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Halle Berry believes in ‘Extant,’ aliens

Halle Berry waves to photographers at the premiere screening of the TV series "Extant" at the California Science Center.
Halle Berry waves to photographers at the premiere screening of the TV series “Extant” at the California Science Center.
(Chris Pizzello / Invision / Associated Press)
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Halle Berry is making the move from film to television in this summer’s CBS television series “Extant,” a new sci-fi show produced by Steven Spielberg and his Amblin Television team.

At a premiere screening for the show Monday night at the California Science Center, Berry -- standing on a blue carpet -- told the Los Angeles Times why she made the unexpected jump from movies to “Extant,” on which she also serves as co-executive producer.

“The script was just amazing,” Berry said. “I hadn’t read anything like it. And Steven Spielberg, I mean, he’s the king. If you’re gonna do TV about extraterrestrials and sci-fi and supernatural, I think he’s a good one to do it with.”

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The show centers on Berry’s character, Molly Woods, an astronaut living in the not-so-distant future who returns to Earth from a yearlong solo mission and finds out she’s inexplicably pregnant.

The screening took place in the Samuel Oschin Pavilion of the science center, appropriately beneath the wings of the space shuttle Endeavour. Nina Tassler, chairman of CBS Entertainment, spoke to the crowd of about 200 before the screening, praising Berry’s move to television.

“[‘Extant’] was a powerful and unique story, and we were instantly captivated when Academy Award-winner Halle Berry joined the project,” Tassler told the crowd. “Her enormous talent and presence elevated the series to a new stratosphere. Getting Halle Berry was one of the biggest coups of the year for television.”

Tassler noted the success of releasing Spielberg’s other show, “Under the Dome,” last summer and pairing it with a streaming deal from Amazon. “Extant” will do the same.

The names Berry and Spielberg attached to the project served as a reason for many cast members to join, including newcomer Sergio Harford, who plays a former astronaut and love interest of Berry’s character in the series.

“Getting the material and seeing the beautiful story, and of course with Steven Spielberg being attached to it and Halle Berry; I was like, ‘Wait a minute, she’s coming to TV and the EP on the show? Let me check this out,’” Harford said.

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The show is set to premiere on July 9 on CBS. And, in case you’re wondering, Berry does believe in aliens.

“I’m not so egotistical to think that we’re the only ones living in this vast, vast universe,” Berry said. “I do think there’s other life out there.”

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