Image Credit: Glenn Harris/PR Photos The hot star of the lukewarm drama Life on Mars may find a new dimension to explore for Fox next season. A key insider confirmed that Jason O’Mara, the Irish actor who headlined the short-lived, time-traveling series for ABC last year, is in negotiations to star in Terra Nova for Fox’s mid-year lineup. As first reported by Deadline.com, O’Mara would play the father of a young family from 100 years in the future that travels back to the prehistoric era.
Though the series certainly pays well and hails from some of Hollywood’s most powerful players - Steven Spielberg, ex-Fox Chairman Peter Chernin and scribe Brannon Braga (24) are among the drama’s executive producers – the offer comes with a catch: O’Mara (who’s married to actress Paige Turco) would have to move to Australia where the series is expected to begin filming this summer. Should O’Mara pass on the big-budget project that’s already received a thumbs down from Kyle Chandler, the producers could be compelled to consider a more viable (if not less costly) alternative – attracting relative unknowns to the drama that’s received a 13-episode pickup from Fox. After all, the series already touts one of the biggest names in Hollywood – Spielberg – so a marquee actor may not be needed to sell the project to viewers worldwide.
The drama, which is also executive produced by agent-turned-producer Aaron Kaplan, Craig Silverstein (Bones) and Kelly Marcel, among others, takes place in 2149 A.D. when a large group of settlers are preparing to leave the apocalyptic world in which they live to time travel back millions of years. Their goal is to see trees, enjoy a blue sky, eat real food – basically, to start over in this so-called Eden.
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This sounds like it would pick up where Battlestar Galactica left off. Great premise. I’m in.
Terra Nova really does sound horrible. It needs someone big, more than just a producer, or else it’ll be the names selling the movie, and not the script.
God. the more i read the synopsis for this series, the more i cringe.
I would love to see Jason O’Mara back on our tv sets! Not only is he hot, but he is also capable of leading a series and has an extremely sexy voice!
No kidding! I wasn’t going to watch it, but if he is in it – I would give it a shot.
It sounds like a new version of land of the lost. I love sci-fi, but this doesn’t sound appealing to me.
This sounds like a good show especially now Jason is involved.
Since they’ve only cast the male lead (Jason O’Mara), why not cast the female lead his wife, Paige Turco. She’s an excellent actress.
um. did you read the story? he hasn’t been cast yet.
It sounds like Earth 2 without the cool ensemble cast (Debrah Farantino, Clancy Brown, Antonio Sabado, Jr., Rebecca Gayheart, Terry O’Quinn in a recurring role and a wicked Tim Curry). But some of the workable elements are there, strange creatures, exploitable geography. Too bad the stories will lack the cool premise and corporate exploitation Earth2 had. It will depend on the writing and a good cast to pull it off. Otherwise, gimmicky all the way.
Why don’t they just resurrect the Earth 2 series? What an amazing show! Dynamic cast, great ideas… too bad it only lasted for a flicker.
great for jason! life on mars was under appreciated!
this script was actually really bad. I was completely surprised that Spielberg came aboard with the script in disarray the way it is.
I hope it goes for the ridiculous from pretty early on… How about some scientology style aliens riding theses dinos and enslaving the native humans (because lord knows why, but I bet there are going to be humans with these creatures, maybe other future settlers that went even further back in time and forgot where they came from. Im callin it!) But gotta have the aliens. Could be awesome…
It comes off as a pre-historic “Lost in Space” to me, but I do like Jason O’Mara.
A little known US actor named Ben Browder moved to Australia 11 years ago to film Farscape. He lived there almost five years. Just hire Ben.
Glad to see this is an Aussie production, though. There are some very talented folks in OZ.
Oooh. I have nothing against Jason O’Mara. But I would love to see Ben Browder land this gig.
If they don’t give the raptors and Tyrannosaurus feathers I’m going to scream. Still havn’t gotten over how un-life-like Jurassic Park was.
I am very glad to know that Jason will be on T.V. again!! Looking forward to seeing this new show!!!