With the new television season approaching, Fox is starting to ramp up the promotion for its prehistoric pilot. Terra Nova, described internally as “Little House on the Prairie with dinosaurs”, is set to premiere September 26th, but the pilot will air later this summer at San Diego Comic-Con. As part of their promotional push, Fox has released a series of fake warning posters, that give us a glimpse of the series’ reptilian stars. The dinosaurs that appear in Terra Nova will be different from the typical Tyranosaurus rex and Triceratops of film- the creative team is drawing on earlier fossils for their character designs. "We have dinosaurs we know existed from the fossil record, but what's fun is that you get to make up your own dinosaurs.'' Said director Brannon Braga. Joe Earley, Fox President of marketing, also voiced the unique concerns of marketing the prehistoric reptiles. "The T-Rex we all know and grew up with may not be correct. ... We don't want to market with the wrong dinosaurs."
While Terra Nova is being executive produced by dinosaur veteran Steven Spielberg, the sci-fi show is still a pricey gamble for the network- the pilot alone cost $15 million. In fact, Fox has shied away from marketing the series as a science fiction, instead describing it under the more general, and marketable, banner of an “epic family drama.” Perhaps if Terra Nova succeeds, it can help the major networks overcome their fear of genre television. It strikes me as vaguely absurd that Fox have to hide the show about living with dinosaurs behind the generic veneer of “family drama.”
Source: LA Times, Cleveland.com