Welcome to the Cosmos is a sci fi adventure series following four ordinary strangers accidentally swept aboard a space craft involved in a botched mission over Earth.  Faced with the ship on auto-pilot racing away from Earth toward the far reaches of the universe and a dead alien crew, the gang gets caught in a galactic conflict that threatens the future of Earth.

Overview

WTTCOriginally conceived as a feature length telemovie by co-creators Nick Hallam & Vanessa Burt, Welcome to the Cosmos has undergone extensive development over the past few years. We began with a screenplay and concept artwork showcasing designs for makeup, costuming, sets and visual effects,  and the production of a teaser trailer and pitch video.

This then led to Film Victoria and Screen Australia getting behind the project to finance a 13 minute proof of concept pilot episode. Now having all the prep work done, further screenplay rewrites complete in consultation with Battlestar Galactica’s Michael Rymer, and costumes and visual effects assets in place, our aim now to is produce “Cosmos” as either a complete movie or alternatively a cliff-hanger to-be-continued series of episodes in a stand-alone series, with enough scope to continue with it further.

Philosophy

We conceived of Welcome to the Cosmos by wondering, “what if you suddenly woke up on a spacecraft with a group of strangers, Earth is staring back at you, and you have no idea what to do next”?

We wanted our core group of characters to be ordinary people, not crazy UFO abductees, or uniformed military, or a starship crew from the future, but simply regular joes caught up in extraordinary circumstances and trying to survive and make it home.

We know that a science fiction series from Australia can compete with what’s on offer internationally, so long as the characters are believable, the story is entertaining, the cast is great, the SFX are top notch and the production values are high. With the right talent and passion this is all achievable on a modest budget whilst showcasing a uniquely Australian sensibility.

Humor is an important component of the series, much like how TV shows like Torchwood, Buffy and Firefly employ it to great effect. This means many of the traditional sci fi genre concepts familiar to fans of sci fi (eg, aliens, space ships, probes, gravity, food, translated language, uniforms) are filtered through the eyes of the human characters as the audience’s eyes and ears and illuminated through their nervous comedic reactions.

An influence on the series is the style of popular 80′s movies such as Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, Romancing the Stone, Indiana Jones, in terms of energetic story, lightness of tone, rousing music, and the ability to entertain and move us with action, humour, and characters we care about.

Proposed Episodes

  • Episode 1: “Destination Earth”

    A chase over Earth for two alien ships has unintended consequences for four strangers from Melbourne. (PILOT EPISODE already complete)

  • Episode 2-3: “Out in the Cosmos”

    The four humans regain consciousness on board a spacecraft. After the crew is attacked by an alien captive, the humans find themselves alone and helpless on the ship flying out into deep space.

  • Episode 4-5: “Stand Off”

    The humans get to know each other as they begin exploring the ship and try to make sense of their situation. After entering a portal to the other side of the galaxy, they discover they are not alone as they make first contact with the ship’s alien occupants in a tense stand off.

  • Episode 6: “The Accused”

    The humans’ situation looks bleak as they go on trial. Krell presents his case to the Council on how Quomar can be saved.

  • Episode 7: “Get to the Car”

    The humans plan a daring escape from the station but the gang is separated when Rob is taken by Krell.

  • Episode 8: “There’s No Place Like Home”.

    The battle for Earth begins. But even if it succeeds life will never be the same for the four humans.