CBS has bought a drama procedural based on a series of suspense novels by Leslie Glass, first reported at Deadline. Denis Leary and Jim Serpico's Apostle productions and CBS TV Studios are on board with the project and it will be penned by Amy Bloom, a novelist herself and the creator of Lifetime's medical drama, State of Mind. There are nine books in the April Woo series, which focus on April as Coney Island's first female head of detectives. The out of the ordinary does not stop there, though; April is a young Chinese-American who has been "raised in the traditions of modesty, good manners, and quiet self-effacement."
While female and "minority" leads are becoming increasingly common on big network programs (on CBS alone three Black actors have grabbed lead roles on crime dramas: LL Cool J on an NCIS iteration, Laurence Fishburne on CSI, and Forest Whitaker on the new Criminal Minds), a Chinese female raised in classic Asian humility is definitely new territory, especially for a character in a high-pressure police job. The CW, a sister network of CBS, began airing a spinoff series of the French film Nikita last fall and starred the part Vietnamese Maggie Q, but the spy-action thriller that lacks the cultural focus of April Woo. The April Woo character will not lack for any development possibilities, however, as writer Amy Bloom will have nine novels worth of content to pull from. Among other things, April Woo and her team of detectives will be up against corrupt politicians, old and connected Coney Island families, feminist strippers, and Boardwalk drug deals. We'll be keeping an eye out for more details on this project as it develops.
