dark cop drama "The Shield" -- back at February's New York Comic Con, there hasn't much follow up news. And with even major superhero franchises wiping projects off the slate, you might think that the long silence might mean doom, or at least deadlock. But Premium Hollywood just had a chat with FX President John Landgraf, who confirmed that the show is still in production and just brought in a new writer:

"We have a new writer who came in and who's working with Brian Bendis," Landgraf confirmed. "He's a really, really good writer who got really excited about the project. He came in, and they pitched us a new take. Because part of what you're trying to do with 'Powers'...and I think I said this to you when I talked to you before...is that you have a great property, a really robust property, but it has to be adapted to become a weekly television series. So you're asking yourself the question, 'What stays and what goes?' For example, the Retro Girl murder story: should that whole story be told in the pilot, or do we introduce it and tell it later? But the new writer and Brian have got a good take on it. They came in about two months ago and pitched what they were doing, and it was great."

So who is this mysterious "really, really good writer"? Is the Retro Girl story, which kicked off the comic, going to lead in the pilot? Does Landgraf think the project is going to be great, or really, really great? We have no answers to these questions, only more vague, elliptical praise. Still, it's nice to hear the TV project has a pulse; we'll just be sitting here with our fingers crossed, hoping that detectives Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim make it to the small screen. And that when they do, the writers somehow find a way to adapt the "Powers" story that is basically monkeys having sex with each other for 22 pages. Ah, that one's a classic.