Tradecraft: ABC Greenlights Female Take On Taken

Deadline reports that ABC has picked up a summer drama series about a badass former CIA agent who jets off to Europe to seek their missing teenage offspring.  Lest you think that sounds like the plot of Taken, this is a badass female former CIA agent who goes off to Italy (not France) after her lost teenage son (not daughter)... and the son isn't taken; he's Missing. And that's the title. (Though it's also been known throughout its development as Safe and Hall of Mirrors.) This is the series from The Gates producers Gina Matthews and Grant Scharbo that we first heard about last October when it was described as "Taken meets The Bourne Identity."  Here's the official logline as things stand now, as per the trade blog: "[Missing] centers on a worried mom who, after her son disappears in Italy while overseas for a summer internship, takes it upon herself to travel to Europe and track him down. It soon becomes clear that this isn’t any ordinary woman, but a former CIA agent who will stop at nothing to bring her son home alive." So will she vow to tear down the Leaning Tower of Pisa if she has to? That seems like it would be easier than tearing down the Eiffel Tower. Maybe the Coliseum?

Of course, as much as I might joke, I'll be thrilled to tune in this summer to a weekly female version of Taken! Emmy-winning Dexter director Steve Shill is attached to direct multiple epidodes, including the pilot.