More on Paul Dini's new show, "Tower Prep"

Last week, we gave you a few words from Paul Dini of our beloved "Batman: The Animated Series" on his newest TV project, a live-action series called "Tower Prep," set to begin on Cartoon Network this fall. Today, we've got a little more information on that show, which represents, as Dini explained during this Sunday, July 25 panel at Comic-Con International in San Diego, a new direction the network is taking with live-action.

In explaining the genesis of "Tower Prep," Dini said, "As time went on, and we did the development, we realized this needed some very special people to bring it to life, so Glen Morgan came on board, with his brother Darin from 'The X-Files,' and they have made the show their own, and made it unique and wonderful, and I couldn't be happier with the result."

The pilot of the series was shown to panel attendees, depicting main character Ian Archer struggling with issues, both with other kids his age and with his parents, who caution him about how he handles his special abilities. He then meets up with other teens at the mysterious "Tower Prep" school who have unusual talents, as the panelists highlighted:

Ryan Pinkston (Gabe Forrest):
"My ability is what we call high persuasion, which is a form of hypnotism, in a way. I think it's the ability kinda like, if it was at the X-Men level, like Xavier, it would be mind control, but at a grounded level. So it's basically, I use my voice and a little bit of eye contact there, and I can basically get anything I want."

Elise Gatien (C.J. -- in photo above):
"My ability is to read people, which would be very cool to have. I can pick up on little eye twitches, or the clench of the jaw, and know people's true intentions, what they're feeling."

Dyana Liu (Suki Sato -- in photo above):
"I have the power of mimickry, and that's both in voice and mannerisms and handwriting. It's pretty cool. I can hear someone or look at someone and kinda take on their persona, through the voice or other."

Drew Van Acker (Ian Archer):
"My character, Ian Archer, has what we call preflex. And the best way to really describe that would be a Spidey sense, if you guys are all familiar with Spider-Man. ... He can pretty much react and see things, briefly, a moment, split-seconds, before it actually happens."

The panelists clarified that these characters don't have "superpowers," but more so heightened abilities.

Van Acker shed a little more light on his character and the new place he's in: "Tower Prep is a place that I can't accept. I can't accept being there. I can't accept how I got there. I can't accept why I'm there."

Glen Morgan, also speaking at the panel, noted that there are 13 episodes in the first season of "Tower Prep." They were beginning to shoot the last first-season episode on Thursday of last week.

What is the tone of the series? an attendee asked. Definitely mystery, panelists said. But there is romance and comedy included, as well. Part of the mystery involves why all of these gifted students are at Tower Prep, where the headmaster seems intent to more closely examine and perhaps exploit their abilities.

Panel attendees also were lucky enough to receive the patch below ...

Photos by Billie Rae Bates / BRBTV

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