FlashForward is taking a step back.

Sources confirm to me exclusively that ABC has temporarily shut down production on the rookie drama. The move comes a month after the departure of co-showrunner, Marc Guggenheim, and less than a week after FlashForward hit a new ratings low.

An Alphabet spokesperson confirms the shutdown, but is quick to note that the show’s schedule was designed to accommodate such breaks. “They started production early so that they could have the luxury to do this,” says the rep. “They want to maintain the high quality of the show, and this gives the writers the opportunity to do so.”

FlashForward’s lull won’t be nearly as long as the month-long creative hiatus ABC imposed over at V. The Alphabet rep says FF — which airs its mid-season finale on Dec. 3 — will resume production on Monday after just a six-day break.

Sonya attended the Hollywood Film Festival’s Ending Violence Against Women in Congo Symposium on October 24. Here are some photos and the full set can view viewed here in the gallery.

Going through “Lost” withdrawal during this eight-month hiatus? Devastated that your favorite desert-island mystery won’t be returning to the airwaves after its series finale this May? Fear not, because ABC is confident that it has a solution for you. Since first airing five promo spots of its newest sci-fi mindbender “FlashForward” during an April 2009 episode of “Lost,” ABC has been aggressively targeting the show’s fans with endless reminders that “FlashForward” might be the heir to the throne of indulgently confusing network thrillers.

This seems logical enough — on paper, the premise of “FlashForward” (airing Thursdays at 8 p.m.) really does sound like “Lost 2.0.” According to the show’s premise, on Oct. 6, 2009, the entire planet lost consciousness for 137 seconds, during which time most people experienced a vision of what they would be doing on April 29, 2010. The mass loss of consciousness caused tens of millions of deaths and widespread panic.

In the devastating aftermath of the event, Los Angeles-based FBI agent Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) hatches a plan that, he hopes, will help solve the mystery of what caused the blackout. With the help of his partners at the bureau, he launches a web site called “Mosaic” that asks citizens of the world to post answers to the popular post-blackout question: “What did you see?”

Answers to the question range from the mundane — sitting on a toilet reading the sports section — to the inexplicable, as one character experiences a vision of his reunion with the daughter whose remains he thought he buried years ago. Using the database, Mark and company gain access to clues that should help in their investigation.

The catch? Mark was motivated to set up this web site and begin the ensuing investigation only because he saw himself working on it in his vision. Each clue that he finds to explain the blackout — every cryptic Post-it and creepy photograph — is a clue that he already saw on the investigation board in his flash-forward. The audience can only wonder whether Mark saw his flash-forward because he was destined to spearhead the investigation, or whether Mark chose to spearhead the investigation only after seeing his flash-forward.

Mark’s motivation for understanding the blackout is more personalthan most of his co-workers know. A recovered alcoholic, Mark saw himself taking shots from a flask as he worked on the puzzle. And his wife Olivia, played by Sonya Walger, saw herself with another man.

Thus, just like in “Lost,” questions of free will versus determinism abound against a pseudo-scientific backdrop of time travel, with plenty of inter-character drama thrown in for spice. And, like its supposed predecessor, “FlashForward” seems to delight in the opportunity to confuse its audience.

Not to worry, though, just like J.J. Abrams, “FlashForward” showrunners David S. Goyer and Brannon Braga promise audiences that they know exactly where the show is going, down to the last shot of the last episode.

And the similarities don’t stop there. In its first five episodes, “FlashForward” has, both intentionally and unintentionally, paid homage to countless “Lost” mainstays. There’s the unexplained and out-of-place kangaroo that hops past Mark in the pilot (polar bears, anyone?). Not to mention that two “Lost” alums, Walger and Dominic Monaghan, have lead roles on the new series.

But some of these winking nods, like the Oceanic Airlines billboard in the background of one pre-blackout shot, are overkill. In the end, ABC’s attempts at forcing the notion of a “Lost” companion down the throats of viewers are really quite off-putting. After all, how can you compare a show in its infancy to the mini-empire that “Lost” has become in its five overwhelmingly successful seasons?

The answer that ABC has failed to see is that you can’t. To tote any show as the new “Lost” is to set viewers up for disappointment. Indeed, after premiering at No. 1 in the Nielsen ratings in the competitive 8 p.m. Thursday time slot (beating out even “Survivor: Samoa”), “FlashForward” slowly lost a significant portion of its viewers over the following three weeks (though the fourth week brought a very slight increase).

And, while most critics have given “FlashForward” a positive reception, few have refrained from mentioning that other sci-fi show. The question of whether this will be an adequate replacement threatens to overshadow the otherwise complimentary reviews. The endless “Lost” echoes have already detracted from much of the new show’s individual brilliance.

So please, ABC, get rid of the Oceanic billboards, nix the kangaroos, stop name-dropping “Lost” in the promotional materials. And for God’s sake, don’t shove “FlashForward” into the former “Lost” time slot once it goes off the air in May.

While the “Lost” hype may have been a strategic way to draw attention to this newcomer, it is time to let one of this season’s most promising new shows develop an identity of its own.

Olivia Benford is a complex woman who’s deeply in love, but struggling with the recent events of the future flash her, and everyone else on the face of this planet, saw in the new ABC series FlashForward. Olivia is played by actress Sonya Walger, who has guest starred on LOST since 2006 as Penelope Widmore, another woman deeply in love and struggling to keep that love intact. TVOvermind had the privilege to speak to Sonya Walger yesterday about her role on the show, and what we can hope to see as the mysterious series progresses at a rapid pace.

Read the full interview here at TVOvermind.com

If you thought Lost was a tricky show filled with twists and turns, FlashForward has a few mind games of its own to play. TVGuide.com sat down with a star from both ABC shows.

One of the many issues FlashForward raises is whether or not you can change the future. Sonya Walger’s character, Olivia, finds herself struggling to make sure the glimpse she saw in her flash doesn’t come true, because it would mean the end of her marriage to Mark (Joseph Fiennes).

What does the rest of Olivia’s flash forward reveal? Can her marriage survive these circumstances? Walger discusses that and more. First, let’s get the major Lost question out of the way …

TVGuide.com: All right, when are you returning to Lost?
Sonya Walger: No idea. Not a clue. I don’t even know if I’m in the last season.

TVGuide.com: Do you think Penny should die in the end?
Walger: Are you saying in a sacrificial way, Penny needs to die? I hope not because Penny’s so great. There would be mass outcry, but you know what, they killed off Charlie, so anything can happen. I feel like her dad should be the one to bite it. I am not kidding.

TVGuide.com: Were you nervous about joining another mythology-heavy show?
Walger: No, not at all. It’s funny, I didn’t even think of Lost when I read that script. It sounds bizarre or naïve, but I really didn’t. I read the script and I was so excited by the writing and by this character, by this woman who is complicated and says ‘I hate you’ to her husband when she means ‘I love you.’ She’s a professional and a surgeon and a mother. I didn’t see any similarities to Lost. I honestly still don’t. I see them as big shows that have one big exciting event, the catalyst that gets it all going with an ensemble cast. I see that, but after that they just part ways. There isn’t a mythology to FlashForward in the same way. There’s not codes to decipher … There’s not islands moving and polar bears and smoke monsters, that’s not in our show … yet anyway.

TVGuide.com: Did you ever work with Dominic Monaghan on Lost?
Walger: This is the joke of me being a part of Lost, I haven’t met three-quarters of that cast. I’m not kidding. I would be as star-struck as you would be if I met Matthew Fox. I actually only met Dominic on a photo shoot for FlashForward — that was the first time we met. He comes into play in quite a significant way in this show. I can’t really tell you anymore than that. He’s a good part of it.

TVGuide.com: We haven’t seen all of Olivia’s flash-forward. What can you tease about what we haven’t seen?
Walger: In the flash-forward, the bit that you have seen is that Lloyd [Jack Davenport] gets up from the bed and gets a text message from someone. The person he gets a text message from is very, very unexpected.

TVGuide.com: Can Mark and Olivia’s marriage survive this flash-forward?
Walger: Who knows? I think it’s completely fascinating that just the ghost of this might be what undoes their marriage, or it might be what strengthens them and keeps them together. It might be the tension of it alone [that] drives Mark to drink. It’s such an interesting idea that just the threat of something might be what leads you towards it. It may well be that they get to a breaking point and then say, ‘No, this isn’t happening to us. We’re going to make this work.’

TVGuide.com: Do you have any personal belief in fate?
Walger: I don’t really. The word fate doesn’t really mean much to me in some ways. I think we make our own. Minute by minute you decide who you are and who you’re likely to be. You make the choices hour by hour, just in the present. I don’t believe there’s some roadmap laid out that we’re headed towards.

TVGuide.com: Give us a nice tease for what’s coming up for Olivia.
Walger: She’s going to be forced quite soon to deal with whether or not you can change the future. She keeps being reminded — evidence keeps being presented all around her — that you can’t change it. Every time she thinks she’s seen the last of Lloyd and that she’s managed to avoid it, he keeps coming back.

Do you think FlashForward has more twists than Lost?

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 12 (UPI) — ABC says it has ordered a full season of its new Los Angeles-set drama series “FlashForward,” starring Joseph Fiennes and Sonya Walger.

Screen captures for the third episode of FlashForward 1×03: Sekunden 137 have been added to the photo gallery:

Screen captures for the second episode of FlashForward 1×02: White to Play have been added to the photo gallery:

Head over to TVOvermind.com to watch five new video clips of tonight’s episode of FlashForward.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of speaking with actress Sonya Walger, the Argentinean/British star of ABC’s new hit series Flash Forward, which premiered last Thursday to an impressive 12.4 million viewers. Walger, 35, spoke to Vivo Por Tivo about her exciting new role, the difference between Flash Forward and Lost, her favorite books, and what it’s like balancing a brand new job with a brand new marriage.

Tell us about your Flash Forward character Olivia Benford.
Olivia is a trauma surgeon. She’s a dedicated doctor and the wife of Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) who is an FBI Agent. They’ve been married for seven years—maybe 8—and he’s a recovering alcoholic so he’s in a program—and they’ve clearly had some bumpy times in their marriage in the past. But they’re in a good place now. They’ve got a little girl named Charlie, and I think the condition is for as long as he’s sober, their marriage works. But she has said to him before that if he drinks again, she’ll leave him. With him being in the FBI and her being a surgeon—they are a busy couple.

What do you think draws Olivia to Mark?
That’s a good question. I think she loves what a good dad he is, and how devoted he is to Charlie. I think she feels very loved by him as well. She knows he battles with these demons all of the time and there’s nothing she can do about them. I think that’s the endless battle of being with anyone who has an addiction—it’s not about you, it’s about how much support you’re willing to give. So I think they have a real profound connection, but I think it’s been tested over the years.

I watched the pilot and I think Olivia may have some demons too. Does she?
That’s interesting. I think if Olivia has any demons it’s her work ethic—her completely massive focus on work. Maybe she’s taken that to an extreme in the past. Yeah, I’m sure she has some demons of her own.

Obviously, one of the great things about the show is its larger-than-life scope, but what do you think is the bread and butter of this show? Is it the relationships?
Yeah, it really is. It’s epic in scale, and as you can see from the pilot, its epic in concept. It’s shot like a movie, so I think it’s breathtaking how big it looks! But it’s really intimate in terms of where the drama is coming out of—the drama is really coming out of these relationships. We’re about to start shooting episode 9 and 10 this week, and watching what is really happening to Mark and Olivia because of what she’s seen and what he’s seen that he hasn’t told her—it’s so interesting. It’s not huge crashing events that are forcing them apart. It’s just the daily wear and tear of living with someone and wondering if you’re going to cheat on them.

The first episode was a little depressing. It seemed like the lives of these people were a little hopeless. Is this a show about hopelessness?
There’s so much hope in it! The pilot only focuses on a handful of people’s flash forwards. There are so many other characters that you don’t see in the pilot, but you start seeing in subsequent episodes who have flash forwards that you hope come true! It’s so wonderful what they’re seeing in the future. So that’s what has become so interesting is that everyone is wandering through the world, and some people are trying desperately to make sure they don’t happen, but others are looking for theirs to come true.

As you well know, Flash Forward has been exhaustingly compared to Lost. How are the two shows similar or different?
I think they are very different. I think they are similar in that they have an ensemble cast and that there’s one giant event that propels everyone into these different situations. But after that, I think we part ways quite quickly. Flash Forward doesn’t have this embedded mythology in the same way as Lost. It’s very human. What you will see from here forward are the ripple effects of everyone dealing with what they saw in a very human way. People are given the real time to come to terms with what they’ve experienced. It’s not a science fiction show. It’s much more grounded in human reality, apart from the flash forward, which is the only thing that you’re asked to buy into as an audience member.

You’ve done so many different kinds of shows, from Lost to HBO’s provocative drama Tell Me You Love Me. What attracts you to the roles you have played?
I really like investigating the things that make us human. I like playing interesting, complicated women. If there’s a common denominator in all of the parts I’ve played, they are all strong women in tough situations.

You got married in July, so congratulations! What is it like juggling a brand new marriage and a brand new TV show?
It’s a great thing! I thought it would be a lot to deal with. I’m loving both. I love going to work, and I love coming home. So I’m a lucky girl!

Your dad is from Argentina, right?
Yes, from Buenos Aires! He ‘s lived there his whole life pretty much. He married my mother who’s English and they went to England for a little while, and then they split and he moved back to Buenos Aires. I didn’t grow up there. They brought me up bilingual and I traveled back and forth there my whole life, and my Godparents and half my family’s there. So I feel English, but I also feel very Argentine.

Do you like Argentinean food?
I do eat empanadas, carne, chorizo. Everything! [Laughs].

In addition to being Argentinean, you are also very well educated! What was it like attending the elite Oxford?
That was magnificent! That was really some of the happiest times of my life I think. It was just wonderful. I studied English literature, and woke up every morning to read literature and in my spare time I was doing plays. I made wonderful friends there… I look back in sort of disbelief. It was a really privileged time.

What are some of your favorite books?
Oh, I am very old fashioned about my literature taste. I like Henry James. I like George Elliot. I like Dostoyevsky. I like the old people. I really do. I like people who write big fat juicy novels you can get completely lost in!

Do you have a specialty in literature or were your studies general?
No, we just started at the beginning and went through to the 1950s—when Oxford seems to think literature ends. We started with Chaucer and finished up with T.S. Elliot, I think.

Courtesy of Latina.com