Fox is prepping a Minority Report TV pilot, intended as a sequel to the 2002 film starring Tom Cruise. However, don’t expect to see Cruise or his character John Anderton, as the pilot is set 10 years after the movie and will focus on one of the “precogs” from the film. In fact, Fox hasn’t announced casting at all, but it has signed on a director: Mark Mylod, known for ABC’s Once Upon a Time and Showtime’s Golden Globe-winning The Affair.
Mylod, who handled the pilots for Once and The Affair, will direct a script by Godzilla writer Max Borenstein, with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment producing. According to Deadline, the pilot takes place a decade after PreCrime DC is disbanded (thanks to Anderton) and follows one of the three precogs as he struggles to adjust to a normal life despite still having visions of the future.
The end of the movie saw Anderton hiding away precogs Agatha, Dashiell, and Arthur (named for writers Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett, and Arthur Conan Doyle) so they could read books, grow hair, and begin acting like normal people after growing up in PreCrime’s pools predicting murders.
Interestingly, the series is not focusing on Agatha, the precog who helped Anderton uncover the truth behind his minority report, but instead on one of her brothers. However, Fox is balancing out the gender change by bringing in a female detective who is still haunted by her past. (Perhaps a murder she was unable to prevent with PreCrime eradicated?) Clearly the series is following the events of the movie, making it unlikely that we’ll see an adaptation that entirely sticks to source material anytime soon.
It will be interesting to see how Minority Report fares against CBS’ Person of Interest, a drama series that uses much the same conceit: An artificial intelligence machine predicts crimes (not just murders), and humans go out to prevent them. The series has raised debate about the evolution of AI and the limits of human privacy.
Deadline also reports that Fox was impressed with Mylod for his work in melding the characters on The Affair as well as his impact on the visuals of Once Upon a Time. Sounds like he’s a keen choice, if the series is aiming to match the stunning look of the 2002 movie.
