Bruckheimer, CBS Eye Big-bucks Eleventh Hour Deal

• Sep 19, 2007 02:29 PM ET
• by Matt Mitovich

Following a fierce bidding war between CBS and ABC, Warner Bros. has cut a massive deal with the Eye for the rights to a Jerry Bruckheimer-produced take on the British thriller Eleventh Hour, says Variety. Sources close to the deal say it is easily the most lucrative pact of the development season, with CBS greenlighting a $4 million pilot and agreeing to produce 13 episodes at a pay-or-play licensing fee of $1.75 mil per.

The X-Files-esque Eleventh Hour last year aired as a four-part miniseries in the U.K., with Patrick Stewart starring as a professor called in by the government to investigate mysterious cases involving matters of science, from cloning to global warming.