BRYCE BEGINS SEARCHING FOR THE WOMAN SEEN IN HIS FLASHFORWARD, AARON BECOMES CONCERNED OVER TRACY’S ODD BEHAVIOR, AND MARK TRIESTO TRACK DOWN THE PERSON WHO ALERTED OLIVIA ABOUT HIS DRINKING DURING HIS VISION, ON ABC’S “FLASHFORWARD”
“Believe” - Bryce begins his search for the woman in his flashforward, Aaron becomes concerned over Tracy’s odd behavior, Mark attempts to track down the person responsible for texting Olivia and outing his drinking during his flashforward vision, and Demetri’s co-agents try to find the mysterious caller who forewarned him about his unfortunate fate, on “FlashForward,” THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.
Source : SpoilersGuide
Question: Do you not like FlashForward or something? There has yet to be one single iota of a scoop about the show. Could you please give me something to chomp on? —Stephanie
Ausiello: I like FlashForward just fine. The problem is I don’t love it. And if last week’s living room showdown between Joseph Fiennes and Sonya Walger’s future lover is a preview of the kind of painfully heavy-handed schlock to come, I may have to bail soon. The good news? This week’s episode is supposed to be a vast improvement. I hear we may even find out the significance of the Blue Hand.
Source: EW
Episode 1.06 - Scary Monsters and Super Creeps - Promo Photos
Thursday, October 15, 2009
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Source: Pizquita
[TIMOTHY] 30s-40s, Caucasian. An everyman but naturally charismatic. Very well-spoken, intelligent, dynamic. Interacts with people who look to him for leadership and provides empathetic counsel. Guest star. WILL RECUR
[MARCUS] 20's, African American - a sunny disposition in all circumstances. Middle class and smart. Love insects. GUEST STAR
[ROSALIND ("ROZ")] 50s, Caucasian. Suffers from schizophrenia, emotionally distant, doesn't mince words. Alternates between articulate lucidity and clear breaks with reality in interacting with her daughter. Guest star.
[PAIGE] 20s-30s, Caucasian, Attractive Brunette. Pragmatic young mother. Argues with her younger sister about familial obligations. MAY RECUR
[CHARLENE] 40s, open to all ethnicities. Pleasant, helpful but not a doormat, she possesses an offbeat energy. Slick, corporate, she describes her project's goals to an interested party. one scene but may come back
[PAM] Early 50''s, Caucasian, brilliant, speed freaks. She is quirky, but lovable. A friend of Janis's but doesn't work at the FBI. Could recur.
[JANE] 40s-50s, Open to all ethnicities. Warm, understanding, even-keeled. A physician, she assesses her patient carefully before advising a course of action. one scene
[JOANNE] 35yrs Any ethnicity. A new age birthing instructor. Has very strong feelings on how a pregnant woman should deliver her baby and isn't shy about making sure everyone knows about them. 3 scenes.
[SERGIO] 40s-50s, Open to all ethnicities. Overweight, affable window washer. Has his own opinions on how things should be done and isn't shy about expressing them to a co-worker.sptv050769 co-star
[PHIL] 30s, Open to all ethnicities. Manager of a restaurant. Amiable, accommodating. blue collar Chats with a patron about a lost item. One scene
Source: SpoilerTV
Episode 1.09 - BELIEVE
Episode 1.10 - A561984
Episode 1.11 - BUDDHA IN THE RUINS
Source: SpoilerTV
[FLIGHT ATTENDANT] 20s to 30's Female, Japanese. Warm flight attendant that welcomes passengers to their new location in both JAPANESE and ENGLISH. Must speak Japanese...CO-STAR
Source: SpoilerTV
Mark finds himself on the defense during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing; Janis wonders how her vision will affect her current romantic relationship; Olivia receives an anonymous message
Source: SpoilerTV
John Cho, who plays FBI agent Demetri Noh on ABC's hit sci-fi series FlashForward, faces a dilemma: He was also Hikaru Sulu in J.J. Abrams' hit Star Trek movie and looks forward to reprising the role in an expected sequel, but he's already got this full-time TV gig now.
There is one way he might be able to do both (spoilers ahead!):
In FlashForward, Cho's character is one of the few who doesn't have a vision of his own future, leading him to believe that his character may be dead by the time April 29, 2010—the date in everyone's future visions and, conveniently, the date of FlashForward's season-one finale—rolls around, relieving Cho of his commitment to the show.
Well, we know how those kinds of things play out.
"Yeah, I don't know," Cho told us in an exclusive phone interview on Tuesday. "Listen, all I know is that, ... First of all, I don't know when [a Star Trek sequel is] going, and if it's going. I'm pretty sure it's going, but I don't know for sure, and I don't know how long. I don't know if my character will live on FlashForward. There's a lot of question marks. The thing that I do know is that both sets of producers want the other project to happen. So you start from a place of good will. I'm pretty confident that we can work through whatever situation comes up. I think they feed one another."
Cho as Sulu in Star Trek Cho is contractually obligated to appear in the next Trek and, as a fan-favorite character, Sulu is sure to be in the follow-up. As for FlashForward, Cho is one of the main cast members, so who really thinks he's going to die?
Cho is coy.
"Well, I don't know if he's going to die, and it's an issue," Cho says, adding: "In features, typically you know the ending, and you work from the ending. You know where the characters starts and where the character ends, and you've got to figure out a way to connect the two. I only know the beginning at this point. I was worried about playing that, although it sort of solved itself. It's playing out very naturally, where we just sort of go with each development as it comes. ... Unless, of course, there's some big revelation. ... I've heard that people think I may be an evil mastermind behind it all. That would be confusing if it were a later development like that. So far, so good."
Source: SciFiWire
ABC's hit new show, FlashForward, has cast a new character to butt heads with series star Joseph Fiennes' Mark Benford. Actor Michael Ealy, 36, will begin his recurring role in the 10th episode as this new thorn in Detective Benford's side.
Fans may recognize Michael from his regular role on the Showtime series Sleeper Cell, which also starred FlashForward's Sonya Walger.
Source: TV Guide Magazine
OLIVIA MUST DECIDE WHETHER A PATIENT'S FLASHFORWARD HOLDS THE KEY TO HIS DIAGNOSIS, MARK AND DEMETRI ARGUE OVER HOW TO INTERPRET THEIR FLASHFORWARDS -- OR LACK THEREOF -- AND NICOLE RETURNS TO WORK AND DISCLOSES HER SHOCKING FUTURE VISION, ON ABC'S "FLASHFORWARD"
"Black Swan" - Olivia struggles to accept Bryce's suggestion that a patient's flashforward holds the key to a correct diagnosis and treatment. Meanwhile, Demetri accuses Mark of waiting for the future he saw in his flashforward to come true without incident, while Mark feels Demetri is letting his fear of what he witnessed envelop his life; and Nicole returns to work as Mark and Olivia's daughter's baby-sitter, and discloses her shocking future vision -- involving a murder -- on "FlashForward," THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.
"FlashForward" stars Joseph Fiennes as Mark Benford, John Cho as Demetri Noh, Jack Davenport as Lloyd Simcoe, Zachary Knighton as Bryce Varley, Peyton List as Nicole Kirby, Dominic Monaghan as Simon, Br’an F. O'Byrne as Aaron Stark, Courtney B. Vance as Stanford Wedeck, Sonya Walger as Olivia Benford and Christine Woods as Janis Hawk.
Guest starring are Lennon Wynn as Charlie, Ryan Wynott as Dylan Simcoe, Lee Thompson Young as Agent Gough, Barry Shabaka Henley as Agent Vreede, Keir O'Donnell as Ned, Sean O'Bryan as Father Seabury, Elizabeth Pe–a as Sally, Rachel Roberts as Alda Hertzog, Justin Dray as Meade, Rizwan Manji as Maneesh Sandhar, Adam Tsekhman as Vlad, Arjay Smith as Louis, Kathy Vara as TV reporter, Peggy Stewart as secretary, Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Debbie and Julia Wackenheim as cashier girl.
"Black Swan" was written by Lisa Zwerling & Scott Gimple and directed by Michael Rymer.
Source: ABC
Spoiler - Episode 1.04 - Black Swan Synopsis and Promotional Photos
Thursday, September 24, 2009
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FLASHFORWARD – "Black Swan" – Olivia struggles to accept Bryce's suggestion that a patient's flashforward holds the key to a correct diagnosis and treatment. Meanwhile, Demetri accuses Mark of waiting for the future he saw in his flashforward to come true without incident, while Mark feels Demetri is letting his fear of what he witnessed envelop his life; and Nicole returns to work as Mark and Olivia's daughter's baby-sitter, and discloses her shocking future vision — involving a murder — on "FlashForward," THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/RON TOM)
Source: http://www.flashforward.pl
ARK AND JANIS MEET WITH AN IMPRISONED NAZI WHO CLAIMS TO HAVE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE BLACKOUTS, DEMETRI RECEIVES A TIP ABOUT HIS FUTURE, AND AARON WANTS TO EXHUME HIS DAUGHTER'S BODY TO RE-TEST HER DNA AND CONFIRM HER IDENTITY, ON ABC'S "FLASHFORWARD"
Gabrielle Union Guest Stars as Zoey
"137 Sekunden" - Mark and Janis travel to Germany to speak with an imprisoned Nazi who claims to have knowledge about the blackouts, and an anonymous tip leads Demetri to believe his deepest fears about his future. Meanwhile, Aaron pleads with Mark to help him get the approval to have his daughter's body exhumed in order to re-test her DNA and confirm the identity of the remains, on "FlashForward," THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.
"FlashForward" stars Joseph Fiennes as Mark Benford, John Cho as Demetri Noh, Jack Davenport as Lloyd Simcoe, Zachary Knighton as Bryce Varley, Peyton List as Nicole Kirby, Dominic Monaghan as Simon, BrÃan F. O'Byrne as Aaron Stark, Courtney B. Vance as Stanford Wedeck, Sonya Walger as Olivia Benford and Christine Woods as Janis Hawk.
Guest starring are Gabrielle Union as Zoey Andata, Lee Thompson Young as Agent Gough, Barry Shabaka Henley as Agent Vreede, Kim Dickens as Katie, Curt Lowens as Rudolf Geyer, Gina Torres as Felicia Wedeck, Thomas Kretschmann as Stefan Krieger, Ray Proscia as Helmut Baecker, Jeff Richards as Jerome Murphy, Shohreh Aghdashloo as Nhadra Udaya, Alan Ruck as Tomasi, Joe Rose as bartender, Guido Foehrweisser as Schultz, Michael Merton as John Spears, Cade Olivas as Attaf, Anna Khaja as older woman and Amy Rosoff as Marcie Turoff.
"137 Sekunden" was written by David Goyer & Marc Guggenheim and directed by Michael Rymer.
Source: ABC
SOMALI BOY] 10 years old, poor, a herder. Sees some very surprising things. NO scripted lines but a scene with acting. Possibly in one additional episode.
Source: SpoilerTV
[HIGH ROLLER #2] 40s-60s, Male, Open to all ethnicities. Wealthy denizen of an upscale private gaming establishment. Finds himself quite entertaining, a Johnny Carson-type, but quick tempered when things don't go his way. Day player.
Source: SpoilerTV
- Mark and Demetri head to Utah to track down a suspect who may be connected to the global blackout
- Olivia comes face-to-face with the man from her vision
- Mark and Olivia’s daughter, Charlie, has trouble coping with the aftermath of her flashforward
Source: flashforward.pl
EVERYONE ON EARTH BLACKS OUT FOR TWO MINUTES AND SEVENTEEN SECONDS AND SEES A GLIMPSE OF THEIR FUTURE, BUT THEY MUST DECIDE IF THEY WILL ACCEPT THEIR DESTINY OR DO ANYTHING THEY CAN TO CHANGE IT, ON THE PREMIERE OF ABC'S "FLASHFORWARD"
What would you do if you were given a glimpse of the future? Would you accept what you saw and live life to its fullest, or would you do everything in your power to change your destiny? When the world's population is given a glimpse of their future, it forces everyone to come to grips with whether their destinies can be fulfilled or avoided, on the premiere of "FlashForward," THURSDAY,
SEPTEMBER 24 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network. (This program will repeat Friday, Sept. 25, from 8:00-9:00 p.m.)
On the season premiere episode, "No More Good Days," it's just another normal day in Los Angeles. FBI agent Mark Benford and his partner, Demetri Noh, are in the middle of a car chase monitored by their boss, Stanford Wedeck, and colleague Janis Hawk; Mark's wife, Dr. Olivia Benford, is in the middle of surgery; Dr. Bryce Varley is weighing a potentially life-ending decision; Mark's friend, Aaron Stark, is working high above the ground on power lines; and Nicole Kirby -- baby-sitter to Mark and Olivia's daughter, Charlie -- is in the throes of passion with her boyfriend when suddenly, and without warning, every person on Earth blacks out for two minutes and seventeen seconds and sees a series of events from their own future, taking place on April 29, 2010 at 10:00 p.m., Pacific Time. For some the future will be joyous and hopeful; for others, shockingly unexpected; and for a few, it simply doesn't seem to exist.
Everyone in the world will eventually begin chronicling what they saw in their flashforwards on a worldwide website -- the Mosaic Collective -- that will further draw people together. And some of the flashforwards just might help Mark and his colleagues piece together the cause of the blackout.
Knowing their fate will alter each person's life in one way or another, and poses the questions: Can destiny be changed? And by changing just one destiny, what effect would that have on those of others?
"FlashForward" stars Joseph Fiennes as Mark Benford, John Cho as Demetri Noh, Jack Davenport as Lloyd Simcoe, Zachary Knighton as Bryce Varley, Peyton List as Nicole Kirby, Dominic Monaghan as Simon, Br’an F. O'Byrne as Aaron Stark, Courtney B. Vance as Stanford Wedeck, Sonya Walger as Olivia Benford and Christine Woods as Janis Hawk.
Guest starring are Genevieve Cortese as Tracy, Lennon Wynn as Charlie Benford, Bryce Robinson as Dylan Simcoe, Daniel Zacapa as Hector, Blair Redford as Joel, Lee Thompson Young as Agent Gough, Barry Shabaka Henley as Agent Vreede, Alex Kingston as Fiona Banks, Rachel Roberts as Alda Hertzog, Kelly Galindo as distressed woman, Jim Lau as Asian man, Cooper Huckabee as trucker, Chyna Layne as nervous woman, Drake Kemper as teenaged boy, James Carraway as older man, Brandon Bell as paramedic #1, Pete Koch as paramedic #2, Cynthia Addai-Robinson as nurse, Loren Lester as neurologist, Kent Shocknek as medical correspondent, Ken Rudulph as pundit #1, Bill Lagattuta as pundit #2, Ted Garcia as pundit #3, Ammar Daraiseh as Arabic man #1 and Raj Maan as Arabic man #2.
"No More Good Days" was written by David S. Goyer and Brannon Braga and directed by David S. Goyer.
"FlashForward" executive producers are David S. Goyer, Brannon Braga, Marc Guggenheim and Jessika Borsiczky. The series is from ABC Studios.
Source: ABC
Episode 1.01 - NO MORE GOOD DAYS
Episode 1.02 - WHITE TO PLAY
Episode 1.03 - 137 SEKUNDEN
Episode 1.04 - BLACK SWAN
Episode 1.05 - GIVE ME SOME TRUTH
Episode 1.06 - SCARY MONSTERS AND SUPER CREEPS
Episode 1.07 - THE GIFT
Episode 1.08 - RULES OF THE GAME
Source: SpoilerTV
Melody in Orange, Calif.: I'm dying to know more about Dominic Monaghan's character on Flash Forward. What can you tell us?
Flash Forward producer Marc Guggenheim tells us, "Dominic Monaghan's character, Simon, is the smartest man in the world, and he definitely knows it. He's mysterious, but not just for story reasons. He's a mysterious kind of person. He's someone that's so intelligent that he has a difficult time interfacing with people on a human level, because he's just so much smarter than them. He's an enigmatic figure whom I hope you'll want to get to know over the course of the first season."
Source: E! Online
WHO: Sonya Walger, Joseph Fiennes, John Cho, Courtney B. Vance, Dominic Monaghan, and exec producers Jessika Borsiczky Goyer, David S. Goyer, and Marc Guggenheim.
PREMISE: The world’s population blacks out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds, during which they see a glimpse of their future on April 29, 2010. Compelling, suspenseful pilot with two fantastic leads in Walger and Fiennes.
1:01 pm/PST: “By the end of the first season most of the questions in the pilot will be answered,” says e.p. David Goyer. The exception: The “overarching cause of why the blackout happened” won’t be revealed until the end of the series.
1:06 pm: David Goyer is an “enormous fan of Lost” and says the show “proved to me that there could be a place on network television for” dramas with large ensembles featuring different shades of morality. Damon Lindelof’s advice to him: “Tell your story. Stick to your guns.”
1:08 pm: The timeline of Season 1 will go beyond April 29, 2010 (a.k.a. D-day), but it won’t be the season finale. “The signifiance of that date is one of the mysteries of the show,” says e.p. Guggenheim. “And what’s going to happen after April 29 is another mystery of the show.”
1:09 pm: Monaghan, who says FF is “not as sophisticated” and mythology-rich as Lost, signed on without a script or a specific character description. “He took an enormous leap of faith,” says David Goyer. Monaghan’s only request: He wanted to play someone vastly different than Charlie. (Producers remain mum on who exactly he will be playing.)
1:13 pm: Casting notes: Seth MacFarlane (yes, that Seth MacFarlane) and Alex Kingston (or “the woman from ER,” as one reporter referred to her) will continue to recur. Gabrielle Union, meanwhile, kicks off her arc in episode 3.
1:14 pm: Lost has polar bears. FlashForward has a kangaroo.
1:30 pm: Walger says she has “absolutely no idea” if she’s returning to Lost as Penny.
Source : EW
Source: Tv Spoilers
Source: TvOvermind
Episode 1.01 - No More Good Days
Episode 1.02 - White To Play
Episode 1.03 - 137 Sekunden
Episode 1.02 - White To Play
Episode 1.03 - 137 Sekunden
Source: The Live Feed
ABC sneaked its fall sci-fi drama "Flash Forward" to a handful of journalists summoned to a Burbank screening room on Wednesday. Yes, a movie-style theater for a TV show, and if the message wasn't clear that this is supposed to be the "event" premiere of the fall, series exec producers David Goyer ("The Dark Knight") and Marc Guggenheim ("Eli Stone," "Brothers and Sisters") repeatedly emphasized the "cinematic" scope they were aiming for in the pilot.
So, did they succeed? It's certainly plays like a big show, and not just because of the screen Yes, it's "Lost"-y in its mysterious tone, global scope, multiple interlocking story lines, quick-cut action sequences, some uneven performances, a distinctive score and a whacked-out central premise: Everyone on Earth blacks out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds, during which the collective conscious of mankind jumps forward 6 months. Via vivid dreams, everyone in the expansive cast--which includes Joseph Fiennes, an excellent John Cho, Sonya Walger (yes, Penny from "Lost") and "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane(!) as an FBI agent--is left with memories of events that won't happen for six months. Or will they? The clock is ticking, the minds are reeling, and the fatalism debate has already begun--even without John Locke to guide us to the Orchid.
In a short Q&A after the screening, Goyer and Guggenheim were quick to note that despite the obvious similarities to that other ABC sci-fi drama, "FlashForward" (it's one word now--ABC dropped the space after a chunk of the pilot was shown at upfronts in May) won't require a 6-year investment to get answers to the mysteries.
"By the end of Season 1, all of the main characters' flash forwards will be answered," Goyer promised. He and Guggenheim have mapped out a plan for at least three seasons, he said, and hopefully as many as six, and they know exactly how the second-to-last and final seasons are going to end.
Goyer says MacFarlane will have a recurring role. We asked how the animator best known for his voice work ended up on the show.
"Seth called me up. He said 'I f****** love this script.' " Goyer said MacFarlane asked if there was a part for him on the show, so they cast him as an FBI agent who will likely recur in future episodes. Goyer said Alex Kingston ("ER") and others also ended up on the show because they reached out to him.
Judging by the first episode, at least, it's a good bet the show will be popular enough to make it at least long enough to see those flash forwards revealed.
Source: the live feed
FlashForward Premieres Thursday, September 24
8:00-9:00 p.m. on ABC and CTV in Canada
8:00-9:00 p.m. on ABC and CTV in Canada
ABC is getting a head start on firming up its fall premiere dates.
The network has announced when nearly all of its primetime shows will debut in a few months. ABC wants to get the word out to potential advertisers, and plans to use the dates in summer marketing campaigns to promote the shows.
The roll out has a pretty standard formation, with the network firing most of its big guns during the usual broadcast premiere week that starts Sept. 21.
Once again, ABC will have three nights of “Dancing With the Stars” before reducing the reality show to its usual two-night pattern. The added evening of “Dancing” also helps stagger the debut of the network’s Wednesday night comedy block, which will feature “Modern Family” and “Cougar Town” debuting Sept. 23 during premiere week, then 8 p.m.-hour additions “Hank” and “The Middle” completing the block the following week.
Also getting a late start, “Ugly Betty” on Friday nights, which will have a two-hour premiere Oct. 9.
There’s also still a few ABC premieres to be filled in — “Brothers & Sisters,” “Eastwick” and “Private Practice.”
SOURCE:IGN
US, June 8, 2009 - Last Friday, there was quite a lot of Internet chatter over a new ABC promo, featuring stars from several of the network's 2009-2010 season shows, including Patrick Dempsey (Grey's Anatomy), Courteney Cox (Cougar Town), Ed O'Neill (Modern Family) and… Dominic Monaghan?
Monaghan's presence caused a lot of confusion and speculation, because he's been gone from Lost for quite awhile. Add in him responding with, "I was" in the promo, when asked if he was dead, and many wondered if we were to take from this that Charlie was returning to Lost.
As it turned out, EW.com's Michael Ausiello discovered that rather than returning to Lost, the promo instead was referring to Monaghan's role on a new ABC series. Of course ABC has a rather notable ten new scripted series for next season, meaning there were a lot of possibilities as to what show Monaghan would be part of.
IGN has now learned what show Monaghan is going to be on and that it's one we already were quite intrigued by - Flash Forward.
Like others (including in our comments), we had thought Flash Forward seemed like a very likely candidate for Monaghan's secret show. Created by Brannon Braga and David Goyer, the high concept series is being positioned by ABC as something of a spiritual follow up to Lost and was one of two geek-friendly series -- the other being the remake of V -- that would most mesh with the Lost fanbase Monaghan brings with him. Sources in the know regarding Monaghan's situation now tell IGN that is indeed the case, and Monaghan will have a major role on Flash Forward.
We contacted ABC about Monaghan for an official response, and a spokesperson told us, "There is a lot of speculation out there right now, but we're not confirming any casting at this point." However, we're confident about our multiple sources and that the former Charlie Pace will indeed be seen on Flash Forward.
Based on the novel by Robert J. Sawyer, Flash Forward's cast includes Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love), John Cho (Harold & Kumar / Star Trek), Sonya Walger (Penny on Lost) and Jack Davenport (the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy). The story follows what happens when a global event causes everyone on Earth to black out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds. The populace awakens to discover the many tragedies that occurred as a result of the phenomenon, while also infused with visions of their own future.
Flash Forward will air Thursdays at 8:00pm ET/PT on ABC this fall.
ABC has officially picked up drama “Flash Forward.”
The show, which already is being promoted on the network, received a 13-episode order Friday night.
Based on Robert J. Sawyer’s novel, the Joseph Fiennes-starring series chronicles the aftermath of a global event in which everyone in the world blacks out for 2 minutes, 17 seconds and has mysterious visions of six months into the future.
David Goyer and Brannon Braga co-wrote the pilot for “Flash,” which Goyer directed.
Both will exec produce the series, but because of his commitment to Fox’s “24,” where he is an exec producer, Braga won’t be involved full time on “Flash.”
“Eli Stone” co-creator/exec producer Marc Guggenheim has come on board as exec producer and will run the series with Goyer.
Also exec producing are Jessika Goyer, Vince Gerardis and Ralph Vicinanza.
ABC has been the most aggressive among the broadcast networks, handing out early series pickups to its strongest pilots.
The pickup for “Flash” came hours after the network brass screened it to a strong reception. It follows ABC’s Thursday order of new comedy “Modern Family.”
In addition to Fiennes, the cast of “Flash” includes Sonya Walger, John Cho, Jack Davenport, Brian O’Byrne, Courtney B. Vance, Christine Woods, Zachary Knighton and Peyton List.
With ABC’s pilot screenings slated to wrap Monday, other hot prospects at the network include mystery drama “Happy Town” and Jerry Bruckheimer’s “The Unknown,” both enjoying rave reviews. Also going strong are the Courteney Cox-starring comedy “Cougar Town” as well as the contemporary witch take “Eastwick.”
Another remake, “V,” is heading into its Monday screening with a strong buzz, with dramas “Empire State” and “Limelight” also in contention.
On the comedy side, the Patricia Heaton starrer “The Middle,” which was filmed months ago, is picking up heat after a solid screening.
Three pilots also have something going for them — the strong presence of stars Alyssa Milano (”Romantically Challenged”), Kelsey Grammer (”untitled Kelsey Grammer project”) and Cedric The Entertainer (”The Law”).
SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter
A novel by Canadian science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer is to be developed into an ABC network series along the lines of Lost.
ABC has ordered 13 episodes of Flash Forward and it is expected to debut this fall on the U.S. network.
It is based on Sawyer’s 1999 book Flashforward, in which a mysterious event occurs that causes many people on earth to have visions of the future.
Sawyer, who lives in Mississauga, Ont., is an internationally acclaimed science fiction writer of books such as Hominids, Golden Fleece, Relativity and Wake.
People in Flash Forward have visions of deaths, relationships gone wrong and other significant events six months in the future, but as their lives unfold, it appears there are ways to circumvent what might otherwise seem to be predestined.
ABC is capitalizing on the mystery factor in the series, with a five-second commercials on the current season of Lost that flash an image and ask: “What did you see?”
“You’re following a bunch of individuals in the first two minutes,” ABC’s executive vice-president of drama development, Suzanne Patmore-Gibbs, said in describing the series.
“Our FBI agent, played by Joseph Fiennes, appears to be in an FBI chase. You think he has a car crash. He has a flash of all sorts of things and he wakes up on the freeway and subsequently discovers that everybody else in the world has had a blackout that lasted the same amount of time. This resulted in a lot of devastation across the world,” she added.
“Everybody talks about their flash and they realize they were all dreaming of the same day — which is a day in the future. You can identify with the different people and have that sense of global import — we’re all in it together — like Lost.”
The series was developed at HBO, which later decided it was more suited for network TV. ABC and Fox engaged in heated bidding to take it on.
The series stars Fiennes, Sonya Walger, John Cho, Jack Davenport, Brian O’Byrne, Courtney B. Vance, Christine Woods, Zachary Knighton and Peyton List. It was created by David Goyer, one of the writers on The Dark Night and Brannon Braga, a writer-producer on 24 and Enterprise.
SOURCE: CBC
SOURCE: OTTAWA CITIZEN
Here’s something that tells you straight off that Robert J. Sawyer is a science-fiction author. He’s about to become the first writer-in-residence at Saskatoon’s Canadian Light Source synchrotron lab — not a place most people would associate with the literary world. For the uninitiated, the synchrotron is a type of particle accelerator, the sort of gizmo that wouldn’t seem out of place in the latest remake of Star Trek.
Genre writing is where the real money lies in publishing these days and Sawyer, a 48-year-old dervish of futuristic thinking and unabashed self-promotion, is turning a pretty penny from it.
“I like to say I’m not stinking rich, but I’m somewhat redolent,” Sawyer said in a telephone interview from his home in Mississauga.
ABC recently wrapped filming on the pilot for a new TV series based on Sawyer’s 1999 novel, Flash Forward, that features the likes of Joseph Fiennes and Courtney B. Vance in the cast. The show is already drawing early buzz, with The Hollywood Reporter declaring: “ABC might finally have launched a strong companion to Lost.”
If the show is picked up for the fall season, which seems likely, Sawyer will be getting paid more each week as a series story consultant than he received for the sale of his first novel, Golden Fleece, back in 1990. And that’s on top of the money he got for selling the original film rights.
“Hollywood, you can’t go wrong,” marvelled Sawyer, who estimates he’s made “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in film options off his books over the years.
One of only seven writers to win all three of the world’s top science fiction awards, Sawyer took home the Hugo Award in 2003 for his novel Hominids, the Nebula Award in 1996 for The Terminal Experiment and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 2006 for Mindscan.
In his latest novel Wake, which features a “Webmind” that is just becoming aware of the outside world. Sawyer turns the tables on the default assumption that this vast, globe-spanning intellect is a malevolent force.
“For 50 years now we have been inculcated by science fiction, so we have to take the blame for it as writers, I guess, that computers are inherently evil. Starting with HAL in 1968 (2001: A Space Odyssey), every computer that Captain Kirk every dealt with, The Matrix, the Terminator films … all of this stuff preaches that AI, artificial intelligence, is going to be humanity’s downfall,” Sawyer said.
“I’ve done my fair share of that myself in some of my earlier books. But I got to thinking about whether that was inevitably true. What I set out to do with this trilogy is to find a new synthesis, a way in which we can retain our essential individuality, humanity and freedom without any longer being the most intelligent beings on the planet.”
It’s not a dystopian vision he’s pursuing, Sawyer said, but a new utopian one.
“It’s inevitable that we’re going to face things this century that are brighter than us so we’ve got to start thinking about ways that we can make that work for us, instead of sort of throwing up our hands.”