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This site is the first unofficial fansite for the show and was launched on 20 March 2004. If you wish to send anything my way - news, articles, pictures, links, wallpaper, etc. - then don't hesitate to email me at xander1600@yahoo.com. Just please, do not send anything addressed to anyone involved with the project, because they're not gonna get it.
Lost returns to our screens with its anticipated (strike-shortened) fourth season on Thursday, January 31, 2008 at 9:00 pm ET! The show returns with eight all-new episodes airing without reruns. The Complete Third Season of LOST Now Available on Amazon.com! The Complete Third Season DVD set of Lost has been released on December 11, 2007! The 7-disc DVD box set is packed with special features, including an exclusive behind-the scene look at 24 hours in the life of this series, and hints to the significance of the show's literary references. For more information about the discs and the special features, check out TVShowsOnDVD.com. The set is available for ordering at Amazon.com  .
Yahoo! News - Networks Premiere 3 New Shows in Hawaii After the sun sets on another perfect Hawaiian day, thousands of people in beach chairs and on blankets dig their toes in the sand of one of the world's most famous beaches as a 30-foot movie screen jumps to life. Welcome to network television's latest screening room. Sixteen years after "Magnum P.I.'s" red Ferrari drove into the sunset, and after a long dry spell, Hawaii has three network TV series in production. All premiered on Waikiki Beach, which also has shown movies for several years. Damon Lindelof, co-creator of ABC's "Lost," first used the Waikiki screen in March, when the network began filming the castaway drama whose ensemble cast includes Matthew Fox ("Party of Five") and Dominic Monaghan ("The Lord of the Rings"). "Here we are six months later screening our pilot," Lindelof said as more than 10,000 people gathered Saturday night for a first look at "Lost" — far more than the typical draw for the free movies at the city-sponsored "Sunset on the Beach." The crowd repeated on Sunday night for the premiere of NBC's police drama "Hawaii," which makes its network debut on Wednesday. The 90-minute "Lost" pilot airs three weeks later in two parts, on Sept. 22 and Sept. 29. The city came up with beach movies as a way to attract local residents to the Waikiki tourist district on weekends after the 2001 terrorist attacks took a toll on visitor arrivals. The shows draw between 5,000 and 7,500 people a night, according to Malcolm Tom, the city's deputy managing director. Fox Television was the first to take advantage of the screen, the sand, the sunset and the built-in audience when it premiered its Hawaii-based hotel drama "North Shore" on the beach in June. Soon after that, ABC and NBC got permission to show their pilots on the beach, Tom said. Cast members of "North Shore" appeared on stage before the screening of their pilot. Not to be outdone, ABC had its 14 cast members arrive an hour and a half before the screening to greet fans before mingling at a reception under a large banyan tree behind the screen as the sun set over the Pacific. NBC pulled off a flashier entrance Sunday night for the "Hawaii" cast, which includes Michael Biehn (news) ("Terminator 2"), Sharif Atkins ("ER"), Ivan Sergei ("Crossing Jordan") and Eric Balfour ("Six Feet Under") — actors arrived in two of the show's "Honolulu Metro Police Department" cars and the red Cadillac convertible driven on the show by Biehn's character, Detective Sean Harrison, escorted by motorcycle cops with lights flashing. Stepping onto a sand-covered red carpet surrounded by a crowd, the actors received orchid leis before making their way down the beach, stopping to meet with fans and beachgoers still wet from the ocean. NBC doesn't typically do "such extravagant premieres," said network spokesman Jamie French. "This is kind of a big deal because the folks of Hawaii have been so great to us," he said. The casual, relaxed atmosphere of a Waikiki premiere was a contrast to a typical Hollywood event, some actors noted. "It's perfect for what the series is about, to let local people to get close," said Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, who plays Capt. Terry Harada on "Hawaii." He is the only full-time Hawaii resident among the main characters on either show. "This is not really business driven," said Fox, the lead actor on "Lost," whose character, plane crash survivor Jack, is in the opening scene of the show. "It's more a screening for Hawaii." The city had expected large crowds, but Tom seemed amazed at the number who showed up. Crowds packed the sand not only in front — but also behind the giant screen, watching the action backwards. "I think it's a really cool idea," Monaghan, who plays rock star Charlie on "Lost," said of the beach premiere. Monaghan's arrival drew crowds of fans of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy clamoring to get an autograph or photo with the actor, who played the hobbit "Merry" in the films. SOURCE: Yahoo! News (12:57 PM) Sunday, August 29, 2004 E! Online - Watch With Kristin: Five New Fall Shows You Are Going to Love! A Countdown of Five Fall Favorites to Get Excited About! This fall season there are actually plenty of new shows so jaw-droppingly good, they're worth getting excited about. In fact, I demand that you get excited! Because I desperately want these goodies to become oldies. So, in an effort to keep them on the air, I'm revealing the five new series that are--in my humble opinion--the best new offerings of fall. Ladies and gentletubers, set your TiVos!... 1. Lost (ABC) Wed.; premieres Sept. 22 What It's About: Matthew Fox. Sweaty and sexy. Oh, sorry. Did you want me to say more? Well, this is the show everyone's been raving about, a small-screen series that looks and feels like a big-screen feature. It centers around plane-crash survivors who are stranded on a deserted island--including Matthew Fox (Party of Five) and the girl I'm expecting to be the biggest breakout star of the season: Evangeline Lilly. What You Need to Know: Lost is from JJ Abrams, the mastermind behind Felicity and Alias, who directed such a heart-pounding, compelling pilot for Lost -- reportedly the most expensive pilot in TV history! -- that it scored him a gig directing an itty-bitty movie you may have heard of: Mission: Impossible 3. And speaking of good people... did I mention how you will love Evangeline Lilly? She came from nowhere -- okay, Vancouver really, but hadn't done a single oncamera role before Lost. By scoring the role of a lifetime as Matthew Fox's leading lady, she's following in the footsteps of Keri Russell and Jennifer Garner as JJ Abrams' next female protégé. It'd be easy to hate her, except she's oozing with charm and humility. "Getting this part has changed my world, my life's upside down," Evangeline told me at an ABC party. "At times, it's exciting, and, at [other] times, scary. But the only emotion I can define that has never changed is gratitude. I know I'm out of my league." You'll know what a joke that is when you see it. Bottom Line: Lost is the best new show of the season. Alloooha! I'll have plenty more on Lost next week, because--now, promise not to hate me when I tell you this--I'm flying off to Honolulu, Hawaii, for the series premieres of Lost and NBC's Hawaii. (I know, it's a rough life.) You can see me there next Tuesday and/or Wednesday on E! News Live at 7 p.m. I'll be in Honolulu be covering these shows until Tuesday, so, sadly, I'm going to have to skip our chat, but I promise to make up for it next week with tons of juicy scoop. SOURCE: E! Online (12:37 AM) Saturday, August 28, 2004 New Site Design! We're currently in transition-mode, as we're converting all the pages of this website to the new design. Do you like it? Hate it? Tell us about it! (8:03 AM) Friday, August 27, 2004 Lost Billboards Popping Up According to the starDom Forum, billboards promoting Lost are popping up in the USA. One is "on I-94, just north of Minneapolis. It had a dark background with Lost in big letters and then small black silhouettes of the cast at the bottom." Another one is described as, "The background had trees and a blue sky, the Hawaii backdrop. The cast is at the bottom as well, with Dom in the middle (looking sexeh as usual)! In big black letters on the bottom right corners these words are encoded: Get Lost this fall on ABC." If anyone can take pictures of these billboards, please email me a picture at xander1600@yahoo.com. (11:09 PM) Cool New LOST Websites! Just a heads up on two awesome new Lost-related websites. First is the first slash fan fiction website for Lost, appropriately located at Lost-Slash.com. Be warned, though, that the fic in that site pairs up two men or two women (hence, slash). The other site is Lost Survivors, which details the Lost experience from the extras' point of view. Very cool. Check them out! (12:23 PM) Asians in Media - Naveen Andrews to star in primetime American TV thriller British Asian actor Naveen Andrews, most famous for his role in the BBC drama 'Buddha of Suburbia', is to star in a major new network drama on America's ABC. He plays a Middle Eastern man in the series, titled 'Lost', which will start in September. Lost is about a group of 48 survivors who get stuck on a tropical island and have to work together to survive. In an interview the creator J.J. Abrams said it was designed to "bring out the very best and the very worst in the people who are lost." Naveen Andrews plays Sayid, a Middle Eastern man who must wrestle with the racial profiling directed at him by some of his fellow survivors. The actor told AiM recently that he has moved to the USA because opportunities for non-white actors were greater out there. Andrews has a major part in Gurinder Chadha's upcoming movie Bride and Prejudice. He has previously been in the English Patient, Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love and Bombay Boys amongst others. SOURCE: Asians in Media (9:41 AM) Calgary Sun - Quality a Lost cause There's trouble ahead when fans begin an online campaign to save your much-buzzed-about show even before it premieres. That's precisely what's happening to Lost, the castaways-on-a-mysterious island adventure yarn from Alias mastermind J.J. Abrams. Fans of Abrams, of Alias - maybe just of quality television that pushes the creative envelope - have reportedly begun organizing a "Save Lost" campaign, expecting that, not so long after the ABC drama debuts Sept. 22, it will be marked for extinction by network brass. Their concerns aren’t unfounded. For one thing, Lost is an expensive proposition - the two-hour series pilot the Sun screened is as ambitious and cinematic as the small screen gets - and, two, it's a drama that requires both the commitment and concentration of viewers. It used to be the sort of positive advance word-of-mouth Lost is basking in was cause to celebrate; these days, it's reason to fear. Just ask the creators of Wonderfalls, the blink-and-you-missed-it mid-season drama from Fox that aired this past winter and vanished before the first thaw of spring. A quirky, intelligent effort that could have been described as "Joan of Arcadia for smart people," it lasted mere episodes before its cancellation — despite critical raves, online support and the fact it was buried out of popular view on the dead zone that is Friday nights. Good shows dying early deaths is as old as the medium itself, of course. But what’s frustrating is that networks seem willing to stick it out through tough times with a low-rated series — as long as it’s reality-TV. At the same time Wonderfalls was struggling, Playing It Straight - an adequately-pathetic is-he-or-isn’t-he-gay reality show on the same network - was in equally dire ratings woes. Only a few years ago, networks would have nurtured the drama and fed the gimmicky reality tripe to the dogs. Not so anymore. CBS, for one, didn't yank the plug on either Big Brother or The Amazing Race when initial ratings were less than stellar. Instead, they were loyal to both series, not just for several episodes, but for several seasons. Only now, five agonizing years into Big Brother’s housesitting antics, have the ratings risen out of the basement. The Amazing Race, which debuted in fall 2001 to such lacklustre ratings it was sent to the minors - i.e.: the summer season - has just these past few months finally done well enough to justify a sixth edition for the fall (albeit on Saturdays, hardly a ratings bastion). The late, great Brandon Tartikoff, chief architect of NBC’s stellar lineup in the '80s, was famed for standing by low-rated shows that he believed in - Hill Street Blues, Cheers and Crime Story among them. It's hard to believe that he would have similarly felt that way about, say, Fear Factor. But those were the days when the three broadcast networks had the entire pie to themselves - before the onslaught of cable stations and the multi-channel universe - and now networks, admittedly, don’t have the luxury to support low-rated series as they used to. And if they do, expensive dramas such as Wonderfalls, The Tick and Keen Eddie aren't going to be their priority - it’s going to be cheap, disposable reality product and certainly not based on the particular taste of any single network boss a la Tartikoff. Should this logic hold true, those would-be Lost fans may find even their pre-emptive distress signals are too little, too late. SOURCE: Calgary Sun (9:41 AM) The Wichita Eagle - ABC knows it must be slower to pull trigger this fall The question posed to Marc Cherry was brusque and unsubtle, but it was what almost everyone in the room was thinking. Cherry is the creator of "Desperate Housewives," a satiric soap opera debuting this fall that was the consensus favorite among TV critics at the recent Television Critics Association press tour. But critics are a leery bunch, and for good reason. Which led to the question: "ABC has a history of finding really good shows and screwing them up," a critic said to Cherry. "They put them on the wrong night or put them on the right night then move them to the wrong night, or they find ways to lose them. Are you nervous?" Cherry said he wasn't nervous for two reasons: He got the time slot he wanted -- on Sunday nights -- and ABC is widely viewed as having the strongest slate of new fall series. Series such as "Lost," about plane-crash survivors stranded on an eerie tropical island. And "Wife Swap," which despite its lurid title is an affecting reality series. Even "Eyes," a private-eye drama scheduled to air midseason, crackles with snappy dialogue. But that doesn't mean Cherry doesn't also have reason to be nervous. Because the TV game has gotten increasingly competitive and complicated in recent years, which means networks rarely give new shows more than a few weeks to establish themselves. And because ABC has made some astonishingly bad moves: In 1999-2000, "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire" became such a phenomenon that ABC figured viewers couldn't get enough of a good thing and littered the schedule with "Millionaires." Viewers got too much of a good thing and lost interest, and ABC began a steady slide from first to fourth among the six networks. In January 2003, ABC launched two promising new series: "Veritas: The Quest," an adventure drama from the "Indiana Jones" school, and "Miracles," a supernatural drama with religious overtones. Both were the type of shows that required patience and nurturing, and their tones meshed well with each other. But they were separated by a fading "The Practice" on Monday night. The whole Monday lineup was then disrupted when ABC kicked off "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!," a sweeps-stunt "reality" show that ran every night for two weeks even though it couldn't earn any viewer interest. "Veritas" and "Miracles" never had a chance to gain momentum, and were canceled within weeks. Last fall, ABC debuted "Karen Sisco," which was one of the season's critical faves. The show was a quirky, sexy crime drama and was presented with a sunny Miami flavor. It seemed like a perfect pairing with "Alias," another genre drama featuring a strong, attractive female lead. But instead it was placed after "The Bachelor," a reality series for romantic escapists who don't typically go for crime dramas. That time slot also put it up against crime-drama leviathan "Law & Order" on NBC. "Karen Sisco" was gone by midseason. ABC isn't the only network to give good shows the ax early, of course. And it has stuck by some shows --"Alias" being a good example -- that aren't necessarily ratings whoppers but have strong cult followings. But ABC has a longer than usual list of much-admired shows --"My So-Called Life," "Relativity," "Once and Again" -- that have died early deaths. The problem ABC is having these days is getting people to find its shows. When you're in fourth place, fewer people are watching your network, so fewer people are seeing the promotions for your strongest new series. Since CBS has its "CSIs" and "Survivors," NBC has its "Law & Orders" and "The Apprentice," and Fox has "American Idol," ABC has few places it can schedule new shows where they won't get walloped by the competition. Even ABC executives are saying they have to be more patient. "I think it is an incredibly cluttered market out there right now," says Stephen McPherson, the new president of the network's prime-time entertainment division. "I think as long as we believe in the creative (aspects) and we know we've got what we've promised we're going to deliver, we're going to stick with (the new series) as long as we can." Of course, even with patience, the network will face an uphill battle with many of its shows. Although "Wife Swap" has a good lead-in and considerable critical buzz, for example, it will still be up against "Law & Order" -- and CBS's "CSI: New York," which seems like the one guaranteed hit new show on any network. If you believe McPherson, though, he'll give the new shows a chance to find an audience. Because he keeps coming back to being patient and giving shows time to find audiences. "Being patient with shows that are great is what makes great television," he says. "It's what made 'Raymond.' It's what made 'Seinfeld.' So I really do think it's going to come down to 'Do we have the material, do we have the shows to be patient and build this network back?' SOURCE: The Wichita Eagle (9:41 AM) STLtoday - Deja viewing The recent brouhaha over copy-catted reality shows ignored a fact of life in TV land: Everything on the small screen is recycled, and the only new idea of the past two decades may have been "Cop Rock."... ...One of the genuinely unique offerings of fall may be ABC's "Lost," in which strangers exist on an island after a plane crash - but some are labeling it a scripted take on "Survivor." "Whenever anything is successful . . . everybody looks at it and says, 'How can we take that franchise and make it into something different?'" said executive producer Damon Lindelof. "When a new cop show comes along or a new show in a hospital, nobody says, 'Oh, we've seen the hospital show. We've seen the cop show. We've seen the soap.' It's the characters that populate it." Lindelof did take pains not to rip off one show, however: "Gilligan's Island," "where every single week somebody else is washing up on shore and it's the theater producer one week and the Russian cosmonauts." SOURCE: STLtoday (9:41 AM) Sioux City Journal - From 'Hobbit' to TV habit Dominic Monaghan thinks it's a natural move -- follow the biggest film trilogy with one of the biggest television shows of the season. "You're never going to have a more successful trilogy in your repertoire," he says of "The Lord of the Rings" films, "and that's fine with me. I'm all about the work. I don't need to have box office gold every single time. I just want to work on material I like." Enter: "Lost," a new television drama from J.J. Abrams, the man behind "Alias." In the new series, which finds a plane load of disparate types struggling to survive on an island, Monaghan plays a rock musician with a nasty drug habit. He's forced to face his demons and determine out how he and the others can get back home safely. Because the show's cast is so large, Monaghan figures he'll be able to do the series and several movies a year -- a perfect combination. "Lord of the Rings," however, afforded little time off. It was shot for two years straight, then required nine-week reshoots during 2001, 2002 and 2003. It was, Monaghan says, unlike anything he had done before. "The thing you take with you are the friendships -- the connections. We helicoptered to places no human had been before. We went through the trenches with (director) Pete (Jackson) and we enjoyed the whole Oscar thing. I can plot, very clearly, how my life changed based on that movie. It started with saying yes to Pete Jackson." As one of the Hobbits, Monaghan got some of the more humorous moments in the film series. He also got a chance to discover New Zealand's flora and fauna -- a real perk considering he's an environmentalist who loves bugs and animals. "I have a spider...cockroaches, praying mantis and a snake," he says. "I do sound like a geek, don't I?" Actually, Monaghan is the son of European hippies -- as he calls them -- who moved to a number of different places with the British armed forces. "They wanted to give us a different variation on life, so we moved to five different places in Germany as kids." That itinerant lifestyle forced Monaghan to make friends quickly. "I had to have a kind of chameleon-like quality at school. I realized school was all about acceptance. To make myself get there as quickly as possible, I had to be good at speaking and manipulating certain situations. That allows you to live in your head for a while." That also encouraged Monaghan, now 27, to try acting. "Every kid is into new voices you can do...impersonating teachers or being funny in skits from TV shows, so that's what I did." That led to a British television series -- "Hetty Wainthropp Investigates" -- that tested his abilities on a larger scale. "I was 18 and I was thrown into the fire," he says. "I thought you walked on a set, they said, 'Lights, camera, action' and you just kept walking through sets all day long." Quickly, he learned the rigors of the business. Several other television shows followed, then "The Lord of the Rings" entered his life. At one point, he says, "I shot 21 days straight and did a 19-hour day halfway through it. I remember coming home and tyring to call someone and forgetting how the phone worked. My brain was breaking down." Monaghan, however, still had time to enjoy New Zealand and bond with his castmates. Today, he says, he's still in touch with many of them. "We're all really good friends. We're a family." Following the "Rings" exercise, Monaghan says he got plenty of offers to play "the adorable best friend of the leading man" but knew he had to travel a different course if he wanted a lasting career. Already, he says, he and fellow Hobbit Billy Boyd have tossed around two story ideas that one of the "Rings" producers hopes to bring to the screen. "He liked the way we interacted," Monaghan says. Meanwhile, "Lost" looms. Shot in Hawaii, the film will give Monaghan plenty of time to dabble in surfing, drink in the atmosphere and add to his bug collection. Because the cast is so large, he figures the assignment will be less grueling than "Rings." "I don't think in terms of how long something's going to last," he explains. "If the material's good I just want to run with it." SOURCE: Sioux City Journal (9:18 AM) Honolulu Star-Bulletin - 'Lost' offers rare combo of thrills and acting J.J. Abrams's castaway TV drama "Lost" is a mysterious, often terrifying, sometimes confusing thrill ride, compelling enough to make you want to stay aboard but only if you suspend a bit of reality to accept the premise. In the pilot for the new ABC drama, a transpacific flight from Sydney, Australia, crashes on a remote island where 48 survivors -- the majority under 30 and Hollywood-star attractive -- try to survive the first 24 hours, certain they'll be rescued. But the L-1011 is a thousand miles off course and so far out of radio contact that the survivors -- led by a good-guy physician named Jack ("Party of Five's" Matthew Fox) -- eventually realize they're stranded. After survivors escape the smoking, cracked fuselage and gather their wits, they realize they're not alone, hearing something huge in the nearby valley crushing and shaking trees. For the rest of the SPOILER!ish review, check out Honolulu Star-Bulletin. (3:33 AM) Wednesday, August 25, 2004 New Affiliate: Lost France I've just added a new affiliate: Lost France. Check it out! (11:09 AM) Lost to Air on ASN in Canada According to Channel Canada, Lost is going to air on ASN in Canada at 9pm every Wednesday. Many thanks to Lost Fansite for the info. (10:25 AM) Tuesday, August 24, 2004 Time Magazine - Tale of a Fateful Trip Many thanks to Sarah A. for this info. According to her, There is an article in the August 30, 2004 issue of TIME Magazine about LOST. (Page 64.) You can check out the article here as well as below... J.J. Abrams' spy fantasy Alias is not the smartest show on TV. It is perhaps something better: the smartest dumb show on TV. But writer-creator Abrams has competition this season — himself. Lost (ABC, Wednesdays, 8 p.m. E.T., debuts Sept. 22) has an even more ridiculous premise. A transpacific flight crashes on a remote island, leaving a few dozen survivors of a type that suggests that the best protection against a 30,000-ft. drop is good hair and low body fat. The plane was a thousand miles off course and out of radio contact — the survivors are stranded. But not alone: at night the jungle chatters with the sounds of unseen, hungry and possibly supernatural creatures. Gilligan, meet Mulder and Scully. As in Alias, Abrams sells the ludicrous setup with excellent casting (including Party of Five's Matthew Fox and The Lord of the Rings hobbit Dominic Monaghan), inventive details and sharp comic relief. A desert island is a hermetic setting — not much room for fun Quentin Tarantino cameos there. So Abrams loads up on intriguing characters (a fugitive, an Iraqi Republican Guard veteran and so forth), gives them surprising secrets and continually subverts our ideas of who's good, who's bad and who can be trusted. Above all, Abrams understands that if you make your story a little farfetched, you'll lose the audience — but if you make it a lot farfetched, folks will play along. Lost's plots, like those of Alias, make you suspect that Abrams has no clue where all this is going, but the fun is making your own guess. (Here's mine: at some point in the season, a character will say, "This plane crash was no accident!") As long as the twists keep coming, these castaways should be in for a nice long wait. (11:13 PM) Honolulu Star-Bulletin - Castaway: Monaghan of "Lost" is no longer an innocent, furry-footed hobbit As a hobbit, Dominic Monaghan's drug of choice was pipeweed, a gentle, mellowing substance that encourages the blowing of smoke rings and the singing of song. As a tormented rock star, his drug of choice is heroin, which makes you want to suck powder up your nose. Brutal place, the real world. Real as in the world of television drama, which has crashed-landed Monaghan onto a forgotten island to fight for survival against the elements and a mysterious jungle menace -- hopefully for several seasons. No longer an innocent, furry-footed hobbit, Monaghan joins a large cast of castaways in the made-in-Hawaii drama "Lost," a pivot point in ABC's new fall lineup. Monaghan plays Charlie, bass guitarist in a band of minor note. "Charlie has delusions of grandeur, that his band is better than they are," Monaghan says. Still, "I think he feels music, a lot. It's kind of a crutch for him." His ultimate crutch, though, is the white powder. "He's on the island with a bag of heroin. He'll probably run out about Episode 5." The show will confront Charlie's addiction to a point, Monaghan says. He'll be shown smoking and snorting but not shooting up. "This is ABC. They don't want an ex-hobbit to be mainlining." Ex-hobbit. An inescapable identity. Of the large ensemble cast of "Lost," it is Matthew Fox of "Party of Five" who has been put forward as the major player, but Monaghan, coming off the humongous success of "The Lord of the Rings," naturally attracts attention. Damon Lindelof, executive producer and creator of the series, notes that Monaghan's "loyal -- and rabid -- fan base" is a bonus for the show, but not so much as the 27-year-old actor's way with the part. "When we started looking to cast the role of Charlie, our idea was that he'd be a has-been rock star in his early 40s. Dom came in and read for us, and five minutes later we were figuring out how to make the character much younger. He was just that good." Hair trimmed, a bit of beard on the cheeks and that button-down period costume exchanged for a slim T-shirt, Monaghan remains recognizable yet of another world. "Out of his makeup -- and at regular height, he's not hobbit-sized at all -- he actually has quite a different look," Lindelof says. For his part, Monaghan is not on the run from Middle-earth. "I love that film and I'm totally invested in it." The conviction in his voice is clear. That he might always be thought of as a hobbit -- well, there are worse things. "You're always going to be associated with the biggest thing you've done. Harrison Ford has done so many things, but he'll always be Han Solo." He recalls auditioning for the film in London, where casting directors were scouring the land for actors of a certain age and body type. Monaghan was appearing in a play that required a shaved head, which had drawn the unwanted attention of modern-day orcs on the subway. ("They didn't understand why I had no hair.") So he auditioned at a visual disadvantage: "I was a skinhead, I had a cold and I had been beaten up in the tube." Still, Monaghan's delivery of "a hobbity kind of speech" won him several call-backs and eventually the part of Merry, devoted friend of the principal hobbit, Frodo. "I had a week to go back and sell my house, say goodbye to my friends," he says. Cast and crew moved to director Peter Jackson's New Zealand base for 18 months of filming three movies. "It's easily the most amazing choice I've ever made, in acting, in my life. Saying yes to Peter Jackson brought me here." Monaghan's world now is Mokuleia Beach, the principal set of "Lost," and his adopted Kailua neighborhood, an hour's drive away. He left behind a home in Los Angeles and an exotic collection of companions. "I left my spider with a friend of mine; my snake is with another friend," he ticks off the list. "I got rid of my scorpions and cockroaches." Got rid of? "I just freed my cockroaches. I took my scorpions to a canyon." Those would be "big, black Egyptian scorpions." Two males. He has new friends now: "Every time I see a lizard, I bring it in the house. ... One of them sits on the cushion of my sofa. He watches TV, watches me play PlayStation." He's grown comfy in Kailua -- "I've become very domesticated ... joined the local video store" -- and is a frequent patron of Lanikai Juice. They even keep his frequent-drinker card at the cash register, where it fills up quickly, sometimes at several stamps per day. One particular shake, he says, "makes me feel like a superhero." He'll occasionally be recognized, asked for an autograph or a picture. "It doesn't bother me in any way. You can't dismiss the people who made 'Lord of the Rings' the biggest movie of all time." But mostly, he says, he gets a lot of confused looks from people who think he might be famous but aren't sure. He was clearly picked out, though, on a recent trip to the movies in Kaneohe. "Somebody recognized me on the way in, so on the way out three or four people were waiting to get me. I heard them saying, 'Where is he?'" In the shadow of a hat and shades, he ducked out. "I just saw 'The Bourne Supremacy.' I kind of felt like a spy." To his role of rock star on "Lost," Monaghan brings some real-life experience, the highlight being the inexplicable "Half Fling," recorded with "Rings" stars Viggo Mortensen and Elijah Wood in a squeaky, chipmunk language that Monaghan claims he and Wood actually understand. "It's all in the tone." The song and a few others -- "out of five hours of very rough material" -- made their way onto Mortensen's "pandemoniumfromamerica" CD. Fellow hobbit Billy Boyd was also in attendance. It helped, he says, being "drunk as monkeys." He speaks regularly with Ringsters Mortensen, Wood, Boyd and Orlando Bloom. They're planning a New Year's reunion on Kauai. Plus, he's working on a screenplay with Boyd, which "Rings" producer Barrie Osborne is interested in filming. "It's a comedy vehicle for Billy and me," Monaghan says. "We've yet to read a comedy we really want to do. Or they give it to Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, and we have to get in line." They're writing in cameos for all their "Rings" buddies. A TV series was not they way Monaghan had meant to follow up his "Rings" exposure. In fact, he's made five films, mostly smaller British productions, since "The Return of the King" wrapped in 2001. Pre-"Rings," Monaghan appeared for two years in the British TV series "Hetty Wainthropp Investigates." "I never really wanted to repeat myself," he says. But American and British TV are different creatures. "American TV, more is invested in it. The general public seems to give it a little more caché." The important thing, he says, is to meet the demand of new, challenging roles -- to do the unexpected. "You have to show the audience that has invested time in you playing a cuddly good guy that you can play a guy with a little more edges." SOURCE: Honolulu Star-Bulletin (3:13 PM) DavidFury.net Interview! DavidFury.net has an interview with the former Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel writer/producer and current Lost writer... which is pretty much all about Lost. It's also SPOILER!ish every now and then, not to mention freaking hilarious. Here's a taste. A: It looks like there's a ton of survivors on the island, an enormous cast to write for. Is there a Venn diagram in the writers' room? Has it been difficult to transition from writing for a small group of core characters in Buffy and Angel to this? What sort of process goes into writing for such a large cast? Fury: Obviously, the large cast presents some challenges. But we actually only focus on eleven or twelve of the 48 survivors. Having the other castaways (who we lovingly call "meat socks" can and will supply us with other stories as we go. They're no different from all those extras working at Wolfram and Hart, or who populated Sunnydale High. Still, twelve characters is an awful lot... But shockingly are stories are flowing (we're already on episode 7 after as many weeks). Every episode will focus on and get us closer to each of the characters and his or her particular arc. Almost feels like an anthology, which I think's a good thing. A: Everything looks so lush and rainforesty. Is this shot entirely on location? Where are the island scenes shot? Fury: Every single bit is shot on the island of Ohahu. After the third episode, our interiors and swing sets are shot in an abandoned Xerox building we've just refashioned as a sound stage. It was abandoned about six years ago because it was the site of the WORST MASS MURDER IN HAWAII'S HISTORY!!! Trus story. We actually had to have the building blessed by a priest, a rabbi, a minister and even some native religious types to purge the space of any unholy spirits. Don't need that lighting fixture coming down and crushing an actor or key grip. And a bonus quote for all of us online nuts. A: You had a reputation for being a mischievious instigator in the Buffy and Angel fandoms. Any plans to terrorize the Lost 'net fandom? Fury: I've already got a few trussed up in my basement. Occasonally, I poke them with something, but usually, I just let the rats have their way. Thinking of opening a LOST FAN FIGHT CLUB. Then we can really go at it. Check out the entire interview at DavidFury.net. (12:00 PM) AICN - Damon Lindelof Interview While waiting for the next part of Lost-TV's interview with Damon Lindelof, AICN has its own interview with Damon. It's sort of SPOILER!ish, and Damon is quite the tease. Here's a sample. AICN: Will more than 10 percent of the 48 "Lost" survivors perish before the series' 13th hour? Is the high fatality rate the reason you didn't name the series "The 48"? On the same topic, was there much freaking out when it was learned NBC aired a reality series titled "Lost" only three years earlier? DL: More than 10% before the 13th hour? In other words, will FIVE people perish over the first half of the season? Not gonna answer that one. I will say this - the herd will be thinned, but that doesn't mean people have to die. We knew about NBC's show from the get-go (hell, I was the only one watching the thing back in 2001)... our concern was always more about WB's "Lost In Space," which could have caused some confusion had it been picked up. There's more good stuff at AICN. (12:00 PM) FilmJerk.com - Lost The Pilot Episode Part 1 At the recent San Diego Comic-Con, I made my way to a showing of "Lost," part one of a two-part Pilot Episode. Created by J.J. Abrams (Felicity and Alias) along with the writing talents of Damon Lindelof (Crossing Jordan) and David Fury (Angel), "Lost" tells the tale of 48 plane crash survivors thrown together on a Pacific island. Starring; Evangeline Lilly, Ian Somerhalder (Smallville), Dominic Monaghan(Lord of the Rings), Jorge Garcia, Maggie Grace, Malcolm David Kelley, Naveen Andrews, Harold Perrineau, Josh Holloway, Matthew Fox (Party of Five, Haunted), Terry O'Quinn (Alias), Daniel Dae Kim (Angel, 24, ER), Yunjin Kim. Lost throws together a nice ensemble of characters whom soon discover that they are not alone on this island. What actually is in the jungle just beyond the safety of the beach? Matthew Fox plays Jack a Medical Doctor who jumps right into the Leader role. Waking up on his back in the middle of a jungle, Jack is dazed and confused. He realizes as he wanders to the beach that he has been in plane crash and there are many injured people that need attending to. Rounding up some people to help him with the wounded and getting them safely away from the plane that continues to burn and fall apart. When things are more under control he decides to set out the in the morning to try and find the Cock Pit to radio for some help. Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) decide to go with him. The night before, the survivors hear some very strange unexplained noises, and now the three have a frightening close encounter with some unknown creature in the jungle. A very tense first hour of exceptional TV, leaving me wanting more. Getting to know these characters should prove to be interesting and fun. Many of them have some dark secrets that will unfold throughout the season. So many dramatic situations to explore and discover while watching these individuals adapt and except the situation that they have been literally dropped into. Throw in the element of strange and bizarre creatures roaming the jungle looking for their next meal and you got an E Ticket thrill ride. I was hooked from the very first frame to the last cliffhanger. With moments of pure spine chilling fear and anxiety during the plane crash sequences to the much, dare I say needed commercial breaks, just to catch my breath and calm down. If the writers are able to sustain this level of intensity, drama and intrigue the entire season, Lost will be well on its way to becoming a bona fide cult hit. On a side note; there was a panel with some of the Actors and Writer/Producer Damon Lindelof. The crowd was mad Hobbit crazy for Dominic Monaghan and many of the questions were directed towards him. Not wanting to give too much of the plot away, they remained tight-lipped and did not reveal too much of the plot. In fact the actors were told to keep their personal character back-stories to themselves, so when secrets are revealed on the show, they would have honest reactions to them. Dominic who plays Charlie did mentioned that he one of the reasons he liked this role of a semi-known rock star with a drug problem, was to distance himself from the good guy Merry the Hobbit image that he now has. Damon assured the crowd that the creatures have nothing to do with dinosaurs and can all be explained in a logical way. Pilot Episode: Part One airs Wednesday September 22, 2004. Check your local listings for airtimes. Final Grade: W for Wow! SOURCE: FilmJerk.com (11:18 AM) The Gateway - Fall TV lineup looks to bomb Excited about the new fall season of TV shows? You might want to put on your helmet and hunker down. Unsuspecting viewers this fall are going to get hit with a bombardment of bad television. With the disappearance of "Friends" and "Frasier" on NBC, "Sex and the City" on HBO, "The Practice" on ABC and "Angel" on the WB, there's not much to look forward to. So what's left to watch? With "Friends" and "Frasier" gone, NBC is scrambling to make up for the loss of their two biggest moneymakers. Returning shows include "Fear Factor" and "Las Vegas" on Monday nights, "Scrubs" and "Law & Order: SVU" on Tuesdays and "The West Wing" Wednesday nights. Thursday will welcome the return of "Will & Grace," "ER" and everyone's favorite multi-millionaire, Donald Trump, on "The Apprentice 2." Sundays will mark the return of the nostalgic "American Dreams." While ABC made the right decision in dumping the bad comedies "I'm With Her" and "Married to the Kellys" and the even worse dramas "10-8" and "Line of Fire," what they chose to keep is not much better. Monday Night Football will be back to the relief of armchair quarterbacks everywhere. The rest of the week is sprinkled with unfunny comedies and laughable dramas. "My Wife & Kids," "The George Lopez Show," "According to Jim" and "NYPD Blue" all return to Tuesday nights. Wednesday nights give us back "The Bachelor" and if Sunday night feels a little empty on ABC, there's a good reason for it. While we get "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" back, we will be deprived of another season of "Alias" until midseason. Don't expect to see "Beck" or "The District" back on CBS. They got the axe, along with "Century City," "The Brotherhood of Poland N.H." and, unsurprisingly, "Hack." Returning shows include the Emmy award-winning "Everybody Loves Raymond" and "CSI" in all its various forms. The reality series "Survivor" returns on Thursdays, this time dumping its contestants in Vanuatu. Look for the return of the surprisingly good "Joan of Arcadia" and "JAG" on Friday nights. While Fox is better known for its reality shows that rely on shock value for ratings, there are still a few decent shows amid the muck. Be sure to tune in to "The Bernie Mac Show" on Tuesdays and "That '70s Show" on Wednesday nights. The angsty teenage drama The O.C. returns on Thursdays, along with the poorly written "Tru Calling." Everyone's favorite dysfunctional cartoon family, "The Simpsons," returns to its Sunday night timeslot, along with "King of the Hill" and "Malcolm in the Middle." The last-minute cancellation of the cult favorite "Angel," has left the WB with mostly mediocre dramas. "Charmed "returns on Sunday nights, with "Smallville" coming back to Wednesday nights. "Gilmore Girls," "7th Heaven" and "Everwood" will all be back in their usual timeslots. Of the new shows premiering this fall, only a handful looks to survive being replaced midseason. NBC's highly anticipated "Joey" takes over the prime Thursday night timeslot left vacant by "Friends." "Joey" follows "Friends" favorite Joey Tribbiani to Los Angeles to pursue his movie star dreams. Another promising show, "Lost," will air Wednesday nights on ABC. Created by J.J. Abrams, the genius behind "Alias," the show stars Dominic Monaghan ("Lord of the Rings") and Matthew Fox of "Party of Five" fame. "Lost" centers around a plane crash on a deserted island and the freaky things that keep happening to the surviving passengers. There is plenty to watch this fall on television, especially if you enjoy poorly written garbage. It's almost as though the networks are waging a war of their own: to see who can make the worst show ever. Unfunny comedies abound while dramas with ridiculous plot lines make a mockery of good television. Finding a good show this fall is like looking for a needle in a haystack: close to impossible. SOURCE: The Gateway (11:12 AM) MTV.com - 'Alias' Creator Doing The 'Impossible' Thanks To Tom Cruise When "Alias" creator J.J. Abrams met Tom Cruise earlier this summer, the actor admitted he had never seen the show. Abrams gave him the first two seasons on DVD even though he thought Cruise would never watch them. He was wrong. Not only did Cruise watch the shows, he loved them so much he asked Abrams to direct "Mission: Impossible 3." Abrams, who wrote "Armageddon" and "Joy Ride" and has directed episodes of "Alias" and "Felicity," which he also created, has never directed a movie before, but he was not about to turn the offer down. "The thing about 'Mission: Impossible' is that it is an incredible challenge, it's an incredible opportunity," Abrams said Wednesday. "And I just couldn't feel luckier that I'm gonna get to do that movie, 'cause I think the series is really fun. I'm a huge fan of the TV show." One of Abrams' favorite writers, "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile" screenwriter/director Frank Darabont, worked on the "Mission: Impossible 3" script with Dean Georgaris ("The Manchurian Candidate," "Paycheck"), so rewrites are unlikely. David Fincher was originally attached to direct but dropped out to do another movie. Joe Carnahan, who directed the Cruise-produced "Narc," stepped in, but he left earlier this summer over "creative differences." Shooting, which was scheduled to start this fall, has been pushed to next summer so Cruise can film "The War of the Worlds." Scarlett Johansson and Carrie-Anne Moss will co-star with Cruise in "M:I 3." Abrams, in the meantime, has started shooting the fourth season of "Alias" and is also launching another show this fall, "Lost," with "The Lord of the Rings" co-star Dominic Monaghan and Ian Somerhalder from "The Rules of Attraction." "It's potentially an incredibly cool show," Abrams said. " 'Lost' is about this group of people who survive this jumbo jet crash on an island in the South Pacific and the island is not what it seems to be. And the experience for these people, it's not just the survival and the interpersonal stuff, but the fact that they have to live on this island that is a place of mystery [makes for] pretty cool suspense. The cast is unbelievable. We have 13 regulars. They are all amazing." Abrams directed the series' first episode, which is reportedly the most expensive pilot in TV history. It airs September 22, with the show continuing on Wednesday evenings. Although he continues to write, Abrams is looking forward to directing more and has already signed on for another TV pilot. "It's fun to write, because you have the opportunity to tell stories, but it's the most lonely job in the world," he said. "I mean, you're just sitting there with a computer and feeling like a moron. Directing, you actually get to meet people and see faces and have interaction, and the people who are talking to you aren't just in your head and it's much more of a social job, so I prefer that light years more than writing." As for "Alias," Abrams said the fourth season will focus more on Sydney Bristow's (Jennifer Garner) personal life. "Season three was ultimately a pretty intense year for the character and is a darker year, and season four is there's a lot of hope in the year," Abrams said. "I can just tell things are going well because the actors and the directors and the editors, everyone's really happy and that's not always the case. I think our stories are better than they've ever been." The third season of "Alias," meanwhile, is due September 7 on DVD and will treat fans to plenty of special features. "They get some behind-the-scenes of how we create the appearance of various locations, all from lovely Burbank, California," Abrams said. "They get behind-the-scenes with some of our guest stars we have on the show — Isabella Rossellini, Ricky Gervais who's on 'The Office,' the BBC show, which is the greatest show ever, if you haven't seen it — and it includes an animated featurette which is sort of a short, animated episode of 'Alias,' which is really beautifully done and written by one of our writers. And Jennifer Garner did the voice, so it's pretty cool." SOURCE: MTV.com (11:09 AM) TV Guide Online - Roush Review: Who's Got the Buzz? On TV, everything is cyclical: sitcoms (currently cold), dramas (hot), perhaps even reality (red hot). Same goes for networks. When a network hits rock bottom, that's when it's most likely to take risks and give us something to talk about. That's certainly the case with ABC this fall — as well as, of all places, UPN, perennially under the critical radar. This season, both have stepped up with some of the new season's most intriguing shows. In keeping with this issue's theme, here's a sneak peek. ABC's Desperate Housewives (Sundays, 9 pm/ET) is a darkly funny soap opera/mystery hybrid, a suburban psychodrama with a wild cast: Sports Night's Felicity Huffman, Lois & Clark's Teri Hatcher, and soap vets Marcia Cross (Melrose Place) and Nicollette Sheridan (Knots Landing). It's a hoot. On paper, ABC's Lost (Wednesdays, 8 pm/ET) sounds even crazier, a Gilligan-in-Jurassic Park suspense adventure about plane-crash survivors stranded on a remote island that harbors deadly secrets. The pilot is a knockout. At UPN, the real eye-opener is Kevin Hill (Wednesdays, 9 pm/ET), with the charismatic Taye Diggs as a Jerry Maguire-style hotshot lawyer humbled by fate when he inherits an infant child, quits his job and goes to work at an all-female firm. It's endearing and sexy — eye candy that won't rot the mind. UPN's Veronica Mars (Tuesdays, 9 pm/ET) is a moody teen drama with elements of film noir, introducing Kristen Bell as a social outcast who helps her private-eye father solve cases that often hit close to home. What sets these shows apart is they're like nothing else on TV. In any season, that's worth celebrating. SOURCE: TV Guide Online (11:06 AM) Lost to Premiere in Queen's Surf at Honolulu on Saturday, August 28 According to Tim Star in Honolulu Star-Bulletin, the Pilot of Lost is set to premiere in Honolulu at Queen's Surf on Saturday, August 28, at 7:30pm. The cast and producers are expected to arrive at the site at 6pm. Sunset on the Beach On screen: Pilot episodes of "Lost" (7:30 p.m. Saturday) and "Hawaii" (7:30 p.m. Sunday) Place: Queen's Surf Also: Entertainment and food sales begin at 4 p.m. Celebrity sightings: The cast and producers of both shows will attend the screenings, arriving at 6 each evening. After Sunday's show the "Hawaii" cast will move on to a private reception at Tiki's Grill & Bar. Expect a feature on Dominic Monaghan on the same site later today. (10:55 AM) Saturday, August 21, 2004 Lost "Meet the Characters" Videos Available on ABC.com Jeanne reports that ABC.com has a couple of videos for Lost up called Meet the Characters. I was just searching for info about the ABC Fall Preview in NYC and I discovered that ABC's website has vids, Lost Preview: Meet the Characters Parts 1 and 2. Part 2 loads instantly and contains Sun, Boone, Sawyer, Michael, and Walt. Part 1 is available under 'more videos' and contains Jack, Charlie, Kate, and Locke. Each of the actors talks a little about their characters, and there are scenes from the pilot. (5:53 AM) Variety - Early Premiere for ABC Pair (Germany) Two of ABC's new fall dramas - "Desperate Housewives' and "Lost" - have been licensed by the Mouse House to Germany's paybox Premiere - and in a novel twist, they will air just days after their U.S. premiere. The unusual deal will be unveiled in London today by Tom Toumazis, senior VP and managing director of Disney unit Buena Vista Intl. TV. Head of programming Rainer Ingber negotiated for Premiere. No financial terms were made available. Under the agreement, "Desperate Housewives" will be broadcast on Premiere Oct. 14 (Stateside debut is skedded for Oct. 3) and "Lost" will air on Premiere Oct. 6 (Sept. 22 in the U.S.). Both series will be broadcast in English on the Teutonic paybox. "To work with Premiere to license these series for such an early broadcast on pay TV in Germany is a pioneering and exciting move for us," Toumazis said. Both series were first pitched to foreign broadcasters at the L.A. Screenings in late May. Agreement follows Warner Bros.' sale of the sitcoms "Joey" and "Two and a Half Men" to Channel Five in the U.K. SOURCE: Variety (5:39 AM) Wednesday, August 18, 2004 It's Not About the Dinosaur: The EXCLUSIVE Damon Lindelof Interview (Part One) (Below is the first part of Lost-TV's exclusive interview with Damon Lindelof, co-creator, writer, and producer of LOST. Damon spoke to us via telephone last August 13 for 45 minutes. If you wish to post this or portions of this elsewhere, please give credit to Lost-TV by posting a link to http://www.lost-tv.com/ . Email me at xander1600@yahoo.com if you reposted it.) Lost is the series that almost really did get lost. ABC exec Lloyd Braun called up whiz kid JJ Abrams (Felicity, Alias) and pitched an idea he had long been fond of: a plane crashes on a tropical island. JJ's response? A polite, "You must be kidding." "JJ got a call from Lloyd Braun who was the head of ABC, back at the every end of January 2004," Lost guru Damon Lindelof said. "Lloyd told JJ, 'I want to do a show about a plane that crashes on an island.' This is an idea I guess he'd had since last summer. Normally networks buy ideas in mid-summer, then the writers write during September and October, and they get scripts ready before Thanksgiving. The networks decide around December which shows they’re going to pick up and make pilots out of, and the pilot pickups are all after the first of the year in January. So that whole process had already gone by, and Lloyd called JJ at the very end of it and said, 'I want to do the show.' Most other pilots start production in early February which was a week later. JJ said, 'How can I possibly do another show this year? I'm running Alias and I've written this other show called The Catch (JJ's bounty hunter show slated for midseason) and I don't have time to do this island show. I don't even know what it is. What's the show? A plane crashes on an island? Is that it? What's the series?' But Lloyd was really attached to the idea, so JJ finally gave in and said, 'If you guys bring me a writer who I can bounce ideas around with and maybe I can supervise and they can write the script, maybe I’ll be involved." That's a whole lot of maybes. Time was running out. Other networks were going to start filming pilots the following week, and "this island series" was still in the "what if" stages. No writing staff, no scripts, no cast, nothing more than a one liner. "A plane crashes on a island." And the real kicker is finding someone else to work on the show. Enter Damon Lindelof. Damon (Nash Bridges, Crossing Jordan) had written a script the previous summer for a cop show, and while ABC executives were impressed and liked the script, they had decided against developing a pilot. Still, it put Damon in good graces with ABC. So when JJ asked for a collaborator, Damon got the call. "They brought me in to meet with JJ who I had been a huge fan of since Felicity and Alias," he said. "I was just happy to be in the same room with him. I didn't care what the idea was as long as it was JJ. So we had this amazing three hour meeting and started talking about ideas and the challenges attached to it. With this large a cast of survivors, the island itself has to be an interesting character otherwise all you have is people laying around in hammocks all day. If you don't have to go to work, you don't have to make money, fix your car, what do you do? After you solve the food and water problem, now what? What's going to create the drama?" Already behind the proverbial eight ball when Lloyd approached JJ with his idea, JJ and Damon were now under the gun to produce a pilot. Eleven weeks later, they had written the pilot, cast the pilot, filmed the pilot, edited the pilot and it was picked up by ABC. Given the usual time frame for television pilots – a leisurely 9 month lead time – that had to be a world record. They solved the problem by multi-tasking. "The casting process and the writing process were both happening at the same time," he told us. "We knew that there was going to be a doctor, that there was going to be a female lead, but we hadn't figured out what her background was going to be. We knew there was going to be the comic relief who was this musician, so we had sort of very vague ideas and started meeting with actors. And the first thing we wrote for the show before there was even a script were character outlines. Like Charlie, for instance. We constructed him as a has-been musician, late 40s who'd been in a band in the '80s and then Dominic Monaghan came in and read and it was like wow! He was so amazing we changed the character and write for him (Dominic). "Then JJ saw Jorge Garcia on television one night (in an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm), and he said, 'Let's write a character for him,' because Jorge's character didn’t exist yet." "Yunjin Kim came in and read for the character of Kate. But then we thought, she speaks fluent Korean and we thought, wouldn't it be amazing if there was this Korean couple, a husband and wife, who don't speak the same language as every one else." There were other changes in the script as well. Lost-TV reminded Damon of the rumor that Matthew Fox's character was originally slated to be killed off in the second hour of the pilot. "Who told you that?" Damon asked. "Did Foxy tell you that?" Foxy. Damon has a nickname for Matthew Fox. Foxy. Matthew Fox fans out there, feel free to unite in a big squee. The real story is that the character was scheduled to die, Damon told us. But the writers grew to like him so much, they decided to let him live. Matthew Fox was cast after that decision was made. But why think of killing off such a key character in the first place? Damon said that the idea of killing off a "main character" was to throw the audience a curve ball. If you kill off a perceived hero, you set the audience up for the unpredictability of what is going to happen and who will live and who will die. "The thinking that the one person who can really help them, the doctor, the hero, for him to die would be so earth-shaking (for the other survivors), but it was so unsettling (for the writers), because you spent the first hour getting attached to this guy and then he was gone." This thinking makes you wonder: who of the 14 main characters will in fact survive? Or to whom will the writers get so attached that he or she will live, despite the diminishing odds against their survival? Because, in real life, heroes do die. The good guy doesn't always win. And sometimes they even die. To be continued... (11:35 AM) Monday, August 16, 2004 Site Updates Tweaked the cast (to include Emilie De Ravin as a series regular) and episodes (to include titles of the first five episodes) sections of the site. Check it out! (9:25 AM) Sunday, August 15, 2004 More Tidbits from the EXCLUSIVE Damon Lindelof Interview! We're still working on the article and perhaps even a transcript of the interview, but here are a few more tidbits from the interview: 1. Yunjin Kim initially read for the role of Kate. She wasn't right for the role, but the producers liked her so much that they created the Korean couple for her. 2. Many of the writing team have a Minor in Sociology, which is going to help in writing character interactions. 3. The first season will depict their first 40 days on the island, with each episode covering roughly 48 hours (except the 2-hour pilot which only covers their first 24 hours). The Biblical reference (40 days) is no accident. 4. The cast and crew found out about the site about a week or two into filming the Pilot, thanks to Ian Somerhalder (at least Damon thinks it was Ian). (12:49 AM) Friday, August 13, 2004 LOST-TV TALKS TO DAMON LINDELOF! Roughly four hours ago, Lost-TV had an EXCLUSIVE 45-minute interview with LOST producer and co-creator Damon Lindelof! More details of the interview will be available soon, but we can tell you that he gives quite an insight into the process of conceptualizing and writing the series, plus one tidbit all you female fans have been waiting for: You'll be getting your shirtless men on the show, and that's a promise. (10:08 PM) Thursday, August 12, 2004 LOST Set Pictures! Many thanks to Ryan of HawaiiNews.com for providing the site with three pictures from the set of LOST. These sets will be (or were) used for filming flashbacks. 1 2 3 (3:17 PM) Wednesday, August 11, 2004 TV Barn - ABC to sneak peek fall shows in Times Square The ABC Television Network will offer thousands of New Yorkers and visitors to the city the opportunity to be the first on their block to sample the network’s new primetime lineup at the ABC Fall Preview Party at Times Square Studio, home of "Good Morning America," at 44th and Broadway in New York City. The event will take place Saturday and Sunday, August 21 and 22, beginning at 11:00 a.m. each day. Guests of the free event will be invited to play ABC trivia games and enter a raffle for great prizes. Balloons, food and drinks will be provided. Those attending will get a taste of what it’s like to be a Hollywood insider, as they sample and comment on ABC’s new promos. Many will go further behind the velvet rope when they are invited to watch full length episodes of brand new ABC series - a month before the network premieres these shows to national television audiences. "We really wanted to find a unique way to make some noise about our new season," said Mike Benson, senior vice president, ABC marketing. "This party seemed like a fun way to take our new shows to the streets and show potential viewers - on a very grass roots level - what we have to offer this fall." The shows getting a sneak peek are "The Benefactor," "Boston Legal," "Complete Savages," "Desperate Housewives," "life as we know it," "Lost," "Rodney" and "Wife Swap." SOURCE:TV Barn (Thanks to Debby for the link!) (9:49 PM) Thursday, August 05, 2004 A day late, but... HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DANIEL DAE KIM! (3:06 PM) Tuesday, August 03, 2004 HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EVANGELINE LILLY! (10:54 PM) Sunday, August 01, 2004 Massive Affiliate Update! I finally got around to checking my backlog of affiliate submissions, so as a result, I've added six awesome new affiliates! These are Art of Being // An Emilie De Ravin Fansite, Lost -- Retour aux sources (The First French Site on Lost), Billy-Boyd.net, lost-island.net, Looking Lost, and Lost_tv@LJ. Check them all out! (12:46 AM)
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