‘Chronicle’ Writer Max Landis is Writing ‘Vigilant,’ a TV Show Exploring Vigilante Action
Posted on Tuesday, September 18th, 2012 by Russ Fischer
Chronicle made the career of Max Landis, and in the wake of the success of that Fox film the young screenwriter has seen several projects go into active development. He’s working on Chronicle 2, and has Frankenstein moving forward, and has been in the news with other projects as well.
Now he’s got a TV show in development at Teakwood Lane, a television production company based at Fox. Vigilant sounds like it explores the idea of a vigilante working both against the system and against a bigger criminal element.
Deadline says the story is “told through the unlikely POV of a brilliant 20-year old woman who is also a social outcast. After an honorable veteran detective is brutally coerced into working for the corrupt head of Internal Affairs, the detective’s daughter plans her revenge by meticulously constructing a fictional vigilante persona to take on the criminal elements within the police department and the city.”
The trades are calling this sort of a superhero origin story, but Landis seems to disagree. He said on Twitter,
No spoilers, but calling #vigilant a “super hero show” is a lot like calling Taxi Driver a pre-cursor to Spider-Man 3.
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) September 18, 2012
That launched an extended digression from Landis about what the show is, or rather what it is not:
I’m going to restate this because I don’t know who wrote the announcement, but: Vigilant is not a “superhero” show in ANY traditional sense.
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) September 18, 2012
Comparing it to “The Cape” or “Powers” or “Arrow” or “Smallville” is…just not accurate.No disrespect to those shows…
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) September 18, 2012
Vigilant comes at the whole equation of what a “vigilante” in a very different way.It has more in common with The Wire than Smallville.
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) September 18, 2012
On a similar note, it weirded me out when people called Chronicle a “superhero movie.”Chronicle is like…Carrie, basically.No heroes.
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) September 18, 2012
It’s a sign of the times; these days super-powers and vigilantes are just automatically lumped in with “superheroes.” #oversaturation
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) September 18, 2012
If Firestarter came out in 2013, they’d call it “Stephen King’s Superhero Thriller.”The superhero trope is so blurry at this point.
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) September 18, 2012
This ends my twitter rant for the night.God I’m so excited about C2 and Vigilant and stuff, I can’t even tell you guys.
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) September 18, 2012
