Vincent Ventresca is Sci Fi's `Invisible Man'

On Friday June 9,, "Invisible Man" premiered on Sci-Fi Channel, starring Vincent Ventresca as a small-time thief who trades jail for becoming part of a government experiment in invisibility.

But Ventresca has been quite visible on the network for some time now, appearing in episodes of "Prey," a former ABC science-fiction series that usually airs Sunday at 11 p.m. on the cable network. This seems to be a fact that Sci Fi Channel is loath to mention.

"I wonder what that means," says Ventresca, who played a scientist helping a colleague (Debra Messing) track a new, improved species of humans. "I know that show was going three episodes into it. We had a great cast, but it made no sense. If you didn't watch every frame of every episode and take notes, next week, you would have no idea.

"There were probably a lot of people that didn't like `Prey,' and if they know that one of the guys in `Prey' is the star of `Invisible Man,' they'd be like, `I'm not watching that show.' "

And that would be too bad, because "Invisible Man" offers up, if not whiz-bang special effects (what's there is is good, but used sparingly), but an intriguing study of a man caught between his conscience and his better judgment, thrust into a bizarre situation.

When an old man keels over during a burglary, thief Darien Fawkes (Ventresca) gives up his chance to escape to perform CPR. The robbery victim, though, is unappreciative, and before long, Fawkes is facing life in jail. His scientist brother offers him an alternative - be the guinea pig in a government-funded experiment to make a man invisible.

This is accomplished by implanting a gland in Fawkes' brain that secretes a hormone nicknamed "quicksilver," that coats his body (and conveniently enough, his clothes) and renders him invisible by bending away light. When the quicksilver coating is shed, Fawkes becomes visible again.

Things start to go wrong when it turns out that there's a spy in the government lab, bent on stealing the technology, and the gland begins to have nasty side-effects, turning Fawkes' eyes bloodshot and driving him into mad rages.

The concept was originally proposed for Fox Network, with Kyle MacLachlan ("Twin Peaks"). After Fox failed to pick up the idea, it eventually resurfaced at Sci Fi Channel. Screenwriter Matt Greenberg ("Halloween: H2O") is the creator and executive producer of the Sci Fi version, the two-hour pilot for which was directed by Breck Eisner, a veteran of TV commercials and short films (and the son of Disney chief Michael Eisner).

When the series begins airing regular episodes June 16, Paul Ben-Victor, who appears in the pilot, reprises his role as Hobbes, Fawkes' partner in secret missions for an underfunded government agency. The series also airs in syndication on selected local stations, beginning June 17, with episodes appearing a week after their Sci Fi premiere.

Asked about the original version of "Invisible Man," Ventresca says, "I can only tell you a couple of things for sure. I know that we did not spend as much money as they did. Actually, I've never seen it, but I've heard it was more of an effects-driven show, but ours is more of a character-driven show. Our show's about a guy in a situation who happens to become invisible."