Santiago Cabrera – Premium Hollywood

Yes, once again, it’s pilot season: the time when the broadcast networks put all of the potential projects for the 2011 – 2012 season on the table, take a cold, hard look at what’s available to them, and decide which ones have the most potential for success come the fall…or spring, depending on how much or how little confidence they end up having in the final product.

Critics everywhere should be throwing parades in honor of TV Guide’s Natalie Abrams, who has done the heavy lifting for the rest of us and offered up The Complete Pilot Report, listing off all of the pilots currently in the running for ABC, CBS, The CW, Fox, and NBC, along with their creators, their premises, and the actors currently attached to them as of this writing.

Having taken a gander at Abrams’ decidedly comprehensive list, here’s our list of the 20 shows we’d most like to see turn up come the kickoff of the Fall 2011 season:

1. Alcatraz (Fox): A cop (Sarah Jones) and a team of FBI agents track down a group of missing Alcatraz prisoners and guards who reappear in the present day after disappearing 30 years earlier. J.J. Abrams will executive-produce and Liz Sarnoff (“Lost”) will be the showrunner. Jorge Garcia, Sam Neill, Jonny Coyne, Jason Butler Harner, Parminder Nagra, Santiago Cabrera and Robert Forster also star.

2. Awakening (The CW): Two sisters (Lucy Griffiths and Meredith Hagner) face off during a zombie uprising. William Laurin, Glenn Davis, Howard T. Owens, Carolyn Bernstein and Todd Cohen will executive-produce.

3. Brave New World (NBC): The project centers on a group of characters at Pilgrim Village, a theme park that recreates 1637 New England. Peter Tolan (“Rescue Me”) wrote the pilot and will executive-produce with Michael Wimer (“2012”). Ed Begley Jr., Nick Braun, Will Greenberg, Jazz Raycole, Robbie Benson and Anna Popplewell will star.

4. The Council of Dads (Fox): Based on the non-fiction book by Bruce Feiler, a man who learns he’s dying enlists five men to help his wife raise their two children. The project comes from “Rescue Me” creator Peter Tolan. Kyle Bornheimer, Diane Farr, Patrick Breen and Ken Howard will star.

5. Hail Mary (CBS): An Atlanta-set P.I. drama tells the story of a suburban single mom (Minnie Driver) who teams up with a street hustler (Brandon T. Jackson) to solve crimes. Jeff Wadlow will write and executive-produce with Joel Silver and “The L Word” creator Ilene Chaiken. Enrique Murciano and Stephen Tobolowsky will also star.

6. How to Be a Gentleman (CBS): An uptight guy (David Hornsby) learns to live his life with the help of an old high school friend. The project comes from Hornsby (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”). Dave Foley, Nancy Lenehan and Rhys Darby will also star.

7. Little in Common (Fox): This project revolves around families whose children play Little League together. “Veronica Mars”‘ Rob Thomas will write and executive-produce. Rob Corddry, Paula Marshall, Kevin Hart and Gabrielle Union star.

8. Pan Am (ABC) – The stewardesses and pilots of the titular airline are the stars of this soap set in the Jet Age of the 1960s. Jack Orman (“ER”) wrote the pilot and will executive-produce with Nancy Hult Ganis and Tommy Schlamme (“The West Wing”). Christina Ricci, Margot Robbie, Karine Vanasse and Michael Mosley will star.

9. Person of Interest (CBS): A presumed-dead CIA agent (Jim Caviezel) is recruited by a billionaire (Michael Emerson) to catch violent criminals in New York City. “Memento”‘s Jonathan Nolan and J.J. Abrams will executive-produce. Taraji P. Henson will also star.

10. Playboy (NBC) – At the Playboy Club in Chicago in 1963, “bunnies” (incuding Amber Heard and Naturi Naughton) flirt with danger. Chad Hodge and “Apollo 13″‘s Brian Grazer will executive-produce. Jeff Hephner, Laura Benanti, Jenna Dewan-Tatum, Leah Renee, David Krumholtz and Wes Ramsey also star.

11. Reconstruction (NBC) – In the aftermath of the Civil War, a soldier (Martin Henderson) crosses the country and settles in a complicated town where he is welcomed as its savior — whether he likes it or not. “St. Elsewhere” co-creator Josh Brand wrote the pilot. Bill Sage, Claire Wellin, Emma Bell and Rachelle Lefevre will also star.

12. REM (NBC): A police detective (Jason Isaacs) who’s involved in a traumatic car accident wakes up in two fractured realities. The project comes from Kyle Killen, creator of Fox’s short-lived “Lone Star,” and “24”‘s Howard Gordon will also executive-produce.

Due to the phenomenal success of “Heroes,” NBC kindly put together a teleconference with the show’s creator, Tim Kring, and two of the shows stars; their names are Ali Larter and Santiago Cabrera, but you may know them better as Stripper with the Crazy Reflection and Artist Who’s The New Nostradamus. It was a packed call, so we only had the chance to ask one question per person, but here’s what we got out of them…

Bullz-Eye: Ali, in a series that has its fair share of disconcerting moments, yours is definitely the story that’s playing out the most like a horror film.

Ali Larter (“Niki Sanders”): (Laughs)

BE: Given your history with “Final Destination,” did you slip into the role pretty easily…?

AL: You know what? I’m in a bit of fear and distress right now, but if you hold on for just one more episode, we’re gonna get a little romance, you get a little bit of cheekiness in it, and, actually, what’s amazing about this writing is that it really pushes me and makes me kind of find all different tones within our show, so…you’re getting there. That’s just the first couple of episodes. It definitely opens up to a whole new world.

BE: Oh, please let the romance be with Hiro’s buddy…

AL: (Cheekily) Maybeeeeeee…!

BE: Santiago, I’ve been blogging about the show for our site, and I have to wonder: if you had the ability to see the future, do you think maybe you’d spend maybe a little more time trying to change the events you were seeing and less, uh, kind of…whining about it?

Santiago Cabrera (“Isaac Mendez”): Well, I think it’s, uh…I think it depends whether you’re in control of it or not. I think that’s the interesting thing about the surprises that this character can have. It’s that, at the moment, he’s not conscious of what he’s doing, so it’s a pretty freaky thing, and there’s maybe that nature of, “Am I evil, is this coming from inside of me?” Or, “Why is this all happening?” But obviously, if you’re in control of it and you can put it to good use, you can do what you want with it, and that’s a different story. And I think that’s the great thing about this show: that it starts from the beginning of everyone discovering these things for the first time, and, obviously, it’ll be a process of going through each character, and it’ll take people to different places.

BE: And Tim, when I did our fall preview, I opened my comments about “Heroes” by observing, “Whoever had ‘21 years’ in the pool on when NBC would finally decide TV critics had forgotten about ‘Misfits of Science,’ you’re a winner.”

Tim Kring (creator): (Laughs)

BE: And then I proceeded to laugh out loud when I saw on your IMDB entry that you were actually a writer for that show.

TK: Oh, is that right? So that was just a lucky guess…?

BE: It was. Have you been hoarding ideas for 21 years?

TK: Actually, “Misfits of Science” is so long ago that I barely – literally – barely cannot remember what I wrote. But, y’know, I’ve had a long and varied career, so when you look back at it, there’ve been many various genres that I’ve been involved in.

BE: So it hasn’t been haunting you ever since?

TK: No, not really; I’ve just been going where the road takes me. As a writer, if you look back at your career, it’s hard to make any sense of it. It just goes where it wants to go.

Tag: Santiago Cabrera

Greetings to the New Pilots: 20 Series We Hope to See in Fall 2011

“Heroes”: 3 questions, 3 answers

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