Two days after it was announced that Back to the Future helmer Robert Zemeckis would be prepping the Barefoot Bandit picture for Fox comes word that he is going to do much more for the company in the near future. Fox TV Studios has just revealed that they have signed the veteran director to a major deal that would see Zemeckis and his production company ImageMovers develop original programming for cable television.
The word ‘cable’ there is key as it almost clearly means FX. We are seeing that the network has been pushing really hard in recent months to up their original scripted slate as that almost seems to have been caught up in a stagnant growth cycle for maybe half a decade now. The channel is currently developing a host of series’ including a crime drama called The Bridge and the just-announced Dr. Dre-produced crime/music show.
With that in mind, we have no idea what to expect from this partnership. Zemeckis is equally capable of sci-fi and pure dramas, but an offering from the former genre might be a bit of a shock as that would go against the FX brand. This is not to say that the program will have to reside on FX, but it certainly would appear like the network in mind for this agreement.