Battle Creek: 10 Things We Already Know About Vince Gilligan's Next Masterpiece

7. Gilligan Is Writing It With The Guy Who Created House

Believe it or not, there once was a time when people didn't want to worship the ground Vince Gilligan walked on and he could write scripts that actually got rejected instead of being made into zeitgeist-defining appointment television. That time was 2002, when Gilligan first tried to sell the pilot for Battle Creek, but nobody was much interested in a crime show from some ex-X-files writer with a couple of underseen movies to his name. Cut to 12 years later and CBS couldn't be more thrilled to have VG lending them his talents, and this time he's got another big name in his corner: David Shore, the creator and showrunner of a little series called House. Shore and Gilligan are credited as co-writers of the pilot (& exec producers on the series) and although the idea was the Breaking Bad creator's, the man who built House is serving as showrunner so that Gilligan can get the occasional good night's sleep some time this decade. That's not to say he won't be heavily involved, though; Gilligan hopes to direct at least a few episodes, so we can maybe - fingers crossed - expect to see some of the fun experimentation with visual styles and montage carried over from his meth days.