TV News: Krypton (SyFy)

CageNarleigh

DC/WB is developing a new show on SyFy called "Krypton" with David Goyer producing, Hollywood Reporter reports.



"From Warner Horizon Television and DC Comics, Krypton takes place years before the Superman legend we know, when the House of El was shamed and ostracized. This drama, which is in development, follows the Man of Steel's grandfather as he brings hope and equality to Krypton, turning a planet in disarray into one worthy of giving birth to the greatest Super Hero ever known."

CageNarleigh

I'm excited but also VERY apprehensive. With 'Gotham' at least you have it taking place while Gordon is a younger man, so you're no so far removed that you can't have cool references to the Batman mythos and/or the DC Universe as a whole. If Krypton mostly focuses on Kal-El's (Superman's birth name for the uninitiated) GRANDFATHER...what are you going to do to bring people in? Promise a CRAP TON of flash forwards to Supe's doing his thing? I was thinking Zod, but even then, he won't even be alive in this time-frame. So what the heck?

But on the other hand....Krypton. @-)

Evening639

I'm actually quite intrigued by this. I've always found Superman's alien origins to be one of the most interesting aspects of his character and always wanted to see more of the background and history of Krypton.

And since I've read very few Superman comics over the years, I can approach this without bias.

DoctorDoom

Base it off of the Last Days of Krypton?

Matt

Initial assessment: it sounds like the TV series Caprica. Battlestar Galactica reboot/relaunch/re-imagined kicked ass...but that wasn't enough for me to try Caprica.

Even if I was watching the other comic book TV series on right now, this sounds like a show I would skip.

M

kgforce

Normally I'd be all over this. But I'm apprehensive about anything on SyFy. Have they done anything decent since Farscape and BSG ?

David_D

I'm hoping that Animal Planet picks up the pilot for The Kents. It's about all the farming that happened before the rocket crashes.

TheOriginalGMan

kgforce said:

Normally I'd be all over this. But I'm apprehensive about anything on SyFy. Have they done anything decent since Farscape and BSG ?

For whatever it's worth, I read somewhere recently that Syfy is attempting to make a concerted effort to up the production quality of their programming, so it has less of a "Canadian production feel."

David_D

TheOriginalGMan said:

kgforce said:

Normally I'd be all over this. But I'm apprehensive about anything on SyFy. Have they done anything decent since Farscape and BSG ?

For whatever it's worth, I read somewhere recently that Syfy is attempting to make a concerted effort to up the production quality of their programming, so it has less of a "Canadian production feel."

To be fair to Canada, though, BSG (I would say, their best show) was a Canadian production. And Orphan Black, which is some of the best sci-fi on TV these days, is a Canadian production.

Though I get what you mean-- BSG didn't feel like a made on the cheap production. So it didn't feel like a certain kind of Canadian sci-fi. That sort of "Canadian feel".

DoctorDoom

Matt said:

Initial assessment: it sounds like the TV series Caprica. Battlestar Galactica reboot/relaunch/re-imagined kicked ass...but that wasn't enough for me to try Caprica.

It wasn't enough for a lot of other people as well if I recall correctly.

TheOriginalGMan

David_D said:

Though I get what you mean-- BSG didn't feel like a made on the cheap production. So it didn't feel like a certain kind of Canadian sci-fi. That sort of "Canadian feel".

That actually wasn't my term for it. That's what they called it. (or something to that effect).

David_D

TheOriginalGMan said:

David_D said:

Though I get what you mean-- BSG didn't feel like a made on the cheap production. So it didn't feel like a certain kind of Canadian sci-fi. That sort of "Canadian feel".

That actually wasn't my term for it. That's what they called it. (or something to that effect).

Interesting-- I'm sure the many Canadian production companies that SyFy has used over the years were thrilled with that term. (As well as the Canadian government who likely provided big tax incentives to production!)

EarthGBilly

David_D said:

I'm hoping that Animal Planet picks up the pilot for The Kents. It's about all the farming that happened before the rocket crashes.

*slow clap*

Well played, sir. Well played.

TheOriginalGMan

David_D said:

Interesting-- I'm sure the many Canadian production companies that SyFy has used over the years were thrilled with that term. (As well as the Canadian government who likely provided big tax incentives to production!)

I'm thinking it's akin to industry shorthand for "low budget."

TheOriginalGMan

Here's the article I was trying to recall. It's from an interview with their new head of programming but it's actually the interviewer who makes the "Canadian" remark:

http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/10/28/syfy/

Q - When you say “high-end,” I think of a larger budget. Are Syfy shows being given that larger budget to have that look-feel of those shows? I think one description of the previous Syfy shows is that they’re very “Canadian looking.”

A - When I was at USA we used to always have this phrase: “USA Network: Made in Canada,” because we shot a lot of stuff up there. A lot of people shoot up there. I know what you’re saying and the answer is Yes. We have bigger budgets now. We have budgets that could compete with anybody else in basic cable. Premium cable is a different story, obviously. The budget that HBO has—they’re playing a different game. But when you look at The Walking Dead or Breaking Bad or anything that I worked on at USA, we are at least at that level, if not above. We are trying to bring in directors, producers, you name it, that can execute. I certainly think our shows are already looking better than they have in the past because the corporation supporting us [Comcast], and the corporation understands that we should be investing in genre right now. That’s been the biggest pleasant surprise I’ve had since I’ve arrived — the amount of resources Comcast is providing and kind of everybody up the food chain is recognizing that to pull off sci-fi in the way that we really want to pull it off, you do have to spend. You don’t have to be a reckless drunken sailor, but you do have to sometimes even outspend basic cable competitors for the shows to look the way they will.

David_D

TheOriginalGMan said:

Here's the article I was trying to recall. It's from an interview with their new head of programming but it's actually the interviewer who makes the "Canadian" remark:

http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/10/28/syfy/

Q - When you say “high-end,” I think of a larger budget. Are Syfy shows being given that larger budget to have that look-feel of those shows? I think one description of the previous Syfy shows is that they’re very “Canadian looking.”

A - When I was at USA we used to always have this phrase: “USA Network: Made in Canada,” because we shot a lot of stuff up there. A lot of people shoot up there. I know what you’re saying and the answer is Yes. We have bigger budgets now. We have budgets that could compete with anybody else in basic cable. Premium cable is a different story, obviously. The budget that HBO has—they’re playing a different game. But when you look at The Walking Dead or Breaking Bad or anything that I worked on at USA, we are at least at that level, if not above. We are trying to bring in directors, producers, you name it, that can execute. I certainly think our shows are already looking better than they have in the past because the corporation supporting us [Comcast], and the corporation understands that we should be investing in genre right now. That’s been the biggest pleasant surprise I’ve had since I’ve arrived — the amount of resources Comcast is providing and kind of everybody up the food chain is recognizing that to pull off sci-fi in the way that we really want to pull it off, you do have to spend. You don’t have to be a reckless drunken sailor, but you do have to sometimes even outspend basic cable competitors for the shows to look the way they will.

Cool. Thanks for that. While the head of programming for SyFy didn't exactly push against the term, I would imagine their Canadian counterparts (and co-producers) would at least be glad it was the EW's term rather than McGoldrick.

I also notice that he didn't suggest they won't still be shooting in Canada. Rather, that they will just have bigger budgets.

David_D

PS- Also, for what it is worth, what I have seen of 12 Monkeys so far looks very good. And a big improvement over some of what SyFy's output has been recently.

TheOriginalGMan

I think several of those new shows sound interesting (12 Monkeys, Ascension, and The Expanse). Ascension premieres next week, I think. We'll be able to put that whole "Canadian" thing to the test, I guess. :-)

jaydee74

Matt said:

Initial assessment: it sounds like the TV series Caprica. Battlestar Galactica reboot/relaunch/re-imagined kicked ass...but that wasn't enough for me to try Caprica.

Even if I was watching the other comic book TV series on right now, this sounds like a show I would skip.

M

THANK YOU! I was trying to think of that prequel show this sounded like. I'm very apprehensive of this show. At least with a show like Gotham, we have a young Bruce Wayne that we see and we get to see him in his formative years, starting to train a bit to become Batman. I am assuming since we are focusing on Superman's grandfather, we may not even get Jor-El unless he's going to be a baby or a kid or something like that. It could be good I guess. I just don't have a lot of faith in SyFy. I guess we'll just have to wait and find out.

CageNarleigh

David Goyer Says Krypton Takes Place 200 Years Before Man Of Steel

"It takes place 200 years before Man of Steel."
"We're treating Krypton like it's a historical piece."
"We look to previous cultures on Earth to model what that would be like."

"We scratched the surface in the film and, for me, that was the allure," he said. "I was always fascinated, as a kid, with the books about Krypton and they’ve only shaded in a tiny bit, so we’ll learn about the politics of the world. We’ll learn about the culture, the art, all the different guilds." That means looking at the capitol city, Kryptopolis, but also "a lot of different locations... some of the other moons, which is kind of cool," he teased. In the comics, Krypton has had as many as three moons, Wegthor, Mithen, and Xenon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn2cyZAcLWM

Chuck_Melville

Somehow, this sounds like another Gotham to me...

CageNarleigh

Chuck_Melville said:

Somehow, this sounds like another Gotham to me...

But somehow worse...

DoctorDoom

CageNarleigh said:

Chuck_Melville said:

Somehow, this sounds like another Gotham to me...

But somehow worse...

Man, I hate to be negative, but I have to agree. I just can't see this lasting more than a season.

Matt

Completely unrelated question; is Caprica still on tv? I know Battlestar Galactica kicked ass, but the notion of a prequel series that took place a generation before the series just seemed uninteresting.

Not certain why I suddenly thought about Caprica.

Carry on,
M

hauberk

Matt said:

Completely unrelated question; is Caprica still on tv? I know Battlestar Galactica kicked ass, but the notion of a prequel series that took place a generation before the series just seemed uninteresting.

Not certain why I suddenly thought about Caprica.

Carry on,
M

No. It lasted one season (shown in a similar half season with break format as BSG). It was substantially less engaging.

David_D

It is definitely a bigger ask of the audience than Gotham makes. As, at even though Gotham is 'Batman without Batman', you do get to tell the origin stories of Batman villains that you already know and are invested in. And there are scenes with a young Bruce Wayne, a younger Alfred, and of course, Gordon.

But to take a deep dive into the history of Krypton...? I sort of wonder why not just do an entirely original SF show instead? (I mean, I know for market reasons why not, but if they are going to try to lean on the investment of Superman fans... how far is that going to stretch into, you know, Kal-El and Zod's great-great-great-grandparents?)

I wish them luck on this one. I respect the risk. Let me put it that way.

kiwijase

I wonder about the expense. With Gotham, you can use existing city streets for location shooting. With Krypton, you have to pretty much build everything from scratch.

CageNarleigh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvSZKB2WNKg


Figured I'd post this since the conversation died down a bit. Now we have cool footage!

chrisl

It looks interesting. And I’ve enjoyed Happy! so I’m looking forward to seeing it.

mphil

You know, we've reached the point where not only can I not keep up with watching all of the super hero shows, I can't even keep up with knowing about them. I mean, Hulu has one and then there's this new X-Men show (not the FX one but some other), and now SyFy is getting into it? Yeah, it's going to be a long time until I get around to most of these shows.

But damn. This looks solid to me. I'm interested.

CageNarleigh

Soooooo....has anyone watched yet?!