If you’ve followed any of producer Lawrence Bender’s work, you’ll know he’s not at all shy about using his platform to dive into some of the most important and debated topics plaguing the modern 21st century – and he’ll do so in an entertaining manner, pulling people into deep thought through the means of film and television entertainment.
A producer whose films have been honored many times over the course of his decade-spanning career, Bender partners with other key creatives to excite, subvert, challenge, entertain and inform – and his current involvement with the upcoming Roswell reboot is no exception to this pattern.
With confirmation of the CW network’s series order of Bender’s Roswell reboot, fans now have the opportunity to engage with more of Bender’s work across a range of cultural issues. Far from preaching to his audience, Bender has a talent for finding the best way to creatively explore perspectives that can encourage engagement, thought, reflection and growth.
Roswell originally ran on the WB and UPN from 1999-2002, building a cult fan following during its three years of success.
Well, those fans have good news coming for them today, as it’s been announced that the Roswell reboot will continue into a full series order. Scheduled to premiere on the CW network sometime in 2018, the wait will soon be over for this dedicated fan base that still holds great love for the series, over fifteen years since it was last broadcast for the first time.
However, the series will take a slightly different shape to the story that’s so well known and loved. Bringing an immigration twist into the alien sci-fi construct, producer Lawrence Bender and team are hard at work to ensure that the original beauty of the Roswell story is preserved, whilst using the platform as a way to make a pointed commentary on immigration politics and realities. This is particularly poignant timing given the political landscape within the US, and there’s many curious eyes paying attention to see which direction the show will take with the topic once it’s finally unveiled.
The show will be set in New Mexico, where the proximity with the Mexican border will become a backdrop for the immigration/extra-terrestrial storyline.
You’ve got to hand it to him – Bender has found a new way to have an old conversation by tying immigration ideas into sci-fi themes of aliens arriving from other planets.
Roswell also provides space for a female protagonist to step up, directed by a female director. With Jeanine Mason stepping into her first lead role as Liz, and prolific writer-director Julie Plec (from The Vampire Diaries and The Originals) in the director’s chair, the team dynamic provides a wonderful opportunity for female creative voices and energies to shine, particularly in the current production climate.
Lawrence Bender has made it a priority to cover social and environmental issues in his work.
The producer of 2006’s An Inconvenient Truth and 2018’s Seven Seconds, Bender has continued to look for ways to imbibe his work with meaning and purpose. An Inconvenient Truth saw the world changed for the better as a result of the hard-hitting climate change truths it creatively and entertainingly communicated, and Bender was honoured with two Academy Awards via the film’s wins as a result on the back of its 2006 Sundance Film Festival premiere.
Of course, going back even further, Bender’s work has continued to make a splash from the very beginning. The producer behind the innovative 1992 Reservoir Dogs, Bender has enjoyed a long producing relationship with Quentin Tarantino, producing all of his work to date outside of Death Proof, Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight. The producer-director team have reshaped the independent film industry with their work for numerous decades, and Bender continues to bring that innovative, creative, boundary-pushing spirit to the work he’s active within today, even on network television.
Although we don’t yet have a confirmed air date for Roswell, fans can rest secure in the knowledge that a full series is now locked in. With production taking place in New Mexico, news will continue to flow as the series gets close to completion. In the meantime, why not visit the original Roswell series to work up an appetite?
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