Fox’s aircraft carrier pilot ‘Wild Blue’ gets pushed to next season

Thanks to some scheduling conflicts and a failure to snag country star Tim McGraw for the lead role, Fox has been forced to push its aircraft carrier pilot Wild Blue to the next pilot season.

Wild Blue was ordered to go to pilot in January and was written by Taylor Elmore (Justified). It started last year as The Bridge and was being rewritten by Graham Yost (Justified), Michael Dinner and Elmore. Its plot centered on the lives of young Navy servicemen on an aircraft carrier. Wild Blue was set as a Fox and Sony TV co-production.

Now, the pilot will have to wait another few months for two big reasons. First, the producers weren’t able to get access to the aircraft carrier they were hoping to use during the pilot filming season, notes Deadline. At that point, though, they were thinking of alternate shooting locations, since it was looking like McGraw would be interested in starring in the lead role.

But, as The Hollywood Reporter reports, McGraw backed out. Sources say that he wanted the production to be based on the East Coast, since he lives in Tennessee, but the network was looking forward to filming in LA.

Now that the show is back without a star, the producers are ready to wait until the carrier they were eyeing becomes available. This will also give them more time to fill that role. THR notes that the Navy has been fully cooperative and they could use the carrier in June.

The actors attached to the production currently include Mykelti Williamson, Josh Salatin, Will Rothhaar, Alano Miller and Gina Rodriguez.