Ark is an upcoming sci-fi web series that seems to be flying under the radar despite looking highly promising.

Ark tells the story of a young woman who, after a very deep sleep, wakes up in a coffin-like pod on a large spacecraft with no recollection of how she came to be there – somewhat similar to the premise behind the upcoming Pandorum. The story follows the woman as she explores her situation, discovers the truth about what is happening, and tries to get home.

The series is the result of a partnership between online content producer 60Frames Entertainment and independent comic book publisher Oni Press. The two are said to be collaborating to release Ark simultaneously as a web-series and as a comic/graphic novel.

Ark is a story conceived by Robbie Thompson, a writer I don’t know a great deal about other than to say he wrote an episode of Jericho. His story has subsequently been developed by series producers Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah who you may know as the showrunners behind the reboot of Beverly Hills 90210.

The web series will consist of ten serialized web episodes, all of which were filmed at once and will slot together like a feature.

In the directors chair is Trey Stokes. Stokes has an extensive resume of involvement in sci-fi series and film. He played a Tellarite Delegate in two episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise and worked in motion capture and/or puppeteering on notable films such as The Abyss, RoboCop 2, Batman Returns, Species, Starship Troopers, and The Blob. He is perhaps most well known as the writer/director of the Pink Five Trilogy, a Star Wars parody series that won him the ‘George Lucas Grand Prize’ and the ‘Audience Favorite’ award in the “Lucasfilm Star Wars Movie Challenge”.  Perhaps that also explains some of the notable Star Wars sound effects that can be heard in the Ark teaser trailer.

Stokes is not only in the directors chair but virtually every other creative chair behind the series. He’s taken on all of the editing, audio and visual effects work himself – basically he’s the creative genius behind nearly everything in the production except the music.

Another point sure to be of high interest to many fans is the involvement of star Renee O’Connor, aka Gabrielle from Xena: Warrior Princess. O’Connor plays a character named Connie who, from the trailer, appears to be somewhat similar to Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley in Alien. In fact much of the trailer bears similarity to Alien – even the music is kind of similar to parts of James Horner’s Aliens.

Additional actors include Adam Cardon (Days of Our Lives / Blue Lake Massacre) as Daryl and newcomer Marjo-Riikka Makela as an unnamed crew member.  There is apparently a forth and unnamed actor in the mix who plays a key role but who never really appears on screen.

I’m surprised that Ark is shrouded in release mystery and is a difficult series to find information about. With Renne O’Connor’s involvement I would have thought this would be a highly anticipated, well publicized series. Whilst the trailer doesn’t give much away, it is filled with visual effects that again serve to create a lot of anticipation.  If anything, it looks ground breaking for a web series.

Watch the trailer now to see what I mean:

A release date for Ark has yet to be given, though back in 2008 it was advertised as “coming next year”.

The status of the comic book remains unknown also.  I was unable to find anything publicized by Oni Press about it.

I am however quite keen to see this series, so I’ll post more about Ark as it comes to hand.

Visit: Official Ark Website

Source(s): Variety / After Ellen / 60Frames / TubeFilter News /

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