Legion M develops all-out Steampunk new TV series 'Evermor'

LegionM, the fan-owned entertainment company is producing a one-hour fantasy sci-fi Steampunk live-action television series entitled, ‘Evermor,’ which is currently in the development stages. It’s created by LegionM members Perry Covington, Erik Figi, and Tya Kottler. ‘Hellboy’ producer Andrew Cosby is also on-board with the project as the ‘showrunner.’

The series is inspired by the real-life Dr. Evermor’s Sculpture Park in Madison, Wisconsin created by Kottler’s father known as Dr. Evermor. There will be several episodes in the first season. At this stage, it’s too premature to know the logistics or how long Cosby will remain on the project.

The plot surrounds orphaned teenage twins, Ellie and Sam. Together, they discover a wondrous machine that allows them to journey through the multiverse and almost alien Earth within— finding danger, love, family and the limitless potential of the human adventure. The project was announced at WonderCon 2018.

I spoke with LegionM Chief Operations Officer, (COO) Terri Lubaroff about their latest endeavor.

“Right now what we’re concentrating on is getting the show developed in a format that will make it as sellable as possible to potential distributors and financiers and (Andrew Cosby) is really good at that and we could not be any luckier than to be working with him,” explained Terri Lubaroff.  She adds, “It’s appropriate for families to all sit down on a couch together and watch TV. There aren’t a lot of shows like that out there where the material speaks to both parents and kids and we feel that the structure of this show should be able to accomplish that.” “The two leads teenagers Sam and Ellie are orphans and their aunt takes them in and she’s extremely eccentric and that’s the jumping-off point for our story.”

The series has not been cast yet but the pilot script has been written.

“We have a bible that outlines the entire series from start to finish—and all potential episodes other antagonists and other characters; everything we could do in terms of getting the audience excited about it—and we’ve crafted some music for it, sample music for how we feel the tone should look and we’ve done ‘tone books’ and ‘look books’ and we’re finally at a point now where we’re budgeting the series so we can figure out what financing level we’re going to need to get this project made,” Lubaroff comments. “After we figure out budgeting, our next step is to seek financing partners and that may mean—selling it to a network or studio it may mean going to an OTT service like Netflix or selling it independently; and wrapped up into all of that all at the same time, we’ll start reaching out to directors who are interested in potential casting opportunities.” “We’re half-way through the development process—we’ve finished the creative development now we’re in the business development which is figuring out where it’s going to air.”

Since LegionM is a fan-owned company, Lubaroff said they like to do as much transparency as they can.

“Normal companies would not be announcing, “We’ve attached a showrunner and we’ve optioned this show and we’re going to try to get it made—— they would wait until the point where they have actually set it up and they know where it’s going to air. We want our members and investors to know what we’re doing every step of the way—we open up the process.”

The ‘Steampunk’ genre exists in the sci-fi fantasy world. It refers to a period in Victorian England where a lot of inventions were coming into play—like aesthetic designs inspired by 19th-century industrial steam power machinery. The esthetic of ‘Steampunk’ is really what people respond to. There’s a very specific look like crazy googles or slanted John T. Bohler hats.

“It’s not something you see on screen all that often,” Lubaroff said. Dr. Evermor took scrap metal and created this enormous (football field size) beautiful sculpture. And then he created a story around the sculpture. The central ‘technological’ character of our story is called, ‘The Forevertron’ and it’s a piece of steampunk technology that allows you to transport to other earth in the multiverse. In real life, you can go visit the Forevertron in Madison, Wisconsin, and experience what it’s like to depart of this sculpture it’s really incredible—he took scrap metal like things from ‘The Apollo Mission’ and created something beautiful out of it. And that’s what our whole story is based on.”

For more information about the series, visit LegionM.com and for more information regarding Dr. Evermor’s Sculpture Park, visit WorldofEvemor.com.