"..and the last scene of the season is..."
IESB spoke to producer David Goyer during a recent visit to the set of FlashForward. Goyer reveals that as well as having dark moments synonymous with stories of global significance, “FF” will also feature a tapestry of humour and quirky moments.
Check out the interview below, as well as the latest on FlashForward sponsorship in the UK and the science behind Robert J. Sawyer’s FlashForward novel:
Q: What are three things this show is, and three things this show isn’t?
Marc: It’s a television show. It’s not an opera.
David: It’s a really big, cinematic show, where we really are telling, in some ways, a 24-hour movie. My aim is to do what television does best, which is to really welcome these characters into your homes and really dig deep into them, in a way that you really can’t do with movies. I have a lot of respect for what J.J. Abrams does. I think he goes for it. I think his shows don’t feel like cheesy TV shows. I hope that it’s a very thought-provoking show, and that it gets people talking, the next day, about what they would do, in those kind of circumstances. And, ultimately, I hope it’s a very hopeful show.
It’s not Lost. Aside from the fact that it’s big and cinematic, and there are a lot of characters. As soon as people see the episodes the comparisons will stop, although I love Lost. It’s not a science fiction show. There are the flash-forwards, but the audience won’t know, for a couple of years, what the ultimate cause of those were, so I don’t think it really matters. And, it’s not like anything you’ve ever seen on television.
Marc: I’d like to add that what it is, is a very ambitious story with a lot of layers, a lot of plot twists and a lot of interesting things happening in it. What it’s not is an impenetrable, Byzantine puzzle box.
Q: Is it important that people know this show is not Lost?
David: No. Ultimately, it isn’t. It’s going to be a moot point, once we air. People like to talk about stuff. If we were on any other network, we never would have gotten that question. It wasn’t written for ABC. It was written for HBO. The big-name bidders were Fox and ABC, and ABC got it. If we were on Fox, and certainly if we were on HBO, I don’t think people would have been asking that question. We didn’t change the script at all, from when it was developed at HBO, other than to take the swear words out.
Q: Then why is there such an emphasis on the show not being Lost?
David: It’s only because we’ve just been asked the question so many times, in every interview we do. We didn’t start out that way.
Q: Because of the large ensemble, the thing about Lost is that no character is safe. Does that go for this show as well, since you also have such a big cast?
David: Yeah, no character is safe on our shows. That’s for sure. But, I think that’s exciting. I love that.
Q: Episode 102 seems like it has some broad humor. Will that continue throughout the scene? What will the tone of this show be?
David: Well, we showed you these three scenes to show you the different gamut of the things we will be doing on this show.
Q: So, there will be more of that broad humor then?
David: Yeah. We picked that scene because we think that scene is funny. And, there are other scenes, in the first eight episodes, that we think are equally funny. There weren’t a lot of moments in the pilot that were that funny, but there are definitely funny things on the show, and that we think the audience will find funny. Is that scene representative of every single episode? No. But, there are definitely things like that. There are scary moments, and there are what we hope are funny moments, heartbreaking moments, thoughtful moments and sexy moments. We just decided to pick three different kinds of scenes.
Q: How soon are you going to pass the April 29th date, when these people all had their visions?
David: We pass that date by the end of the first season.
Marketing Week report a deal between channel FIVE and Blackberry for the UK’s coverage of FlashForward:
Research in Motion’s BlackBerry brand has signed its first European TV sponsorship deal in a tie-up with Five’s soon-to-be launched US drama series, FlashForward.
The sponsorship package will include a 15-second opening credit, break bumpers and a ten-second closing credit.
Berkeley Lab physicist Peter Jacobs explores the science behind the novel behind FlashForward (novel spoilers):
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