Showrunners - New Promo with Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof

Thanks to Benoit for sending us the video

Showrunners - Trailer feat Damon Lindelof

Thanks to tv-shows.ru for the heads up

Showrunners is a feature length documentary film about the fascinating world of television showrunners - the writers and producers of US television drama and comedy series. Featuring interviews with showrunners, actors, network execs, casting directors and many more. It is an in depth exploration of the making of modern American television.

Featured showrunners include: Damon Lindelof - "LOST", David Shore - "HOUSE", Jeff Pinkner & J.H. Wyman - "FRINGE", Kurt Sutter - "SONS OF ANARCHY", Steven S. DeKnight - "SPARTACUS:VENGEANCE", Mark Schwahn - "ONE TREE HILL", David Eick - "BATTLESTAR GALACTICA:BLOOD AND CHROME", Robert & Michelle King - "THE GOOD WIFE", Mike Royce - "MEN OF A CERTAIN AGE", Matthew Carnahan - "HOUSE OF LIES", Russell T. Davies - "TORCHWOOD" ... and more to come!



http://twitter.com/showrunnersfilm
http://www.facebook.com/showrunners

The Art of Immersion: The Star Wars Generation

Thanks to Susan for the heads up.

Adam Horowitz blames the whole thing on Star Wars.

Horowitz — who with his writing partner, Eddy Kitsis, was an executive producer on Lost and a screenwriter for Tron: Legacy — remembers seeing Star Wars in Times Square with his mom when he was five. As soon as it was over, he wanted to go right back in.

“But there’s no bigger Star Wars geek than Damon Lindelof,” he admits.

Lindelof, the co-creator of Lost with J.J. Abrams, was only four when he saw the picture. Years later, when ABC’s Lloyd Braun paired him with Abrams as the show was in development, Lindelof showed up for their first meeting wearing an original Star Wars T-shirt he’d gotten when he and his dad joined the Star Wars Fan Club. Abrams was wowed.

Lindelof, Abrams, Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly) — for a whole generation of Hollywood writers in their 30s and 40s, Horowitz quips, “Star Wars was a gateway drug.”

It was also a precursor to what we’re coming to expect in movies and TV. Shows in the past, Lindelof points out, went to great lengths to avoid unanswered questions. Lost was deliberately ambiguous.

“The show became an excuse to develop a community” online, says Carlton Cuse, who headed the production with Lindelof. “And the basis of it was that people were able to debate open-ended questions — questions that we insisted be open-ended, and that would get fans engaged in the show.”

Years before the web, with its boundless connectivity and its endless cascade of hyperlinks turned entertainment into a spelunking expedition, Star Wars was a saga you could immerse yourself in at will.

Source: Full Article @ Wired

Carlton Cuse Article - So ‘Lost’ Is Over: Now What’s to Be Found

Thanks to Samuel for the heads up.

LAST summer I went hiking with my teenage daughter in the Swiss Alps. On the first day we left the small village of Wengen and climbed above the timberline to a mountain outpost, Kleine Scheidegg, where we stopped to catch our breath. As I was drinking some water and taking in the awesome panorama, I noticed a hiker approaching. He was bearded and sunburned, wearing a kerosene-stained Swiss mountaineering pack and using trekking poles. I thought he was going to warn us of some danger. Instead he walked up to me and in German-accented English asked, “Are you Carlton Cuse, from ‘Lost’?” Startled, I answered, “Yes.”

Then he said, “Why did you not explain the polar bear?” As he detailed his own theory of how polar bears ended up in a tropical jungle on “Lost,” my daughter rolled her eyes. Even here in this remote spot I could not escape the last six years of my life. I had spent that time working an average of 80 hours a week writing and producing a TV show. After “Lost” ended last May, the first thing I wanted to do was go someplace far away and clear my brain. But I quickly discovered there was a big difference between getting away and leaving the show behind.

Source: Read the Full Article @ NYTIMES

Full Carlton Cuse Madrid Interview

A big thanks to Bruce for compiling all the parts into just 3 videos.

A New LOST TV Show Or Movie? Carlton Cuse Says It’s “Very Possible”

Thanks to SL-LOST for the video.

Cuse and Lindelof reaction to the Emmy Nominations

Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, exec producers, "Lost"
Lindelof: "It sounds so cliche that it's great to be nominated but that's what we're basking in now. We don't take this for granted. And the fact that the love was spread to Michael Giacchino, Jack Bender, the sound mixers and art direction is great. It'll be cool to put on the monkey suits again and get together one last time."

Cuse: "My strategy is to sleep through these type of things. I checked my phone and saw there were a lot of emails. Bad news avoids you like the plague. … For Matthew (Fox) , he's labored almost unfairly on a show that's more ensemble-oriented than the guys he's competing aginst. Fortunately, the finale was Matthew-centric and he was finally given a chance to be front and center in such a way that allows voters to take notice. He was so critical to our show."

Source: Variety

Carlton Cuse on the Finale and DVD extra "The New Man In Charge"

Thanks to Donna for the heads up on this little snippet from Carlton at the recent Saturn Awards.

Finally, Carlton Cuse, the producer of Lost, entered the pressroom, after accepting the award for Best TV Series. I asked him what reaction they had received from the fans on the finale? “It seems like a lot of people liked it,” he answered. “I think obviously there were people who didn’t like it and that was to be expected. But we stand by the finale, we made the finale that we wanted to make and we’re happy with it, and we’re gratified that a lot of people seem to react positively to it.

“In terms of specifics,” he continued, “we feel like we answered what we were going to answer in the show. There’s a twelve minute segment on the DVDs that are coming out in August that have a few answers that were not in the show, and I think fans will really enjoy that. It’s the final little quota to the experience of Lost. Several of the major stars in the show will be featured. That’s all I really want to say. It’s fun and we feel like people are going to enjoy seeing a final little chapter of the series.”

Source: filmreviewonline

Damon and Carlton Interview about the Finale and DVD

Thanks to Ryan for the heads up and to TheBookofLaw for the video.

Lost Slapdown - Part 17

Thanks to shirtlesslocke for the heads up.

Damon and Carlton Talk About the Series Finale with Diane Sawyer

NOTE: As you see in the video this was taped before the finale but they talk about the finale moments.

Thanks to Book of Law for the video


Posted By: The ODI

NY Times Talk LOST Live event writeup

Thanks to DarkUFO reader JohnConstant69 for the write-up of last nights events.

For those that like spoilers, we have posted a spoiler summary and extended sneak peek here.

Just got back from attending the New York Times Talk Live LOST event, having watched it in-theater.

It kicked so much massive ass!
It was like a 90 min class on screenwriting. I would highly recommend it to anyone who’s teaching scriptwriting to a high-school level class, as long as the student can get into LOST.
Jorge Garcia and Michael Emerson made a surprise appearance, which was actually touching.
Damon really played the funny man and Carlton the straight guy.
The interviewer was very intelligent and asked some great questions.

They showed classic clips to which Darlton commented on:

Jack and Locke arguing over “faith vs. science” and Locke asking Jack to push the button inside the Swan Hatch. They pointed out that it wasn’t so much that Locke didn’t have faith, he said he didn’t want to do it alone, and needed Jack, referencing the famous “live together, die alone” speech. They mentioned that the scene in the submarine is where they came full circle on Jack’s transformation because he was now the man of faith trying to get Sawyer to NOT do something, (fiddle with the bomb) and Sawyer was playing the role of the empiricist this time.

Desmond finally reaching Penny on the phone in the Constant, Sayid in the background. Talked about how ridiculous it was that his mind time traveled to 1997 to ensure Penny would call him in 2004, Faraday’s rat maze, etc. And how it was the hardest and longest episode for them to break. They wanted to reveal time travel in a personal way that involved endearing characters and lots of emotion. That’s why Desmond remarks to Faraday’s mathematical explanation of a Constant: “can it be a person?”

The Dharma scene where Hurley debates time travel rules with Miles, and finally stumps him. They anticipated the audience having the same sort of questions that Hurley did, and the scene pretty much already took place within the writer’s room.

Some *really* good questions from the audience: “why must there be a human presence on the island?” which they said they’ve never been asked before but couldn’t answer. One guy asked a question which seemed to startle Darlton, especially Damon, and they basically said “We don’t want to spoil the ending to the show” as their answer, which made me think the guy was *extremely* close in his guessing the global reveal. I’ll give you a hint: he asked if there was an allusion in people doubting the button-pushing in the hatch as a critical necessity, and the critical necessity of protecting the lightcave. There was a lot more to it, but that’s all I’m giving. Sorry.

“I know this is very brief, but honestly the entire thing flew by in a little over 90+ mins, and I’m still soaking it all in. A couple other memorable details to try to do it justice:

A lady from the audience said the show pretty much restored her faith in God and got her much closer in faith and relationships (wow)
Damon and Carlton spoke a LOT on the struggle of faith, reason, religion, empiricism, etc. Damon summarized the show in this way “you have the Bible, it tells you, you do this and this, or there are consequences” and at the end of the day, you have to choose to have faith in that book, or not. So it really isn’t about that book, it’s about whether or not you decide to trust it. That’s our show. And it’s not just the Bible, it’s basically all the religious texts”.
One guy asked Damon and Carlton for a job, Michael Emerson kindly got up and received his resume
A really good question asked from the audience: “if MIB knew he couldn’t kill a candidate, why was he trying to do so by dragging Locke underground in season 1?” to which Damon replied: “ahh yes, but was he trying to kill him? You have to remember that Locke had just seen “the face of the island, and it was beautiful” and he was planning on going and giving a big speech to the castaways to give them hope and courage. MIB didn’t like this and was preventing him from doing so.”
Damon used the analogy of the “Johnny Explainer” (aka Exposition-Guy) character that is normally used as a cheap plot device to cover complex backstory and narrative (Dharma guy comes wandering out of the jungle to tell the 815ers about his time in the Dharma Initiative), as a springboard to say “as writers, we divided up Johnny Explainer’s dialogue amongst our characters. We’d put his word in Ben’s mouth, in John Locke’s mouth, Jacob’s mouth, and you always had to wonder if they were telling the truth, or not. Every time someone in the show gave an explanation, we wanted there to be an element of doubt.” After all this Damon said something to the effect of “but Johnny Explainer is no longer giving you the fruit from the tree”. He used a lot of interesting metaphors, some I understood, some I didn’t.
How much was planned out? They had the end-game in mind during season 1. They know how they wanted it to end. Between the hiatus of season 1-2, they sat down and had time to write out the core mythology. But also, when each season started up in the writing bootcamp, they might change or modify or add things, knowing ultimately where they still had to go. The end-game has never changed in theme or purpose, but may have changed in small details and content.
Damon pointed out that the #1 and #2 questions most asked by fans is: 1) Was everything planned out? 2) how much input does the audience have on the show? Damon said you can’t have it both ways. Because if they planned EVERYTHING out and locked it away in some “LOST binder”, then obviously fans would not be allowed any input or effect on the show. An immediate response to the audience: people kept asking why Hurley wasn’t losing any weight… so they wrote in that he was stashing Dharma ranch dressing (and other things). An anticipated audience reaction dealt with pre-emptively: Nicki and Paulo.
Why Nicki and Paulo? Because in the third season they realized they were punting along and had to do something. Their rule was to introduce new characters at the beginning of each season, and as they saw they were introducing the Others characters at the cages (Juliet, etc.) they wanted to introduce new characters back at the beach camp. Thus, Nicki and Paulo. They admit it was a mistake and tried to be cruel in how they got rid of Nicki and Paulo to make the fans feel somewhat satisfied.
When Damon realized Walt was getting too tall (taller than Damon isn’t very tall, btw), they basically said “lets get Walt on that raft, pronto!” and remarked how you can notice during season 1’s arc that Walt’s voice cracks a bit ala Peter Brady on the Brady Bunch. They way they wrote this into the show was that Walt was so special that even he was freaking out the Others, and Ben wanted him off the island.
Personally, I’ve been getting a little disappointed and frustrated with the increasing criticisms and attacks on the show you can find on many popular blogs and news sites. I can tell you, honestly, that A LOT of things that Damon and Carlton explained about the writing process, about character motivations, about overarching themes they’ve built into the show, about mistakes they’ve made, etc. cleared up a TON of the negative things “fans” have been saying. I wish all those people were forced to attend and listen. It really would have put a lot of their skepticism, frustration, and doubt at ease.
Damon said “if you hated Expose, if you hated Across the Sea, please watch the finale, give it some time, and let’s see if you still hate those eps or think they were unnecessary in the grand scheme”. (Obviously he was talking more about Across the Sea than Expose)
Jorge listed Ben as his favorite character, Emerson listed Eko as his favorite character (they weren’t allowed to pick their own), and Damon and Carlton copped out not listing any-one character, but saying how if you ate your favorite food every single day, you’d be sick of it. But they were excited because they could write for different characters all the time and it never seemed to get stale for them. They said that Hurley was basically the personality of the writing team of Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, and they would not have been able to write Hurley that way as a character. They said that the Desmond character/story was pretty much their writing territory.
After an audience member asked Darlton and Jorge if they were going to continue podcasting (Darlton: no, Jorge, maybe 1-2 after the finale), and Damon explained that they wouldn’t have too much more to talk about after the finale, Damon turned to Jorge and asked him “after reading the finale, being in the finale, do you have anything that needs explaining?” and Jorge sat for awhile, thought, shifted in his seat, and said “naw man, I don’t… cuz… I get it… I think I get it!” and smiled and everyone laughed.

They listed a good rule for Widmore (and others). “If a character tells you something, you can doubt it. Like Widmore. He suddenly has this change of heart and says Jacob visited him? Did Jacob really visit him? On the other hand, if you SEE something happening, then it’s true and real. We witnessed Jacob visiting Ilana at the hospital, her all bandaged up. But all we know is Widmore relayed a story. So it might be false. You have to remember to not listen to what characters on LOST say, but what they actually DO. Keep this in mind when wondering if what Widmore said was true.” It seemed like a good rule for all the characters on LOST, btw.

I really, really hope this ends up on the DVD set, because I can tell you, I’ve read the interviews, the magazines, watched the recap eps, listened to the podcasts, and I still feel like I really got to know Damon and Carlton a heck of a lot more after this than all those others. It was definitely worth the price of admission.

I’m not even gonna say “overall, it was great”. Because I was smiling and enjoying every minute of it. Since this is starting to sound like an AICN type review, I’ll leave it here.

Namaste!

JohnConstant69

Source: JohnConstant69@DarkUFO

Lost Slapdown - Part 16

The Official LOST Video Podcast: May 19th, 2010

Jorge Garcia, Michael Giacchino, Damon Linelof, Carlton Cuse and many more talk about being together one last time for LOST Live.

The Official LOST Video Podcast: May 14th, 2010

The writers consider who's the Man in Black and who's Jacob: Damon Lindelof or Carlton Cuse.


Direct Download

LOST Live: The Final Celebration

Thanks to Brent for the heads up.

You can see all the scans from the LOST Live Booklet here

How America got 'Lost': Show's unique legacy is mind-bending

Interview with Damon and Carlton. The video has no spoilers but the Article that goes with it here may have so tread carefully.


Source: USA Today

Lost Slapdown - Part 15

Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse Talk ‘Across the Sea’

Thanks to everyone for the heads up and to SL-Lost for the info.

Alan Sepinwall from HitFix.com interviewed Team Darlton this afternoon to talk about last night’s polarizing episode and fans’ reaction:

How much attention have you paid to the reaction to last night’s episode?

Carlton Cuse: Some degree. We get a little bit of general feedback. We try not to obsess about the boards and all that stuff. So we have some sense.

Damon Lindelof: It’s never exactly the reaction you’re expecting. We knew it would be an episode that would be divisive. We’ve been talking since the beginning of the season about the idea that the great thing of doing a show on your own terms is you have no excuses, but it’s also slightly terrifying that if you’re a mystery show, there will inevitably be episodes that answer mysteries. That has the potential to frighten, terrify, make people hate. This was going to be the season where we said, “Whatever your theory was, our presentation of the endgame of the show may disprove your theory, so we’re sorry if you don’t like the fact that you don’t get the Man in Black’s name, but you don’t get it.” So that’s going to piss some people off, and it’s their right to be pissed off. In terms of what the specific reactions are, it’s too hard to say 12 hours after the fact, and without seeing where this episode plays in the grand scheme of the series. That’s all we can say.

Read the complete interview at HitFix.com.

Lost Slapdown - Part 14

Thanks to Lora for the heads up.