What Ever Happened to “Venus Rises?”
A few years ago it was announced that there was a new, original SF webseires called “Venus Rises” in production. Here’s the first clip that I ever saw of it:
What was intriguing about this to me was that it was unrelated to any other established SF franchise, and from what little information I could glean about it, it seemed to be using something similar to the Star Trek: The New Voyages/Phase 2 production model. The clips I saw from it were pretty impressive, and the whole thing seemed conceptually to be kind of trying to bridge the gap between fanfilms and actual broadcast series, which is, of course, a good thing to do.
The premise - as I understand it - is that in the not too distant future (Next Sunday, AD) Earth is run by a plutocracy that has colonized most of the rest of our solar system, and terraformed Venus and Mars. They then shipped off the poor and troublesome from earth to these two planets, and Earth now subsists on taxes, resources, and labor from her colonies, kinda’ like a bloated leech.
Predictably, eventually some people grow tired of this and revolt. Here’s a clip:
Intrigue, combat, cool looking space ships, and no aliens, time travel, prime directives, or associated Trekian bric-a-brac. Granted, the idea of an “American Revolution on The Moon/Mars/wherever” has been done a lot, but the reason it’s been done so much is that it’s a pretty solid foundation for a story. Acting looked better than Ok, the universe they were playing in looked well-thought-out, and there appeared to be a story arc. Here’s a tour of the sets:
I also really liked that it’s centered on Venus, which - to my mind anyway - is the most likely site for a colony for a whole bunch of reasons (Detailed here: http://www.republibot.com/content/mars-or-venus-which-better-home-humani... ), so it’s nice to see another planet get the love for a change, instead of that dead-end, under-achieving smug, self-satisfied planet Mars!
Anyway, the bottom line here is that I was interested in this project and really looking forward to checking it out, but it disappeared. The last I’d heard, they were shutting down production to recast and reshoot one character’s parts, and/or build some new sets. Then: Nothing. Their website merely has a placeholder saying “Venus Rises Will Return,” but that’s been up for like two years at this point, so I doubt it. I’ve attempted to contact people peripherally attached to the show, but no luck thus far.
Here’s a whole bunch of clips chainlinked together:
So the question is: Is Venus Rises still a going concern, or is it dead? Either way, what happened? How much of it was completed before the project went dark?
If anyone reading this knows anything about the project, please contact us! We’d love to know what was going on, where the series was going, what the status of it is, and so on. Really, pretty much we’d love to interview the producers about the rise and (apparent) fall of Venus Rises.
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Comments
27 December 2008
33 min 30 sec
Joseph!
Wow, thank you for posting, that is SO cool! Thank you for posting! And so quickly, too, the story just went up this morning!
I'm really excited to know the project is still afloat! I'd really like to do a feature on it for the site, here, if that's ok with you.
Hello all,
My name is Joseph Negra who plays Sgt. Nathan Griggs on Venus Rises. To answer the question of whether VR is dead, there is an emphatic "NO".
The official VR website will be down for only a couple more months. (note: the site has not been down for 2 yrs, but rather about 6 months). Unfortunately, while in the midst of re-organizing and revamping, we lost a crew person/web administrator and all content was removed. We have left it down so that when we put the site back up, all new and recent changes will be reflected on the site.
Additionally, we will be releasing a "making of" featureatte along with two new teasers online. The two new short teasers as well as behind the scenes, character clips and cg clips are on Youtube at this time. http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=6A113088EF4C051C&search_query=ve...
The decision was made to go back to the roots from which Venus Rises sprouted that was a grassroots, independent web series built, shot and produced in a house by only a handful of people. Unfortunately, while we were recasting, reshooting, rebuilding and coordinating various people donating their talents, VR was "growing" in expectations by word of mouth. So, in turn, people, critics and prospective fans were becoming disappointed that there was nothing to see yet and we were tired of having nothing to say except "coming soon".
Thank you so much for re-visiting and your interest in VR. We would love to send you any information you would like. The site for contact will be up soon! Keep checking venusrises.com periodically for the new site.
With the greatest respects,
Joseph Negra
some info and recent FAQS:
- The first 3-4 episodes are shot and waiting on cg and animation. the cast and crew had a season 1 wrap party in Aug '08. http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.viewcustom&friendId=1...
- there is an "interspace episode" floating around online that is just a character backstory and is not to be interpreted as episode 1. what is an interspace episode? think of how they made the low-pro mini episodic "Blood Trails" for the release of 30 Days of Night before the movie came out. However, we will be doing more backstory episodes for certain characters in the future.
- all VR sets are originals made for VR and NOT rented from Hermit of the Mountain L.L.C. the confusion was from-
- HOTM is VR's parent company formed by J.G. Birdsall who created the sets.
- Myself, Joseph Negra (Nathan Griggs), and Rob Ferreri (Demille Onaar) are the only main cast members currently involved with post-production discussions and changes along with J.G. and some artists and crew.
- VR HAS NO BUDGET WHATSOEVER AND NEVER HAS! all expenses are out of pocket and donated time spent.
- Yes, VR is filmed entirely in 2 New Jersey suburban households with the sets built in rooms. Location shooting for the first 3 episodes was also entirely a Jersey thing except for one scene shot in Pennsylvania.