NBC has ordered 10 one-hour episodes of a new reality action competition from
Silver Pictures Television and GRB Entertainment.
NBC Studios is so confident that the program will produce the next action star that it
is considering naming the series just that, The Next Action Star.
Like Fox's American Idol, the show will hold auditions all over the
country for contestants, narrowing the list to 12 who will be brought to
Hollywood for the final games.
The winners, one man and one woman, will then star in a made-for-TV action
movie called Hit Me, which already has been penned by Silver Pictures'
Jeff Welch. The movie also will serve as the show's finale. The show is
tentatively slated for summer or fall of 2003.
Executive producers will be Gary Benz, president of GRB; and Rick Telles and
Cris Abrego, co-heads of Brass Ring Entertainment.
Silver Pictures is known for its success in the action-film genre, and in
2003, it will release The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions and
Cradle 2 the Grave.
Silver Pictures Television has a development deal with NBC in which the
network is obligated to purchase three ideas and develop one of them into a
pilot. The Next Action Star, however, is not part of that deal.
