TNT Exec Says Titans Script Was Not Good

It was a bummer when TNT announced that it wasn’t going to do a Titans series even after having ordered a pilot for it. But if it really wasn’t that good, is it such a bad thing that we aren’t going to see it?

That was the question raised by comments Turner Entertainment Kevin Reilly made to The Hollywood Reporter following the initial announcement about the fate of Titans. He carefully avoided throwing the writer of the pilot under the bus, but he did imply that the script simply wasn’t what he expected.

Here’s Reilly on the pilot:

"Akiva [Goldsman] is a talented guy, [but] the script just wasn’t there. There is an unbelievable glut of superhero things in the market right now and if you have a really good one, clearly people are up for it. But I just don’t think that there’s a need for one that, for me, at least on paper didn’t seem to be screaming to get made."

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That’s basically a very nice way of saying the script sucked. And while Goldsman won an Academy Award for his screenplay for A Beautiful Mind, it’s worth pointing out that his track record with comic book properties isn’t the best. He wrote Batman & Robin and produced Jonah Hex, both of which are among the worst comic book-based movies ever made.

Maybe Reilly is personally disappointed as well. Earlier in 2015, he told TV Line that he thought Titans would “end up being a very, very interesting offering. I think it’s going to be excellent.” Obviously that didn’t turn out to be the case.

As we mentioned before, it doesn’t mean Titans is completely dead, because it’s owned by Warner Bros. and could be shopped around to anyone. It’s not promising, though, that a TV exec would make public comments about a perceived lack of quality.

On the other hand, up-and-coming TV writers, maybe there’s an opportunity here for you to show your stuff …