Thanks to DarkUFO reader thedemonhog for this report from the recent Screenwriting Expo which they attended. Here are some of the bullet points from the report and you can read the full report below. It's a good read and contains a lot of good insights into the writing of the show and a few spoilers.
- Cuse : "This year will probably be a little bit more science fictiony"
- Lindelof : "Lost has really been about the long con, because by the time we get to season 6, it's going to be f**king crazy!"
- Lindelof : "As for the end of the series, and whether every question will be answered, Lindelof noted, "Sometimes we're presenting things that are not really questions for us, but they become questions for the audience, and we don't have an intention of answering them." He said that something like what is causing that roar in the jungle they certainly intend to answer, but, "that's not to say there won't be some questions left," depending on the individual viewer and what they become fixated on."
- Lindelof : "There's a fine line between The Sopranos ending and the way we plan on ending our show. There are going to be a lot of mythological wrap ups, but our suspicion is most people really care how the characters end up - who's going to end up with who? Who lives? Who dies?"
- Cuse : "Cuse answered a question about the oft-confused Steve and Scott and said that not only would there not be an episode focused on them, but that there is "a very tragic event that happens this season."
- Lindelof : "Jeff Goldsmith jokingly asked the duo their "Favorite scene from the Season 6 finale.". Fans can speculate however on whether Lindelof was joking or giving any sort of real hint, when he said, "It involves a volcano."
- We are never going to meet the DeGroots, but we are most likely going to see them.
I am from Vancouver, Canada, but I flew down to Los Angeles for the 2008 Screenwriting Expo. More specifically, I was there to see the writers of Lost and I sat front row, centre. Eric Goldman from IGN, who I shared a few words with in the audience, has done a pretty good job hitting most of the major points from the first ninety-minute panel with Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse at http://tv.ign.com/articles/930/930680p1.html, but for some reason, he did not stay for the second panel with Edward "Eddy" Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, so I can give you a rundown of what happened there, in addition to some things that the show runners said that is not at IGN.
Some notes:
* There were not a ton of people at these specific panels (300 maybe? definitely not 4000 like at Comic-Con) and the audience was less fanboy-ish than Comic-Con. The moderator even specifically said not to ask spoiler questions because they are a waste of a question. The only question that seemed to be from Comic-Con was the one from the teenage girl (she was the only other teenager than me in the room, I think) who was disappointed that Rousseau was killed not because of a promised flashback but because it killed her longtime fantasy of Locke-Rousseau love. Well, I guess there was one person more Comic-Con: the guy who won the life jacket signed by all the writers showed up to say that he could not read any of the signatures while holding the jacket up. Ha ha. Also, Damon and Carlton and Adam and Eddy were very funny. Later, I saw Tim Kring (Jesse Alexander and Jeph Loeb were originally scheduled to appear as well, but I think we know why they did not show up.)
Things that Goldman missed:
* One of the first questions that the moderator (Jeff Goldsmith, editor-in-chief of Creative Screenwriting magazine, which runs the Expo) asked was what were Damon and Carlton's worst jobs that they have had in the television industry. Carlton told a humorous story in which he used to be a writers' assistant. His boss was horrible and at one point, broke his mint green toilet seat so he decided that it was Carlton's job to go across the city and find a new one, which Carlton did. (The moderator wondered how Carlton's boss could have accidentally smashed a toilet seat in the first place. Damon's worst job was when he was the official employee to pick up the business magazines (Variety, Hollywood Reporter) and take them to the executives. But sometimes it would rain and the magazines would be damp, leading Damon to put them up on a clothesline before delivering them to his employer. Damon also said that he had an antagonistic relationship with the delivery guy.
* It was while writing the pilot that J.J. told Damon that he was not going to be a show runner because he wanted to do movies. One day, Damon walked into the editing room to find Tom Cruise screening the pilot.
* Damon was shocked by the ratings and said "Now we have to tell them what the monster is!" That got a lot of laughs from the crowd.
* Goldman mentioned this, but I must repeat it. Damon said a couple times that the pilot cost "11 and a half million dollars". Various websites have speculated between 10 and 14 and now we know that it was ~11.5.
* Damon and Carlton used to be different forms of studio executives and this helped them because they read so many scripts. They said that they were surprised by how many unemployed writers were unprepared for interviews (Damon would ask what the story was about and the guy trying to get hired would not really know).
* Damon learned that you need to think that whatever show you are working on is the BEST show ever, even though he said that there are probably better shows on television out there. The moderator corrected him.
* In the pilot when they introduced the polar bear, they knew that a group of people had brought it to the island for experiments, but they did not decide who these people specifically were until shortly after Carlton joined Lost for "Solitary" when he and Damon had a discussion about all the big mysteries that did not have answers yet. For example, Damon already knew what the monster and the island were, but they talked about question such as, what if the group of people is called the Dharma Initiative? What if the characters get off the island before the end because the audience would totally not expect that? What if the series becomes about the characters getting back together on the island at the end of the show? What is the final episode of the show? What is in the Hatch that is soon to be introduced?
* Did road map and Harry Potter analogies.
* They acknowledged that they stalled in the third season because they did not have an ending, pointed specifically to "Claire strapping a message to a frigging bird's foot!" That also got laughs.
* They have written the first ten episodes of season 5.
* They never planned on Tom being the leader of the Others, when asked.
* They talked about how they kind of disguised/introduced the science fiction show as a character show and said that there is no subjectivity in the Heroes pilot, for example, it could not be debated that Nathan was flaying and that Claire went into a train.
* Four scenes from the first four seasons were not shot in Hawaii. (Based on past interviews, we know that the Widmore scenes in "The Shape of Things to Come" and "There's No Place Like Home" and the hospital scenes in "Through the Looking Glass", but what is the fourth?)
* Carlton used to travel between Oahu and California more often than now in the first and second season
* He (and sometimes, but less often, Damon) now talks on the phone to Oahu ten times a day for a combined ninety minutes
* Carlton and Damon's day begins with them talking about what needs to be accomplished that day and how it should be accomplished (do both of them need to be there for editing or can one of them oversee what happens in the writers' room?) over a ninety or forty-five minute (sorry, I did not write that part down) breakfast (in Damon's office, I believe)
* Jack Bender, Jean Higgins and Stephen Williams are the three people who run the show in Hawaii
* There are three stories per episode: main island story, flashback and "C-story" ("ping-pong", says Damon to more laughter)
* Newest script by Brian K. Vaughan and Paul Zbyszewski starts filming on Friday (based on what they said earlier, this would be 510, but that doesn't seem right with postings on the DarkUFO website, so maybe 510 is not fully edited)
* Sawyer is a surrogate for the audience--if the audience asks a question then it is bad, but if Sawyer points out how ridiculous someting is, the audience accepts it
* Scenes in episodes get moved around, i.e. flashback is placed at different spots, but "The Constant" is pretty much the only episode that is exactly the same from script to final cut
* Normal episodes take two weeks to break/outline, but "The Constant" took five and would have taken longer but Adam Horowitz stepped in and said "stop"
* Sawyer is the Han Solo of Lost, so they named him (James Ford) after the actor who played Han Solo (Harrison Ford)
* "A Tale of Two Cities" originally began with a Talking Heads song but it did not fit the mood at all so they changed it in post-production
* Sometimes, Gregg Nations will come up to Damon and Carlton and say that there is a continuity error with flashbacks where a newspaper date will be inconsistent with the story and instead of trying to fix it through effects for the DVD, Damon just says "Fuck you".
* And finally, the story of the scrapped Sawyer flashback and the Tampa job. Originally, a flashback story was written and shot for Sawyer in "Adrift", in which Sawyer goes to Florida and falls in love with Jolene Blalock's character, who he is conning, but it was apparently was absolutely horrible so they got rid of it.
* In "The Cost of Living", the writers thought that it would be cool if the Others had a weird funeral service and the scene was much longer, but it was just so bad so they edited it down to its bare essentials
* When asked if they get writers' block, they said not really, because most of the season is mapped out in a three week minicamp between the seasons. There is also a smaller minicamp halfway through the season to re-examine how the plot is progressing. Now that they have set an end date, they really do not get writers' block because they know what needs to happen.
* We are never going to meet the DeGroots, but we are most likely going to see them.
* After making sure to sign everything that people wanted to get signed (I got a couple scripts and a poster signed), Damon and Carlton escaped out the back door with security guards to be escorted back to building 23
Second ninety-minute panel with Kitsis and Horowitz: "Anatomy of an Episode"
* The moderator asked some trivia questions, e.g. what is the name of Ben's childhood sweetheart? what did Widmore bid on? and gave out prizes, such as a Dharma hat (which is what I was hoping to win, but was not chosen to answer), the season 3 DVD or the 2009 calendar (I picked up the 2008 yearbook magazine).
* The episode for them to analyze was voted on the the Expo website. "Greatest Hits", which I voted for, won. Th other choices were "Dave", "Tricia Tanaka is Dead", "Exposé" and "Ji Yeon". They ended up briefly going through these as well.
* Between the panel, they showed "Greatest Hits" on a gigantic screen
* The moderator also asked them what their worst jobs were and it seems that both Adam and Eddy worked their way up the television ladder like Damon and Carlton. Adam once had to bail a network executive's son out of jail--the sixteen-year old had been driving without a license. Adam was not sure how it was his responsibility or why it should be his money, but he followed orders. One of Eddy's employers made him obtain an obscure movie from Bulgaria just to see if he could (this was revealed once Eddy finally tracked it down and got it). On a more positive note, Eddy said that he used to work for Joel Silver (go look him up on Wikipedia or IMDb. A bit of trivia that I happen to know: He also invented the sport of ultimate Frisbee)
* They really like the casting of Nestor Carbonell (and Michael Emerson, of course)
* Eddy and Adam joined the show while "Numbers" was being written and they were immediately tasked with coming up with the episode's C-story and they pitched Claire's birthday to Damon and Carlton and that Locke would make her a crib and wrote that (I am not sure if they mean the outline or if they really did contribute dialogue to David Fury's script while uncredited)
* Adam went home to his wife and said that he had come up with a Locke and Claire story and instead of being proud of or congratulating him, his wife got mad at him for ruining that Claire is okay because "Raised by Another" had just aired
* They were really surprised by how fans "universally hated" "Fire + Water" (which they pronounced "Fire and Water"). They thought that it was a good story and Dominc Monaghan gave a great performance. Then Adam corrected himself: His mom and his wife liked the episode so it was not "universally hated"
* They had a great time writing "Dave" (which was written because they knew that they were going to do a Hurley in the institution story eventually) and wrote the role of Dave specifically with Evan Handler in mind
* It was decided in the minicamp between seasons 2 and 3 that Charlie would die in "Greatest Hits", but they decided in the midseason minicamp that Charlie should have one more victory and would die in the finale instead (great decision, I think)
* "Tricia Tanaka is Dead" is Eddy's favourite episode that they have done. The idea was to do a hopeful episode because there had been a lot of bleak and heavy episodes at that time. They said that it was fun to stick a heavily mythological element, which was merely funny at the time, into what was pretty much the most character-driven episode of the season ("Roger Workman")
* One time, Adam was discussing "Exposé" with Damon and went to give a thumbs up, when a tendon or something in his thumb suddenly snapped, and Eddy shrieked/yelled and fell over in pain as he was beginning to give his thumbs up. This is now something of a running gag in the writers' room where Damon will give thumbs up and mock Adam
* Beginning in the first season when the writers would get writers' block, they would come up with long and elaborate episodes of Exposé (the show about three strippers who solved crime with the Cobra secretly behind the murders), e.g. "I don't know how we are going to reveal what is in the Hatch, but I do know that what happened that time that two of the strippers from Exposé solved the murder of the..." followed by details
* The chairs in the writers' room now have Exposé seatbacks
* Damon and Carlton decided to prank Adam and Eddy in the final days before "Exposé" began shooting and Adam was extremely sad by the fake news that Billy Dee Williams had passed that it was not funny when Damon and Carlton realized that they should not have joked about this and told them that they were kidding
* The average Lost script is 57 pages and then they give it to Damon and Carlton for them to leave notes. They said that they and the other writers really try to avoid going past 59 pages because Damon and Carlton like the number 5 (even though it is not one of "the numbers") and too many scenes will have to be cut. Before writing the script, a 30-page outline is written. Based on what other professional writers said in other panels and seminars at the Expo, I now know that this is ridiculously long. The script for "Exposé" was 65 pages long and they had to cut a lot of material. They wanted the episode to rewarding for the fans who had really been paying attention and tried to redo as many old scenes as they could.
* It was one of the most difficult episodes to do because they had to reconstruct the plane crash site and the editors had to search through archives for unused angles of footage from previous episodes
* They also tried to answer every minor mystery in the episode--their favourite one that got cut featured Paulo finding Shannon's inhaler and saying "what's this?" before tossing it aside into the jungle
* Adam thought about what he would need on the island and he is addicted to Nicorette since he quit smoking six years ago so they worked that into the story
* Damon and Carlton came up with the "Ji Yeon" plot device
* "Ji Yeon" happened to be written and outlined really smoothly
* They like how Michael never went back to the island, but had a huge influence on his fellow islanders. Also, Michael's story was told just how they wanted it and was not affected by the strike
* They said something about the freighter people arriving at the end of season 3 (they have just been referring to Naomi, or they may have been referring to how Michael was originally supposed to return in "Through the Looking Glass"
* The "Born to Run" scene where Charlie and Kate talk and Charlie is really excited and confident that they will be rescued was a side that they wanted to explore
* Usually, Jack, Sawyer and Locke get the heroic moments and with "Greatest Hits", they wanted to show that Charlie was also a hero and had always been something of one throughout his life
* Group speeches where Jack or somebody is talking to like fifteen people, such as the "we're gonna blow 'em all to hell" speech, are the hardest scenes to write
* But they are not as hard to write as the one with Sayid talking about the Looking Glass. That scene was originally several pages longer than it ended up being in the final product because they were so concerned with how the Looking Glass could still be working if it was flooded, which at that point in the episode, is what the audience is led to believe. Jack asked how it could be and then Sayid and the other characters came up with a variety of elaborate explanations for how. They finally fixed it by saying "who cares?" In the actual episode, Jack asks how it can still work and Sayid responds with "How it still works is irrelevant. What we do..." That was another funny story.
* In season 2, either Eddy or Adam (did not write down which) would burn CDs for the writing staff, saying that something like "here is what the Dharma Initiative is listening to this week!" and Shambala ("Tricia Tanaka is Dead" was one of them)
* The executives at ABC are great because they really are fans of the show and basically give suggestions only where something might be confusing to the audience, but the writing staff has an unusually large amount of leeway for network television with science fiction storylines and elements
* This year, Paul Zbyszewski (from Day Break) and Melinda Hsu Taylor (from Women's Murder Club, Vanished and Medium) are new staff writers; Kyle Pennington ("Cabin Fever") has worked his way up from post-production and is now a staff writer; it is never explicitly said, but strongly implied that Drew Goddard and Christina M. Kim are also no longer staff writers
* Eddy and Adam spent more time post-panel with fans before leaving before they also were escorted out the back door by security guards (I got them to also sign my poster, but I forgot to print off a script for them--I believe that "Fire + Water" is online.)
Attached are a few of my pictures. More will appear via Wikipedia in the next few days
Thanks,
thedemonhog
Source: thedemonhog@DarkUFO
Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse speak at Screenwriting Expo
(Comments: 55)
Labels:
Carlton Cuse,
Damon Lindelof,
DeGroots,
Online Article
Thanks to DarkUFO reader thedemonhog for this report from the recent Screenwriting Expo which they attended. Here are some of the bullet points from the report and you can read the full report below. It's a good read and contains a lot of good insights into the writing of the show and a few spoilers.
- Cuse : "This year will probably be a little bit more science fictiony"
- Lindelof : "Lost has really been about the long con, because by the time we get to season 6, it's going to be f**king crazy!"
- Lindelof : "As for the end of the series, and whether every question will be answered, Lindelof noted, "Sometimes we're presenting things that are not really questions for us, but they become questions for the audience, and we don't have an intention of answering them." He said that something like what is causing that roar in the jungle they certainly intend to answer, but, "that's not to say there won't be some questions left," depending on the individual viewer and what they become fixated on."
- Lindelof : "There's a fine line between The Sopranos ending and the way we plan on ending our show. There are going to be a lot of mythological wrap ups, but our suspicion is most people really care how the characters end up - who's going to end up with who? Who lives? Who dies?"
- Cuse : "Cuse answered a question about the oft-confused Steve and Scott and said that not only would there not be an episode focused on them, but that there is "a very tragic event that happens this season."
- Lindelof : "Jeff Goldsmith jokingly asked the duo their "Favorite scene from the Season 6 finale.". Fans can speculate however on whether Lindelof was joking or giving any sort of real hint, when he said, "It involves a volcano."
- We are never going to meet the DeGroots, but we are most likely going to see them.
I am from Vancouver, Canada, but I flew down to Los Angeles for the 2008 Screenwriting Expo. More specifically, I was there to see the writers of Lost and I sat front row, centre. Eric Goldman from IGN, who I shared a few words with in the audience, has done a pretty good job hitting most of the major points from the first ninety-minute panel with Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse at http://tv.ign.com/articles/930/930680p1.html, but for some reason, he did not stay for the second panel with Edward "Eddy" Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, so I can give you a rundown of what happened there, in addition to some things that the show runners said that is not at IGN.
Source: thedemonhog@DarkUFO
N O T E
Name-calling, personal attacks, spamming, excessive self-promotion, condescending pomposity, general assiness, racism, sexism, any-other-ism, Shipper bating, homophobia, acrophobia, excessive CAPS and destructive (versus constructive) criticism will get you BANNED from the party.
If you have a problem or an issue with a comment, do NOT post it in the comments, email me here. If you reply/respond to an unnecessary comment, your post will be deleted as well.
Subscribe to our 
Follow our 
Sign up to our 
55 Comments:
good to hear from darlton again
a volcanoo???
is it a joke?
cus i remember hearing somthing ages ago about a volcano or somthinggg.
I think people care more about the mythology than they care about the characters. Take away the mythology from Lost, and you are left with a boring, not-so-special show.
I'm also curious about that "long con" comment. I wonder what it means.
hé finally we got the answer about the unseen sawyer's centric, sound like TLC afterall in some way
i love those little details about episodes
it was really cool to read it thanks andy :)
@dragossh
Absolutely 100 percent disagree. It's the characters that give this show some substance, while the mythology element is usually doled out in crumbs. All the time travelling in The Constant would mean little if it wasn't for the episodes they spent developing Des and Pan or simple character moments like the phone call. If they didn't place characters first then they'd be in the same pit as Heroes is in right now.
For all those who keep bringing non significant questions about this or that!!
"Sometimes we're presenting things that are not really questions for us, but they become questions for the audience, and we don't have an intention of answering them."
I found this very interesting because i see here a lot of people discussing about this or that detail and they don´t even know if it´s important or not for the story so i think they´ve made it clear.
Have just read these bullet points, and the picture now in my head is one I had after a Podcast a couple years ago. It was just a fleeting impression which hopefully is NOT where D&C are going. I need to read the articles now. Thanks Dark.
dragossh, actually, it's fairly well understood that the average viewer, the ones who keep the ratings up and help the show make money, are really interested in the romance and find the mythology tiresome.
@quangtran ITA with you
I don't know why, but whenever I hear 'science fiction' I always think about J. J. Abrams' productions such as "Cloverfield" and upcoming "Star Trek" - hey, have you watched the recent trailer of it?
The volcano is one thing that has been speculated for a long time (time=seasons), so it would be shame if Darlton were not to bring that story foreground.
I hope the f**king crazy stuff that they have been dealing about for season 5 will make us f**king crazy, too. Because this time I'm more thirsty for craziness and science fiction in Lost and I hope will find enough things.
Finally, I don't expect all of my questions and of the others will be answered during s5 and s6, because as Damon says, they don't know that they come up with lots of questions that need to be answered while they're writing the episodes - I mean, all of the questions.
"Sometimes we're presenting things that are not really questions for us, but they become questions for the audience, and we don't have an intention of answering them."
- That quote and the Phantom Menace reference. Based on previous interviews, Darlton are referring to the Bad Numbers. They won't explain the exact nature and origin of the numbers or how can they create a curse over Hurley. That's really a thing to not be explained in details, such as the Midchlorians and the Force.
The whole concept of the island being a entity and conscious being also fits the Phantom Menace example.
dragossh said...
"I'm also curious about that "long con" comment. I wonder what it means."
This paragraph from the IGN.com article should make it more clear:
Lindelof laughed that, "We sort of suckered people into this show but not presenting it as a science fiction show right out of the gate," noting that there were elements early on that were, "like a Rorschach test", saying that when Flight 815's pilot is killed, someone who didn't like sci-fi would think, "there has to be a rational explanation." Even the reveal that Locke could walk on the island was tempered by the fact that they still hadn't revealed why he was in the chair in the first place, leaving the opportunity that, "it could be psychosomatic." Lindelof said Raiders of the Lost Ark was a great example of a story that has blatantly science fiction elements, noting, "Nazis melt and ghost fly out of this ark," but that it waits a long time before presenting these elements, allowing the audience to fall in love with Indiana Jones first. Lindelof said he felt shows like Invasion probably had a harder time finding a wide audience because, "They said 'Alien!', right out of the gate.'"
Lindelof said that when it came to slowly building into more science fiction, "Lost has really been about the long con, because by the time we get to season 6, it's going to be f**king crazy!"
leoff: I agree with you on the numbers. I won't say we won't get nothing out of them, but we got ourselves a lot of explanations through The Lost Experience.
Questions I think won't be answered is like "To whom did Jin deliver the watch in Sydney?", "What caused Charlie to act so strangely when he wanted to baptize Aaron?", "What are the cigarettes on the table in "The Pearl" from?", "Whose pregnancy test did Sun use?" etc.
- The volcano bit is cool and also easy to do because the Big Island of Hawaii (which was the place they shot Locke in the Polar Bear cave) is like the best place to shoot a volcano. Add a couple of CGI to and it would look fantastic on the show.
Interesting stuff, Mary.
I'm so on board with what these guys have had to say lately. Their long con, how answers will be presented, things being "f**king crazy". It's all good.
I've been hoping that the volcano would play a part in the season 6 finale since they first mentioned it in season 3.
However, I'm not sure if this remark makes that more or less likely.
Sawyer = Han Solo! Yay! I already knew that but its nice to hear them say it.
"- We are never going to meet the DeGroots, but we are most likely going to see them."
WTF does that mean? if we see them, surely that counts as meeting them no?
i'm kinda concerned after this interview that we won't really get all the answers we are looking for. i mean, it's the first time they stray from their usual: "we know what we are doing, we've known from episode one, and everything is going to come full circle." this is the first time they go: well, maybe some people won't be satisfied.
the deal with the numbers is pretty important to be left out of the story and not be explained... and also certain gaps in the story... like for instance, in the early dharma days when ben arrived at the island there was a full blown war between the hostiles and them, how did dharma set up camp in the first place, so how did they manage to build all their stations?
i know this isn't really a lost mystery... but it makes no sense...
or the whispers... or howcome women on the island die while pregnant... and something that i'm sure will never be explained but i'd sure like to know: who put the frozen donkey wheel there and how did they build it?
I think the mythology is what makes Lost Lost as well. I know no one watching Lost for romance or any specific character. I would've have stopped wacthing long ago if there weren't mythology stuff. Who ends up with who is just a Kate question which sucks and it always frustrates me hear how much the writers give importance to that question which IMO is the worst written storyline of Lost. I don't care about who dies or lives either. I can take anything that gives meaaning and consistency to the overall story of Lost. If I were in the place of the writers, I wouldn't care about what the character fans/shippers want at that point. Well just write the conclusion and wrap it up and make sure that it all makes sense. That's all I want.
To Mary's quotation:
It's good that Lindelof admits they didn't show all the pieces in the first season, so that people wouldn't bound themselves. They were letting us to have guesswork about what would be happening and what will happen, then they had their tools out of the box.
I can easily confess that if they were to give the basic island elements to us in first season, I wouldn't watch it. I mean, knowing that there is an electronic island station that powers all the other stations on the island, and that all the pregnant women die if they became pregnant on the island, and their children should be examined; I wouldn't watch to show if I had known all of these.
Can you still believe that the black smoke (a.k.a smoke monster) that rocked our world was first seen in the finale of season 1, and that during all season 1 we had no idea what was it looking like, and that it was a smoke, we questioned "F**k! How can a smoke move like that?!" ?
Who ends up with who is just a Kate question which sucks and it always frustrates me hear how much the writers give importance to that question which IMO is the worst written storyline of Lost.
Couldn't agree more.
For what it's worth, I often get the impression they're paying it lip service. I mean these are the guys in who's brilliant minds the Lost universe was created. I'd be truly amazed if they believed an arc that can be found in any number of inferior contemporaries is anything more than a generic sideshow or network pandering. The triangle is the radio-friendly hit that must be promoted through gritted teeth.
I don't like the love triangle either, but I do hope that Kate and Jack/Sawyer(I prefer it be Jack, it just makes more sense to me) will end up being Adam and Eve, that's the only way the writers could redeem this awful love story.
The volcano was a joke. I STRONGLY URGE EVERYONE TO GO TO http://tv.ign.com/articles/930/930680p1.html, BECAUSE MY POST ONLY COVERS WHAT IS NOT COVERED THERE AND BEING A MEMBER OF THE PRESS, HE PICKED UP THE MAJOR POINTS.
"...the deal with the numbers is pretty important to be left out of the story and not be explained..."
- I don't believe Darlton ever meant this to be left unexplained. What they meant is: the numbers are a concept too big, out of the rational world, to be explained in human terms. It's like God or the Force on Star Wars (until Phantom Menace). What Darlton promised is this: answer why those specific numbers (4, 8, ...) were selected by Dharma and their role on Dharma's end game.
Cool Christopher!!!
About how we can see the DeGroots without meeting them... we have "seen" Dr. Marvin/Pierre, but we've never actually met him. Think of the DeGroots in that way, I think. Now, you could say we've "seen" the DeGroots already, but maybe we'll see them in more depth, like the stars of their own video/film, where they actually talk.
Over all, this is an AMAZING post for the Spoilers area. There are dozens of little tidbits in here, and does a lot to fill in details from the first four seasons. A lot of "throwaway" facts that confirm or deny many different little theories.
(Based on past interviews, we know that the Widmore scenes in "The Shape of Things to Come" and "There's No Place Like Home" and the hospital scenes in "Through the Looking Glass", but what is the fourth?)
My guess: It is a scene that we have yet to see. Remember the reports of JH arriving in LAX and running from the cameras. For whatever reason, it is a secret Sawyer scene that has to be shot in LA.
@Mary Ann it's not a scene we have yet to see, it was probably the alternate funeral scene as the one hic made too
Steve and Scott FTW!! lmao!
who are steve and scott? and why would they get an episode to themselves?
never mind... i looked it up in lostpedia
"... But they are not as hard to write as the one with Sayid talking about the Looking Glass. That scene was originally several pages longer than it ended up being in the final product because they were so concerned with how the Looking Glass could still be working if it was flooded, which at that point in the episode, is what the audience is led to believe. Jack asked how it could be and then Sayid and the other characters came up with a variety of elaborate explanations for how. They finally fixed it by saying "who cares?" In the actual episode, Jack asks how it can still work and Sayid responds with "How it still works is irrelevant. What we do..." That was another funny story."
LOL
"There's a fine line between The Sopranos ending and the way we plan on ending our show."
:/
Great report, thedemonhog!
Thanks a lot for sharing it with us :)
I do believe that the scenes not shot in Hawaii were the ones on the plane. I think on the Season 1 box set they say that the interior plane shots from the finale were filmed in Los Angeles. I might be mistaken though.
Han Solo=Sawyer, yeaahhh! He is the best character to me and in "star wars" i love Harrison Ford too. I fell in love with Lost cause Sawyer, this is the truth but then i liked everything mysteries and characters (well except jack and michael i hate them) so the writers are right. And i think they meant that a lot of mysteries are going to be revealed at the same time with an only revelation not that its aren't going to be answered.
maybe we'll have the left behinders on the seventies in season 5, so thats why Ben can't go back to the island cause he is on the island too but a bit younger :), the frozen wheel send the island to the past so Locke could be dead in the future but not on the island. just a thought.
I'd like to get confirmation on the Drew Goddard thing.
Hahah wow...
if the Left-Behinders go back to the 70's think about it...
they might meet Kid-Ben. is that why he has such a crush on Juliet? cuz he met her before?
I hope this show effs up our minds big-time....
and I AGREE with Darlton, that people DO care about what happens to the CHARACTERS. I think Mythology is JUST as important, but while mythology is that big chunk of cake, a solid basis, character is the flavor and frosting that people want in the end.
Or else it's like having Crab Cake instead of Birthday Cake. Dig?
Just to have my (obvious) input on the character vs. mythology thing:
I've found that some people watch the show for the mythology and don't care as much about the characters, and some mostly watch the show for the characters, but also like the mythology angle. I'd be in the second group--the characters and their interactions are what's most important to me, but I'm obviously very caught up in the mythology part of the show as well.
However, I could care less about anything involving Kate, which is obviously what they were getting at with the "who ends up with who" thing.
And I for one loved the Sopranos ending. It was ambiguous, but you still kind of know what happened. I'd hope Lost would wrap up a lot of the loose ends, but leave us guessing on some of them. I don't want to know the answers to everything. But I'd like the same kind of mysterious ending. I'm extremely worried about how the show is going to end. I really think the ending of the show will be reflective of how people percieve it years from now looking back on it.
But I need to be ready for my preferred ending not to happen, I suppose. I'm one of the "Jack's eye in the jungle, Jack wakes up" as the last shot of the show-kind-of-person. It'd be perfect, it really would. And I'm going to be extremely heartbroken if that's not how it ends!
Thanks for reporting on this Demonhog, it is greatly appreciated :-) Thanks also for directing us to the other article, that's also interesting reading.
Can you tell us a bit more why you thought the Drew Goddard and Christina Kim wouldn't be writing anymore more on the show? Did you get the impression that the newer people were taking their place?
Thanks again :-)
A most excellent report, thanks for that 'the demonhog' :)
Re: the other scene not shot in Hawaii - I know the final scene from Through the Looking Glass was shot in LA.
SexyMovieGuy - wow, that's the best theory I've heard so far for why Ben is obsessed with Juliet. (Because she doesn't really look like either his mom or Annie, does she.)
Wow. Just wow.
TPTB telling that people are more interested in jate/skate than in the mythology is just insane.
Just look at what you crazy shippers did. O_O
more people care about who ends up with who? you are dead wrong. People watch this show for the mythology. Cuse is making a big mistake there...
"* It was decided in the minicamp between seasons 2 and 3 that Charlie would die in "Greatest Hits", but they decided in the midseason minicamp that Charlie should have one more victory and would die in the finale instead (great decision, I think)"
Does this mean that Claire will die eventually???
Honestly I miss the traditional format of the show and I wonder if there wasn't some way they could have preserved it for the last few seasons. I'm still on board for whatever gimmicky, crazy timeline they foist on us, yet I bet that when the series is over that the first few seasons will be the episodes that I rewatch the most.
This being a spoiler section of a hardcore Lost fan news site, many of its posters are bound to have a skewed perspective. Yes, the people who post HERE are more likely to prioritize the mythology over character, sci-fi concepts over relationships. But you have got to wake up and realize that you are NOT in the majority of Lost's viewership or you are going to drive yourself crazy. D&C are not stupid; they didn't get to their current position in the entertainment industry by being wrong about what their audience wants. They know what they are doing!
@lucas: I'm sorry to tell you but you are going to be the kind of person who will be unhappy with the ending of Lost. This is most certainly NOT the first time D&C have spoken this way; they have been saying for years now that there are certain things that will not be wrapped up in a bow for the audience. Take the numbers for example. Forget playing TLE, if you've even seen the Sri Lanka video then you should know what the numbers are. I fail to comprehend what is left to explain about them, but some people apparently still feel that they are owed something more.
@thedemonhog, I wasn't there, but I am pretty sure the volcano comment was NOT just a joke, as D&C said in the commentary for "The Man Behind the Curtain" that the volcano would figure prominently later in the series.
Honestly, bottom line, if you are clinging too tightly to one particular mystery or one particular kind of ending you want to see, you are probably going to be disappointed. Do yourself a favor and just enjoy the ride, let the series be what it is rather than lamenting certain decisions in lieu of what YOU would have done.
@Leoff
Hope ur right lol
"@ Rodimus Ben Lundy
The Producers have said time and time again the SHOW is the only thing u need to watch/ they want it to be self contained exct. So citing TLE or some other video iv not heard of(Sri Lanka?) doesnt count.
So, my guess is that we will find out Why DHARMA chose these specific numbers and why the radio tower was playing them. Thats all we need to know to complete the timline really.
K here: Hurley first heard them from Leonard in the mental hospital, who originally heard them with Sam Toomey when they were in the Navy together in the Pacific. My guess is that they heard it from the Radio Towe broadcast just like Rosseaus Team did. So the last thing we need answered is "Why were the numbers in the radio tower?" We already know what they were used for, the Swan Hatch code(Well maybe MORE but if this is the only answer we get im satisifed), and I guess we MIGHT find out what each number means/why DHARMA chose them. But I think we NEED to know why the radio tower played the numbers.
What the producers are saying is we will NEVER find out why the numbers are haunted, which is fine by me. Thats like answers how the ghosts can appear off island/ why everyone was chose/ how the island itself can chose people. it all has to do with the Islands POWER/ mystery of the show.
@ leoff All I really want answered is why the radio tower was playing them because its the last pice of the timline.
We COULD get answers to why DHARMA picked the numbers, or what theyre for(To me that was answered, what were they for? The Swan code) but all I want answered is why the radio tower was playing them.
@ "Rodimus" Ben Lundy
U MIGHHHT be right, but im holding out hope the producers werent lying when they said that LE and Sir Lanka vid was extras. They said many times they want the show to be self contained, so it is my hope I will atleast get the answers listed about WITHIN the show. Because really, its LAME that they expect the average viewer to look this stuff up online. U asked what still needs to be explain? IMO the Radio tower is the last piece of the puzzle
Remember, Hurley He first heard them from Leonard in the mental hospital, who originally heard them with Sam Toomey when they were in the Navy together in the Pacific while studying radio waves.
Which MUST have come from the radio tower, because Rosseaus team heard them from the radio tower as well. So how/why they were put on the radio tower is the last thing I need.
Feel free to disagree but to me this is important.
However I am NOT expecting them to answer
What the numbers mean
why they are haunted
and anymore reason as to what they are for(because to me "The swan code" is answer enough)
Where's my post.
I´m really curious on the end, how they will resolve all many questions, good luck, writers, we will need it:))
This is so cool. Lost has to be the best written show on TV. It's a show that proves what a writer can do with one great idea. There are so many great opportunities available for screenwriters and with just a little web surfing, they are easy to find. When trying to perfect a screenplay (if that's even possible) it's invaluable to have feedback on your script instead of just working in a vacuum. For those just starting out, that can be a tough thing to find. There are some film schools that offer such services. One that I found is Film Connection, www.film-connection.com. They offer one on one mentoring and their coure is available all over the US and Canada.
I really wonder which Bulgarian movie Edward was made to obtain. I am from Bulgaria ;p
Great post!
Stan
I really wonder which Bulgarian movie Edward was made to obtain. I am from Bulgaria ;p
Great post!
Stan