LOS ANGELES — Oscar-winning director Alfonso Cuaron was looking for an anti-”Gravity” follow-up to his blockbuster space film, and he found it with a rare excursion into TV.

Cuaron and sci-fi auteur J.J. Abrams (“Lost,” the “Star Trek” movies) are executive producers of “Believe,” a drama about a child whose supernatural powers put her and the world at risk.

The premise came to him while he waited during “the endless process of special effects” on “Gravity,” Cuaron said at a media event.

“Well, first of all, I wanted to do something in which people were not floating,” he said. “I wanted to do something more grounded, and we wanted to do it with real people, real locations. And I wanted to do something really exciting, but, at the same time, something that would be highly emotional.”

He and Abrams met more than two decades ago and, Abrams said, “I’ve wanted to work with him desperately ever since. I was a huge fan of every movie that he made, and each one made me more and more desperate to try and figure this out.”

When Cuaron contacted him with the idea for “Believe,” Abrams said, it created the opportunity for him and his company, Bad Robot Productions.

A preview airs at 10 p.m. Monday on NBC.

“Gravity” won seven Oscars on March 2, with the Mexican director becoming the category’s first Latino winner.