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CBS Lands Bruckheimer's 'Eleventh Hour'
Huge $25M-$30M deal for British scientific thriller beats out ABC
By Max Brallier
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Posted Sep 19, 07 10:24 AM CDT
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(Newser)
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CBS beat out all comers, mainly ABC, for the rights to a Jerry Bruckheimer/Warner Brothers adaptation of the British series Eleventh Hour, a scientific thriller a la X-Files. The deal, pronounced the biggest of this development season, puts CBS on the hook for $25 million to $30 million, Variety reports.
Bruckheimer's success with CBS (CSI, Cold Case, Without a Trace) probably helped the network's bid, but it also agreed to a pay-or-play license fee worth $1.75 million per episode. But insiders say all bets are off if CBS doesn't like the pilot—it can bury the show on the schedule, leaving Warner Brothers holding the bag for production costs.