Annals

The idea for "The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne" started with Gavin Scott. Scott was a former BBC reporter who began making films for British television before turning his interest to more general films. He moved to California and was involved in a number of projects, including writing "Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" with George Lucas. Along the way, he had this idea about Jules Verne. He put his thoughts down on paper, first in one proposal, and then refining them in another. He met a producer of commercials in California, Pierre de Lespinois, and the two of them decided to team up and see if they could find someone to make this vision.

They developed concepts and scripts. Along the way, they enlisted Rick Overton, model designer, actor, and comedian, to aid them in the conceptual development of the world of Jules Verne.

A partnership was eventually formed of several companies in order to produce the series. Production began in Montreal, at a newly formed Ice Storm Studios, in 1998. In total, 22 episodes were filmed for the first season of the series. The first broadcasts for the series began in 2000, in Canada. It has since been broadcast in many countries, including the US, Japan, and New Zealand. This series is the first series ever filmed with state of the art digital cameras in full HDTV format. This was also the first series filmed in complete advance of sale of the series.

So how do we get these documents that trace the creation of SAJV? We have called upon SAJV fans, who have dived into forgotten folders, rescued papers from dust bins, and rediscovered some fascinating stuff. It helps that SAJV was taken around to many Hollywood offices by the creator, Gavin Scott, and later his partner, Pierre de Lespinois, to sell the idea - there is a lovely paper trail, some of which has been found and some of which is still waiting to be rediscovered. If you have any documents pertaining to the history of SAJV, please email us and let us know what you have. We'd love to add it to the archive. We have made every effort to contact people involved in the show to verify their authenticity, and we thank Gavin Scott who has explained just what it is we have.