With Battleship in-and-out of theaters pretty fast earlier this summer following a bad box office performance, director Peter Berg's career post-Friday Night Lights hasn't gone over so well. Berg has kept strong with both television and film, with his next projecting lining up to be Lone Survivor to start shooting at an undetermined time. But now it seems NBC is looking to get back into the drama business and they've done so already by bringing famous characters such as Hannibal Lecter, Dracula, and even the recently greenlit Cleopatra to light in the hopes of finding bigger audiences. However, the network may be getting back into the superhero business as Peter Berg is helping develop a potential new show that will focus less on the heroes and more on the villains.
Deadline (via CBM) reports that NBC has begun development on a new pilot called Hench, which comes from creator Alexandra Cunningham along with Peter Berg and Sarah Aubrey. Berg and Cunningham previously teamed up for the short-lived Prime Suspect, which Berg directed the pilot for and served as executive producer. Berg is expected to EP yet again, while he could very much end up at the helm of the first episode should NBC give the pilot the greenlight.
The series would be a "high concept drama" that "centers on a regular guy who, in order to support his family, gets jobs temping for super villains". Obviously with the title in mind, the man would play a henchman to various villains and likely would give more of a personal side to the antagonist's story. The only problem is just how dramatic the series could be with a story that actually sounds like it could pack some laughs. Obviously Cunningham would not be going for a stylized hero, and perhaps Berg is the right man to do just that following his own realistic-take on the genre with Will Smith's Hancock.
This obviously wouldn't be NBC's first time trying to go the superhero route. In recent times, NBC had the four-year-long run of the critically acclaimed Heroes that unfortunately lost its edge as time progressed, and even went on to develop a failed pilot trying to bring back Wonder Woman into a primetime slot. Furthermore, this could be the network's answer to The CW following the incredibly high buzz for the gritty take on the genre with this fall's upcoming series Arrow.
We'll keep you updated as information progresses and whether or not the project may in fact make its way to pilot.
What do you think of this new hero take? Let us know either in the comments below, or tweet us @FilmThrasher on Twitter!
