JJ Abrams clearly doesn’t have enough going on in his life, because he’s adding yet another possible project to his schedule. According to Deadline, the head of Bad Robot is about to start shopping a drama spec script about the island prison Alcatraz.
Probably best known for the likes of The Birdman of Alcatraz and The Rock, Alcatraz is the San Francisco bay island facility most famous for housing the likes of Al Capone (even though that was only for a quick spell).
There’s no word on what the focus will be yet, since the project is shrouded in the usual foggy depths of Abrams-style secrecy. We doubt it’ll be set on modern-day Alcatraz, since the place is now a place for holidaymakers to wander around (cue Connery: “The Rock has become a tourist attraction?”) and given its rich history, surely a period prison drama would work best. Either that, or writer (and former Lost producer) Elizabeth Sarnoff has figured out some alternate reality/sci-fi spin on the place.
The original concept came from Steven Lilien and Bryan Wyndbrandt, though apparently Abrams and Sarnoff have developed it further.
And even if the show does get picked up by one of the networks, it won’t exactly add that much to Abrams’ workload, since he tends to help launch shows, like he did with Fringe (he co-created the show and wrote the pilot) and the upcoming spy series Undercovers (he directed the pilot) and then step away to keep focusing on the big screen. Chances are if it does go ahead, Sarnoff will be the one in charge.
Still given how well most of his TV series turn out, we’d be excited to see what happens with such a rich subject matter.