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It's official: Detroit is getting a new cop show. That's particularly good news for fans of ABC's cop show "Detroit 187" that was canceled after one season.
The AMC network said Friday that it has given the green light on the pilot "Low Winter Sun" and ordered up 10, one-hour episodes, according to announcement posted on its website. The Detroit cop show is based on a 2006 British miniseries and focuses on murder, revenge and corruption. It will debut sometime in 2013.
The pilot for the show was filmed in September around Detroit, but there was no guarantee at that point whether AMC would give the go ahead for a first season.
The show is a co-production between Endemol Studios and AMC Studio. Chris Mundy, whose credits include being co-executive producer of the CBS show Criminal Minds, will serve as writer, executive producer and showrunner, AMC said.
Ira Todd, a veteran Detroit police investigator, who is consultant and technical advisor for the show, was in Los Angeles Friday when he learned of the news. He celebrated Friday night at Pikey Cafe & Bar on West Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood with some of key people involved in the show.
"I'm very excited that the show is going forward," Todd told Deadline Detroit. "I was in LA when we got the good news. The positive energy from this project is something we really neeed in Detroit. Plus, I think this will bring in additional dollars to the city. "
The show stars Mark Strong (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Zero Dark Thirty) and co-stars Lennie James (The Walking Dead, Jericho, Snatch).
"Endemol and Chris Mundy have produced a beautiful pilot with an incredible cast led by the insanely talented Mark Strong," Joel Stillerman, AMC's Executive Vice President of original programming, production and digital content said in a statement. "We're thrilled to be moving forward with this compelling and intense new drama and look forward to returning to Detroit for production on the first season."
AMC describes the show this way:
A contemporary story of murder, deception, revenge and corruption in a world where the line between cops and criminals is blurred, Low Winter Sun begins with the murder of a cop by a fellow Detroit detective. Seemingly the perfect crime, in reality the murder activates forces that will forever alter the detective's life, and pull him into the heart of the Detroit underworld. The series is based on the 2006 award-winning British two-part mini-series of the same name written by Simon Donald and produced by Tiger Aspect Productions (an Endemol Company).
Mundy, who could not be reached for comment Friday night, told Deadline Detroit in September while filming the pilot:
“I’ve always thought of this show of people looking for a second chance and what are you willing t do to get a second chance,” he said. “When I was going to adapt it from the British show, I wanted it (to be) set in a city where the city would become a character and I wanted a city that was kind of in the same position."
Mundy said back in September that he expected the cast to move to Detroit.
When asked back then how this show would succeed when "Detroit 187" did not, Mundy, a former writer for Rolling Stone, said:
“We’re on cable, we’re on AMC so you’ve got a little more freedom to do some things. You can be a little darker. I don’t know 187 well enough to know for sure, but the ones I saw were really good, but they did a case every week in the way NYPD Blue did every week. We’re really doing one story each season. Ours will be more serialized.”
Of Detroit, he said: ”It’s such a grander city than I ever expected. And I’m attracted to the fact that even when people complain about Detroit, in the next breath they’re so proud of Detroit and will defend it to the death.”
