‘Future Man’ not afraid to show its influences
From the surrealist nesting doll of realities in FX’s “Legion” to the frank yet humane explorations of sexuality in Amazon’s “Transparent,” the best moments of the Peak TV era deliver scenes and stories you’ve never seen. “Future Man,” a half-hour action-comedy that arrives Tuesday on Hulu, has a similar goal, but also no compunction about reminding viewers of something familiar.
Centered on Josh Futturman (“Hunger Games” alum Josh Hutcherson), a frustrated janitor who lives with his parents, the show blasts off when Josh completes an impossibly difficult video game. This feat triggers the arrival of two gruff time-traveling warriors from a bleak future — Wolf (Derek Wilson of “Preacher”) and Tiger (“Happy Endings” star Eliza Coupe). As Futturman has completed their recruitment effort, the two of them enlist him to help save the future.
If that sounds a little like the plot of the 1984 film “The Last Starfighter” or 1991’s “Terminator 2,” you’re not wrong. “Oh, it’s very much ‘Terminator 2,’ not a little ‘Terminator 2,’ ” Seth Rogen says, punctuating his admission with his familiar rapid-fire laugh.
Rogen executive-produces the series along with his writing partner Evan Goldberg. The two have often nodded to their influences in movies like “This Is the End” and “Pineapple Express.” In “Future Man,” Hutcherson’s character is in on the joke, pointing out the similarities in what’s happening to him to other modern sci-fi classics like “Back to the Future.”
“A lot of the fun for us was to firmly make (the show) exist in a world where all the things that we’re referencing also exist,” Rogen says in a recent joint call with Goldberg. “And that’s (Futturman’s) superpower in a way, that he has a deep knowledge of all things science fiction. It allows him to navigate the circumstances in a way that he wouldn’t be able to were he not a fan of the genre.”
On a darkened set in Culver City this past spring, Hutcherson, Coupe and Wilson shoot a scene inside an Los Angeles Police Department office and, judging by Wilson’s head-to-toe acid-washed denim and Coupe’s Guns N’ Roses gear, the show’s latest time jump has landed somewhere in the ’80s.
Like “Terminator 2,” the characters are trying to undo a chain of events that set off the apocalypse. But instead of artificial intelligence, this world all went wrong with a scientist (Keith David) and his dogged pursuit of a cure for herpes. With the help of a hand-held time travel device, the three of them vie to change a doomed future.
In the scene, Wilson begins bickering with Coupe about when to trigger the next time jump. “A couple of inches doesn’t matter!” he growls. There’s a beat, and he lowers his voice to a murmur: “In terms of the TTD.” In the next room, two of the show’s writers, rumpled and bearded, chuckle at the monitors.
“Every time I get a script, before I read it, I have a mixed feeling of fear and excitement,” Hutcherson says. “I have no idea what’s going to be in it.”
For Hutcherson, “Future Man” marks a definite tonal shift from his bigscreen work in “The Hunger Games” franchise. Speaking between takes, he acknowledges the show’s “lighter touch” with imagining a dystopian future and says he became more curious about working in comedy after hosting “Saturday Night Live” in 2013.
Hutcherson met Rogen and Goldberg during filming for James Franco’s “The Disaster Artist,” which led to conversations about something that would eventually become “Future Man.”
“He was just there for a few days but he was just really funny . ... He had this magnetic charm,” Goldberg remembers. “He also kept reminding us of Michael J. Fox, which is a person we’re very big fans of.”
“Especially when you’re talking about time travel,” Rogen adds.