CW Orders Two Post-Apocalyptic Dramas, Mary Queen of Scots Story to Pilot

Kass Morgan's "The Hundred"

The CW is venturing into post-apocalyptic territory with a pair of dramas as well as an hour about Mary Queen of Scots. 

our editor recommends

TV Pilots 2013: The Complete Guide to What Lives, Dies and Still Has a Pulse

Pilot Season Trends: Thirtysomethings, Dysfunction and Adaptations

The younger-skewing network has ordered to pilot The Hundred, which is based upon the forthcoming The Hundred book series. The hour-long entry is set 97 years after a nuclear war has destroyed civilization. A spaceship housing the lone human survivors sends 100 juvenile delinquents back to Earth to investigate the possibility of re-colonizing the planet.

STORY: TV Pilots 2013: The Complete Guide

Body Politic’s Jason Rothenberg is attached to write and executive produce, with Alloy Entertainment’s Leslie Morgenstein and Gina Girolamo (Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries) on board as EPs on the Warner Bros. TV pilot. The effort is based upon the forthcoming The Hundred book series written by Kass Morgan and published by Little Brown.

For its part, the District 9-themed Oxygen continues CW president Mark Pedowitz's love affair with science fiction. The drama from Meredith Averill (The Good Wife) revolves around an epic romance that ignites between a human girl and an alien boy when he and eight others of his kind (The Orion 9) are integrated into a suburban high school 10 years after they and hundreds of others landed on Earth and were immediately consigned to an interment camp, where they've been imprisoned ever since.

Averill will write and executive produce the CBS Television Studios, Ole Productions, Isla de Babel SL and 360 Powwow production. Exec producers include Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec (Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol), Scott Rosenberg (Happy Town, Life on Mars), Richard Shepard (Ringer, Girls), Bryan Furst and Sean Furst (Daybreakers) and Daniel Gutman. 

With Reign, the network is taking a big swing. The fantastical drama centers on the previously unknown and untold story of Mary Queen of Scots’ rise to power when she arrives in France as a 15-year-old, betrothed to Prince Francis, with her three best friends as ladies-in-waiting. The hour-long effort will touch on the secret history of her survival at French Court amidst fierce foes, dark forces and a world of sexual intrigue.

Stephanie Sengupta (Outlaw) and Laurie McCarthy (CSI: Miami) are attached to write and executive produce the pilot, which is set up at CBS TV Studios. The pair met while working together on CBS’ The Ghost Whisperer.

Sengupta and McCarthy are both repped by UTA.

The pickups bring to six the number of pilots at the CW so far this season. They join Vampire Diaries spin-off The Originals, as well as Taylor Hackford’s Company Town and The Selection.

Rothenberg is repped by WME.