Here’s your first look at Tahmoh Penikett in the new SyFy channel’s relaunching of Philip José Farmer’s Riverworld. The new TV series will star Pinikett (of Battlestar Galactica and Dollhouse) as war journalist Matt Ellman, who dies while on his honeymoon with his wife Jessie (Smallville and the new V’s Laura Vandervoort) and wakes up in the titular Riverworld, a mysterious planet where every person who has ever lived on Earth is brought after their death.
The premise of the show will have Matt trying to find Jessie, while at the same time uncovering the truth behind Riverworld. Check out the first promo images from the show below, plus a behind-the-scenes video with co-star Alan Cumming as he transforms into one of the blue-skinned guardians that watches over Riverworld.
When American war zone journalist Matt Ellman (Tahmoh Penikett, Battlestar Galactica) and his fiancée, Jessie Machalan (Laura Vandervoort, Smallville), are killed in an explosion, Matt awakens, separated from Jessie, on the banks of a river snaking endlessly across a mysterious new plane of existence. On Riverworld, everyone who has ever lived on Earth, ever soul throughout time, has been reborn along the banks of a seemingly endless river. Determined to locate Jessie, Matt aligns with Tomoe (Jeananne Goossen, Falcon Beach) , a 13th century female warrior, Allegra (Romina D’Ugo, Hairspray), a 15th century courtesan of shifting alliances, and American novelist and Riverboat captain Samuel Clemens (Mark Deklin, Justice), better known as Mark Twain. With a full crew of adventurers, they embark upriver to understand where they are, why they are here, and to what unknowable end the river winds.
Under the guidance of the peculiar Caretaker (Alan Cumming, Tin Man), their quest takes them below to a torturous Cavern of Souls and the Underworld prison, above in a Zeppelin piloted by a brilliant German engineer, and forward to cross paths with renowned explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton (Peter Wingdfield, 24) who has joined forces with Francisco Pizzaro to conquer and destroy Riverworld. For Matt, each unfathomable day, each nefarious encounter, only deepens the conundrum of Riverworld and raises more questions…What happened to Earth and when? What is the purpose of the burning Orb? What powers are contained in the infamous Dark Tower? And why is their every move being followed by the watchful eye of an alien being? The answers are waiting beyond the endless swells of Riverworld.
Riverworld co-stars Tahmoh Penikett, Laura Vandervoort, Mark Deklin, Peter Wingfield, Jeananne Goossen, Matthew MacCaull, Matty Finochio, Romina D’Ugo, Kwesi Ameyaw, Meg Roe, Thea Gill, Alan Cumming, Arnold Pinnock, Michael Adamthwaite, Bruce Ramsay, Terry Chen, Alessandro Juliani, Alex Zahara, Chiara Zanni, and Aleks Paunovic.
Riverworld premieres on the SyFy Channel in 2010.
Find out more about Riverworld at RHITV.
