The long-gestating TV adaptation of Brian Michael Bendis’ Powers comic is currently teetering on the brink as the FX Network decides whether or not to fund extensive retakes for the series’ pilot episode.  With options for the cast likely expiring in March, the network now has only a few weeks to rework the pilot that FX executives found wanting back in mid-November (see “Powers Getting Reworked”). 

 

But Powers creator Brian Michael Bendis still sees hope. Today he tweeted “Last night I had a pretty good convo with the President of FX.  Powers people, it’s going to take some time, but we’re still in the game.”

 

Just because the network does ask for a rewrite of a completed pilot doesn’t mean the series is dead—FX forced the producers of the now highly successful Sons of Anarchy series to rewrite its pilot episode.

 

According to Bendis, the problems that the network identified with Powers, “were all about tone and clarity.”  The noirish tone of Powers has few analogs in the world of superhero movies and TV series (Christopher Nolan’s Batman films being a notable exception).  FX’s President John Landgraf told The Hollywood Reporter, “When you think about a 10 o’clock drama.  There’s never been a feature film or TV series that has taken the superhero genre to that type of tonality, it’s never been done and it’s just really a struggle.”

 

So is the FX adaptation of Powers dead?  The answer is a definitely, “Not yet,” but the network and the show’s producers are clearly running out of time in which to fix the pilot’s problems.