Watch: Damon Lindelof discusses 'Prometheus,' 'Alien' and sequels
'Lost' co-creator prepares fans for still more unanswered questions
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LONDON - If you follow Damon Lindelof on Twitter, or if you've read any of the interviews he's done since "Lost" wrapped two years ago, you're aware that Lindelof knows what you think about him, be it positive or negative.
As a result, Lindelof also knows what you think about the idea that his new film, "Prometheus," is designed as the first film in a contained series, meaning that the movie opening on Friday (June 8) raises as many questions as it answers.
Director Ridley Scott recruited Lindelof to give a new spin to a script by Jon Spaihts. That script was a straight-forward prequel to Scott's sci-fi landmark "Alien," but Lindelof's take turned "Prometheus" into a film that runs parallel to the time leading up to "Alien," but doesn't actually connect, at least not yet.
In a conversation filmed in a rover vehicle perched on a noisy corner of London's Covent Garden Lindelof discusses the progression of "Prometheus" out of the realm of a pure prequel and into its current form and argues in favor of "giving imaginative propriety to the fans" (that means not answering every question directly).
As was the case with my rover-set interview with Logan Marshall-Green, a couple of Lindelof's answers were rendered entirely unusable by reversing trucks and construction. Unfortunately, those answers included my Sepinwall prompted "Lost" question involving the people shooting at the outrigger. [No. Not really. I jokingly asked Lindelof about the outrigger after the cameras stopped rolling and his response was, "Sepinwall knows everything he needs to know about that."]
Stay tuned for my excellent, but slightly spoiler-y Ridley Scott interview either over the weekend or Monday. And check out my interviews with Logan Marshall-Green, Charlize Theron & Guy Pearce and Noomi Rapace & Michael Fassbender.
"Prometheus" opens on Friday, June 8.
Interview: 'Comedy Bang! Bang!' creator Scott Aukerman discusses bringing his podcast to IFC
Plus, 'Happy Endings' star Casey Wilson drops by for a chat
Scott Aukerman of "Comedy Bang! Bang!"
Credit: IFC
Back in February, I dropped by the Abso Lutely Productions studio in Hollywood to catch some filming for "Comedy Bang! Bang!" a new IFC take-off on the talk show format.
"Comedy Bang! Bang!" finds Scott Aukerman loosely adapting his popular podcast, which has become a must-visit for any comedy actor with a product to plug and a must-listen for anybody with an interest in the craft of comedy. While the podcast mixes traditional guest segments with in-character appearances from Aukerman's posse of laugh-generating chums, the IFC series is more of a 30-minute talk show parody, though it features many of the same guests who have become regulars on the podcast.
Early IFC episodes feature Amy Poehler and Zach Galifianakis playing themselves, while Reggie Watts is a regular fixture as Aukerman's bandleader.
On the day I'm visiting, Aukerman and Watts are sitting in the show's cramped green room eating catering from Zankou Chicken, though neither is actually eating the famous chicken. Over the course of the wide-ranging interview, Aukerman remains the only constant, as Watts is pulled aside for work down in the retro hunting lodge-style set, while "Happy Endings" star Casey Wilson drops by in the middle of the conversation before going and shooting a very funny skit.
For the most part, though, it's me and and Aukerman discussing the process of adapting the podcast and his own skewed take on the talk show format.
"Comedy Bang! Bang!" finally premieres on Friday, June 8.
Check out the full Q&A, complete with the Wilson cameo.
Watch: Logan Marshall-Green talks 'Prometheus,' Ridley Scott and robot racism
Sci-fi fanboy and star discusses his own expectations for the movie
LONDON - I'm not going to lie to you: I see Logan Marshall-Green and I instantly start humming "Hide and Seek." But Marshall-Green is more than just Ryan Atwood's ill-fated brother Trey from "The O.C." (and a regular on ABC's "Traveler" and TNT's "Dark Blue").
In roundtable interviews before last week's London premiere of "Prometheus," the 35-year-old actor discussed his excitement for the project as a sci-fi fanboy and also talked up his fanboy credentials for fantasy and for theater. And before we sat down to talk about "Prometheus" and this big opportunity to work with Ridley Scott, we discussed our impressions of the Tate Modern's currently running Damien Hirst retrospective, which we'd both found the time to catch in the days leading up to the junket. Logan Marshall-Green is a Renaissance Man, y'all.
Sitting in one of the planetary rovers from "Prometheus," Marshall-Green talks about his own expectations for the movie as a genre fan and explains why his character, Dr. Charlie Holloway, has issues with Michael Fassbender's robot butler David.
Disclosure: The rover was sitting in the heart of Covent Garden in London and due to construction noise and reversing trucks and other ambient distractions, a chunk of this interview was unusable. The same fate befell my interview with Damon Lindelof, which will post tomorrow morning and was shot in the same rover.
Stay tuned for the Lindelof interview tomorrow and the spoiler-y Ridley Scott interview either over the weekend or Monday. And check out my interviews with Charlize Theron & Guy Pearce and Noomi Rapace & Michael Fassbender.
"Prometheus" opens on Friday, June 8.
Listen: Firewall & Iceberg Podcast No. 133
Dan and Alan talk 'Saving Hope,' 'True Blood,' 'Buffy' and more
Happy Thursday, Boys & Girls.
Time for the promised bonus installment of The Firewall & Iceberg Podcast.
Just under the wire, we discuss Thursday's premiere of NBC's "Saving Hope." We also talk about IFC's "Comedy Bang Bang!" and "Bunk." I complain about HBO's "True Blood," while Sepinwall vows to never watch again unless I force him. We also briefly discuss the TCA Award nominations and then Alan shared some of his preferences in TV for kids.
And, finally, we talk about the "Witch" episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
This is probably our shortest podcast in a while, but combined with the 90+ minutes on Monday, that's still a lot of podcasting.
Today's breakdown:
"Saving Hope" (00:00:50 - 00:10:15)
"Comedy Bang Bang!" and "Bunk" (00:10:20 - 00:19:00)
"True Blood" (00:19:00 - 00:32:00)
TCA Award Nominations (00:32:00 - 00:42:25)
Alan's Kids' TV Roundup (00:42:35 - 00:49:25)
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Rewatch (00:49:30 - 01:03:45)
As always, you can subscribe to The Firewall & Iceberg Podcast over at the iTunes Store, where you can also rate us and comment on us. [Or you can always follow our RSS Feed.]
And as always, feel free to e-mail us questions for the podcast.
Watch: Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace discuss their 'Prometheus' influences
Fassbender talks Peter O'Toole, while Rapace talks angels
LONDON - In Ridley Scott's new sci-fi epic "Prometheus," the characters played by Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace have a peculiar relationship.
On one hand, both characters are pondering their origins.
Rapace's Elizabeth Shaw is leading an outer space mission with a goal that's no less than tracing the roots of humanity.
Fassbender's David is an android, so he has no roots, but he's fascinated by the people who made him, whether he's studying advanced linguistics or watching and rewatching "Lawrence of Arabia" to mimick the mannerisms of the young Peter O'Toole.
On the other hand, Shaw is a woman of cross-carrying faith, while David is a pragmatic rationalist, no more able to understand faith than several other challenging human emotions.
Head-butting ensues.
Off-screen, Rapace and Fassbender's relationship is humor-driven and the two volleyed one-liners back-and-forth both before and after I sat down with them last week at the London Film Museum in Covent Garden. If that humorous rapport doesn't always come through in this interview, that's probably because I was attempting to ask a few serious questions relatively early on the morning after the film's premiere.
Also check out my conversation with Charlize Theron & Guy Pearce and stay tuned for interviews with Logan Marshall-Green, Damon Lindelof and Ridley Scott in the days to come.
"Prometheus" opens on Friday, June 8.
Recap: 'So You Think You Can Dance' - Atlanta Auditions
What treasures would the judges find in the Dirty South?
Mary Murphy, Nigel Lythgoe and Cat Deeley of "So You Think You Can Dance"
Credit: FOX
Howdy, readers.
I'm back to live-blogging "So You Think You Can Dance."
I contemplated live-blogging last week's Los Angeles audition episode, but then I realized that live-blogging a two-hour episode in London keeps you up until after 3 a.m. and that just wasn't happening. But I watched the episode when I returned and there were actually a lot of terrific dancers showcased. It was, in fact, a far better structured episode than the premiere from two weeks ago.
How will this week's episode from Atlanta come out?
Let's see... After the break...
8:02 p.m. ET. We've got Debbie Allen as our guest judge. I wish they could just take Jesse Tyler Ferguson around on more auditions. He was really improved on last week's episode. He's definitely better and Toasty Oreos and he's also better than Adam Shankman who, fortunately, was probably in post-production on "Rock of Ages" when they did auditions. Lil C remains my favorite guest judge.
Watch: Charlize Theron and Guy Pearce discuss Ridley Scott's 'Prometheus'
Stars tease the art of playing mysterious characters
LONDON - It's tempting to just write, "Charlize Theron and Guy Pearce both play roles in Ridley Scott's 'Prometheus'" and move on directly into the interview clip.
Ambiguity permeates every frame of Scott's sorta-kinda-semi-demi-"Alien" prequel and no two characters are more difficult to talk about than the roles played by Theron and Pearce.
Theron plays Meredith Vickers, a tightly wound authority figure (of some sort) on a mission to possibly trace the origins of human life in a deep, far-flung recess of the universe. Meredith has secrets.
Pearce plays Peter Weyland, whose name means something if you're a devotee of the "Alien" franchise and who featured in the viral marketing campaign for "Prometheus," but you may have noticed the the "Memento" star is nowhere to be seen in actual trailers for the feature. He has secrets.
Yeah. It's hard to have a conversation with Pearce and Theron about their "Prometheus" presence and you'll probably be pleased that when I sat down with the two actors in London last week, just hours after the film's gala Leicester Square premiere, we kept things general: In this interview, the stars discuss Ridley Scott's gifts as an actors' director, the scope of the film and, in oblique terms, the challenges of playing characters this murky.
Stay tuned the rest of this week for a bunch more "Prometheus" video interviews, including conversations with Noomi Rapace & Michael Fassbender, Logan Marshall-Green and writer Damon Lindelof. I also had a good chat with Ridley Scott, but that interview contains a few spoilers, so I may hold it til early next week.
"Prometheus" opens on Friday, June 8.
Listen: Firewall & Iceberg Podcast No. 132
Dan and Alan talk 'Game of Thrones,' 'Mad Men' and 'Push Girls'
Happy Monday, Boys & Girls!
Firewall & Iceberg listeners (or fans) are in luck, because this is going to be a double podcast week!
In our regular Monday installment, we talk a little bit about Sundance's "Push Girls" and then a ton about "Game of Thrones" and "Mad Men." So it's only three things we talk about and it's a full 90-minute episode.
And we didn't even get to this week's episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
"Buffy" will be folded into a Wednesday or Thursday podcast that will also include reviews of HBO's "True Blood," IFC's "Comedy Bang Bang!" and "Bunk," NBC's "Saving Hope" and possibly a couple other things.
Hopefully y'all won't mind the double-podcast week!
Here's Monday's breakdown:
"Push Girls" (00:03:05 - 00:10:05)
"Game of Thrones" (00:10:10 - 00:55:45)
"Mad Men" (00:55:50 - 01:31:00)
As always, you can subscribe to The Firewall & Iceberg Podcast over at the iTunes Store, where you can also rate us and comment on us. [Or you can always follow our RSS Feed.]
And as always, feel free to e-mail us questions for the podcast.
DVR Gridlock 2012-13: Friday Nights
With 'Community' and 'Fringe' and 'Nikita' is Friday cool again?
"Fringe"
Credit: FOX
[This week, I'm going to be glancing, night-by-night, at how the primetime schedules have changed after the network announcements at upfronts. I'll be looking at how the various changes will impact the ratings races on each night, as well as my own DVRing habits. Readers can chime in on how their own DVRs will be impacted. And yes, this brief series assumes that anybody still watches TV on their TVs. I'm old-fashioned.]
FRIDAY NIGHTS
DVR Gridlock 2012-13: Thursday Nights
The biggest money night of the TV week just gets more competitive
Andre Braugher of "Last Resort"
Credit: ABC
[This week, I'm going to be glancing, night-by-night, at how the primetime schedules have changed after the network announcements at upfronts. I'll be looking at how the various changes will impact the ratings races on each night, as well as my own DVRing habits. Readers can chime in on how their own DVRs will be impacted. And yes, this brief series assumes that anybody still watches TV on their TVs. I'm old-fashioned.]
THURSDAY NIGHTS
