Utopia tv show series#

While “Utopia” debuted in the Netherlands in January as the highest-rated unscripted premiere in six years for the SBS6 network and remained No. The $50 million included the initial set build which would then be used over and over again if the show made it to further seasons. News Corp.’s live sporting event czar David Hill, who was brought in to shore up “American Idol” and “The X Factor” after the network’s veteran reality head Mike Darnell’s exit last year, was particularly vocal.Īs a network insider told TheWrap at the time, “These two are at odds since Hill rightly pointed out to others in the company that ‘Utopia’ may be a giant, expensive embarrassment in the making.” At the time, Fox denied that Hill had any reservations about the show.

Utopia tv show series#

See photos: Wet, Wild and Naked: Fox’s ‘Utopia’ Pioneers Let It All Hang Outīut as the price of the show soared to a $50 million price tag, some executives within Fox began to wonder if the series was worth it.

And when we asked the very 'thoughtful' John Cusack if he's an optimistic person during these troubled times, he replied, 'As a wise person said 'hope and reason are two separate things.' Right so if you look at the world reasonably, you can feel very sad about it, yet hope exists cause there’s always the possibility for change and you believe in people, but hope and reason are not always connected.“Utopia’s” failure may have been foretold even before anyone in the United States saw a second of the show.Ī provocative idea that fell apart in the execution, Fox canceled the series on Sunday after two months of consistently low ratings.įrom day one, the show suffered from internal bickering at the network’s highest levels and a heavy-handed execution by producers and Fox’s new alternative chief Simon Andreae.Īndreae bought the Dutch format in January from producer John de Mol’s Talpa Media, which is also behind such ambitious hits as “Big Brother” and “The Voice.” Fox’s alternative programming chief made the bold buy just three months after being announced to the position to avoid a bidding war on the show that was performing well in The Netherlands.The former Office star Rainn Wilson found it strangely odd how the pandemic in the show became semi-true in real life saying, 'We thought we were making a fun crazy romp, science fiction elements and conspiracy theory so it’s pretty cool and weird this show mirrors the real world to an extent.'.Nearly four years later, when shooting began, the cast now includes Rainn Wilson, John Cusack, Jessica Rothe, Dan Byrd, Cory Michael Smith, Ashleigh LaThrop, Desmin Borges, Farrah Mackenzie, and Christopher Denham.When the show was first being developed back in 2015, the cast consisted of Rooney Mara, Eric McCormack and Jason Ritter.series is based on the 2013 hit British show of the same name. As the cities shutdown due to unexplained pandemics, the friends become the hunted. Utopia stars John Cusack and Rainn Wilson and follows a group of comic book fans who believe an unpublished sequel predicts several disastrous epidemics.

Even the two lead stars of the new Amazon sci-fi series Utopia find it strangely ironic how the present day pandemic mirrors the main plotline in the series.