As if it didn’t already have enough heavy-hitting energy behind the camera with Vince Gilligan and David Shore as co-creators, new US TV drama Battle Creek has landed X-Men: Days Of Future Past director Bryan Singer to produce and shoot the pilot{
Singer’s involvement, of course, is not a huge shock: he was an executive producer on Shore’s previous show, a little medical drama called House, for which he shot the pilot and third episode. Battle Creek will focus instead on that other great standby of American telly: cops.
Based on a 2002 spec script written by Gilligan, this will chronicle detective Russ (30 Rock’s Dean Winters) and Milton, an FBI agent, as they attempt to wrangle law and order in the titular Michigan city. That's no easy task, since they have few resources at their disposal and a decaying, troubled area to work in. They do have colleagues, though, with Janet McTeer, Aubrey Dollar, Edward Fordham Jr. and House veteran Kal Penn aboard.
Gilligan won’t be involved on a day-to-day basis, as he’s also busy setting up his Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul. Shore will run the show and Singer will offer his input as and when needed, beyond setting the visual template with the show in the pilot. With 13 episodes already ordered, the show should hit US network CBS this autumn.