Finally... Gotham City is coming to TV. But without Batman...
Deadline reports that Fox has made a series commitment to "Gotham", a live-action show based around young Detective Jim Gordon's early cases that was masterminded by "The Mentalist" creator Bruno Heller and Warner Bros TV. There's so much faith in the show (duh, it's Batman-related) that no pilot was required. At this stage it's not expected that Batman himself will make an appearance in the series (at least not in season one) as the concept of the show is based on a Gotham that hasn't yet birthed The Caped Crusader but it is expected that many familiar and less familiar of The Dark Knight's rogue gallery will be included in the show, in the same way Smallville featured many Superman familiarities. Clearly, there's many villains that would suit the small screen more than they would the big screen. The meddling iconic Edward Nygma, aka The Riddler, could be used as a big bad recurring villain, causing Gordon and his Gotham Central plenty of grief and headaches and (hopefully) grizzly murders in the name of the puzzle for many hourlongs. Characters like Poison Ivy, The Penguin and even District Attorney Harvey Dent would be far more interesting being fleshed out over several years on our screens and done more justice than any two and a half hour movie could. Could we also see the familiar Gotham Central characters Sgt. Bullock and Detective Montoya as supporting characters in the show? Certainly the show would do well to follow the tone of Ed Brubaker's Gotham Central series. Or even this iconic moment? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ucJBidScls There's no word yet as to whether "Gotham" will be part of the wider DC Universe that is being built with Batman vs Superman in prep for a Justice League outing but there's certainly a chance here for an actor to make the iconic Bill Finger and Bob Kane created character into their own in the mean time. Though they do have the enviable task of trying to erase the memory of the great Gary Oldman who played the character in Chris Nolan's very recent Dark Knight trilogy. Casting is underway. Although talked about frequently online ever since the popular Batman: The Animated series ended in the 90s as the best medium to explore Batman's universe, this show will be the first time a commitment has been made, bringing Gotham to the live-action small screen for the first significant time since Adam West and Burt Ward ran around after The Caped Crusader's colour villains in the 60s. There's so much potential in this show they could never screw it up. Right?