The CW Passes on Aquaman

[Spider-Gamer]

I really wanted to see this show.

I have to agree!

 

[RakuMon]

Al Gough was recently interviewed by Wizard and had some interesting things to say about Aquaman:

http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazine/wizard/000852768.cfm

‘AQUAMAN’ TO RESURFACE?
Co-creator Al Gough says pilot is not sleeping with the fishes

By Ben Morse and Mel Caylo
Posted July 10, 2006 9:30 AM

Even though it wasn’t picked up for the fall 2006 TV season, will fans get to see the “Aquaman” TV pilot? Co-creator Al Gough hopes so. He says plans are in the works to get it out there so that fans can see it.

Recognizing Gough and partner Miles Millar’s success on “Smallville,” The WB greenlit their proposal late last year to do for Aquaman what they did for Superman. The producers then set out to create a pilot that would turn the Aquaman mythos on its ear but still make it accessible for a wide audience. Actors like Lou Diamond Phillips and Ving Rhames were cast, and news leaked the show was going to be set in Florida starring a character nicknamed “A.C.” short for Aquaman’s real name, Arthur Curry.

But then on Jan, 24, 2006, the news hit that The WB and UPN were merging to form one network called The CW, combining their most popular returning shows, but leaving few slots open for new ones. The trade newspapers reported only two pilots were in contention on The WB’s side, one of which was “Aquaman,” and it supposedly was the frontrunner. But when the fall schedules were announced in May, “Aquaman” was nowhere on The CW’s docket.

When pilots are not picked up, they go TV heaven, never to be seen again. Actors are not credited for having worked on it, and the public never gets to see them. But Gough and Millar feel so passionately about the “Aquaman” pilot they are working on a way to get fans to see it. Here’s what Gough had to say when Wizard Universe caught up with him:

WIZARD: DC President Paul Levitz said this of the “Aquaman” series once The CW passed on it: “We either need to find a new home for it or start all over.” What’s the update now that the pilot exists?

AL GOUGH: We’re working on a way to get the pilot out there. That’s sort of all I can say at the moment. Whether it’s some sort of addition on season six of “Smallville” or not—we’re really proud of the pilot. We’d love for the fans to get a chance to see it. The implication when a network doesn’t pick up a show is that the pilot sucks and that’s not the case. It’s not a perfect pilot by any stretch of the imagination. There are other reasons—which are a mystery to us—as to why The CW didn’t pick it up. I think it definitely puts Aquaman in a modern context and he’s not lame. It’s a shame because it would have been a really fun series.

Even when The WB and UPN merged to form The CW, industry insiders said “Aquaman” was safe and was still one of the frontrunners to get picked up for the fall 2006 season. But shockingly, that didn’t happen. What was your reaction when you found out the network had passed on “Aquaman”?

GOUGH: There are three emotions in show business: depression, surprise and relief. We were certainly surprised and depressed, but ultimately relieved, because it’s such a big undertaking that would have required so much time that if you’re not with a network that is going to support you 150%, you’re just better off not doing it.

“Smallville” was so hard to get off the ground, but The WB was always 150% behind the show. They always believed in it and at the start of the series really treated us with kid gloves and gave us time to figure out the show and how to produce it, which is a whole other issue. Guess what? It paid off. But they always believed in the show.

So in a way, we were ultimately relieved not to have [The CW] pick us up and not believe in it, to not just go, “Well, we’ll pick you up and try it” because I feel this just requires too much blood, sweat and tears for anybody to go through that. If you don’t believe you’ve got 100 episodes of the show—which we as creators certainly believed we did, and as you can see from our work on “Smallville” and from the pilot, there were a lot of places to go—it’s a shame, but guess what, that’s television, it’s never a sure thing.

By the way, if there were still a WB, we’d be on The WB, without a doubt. If we had known in November that The CW was forming, we would have never done it. These people don’t know us—why put yourself out there like that the first year of a new network? We would have said, “Let’s see what this network does and see what they’re really interested in” and just waited. Again, you put so much time and effort into the pilot—five weeks away from your family. But we at least want to get the pilot out there to the fans, that would be great, so people don’t go, “Oh, well they didn’t pick it up, it must have sucked.” The plan is to get it out there somehow and there will actually be an announcement about that in the next few weeks.

In a few weeks is San Diego Comic-Con, and that may be where they choose to make an announcement about the fate of the pilot. We’ll keep you posted!

 

[Darthphere]

Just let it die.


By the way the CW passed my kidney stone.

 

[NHawk19]

AL GOUGH: We’re working on a way to get the pilot out there. That’s sort of all I can say at the moment. Whether it’s some sort of addition on season six of “Smallville” or not—we’re really proud of the pilot.

ok here's the way you work it in:

In the first 15 seconds of the show, Clark runs to Miami to talk with the new Aqua bro about rumblings he's heard about whatever that Pilot is about. Clark then runs away.

Cut to the Pilot of Aquaman.

Next take the budgets savings from this action and apply it to the costs for flight dammit

 

[TKodami]

ok here's the way you work it in:

In the first 15 seconds of the show, Clark runs to Miami to talk with the new Aqua bro about rumblings he's heard about whatever that Pilot is about. Clark then runs away.

Cut to the Pilot of Aquaman.

Next take the budgets savings from this action and apply it to the costs for flight dammit

Clever way to snag an episode's worth of savings...and looking at flight in Crusade, that's probably what it costs to do.

 

[Hollywoodland]

Intergrating the footage into a Smallville episode? Thats pretty interesting.
However I'd rather see it in its full uncut form on DVD. Considering the actor and the way the AC character is written is different from Aqua, Im guessing its not in continuity with Smallville.

 

[TKodami]

Intergrating the footage into a Smallville episode? Thats pretty interesting.
However I'd rather see it in its full uncut form on DVD. Considering the actor and the way the AC character is written is different from Aqua, Im guessing its not in continuity with Smallville.

The AC we saw should be several years down the line from the AC in Aquaman. So not in-continuity and not exactly outside of it. Flashback, maybe? Maybe AC's secret awesome disguise that he adopts down the road is to call everyone "bro".

I hope some sort of Aquaman announcement is made at Comic Con. Or better yet...special screening?

Okay, I know I'm just dreaming at this point...

 

[Serene]

Interesting. I hope they work it out somehow.

 

[zanos]

I saw the pilot. It is utter garbage. All they did was rework the general idea from the first smallville pilot. Mother leaves little boy in the middle of the ocean because she was attacked. Little boy is later rescued presumably by his adoptive father. Little boy is now all grown up in present day with pop music going on in the background. Now all of sudden he has to fight creatures from the bermuda triangle every week. He also has this hot friend he's not really interested in because there's someone else on the show they're kind of setting up to be his love interest which will probably turn into a on again off again relationship for the duration of the show. Which is perfect because A.C.'s hot friend will probably be madly in love with him the entire time but he'll never notice her. By the third season A.C. will find his true destiny and realize his father wants him to rule the world but he'll fight it and well you know the rest.

 

[NHawk19]

I saw the pilot. It is utter garbage. All they did was rework the general idea from the first smallville pilot. Mother leaves little boy in the middle of the ocean because she was attacked. Little boy is later rescued presumably by his adoptive father. Little boy is now all grown up in present day with pop music going on in the background. Now all of sudden he has to fight creatures from the bermuda triangle every week. He also has this hot friend he's not really interested in because there's someone else on the show they're kind of setting up to be his love interest which will probably turn into a on again off again relationship for the duration of the show. Which is perfect because A.C.'s hot friend will probably be madly in love with him the entire time but he'll never notice her. By the third season A.C. will find his true destiny and realize his father wants him to rule the world but he'll fight it and well you know the rest.

Still sounds better than Tomb.

 

[KalKai]

We believe you zanos, lol.

 

[Jlandsw]

I saw the pilot. It is utter garbage. All they did was rework the general idea from the first smallville pilot. Mother leaves little boy in the middle of the ocean because she was attacked. Little boy is later rescued presumably by his adoptive father. Little boy is now all grown up in present day with pop music going on in the background. Now all of sudden he has to fight creatures from the bermuda triangle every week. He also has this hot friend he's not really interested in because there's someone else on the show they're kind of setting up to be his love interest which will probably turn into a on again off again relationship for the duration of the show. Which is perfect because A.C.'s hot friend will probably be madly in love with him the entire time but he'll never notice her. By the third season A.C. will find his true destiny and realize his father wants him to rule the world but he'll fight it and well you know the rest.

How did you see it??? I wanna know.

 

[KalKai]

He obviously didn't.

 

[zanos]

I see, so which part of "I saw it" contradicts this? I know ppl don't want to believe my analysis but it really is that embarrassing.

 

[The Incredible Hulk]

maybe the fact that you've said nothing that wasnt shown in the trailer, would be a start...

 

[zanos]

My post wasn't an attempt to convince ppl I've seen it. It was just a quick review. You either believe me or not.

 

[Spider-Gamer]

In that case how did you see the pilot? Online or something?

 

[Triligors]

I think that it will perhaps show during a "week off" in Smallville. Thus, when the show would have a week 'break' instead of having a break, we might see "next week, from the creators of SMALLVILLE, comes Aquaman" show the trailer. Then instead of a break we see the Aquaman PILOT.

If this is most likely the case, Gough and Millar might fight for it to premiere before midseason. Because that would give it a stronger chance as a contender if the ratings are high. This will demonstrate to the CW that there is an audience for this show, it will be news, it will also be the talk on the net. All this will further guage the possibility of the series going forward. Seeing how it is a 'contender'- this would definitely help it's chances for a midseason run.

Perhaps I am going too far, but this might be a way for the CW to "test the waters" before deciding whether or not to go ahead with the series. What the CW wants as a starting station is a strong new show, and if the ratings are high already for Aquaman I see that as more points to it as becoming a very strong contender for that midseason run. So, if this SMALLVILLE airing works or something like it- spread the word and spread the word FAST because this might be our chance to save it from sinking into the deep end and helping it surface as a strong new show on the CW.

Also, anyone else think this has something to do with the online reaction after the trailer was released online?

The truth about Dawn Ostroff

Contrary, to popular internet speculation, Dawn Ostroff has been very supportive of 'Aquaman'.

Al Miles on working with Dawn Ostroff:

"Dawn Ostroff [formerly of UPN and now the CW boss] has been fantastic. We've been dealing with her [on the Aquaman project] and she's been great. She's very supportive of that and extremely supportive of Smallville."

- Smallville Magazine #15

 

[The Incredible Hulk]

well yeah umm it's always a good idea to say you like your new boss in a media interview, if you know, you want to keep your job.

 

[RakuMon]

FYI. The CW's TCA upfront is today. Surely, there'll be a Smallville panel. And possibly insight into what may or may not happen w/ the Aquman pilot.

 

[Triligors]

If it's not today, we probably will hear word about it at comic-con....

interesting news: a member over at bluetights forums has mentioned that while at a special effects presentation, the group responsible for the effects of smallville and aquaman announced that aquaman would perhaps be premiered on Ipods as well.

I think that we might be looking at a BLADE Pilot type scenario here. On TV and on IPod as well. Don't know how much information the effects team had about the future of the pilot, but they still mentioned that we would someday see it.

 

[Dope Nose]

If you guys still need the Aquaman trailer there is a working link in my signature !!!

here's a youtube link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvmB8uCSRMQ

 

[KalKai]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The Aquaman Pilot Is On iTunes!!![/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
[/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Here's some news that some of you may like...[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The pilot episode to the Aquaman TV series by Smallville creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar has made its way to the land of legal downloading, on iTunes! For $1.99 you can see this special pilot starring Justin Hartley as A.C. Sadly it won't become a series, but the more people download it, the more likely it'll be that the CW people will regret not picking it up. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
[/FONT]​

 

[TKodami]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The Aquaman Pilot Is On iTunes!!![/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
[/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Here's some news that some of you may like...[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The pilot episode to the Aquaman TV series by Smallville creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar has made its way to the land of legal downloading, on iTunes! For $1.99 you can see this special pilot starring Justin Hartley as A.C. Sadly it won't become a series, but the more people download it, the more likely it'll be that the CW people will regret not picking it up. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
[/FONT]​

I'm headed over there right now.

 

[enterthemadness]

Holy ****! I don't have iTunes! I guess TheCW will never air the pilot in mid-season or after Smallville is over.