Variety.com

"Dollhouse" Tv Series - A credible start for the premiere

Tuesday 17 February 2009, by Webmaster

http://www.courant.com/entertainment/tv/hc-dollhouse.art0feb13,0,2188371.story

TELEVISION

Welcome To The 'Dollhouse': Joss Whedon Is Back With New Show

By ROGER CATLIN

The Hartford Courant

February 13, 2009

LOS ANGELES

Copyright © 2009, The Hartford Courant

True Blood: Season One Blu-ray Details and Cover Art

February 05, 2009

HBO Entertainment is gearing up to release a new Blu-ray set you'll definitely want to sink your teeth into.

On May 19, the complete first season of HBO's True Blood will make its Blu-ray debut day-and-date with DVD. With Fox announcing the X-Men Trilogy for Blu-ray earlier this afternoon, True Blood star Anna Paquin has had quite the "blu" day.

All 12 episodes from the first season of True Blood will be spread out over 5 discs and be presented in 1.78:1 1080p video and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio.

Traditional bonus features like featurettes, audio commentaries and deleted scenes will only be found on the DVD edition. For the Blu-ray edition, Warner is taking a completely different approach and packing everything into "True Blood Enhanced Viewing."

This likely picture-in-picture mode will offer dirt on everyone in town with Lafayette; information on how your favorite vampires were made; helpful hints and "more."

Retail pricing for True Blood: Season One on Blu-ray has been set at $79.98. Amazon.com is currently taking pre-orders for $55.95 and you can secure a copy at that price by clicking here.

Click through the disc details below to view high resolution cover art.

http://www.thehdroom.com/news/True_Blood_Season_One_Blu-ray_Details_and_Cover_Art/4227

edcsLover9 | Cast&Crew | 18:06 CET | 4 comments

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,490024,00.html

 

Eliza Dushku Likes Tattoos and Tough Guys

Monday, February 09, 2009

Eliza Dushku is the cover girl for the March 2009 issue of Maxim, on stands February 17.

Eliza Dushku notices something when she takes a shower.

Her tattoos.

"I love catching a glimpse of my tattoos when I strip down and take a shower," the actress tells Maxim in its upcoming March issue. "Kat Von D did a beautiful symbolic feather on my ribs."

Good thing she's not afraid of needles. The former Buffy star has a new Fox series coming out, Dollhouse, in which she plays a lab-created being who's implanted in each episode with a new personality.

In addition to her own tattoos, Dushku, 28, likes a good tat on her man, as well.

"I like guys who play hard and have calluses on their hands," she tells the magazine. "Any guy who's been raised in a bubble hasn't lived enough for me. Scars and broken body parts and tattoos are hot."

Dushku's Dollhouse premieres on FOX Friday, February 13.

The March issue of Maxim hits stands February 17.

http://www.maxim.com/Eliza-Dushku-March-2009/girls-of-maxim/gallery/48589/1272.aspx

 

Having grown up in Boston as the only girl in a family of three roughhousing brothers, it’s not hard to see where Eliza Dushku got her tough-as-nails demeanor.But any preconceived notions you have about Eliza are about to be eliminated thanks to her new show, Dollhouse, created by her old Buffy and Angel boss, geek god Joss Whedon.

You convinced Joss Whedon to come back to TV and do this show with you. How did you twist his arm?
I knew that if I went back to TV, I absolutely wanted it to be with him, so I invited him to lunch. He picked this fancy-schmancy restaurant, and we threw around ideas. Four hours later he came out of the bathroom and said, “The show’s going to be called Dollhouse.” That Gouda pizza I bought him was the best investment I ever made.

Your body looks amazing these days. Were you channeling any Hollywood icons during our shoot?
Ava Gardner, baby. And thanks, I feel good in my skin. I have two beefy trainers I work out with every day. I like working out with guys who tower over me with bulging muscles.

Joss Whedon Goes Where No TV Man Has Gone Before

The genius behind television’s "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" turns to the Web

In the current issue, Joss Whedon, the George Lucas of television, reveals why working on his triumphant return to the small screen, Dollhouse, has convinced him to abandon TV for good. His alternative medium: Web serials. He began making the sci-fi musical Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (which stars Neil Patrick Harris) during the writers’ strike, streamed a few episodes online for free, and struck it big when they went onsale at iTunes. Here Whedon discusses his early foray into Web shows and reveals his plans for the near future. Plus, check out five must-watch Web series — several of which are Whedon-approved.

What what was it about Internet series first appealed to you?

I had been very interested in the idea of making things on the cheap with the people that I love and trust — low risk, medium yield kind of stuff where you can just do what you think is right and not have to worry.

Your fans have created so much fiction online. To what degree was that on your radar? I’m aware of it and but most of the fan stuff is a continuation of something that already exists. The one that really got me was the Star Trek episode, the New Voyages, which was over an hour of film and extraordinarily artfully scripted entertainment that streamed perfectly. I’m not a trekker, and I was riveted. I was sitting on a stool in my kitchen, and I cannot move. I was like, this is amazing.

Amazing in what sense?

It was probably the best episode of the original Star Trek I’d ever seen. The only [bad] part of it was that the special effects were a little too good. Apart from that they really aped the camera work, the acting, the story structures and the over-quoting of Shakespeare. And it worked tremendously. And I had also been watching The Guild with Felicia [Day, actress in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dr. Horrible] and it was small, it was delightful and it was her. She wrote it, she produced it, it really was her and she is a massive gamer. So here was another really great example from a different mold of just somebody who got tired of not getting the gig, creating the gig. And Felicia and Eliza [Dushku, of Dollhouse] have that in common, both people are taking control of their careers, which for an ingénue is the hardest thing in the world.

So I started going to all these meetings. People were like, "Let’s get $200 million from this hedge fund and make TV on the Internet and then sell it back to TV!" And I was like, "I don’t think that’s my mission statement." And at the end of the day I basically made a deal or agreed to a deal with a company, a Silicon Valley company who shall remain nameless because that deal is still being made.

For Dr. Horrible?

No, it was for something else. The idea was possibly creating a portal and using this as the first thing. And possibly creating a real relationship. Which, by the way, could still happen. But before Christmas I sat down with this very, very sort of profitable maverick company and said, "Look, I want to do this and I will do it for you cheaper than anybody in this town and make it look good. I don’t care." They were talking about doing a genre portal and they talked to me and I said, "I have three ideas." The third was Dr. Horrible, I knew they wouldn’t go for that.

Could you tell me what the other ones were?

No, because I might still do them. In fact, I plan to do them.

PRIVATE PRACTICE

Air Date: Thursday, February 19, 2009

Time Slot: 10:01 PM-11:00 PM EST on ABC

Episode Title: (#217) "Wait and See"

ARCHER AND NAOMI GROW ROMANTICALLY CLOSER, WHILE ADDISON SUSPECTS HER BROTHER IS UP TO HIS OLD TRICKS, ON ABC’S "PRIVATE PRACTICE"

Guest starring Grant Show ("Melrose Place," "Swingtown") as Archer Montgomery

"Wait and See" As Naomi and Archer grow closer as a couple, Addison suspects that her brother may have returned to his old, bachelor ways. Meanwhile, Dell, Addison and Naomi heatedly debate the pros and cons of gender reassignment surgery when their patients’ newborn child is born with both male and female sex organs, and Violet and Sheldon settle some of their own issues when they co-lead a couples’ therapy group, on "Private Practice," THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19 (10:02-11:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

"Private Practice" stars Kate Walsh as Dr. Addison Forbes Montgomery, Tim Daly as Dr. Pete Wilder, Audra McDonald as Dr. Naomi Bennett, Paul Adelstein as Dr. Cooper Freedman, KaDee Strickland as Dr. Charlotte King, Chris Lowell as William Dell Parker, with Taye Diggs as Dr. Sam Bennett and Amy Brenneman as Dr. Violet Turner.

Guest starring Brian Benben as Sheldon, Sharon Leal as Sonya, Marin Hinkle as Beverly, Erik Palladino as Mitch, Emma Caulfield as Leanne, Leonard Roberts as Ryan, Alexandra Lydon as Eleanor with Grant Show as Archer.

"Wait and See" was written by Steve Blackman and directed by Michael Zinberg.

"Private Practice" is broadcast in 720 Progressive (720P), ABC’s selected HDTV format, with 5.1-channel surround sound and Spanish audio via SAP. A TV parental guideline will be posted closer to airdate.

This episode of "Private Practice" will be available on ABC.com the day after airing on the network for users to watch online.

Is it grindhouse camp? Extreme inflatable-girl fantasy? Latter-day Moses narrative? Or another case of a fickle network playing Lucy and the football with one of TV’s best-loved creators?

Whatever your take on Joss Whedon’s new series, "Dollhouse," after you see the debut at 8 p.m. next Friday on Fox 4, you’re not likely to say it’s short on ambition.

The year’s most anticipated new series, at least among Internet fandom, "Dollhouse" stars Eliza Dushku ("Buffy," "Angel," "Tru Calling") as Echo, an eye-popping shebot who can be programmed with almost any personality her employer desires, whether a gun-toting rock climber or a dressed-to-the-nines hostage negotiator fluent in Spanish.

Echo is employed by is a super-secret organization — run by a queen bee with a British accent (Olivia Williams) — whose mad software genius, a dude named Topher (Fran Kranz), rewrites Echo and scores of her fellow "actives" before each of their sexy-slash-dangerous missions, for which the firm is handsomely compensated by clients.

Throw in some nefarious government investigation (or is it a cover-up?). Add a dash of intrigue in the form of Echo’s protector, Boyd (Harry Lennix), a shadowy ex-cop with a heart of gold. And then stir in the possibility that Topher may not be completely erasing Echo’s remembrances of things past, so that eventually she may figure out what’s being done to her.

All those ingredients make for a stew that, initially anyway, needs salt. The dialogue is conspicuously missing Whedon’s trademark snappy patter — unlike, say, the memorable pilot of his series "Firefly." Hardcore Whedonists are well aware that this is actually the second pilot that Fox ordered of the show, and that "Firefly" was also scheduled on Friday nights in 2002, and quickly died there as well.

On the other hand, Fox is giving "Dollhouse" a potentially potent lead-in with "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," another power-grrl show, at 7 p.m. And the network has come up with an irresistible on-air ad campaign for the two shows in the spirit of the Quentin Tarantino-Richard Rodriguez "Grindhouse" flicks.

Having seen two more promising later episodes, I say give "Dollhouse" time. And in the meantime, enjoy the set.

I first laid eyes on it last summer, during a visit to the Fox lot: an expensively wood-paneled, 100-foot-wide, two-story nerve center for the "actives," where they spend their down time between assignments getting backrubs, taking showers, going for dips — basically anything that involves disrobing.

"There’s not a person who’s gone on that set who hasn’t said, ’I want to live here,’" observed Sarah Fain, the show’s co-executive producer, as we walked through the "Dollhouse" stage last month.

"Every single person, from the extras to our cast to the studio execs," echoed Liz Craft, her longtime writing partner, the show’s other co-executive producer and, way before that, Fain’s classmate at Pembroke Hill.

Craft and Fain got their first co-writing credit with Whedon on the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" spinoff "Angel." They’ve risen steadily as a tandem to co-showrunner status, most recently with the short-lived adaptation of James Patterson’s "Women’s Murder Club" books for ABC.

Everyone agrees that the likable, enigmatic Whedon is the captain of the ship, but it’s a big ship. That’s why they’re here.

"No one person can run the show," Craft said. "You have to be able to delegate." And in this case, he has two lieutenants to carry out his ideas.

"We can interpret what he says: ’What do you think he meant?’ ’Well, I think he meant this.’ That’s nice, to have another set of ears," said Craft. "And we’re very comfortable with collaboration."

I ask if that’s because they’re women — still a distinct minority in Hollywood’s writing ranks.

"I think it’s more being Midwestern than being women. There is a definite team-player, work-ethic, ’I don’t want to disappoint you’ ..."

"We’re the ’whatever you need’ people," said Fain, finishing the thought.

The day I visited the "Dollhouse" stage in January, the fabulous zombie spa was mostly under tarp, so we retired to a homey-looking room with books and child-sized furniture and a piano in the corner. As we sat and talked, a multiracial group of preteen actors assembled in the corner, joined by crew members starting to set up. Somebody started to play "Stand By Me."

Fain explained the scene that Dushku would soon be shooting here. "She’s going to come in and read a fairy tale to these kids. Last week, she was kicking somebody’s ass. I mean, she can be anyone. We have everything from nice sweet emotions to huge action and stunning twists."

While Echo is out terrorizing and/or romancing, an FBI agent named Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett) will be doggedly pursuing rumors about this mystery outfit that has figured out how to turn smokin’ men and women into pleasure slaves. Everyone around Ballard treats him as though he’s asked the agency to re-open its UFO files.

But in the end, said Craft, it’s neither Echo nor Ballard "but the workings of the dollhouse that we think is what everyone’s going to be interested in."

"Dollhouse," said Fain, is a parable "about a people struggling to be free. Echo is our heroine, and she’s a fighter." Like Moses.

"Whether she knows it or not," added Craft.

At this, both women laugh knowingly — after all, they’re talking about a character who has her hard drive reformatted every three days.

"Well," said Fain, "that just makes her more interesting and more heroic."

Loooong, but obviously meaty! I haven't had a chance to read it yet.

Apparently, this is the first time anything has been done this way and they had to get special permission from Joss Whedon to make this happen. The story will take place during season 5 after Illyria had lost her powers. She goes on a journey to get those powers back.

Click on the link :

http://buffyfest.blogspot.com/2009/02/idw-follow-up.html

JOSS WHEDON may be as much a cult figure as the characters he conjured for “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel,” but since 2004, when his vampires faced the final apocalypse, he has been everywhere but television. “Dollhouse,” his new Fox series, is his welcome back. In the show Eliza Dushku (Faith in “Buffy”) stars as Echo, a blank slate of an underground operative whom clients transform into whatever they desire, be it negotiator, assassin, friend or lover.

But even fame and a hard-core fan base couldn’t protect the 44-year-old Mr. Whedon — who wrote a movie (“Serenity,” based on his TV series “Firefly”), an Internet musical (“Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog”) and a thriller (the forthcoming “Cabin in the Woods”) during the interregnum — from a dreaded Friday night time slot. In a telephone interview with Kathryn Shattuck, Mr. Whedon spoke about expectations for Echo, and for himself.

Q. So where did you come up with the idea for “Dollhouse”?

A. At lunch. I came up with the idea with Eliza. She had made a deal to do a show at Fox, and we were sort of talking about the kind of show she ought to do and the kind of people she ought to play and what people expected of her, and then lo and behold the show just sort of popped up and started barking at me.

Q. You said she had made a deal. Did that deal include you?

A. No, I had no intention of doing another show. I just sometimes spend time with Eliza and talk about her career and how she can work it and take control of it and, you know, make the kind of television she’s proud of and interested in and that will challenge her in different ways as often as possible. And because we were covering all the things she wanted in a show, this show then came out of that.

Q. What was the next step?

A. I told my people, “I think I accidentally made up a show, and maybe we should try this.” I did go to Fox. Within a week we sat down and gave them the concept, the episodes, the five-year arc, a one-sheet, and everything just sort of fell into place, and they said: “We’re not really interested in a pilot. Why don’t you give us seven episodes instead?” Which was quite a vote of confidence. That later became 13 episodes before we’d ever shot a foot, and so it was slightly, you know, kismet. Obviously it became more complicated, but it definitely was an organic process.

Q. Tell us about Echo. She’s going to start remembering, and then what happens?

A. Oh, all heck breaks loose. The arc of the show is really her not remembering so much as becoming self-aware, knowing things in a more complex way than she should, knowing that she exists and eventually knowing that she used to be different than she is now. We as an audience are searching for her identity, but she is more searching for the concept of identity, at first.

Q. What personalities is Echo going to take on?

A. She’s going to be a rich older woman who has died, she’s going to be a blind cult member, she’s going to be a dominatrix, she’s going to be a backup singer for a pop star, she’s going to be a safecracker, she’s going to be a somebody’s wife. She’s going to be, you know, whatever’s next.

Q. The show has been moved into a tough time slot. How do you feel about that?

A. It’s a tough time slot if your expectations are to take over the world. If your expectations are to hold your own in a tough time slot, then it’s not a tough time slot. Knowing that genre shows have a life outside of their airing and that so many people are watching TV at a different time than it airs anyway, it’s certainly not the same as it used to be.

Q. What was your thinking behind “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog”?

A. Twofold. On one hand I wanted to set an example of the creative community making something without any help from studios of any kind and actually getting it out to the public and making a profit on it. And the other half was my feeling that there are not nearly enough supervillain musicals.

Q. I guess not. Will “Dollhouse,” like “Buffy,” have a musical episode?

A. Not in the same sense, though Echo does play backup singer at one point. “Buffy” lent itself to that kind of thing in a way that my other shows don’t. I would say that “Dollhouse” is a little more grown-up. But don’t worry. I’ll never completely grow up.

In a conference call to the media for "Dollhouse" on Thursday, Joss Whedon was asked many questions that are sure to be topics of interest to some. A few of his answers:

In terms of ’finding the show’: It was probably most similar to "Angel" in the sense of what we had in our mind about what "Angel" was ultimately was different than what the network did. In our minds, it was darker ... The mandate was "give us the world of the show and not just the structure of the show" ... But there was some real questioning about what exactly we wanted to get at in terms of the humanity, what they do, and why people hire them, and you know, there’s a sexual aspect to it, and it makes some people nervous. Part of the mandate of the show is to make people nervous.

On humor: There is a lot of fun and a lot of humor in it. What it doesn’t have is an inherent silliness that both "Buffy" and "Firefly" had, and even "Angel" ... This has to be a little bit more grounded in order for it to play ...

Why Eliza?: She’s overcome her homely shyness over these years. Eliza, apart from being, in my opinion, as great a star as I have ever known, has a genuinely powerful and electric and luminous quality that I’ve rarely seen. She’s also a really solid person. She’s a good friend. She’s a feminist. She’s an activist. She’s interested in the people around her and she’s got a lot of things going on.

What keeps him going? Chardonnay. Will there be a comic book? No. Topics that he’d like to address? Identity, brainwashing, and perversion.

And on the questions went for an hour or so. But the last question seemed to genuinely interest Joss in its mildly confrontational tone.

Sexyliza Lisa Fary with Pinkraygun.com asked Joss about the Fox promo site the Echo Chamber and Joss’ support of a sexually suggestive/exploitative campaign: I do support it. I saw the photo shoot, and I mostly support it because Eliza was very comfortable with it and very pleased with the photos. She’s very comfortable with her body. The premise of the show involves these men and women being hired, and obviously some of that has to do with sex. This is something that was in the premise from the start ... I think some things will offend some people, some things will not. There are things in it that I’m not positive I support, and some of the things that bother me don’t bother any of the other writers, and that’s something that I’ve been a little bit afraid of, but I haven’t shied away from ... The idea of this show was never to play it safe ... I may have crossed the line. Let’s find out.

Staying on the sexy track, in an earlier talk with Times reporter Maria Elena Fernandez, Whedon gets more in depth on his working relationship with women on the show, and the aspect of sexuality that the show will address:

Joss Whedon: I never set out to hire women. I set out to hire good writers. The exception being that I did want women running the show. I did want them as co-exec with me. Because this premise is very delicate. There were times when I’d wake up in the middle of the night and go, "Oh my God, I’ve just written the sexy human trafficking show."

It’s terrifying to me. The show in the wrong hands would just be an exploitation fest. It would be "Red Shoe Diaries" without the class or panache. I want to do something that is sexy. That’s one of the things Eliza and I talked about. She’s interested in sexuality, not just "I’m a cute bunny," but human sexuality interests me. It’s part of who we are and it’s something that I’d like to talk about. That was one of the things she said before I had the idea.

And sex is not the raison d’etre of what the actives are. But it’s part of it. Everybody’s fantasy, a lot of Castinsert is going to involve a sexual aspect. It’s not something I think is ugly. I think it’s true. It’s something I’m interested in and Eliza is too. But again, in the wrong hands, to walk the line between identification and objectification. Particularly with this premise. For this, I want a woman watching my back. And there are a few women I know who are great writers. Because they gotta be that. Liz [Craft] and Sarah [Fain] were the first ones I was hunting. When they got off "Women’s Murder Club," I called them that day.

They helped me break the pilot as soon as the strike ended. It’s been invaluable. And beyond that it just wound up that way by luck. But then I noticed it for the first time when I heard some girl talk. "I really like the cuff of those pants." I was like, "Ah, girl talk. I’m safe. I’m home." Actually that was me and Tim Minear, by the way.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/25951789/joss_whedon_goes_where_no_tv_man_has_gone_before

Joss Whedon Goes Where No TV Man Has Gone Before

The genius behind television's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" turns to the Web

What what was it about Internet series first appealed to you?
I had been very interested in the idea of making things on the cheap with the people that I love and trust — low risk, medium yield kind of stuff where you can just do what you think is right and not have to worry.

Your fans have created so much fiction online. To what degree was that on your radar?
I'm aware of it and but most of the fan stuff is a continuation of something that already exists. The one that really got me was the Star Trek episode, the New Voyages, which was over an hour of film and extraordinarily artfully scripted entertainment that streamed perfectly. I'm not a trekker, and I was riveted. I was sitting on a stool in my kitchen, and I cannot move. I was like, this is amazing.

Amazing in what sense?
It was probably the best episode of the original Star Trek I'd ever seen. The only [bad] part of it was that the special effects were a little too good. Apart from that they really aped the camera work, the acting, the story structures and the over-quoting of Shakespeare. And it worked tremendously. And I had also been watching The Guild with Felicia [Day, actress in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dr. Horrible] and it was small, it was delightful and it was her. She wrote it, she produced it, it really was her and she is a massive gamer. So here was another really great example from a different mold of just somebody who got tired of not getting the gig, creating the gig. And Felicia and Eliza [Dushku, of Dollhouse] have that in common, both people are taking control of their careers, which for an ingénue is the hardest thing in the world.

So I started going to all these meetings. People were like, "Let's get $200 million from this hedge fund and make TV on the Internet and then sell it back to TV!" And I was like, "I don't think that's my mission statement." And at the end of the day I basically made a deal or agreed to a deal with a company, a Silicon Valley company who shall remain nameless because that deal is still being made.

For Dr. Horrible?
No, it was for something else. The idea was possibly creating a portal and using this as the first thing. And possibly creating a real relationship. Which, by the way, could still happen. But before Christmas I sat down with this very, very sort of profitable maverick company and said, "Look, I want to do this and I will do it for you cheaper than anybody in this town and make it look good. I don't care." They were talking about doing a genre portal and they talked to me and I said, "I have three ideas." The third was Dr. Horrible, I knew they wouldn't go for that.

Could you tell me what the other ones were?
No, because I might still do them. In fact, I plan to do them.

There will be no Buffy comic in June, The Tales of the Vampire one shot will be replacing it instead. The covers done by Jo Chen and will be about a boy in high school.

We asked Scott Allie the following in response to that:

Buffyfest: "We already know that the "tales of the vampire" you story just announced won’t feature characters from Buffy (CBR announced that earlier), but since it will be in the present timeline of the buffyverse, will our usual characters play a part somehow? Does Joss Whedon approve a side project like this story-wise?"

Scott Allie: "Yes, because we wanted to make this part of season 8 and because Tales of the Vampire was something he came up with first, he’s not co-writing it to the extent that he does with season 8 but everything is going through him, the craetive team got approved by him, and he gives feedback. It will have his finger prints on it more than the old [pre-season 8] comics did [and has final approval]."

We then asked about the idenity of season 8’s Twilight and when we’ll be finding out who he is. Scott’s funny dramatic pause was punctuated by a vague "Eventually."

Oh, and Twilight’s identity? We later found out he’s George Washington. You heard it hear first, folks.

In response to a Serenity comic question someone asked - Scott explained that "Joss is so busy with the stupid Dollhouse thing" (in jest, of course) "it’s kind of taking up a lot of his time". Allie went on to say, "Buffy is so demanding for Joss. He edits every script, every page of atwork goes through him, every cover concept...cover concepts often come from him. He has a Shepard Book outline in his head but he has to wait until there is time to work with Joss properly. He just agreed to write something that he probably should’ve said no to, but that’s the kind of stuff that pushes Serenity back."

(...)

Click on the link for more :

http://buffyfest.blogspot.com/2009/02/dark-horse-dark-horse-dark-horse-theyre.html

Countdown to ’Dollhouse’: Spending $100,000 in 15 days

Six days to go. Set decorator David A. Koneff, a veteran of "CSI: Miami," "Firefly," and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," took on a different challenge when he signed on to beautify the set of "Dollhouse." Already having worked with Joss Whedon and production designer Stuart Blatt, Koneff stepped in to help shape one of the show’s signature characters and create a mood that has extended beyond the show and affects anyone who visits the set.

When you were called in for "Dollhouse," what was the first thing that you came to your mind?

I was really pleased to get back to working with Joss again because I really enjoy his take on things. It’s unique, I think. Especially after spending so many years working on "Buffy" and "Firefly" with him where we had such a specific look. You know "Buffy" was a very realistic look at a very fictitious place in America called Sunnydale. "Firefly" was a place we had never been before. An undisclosed time in space. For the first time, Joss and Stuart were asking me to make something completely beautiful and sexy. Those were the two key words that I jumped off the cliff with for "Dollhouse." It’s gotta be sexy ... and we went from there.

What on the set are some of your favorite pieces?

My all-time favorite pieces on the set is some of the lighting. We found this company that made these silk-wrapped lighting pieces in all sorts of different colors. They’re a company from Israel that manufactures in New York. The name of the company is Aqua Creations. Dollhouse5250_2

Any others? I bought some lighting fixtures from a company in Los Angeles that was owned by a brother and sister that are, I believe, from Indonesia. They’re in their 20s, a brother and sister team ... [they] design everything from scratch and it’s absolutely unique. She also made me a number of handmade Asian-inspired floral arrangements.

How much are some of these pieces?

The mobile was about $10,000. The light fixtures ... range from $300 to $600 apiece, which I thought was pretty reasonable these days.

Wow. So, the bar is set pretty high with "Dollhouse." Can you give me a few of your favorite sets in movies or on TV?

Ones I thought were were very good? Somebody else’s work?

Yes.

Oh sure. I always liked "The X-Files." Not to keep it in the Fox family, but "The X-Files" ... didn’t feel it was necessary to explain these bizarre things you see in the room, and they let the viewer fill in all the gaps with their own imagination. And we did a lot of that on "Buffy."

Another TV show — "Ugly Betty." Beautiful show. Absolutely to the moment cutting-edge design and decoration. Fearless, absolutely fearless — and probably in some ways trendsetting. Archie D’Amico was the decorator on that. He worked for years over at Fox on "NYPD Blue." Unbelievable decorator.

Recent movies?

I’m a lover of all things science fiction and horror. They are few and far between ... I mean, I really loved "Slumdog Millionaire." The places that these characters inhabited felt soooo real and natural. It felt like they just walked in and did nothing to every single location and set — and I’m sure that wasn’t the case. Not know what it’s like to live and exist in that place, it felt completely natural ... and it’s not even nominated for [an Academy Award in] art direction!

Is it the set reacting to the actors, or the actors reacting to the set?

It’s all of the above. Sometimes you have to put everybody’s requirements on a tiny little scale and give one or the other more weight depending on the conversations you’ve had with the director, the production designer. There’s usually very little time that you have to create things ... There’s a lot of people to satisfy, and there’s a lot of people to keep in mind...

To be honest, a lot of that stuff becomes secondhand. We’ve gone through it so many times that we all know each other’s minds when dealing with certain things. And sometimes a set will just spontaneously happen. It’ll evolve from a rug or a lamp or an ashtray and it just grows from there. That’s when it’s most fun, when it just evolves so spontaneously.

Is that how the "Dollhouse" set evolved?

The permanent sets ... once I figured out the visual language that Stuart was using, it became sort of a no-brainer. It was just a race against time to get it done. That’s the way it usually is in television. Five weeks of prep is not a lot of time. It’s 25 days. I remember my lead man coming up to me after I think I had been shopping for three weeks, for 15 days. He walked into the room and said "Congratulations. You’ve just spent over $100,000 in 15 days!" I was absolutely shocked that I had spent that much money that quickly, but I was also shocked that I felt like we had made almost no mistakes.

Hosted by The Write Environment, happening 11am March 28th in Westwood, California.

Click on the link :

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=123274080385

For those who haven't seen it:

http://www.armchaircommentary.com/2009/02/dollhouse-joss-whedon-grindhouse-trailer.html

from Io9.com
Why Angel's s.4 arc is politically pertinent


The pundit: Jonah Goldberg (National Review Online)

What they recommended: Angel, season four.

What it’s about: An extra-dimensional being (played by Gina Torres) appears on Earth, and everyone who sees her becomes totally devoted to her and starts to worship her. She brings peace and prosperity, and only Angel’s friend Fred can see that she’s really a hideous monster.

Why is this good election-season material? Goldberg tells io9:

In the story, the world is mesmerized by a god from another dimension played by a charismatic black woman who truly does bring universal peace and love to the planet. Her only price: we all must worship her (and provide her with a statistically irrelevant number of humans to eat) and unify around our love for her.

I don’t think Obama is evil or a villain of any kind. But the lesson is pretty valid. Obama is the high priest of a cult of unity. Unity can be useful, but it is also very, very dangerous. That’s why the founders conceived of a system of divided government, after all.

from Endofshow.com
More news on Terminator SCC's possible cancellation...


EXCLUSIVE: Terminator gets, yes, terminated.

A source on “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” has told End Of Show that no new episode scripts have been ordered by FOX, beyond the 13 already written. This will force the show to shut down production shortly. ”To say we’re on the brink of cancelation is polite”, our source says.

Normally, when a show shuts production it is not announced to the media — an example is 2007’s FOX series “Drive”, which closed production 2 days after the first episode aired but was not announced in Variety for a further 9 days as cancelled. This is because a network doesn’t want an audience to turn off whilst the remaining episodes are aired. In the end, Fox opted not to air several produced episodes of “Drive”, replacing it with House repeats. (Which rated higher). The episodes eventually aired online via FOX’s Myspace portal.

Our source tells us the cast contracts expire in short order, which means producing a 13 episode series this year and then returning next Fall is not an option due to the cost of renewing the cast and not producing episodes. Additionally, it does not make finance sense to return when a series is averaging just over 5 million viewers.

T:SCC premiered January of this year with 18.6 million viewers — which set a record for FOX at the time — and promptly fell to an average of 11.4 million for the series. Monday’s episode clocked just 5.53 million viewers, putting the show in absolute freefall, with just 5% of the 18-49 demographic. “Audiences just aren’t responding to the show,” a Fox source tells SyFy Portal. “Our biggest surprise are the 18-to-49s [a key advertising demographic], those numbers are in the toilet.”

Ratings to date (seasons one plus two)

The ratings now fall in line with FOX’s “Drive”, which as mentioned ceased production almost immediately and stopped airing shortly after. T:SCC is a fairly expensive show to produce, and additionally wasn’t produced with sister studio 20th Century Fox. The show had significant marketing weight thrown behind it in January, using the budget allocated for “24″ (which was pushed back a year) for a widespread marketing campaign.

Taking over the timeslot from January, FOX have penciled in Joss Whedon’s upcoming drama “Dollhouse“.

Update: Tuesday, October 7th. The show fell to a Nielsen rating of 3.7/6 in the overnights. It has now left the air for baseball, currently scheduled to return on Tuesday 20th October.

from Fashionmagazine.com
Christina Hendricks talks "Mad Men" with Fashionmagazine.com


This month’s cover goddess Christina Hendricks plays office bombshell Joan Holloway on the breakout 1960’s Madison Avenue drama Mad Men. In this web exclusive, she opens up about being curvy in Hollywood, shares her on-screen smoking tips and reveals the downside of being a fashion trendsetter.

The storytelling on Mad Men is consistently surprising. What’s the moment like when you get a new script?

“In season one, I used to get my scripts and go [settles in] ‘Aaah,’ with my cup of coffee. Now, we all grab at them, flip through them for our names and see how much we’re in it. [Laughs] But it does feel like a gift, like you really don’t answer the phone for an hour. You sit and read that script.”

Nearly every character smokes on Mad Men. What’s tricky about that for you?

“Keeping the cigarette lit, because the herbal cigarettes we use go out really quickly. If I take a drag now, I know that if I don’t take one within three lines, the thing will go out and then the scene will be ruined.”

The fashions of Mad Men have started influencing what we see in boutiques and on the runways, yet it seems like you can’t really get too into it or people will look at you funny.

“Exactly, like I’m crazy. ‘Poor Christina Hendricks, have you seen her? She’s just wandering around Hollywood in a shift dress. She can’t let go. She wears a beehive at home.’ [Laughs] I really like vintage clothes but I tend to wear things from the ’40s more than the ’60s.”

As Joan, you’ve given us a more curvaceous brand of beauty and glamour than we’ve gotten from Hollywood lately. What’s that been like for you?

“It’s been nice. I was a little fearful that people wouldn’t know what to do with it and be critical, but everyone’s been wonderful. I’ve still gotten a bit of, ‘It must be so great to be on a 1960’s show.’ I’m like, ‘Well, I’m on [the contemporary series] Life on Friday nights and it works there, too.’”

Has your figure ever been an issue in auditioning?

“I had one audition where they said they loved me but they thought I was too heavy. And I said, ‘To be honest, fuck you, I’ll do Mad Men.’ Some casting people have had a hard time placing me because I’m tall, I’m curvy, I’m pale, all these things that don’t work in Hollywood necessarily. But I’m a really good actress and I believe that.”

Are you a natural redhead?

“I’m dark blonde but I’ve always felt like a redhead. I started coloring my hair red when I was about 10. When I first started modeling, my agent was like, ‘It’s a disaster.’ So then I went honey blonde. Then I did a campaign for L’Oréal and they wanted red and after that, I started booking every job because there were so few redheads. So my agent let me keep it.”

Your father worked for the forest service. In what ways did his job rub off on you?

“I’m super recycler. I’m the girl on set who’s picking the water bottles out of the garbage and putting them in the recycling bin, thinking, ‘It’s three feet away, people.’”

Your boyfriend, actor Geoffrey Arend, is going to be turning up soon on his own advertising-themed show drama, Trust Me. That’s quite a coincidence.

“It’s pretty incredible. While all the madness of Mad Men has been going on, he’s been by my side supporting me and then as soon as my show ends I get to jump in and do that for him. It’ll be perfect because he’s a little Mad Men-ned out. (Laughs) He’s like, ‘I can’t go anywhere without seeing your damn show!’”