Imagine getting stuck on a deserted tropical island for almost three decades. Back in 1719 when Robinson Crusoe first came to life in the fictional pages of Daniel Defoe's novel, getting shipwrecked on an island meant you had to think quick on your feet to battle not only nature's elements but pirates, cannibals, mutineers, and just about anything that washed up on your newfound shores. Although Robinson Crusoe has been told in many forms and variations over the years, NBC is giving Crusoe a modern upgrade on October 17 at 8pm with a swashbuckling two-hour premiere.

Filmed on location in South Africa, Crusoe features one of the most beautiful and stunning TV settings soon to be on the airwaves. Starring former Flyboy Philip Winchester in the lead role of Robinson Crusoe and Sam Neill in the supporting role of Jeremiah Blackthorn, a link to Robinson's past in England, Crusoe aims to take viewers back in time for a weekly adventure on a tropical island paradise.

Last week The Deadbolt's Troy Rogers woke up and found himself phone-wrecked on a conference call where he wandered the line until he found Crusoe stars Philip Winchester and Sam Neill plus producer Jeffrey Hayes.

THE DEADBOLT: This looks like a dream role for an actor. What were some of the challenges you encountered with the character or the sets?

PHILIP WINCHESTER: Well, I think the biggest challenge we had so far is the physical and emotional stamina, because we’ve been - You know, we had so much to shoot in such a short amount of time and, as we talked about earlier, there’s been a lot of physical demands on everyone. Not just the actors but kind of on the crew, the grips, and the camera team. So melding those things all together and learning eight or nine pages of dialogue for the following day and knowing that you have to incorporate a sword fight that you learned two hours ago and some other stunts as well, those are the challenges. And those are challenges we really couldn’t tackle, so we couldn’t tackle until we got here. The other things, you take them when you have time to, you know, looking at characters, using the emotional arcs and things. And when the scripts come in, we kind of pour over them. But, yeah, the biggest challenge has been the physical and emotional demands.

We actually had a crazy thing happen while we were filming as well. South Africa had the biggest storm they ever had in a hundred years. It destroyed some of our sets and it was kind of apt that here on Crusoe we have an epic storm come through and wipe away some of our beaches and destroy some of our sets. So we’ve all been challenged in that way. So nature has been against us as well. But you just wake up the next day and go, ‘Well, gosh, this is what today is offering so let’s deal with it.’

THE DEADBOLT: What was it like to film in South Africa?

JEFFREY HAYES: It was - not 'was' - is great to film in South Africa. You know, as I said before it’s all about people when it comes down to it. I’ve been on shoots where it was work and I’ve been on shoots where it’s been a joy. And it was predominately a joy because of the people you’re working with. So that’s the experience we’ve had in South Africa. I can’t think of any other place where we would’ve had so much dedication in terms of the hours we worked and the weather we’ve had to work in/ And, you know, it was very cold on Crusoe’s island in the winter in South Africa at times. And it rained and we had storms and everybody kept a great sense of humor and pushed through it. So it’s been a fabulous experience, it really has.

Other Conference Call Highlights:

Sam Neill on whether he likes period roles more than contemporary roles:

"I don’t really think of things in contemporary or historical, but I’ve done quite a bit of - If you’re going to sort of differentiate roles between bad guys and good guys, I think it leans a bit towards the bad guy end of the spectrum. I’m not sure if that reflects something about me or not. But there are a lot of times to play and I’m really enjoying it."

Jeffrey Hayes on Crusoe bringing the island setting back to the original source material:

"Yes, it does. It goes back to the original source material at it’s core. But we do take a bit of dramatic license in terms of how we approach this character and the way he exists on the island with his partner, Friday. It’s definitely grounded in the book. But after that we kind of bring it into a more contemporary tone as far as a period drama is concerned. It definitely has its foundation in the book. You know, he did spend a lot of time on the island alone and that wouldn’t make for great drama over the course of thirteen hours probably [laughs]."

Jeffrey Hayes on what types of dangers Robinson Crusoe faces:

"We have not just pirates, cannibals, mutineers, we have a Spanish character named Santana who was part of the Guarda Costa, who was in our two-hour premiere episode. He also manages to return to the island and it’s through him - You know, he’s a bad guy in the two-hour and he comes back and he’s been redeemed and he helps Crusoe and Friday fight the cannibals. So we have quite an interesting tapestry of various characters of the period coming through the island over a period of time.

The mutineers for instance, they stay on the island because their ship is actually wrecked on the reef. And while they repair it they’re there for an arc of about four or five episodes and we draw on them for stories as we go through that arc. Sometimes they don’t figure very often into an episode very much and other times they’re very integral part of the episode."

Sam Neill on the preparation he did to make his character come to life:

"Well, I have to be fairly honest and admit I’m not the world’s leading expert on Daniel Defoe. I’m more in favor of the rip and yarn. And what we’re doing here is, I think, not ripping or previous ripping reference. I think probably you have a job description [which] is to have as much fun and provide as much fun as we possibly can, and pack as much in as possible into a good television hour. And that seems to be what we’re doing. As far as the iconic roles go, Philip’s role is much more iconic than mine - ‘You’ve got an immense burden on your shoulders there young man.’ But as for me, I’m just lifting what I can from the page and running with it as fast as I can."

Philip Winchester on the series taking artistic license with the classic Robinson Crusoe:

"I’ve been mulling over that for a while because we have taken artistic license with some of the stories. And like Jeff said it has to happen, because otherwise it can get dull watching a guy on an island build a shelter, getting a fire going, and going hunting every episode wouldn’t be entertaining. So what I really try to do, and what we stuck to, is that Robinson Crusoe is the same character but he’s telling different tales or different things are happening to him. Different things are coming into his life. We have, definitely...

In Daniel Defoe’s novel the cannibals visit the island several times and Robinson Crusoe has to go through the emotion of what he’s going to do about seeing the cannibals and if he’s going to interfere with the cannibals. So we’ve taken those elements of the story and we intertwine them into future episodes and we’ve also taken three years which is gone from the original book and put them throughout the episodes. There’s probably actually only two or three shows that are completely original stories where there’s something completely different happening."