Click through the jump for a round-up of the latest post-worthy news and views from the world of FlashForward:

Joseph Fiennes offers hints of what’s to come in FlashForward (mild spoilers):

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

[AP]

For those of you just getting up to speed, Joseph Fiennes outlines the premiere of FF:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf96teX8CL0

[ABCSource]

Sonya Walger spoke to Latina.com about relationships and hope in FlashForward:

Tell us about your Flash Forward character Olivia Benford.

Olivia is a trauma surgeon. She’s a dedicated doctor and the wife of Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) who is an FBI Agent. They’ve been married for seven years—maybe 8—and he’s a recovering alcoholic so he’s in a program—and they’ve clearly had some bumpy times in their marriage in the past. But they’re in a good place now. They’ve got a little girl named Charlie, and I think the condition is for as long as he’s sober, their marriage works. But she has said to him before that if he drinks again, she’ll leave him. With him being in the FBI and her being a surgeon—they are a busy couple.

What do you think draws Olivia to Mark?

That’s a good question. I think she loves what a good dad he is, and how devoted he is to Charlie. I think she feels very loved by him as well. She knows he battles with these demons all of the time and there’s nothing she can do about them. I think that’s the endless battle of being with anyone who has an addiction—it’s not about you, it’s about how much support you’re willing to give. So I think they have a real profound connection, but I think it’s been tested over the years.

I watched the pilot and I think Olivia may have some demons too. Does she?

That’s interesting. I think if Olivia has any demons it’s her work ethic—her completely massive focus on work. Maybe she’s taken that to an extreme in the past. Yeah, I’m sure she has some demons of her own.

Obviously, one of the great things about the show is its larger-than-life scope, but what do you think is the bread and butter of this show? Is it the relationships?

Yeah, it really is. It’s epic in scale, and as you can see from the pilot, its epic in concept. It’s shot like a movie, so I think it’s breathtaking how big it looks! But it’s really intimate in terms of where the drama is coming out of—the drama is really coming out of these relationships. We’re about to start shooting episode 9 and 10 this week, and watching what is really happening to Mark and Olivia because of what she’s seen and what he’s seen that he hasn’t told her—it’s so interesting. It’s not huge crashing events that are forcing them apart. It’s just the daily wear and tear of living with someone and wondering if you’re going to cheat on them.

The first episode was a little depressing. It seemed like the lives of these people were a little hopeless. Is this a show about hopelessness?

There’s so much hope in it! The pilot only focuses on a handful of people’s flash forwards. There are so many other characters that you don’t see in the pilot, but you start seeing in subsequent episodes who have flash forwards that you hope come true! It’s so wonderful what they’re seeing in the future. So that’s what has become so interesting is that everyone is wandering through the world, and some people are trying desperately to make sure they don’t happen, but others are looking for theirs to come true.

As you well know, Flash Forward has been exhaustingly compared to Lost. How are the two shows similar or different?

I think they are very different. I think they are similar in that they have an ensemble cast and that there’s one giant event that propels everyone into these different situations. But after that, I think we part ways quite quickly. Flash Forward doesn’t have this embedded mythology in the same way as Lost. It’s very human. What you will see from here forward are the ripple effects of everyone dealing with what they saw in a very human way. People are given the real time to come to terms with what they’ve experienced. It’s not a science fiction show. It’s much more grounded in human reality, apart from the flash forward, which is the only thing that you’re asked to buy into as an audience member.

Continue reading here.

FlashForward opened in the UK to strong numbers:

Channel Five’s new US drama FlashForward launched with more than 3 million viewers last night, Monday 28 September.

The science fiction drama, in which everyone in the world blacks out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds giving them a glimpse of their future, pulled in 3.2 million and a 13% share between 9pm and 9.55pm, according to unofficial overnight figures.

The drama, which stars British actors Joseph Fiennes and Jack Davenport, was the channel’s highest-rating debuting show since The Mentalist in March, which picked up 3.6 million and a 16% share.

The figures compare with 2.4 million for the first episode of CSI on Five in 2001, 3.1 million for CSI: Miami’s debut in 2003 and 3.4 million for CSI: NY in 2005.

Five said the debut of FlashForward had nearly doubled the average share for the slot, which usually stands at 7%, while more than four times the number of 16- to 34-year-olds tuned in, making it the most watched show at the time for that demographic.

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]

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGT3bKkAEzc

In this video, FlashForward’s Sonya Walger and Joseph Fiennes answer “5 questions fans want to know”.

[video: flashforward24]

John Cho, Dominic Monaghan and Joseph Fiennes.

[source: EW]

Mark Benford - FlashForward

With FlashForward arriving on our screens in September we thought it would be a good time to introduce you to some of the characters you’ll come to know better in the near future. Each day we’ll bring you a snappy profile of a main character from the show, complete with useful information on the actor who portrays them. First up it’s Mark Benford, played by Joseph Fiennes:

Special Agent Mark Benford works for the Los Angeles Field Office of the FBI. On the outside looking in, he seems to have the perfect life: a beautiful wife, an adorable daughter, a great home, two cars in the garage…

But, the garage door is broken and his marriage has suffered from Mark’s struggle with his inner demons. The birth of his daughter, Charlie, caused him to sober up. The shining light in his life, Charlie gave him the strength to keep the demons at bay.

Source: ABC

• Joseph Fiennes IMDB
• Joseph Fiennes Wikipedia

Joseph Fiennes in “Enemy At The Gates” (deleted scene)

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LvET4iBOb4