Entertainment

Spielberg show on in May

Fox has figured out its “Terra Nova” timeline.

The network is giving the highly anticipated time-travel series a sneak peek in May, before rolling out the full series next fall — a tactic that did wonders for “Glee” last year.

The two-hour episode gives viewers a first look at the series, which revolves around a family living on Earth in the year 2149. With the planet on the brink of destruction, thanks to years of aggressive scientific experimentation and an exploding population, the family agrees to go back to prehistoric times in hopes of finding a way to save the Earth by attempting to correct mistakes made in the past.

Steven Spielberg serves as an executive producer of “Terra Nova” — with his DreamWorks company as one of the production companies behind it — and sources say that he is very involved with the inner workings of the show, approving everything from casting and special effects to scripting.

The special effects-heavy series has drawn a lot of attention since its announcement last May, in part because of its expected cost. The pilot is rumored to have cost $14 million, and each additional hour-long episode is anticipated to bear a $4 million price tag.

This has left Fox to seek out cost-saving measures, including recently letting go a slew of writers (with the intention of rehiring them in the spring), rather than paying them to sit idle while production is on hiatus, a byproduct of the new airdate schedule.