“Prison Break,” a hit Fox show that originated in Chicago 2005-2006, is being rebooted, Fox announced at the Television Critics Conference in LA last week, when the network also revealed an “Empire” spinoff and a new series.
Production of the 10-episode series is slated to start after the first of the year for the 2016-17 season. Hopefully Fox execs will want to again film in Chicago, where “Prison Break” originated in 2005.
The series, starring Dominic Purcell and Wentworth Miller — who will reprise their roles as the incarcerated brothers in the new series — filmed here for 22 episodes, 2005-2006, at Chicago Studio City. The show was an instant hit.
With everything about the show going so well, it was a shock when Fox announced it was moving the series to Texas where it spent three successive years until it ended in 2009.
The story is about an innocent man sent to death row. His only hope is his brother, whose mission is to deliberately get sent to the same prison to break both of them out.
The reason given for the Texas move was that most of the story after the prison break would play out in rural areas (hello, Downstate!) as the brothers continued their prison escape.
Show creator Paul Scheuring is currently writing what Fox is calling the sequel. The story picks up a few years after the 2009 ending and addresses questions that were set up during the series, including how to handle one brother’s death in the finale.
Sidebar: Claire Simon, who cast more than 150 actors for “Prison Break,” won a prestigious Artios Outstanding Achievement award from the Casting Society of America in 2006 for originality, creativity and the contribution of casting to the overall quality of a project.
