Bionic Problems Downplayed David Eick, executive producer of NBC's upcoming Bionic Woman remake, downplayed rumors of behinds-the-scenes problems and the departure of co-executive producer Glen Morgan, saying they were simply business as usual on any television show, especially a genre program.
"One of the things I learned very early in my career, when I was running a television company for Sam Raimi, was that in the genre, so to speak—and there's horror, science fiction, fantasy and superhero—there are so many permutations of what you're doing and, moreover, what you're not doing, and people bring their own perspective to that," Eick said during a Sept. 7 conference call. "Some people come in thinking, 'Well, if it's got someone with super strength, it must mean it has to be really kind of funny and kooky,' and other people come in and said, 'Well, we've got someone with a tortured soul who's had this thing perpetrated on her, then it's got to be very dark and twisted.' Other people might say, 'Well, it should be very female and soft.'" Executive producer Morgan (The X-Files) left the show abruptly last week, and sources told Variety that he left due to "creative differences." For its part, NBC thanked Morgan for his contributions to the series, without going into detail about why Morgan left. The trade paper also cited industry insiders as saying they believe it's possible the show, which is now in production on its fifth episode, might take a break in order to give the writers a chance to focus on refining the show's directions. Eick said that no break is imminent, though he added that most shows take a week to regroup at some point. Eick didn't talk specifically about Morgan's departure, but added: "Finding the people—not just people who get it, but defining what the 'it' is that you want everyone to get— ... is its own sort of separate endurance test. I think this is really no different from, frankly, most of the genre shows I've done in that there's a lot of turnover early in the process. It's just the way it works." Eick, who is also an executive producer of SCI FI Channel's Battlestar Galactica, will be Bionic's show runner and will handle all day-to-day aspects of production with executive producer Jason Smilovic. Bionic Woman premieres Sept. 26 and will air on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. (NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.) —Ian Spelling http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=43970
