Steven Spielberg and Peter Chernin are in negotiations to board Fox’s drama project “Terra Nova,” which Variety describes as following 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.
The trade adds that the project would involve such elaborate sets and visual effects that there’s been talk of greenlighting it directly to series production rather than a pilot because it would be too expensive to shut down and start up again during the downtime between pilot and first season’s episodes.
The script for “Terra Nova” was co-written by Craig Silverstein and British writer Kelly Marcel, from an idea of Marcel’s.
Silverstein and Marcel would serve as executive producers along with Aaron Kaplan. Spielberg and Chernin would also executive produce, but deals for the two are not in place yet. If Spielberg comes aboard, DreamWorks TV’s Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank would also sign on as executive producers, as would Chernin Entertainment TV’s Katherine Pope.
