Producer Dean Devlin Shares Details on the First-Ever Electric Con in New Orleans

As mega-fans of series including Leverage, The Librarians and Almost Paradise, we couldn't have been more excited to learn about the newly announced Electric Con, hosted by Creation Entertainment.

Electric Entertainment is a production company headed by veteran producer, director and screenwriter Dean Devlin, as well as Marc Roskin and Rachel Olschan-Wilson, and Electric Con is set to be the first officially licensed fan convention celebrating Electric's original programs. Running from Oct. 12 to Oct. 13 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, the two-day convention is designed to be an action-packed, immersive experience for fans of shows including Leverage, Leverage: Redemption, The Librarians, The Librarians: The Next Chapter, The Outpost, Almost Paradise and The Ark, featuring celebrity guests, panel discussions, photo opps and autograph signings, merch sales and more.

As soon as the convention was announced, we knew we wanted to learn everything we could about the event, and we had the pleasure of hopping on a Zoom call with Dean Devlin himself to discuss Electric Entertainment, the upcoming con and so much more in the interview below.

Sweety High: Electric Con is the first official convention specifically for Electric Entertainment shows—why was now the perfect time to make that happen?

Dean Devlin: Well, the impetus of this didn't actually come from us. It came from Creation Entertainment. They're very in touch with the fanbase, and they felt that there was a real desire from the fans to have a convention like this. So they called me to ask my thoughts on it.

We had actually thrown our own convention many years ago for the original Leverage up in Oregon. We did it at a local hotel, hoping that 300 people might show up and we'd have this fun little Leverage weekend. We called it the "Con Con." We ended up having to turn away a thousand people. We were shocked at how many people showed up.

I think the thing about genre entertainment, which is a little different from other types of television, is that fans have a real sense of ownership. It's their show. It's not just something they watch—it belongs to them somehow, and they form these communities.

We're living in a time now when life is so good online that you've got to really have a reason to leave home, and I think the idea of an immersive experience for fans of our shows, where they can actually kind of be inside the shows for a weekend, has a certain appeal that's unique. It's been marvelous to watch how the fans are reacting. I'm seeing online people from Germany saying, "I've booked my tickets and my hotel room," and people from Italy saying, "I'm coming, I'm coming." I mean, it's wild.

(Photo credit: Trae Patton/SYFY)

 

SH: The Leverage fandom continues to be super active. Based on the discussion and the fan content, you might assume it's a series that's still airing week-to-week.

DD: It's wild. It's touched people in a way that's really of the time. We live in a time where people tend to feel more and more powerless, and so, a fantasy show about a group of thieves who are going to even the score, level the playing field—I think it touches people in a unique way.

When we did the original show, the showrunner John Rogers used to say in the writer's room, "Let's just open the paper, see who it is we want to punch in the neck, and then we'll write an episode where we get to punch him in the neck."

(Leverage via TNT)

 

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SH: Leverage: Redemption recently wrapped shooting its third season and The Librarians spin-off is also on the way. How has it felt to be able to revive these beloved series in this decade?

DD: It's so interesting because it's like a high school reunion or seeing a friend you hadn't seen in a while. That's something very special, because on day one, you have this amazing relationship. When we were doing Season 1 of Leverage: Redemption, there was a real fear—can we recreate that magic? And on the very first table read, within 30 seconds, everybody was back in the rhythm again. It was like no time had passed. And then someone like Noah Wyle, who hadn't been on the original show, slid in so seamlessly as though he had always been on the show. It was such a joy.

And this new iteration of The Librarians has been an absolute blast because it's a whole new set of characters, with one character from the original  bringing us into it. To have that universe of The Librarian come back to life was meaningful for us. Our whole company was built on the back of The Librarian movies and then the series, so getting to be in that universe again is a really special treat.

 

SH: With Leverage: Redemption filming and taking place in New Orleans, why did the city also feel like the perfect place to set up the convention?

DD: Creation wanted to do something really special for the convention, so the idea was that we could bus some people over to the set—because the set is still up on the sound stage—and do a tour for the fans. We thought that could make it an immersive experience in a way that's beyond a normal convention. You can actually walk onto the set and go to the different rooms and see where it was shot and how it was made.

We're not running the convention—it's all Creation—but I think right now they're only selling the high-end tickets, which apparently are selling out like crazy, which is blowing my mind. There's a whole lot more people coming who are not yet listed because we are still working out travel dates and availabilities, but it seems like we are going to have a pretty good showing of humans there.

 

SH: Is there anything else not yet listed on the convention site that we can we expect from the big show?

DD: I can tell you things we're talking about, but I don't know if they're all going to come to fruition. We're talking about perhaps doing a live stunt show with a lot of our stunt people in New Orleans. They're talking about doing costume contests of people cosplaying from the shows. I think some of the actors are going to be performing in a band. I think there's going to be some really fun stuff happening that weekend.

 

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SH: There's also the Christian Kane concert tied to the show. He's been such an important part of the success of Electric Entertainment, now being part of most of its major shows. What has that relationship been like?

DD: Christian and I have been working together now since 2008, and we've created four different characters for him. It's been so much fun watching his development as an actor, watching his development as a man. He's been a tremendous partner.

One of the things I so respect about him is the amount of time and energy he puts into nurturing his relationship with his fans. He does a lot of charity events, a lot of concerts, a lot of things to give back and say "thank you" to his fans. That's been tremendous because those fans, the Kaniacs, whenever we do a show together, they're the first ones online. They're like this little army of Christian fans spreading the word. Just now, I got an award in the south of Spain, and these Kaniacs from the north of Spain drove all the way down just to be there for me to get the award. They're very special people.

 

SH: Besides being produced by the same company, would you say there's a theme that ties all of the Electric Entertainment shows together?

DD: Without a doubt. I think if you look at all of our shows, from the edgiest to the least edgy, they're all shows that are fun to watch. They're shows that have a lot of humor in them. For the most part, with very few exceptions, they're shows the whole family can watch together, but they don't pander. They don't talk down to you. Most of our shows are filled with things that you can google and learn more about and go, "Wait a minute, this is actually real."

I remember on the original Leverage, we had this thing where they hacked an airplane, and everyone's like, "Oh, you can't do that." Then,two months later, someone put out a story about how an airplane got hacked. I think our shows are really fun, populist, smart shows.

I've always said that there's three things I'm addicted to. One, I find that life is hard, so I want my shows to be fun. Two, I'm addicted to that sheer moment where you go, "Yes!" and I think all of our shows have that. But also, I like to get emotionally involved. I like to get a little weepy in our shows, and I think our shows tend to have that strong emotional backbone to offset the silly comedy and the fun. You can see that in all of our shows, whether it's The Outpost or Leverage or Almost Paradise, even The Ark.

 

SH: Speaking of Almost Paradise, is there any word on a third season?

DD: There's no news on us setting up the third season yet, but we are in deep talks with a number of people and my fingers are absolutely crossed.

 

Also read about: Everything You Wanted to Know About Almost Paradise Star Samantha Richelle

 

SH: It's a very special show, especially for some of us with Filipino heritage.

DD: The really interesting thing is how many Filipinos I've gotten DMs from who said, "I didn't know that there were beautiful resorts in the Philippines." I was like, really? We've gotten so gotten used to the Philippines represented as poverty porn that we haven't educated even third-generation Filipinos who have never been to the Philippines to the richness of the culture and the food and the art and the talent.

When you watch the people on that show, there's such a high level of talent from in front of the camera, behind the camera. It is a rich, rich country. I always tell people I'm making a science-fiction, because I might as well be making a show about a planet in another galaxy, because people so don't really know anything about the Philippines. It's been a very special project for us to work on.

It has everything. Yes, there is a lot of poverty, but there's also a lot of joy, a lot of culture. My youngest child was with me when we were there, and we were driving, and there were all these kids in the street, and I said, "Look, these kids have nothing, but look how happy they are. They're finding joy in their lives." So I said, "Next time you're complaining about how much internet time you have, look out the window of these kids. They know how to live."

(Almost Paradise via Freevee)

 

SH: Is there anything else we should know?

DD:  The only other thing I'd like to add is that we will be doing several things live on Electric Now from the floor of the convention for people who won't be able to make it, and then there'll be some stuff we cut together that we'll show later as specials about the convention. In my conversations with the people at Creation, if this is a success (and hopefully, it is), they want to do more—in different places around the country, around the world. I'm really hoping that this works out for Creation and for the fans, and if it does, we'd love to do more of these.

 

For more on our favorite from Electric Entertainment, click HERE to read our interview with Samantha Richelle on her role as Kai on Almost Paradise.