Batman's gritty fictional metropolis of Gotham City will be the focus of a new Fox drama, the latest comic book-inspired series to tap super­heroes' ability to draw audiences to both film and TV.

Fox described its new show Gotham as "the origin stories of Commissioner James Gordon and the villains that made Gotham famous," the network said on Wednesday. Gordon is the police commissioner of the fictional Gotham City, and often supports Batman in defeating the city's villains.

Each episode will be one hour, and the pilot will be written and produced by Bruno Heller, a British screenwriter best known for co-creating the HBO-BBC produced drama Rome, which explored Ancient Rome's reign under Julius Caesar and Emperor Augustus.

Fox has yet to announce when the series will air and who will star in it.­ It was not clear whether Batman would even be a character in the series.

Gotham comes on the heels of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC, which premiered on Tuesday with 11.9 million viewers. The series features human agents and is based on the world of Marvel's Avengers comics, featuring an ensemble of superheroes­ including Iron Man, Thor and Captain America.

Gotham will be produced by Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros Entertainment, which incorporated DC Entertainment, the company behind the DC Comics universe that includes Batman and Superman.

The latest Batman adaptation, Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy starring Christian Bale as the caped crusader, made more than $2 billion at box offices worldwide.

Reuters