Warner Bros. Shelves Quean Pilot Project for CBS

Scarcely a month after CBS ordered a pilot for a crime drama titled Quean, Warner Bros. has shut down production.

The series premise was described as a tattooed female computer hacker, who helps the Oakland (CA) police solve crimes. If the character sounds familiar, it should: it is a clone of Lisbeth Salander in "The Millennium Trilogy" by Stieg Larsson.

Apparently Sony Pictures, which holds the US rights to the adaptations of Larsson's books, took exception to the description and threatened to take legal action. Even after an extensive rewrite of the pilot's script and a modification of the character herself, the studio decided it was still too much of a risk to move forward with the project.

From our summary last month of the prime time crime pilots in development, CBS still has several others from which to choose for a series commitment.

(Related article: The Hollywood Reporter.)