Some EXCELLENT news about Season 2...!

An island of Losties -- Like Trekkies before them, devoted fans of the current hit TV show find camaraderie at a convention.

By Roy Rivenburg, Times Staff Writer, June 14, 2005

What's inside the mysterious hatch on ABC's hit TV show "Lost"? Maybe a tunnel to Burbank, where a dozen cast and crew members surfaced over the weekend for the world's first official "Lost" convention.

In an event that was billed as "history in the making," fans hobnobbed with the show's stars, scooped up "Lost" merchandise and unearthed a few secrets about the cryptic series, which is like a cross between "Twilight Zone" and "Gilligan's Island."

The two-day convention was organized by Creation Entertainment, a Glendale company that also runs fan conventions for "Star Trek," "Xena" and other shows with cult followings.

Nobody wore costumes to this confab, unless you count the woman with the red blob of fake flesh attached to her shoulder. "It's a piece of Arzt," she explained, referring to the character who inadvertently blew himself up in the season finale.

Other "Losties," who paid as much as $189 per ticket, were just as ardent about the show. One asked actor John Terry, who plays the father of Jack, if he was "in need of female companionship." Terry said he was "happily married."

At the end of a Q&A session with several of the show's writers, one audience member shouted, "Don't kill Sawyer," referring to the island's hunky bad boy. Executive producer Damon Lindelof replied, "We won't. But he did get shot, which means his shirt will be off in a future episode." As female crowd members whooped, Lindelof added, "And he'll be wet" (Sawyer fell into the ocean after being shot).

Many of the audience questions focused on various conundrums from the Wednesday night show, which will move to 9 p.m. this fall. Set on a strange tropical island, the sci-fi series revolves around 14 survivors of a plane crash, and their encounters with an unseen monster, a polar bear, the wreckage of a 150-year-old slave ship and other oddities.

"Have any of you heard of string theory?" Terry asked at the beginning of his talk. "I think the characters have fallen into a tear in the fabric of the universe, and they're co-creating this reality." But, he added, "I really don't know. And even if I did know, I couldn't tell you or I'd have to kill every one of you."

It's a familiar refrain among the show's cast and crew.

"You learn to become artful about giving infuriatingly vague answers," writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach said backstage. "I don't even show the scripts to my wife."

He added, "Our fans are like Talmudic scholars. They have created a body of scholarship about every episode."

About a month after the series debuted, Grillo-Marxuach was walking his dog when a neighbor yelled from across the street, "Are they dead?" Grillo-Marxuach shouted back, "No, they're not dead." The neighbor replied, "Really? Then why are their clothes so clean?"

At the convention, Grillo-Marxuach and his colleagues dangled a handful of clues to fans. "The plane did not crash by accident," Lindelof told the crowd. "It crashed for a very specific reason." But he dismissed speculation that someone aboard the plane caused the crash. "I will tell you today that is not the case."

He also promised, "Season 2 is gonna get weird" — though he and other writers promised the mysteries wouldn't drag on as long as "The X Files," which ran nine seasons. Other tidbits:

• What's inside the mysterious hatch will be interesting, but not as interesting as the effect it has on the John Locke character, according to Grillo-Marxuach.

• The rear section of the plane — and additional survivors — will be discovered during the second season.

• The people who kidnapped Walt, the young boy, are the "others" on the island.

• Eight infants have played the newborn son of Claire on the show. "They keep growing," so new ones have to be brought in, said Emilie de Ravin, who plays Claire. "It's a constant struggle to find newborn Caucasian babies in Hawaii," where the show is taped.

Fans came from as far away as Toronto, Brooklyn and Alaska for the convention, but Creation Entertainment officials admitted they were disappointed by the turnout. Although they had hoped for a crowd of 1,000, actual attendance was closer to 800, they estimated. Even that might be generous, judging from Sunday's crowd. The ballroom, with seating for 280, was never full.

One fan, Marianna Anderson, blamed the weak attendance on a shortage of marquee names, such as the actors who play Jack, Kate or Sawyer. Organizers did recruit De Ravin and Jorge Garcia, who plays Hurley. But after that, the speaker lineup went to such second-tier characters as evil Ethan (William Mapother), and the psychic who warned Claire about her baby (Nick Jameson, a former member of the rock group Foghat).

The fans didn't seem to mind. Many crept up the center aisle on their knees to snap photos while the actors spoke. They also stood in a long line for autographs, and bought $25 T-shirts and caps, $40 canvas posters, $8 stainless steel shot glasses and $130 "Lost" jackets.

At one point, Terry was asked to sign a photo using his character's name. He paused, searching his memory. "Christian Shephard," the woman offered. Is that with one "p" or two, he asked. Someone pulled out a program and supplied the correct spelling.

Convention organizers said the weekend event was the first of six "Lost" gatherings planned for the next year. The next will be held in Northern California sometime before the end of 2005, they said.

mad m wrote:

Ah rats im going to California in couple of weeks,and convention is on the end of 2005 there..... :rolleyes:

Would of got you all signed autographs.

Thanks for the information Basquille

Question: So, if Michelle Rodriguez' character is alive (Ask Ausiello 6/8), what are the chances that Rose's husband is alive, too? — Shannon

Ausiello: I'd say the chances are pretty darn good.

Question: Will the casting of Maggie Grace as Kitty Pryde in X-3 (Entertainment News 5/18) affect Shannon's fate on Lost? — David

Ausiello: An ABC rep says no.

Question: Lost spoilers, pretty please!! — Caroline

Ausiello: Don't beg, Caroline. It's beneath what little dignity you have. Anyway, producers Damon Lindelof and Javier Grillo-Marxuach apparently let the scoop fly at the first ever Lost convention in Burbank, Calif., two weeks ago. Among the Season 2 tidbits dropped by the duo: The marooned passengers will find the tail section of the plane, as well as the survivors who were seated there, prompting Charlie to declare, "Look — it's the chick from Girlfight!" Sawyer will survive the bullet wound he sustained on the raft; and those pirates are, in fact, "the Others." Also, Lindelof confirmed that Oceanic Flight 815 "did not crash by accident. It crashed for a very specific reason." (Yeah, to save ABC)

- Asked "what's up with the polar bears?" writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach explained that it's a little known fact that polar bears are actually indigenous to the South Pacific.

- Sawyer was originally envisioned as a Prada-wearing, boiler-room con man from Buffalo, New York. The writers adjusted the character after casting Josh Holloway (though he did attempt to master a Buffalo accent first, whatever a Buffalo accent in).

- Both Josh Holloway and Maggie Grace confessed a fondness for skinny-dipping. Javier added that the show is also written in the nude, though this never gets any media attention.

- Believe it or not, Shannon's character was originally written as much bitchier.

- When an audience member asked about the significance of Walt's comic book, specifically that it features both aliens and polar bears, Damon Lindelof responded, "We can't have aliens in LOST since, as everyone knows, LOST is not a science fiction show." Javier also precluded any appearances by Green Lantern or the Flash (both of whom appeared in the comic).

- Javier stated that the writers express goal was to "put you into a Moebius loop of confusion."

- Lindelof explained in no uncertain terms that the mysterious cloud of black smoke that appeared after Kate dynamited the hole down which Locke was being dragged is not a cloud of nanobots. "Of course," he added, "that depends on how you define 'nanobot'."

"Damon Lindelof, co-creator and executive producer of ABC's Lost, told SCI FI Wire that the next season will offer some answers to the first year's mysteries, but even more questions. "We're going to blow it up and change everything this year," he said in an interview at the Comic-Con International in San Diego. "I mean, I think that our attitude is not to do more of the same. They're going to go into the hatch, and what they find inside is going to change their state of being for quite some time. So we're going to continue to explore the characters as we always have. The show will be the same in the way that we tell the stories. But season two is really about exploring the island along the way and we just hope that people think what they find is cool." "

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Viewer alert: Major revelations are coming soon. Television's two most-talked-about series, ABC's Lost and Desperate Housewives, quickly plan to answer questions raised by their cliffhangers last season.... Lost will plunge into the mysterious hatch in its first episode, series co-creator Damon Lindelof says.

"You will see everything that's in there. What is in there will change everything about how they live on the island," Lindelof says. "We are erring on the side of giving away too much as opposed to being too vague."

The producers are meeting the nation's TV critics to collect awards. The Television Critics Association honors Desperate Housewives as program of the year. Lost earns prizes as best new program and top drama. Both series are likely to start their second seasons in mid-September.

The hatch looms as the main topic on Lost, and producers plan a bold revelation.

"I can guarantee you there will be people [viewers] who do not like what they find in the hatch," Lindelof says. "We found this door in the 10th episode of the show, and 13 episodes later they finally open it up. So what's inside has to be something big."

Although the contents can be construed as science fiction, Lindelof rules out a few possibilities.

"There aren't aliens in there," he says. "There isn't a time-travel portal. They aren't going to find a ship they blast off into space." The ill-fated voyage of the raft forms another major plot. A band of vicious strangers set the craft afire and seized the boy Walt (Malcolm David Kelley). Three other castaways -- Michael (Harold Perrineau), Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) -- were left struggling for survival in the ocean.

"If they will reconvene with the main group becomes the story fodder of the first seven or eight episodes," Lindelof says.

The show will continue to examine characters' lives through flashbacks before the plane crash put them on a remote island. Those plots will include more on the marriage of Jack (Matthew Fox); the injury that put Locke (Terry O'Quinn) in a wheelchair; the rock-star existence of Charlie (Dominic Monaghan); the fugitive past of Kate (Evangeline Lilly); and the lottery lifestyle of Hurley (Jorge Garcia).

Michelle Rodriguez joins the cast as a passenger who was in the tail section and who survived elsewhere on the island. The recurring numbers -- on the flight, hatch and lottery ticket -- will become "the driving and fundamental plot point of the second season," Lindelof says. Viewers will know how the plane crashed by season two's end, he promises.

But Lindelof stresses the people are the main element. "The island just serves as a conduit to tell character stories," he says. "No one is really watching the show for the answers to those mysteries. They're watching to see: Will Kate and Jack hook up?"

tvnutz wrote:

..and about 5 weeks during february when the US do their mid season thing which usually consists of crap shows! that is the most annoying break!

tvnutz wrote:

who was he in malcolm? i think i do remember him in an ep,but cant remmeber as who.

tvnutz wrote:

in flashbacks i presume you mean,unless there is still some of him left on Jack's shoulder

"There will be an exclusive LOST clip shown on San Diego's ABC (channel 10) at 7 PM PT on August 13th or so that's what channel 10 news is saying, teasing us with a tiny commercial. I do not know the content of the clip, just that it is supposed to be from season 2."

Question: What gives, man? The only Lost spoilers you gave us last week were things we already knew or assumed anyway. Give us some real scoop! — Marissa

Ausiello: With all due respect, I think my stunning revelation last week that aliens are not hiding out in the hatch most definitely qualifies as real scoop, Marissa. I'd go so far as to call it an all-out bombshell. But enough about that, let's get to the really real scoop. (MAJOR SPOILER ALERT) Among the burning questions Damon Lindelof and Co. plan to answer this season via flashback:

* Who is the woman Jack married? Yeah, we know she used to be on Ed, but who is she aside from that. (Look for this to be addressed early on, since Julie Bowen flew to Hawaii last week to shoot an episode.)
* How did Locke become wheelchair-bound?
* What exactly did Kate do to become one of America's Most Wanted?
* What was Hurley's prelottery existence like?

Also, Lindelof tells me that the mystery surrounding the crash of Oceanic Flight 815 — which was originally going to be solved in a minimovie on the first-season DVD — will be resolved this season. "By the finale of Season 2," he says, "you will know why the plane crashed."

Question: Any more scoop on Lost? — Beth

Ausiello: Here's another tidbit from Mr. Lindelof: "Right out of the gate in the season premiere, the numbers become a driving and fundamental plot point of the second season. I don't think people will be disappointed in what they are, what they mean and how they're being used."

Question: What do you know about Michelle Rodriguez's Lost story line!? What will Ana-Lucia be up to on the island? — Leigh L.

Ausiello: You mean aside from coming between Jack and Kate? "We're not stupid," exec producer Carlton Cuse says of the looming triangle. "There's clearly chemistry between [Michelle and Matthew Fox]. Their [airport encounter] was not accidental."