Cinefantastique Online

At Sci Fi Wire, Ian Spelling reports that executive producer David Eick is downplaying the impact of Glen Morgan’s departure from the new BIONIC WOMAN television series, claiming they were simply “business as usual.”

“One of the things I learned very early in my career, when I was running a television company for Sam Raimi, was that in the genre, so to speak—and there’s horror, science fiction, fantasy and superhero—there are so many permutations of what you’re doing and, moreover, what you’re not doing, and people bring their own perspective to that,” Eick said during a Sept. 7 conference call. “Some people come in thinking, ‘Well, if it’s got someone with super strength, it must mean it has to be really kind of funny and kooky,’ and other people come in and said, ‘Well, we’ve got someone with a tortured soul who’s had this thing perpetrated on her, then it’s got to be very dark and twisted.’ Other people might say, ‘Well, it should be very female and soft.’”

Variety had previously reported that Morgan (who made his name on THE X-FILES before directing the poorly received feature film remakes of WILLARD and BLACK CHRISTMAS) had left the show due to the oft-cited ”creative differences.”  NBC released a PR statement to thank Morgan for efforts, but that, apparently, was not enough to stem rumors that the depature was a sign of bigger troubles - which might lead to a temporary shut-down. Eick disputed these concerns, attributing any production problems to the usual bumps in the road encountered by a new show finding its way:

Eick didn’t talk specifically about Morgan’s departure, but added: “Finding the people—not just people who get it, but defining what the ‘it’ is that you want everyone to get— … is its own sort of separate endurance test. I think this is really no different from, frankly, most of the genre shows I’ve done in that there’s a lot of turnover early in the process. It’s just the way it works.”

A remake of the 1970s series THE BIONIC WOMAN (itself a spin-off from THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN), the new show stars Michelle Ryan as Jaime Sommers. BIONIC WOMAN will make its bow on September 26, airing at 9:00pm ET/PT on Wednesdays on NBC.