Spielberg in talks to get back in the Dinosaur biz with TERRA NOVA

 

Fox is in talks with Steven Spielberg and Peter Chernin to bring them on board as executive producers on Terra Nova, an ambitious new drama series involving time travel and dinosaurs. 

Conceived by British scribe Kelly Marcel, the series centers on a family from 100 years in the future who travel back in time 150 million years to the strange and inhospitable environs of prehistoric Earth. Producer Aaron Kaplan brought in Craig Silverstein (Bones, The Dead Zone) to co-write the script with Marcel.

That sounds an awful lot like Land of The Lost to me... except that this is family who willingly traveled back in time, and perhaps aren't stuck there. I guess a bigger deviation would be that the family is from the future, and will naturally have advanced technology that would serve as a main focus, putting this maybe more in the realm of say a Star Trek or Lost in Space (minus the space). 

This is a series that could definitely use Spieberg's expertise in the realm of the dinosaur world, having helmed and produced Jurassic Park 1 & 2. Having his name behind it wouldn't hurt either, but its no guarantee of success.

A more interesting thing to note is the talk of greenlighting Terra Nova directly into production instead of going to pilot, as the series would involve such elaborate sets and visual effects that it would be too expensive to shut down and start up again.

If Spielberg and Chernin do board the project, DreamWorks TV stewards Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank and Chernin Entertainment TV topper Katherine Pope would also sign on as exec producers. Once all the producer pieces are in place, Fox and 20th will begin shopping for a showrunner to get Terra Nova on track.