ITV Kills Primeval

ITV has killed-off sci-fi hit Primeval after three seasons for an undisclosed reason. The timing to me, seems rather odd.

Just a few weeks ago Warner Bros. purchased the screen rights to the series for a possible movie. There was also talk of international versions being created, especially a U.S. one.

The show seemed to be doing well with international syndication, appearing in 32 countries outside the UK, including airing on two networks, both Sci Fi and BBC America, here in the states. Both seasons 1 and 2 have been released on DVD worldwide with season 3 having just been released for Region 2 this month and region 1 coming in September.

On top of all this, there were also 13 published books (8 teen-oriented novels and 5 activity books) with two more on the way and a line of toys.

Worst of all: Season 3 ended on a cliff hanger!

Just seems like an odd time to end the show. A link to the whole store is below, though if you're outside of the UK and season 3 has not ended for you, beware of spoilers:

Total Sci-fi Online

Finally, I'd like to make note that I am very proud of myself for not using cliche puns such as "ITV sends Primeval the way of the dinosaur" or "Primeval goes extinct." Someone should give me a pat on the back for that.

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Warner Purchases Screen Rights To Primeval

Primeval, which I previously posted about here, will be returning to BBC America this Saturday for it's third season and today Variety announced that Warner Bros has picked up the movie rights to the ITV hit.

No word on anything yet, of course, as it's waaaaay too early, except that one of the producers was a script writer of Angel and Demons who's also producing a prequel, with Will Smith, of I Am Legend. At this point, other than the fact that the deal is worth a high six figures, who's to say the movie will even be made. Picking up screen rights is not a guarantee but I would hope that the same actors and writers would be involved. The show is high-budgeted and great for TV, though not quite big screen quality, so lot's of work would have to be done on it.

According to the Variety article, producers of the show are also shopping the idea of a duplicate series that takes place somewhere other than the UK, though seeing as the show already airs pretty much worldwide, I can't quite see that working out too well. I know that's what I also said years ago about The Office, but once the basic premise is out how much can you really change?

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BBC America Bring Primeval Back

Received an email the other day from BBC America touting the return of Primeval. The return places the show in it's previous Saturday 9pm slot. I must say I was pretty happy to hear(read) the news.

Season 3 premieres May 16th.

If you haven't watched the show yet I'd suggest you get caught up in time. The first two seasons were fantastic and I suspect the third could only be better.

The premise for the series is really quite fun: Mysterious time anomalies, basically time portals, begin appearing throughout Britain with disastrous results. Humans sometimes stumble into these portals and past creatures, dinosaurs and the like, and future species, also make their way out. A team of paleontologists and scientists, lead by paleontologist Dr. Nick Cutter, is tasked with trying to figure out if there is a pattern to them in order to predict when and where they will open up.

Each episode brings new suspense, never knowing what's going to come out of the portal or how to get it back in. The paleontologists are often in awe, as well, while witnessing the sometimes friendly, though usually vicious creatures they've spent their lives studying in books, never believing they'd ever have a chance to witness a real life T-Rex or 10 ton sandworm.

There's also small bits of crushes and heartbreaks and such, but never enough to drown out the main story line.

The cast is lead by Douglas Henshaw who portrays Dr. Nick Cutter, a paleontologist with a painful past who's awestruck with the wonders of the anomalies while also very aware of the dangers. His team, a group of pretty young things, consists of Andrew-Lee Potts as Connor, a former student of Dr. Cutter known for being a bit quirky and not always on top of things, a cutesy zoo keeper, Abby, specializing in amphibians played by Hannah Spearitt and Stephen Hart, a former protege of Dr. Cutter. The two share a strained relationship due to his part in Cutter's painful past. Hart sacrificed himself in the finale of season 2, though I don't think we've seen the last of him.

Ben Miller, who I've come to enjoy via Moving Wallpaper joined the cast in season two as the head of government operations, which is a treat. He doesn't really care why or how the anomalies are happening, nor for what knowledge can be gained from them - he just wants to stop them. There's also Lucy Brown who played two characters: Claudia Brown and Jenny Lewis (an ode to Rilo Kiley, perhaps?). The series began with Claudia Brown acting as the government liaison and crush interest for Dr. Cutter but disappeared due to a timeline change caused by an anomaly. She re-appeared as Jenny Lewis, a PR officer hired by the government to smooth over the press and keep the anomalies a secret. This was really confusing for Cutter as he was the only one to remember Claudia Brown.

There's also various bad guys and conspirators but the main jerkface is Helen Cutter, steely played by Juliet Aubrey. She's Cutter's paleontologist ex-wife who disappeared years ago while working. Turns out she had discovered an anomaly and decided to pull a Doc Brown, living in the past. She's jumps in and out of the anomalies, causing grief and trouble for pretty much everyone while also giving Cutter one hell of a rough time.

BBC America was added to my naughty list this year for not bringing back a number of shows I've enjoyed. It would be one thing if the shows were canceled but they're still airing in Britain, BBC America has just stopped importing them...I think. Getting news out of BBC America is really hard. They keep things close to the vest and you just never know what's coming back until a month or so before it reappears, so I was happy and a bit surprised to hear Primeval would return.

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