CBS Gets Rights To Bruckheimer’s Eleventh Hour

Warner Brothers has made a multimillion dollar deal with CBS for the rights to a Jerry Bruckheimer-produced adaptation of British thriller Eleventh Hour. CBS has agreed to produce 13 episodes of the X-Files-like project and has agreed in advance to a pay-or-play license fee of roughly $1.75 million per episode. The project reunites the original CSI team of producer Bruckheimer and director Danny Cannon, adding in scribe Mick Davis.

Warner Brothers and Bruckheimer opted to give the show to CBS even though ABC entertainment president Steve McPherson had made an agressive bid for it. McPherson developed the original CSI franchise and spoke out against his own company when Disney chose to divest itself of the production. CBS has also been good to Bruckheimer, greenlighting two CSI spinoffs and shows such as Cold Case, Without a Trace and The Amazing Race. But while the Eye has reaped significant financial benefit from Bruckheimer.

Eleventh Hour aired as a four-part miniseries last year, with Patrick Stewart starring. He played Professor Alan Hood, who’s called in by the government to investigate mysterious cases that involve matters of science – from cloning to global warming. U.S. adaptation is said to have a tone similar to The X-Files.