New sci-fi series gives nod to Blade Runner

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This article was published 07/04/2005 (7714 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO — The hero is a cynical loner. A private eye for hire.

His world is dystopian. A bleak, rainy cityscape with smokestacks belching fire, slow-moving ceiling fans, dusty shafts of window light, all set against a backdrop of Vangelis-sounding music.

No, it’s not Blade Runner, but close. The style of that science-fiction noir classic has been influencing successors for two decades now, and the newest project to pay homage is called Charlie Jade. The 20-episode series, a rare Canada-South Africa co-production, debuts April 16 on Space: The Imagination Station.

The Canadian co-creator and executive producer Robert Wertheimer (Bollywood-Hollywood, Margaret’s Museum) says the tribute occurs off the top of the first episode and was deliberate.

“We felt we had to pay homage to Ridley Scott and Blade Runner at the very, very beginning in order to set the tone,” explains Wertheimer. “An homage to someone who broke new ground, because the entire series was dedicated to breaking new ground.”

But instead of tracking down runaway humanoids like Harrison Ford’s Deckard, Charlie Jade finds himself caught up in a secret project that has opened gateways to two other parallel worlds.

This is a future where five multinational corporations are ruling civilization, and the biggest of them all, Vexcor, has developed a technology to access alternatives to our world, including a pristine one not yet ravaged by environmental degradation. But it’s no utopia. Terrorists lurk there to attack Vexcor’s plans.

In a cast and crew consisting mainly of Canadians, South Africans and Brits, Jade is played by an American, Jeffrey Pierce (Astronauts) who admits that from Deckard to Han Solo, Harrison Ford has been an acting inspiration since he was a kid.

“He plays heroes who have certainly a dark side to them and who are fallible. And that sort of human element is not there in most acting that you see in those prototypical hero roles.”

Wertheimer also says that Jade is far from the stereotypical good guy.

“Often he fails. The choices he makes cause suffering or pain or death to other people.

“It’s a show designed completely differently from any other show, with a very diabolical plan to present people with all the human failings.”

The series was shot in and around Cape Town, with digital special effects inserted by Montreal’s Cinegroupe. In all, the series budget was set at $30 million, with CHUM said to be making its biggest production-partner investment yet.

— Canadian Press