If you are in the UK or like me have friends in the UK then you may have heard of a quirky show by the name of Misfits. Not to be confused with our Misfits of Science where Courtney Cox got her start, but actually somewhat similar. In the UK version, a group of teenagers, while doing community service for a variety of bad acts, get struck by lightning and get superpowers reflective of their greatest fears. It has been described as “superheroes meet Skins” if you’ve seen that particular UK show.

It’s extremely popular in the UK, and on Hulu in the US, so apparently the time has come to try a US remake. Enter Josh Schwartz, co-creator of Chuck, writer-producer of Gossip Girl and Hart of Dixie, and his Fake Empire, the Warner Bros. TV-based production company Schwartz runs with partner Stephanie Savage. According to Vulture, they have just finalized a deal for the rights to the show. Schwartz will team up with U.K. Misfits creator Howard Overman to write the pilot.

Vulture describes it as this: “Think the good, first season of Heroes with Buffy-esque snark and a similar Scooby-ish gang.” Well, plus that Skins aspect which will keep it away from the big three networks if it’s a true adaptation. The language that reportedly so endears the show to its fans won’t fly on the networks here. HBO or FX would be good with it, but never the big three. On the other hand, must remakes be carbon copies? Of course not, that rarely works anyway.

Here’s a related and interesting tidbit for those of you wondering how this whole process works:

Schwartz and Overman are foregoing the traditional development process, in which a network buys a pitch from a scribe and later decides whether or not to film a pilot. Instead, the two have opted to write the new Misfits on spec. This means that, schedules permitting, they’ll write a pilot in the next few months and then shop the finished product to networks late this year or early in 2012. While not the usual route to the small screen, it’s becoming increasingly common for projects with well-known writers or actors attached early in the process. Keifer Sutherland‘s upcoming mid-season Fox drama, Touch, was a spec script, as was NBC‘s upcoming Awake and The CW‘s Ringer (which began life at CBS).

Got that? We’ll keep you posted of course.