New Shows from Tom Fontana, J.J. Abrams and Neve Campbell

In the past few days, several new shows have been approved and it's a bit hard to keep up, so here's a catch up. A&E has decided to work with Tom Fontana, who previously was the showrunner for Oz and Homicide: Life on the Street. The new show stems from a really intriguing premise. It is tentatively called The Box and will focus its half-hour episodes entirely on a police interrogation. The Box intends to take all the drama that surrounds a typical cop drama and unfold it closer to real time in the interrogation room. As Bob DeBitetto, President and General Manager of A&E Network and BIO Channel "The Box takes the most thrilling scene of a crime procedural and puts it at center stage in a unique format." If the show is picked up, then Arvin Brown, who has worked on NCIS and The Closer will be brought on as a producer, in addition to Fontana's producing partner Barry Levinson. The show sounds like it can do a lot with a little, and both of Fontana's previous shows have shown how much emotion can be packed into a small space. For now, A&E has ordered two shows to be produced. We'll see how they turn out. Similar news from J.J. Abrams, who actually has a couple of new shows on the horizon. First, he will teaming up with One Tree Hill creator Mark Schwahn to produce the new drama Maine for the CW. The show is said to harken back to Abrams roots, which many people have forgotten, is Fidelity. We don't know much about this one yet, except that it is a "hotel drama." Looking at who is involved I can only imagine there will be some kind of alien force/time travel mixed with melodramatic high school angst. J.J. Abrams is also producing a pilot for NBC with Supernatural creator Eric Kripke. The show will be titled Revolution and is being kept even more of a secret, which is really surprising for Abrams; he usually likes to tell his fans as much as possible about what he's working on. So, I guess we'll just have to keep up with the news on this one, I will keep you posted. Lastly Neve Campbell (Scream, Party of Five) is starring in a Lifetime TV Movie entitled Sworn to Silence. The movie will be set in Amish country, and follows Campbell's character after she escapes a brutal murder in her town. She comes back to become police chief and starts to put the pieces of her past together. The show will probably feature less making out with Denise Richards then one may have hoped, but we will probably see some unearthed Scream performances. And that's not all. Campbell has signed on to a development deal with Lifetime, which will include many more movies and shows. Yay?