Watching Lost

Lost’s Damon Lindelof is apparently a big Watchmen fan and discusses with the Observer the marketing strategies to sell a very complicated story like it to the viewing public, much like how it is with Lost —-

Damon Lindelof, executive producer and co-creator of ABC’s Lost, had a recent conversation with his personal trainer about Watchmen, Zack Snyder’s film adaptation of the much-beloved (and complicated!) 1986 original comic-book series that will be released in theaters tomorrow. “Have you heard of this Watchmen thing? What is it?” his trainer asked. “Little does he know, I’ve read it like nine times and am obsessed with it,” Mr. Lindelof told The Observer in a phone interview from his California office.

He was discussing the difficulty of marketing Watchmen, which he has loved since he first read it at the comic geek’s coming-of-age sweet spot: age 13. “You try to explain Watchmen to people and you say, ‘O.K., it’s 1985 and Nixon is still president’ and that’s when they just shut off—their eyes glaze over,” he said.

Mr. Lindelof also said that studios haven’t completely “cracked” the balance between catering to the fanboys and the “uninitiated.” Warner Bros. seemed to struggle with that for their Watchmen campaign, considering the centerpiece site: TheNewFrontiersman.net.

“The people who are most into the movie or going to be playing these games, are already buying tickets,” he explained.

Mr. Lindelof said he hasn’t played with too many of Watchmen’s online marketing materials. He saw a couple videos, including the news report on Dr. Manhattan and a government public service announcement about the Keene Act. “Also, a kind of 6-bit old school Nintendo game where you get to be Silk Spectre or Nite Owl and go around punching people,” he said. “If there was something to unlock I was unsuccessful in unlocking it.”

“If you’re gonna ask people to take the time and energy to seek it out, there needs to be a reward,” he said.

The complete interview is found here: Source

Thanks to Calen for the heads up.

Our favorite Lost actors has dominated the Actors Category in this year’s Saturn Awards. The show has also been nominated for Best Network TV Series. Members of The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror will vote on who should win this year which will be known on June 25.

Lost has been a previous winner many times over in this award-giving body.

Here’s the nomination list:

Best Network Television Series
FRINGE (Fox)
HEROES (NBC)
LIFE ON MARS (ABC)
LOST (ABC)
TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES (Fox)
SUPERNATURAL (CW)

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WALT DISNEY STUDIOS HOME ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCES
EXCITING NEW BLU-RAY™ OPTIONS OFFERING CONSUMERS
GREATER ACCESSIBILITY AND VALUE THAN EVER BEFORE

Disney Unveils Unprecedented Combo Packs in 2009, Offering Consumers
Worldwide Both Blu-ray and DVD Discs…In A Single Package!

BURBANK, Calif.-January 7, 2009 - As more and more families transition to high definition, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (WDSHE) concentrates its efforts on offering consumers unprecedented quality, value and portability in the purchases of their favorite Disney Blu-ray movies with the announcement of its new Blu-ray + DVD Combo Packs.

Disney’s Combo Pack will be extended across an exciting new slate of Disney-branded theatrical and Platinum titles releasing on Blu-ray between February and October of 2009. Some of the upcoming Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack titles families can look forward to include the teen phenomenon High School Musical 3: Senior Year (February 17), Walt Disney’s animated classic Pinocchio: 70th Anniversary Platinum Edition (March 10) and all those leading up to the highly anticipated release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Platinum Edition in October.

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Here are some clips from the episode airing tonight: The Life And Death Of Jeremy Bentham

LOCKE’S FATEFUL MISSION OFF THE ISLAND IS REVEALED, ON ABC’S “LOST”

This episode of “Lost” will be available on ABC.com the day after airing on the network for users to watch online.

Lost will apparently have no new episodes on March 11th and instead will air a repeat of the episode a week prior to this (which is the 8th episode of the fifth season).

This is according to this press release found at ABC’s publicity site — ABCMedia.Net:

SAWYER CONCOCTS A LIE WITH SOME OF
THE OTHER SURVIVORS, ON ABC’S “LOST”

“LaFleur” - Sawyer perpetuates a lie with some of the other island survivors in order to protect themselves from mistakes of the past, on “Lost,” WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11 (9:00-10:02 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network. (Rebroadcast. OAD 3/4/09)

“Lost” stars Naveen Andrews as Sayid, Henry Ian Cusick as Desmond, Jeremy Davies as Daniel Faraday, Michael Emerson as Ben, Matthew Fox as Jack, Jorge Garcia as Hurley, Josh Holloway as Sawyer, Daniel Dae Kim as Jin, Yunjin Kim as Sun, Ken Leung as Miles, Evangeline Lilly as Kate, Elizabeth Mitchell as Juliet and Terry O’Quinn as Locke.

Guest starring are Nestor Carbonell as Richard Alpert, Doug Hutchison as Horace Goodspeed, Reiko Aylesworth as Amy, Christopher Jaymes as doctor, Kevin Rankin as Jerry, Patrick Fischler as Phil, Molly McGivern as Rosie, Carla Buscaglia as Heather and John Skinner as Other #1.

“LaFleur” was written by Elizabeth Sarnoff & Kyle Pennington and directed by Mark Goldman.

“Lost” is broadcast in 720 Progressive (720P), ABC’s selected HDTV format, with 5.1-channel surround sound and Spanish audio via SAP. A TV parental guideline will be assigned closer to airdate.

This episode of “Lost” will be available on ABC.com the day after airing on the network for users to watch online.

Lost will return with Episode 9th the following week.

Fox is doing some schedule changes in March for American Idol. It could spell big trouble for Lost.

Beginning March 11, when the talent show enters its finals round, the Wednesday results show which usually airs between 8 to 9 PM is moving an hour later, going head to head with Lost.

According to TV Guide:

• This will mark the first time in two years that ABC’s trippy serial will regularly go toe-to-toe with the reality juggernaut, the Hollywood Reporter notes. This scheduling news comes just days after a “special” two-hour Wednesday Idol outing knocked Lost’s Nielsens down a peg. For me, it brings to mind that Bud Fox quote from Wall Street: “How many yachts can you water-ski behind, Kevin Reilly?”

American Idol will be exchanging slots with the procedural Lie To Me starring Tim Roth. The drama series was benefited from American Idol’s lead in audience but it will be left to stand alone by March, against NBC’s Knight Rider.

From Jorge Garcia’s blog, Lost has reached its 100th episode and they are marking this momentous occasion by celebrating with cake.

Congratulations to everyone on Lost!

Nielsen has just announced is first ever online program rankings based on official online streaming from TV network websites such as ABC.com, CWTV.com, CBS Television, NBC.com, Fox Broadcasting and Hulu.

The most popular series watched online? It’s none other than LOST.

The Top 10 List are as follows:

Charlotte was eventually gonna die, right? The symptoms we saw of her bleeding? That meant she was gonna get Minowski-ed sooner than later. It was predictable, her inevitable death. But last night, I wasn’t prepared to see her go for some reason. So, I’m mourning her loss quite a bit…

Anyway, Rebecca Mader, who plays Charlotte, has this short interview with the LA Times. On it, she said that she has known she would be gone from the show as early as June of 2008. But as this is Lost, she says she may return in Season 6, if asked, that is.

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Here’s the promo for this week’s upcoming episode on Lost. The episode is entitled: This Place Is Death.

Lost’s fifth season’s two-hour opening salvo did decent but was not good enough, as it goes up against a new series Lie to Me on Fox, Law and Order on NBC, CSI NY on CBS and 90210 on CW.

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It is finally here!

Just to remind everyone, it’s going to be a three hour Lost fest on ABC tonight beginning with the recap show at 8:00 PM, followed by the first episode for Season 5, Because You Left, at 9:00 PM. The second episode, The Lie, will close the third hour at 10:00 PM.

The press release follows after the cut….

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Here’s a feature from NY Times about Gregg Nations, Lost’s producer and script coordinator who knows where everything is, the backbone of Lost, better than its series creators do.

A co-producer and the show’s longtime script coordinator, Mr. Nations has become the keeper of what has been found on “Lost,” charged with tracking everything that has happened and will happen to the characters on and off the island, in addition to charting the many mysterious characteristics of the island itself.

While most television series maintain a so-called bible — a guide to characters and plotlines that are developed by the creators but revealed over multiple seasons — few if any shows have twists and turns as byzantine as those on “Lost.”

And unlike many jobs, which get easier as the material becomes more familiar, this one has become exponentially more complicated and challenging with each new episode. That will be particularly true this season, when the island itself starts moving through time as the people who seem to be the guardians of its secrets try to protect it from a shadowy conspirator who could have darker uses for its powers.

Before the show’s premiere in September 2004, the producers were unsure that “Lost” would last beyond a few episodes. They therefore spent little time keeping track of the interlocking, overlapping and often confounding story lines that began to emerge even in the first episode.

But when the series proved to be an out-of-the-gate hit, “we quickly realized we needed some system to keep track of all the details, that we weren’t going to be able to do that by memory,” said Carlton Cuse, one of the show’s executive producers.

Enter Mr. Nations, who has now compiled an archive that, were he ever to print it out, might — as he put it in an interview at the “Lost” production offices on Disney’s Burbank studio lot — give “War and Peace” a run for its money.

Read more of it here: Television - Gregg Nations’s Job - Keeping ‘Lost’ on Track - NYTimes.com