Fox recently revealed a few new promo spots for its upcoming mid-season starter, Alcatraz. One shows some LOSTesque scenes, while the other two are just recycled footage from previous promos rehashed into new 30 and 45 second spots.
Interestingly enough, the new footage, which apparently takes place back in the prison itself, hints that, like LOST, (also produced by J.J. Abrams), Alcatraz will be interspersed with flashbacks.
It seemed from past promos and synopses that the audience would only get to see the story through the eyes of the investigative team – as they put together the pieces of the puzzle in the present. However, here we see several scenes, presumably from the pilot episode, which are actual flashes back to Alcatraz before the men all disappeared.
The audience will likely be shown snippets of the events that led up to whatever mysterious event caused this time-flexing. Then again, the flashbacks will probably raise more questions while answering old ones, as they will be tied to whichever criminal the team is tracking down in a particular episode.
Alcatraz is about a special team which seems to consist of a former Alcatraz guard, an FBI agent, and an Alcatraz hobbyist, who have to figure out what happened when Alcatraz supposedly shut down, and apprehend criminals from the era who are suddenly appearing in our time (probably by investigating the crimes that originally got them into the prison).
The pilot stars Sam Neill and Jorge Garcia, Sarah Jones, Jonny Coyne, Jason Butler, Parminder Nagra, Santiago Cabrera and Robert Forster, and is directed by Danny Cannon.
Recently, we learned that a few scenes from the first seven episodes are being reworked and reshot, but Alcatraz is still on schedule to begin after the new year on Fox.
