TNT is getting into the Greg Berlanti business.
The Turner-owned cable network has picked up a script for President X, a drama from Golden Boy duo Berlanti and Nick Wootton, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
President X, which is said to be in the vein of CBS' Hostages and ABC's red-hot Scandal, centers on a former president who wakes up from a yearlong coma and, now out of power, must hunt down the individual that tried to assassinate him.
Wootton will write and executive produce the Warner Horizon and Greg Berlanti Productions drama with Berlanti, via the latter's Berlanti Productions' overall deal with Warner Bros. Television. Alon Aranya (CBS' rookie Hostages), Melissa Kellner Berman and Rob Golenberg (ABC's freshman drama Betrayal) will executive produce the drama, which is based on an idea by Aranya, Guy Nattiv and Erez Tadmor.
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For Berlanti, this marks his latest sale this development season. The producer behind The CW's Arrow and upcoming rookie The Tomorrow People has drama The Mysteries of Laura with writer Jeff Rake (Cashmere Mafia) and a futuristic prison drama from Seth Grahame-Smith both set up at NBC. Additionally, Berlanti will reteam with Arrow co-creator Andrew Kreisberg for a potential Flash series set up at The CW as a back-door pilot during Arrow's upcoming second season. He also is teaming with the Smash writers for an adaption of Israeli comedy Little Mom, which is set up at CBS.
CBS canceled midseason cop drama Golden Boy in May after one season. The series, which starred Theo James and Chi McBride, earned a reprieve from its Friday time slot in March, taking over the Tuesdays at 10 p.m. slot previously occupied by pricey period drama Vegas, which was bumped to Fridays. During its freshman run, Golden Boy averaged a 1.5 in the key demo and 8.3 million viewers, solid but not the breakout critical hit the network had hoped for.
For TNT, the Berlanti-Wootton drama joins Steven Bochco drama pilot Murder in the First at the network. Should the presidential entry move to series, it would join the likes of Mob City, Dallas, Falling Skies, Perception, Legends and The Last Ship as the network continues to go into business with high-profile executive producers including Steven Spielberg, Frank Darabont, Michael Bay and Howard Gordon, among others.
Berlanti is repped by WME and Felker Toczek; Wootton (Prison Break, NYPD Blue) is with WME and Hirsch Wallerstein.
E-mail: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com
Twitter: @Snoodit
