Lost (spoilers)

MacGuffin · March 25, 2008, 01:01:46 AM

Lost To Wrap Up In April

Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, co-executive producers of ABC's Lost, told SCI FI Wire that the current season's final batch of new episodes will unspool a story arc based on a plan devised in anticipation of the writers' strike.

"The last two weeks before the strike, we actually sat down and said, 'Here is what we want to tell for the rest of the season,'" Kitsis said in an interview. "We all sat down, and the entire staff came up with a battle plan in place."

When Lost returns in late April, it will wrap up the fourth season with five episodes, three fewer than planned before the strike took place. "We got to tell a little more story this season than we anticipated," Kitsis said. "It's really worked out well. We came back from the strike, and everyone is just really excited, and I have to say, creatively, every day has been a pleasure. Everything we're doing right now is exciting, and every script that is going out, you're jealous if you didn't write it."

As for the missing episodes? "I feel that the three missing episodes will be made up over the course of the next two seasons," Horowitz said. "Seasons four, five and six are meant to encompass 48 episodes."

Kitsis added: "I have a feeling it will mean more, like, two-hour shows as opposed to more episodes, but those are decisions above our pay grade."

Season four has so far been marked with a continuation of the "flash-forward" storytelling technique introduced in the finale of season three. "This just seemed like the most interesting way to tell the rest of the story of the show," Kitsis said. "When we realized that we were only going to do three more seasons, it enabled us to starting thinking a little more out of the box in how we want to tell the remaining story that was left. The flash-forwards are, I think, just a great way to keep the show energized and tell the story in an interesting way. It was a brilliant idea by [executive producer] Damon [Lindelof]."

Lost returns with new episodes on April 24 in its new Thursday timeslot at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

MacGuffin · April 08, 2008, 12:26:32 AM

New Lost Episode Teased

ABC released information about "The Shape of Things to Come," the next original episode of its SF series Lost, which returns later this month in a new timeslot, Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

In the episode,

Spoiler: Show

"The Shape of Things to Come" debuts on April 24.

modage · April 08, 2008, 10:26:47 AM

What?

ElPandaRoyal · April 08, 2008, 06:54:32 PM

LOL! People spend their time in straaaange ways...

MacGuffin · April 10, 2008, 01:50:07 AM

Additional Lost Due This Year?

TV Guide Online columnist Michael Ausiello reported a rumor that ABC may order an additional hour of Lost this season, which would bring the total number of hours produced to 14.

Citing an anonymous source, Ausiello reported that the additional hour has not been sealed with the network.

As it stands, Lost is slated to return with the first of five new episodes on April 24 in its new timeslot, Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

The strike-truncated fourth season was slated to end with a season finale on May 22; it's unclear where an additional hour of the SF series would air.

modage · April 11, 2008, 01:22:23 PM

THIS ARTICLE IS ALL MINOR SPOILERS -- AND THEY'RE INCREDIBLE

'Lost': Secrets from the Set! (ew.com): Show

Life on the Oahu set of Lost isn't always a day at the beach. On this sweltering March afternoon, for example, ABC's cult hit about castaways on a time-warped tropical isle has chosen to shoot in...a rock quarry. Amount of fun currently being had: Zero. The horses are jumpy from machine-gun fire. Executive producer Jack Bender is directing with an ice pack to his face after walking into a crane. And Michael Emerson — a.k.a. Benjamin Linus, the show's villainous über-Other — is broiled, thanks to his curious wardrobe requirement: a woolly winter parka.

''Definitely a no-glamour zone,'' says Emerson during a brief respite from shooting Lost's first episode since the writers' strike interrupted production last November. ''I thought we would ease into things. Instead, I get this all-Ben extravaganza: combat, riding horses, foreign languages. And piano playing! All waaaay outside my comfort zone. How can you work two weeks and feel like you need a vacation already?''

Some sympathy for Lost's biggest devil? Not a polar bear's chance in Tunisia. Besides, there's crucial work to be done. You'll start seeing it on April 24, when Lost returns with the first of five fresh episodes that will wrap up its buzzy, strike-abbreviated fourth season. EW spent three days on the set of the drama, and judging from the looks of things — like the corpse that washes up on the sandy shores of Camp Jack and the raging gunfight that will decimate Camp Locke — the first episode back, ominously titled ''The Shape of Things to Come,'' will launch the endgame with downright apocalyptic thunder. The ensuing four installments will answer some of the season's biggest questions: How did the much-vaunted Oceanic 6 leave the Island? What happened to those left behind? Why is Sayid (Naveen Andrews) killing people for Ben in the future? And who's rotting inside that darn coffin? ''It's big and epic,'' promises Matthew Fox (Jack). ''Our first eight episodes, by design, were all set up for these episodes to come. That we're doing just five instead of eight means they're even more packed with plot. It's payoff time.'' More momentously, the finale — whose Big Twist is code-named ''Frozen Donkey Wheel'' — will set the stage for another series reinvention. Citing the seventh Harry Potter book, in which J.K. Rowling broke her usual year-at-Hogwarts template, executive producer Damon Lindelof says, ''We're taking the same approach. You think the show is, 'Okay, they're on the Island, and then — whoosh — you're in the past or the future.' By the end of season 4, I think the audience is going to go, 'How can the show continue to be that?' And they are absolutely right.''

Camp Locke is actually Camp Erdman in real life, a YMCA facility on Oahu's North Shore. On this rain-splashed afternoon, a couple dozen day campers sit on the grass, waiting to watch Lost blow up one of their cabins. As the explosives get rigged, the man who plays con-artist bad boy Sawyer, Josh Holloway, gamely takes questions. One boy shares how his mother, a big Lost fan, talks about the show so incessantly that he has to cover his ears and beg her to stop. The kids laugh, and so does Holloway, but the camp counselor is embarrassed. ''Now, remember,'' she scolds. ''Respectful questions.''

The stars of Lost have heard worse, especially last year when they were put in the awkward position of answering harsh criticism about how Lost had lost its way. ''When you came out here last season, I remember I didn't talk to you,'' Andrews tells an EW writer, ''because if all you have to say is something negative, why talk at all?'' Asked where he thought season 3 went wrong, Andrews smiles. ''Well, I wasn't in it much, so that's flaw number one, without sounding ridiculously arrogant,'' laughs the actor, whose Sayid was truly underutilized. ''A lot of us didn't know which way the show was going, and I'm not sure the writers did, either. They seemed to be meandering in the dark. But it's good now. We're on track.''

So how did they find the light? By negotiating the death of Lost itself. Last May, the show's guiding hands, Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, reached a deal with ABC to end the series in 2010 after three 16-episode seasons; as a result, Lost's storytellers have been able to bring structure and focus to their saga. It began with last year's bravura finale, which brought the promise of rescue and introduced ''flash-forward'' storytelling into the mix. Fox — who was the only actor besides Evangeline Lilly (Kate) privy to the episode's it's-not-a-flashback twist — recalls barely being able to keep the secret from the rest of the cast. ''I knew it would take Lost to the next level,'' he says.

Season 4 has gone even further with new twists, new characters, and a new forward-moving, future-revealing mythology. Front and center are the Oceanic 6, a privileged clutch of castaways — Jack, Kate, Sayid, Sun (Yunjin Kim), Hurley (Jorge Garcia), and baby Aaron — who have somehow, someway escaped the Island. ''I think this flash-forward business is a stroke of genius,'' says Emerson. ''I think everybody here feels that we are now a more mature show, that we are now a show for grown-ups, because we're going to see that like in life, there may not be happy endings for many of us on this Island.''

At the very least, Lost has become a show no longer dogged by skepticism that its producers lack a master plan. ''The question of 'Do you guys know where you're going?' kind of evaporated,'' says Cuse. ''People are no longer fearful that they're going to be led like lemmings to a cliff edge and plunge off.'' Nobody is more thrilled than the cast; across the board, their enthusiasm — and, in some cases, relief — is palpable. ''Now, the story carries everything and we're just players in it, which I like,'' says Holloway. ''The writers can be concise. I like that, too.'' Adds Fox: ''Our writers have always said we needed an end in order to start ripping. Now, we're ripping.''

This isn't to say that season 4 has been perfect. After hitting a high-water mark with ''The Constant,'' a deftly plotted, unabashedly romantic time-travel yarn that ended with Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) finally making contact with soul mate Penelope Widmore (Sonya Walger), Lost slowed the pace and muffed some plays. A trick ending — She's in the future! He's in the past! — to an otherwise powerful episode featuring Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) and Sun alienated some perplexed fans. And the hyped-up return of castaway traitor Michael (Harold Perrineau) defied continuity logic and generally failed to meet expectations. Still, these are minor concerns compared with past infractions such as a guest turn by Bai Ling and last year's awkward introductions of — we hesitate to even bring up their names — Nikki and Paulo.

Ironically, season 4's overall strength and sophistication may have renewed Lost's creative mojo, but it has also sealed the show's rep as an intimidating weekly TV commitment. Viewership has steadily declined throughout the season, from 17.8 million for the season 4 premiere to 13.4 for episode 8. When the show returns April 24, it will air after Grey's Anatomy, at 10 p.m., and while it may get some draft from the hospital hit, it's a less-than-McDreamy hour for a series that demands maximum alertness. But ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson says that even though he'd ''love to see the show grow...the reality is that the numbers are pretty good.'' And he's as excited as anyone about the new direction. ''Lost has established itself as one of the great shows of all time. I'm proud that by agreeing to end the show, we have freed them up to do what they want to do.''

And what they'll be doing is kicking things off with a meaty sweep of story. In addition to being a flash-forward adventure for globe-trotting Ben, in which his war with British billionaire Charles Widmore (Alan Dale) over control of the Island will intensify, episode 9 revisits a long-simmering subplot: Sayid's romance with Iraqi love Nadia (Andrea Gabriel). According to Lindelof, a new dimension of Smokey the monster's mercurial nature will also be revealed, per the Lost rule that ''you learn something new about the monster whenever it appears.'' And Cuse says a major story line will begin for Claire (Emilie de Ravin), Aaron's Aussie mommy, who lost boyfriend Charlie in last year's finale: ''Mysterious things are happening to Claire that set up the next few episodes — and the next few years, too.''

''The Shape of Things to Come'' will be followed by a flash-forward installment for Jack. ''We're starting to close the loop on the end of last season,'' says Fox. ''Jack in the future is a man marked by weakness, but the Jack of the present is strong. You're going to understand how he made that transition.'' The last three episodes include only one flashback, which the producers say will be a mythically significant outing for...someone. The rumor: Locke (Terry O'Quinn). Fans will also see a new Dharma station called the Orchid — all three levels of it — that might shed more light on the Island's time-warping properties. Peripheral faves like Penelope, ageless Other Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell), and off-Island mystery man Matthew Abaddon (Lance Reddick) will pop up. But due to the strike, two breakout freighter newbies — frazzled physicist Daniel Faraday (Jeremy Davies) and ghost-whispering hustler Miles Straume (Ken Leung) — won't be getting their spotlights until next year. The May 22 finale will complicate the Jack-Kate-Sawyer love triangle by featuring ''a spectacular kiss'' and elaborate on Jack's flash-forward ambition to journey back to the Island. ''This year's finale will sum up exactly how difficult it may be to accomplish that,'' says Lindelof, who adds this cryptic response to speculation that flash-forwards will vanish once Island present meets off-Island future: ''There could easily be a time when the word flash becomes irrelevant.''

While fans wait to see what form Lost's future takes, the cast waits to see whether they'll be part of it: Peril abounds for the castaways in the next five episodes. During EW's stay on the set, Garcia prepared for an encounter with Smokey, and Holloway was spritzed with fake sweat and a touch of blood in advance of a raging gunfight. After fishing that mystery corpse from the surf, Daniel Dae Kim addressed a reporter's question about Jin's uncertain flash-forward fate (he seemingly died in the March 13 episode) with a mock-frantic cry: ''I don't know!'' As it was at the start, Lost is once more the show where anything can happen. Drying out in the sun after scurrying away from a big wave that washed out the scene, Yunjin Kim sits in the tall grass of the beach and sums it up: ''It feels like season 1. And I love it.''

Kal · April 11, 2008, 01:32:25 PM

Quote from: modage on April 11, 2008, 01:22:23 PM
THIS ARTICLE IS ALL MINOR SPOILERS -- AND THEY'RE INCREDIBLE

what article?

modage · April 11, 2008, 01:49:31 PM

click the button

Quote from: modage on April 11, 2008, 01:22:23 PM
'Lost': Secrets from the Set! (ew.com): Show Hide

Life on the Oahu set of Lost isn't always a day at the beach. On this sweltering March afternoon, for example, ABC's cult hit about castaways on a time-warped tropical isle has chosen to shoot in...a rock quarry. Amount of fun currently being had: Zero. The horses are jumpy from machine-gun fire. Executive producer Jack Bender is directing with an ice pack to his face after walking into a crane. And Michael Emerson — a.k.a. Benjamin Linus, the show's villainous über-Other — is broiled, thanks to his curious wardrobe requirement: a woolly winter parka.

''Definitely a no-glamour zone,'' says Emerson during a brief respite from shooting Lost's first episode since the writers' strike interrupted production last November. ''I thought we would ease into things. Instead, I get this all-Ben extravaganza: combat, riding horses, foreign languages. And piano playing! All waaaay outside my comfort zone. How can you work two weeks and feel like you need a vacation already?''

Some sympathy for Lost's biggest devil? Not a polar bear's chance in Tunisia. Besides, there's crucial work to be done. You'll start seeing it on April 24, when Lost returns with the first of five fresh episodes that will wrap up its buzzy, strike-abbreviated fourth season. EW spent three days on the set of the drama, and judging from the looks of things — like the corpse that washes up on the sandy shores of Camp Jack and the raging gunfight that will decimate Camp Locke — the first episode back, ominously titled ''The Shape of Things to Come,'' will launch the endgame with downright apocalyptic thunder. The ensuing four installments will answer some of the season's biggest questions: How did the much-vaunted Oceanic 6 leave the Island? What happened to those left behind? Why is Sayid (Naveen Andrews) killing people for Ben in the future? And who's rotting inside that darn coffin? ''It's big and epic,'' promises Matthew Fox (Jack). ''Our first eight episodes, by design, were all set up for these episodes to come. That we're doing just five instead of eight means they're even more packed with plot. It's payoff time.'' More momentously, the finale — whose Big Twist is code-named ''Frozen Donkey Wheel'' — will set the stage for another series reinvention. Citing the seventh Harry Potter book, in which J.K. Rowling broke her usual year-at-Hogwarts template, executive producer Damon Lindelof says, ''We're taking the same approach. You think the show is, 'Okay, they're on the Island, and then — whoosh — you're in the past or the future.' By the end of season 4, I think the audience is going to go, 'How can the show continue to be that?' And they are absolutely right.''

Camp Locke is actually Camp Erdman in real life, a YMCA facility on Oahu's North Shore. On this rain-splashed afternoon, a couple dozen day campers sit on the grass, waiting to watch Lost blow up one of their cabins. As the explosives get rigged, the man who plays con-artist bad boy Sawyer, Josh Holloway, gamely takes questions. One boy shares how his mother, a big Lost fan, talks about the show so incessantly that he has to cover his ears and beg her to stop. The kids laugh, and so does Holloway, but the camp counselor is embarrassed. ''Now, remember,'' she scolds. ''Respectful questions.''

The stars of Lost have heard worse, especially last year when they were put in the awkward position of answering harsh criticism about how Lost had lost its way. ''When you came out here last season, I remember I didn't talk to you,'' Andrews tells an EW writer, ''because if all you have to say is something negative, why talk at all?'' Asked where he thought season 3 went wrong, Andrews smiles. ''Well, I wasn't in it much, so that's flaw number one, without sounding ridiculously arrogant,'' laughs the actor, whose Sayid was truly underutilized. ''A lot of us didn't know which way the show was going, and I'm not sure the writers did, either. They seemed to be meandering in the dark. But it's good now. We're on track.''

So how did they find the light? By negotiating the death of Lost itself. Last May, the show's guiding hands, Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, reached a deal with ABC to end the series in 2010 after three 16-episode seasons; as a result, Lost's storytellers have been able to bring structure and focus to their saga. It began with last year's bravura finale, which brought the promise of rescue and introduced ''flash-forward'' storytelling into the mix. Fox — who was the only actor besides Evangeline Lilly (Kate) privy to the episode's it's-not-a-flashback twist — recalls barely being able to keep the secret from the rest of the cast. ''I knew it would take Lost to the next level,'' he says.

Season 4 has gone even further with new twists, new characters, and a new forward-moving, future-revealing mythology. Front and center are the Oceanic 6, a privileged clutch of castaways — Jack, Kate, Sayid, Sun (Yunjin Kim), Hurley (Jorge Garcia), and baby Aaron — who have somehow, someway escaped the Island. ''I think this flash-forward business is a stroke of genius,'' says Emerson. ''I think everybody here feels that we are now a more mature show, that we are now a show for grown-ups, because we're going to see that like in life, there may not be happy endings for many of us on this Island.''

At the very least, Lost has become a show no longer dogged by skepticism that its producers lack a master plan. ''The question of 'Do you guys know where you're going?' kind of evaporated,'' says Cuse. ''People are no longer fearful that they're going to be led like lemmings to a cliff edge and plunge off.'' Nobody is more thrilled than the cast; across the board, their enthusiasm — and, in some cases, relief — is palpable. ''Now, the story carries everything and we're just players in it, which I like,'' says Holloway. ''The writers can be concise. I like that, too.'' Adds Fox: ''Our writers have always said we needed an end in order to start ripping. Now, we're ripping.''

This isn't to say that season 4 has been perfect. After hitting a high-water mark with ''The Constant,'' a deftly plotted, unabashedly romantic time-travel yarn that ended with Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) finally making contact with soul mate Penelope Widmore (Sonya Walger), Lost slowed the pace and muffed some plays. A trick ending — She's in the future! He's in the past! — to an otherwise powerful episode featuring Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) and Sun alienated some perplexed fans. And the hyped-up return of castaway traitor Michael (Harold Perrineau) defied continuity logic and generally failed to meet expectations. Still, these are minor concerns compared with past infractions such as a guest turn by Bai Ling and last year's awkward introductions of — we hesitate to even bring up their names — Nikki and Paulo.

Ironically, season 4's overall strength and sophistication may have renewed Lost's creative mojo, but it has also sealed the show's rep as an intimidating weekly TV commitment. Viewership has steadily declined throughout the season, from 17.8 million for the season 4 premiere to 13.4 for episode 8. When the show returns April 24, it will air after Grey's Anatomy, at 10 p.m., and while it may get some draft from the hospital hit, it's a less-than-McDreamy hour for a series that demands maximum alertness. But ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson says that even though he'd ''love to see the show grow...the reality is that the numbers are pretty good.'' And he's as excited as anyone about the new direction. ''Lost has established itself as one of the great shows of all time. I'm proud that by agreeing to end the show, we have freed them up to do what they want to do.''

And what they'll be doing is kicking things off with a meaty sweep of story. In addition to being a flash-forward adventure for globe-trotting Ben, in which his war with British billionaire Charles Widmore (Alan Dale) over control of the Island will intensify, episode 9 revisits a long-simmering subplot: Sayid's romance with Iraqi love Nadia (Andrea Gabriel). According to Lindelof, a new dimension of Smokey the monster's mercurial nature will also be revealed, per the Lost rule that ''you learn something new about the monster whenever it appears.'' And Cuse says a major story line will begin for Claire (Emilie de Ravin), Aaron's Aussie mommy, who lost boyfriend Charlie in last year's finale: ''Mysterious things are happening to Claire that set up the next few episodes — and the next few years, too.''

''The Shape of Things to Come'' will be followed by a flash-forward installment for Jack. ''We're starting to close the loop on the end of last season,'' says Fox. ''Jack in the future is a man marked by weakness, but the Jack of the present is strong. You're going to understand how he made that transition.'' The last three episodes include only one flashback, which the producers say will be a mythically significant outing for...someone. The rumor: Locke (Terry O'Quinn). Fans will also see a new Dharma station called the Orchid — all three levels of it — that might shed more light on the Island's time-warping properties. Peripheral faves like Penelope, ageless Other Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell), and off-Island mystery man Matthew Abaddon (Lance Reddick) will pop up. But due to the strike, two breakout freighter newbies — frazzled physicist Daniel Faraday (Jeremy Davies) and ghost-whispering hustler Miles Straume (Ken Leung) — won't be getting their spotlights until next year. The May 22 finale will complicate the Jack-Kate-Sawyer love triangle by featuring ''a spectacular kiss'' and elaborate on Jack's flash-forward ambition to journey back to the Island. ''This year's finale will sum up exactly how difficult it may be to accomplish that,'' says Lindelof, who adds this cryptic response to speculation that flash-forwards will vanish once Island present meets off-Island future: ''There could easily be a time when the word flash becomes irrelevant.''

While fans wait to see what form Lost's future takes, the cast waits to see whether they'll be part of it: Peril abounds for the castaways in the next five episodes. During EW's stay on the set, Garcia prepared for an encounter with Smokey, and Holloway was spritzed with fake sweat and a touch of blood in advance of a raging gunfight. After fishing that mystery corpse from the surf, Daniel Dae Kim addressed a reporter's question about Jin's uncertain flash-forward fate (he seemingly died in the March 13 episode) with a mock-frantic cry: ''I don't know!'' As it was at the start, Lost is once more the show where anything can happen. Drying out in the sun after scurrying away from a big wave that washed out the scene, Yunjin Kim sits in the tall grass of the beach and sums it up: ''It feels like season 1. And I love it.''

Kal · April 12, 2008, 06:14:44 AM

Weird. I dont see any buttons????????????

BTW, It was just confirmed that there will be an EXTRA hour of LOST this Season. They are airing the 2 hour finale on May 29 (instead of May 22), so there are not episodes on May 22. We have another week off before the 2 hour finale, but it means we are getting 14 hours of Lost instead of 13, so amazing!

MacGuffin · April 14, 2008, 12:45:34 AM

An Extra Hour for Lost and Grey's
Source: TV Guide

TV Guide reports that both "Lost" and "Grey's Anatomy" are getting an extra hour this season before the summer hiatus.

With a 14th hour of Lost now a done deal, the show's finale will swell to three hours. But, in what can only be described as an unorthodox scheduling move, the first hour of that finale will air on May 15, and then we have to wait two weeks — until May 29 — to get the last two hours! That's right, no Lost on May 22.

The reason? The "Lost" producers convinced ABC that the last two hours of "Lost" should air together, thereby freeing up an hour on the May 22. "Grey's Anatomy" is filling that hour by expanding its season finale to two hours.

MacGuffin · April 18, 2008, 12:54:52 AM

Lost Spoilers Revealed

Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, executive producers of ABC's Lost, offered reporters major spoilers for the remainder of the fourth season, which resumes with new episodes on April 24.

Speaking in a conference call with reporters on April 17, they revealed that Sawyer (Josh Holloway) is not one of the Oceanic Six; that the conflict between Jack (Matthew Fox) and Locke (Terry O'Quinn) will reach a head in the season finale; that viewers will learn more about the fate of Claire (Emilie de Ravin); and that viewers will learn more about what happened to Rousseau (Mira Furlan) and Karl (Blake Bashoff), who were shot by an unknown assailant and left for dead in the last original episode to air, "Meet Kevin Johnson."

Also, Cuse promised, viewers will see more of the mysterious Jacob, will finally learn more about the four-toed statue and will see the smoke monster again, in the first new episode back.

As for the two-part fourth-season finale, "There's No Place Like Home," the producers said there was no way they could squeeze in all the story they wanted to tell without expanding the final episode to two hours.

"We had an eight-hour story plan that got condensed down to five initially because of the strike," Lindelof said. "And in trying to cram all that story around the finale, the rubber hit the road. And we realized that it all felt very rushed and we were short changing our emotional moments. You know, our character moments. So we read the 80-page first draft of hour two and looked at each other and said, 'There's no way we're going to be able to cut this down to a 55-page script. Why don't we expand it to 100 pages?'"

The final three hours will deal with the romantic triangle of Kate (Evangeline Lilly), Jack and Sawyer. "All we can say is Sawyer is not one of the Oceanic Six, and Jack and Kate are," Lindelof said. "Obviously there will be a huge focus in these final three hours of the show that comprise the finale in terms of how that series of events transpires and what ultimately happens to Sawyer, and it's all on the axis of the love triangle. We think that both fans of Sawyer and Kate--otherwise known as the 'Skaters,' from what I am told--and Jack and Kate--the 'Jaters'--will have a bounty of interesting romantic scenes."

As for that standoff between Jack and Locke? "I think Locke and Jack, to us right from the beginning, represented the two significant philosophical poles of the show," Cuse said. "Jack was the ultimate empiricist, and Locke was the person who believed his fate and destiny were all tied up in the magic and mystery of this island. And the conflict between those two guys is really the central conflict on our show. So that's a theme we continue to explore. And there's a big culmination of that that takes place in this season's finale."

Beyond that, the series will be "revisiting the emotional idea" behind the kiss that Jack and Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) had early in the season, Cuse said.

"There are definitely some very large and seismic events that will happen to our castaways between now and the end of the season," Cuse said. "And by the end of the season some people's fates will be clear. and others will not be so clear."

Lost returns with "The Shape of Things to Come," the first of five new episodes, on April 24 in a new timeslot, Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Part one of "There's No Place Like Home" will air on May 15. The two-hour second part will air on May 29 at 9 p.m.

(Because of the writers' strike, the fourth season was shortened by two hours, which will be bumped into the show's fifth or sixth seasons.)

MacGuffin · April 21, 2008, 12:34:41 AM

Fox: Lost Is Back With A Bang

Matthew Fox, who plays Dr. Jack Shephard on ABC's Lost, told SCI FI Wire that the upcoming final five episodes of the fourth season will be packed with action, a few surprises and a change for his character.

"You won't believe what happens in the next five episodes," Fox said in a group interview on April 18 while promoting his upcoming film, Speed Racer. "The show is building to its climax of the year, and it's a lot of things happening. It's big, and it's going to be good."

Fox added that things may change for his character, who has appeared in "flash-forwards" as an emotional wreck. "Jack's a frickin' mess in the future," Fox said. "So that's been not pleasant to revisit that. It's never fun to put yourself into a place where you're suicidal and really, really messed up and desperate. So, yeah, he's really gotten to the rock bottom, but I understand why we're taking him there, and there will be a turn in there where he begins to sort of build towards a redemption. And taking him to the very pit of despair is going to make, I think, that more rewarding."

Lost has been on a break during the fourth season, which was interrupted by the writers' strike. "I think it's been a good year for us," Fox said. "The strike, obviously, was difficult, just because we were really on a roll through [episode] eight, then we took this break. But I think everybody was really excited to get back to it."

Now that the strike is over, the cast and crew have had to film several episodes at once in order to finish the season on schedule. "It's been, you know, chaotic," Fox said. "I mean, you know, as it always is this time of year for us. I mean, we're doing many shows [at once]. I think we're shooting three episodes simultaneously, essentially. So it's like anywhere between two and three units working at the same time and going back and forth between them and shooting things very out of sequence, which you always do, but I think when you're covering three episodes, it's a lot. But it's great. I mean, it's really great."

Lost returns with the first of its new episodes on April 24 in its new timeslot, Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

MacGuffin · April 24, 2008, 07:16:13 PM

Matthew Fox on the Return of Lost
Source: ComingSoon

"Lost" returns tonight on ABC at a new time (10/9c) with six new hours that climax with the two-part finale (5/15 and 5/29). ComingSoon.net got a chance to talk to Matthew Fox, who plays Jack, during the press day for Speed Racer.

Asked about whether the flash forwards and knowing the end date of the series has changed how he approaches work, Fox said, "Not really. Not that much. No. You know we're going to catch up with the flash forwards here in this year and then we'll be back and it's going to be really interesting to see how time is structured in season five. But we will have closed those two points – the finale of last year where you had that juxtaposition of him on the island feeling like he'd finally accomplished rescue and this future where he's desperate and at the pit of despair and feels like he has to go back and we don't know why and what's transpired in between. We will have closed that thing and so we will have gotten back into a situation where we'll be in the present."

How much gets resolved in the finale? "Huge, huge stuff. We're shooting pretty much three episodes. It's really like a three-episode finale that we're shooting simultaneously. It's huge."

And will more questions be answered? "There will be huge things answered. Yes."

Be sure to tune in tonight!

diggler · April 24, 2008, 10:24:47 PM

cinemanarchist · April 24, 2008, 11:22:39 PM

The shit just got real.