The show’s producers announced in February at the SFX Weekender that Fringe executive producer and writer Jeff Pinkner had been working on a script for the movie project. In addition to Fringe, Pinkner has previously written episodes of Alias and Lost.

Hodges recently gave Sci-Fi Bulletin an update on the script’s progress: “Tim and I both felt there was work to do; the basic concept of the film is very strong. We felt as fans of this genre that they hadn’t quite pushed it as far as they could have done. And they ran into the same issues that we did: creature stuff is wonderful, but you do need a very strong human component. That’s what they’re still developing. We’re expecting to see the revised draft of that probably within the next couple of weeks. We’re very optimistic about that.”

He continued: “I think it fits the mood of the times, with Spielberg’s Terra Nova coming along in the autumn. We’ll see what that’s like, and this could be a very good moment for that film.”

Starring Jason O’Mara (Life On Mars USA) and Shelley Conn (Mistresses), Terra Nova will air in the UK on Sky1 later this year.

Asked if the Primeval movie will follow the same continuity as the TV series, Hodges confirmed: “No, it will start its own mythology all over again, but what pleases me is that themes and ideas from the first two series in particular are all over the film. They’re not the same named characters, but they carry very similar responsibilities and ideas.”

He added: “What we couldn’t let them do was ride roughshod over everything that we’ve done in the TV series and contradict all the ideas that we had set up. They haven’t done that by moving into a slightly parallel universe of Primeval, if you like… There is a fantastic sweep and confidence about it, and the confidence that you’re going to have the money to do some really knock out effects.”

Series 5 concluded last week on digital channel Watch and will air on ITV1 in early 2012.

> Buy the Series 5 DVD on Amazon.

Watch the Series 5 trailer…