Comic-Con!! Herc Says Spielberg’s Extraterrestrial Apocalypse Drama FALLING SKIES Might Get Him Watching TNT!!
Published at: July 23, 2010, 11:44 p.m. CST by hercules
I am – Hercules!!
Some things I think I learned from Friday afternoon’s “Falling Skies” panel at Comic-Con.
• The panel featured the first-ever public glimpse of the series’ trailer, which depicted motorcycles and spaceships blowing things up.
• Besides pilot scripter Robert Rodat (“Saving Private Ryan”), writers on the Steven Spielberg project include Graham Yost (“The Pacific,” “Justified”), Mark Verheiden (“Battlestar Galactica”), Melinda Hsu (“Lost”) and (if I heard right) a fellow named Joel Thompson.
• The show has apparently not yet formally named a showrunner, though Verheiden was the only writer on the panel.
• Yost will apparently be departing the show midway through its first season to return to his showrunning duties on FX’s “Justified.”
• The series picks up about six months after alien death machines wipe out 80 percent of the world’s population.
• Noah Wyle’s character, widower Tom Mason, was a tenured history professor at Boston University whose adolescent son was captured by the extraterrestrials.
• For mysterious reasons, the extraterrestrials have been capturing a number of human adolescents.
• Moon Bloodgood’s character is a pediatrician who “lost” her husband and daughter during the invasion, and finds herself drawn to Mason.
• The aliens, called “skidders,” are “very scary and very creepy” and have difficulty tracking humans when those humans congregate in numbers of less than 200.
• Another title considered for the long-untitled project was “Concord.”
• Will Patton plays Mason’s military-man superior. Mason is second-in-
command because of his expertise in historical military tactics.
• Though we’re not likely to see him, Bruce Springsteen may or may not be among the survivors.
• “Falling Skies” is due to hit TNT next June.
If anyone stumbles across the “Falling Skies” trailer, let us know and we’ll add it to this or another post.