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.
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.”
