Author: Emma Loggins
Date: 2009-04-06

Interview:
We had the chance to ask Jon Turteltaub some questions about his latest project - Harper's Island which will debut on CBS on April 9th. Here's what he had to say:

I just thought I'd start off and ask you kind of, maybe what appeals to you most about working on a project like this and presenting it in sort of a really kind of not seen before on TV kind of series?

Jon: Well, that's part of the attraction, the not ever seen before part. Which is, you know, you always want to do something new and interesting and, you know, maybe, you know, have that great new idea that everybody says "wow, that guy's really smart." Usually what happens is when you have something brand new, that means you have a thing everyone doesn't watch and everyone says "wow, that guy, he..." But, you know, on the TV producer side of it, it just seemed like shocking that it was a new idea because it seemed like such an obvious idea. But I don't think the climate and the business atmosphere was right for this kind of show until now. Until networks were at the point of really looking to experiment with formats and, break out of, you know traditions shows of, you know, 22 weeks and episodic style. Through a director's stand point, the notion of doing something that was more thriller/horror based was really the bigger deal for me because I had never done that and every director wants to.

And for someone who doesn't know anything about the series. Maybe has only just seen the commercials and been like "what is that?" What would you say to them? Why should they watch it? What is it that you want them... why do you want them to watch it and what do you hope that they get out of it?

Jon: Surprises every week. You're not going to ever be bored. You will have something where you will get sucked into the characters and the drama but the horror/thriller format means that anything can happen at any time. So that usually shows are kept within really small parameters and oddly enough that's the appeal of a lot of television. You know that you're going to get thirty minutes of law and thirty minutes of order every week and that's what you watch. Here you can't quite tell what's going to happen. You don't know which characters are going to make it or which characters are going to be kicked out and that's the excitement of it. And that's something we learned from reality TV. I was riveted for The Bachelor because I wanted to know which of those girls were staying and which were going. If I knew every week that this was how it was going to go, then I probably wouldn't have watched. It's the surprise that keeps- that kept me interested. I think that's what reality TV has brought to the viewer. Surprise.

Right on. Ok. And umm-

Jon: I think that really didn't answer your question.

No. It did. It did. Because I know that the kind of feedback that we've been getting is "what is that?" And also, is it really for people who have maybe a sensitivity for maybe the horror angle? Is it really gonna be like horror horror? I don't get the sense that it will cause I'm a horror fan myself and I know you can only show so much on network TV anyway. But it does. It's a good answer but I just wanted to know if you could pick three words to describe the series, what would they be and why?

Jon: Exciting. Surprising. Addictive.

Okay. That sounds good to me.

Jon: Surprising because you don't know who the killer is or killers. We'll leave that option open. And you don't know who the victims will be each week. What was my second word?