July 2008

Screenrant have some interesting tidbits from the Fringe Comic-Con panel. Here are some of their thoughts:

John Noble spent what felt like an inordinate amount of time explaining the complexity of his character.  From being a father, a nutcase and a scientist.

Fringe, in their minds, has an overall story with an endgame.

Each episode will have clues for the next episode, so we need to pay attention.

One brave soul asked Abrams if he intends to put in sufficient time to get the show rolling, then leave it for his next project like he does in his past projects.  Abrams says he’s got a type of ADD that happens while he’s working on something.  He gets ideas for something else while working on a project and goes off on a development binge but he quickly followed that up by saying he’s thoroughly committed to Fringe.  (We’ll see.)

They made a hint at yet another mystery to draw us into the show by pointing out that we’ll be seeing glyphs between acts that are either clues, or just glyphs.  I didn’t quite get what they were getting at and that’s my fault… the room was spinning from having camped in it for 6 hours through a lot of other panels.  Or maybe I didn’t miss anything!

Interesting tidbit:  Did you know that in Cloverfield, there were clues to the ABC TV series Lost?  I missed them, and I haven’t read reviews of the movie anywhere, but apparently there are references to the Dharma Initiative.  Great…  more Lost stuff to wrap my head around… or try.

Glyphs? LOST fans will know that ancient glyphs have cropped up in seasons 2 and 4 of ABC’s hit series. Perhaps this will be the shout-out to the Dharma Initiative that we’ll be seeing?

Source and Image from Screen Rant (Check out more Fringe/Comic-Con thoughts on their site).

UPDATE: Gozlim also have some reports from the Fringe Comic-Con panel:

Asked about the genesis of the show, the writers described it as a “planned pregnancy” in that they basically decided to create a show and then did so. Abrams added that the show was partially inspired by some of the science fiction films of his youth, particularly “Altered States,” early work by David Cronenberg, and Rod Serling’s “The Twilight Zone.” Regarding “Massive Dynamics,” a fictional megacorporation and whether the role the company was to play in the series related to the Bush Administration, J.J. Abrams talked about corporate identity advertising for megacorporations like General Electric and defunct eighties food giant Beatrice Foods, though the thrust of the series may be less traditionally conspiratorial than viewers might expect.

Moving on to the actors, Josh Jackson credited the script for his decision to agree to star on “Fringe.” When J.J. Abrams was asked what made Jackson right for the role, he quipped that the the character “was originally called ‘Pacey’” before praising the thirty year-old actor’s screen presence. Australians Anna Torv and John Noble were asked if they “bonded” over the issue of their Aussie accents before joking prevented them from discussing the matter, and with writer/producer Jeff Pinkner commented that with “perhaps the strongest writing staff in Hollywood” (including a genuine member of the Whedon family), “it’s up to us not to fuck it up.”

Answering the inevitable question about “mythology” vs. “regular episodes,” J.J. Abrams confessed to being sick of complaints about the complicated stories of past shows, particularly “Alias.” The aim with “Fringe,” at least initially, was to create shows that could be more easily understood without having seen every episode. Abrams added later that he feels that the pilot was burdened by the premise and that later installments would be more exciting.

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