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\n\tWhen Dean Devlin<\/a> launched Electric Entertainment<\/a> back in 2000, he thought it was going to be business as usual. And that business was making big-budget, sci-fi adventure movies like \u201cStargate\u201d (1994) and \u201cIndependence Day\u201d (1996). But, he says, \u201cit became very clear very early on that life was going to be different without the 500-pound gorilla of a big, giant, successful director like Roland Emmerich,\u201d his partner at Centropolis Entertainment. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t think I had quite anticipated that.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tBut, in 2004, things took a dramatic turn for the better. Devlin got a new agent, Brian Pike, then at CAA, who suggested he take a meeting with Michael Wright, the new senior VP of programming at TNT<\/a>, whose goal was to build a brand for a cable channel in what he termed the \u201csmart popcorn space\u201d with fun, elevated, escapist fare.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cMichael said, \u2018I would very much like a Dean Devlin-style movie at TNT,\u2019\u201d Devlin remembers. But he was unsure how the economics would work, because the budget for a \u201cDean Devlin movie\u201d as defined by most of his Centropolis projects was upwards of $100 million. But this was going to be a basic cable TV movie. Wright said, yes, but you can own it.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cMy eyes went wide and I go, \u2018What do you mean?\u2019\u201d recounts Devlin. \u201cAnd he says, \u2018We\u2019ll pay you a license fee for a percentage of the show. You\u2019ll put up the rest of the money, and you\u2019ll have all the worldwide rights, and you\u2019ll get the domestic rights back in four years and own it forever.\u2019 And I had never even thought about anything like that before he had said that. And I got really excited.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIt just so happened that Devlin had a script that fit the bill, \u201cThe Librarian: Quest for the Spear,\u201d by David N. Titcher. It was an action adventure-comedy about a perennial grad student named Flynn Carsen who is drawn into a globe-trotting adventure after becoming the guardian of a vast super-secret archive of supernatural historical artifacts including the Holy Grail and Pandora\u2019s Box.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cHe started pitching it, and I loved it,\u201d recalls Wright, who today is head of MGM+. \u201cIt was the perfect combination of clever and well crafted \u2014 just wildly entertaining.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tFor the lead, Wright suggested Noah Wyle<\/a>, then known almost exclusively for his dramatic role as Dr. John Carter on the long-running NBC series \u201cER.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI said, \u2018Well, I\u2019ve never gotten burned by a really good actor, but I have no idea if he has any comedy chops,\u2019\u201d recalls Devlin. \u201cAnd Noah came on set and just blew me away. Not only did he have great comedy chops, but he had such an encyclopedic memory and mind about the history of comedy and different performances. The way he would talk about how to do a scene, I was blown away by him, and it became very clear to me that he\u2019s not just an actor. He approaches his acting like a filmmaker would, and he ended up becoming a creative partner with me.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe Electric-Wyle partnership would extend across two additional TV movies and the series \u201cThe Librarians<\/a>,\u201d executive produced by Wyle, in which his reprised his role as Flynn in 10 episodes across four seasons (2014\u20132018), as well as directed two episodes.<\/p>\n \n\tNot only did \u201cThe Librarian\u201d franchise give Electric a flagship series and an identity outside the Emmerich\/Centropolis orbit, but it also foisted upon the company a new business model that has served it very well. Devlin says that every project going forward, with the exceptions of the 2016 sequel \u201cIndependence Day: Resurgence\u201d and his 2017 directorial effort \u201cGeostorm,\u201d has been owned by the company. That includes a total of seven TV series, from the crime drama \u201cAlmost Paradise\u201d to the SyFy<\/a> shows \u201cThe Outpost\u201d (2018-2021) and \u201cThe Ark,\u201d which will have its Season 3 debut in 2026.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div> \t\t\t\t\tTHE ARK \u2014 \u201cPretty Big Deal\u201d Episode 206 \u2014 Pictured: (l-r) \u2014 (Photo by: Aleksandar Letic\/Ark TV Holdings, Inc.\/SYFY)<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n
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