(Photo: Craig Sjodin/Courtesy of ABC)

Joseph Fiennes—accomplished theater actor, best known for wearing tights in films like Shakespeare in Love and Elizabeth—now finds himself in a whole new time frame. As the lead in FlashForward—a high-concept sci-fi-ish show co-created by David S. Goyer (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight)—Fiennes (younger brother of Ralph) plays an FBI agent who must crack a paranormal case: a worldwide blackout in which every person on Earth sees a snippet of his future, for better or for worse. “The premise is pretty amazing,” says Fiennes, who had admired Goyer’s work from afar and knew he wasn’t some TV hack. “It throws out questions of predestination, whether we can control our future, and should we try to?” Is he looking forward to his transformation into a hunky, albeit semi-tortured, TV action hero? “There’s lots of brandishing in the first episode, yes, and spiced-up adventure,” says Fiennes, who recently completed a “last dose” of theater in England as Cyrano de Bergerac. “But I do think it will concentrate on the human drama.”

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FlashForward
Thursdays, 8 p.m.
ABC. Sept. 24.

Related:

• Archive: “Guides”
• Articles by Emma Rosenblum
• Table of Contents: Aug 31, 2009 issue of New York | Subscribe!