BuzzSugar

Lost Producers Say Seasons Five and Six Will Be Rewarding

BuzzSugar — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 12:43:26 -0700

I'd expected the Lost panel here at Comic-Con to be as intense, fan-wise, as the Heroes one was, and there were certainly lots of fans in the audience, but the whole vibe of the thing was a little different - totally playful and fun. Executive producers/writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse sat onstage fielding questions from the audience and giving out gifts to each person who asked a question. The gifts were chosen based on what the topic was that the fan was asking about, so for example, a young man who looked a lot like Hurley was awarded a large tub of Dharma-issued ranch dressing. The producers also claimed that Dharma was sponsoring the panel here at Comic-Con.

They also chose a few of the people who took the tests at the Dharma recruitment booths on the exhibit floor to come onstage and then leave with a Dharma recruitment guy, Hans von Egan. They gave one of these chosen people a camera with which to "secretly" capture what went on when Egan took the group to a booth where they were shown a scratchy Dharma video of Marvin Candle who revealed that his real name is Pierre Cheng. In the video (which Cheng said was filmed 30 years ago), there was a screaming baby in the background until Cheng instructed someone to take the baby away. He implored the viewer to "complete the research." He said the Dharma Initiative "must be reconstituted" and he mentioned Einstein's field equations.

His most clear message was this: "Time is not just of the essence, it is the essence." In typical Lost form, the person running the camera eventually said that making the video was pointless, and the footage cut out as Cheng protested that they should keep taping.

So, there was that. From all the fan questions, we got a few more tidbits, though nothing too juicy. There was also no real footage to show, of course, since they haven't started shooting yet. Still, it was so much fun to be in a room full of Lost nerds who got every reference and insider joke. To see some of the little things we learned from the panel, read more.

The producers said Jin would still be on the show in some form, with Carlton Cuse adding, "Death is a relative term, really."
Cuse's favorite episode so far has been "The Constant." (I then wanted someone to ask the men who their constants are, but nobody did.) Both producers say the last season, season four, was their favorite season of them all, and promised that in seasons five and six the show would just keep getting better and better. "You guys never lost faith in the show," Damon Lindelof remarked. "You will be rewarded for hanging on all the way to the end of season six."
In addition to flashbacks and flash-forwards, they're going to do something "completely different, to mix it up."
Though they said they wanted to avoid using the word "flashbacks," they promised that we will see Rousseau's story.
Vincent the dog will be in season five.
Cuse, in particular, expressed his continued interest in the Kate-Jack-Sawyer love triangle, and said we'll see more about the triangle in the coming seasons.
They acknowledged that it's pretty silly that Daniel Faraday still hasn't taken off his skinny tie, but now it's kinda become a thing. They even gave out one of the ties that the actor wore on the show as a gift for someone who asked a question about Faraday.
Lindelof promised: "When season five starts, you're not going to know when or where you are." They are going to play (even more) with different places and periods of time.
One woman asked how old Richard Alpert really is, and how many toes he has. The producers just said "very old" and that we'll "see him barefoot in the very near future - and that's pun intended, 'near future.'"

Cryptic as always, but pretty fun, too.

EW's Filmmakers Panel With Smith, Apatow, Snyder and Miller

BuzzSugar — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:30:03 -0700

Entertainment Weekly held a few "Visionaries" panels at Comic-Con that brought together some of the greats in the TV, movies and comic book worlds. At the filmmakers panel, it was mostly a kick to see Kevin Smith, Judd Apatow, Zack Snyder and Frank Miller all at one table. It turned into the Smith-Apatow comedy hour, but that seemed to suit the audience members (myself included) just fine. Check out some of the highlights below.

The whole panel was super bawdy and raunchy, mostly due to Smith and Apatow making dirty jokes about each other. And then there was the smiling, friendly-faced Zack Snyder, who awkwardly bumbled out an answer to a question, after which there were about three beats of silence before Smith said, "Thank God your visuals are so strong, man." Smith later marveled at how awesome Snyder's Watchmen looks, saying he could die once he sees that movie.
Apatow talked about his raunchy comedies: "You have to find out: how much penis can you show in a movie without clearing an entire room?" Meanwhile, Smith nodded, deadpan, like he totally understood.
Smith: "I go with my gut, but my gut has lied to me in the past, like, when my gut said, 'Yeah, Jersey Girl's a great idea!'"
Frank Miller: "Very early on I learned I was incompetent at anything else. So I started to make comic books."

More on comics, geek culture, and how comedians differ from rappers (according to Apatow), if you read more.

Smith said he knew a while ago that it was only a matter of time before the comic book movie trend exploded. "Why not mine some of the most creative material ever, that's already been around for 50, 60 years? I think geek culture is here to stay. Thank God for Quentin Tarantino."
When asked whether he might attempt a different kind of movie than those he’s been making, Apatow answered in the negative, stating "There will be no movie with fairies and goblins. . . who can't get laid."
When asked about their influences, Apatow immediately said - without a trace of irony - Kevin Smith. "He laid down the track. I saw Clerks and I was like, ‘You can do that?!'" Smith reached over and gathered Apatow into a hug.
Apatow, babbling: "Comedians are not like rappers. Rappers kill each other and comedians like each other…" A few beats of baffled silence ensued before Smith asked, "Did you just step out of 1989? When was the last time a rapper killed another rapper?"
Frank Miller, on direct-to-internet content and advice for aspiring filmmakers: "Find the places the censors haven't found yet. Cause as much trouble as you can."

A Chat With Spaced's Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright, and Jessica Hynes

BuzzSugar — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:30:45 -0700

Hands down, one of the highlights of my Comic-Con experience was getting to meet Simon Pegg and his Spaced cohorts, despite the brevity of our interaction. I sat down for a quick roundtable interview with Pegg and his costar on Spaced, Jessica Hynes, along with Edgar Wright, Pegg's frequent partner in crime (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead) and the director of Spaced.

In the British comedy, Pegg and Hynes play Tim and Daisy, who rent a flat in London under the pretense that they are a couple. The show is filled with pop culture references and surreal experiences, and if you haven't already, you ought to get ahold of the newly available Spaced DVDs. For now, check out some of the highlights from our chat.

Q: There are a lot of horror references in Spaced. How did that come about?

Edgar Wright: I think that really is my default setting of shooting everything like it was a horror film, for no apparent reason. I mean, there were definitely a lot of references in the script already, particularly to The Shining . . . The whole style of the show is very stylized and sort of kinetic because the characters are so drenched in pop culture, it’s almost like, if they ever had to describe their mundane lives, this [a horror movie] is what it would look like. So it’s almost like, you’re watching them recount their lives, rather than the actuality.

Simon Pegg: Yeah, 'cause they’re like, "I went to work in a kitchen and it was like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest." Or, "I walked into the room that time and it was like the f---ing Evil Dead," you know? And that’s what you actually see. All three of us love the idea of taking very mundane things and turning them into slightly more grand, cinematic things. Which we took forward into Shaun of the Dead as well after having learned that on Spaced. Jess and I certainly wanted to have this world that was defined by popular culture, shaped by it.

The trio expounds on this and other things (like their intense admiration of Arrested Development), so read more.

Q: Was that also a reaction to the way most sitcoms are shot?

Edgar: Yeah, I think so. I think at the time, when we made the show there were some critics in the UK who assumed that we were trying to sort of burn down traditional sitcoms and that isn’t the case, because some traditionally-shot sitcoms are just fantastic. And it was around the time that Friends was huge, and in the UK there were two or three shows that were kind of trying to do a British Friends, so we wanted to go against that, really.

Jessica: [With] Friends. . . however real it is or funny it is, ultimately there's an aspirational quality to it in terms of the lead characters - the way they look, their world - there’s something slightly unreal about it. And I suppose that I would differentiate between the style of Friends as aspirational and would think of Spaced as sort of inspirational . . . It was important to have it reflect absolutely and intimately our world and experiences and our friends and ourselves. And to have that kind of authenticity it needed to be kind of grubby and sort of . . . real. Because that was our world.

Q: In terms of American TV, do you think there are comedic shows that get it right?

Edgar: Arrested Development did. For the two and a half seasons that it was on-air.

Simon: Arrested Development was just so . . .

Edgar: Fantastic.

Simon: It was depressingly good. Sometimes you watch something as a writer and you think, "Aw, what’s the point?" That show was like that.

Edgar: That was great. Larry Sanders, obviously that’s a bit further back, Curb Your Enthusiasm is really good.

Jessica: I always really liked Seinfeld as a sitcom, just in terms of quality of gags, and characters.

Edgar: And Seinfeld had a big influence, particularly on the second series of Spaced, actually the plotting of Seinfeld was very influential for us.

Simon: I love the American Office, I think it’s great. I love the way that they've taken that and they’ve made it their own.

Photo courtesy of Channel 4

EW's Television Visionaries Talk Sci-Fi and Pies

BuzzSugar — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 05:30:36 -0700

Yesterday, I told you about the rowdy panel of filmmaking greats I attended at Comic-Con. Today, I've got some notes from the television "Visionaries" event, which brought together showrunners Josh Schwartz (Chuck and Gossip Girl), Josh Friedman (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse (Lost), and Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies). Here are just a few of the highlights:

A running joke throughout the panel was teasing Josh Schwartz about Gossip Girl in any way possible. At one point, when the show came up in a question, he said he thought that mentioning it was "a little verboten at Comic-Con," which led the - considerable! - GG fans in the audience to make their presence known. Later, in response to a question about so-called "genre" shows getting lots of buzz over the past few years, Schwartz quipped: "Serena is now a cyborg."
On a related note, plenty of people (rightly) saw the Q&A portion of this panel as their best chance to ask questions of the Lost producers before the mad crush of the Lost-specific event the next day, prompting one panelist (I unfortunately couldn't see which one, as I was on the other side of the huge line) to point at the questioners and count them down, saying, "Lost, Lost, Lost, Piemaker, Piemaker, Lost . . . [mooney voice] Gossip Girl!"
Bryan Fuller is just a big bundle of cotton candy and flowers and goodness. Some various quotes summing up the sweetness: "I am a very sensitive soul. I couldn't do a series like CSI or Criminal Minds where you have to be in a negative headspace all the time. I just wanted to cram a show with as many things that make me smile as possible, like puppies and pie." And, later, "I think we need more awe."
Also, why is the piemaker not, say, a cake baker? "Cake is dry," Fuller said.

To find out which of these guys likes Project Runway, just read more.

Poor Josh Friedman was the most overlooked member of the panel, but he acquitted himself well whenever a question did come his way, showing a good sense of humor about the whole thing. My favorite line from him: "I don't think Terminator works in movie form. I think it's either TV or musical."
Friedman also told the story of casting Brian Austin Green the night before his character was scheduled to make his first appearance. At first, Friedman said, he just assumed the audition was going to be awful. But as soon as Green walked into the room, he had a very different reaction: "When did you get to be so hot?"
Could there actually be too many shows with sci-fi elements on TV these days? "The greatest thing that could ever be uttered in the halls of the networks is 'We have too many shows about time travel,'" Lindelof said.

One of the biggest laughs of the session: Cuse, Lindelof, and Schwartz talking about the Chuck episode where Chuck reveals that he might know the whereabouts of Oceanic Flight 815. What was Schwartz trying to establish by having Chuck mention Lost? "Lost is a TV show," he said, "and Chuck is real."
At the end of the session, someone asked what shows the panelists watched. They mostly cited each other's shows - until Fuller admitted to really liking Project Runway.

First Episode of Heroes Season Three Screened at Comic-Con

BuzzSugar — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:15:03 -0700

And I got to see it! The Comic-Con started off with executive producer Jeph Loeb profusely thanking all the loyal fans and all the Comic-Con attendees from a couple years ago for getting the word out about Heroes. The whole cast came onstage, followed by Tim Kring whose wrist was handcuffed to a metal briefcase, which he referred to as "a big giant thank you to all of you." The cheering was deafening (I should add that there were some die-hard fans who had camped out overnight to be first in the convention center for this panel; the crowd was enthusiastic, to put it mildly) as Kring pulled out a DVD which he said contained the whole first episode of the next season.

And I don't think I was too influenced by all the intense excitement generated by thousands of Heroes fans when I say that I was really impressed with the season premiere. The writing is just better, the pacing is exciting without being way too much stuff at a time, and there aren't like, 64 new heroes. I was sometimes frustrated with the last season, for various reasons, and this episode totally wiped the slate clean. In fact, I have a newly bolstered respect for Heroes. I really think they'll deliver an awesome season, if the premiere is any indication.

I won't reveal anything specific about the plot but if you want a tiny taste of what we got to see this morning, read more.

The episode is way funnier than I remember the show being, though it hasn't totally devolved into camp. There's also a ton of horror movie moments that are both gruesome and satisfying.
We find out who shot Nathan pretty early on.
Mohinder makes a groundbreaking scientific discovery that changes everything in his life. He mentions Molly briefly (just to explain where she is), but his story right now is mostly intertwined with Maya's (you know, black eyes when angry, etc.).
Hiro is feeling a little lost at the beginning, like he is a man without a quest. He grapples with the issue of what his destiny is now. Soon, however, his becomes one of the most exciting stories of them all. We also meet a new hero through his story.
Several characters that were presumed gone for good make reappearances, of some sort.
One of the characters has a major spiritual awakening.
Old characters (yeah - plural!) who didn't have powers now do.
There's a new twist on the "save the cheerleader, save the world" mantra.

It was awesome. It was like a spectator sport, but the sport was just watching Heroes. There was even wild cheering for Mr. Muggles, which made me happy. Suffice to say, I look forward to September.

The Spirit Looks Good, Watchmen Looks Freaking Awesome

BuzzSugar — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 22:33:41 -0700

Yeah, another dispatch from Comic-Con today but I just had to share because I attended the panels for Watchmen (see: photo below) and The Spirit today and both were so exciting. The one for Watchmen in particular was not only coolest in terms of the footage we got to see, but also because of the funny, laid-back vibe of the panel. I think Zack Snyder with his friendly, boy-next-door ways pretty much set the tone for that.

More on that later. First, some thoughts on Frank Miller's film version of Will Eisner's The Spirit:

There are two things that I really loved about The Spirit footage we saw and the panel itself. For one, the movie truly looks like a comic book, and it's a lot of fun to watch. Jaime King described it as visually "intoxicating," which I could see. Secondly, Samuel L. Jackson was at the panel and he was a great interviewee. He chuckled when the topic of his Spirit character's Nazi costume came up. "That was awesome. I was a Nazi! Nick Fury became a black skinhead."
That said, there was something about both the movie and the panel that was a little empty and detached. Miller completely admits that if a woman is in his movies, she's gonna be hot and wearing tight clothing. And that's fine. His choice, etc. But there's a line between making an artistic choice and objectifying women, and Miller skates that line.
Finally, there's the issue of the Spirit himself, played by Gabriel Macht. I think Macht is an incredibly cute guy. And the character of the hero of the film is an important one to cast. On this topic, Miller mentioned that Hollywood has many fine male actors, but "not many men." Which is why, he says, we hold onto the Bruce Willises and Harrison Fords and Clive Owens (his examples, all). And then. . . he chose Gabriel Macht to be his manly hero? I thought the footage they showed us from the movie would explain this a little more, but not so. Onscreen as the Spirit, Macht is likable and funny and cute, but he's not the heroic "man" that Miller referenced earlier, which struck me as odd.

For some of my thoughts on Watchmen sneak peek, read more.

As I mentioned, director Zack Snyder (300, Dawn of the Dead) has this easygoing, affable manner, and it really set the tone for the panel, which included all the main actors: Malin Akerman, Carla Gugino, Jackie Earle Haley, Billy Crudup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Matthew Goode and Patrick Wilson. All of them seem to be deeply passionate about the film, and about doing justice to the original source material by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
Snyder said he knew an adaptation of Watchmen - which has been said to be the one work that is "unfilmmable" - was in the works, and he decided to direct it mostly out of fear that someone else wouldn't do it well enough.
And it appears that Snyder brought it to life stupendously. The clip montage we were shown was completely wordless, set to that ominous-sounding choral music (as opposed to the Smashing Pumpkins song in the trailer, "The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning"), so it's mostly a series of images. If you know what's going on in the story of the Watchmen, it's really, really freaking cool. All the effects aren't completely done, they were careful to say, but so far, Billy Crudup's bright blue Dr. Manhattan looks super cool, and Rorschach's ever-morphing face mask is totally mesmerizing.
Speaking of Rorschach, Jackie Earle Haley said that he gained inspiration and knowledge about how to play Rorschach by looking at online fan sites and blog threads and reading what all the fans believe Rorschach is like. "I learned a lot about him from you," he said. At an event where a lot of the movie panels seem to be mostly about stroking and re-stroking certain egos, this deferential comment - specifically toward the very types of people who attend Comic-Con - was really refreshing.

Lucy Lawless Tells Kevin Smith What's What at Comic-Con

BuzzSugar — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:30:22 -0700

I would have wanted to attend a panel on women in the sci-fi, horror, and comic book genres anyway, but the fact that it was moderated by Kevin Smith just sealed the deal. And I didn't realize I was in for such a comedy show. Smith was, as one might expect, hilariously droll, sarcastic, kinda bitter but not quite hostile. But that Lucy Lawless (you may know her as Xena, and/or D'Anna Biers on Battlestar Galactica) is sassy! She's gregarious and smart and has an incredibly cutting sense of humor that she used to repeatedly take Smith down. It was informative, but also one of the most entertaining panels I've attended yet.

In addition to Lawless, the other panelists included Jaime King (Sin City, The Spirit) Pia Guerra (the awesomely smart and creative illustrator of a comic that I'm slightly obsessed with right now, Y: The Last Man) and producer Gale Anne Hurd (Terminator, Punisher: War Zone).

Smith asked each of the ladies some prewritten questions (not written by him, and clearly not questions he was happy asking) about their experiences as women in such fanboy-dominated universes. To see what they had to say, read more.

Lawless referenced Sigourney Weaver multiple times as both an influence on her as an actor and in terms of Weaver being a pioneer of sorts for women in the sci-fi genre.
Jaime King admitted that doing her first horror movie was "sort of traumatizing," and that as much as she was supposed to try and detach from it all, it still seemed real.
Lawless said that the key to great female characters in these genres is "all in the writing," and that if people want to see more quality characters, they need to write quality characters for women. At this, Pia chimed in to say that the great writing of female characters requires writing them as "humans first."
Jaime King said she read a comic book aloud to Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller when she auditioned for Sin City. She thinks some people have a misconception of what Miller is like, and she said he's "actually a very gentle, caring, loving man."
At Gale's mention of Aeon Flux, the crowd went crazy cheering. It was nice to hear this character so warmly appreciated.
In response to the question, "Would you like to see more female directors in these genres?" of course Lawless, King, and Guerra all of course said "yes," and encouraged women to "step it up." Actually, Lawless said aspiring directors should "get off your arse, use your digi [camera], and do it your own self."
When asked who his favorite female character of all time is, Kevin Smith replied, "God." So, yeah. I'm kind of in love with that Kevin Smith.

I'm So Psyched - I'm Going to Comic-Con!

BuzzSugar — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:33:20 -0700

Holy geekfest, Buzz readers! I'm heading down to San Diego to attend this year's Comic-Con! I'm a Comic-Con virgin, so this will be my first time at the exciting comic book/sci-fi/fantasy event (though it's become mainstream enough to include some random stuff, like that Rainn Wilson movie The Rocker?) and up until now my understanding of Comic-Con has been vaguely based on that scene in Chasing Amy when Holden (Ben Affleck) goes up to Alyssa's (Joey Lauren Adams) booth where she's signing copies of her new comic book, and he hands her his. . . Oh, man, now I have to go watch Chasing Amy again.

Speaking of Chasing Amy, Kevin Smith will yet again be on hand at Comic-Con, mostly to promote his next comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno, starring Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks. Smith's also moderating this panel I hope to attend called "Scream Like a Girl" which, OK, is being held by Spike TV, but includes a bunch of ladies who are going to discuss what it's like to be a woman working in the fanboy universes of comic book, sci-fi, fantasy and horror films. I think it sounds pretty cool, and with any luck, I'll be able to interview Smith after the panel. And will try not to swoon or gush. . .too much.

To see some of the other stuff I'm angling to check out, read more.

Surely the room for this will be packed to the gills, but I have to try anyway: EW is hosting a few "Visionaries" panels, featuring some heavy-hitters all on one stage. The Filmmakers panel includes Judd Apatow, Frank Miller, Kevin Smith, and Zack Snyder (300, The Watchmen). For the TV Showrunners panel they're bringing up Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof (Lost), Josh Schwartz (The O.C., Gossip Girl, Chuck), Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies) and Josh Friedman (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles). There is much to learn from these guys.
Of course, there are also separate panels just for shows like Lost, Heroes, and Pushing Daisies, along with some for new shows, like HBO's Alan Ball creation, True Blood (yay, vampires!). Sometimes these panel sessions include sneak peeks at things (like, say, the first episode of Heroes, if we're lucky?), so I'll wait patiently in line for that.
There are a bunch of movie panels I'd like to check out, too, like the one for Max Payne (with Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis in attendance), The Watchmen, The Spirit, and a couple of randoms, like Pineapple Express.
Oh, and did I mention that Gerard Butler is supposed to attend a panel to promote the upcoming Guy Ritchie film RocknRolla? Yeah, pretty sure my schedule's cleared for that one.

Wish me luck! And if you've been to Comic-Con yourself, send me your thoughts and tips!

Catch Up With All My Posts From Comic-Con!

BuzzSugar — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 05:30:52 -0700

I'm finally recovered(ish) from my busy weekend in San Diego for Comic-Con! A ton of the festival's action took place on Friday and Saturday, so just in case you missed it, here's a handy-dandy guide to all of my write-ups:

Assorted Goodies
BuzzSugar at Comic-Con: Day One!
Comic-Con Round-Up

Song of the Day: Kristin Chenoweth's Comic-Con Performance

BuzzSugar — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:34:22 -0700

As I mentioned in my writeup of the Pushing Daisies panel at Comic-Con, one of the greatest moments was getting to hear an impromptu song from Kristin Chenoweth upon the request of one very cute, very young fan.

I was able to pull the song off my recorder, and so now, you can check Chenoweth's gorgeous rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" for yourself. The audio isn't perfect - I wasn't expecting to be recording a Tony winner (and Emmy nominee and onetime Miss Oklahoma runner-up!) when I woke up on Saturday - but even with some fuzz, you'll get the idea.

The recording starts with the fan's request - then you'll hear some applause (which was even louder in the room!) and then the start of the song. To check it out, just read more.