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).

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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:

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Here’s another interview with the cast of FlashForward:

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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.”

ABC have made the first 18 minutes of their upcoming series, FlashForward, available for free online after several clips were leaked. An interesting move from ABC – if nothing else, they must believe in these opening 18 minutes. Watch it for free using the video player above, if you want (video player may take a few seconds to load).

Continue below the jump for an “FF” sneak peek promo and an interview with John Cho.

Slightly redundant now, but here’s another sneak peek. I’m posting this for those of you who prefer not to watch the opening 18 minutes of the premiere above, and to point out the thematic similarities with the opening sequence from the “LOST” Pilot – although obviously the setting is very different. As I’ve said before, hopefully FlashForward show can be half as good as the island drama and go on to develop its own identity over the course of the season – by the looks of the first 18 minutes, it definitely has the potential.

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USA Weekend interview with FlashForward‘s John Cho:

There are a bunch of things conspiring against John Cho, keeping him from strumming his guitar just for fun. For one, he has been acting non-stop for several years. “Star Trek” was one of the biggest movie hits of this past summer, and his new ABC show, “FlashForward,” has all sorts of buzz around it.

There’s also his 16-month-old son, his first child with actress Kerri Higuchi. “My wife and I were saying, it’s no wonder the body allows you to have children at such a young age,” Cho, 37, says. “It’s because you need the energy, the strength and the stamina to run after the kid.”

Best known for starring in the “Harold & Kumar” comedies with Kal Penn, Cho admits that J.J. Abrams’ big-screen reboot of “Star Trek” (in which he plays Sulu, a younger version of the role made famous by George Takei) gave him a jump-start both professionally and mentally when it came to acting. And after having been burned a few times by canceled series and pilots that went nowhere, Cho had sworn off television.

“FlashForward” has changed his thinking on all that, though. In the series, which premieres Thursday, an occurrence causes people all over the world to black out for two minutes and 17 seconds, and during that time, most have mysterious visions of their future. (Cho’s character, however, is one of the few who doesn’t see anything.) While the concept is cool, Cho says, “it’s the little things and the relationships that’ll keep bringing people back.”

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In this video from Comic Con, John Cho talks a bit about FlashForward.

Head past the jump to watch the other parts (mostly Startrek and other topics):

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[videos: multipleverses]

John Cho who plays Demetri Noh in ABC’s upcoming drama series FlashForward, has been speaking to Asia Pacific Arts about the show (very mild spoilers follow):

Asia Pacific Arts: ABC has been going heavy on the promo ads for the new show you’re involved with. Can you tell me about Flash Forward?

John Cho: The premise is that everyone in the world blacks out simultaneously for 2 min 17 seconds, and during that time they experience a vision of their own future, and Joseph Fiennes and I are FBI agents who are trying to figure out this puzzle. So that’s the gist of it.

Continue reading below the jump.

Television was something that I wasn’t looking at, but my agent called and said, “I’m sending you over this script. No big deal, but I think you should read it. I think it might be something you’d be interested in,” and I was. Partially, it was reading the script and thinking about what [creator] David Goyer was going to do with the series. It may come from my religious upbringing [that I find that] there’s certainly a religious/philosophical connection to all the questions that are raised — what do you do with knowledge of your future, if indeed it is true, do you believe this, do you take this faith, do you believe your own senses, do you believe your experience or not? Is this a supernatural or man-made phenomenon? And the way he approached it was not from that angle. Although the ideas are big, the approach was much more detail-oriented and it was about how this affects family and relationships. My character in particular is about to get married, and how do you deal with that within a relationship?

APA: The series strikes me as being very post-Lost in terms of its “mysterious” elements.

JC: Yeah, I certainly think that part of the strategy for ABC is to fill that void, when and if Lost isn’t there anymore. Although their move — we’re on Thursday at 8pm which will precede Grey’s Anatomy – might be an indication that they’re not focusing more on that supernatural stuff as much as they are on the personal kinds of dilemmas that this might cause in domestic life.

Source: Asia Pacific Arts

SciFi Wire talk to John Cho about his decision to join the cast of ABC’s upcoming series, Flash Forward.

It seems like after Kitchen Confidential you were concentrating on films. What was it about Flash Forward that made you consider signing up for another TV series?

Cho: David Goyer. I just really liked his work. And then his script was incredibly thought-provoking, and you don’t often come across that in television. I wasn’t planning on doing TV, but the script was very engaging and I said, “Let’s do it.” I talked to him about the direction of my character, and I thought it was interesting.

Give us a feeling for the show and how you fit in.

Cho: Joseph Fiennes and I are FBI agents. I’m trying to think about what I can tell and can’t tell, but in the pilot we are chasing would-be terrorists, and there is an event where everybody in the world blacks out [for two minutes and 17 seconds], and everyone simultaneously experiences a vision of their own personal future. So the series is concerned with figuring out how it happened and what it means.

And your character?

Cho: I’m about to get married, and there are a lot of life questions that come up as we try to investigate this happening.

Goyer’s co-creator and co-executive producer is Brannon Braga, who has a long history with Star Trek. Have you picked his brain at all?

Cho: I haven’t talked much with Brannon [yet]; more with Goyer. David is a thinker. My sense of David is he’s just one of the most well-read and curious people I’ve ever met. He’s engaged in all kinds of disciplines and is a very interesting fellow.

Source: SciFi Wire