Terminator The Sarah Connor Evolution

On November 9, 2005, Variety reported that a television series based on the Terminator franchise was being produced by C2 Pictures, which produced Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, in association with Warner Bros. Television. The Fox Broadcasting Company also joined the project by making a commitment to the pilot with Josh Friedman, set to write the pilot and to serve as an executive producer for the series. Among the executive producers were C2 Pictures' Andy Vajna, Mario Kassar and James Middleton.

The series, initially titled The Sarah Connor Chronicles, focuses on the character Sarah Connor, who is on the run with her son after the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Regarding the character, Middleton said, "She has the weight of the world on her shoulders and also has to raise a teenage son who may be the salvation of humanity." Friedman commented that the series would contain fewer action sequences due to the smaller budget of television in contrast to feature films.

Fox Broadcasting greenlit production on August 28, 2006, after Warner Bros. Television hired David Nutter to direct the pilot. The series was among seven new TV shows picked up by Fox on May 13, 2007 for its 2007-08 television season.

In a June 20, 2007 interview, Friedman said the show would avoid the "Terminator of the Week" plot device and that Sarah, John, and Cameron (an advanced Terminator model sent from the future to protect them) will have other threats than just Terminators. Skynet would also come into play as the series progresses. Furthermore, Friedman stated that the events of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines occur in an alternate timeline from that of the TV series.^[7] In addition to having planned the entire story arc for the first season, Friedman has a rough idea for the plot of the following three seasons.

At the 2007 summer Television Critics Association press tour, Fox Entertainment Chairman Peter Liguori said that a certain aspect of the pilot, involving a Terminator posing as a teacher attacking John at school, was to be changed following the shooting at Virginia Tech. Although the shooting remained in the series premiere, a scene showing students dealing with the aftermath as FBI Agent Ellison surveys the damage was removed.

Casting

The casting process of the series took 16 weeks during which the producers auditioned actors not only from America but also from Australia, Canada, and England. Over 300 actresses auditioned for the role of Sarah Connor, the heroine of the Terminator series. Series creator Josh Friedman described the actress he was looking for was someone "who embodied that spirit and who was believable in that role and not just some glammed up, Hollywood, actressy thing." After a friend recommended English actress Lena Headey for the role, Friedman watched her audition tape, and thought she was "a tough, tough woman." Headey was officially cast on November 7, 2006.

On December 7, 2006, the actor cast in the role of 15-year-old John Connor was announced to be Thomas Dekker^. Dekker's management threatened to pull him from the NBC series Heroes to ensure that his character Zach would not be gay, believing that it would threaten his chances of getting the role of John. Regarding the Terminator films, Dekker says, "They are like my favorite films when I was younger. So it's very ironic that I'm getting to do this. And I know for the younger generation and for myself, John was equally important to me as Sarah was, and I know a lot of the people that I hear from really, really care about John."

The remaining two principal cast members of the series, Richard T. Jones and Summer Glau, were announced in January 2007 and February 2007 respectively. Jones likens his character, an FBI agent, to that of Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive. Moreover, he is allowed to improvise a few lines to provide "a little bit of comic relief" to the show. Unlike Dekker, Glau had not seen the Terminator films prior to being cast as Cameron Phillips, whose role in the series was initially kept concealed but was later revealed to be a Terminator sent from the future to protect John. Friedman had previously wanted to cast Glau in a pilot he wrote four years prior to The Sarah Connor Chronicles but she was already committed to Serenity. Glau stated that she felt "intimidated" by the role because the character is comprised of both human and robot characteristics.

The role of Cromartie, a Terminator sent back to kill John Connor, first went to Owain Yeoman, who appeared in the pilot. The trade press reported on September 24, 2007, that Garret Dillahunt has joined the show in that same role.

In April 2008 it was announced by FOX that Brian Austin Green would be a series regular in the show's upcoming second season

Prompted by the return of Terminators into their lives, Sarah and John decide to stop running, and focus on stopping the creation of Skynet. They are aided by Cameron, a Terminator who poses as a female student at John's school, and whose mission is to protect John. Meanwhile, FBI Agent James Ellison pursues Sarah and John with the belief that Sarah is deranged.

Summary

An advance script review by TV Squad revealed that time travel would play a major role in the series premiere, including a temporal leap for the main characters from 1999 to 2007. The pilot episode as broadcast begins in August and September 1999 with a jump to September 2007. Three video clips from the series premiere published on the IGN website included Cromartie, the enemy Terminator, using Sarah's voice over the phone to find John, Sarah and John fighting over their current situation, and Cromartie looking for John, Sarah, and Cameron at the Dyson residence.

Souce: Wikipedia