Category Archives: Behind the scenes / elsewhere

Michael Emerson: The good news and the bad news

Jim Caviezel and Michael Emerson filming Person of Interest

Jim Caviezel and Michael Emerson filming "Person of Interest"

First, the bad news. The television show Odd Jobs — which was supposed to bring Michael Emerson and Terry O’Quinn back together in a J.J. Abrams-produced project — has been delayed until next season.

The good news is that Michael Emerson has been cast as the lead in another new J.J. Abrams show, Person of Interest. He’s going to play a billionaire who hires a presumed-dead ex-CIA agent to catch violent criminals in New York.

This, strangely, combines plot elements of two other planned LOST-alumni shows: Jorge Garcia’s Alcatraz, which will be about a group of prisoners and guards who mysteriously disappeared and then showed up again 30 years later, and Odd Jobs, where Emerson and O’Quinn were to be ex-black-ops agents.

I wonder what will happen to Odd Jobs if Person of Interest becomes a hit. It seems unlikely that Emerson could star in two shows at once. I’ll be glad to see him in anything, but I really wanted to see him reunited with Terry O’Quinn.

Co-starring with Emerson are Jim Caviezel (Jesus in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ), Taraji P. Henson (Queenie in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), and Natalie Zea (Winona in Justified). The writer is Jonathan Nolan, who wrote the story on which the movie Memento was based, and the screenplay for Dark Knight.

New York Magazine listed it as one of the 20 most exciting pilots of the upcoming TV season, even though they gave it only a 50-50 chance of actually getting on the air.

New LOST bobble heads — Sawyer, Desmond, Jack, and Dr. Arzt

LOST may be long over, but new products keep on coming.

Four new bobble heads from Bif Bang Pow! are available for pre-order — although at this point, it looks like they won’t actually be shipped until June, 2011.

Lost Sawyer Bobble Head

The Sawyer bobble head has our nickname-loving hero wearing a shirt (alas!) and a jacket. For some reason, he is holding a gun — I’m not sure what scene this is referencing. He is also holding the letter that played such a poignant role in Season 1.

Lost Jack Shephard Bobble Head

The Jack Shephard bobble head is posing with Vincent the dog — an odd choice, in my opinion, especially since Jack’s two iconic scenes with Vincent involve Jack lying flat on his back in the jungle, a position which wouldn’t work for a bobble head, as it would interfere with the bobbling. 😉

Besides, whenever I see Vincent, I think, “Where’s Waaaaaaaaaalt?”

Also, is it my imagination, or is Vincent unusually small here?

The bobble head is meant to evoke the Series Pilot — it has Jack wearing a suit, with a bit of the wreckage of Flight 815 on the ground behind him. He’s also got some sexy stubble. In fact, he looks sexier as a bobble head than he did in the series. (Yes, as a Sawyer fan I’m biased, but it’s true!)

Lost Desmond Hume Bobble Head

The Desmond Hume bobble head shows the Season 2 Desmond, wearing a Dharma jumpsuit and standing by the Swan Station computer, where he is, presumably, about to type in the infamous numbers.

Lost Dr. Leslie Arzt Bobble Head

Last, but not least, is what I think is the best bobble head of the bunch — Dr. Leslie Arzt holding a stick of dynamite, about to blow himelf up — a scene which led to one of Hurley’s greatest lines ever.

Michael Emerson to speak on “The Philosphy of LOST”

Michael Emerson with Emmy, 2009

Michael Emerson with Emmy in 2009

If you’re in the Palo Alto area in January, you can hear Michael Emerson speaking at Stanford on “The Philosophy of LOST.”

It’s going to be on Saturday, January 15, 2011 at 6:00 pm. on the Stanford campus, as part of a film and philosophy conference.

Admission is free and open to the public.

Official Stanford announcement. Via Meet Michael Emerson

Jorge Garcia, J.J. Abrams, an island, a mystery, and a tv show

Alcatraz at dawn

Alcatraz at dawn

Deadline Hollywood reported that Jorge Garcia (Hurley) will star in Alcatraz, a FOX drama about a group of Alcatraz prisoners and guards who mysteriously disappeared 30 years ago and show up in the present day.

Jorge, who was the first actor cast for the show, will play the “hippy geek” Dr. Diego Soto, a world-class authority on Alcatraz. J.J. Abrams is co-executive producer. Filming will begin in January in San Francisco and Vancouver.

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Photo of Alcatraz by Ben Peoples, via Wikimedia

“Community” Christmas special takes a swipe at LOST

The TV comedy Community took a swipe at LOST in this stop-motion animated episode (Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas).

In Santa’s workshop, Abed and Pierce look for the meaning of Christmas. A gift tag on a box promises that they can find the meaning inside. Inside the box is another box, and then another, and another. Finally Abed finds the gift inside, takes it out, and looks at it:

Abed: It’s the first season of LOST on DVD.

Pierce: That’s the meaning of Christmas?

Abed: No, it’s a metaphor. It represents lack of payoff.

Ouch. Damon Lindelof responded on Twitter and had the following exchange with Dan Harmon, Community‘s creator:

Damon: Okay, COMMUNITY. It’s ON!!!! Now if only I had a show to zing you back. And if only you weren’t awesome. Sigh…

Dan Harmon: @DamonLindelof Oh, man, Did not want you guys to see that! Relieved you are a good sport. Thank you for the flattery. Owe you a drink.

Damon: @danharmon Been a fan since CHANNEL 101, sir. There is no honor greater than being roasted. But I AM taking you up on that drink.

Dan Harmon: @DamonLindelof “a fan since channel 101?” WHAT?! That’s great. Maybe if we go out, @HartHanson will get jealous and leave his cabin.

Damon: @danharmon Two words. Laser. Fart.

Dan Harmon: Ahhhhh, I THOUGHT I detected a slight influence!

via SL-LOST

Damon Lindelof apologizes to LOST fans who hated the ending

Damon Lindelof

Still catching up on the LOST news … a couple of weeks ago, Damon Lindelof wrote in The Daily Beast:

The most awesome part about being one of the primary storytellers of a popular television show is hearing how much its most loyal fans hate it.

Oh. Wait. It’s actually not awesome. It hurts like hell.

I know—boo hoo for me. That’s the price of doing business, isn’t it? If I’m asking you to invest your time and attention in a story I’m telling, it’s your right to tell me that you hate that story.

You just don’t get to call yourself a “fan.”

At least that is what I had always believed.

He changed his mind after watching the film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1, which he hated, despite being a Harry Potter fan. When he left the theater, his brain was churning:

As I staggered out into the parking lot, my brain was deftly trying to resolve a deep and complicated paradox: If I loved the book, and the movie was an incredibly loyal adaptation of that book…

How could I possibly hate the movie? And even more distressing…

Based on the careful emotional logic I’d been using to insulate myself from the slings and arrows of “Why didn’t you people answer any goddamn questions?” and “A golden light in the middle of the island? SERIOUSLY?!?”, if I hated the movie…

Did that mean I was no longer a fan?

He turned it over in his mind, in the parking lot, and came to a conclusion:

I still love Harry Potter. Deeply and profoundly… I’m still a fan. A huge fan. Huge.

And so I sincerely and genuinely apologize to all those whom I have stripped of their Lost fandom just for complaining about the stuff you didn’t like. It doesn’t make you any less a fan. In fact…

It just makes you honest.

I respect that. And I’m genuinely sorry for ever feeling otherwise.

Source: The Daily Beast


Carlton Cuse has a new project

Carlton Cuse

Carlton Cuse — half of the LOST writing/producing team Darlton — is working with Secretariat director Randall Wallace on a script for a television drama set in the Civil War era, called “Point of Honor.”

Variety says:

The two are keeping mum on details other than to say it will be a story focusing more on fictional characters than on historical figures. It’s envisioned as a serialized saga with a clear-cut “beginning, middle and end,” Cuse said — a storytelling form he knows well from “Lost.”

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