Lost Boss Outlines Revised Season 4 Plan

Thanks to David for the info.

Welcome back!
Carlton Cuse: It's good to be back. It'll be even better tomorrow when the writers all start rolling in and we start getting to work... pending the vote, of course.

What came out of your meeting with ABC today?
Cuse: Damon [Lindelof] and I are going to try and make five more episodes before the end of May, which is ambitious. But, we've found ourselves in situation where we had eight episodes of story planned, and we're going to try to fit that into five hours of the show. Even though it's going to be very hard to execute, we felt like any less would be doing a disservice to the story we had planned. We really want to give the fans the best possible experience and ending that we can to Season 4.

Any chance that the first of the five episodes will air the week after that last pre-strike episode— thus eliminating any scheduling gap?
Cuse: No, there's probably going to be four weeks between the airing of the first batch of episodes and our new episodes.

What will happen to the three "lost" episodes? Will they roll over into next season's 16, or will they vanish forever?
Cuse: Damon and I remain committed to producing the 40 additional hours of the show that we promised. We haven't figured out exactly when we'll put those other three on, but we're not eliminating them from the show. You will get those three episodes downstream.

I know it's early, but have you decided what will have to get cut from this season's arc in order to accelerate things? Are we going to lose some flashbacks and/or flash-forwards?
Cuse: All those conversations will take place tomorrow when we actually start talking about story.

Is it possible that some guest actors you were planning to use before the strike may no longer be available now? Like, for example, Andrea Roth?
Cuse: Yeah, there are a lot of issues that have to get sorted out. We're also in the middle of pilot season... We're kind of figuring out what has happened to all of our actors who have gone on to do other things. Literally, there are cobwebs on the couches in the writers' room. Call me in a couple of days and I should have more answers for you.

OK, last question: Have you come up with a code word for this season's top-secret cliffhanger?
Cuse: [Laughs] Not yet. That's a very good point. We'll have to get on that. If you have any ideas, Mike, let us know.

Source: TV Guide

Writers Strike - Lost

Executive Producer Damon Lindelof Says: "Indeed, it would appear that we are in the endgame of the strike. Personally, I couldn't be more psyched to be part of this union. Like any negotiation, some parts suck and some parts surpassed my wildest expectations for what we could accomplish, but most of all I'm left with a feeling of pride.

"As for Lost (pending the actual lifting of the strike, which we vote for on Tuesday), a game plan should begin to manifest by the end of the week. All I can say is that Carlton and I and the rest of the writers have every intention of making sure you guys get more episodes this season beyond the eight already completed. How many and how they will be aired is a conversation we'll be having with our bosses, but as soon as we've got a plan, we'll tell the fans first."

What We're Hearing: Lost's actors are on standby, and the show is expected to produce more episodes this season. Fingers crossed! The bigger question is who'll keep the golden Thursday at 9 p.m. time slot once those Seattle Grace docs also return...How 'bout we put Sawyer and McDreamy in a cage and let 'em duke it out? ('Cause we know who'd win...)

Source: E!Online

The Strike Is Most Definitely Over - Impact on LOST

Thanks to DocArzt for the following.

In advance of the meeting today, the WGA released a memo to members via e-mail at 3:00am - after the end of the media blackout for most members - stating that a deal had been made that, quote, "protects a future in which the Internet becomes the primary means of both content creation and delivery."

In addition, the note contained an outline of the specifics of the new deal, which can be downloaded here in PDF.

Taking the language of the memo at face value it is difficult to imagine that the WGA leadership is not going to tell its members to return to work Monday.

I've been talking to people on the other side of the fence for weeks now about what an end to the strike means for Lost and this is what I have for information:

* It will take 4-6 weeks to get back to actual filming.
* NO discussions have been had regarding the logistics of a return to production.
* The industry is planning on extending the TV season to the end of June.
* If the season is extended a maximum of 6 episodes could be produced.
* Regardless, a minimum of 3 new episodes will be produced.
* There has been NO discussion with regards to whether the un-produced episodes will be made up.

The most important thing to remember is that there have been no formal discussions between the LOST writers/show runners and the studios since the strike began. We shouldn't expect a boatload of answers to any of these questions for at least a few days, possibly longer.

Source: DocArzt

Matthew Fox Talks LOST - 4 or 6 more episodes in Season 4?

Thanks to John for the heads up on this article.

Hey everyone, I’m at the junket for “Vantage Point” and I got a “Lost” scoop that you'd want to know about. While I don’t have an exact quote cause I’m sitting in the room right now, Matthew Fox was just in here moments ago and I was able to ask him about the rest of the season of “Lost.”

Since all the rumors are that the writers’ strike might be getting resolved this weekend, I asked him what would happen to the rest of the season if it does actually get resolved. He said that the rumor is the show would go back into production immediately, and the goal would be to shoot 4 to 6 episodes of the remaining 8 that were scheduled.

I then asked if they would try and take the 8 episode storyline and shrink it down to 4 (if that’s all they shoot) and he said I’d have to ask Damon. Needless to say, if I could, I would.

So if my words above make no sense as I'm rushing, the thing to know is that we will be getting more “Lost” this season after the original 8 episodes air. In total there will be either 12 or 14 episodes, and we’ll know the exact number once the strike gets resolved.

Source: Collider

Lost filming has resumed

Update: 5th Feb 2008 Looks like Ryan by his owns words has been "punk'd".Let's hope we get good news about the strike soon to make up for this bad news.
UPDATE: Was this a pick-up shoot? (Thanks, Lostpedia Blog.) Possibly. But considering shooting for Episode 4×08 already went long for pick-ups back in November, that sounds unlikely. Was it a shoot for the Lifetime Channel’s “Special Delivery” made-for-TV movie? (Good catch, DocArzt.) Hmm. I admit, the “Alice” and “Max” character names are quite the coincidence. If it was for Lifetime and not ABC, they’re using quite a bit of the same crew, equipment and vehicles that usually crowd the streets for “LOST.”

UPDATE 2: Looks like it was a shoot for “Special Delivery.” Apparently it’s not unusual for one production to use another production’s staff and assets, even leaving vehicle signage and trailer placards in place. As for the crewmembers who said “LOST” was back? I’ve obviously been punk’d. And I probably deserved it. So the bad news is, “LOST” production has not resumed, after all. The good news is, Jack Bender is not working on a Lifetime Channel flick. Sorry, all.

Source: Hawaii Blog

Update: 12:50 Right last post before bed. Ryan has posted some photos that he took today. Nothing spoilery. Here is one below, the others can be found on his site.



Update: 12:40 GMT According to DocArzt's contact at ABC, they state that no new filming is taking place although filming is happening as witnessed by Ryan which leads us to believe that they are definitely filming pickups. Keep an eye on Ryan's blog over at Hawaii Blog for the latest updates as I'm going to have to take a nap here in the UK shortly. According to DocArzt it would take between 4-6 weeks to get back up to full-on production.
Update: 12:30 GMT Just got the following from Ryan. It should be noted that these could be what are known as "Pickups" and from talking to my good friend DocArzt not actual new scenes. However the fact that they are filming is significant IMHO

The writers strike may not officially be over, but I’m thrilled to report firsthand that “LOST” was filming today in Kahala. I was so stunned, I had to ask three people to make sure it wasn’t just a local car commercial. It’s the best news to come out of the show since… well, since the spectacular ratings for its Season 4 premiere last Thursday.

“LOST” production has been stilled since November, when shooting the first eight scripts locked before the strike began was completed. Fans have lamented the very likely prospect that they’d only get half of the already abbreviated 16-episode season as a result.

Source: Hawaii Blog


Update: 12:22 GMT We will have some photos from the filming online soon.
Update: 12:00 GMT I can reveal my source as being Ryan from Hawaii Blog, who has an impeccable record for information pertaining to Lost. He's yet to post anything on his site yet about this but hopefully he will soon.

Update: 11:50 GMT This is from someone I trust 100% from Hawaii who has never been wrong to date.
I can happily report to you that some Lost Filming has resumed according to my source in Hawaii! More to follow soon hopefully.

Jorge on the strike

Q :Luckily for us your the only person that we can at least really get some info about the show because of the strike. By all accounts would say it would be safe to say that Lost S4 will officially only be 8 episodes now? I mean I'm sure the second the strike is over you guys will go back to filming but I doubt ABC would show the remaining 8 after May. With the time given now would you say it would be possible to complete the remaining 8?

Jorge answer : I believe we are still within the time frame that would allow us to finish the season without disrupting the flow of the season. But obviously that window is closing fast.

Source: Jorge Garcia@The Fuselage

"Why We Write": Damon Lindelof of 'Lost'

WHY WE WRITE is a series of short essays by prominent television and film writers and conceived by Charlie Craig and Thania St. John.

"Today’s piece is written by Damon Lindelof, Co-Creator and Executive Producer of Lost.

I was listening to the news on NPR the other day and two things occurred to me. First, only assholes feel the constant need to tell you they listen to NPR (does anyone ever say, “So I was watching the CW last night…”?) and I guess that makes me an asshole. The second was that in the midst of listening to the story in question, I had finally figured out how to succinctly sum up why I write. It goes a little something like this --There’s this ninety-year old woman named Rose who, after honking her horn repeatedly at the school bus idling in front of her, decides she has much more important things to do and guns her Honda Civic around the bus. Before she realizes that the bus was stopped for a very good reason indeed, Rose finds herself watching a freight train bear down on her and almost instantly, it smashes into the passenger side of the Civic and pushes it a good hundred feet before screeching to a stop. Forgoing all the gory details, Rose is pronounced dead at the local hospital and the attending doctor in the ER is tasked with notifying next of kin. Turns out Rose’s husband has been dead for decades, but she has a couple sons and a daughter. The doctor calls one of her sons and his wife answers the phone. The son isn’t home, but the wife offers to take a message. The notification ethics, however, forbid the hospital from telling anyone but next of kin about Rose’s death and so they ask when the son will be home so they can call back.And the wife responds “He won’t be back for two months.” And the hospital says, “Well… do you have a number where we could reach him?” And the wife says no, she doesn’t. And why not?–

Because he’s in space.

As in outer space. As in orbit. As in one of a handful of human beings who have the unique distinction of not being on the fucking planet.

The son, Richard, is working on the International Space Station doing repair work. And as he floats in Zero-G, he is blissfully unaware that his ninety-year old mother has just been flattened by a train.

I shit you not. This really happened.

And what does this family’s personal tragedy have to do with why I write?

Because to me, this is an amazing story. And as soon as I hear it, my brain is already hammering out the scene where Rose’s other kids debate as to whether or not to even tell Richard. The daughter, Christine, insists on telling him that mom died peacefully in her sleep and holding the grisly truth for when he’s back on Earth. Richard’s brother Michael, however, demands they tell Richard all the gory details. Why? Because it was Richard’s fault she was still driving at ninety. Michael’s been trying to get her into assisted living for over five years now and if stupid fucking Richard had just fucking listened to him, she’d still be fucking alive!

Fortunately, I think, the decision is not up to Richard’s siblings. He is, after all, a member of the military, so this would be a NASA issue. And it turns out in their guidelines there’s this thing called the Dual Plume Protocol. The Dual Plume Protocol, or DPP, was officially incorporated into NASA’s Psychological Charter this year. Let me back up --

In September of 2001, the space station was manned by three people -- an American and Two Russians. As they were orbiting over the Northeastern United States, the American called Mission Control to report that he could see (with his naked eye) two massive pillars of black smoke rising up through the atmosphere. When they answered back, explaining that the black smoke was all that remained of the Towers, the American took a long, sorrowful pause and responded – “I wish you hadn’t told me that.”

As a result of the DPP, NASA started actually asking the astronauts who are leaving the planet what their personal wishes are regarding notifications of earthbound tragedies. And this is like, a very detailed document because it covers everything from worldwide catastrophes (i.e. Katrina or a Tsunami) down to things that would only affect the astronaut him or herself (i.e. their mother’s Honda getting pulverized by a freight train) and it must be signed and notarized before launch. Why? Because the emotional state and focus of these guys is critical. They’re being sent up to perform missions on a space station and after spending millions to train them (Richard is one of three people alive who has the skill set to execute these specific repairs) it costs BILLIONS just to get them up there to perform them and the last thing NASA needs is for someone to go batshit with grief on the day they’re supposed to fix the thruster converter thigamajob.

So I’m sitting there thinking how Richard may have filled out his DPP Form…

And I realize there’s no such thing.

I made it up.

Yeah, I remember hearing about the astronauts on the space station having seen the carnage over Manhattan from orbit, but that’s got nothing to do with the story of Rose’s death. In fact, I don’t know how many kids she had or, for that matter, whether or not they can just send an email to Richard (can you get email in space?) and dispense with all the formality.

But where’s the drama in that?

So that’s why I write.
I write because I can’t help but make things up.
I write because I love to tell stories.
I write because my imagination compels me to do so.
I write because if I didn’t, I’d be branded a pathological liar.
Oh, and also because I’m still trying to make my dead father proud of me.
But that’s none of your goddamn business.

Source: DeadlineHollywood

Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse and Matthew Fox are ready to share some of the mysteries from LOST

Thanks to Jeffrey from UnitiedHollywood for the following.

(This note is from Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse executive producers of LOST)

Dear LOST fans,

Please join us and support all the writers of your favorite TV shows. So many of you guys have asked what you can do to help and this is it!

We're gonna offer three prizes (chosen at random) -- Every box you buy gives you one shot at the raffle.

GRAND PRIZE: A personal thank-you call from us (Carlton and Damon) AND Matthew Fox where we shall do our bestest to answer your questions about the show's mysteries AND a Season 3 DVD set.

FIRST PRIZE: A signed finale script by writers Damon and Carlton and a surprise cast member!

SECOND PRIZE: Signed Season 3 DVD Set (standard and blu-ray!) by the entire writing staff!

Thank you for all your support. We love you and miss you all. And we really hope to get back to work soon!

Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse

Source: Pencil2MediaMoguls

Production shuts down tomorrow - DVD launch party cancelled

Thanks to Saywer840 and Lyly for the following.

The writer’s strike has claimed another victim. ABC/Disney execs announced that the DVD release parties on Lanai for Lost’s third season and Pirates of the Caribbean III have been cancelled. The event was to be held Nov. 30 and Dec. 1. Meanwhile, production of Lost will shut down tomorrow, Nov. 21, when the last of eight new scripts have been filmed… Meanwhile, Carlton Cuse, Lost’s showrunner, has returned to work to do post-production work on the episodes completed so far for the fourth season…Lost is shutting down its Iwilei staging area where the production trucks and other gear were stored for the Fisherman’s Wharf area in Ala Moana…

Source: Hawaii Film and Video

Lost Production to shutdown in 10 days?

Thanks to The ODI and Lyly for the following from Jorge Garcia about when Lost production will probably finish. Although we did post a little bit of good news about the writers stike in the strike section of the site in that it looks like the two sides will start negotiating again.

Well I can only speak for me. I know the schedule up to November 27th. THats the end of 408. I also know that there are mobisodes to shoot during this time that have already been written so we'll knock those out.

Beyond that it depends when the strike ends. I don't know where you're getting your information. But I'm pretty sure we are still planning on going to air as scheduled. So there is still a good chance the strike won't interrupt anything because we have an eight week window at least.

We'll have to wait and see.

Source: Jorge Garcia

New Writers Strike Section

Thanks to everyone who suggested to me that we create a section on the site that will cover all the news relating to the Writers Strike. All posts from now on will appear in the new section that should be in navigation menu.

If you have any new news or articles on the strike please email me.

Hopefully this section will be short lived!

URGENT! Glimmer Of Hope That Agents Bringing WGA & AMPTP Back In Touch

Thanks to Lyly for finding this

EXCLUSIVE: This is one of those stories where I don't want to put the kibosh on possible progress by reporting on it. But I also need to post news as it comes to me. I just learned tonight that certain Hollywood agents are "really in the middle of this right now." A source tells me that a partner in one of the major tenpercenteries is having "much conversation" with WGA negotiating committee topper Dave Young. At the same time, a partner at a different major agency is talking to AMPTP president Nick Counter. (For the moment, I'm not going to reveal the names of the agents involved.) Together, the agents' goal right now is to just bring both sides back in touch with one another. A phone call is about to happen, or may have already happened, between Young and Counter today, I'm told. "Apparently, there will be a chat," the source said. I'm told the agents involved are "encouraged by the activity today." There's also hope the agents can help clear away side issues and facilitate the re-start of settlement talks, now at a standstill.

Source: Deadline Hollywood

Damon's Interview about strike and future of TV

Thanks to Lyly for finding this article.


TELEVISION is dying.

I should have realized this four years ago when I first got my TiVo box, but denial is always the first stage of grief. I simply couldn’t acknowledge that this wonderful invention heralded the beginning of the end.

TiVo stores your favorite movies and shows on its hard drive, allowing you to pull up last night’s episode of “The Daily Show” as easily as you click open documents on your laptop. In fact, once you download the original broadcast — sorry, I meant to say “record” it — you can watch it at your leisure. The next morning. Next year. Your call. Because now? You own that episode.

Best of all, you got it free.

Television has always been free. Sure, if you want all the N.F.L. games in high definition, you have to pay the piper, but the broadcast networks still offer their entire schedules for absolutely nothing. The only catch, of course, is that you have to watch commercials. Economically, it’s a fair deal. The network pays for the shows, gives them to viewers, and makes its cash back through advertising. Which regrettably brings us to the most wonderful thing TiVo does: It enables you to ignore the commercials that keep the whole system running.

Twenty percent of American homes now contain hard drives that store movies and television shows indefinitely and allows you to fast-forward through commercials. These devices will probably proliferate at a significant rate and soon, almost everyone will have them. They’ll also get smaller and smaller, rendering the box that holds them obsolete, and the rectangular screen in your living room won’t really be a television anymore, it’ll be a computer. And running into the back of that computer, the wire that delivers unto you everything you watch? It won’t be cable; it will be the Internet.

This probably sounds exciting if you’re a TV viewer, but if you’re in the business of producing these shows, it’s nothing short of terrifying. This is how vaudevillians must have felt the first time they saw a silent movie; sitting there, suddenly realizing they just became extinct: after all, who wants another soft-shoe number when you can see Harold Lloyd hanging off a clock 50 feet tall?

Change always provokes fear, but I’d once believed that the death of our beloved television would unify all those affected, talent and studios, creators and suits. We’re all afraid and we’d all be afraid together. Instead we find ourselves so deeply divided.

The Writers Guild of America (of which I am a proud member) has gone on strike. I have spent the past week on the picket line outside Walt Disney Studios, my employer, chanting slogans and trudging slowly across the crosswalk.

The motivation for this drastic action — and a strike is drastic, a fact I grow more aware of every passing day — is the guild’s desire for a portion of revenues derived from the Internet. This is nothing new: for more than 50 years, writers have been entitled to a small cut of the studios’ profits from the reuse of our shows or movies; whenever something we created ends up in syndication or is sold on DVD, we receive royalties. But the studios refuse to apply the same rules to the Internet.

My show, “Lost,” has been streamed hundreds of millions of times since it was made available on ABC’s Web site. The downloads require the viewer to first watch an advertisement, from which the network obviously generates some income. The writers of the episodes get nothing. We’re also a hit on iTunes (where shows are sold for $1.99 each). Again, we get nothing.

If this strike lasts longer than three months, an entire season of television will end this December. No dramas. No comedies. No “Daily Show.” The strike will also prevent any pilots from being shot in the spring, so even if the strike is settled by then, you won’t see any new shows until the following January. As in 2009. Both the guild and the studios we are negotiating with do agree on one thing: this situation would be brutal.

I will probably be dragged through the streets and burned in effigy if fans have to wait another year for “Lost” to come back. And who could blame them? Public sentiment may have swung toward the guild for now, but once the viewing audience has spent a month or so subsisting on “America’s Next Hottest Cop” and “Celebrity Eating Contest,” I have little doubt that the tide will turn against us. Which brings me to the second stage of grief: anger.

I am angry because I am accused of being greedy by studios that are being greedy. I am angry because my greed is fair and reasonable: if money is made off of my product through the Internet, then I am entitled to a small piece. The studios’ greed, on the other hand, is hidden behind cynical, disingenuous claims that they make nothing on the Web — that the streaming and downloading of our shows is purely “promotional.” Seriously?

Most of all, I’m angry that I’m not working. Not working means not getting paid. My weekly salary is considerably more than the small percentage of Internet gains we are hoping to make in this negotiation and if I’m on the picket line for just three months, I will never recoup those losses, no matter what deal gets made.

But I am willing to hold firm for considerably longer than three months because this is a fight for the livelihoods of a future generation of writers, whose work will never “air,” but instead be streamed, beamed or zapped onto a tiny chip.

Things have gotten ugly and the lines of communication have broken down completely between the guild and the studios. Perhaps it’s not too late, though, for both sides to rally around the one thing we still have in common: our mourning for the way things used to be. Instead of fighting each other, maybe we should be throwing a wake for our beloved TV.

Because the third stage of grief is bargaining.

And bargain we must, because when television finally passes on, there will still be entertainment; there will still be shows and films and videos, right there on a screen in your living room. And just as the owners of vaudeville theaters broke down and bought hand-crank movie cameras, the studios will figure out a way to make absurd amounts of money off of whatever is beaming onto whichever sort of screen.

And we’ll still be writing every word.

Damon Lindelof is the co-creator and head writer of the television series “Lost.”

Source: NY Times

Support the Writers - Sign this Petition

Update: 11th Nov 11:00 GMT We now have 38311 signatures.
Update: 10th Nov 10:15 GMT We now have 31333 signatures.
Update: 9th Nov 16:00 GMT We now have 12339 signatures.

So far we have over 9000 signatures (09:00 GMT)

Sign Here

What's the strike cut-off point?

I've been trying to get my head around the strike and the impact it will have on Lost next year. I've created this simple chart to help explain what may happen. This is based on each script taking 2 weeks to write and 2 weeks per episode to film.

If the strike ends now, there will be no impact on Lost. The following shows the impact on Lost if the strike finishes on 1st Dec, 1st Jan, 1st Feb.

1st December : Will allow Lost to complete and air all 16 episodes as planned with no gaps/breaks
1st Jan : Will just about allow Lost to complete and air all 16 episodes although this will be VERY tight and there may well be a small 1-2 week break to give them breathing space.
1st Feb : Will mean there will be a delay of at least a month to allow filming to catchup.

Any dates later than 1st Feb will cause major delays and may even see the last 8 episode put off till some yet to be announced date.

Remember this is just for speculation only and to give you a rough idea of the timelines and is based on a 2 week writing and shooting schedule.


(Click to Enlarge)

ABC to Air Partial Season of Lost

Thanks to Christine for the following.

ABC said that as of now, it is sticking with its plan to air the eight episodes it has of Lost -- this coming on the day that Fox announced that it will bench its own serialized midseason thriller, 24.
Lost

Lost executive producer Damon Lindelof said Wednesday that the final episode that has been written ends in a cliffhanger that will not be resolved for viewers until after the strike.

Source: Broadcasting Cable

Why They Are Striking

Thanks to everyone who sent this video through to me. It's a very simple overview of what the strike is about.

Pay our writers! Save our shows!

Thanks to methosrocks for this suggestion about something, we the fans, can do to help a little towards the strike.

I have a simple suggestion in that regard, and I was thinking of setting up a blog and posting links to it, but I'm so technically challenged it's not even funny! Since you already attract large groups from several fandoms, I wondered if you would consider posting this suggestion?

It boils down to sending a postcard to whichever of the networks listed below carries your favorite show(s), or to all of them, saying something along these lines:

Pay our writers! Save our shows!

I hereby pledge my support for the striking writers of the WGA in their efforts to obtain suitable compensation for programming aired via the internet and all forms of "new media", and I will express my solidarity by refusing to watch any new game shows or "reality programming" introduced during their strike.

Signed:


Here are the appropriate addresses:

Stephen McPherson, President
ABC Entertainment
2040 Avenue of the Stars
Century City, CA 90067

Nina Tassler, President
CBS Entertainment
7800 Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036-2112

Gail Berman, President
FOX Entertainment
10201 W Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90035

Jeff Zucker, President and CEO
NBC Universal
3000 W. Alameda Ave.
Burbank, CA. 91523

Dawn Ostroff
President of Entertainment,
The CW Television Network
4000 Warner Boulevard, Bldg #168
Burbank, CA 91522

It's not much, but it could catch on and lead to the networks receiving quite a few pledges to boycott whatever cheap programming they're counting on feeding us over a long strike. I also think it would give the writers a nice morale boost too.

What do you think?

Damon Lindelof on the picket line

Thanks to everyone who sent me this video of Damon Lindelof on the picket line.

Writers Strike: Should Lost Air This Season?

Thanks to Lyly for the info.

US, November 7, 2007 - Yesterday we reported that thanks to the Writers Guild strike, Lost's fourth season will likely consist of only 8 episodes -- half of the intended 16. But one possibility that could occur is to hold the show completely, not airing any episodes until the 2008 - 2009 season. If the strike continues and no more episodes can be produced this season, Lost executive producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof think that's the way to go.

I spoke to Cuse today, who was standing among a group of the most notable showrunners in television, picketing outside the Walt Disney studios. When I asked him if ABC was intending to air just those completed 8 episodes, he replied "I don't know yet. I think it'll depend on how long [the strike] lasts." But as to whether he'd want to see those episodes air without their intended second half ready, he firmly said "No. We'd rather them hold it. It would be like reading half a novel."

Lost aired a brief 6 episode run in the fall of 2006, which wasn't a popular move with fans or critics and Cuse thinks that while fans would be frustrated by the longer wait between seasons, it would ultimately be a bigger disservice to air only half a season. However, it's believed that ABC is likely to decide to air the episodes in the spring as originally intended, especially given how few scripted series will be available at that point, thanks to the strike.

Carlton Cuse (partially obscured)
on the picket line Wednesday. His sign says
"Do you want to know what the island is?"
Cuse explained that when it came to the reasoning for the strike "The crux of the issue is that the studios don't want to pay writers residuals for new media. And everybody understands where movies and television are going. Internet is the new TV and that's going to be the primary distribution mechanism for films and television shows."

Cuse said he felt the networks and studios were "using a technological change to try to skip out on the legacy of residuals, which has been a way that people who create products like movies and TV shows are connected in an ongoing way financially to the work that they create that generates billions of dollars in revenue for the studios. Without the residual system, basically the 11,000 rank and file writers can't make it."

"Most writers don't work all the time," Cuse noted. "They go long periods between jobs. It's residual checks that allow them to exist between assignments. It's the same with actors. That's the crux of this issue. It's a real, working class basic, fundamental kind of issue for the rank and file members who need residuals to keep performing their craft. It was residuals from Golden Girls that allowed Marc Cherry between jobs to come up with Desperate Housewives, which had made a billion dollars for the Walt Disney company."

Turning back to his own show, Cuse noted "Lost is a great example of how new media has changed. Lost is a show which is a top ten show, but it doesn't repeat on network television. There are no network reruns. People watch it on DVDs, they watch it on their DVRs, they watch it streaming on ABC.com or they download it from iTunes. And none of those formats pay traditional residuals."

Source: IGN UK