A documentary crew follows "working class heroes who exterminate alien threats in deep space." Smokers sounds like a dream TV series, even before you hear it's the brainchild of Brian K. Vaughan, co-produced by Sam Raimi. Too bad it's Fox.


Smokers is based on an original idea from Vaughan, who created some of our favorite comics, including Y: The Last Man, Runaways and Ex Machina, and also wrote for Lost. It's one of three TV projects that Sam Raimi and Joshua Donen's Stars Road Entertainment just sold to major networks — in this case, Raimi and Donen sold Smokers to Fox, which presumably means a pilot will be filmed, for possible series pickup.

The good news is, Fox has a long track record of greenlighting envelope-pushing, ambitious science fiction series based on an audacious pitch. The bad news? Fox has a nasty habit of taking the sky from us. So fingers crossed!


Top image: Ex Machina volume 2 trade paperback cover by Tony Harris. [Deadline]