Lost (spoilers)

[MacGuffin]

Producers: 'Lost' won't end 'with a blackout'
Source: Hollywood Reporter

NEW YORK -- Even after Sunday's controversial conclusion to "The Sopranos," two "Lost" executive producers said Wednesday that they weren't planning a murky ending to their hit ABC drama.

"We will not be ending with a blackout," executive producer Carlton Cuse told an audience gathered in Midtown Manhattan for the second day of Promax/BDA's annual conference.

He and co-creator Damon Lindelof answered questions -- but not any of those questions -- and said that they do have an ending for the show that was fleshed out along with the last three seasons during a recently completed writers' "minicamp" before the start of production in August.

"Lost" will end in spring 2010 after 48 more hourlong episodes, 16 per season. Lindelof said "Lost" has to move from asking more questions to answering the questions posed during the series' run.

"Obviously, we can't wait to the 48th hour to say, 'Here are all the mysteries of the show,' " Lindelof said. But Cuse also noted the reality of the sometimes vociferous and heavily engaged viewership of the show, which uses the Web to advance theories and post explanations and even freeze-frames to parse further meaning.

"I'm not sure there is any ending that will satisfy everyone," Cuse said. "Our hope is that the ending will be ... the logical conclusion of the story."

Cuse said the first season was about the Oceanic Flight 815 survivors landing on the island and realizing they weren't going to get rescued. The second season was about the hatch, and the third season was about the Others.

"Next season, well, we'll talk about that later," Cuse said.

While "Lost" viewers will have to wait till next year to see the next TV episodes, Cuse and Lindelof said in the fall there will be a series of "Lost" mobisodes featuring the entire cast and rolling out first on Verizon Wireless and then probably appearing on ABC.com. They said they're keenly aware of the eight-month gap between last month's finale and the return of "Lost" at the beginning of next year.

"How do you keep the show alive in the minds of the audience in that time?" Cuse asked. They're also planning to go back to San Diego's Comic-Con International, where the show was launched, to address May's Season 3 finale and what they had in mind.

Cuse said the mobisodes, about 90 seconds each, will give the hardcore "Lost" viewer more information that they probably weren't going to get through the show itself. What it won't be, they said, was a mini version of "Lost."

"It needs to be interesting enough and well produced enough that people feel they're getting enough bang for their buck, even if it's free, the bang for their time," Lindelof said.

Lindelof said the negotiations for the talent took a long time, but they wanted to make sure that all of them were involved in the mobisodes.

"Nobody wanted to see two people sitting on a beach that we've never heard of talking and saying, 'Hey, did you hear what Jack and Kate did today?' You want to see Jack and Kate. It's taken us three years to get those deals in place," Lindelof said.

Cuse said that being a showrunner now is much different than it was 10 years ago. "You have to be more of a brand manager," he said. He said there are 37 ancillary parts to the "Lost" brand from T-shirts to mobile phone applications to a planned video game. It led to a discussion of several missteps, including the tie-in novel "Bad Twin" that Cuse said didn't meet their bar and the introduction of two previously unseen survivors, Nikki and Paulo.

The characters came out of "Lost" viewers' questions about why the show focused only on the same 12 characters and not the "socks," the unnamed survivors who provide the background around the camp. Cuse said "socks" comes from the term "sock puppets," which the writers call the extras.

"We're like, 'Trust us, you don't care about those guys,' " Lindelof joked.

They said they realized almost immediately that adding Nikki and Paulo was a mistake, even before the viewer outcry. Many of the scenes they shot would get cut on the editing room floor, not because of the actors but because they were concerned about how they fit into the story. Lindelof said that it was a lesson for the writers to stay true to the show's vision even if the viewers don't seem to like it.

"We buried them alive," Cuse said of Nikki and Paulo. "OK, you guys don't like Nikki and Paulo, there."

[MacGuffin]

Perrineau Returns to Lost
Source: Sci-Fi Wire

Harold Perrineau, who played Michael on ABC's Lost, will be returning to the series next season, network president Stephen McPherson reluctantly admitted on July 25 to reporters.

Pressed in a news conference at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., McPherson admitted the casting after an emergency phone call to the show's executive producer and co-creator, Damon Lindelof. The announcement will also be made July 26 at Comic-Con International in San Diego.

"We just spoke to Damon because of the fury that is going on here, and he told us we could tell you that Harold Perrineau is returning to the show," McPherson said.

Perrineau played Michael Dawson from 2004 to 2006 on the show and was last seen taking his son, Walt (Malcolm David Kelley), and heading off to parts unknown in a small boat. (It's not clear whether Kelley will also return.)

McPherson said that Lindelof will make the announcement at Comic-Con. "The show has a long history with Comic-Con, and we made the decision that the announcement should be made there," he told the disgruntled critics. The network executive agreed to give away the big secret after the reporters grumbled.

[JG]

Pubrick, are you there?  Thoughts on season 3 please.   

[MacGuffin]

The Lost Panel at Comic-Con!
Source: ComingSoon

"Lost" co-creator/executive producer Damon Lindelof and executive producer Carlton Cuse attended the San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday. A brand-new exclusive clip of Dharma footage was shown, coyly introduced as footage discovered in a Norway vault that has been restored to be shown first to the Comic-Con crowd. The video begins with the Dharma training video spokesman introducing Station Six, or The Orchid. He explains it is not a botanical research station and apologizes for the necessity to deceive family and colleagues. Holding up a rabbit marked as number 15, there is some kind of confusion and another bunny is suddenly in a cage above. There is a quick frame with text about "loves Jacob". The spokesman screams to turn off the camera. There is a subliminal upside-down image of someone riding a bicyicle. The video starts again with a second take, and the film melts away.

Here are the highlights from the presentation:

Damon Lindelof: Thanks to the fans, we've been given an ending to the show. There will be three more seasons of 16 episodes each. We're not going to be on until February of next year, that's the bad news. But we will be running straight, no re-runs.

Carlton Cuse: Now we know for certain that there are going to be 48 episodes left. We know exactly how much time we have to fill, which is really helping us as storytellers. Three seasons of 16 episodes is also good because unlike a show like "24" that resets every year we have all this carry-forward mythology. It's a very hard show to write and keep fresh, so it gives us more time to do our work and keep the show good.

Q: The violence in season 3 was really amped up. Please tell me that in the end we're not going to find out that The Others are the good guys.

Cuse: We wanted to make the season tell a complete story, the story this season was the story of The Others, with a beginning, middle and an end. We wanted a final conflict between the groups and that involved a body count. That's just the way the story unfolded.

Lindelof: I would argue though, that were you to go back and look at season 1, that more acts of violence that our guys committed against each other than the violence committed by the others against our guys. It's just that our guys are much prettier. When Sawyer is punching you in the face, you're kind of like, "More please. You're so attractive, do you want to take your shirt off and continue the beatings. When Picket or Friendly is beating you up it's like brutal violence, not the kind of violence we subscribe to. So we promise as the show moves forward, that violence will be perpetrated by catastrophically good looking people.

Q: Where's Michael?

Cuse: Probably most of you saw this, but it was announced yesterday at the television critic's meeting that Harold Perrineau will be back on the show.

Lindelof: This was kind of a bummer for us because we got spoiled. That was an announcement we were hoping to make at the con...

Cuse: We'd planned to announce that to you guys here, but we hadn't been aware that the other event was the day before Comic-Con, so the timing wasn't really in our brains. Harold will be returning.

Lindelof: But we won't be talking about how or when.

Q: Will there be any more flash forwards?

Cuse: The answer is yes. Going forward, the show is going to feature flashbacks and flash-forwards.

Lindelof: The question becomes how forward are we going to go? If you continue to watch the show you're going to be pleasantly surprised and we'll leave it at that.

Q: Did Ben get caught in Rousseau's trap on purpose?

Cuse: He got caught by accident.

Lindelof: We will be revealing why Ben was heading across the island when he accidentally got caught.

Q: Will the story stay on the island?

Cuse: Going forward, you're going to be seeing story in the past, present and future, in all three timezones. What you saw with Kate and Jack was not the end of the show.

Lindelof: We wanted to communicate to the audience that the show has never really been about getting off the island. People have been asking us all along, 'Is there going to be an After-Lost?", to see what their lives are like once they're rescued. We've been sitting on this knowledge that there's a whole chapter of the story that takes place off the island. But we couldn't start telling that until we could say that the show was going to end, because if you'd seen the Kate & Jack story as just another episode instead of "one less" episode, you probably would have thrown up your hands and said, "they're f-ing stalling!" But in the context of moving toward the end, we're saying come with us to the end. We're not wasting time.

Harold Perrineau comes out.

Lindelof: I know I speak for everyone on the show when I say how excited I am to have Harold come back. Harold is actually the first and only actor who's ever left the show and part of a design to have them come back. It was excruciating to keep our mouths shut for a season.

Harold Perrineau: And for me. And they've had more information than I had. I'm really excited to be back in Hawaii and hanging out with friends.

Cuse: Michael's story is one of the most compelling for us on the show. Here's a character who will do anything for his son, and took some very extreme actions. In a series that deals a lot with the power of this island to be redemptive, and what characters need to do to redeem themselves, we feel that Michael's foray is going to be really compelling next season.

Lindelof: We can confirm that Harold's not coming back for a quick pop. He is coming back to the series as a regular. He has rejoined the cast. We just won't tell you when, but it will be early in the fourth season. I think the way that we're doing it is going to be fairly awesome.

Q: What questions are we NOT asking that we should be asking?

Lindelof: That's kind of the Möbius loop of questions.

Cuse: Who's in the coffin?

Lindelof: Another question I would ask is, who's on that freighter out there, and what do they want out of the island?

Cuse: The other question I would ask which we're not going to answer is, Kate and Jack obviously got off the island. Did anyone else get off the island?

Lindelof: What about those skeletons from season 1? What about those guys?

Q: There has been speculation that Libby possibly worked for Dharma, will we have a flashback with her in the future?

Cuse: It is our intention to get to her story, and we think you'll be very happy when we do finish that.

Lindelof: You're not exactly barking up the wrong tree with your speculative online questioning.

Q: Will Rousseau be getting her own flashback soon?

Cuse: Yes, we're not sure if it will be next year or the year after.

Lindelof: Some very important things will be revealed in that story. Barring unforseen circumstances you'll be seeing that story in the next season or two.

[Pubrick]

Pubrick, are you there?  Thoughts on season 3 please.   

good timing, it just ended last week.

unfortunately, i had a bad experience with the season finale and i don't think i'm ready to talk about it yet.

[picolas]

you're turning into sphinx.

[JG]

i wonder if next year's schedule will mean that new zealand and australia will get to watch with us.  i don't really know how it works, but the more the merrier. 

[bonanzataz]

so, i haven't started watching lost yet (when i move into my new apartment, my new roommates and i were all planning on starting it up), but i found this and didn't see it posted here.

[MacGuffin]

Has Mars been Lost?
Source: Moviehole

Imagine being stuck on a deserted island with Veronica Mars?

Man, I'd be burying the wood required to build a boat... deep.

According to TV Guide, Kristen Bell may be in talks to join the cast of the castaways caper, "Lost".

She would play a new character called Charlotte – who'll potentially stay-on full time (so long as she doesn't get busted for drink driving in Hawaii).

The character breakdown for Charlotte says:

Charlotte: Late 20s. Very attractive in a naturalistic, athletic way, her looks are only one small part of charms. Precocious, loquacious, and funny, Charlotte a very successful academic who also knows how to handle herself in the real world. On a personal level it is hard to crack the hard shell of poise and certainty around her, but when it DOES crack its like an egg; lots of repressed and pent up emotions spill out. (Starts with Episode #402 - August 29, 2007 in Hawaii). RECURRING ARC WITH A POSSIBLE OPTION FOR SERIES REGULAR FOR NEXT SEASON.

Sounds like spot-on casting, and so long as someone with a bigger name – say anyone connected to "Friends" – doesn't come in and swoop up the gig, we might see Neptune's spunkiest spy back on duty shortly.

Whoever they cast will be flown to Hawaii pronto – their first episode films in less than a fortnight.

[Kal]

That is the best news I've heard in my life... unbelievable!

[modage]

wow, seriously.

[SiliasRuby]

Yippeeeee...sorry for the giddiness but fuck it...yipeeee!

[A Matter Of Chance]

[Pubrick]

wow, suzanne somers joined the cast too??!

[Kal]

Official... its NOT happening.

She rejected the offer cause she doesnt want to relocate to Hawaii. Damnit

It was too good to be true!