FOX Picks Up Kiefer Sutherland's TOUCH Series

FOX has ordered 13 episodes of the new drama series TOUCH, created and written by Emmy-nominated Tim Kring ("Heroes"), it was announced today by Kevin Reilly, President of Entertainment, Fox Broadcasting Company. TOUCH, starring Emmy and Golden Globe winner Kiefer Sutherland, will join the schedule in the spring of 2012. The pilot was directed and executive-produced by Francis Lawrence ("Water for Elephants"), and the show comes from Chernin Entertainment and Tailwind Productions, in association with 20th Century Fox Television.

"TOUCH is another ambitious series from Tim Kring that is beautifully executed and has incredibly resonant themes for our times," said Reilly. "With Kiefer back on the network as the face and force behind this creative new series, I'm confident it will resonate with viewers this spring."

"Every once in a while, you encounter a piece of material that you just cannot say no to," Sutherland added. "That, combined with the opportunity to work again with Peter Chernin and the Fox studio and network, makes me thrilled to be a part of this project. I also look forward to working with an extraordinary writer and producer like Tim Kring."

TOUCH is a distinct and colorful drama in which science and spirituality intersect with the hopeful premise that we are all interconnected, tied in invisible ways to those whose lives we are destined to alter and impact.

At the center of TOUCH is MARTIN BOHM (Sutherland), a widower and single father, haunted by an inability to connect to his mute 11-year-old son, JAKE (David Mazouz). After multiple failed attempts at keeping Jake in school, Martin is visited by CLEA HOPKINS (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), a social worker sent to evaluate Jake's well-being. Everything changes when Martin discovers that Jake possesses the gift of staggering genius - the ability to see things that no one else can and the patterns that connect seemingly unrelated events. Jake is indeed communicating. But it's not with words, it's with numbers. Martin meets ARTHUR DEWITT (Danny Glover), a professor and an expert on children who possess special gifts when it comes to numbers. Now, it's up to Martin to decipher the meaning and connect the numbers to the cast of characters whose lives they affect.

TOUCH is a production of Chernin Entertainment and Tailwind Productions, in association with 20th Century Fox Television. Tim Kring created the series and wrote the pilot. Kring, Francis Lawrence, Peter Chernin (NEW GIRL, TERRA NOVA), Katherine Pope (NEW GIRL, TERRA NOVA), Sutherland, Suzan Bymel ("The War at Home") and Carol Barbee ("Jericho") are executive producers. Lawrence directed the pilot.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos