Variety reports that Fox has greenlit a one-hour pilot called PRISON BREAK…
“Prison Break” revolves around a man who robs a bank and waits around for the police to arrive, in order to be arrested and sent to prison. Once there, he relies on one of his tattoos — which doubles as a map of the facility — to escape with his brother, a death-row inmate, in tow.
Eventually, the prisoners break free — and it becomes a story about fugitives on the lam.
“It was one of those things where we heard the pitch and said, ‘God, that’s a great idea,’ ” said Fox execexec VP Craig Erwich. “It just feels like a signature Fox show.”
I don’t know if it will be any good, or if it can sustain itself as a series (without becoming another rehash of “The Fugitive”), but at least it’s not another version of CSI or LAW AND ORDER…or a thinly-veiled ripoff of those shows… or yet another series about cops investigating homicides. You have to applaud Fox for being willing to try unconventional formats for series…even though they often stumble after an intriguing pilot (remember JOHN DOE?)
By the way, I worked with Craig Erwich many years ago when he was a devleopment exec at Cannell Productions and I was toiling on a bad syndicated series for the studio called COBRA.