Saturday 6 December 2008

Lost cast photo; Primeval info; Fuller returns to Heroes; new sci-fi Flash Forward

Saturday 6 December 2008
The season 5 cast photo of Lost has been released (see above), and showrunner Damon Lindelof has admitted the writers are worried about a backlash over splitting the characters up -- now that half of them have made it off the island...

Lindelof, speaking to Sci-Fi Wire:
"We're concerned... I think everyone, writers and fans alike, feels the show is at its best when our characters are together, but the fact of the matter is that the story is constantly twisting and turning to keep them apart. Let's face it, absence makes the heart grow fonder, but there's nothing sweeter than a reunion. All we're willing to say at this point is that if we were to spend the entire duration of season five with the Oceanic Six trying to get back to the island, we are fully aware that the audience would strangle us."

The third season of ITV1's Primeval is back in the new year, with new characters like Egyptologist Sarah Page (Laila Rouass), security chief Captain Becker (Ben Mansfield), policeman Danny Quinn (Jason Flemyng), and a high-ranking government official who hassles the team (played by Belinda Stewart-Wilson, the real-life wife of co-star Ben Miller.) Producer Tim Bradley has confirmed the new series will shake things up -- meaning less formulaic episodes, more imaginative beasts, and three climactic episodes set in a "Futureworld". A cast photo has also been released (see above).

Writer-producer Bryan Fuller is definitely returning to the Heroes fold. In a two-year deal with Universal Media Studios, Fuller will be back on staff by episode 20 of this current season. Too late to have any real effect on the show's direction, but maybe he'll lay some groundwork for a season 4 revamp? We can only hope. In related news, there won't be time for Fuller to write a definitive finale for Pushing Daisies, now that ABC have cancelled it.

Britain's own Joseph Fiennes will take the lead in ABC's Flash Forward, a new sci-fi series created by Brannon Braga (Star Trek: Voyager) and David Goyer (Batman Begins), based on the novel by Robert J. Sawyer. The premise has everyone in the world falling unconscious for 2 minutes 17 seconds and collectively witnessing a vision of the future. Fiennes will star as an alcoholic FBI Agent, partnered with actor John Cho, who attempts to solve the mystery of the blackout. Goyer will helm the pilot, which he co-wrote with Braga.