Saturday, September 3, 2005

ABC pulls promos for disaster drama

By David Kronke / Los Angeles Daily News

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Real-life tragedy has once again collided with Hollywood fantasy, as ABC has withdrawn promos for its upcoming dramatic thriller "Invasion."

The show, created by Shaun Cassidy and starring William Fichtner and Eddie Cibrian, posits a Florida hurricane as the starting point for its story about an alien invasion. Aliens enter a small Florida community under cover of the hurricane's destruction.

The premiere episode focuses on the force of the hurricane's attack and the devastation it leaves in its wake. In an early scene, a reporter (Lisa Sheridan) declares, "Folks out here are pretty confident they can withstand anything, but come tomorrow they just might think again."

In the series, National Guardsmen appear on the scene the very next day.

Though the series remained scheduled to debut on Sept. 21, the network released a statement suggesting that could change. "First and foremost, our thoughts go out to all those affected by this tragedy," the statement read. "As with anything as serious as this, we are taking great efforts to assess sensitivities with regard to our series. We are currently looking at all our programming and marketing efforts with this in mind. Our changes and adjustments are ongoing."

In 2001, the depiction of a terrorist blowing up an airplane was trimmed from the pilot episode of the Fox network's "24" in the aftermath of the attacks of Sept. 11. The release of the film "V for Vendetta," starring Natalie Portman and concerning terrorism in London, was pushed back from this fall to 2006 after the bombings in London on July 7.