Sleepy Hollow

[Sawyer]

I'll take time travel over a complete modernization. At least this way, we get a backstory in the general period of the original story.

[Hunter Rider]

I'd prefer it just be a period piece or modernized rather than having time travel.

[Sawyer]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/04/...e8cb8a2900000e

Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci on Sleepy Hollow's Time Travel
Writing-producing team discusses their FOX pilot's time-trippy bent.

by Scott Collura APRIL 9, 2013

The writing-producing duo Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are everywhere -- Fringe, Transformers Prime, Star Trek Into Darkness and Amazing Spider-Man 2 are a mere sampling of their recent and upcoming work -- but soon it looks like they might be every-when as well with their FOX pilot Sleepy Hollow.

The premise of the pilot (and series if it is greenlit) will involve time travel, a deviation from the classic tale to be sure. In it, Revolutionary War soldier Ichabod Crane (played by Tom Mison) winds up in the modern day where he must work with Sleepy Hollow Detective Abbie Archer (Nicole Beharie) to solve crimes of a presumably otherworldly nature.

I spoke to Kurtzman and Orci yesterday and asked them if they could elaborate on the time-travel aspect of Sleepy Hollow, which they're currently shooting in North Carolina.

"Go to the source material, which is where we took our inspiration," Kurtzman told me. "Washington Irving wrote 'Rip Van Winkle' and 'Sleepy Hollow.' There was something wonderful and delicious that we think is the core of both of those stories -- there is a lot that is evoked by the world of Sleepy Hollow. Witchcraft is evoked by Sleepy Hollow and by the stories that existed back then. In digging into the time period and in digging into the mythology, it felt like there was a way to play with all these elements to tell a new Sleepy Hollow."

The scribes said that the key to launching a project like this, which has been done on film fairly recently, is to somehow make it feel new again -- to bring an in angle the audience isn't expecting. Like time travel.

"The key is, you know, we loved the Tim Burton Sleepy Hollow, so we wanted it to feel significantly different," says Kurtzman. "And yet there are certain things that get evoked when you talk about the geography of Sleepy Hollow and everything that comes to mind with the Headless Horseman. Obviously anybody who grew up watching the Disney Sleepy Hollow, it evokes so much. It’s a pretty delicious world. So the idea is to take these ideas -- the ideas that Irving brought up in the short story -- and then kind of expand on them and use actual history and the idea of witchcraft to play around with how things like time travel would be possible."

Stay tuned to IGN for more news on Sleepy Hollow as we hear it…

I'm sure there will be folks that still don't like it, but I actually really love the idea of the story being part Sleepy Hollow, part Rip Van Winkle.

[jonathancrane]

Same here.

[Marvolo]

If they maintain a gothic nature in the show then I will probably like it, but if they strip it of that and make it something like Elementary (modern and sterile procedural) then probably not.

[Sawyer]

PICKED UP TO SERIES

SLEEPY HOLLOW

From co-creators/executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (the “Star Trek” and “Transformers” franchises, “Fringe”), the thrilling new action-adventure SLEEPY HOLLOW is a modern-day retelling of Washington Irving’s classic. ICHABOD CRANE (Tom Mison) is resurrected and pulled two and a half centuries through time to find that the world is on the brink of destruction and that he is humanity’s last hope, forcing him to team up with a contemporary police officer (Nicole Beharie) to unravel a mystery that dates all the way back to the founding fathers.SLEEPY HOLLOW is from K/O Paper Products in association with 20th Century Fox Television. The series is co-created by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Phillip Iscove and Len Wiseman (“Hawaii Five-0,” “Underworld” and “Total Recall”). The series is executive-produced by Kurtzman, Orci and Wiseman and Heather Kadin. Iscove serves as supervising producer. Wiseman directed the pilot.

[Hunter Rider]

So will the time travel aspect go both ways?

[Sawyer]

Larger First Look Image

[Dr. Evil]

Looking forward to seeing Orlando Jones back on TV. He was on the very early days of MadTV, which were great. Where has he been the last few years?

And of course, this show is John Cho's Plan B in case Go On doesn't get renewed.

[Sawyer]

Well this looks alot better than I thought it would... and why the **** did I not know that Clancy Brown would be in this?!

[Hunter Rider]

Oh yes! I'm all about this.

[Donut]

This looks good

[jonathancrane]

I like what I am seeing.

[Dr. Evil]

Nicole Beharie = Damn!

That is all.

[StrainedEyes]

I lost it when the Horseman whipped out a machine gun.

[THUNDERSTRIKE]

oh HELL YEAH... I am SO gonna be into this...

[Specter313]

I'm actually intrigued by the twist that the Horseman is one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

[Eddie Dean]

Eyes will roll.

[Jennifer Walters]

It looks fun.

But it definitely feels like one of those ''You won't make it past 8 episodes" shows.

I have a feeling I'm gonna very much love Nicole Beharie's character for however how long this last's though.

[Sawyer]

I kinda like that the two leads aren't particularly well-known actors, particularly Ichabod. It's like I'm seeing just the character.

[Specter313]

This definitely feels much in the same vein as Grimm, so if it can find a loyal audience like that, it might actually do fine.

[Dr. Evil]

This show becomes a ratings smash for Fox, it would only help Nicole Beharie's status, much like Scandal has done for Kerry Washington.

[Sawyer]

Has Beharie been around and I just haven't noticed? I knew about Kerry before Scandal, but this is literally the first I've heard about this actress...

[Specter313]

Originally Posted by Sawyer

Has Beharie been around and I just haven't noticed? I knew about Kerry before Scandal, but this is literally the first I've heard about this actress...

Looking at her imdb page, the only thing I've seen her in or even heard of before is Shame, where she met her current beau, dat Fassbender.

[Dr. Evil]

Originally Posted by Sawyer

Has Beharie been around and I just haven't noticed? I knew about Kerry before Scandal, but this is literally the first I've heard about this actress...

She was on "Shame" with (the awesome) Michael Fassbender and was recently in 42. Her film work has mainly been indie films. Her TV work has been limited to guest roles on SVU and the Good Wife. This would be her first major role in mainstream. It hits big, she'll be in high demand.

I knew about Kerry before Scandal as well, but Scandal made Kerry a household name. I believe that Scandal played a role in Kerry getting to play the enslaved wife in Django Unchained.

And sooner or later, the male lead will play an American in either a movie or TV show. It happens to every British or Aussie Actor who does American TV or movies (it will happen to Benedict Cumberbatch too if he decides to do more American projects).