J.J. Abrams (and the rest of the world) was met with some sad news recently when it was announced that his upcoming series Demimonde won’t be moving forward. The show had been greenlit with a proposed budget of $200 million for the whole series, which Warner Bros. and HBO later realized might not be all that feasible in reality.
The show came as part of a package deal between Abrams’ production company, Bad Robot, and WarnerMedia. Bad Robot was paid $250 million for the deal, with the intention that Bad Robot would be responsible for developing movies, TV shows, and even video games.
Per Deadline, Warner Bros. and Bad Robot have been in talks for weeks, ending in Warner Bros. pulling the plug. Unfortunately for Abrams, there’s a larger controversy afoot here. With Discovery acquiring Warner Bros., and reportedly looking to cut costs up and down the merged company, they’re scrutinizing literally every part of every deal, Bad Robot’s included. That’s really unfortunate for fans of the video game series Portal, which might also be put under the microscope.
The series was in only in early pre-production, but it’s still pretty tragic to know that the show will never see the light of day. The plot sounded pretty interesting, and Danielle Deadwyler was supposed to star. Her character was a scientist who was involved in an accident of galactic proportions, which results in her separation from her husband and daughter. She finds herself caught in the center of a grand conspiracy. Her quest is to free her family from a dark and bizarre far-away world.
