Category Archives: Writers, producers, directors, etc.

LOST in Paris

Producers/writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse recently returned from Paris, where they were honored at the Jules Verne Festival, receiving an award for their work on LOST.

Evangeline Lilly and Michael Emerson were there too, their identity having been kept a secret until the day they appeared, in a nod to the mysteries of the show.

This first clip is a little dark and shaky, but I love the excitement of the crowd, who were clapping and cheering and screaming as if they were at a rock concert combined with an Olympics final event.

In the beginning of this next clip, the crowd went wild again, counting down with the Dharma clock, and screaming when Evangeline Lilly came out.

The interviewers and Evangeline Lilly talked in French, and while I only know a few words of the language, the message was clear when Evangeline asked the crowd if they preferred Jack (boos) or Sawyer (big cheers).

Then Michael Emerson came out. More screams! Speaking in English, he had many interesting things to say about his character Benjamin Linus. At the end, some of the other stars, back in Hawaii, appeared in film clips to say hello to the Festival attendees. Josh Holloway got the biggest screams. Sawyer love is apparently the same all over the world.

How exciting this all looks! And how lucky the people who were there in the audience.

Uh, oh. I think Daniel is REALLY dead.

Daniel Faraday, looking pretty dead, at the end of 5x14 The Variable

Daniel Faraday, looking pretty dead, at the end of 5x14 The Variable

I was holding out hope that he was still alive. After all, on LOST a character can get shot in the chest and be fine within a few days, like Little Ben and, earlier, John Locke.

But, alas, it looks as if it really is the end for Daniel Faraday. In an interview with TV Guide, Damon and Carlton talk about having an exit interview with Jeremy Davies, the actor who played Faraday:

Lindelof and Cuse say they were impressed by how gracefully Davies dealt with his dismissal. While disappointed to be losing a paycheck, the actor saw his departure as essential to their storytelling. Lindelof says, “When Carlton and I called Jeremy to explain what was going to be happening with Faraday, we’ve never had a more awesome exit interview with somebody on the show.”

However, there is a hint, in the TV Guide story, that Faraday may be coming back, in some capacity, after all.

Cuse adds “… It really ends one chapter and commences the start of the final chapter of the entire series. Once we explained that to Jeremy, while he was personally saddened that his full-time status on Lost was coming to an end, he put the story above his own personal self.” (Hmmm…notice Cuse’s wording: “full-time status”.)

I wonder if this means that he will come back as a ghost. Or perhaps he’ll have a part in someone else’s flashback.

Screencap from Lost-Media

Amazing sneak peeks of 5×14 The Variable, which will air tonight April 29, 2009

Jeremy Davies as Daniel Faraday

Jeremy Davies as Daniel Faraday

The Variable, LOST’s 100th episode, is going to focus on Daniel Faraday, showing his flashbacks for the first time.

In the April 23, 2009 official audio podcast, Damon and Carlton confirm (as I had guessed in an earlier post) that the title “The Variable” is a reference to “The Constant” from last season, and there is indeed a connection between the two episodes — in an interview, Damon calls the new episode a “companion piece” to the previous one.

We will also see Desmond tonight, and find out if he survived being shot by Ben.

In the podcast, Damon and Carlton say they think The Variable came out as one of the best episodes of the season, and they’re excited to see what we think of it.

Here are three great clips from the episode, courtesy of DarkUFO. Don’t watch if you want to remain completely unspoiled! Otherwise … enjoy!

Sawyer and Juliet:

Faraday, Jack, and Miles. Wow. This clip literally gave me chills! –>

Faraday and Dr. Chang:

This episode looks like it’s going to be AMAZING.

The Mystery of the 3.2 Million Dollars is Solved!

case-closed

Darlton confirm on the April 23, 2009 official audio podcast that the reason Miles demanded that Ben pay him $3.2 million last season was because it was double Widmore’s $1.6 million fee.

Mystery solved.

(And I was so sure there was more to it!)

Case Closed stamp graphic (c) Internet Detective

LOST clip show on April 22, 2009

There’s going to be a clip show and, alas, no new episode on Wednesday, April 22, 2009, in the show’s regular timeslot, 9:00 pm to 10:02 pm.

According to an ABC press release (via Dark UFO), the clip show is called Lost: The Story of the Oceanic 6, and from the description, it sounds as if it’s going to be covering mostly material from Seasons 4 and 5.

My guess is that the clip show may untangle the flash-forwards and follow the storylines of each of the characters, perhaps in a way similar to what was done in the Season 4 DVD special feature Course of the Future: The Definitive Flash-Forwards.

Speaking of which, here’s a very brief clip of Darlton (producers/writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse) talking about Course of the Future — and goofing around — at last summer’s Comic Con. These guys crack me up:

Ken Leung (Miles) in ‘The Sopranos’ and ‘Keeping the Faith’

Ken Leung in The Sopranos

Ken Leung in The Sopranos

About eight months ago, I was watching The Sopranos on DVD, and one of the guest stars looked really familiar. I was sure I had seen him in some other role, but couldn’t place him. And then it hit me — maybe it was the freighter guy from LOST, the one who could get in touch with ghosts.

And so it was.

In this episode of The Sopranos (Remember When, originally airing on April 22, 2007), Ken Leung plays a patient in a mental hospital. He latches onto a fellow patient who he greatly admires, the former mob boss Uncle Junior, who had been placed in the hospital after shooting his nephew Tony Soprano. Uncle Junior entertains himself in the hospital by organizing secret poker games for the patients, and Leung’s character, Carter Chong, eagerly assists him.

Chong at first appears quite normal, to the point where you wonder why he is in the hospital at all. And then, in the middle of an ordinary conversation, he suddenly snaps. Leung gives a very interesting performance in this role of a character whose whole demeanor can change on a dime.

After seeing this episode of The Sopranos, LOST producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse were so impressed with Leung’s performance that they decided to offer him a role on LOST. Actually, it was even more than that — they created a new role especially for him.

On a lighter note, here is Ken Leung, seven years earlier, in a short and funny clip from the movie Keeping the Faith. Watch the clip past the 1:45 point to see a couple of twists at the end.

Screen cap of Ken Leung as Carter Chong, with Uncle Junior, played by Dominic Chianese, in the background. (c) HBO

The giant four-toed statue

The statue as seen in 5x08 "LaFleur"

The four-toed statue as seen in 5x08 "LaFleur"

In the beginning of LaFleur, the Lost-ies were startled to see the back of this giant statue.

It is, of course, the famous four-toed statue that we first saw in the finale of Season 2.

From episode 2x23

From episode 2x23

This past December, producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, in one of the “Dharma Special Access” podcasts they made to keep us entertained during the long off-season, had promised that we would see the statue again in Season 5 — and so we have — and that we would see it even more extensively in Season 6.

So I guess we’re going to have to wait until next year for the mystery of the missing toe to be solved.

(The part about the statue starts at 3:40):

The statue reminds me of the poem Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley:

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter’d visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp’d on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock’d them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away

I found a clearer picture of the statue, along with two pictures that compare it to possible inspirations: Anubis, the Egyptian god of the dead, and Taweret, a goddess in the form of a hippopotamus who was a protector of women in pregnancy and childbirth (!). The resemblance of the Island’s statue to Taweret is striking. Both have similar toes and are wearing virtually identical headpieces. Take a look.

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