SF Vets Fuel The 4400
Rene Echevarria, executive producer of USA Network's upcoming SF drama The 4400, told SCI FI Wire that the limited series comprises writers who are veterans of several SF TV shows. The writers include Ira Steven Behr and Robert Hewitt Wolfe, who, like Echevarria, worked on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Echevarria has also written for Dark Angel and Now and Again. Wolfe developed Andromeda and wrote for The Dead Zone and UPN's The Twilight Zone update, which Behr produced. 4400 writer Scott Peters, meanwhile, counts among his credits The Outer Limits and Animorphs.
Echevarria added that the group worked well together on The 4400, in which thousands of missing and presumed dead people return all at once, prompting the formation of a government agency to keep tabs on the returnees. "After USA ordered the series I had to step away from the project to shoot a pilot for Fox, but I was really glad that Ira Behr agreed to come in and executive produce the show," Echevarria said in an interview. "We'd worked together on Star Trek, and I knew he'd hit it off with Scott. Ira brought in Robert Wolfe, who'd also worked on Deep Space Nine with us. They did an amazing job developing the stories and put together a great cast [which includes Peter Coyote, Joel Gretsch and Jacqueline McKenzie] and a terrific director [Yves Simoneau]."
The 4400 will debut as a two-hour special at 9 p.m. ET/PT July 11 on USA Network, with subsequent hours airing Sunday nights until Aug. 8. USA Network is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.