January 15, 2009 by Michael Hickerson
According to director and producer Jon Turteltaub, a “Jericho” movie is in the works.
“We’re developing a feature for ‘Jericho’,” Turteltaub told iFMagzine. “It would not require you to have seen the TV show, but it get into life after an event like this on a national scale. It would be the bigger, full on American version of what’s going on beyond the town in Jericho.”
Turtletaub said that members of the TV cast would return and that the movie would have a substatial budget.
“Anything would be a huge budget compared to what we were dealing with,” he said. “If we had $40 million dollars to make a movie with, that’s 20 times more than we did before.”
The serial drama began in September 2006 and centered on the residents of the fictional town of Jericho, Kansas in the aftermath of nuclear attacks on 23 major cities in the contiguous United States.
Initially cancelled after its first season, overwhelming fan support brought the show back for a further seven episodes but ratings sadly continued to slide which prompted its cancellation.
The series is currently airing Sunday nights on the CW. Turtletaub said should the episodes prove successful there, the series could be brought back (again).
“I think they’re airing it because it’s cheap and there’s still that feeling that it hasn’t really gotten all the attention it can. When I think about the fact, a repeat of Jericho’ on CW actually has more viewers than an episode of ‘Mad Men’, you realize the difference between cable and broadcast,” he said. “You realize the difference between what the press is watching vs. what America is watching. And I bring up ‘Mad Men; because it’s a brilliant show. But it’s still fun to see the show won’t die.” |
