Piller Hopes Fans Will Enjoy 'Dead Zone'

Longtime Trek writer-producer Michael Piller hopes fans will tune into his new series, The Dead Zone, which he promises will be a "terrifically entertaining" character-driven drama.

Piller yesterday issued a statement expressing his enthusiasm for the new venture, which has been given a full season order by USA Network (story).

Based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, the series stars Anthony Michael Hall and Deep Space Nine's Nicole deBoer and is currently set for a June 2002 debut.

The full text of Piller's message can be found below:

Dear Friends:

I'm surprised and delighted to hear from people literally all over the world this morning who are interested to hear more about The Dead Zone, based on the best-selling novel by Stephen King.

My colleagues, Lloyd Segan and (my son) Shawn Piller and I are already hiring writers and developing material to begin shooting in Vancouver in March. I'm hoping some of the writers will be names that you'll recognize from Star Trek over the years.

You've probably already heard that Anthony Michael Hall stars as Johnny Smith and Nicole de Boer as Sarah. Fans of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine will remember Nicole as the actress who did such a nice job for us in the role of Dax the last season.

The press releases that will be coming out can give you the basics. For now, let me just say that we are dedicated to honoring the vision of Stephen King with the same degree of devotion I had for honoring Gene Roddenberry's vision on Star Trek. We're very much aware that King's fans are demanding - perhaps even as demanding as Star Trek audiences - and we intend to satisfy them to the best of our ability.

I can also promise you that we will bring the same ambition of story-telling to The Dead Zone that I tried to bring to all the Trek series I worked on. This will be a character-driven show that will explore the world in which we live and raise questions about our existence that are not always easily answered.

Most of all, I think you'll find it terrifically entertaining with cutting edge special effects mixed with powerful human drama. As I've told writers coming in to pitch: I don't want to do traditional television here. Our goal is to make each hour a classic of the genre that audiences will want to watch over and over.

We're getting terrific support from Lions' Gate Television, Paramount International and the USA Network - I believe it'll be the most expensive series the cable net has ever ordered. They've really made us feel welcome.

I'm excited about getting back into production, particularly with this inaugural project from the production company I've founded with my son. We call it Piller2 (pronounced 'Piller Squared'). Don't miss our logo at the end of the show in which I ground him for arguing with me...

I'll be happy to answer more questions as we get closer to the premiere - I think it's going to be in June.

Again, thanks for your interest.

Michael Piller

The original article detailing the announcement of the series can be found here.

Discuss this news item at Trek BBS!
 Add TrekToday RSS feed to your news reader or My Yahoo!
Also a CSI: Crime Scene Investigation fan? Then visit CSIFiles.com!