First Look: Syfy's "Riverworld"

Looking for a sneak peek at Syfy's new mini-series Riverworld, starring Dollhouse's Tahmoh Penikett? You're in luck.

Distributor RHI has released the first trailer for the mini-series (itself a backdoor pilot for an ongoing series), which also stars Laura Vandervoort, Mark Deklin, Peter Wingfield, and Alan Cumming, among others. The project was written by Robert Hewitt Wolfe (The Dresden Files) and directed by Stuart Gillard (90210).

Here's how Syfy described the four-hour mini-series:

"Tahmoh Penikett (Battlestar Galactica/Dollhouse) and Laura Vandervoort (Smallville) star in Riverworld, based on the popular award-winning series of novels by Philip Jose Farmer. Penikett stars as Matt Ellman, an American war zone reporter who has witnessed the worst of humanity first-hand yet still grasps on to an optimistic spirit. When a suicide bomber kills both Matt and his fiance Jessie, played by Vandervoort, they awaken, separated in a mysterious world where everyone who has ever lived on Earth, seems to have been "reborn" along the banks of a seemingly endless river.

Determined to locate Jessie, Matt joins forces with a 13th century female samurai warrior named Tomoe (Jeananne Goossen) and American novelist Sam 'Mark Twain' Clemens (Mark Deklin). Together they sail upriver in search of its source, and to discover where they are and who put them there. Alan Cumming (Tin Man) guest stars as the mysterious 'Caretaker.' Riverworld (Airdate 2010) is produced by Reunion Pictures and is shooting in Vancouver, BC. RHI will distribute internationally."

The roughly two-minute trailer for Riverworld can be viewed below.



Riverworld is slated to air in 2010 on Syfy.