Fringe - Video: Allowing the Absurdity and Growing the Audience

Courtesy of FOX and HULU (this video is geo-synched):

FOX Fringe - Allowing the Absurdity and Growing the Audience

Behind the Scenes|03:31|

Series co-creator/executive producer J.J. Abrams says that whenever cast member Joshua Jackson's character (Peter Bishop) comments on the show's absurd situations, the audience is granted permission to "go on the ride."

Fringe - TV Guide Magazine Online: Leonard Nimoy Interview

From TV Guide Magazine Online:

(Please follow the link for the complete interview.)

A Fresh Enterprise

By William Keck May 11, 2009

... [J.J.] Abrams was equally emotional when, last month, he persuaded the series-shy star to watch—and then appear in—a few episodes of Fringe, which he’d never seen. “I never in my wildest dreams thought he would do it,” says Abrams. “We didn’t think we were going to get him for ‘Star Trek,’ let alone Fringe. But then we were editing ‘Star Trek’ and the William Bell question came up, and Leonard was sitting next to us and a light went off.”

Nimoy’s eyes sparkle as he recalls Abrams’ pitch: “He said, ‘We’ve got this character who is enormously wealthy, powerful and very intelligent, who was once the partner of one of our other characters [Walter Bishop]. There’s an aura of ambiguity to him. We don’t know exactly what his intentions are, but he may be behind a very negative force...’”

Star Trek - Video: 'USA Premiere'

US geo-coded.

Courtesy of TV Guide's Big Movie Premiere and HULU:

TV Guide Specials - Star Trek USA Premiere

Special|31:57|

TV Guide Network beams you to the premiere of STAR TREK! Go behind the scenes with new crew of the starship Enterprise, find out how JJ Abrams recreated this iconic show for a new generation and meet the stars from the red carpet!

Star Trek - Video: 'Celebrity Interviews - Reinventing Star Trek'

US geo-coded.

Courtesy of TV Guide's Hollywood 411 and HULU:

Celebrity Interviews - Reinventing Star Trek

Interview|02:17|

Patrick Stinson talks STAR TREK with the cast and creator. See what JJ Abrams had to say about reinventing the iconic story; and, the actors reveal the challenge of staying true to the characters while making them their own.



NOTE: Star Trek opens in theaters on May 8 '09! Beam me up!

Stargate Atlantis / Sanctuary - Series TV (French Magazine) - Amand Tapping Interview

[NOTE: Translated using the Google online translator.]

At Unification France:

(Please follow the link for the complete Table of Contents.)



Press: TV Series No. 42 on newsstands

The magazine is currently available, here is the release of John Prat, its editor:

Storm or not, SériesTV magazine will be on newsstands on Wednesday 18 February.

NEWS

On the occasion of the next film in the franchise directed by JJ Abrams, the big record number (seven pages, anyway) is devoted to Star Trek: the origins, legends, classic series, the series derived and expanded the universe, everything, everything, you will know everything about Star Trek.

As usual, a comprehensive and informative things to see at this time on French television, in the form of folders on the trash Little Britain USA, True vampire blood enriched with an interview with its creator Alan Ball (Six feet under), the Freudian analysis, the impressive Nick Cutter and the doors of time and experiencing American wives.

A preview of the series of replacements of the mid-season arriving at this time on American screens with a zoom on the eagerly awaited new series of Joss Whedon, Dollhouse, was therefore essential.

Back also Prison break, the annulment of which is now official: the ups and downs of the series, his stroke of genius and wolves back on four years prison panting.

And Amanda Tapping, who spins a series of SF to the other, returns with his usual cheerfulness Stargate on his years and his involvement in his new project, Sanctuary.

We also look to England to pay homage to the cult series Doctor Who, finally, because we know who has the honor to be the eleventh incarnation of the good Doctor.


SCENES AND MAKING OF

And the part of creators, producers and writers of series, we speak to those whose sets are event at this time. They give us lessons that are worth a cheese, which readers may or may not flattering.

... As a bonus, new posters: 24 (S7), Lost (S5), Stargate Atlantis (S5) and Californication (S2).

If you have trouble finding SERIESTV newsstand or if you are looking for a back issue, you can order it on the Internet on the website of our publisher: www.editions-tournon.fr.

You can reach us on MySpace at: www.myspace.com /seriestvmagazine.

Complete Summary:

... 18 The future of the Stargate franchise

... 30 Sanctuary
Interview with Amanda Tapping

After eleven years of Stargate, Amanda Tapping successful conversion with Sanctuary. She tells us here goodbye to Sam Carter and the transition to its new SF series ...

Doctor Who - SFX Magazine # 176: 45th Anniversary Celebration!

At SFX Magazine:

(Please follow the link for the complete table of contents.)



Friday October 17, 2008

Latest issue - SFX 176 – December 2008

On sale Wednesday 22 October 2008

SPLIT COVERS!

Doctor Who hits its 45th anniversary this year, and we've gotten some extra-special content to celebrate - not least of which is our fantastic ten-cover split run! Which Doctor will be your Doctor?

DOCTOR WHO

The main attraction in our celebration of Doctor Who is our enormous retrospective feature, where we ask Russell T Davies, Steven Moffat, Stephen Fry, Clive Barker, Paul Cornell and Mark Gatiss to talk about their love for the show. We have the world exclusive first word on this year's Christmas special, too, and to top it all off, we've got a great competition where you can win all four series of Doctor Who on DVD!

FRINGE

We talk to JJ Abrams about his new show Fringe, and find out whether or not it's going to fry our brains in the same way as Alias and Lost...


PROFILES

Michael Trucco talks about the end of Battlestar Galactica - warning, here be spoilers! - author Neal Asher tells all about the creation of a space opera, and Casper van Dien reflects on his return to the role of Johnny Rico in Starship Troopers 3: Marauder.

SPOILER ZONE

It's the beginning of the Fall TV season! We've got reviews of the season premieres of Fringe, True Blood, Supernatural and The Sarah Connor Chronicles, as well as new UK shows Merlin, The Sarah Jane Adventures and Lost in Austen... and loads more besides!

PLUS!

All this and lots more...

Fringe - Video: Fringe Behind the Scenes

Courtesy of TV Guide's InFANity and HULU:

TV Guide Specials - Fringe Behind the Scenes

Special |10:17 |

FRINGE, the latest sci-fi thriller from LOST creator JJ Abrams, has everything a sci-fi thriller craves: action, conspiracy, hot actors and actresses. InFANity hangs with the cast and crew and lets you see everything you need to know.

Fringe - TV Week: Fox Orders Full Season of ‘Fringe’

At TV Week:

(Please follow the link for the complete article.)



October 1, 2008 6:00 PM

Fox Orders Full Season of ‘Fringe’

By Josef Adalian

Fox is feeling fine about “Fringe,” ordering a full season of the freshman series from creators J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci.

The network has ordered nine additional episodes of the sci-fi thriller, for a total of 22. The Bad Robot/Warner Bros. TV-produced series has averaged a 4.2/11 in adults 18-49 and 10.7 million total viewers since bowing last month, making it the top-rated new show of the season to date in the key demographic...

Fringe - Media Blvd Magazine: Joshua Jackson & J.J. Adams Interview

At Media Blvd Magazine:

(Please follow the link for the complete interview.)



Joshua Jackson, Anna Torv and John Noble

Joshua Jackson and J.J. Abrams on "Fringe"

Wednesday, 10 September 2008

By Christina Radish


From J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, the team behind Star Trek, Mission: Impossible III and Alias, comes Fringe, the new Fox television series that will thrill and terrify while it explores the blurring line between the possible and the impossible. FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv), the brilliant but formerly institutionalized scientist Walter Bishop (John Noble), and his scheming, reluctant son Peter (Joshua Jackson) uncover a deadly mystery involving a series of unbelievable events and realize that they may be part of a larger, more disturbing pattern.

The show’s star, Joshua Jackson, returning to television for the first time since Dawson’s Creek, and co-creator/executive producer/writer J.J. Abrams spoke with MediaBlvd Magazine about the possibilities of fringe science.

A brief excerpt:

MediaBlvd> With the chemistry that Anna and Josh have going on, will there be love in their characters’ future?

Josh> It would have been inappropriate in the pilot because it’s awkward, hitting on a woman when her boyfriend is dying in front of her eyes.

J.J.> Now, the odds are so much better. There’s, no doubt, going to be a slow burn relationship that develops between the two of them. I don’t think it will happen exactly as you might think, but there obviously will be a dynamic there that we will play up. It just needs to be done right. There’s a lot going on in their lives, on the show, that are more urgent issues, but over time, there’s definitely going to be a relationship between the Peter and Olivia characters.

Fringe - Video: Fringe Preview: JJ Abrams

Courtesy of TV Guide's Hollywood 411 and HULU, Fringe Preview: JJ Abrams.

TV Guide Specials - Fringe Preview: JJ Abrams

Special |02:35 |

The man who made sci-fi cool again with hits like LOST and ALIAS goes for three in a row with his latest conspiray thriller FRINGE. Get the inside scoop from Abrams about the show soon everyone will be talking about!

Fringe - SciFi Weekly: J.J. Adams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci Interview

At SciFi.com's SciFi Weekly:

(Please follow the link for the complete interview. Photos at the site.)



Joshua Jackson, Anna Torv and John Noble

INTERVIEWS

September 08, 2008

J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci dig deep to discover "the pattern" in their new Fox series, Fringe

By Kathie Huddleston


They are no strangers to conspiracy television with deep, dark mythologies. Executive producers J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, in fact, cut their teeth on ABC's Alias. Not only did that series make Jennifer Garner a star, it also made mythology cool while dressing up sci-fi as a spy series. Add to that successful TV and movie writing and producing careers, and a little series by Abrams called Lost, and you have the formula for a new chapter in sci-fi conspiracy television called Fringe. Fox's two-hour pilot premieres Tuesday, Sept. 9, at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

Fringe tells the tale of FBI special agent Olivia Dunham, who must partner with a brilliantly insane scientist named Walter Bishop and his brilliant slacker son, Peter, to uncover a mysterious pattern of fringe science experiments that seem to be based on Walter's early work. Add to the mix a megacorporation called Massive Dynamics, which was created by a man who used to work with Walter, along with some fringe science gone bad, and the mythology begins to get interesting. Fringe stars Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, John Noble, Lance Reddick, Kirk Acevedo and Blair Brown.

Beyond Alias, Lost and Fringe, Abrams, Kurtzman and Orci have been involved with numerous television and movie projects. Abrams' projects included Felicity and the film Cloverfield. Kurtzman and Orci have written Hercules: The Legendary Journeys episodes and the film Transformers. The three producers co-wrote Mission: Impossible III and are working on the upcoming Star Trek film, which is due to be released next year.

Abrams, Kurtzman and Orci chatted with SCI FI Weekly about star Anna Torv, creating mythology and the Kurtzman/Orci band...

How are you incorporating the mythology?

Kurtzman: I think for us part of the general approach is to always know your big-picture idea, so that you are working backward from the larger story you want to tell, but at an episodic, week-to-week level. We really like to ask ourselves, "How do we surprise ourselves?" "How do we find structural ways into the story or turns and twists that we would have not predicted?" That, for us, needs to be the barometer on the week-to-week basis. Because the minute this starts to feel predictable or you can start to discern some kind of a pattern to the way we tell stories, I think the audience loses their interest.

Orci: My short answer is we're going to do it slowly, that's how. There is going to be an overarching theme that we love, but it's going to be doled out slowly, because we do have the amazing benefit of the convention of a procedural that allows you to tell stories with a beginning, middle and end, where you don't have to have a shock that changes the series every show.

Abrams: There is a mythology. There's an overarching storyline. These characters do not react exactly the same episode to episode. But, on the other hand, we know the reality of viewers and the way TV works. You can't make a show that requires you to watch every week and not, to some degree, limit the amount of viewers you're going to have. The crucial thing is finding that balance between how user-friendly is the show going to be and how hardcore niche you want to be. So a show like Alias or Lost, it's difficult tuning in for the first time at Episode 48. It's probably a conundrum. Although I believe the way Damon [Lindelof] has run the show and gotten to a place, I believe it is so dramatic and so compelling, hour to hour, that it's still great TV to watch. But you're going to understand tuning in to an episode of ER, Episode 203, where you don't need to know a thing. And you'll understand, "Oh, I get their relationship. I see it." Because you know the world. You know which way is up. You understand the rules...

Fringe - Video: " Rooftop Chase"

Courtesy of FOX and HULU, Rooftop Chase.

Fringe - Rooftop Chase

Web Exclusive |00:59 |

I'll just stay down here. You see if you can flush him out.

From J.J. Abrams ("Lost"), Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the team behind "Star Trek," "Mission: Impossible III" and "Alias," comes a new drama that will thrill, terrify and explore the blurring line between science fiction and reality. When an international flight lands at Boston's Logan Airport and the passengers and crew have all died grisly deaths, FBI Special Agent OLIVIA DUNHAM (newcomer Anna Torv) is called in to investigate. After her partner, Special Agent JOHN SCOTT (Mark Valley, "Boston Legal"), is nearly killed during the investigation, a desperate Olivia searches frantically for someone to help, leading her to DR. WALTER BISHOP (John Noble, "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King"), our generation's Einstein. There's only one catch: he's been institutionalized for the last 20 years, and the only way to question him requires pulling his estranged son PETER (Joshua Jackson, "Dawson's Creek") in to help. When Olivia's investigation leads her to manipulative corporate executive NINA SHARP (Blair Brown, "Altered States"), our unlikely trio along with fellow FBI Agents PHILLIP BROYLES (Lance Reddick, "The Wire"), CHARLIE FRANCIS (Kirk Acevedo, "Oz") and ASTRID FARNSWORTH (Jasika Nicole, "Law & Order: Criminal Intent") will discover that what happened on Flight 627 is only a small piece of a larger, more shocking truth.

Fringe premieres Tuesday, September 9 '08 on FOX at 8/7C.

Fringe - SciFi Wire: Joshua Jackson Interview

At SciFi Wire:

(Please follow the link for the complete SciFi Wire article.)



Fringe's Jackson Spills All

When we last saw Joshua Jackson on regular series television, he was resigned to staying in Capeside forever, even though Joey decided to choose him over Dawson.

That was more than five years ago, in the finale to the sixth season of Jackson's breakthrough series, Dawson's Creek.

But hold on to your rowboat: Pacey's back.

"I think he's finally going to leave the Creek after this season," said J.J. Abrams. "Really, all I love to do is make Pacey jokes."

Jackson is a regular on Abrams' upcoming Fox SF series Fringe, and he tells SCI FI Wire that it took Abrams to lure him back to the grind of an hourlong drama.

"It was something I have been hesitant about for the last five years, since Dawson's Creek ended," Jackson said in an exclusive interview on the show's set in New York on Aug. 26. "And, you know, the time commitment and the being-in-one-place of it all is a massive life shift, and I had a really great five years of not being on TV. But I don't know, the stars sort of aligned for this, and J.J.'s a great guy..."

Fringe premieres Sept. 9 and will air Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. --Patrick Lee, News Editor

TV Guide Online: Ask Matt: NEW SciFi Shows on FOX

From TV Guide Online's ASK MATT:

http://www.tvguide.com/Ask-Matt/080428

(Please follow the link for the complete TV Guide Online column.)

Ask Matt

Will Fox's New Sci-Fi Shows Deliver?

Question: This is in response to someone who wrote about the large number of sci-fi shows with impressive pedigrees coming to Fox in the next year or two. You pointed out that the expectations will be very high because of the attachment of names like J.J. Abrams, Ron Moore and Joss Whedon. I certainly think this is a problem, particularly since I'm not sure that these producers will live up to expectations. You've remarked before on a phenomenon that I've noticed, too: TV is much better at making new stars than it is at repackaging old ones. Actors who have starred in hit shows and have then gone on to do a show of equal or greater success are few and far between. But I've noticed that the track record for superstar producers hasn't been that great either in the last 15 years or so. Once upon a time, it seemed there were producers (Donald Bellisario, Steven J. Cannell, Aaron Spelling) who had a lock on creating successful shows. But now a lot of the superstars seem like one- or two-hit wonders. Whedon had Buffy and Angel, but when he moved beyond that universe with Firefly, it never really caught on with wider audiences. J.J. Abrams had Alias, and played a role in the creation of Lost, but his role on the latter now is essentially nothing, and he's had other small-screen flops like Six Degrees. Ron Moore had success with Deep Space Nine and has created the remarkable Battlestar Galactica, but let's not forget that he is also responsible for Bionic Woman. I wonder if it's too much to expect lighting to strike twice or three times for these guys. The most successful serial producers now are probably Dick Wolf and Jerry Bruckheimer, who are essentially cloning a successful format to other shows. Producers like Abrams, Moore and Whedon seem unsatisfied with that approach. They want to take new creative tacks, and sometimes, perhaps often, that doesn't work. — Jeff

Matt Roush: Intesting topic, and while I won't refute the specifics of your arguments (except to say that Firefly was only a failure because of Fox's short-sightedness, not because of anything on-screen), I will just remind everyone that TV is a brutal business and the failure rate is spectacularly high, especially for those who try not to repeat themselves. (Those who keep making the same show over and over again, with minor variations, are to me contributing to the death of TV.) These guys you're talking about are also, for the most part, producing in genres that traditionally are the riskiest. We're lucky that they keep trying, and in Joss's case, that he's deciding to return to the medium again. But it's also true that every so often (Six Degrees, Bionic Woman), one of their shows even actually deserves to fail. But unlike so much of the industry, I'm not of the mind that you judge a talent only by what they've done lately as long as they pick themselves back up and keep trying something new. The fact that the media now force them to operate under a microscope of relentless scrutiny makes the process harder, I'm sure, but when a miracle like Lost or Battlestar Galactica or Buffy comes along, isn't it worth it?