The Hollywood Reporter announced today that ABC has put in a script order for a new television series called “Finn & Sawyer,” which features Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer — Mark Twain’s ne’r-do-well boy heroes — as detectives in a Steampunk version of New Orleans. The show’s creators, Jason Richman and David Zabel, have worked together on Detroit 1-8-7 for the past several years. All we’ve gotten so far is news that the series is in development, which means it’s too soon for any cast to be attached to the project.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show is described as “as an adventure-themed reinvention that revolves around the two famed literary characters who re-meet as young men in their 20s and form an investigative firm in a bustling and steampunk New Orleans.”
I admit to a cautious optimism about the proposed show based on what little information is currently out there about the show. I’ve also never watched Detroit 1-8-7, so I can’t speak to the quality of Richman and Zabel’s work. But if this becomes a standard police-procedural that only happens to be in a Steampunk world? Well then it’ll probably end up being a disappointment. So I hope that the creative team makes thoughtful use of the potential technologies they can play with.
Wow. Let’s hope they do something more than just slap some gears on NYPD Blue. $10 says they’re vamping on Jordan Stratford’s success.
I’d love a steampunk’d NYPD blue … better yet, NCIS New Orleans Steampunk! NCIS LA being my guilty pleasure.
Thanks for the news, Matt
Considering Mark Twain actually wrote a novel called “Tom Sawyer, Detective”, this actually makes sense. Not only that, but steampunk New Orleans sounds fantastic.
I actually didn’t know about “Tom Sawyer, Detective” actually existing. Now the show makes a bit more sense to me.
sounds like they got the idea from the movie “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”, when they added Tom Sawyer to add appeal to the younger generation and Americans. Tom said in the movie that he and Huck had been some sort of investigators / CIA types and Huck had been killed.