Here’s a round-up of the best tidbits from the world of FlashForward, including flash fall preview shots featuring Dominic Monaghan, Joseph Fiennes, John Cho and Sonya Walger, interviews with Robert J. Sawyer and more!

Exclusive FlashForward Fall TV Preview shots from EW (click to enlarge).

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGV-SJX9DRM

Australian FlashForward trailer – subtle differences from the US versions, although they continue to bleed together.

AMC has an interview with FlashForward author, Robert J. Sawyer:

Q: FlashForward was originally optioned as a movie. Now it’s a television series. Do you have a preference either way?

A: To be perfectly blunt, if we last longer than one season I’ll make more money off of a TV series than I would off of a film. So I think a TV series is a marvelous idea. Also, the comparison is often made to Lost. Well, here’s the difference: Lost has 40 people on one island affected by the event. We’ve got 7 billion people on five continents. So of course we’ve got a bigger canvas and more stories to tell.

Q: Why was only one of your characters, Lloyd Simcoe, incorporated into the series?

A: The only character by name that makes it over is Simcoe. The central conflict in the marriage between Sonya Walger and Joseph Fiennes’s characters in the TV series is directly the same conflict of Lloyd and Michiko in my novel. The central story of John Cho’s character — the guy who has no vision of the future — is directly the central story of Theo, one of the characters from my novel. Do I care about search and replace on names? Not in the least. Do I care about the thematic integrity of the material, that it actually explores in depth the kinds of issues I raise in the book? Yes, and it does.

Q: Executive producer David S. Goyer has repeatedly stated that FlashForward is not science fiction. Do you think that’s an important distinction to make?

A: We’ve learned that people will happily put their rear end in a seat for two hours to watch a science fiction movie, but they won’t watch again week after week. Thanks to George Lucas, science fiction in the visual media has been indelibly identified as escapism for adolescent boys. You look at Battlestar Galactica: Wonderful series, on a really good week it had 875,000 viewers out of 315 million people. We will die as a primetime network broadcast series if the same percentage of people decide they want to watch FlashForward. So what had to be done was make sure people don’t see science fictional tropes — they don’t see robots, aliens, flying cars, what have you; and instead see the compelling character drama.

Q: One of the big series mysteries is what actually causes the event, which in your novel is explained right away. How do you resolve that?

A: In my book it’s on Page 1! The reality is that it may or may not follow the book. You know the phrase in computer science, “RTFM,” read the eff-ing manual? We’ve gone to pains to make clear that my novel FlashForward is not necessarily the eff-ing manual for the reveals that are going to happen in the series.

Continue reading here..

Paul Levinson spoke to Robert J. Sawyer about what it feels like to be on the verge of having his novel seen on screens around the world in this ABC series.  Sawyer takes goes through the steps of moving from novel to screen, his admiration for the stellar cast, his clear vision of possible future paths for his FlashForward novel universe, at a time when everyone will be coming to know the slightly different story in the television series, and much more. Click here to listen to the interview.

C21Media report on FlashForward‘s Asia pick-up:

FlashForward, the ABC science-fiction series that debuts stateside this Thursday, has been picked up by 10 broadcasters in the Asia-Pacific region, bringing it to 44 more territories.

Disney-ABC International Television (DAIT) Asia Pacific has sold the show to free-TV channels Seven Network (Australia), TVB (Hong Kong), Media Prima (Malaysia), TVNZ (New Zealand), MediaCorp (Singapore) and ABS-CBN (Philippines).

Seven and MediaCorp are to air episodes within two weeks of their US broadcasts, with the Aussie net starting the show on September 28 and the Singaporean broadcaster kicking off the action on October 4. Both have also acquired catch-up TV rights.

Four pay-TV platforms have also licensed the drama, namely Fox International (for south-east Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan), Zee Cafe (India), OCN (Korea) and Singtel (Singapore). Fox starts airing the show in Philippines on Star World on December 10.

“With the show’s global themes and relatable characters, our partners have been aggressively marketing FlashForward as a key show in their programming schedule,” said Rob Gilby, senior VP and MD at DAIT (Asia Pacific).

MediaWeek report on ABC‘s new partnership with Microsoft – a move that will help the FlashForward promotion bandwagon:

Microsoft has scored an elaborate multiplatform ad buy from ABC, which is promoting its upcoming sci-fi series FlashForward with a major assist from the software giant’s company’s video game assets.

The digital ad blitz, which sources said is valued at several million dollars, kicks into high gear this week with a wide array of ad placements on Microsoft’s Web, mobile and gaming platforms. The full first act of the FlashForward pilot has been available since Sept. 10 on Xbox Live—the online subscription platform where 20 million Xbox owners congregate, download movies and TV shows, and play online games.

On the series’ premiere date (Sept. 24) Microsoft’s in-game ad group Massive will serve Flash ads within 12 Xbox video games, including the mega hits Guitar Hero 5, Madden 10 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10.

Also that day, ABC will have a major presence on the MSN portal that includes a homepage takeover ad on MSN.com, a branded Flash site on MSN TV and ad placements that will envelop the content on MSN’s celebrity channel Wonderwall. In addition, Microsoft has built ABC a custom mobile site to promote the show, and will also run ads on its mobile portal.

Plus, users can sign up to receive text alerts prior to the premiere and can download Flash-themed phone wallpaper.

The multifaceted campaign is said to make up the bulk of ABC’s digital effort to tout the much-hyped Flash. The deal—stewarded by ABC’s agency Wieden+Kennedy—marks the second major win for Microsoft, which landed a similar buy for Discovery’s Deadliest Catch in April.

Keith Lorizio, vp of U.S. sales, Microsoft Advertising, said the company’s ability to deliver young male gamers who are likely to be drawn to the sci-fi show, was crucial. “We have a multi-screen user experience, and we have scale on all three. Xbox is absolutely a differentiator.”

Mike Benson, executive vp, marketing, ABC Entertainment Group, said ABC typically expects 3-5 percent of users exposed to a promotional campaign online for a new show will actually tune in. Given the young male audience of the Xbox, they are shooting for 10-15 percent. “As we all know, audiences have become incredibly fragmented,” said Benson. “For a show like Flash Forward…We actually think that with Xbox, we’ll get a deeper, more engaged audience that will spend a lot of time with it.”

ABC have released 20 FlashForward cast photos in preparation for the season premiere on September 24th. Click below the jump to view the gallery, and for interviews featuring Courtney Vance, John Cho, Joseph Fiennes, Sonya Walger, Dominic Monaghan and Jack Davenport.

Here are 20 official cast photos for FlashForward (click to enlarge):

[Show as slideshow]

[ABC]

Courtney Vance gives us his take on FlashForward:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A6FeFtLqoE

Here’s another interview with the cast of FlashForward:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSWS7a_4cnw

Dominic Monaghan and Jack Davenport talk to SyFy about their FlashForward characters:

Comic-Con in San Diego over the summer when it was revealed he would be joining the cast of ABC’s upcoming FlashForward but couldn’t say a lot about what he’d be doing. He offered up a wee bit more this week when we visited him on the show’s set in Burbank, Calif.

“Yeah, I can’t tell you a huge amount,” Monaghan (Lost) said. “I play a guy called Simon who is linked through story lines with Jack’s [Davenport] character, Lloyd. He’s a very smart, intelligent scientist, and we begin the relationship with him under the impression that he knows more than he is giving away.”

The trailer suggests Simon may know the reason everyone in the world has blacked out for 2 minutes 17 seconds, during which time they each have a glimpse of their future six months from now.

“He’s almost a kind of reveal, in a way,” Monaghan says. “Obviously, Joe [Fiennes] and Sonya [Walger] and John [Cho] and Jack kind of are telling the story in the initial episodes, and my character, Simon, is kind of in the wings a little bit, kind of waiting, kind of a reveal. He’ll gradually be trickled in as the show picks up some steam.”

For his part, Davenport said that his character, physicist Lloyd Simcoe, is the only one taken from Robert J. Sawyer’s novel, on which the show is loosely based. “That’s right, he is the only character from the book,” Davenport said. “Yes, because obviously there has to be some kind of scientific explanation for all of this, and there’s a lot of science in the book, and the character is a scientist.”

But is he the same guy?

“He’s similar in the sense that his profession is the same, but obviously what [series co-creator] David [Goyer] has done is extrapolated from the novel in a way that the connections between the characters are much broader and much wider than they are in the novel. You follow multiple storylines in this in the way that in the novel it’s pretty much a single line.”

TV Guide fall preview featuring FlashForward’s Joseph Fiennes, Sonya Walger and Dominic Monaghan.

[TV Guide Magazine]

Here is the first footage of Dominic Monaghan on FlashForward:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho1n9m44uf4

[video: flashforwardpl]

Two more FlashForward promos follow the jump:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14ev7ihJgC8

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httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpGQjx49Z6o

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By the sounds of things, Dominic Monaghan‘s character on FlashForward will be a major departure from other roles he’s taken on in recent years.

Click the link below to find out why:

[spoiler warning]:

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!]

FlashForward’s Dominic Monaghan (it’s still weird saying that) talks about his role on the show, and a bit about LOST in this interview:

Q: What do you play on the show?

Dominic: All I can tell you, right now, is that I play a character called Simon. He’s not going to show up until later on in the show. I don’t appear in the pilot.

Q: What did you find intriguing about this character?

Dominic: It’s important for me to try to play someone different. After talking to David and Jessika Goyer, they alluded to the fact that I could play someone drastically different, if that’s what I wanted to do. That’s what I’ve always been attaining to do, in my career. With each part that I play, the next part has to be different, so that no one is able to say, “This is what he is, as an actor.”

Q: Did you know as little about Charlie, when you went into Lost, as you do with your character on Flash Forward?

Dominic: When I went into Lost, I probably knew a little bit more because there wasn’t as much mystery about my character, from the writers and creators. When I went into Lost, it was a relatively open book. They told me that Charlie was a rock star, a junkie and a mess. Whereas, David is much more protective, for good reason, over where my character is going to go, how he’s going to be revealed, and what he’s going to turn out to do in the show.

Q: How would you compare Flash Forward and Lost?

Dominic: There are, obviously, similarities. There is a large ensemble cast with a very ambitious storyline, which is a very easy way to sell the show, internationally. There are also distinct differences, at the same time. I don’t think necessarily we’re dealing with something as deeply rooted in a mythology that needs to be solved. I think this is a show that is, not necessarily to use the word “simplistic,” but is probably not as sophisticated in that deeply rich mythology, as Lost is.

Q: Obviously, you have a great comfort level in this kind of storytelling. Where does that come from?

Dominic: I pick projects based on good scripts. I don’t stipulate between film or theater or television. I receive scripts, and I read them. And, when I read a script that’s good, I then get married to it and talk to my agent about what happens next.

For me, what happened was that I was actually in Hawaii when I read Flash Forward. I loved the pilot, and I called my agent and said, “I love the show, but there’s nothing that I can do. I don’t see a part in here for me.” I didn’t want to take a deeply American part away from someone who is authentically American, and pretend to be American, when I’m from Manchester. So, my agent said, “Why don’t I talk with the prerogative and see what they say?” And, David and Jessika very generously said, “Why don’t we meet, and we’ll discuss and chat, and see what’s going on.”

So, we met at a bar called Delancey on Sunset, and it was one of the more special business meetings in my life because David said, “What do you want to do? What do you want to do next? What’s your plan?” And, I said, “It’s important for me, as an actor, as it has been throughout my career, to try to do something drastically different from the last character that I played.” The last character that I played being Charlie on Lost, who David and Jessika knew quite well. So, they said, “We think that we can do that. We think that we can find a character for you that would help you to get there.” And then, all we needed to talk about was money.

Q: Do you think you’ll be back on Lost this season?

Dominic: I don’t know.

Q: Would you want to be?

Dominic: Sure. I had a great time on that show. I loved the character. It’s a great character. It’s a character that I enjoyed playing. It was a great time in my life. It’s the last season, so if they wanted to do it, they have one more chance.

Q: Would you have time to do it?

Dominic: Maybe. I don’t know. With David being such a fan of Lost, if it was available, they might let me do it. Anything is possible.

Q: How do you feel about being back in L.A.?

Dominic: I’ve been living in L.A. now for eight or nine years. Obviously, I went to Hawaii to do Lost, but I’ve had a house in L.A. and I know it well. All my friends are here, my animals are here, and my life is here, so it’s not a big change for me.

[source: IESB]

John Cho, Dominic Monaghan and Joseph Fiennes.

[source: EW]

FlashForward’s Dominic Monaghan talks to TV Guide Magazine about his new role on the ABC show.

Your character is named Simon. Does he have a last name?
Can’t tell you. But I can say he’s the joker in the pack. A little hard to predict. He’s a snappy dresser, capable and cocky. And he’s a man, not a boy.

At Comic-Con, they showed a quick clip of you in a scene in a police station. Can you describe what we saw?
Simon’s in cahoots with Jack Davenport’s character [Lloyd Simcoe]. Joseph Fiennes’ character [Mark Benford] is beating up Jack’s character and saying,’Who do you work with? Who’s your partner?’ and Jack’s saying ‘I’m not going to tell you that.’ And then I walk in and say, ‘You know what? I’m not scared of you guys. It’s me.’ So he’s a cocky son-of-a-bitch.

When will that scene air?
I’m not sure. But I think I start on the series around episode six or seven.

What appealed to you about FlashForward?
I read the pilot and didn’t think there was anything in particular that I could do in the script. I liked it. But my agent said, [the producers] really want to meet you. They asked what I wanted to do and I said, ‘I want to play someone who’s the opposite of Charlie,’ because that’s what I did after I finished “Lord of the Rings.” Charlie was the opposite of Merry. It’s important for me to continue to show the audience I can’t be put in a box.

How many episodes will you be in?
I’m a season regular so I’m in the show for however many episodes they make this season.

You recently had breakfast with Lost producer Damon Lindelof. Were you discussing your return to the show?
Damon and I are friends, and he has some projects he’s going to be doing in the future. Lost has got only one year left. That was just a time when we hung out.

Well, would you want to go back if you were invited?
Sure. You can’t close doors in this business. It’s just not how you do it. I would never say I wouldn’t do it.

Do you know the secret behind how Lost ends?
I know some stuff, sure. Coming to the end of the season, Damon’s been a little bit freer with some information. But I don’t know everything.

Talk more about the possibility of returning to Lost.
I think they closed the door well on my character, and I would only go back based on the door opening in a way that complements my character. There’s a few things that they would need to do. Damon and I talk a lot about the romance and legacy that Charlie’s left behind. If he were to come back, this would be the final chapter. We would need to jump through a few more hoops before we get there.

[source: tvguidemagazine]

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KArxUgmxte8

Here’s a video of Dominic Monaghan joining the FlashForward panel at Comic Con. Proof that Charlie Pace is not longer “Lost”..or is he?

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As we predicted Dominic Monaghan was OFFICIALLY confirmed as having a role on ABC’s FlashForward at Comic Con.

Speaking at this year’s Comic-Con, the show’s producer David S. Groyer initially refused to confirm or deny rumours surrounding Monaghan’s involvement in the project.

Moments later, fans were treated to a sneak preview of the series, including an shot of Monaghan, whose character Goyer described as “game-changing”.

We can also confirm that Monaghan will actually be playing a character named “Simon”, and not “Theo”.

According to producer David S. Goyer, Monaghan’s part was planned from the very beginning.

[Digital Spy]