FlashForward on ABC
The Executive Producers Explain the Show
Executive Producers David S. Goyer, Jessika Borsiczky Goyer, and Marc Guggenheim bring a new type of series to weekly television. FlashForward is based on a novel where everyone in the world blanks out and sees their future.
Jessica B. Goyer explained the genesis of the show when the cast and producers presented their new project to the Television Critics Association in August 2009. “I read the novel FlashForward by Robert Sawyer about eight years ago, and at the time David [Goyer] and I were friends. We had a working relationship, and I brought him the book to read, and he was just taken with this concept as I was. And the thing we were both so taken with at the time that stayed with us for eight years was what if you could know your destiny, what if you could know where your choices would lead.”
Jessica said they both put the idea away and went on to other projects. Then they got married and the subject kept coming up. She told him she thought it would be a great television series.
Turning a Novel into a Television Series
We'd originally talked about it as a movie,” she explained, “and I could tell it was sort of spinning in that spot in his brain where projects go to germinate, and he came back from a dinner one night with [producer and screenwriter] Brannon Braga, and he said ‘"We talked about it. Brannon and I have completely figured out a wonderful way to do this show.’ And I felt like I'd won the lottery of television writers.”
She was delighted and excited. “We had an amazing time figuring out how to adapt it from the book. The book, the flashforwards are 21 years into the future. We've adapted it to, obviously, about six months. We took some other liberties, came up with new characters, and David and Brannon wrote the script, which we then sold to ABC as an available spec pilot, and we had the bible for the entire series worked out …”
Both Jessica and David caution viewers not to read the book for clues about the characters. They won’t get an accurate depiction as the series is based on the book but not an exact version of the novel. David confided, “The actors themselves are not privy to what is going to happen to their characters. “We made a decision very early on with the actors that we weren't going to tell them a lot about where their characters are going because I didn't want it to affect their performance.”
Questions will be Answered by the End of the Season
As far as the viewers understanding the mysteries in the story, David Goyer said, “By the end of the first season, most of the questions raised in the pilot, including the one you see at the very end, will be answered.”
Marc Guggenheim adds, “By the end of the first season, we will get to April 29, 2010.” That just happens to be the date of the season finale. It also happens to have significance to the storyline, which the executive producers refused to reveal. He added, “And as far as what's going to happen after April 29th, that's another mystery of the show.”
The Space/Time Continuum – Can we Change our Future?
Changing the future is a concept that is up for debate. If someone goes to the future and they change it, then they wouldn’t have that future to go to in the first place. Or would they?
For David Goyer, “That, again, is part of the heart and soul of the show and the debate and where I think a lot of the drama and suspense can be mined, is whether, if you saw your future, what would you do about it, and can you change it? And we've basically broken our series regulars down into three categories, you know. A third of them fear the future, and they are trying to do everything they can to fight it. A third of them, their futures are aspirational, and they are trying to do everything they can to make it happen. And a third of them are kind of agnostic because they just don't understand what it means, and they are trying to figure it out. Now, maybe fighting it is what causes it to happen, or maybe trying to cause it is what causes it not to happen. I mean, that is sort of what the show is about.”
The concept of revealing bits and pieces about a character throughout a season is not new. Lost had done it, but the producers of FlashForward want the public to know that they are not copying that hit series. They have had this concept germinating for eight years, long before Lost hit the airwaves.
FlashForward airs Thursdays at 8 PM ET on ABC.
The Cast of FlashForward on ABC
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