Fox will take to series “Alcatraz,” the island-centric time travel sci-fi hourlong that will reunite “Lost” creator J.J. Abrams with “Lost” star Jorge Garcia.
The bad news is Fox may not debut “Alcatraz” until midseason. Fox formally announces its plans for the 2011-2012 season Monday.
Fox will be thick with sci-fi hourlongs next season, with Abrams’ “Fringe” returning for a full fourth season and Steven Spielberg’s dinosaur epic “Terra Nova” greenlit long ago. There’s also a chance Tim Kring’s Keifer Sutherland clairvoyant-kid drama could go to series.
Also just greenlit to series at Fox is the scifi-ish “Finder,” a “Bones” spin-off starring Michael Clarke Duncan and Saffron Burrows about a war vet (Geoff Stults) whose head injury allows him to locate anything.
The network is also doubling up on its Deschanel sisters, with a series order going to "The New Girl" starring Emily's sister Zooey as a fresh-from-breakup elementary school teacher who moves in with a trio of loutish slackers.
“Alcatraz” is about the FBI’s efforts to track down a group of guards and inmates who mysteriously disappeared 30 years ago, then mysteriously reappeared in the present day.
Sarah Jones (Polly Zobelle on “Sons of Anarchy” and Brynn on “Big Love”) will play the lead “Alcatraz” role of police officer Rebecca Madsen.
Take away Fox's Sunday cartoons and Saturday reality justice shows, and you're left with only 10 hours a week of Fox programming. With Simon Cowell's "X-Factor" launching this fall (two nights a week?), and with "Glee," "House," "Bones" and "Hell's Kitchen"/"Kitchen Nightmares" all returning, it's looking increasingly likely that "Human Target," "Lie To Me" and "The Chicago Code" will join "The Good Guys" on the Fox scrapheap.
Jorge Garcia, the first actor cast on “Lost,” was the first cast in “Alcatraz” as well. He’ll play Alcatraz expert Dr. Diego Soto.
The busy J.J. Abrams (“Super 8,” “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol,” “Star Trek: One Angry Vulcan”) serves as executive producer on “Alcatraz.” Longtime “Lost” writer-producer Elizabeth Sarnoff co-created the project and will serve as its showrunner.
Find all of EW’s story on the matter here.
