Love Sean Pertwee's dad in Doctor Who. Haven't seen him in anything else but if he is anything like him he should be pretty good.

Never heard of him before, but man does this guy have the look for the penguin:

I've got high hopes for DC's tv properties. Hopefully they don't disappoint, since the movies look like a fast-approaching train wreck.

Sex Panther,
Arrow is really damn good. I was never much of a DC follower so my knowledge of backstory is a little limited, but so far I've picked up on almost all Easter eggs except for a couple obscure, fleeting ones.

Cool, I'll give it a shot

Logue finally confirmed as Bullock...

http://tvline.com/2014/02/12/gotham-tv-show-fox-cast-donal-logue-detective-harvey-bullock/

I really like that casting decision.

Sex Panther, I agree with the above. I think Arrow is the best live action hero show I've ever seen. It's exceptionally well done.

So is Bruce going to be a side character (with the focus on Gordon) or the main?

Jada Pinkett Smith cast as Fish Mooney, "an imposing, hotheaded and notoriously sadistic gangster boss and nightclub owner with street smarts and almost extra-sensory abilities to read people like an open book who is not one to be crossed." Eh...

http://www.deadline.com/2014/02/jada-pinkett-smith-fox-gotham-villain/

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Jada Pinkett Smith cast as Fish Mooney, "an imposing, hotheaded and notoriously sadistic gangster boss and nightclub owner with street smarts and almost extra-sensory abilities to read people like an open book who is not one to be crossed."

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If you want a good idea for a Batman CW type show, have a listen to Kevin Smith's Fatman on Batman podcast with Paul Dini entitled "Shadow of the Bat." It's just two dudes who love the Batman throwing ideas out at each other but it gets interesting for a bit and deals with a young Bruce Wayne after the murder of his parents.

Just got my hands on the pilot script. Will give it a read in the next couple of days and report back...

Alright, I went ahead last night and read the first 30 pages - the first half - and it's... ok. Not bad by any means, but nothing special either. Dated January 31, 2014, so it's not even a month old, likely making it as close to a shooting script as possible. In other words, I doubt any of these details change much...



*** VERY SLIGHT SET-UP SPOILERS ***



The inciting incident is, of course, Thomas and Martha Wayne's murder in an alleyway, post-movie, as witnessed by a young Bruce. Something we've already seen a thousand times, and this is probably the tamest, most vanilla version yet. So right off the bat, that feeling of "Why, exactly, does this show exist?" is only reinforced. There's no "new" take, nothing different from all the past versions of this scene. Not that it needed reinventing or anything, but it's just so incredibly bland. So been-there-done-that. So very network TV-ish.

The main thrust of the pilot is Gordon, a rookie detective, and Bullock, his reluctant new mentor/partner, having to investigate/solve the Wayne murders. Gordon is an ultra-do-gooder, fresh-to-the-city greenhorn. Almost annoyingly so. And Bullock is at the opposite end of the spectrum. A good detective, older, willing to get his hands dirty, can't stand Gordon, and at first tries to pass off the Wayne murder case to colleagues because of the headache, pressure, and attention he knows will come with the case. So, basic set -up is miss-matched detectives having to solve a murder. Ground-breaking stuff.

The most forced aspect, though, is the villain cameos. I'm not kidding, in the first HALF HOUR we meet:

- A 14-year-old SELINA KYLE. She's the first character introduced, making her way through the alleyways and streets of Gotham - like a cat - stealing some guys wallet, and then finally settling on a fire escape in the same alley where we first see the Waynes. She witnesses the murder, but has no dialogue, no reaction, nothing. She just sees it happen, almost as an afterthought.

- EDWARD NYGMA (late 20s), the resident Gotham PD forensics expert, who Gordan and Bullock seek out to have the murder bullets analyzed. The catch? Nygma speaks to them only in riddles. It's incredibly lame.

- OSWALD COBBLEPOT (26), who is one of Fish Mooney's (Jada Pinkett Smith) low-level henchmen. Gordon and Bullock go to Mooney's club to see if she might have any leads on the murder (which happened in her part of town / on her turf). When we meet Mooney, she's out back of her club, beating the crap out of some employee who presumably stole money from her. It's raining, and Cobblepot is holding an umbrella over her head as she kicks the guy. So many cheesy wink-wink moments like this.

- IVY (10), daughter of one of the suspects Gordon and Bullock try to shake down. She answers the door when Gordon and Bullock show up, and is described as "red headed, feral, skinny." She ends up pulling a knife on Gordon and Bullock when her dad tries to run.

Again, it's like every scene has some forced villain cameo. I obviously expected all these characters to eventually be introduced, but not all in the first 30 minutes of the pilot. It was just so... desperate. As if the writers felt the the need to completely ignore Bruce (who's only in the first five minutes or so of what I read), and instead say over and over and over again, "Hey, look! Don't change the channel! Here's a (not-so-subtle) nod to THIS character and THIS character and THIS character!" Instead of building any kind of anticipation over the course of a season as to who, exactly, these villains might be, and how we're going to meet them.

There were some bright spots, though. This definitely isn't the Burton/Schumacher Gotham, nor is the hyper-realistic Nolan Gotham. It's more noir-Gotham, with a modern flair, which is kind of cool. And Bullock definitely has potential to be a cool/interesting character. Gordon was almost too dry, but I think his character will eventually come around. There's promise with the Gotham PD stuff too. It's just hard watching anything in that arena after The Wire, but it's not bad.

As forced as lot of it feels, ultimately, it probably will make for some kitschy fun. The average network TV watcher will eat this stuff up. At the very least, what I read of the pilot was good enough to be far better than something like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. It feels like it'll be a competent show. My main gripe, I guess, is that it just doesn't really have a unique voice. It's very run-of-the-mill, and didn't feel like it was written with any kind of passion. Not for the characters, and just not in general. Then again, nothing on network TV feels that way, so I guess it's par for the course.

All that really matters is that I'll give it a shot. And will probably end up watching regularly. And that's saying something, considering I haven't watched a network drama since Lost. The show has potential, but it definitely has a low ceiling. Hopefully we'll have a much better idea once a trailer hits, probably this summer...


[This message has been edited by TCTTS (edited 2/27/2014 12:53p).]

TCTTS - sucks to read that. I had high hopes for this one. I recently started watching Arrow and really dig how they are revealing little eater eggs here and there. This sounds like it's the opposite

Granted, they're the most minor villain introductions imaginable. Only Nygma and Cobblepot had actual lines, and not that many. So there's still a ton of room/opportunity to "reveal" more about these characters as the season progresses. It was just weird that they chose to make-known ALL their basic identities up front, so quickly.

[This message has been edited by TCTTS (edited 2/27/2014 1:38p).]

That's really cheesy. My guess is since there's no Batman, they felt they had to overload it with his villains to keep fans interested.

^ Exactly how it feels.

Young Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle cast, if anyone cares...

http://www.slashfilm.com/gotham-bruce-wayne-selina-kyle/

Was searching for Bat-news today and the Gotham casting got completely outclassed by the new Arkham Knight trailer.

DC/WB should just churn out Batman movies like Bond movies and use the Arkham series as a guide on how to do this right

sucks to hear you weren't terribly impressed thus far. with this cast though, i'm going to hold out hope they can pull this off and make an entertaining series out of it.

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Was searching for Bat-news today and the Gotham casting got completely outclassed by the new Arkham Knight trailer.

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Oh **** I had no idea. With all due respect to Christopher Nolan and The Animated Series... these games may just be the best Batman canon of all time.

David Mazouz.

Does that mean Kiefer is going to run around each episode yelling "Jake!"??

Official logo + synopsis just released...

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Everyone knows the name Commissioner Gordon. He is one of the crime world's greatest foes, a man whose reputation is synonymous with law and order. But what is known of Gordon's story and his rise from rookie detective to Police Commissioner? What did it take to navigate the multiple layers of corruption that secretly ruled Gotham City, the spawning ground of the world's most iconic villains? And what circumstances created them – the larger-than-life personas who would become Catwoman, The Penguin, The Riddler, Two-Face and The Joker?

"Gotham" is an origin story of the great DC Comics super villains and vigilantes, revealing an entirely new chapter that has never been told. From executive producer/writer Bruno Heller (“The Mentalist,” “Rome”), "Gotham" follows one cop's rise through a dangerously corrupt city teetering on the edge of evil and chronicles the birth of one of the most popular super heroes of our time.

Growing up in Gotham City's surrounding suburbs, James Gordon (Ben McKenzie, “Southland,” “The O.C.”) romanticized the city as a glamorous and exciting metropolis where his late father once served as a successful district attorney. Now, two weeks into his new job as a Gotham City detective and engaged to his beloved fiancée, Barbara Kean (Erin Richards, Open Grave, “Breaking In”), Gordon is living his dream – even as he hopes to restore the city back to the pure version he remembers it was as a kid.

Brave, honest and ready to prove himself, the newly-minted detective is partnered with the brash, but shrewd police legend Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue, “Sons of Anarchy,” “Terriers,” “Vikings,” “Copper”), as the two stumble upon the city's highest-profile case ever: the murder of local billionaires Thomas and Martha Wayne. At the scene of the crime, Gordon meets the sole survivor: the Waynes' hauntingly intense 12-year-old son, Bruce (David Mazouz, “Touch”), toward whom the young detective feels an inexplicable kinship. Moved by the boy's profound loss, Gordon vows to catch the killer.

As he navigates the often-underhanded politics of Gotham's criminal justice system, Gordon will confront imposing gang boss Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett Smith, The Matrix films, “HawthoRNe,” Collateral), and many of the characters who will become some of fiction's most renowned, enduring villains, including a teenaged Selina Kyle/the future Catwoman (acting newcomer Camren Bicondova) and Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor, “The Walking Dead,” Another Earth).

Although the crime drama will follow Gordon's turbulent and singular rise through the Gotham City police department, led by Police Captain Sarah Essen (Zabryna Guevara, “Burn Notice”), it also will focus on the unlikely friendship Gordon forms with the young heir to the Wayne fortune, who is being raised by his unflappable butler, Alfred (Sean Pertwee, "Camelot," “Elementary”). It is a friendship that will last them all of their lives, playing a crucial role in helping the young boy eventually become the crusader he's destined to be.

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Love the logo

The blimps are very telling for the type of Gotham they are shooting for, very Batman TAS.

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Gordon meets the sole survivor: the Waynes' hauntingly intense 12-year-old son, Bruce (David Mazouz, “Touch”)

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Read this quickly, saw Muniz instead of Mazouz.

And JP Smith really should get people to stop listing "HawthoRNe" in her videography - that show was hilari-bad.

I just don't understand why DC won't give any of their properties over to be developed for HBO. Doesn't even have to be Batman. They have so many interesting lesser characters that would make for great show/mini-series.

That's basically what Marvel is doing, but with Netflix, and it's going to show to be a genius move.

Jada Pinkett Smith should stop listing everything in her IMDB profile. And should probably not put any new things in it as well.


But Pinkett-Smith was the the bomb in Demon Knight yo...

[This message has been edited by Sex Panther (edited 3/12/2014 10:15a).]

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I just don't understand why DC won't give any of their properties over to be developed for HBO. Doesn't even have to be Batman. They have so many interesting lesser characters that would make for great show/mini-series.

That's basically what Marvel is doing, but with Netflix, and it's going to show to be a genius move.

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I think we might eventually see it, it's pretty obvious that DC is playing catch up right now (which is too bad because they've got a few fantastic characters to work with).

Gotham seems to be, in at least some sense, a response to Agents of SHIELD and the Justice League a response to The Avengers. The next two or so years for DC are either going to help level the playing field a bit or set them back even farther, if I had to guess I'd say the latter but I'd love to be pleasantly surprised.

I like Arrow a lot more than I like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Maybe it's because they've had a year to hit their stride, but even comparing season one of Arrow, I feel like it's the better show by far. I'm hoping Gotham will be closer to Arrow than Agents.

WOW! I am really excited. If I was going to place a bet, that logo will be the title screen. It's very similar to Arrow.

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I like Arrow a lot more than I like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Maybe it's because they've had a year to hit their stride, but even comparing season one of Arrow, I feel like it's the better show by far. I'm hoping Gotham will be closer to Arrow than Agents.

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I have to agree. AoS is good, much better now than it had when it started. I look forward to Arrow because of how gritty it is, but I look forward to AoS because of how it is apparently bridging the gaps between the movies. I think this gives Arrow a pretty wide birth, while I feel that AoS is somewhat restricted to what the overall planned arc is for the MCU.

From what I understand, Arrow being a DC product will not be connected to any of the movies unlike AoS which is directly involving the MCU.

@Marsuvees- Agreed, reminds me very much of TAS. I just hope it is dark and gritty and not happy go lucky.

And then I scroll further up and read TCTTS' thoughts on the script... Which drew a "Hmm" in response. Still plan on giving it a try, but a little more tempered in my excitement factor.

Can't wait and I hope it doesn't blow

First look at Ben McKenzie as Gordon. Weird that the scene being shot is the exact one where I stopped reading halfway through the script (SLIGHT SPOILER: a foot chase over rooftops, after (Poison) Ivy's dad, a Wayne murder suspect, flees from his apartment when Gordon & Bullock come to question him)...

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/nailbiter111/news/?a=96247

[This message has been edited by TCTTS (edited 3/18/2014 2:25p).]

No mustache? Boo...