Steven Spielberg's 'Terra Nova' Series Premiere Moved From May 2011 To Fall 2011
It's been a rough several months for Terra Nova, the highly anticipated Steven Spielberg-produced Fox series, and it looks like we're not quite out of the woods yet. The network recently announced that it has moved the series premiere date from May 2011 to fall 2011. The series stars Jason O'Mara (Life on Mars) as the head of a 22nd century family sent back in time to live in a prehistoric colony called Terra Nova. More details after the jump.
Apparently, special effects are to blame for the delay — here's the quote from the press release (via TVOvermind.com):
"TERRA NOVA is one of the most ambitious television series ever produced," said [Fox entertainment president Kevin] Reilly. "The cutting-edge visual effects used to create the world of TERRA NOVA, which is of massive scope and scale, require more time to be realized. This aspect of the series is essential, so we are pushing back the special early preview date to give the visual effects team the time needed for their ground-breaking work."
Though it's understandable that something as complex and effects-heavy as Terra Nova might need a bit of extra time, this is just the latest setback for a show that's already had a rocky production history. In addition to the rescheduled premiere dates, the show has also suffered the losses of executive producer David Fury and most of its writing staff. Fury left the show in September citing "creative differences," and producers fired most of the writers in November due to "creative discord" and snowballing production costs.
Official synopsis of the show:
An epic family adventure 85 million years in the making, TERRA NOVA follows an ordinary family embarking on an incredible journey back in time to prehistoric Earth as a small part of a daring experiment to save the human race. In the year 2149 the world is dying. The planet is overdeveloped, overcrowded and overpolluted. With no known way to reverse the damage to the planet, scientists discover a portal to prehistoric Earth. This doorway leads to an amazing world, one that allows for a last-ditch effort to save the human race...a second chance to rebuild civilization and get it right this time.
The series centers on the Shannon family as they join the Tenth Pilgrimage of settlers to TERRA NOVA, the first colony established in this beautiful yet forbidding land led by its founder COMMANDER NATHANIEL TAYLOR (Stephen Lang, "Avatar"). JIM SHANNON (Jason O'Mara, "Life on Mars"), a devoted father with a checkered past, guides his family – wife ELISABETH (Shelley Conn, "Mistresses"); and children JOSH (Landon Liboiron, "Degrassi: The Next Generation"), MADDY (Naomi Scott, "Life Bites") and ZOE (newcomer Alana Mansour) – through this new land of limitless beauty, mystery and terror. In addition to blue skies, towering waterfalls and lush vegetation, TERRA NOVA offers new opportunities and fresh beginnings to its recent arrivals, but the Shannons have brought with them a familial secret that may threaten their citizenship in this utopia. These adventurers soon discover that this healthy, vibrant world is not as idyllic as it initially appears. The areas surrounding TERRA NOVA are teeming with danger – and not just of the man-eating dinosaur variety. The Shannons will come to suspect that not everyone on this mission has the same idea of how to best save mankind; in fact, there may be forces intent on destroying this new world before it even begins.