Primeval: New World
Well this is an interesting twist to what’s happening next with the Primeval franchise… Canadian sci-fi channel Space has placed an order for 13 one hour episode of a more adult spin-off from the UK franchise, called Primeval: New World.
There have been some reports of this show being a ‘reboot/reimaging’ of the UK series, but that actually doesn’t seem to be the case. Corrie Coe, VP of Bell Media (Space’s parent company) says it’ll be ‘a parallel, yet independent series’, set in the same universe as the UK show. It will star a Canadian cast playing a new Canadian team taking on past and future creatures as they appear through anomalies, much like the UK show. One of the main differences though will be in the tone, with New World being an ‘older, darker and scarier’ vison of the Primeval mythology – think Torchwood compared to the more family friendly Doctor Who. Jonathan Drake, the head of Primeval’s production company ‘Impossible Pictures’ says “We won’t be replacing the UK show in the international market but complementing it. It will provide a positive glow for our catalogue of existing Primeval shows. And if something were to happen to the UK version, the brand still survives.”
So what does this mean for Primeval UK?.. Well, the press release does say there are plans for ‘story and character development will move between the two series, uniting different plotlines’, however that could still be more of a ‘wish’ rather than solid evidence that Primeval will get a 6th series.
Primeval: New World will start shooting this winter in Vancouver, and be a joint production between Omni Film Productions (who previously produced the entertaining but short lived ‘Defying Gravity’) and Impossible Pictures (the people behind the original UK Primeval series). No news as to who will be broadcasting it in the UK yet, but I suspect both Watch and ITV will have an interest.
