C4 picks up SHIELD, takes Hostages

Channel 4 has taken on ABC series Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, among a raft of US pick-ups and commissions by the UK broadcaster.

Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD is being produced by Marvel Television and ABC Studios to premiere on ABC in the fall. It will air on C4 shortly after its US debut.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon is behind the show, Marvel’s first live-action TV series, which focuses on worldwide law enforcement agency SHIELD. The series is distributed by Disney.

C4 has also picked up a trio of new dramas from Warner Bros International Television to air in early 2014.

The first is Hostages, from executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer, which is based on an Israeli format and tells the story of a top surgeon whose family are seized by masked men after she is chosen to treat the US president. The series is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer Television, in association with Warner Bros Television, for CBS in the US.

The 100, produced by Bonanza Productions in association with Alloy Entertainment, Warner Bros Television and CBS Television Studios for The CW in the US, has been taken for C4’s youth-skewing sister network E4. The series focuses on life after a nuclear apocalypse when the only survivors are the inhabitants of 12 international space stations orbiting the earth.

E4 will also air The Tomorrow People, about a generation of humans born with paranormal abilities. The show, based on the UK series of the same name aired in the 1970s, is also produced by Bonanza Productions, in association with Berlanti Productions, FremantleMedia, Warner Bros Television and CBS Television Studios, for The CW.

On the commissioning side, C4 has greenlit feature-length What-If from Raw TV, which explores the effects of a cyber-attack on the UK’s national electricity grid in the ‘found footage’ style.

The programme will combine user-generated footage alongside fictional scenes, CCTV archive and news reports to build a realistic account of the UK being plunged into darkness. The show will air next month.

In addition, C4 has commissioned Making Liberty (working title), a 3×60’ factual series from DCD Media-owned Rize USA. The show goes behind the scenes at London store Liberty’s, one of the last great fashion and beauty emporiums in the UK, and meets its staff. It will air on C4 in the autumn.