Fox’s Minority Report will premiere on September 21, 2015 with Stark Sands and Meagan Good in starring roles. The sci-fi series picks up after the events from 2002’s Minority Report with Tom Cruise and features Sands as Dash, a precog who is driven to stop crimes before they happen. Good plays Police Detective Lara Vega who teams up with Dash to prevent the murders in Dash’s visions from actually taking place.
Teamed up for roundtable interviews at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con, Sands and Good talked about the show’s technology and how the series fits in with the blockbuster directed by Steven Spielberg.
Asked if Dash will have any control over his visions, Sands replied, “He has a limited ability to control them. What I mean is when it’s murder, it overcomes him and he has to literally find somewhere to hide so that people don’t wonder why this guy’s having a convulsion. But little things throughout the day, little things like somebody dropping a tray of silverware or which elevator is going to open, he gets a little twitch and he knows that’s going to happen. So, it’s all things that are in proximity to him, and there are moments on the show where I have to revisit my visions in order to continue the journey and solve the crime. So, there’s a little bit of control.”
The series is set in 2065 which means they had to envision new advances in technology used by law enforcement and by the population in general.
“We have a lot of really interesting things. Like on the smaller side, there was a selfie drone which is actually something that’s being created right now where you’ll see in the show it comes off the kid’s wrist, it goes up in the air, and takes pictures – like selfie pictures of all these kids. So, that’s something that’s being created,” said Good. “We also have something that Mr. Spielberg came up with called a smart gun and that gun actually runs your information and makes a choice about what kind of bullets or if it’s going to use the air gun.”
“Depending on the target it’s looking at and if it’s a threat or not,” added Sands.
“Right. If that person has a record, all that stuff. So there’s a lot of really interesting things,” said Good.
“It’s exciting for us. We’re learning it as we go. All we’ve shot so far is the pilot and it’s exciting to know that we have the opportunity as a show to predict the future from a standpoint of science and not fantasy. All of the things they’re inventing for the show are based on science. They are feasible inventions that may not happen next year but they very much could happen in 50 years,” explained Sands.
“What was really interesting was with Tom Cruise doing the whole visual thing there [demonstrates sliding hands through the air], that literally is an iPhone. That is literally what you’re doing,” said Good.
“The story is if you’ve seen the movie Tom Cruise swiping all those windows and Steve Jobs saw the film and said, ‘I’m going to use that. Let’s make that real.’ That’s how we have swiping on our phones. So, it’s pretty neat to know that there’s a legacy of being innovative and predicting the future, if you will,” said Sands.
The original film was a box office success back in 2002 and retains a 90% fresh rating on RottenTomatoes. So, how does the TV series fit in in the world created by the film?
“You know when I saw it and it was pilot season and I was auditioning for the pilots I was auditioning for, I saw this and I thought, ‘That’s really cool.’ And I was really excited found out that it wasn’t just a reboot, it wasn’t just a reimagining following the same character you knew from the movie – and it’s not something completely different. It follows the background characters, which I always loved. And so I would say it’s a sequel and more of a spinoff, in a way,” explained Sands. “I’m really excited to be part of it. And even just to be able to audition for it was a thrill.”
Watch the full interview with Stark Sands and Meagan Good on Minority Report:
