MUMBAI: The reality genre has worked well for US broadcaster Fox courtesy American Idol. Now the channel has announced a new reality show that goes beyond the fourth wall, into the fourth dimension
It will come out with a new adventure competition series XQuest from Imagine Entertainment's Ron Howard who directed A Beautiful Mind, Brian Grazer and David Nevins; Spectrum MediaWorks' Jim Banister and Alexander Seropian and Emmy Award-winning producers Brady Connell and Jim Jusko of Base Camp Films. The series combines scripted, unscripted and gaming genres
Over multiple episodes, two teams of contestants will be pushed past their physical skills, mental acuity, emotional boundaries and the limits of their imaginations as they leave behind the world as we know it. They will literally enter a new realm as they live and work aboard state-of-the-art "biocrafts," which will provide the experience of space travel.
Over the course of a month, the contestants' perceptions will become reality as they are immersed in every sensorial way possible – sights, sounds, motion and environmental on a 24/7 and 360-degree basis – to take them on an outer-space mission.
Graphics, physical effects and game technologies to allow contestants to experience space travel and compete in challenges over an extended period of time. The ambitious project will require as a year of pre-production to create the necessary biocrafts, facilities and programmes. The biocrafts' interiors are designed with technologically advanced functionality complete with living quarters, bathrooms and cooking facilities. The interiors are also rigged with multiple 24-hour cameras and microphones. The contestants will never come into contact with camera crews. In fact, with the exception of limited communication with Mission Control, they will in a sense be completely cut off from Earth.
While immersed in this environment, the teams will compete on missions, which will take their respective biocrafts to intergalactic locales. Periodically, the teams will be forced to jettison a crew member, until – at the end of a month of complete immersion – a winner returns to Earth.
