Sanctuary: The Complete First Season [Koch Vision]

Executive producer Damian Kindler (left) wrote the concept for Sanctuary as a spec after his agent told him his West Wing pilot wasn't in his own voice. For those who haven't sampled the web version, Sanctuary is about Dr. Helen Magnus and the monsters she keeps in her stately mansion overlooking the fictional 'Old City.' Her team features the quirky tech guy (Battlestar Galactica's Ryan Robbins), her murderous daughter Ashley (Emilie Ullerup), and nemesis Jack the Ripper (Christopher Heyerdahl).

The show's 11 webisodes marked a first for a series with a budget and cast of that stature, but the experience didn't necessarily hearten the show's producers. What distinguished Sanctuary on the web was its high production values, and the upgrade for television is startling. This is one of the best looking and most ambitious series ever done, and at a price "equal to catering budget for Battlestar Galactica," Kindler joked.

Look at how much greenscreen the final product uses! Fellow executive producer and star Amanda Tapping describes the process as "a lot a like doing theatre." She's worked with considerable greenscreen before on Stargate, but really, no one has to this extent:

The castle-like facility that is home to the team of monster-hunters doesn't exist, except digitally:

This process requires a different skillset from every member of the production team. The number of special effects shots is a new one in the television format, and the amount of SFX is staggering: "When you watch, you'll think, they would have built that," Sanctuary director Martin Wood said of the elaborate digital sets.

Filling in the green is special effects supervisor Lee Wilson, who said that the opening shot in the premiere took three months for his Vancouver-based company to put together.

"On Stargate we'd do 12 [special effects shots]," Wood said. "Here, we did 486 shots." The show's broad array of monsters bears that out. What Wood calls "a computer with a lens" creates stunningly detailed mermaids, lizards, Neanderthals and all manner of misunderstood creatures. While the writing in the premiere is slow at times, Sanctuary is almost never not fun to look at.

The revolutionary special effects will attract fans of science fiction, Kindler believes, but the show won't stop there.

"I was trying to find an interesting common ground - this will satisfy really hardcore passionate sci fi fans, but not be such an amazing suspension of disbelief that you there would be tuning out it's about people flying around in giant spaceships that make noise," he said. That's fair enough, but with a 157-year cryptozoologist and her hot mercenary daughter as the protagonists, there's some question of where "the suspension of disbelief" barometer sits at the moment.

Sanctuary's two hour premiere happens tonight in the Battlestar Galactica timeslot, and from what we've seen in the premiere, the show is sufficiently different from its competition that it warrants a look. Sanctuary plans to add to the graphic novel feel by debuting Sherlock Holmes in subsequent episodes, and Kindler promised a serial staple in the form of a cliffhanger in the season finale.

We won't render judgment until the series starts going, but there's reason to be excited. You can watch Samantha Tapping on The Today Show here:

• Brendan hadn't read the original Journey book and went out to find a copy at his local Borders. He found the last copy in a Jules Verne anthology.
• He found out that during World War I, soldiers on all sides of the conflict it was being read by soldiers in the trenches in multiple translations.
• He compared the first version of the script he saw to a three-day old smorgasborg, "It would give you indigestion because so many people had already been going through it." So he pitched a new version to director Eric Brevig, and they made extensive changes to the script, returning it closer to Verne's original version.
• Fraser remembered being wowed by the computer-generated knight coming out of the stained glass window in Young Sherlock Holmes, and we now take amazing effects for granted.
• They were able to view "morninglies" and "nightlies" since they were shooting with digital cameras, instead of viewing them once at the end of the day, or the next day, which is traditionally how it happens.
• 60% of the film has digital enhancements and CGI elements of some kind.
• Brendan's favorite films from his own career are: Gods and Monsters, The Quiet American, The Mummy, and George of the Jungle.
• He went on to say "I'd like to take this opportunity to publicly apologize for Monkeybone," and he called it an "$80 million dollar arthouse film."
• When a fan asked Brendan what advice he'd give to an up and coming actress, he said "I'll give you the same three words I was given when I was in training in Seattle, 'Have courage.'" When asked what the third word was, he said "I'm not very good at math."
• Brendan wants all of us to "take a leap of faith" with this "beta" version of where we're heading with 3D filmmaking, and he says the movie is as important as when sound first came to the movies in The Jazz Singer. Based on the trailer we've seen, we're not sure if we'll be leaping into that hole. However, the 3D footage they showed late sure looked tactile and tasy.

It makes sense that the Sci Fi Channel would want to pick up Sanctuary, since Tapping is one of its biggest stars, and producer Damian Kindler also worked on Stargate SG-1. The network ordered 13 episodes of the series, which will incorporate most of the eight 15-minute webisodes Kindler has already shot, but with improved CGI effects. Some characters, including Tapping's assistant Will Zimmerman (Robin Dunne), will have an expanded role.

The show's move to cable is a victory for direct-to-web programming, as well as a sign that all-CGI sets, in the style of Sin City or 300, can work on TV as well. This time next year, you can expect to see hundreds of online shows featuring cult TV actors emoting in front of pretty CGI pictures. [Hollywood Reporter]

• The Wachowskis' Speed Racer movie backgrounds will be all greenscreen like 300, says star Emile Hirsch. All except for Chim Chim the monkey, which is real. And presumably flung its poop at the pristine green walls. [Empire]
• Dave "Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" Eggers collaborated with director Spike Jonze on the script to Where The Wild Things Are, Jonze's next movie. Wild Things will mix live puppeteering and computer animation. [Hollywood Reporter]
• The Mist took ninth place in the holiday weekend box office, behind more obvious holiday movies Enchanted, This Christmas, Bee Movie and Fred Claus. But Beowulf, American Gangster and Hitman also blew The Mist away.

• Jack Black is bummed that he didn't get to star in a Green Lantern movie. Black was set to star in a comedy, involving an ordinary schlub who joins the corps of space cops with wishing rings. He would have attacked his enemies with green boxing gloves, cages... and condoms. Suddenly, the upcoming Justice League movie (which includes Green Lantern) doesn't sound so bad. [MTV Movies Blog]
• But Black's getting his revenge, by creating a fake trailer for Robocop. It's one of the viral videos posted on the Web site for Be Kind Rewind, his January 2008 film about a guy who erases a video store's stock and decides to remake every movie himself. [Slashfilm]
• When Michelle Forbes return to play Admiral Cain one last time, she chased the other Battlestar actors around the set demanding if they knew who the final Cylon was. And she got nothing. Come to think of it, maybe Cain's the last Cylon? [TV Guide]
• The fans are all right. Southwest Airlines' Spirit in-flight magazine randomly decided to feature an article about fan-fiction. Want to see a version of Heroes where the physics actually makes sense? Leave it to the fans. [Spirit]

The first four "Webisodes" are free on Youtube, but you have to pay for the high-quality versions of all eight. The premise is interesting: it's 2007 and New York City is overrun with monsters who feed off the poor. But a heroic woman scientist (played by Stargate's Amanda Tapping) wants to help the monsters control their powers. Unfortunately, the actual show is a tad cheesy (it starts with Jack the Ripper), and Kindler has the look of a tired pitchman reciting the same talking points for the millionth time.

Video: Sanctuary For All Interview [Web Strategy By Jeremiah]