Fox loses its Following

UPFRONTS: Fox has picked up TV series based on Steven Spielberg’s 2002 sci-fi movie Minority Report and a DC Comics character but has cancelled another drama, The Following.

Spielberg, who is onboard Minority Report’s TV spin-off as an exec producer, directed the futuristic feature film that starred Tom Cruise and followed the use of psychic technology to stop crime before it is committed. The series will be produced by Amblin Television and Paramount Television in association with Twentieth Century Fox Television.

Lucifer, meanwhile, is based on the eponymous DC Comics character, played by Tom Ellis, who helps the LAPD punish criminals. It will be produced by Warner Bros TV, DC Comics and the production company of movie and TV producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

Other series picked up for next season by Fox include Grandfathered, a single-cam comedy about a bachelor who discovers he is a grandfather; The Guide to Surviving Life, another single-cam comedy; The Grinder, which stars Rob Lowe stars as beloved TV lawyer; and Rosewood, a series about a private pathologist in Miami. Other new series include an X-Files reboot, Scream Queens and The Frankenstein Code.

Meanwhile, Fox has cancelled crime procedural Backstrom after one season and psychological thriller The Following, which starred Kevin Bacon as an FBI agent brought back into the field to catch a serial killer, after three. Series renewed by Fox include the Last Man on Earth, Gotham and this season’s big hit Empire.