ABC is launching a brand new reality series tonight, June 23, called EXPEDITION IMPOSSIBLE, in which 13 teams of three are racing in an expedition across vast deserts, over snow capped mountains and through raging rivers in the beautifully exotic, fabled kingdom of Morocco for a chance to win $150,000 ($50,000 each) as well a new Ford Explorer each.
Executive Producer Mark Burnett recently took some time to discuss the show, which premieres at 9pm on ABC.
Has there been any concerns about people’s safety in Morocco or even the crew’s safety?
Mark Burnett: No, no. Morocco is a very feature film and television friendly place. Many European productions are shot there. Also, the movie ‘Gladiator’ was shot there. ‘Sahara’ with Matthew McConaughey. A lot of my crew worked on that. I’ve shot there. I lived for seven years in Marrakech once, in ’98 making ‘Eco Challenge’. So, it’s a romantic place. It’s had the least problems of any part of the Maghreb. So, of any part of North Africa it’s got the least problems. There’s stuff going on all over the world, but it is a feature film and television friendly place. There’s some great production teams.
I started in adventure. ‘Eco Challenge’, ‘Survivor’. I love this kind of stuff. So, when ABC was talking to me about doing something big and adventurous I thought, ‘I want to make a show where the people who are in it are always living in the world of “Indiana Jones”, they’re living the real thing. Where would you go for that?’ Morocco was the obvious choice because in the far east, down by the Algerian border is the Sahara, and the camels and the Bedouin and the Tuaregs are the people in blue and when they sweat, the fabric, their skin becomes blue. They’re called The Blue People of the Desert. It’s so romantic and fantastic, and then you cross through canyons. You go across the Atlas Mountains and there’s snowstorms. Who’d believe in North Africa above the Sahara, up in the mountains, as high as the Colorado Rockies that there are snowstorms. You go into the plains of Marrakech and the lakes and they end in the romantic, ancient city of Marrakech itself which is like that scene in ‘Indiana Jones’. I’ve always been into films and it’s one of my favorite films, and so it was about giving people that real experience.
I chose very ordinary people from diverse jobs, like New York City firefighters, the girls from Kansas. One of them is so young she missed her high school prom to go do this, and then there was a team where there was a granddad, his son and granddaughter. Another team of ex-NFL football players.
Why cast people like that?
Mark Burnett: Just like ‘Survivor’ I wanted to represent what makes up the country. There’s a team with a blind guy which is amazing fortitude, to be able to attempt this when you can’t see and you’re relying on your teammates. The rules, by the way, are that if one person drops out the entire team is sent home. So, the pressure everyday, all of you, if you were doing this you’d want to quit at one point everyday. If it’s just you, you might, but as a part of a team and they’re relying on you, it’s absolutely amazing.
Why three person teams?
Mark Burnett: I think three is a very difficult number. As a parent, sometimes you’ll notice that when your kid brings over two friends, with three of them it’s always sort of weird. Three is an odd number for a dynamic of chemistry. It’s amazing.
Do you find that people who have the background of firefighting, people with a physical background do better?
Mark Burnett: All that matters in this is the camaraderie. There’s an ancient saying, the Berber are the tribes people of North Africa, they’re not Arabic. They’re Berber. There’s a great saying which is choose your companions before you choose the road. It’s so true in life. It’s like marriage, work, jobs. It’s the people around you that will either give you or suck your energy. They give you energy or they suck your energy. That’s the key factor. It’s more about people who can work together. Some of these people, if they’re NFL players or professional firefighters, there’s more pressure on them to have the camaraderie.
There’s that expectation?
Mark Burnett: Yes. Then there’s this poor guy in there with no expectations and sometimes it keeps your nervousness down by doing it, but I really wanted it to be a reflection of America. That was very important to me. As you can see, I’ve set out to make an epic feature film. That’s what I’m known for and I like to do it, and a lot of the crew that did this started with ‘Eco Challenge’. I’ve known these people forever. This is like the A Team of suffering while getting the shot.
Are there clues or traps along the way?
Mark Burnett: Yes. Every episode there are incredible themed challenges, like the light. They got into a dark Kasbah which is the name for a castle and there are hundreds of lamps. There’s only twelve teams left at this point, I think, and only twelve of the lamps have the right symbols and so you’re trying to put candles in lamps and place the lamp on the matt. When you place it and line it up it’ll reflect a light of where to go next. There are challenges where there are cobras, dangerous cobras. The cobra guy is doing a show with his snakes, but there’s so many you can’t tell and it finishes and the question is, choose how many cobras there were. If you get the number wrong you go on completely the wrong path and waste hours up the wrong mountain. Then you come back and go through the whole thing again and get the guy. And we’re very close to the cobras, maybe like twelve feet from the dangerous cobras.
Can you talk about the format of the show?
Mark Burnett: Thirteen teams of three begin it. One team will finish. There are ten stages. At the end of every stage the last team will be eliminated, at the end of every single stage. If anybody on a team quits the entire team is out. In this show the only way out of here is helicopter. So, when they’re eliminated they’re taken out by helicopter or if they quit they’re removed by helicopter. It was a crew of four hundred people, forty one cameras, two thousand miles of terrain, hundreds of vehicles. It was like ‘Ben-Hur’.
How long did it take to make?
Mark Burnett: It was eighteen months in the making. The crew was there six months, in North Africa and the actual shoot was over a month of principle photography. It’s huge.
What do you think is next for this adventure genre?
Mark Burnett: I don’t know. I’m having a great time, and I’ve wanted to do this for a long time and I only wanted to do this kind of series on my terms. Having made ‘Eco Challenge’ in the past, having made ‘Survivor’ and still making it I wanted to do the right thing for me. ABC was so understanding of my vision, for what I had in my head that it was great. It’s a very Disney-esque feeling.
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