USA Today ask whether FlashForward is the next “Lost”, as the ABC freshman show tests the waters of the unknown:

BURBANK, Calif. — The FBI agent and his wife’s apparent future lover just miss crossing paths in the hospital hallway. They don’t meet, but what if they had?
Would it block his wife’s path to infidelity? Or would it guarantee it?

The underlying question — can you change your future? — is at the heart of ABC’sFlashForward (Sept. 24, 8 ET/PT), among the most-awaited new fall TV series, and one that some are calling the next Lost.

The premise centers on a two-minute, 17-second blackout that strikes the world’s population, followed by crashes, deaths and other disasters that result from the global unconsciousness. During the blackout, almost everyone has a vision — a flash-forward — six months ahead, to April 29, 2010. 10 p.m. PT, to be exact. Some are welcome, and some, including the wife’s vision of the lover, are not.

The task is to find out what happened and if the flash-forward prophecies will, or must, come to pass.
“We are the only species that thinks about the future,” says executive producer David Goyer, whose writing credits include Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. “It’s the blessing and curse of being human.”

Joseph Fiennes, who plays FBI agent Mark Benford, centers a team assigned to solve the blackout that includes partner Demetri Noh (John Cho); colleague Janis Hawk (Christine Woods); and their boss, Stanford Wedeck (Courtney B. Vance). They and the other characters, including Benford’s surgeon wife, Olivia (Sonya Walger), share their visions, but viewers see only bits and pieces at first, leaving twists and turns to be explored.

And “some people lie about their flash-forwards, so it’s a little misdirection happening,” Vance says. “It leaves the writers enormous latitude to tell stories.”

Of fall’s new shows, FlashForward most closely fits the definition of the serialized epic, a sweeping tale mixing action, suspense, mystery, romance and melodrama. “It’s a buffet,” executive producer Marc Guggenheim (Eli Stone) says. “To reach the widest audience possible, you need to have that spice. You have to have that wide variety.”

The best current example of the big, bold serialized mystery: ABC hit Lost. Fox’s 24 incorporates many of those elements, though each season is self-contained. Fox’s paranormalFringe tries to temper its serialized elements, mixing long-term story with shorter, weekly ones. And ABC launches a remake of alien-invasion serial V in November.

The challenging format tends to demand more dedication from viewers, who may not want to make the time commitment, especially when there is no guarantee a show will reach its conclusion. It includes many recent failures, some of them noble, such as The Nine and Jericho, and even critically acclaimed successes Lost and 24 have hit bumps. NBC’s Heroes, which tries to balance serialization with stand-alone volumes, was a big early hit but has since slumped.

Quick answers to questions

Goyer and Guggenheim say they are making the show as they want to, but their customized format — many character stories that wrap up in one episode, quick answers to major questions and a simplified but not dumbed-down mythology — also may make it appeal to a broader audience and casual viewers. “It’s not that kind of show where if you don’t catch it at the beginning you’ll be lost,” Vance says.

At the same time, more devoted fans will be rewarded with numerous little clues and hidden references. “You’ll come across the true genius that is David Goyer, which is these Easter eggs,” Fiennes says. “There’s so much information that you could certainly go crazy trying to work it all out.”

As another viewing incentive, Goyer promises to resolve virtually all questions raised in the pilot by this season’s end. “We made the commitment very early on to answer some big questions and have some reveals very early. The audience will be surprised at some of the cards we turn over that early.”

ABC has an interest in series that are “something epic in scope but also really emotional,” network executive vice president Suzanne Patmore-Gibbs says. Characters must be at the core, she says, whether the serialized program is Lost,
Grey’s Anatomy or FlashForward.

Goyer likes mixing large and small. “One of the things I like to do is take a big, broad subject matter and see if you can work it through this intimate prism with characters who humanize what would normally be what some would call an E-ticket ride. I think we were able to do that with the Batman movies, and I feel that’s what we’re doing here.”

He and Guggenheim are Lost fans, citing the Emmy-winning hit’s groundbreaking nature as one reason they thought ABC would be a good place for their series. ABC hopes Lost fans connect with FlashForward.

“Lost is ending this year and hopefully going out with a bang. There’s an audience base that’s going to be craving another nuanced experience, and it would be nice to win some of those audience members,” Patmore-Gibbs says. But she and others point out large differences between Lost and FlashForward, which was inspired by Robert Sawyer’s novel of the same name and in planning before Lost was created. (The TV series veers far from the book, producers say.)

“It’s not like we’re going to unearth layers and layers that are more sci-fi or layers and layers of mythology. So I think it’s easier to access in some ways,” Patmore-Gibbs says.

Walger, who has had a recurring role on Lost, considers it “a huge compliment being (mentioned) in the same breath as Lost. (But) I think the similarity begins and ends with big ensemble casts.”

FlashForward has a large, diverse ensemble — 11 series regulars, including Lost’s Dominic Monaghan, and guest stars from around the world — that opens the door to many individual stories, both professional and personal. To be a TV series rather than a movie, FlashForward had to be about more than blackouts and flash-forwards, says Cho, who also visited the future in this year’s Star Trek film.

“We couldn’t hang our hats on that big concept. It had to be about relationships and how it affected everyone’s lives. That, to me, was the hook,” he says.

On the largest soundstage on the Disney studios lot, one usually reserved for feature films, some character stories — and bits of police and medical drama — are intersecting at Olivia’s hospital when Mark and his FBI colleagues arrive. She has just saved a series regular who was injured in an attack resulting from their investigation.

“Mark has this guilt, but at the same time he feels vindicated that the clues are paying off,” Fiennes says.

The ‘what-if?’ element

Of FlashForward’s many elements, those involved with the series say science fiction may be the least. It also happens to be a genre label that turns off some viewers who might otherwise give a series or movie a try.

The show’s science-fiction component is limited to the blackout and flash-forwards, if that, the producers say, with Goyer suggesting the ultimate cause may not even be in the realm of that genre. He describes the look forward as a “what if?” rather than science fiction, akin to Scrooge’s glimpse of the future in A Christmas Carol.

While FlashForward’s characters see bits of the future, Goyer and Guggenheim know it all, as in how the series ends.

“In a post-Lost world, when you take a pilot to the networks, they ask, ‘Do you have any idea where it goes?’ ” Goyer says. “As a viewer, I would feel frustrated if the show creators don’t know where they’re going.”

They have plotted the series out, a difficult task when it isn’t known how long it will run. Goyer says they have loosely planned it for five seasons, could tell it in three, if necessary, or could “accordion it out” to run longer than five. Besides the ending, they say they know how the penultimate season concludes.

“They have had a destination in mind the whole time, knowing how hard it is when you don’t,” Patmore-Gibbs says. She notes Lost has benefited from having a fixed ending point, though no one suggested FlashForwardmight follow a similar plan.

The series can expand on a character or story if it breaks out in a big way. In the pilot, Benford encounters a kangaroo on a downtown L.A. street after the blackout. “It was something intended as a grace note. I didn’t expect it to get quite the response it has,” Goyer says. He and Guggenheim have made sure the Australian interloper will return.

“We’ve altered stuff along the way, as we’ve refined and gotten a better handle on things,” Guggenheim says. “Something happens in the 11th episode of the show that had been planned for Episode 18, or even later.”

But what happens after Season 1′s last episode? If FlashForward answers nearly all the questions in the pilot by the season’s end, what will be left for next year?

“I hope people ask that,” Goyer says. “In some ways, I can’t wait to get there. It’s going to be more exciting than Season 1.”

[USA Today]

Gather round..recap on FlashForward, so far

Are you looking for a recap on all the news and information surrounding FlashForward? Fear not, we’ve rounded up all the useful information that you need below the jump!

• Australia – FlashForward teaser video
• Background – lowdown on the pilot script
• Comic Con – details of the FlashForward panel at Comic Con
• Date – when it begins
• Early Reviews – read what the press are saying about the Pilot episode
• Future & Fate – themes laid down
• Global Event – we’re in this together kinda vibe
• Hopes – Why FlashForward could be ‘the next big thing’
• John Cho – on his FlashForward decision
• L O S T – FlashForward connetions to ABC’s hit series?
• MacFarlane, Seth – details on Seth MacFarlane’s (Family Guy) surprise FlashForward casting
• Promo Photos – FlashForward promotional photos and behind the scenes
• Robert J. Sawyer - interviews and info from the author of the FlashForward novel
• Spoilers – the inside scoop on FlashForward!
• Updates – the best place for FlashForward updates
• Viral – “What Did You See?”
• Walger, Sonya – “LOST” actress signs up

oh no i saw my future cancelation

Want to know how Stewie Griffen from Family Guy snagged a part in ABC’s upcoming series, FlashForward?

The NY Times has an answer..

Or two.

Mr. MacFarlane, whose previous on-camera roles included parts in a couple of episodes of both “Gilmore Girls” and “Star Trek: Enterprise,” obviously has plenty of time on his hands. When he is not acting, he serves as executive producer of three-quarters of Fox’s Sunday night “Animation Domination” lineup, which includes “Family Guy,’ “American Dad” and the upcoming series, “The Cleveland Show.” He also provides the voice for characters on each of those shows, including, most famously, the acerbic toddler Stewie Griffin on “Family Guy.”

According to Joy Fehily, a publicist who represents Mr. MacFarlane, the “FlashForward” gig struck out of the blue. “Seth was asked to be a part of the show,” Ms. Fehily said in an e-mail message that was a response to a request to interview Mr. MacFarlane, who last year signed a production deal with Fox worth an estimated $100 million and whose animation empire, according to “Fast Company” magazine, has generated revenues from television syndication, DVD sales and licensing of more than $2 billion.
Ms. Fehily added that Mr. MacFarlane’s contribution was “a cameo that could potentially become a recurring role.”

That differs somewhat from the account given by David Goyer, an executive producer and creator of “FlashForward.”

“Seth called me up” after reading the script, Mr. Goyer said, and asked for a role in the pilot episode. The role, he added, “will be recurring.”

Source: NYTimes

peek-a-boo, i c u

With FlashForward readying itself to be the replacement for “Lost” when the curtain comes down on the island journey in 2010, it’s worth asking: what themes, if any, will the David S. Goyer series borrow from its predecessor?

One of the aspects I feel define “Lost” from any other show is its use of vivid, often haunting, thematic symbolism. One of the strongest symbols from Lost, was (and still is) the opening eye shot (illustrated above). Whenever an episode began with a close-up of an eye it served as a trigger – a flag-post indicating we were about to go on an introspective journey into this character’s past, present or future (or possibly all three). It set the tone and served as a better method of communication to the viewing audience than any other device. The eyes, after all, are the windows to the soul.

What thematic elements will FlashForward have?

Clearly they will use the flash forward mechanism – similar to Lost‘s use of flash backs (and more recently, flash forwards). Hopefully they will also develop and experiment with some ‘new’ techniques.

Incidentally, one of the great things about so many of Lost’s thematic strokes is their simplicity - their ability to convey emotion simply from an expression, camera angle or piece of music. I’m looking forward to seeing the methods the FlashForward producers use to connect viewers into the world of the show.

hold me i'm scared baby

This article contains mild spoilers from a recent Q&A session with the FlashForward creators.

The LA Times have information from a special screening of “FlashForward”. That’s the first thing to report – the title has gone from two words to one – there’s no longer a space between the Flash and the Forward. I’m not sure that means a great deal but it sure looks neater, and most of the best sci-fi shows have one word titles anyway, right?

Show runners David S. Goyer and Marc Guggenheim were fairly secretive but revealed there will be clues (or “eastereggs”) in the Pilot episode – lots of them, including a Kangaroo bouncing around down-town LA. I wonder what it saw?

More tidbits from the LA Times article below the jump:

Show runners David S. Goyer and Marc Guggenheim were mostly tight-lipped at the Q&A that followed, but managed to talk (a little) about . . .

Dominic Monaghan: TV biz watchers have been tracking — but will still not get confirmation — on the rumors that the “Lost” casualty has been added to the cast. Goyer and Guggenheim declined to speak to the online speculation. ”Obviously, we’re not going to tell you that,” Goyer said. “So much of the speculation is so . . . wrong; it’s awesome.”

Sonya Walger: Otherwise known as Penny, Desmond’s beloved on “Lost.” She plays Benford’s wife, Dr. Olivia Benford, a series regular, but will it spell doom for Penny? Of course, no one’s talking.

Seth MacFarlane: Yes, Seth MacFarlane, creator of “Family Guy,” has landed himself a recurring role on the show as part of the FBI team working alongside Benford. Goyer said MacFarlane liked the script so much he “begged” for a part on it. Ditto “E.R.” alumna Alex Kingston, who also appears in the pilot.

April 29, 2010: It’s not much of a spoiler to say it’s an important date on the show. The first season will build to this day — but it won’t be the finale.

A contained story: Provided ratings are strong, Goyer said, the series could be completed in as few as three seasons or as many as seven.

You think you know the story they’re telling . . . : But producers promise: You don’t! After the first seven episodes, the rules will be established and will be so not what we were thinking. And that’s all they’re saying about that.

Advance planning in a post-’Lost’ world: If anything, the producers were full of assurances that there would be no loose ends on the show. “By the end of the first season, we’ll have caught up to their future and things will be resolved,” Goyer said. In regard to the first 24 episodes, the fates of the 10 main characters have long been decided, he added.

Also, of note, Brannon Braga, who created the show with Goyer, will remain an executive producer, but will continue day to day as a co-executive producer on “24.”

Source: LA Times [Denise Martin]

1) It already has great source material. Being based on the novel by Robert J. Sawyer, the show has strong and successful foundations from which to build its story. There’s no doubt that the show will expand on the themes laid down by the novel, which should be fun for all concerned.

2) Lost fans will be looking for the ‘next Lost’. As a ‘Lostie’ myself, Flash Forward feels like one of the few candidates that can take up the mantle. Nothing will compare to Lost, but Flash Forward has the potential to be its own monster.

3) One of the core reasons that attracted me to Flash Forward (and hence creating a blog for the show), is the potential scope and relevance of the story – it has a “we’re all in this together” vibe, and that’s a crucial theme for any overarching series with hopes for mass appeal.

4) The show already has a strong buzz surrounding it. This could be crucial in bringing the show to as many eyes as possible.

Canada.com article on Flash Forward author, Robert J. Sawyer:

Mississauga writer Robert J. Sawyer will have a flashy new sci-fi drama series on network TV this fall, adapted from his book Flashforward.

All of a sudden, he’s everywhere. These past few weeks he has hosted VisionTV’s self-explanatory Supernatural Investigator, and in tonight’s season finale, the program turns its inquiring mind on the peculiar 1961 alien- abduction case – an alleged alien abduction? – of Barney and Betty Hill in New Hampshire.

The Hills’ account of their close encounter of the third kind was dismissed as so much hooey by officials at the time, but their story galvanized the popular imagination. It was the height of the Cold War; the U.S. military was actively experimenting with new “flying machines;” and science fiction – both written and filmed – was coming off one of its periodic and cyclical golden ages. “The White Mountain Abduction” or “Hill Abduction,” as it came to be known, provided the inspiration for any number of movies and TV shows, from The Outer Limits to the more recent, filmed-in-B.C. miniseries Taken. The Hill abduction also provided a seed of imagination for Steven Spielberg’s epic Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Imagination is the key word, as Supernatural Investigator shows. There’s the usual silliness inherent in these kinds of programs – the Hills’ niece, Kathleen Marden, is shown reconstructing the events to see if Barney and Betty Hill’s tale was in any way plausible – but science, real science, is also involved. Not the science of unidentified flying objects and little green men from outer space, but brain science.

One updated theory posits that “startle reflex,” a common but little known feature of human vision, may explain why the Hills are so convinced they saw what they did. Seeing is believing, in other words, though not always for the reasons we think.

No moss grows on Sawyer, by the way. As you are reading, he has taken up his new position as writer-in-residence at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) physics- research centre in Saskatoon. Imagination is at the heart of both artistic and scientific endeavours, Sawyer commented on his blog, “and the science being done in Canada is world-class.”

Continue reading.

Jon Farrar of the Guardian is optimistic about this year’s “upfronts” – he compares it to the “double whammy” of 5 years ago when ABC dropped “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” on an unsuspecting TV landscape. He goes on to suggest that ABC’s new show – Flash Forward is leading the way:

I’m sitting at LAX waiting for my plane to take me back from the sunny unreality of Los Angeles to the slightly gloomier reality of seeing how my ratings were hit by dancing men with wheelbarrows.

Having watched over 40 hours of television this week at six studios, I’m reflecting on one show, Flash Forward, the new sci-fi thriller from Disney. It’s a great show with a fantastic premise – if everyone in the world suddenly collapsed on the floor, passed out, and caught a startling glimpse of their future six months from now, what would they see and how would it affect them? If that happened right now in the UK, if we were all transported to our futures in early December, I’m pretty confident  most of us would be doing the same thing … sitting at home, our jaws hitting the floor, as we watch the early episodes of the fantastic new slate of US programming.  This was a good LA Screenings, perhaps the best since the double whammy of Lost and Desperate Housewives five years ago. So what will we be watching? Three big trends emerged this year.

Source: Guardian

Film.com predicts ABC’s Flash Forward will be a “winner” this Fall:

Flash Forward: Already the critical darling of the Fall, this confusing, Lost-esque serialized sci-fi drama will leave some people rabidly excited and others aching to change the channel. Right now it’s too early to tell which half will be the majority, but like Lost, the scales may tip in the show’s favor at the beginning.

ABC President Steve McPherson calls Flash Forward their “most buzz-worthy show” and says that despite the initial science-fiction element, it’s actually “an intimate, personal story about the question of fate”. Read more below:

As for Flash Forward, taking over Ugly Betty’s Thursday-night spot, McPherson admits it was a big decision. “Flash Forward has already generated millions of hits online to our ‘What did you see?’ campaign. It’s the most buzz-worthy show we have right now, and we really wanted to build on the success of Private Practice and Grey’s being a perfect pair and bolster our Thursday night, which has been incredibly successful for us. We think there’s no better lineup right now than Thursday nights. With Lost having launched at 8, we really feel that there’s a great opportunity for Flash Forward as well,” McPherson added.

While McPherson admitted that Flash Forward was indeed science fiction, he said the David S. Goyer and Brannon Braga series is actually “an intimate, personal story about really the question of fate. Can you change your fate? Of love and loss and all the things that go into ‘What if we knew our future?’ So I think that one specifically. … It’s science fiction in the sense that there’s that one event, but it really isn’t moving forward that. And I think as you get to the mythology, [it] is absolutely unbelievably grounded.”

Source: SciFi Wire