Fox Releases ‘The Sarah Connor Chronicles’ Upfront Trailer
The Series Based on the Film Trilogy Made Famous by Arnie Hits Small Screens Everywhere in January
Some guys get all the luck. First Thomas Dekker got to play the nerdy but cool high-school best friend of invincible cheerleader Claire Bennet on NBC’s divine Heroes. Then he got the gig of a teenage lifetime (he’s only nineteen and portrays a fifteen-year-old) when Warner Bros. Television cast him as the male lead in another eagerly awaited and highly promising sci-fi series, The Sarah Connor Chronicles. This small-screen venture is a “reinvention” (the network’s own word choice) of the Armageddon themes first introduced to millions of filmgoers in the massively successful Terminator feature-film franchise starring current California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as a deadly cyborg from the future sent first to kill and then protect the human Connor family, Sarah and her son John.
In the television show, following the present TV trend of filling lead roles in American series with thespians from overseas, heroine Sarah is played by 33-year-old British stage and film actress Lena Headey. Dekker plays her son John, the person who will eventually lead a revolt against an army of machines after they take over the world as we know it.
According to the Fox Web site, The Sarah Connor Chronicles takes place after the events that unfold in the second installment of the movie franchise, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, not the third, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Thus, Sarah is rebounding from her success preventing the liquid metal Terminator in Part Two (played to perfection by Robert Patrick of The Unit and The X-Files) from completing its mission of killing her son, which occurred before the introduction of the super-cool and improved female Terminatrix model (Kristanna Loken of Sci Fi Channel’s Painkiller Jane) depicted in Part Three.
My only gripe with the four clips and one trailer I’ve viewed thus far is their claustrophobic feel centered exclusively around the core characters. The series also stars Firefly and Serenity‘s Summer Glau (troubled River Tam) as a fellow student and much more at John’s high school, as well as Judging Amy‘s Richard T. Jones (court officer Bruce Van Exel) as a supportive FBI agent.
Given the frighteningly massive global repercussions of the cyborgs’ inevitable proliferation, the series would only make sense to me if it featured a revolving roster of interesting and diverse players. While I appreciate the inherent social, mental, and emotional isolation of being on the run from both the law and nasty Terminators from the future, the impact of the plot’s themes is too widespread for each episode to only deliver more Connor-clan angst interspersed with occasional cyborg fight fests. Hopefully, by the time the show premieres, the footage will look a little more “lively.”
The Sarah Connor Chronicles is brought to us by C2 Pictures (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines) and executive producers Josh Friedman (War of the Worlds) and David Nutter (Supernatural, Smallville). With a pedigree like that, the series better not go wrong.
Take a look here or jump to the video.
Description from Fox:
THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES reveals what happens when SARAH (Lena Headey, “The Brothers Grimm,” “300″) stops running and goes on the offensive against an ever-evolving technological enemy bent on destroying her life, and perhaps the world. Her son, 15-year-old JOHN CONNOR (Thomas Dekker, “Heroes”), knows that he may be the future savior of mankind, but is not yet ready to take on the mantle of leadership that he’s told is his destiny. John finds himself inextricably drawn to CAMERON (Summer Glau, “Serenity,” “The Unit”), an enigmatic and otherworldly student at his high school, who soon proves to be much more than his confidante – she assumes the role of Sarah and John’s fearless protector. On their trail are not only threats from the future, but an intelligent and tough FBI agent, JAMES ELLISON (Richard T. Jones, “Judging Amy”), who soon becomes a powerful ally.
The Sarah Connor Chronicles is slated to premiere on Fox midseason next January and air Sundays at 9pm EST
The Sarah Connor Chronicles photo courtesy of Fox
