Eight months after the network rescinded the original straight-to-series order for the ambitious series, NBC has once again handed out a 10-episode straight-to-series order for event series Emerald City. David Schulner will replace Josh Friedman as showrunner on the series, which comes from Universal Television.
Emerald City was first given a straight-to-series order back in January 2014. The network even started running promotions for it last summer during Comic-Con even though it hadn't begun casting. And then, in August 2014, the network cancelled the project due to creative differences between the writers, network and studio. Now, those issues seemed to have been worked out with a change of writers and the project is back on for a slot on the network's 2015-16 schedule.
And here's the new official Emerald City logline: "In the blink of a tornado's eye, 20-year-old Dorothy Gale and her K9 police dog are transported to another world, one far removed from our own - a mystical land of competing kingdoms, lethal warriors, dark magic and a bloody battle for supremacy. This is the fabled Land of Oz in a way you've never seen before, where wicked witches don't stay dead for long and a young girl becomes a headstrong warrior who holds the fate of kingdoms in her hands."
Despite the lessening appeal of straight-to-series orders at the broadcast networks, this revival of Emerald City marks the fifth such order for NBC for the upcoming season - alongside the Heroes revival starring Zachary Levi, Eva Longoria comedy Telenovela, the Coach revival with Craig T. Nelson and Jennifer Lopez drama Shades of Blue.
