At the heart of new TV show The Franchise is fictional movie Tecto: Eye of the Storm, the latest installment in a huge superhero series. As a satire of franchise moviemaking, we follow the filmmakers as, well, everything goes wrong in their attempts to bring Tecto to life – which of course, is hilarious.
But what makes The Franchise even more fun is the fact that a full treatment plan and scripts were actually written for the fictional Tecto movie. As cast member Isaac Powell, who portrays overwhelmed personal assistant Bryson, tells 12DOVE, these real scripts were used as props during the the making of the show: "That's what we are holding, the actual scripts!"
This aided the actors in their performances, with lead star Himesh Patel, who plays struggling assistant director Daniel, emphasizing to us that it helped make the experience more immersive: "It was really fun to be given those real sides [pages of the script] that we get usually get given as actors, but I as Daniel had my own ones. It gave a real sense of immersion in this world and this reality. Maybe one day we will get to make it or at least do a table read." We will keep our fingers crossed for that Himesh!
Showrunner Jon Brown adds that creating the Tecto scripts was the best part of the job when in the writers' room – and it also helped them overcome issues with writing the actual Franchise episodes too.
He adds: "That was probably the most fun we had in the writers' room. If you hit a wall or an episode wasn't working, we went back to the Tecto script. We had a full treatment outline of about 20 to 30 pages, which hit all the key beats of a franchise movie but within our Tecto world – and exaggerated, of course. It was a fun experiment to take those familiar shapes and do our own version of it."
Whilst in the writers' room – and even on set – the team also ensured that they were reactive to what was going on in the real world of franchise moviemaking, bringing in ideas as things developed in real life. One great example lies within the second episode, where a senior producer tells the Tecto team that the head of the studio wants to make fewer films and shows within the fictional Centurion franchise.
If you think this sounds familiar, that's because it's directly influenced by Disney boss Bob Iger saying last summer that they will be cutting back on Marvel and Star Wars content.
As Brown tells us, this was then brought into his show: "A change that we made to a scene in the second episode quite late on was when Pat says there's a new directive form upstairs, we are making less stuff. That's because that was what was happening in the real world, Bob Iger was saying that. This show isn't just about Marvel but franchises as a whole, but we wanted to reflect that."
The Franchise premieres today on Sky and NOW in the UK with its first three episodes. You can watch it weekly in the US via HBO and Max.
For more, check out our guide to the new TV shows heading your way.
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