(Please follow the link for the LENGTHY interviews.)
Damian Kindler & Sam Egan Found 'Sanctuary' on SCI FI
By Steven Eramo
The season finale of the SCI FI original series Sanctuary airs this evening. This past fall Newasarama spoke with the series' series creator/executive producer Damian Kindler, as well as writer/executive producer Sam Egan in separate interviews....
Damian Kindler - Strange New World
It is a chilly May evening and well past midnight in Gastown, one of the more "colorful" sections of downtown Vancouver, British Columbia. The cast and crew of Sanctuary are settling in for a long night as they film a handful of scenes for the show's two-hour opener, "Sanctuary for All". Among those working is series creator/executive producer Damian Kindler, who watches from a monitor as a police car slows to a stop in front of a curb. Two actors dressed as police officers get out of the vehicle and rush into a nearby building to investigate a disturbance. Sadly, both their characters meet an untimely end, which just happens to grab the attention of forensic psychiatrist Dr. Will Zimmerman.
"The beginning of our story is set in the real world," notes Kindler, who, despite the late hour, is still full of energy. "It is about one of our characters, Will [Robin Dunne], and his journey from the world he lives in, which he considers to be `normal,' to the world of abnormals. When that happens, the scenes get a bit more heightened, the colors pop, there are more visual effects, etc. So it worked for us conceptually to start out at places like the street of a crime scene, which is where we are tonight, or a hospital, which we were at earlier this week. That's all part of Will's world before it changes. Once that happens, we go into the world of the Sanctuary and everything becomes very effects-driven. This should work out seamlessly because we have a great visual effects company working with us, so we're excited about going from the practical to virtual as part of a hero's journey."
... Sam Egan: Executive Action
He has gone to The Outer Limits, consulted with Quincy M.E., bore witness to an apocalyptic future alongside Jeremiah and even crossed paths with the Masters of Science Fiction. For over three decades, Sam Egan has helped steer the creative courses of numerous TV programs as a writer and/or producer. Nowadays he is serving as a writer/executive producer on the Sci Fi Channel series Sanctuary, which stars former Stargate SG-1 leading lady Amanda Tapping as Dr. Helen Magnus, a scientist trying to figure out how a group of creatures known as abnormals are linked to the human evolutionary track. It was several months after a two-hour series pilot premiered on the Internet that Egan became involved in the project.
"I was a bit of a latecomer to the show, which had already established a web presence," notes Egan. "[Executive producers] Damian Kindler, Martin Wood and Amanda Tapping had given birth to this program; it was Damian's concept to begin with and then he brought in Martin and Amanda. I subsequently became acquainted with it and was a fan long before I had any inkling of my involvement in the series.
"When the Sci Fi Channel took a look at Sanctuary and said, `Hey, this would be a great TV series,' they were kind enough to think of me as someone who might be able to pitch in and jump into the trenches with these very talented people. So I had to play a little bit of catch-up, but at the same time I think it was a help to have someone in there with a fresh eye who hadn't been steeped in the history of the project. This person could then just take a look at it and offer some creative ideas that would test the show's original premise, as well as maybe throw in a new twist or two. Happily, the person they chose was me, and I literally jumped at the opportunity."
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