And really, given all the moving parts with Sens8 it would have been an utter mess without a lot of advance planning.
Looked up Sense8 on Wiki, because I was worried the Whispers/Will situation didn't get resolved in S2. (It does). I didn't spoil myself on anything else. But found out how they came up with it and how long it took them to develop it. They took it to HBO first, but they didn't understand the concept.
According to the Wachowskis, the origins of Sense8 date back several years before the announcement of the show to "a late-night conversation about the ways technology simultaneously unites and divides us".[32] Straczynski recalls that when the Wachowskis decided to create their first series, because of Straczynski's extensive experience working with the format, Lana chose to invite him to her house in San Francisco to brainstorm ideas together.[31][33] Both the Wachowskis and Straczynski agreed that if they were to do a television series, they wanted to attempt something that "nobody had done before",[34] and change the "vocabulary for television production" the same way The Matrix became a major influence for action movies.[35] After several days of discussion they decided on creating a show that would explore the relationship between empathy and evolution in the human race, and whose story would be told in a global scale, necessitating filming on location in several countries over the world, in contrast to the standard production model for television which attempts to limit or fake that as much as possible.[31][36] A source of inspiration for Straczynski was his own experience concerning friends of his who live in different parts of the world but coordinate to watch a movie at the same time and comment to each other online about it.
The trio became so excited with the concept they came up with, they decided to do initial development on their own instead of pitching it to someone else.[31] The Wachowskis wrote three hour-long spec scripts,[39] and together with Straczynski attempted to shop them around, such as at Warner Bros. and HBO,[40] but when they saw that nobody could understand the concept they decided to shelve it.[36] A few years later, when they felt that the landscape of television had become friendlier towards more experimental concepts, they decided to pitch it a second time.[36] On October 2, 2012, Variety first reported the existence of the show, by writing that the Wachowskis, with the help of Straczynski's Studio JMS and Georgeville Television, would be shopping Sense8 around Los Angeles the week to follow.[39] If the series was picked up, the sisters and Straczynski would be sharing showrunner duties. Additionally, the Wachowskis were planning to direct a few episodes of the show if their schedule permitted it. According to Straczynski, the first meeting with potential buyers was with Netflix. The Wachowskis and Straczynski talked to them about subjects such as gender, identity, secrecy and privacy.[41] According to Lana they pitched shooting on location all over the globe to which Netflix responded favorably, which was in contrast to the "clearly impossible" response they had received by other outlets during their earlier abortive attempt.[40] They also told Netflix they were only interested if they had the freedom to "do anything", like "crazy psychic orgies with all sorts of different bodies" and "live births even" to which Netflix also responded positively.[42] After the end of the meeting, despite it having seemingly gone well,[31] they worried they had made a mistake because they had not pitched any action or otherwise commercial aspects.[41] By noon, and before they had the chance to pitch it to other outlets, such as HBO,[35] Netflix called them to preemptively offer to buy and produce the first season.[31] Netflix announced that they had ordered a 10-episode first season for the series on March 27, 2013.[32] Later, during filming,[43] because of the density of the scripts and the extended length of the first cut of the first episode, the showrunners and Netflix came to an agreement to extend the season to 12 episodes.[33] Before filming began, Straczynski and the Wachowskis mapped out five seasons worth of stories for the series,[33] including the series' final episode, similarly to what Straczynski had previously done on his Babylon 5 series.[44] The actors cast were signed for five seasons. "We pitched it as a five-year story. We've mapped out five seasons of this thing, our actor deals are being made for five seasons, five or six depending on the breaks", said Straczynski.[45] The first season acts as the origin story for the characters.[46] When asked how long is their story bible, Straczynski replied "It's in our heads".[41] However, Straczynski did compile a 30-page document detailing the key points of a hypothetical second season should the first season become a success.[47]
I wish it hadn't been cancelled. It's weird, series like Grey's and Supernatural, where the writers don't plan at all and have no character bible or pre-plotted stories, last forever, while series that are pre-plotted, with extensive character bibles, which take big risks, don't. Frustrating. But Sense8 cost about $4M per episode. While Supernatural costs more like $400,000 per episode if that.
Re: Regarding fantasy tv shows..
Looked up Sense8 on Wiki, because I was worried the Whispers/Will situation didn't get resolved in S2. (It does). I didn't spoil myself on anything else.
But found out how they came up with it and how long it took them to develop it. They took it to HBO first, but they didn't understand the concept.
According to the Wachowskis, the origins of Sense8 date back several years before the announcement of the show to "a late-night conversation about the ways technology simultaneously unites and divides us".[32] Straczynski recalls that when the Wachowskis decided to create their first series, because of Straczynski's extensive experience working with the format, Lana chose to invite him to her house in San Francisco to brainstorm ideas together.[31][33] Both the Wachowskis and Straczynski agreed that if they were to do a television series, they wanted to attempt something that "nobody had done before",[34] and change the "vocabulary for television production" the same way The Matrix became a major influence for action movies.[35] After several days of discussion they decided on creating a show that would explore the relationship between empathy and evolution in the human race, and whose story would be told in a global scale, necessitating filming on location in several countries over the world, in contrast to the standard production model for television which attempts to limit or fake that as much as possible.[31][36] A source of inspiration for Straczynski was his own experience concerning friends of his who live in different parts of the world but coordinate to watch a movie at the same time and comment to each other online about it.
The trio became so excited with the concept they came up with, they decided to do initial development on their own instead of pitching it to someone else.[31] The Wachowskis wrote three hour-long spec scripts,[39] and together with Straczynski attempted to shop them around, such as at Warner Bros. and HBO,[40] but when they saw that nobody could understand the concept they decided to shelve it.[36] A few years later, when they felt that the landscape of television had become friendlier towards more experimental concepts, they decided to pitch it a second time.[36] On October 2, 2012, Variety first reported the existence of the show, by writing that the Wachowskis, with the help of Straczynski's Studio JMS and Georgeville Television, would be shopping Sense8 around Los Angeles the week to follow.[39] If the series was picked up, the sisters and Straczynski would be sharing showrunner duties. Additionally, the Wachowskis were planning to direct a few episodes of the show if their schedule permitted it. According to Straczynski, the first meeting with potential buyers was with Netflix. The Wachowskis and Straczynski talked to them about subjects such as gender, identity, secrecy and privacy.[41] According to Lana they pitched shooting on location all over the globe to which Netflix responded favorably, which was in contrast to the "clearly impossible" response they had received by other outlets during their earlier abortive attempt.[40] They also told Netflix they were only interested if they had the freedom to "do anything", like "crazy psychic orgies with all sorts of different bodies" and "live births even" to which Netflix also responded positively.[42] After the end of the meeting, despite it having seemingly gone well,[31] they worried they had made a mistake because they had not pitched any action or otherwise commercial aspects.[41] By noon, and before they had the chance to pitch it to other outlets, such as HBO,[35] Netflix called them to preemptively offer to buy and produce the first season.[31] Netflix announced that they had ordered a 10-episode first season for the series on March 27, 2013.[32] Later, during filming,[43] because of the density of the scripts and the extended length of the first cut of the first episode, the showrunners and Netflix came to an agreement to extend the season to 12 episodes.[33]
Before filming began, Straczynski and the Wachowskis mapped out five seasons worth of stories for the series,[33] including the series' final episode, similarly to what Straczynski had previously done on his Babylon 5 series.[44] The actors cast were signed for five seasons. "We pitched it as a five-year story. We've mapped out five seasons of this thing, our actor deals are being made for five seasons, five or six depending on the breaks", said Straczynski.[45] The first season acts as the origin story for the characters.[46] When asked how long is their story bible, Straczynski replied "It's in our heads".[41] However, Straczynski did compile a 30-page document detailing the key points of a hypothetical second season should the first season become a success.[47]
I wish it hadn't been cancelled. It's weird, series like Grey's and Supernatural, where the writers don't plan at all and have no character bible or pre-plotted stories, last forever, while series that are pre-plotted, with extensive character bibles, which take big risks, don't. Frustrating. But Sense8 cost about $4M per episode. While Supernatural costs more like $400,000 per episode if that.