Do you have favourite films? Any directors, actors, TV shows or authors you especially admire?
I get influenced the most by Hollywood films of the 40s, particularly Frank Capra movies. I also admire Japanese productions, such as the works of Akira Kurosawa and Toshirô Mifune.

Did you read any books recently that you would recommend?
Ideal for everyone who’s interested in the movie and TV business is “Adventures in the Screen Trade” by William Goldman.

You mentioned in an interview once that there could still be adults living in The Tribe. But we never saw that onscreen. Why was the idea turned down?
It wasn’t at all. The Tribe does have this mythological framework and we can make a prequel to find out what really happened or we make a sequel. So the fans should still watch out!

Do you fear the lead actors could be too old for The Tribe? Most of them are already young adults themselves.
That is in fact a problem, which is why we worked out the concept for The New Tomorrow, a new series that functions as the continuation of The Tribe in a similar way to Deep Space Nine and Star Trek. I’d like the basic notion of the show to stay believable and therefore the aging of the actors (who I all esteem highly) is problematical.

Do you still have contact to some of the cast?
Yes, the entire team is almost like a family and stays in touch with each other.

Whose idea was it to make Amber return at the beginning of the third season?
It was mine. I wanted to amaze the fans with the storyline and make the show a little bit more unpredictable. Another reason was, of course, that Amber was a really popular character and Beth Allen is a very valuable and talented member of the team.

Do you remember any particular scene that was very difficult to film?
All of them have been difficult in one way or another. Even the simplest ones that seemed very easy on paper, proved to be tricky when it came to captivate the core and intention of a scene on film. An exceedingly difficult scene was the hike to Eagle Mountain in the last episode of the first season. Because the trek was so steep the actors were already completely exhausted after the first take.

Between season four and five several characters vanished out of a sudden. Did that happen due to the (non)availability of the actors or were there other reasons?
We introduced new roles to keep the series vivid and spirited. Therefore it’s helpful at times when some of the actors aren’t available because of their education.

The show was continously produced until 2003. But then the production suddenly stopped and today there’s still no new season. Why?
After five years I felt the need to take a break in order to charge our creative batteries. I think that applies to the entire team of Cloud 9. And as every season of The Tribe has got 52 episodes, the broadcasters have to assign a lot of airtime to it. We wanted to make advances to them to continue to find a timeslot for The Tribe.

All the fans literally pray for another season. Is there even still a chance that we will be able to watch it one day?
Yes! That also applies to the Tribe movie. But at the moment we wholly concentrate on the sequel. Like Star Wars, The Tribe has a lot of potential for prequels and sequels. And I think this one will attract and inspire the audience. To produce it will be a worthwile creative task.

The announcement of a spin-off has of course led to a lot of speculations among the fans. Can you give us some facts?
Unfortunately, the storylines are top secret at present. We don’t want to spoil too much for the fans. But one thing I can give away here: We’re gonna find out what happened to Bray, Brady and the Mallrats.

Will The New Tomorrow get produced in stead of The Tribe?
We’re planning both and then it’s up to the broadcasters’ favour and TNT currently lies ahead.

Is it intended to let characters from The Tribe pop up in the new sequel?
Yes! But I can’t tell you more, sorry.

A lot of fans are wondering why Cloud 9 hesitates to produce a sixth season, but then at the same time begins to produce a spin-off! What were the reasons to come to such a decision?
Cloud9 would love to continue producing the show, up until season 1000. But the company isn’t able to decide this alone and we have to accept what the broadcasters prefer.

There are a lot of ongoing storylines in the show that tell a complex story. Is it going to be the same with TNT or will there be concluding episodes?
We’ll try and narrate concluded stories in each episode but there’s also gonna be a great story that forms the framework.

The Tribe started off as a pretty realistic drama show with a lot of serious issues. Later on the show tended to go a little bit more in the direction of fun and coolness, with lots of sci-fi elements like virtual realities. What kind of path will TNT strike?
I tried to account for all aspects of youth and teenage years and to cover the different issues about the organization of society. This can be rather hilarious at times, for example when Lex can’t bring himself to kill Cloe’s calf, even though he’s all macho bravado from the outside. So it depends on how different aspects of building up a society evolve. In the later seasons we covered themes such as technology and how to deal maturely with it. Of course that’s quite different from living in the countryside, social justice or the advantages of a democratic government. The Chosen with their leader and their fanatic belief, too, provided a new point of view. Thus The New Tomorrow will take after The Tribe very much. We will cover a lot of different themes. A few of them will be comical, others thought-provoking, and some will deal with fundamental and underlying things.

On what projects do you work at present, apart from The Tribe or The New Tomorrow?
I’m writing a script which I’m sure will get produced by Cloud9. The title is ‘The Cowboy and the Dancer’ and it’s gonna be a romantic movie with surprising twists. I’m also working at the first animated project of the company, ‘Roly in the Country with Blue’. Besides, I am in the process of devising the TV series ‘Penny Drew’ which covers the life of a young girl who finds a magical pen that lets everything drawn with it become alive.

Thank you Raymond.