CW Orders Pilot for New Paranormal CSI

One of the slew of new pilots being ordered by The CW--at least eight at current count (for a net that doesn't even have a 10-o'clock slot!)--is new paranormal series from Jesse Alexander (Alias, Heroes, and the shelved Day One) and CSI franchise creator Anthony Zuiker.

"There are probably not going to be a lot of slots open, but we're working on great characters and we'll see if we can get lucky," Zuiker told Variety.

The show Zuiker needs great characters for is called Spirit and Zuiker describes the concept as "CSI meets Paranormal Activity with a dash of Charmed." Which means--what exactly? He just named a police procedural, a thriller feature, and a supernatural dramedy. (Whenever I hear a high concept like this, I always flash back to the pitch meetings in The Player.)

Spirit centers on three young women at a start-up company, which helps clarify the Charmed connection. It's still at the script stage, so no casting news yet. Essentially the idea seems to be "paranormal forensics," which is an interesting enough starting point; and it makes sense to tackle it with creators that have experience in both.

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