Australian producer Jeremy Huppatz is developing a new sci-fi TV show in Adelaide, Australia. As strange as that might sound to those breast-fed on American sci-fi television and films, South Australia has some of the best state-of-the-art film-making facilities. Adelaide has been called the new Toronto down-under.
Huppatz’s goal is for the series to initially have a heavy web presence, with 10×43 minute (i.e. 1 hour in network terms) episodes, which will most likely be broadcast free of charge over the internet in the first instance. Currently main casting has been accomplished and several crew members have been assembled while recruitment of others continues. A real labor of love for Huppatz, the development of The Tomekeepers has been going on for 13-years, and now, it is all falling together and shooting is ready to begin.
The television series will attempt to address high concept themes within the backdrop of the aftermath of a synthetic plague that hits the inhabitants of Earth in the near future. Some of those themes will be quite Trekkian in that the stories will use science fiction to address real current world problems such as the ethical risks/benefits of medical nanotechnology, the durability of the human spirit in the face of near extinction of the species and the meaning of true friendship vs scarcity and survival. These issues will be explored through the eyes of a group of flawed and ultimately – very human characters – as they work in the interests of the survivors of “Factor 46” to restore some semblance of civilization to the surviving cities.
The Tomekeeper Preludes will tell the story of the fall and recovery of human civilization and introduce its main characters in the midst of political maneuvering, social and economic disruption and a whole bunch of angry people yelling “We Told You So!” As much as anything else, the web-series will be an homage to science fiction as a genre, but also to the work of great modern writer/producers like Joss Whedon, Vince Gilligan, Brad Wright, Robert Cooper, Martin Wood, Tim Minear and Damian Kindler.
Once the web-series (dubbed Series 0) is in the can, Huppatz intends to take it to the networks as a capability statement and seek distribution/production deals for the next series, which he is hoping will be taken to broadcast TV and Video on Demand (Netflix, Hulu, etc). The main series will be less about the social history of the milieu, and more about the main characters and their adventures in a mission-of-the-week format mixed in with epic character arcs.
You can show your interest for this kind of programming by showing support at one of the following links —
The Tomekeeper Preludes FACEBOOK Page
The Tomekeeper Preludes TV Project Page
The Tomekeeper Preludes Indiegogo Contribution Page
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