Gotham Central Co-Creator Ed Brubaker Talks The Possibility of a TV Series

During an interview with USA Today promoting his forthcoming, creator-owned series Velvet for Image Comics, longtime Captain America writer Ed Brubaker--who was also co-writer of DC's Gotham Central series with the Lazarus creative team of Greg Rucka and Michael Lark--responded to recent rumors that Warner Bros. Television could be developing a TV series very similar in tone and content to Gotham Central. "The book is actually more popular now than when we were doing it," Brubaker said. "There's been talk of Gotham Central on TV since when we were doing the comic even (in the mid-2000s). Everyone at Warner Bros. really loved it. Chris Nolan after they did Birds of Prey had asked them to just please not do any Batman-related stuff until he was done with his trilogy — looking at Birds of Prey, you can see why. It was not the world's greatest pilot." That series, of course, was cancelled after just one season. It's most notable for introducing TV fans to Barbara Gordon not as Batgirl but Oracle, and for being the first live-action appearance of Huntress. It's also probably in the $5 bin at your local Wal-Mart or Target these days. Brubaker said, though, that even with the persistent rumors that the series will come to TV, he doesn't really know any more than anyone else does--not surprising, considering that WB TV seems to play things pretty close to the vest. Felicity Smoak creator Gerry Conway learned that his character was appearing on Arrow when fans on Twitter asked him whether he was getting paid for her use (he is, but had to file paperwork first). "Every season, I wait to see if they're going to announce something like that, and just a couple of months ago there was some article in the Hollywood Reporter about them supposedly developing it. I haven't heard any confirmation on it or anything. You can easily see it," Brubaker said, adding, "It's bizarre to me. Since my career began, the entire entertainment world has changed the way they deal with comics."