Summary
- NBC has given a series order to the medical procedural show Dr. Wolf, starring Zachary Quinto, after the WGA strike halted its production.
- Dr. Wolf draws inspiration from two non-fiction books written by neurosurgeon Oliver Sacks and explores the strange neurological conditions of patients.
- Zachary Quinto’s role in Dr. Wolf is a homecoming for him, as his breakout role was on NBC’s Heroes, and the show features executive producers from The CW’s Arrowverse.
Dr. Wolf, a new medical procedural show starring Zachary Quinto, has received a series order from NBC. Dr. Wolf was previously one of four pilots that NBC ordered before the WGA strike put a halt to many projects across carious networks. Now that the strike is over, NBC have given the green light to a series order for Dr. Wolf and St. Denis Medical, a mockumentary comedy, another of the four pilots. Quinto will be joined in Dr. Wolf by Tamberla Perry, Ashleigh LaThrop, Alexander MacNicoll, Aury Krebs, Spence Moore II, and Teddy Sears.
While the show itself is fictional, it will draw upon the true stories found in two non-fiction books, titled The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars. Both books were written by Oliver Sacks, a neurosurgeon who was educated at Queen’s College, Oxford, before completing his medical training at San Francisco’s Mount Zion Hospital and UCLA and then moving to New York.
Sack’ biography, courtesy of Amazon, shares more details of the man behind the series’ stories. It reads:
“Dr Sacks spent almost fifty years working as a neurologist and wrote many books, including The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Musicophilia, and Hallucinations, about the strange neurological predicaments and conditions of his patients. The New York Times referred to him as ‘the poet laureate of medicine’, and over the years he received many awards, including honours from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Royal College of Physicians. In 2008, he was appointed Commander of the British Empire. His memoir, On the Move, was published shortly before his death in August 2015.”
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Zachary Quinto Has an NBC Homecoming with Dr. Wolf
Zachary Quinto will be play Dr. Oliver Wolf, “a revolutionary, larger-than-life neurologist as he and his team of interns explore the last great frontier — the human mind — while also grappling with their own relationships and mental health.” Let’s hope that one of those interns isn’t named Bones McCoy, because Quinto doesn’t have a good track record getting along with characters named that. That is of course a reference to Quinto playing Spock in the Star Trek Kelvin timeline, the fourth installment of which has been sitting in development hell for some time.
Dr. Wolf will also be a homecoming of sorts for Quinto. His breakout role came when acting on NBC’s Heroes, whose large cast included Hayden Panettiere, Milo Ventimiglia and Ali Larter. Quinto himself played Sylar, a character who also knew a lot about the human brain. Of course, Sylar’s application of that knowledge is going to hopefully be a world away from the good done by Dr Wolf.
Speaking of superheroes and supervillains, one of the executive producers on Dr. Wolf is Greg Berlanti, who played a big part in The CW’s Arrowverse. Likewise, the pilot’s scriptwriter was Michael Grassi, who worked with Berlanti Productions on Supergirl, in addition to Riverdale and Katy Keene, the latter of which he co-created. The director of the pilot was Lee Toland Krieger while Andy Serkis, Jonathan Cavendish, and Will Tennant are executive producers on behalf of The Imaginarium.
According to Variety, it is not known if the show will launch at midseason or if it will be held off till the fall of the next year due to the still ongoing actors strike.
You can view the original article HERE.