The pilot for the proposed FX TV series based on Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming’s long-running superhero crime series “Powers” has been shooting in Chicago for the past few weeks, and local paper Chicago Sun Times has a report on the filming as well as the very first picture of actor Jason Patric in the guise of police detective Christian Walker, who is on the beat to keep those with superpowers in line.
The piece is mostly centered around the Chicago location for the show, and the writer is clearly someone who isn’t a comic book reader–some of their comments are somewhat dismissive and derogatory of “comic nerds”–but they have some quotes from the shows’ executive producer Charles Eglee and FX president John Landgraf from a press conference done on set.
One of the more interesting statements made by Eglee is that the show won’t be dependent on retelling stories from the actual “Powers” comics:
“For me it was about creating some interesting characters in a law enforcement context, and it just so happens that the bad guys they’re fighting have abilities that regular people don’t have. I just look at our bad guys as metaphors for real-life characters.”
At the Television Critics Association press tour over the weekend, Landgraf told journalists:
“The superhero genre is ripe for reinvention. Everything television has ever done in that genre is the equivalent of an 8 or a 9 oclock show - light, breezy, special effects-oriented. Im not saying that Powers isnt fun, but it aspires to be a serious drama, and its fascinating to me to try to reshape and reinvent familiar genres.”
You can check out the picture of Walker above, and check out the rest of their report at the Chicago Sun Times. According to the report, if FX decides to pick up the series based on the pilot, which by all reports is looking pretty good, the show will air next summer.
