'Fringe' lured to New York
TV Producer J.J. Abrams says he loves Toronto but decision was financial
LOS ANGELES - The pilot for next season's most anticipated new show was shot in Toronto, but the series has moved to New York for financial reasons, confirms TV's hottest producer, J.J. Abrams (Lost, Star Trek).
Fringe, a sci-fi series premiering Sept. 9 on Fox and CTV, features Vancouver-native Joshua Jackson (Dawson's Creek) as the son of an eccentric scientific genius (Australian John Noble) who joins an FBI agent (Aussie newcomer Anna Tory) in her quest to crack a paranormal plane crash and its bizarre and deadly after-effects.
The opener is set in Boston but was shot in Toronto. There's a cool car chase along Lakeshore Boulevard, under the Gardiner Expressway, as well as a key scene shot inside the angular walls of the newly renovated Royal Ontario Museum. Canadian actors like Peter Outerbridge (ReGenesis) also appear in the pilot.
Abrams and his fellow producers addressed TV critics Monday at the Fox portion of the Television Critics Association press tour. Jackson, Noble and Tory were up on giant screens via satellite from the show's production base in New York.
The 42-year old Abrams said he loved shooting the pilot in Toronto, but New York City - which recently lured the cast and crew of Ugly Betty from Los Angeles - simply provides more incentives for productions to set up in that city.
"It was primarily an economic thing," he said after the session. "All I can say is I love Toronto, I love working with people from there. I'm thrilled to be in New York too (Abrams was born there), but Toronto's been nothing but good to me, too. I hope to work there again."
Abrams says the cost of packing up and moving the series from one city to the other was minimal.
"We didn't build the sets, we shot on locations and dressed them," making the getaway that much easier, he says.
In the past, U.S. productions have shot pilots in Toronto, Vancouver or other Canadian cities in order to reduce costs. Some stay in Canada (like Smallville or Reaper), some don't. With higher start-up costs and ramped up special effects, pilots generally cost two to three times as much as a regular series episode.
The Fringe producers also like Toronto for the genuine snow shots and other cold weather effects, although New York should provide plenty of that, too.
Abrams says Canada has been good to him in the past when it comes to casting. Toronto's Scott Speedman broke out in his early series Felicity. Evangeline Lilly, an Alberta-native, stars in Lost. "We've been lucky in Canada," says Abrams.
He was also inspired by a Canadian director when Fringe was being formulated: David Cronenberg.
"I loved all that Cronenberg stuff, that weird place where medicine and science meet real life," he says.
The producer also cited the 1980 Ken Russell film Altered States - "something I was obsessed with when I was growing up" - as a direct influence on Fringe, as was the David Lynch series Twin Peaks and The X-Files.
One cast member from the Toronto pilot did not make the trip down to New York: a live cow. The black and white heifer pops up in lighter scenes for comic relief.
"We weren't allowed to travel our cow from Canada," says executive producer Jeff Pinkner. "It was the one re-cast from the pilot."
An American cow got the part in the series.
"We literally had a conversation about making up the cow," says Pinkner, "in case anyone notices the spots are different."
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