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According to The Hollywood Reporter, Fox’s new dinosaur series Terra Nova could have found its home at the UK branch of the Syfy network.

The series began life as a 12 page short story titled Gondawana Highway written by British author Kelly Marcel, the paper explains. Marcel’s agent was in negotiations with Syfy UK when US agent Aaron Kaplan intervened, and strongly recommended making a deal in the States. Fox approved the show to go straight to series without a pilot, and brought Steven Spielberg and Peter Chernin in as producers.

The on-set report confirms rumours that the show was delayed partly because bad weather conditions meant that not enough footage had been shot to make the proposed May airdate. Reshoots were also deemed necessary to introduce the central Shannon family properly, including a new prologue within the pilot. “I felt it was a mistake to ask the audience to follow these characters who you don’t know,” showrunner Rene Echevarria told The Hollywood Reporter, explaining that throwing “endless amounts of” money at the screen would not be effective if the audience wasn’t invested in the characters.

Terra Nova begins on Fox on September 26, and will be broadcast on Sky 1 later in the year.