I came into LOST a little late near the beginning of Season 2. I was in college and my parents called me insisting that I watch the Pilot. They had bought it off iTunes, watched it on a plane and immediately raved about it. I had a vague familiarity with LOST; people were stranded on an island from a plane crash, there may or may not be dinosaurs involved, etc. But I had no idea what I was about to get myself into.

I blasted through the Season 1 and was immediately caught up to the live airing episodes of Season 2. During Season 2, I had downloaded a Dashboard widget which counted down 108 minutes, and would beep during the final 4, during which you had to input the numbers to reset it, just as they do on the show. Forgetting I had the widget, my roommate and I were watching an episode one night when we heard the familiar alarm. But it wasn’t coming from the TV and we were both sitting there wondering what was going on. Yep, it was my computer. Good times.

I never turned back after that. LOST was my life. Since that time I’ve always tried to get others into the show and can’t count how many I’ve converted to fans. I’ve watched Seasons 1 & 2 six or seven times, and the rest a few times each. Everyone says watching on DVD is always better because you don’t have to wait a week (and as LOST-ies know sometimes months between episodes), but LOST took things further than that. ABC would run commercials and ads for mythical companies which existed inside the LOST universe. Some of you may remember the constant ads for The Hanso Foundation and more recently Oceanic Airline commercials. After the Season 2 finale, Jimmy Kimmel Live! had a guest on the show, an employee of The Hanso Foundation, who insisted that his company was real, and had no affiliation with the show. What network is Kimmel on? That’s right, ABC.

LOST was taking the television experience to new levels. There were viral sites on the internet leading to clues and non-canon information about the show and its characters. An Oceanic Airlines site was created, where you could go to the site to book a flight, but Sydney to Los Angeles was already filled in. From there you were taken to a seating chart to choose your seat. If you left the page idle for about 5 minutes, a video would pop up of the plane crashing or John Locke in his seat during the flight; but it was always different.

I remember there was a viral site once linked to Sprite. It was something along the lines of a website called “sublyminal” where there were 6 blank television screens in a circle. When you clicked a screen it would glow, and then revert. I kept clicking and one of the screens eventually stayed glowing. I kept clicking. Same thing with another one. Then I had a thought. Could the number of clicks correlate to the Numbers? I tried it. Sure enough, it took a certain number of clicks for each screen — 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42. The screens then spun rapidly in a circle and gave a keyword and asked for a password. I didn’t know the password. But still, those 2 hours of my life were thrilling.

So sure, watching on DVD is always better, but experiencing things like this, and other ARG’s (alternate reality game) have shaped the way we can experience television. The creators behind LOST wanted to keep us occupied in the offseason. We needed to stay in shape. It was like summer workouts for the new season. After Season 3, there was an ARG called FIND815, referring to Oceanic Flight 815 (hey wait, aren’t those the same numbers?). You were a character who knew someone on the plane and it was your life’s quest to uncover the mystery behind the flight’s disappearance. Again, countless hours of my life staring at a computer, waiting for the next task to complete and more clues to find. Not everyone played these games, and it wasn’t canon to the show, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t fun.

Early on in Season 3, the viewership started falling. Because of the nature of the show and it’s many characters, things were becoming too spread out and interest was waning (not from me of course). One of the main characters was killed off when the real life actor asked to be written out of the show. The creators even tried to add two new characters, to which they went to great lengths to carefully incorporate them into the story. Fans went crazy. We spoke, and the creators listened. In just a few episodes, they were buried alive. And no, I’m not just using that as some kind of metaphor. They were LITERALLY buried alive. What other show has so quickly taken advice from its fans?

For 3 seasons, LOST stuck to a formula. Every episode was character-centric and would have flashbacks to their life prior to the plane crash. How did they get here? Who were they before? Who are they now? These were the constant questions that invested us in these people.

And then, without even a hint of notice, the structure and formula of the show was flipped on end in startling fashion, and became one of the great twists in television history; we were suddenly being shown the future. The fate of our characters was already decided to a certain point. During Season 3, the creators also set an end date for LOST; they said there would only be 48 more episodes, no more, no less. Wait, you mean you’re not going to milk this for everything you can? But I thought that’s what happens on television? Not anymore.

The questions now changed. It was no longer, “How did they get here?” in a metaphorical sense, but now became, “How do they get there?” An ultimately more interesting, and groundbreaking, path. Never in television history have we been compelled to this degree where the answers were already given, but the variables and constants remained unknown. There was so much we didn’t know, and everytime a question was answered, another emerged.

Which brings us to the present. We’re on the brink of the final season. Only 17 episodes remain. With the release of Season 5 on Blu-Ray, LOST University was created to further immerse fans into the world of the Island. Using BD-Live on your Blu-Ray player, you are connected to an online database where you can enroll in courses on time travel, physics, biology…anything you can imagine. Again, this is not canon to the show, but it makes everything more enjoyable and the wait until the Season 6 Premiere seem not as long as it is.

Going into this season the creators asked that ABC not release a single frame of Season 6 footage. Instead, promos for the new season would be simple montages of past seasons and scenes leading up to now. And you really have to give credit to ABC for granting that wish. It’s ingenious. Never before has the future been so uncertain, even inside the LOST universe. For possibly the first time in television history, you could ask any LOST fan what they expect to be the first image in the season, and they would have no idea. Every answer would be different. Because of the events that transpired in the Season 5 finale, we literally have NO CLUE what will happen next. And I can’t love this enough. It’s exhilarating and practically unheard of.

It’s a wonderful time to be a LOST fan. This has been 6 years of envelope pushing in the making. LOST set a bar and became the cult hit of the decade. Every network wants the next LOST. You may look at the ratings and total viewers and think it’s not that popular a show, but it’s also one of the top watched shows online and on DVR’s. Every day following an episode it’s #1 on the iTunes chart. I can safely say it’s been the most fun I’ve ever had watching television in my life, and although I will be quite sad when it’s over, I can’t wait to find out the truths that lie ahead.

This decade may go down as the greatest in television history. Mad Men, The Sopranos, LOST, The Wire, The Office, Battlestar Gallactica, 24, Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasum, Dexter. The list goes on. You could make an argument as to what’s the best or your favorite, but the experience of being a LOST fan is incomparable. And that to me is not arguable.

J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse, Jeffrey Lieber, Jack Bender & all the rest of the writing and creative team, I thank you in advance for 6 wonderful years of television. It’s been an unforgettable ride.

There’s a new masterpiece on Youtube. It’s one of the greatest films I’ve seen all year.

But don’t take my word for it.

Damon Lindelof: “Your life is about to change. This is astounding film making. Watch ALL of it.”

What follows is a seven-part, 70 minute long review of George Lucas’ late-career blunder, “The Phantom Menace.”

Not only does it swiftly dissect why this movie is such an abomination, particularly by comparison to “The Empire Strikes Back,” but it does so with a maniacal, unreliable narrator.

This is the work of RedLetterMedia, and it is simply genius.

Part one: Nothing in “The Phantom Menace” makes any sense at all; protagonists; and describing the characters.

Part two: The story of “The Phantom Menace” is horrible. And a trip into the narrator’s basement.

Part three: Palpatine actively foils his own plan, inexplicably; the Jedi plotline contradicts their alleged wisdom.

Part four: “Everything everyone says in this movie makes no sense.” Plus, who is the main character and why should we care?

Part five: Qui-Gon Jinn is incredibly stupid or drunk, Jake Lloyd is terrible, and worst of all, this movie ruins the Force.

Part six: The light saber duels in “The Phantom Menace” are crap by comparison to those in the original trilogy.

Part seven: The Ending Multiplication Effect, and the Pizza Roll scene.

BONUS STAR WARS FUN

Check this out. Star Wars Weather.

We have asked from the beginning whether Lost creators J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof ever had a master plan for the show’s tangled web of mysteries. Committing to a show that would take (and has taken) years to reveal its secrets hinged on whether or not the initial mysteries really pointed to something bigger. After all, we’ve had our hearts broken before. Twin Peaks collapsed after wrapping up the mystery of Laura Palmer’s demise. The X-Files limped on into mediocrity. Many expected Lost to simply implode on itself, another casualty of creative minds spinning an intricate tale without a clue as to where it was all headed.

For many, Lost assumed the mantle of cult phenomenon as early as its fourth episode, “Walkabout.” As the mysteries unfolded into the third season, cracks started to show. Once audiences followed Jack to Thailand to get his tattoos, we began asking the question in earnest: Is any of this actually going somewhere?

David Fury, who wrote the famous Locke-centric “Walkabout,” dashed any such hope back in 2005, telling Rolling Stone that most of the show’s early plot developments were created on the fly. Ain’t it Cool News recently asked first season co-producer Jesse Alexander if the notion of time hopping the castaways to 1977 (a major story arc last season) was ever discussed during his tenure in the writer’s room. His answer? An emphatic “no.”

Meanwhile, various comments throughout each season’s DVD commentaries or special features hint that the series writers have spent significant time mapping the show’s trajectory. Lindelof and co-show runner Carlton Cuse have insisted in interviews, most recently this past Monday for TVGuide.com, that they developed a mythology with a specific story conclusion in mind. That conclusion, they maintain, has never wavered, only shifted to accommodate characters and events as they developed.

So the question is: how much of Lost’s enigmas and unanswered mysteries find their answers in this developed mythology? Will we learn what makes Walt so special? Had the writers always determined to “move” the island? What’s the real significance of Jack’s cryptic tattoos? 

While considering just how much the writers have known from the beginning, allow me to posit that, not only did Lost never have such a detailed master plan, its success was never dependent upon having one. What we fail to realize in maintaining faith in a master plan is that the business of network television usually doesn’t allow for that kind of creative mapping. 

More than any other visual medium, television has the best opportunity to unroll the kind of dense, complicated storylines typically found in novels. Novels, however, have a built-in sense of anticipation the closer you get to turning the last page. Hour-long episodic television works on a different dynamic, one that leaves both its creators and the audience blind to where its final page falls.

Writers will tell you that stories unfold organically—characters develop and take on lives of their own; they influence the narrative in ways the author’s original outlines never anticipated. In television, this creates tension between doing business and the art of telling a good story. Some hour-longs have an easier time with this (re: Law and Order or House, M.D.). Serialized cult favorites face a tougher struggle between continuing the story the writers/creators had in mind, maintaining their ratings, and keeping their fans happy.

On a typical hour-long, writers and producers meet at the beginning of each season, pitch ideas, and map out a narrative course for the year. Lost has developed along similar means (see here, re: “mini-camp”) Given its heavy mythology and tight serialized narrative, writing an episode involves more than just crafting this week’s latest adventure. As Fury suggested, plot elements are set down to set up future pay offs that no one in the writers room may have ever conceived. The trick, as Lindelof has hinted before, rests in keeping the illusion alive that payoffs were conceived.

Storytelling at that level requires a specific set of gifts, and not every writer (or writers room) can handle the challenge for very long. A few, however, have managed to make it work. Aaron Sorkin, for instance, was known to write every successive episode of The West Wing on the fly. He never developed a narrative arc beyond the next script he had to turn in, and still managed to keep his plotlines somewhat together for four straight seasons.

Ronald D. Moore, show runner for Battlestar Galactica, had always planned to end his reinvented show on Earth’s ancient past, but he has admitted that certain plot developments (like Daniel, Cylon model 7) were developed later to cover errors in earlier writing. Other later developments, like the true identity of Ellen Tigh (a hanging suspicion from the show’s first season), were never settled upon until it came time to produce the show’s final season.

Similarly, Lindelof and Cuse continue to insist that their endgame for Lost has remained fixed; getting there, however, has remained in flux. It would seem if any plan for the show’s overall narrative had ever existed, it existed in some of the vaguest possible terms to allow the writers room to the develop the specifics over time. Therefore, in suffering the malaise of the show’s third season, the show runners negotiated a rare deal in network television, and worked out a solid end date for the show. In essence, they placed audiences within sight of a final page.

ABC announced in 2007 that Lost would take its bow in 2010. Perhaps more detailed plans for the series’ final chapters really were laid down once an end date was marked on the calendar. The third season closed stronger than it had opened, and each successive season has driven onward with a better sense of…well, destiny.

Lost returns to ABC for its sixth and final season February 2, 2010. Expectations for a satisfying close remain high with only 18 hours of this epic tale left to unfold. Fans and detractors have already taken sides in the debate, and once the curtain falls, it will likely continue.

Regardless, Lindelof and Cuse have managed to keep their ship on a steady course through some occasional rough waters. Here’s to seeing them steer it home.

(this article also posted at Blogcritics)

Data
Title: Lost: Season Five
Year: 2009
Network: ABC
Episodes: 17, at 43 minutes
Creators: J.J. Abrams, Jeffrey Lieber, Damon Lindelof
Directors: Stephen Williams, Jack Bender, Rod Holcomb, Paul A. Edwards, Mark Goldman, Greg Yaitanes, Bobby Roth
Writers: Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse, Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz, Elizabeth Sarnoff, Paul Zbyszewski, Brian K. Vaughan, Melinda Hsu, Kyle Pennington, Greggory Nations
Starring: Naveen Andrews, Henry Ian Cusick, Jeremy Davies, Michael Emerson, Matthew Fox, Jorge Garcia, Josh Holloway, Daniel Dae Kim, Yunjin Kim, Ken Leung, Evangeline Lilly, Rebecca Mader, Elizabeth Mitchell, Terry O’Quinn
Music: Michael Giacchino
Distinctions: Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor (Emerson)

My reaction
Synopsis: time-traveling survivors
How I saw it: streaming online (from Netflix), over the past few days
Concept: Great.
Story: Great.
Characters: Great.
Dialog: Great.
Pacing: Great.
Cinematography: Good.
Special effects/design: Great.
Acting: Good.
Music: Great.
Subjective Rating: 9/10 (One of my favorites). This is what television should be. Granted, I could do without the whole 10% of the show spent waiting for a character’s name to be revealed thing, and I was pretty disappointed when A Certain Character didn’t end up dying after all at the end of the finale, but whatever. Easily the best season so far.
Objective Rating: 10/10 3.8/4 (Great).

Lost masterminds Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof have leaked the first clues to the final season of their crypto-drama, thanks to a video shot by comedian Paul Scheer. The clip from damoncarltonandapolarbear.com is a good-natured spoof of crazy Lost fans. And the entire site is designed to provide hints about the season debuting early next year. Scheer’s major revelation: The premiere will be called ”LA X.” How to decipher that title? Well, Lostophiles will remember that Oceanic 815 was bound for Los Angeles when it crashed on Mystery Island, and that season 5 ended with time-traveling Juliet detonating a hydrogen bomb with the hope of creating a new reality in which everyone landed safely at LAX. So ”LA X” may refer to the airport. But that intentional space makes my Doc Jensen brain go tingly. If we read the title as ”Los Angeles ‘10” (the Roman numeral X equals 10, as in 2010), maybe it simply means the new season will begin in present-day L.A. That’s too easy! So I’m going with this: The characters touched by the maybe-magical Jacob — Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Sayid, Hurley, Locke, Sun, Jin, and Ben — will begin the season scattered through time as a result of Juliet’s explosive reboot. They’ll have limited memory of their past Island life, yet they’ll find themselves inexplicably compelled to gather in L.A. in 2010. Yes, I get all that from the title. And by being one of those crazy Lost fans.

I can’t remember when I stopped watching LOST last season. I think I missed the last 10 episodes? Something like that? And it wasn’t because I got fed up with the show or thought it sucked or whatever. I’m not one of those fans. I’ve always had faith in Damon Lindelof and Carlton’s Cuse vision and have always trusted that they were telling the story they wanted to from start to finish.

It’s just that — and I don’t know if you’ve noticed — but LOST is such a HEAVY show. And then there’s the little issue of my obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. (No, I’m not exaggerating, and no, I’m not Monk-like. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder [Monk] and Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder are two entirely different things)

Anyway. I don’t like not knowing every single hint and clue and detail and background puzzle piece. I mean, seriously? I tend to equate watching LOST with…school work. I feel like I have to study before and after an episode to actually grasp all of its genius tendencies. Especially since I haven’t read nearly enough classic and/or cultish literature and fiction that D&C use to inspire their storytelling.

It’s why I have come to love J.J. Abram’s latest brain child, Fringe, more. I find it more compelling and more entertaining and more intriguing and more…fun. LOST is genius, but it is not fun. I am usually only mildly exaggerating (and sometimes not exaggerating at all) when I claim that it gives me a headache.

Anyway, but February 2 does begin the final season, and I know that it will be amazing, and I don’t want to miss out on the opportunity of watching it live. And since the Season 5 DVDs come out tomorrow, I’m going to use the rest of December and January to catch up so that I can tune in on Feb. 2 caught up and ready to go.

And yes, I still have a major crush on Damon. I am in awe of his brain.

The Bookworms: Lost’s Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse have made cerebral appointment TV

(From TV Guide)

Lost is one of the most influential shows on television, but also one of the most influenced. Executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse (or “Darlton,” as they’re known to fans) have created a baffling, intensely seductive story that blends sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, romance, and more than a little comedy. You can probably guess both men are obsessive consumers of pop culture, from Star Wars to The Prisoner. But they’re also well-read writers whose obsessions stretch from ancient mythology to Stephen King. Fans obsess over whether the show is rooted in Greek myth, the Old Testament, both, or something else entirely. We spoke to Lindelof and Cuse, who are among the influential television industry players interviewed for TVGuide.com’s Best of the Decade section, about who inspired them, why they set an end date for the show, and how they created their own myths.

TVGuide.com: Tell me about how each of you got involved with Lost.
Damon Lindelof: I got a call from an executive at ABC named Heather Kadin. It was late January. She was tasked with trying to coerce J.J. Abrams into rewriting a script that they had about a plane that had crashed on an island. J.J. said that he did not have time to do this because he was writing another pilot for ABC at the time and running Alias and trying to launch his feature career.

[Since I was a] stalker of J.J. and his work, Heather basically felt like this was a prime opportunity to put me in a room with him, even if the project went nowhere. I jumped at the chance. I met with J.J. on a Monday afternoon and we ended up geeking out for four hours, and five days later we had the outline for Lost. Ten weeks after that, we had the two-hour premiere completed.

Carlton Cuse: I created and ran a show called Nash Bridges and I hired Damon to be a writer on that show. We not only had a really good professional relationship, but we developed a really strong [friendship]. After the pilot process that Damon described, J.J. left to go do [Mission: Impossible 3] with Tom Cruise. Damon and I had been talking about the show and I had sort of fallen in love with what J.J. and Damon had done in the pilot and the world that had been created.

There were very few people who believed this premise was sustainable as a series, and that was incredibly liberating for me. Damon and I would sit down and have breakfast every morning — as we continue to do to this day — and we kind of approached it like it was just 12 episodes and out, how do we make these the 12 greatest episodes of television that we would want to see ourselves? We basically liberated ourselves from all the rules of traditional television narrative. We thought this thing would probably end up on DVD and would be like Twin Peaks or The Prisoner.

TVGuide.com: Did you ever think about syndication when you were creating the show, in that it’s so mythology-heavy?
Lindelof: I think at the time that Lost and Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy came along, serialized was a dirty word. But those shows basically proved that you could create a water-cooler zeitgeist around a show because it was serialized. To [ABC president] Steve McPherson’s credit, I think that there was a lot more focus on being successful while you were on the air, as opposed to thinking forward to what the possible syndication deals would be.

Fortunately for us at this time, the DVD television market was exploding. That provided a revenue stream for them that made up for the fact that the show probably wouldn’t [syndicate] well. But if you watch the first season of Lost, the heavy mythological elements were not really in play. There was character serialization, the romance, that kind of stuff, but in Season 1 it took them eight episodes to build a raft; in Season 5, they jump through time four times in a single episode. I don’t think we could’ve gotten away with that in Season 1, nor did we want to.

TVGuide.com: How do you respond to the criticism that people who were passionate about the show at the beginning have gotten “lost” along the way? Do you ever think: We’ve made things too complicated. We need to be simpler.
Cuse: In order to sustain a show over what ultimately will be 120 episodes, it has to be complex. If you took a non-Harry Potter viewer and asked them to watch the fourth or fifth movie, I think they’d be very confused about what’s going on. We feel like Season 5 was the highest degree of difficulty. We hope that a lot of viewers who left will come back for the end of the show. We tried to design the show with a certain circularity and we feel like Season 6 will be very much like Season 1 and while you do need to know backstories to follow what’s going on in Season 6, it’s very character-centric.

TVGuide.com: At what point did you decide: We really need to set an end date for the series. And why?
Lindelof: For us, the primary belief in the first season of the show was that we would not be able to sustain this premise forever because that’s what the story tells you. If the story starts with a plane crashing on an island, the story’s going to end when the people get off the island, and for us, the process of keeping them from leaving the island was going to be very finite.

By early in the second season, we engaged in a series of dialogues with the network, saying, hey, these flashbacks are not going to last forever. Once we answer the seminal mysteries of what it is that Kate did or how Locke ended up in the wheelchair, why Hurley ended up in a mental institution, then that phase of the story is done and we have to move into the next phase of the story, which we knew was basically the flash-forwards and the story of the Oceanic 6. We didn’t pull the trigger until we were allowed to move to the inevitable conclusion.

We always did our best to make the show great, but when you’re halfway through Season 3 and you’re doing episodes about Jack flying a kite in Thailand, then the network finally said, “Oh, this is what you guys were talking about.” So we were able to agree upon how many episodes were left and at that point we knew exactly how much time we had to arrive at our destination.

TVGuide.com: Have you always known what the end of the series would be? Has it changed at all?
Cuse: Always is the operative word. We developed a mythology, as I said earlier, in the first season and between the first and the second season, and we’re actually moving toward that exact end point. I mean, that has not changed. Certain details of how the show ends have evolved over time but that’s mainly on a character level as we’ve gotten to know the characters and seen how the actors interact. So there are parts of the ending that are still living and breathing, but the actual mythological endpoint has been constant since we developed the show.

TVGuide.com: Damon, during the writers’ strike, you wrote a piece for the New York Times mourning the loss of TV. I’m wondering how you think it’s going two years later.
Lindelof: I think that mourning the loss of TV was a very clever angle into [the way] the editorial was shaped but what I was really feeling was a tremendous level of excitement about the way television is watched. The fact of the matter is, people are still watching a lot of what we call “television,” except my brother-in-law goes to [college] and none of the kids in his dorm have televisions, they have laptops. They don’t watch television at 9 o’clock on a Wednesday night, they watch it on Hulu or ABC.com or the Comedy Central player. So can you really call that TV anymore? They don’t say, “I’m going to my dorm room to watch ‘computer.’”

Mourning television is this idea of [mourning a] traditional sort of broadcast, but the fact that content is so pervasive that anybody in the world can watch it is very, very exciting if you’re a storyteller. Two years later, what’s really great is all the things we went on strike for [and that we said] were going to happen are happening, and two years from now it will be even more profound.

See TVGuide.com’s picks for the Best TV Shows of the Year

TVGuide.com: What TV shows or entertainment figures inspired you or your work?
Cuse: For us, a lot of literary heroes, ranging from C.S. Lewis to Stephen King to Kurt Vonnegut and even the Bible, have been real sources of inspiration.

Lindelof: I think that there are also a number of TV writers, from David Kelley to David Milch to David Simon — the guy basically changed the form of storytelling on TV, character-centric storytelling. Carlton and I went to a panel at ComicCon this year that was Peter Jackson and James Cameron and one of the things that really struck me personally was, here are two guys that are willing to commit six or seven years of their lives to just one thing. Peter Jackson did it with the Lord of the Rings trilogy; Cameron does it every time he makes a movie.

So the idea that we were inspired by, you know, we saw this thing through. We were there in the beginning of Lost, we’re going to write the last episode. There have been a lot of times when we had very tempting offers to go off and do other stuff or leave the show and leave it in the hands of others, but the ideas we’ve committed this chunk of our lives to — this show is something that was inspired by guys like that.

Oh, yeah - I'm still really pissed off about THIS.

Enjoy, because this is all the new Lost you’re going to get for the next two months.

I want to go to there.

The Movie Overdose attempts to contain the apocalypse with a review of Roland Emmerich’s 2012. We chat about how we would change Eddie Murphy for the better, what kind of sequel we want for Star Trek and whether we are glad to see Sean Connery coming back, if only in voice form. Tom slightly dampens the praise given to An Education and Sam revels in the madness of Running Scared and the flawed ambition of Dogma. The conclusion involves a discussion of actors that, no matter what, we always look forward to seeing on screen.

Download The Movie Overdose Episode 42

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The Final Season begins Tuesday, February 2, 2010. 

According to a recent interview with co-creator/co-showrunner Damon Lindelof, we may not get a real peek at the new season for a while.  Till then…

J.J Abrams confirms with Sci-Fi Wire the Star Trek sequel will not see the universal stars till 2012. Producer/writer Damon Lindelof says “Yeah, I think that we would be hard pressed to get it on screens by 2011,” stressing the importance of the creating process. For more intriguing info on the character development and plot, hit the jump.

Source: Sci-Fi Wire

BC recently confirmed that Eastwick is dead in the water, and will not have any orders for more episodes any time in the future. Logic would dictate then that LOST, which seems to have lost its cozy spot at 9/8 C on Wednesday nights, would move in to fill the gap in January.

Produtores e atriz falam sobre o destino de Juliet em Lost

“Ainda tem algo importante que nós ainda não mostramos sobre a personagem”, dizem

Atenção! Antes de começar a ler esta notícia, saiba que ela pode conter spoilers sobre a sexta e última temporada de Lost

Para começar, os produtores-executivos Damon Lindelof e Carlton Cuse confirmaram à EW que Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) está morta (“A decisão de matar a Juliet foi brutal”, diz Lindelof), mas apaziguaram os ânimos dos fãs da loira dizendo que ela vai aparecer em uma série de episódios, conciliando sua agenda com a do remake de V – A Batalha Final. “Ainda tem algo de muito importante que nós ainda não mostramos sobre a personagem”, completa Cuse.

Lindelof complementa dizendo que “a Juliet praticamente deu à luz a sexta temporada com o que ela fez nos segundos finais do ano cinco. Ela é totalmente responsável pelo fim que o programa vai ter. Por tudo isso, nós vamos ver a personagem sob um aspecto um pouco diferente este ano. Nós demos a ela aquele ato por um motivo e é por isso que ela é tão importante à trama da história”.

A própria atriz também falou sobre a sua volta à sexta temporada: “A única coisa que eu conseguia pensar é que ela podia dar um p-a-u no Ben [risos]… Eu pensava ‘acho que vou estar cheia de trabalho, mas gosto tanto dessa personagem. Ninguém teve que me torturar para eu voltar’. Mas foi uma montanha-russa de emoções porque eu já tinha me despedido da personagem”. Fonte: Omelete.

Not to say that my entertainment fix for humpday isn’t being fulfulled with other great shows (although this godforsaken World Series must end already so FOX will bring back new episodes of Glee!!), but there’s a little hole in my heart that can only be filled by a good helping of mystery from Lost. Last week’s oh-so-brief (a mere 15 seconds) promo for the final season that aired during Flash Forward certainly didn’t help matters, particularly as it offered no glimpses of what’s to come.

It did make me revisit more interesting (and decipher-worthy) videos courtesy the Comic Con panel from July.

And in other news, I’ve discovered an awesome piece of Lost art right under my nose at work!Created by a department colleague, he is one of only 16 artists commissioned by Team Darlton (exec producers and show runners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse) to capture significant moments and aspects of the show in commemoration of the final season – check out his blog detailing how he approached the piece. Each poster is steadily being revealed as the months to the January premiere tick off the calendar, and only limited numbers of prints are being sold on the website Damon, Carlton and a Polar Bear, but due to their exclusive nature all have sold out quickly.

La cuenta regresiva hacia la temporada final de Lost está en camino. La sexta temporada comenzará el día 20 de enero, en Estados Unidos, lógicamente, por lo que el día 21 estará en las computadoras de muchos fans de todo el mundo que la bajan. No se sabe casi nada de la nueva temporada, todavía quedan aproximadamente tres meses para elucubrar hipótesis sobre lo que pasará en los últimos 17 capítulos de la serie.

Mientras, además de una pequeña promo de la ABC, compartimos una magnífica entrevista (traducida) a Damon Lindelof (co-creador, productor y guionista principal) para USA Today, en la que responde a las preguntas de varios fans de Lost:

¿En qué punto de creación de los últimos episodios se encuentran?

Ahora mismo nos encontramos escribiendo el octavo episodio e ideando la trama para el noveno. En cuanto a rodaje, estamos en el sexto. Los planos para la temporada completa están hechos, pero vamos escribiendo los episodios de uno en uno, porque realmente el nacimiento del trabajo escena a escena es la parte divertida. Así que estamos casi a la mitad exacta.

Ha habido mucho análisis en el póster promocional de este año. ¿Has tomado parte en crearlo?

Sí. Todo es intencional en el diseño del póster. Lo supervisamos, ahora que sabemos que la audiencia mira esas cosas con tanto detalle, así que no queremos que allí haya algo que no aprobamos, especialmente a estas alturas del juego.

¿Por qué no están ni Walt ni Vincent en el póster?

Bien, no vamos a explicar por qué todo es como es, aparte de que todo es por diseño. Tendrás que ver la sexta temporada y sacar tus conclusiones. Es un poco como, “¿Por qué Paul McCartney tiene un cigarrillo en su mano derecha en la portada de “Abbey Road”, si es zurdo?”.

¿El final que tenías en mente cuando creaste la serie es el que habrá definitivamente?

Esa es una pregunta genial. Sí, el final actual es exactamente el mismo que siempre planeamos que sería, excepto por el hecho de que no sabíamos si llegaríamos allí tras dos, cuatro o seis temporadas, así que el camino hacia ese final ha tenido que cambiar significativamente. Pero, el final en sí mismo, le guste a la gente o no, es el final que siempre hemos tenido en mente.

Damon Lindelof, co-creador, productor y guionista principal de "Lost"

¿Tendrá Walt algún papel importante en la próxima temporada? Fue importante por un tiempo debido a su “don”, pero esa historia nunca se ha completado.

Creo que mucha gente está comprensiblemente frustrada por el tema de Walt. Dijimos que tenía esa habilidad especial, y obviamente los Others lo capturaron y estudiaron por un tiempo, entonces se asustaron de él y decidieron liberarlo.

Pienso que hay ciertas historias en la serie que parecen haber terminado basadas en factores externos. Para nosotros, nos limitó increíblemente el hecho de que Malcolm David Kelley crecía a un ritmo exponencialmente mayor que al que la serie progresaba. Así que ya sabes, cuando lo mstramos en la temporada 5 y Locke está tratando de reclutar a los miembros de los Oceanic Six, el único modo de que funcionase era mostrarlo tres años mayor. Pero con suerte, por qué Walt era especial y el papel que jugaba en el show tendrán un nuevo significado una vez todo esté dicho y hecho. Y no estoy realmente seguro de que necesitemos al personaje de Walt para explicar el significado.

¿Sabremos algo más del pasado de Libby … o al menos descubriremos su apellido?

Libby es alguien por quien se nos pregunta mucho, y es otro de esos casos donde hay algún problema en nuestra relación con el actor que obstaculiza nuestro deseo de contar la historia. Esperamos que Cynthia Watros vuelva al menos una vez para cerrar esa historia, peroeso depende de ella. Le preguntamos el año pasado, y no estaba interesada. Con suerte cambiará de idea.

Un actor no volverá definitivamente para la última temporada, ¿verdad? ¿Podés decirnos algo más sobre eso?

Le preguntamos a un actor que ha jugado un papel significante en la serie para que volviese a hacer algunas escenas en la temporada 6, y dijo que no. Pero no voy a confirmar quién es. Todo lo que diré es que esa persona nunca fue un regular en la serie.

Damon, tengo una pregunta sobre mi segundo personaje favorito en la serie, Frank Lapidus. Desde que apareció en el póster promocional de la temporada 6, ha habido mucha especulación en los foros. Así que, mi pregunta es: ¿Frank pasará a ser personaje principal en la próxima temporada? Y si es así, ¿tendrá un episodio céntrico? Porque eso sería la cosa más genial.

Sí. Lapidus definitivamente será un personaje regular en esta temporada. Jeff Fahey interpretaba sólo a un personaje recurrente hasta este año. Ahora, llegue o no llegue Lapidus hastael final de la serie queda en el aire, pero definitivamente será uno de los principales este año.

¿Cuántos personajes llegarán al final de la temporada?

¿Realmente creés que voy a responder a eso? No todos ellos, eso es seguro.

¿Veremos de nuevo los números? Obviamente jugaban un papel muy importante al principio. Entonces nos alejamos de ellos y nos centramos en los personajes. ¿Volveremos a verlos?

Me gusta esta pregunta mucho más que el modo en que normalmente me la hacen, que es “¿Qué significan los números?”. Puedo decir que una de las cosas en las que estamos realmente concentrados este año es en hacer la temporada completa tan satisfactoria como sea posible. Sabemos que si esperamos hasta el último episodio de la temporada para dar respuestas o revelaciones, no será satisfactorio, así que trataremos de dar las respuestas según avance- Y todo lo que diré es, esta es la temporada final de “Lost”. Sería una tremenda equivocación si no evaluásemos los números y su significado.

¿Descubriremos de qué hablaron Ben y Kate en la playa en la escena del desayuno?

Esta es una de esas cosas que, no importa lo que digamos o cuánto lo digamos. No sé si es por la escena por lo que la gente cree que hay una pieza clave de información transferida entre ellos… que Kate trabaja encubierta para Ben o algo así. Nada pasó, esa es la verdad. Nunca pretendimos que se sintiese de ese modo, y cuando decimos que no pasó nada, creen que mentimos o que teníamos un plan y luego lo abandonamos. Todo lo que puedo decir es que, lo juro por Dios, no ocurrió nada.

Al final de la nueva temporada de “Lost”, ¿tendremos un final atado y bien atado, una conclusión indiscutible, o se dejará la puerta abierta a la posibilidad de spin-offs o películas?

Pienso que es nuestra intención dejar cerrada la trama de “Lost” en el episodio final de la serie. No tenemos ningún deseo de hacer una película o dejar cabos sueltos. Dicho esto, algunas personas creerán que es increíblemente satisfactorio. Otras personas pensarán que no es lo suficiente. Depende del modo en que mires la serie . Pero la peor cosa que podemos hacer es implemente responder unas cosas y decir que responderíamos otras en una película dentro de dos años.

La serie de televisión es nuestra versión de “Lost”, y una vez acabe, ese será el final. J.K. Rowling dijo que iba a escribir siete libros de Harry Potter, y cumplió su palabra. Hay seis temporadas de “Lost”, eso es todo.

Está claro que Carlton Cuse y tú han formado una amistad creativa en la serie y siempre estarán unidos en la mente de los fans de “Lost”. ¿Hay alguna posibilidad de que vuelvan a usar su genio colectivo tras “Lost”?

Me encanta colaborar con diferentes personas. J.J. Abrams y yo creamos la serie juntos, y Carlon y yo llevamos la serie junta. Y escribiendo la película de Star Trek con Bob Orci y Alex Kurtzman… me encanta encontrar nuevos compañeros creativos, pero entonces continuar con las que tengo ahora. Así que no sé si será tarde o temprano, pero espero que Carlton y yo trabajemos juntos en algo enteramente diferente a “Lost”.

Tengo curiosidad por el estado de la implicación de Damon con la serie de “The Dark Tower”. ¿Hay alguna esperanza para los fans de Stephen King de que este proyecto esté en marcha?

Difícilmente encontrarás un fan de “The Dark Tower” mayor que yo, pero probablemente esa es la razón por la que no debería ser quien la adapte. Tras trabajar seis años en “Lost”, la última cosa que quiero hacer es pasar siete años adaptando uno de mis libros favoritos de todos los tiempos. Soy un gran fan de Stephen King, y me aterroriza joderla.

Haría lo imposible por ver esas películas escritas por otra persona. Mi apuesta es que se harán, porque son increíbles. Pero no por mí.

En la industria de hoy parece que hay pocos guionistas dispuestos a correr riesgos por el bien de la originalidad. ¿Qué consejo tenés para los aspirantes a guionista que están apasionados por una historia concreta, incluso si supone el riesgo de no recibir una oportunidad por parte de las audiencias?

Por muy tópico que pueda sonar, si tenés una idea original, entonces no importa lo que nadie diga, tenés que encontrar un modo de contar la historia. Mi único consejo sería que debe ejercitarse la paciencia. Creo que el error del principiante es sentir tanta pasión por algo que debes contarlo ya mismo, en vez de decir “Déjame establecerme, y dentro de cinco años, cuando sea un poco más viejo, un poco más sabio, un poco más experimentado, quizá sea la hora de contar la historia”.

A veces compras un regalo para alguien un mes antes de su cumpleañlos, y deseas dárselo inmediatamente. Pero el momento lo es todo. Así que diría que si tu idea sería difçicil de vender ahora, quizá en un par de años sea el momento. Hagas lo que hagas, no te rindas.

¿Hay alguna oportunidad de que cuando la temporada acabe haya una continuación en forma de película, libros o web? ¿Harán algo para mantener a los fans contentos una vez “Lost” acabe?

Creo que los fans en sí mismos generarán un montón de material como fanfic y esas cosas. Pero siento que nuestra historia se acaba. No poseemos “Lost”, ABC y Disney lo hacen. Así que si deciden generar algo de eso, harán bien en hacerlo, pero no será con nuestra participación. Por mucho que quiera que los fans tengan material nuevo, siento que al final querrían matarnos por ello, porque el único propósito de anunciar una fecha de final es acabar.

¿Te entristece que se acabe?

No me entristece. Estoy muy feliz. Estoy rtiste sobre el hecho de que no escribiremos más sobre ello, como por ejemplo el proceso de escritura o el trabajo en una cosa tan increíble. No siento tristeza de que se acabe, porque es lo que hay que hacer. No puedo imaginar que llegásemos tan lejos si no hubiésemos tenido una fecha de finalización. Sería absurdo, aburrido, y… una mierda. Me alegra que ese no sea el legado de la serie. El legado de la serie será este.

¿Crees que más series deberían seguir el modelo de “Lost” y anunciar un final?

Como espectador, me gusta saber en qué punto de la historia me encuentro. Ciertamente para BSG era genial saber donde estabas. Creo que los espectadores a veces quieren saber eso, y también les ayuda a superar parches frustrantes o cosas que no les gustan. Pero todo depende de la serie.

Algunas series se mantienen para siempre. No hay razón por la que “Grey’s Anatomy” necesite terminar. Recuerdo cuando “Heroes” llegó a la escena, la gente le preguntaba lo mismo a Tim Minear. Él dijo, “Heroes puede durar para siempre. No hay razón por la que deba terminar, porue siempre habrá personajes con esas habilidades, y habrá historias interesantes que contar”. “Heroes” tiene un diseño diferente a “Lost”. Pero miro a una serie como “Flash Forward” y pienso, sí, realmente ayudaría a la serie decir que tendrá tres o cuatro temporadas y acabará, para que así la audiencia sepa dónde se encuentra en la historia.

¿Qué es lo mejor que has aprendido, y aquello que no sabías antes de crear la serie?

Buena pregunta. Bien, empezamos a investigar sobre los viajes en el tiempo durante la temporada 2. A principio de esa temporada, nos enteramos de esa cosa, el CERN. Es ese acelerador de partículas gigante que van a encender, ese proyecto de billones de dólares. Es fascinante, intentan crear anti-materia, quarks y todo tipo de locuras allí, pero no funciona. No dejan de retrasar la fecha de encendido. Así que me he obsesionado bastante con ese proyecto y con el tío del equipo que lo está siguiendo. Normalmente, paso de la parte científica, pero me encuentro fascinado.

Me encantaría saber qué canción cree Damon que resumiría mejor la tónica de la sexta temporada.

Wow. Diría “Visions of Johanna” de Bob Dylan.

¿Por qué?

Tengo esa canción en mi iPod, y cuando la escucho pienso en la serie. Tiene ciertas partes en la letra que se ajustan muy bien a “Lost”.

¿Se ha documentado el proceso de creación de “Lost” desde el principio? Como fan, espero que una vez acabe la serie podamos ver una especie de documental o libro que nos cuente cómo se concibió la serie y el proceso creativo a lo largo de los años.

Creo que habrá una enciclopedia de “Lost” donde hablaremos mucho de todo eso, pero no es como si hubiésemos estado trayendo equipos de cámara a la sala de guionistas para que puedan ver cómo hacemos lo que hacemos. Mucho de la creación de la serie es como un truco de magia, y creo que sería como si David Copperfield explicase cómo hizo desaparecer la estatua de la libertad.

A pesar de que reconozco que la gente está realmente interesada en el proceso creativo de “Lost”, la mayoría pertenece a la idea de si nos lo estamos inventando sobre la marcha. Esa es la pregunta que la gente realmente quiere que respondamos, y quieren pruebas. Quieren que documentemos el hecho de que no nos lo inventamos sobre la marcha. Y, en el espíritu de la serie, sólo tenemos que decir, “Si escoges creernos, entonces eso es de lo que trata la fe”. Si escoges no creernos, no te culpamos. Al final del día, lo único que importa es la propia historia. Si te satisface, no debería importar si estaba planeada el primer día o si se inventó sobre la marcha.

En algunos momentos tuvimos que inventar sobre la marcha, porque Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje quiso dejar la serie, o la idea de Paulo y Nikki no funcionó, o no teníamos fecha de finalización así que tuvimos que hacer malabares, o teníamos demasiado que contar así que tuvimos que ponerles en jaulas durante cuatro episodios seguidos. Hay ciertas cosas en las que tuvimos que adaptarnos a lo que pasaba en el mundo real. Pero hablando creativamente, era necesario un plan.

¿Cuál es tu episodio menos favorito de “Lost”?

Oh, Dios mío. Creo que mi episodio menos favorito es “Homecoming”. Es cuando Claire vuelve después de haber estado en la selva un par de días al ser secuestrada por los Others, y Ethan vuelve a por ella. La historia de fondo es sobre Charlie tratando de reformarse y vendiendo fotocopiadoras. Al final del episodio, dispara a Ethan. Yo escribí ese episodio, y es el que menos me gusta de toda la serie.

Me sorprende esa respuesta. No es un episodio que los fans nombren como su menos favorito.

El episodio que los fans mencionan más a menudo es “Stranger in a Strange Land”, el cual es el episodio con Bai Ling, Jack, y sus tatuajes. Y básicamente siento que es injusto marcar ese episodio. ¿Soy un gran fan de él? No. Pero al mismo tiempo, había muchas circunstancias que hicieron necesario que ese episodio se escribiese, y muchas ideas que no funcionaron. El hecho de que todo ello se juntase… hubo una mala decisión de cásting- Se basó en una mala premisa. El flashback era malo. Todo lo que podía ir mal, fue mal, pero no creo que fuese porque el guión fuese malo. “Homecoming”, sin embargo, creo que tenía casi cualquier fallo que un episodio de “Lost” podría tener.

¿Crees que te has vuelto un mejor escritor desde que “Lost” empezó?

Eso espero. Siento que soy mejor escuchando, y si eso se traduce en una mejor escritura, no lo sé. Aún sigo increíblemente orgulloso del piloto, pero lo estoy igualmente de la finale de la temporada 3. Pero escribir es como ser un jugador de baloncesto realmente bueno. Incluso ellos fallan todo el tiempo. Así que tengo que permitirme decir, “Unas veces escribo mejor que otras”. Creo que ahora sé más de lo que sabía al principio, pero no sé si soy algo mejor como escritor.

¿No es cierto que el panel del año pasado será el último, verdad? Tenés que volver una vez más cuando todo esté cerrado, porque todos sabemos que no responderás todo en la TV.

Creo que la idea de aparecer en un panel de la Comic-Con para responder preguntas sería igual de mala. Si no lo respondemos en la serie, es porque no queremos hacerlo. ¿Podríamos ir a la Comic-Con a hacer un tipo de retrospectiva para juntar a todos a hablar de la serie? Sí, creo que eso sería genial dentro de 5 o 10 años. Pero ciertamente no el próximo, un mes después de la emisión del final.

¿Podés decirnos cuándo será la premiere de la temporada?

Siendo honesto, no nos han dado fecha aún. Ni siquiera sé en qué día de la semana se emitirá. Hemos estado los miércoles a las 9/8 pero ahora las comedias de la ABC están funcionando muy bien. Y realmente me gustan “Modern Family” y “Cougar Town”, así que no estoy seguro de que las muevan.

No sé qué significa eso para nosotros, pero todo lo que he oído es mediados/finales de enero. Haremos 18 episodios, así que si terminaremos a mediados de Mayo, no podemos empezar más tarde que finales de enero.

Fuente: bycarlost.blogspot.com

• Titus Welliver (Ézsau/Anti-Jacob) pár hét múlva Hawaii-ra repül, tehát ő is visszatér a sorozatba.
• Carlton Cuse elárulta Twitteren a sorozat egyik új színészének a nevét: William Atherton. Az előző Forgatási hírek bejegyzésben írtam arról, hogy kivel lesz közös jelenete.
• Az írók most fejezték be a 8. részt, és a 9.-en dolgoznak. A színészek pedig a 6.-at forgatják.
• Lehet, hogy kapunk majd egy kis információt arról, hogy Walt miért is olyan különleges, de nem biztos, hogy Malcolm David Kelley visszatér.
• A készítők reménykednek abban, hogy Cynthia Watros visszatér az utolsó évadra, hogy meg tudják magyarázni valamilyen szinten Libby történetét, hisz mindenki róla kérdezi őket folyamatosan. [Josh: Tavaly állítólag nemet mondott nekik, amit őszintén nehezen tudok elhinni, hisz többször nyilatkozta, hogy szívesen visszatérne, ráadásul a 4. évadban két pár másodperces jelenetre visszatért, tehát most miért nem akarna?]
• Damon Lindelof elárulta, hogy Jeff Fahey, azaz Frank Lapidus, állandó szereplő lesz a 6. évadban.
• Locke (valószínűleg ÁlLocke) találkozik a szigeten többek között a badass Claire-rel, és egy irak-i meg is fogja késelni.
• A híres rendező és producer, Jon Cassar (“24″), rendezni fog egy Lost-epizódot.
• Természetesen a sok szereplő mellett visszatérnek a 6. évadban azok a bizonyos számok is. 4 8 15 16 23 42
• Casting hír a 6×08-hoz: [KENDALL] 30-as éveiben járó intellektuális szépségű, okos, intelligens nő. Kémkedésen kapták rajta, és hazudnia kell, hogy elkerülje a bajt. VENDÉGSZEREP, VAN LEHETŐSÉG A VISSZATÉRÉSRE
• A 6. évad promó pószterének a hireoglifái a következőt jelentik: “Ki a vezér?”
• Egy olyan régi, és bonyolult kérdésre fogunk választ kapni, amire nem számítanánk.
• Elizabeth Mitchell elmondta, hogy amikor visszatér, Juliet-nek lesz lehetősége beszélgetni valakivel, akit nagyon szeret. A készítők elárulták, hogy még mindig van valami nagyon fontos dolog, amit nem árultak el vele kapcsolatban. Azzal, hogy Juliet felrobbantotta az 5. évad végén a bombát, egy olyan folyamatot indított be, ami nélkül nem is lenne 6. évad. Nem véletlen adták neki ezt a feladatot, hisz nagyon fontos szerepe van neki az egész sorozatra nézve.
• A Charlotte-ot játszó Rebecca Mader sem maradhatott ki a buliból. Ő is visszatér a 6. évadra.

Dopo la sua agognata conclusione negli Usa (ci hanno messo quattro anni a finire questa mini), arriva anche in Italia in un unico volume Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk, scritta dallo sceneggiatore di Lost Damon Lindelof e disegnata da Leinil Francis Yu.
Ok, l’universo Ultimate fa cagare, particolarmente adesso, e particolarmente Ultimate Wolverine con le sue forzature da “figo prezzemolino” del mondo Marvel, ma devo ammettere che questa serie non è niente male.

Il primo motivo per cui è apprezzabile è che non centra una mazza col resto delle robe Ultimate. La serie potrebbe essere ambientata, pur nel rispetto dei suoi protagonisti, anche a casa mia.

Il secondo motivo è che a differenza di altri autori prestati al fumetto supereroistico da altri format (e non mi espongo, almeno in questa sede, su quali siano perché sarebbe un discorso molto lungo e polemico), Lindelof dimostra di saper scrivere un fumetto.
Il ragazzo sa anche essere piacevolmente autoironico:

Il terzo motivo è che si tratta di una storia divertente, dal ritmo frenetico, precisa nella narrazione e che permette di passare un’ora e mezza di buona lettura pur non essendo davanti a un capolavoro. Se non avete nulla da sfogliare sul treno o sull’autobus fermatevi in edicola che vale i suoi cinque euro e cinquanta.

Il quarto motivo è che quando Hulk e Wolvie si prendono a sganassoni c’è sempre del bello in un fumetto.

Il quinto motivo è che c’è una tavola in cui Jennifer Walters (la ultimate Jennifer Walters, non la She-hulk a cui siamo abituati. Qua She-hulk ha un’altra identità che ci viene svelata proprio in questa storia) fa ascoltare a un Hulk-criceto i Dead Kennedys:

According to Lost executive producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof (via TVguide.com):

If there is a theme to Lost’s sixth and final season, it might be “things coming full circle.”

“[In the first season, the characters] were running around the jungle, things felt intense and surprising,” the Hollywood Reporter quotes Cuse as saying. “We have a way that we’re going to be able to do that in the final season, too.”

The return of familiar faces — including the decidedly dead and presumed dead — will also come into play, with both Jeremy Davies and Elizabeth Mitchell set to reprise their roles as Faraday and Juliet. And based on the dramatic timing of Dominic Monaghan’s last-moment arrival on the dais, Charlie would seem a safe bet to (somehow) resurface as well.

“There’s a good chance you’ll be seeing many characters you haven’t seen since the first season,” said Lindelof.

Some tropes will be absent from Season 6. Time-travel is so yesterday, the producers indicated, and flashbacks/forwards are long gone. Instead, Lindelof said, “We’re going to do something different” to tell the final 18 hours’ worth of story.

• Kristin szerint a 6. évad premierje előtt egyetlen egy új hivalatos promo képet illetve új felvételekből készült előzetest nem fog kiadni az ABC a producerek kérésére. Hogy ez mennyire igaz, az majd kiderül.
• Ez is Kristintől érkezett: Cynthia Watros (Libby) és Michelle Rodriguez (Ana-Lucia) is visszatér az utolsó évadra. Más régi szereplő akár több részben is feltűnhet. (pl Boone, Charlie stb…)
• Meg lett erősítve, hogy azt fogjuk látni a 6. évadban, hogy mi lett volna ha nem zuhan le a repülő, hanem megérkezik Los Angelesben. Úgy tűnik, ilyenek lesznek flashback/flashforward helyett.
• Said Taghmaoui (Caesar) is visszatér.
• Billy Ray Gallion (Randy Nations) Facebookjára felrakott néhány képet a forgatásról.
• Sonya Walger-nek fogalma sincs arról, hogy Penny visszatér-e az utolsó évadban.
• Rasmussen ügynököt, aki ott van a kórházban, amikor Claire-nek megszületik a babája, egy 30-as év körüli barna hajú nő játsza, akit most látunk majd először a sorozatban.
• Sayid-ot a templomban lévő Többiek elfogják, majd megkínozzak, annak ellenére, hogy ők látták el az 5. évad végén szerezett sebeit.
• A Többiek és a kedvenceink közötti konfliktusokat Richard oldja meg, majd mindannyian bemennek a templomba, ahol Sayidot élve találják meg.
• Dogan (Hiroyuki Sanada) és Jacob is bent vannak a templomban.
• A Jack-centrikus 6×05 címe: Lighthouse
• Azon kívül, hogy Dogan a templomi jelenetknél jelen van, Jack alternatív jelenében is ott lesz.
• Úgy tűnik a 6×05 egy elég fontos rész lesz, hisz Carlton Cuse és Damon Lindelof is ott voltak a forgatáson Matthew Fox-szal (Jack). Az epizódot Jack Bender rendezi. Kép 1, 2.
• A napokban látták Doug Hutchinson-t (Horace Goodspeed) Hawaii-on forgatni. Evangeline Lilly (Kate) is helyszínen volt.

“I use the word “arrogant,” but it’s a good guy of arrogance. It’s the arrogance that dares one to go above and beyond, perform great acts, and do something special. ‘Lost’ is FULL of such arrogance, and it’s the show it is because of it. This show attempts things no other show does, and pulls them off on such a consistent basis that at times it’s easy to forget just how amazing of a feat it truly is.”

Says Ryan McGee of Zap2: LOST.

And, you know, he’s right. It’s that “good-guy arrogance” that I want to emulate in my work, not necessarily the plot points (as I’ve sometimes feared). (It is sort of difficult to not feel like LOST ripoff artist when I want to have that arrogance and love time-travel and mysteries and physics and deserted locations and WTF moments to boot.)

The whole show is pulled off with just enough panache that it feels real. And definitely more confident than, say, Fringe. (If you want to read Ryan’s thoughts on season 5, here’s the link, ’cause I’m about to get tangential in a second.)

It’s partly because people on a desert island just don’t spend that much time around computer screens looking up explanations for smoke monsters. They simply run from them and then try to stay out of their way. This lets us as viewers run alongside the characters (or climb alongside to pick mangos), instead of looking over their shoulders.

Which brings me to something I was saying to one of my artistic friends the other day: When I watch a movie or a TV show, or read a book, I don’t want to know what is happening. And when I do figure it out, I want something else mysterious to take its place.

In the early episodes of Fringe, there’s was no real mystery arc that carries through all the episodes, leaving me with a desire for more. Sure, there’s The Pattern, but it’s so nebulous and intangible for so long that it ceases to be a motivating factor for watching multiple episodes. For all intents and purposes, the episodes are stand-alone.

Stand-alone with the exception of little moments after the story-of-the-week is wrapped up. (Firefly did that, too. “Two-by-two, hands of blue,” you know.)

And that kind of story-telling simply will not stand with me anymore.

Writers have to turn the ratchet (or frozen donkey-wheel) on inter-episodal tension in the midst of the story-of-the-week, so that the audience is left with a sense of “But what about the polar bear?” and “When will they ever answer that?” when the credits roll. If you tack on a shot of the polar bear running through the woods at the end of an episode about something else, you tell the audience that you’ll take care of the polar bear and then they stop worrying about the fact that it’s on the Island. (“Oh, I guess they’ll explain it to us next week.”) Where’s the mystery in that?

But the creators of LOST are arrogant enough to drop a polar bear on the Island and then not refer to it except obliquely for a while (through a comic book or a character line “But I did see a polar bear in roller skates with a mango”).

We need more of that kind of bravura story-telling in our lives.

Here’s hoping for a spin-off.

I first saw this on the stupendous lost.about.com site, Hosted by Bonnie Covel. It is an interview conducted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts with Executive Producers Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse and the show’s most prolific director, Jack Bender. They discuss the process of development, writing and shooting of the show, using some iconic scenes as examples. The interview also highlights how each of them began their careers in television.

This is Part One

(Posted by baftaonline on youtube)

Here is the link to the rest of the interview .

Hello Dan,

We wanted to write to you for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, major kudos to you D.B. for already selling more than 2.5M copies of The Lost Symbol.  That’s great!  Seriously, who knew that many people were still into reading?

A few of us here have already pored over your novel and (despite our initial skepticism) are extremely impressed with how you’re able to take so many secretive elements, seemingly arcane references, and clandestine figures and operations, and eventually make them all gel together to form a truly exciting and coherent conclusion.

Which bring us to our next point:  Is there any way in hell you would come down here for an afternoon and help us dig ourselves out of this massive non-linear hole we’ve fallen into.

Seriously, we’re f*cked.  Even J.J. refuses to take our calls.

Eternally Hopeful,

Carlton Cuse, Damon Lindelof, & The Entire “Lost” Writer’s Room

p.s., If you’re kinda on the fence about this, we’ll throw you a new Kindle.