Terra Nova

Over the past few months we’ve started hearing about Terra Nova, a TV series for Fox with Steven Spielberg on board as one of the producers. The show has been said to involve time travel, dinosaurs and some other sci-fi elements. Few details have been known, and while we still don’t know a lot, there are a few new tidbits that have come to light just as Fox is on the threshold of announcing a series order.

EW says that Spielberg has recorded a video introduction that will be presented to advertisers on Monday if Fox commits to the show. We’ve been hearing that a 13-episode order was almost guaranteed to happen, and that Fox was going to order that straight off rather than going through the pilot process, due to the large expense involved in the sets and production.

So what is the show really about?

We’ve said before that the Craig Silverstein and Kelly Marcel script is about “a family who live 100 years from now on future Earth, who are flung back in time 150 million years to the prehistoric age, when Earth was ruled by dinosaurs.”

EW now elaborates a bit:

[Terra Nova] begins in 2149 A.D. The scene: a large group of settlers are preparing to leave the apocalyptic world they live in to time travel back millions of years via a massive, high-tech contraption. Their goal is to see trees, enjoy a blue sky, eat real food – basically, to start over in this so-called Eden. But what they find is unlike anything they were expecting.

The big question is casting. We’d known that an offer (supposedly a ‘very lucrative’ one) had gone out to Kyle Chandler from Friday Night Lights, but EW says he passed. We’ll likely hear more about the cast next week; there have to be other names ready to go if Fox is on the cusp of ordering the show. Terra Nova is scheduled to shoot this summer in Hawaii, which should also lead to a few expectations about what it might look like.

No Terra Nova Panel at Comic-Con
Source: Entertainment Weekly July 13, 2010

Entertainment Weekly has learned that Fox has decided not do do a presentation for "Terra Nova" at the San Diego Comic-Con next week. The show, from the minds of Steven Spielberg and Peter Chernin, was part of the Comic-Con schedule last Friday and was supposed to have had a panel at 3:30pm on the 23rd.

The midseason drama, executive produced by Brannon Braga, David Fury and Alex Graves, is not expected to start production until September and the producers don't have any footage to show the Comic-Con attendees. Also, the magazine adds that "the writers don't want to reveal too much about the high-concept series, which Fury promises will have an 'ongoing mythology.'"

"There are a lot of surprises, a lot of reveals that come out throughout the course of season," Fury said. "If we talk about the more interesting aspects of the show now, we're afraid we'll ruin the surprise for the audience. In this case, everything is moving along steadily, the script has been well-received. We just don't have anything to wow anyone with. It's still in the preliminary stage, It's a huge undertaking."

"There will be dinosaurs that have never been seen before," promises Fury. "They've learned so much since the days of 'Jurassic Park.'"

Adds Braga, "We are presenting a really cool show with a wonderous primeval world. There are not just dinosaurs. There is a whole ecosystem. There will be plenty of adventures and effects, but this is a show about the characters, the humans."

"Terra Nova" follows an ordinary family on an extraordinary journey back in time to prehistoric Earth as a part of a massive expedition to save the human race. Jason O'Mara will star.

Fox's Steven Spielberg/Peter Chernin-produced adventure drama series Terra Nova, originally slated for midseason, will now premiere in fall 2011 after a preview in May. The launch pattern mirrors that of the network's dramedy Glee.

“Terra Nova will be one of the most visually stimulating and dramatically grand series to air on network television,” said Fox's entertainment president Kevin Reilly. “It deserves to have an equally unique launch to distinguish that the show is unlike any other, and the spring promotional platform will give us the perfect opportunity to introduce this bold show to audiences.”

Terra Nova follows an ordinary family going back in time to prehistoric Earth as part of an experiment to save the human race. The series, which will feature elaborate sets and visual effects, was never given a firm midseason launch date because of its elaborate production process. It also has been slow in casting its leads, with Jason O’Mara the only actor locked in so far. Terra Nova is produced by 20th Century Fox TV, DreamWorks TV, Kapital Entertainment and Chernin Entertainment. Spielberg, Chernin, Brannon Braga, David Fury, Jon Cassar, Aaron Kaplan, Katherine Pope, Justin Falvey, Darryl Frank, Craig Silverstein and Kelly Marcel serve as executive producers. Alex Graves is set to direct the pilot.

BlueMaxx wrote:Have we just been incepted? You deserve a lot of overhype and an Oscar. Hehehe. ;P