ABC Takes 'Nine' Pilot to Bank

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – ABC has given the green light to production of a drama pilot about a bank robbery and its aftermath from "Without a Trace" creator Hank Steinberg. "Nine Lives," which Steinberg is co-creating with his sister, writer-actress K.J. Steinberg, for Warner Bros. Television, revolves around the experiences of a group of strangers who are caught in a 52-hour hostage crisis stemming from a bank robbery that goes bad. The series would follow the lives of nine of the people involved in the standoff as they struggle with post-siege traumas and re-evaluate their lives after the incident. There also is a great deal of mystery about events that unfolded during the standoff that will be revealed throughout the course of the season, Hank Steinberg said. "The show is really about what happens to these people after they come out of the bank," he said. "It's about how they have been affected in different ways and how they're forced to look at themselves in ways that they hadn't before. The idea of people coming out of the catastrophe like this feeling as though they've got a second chance at life – that's what's really interesting to me." "Nine Lives" marks the first development efforts from Hank Steinberg since he hit a home run in 2002 for CBS with "Without a Trace," the missing persons procedural that's now in its fourth season.