The Huntress - the tv show

[The Major]

This would be a type of show similar in the tone of TDK, Alias, The Wire, Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles and The Shield.

It would be very realistic.

I would base it heavily on Cry For Blood and Huntress: Year One.

Helena Bertinelli would be the star.

The series would take place in Gotham.

The pilot would be an hour or two hours long to establish her origin for the series.

Helena's origin is a mesh between them. Her family is killed by Omerta, a hitman who wears a mask that works for a rival family. She is sent to Italy since it is no longer safe for any Bertinelli there. She lives with and is trained in armed and unarmed combat by Sal, her cousin.She hates the mafia.

Once she is in her early twenties she discovers she has a massive inheritance from her father and fights to get it. A don she is a relative of wants to keep it all to himself but she forces him to give her it. The money is in the millions.

Helena becomes the Huntress to get the money back without revealing her real identity. She is inspired by hearing about Batman when she lived in Gotham.

She heads back to Gotham to stop a scheme which Omerta is involved in. She wants revenge.

In Gotham she stops the scheme, captures Omerta and sends him to the police with evidence to convict him and his comrades. She stole specific things with the scheme and recorded conversations where they confess to crimes.

Helena lives in Gotham to continue her crusade against the mafia. She wants them wiped out completely. Batman and his allies can't get everybody that's why she's focussed on them.

Helena becomes a teacher to get to know the community better, stop kids from getting into crime and making her life have a purpose beyond being a vigilante.

She'll have many stoolies and at least one police officer from a local precinct.

Her costume would be like this.

http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/egypt/235/page7.html

Only much more realistic. She could wear a bullet proof vest under it or sown into its fabric and other types of protection.

13 episode seasons.

The first few episodes would be only mafia centric. No capes.

Batman, Catwoman, Batgirl (Cassandra Cain), Nightwing and Oracle would guest-star. Helena would have a rocky relationship with them. Nightwing would be one of her love interests.

Oracle could just the supporting cast by feeding her information.

There will be super-villains appearing only they will be toned down. No campiness.

Some will be big bads.

Cheshire - International drug kingpin. Master chemist. Good enough to give Huntress a fight. Uses many tricks to poison enemies. Big bad.

Her costume will be updated. She will wear pants and a business suit.

Deadshot - Famous mercenary or assassin who works for Amanda Waller's division in Checkmate. He'd wear a mask only it would be like what snipers wear. Tough enough to give Huntress serious fights unarmed or armed. Armed from head to toe with weapons from grenades to knives to pistols.

The Suicide Squad, Amanda Waller, Checkmate could make regular appearances.

Amy Acker would be my ideal Huntress actress.

For show-runners Ron Moore, Joss Whedon, Shawn Ryan and JJ Abrams could be good choices to execute it.

FX, HBO, Sci-Fi and Showtime could air it.

 

[dnno1]

Last I remember they had the character in a TV series titled "Brids of Prey". It didn't make it through the first season.

 

[EagleVision]

Yep, Birds of Prey. I liked that show. They went the direction of saying Batman and Catwoman were the parents of Huntress. Although that was phony, I liked the ladies on the show especially Ashley Scott and Dina Meyer. Meyer was cool as Barbara. She really fit the part for me.

 

[The Major]

Last I remember they had the character in a TV series titled "Brids of Prey".

The proposal I had submitted above would be completely different to that tv show.

It didn't make it through the first season.

Because it was crap.

 

[The Major]

Yep, Birds of Prey. I liked that show.

I'm glad you did. I thought it had potential but it didn't come close to showing it.

My proposal would be more like Alias or TDK then that show.

Of course, it would rely on it having better quality. No offense.

They went the direction of saying Batman and Catwoman were the parents of Huntress.

I thought that was unnecessary. Didn't like the execution much, either.

Although that was phony, I liked the ladies on the show especially Ashley Scott and Dina Meyer. Meyer was cool as Barbara. She really fit the part for me.

I liked them, too. I'd recast Dinah as Oracle and bring in Scott as Black Canary if she guest-starred.

 

[dnno1]

BoP was one of those shows that would have faired better in syndication. They needed time to develop the characters and get the storylines flowing (it was far from being crap). I did like it when I saw it, but that was after it was canceled. I noticed that by the end of that first season, the charters were more matured in their roles and the stories were much better.

 

[The Major]

BoP was one of those shows that would have faired better in syndication.

Maybe.

They needed time to develop the characters and get the storylines flowing

They had bigger problems then that.

(it was far from being crap).

I disagree.

Shows like Buffy made it look like amateur hour.

I have nothing against the creators. I'm sure they did their best with what they had but BOP needed people more suited for it to bring it to a higher level in quality then what it got.

I did like it when I saw it, but that was after it was canceled.

Did you read the comics its based on?

I noticed that by the end of that first season, the charters were more matured in their roles and the stories were much better.

Even with that the show was still far from its potential, altered to many things unnecessarily, and would be the complete opposite in tone and execution from how I'd see The Huntress being.

 

[batlovescatDC]

I also loved BoP..... but sadly, many people did not. And a Huntress tv show.... people would just automatically assume that it's a spin-off of BoP. And also.... after BoP.... WB would never produce another series that had Huntress as the main character.

 

[The Major]

Huntress

Her life is driven by hating the mafia. Helena finds solace in her cousin Sal, love interests, Catholism and teaching her students at a local school. Uses a crossbow to injure not kill people. She does do things much more vicious then the Bat Family. Huntress shoots only in areas like limbs. Tortures for information sometimes like twisting arrows which she shot into criminals.

A female Jack Bauer.

She is very skilled in combat and at shooting arrows.

Her personality isn’t that different from what Bertinelli is in the comics. She’s just newer at being a superhero.

Full body costume like she wore here.

http://community.livejournal.com/scans_daily/4501099.html

It would have more padding, she could wear a bullet proof vest under it, and carry an assortment of weapons and equipment in her belt.

Comics: Huntress: Cry For Blood, Huntress: Year One and Gail Simone's Birds of Prey.

Played by Amy Acker

Cheshire

First season big bad.

International drug kingpin. Master chemist and decent in combat. Depends on having several objects on her with poison on it that can kill on contact. This includes knives, fingernails, perfume etc.

Is very arrogant and controlling.

She could poison Huntress to keep her under control in exchange for vaccine.

Wears green business suits. Manipulative, devastatingly intelligent woman.

Comics: Simone's Birds of Prey, Secret Six mini-series.

Played by Grace Park

Deadshot

Deadshot is the codename Floyd Lawton uses when speaking with his superiors on his earpiece.

No mask. Good enough in unarmed and armed combat to give Huntress trouble. Wears an army type uniform which is covered in weapons from grenades to knives to loaded pistols.

Veteran assassin for the government who works for Amanda Waller’s shady faction within Checkmate.

She sends him to Gotham to capture Huntress, bring her to Checkmate where they can intimidate her into giving up being a super-hero. Huntress successfully defeats him by wounding him with arrows then handing him over to the cops with evidence of him killing innocent people who got in the way of their fight.

Deadshot swears revenge. His professional pride couldn’t take being beaten by a rookie cape. He escapes the hospital before Checkmate can claim him and turns rogue.

He shoots random people all over Gotham which puts the city in a worse anxious state of fear then usual. Citizens are panicking, the police have no idea how to catch him and Huntress wants to stop him. He does this to lure Huntress into a vulnerable position to attack her. He successfully avoids fighting every other cape who shows up.

Waller reluctantly teams up with Huntress to bring him in. Huntress becomes a part time “Suicide Squad” member.

Played by Oded Fehr

Comics: Secret Six, Simone's Birds of Prey, Ostrander's Suicide Squad

Oracle

Computer genius. Huntress never learns her secret identity or what she looks like. They just talk on the computer, earpiece or phone.

Batman sends Oracle to help Huntress tracking down hitmen in the mafia which she can’t catch.

Oracle bugs Helena by constantly ringing her phones, messaging her from the internet, gives her clues about the case until she gives in.

Huntress refuses at first but realizes Oracle is very useful.

They form a partnership similar to what they had in Simone’s run. Oracle tries rehabilitating Huntress into a good hero.

Oracle’s role will slowly be build up over the first season. It won’t be until the last few episodes that she has a huge permanent presence.

Comics: Simone's Birds of Prey, Dixon's Birds of Prey

Played by Dinah Meyer

Black Canary

Not that much different from her comic counter-part. Daughter of the retired Black Canary, expert martial artist. A few years younger then Huntress Dinah has spent more time as a super-hero. They have a friendly rivalry. No sonic powers.

Dinah won’t be come a supporting cast member like Oracle just appear when Huntress needs her help on cases.

Her costume would be different from the current comics. It would be updated by costume designers. She’ll keep a blonde wig while her real hair is brunette.

Comics: Simone's Birds of Prey, Dixon's Birds of Prey

Played by Ashley Scott

Amanda Waller

Commanding, iron willed, always outsmarts her opponents. Runs a faction within Checkmate jokingly called the Suicide Squad since her employees keep getting killed.

She loathes vigilantes. She thinks its bad enough with the current Bat Family. She’d rather Huntress be forced to give up her super-hero or work for her instead of adding another member to their team.

Uses super-villains and super-heroes as operatives whether by force or co-operation. She doesn’t trust any of them. None of her people have super-powers. The Huntress series doesn't have any super-powers in it. It's basically a pseudo extention of Nolan's Batman universe.

Comics: John Ostrander's Suicide Squad, JLU animated series

Played by CHH Pounder

Omerta

Huge, fairly smart, amoral hitman who murdered her family.

Skilled enough to beat Huntress easily in their first fight but won’t kill anyone until he’s paid to. He taunts her that she’s not worth the effort to kill. This encourages her to fight better then she has.

Comics: Huntress: Year One

Played by Brian Thompson

http://community.livejournal.com/scans_daily/5500819.html

David Cain

Father of Cassandra Cain.

Infamous mercenary who keeps a low profile unlike Shiva. Only law enforcement agencies and criminals know who he is. He’s the Batman of assassins. People who do know his work fear him.

He’ll use anything to kill a target.

Huntress needs the help of the Bat Family to beat him.

Comics: Puckett and Gabrych's Batgirl, Batman: Fugitive and Murderer story lines

Played by Dominic West

Lady Shiva

Expert martial artist who became an assassin to find people strong enough to give her a good fight.

Uses guns and explosives like Cain just as a last resort. She sets up traps to force her enemies to fight her one on one.

Mother of Cassandra Cain.

Comics: Puckett and Gabrych's Batgirl, Simone's Birds of prey, O'Neill's Question series

Batman

Constant presence in the series. Mostly he’ll have short cameos spying on Huntress current activities every few episodes to keep an eye on her. When he does show up to play a he role it’ll be a huge event only and not more then twice a season.

He uses security cameras, bugs and Oracle's hacking into Huntress computers, phone line and using all cameras the city has in the city to keep an eye on her.

Batman acts like a strict father figure for Helena. He lets her do what she wants usually since he does believe in her abilities but he’d never admit it to her.

He’d be much older then Nightwing. Not in his physical prime but still tough enough to defeat Huntress easily.

Batgirl

Cassandra Cain. Eerily silent most of the time on screen. Monster in combat just not super-human like in the comics. Her costume will be as close to the comics as possible. Just a realistic version. In her mid teenage years.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/db/Knightalone.jpg

Batman sends Cassandra to infiltrate Helena’s school posing as a student to get information on the new vigilante.

Youngest member of the Bat family.

Comics: Puckett and Gabrych's Batgirl

Nightwing

His agility will be toned down to be more realistic. Wears a similar costume to the comics. It’s just padded more for protection. His mask would be larger, too.

Batman sends him undercover as Dick Grayson to date Helena to learn more about her civilian life. Grayson is a police officer who is transferred to a precinct where Helena lives. The two get along great until he’s revealed as Nightwing.

This causes a rift between her and the Bat family which takes an entire season to heal.

Nightwing becomes an on again, off again love interest for Huntress in the series. Oracle gets jealous when they are in a relationship with each other.

He has a similar role to Black Canary when he isn’t dating her. He would be in the supporting cast when they are dating.

Comics: Dixon's Nightwing

The Question - Vic Sage

In the story arc which adapts the Cry For Blood mini-series Huntress is framed for murder he helps her find her focus by bringing him to Richard Dragon and clearing her name.

Slowly develops a romance with Huntress which is ended when she arrange for her biological father to get killed.

Comics: Huntress: Cry For Blood, Denny O'Niell's Question series

Richard Dragon

The best martial artist in the series.

Absolutely at peace with himself. Happy. Question's friend. He taught Batman, Shiva, David Cain martial arts. Whoever aides Huntress, Question or Nightwing will be his former student.

Lives in a house far from Gotham near nature.

Comics: Huntress: Cry For Blood

Don Cassamento

Big bad?

In season 2 or 3 he enters the series. He's Helena's real father. Not much is changed from his comic appearance. He remains the man Helena's mother fell in love with and secretly cheated on her father Franco. He manipulates his the don he worked for into killing all the Bertinelli's for a false reason which launches a gang war between that family and the one Franco was in or the leader of. He does this because he wants to rescue his love from Franco whose abusive. He doesn't tell Omerta who Maria, her mother, is but is ordered to kill all witnesses. Omerta incorrectly thinks Helena is Maria. That's why he left even though she thought Omerta didn't see her.

Huntress becomes a massive problem in his schemes as a mob boss in Gotham so he frames her by getting arrows similar to the ones she uses to be the weapons to kill rival mob hitmen.

The frame is good enough to get Batman to not trust her. He wants her off the streets. The Bat Family do their best to calm him down but they are unsure themselves.

Huntress is on the run for the police. She convinces Batman to give her a certain amount of days to clear her name. He allows it after an argument.

Unable to get far in the investigation Huntress breaks down. The Question arrives, tells her she needs a break and takes her to Richard Dragon away from the city.

Dragon trains her into being calmer, focuses her mind with meditation and raises her skill level with martial arts.

This could be done with Nightwing instead to avoid introducing a new character to the series.

Once she returns to the city to she discovers her father is a mob boss. The FBI had a file on him that either Question or Nightwing got a hold of.

Huntress confronts Cassamento in his house where he reveals his connection to her as a father and uses his knowledge of her super-hero identity against her to do what he says or hell tell the police, criminal underworld and media.

Huntress pretends to agree to the offer. She sets him up to be killed by a rival mafia family later that night.

Question or Nightwing loathe it once they discover what she's done.

This could be stretched in a full season, possibly with her doing stuff for Cassamento after he blackmails her without trying to break the law. Other bits could be put in other episodes while her disjointed life continues forward.

Comics: Huntress: Cry For Blood

All characters personalities and actions would be based primarily on the comics. It would be vital the creators read all they can and consult the proper creators from the proper comic runs.

 

[The Major]

I also loved BoP..... but sadly, many people did not.

Yup.

And a Huntress tv show.... people would just automatically assume that it's a spin-off of BoP.

Perhaps. That's hardly impossible to fix with the right marketing or a good product.

And also.... after BoP.... WB would never produce another series that had Huntress as the main character.

Yeah, I know.

This is exactly why they need to research their own properties more to know differences like this.

 

[The Guard]

BIRDS OF PREY was awful. Just laughably bad. The only bright spots in that show were the actor who portrayed Alfred and Dina Meyer's performance as Barbara Gordon/Oracle.

 

[Steelsheen]

well, you know my sentiments about Helena B. vs Helena W., but from what i've read so far, this sounding good Major. and i'm definitely watching this if it does get picked up. good luck

 

[Matt.S99]

Amy Acker as Huntress? No way.

Either get Scott back or someone woh can kick ass

 

[The Major]

Amy Acker as Huntress? No way.

Either get Scott back or someone woh can kick ass

Have you watched her as Illyria on Angel? She can kick ass very well.

 

[The Major]

well, you know my sentiments about Helena B. vs Helena W.,

but from what i've read so far, this sounding good Major.

I'm glad you like the idea. If I can get a Helena Wayne fan to do that I must be doing something right.

and i'm definitely watching this if it does get picked up. good luck

I'm not in the industry. I'm just posting ideas to see if someone who is actually in the industry could pick up the idea and run with it.

I'd love to see a show like this on tv. Of course, it would have to get the best treatment possible to survive. That's why it's so important the people in front and behind the camera be the right people that will actually research the characters properly and have the right skills to bring them to life. Without that any show is doomed to failure.

I doubt it'll work but it's better then doing nothing.

 

[az824]

Get the producers of Supernatural to do it, they could handle this show and make it amazing.

 

[Matt.S99]

Have you watched her as Illyria on Angel? She can kick ass very well.

Ive watched every season of angel so yes ive seen her as Illyria, still not who id want for Huntress, and shes not good looking enough for Huntress. I do love acker, but shes cute, not hot liek Huntress should be.

 

[The Major]

Ive watched every season of angel so yes ive seen her as Illyria, still not who id want for Huntress, and shes not good looking enough for Huntress. I do love acker, but shes cute, not hot liek Huntress should be.

Who would you want to be Huntress?

I disagree that she's not good looking enough.

 

[Matt.S99]

To me she just doesnt look bad ass enough, i cant explain it, but Acker doesnt have it.

My huntress if she was a little older would be Missy Peregrym, shes beautiful, athletic, and looks bad ass. Dont know if she can carry on a show by herself though.

 

[The Major]

bat:

Peregrym would be a great Bertinelli if Acker isn't available.

She should be able to carry a tv show. She's had leading roles before and done well in them.

 

[3dman27]

Yep, Birds of Prey. I liked that show. They went the direction of saying Batman and Catwoman were the parents of Huntress. .

not quite the nuntress was batman and catwonans daughter originally as she was intende to be earth 2's version of batgirl
the helena bertinelli version came after the crisis in ifinete earths merged the jla and the jsa's earths into one composite earth

 

[dnno1]

They had bigger problems then that.

You are not being specific here. According to an interview with co-executive producer, Hans Tobeason, the show got canceled because of non-stellar ratings -- this doesn't imply that the ratings were bad (at one time it had 7.5 million viewers) -- and the cost prohibitive economics of producing the type of show that the studios wanted. Like I said before, it would have had a better chance in syndication since an independent network could have been willing to accept a show like this (since it's ratings would have been higher than most of the shows it would feature) and given it time for character development. Other stumbling blocks that probably caused the drop in ratings was the infamous bat-embargo, which kept characters like Batman and Catwoman from being phisically in the series (note that films related to these two characters were in production at the same time -- their actual presence could have boosted ratings dramatically) and the fact that the show was up against "The Bachelor" at the time.

I disagree.

Shows like Buffy made it look like amateur hour.

I have nothing against the creators. I'm sure they did their best with what they had but BOP needed people more suited for it to bring it to a higher level in quality then what it got.

This is a matter of opinion. Take a look at this article.

Did you read the comics its based on?

The TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" was based on a 1992 film of the same name, which was a parody on horror films. The comic book, which I have never read and do not care to, came afterwars and was based on the TV series.

Even with that the show was still far from its potential, altered to many things unnecessarily, and would be the complete opposite in tone and execution from how I'd see The Huntress being.

This was one persons take on the character and both DC and the WB were cool with it. Saying that the show was far from its potential when it only went half a seaon (13 episodes) is kind of stating the obvious and not saying much at all. The fact that you got the basis of the Buffy series wrong leaves you with very little credibility here and would leve me with even less faith on your vision of Huntress making it as a solo TV series.

 

[EagleVision]

I'm glad you did. I thought it had potential but it didn't come close to showing it.

My proposal would be more like Alias or TDK then that show.

Of course, it would rely on it having better quality. No offense.

EV: None taken. I agree, the show sucked but the fact that they would even attempt it is what I appreciated. Birds of Prey is not a comic I had planned to ever see on-screen.

I thought that was unnecessary. Didn't like the execution much, either.



I liked them, too. I'd recast Dinah as Oracle and bring in Scott as Black Canary if she guest-starred.

Yeah Dinah as Oracle was very cool to watch. And Scott as Huntress I wasn't really feeling but I liked the girl so I didn't mind.

 

[The Question]

And a Huntress tv show.... people would just automatically assume that it's a spin-off of BoP.

No they won't. Only about 100 people remember the show, an they're almost all on the hype. t:

Anyway, a Huntress series would be interesting, but I would prefer a good BoP series, as any supporting characters in a Huntress series would ultimately become the BoP eventually, and I like the relationships in the comic a lot.

 

[The Major]

You are not being specific here. According to an interview with co-executive producer, Hans Tobeason, the show got canceled because of non-stellar ratings -- this doesn't imply that the ratings were bad (at one time it had 7.5 million viewers) -- and the cost prohibitive economics of producing the type of show that the studios wanted.

If it had better quality, had people in charge who knew how to do sci-fi shows well, didn't alter things at random and wasn't against the Bachelor its chances would have been higher of succeeding.

Instead they relied on copying Smallville, X-men and Dark Angel badly instead of adapting Birds of Prey.

Like I said before, it would have had a better chance in syndication since an independent network could have been willing to accept a show like this (since it's ratings would have been higher than most of the shows it would feature) and given it time for character development.

Agreed.

Other stumbling blocks that probably caused the drop in ratings was the infamous bat-embargo, which kept characters like Batman and Catwoman from being phisically in the series (note that films related to these two characters were in production at the same time -- their actual presence could have boosted ratings dramatically)

True.

But the series had to be good enough to stand on its own instead of just relying on other high profile characters to boost it. This didn't happen.

If the Bat-embargo is still in effect then I'd simply keep the Bat characters to a minimum or drop them altogether. Huntress doesn't need them to work. There are other heroes she could use to support her like Checkmate, Suicide Squad and the Question.

and the fact that the show was up against "The Bachelor" at the time.

Whose bright idea was this?

This is a matter of opinion. Take a look at this article.

You admit WB didn't do their best to execute the show?

The TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" was based on a 1992 film of the same name, which was a parody on horror films. The comic book, which I have never read and do not care to, came afterwars and was based on the TV series.

I meant the Birds of Prey comic series.

The Buffy comic is actually quite good. The current version is written by Joss Whedon.

This was one persons take on the character and both DC and the WB were cool with it.

Of course they would be cool with it. I doubt they actually knew who Huntress was if their lives depended on it. They based their tv show not only partially on an obsolete version of the concept but had to create a new version from scratch which had never appeared in the comics before and acted like a clone of Dark Angel. Then they made numerous unnecessary changes to other characters and had crappy quality to execute it with. No wonder it got canceled. Any show would be lucky to survive under those circumstances.

Have you read a comic with Bertinelli in it? She isn't a Dark Angel clone like Helena Kyle was.

Levin even wanted a darker toned tv show which this would be.

Of course, unlike BOP I'd want it to be only executed by people who know what they're doing in the genre. Not doing that would be repeating the mistakes BOP did.

Saying that the show was far from its potential when it only went half a seaon (13 episodes) is kind of stating the obvious and not saying much at all.

True.

The fact that you got the basis of the Buffy series wrong leaves you with very little credibility here and would leve me with even less faith on your vision of Huntress making it as a solo TV series.

Did you read my first post at all? I only used Buffy as one example of a female super-hero being good in quality not that Huntress would be have the same tone or execution. That's why I mentioned the Shield, The Wire, Terminator: SCC and TDK.

Read Huntress: Year One and Cry For Blood. That's what I'm primarily basing this series off of. Then imagine a series adapting them similar in tone and execution to Shield, Wire, Terminator and TDK.

Buffy's tv show executed its premise much better then BOP did. That's why it got 7 seasons and a spin-off while BOP didn't.