US proceeds with LA Confidential, Roswell pilots.

US networks recently gave the greenlight to new versions of familiar screen stories.

 

CBS is proceeding with a pilot of LA Confidential, which has been on the cards in the past.

The new version is being touted as a modern take on James Ellroy’s novel — which was the basis the 1997 feature film starring Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe & Kim Basinger. In it the paths of three homicide detectives, a female reporter and an up-and-coming actress intersect while the detectives pursue a sadistic serial killer among the secrets and lies of gritty, glamorous 1950’s Los Angeles.

A 2003 pilot starring Kiefer Sutherland, Eric Roberts and Melissa George was shot but not picked up, while Ellroy shopped a sequel series to various networks in 2013 without success.

The new version could potentially find a home on TEN.

Meanwhile a previously teased reboot of Roswell, from producer Greg Berlanti, is also proceeding to pilot. The original series ran for three seasons from 1999.

The new series would follow the daughter of undocumented immigrants who reluctantly returns to her tourist-trap hometown of Roswell, New Mexico. There she discovers a shocking truth about her teenage crush who is now a police officer: he’s an alien who has kept his unearthly abilities hidden his entire life (for real). She protects his secret as the two reconnect and begin to investigate his origins, but when a violent attack and long-standing government cover-up point to a greater alien presence on Earth, the politics of fear and hatred threaten to expose him and destroy their deepening romance.

As a CW title, there is a strong possibility it could head to Netflix in Australia, but it’s early days.

Both projects have been reported in the past as being in the pipeline.

Source: Variety