Дорогие гости, перенос форума Marstersvers завершен. Мы рады приветствовать вас на новом ресурсе!)))). Вся первичная информация об этом форуме находится здесь
Сью в восторге от идеи, а мне вот кажется, что это выжимание денег из фанатов и ничего больше :-\ Правда, мне и от кукольного Ангела было муторно... но - в ангельском превращении хотя бы метафорический смысл был, а тут какой смысл?..
Скорее всего, ты права. Мне трудно представить как Линч впишет эту историю в канон пятого сезона. Но с другой стороны, комиксы про Баффи - не выжимание денег? Мне кажется, я не смогу воспринять "настоящую" Баффи отдельно от Сары. Это так, фанфик в картинках. Причем Джосс даже сказал, что если когда-нибудь будет снимать кино, похерит весь этот комиксовый сезон как неканонический.
Сью в восторге от идеи, а мне вот кажется, что это выжимание денег из фанатов и ничего больше :-\ Правда, мне и от кукольного Ангела было муторно... но - в ангельском превращении хотя бы метафорический смысл был, а тут какой смысл?..
Скорее всего, ты права. Мне трудно представить как Линч впишет эту историю в канон пятого сезона. Но с другой стороны, комиксы про Баффи - не выжимание денег? Мне кажется, я не смогу воспринять "настоящую" Баффи отдельно от Сары. Это так, фанфик в картинках. Причем Джосс даже сказал, что если когда-нибудь будет снимать кино, похерит весь этот комиксовый сезон как неканонический.
Какой смысл тогда вообще его читать? Тогда это действительно все лишь фанфик, как и все остальные комиксы.
ППКС.
Если честно, после ложных обещаний фильма (которые, как я теперь думаю, имели своей главной целью измерить и поддержать в теплющемся состоянии интерес фанов), а теперь еще и выхода этих комиксов, я все больше разочаровываюсь в самом Джоссе. *грустно* Понятно, конечно, что даже гениям хочется меньше трудиться и больше зарабатывать, но от "своего" гения такое меркантильное отношение все равно как-то трудно принять. Не говоря уж о том, что на качестве продукции оно тоже сказывается: халтура, она халтура и есть :-/
Про меркантильность Джосса - он человк своего времени и своего общества, так что, боюсь, нам нечего ждать чудесного и чистого Оно есть постолку поскольку... ... В чудесное и чистое с тем или иным успехом играем мы сами...играем до сих пор...и всё ещё вдохновенно!!! (в данном случае говрю за себя, но смею надеяться, среди нас есть ещё довольно много людей, для которых нет крышесноса сильнее "BtVS") В своё время этот мир спас меня от очень чёрной дыры, так что я "упёртая-упёртая".
Насчет меркантильности: думаю, за комиксы платят гораздо меньше, чем за кино или за телешоу. Так что Джосс занимается почти благотворительностью.
А насчет качества, пожалуй, я согласна - без актеров это будет уже совсем не то. И дело даже не в халтурном подходе, а в том, что у Джосса до сих пор все замыкалось на актеров. Смачные диалоги. Сильные и сложные эмоции. Я столкнулась с этим, когда начала делать движущиеся аватарки. Режешь капсы - и каждый сам по себе неплох, но подлинная эмоция возникает только в движении.
Но, с другой стороны, Джосс же наверняка понимает это не хуже нас. И если человеку хочется продолжать историю своих любимых героев, и у него есть возможность это жделать - карты ему в руки. Вдруг получится так интересно, что снимут фильм с участием цифровых актеров?
Платье какое-то странное. Но выглядит Сара хорошо. А еще я прочитала, что Уилл Смит очень хотел, чтобы Сара поздоровалась с его сынишкой, котому что тот без ума от "Баффи". Кстати, она снималась с его женой в "Крике-2".
Главный редактор DH выступил, разобъяснил, чего ждать в течение ближайшего года
выпуск 1-4 - история Баффи (автор - Джосс) Выпуск 5 - какая-то отдельная история (standalone, автор Пол Ли) Выпуск 6-9 - история Фэйт (автор Брайан К. Воэн) выпуск 10-13 - история Ксандера (автор Дрю Годдард)
По штуке в месяц - значит, все расписано уже до апреля 2008 года.
Или у меня глюки, или в нижней части картинки, рядом с Джайлзом - Спайк... В этом случае, по крайней мере, понятно, почему Баффстер пошла на боевое задание полуголая.
Боле поздняя добавка: все выяснилось. Это просто панелька из старого комикса. Черт бы их подрал!
Скачать первые пять страниц первого номера можно тут.
+ интервью.
'Buffy' creator Joss Whedon has the heroine returning for a comics-style Season 8.
By Kate Aurthur, Times Staff Writer March 4, 2007
WHEN audiences last saw the cast of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in May 2003, Buffy and her friends had won a nearly apocalyptic battle between good and evil. Their hometown of Sunnydale, Calif. — also known as the Hellmouth — was a gargantuan pit as a result. After peering into the crater, Buffy, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, walked away with a smile, and the television series came to a close after seven seasons.
On March 14, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" will return in comic book form. Joss Whedon, "Buffy's" creator, has written the first five issues and will oversee — or "executive produce," he says — the whole arc as if it were a television show. Whedon has enlisted former "Buffy" staff writers, along with a few writers from the comic book world, to join him in continuing the story, which is scheduled to run for at least 30 issues to be released monthly. Whedon, the show's fans and the series' publisher, Dark Horse Comics, have deemed it "Buffy Season Eight."
"When you create a universe, you don't stop living in that universe — I know a lot of the fans didn't," Whedon said. "But I was surprised to find myself back in it so firmly as well."
It's yet another reinvention for "Buffy," which Whedon turned into a TV series after being disappointed with the results of the frothy 1992 movie, starring Kristy Swanson, that he had written. So, in summary: "Buffy Season Eight" is a comic book run like the television series from which it came, which itself evolved out of a feature film — a classic evolving specimen for this era of ever-shifting media platforms.
The common element is Whedon, 42, the movie-TV-comics auteur behind "Buffy," "Angel," an "X-Men" comic series, the screenplay of "Toy Story," and the flop television show "Firefly" as well as its movie resurrection, "Serenity." In recent years, he has expressed frustration with both the television and movie businesses, but the less pressure-filled world of comics has been a constant.
Scott Allie, senior managing editor at Dark Horse Comics, knows his company is benefiting from Whedon's urge to create more "Buffy" stories. Excitedly and without hesitation, Allie said, "Oh, it's gonna be huge."
A moderate ratings success on the WB and for its final two seasons on UPN, "Buffy" nevertheless inspired as worshipful a cult as you can find in the pop landscape. It told the sneakily dark coming-of-age story of a young woman who was special, in that she was chosen to save the world from vampire-led evil, but yearned to fit in. Buffy was surrounded by loving friends and family, bad boyfriends, and demons. Her high school was literally hell, she died a couple of times during the series, and as her tombstone once read, "she saved the world — a lot."
Since the show ended, "Buffy" fans have made do with what was left to them. Across the Internet, the show continues to be parsed: its feminism, its use of language, its influence on current shows such as "Lost," "Heroes" and "Veronica Mars."
More concretely, a public sing-along of the show's musical episode, "Once More With Feeling," has grown so popular that its inventor, a film programmer from Brooklyn, is planning a "Rocky Horror Picture Show"-like national tour. Penguin recently published "The Physics of the Buffyverse," a book in which science writer Jennifer Ouellette explains the principles of physics using examples from "Buffy" and its spinoff, "Angel," which ran from 1999 to 2004.
"It really was like being home again," Whedon said wistfully about returning to "Buffy." " 'Oh, here are my old friends. They're so funny!' You can hear their voices so specifically. It was a comic spoken in the voices of actors you worked with for seven or eight years."
Whedon, interviewed over lunch at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, looks like a ruffled college student. A third-generation television writer, he has a deadpan delivery but affects voices as he talks to illustrate or emphasize important points. "Buffy" was known for its characters' tone and banter, and hearing him is like listening to the show — making its translation into comics reliant on, or at least greatly enhanced by, a reader's familiarity with the original.
Or, as Jane Espenson, a former writer and co-executive producer of "Buffy" who has signed up for comic book duty, put it: "The voices of those characters are in my head forever and ever. The reason characters talked like that on 'Buffy' is they talked a bit like Joss — and we all ended up talking like Joss."
Season 8 begins
DARK Horse's Allie said that the voices come through in the comic's dialogue, and the visuals will reward fans. "You don't have cute Sarah Michelle Gellar running around, but you've got good-looking characters and much better-looking monsters."
Oregon-based Dark Horse, one of the country's largest comic book producers, has published works by Frank Miller and Mike Mignola and also many tie-ins with Hollywood, such as "Star Wars," "Alien vs. Predator" and "The Mask." Dark Horse published the ancillary "Buffy" comics that came out during the show's run, which Whedon had little to do with. There were "Angel" comics too. Later, Whedon co-wrote a series that bridged the gap between "Firefly," his canceled Fox show, and "Serenity," the movie rebirth of it in September 2005.
All the while, Allie was interested in a "Buffy" comic that "replaces the TV show in a way we never could do before." A year ago, he opened an e-mail from Whedon, and it unexpectedly contained the script for the first issue of "Buffy." Allie remembered thinking, happily, "Oh, OK, so you're going to write this?"
Until then, Whedon had been hopeful that a series of TV movies based on "Buffy's" costars would be produced by 20th Century Fox Television, the studio behind the television show. The movie spinoffs would be able to get around the inconvenient truth that Gellar no longer wanted to play Buffy by sending fan-favorite characters like Willow (Alyson Hannigan) and Spike (James Marsters) on their own adventures.
"It was a pipe dream ultimately, because I think the studio thought they could do this for no money — that everybody would show up because we're all buddies," Whedon said. "But I don't think they noticed that everybody seems to have careers. It was an unrealistic business model. And once I realized that, I just decided, 'I can find a man to draw them instead!' " (20th Century Fox Television declined to comment.)
In the year since Whedon wrote the first issue, he and Dark Horse worked on finding the right artists and assembling a team of writers. From the "Buffy" world, Espenson, Drew Goddard, Drew Greenberg, Doug Petrie and Steven DeKnight have said they will contribute; from the comics side, Jeph Loeb and Brad Meltzer joined the project; and Brian K. Vaughan will write the four-arc series after Whedon's first five issues.
Vaughan's series will focus on Faith, a recalcitrant slayer who was Buffy's friend, then her nemesis and finally her ally. "When I sat down with Brian to talk about his arc, that was the closest I'd been to a writers' room since I left television," Whedon said. "You know what? It felt so great."
Espenson said she'd like to write "comedic stand-alone" issues throughout "Buffy Season Eight." She said: " 'Buffy' was a show that Joss ran from top to bottom. I liked working for Joss as a show runner, and I hope he's really, really running this." She paused, and laughed: " 'Tell me what to do, Joss, and I'll do it!' "
Some work situations run more smoothly than others.
As Whedon was getting "Buffy Season Eight" up and running, he was supposed to be writing and then directing a high-profile comic adaptation: the movie version of "Wonder Woman" with Warner Bros. After having been associated with the long-gestating project since March 2005, Whedon announced he was quitting last month on the fan site Whedonesque.com, writing, "We just saw different pictures."
When asked to elaborate, he didn't really. "I don't want to go into it too much, because they still own that script," he said. And then: "I cannot tell you what they wanted. Because they never told me what they wanted. When I asked them, 'Well, what is it that you want?' They said, 'We cannot tell you.' I can tell you what they didn't want: Me!" And then: "And they treated me extremely well; I'm not trying to slam." (Warner Bros. declined to comment.)
Many roads ahead
BUT Whedon is clearly unhappy about the experience and the time wasted: "You know, when you get into a giant thing like 'Wonder Woman,' to add up to nothing — it's going to be four years between projects. I don't have that many four years."
He said he will now focus on "Goners," an original screenplay he wrote and is developing to direct for Universal that he called "a ghastly tale of female empowerment — something new for me!"
He would also like to return to television, after telling Variety in 2004, "I have a bitter taste in my mouth with where TV has gone in the past five years." Whedon said the experience he had with "Firefly," which was canceled after 11 episodes, taught him what guarantees he would need to go back. "I don't want another 'Firefly.' I can't do that. It hurts too much," he said. "I'll learn to golf or something instead. And that, by the way, is not going to help the golf world.
"But because of the new media, because of DVDs, because of the Internet, there are so many new avenues that basically I feel like I can go back to TV when I have the power to set up a paradigm wherein I know I can complete a story."
For now, he has more "Buffy" stories to tell. Espenson said that, knowing Whedon, she was not surprised he came back to "Buffy."
"It's about youth. It's about feminism," she said. "Strength and learning who you are. It's hard to imagine a franchise that captures as much of Joss' soul as this one does."
But in reflecting on it himself, Whedon wonders. "I was like, 'Am I really an artist of integrity, or am I just grieving for my mom? What's going on here?' I have so many questions about why I do that — why I go back to that well when I could be moving forward." He hesitated, then said: "But the fact of the matter is when you work with people you love, you want to work with them more. Same goes with characters."
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, March 3, 2007 – Warner Home Video, DC Comics and Warner Bros. Animation are set to release an all-new original movie Superman Doomsday on September 18, 2007.
Utilizing the vast history and tradition of DC Comic’s classic comic book stories along with a more provocative and action-packed story line for avid comic fans as well as kids and their parents, Superman Doomsday features the voices of Adam Baldwin (“Independence Day”) as Superman, Anne Heche (“Men in Trees”) as Lois Lane and James Marsters (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) as Lex Luthor, and will be available for $19.98. Order due date is August 14, 2007.
Summer Glau's role & name in Terminator Series is revealed.
Lena Headey, who stars in the the Fox SF drama pilot The Sarah Connor Chronicles, told SCI FI Wire that the show will begin with a confrontation between Headey's title character; her son, John Connor (Heroes' Thomas Dekker); and two new Terminators: a female model, played by Serenity's Summer Glau, and a male one, which she called Cromartie, played by Owain Yeoman. One is good and one is bad; she didn't say which is which. (Glau's character is named Cameron, an apparent nod to Terminator franchise creator James Cameron.)
The pilot, which picks up the story from the end of the feature film Terminator 2: Judgment Day, begins in the desert, and "it ends with them landing in L.A., having run and escaped. Or maybe not," Headey said in an interview at WonderCon in San Francisco on March 3.
"We just finished [shooting]," Headey (300) said. "We were in Albuquerque [N.M.] for a month. And it was very intense, because TV is crazy. I mean, it's long days. It's like boom, boom, boom. You don't get any respite. But ... I think it's going to be great. I don't know if its going to be picked up, because it's only in pilot stage right now. But I learned to shoot many weapons and how to recognize a Terminator. So it was a good experience."
The pilot "begins, and it's them basically running, hiding, trying to live," Headey said. "Trying to carve out a normal life for themselves, but always being watched and trying to locate Skynet, trying to stop [it]. But there are many, many issues in their way." — Patrick Lee, News Editor
Why Buffy still slays us Show was staked years ago, but it's back as a comic book.
Mar 04, 2007 04:30 AM
Malene Arpe Nikki Stafford
Buffy slayed her first vampire 10 years ago Saturday. The series ended after seven seasons. The WB, which originally aired Joss Whedon's show, ended last year. Why should we still care about a blonde in high heels killing creatures of the night?
Only because Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the best show ever on television, of course. D'uh!
All right, we're fans. Nikki wrote a book, Bite Me!: An Unofficial Guide to the World of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, about it. Malene on a regular basis bores perfect strangers with her nattering about the show.
But there is reason to revisit the topic besides an anniversary. It's still on the minds of millions of other fans. Thoughtful books keep being published analyzing the show, adding to its cultural cachet. Its influence is being felt on TV's best shows (see graphic opposite). And this month, Dark Horse Comics releases the first instalment of the 26-part Whedon-penned "eighth season," The Long Way Home – Part One. It's as good an excuse as any to talk about our favourite subject.
Malene: I was a latecomer to Buffy and didn't catch up until somewhere around the beginning of Season 6 via DVDs and reruns. But I was hooked from the moment I saw Darla attack the boy in the school hallway. What about you? Did you watch from the first episode 10 years ago, and what convinced you Buffy was special?
Nikki: The first episode I saw was "I Robot, You Jane," the low point of Season 1. So I ran screaming from the show, until other people whose taste I admired said, "No, really, you must watch this show." Someone lent me the tapes during the Season 2 April hiatus, and I watched them straight through and was completely in love. For me, the show just clicked because it showed high school as something other than the magical, happy place from other shows. I loved the metaphor that the high school was built on a Hellmouth and it was the language that convinced me this was special. To this day, I can just read favourite lines from the episodes and I'm laughing out loud (or getting weepy). Of course, despite loving many episodes in the first season, it was Season 2 that really made me say, "WOW." And to this day I think it's still my favourite for sheer pain and heartache. It begins with us not liking Buffy very much, then her boyfriend turns evil, and by the end of the season, she's forced to put a sword through his heart ... at the very moment he becomes good again. That scene still slays me.
Malene: I also think Season 2 is wonderful. The grand love story and, with the finale, an understanding that this is not some silly teenage show. However, I must admit I have a weakness for Season 6, a season often vilified for dealing with the everyday instead of the big supernatural bad. But, despite the fumbled magic-as-substance-addiction metaphor, I think it's the season that best conveys what I believe the whole series is about: the possibility of choosing redemption. It also has some of my favourite episodes. The musical, of course, but also the incredibly funny "Tabula Rasa." I've seen it too many times to count, and it still makes me laugh. Besides, Season 6 has all that illicit Spike sex, which is always easy on the eyes, but also speaks to the point that Buffy is simultaneously the most moral and the most immoral show on television. This is not, by the way, something I cleverly came up with, but the thesis of Gregory Stevenson's book Televised Morality: The Case of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Speaking of books, there's a mountain of academic texts on both Buffy and its spinoff, Angel. I think it's safe to say that nothing else on television has inspired this kind of egghead devotion. For a show that on a regular basis featured really bad CGI snakes, robot love slaves and discussions about pancakes, that's pretty good going. What do you think is at the core of this interest?
Nikki: I agree the Buffy scholarship is leagues ahead of that of any other TV show. I think it stems from the fact the show could be seen as an allegory of the human condition. (I know that sounded WAY too deep, but bear with me.) Those who have never watched the show avoid it because of the title. Buffy the Vampire Slayer sounds like it's one notch below Scooby-Doo. But the monsters in the show are metaphorical: sure, Buffy's battling them every night and they are tangible, but they stand for teenage angst, the monsters that adolescents fight every day. The fact she's being pushed into a calling she never asked for is representative of the pressures faced by young people every day. The show dealt with heavy issues: divorce; sibling rivalries; puberty; death; homosexuality; love; loss of love ... the list is endless. Name any kind of emotional pain, this show dealt it out in spades. Each character is representative of a whole group, and a lot of the academic scholarship focuses on facets of the individuals. Or why Buffy's pancakes were shaped differently than Xander's.
Another massive appeal is that the characters changed and developed. Buffy started as a snappy, cocky 16-year-old girl, and ended as a 23-year-old woman who'd seen more death and horrors than 10 people in their lifetimes. Willow was the wallflower who ended up a confident, powerful woman capable of anything. Along the way, both hit rock bottom and had to claw their way back up (Buffy, quite literally). What was your favourite character development?
Malene: As I said, I'm all about the redemption, which, of course, means that I have to pick Spike's arc. He starts out as gleefully evil and ends up willingly sacrificing himself to save the world. Although, to a certain degree, I agree with those who claim Whedon betrayed the whole girl power thing by, after seven years of Buffy kicking ass, having the fate of all mankind end up in the hands of a guy. A very pretty guy, but still.
So, the fact we're talking about this show some four years after it was cancelled speaks both to the endurance of the show and to the fact that maybe we don't get out very much. Do you think that 25 years from now Buffy will still be relevant? Is it an enduring work of art or are we just arguing it is so we can talk about vampires?
Nikki: You're right – Spike was the one sacrificed, but Buffy lived on, and her power has been disseminated among other slayerettes so the gals will continue to save the world. In 25 years, I do think the show will be relevant. Sure, the pop culture references will seem outdated, but the core of the show transcends its time. The original Star Trek is 40 this year, and the outfits, hair, and technology on the ship are about as archaic as they come, but it endures because of the message. Buffy was originally seen as a kids' show, then became critically acclaimed, and is now regarded as one of the best series ever. It would be nice to see the sister show, Angel, get its due as well. While I'll stick up for the girl power quotient in the Buffy finale, I thought Angel's finale far surpassed it.
Malene: I didn't particularly swoon over Angel while he was on Buffy – except when he started smoking and torturing people for sport – but I really grew to like him on his own show. Angel the series was darker from the beginning and I agree the finale was both way better than Buffy's and, in my opinion, one of the best series finales ever. You just sat there stunned and sad and uplifted at the same time.
But it's really never over. Fan fiction and art, fan movies, ongoing plot discussions on televisionwithoutpity.com, shout-outs on other shows, obsession with every move Whedon makes on whedonesque.com and so on and so forth. And, of course, now an eighth season in comic-book form. Written by Whedon! Canon!
I'm just a tiny little bit excited. What about you? Also, what shows since Buffy and Angel have been off the air have filled the void for you?
Nikki: Oh, I am SO excited for the comic book. Anything about Buffy that is sanctioned by Whedon, involving the actual writers of the show ...I'm in heaven.
The thing that's come closest to Buffy, for me, is Lost, which is why I wrote my latest book, Finding Lost, about it. It's a very different show, but the writing, acting, and directing reminds me of Buffy. The two shows are primarily dramas, but have moments of high comedy. For the most part, I've found several shows to replace aspects of Buffy. Veronica Mars for the sassy female lead and fun ensemble cast of helpers; Six Feet Under for the angst; Lost and Heroes for the genre element and ensemble casts; The Office for the laugh-out-loud hilarity. I watch a LOT of television, but nothing has replaced Buffy. Every time I sit down to watch episodes of Buffy, I almost weep, I miss it so much.
And I'm not alone. The fans keep talking about this show, as you say, and one thing that helps keep the show alive is that accessibility of Whedon himself. He is a god among Buffy/Angel/Firefly fans, yet he doesn't sit in an ivory tower. He's always posting over on whedonesque.com, and his posts are classic. He paid attention to the fans and interacted while the shows were on the air, and he's never stopped. I think the fans very much influenced the direction of the show.
Malene: It's hard to say. On one hand, Whedon always appears super-appreciative of fan feedback, but on the other, he famously said (after killing popular character Tara and facing the wrath of a lot of lesbian fans) he wants to give the audience what they need, not what they want. It's his world, or 'verse – to be all fannish – and we just visit. But you're so right about missing the show. I had hopes for Veronica Mars, but the effort to gain ratings has mostly killed its charm. I do love Battlestar Galactica, because it's dark and brutal and full of despair. But you're right again that you need a bunch of shows to replace the one that had it all. So, do you want a bit of a spoiler from the comic book or can you wait for it to come out on Tuesday?
Nikki: While I agree about Joss doing most things on his terms, he also listened to a lot of the fan reactions and took them to heart. There wouldn't have even been a lesbian couple as prominent as theirs if the fans hadn't been asking over and over again why there weren't any major gay characters on the show.
Spike was supposed to die after five episodes, and he lasted right to the end ...and then some. The Initiative was supposed to be all of Season 4, but the fans loathed that whole government plot SO much it was relegated to a minor subplot. Then Riley, the most hated of the Buffy boyfriends, was kicked off the show. But, for the most part, the show was Whedon's, and we just had to join the ride.
As for the comic book, yes, I can't wait. Though, I'm not a huge fan of spoilers, so maybe something small?
Malene: Hmmmm ... Maybe just this then: Buffy and The Immortal? Maybe not exactly what you'd think from watching the last season of Angel ...
все же своя прелесть в том, что я болею --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Прелесть - прелестью - но ты давай выздоравливай скорее! Кстати, я сама вся простуженная - хорошо, что можно не выходить из дома, детки приволокли из магазина каких-то вкусностей...
Во-вторых, иду качать комикс, все же святое дело, Васкес, огромное спасибо )))
Потом расскажешь о впечатлениях. :-) У меня в ЖЖ сейчас такая дискуссия развернулась...
цитата:
В-третьих, думаю, все заметили, что у нас закончилось Gold Community, продлевать или нет?
Gold Community - это чтобы нам рекламы не вкорячивали? Она, конечно, раздражает. А что нужно сделать, чтобы продлить? Я просто совершенно не в курсе (*краснеет*). Если это напряжно или дорого - наверное, не стоит. Сейчас почти все переместилось в ЖЖ, а здесь что-то вроде доски объявлений.
Эх, пытаюсь лечиться, лечение немного затянулось, но ты там тоже поправляйся как можно скорее ))
Обязайтельно сейчас пойду читать в ЖЖ, все-таки интересно, что народ думает по поводу, у меня период ностальгии, особенно накануне 10-летия, рада всему, что есть ))
Ага, Голд - это как раз отсутствие рекламы, в общем, посмотрю, как оно пойдет, если деньгив понедельник будут, то на следующей неделе снова будем Голд, во всяком случае, так оно куда менее напряжно для траффика народного, все равно Марстерсверс читают все
В новом номере журнала "Баффи"/"Ангел" Джосс высказал идею выпустить комикс по шестому сезону "Ангела"...
цитата:
BtVS/AtS magazine: A lot of fans want to know if Angel, Spike or Illyria could show up this series, even though IDW Comics has the license for the AtS comics.
Joss: Legally, they can all appear in the Buffy comic without a problem. I am shying away from that because I have a huge stable of characters as it is and IDW are the people who revived that franchise - and they are doing a good job with it. I don't see any reason to rain on their parade - I don't think that's fair. In fact, I am talking to Brian Lynch who wrote Spike: Asylum about doing a sort of season 6 of AtS - a cnaon, post-AtS story. I was really impressed with Asylum. Brian really got the humour and the rythyms and told a story really well. I thought, "If they can do this, why shouldn't they?" It would be on a separate plane from BtVS, but having said that, we are planning on having Spike and Angel appear in the BtVS arc. As far as a separate story goes, we will resolve how they can both be going on. It might end up a little like the X-Men, who are always doing different things in every comic, but hopefully we will work out more continuity than that. I'm not going to make it so that you have to read books from both companies. I don't think it's fair to people and I don't think it's fair in a single company. I hate it when they finish a Spiderman arc in Iron Man. I get pissed off! There will be no Buffy Civil War! Well, maybe.
Васкес, спасибо огромное! Замечательные клипы. Джеймс как всегда великолепен.
Сообщество bloodydoit увлеченно рассматривает рабочие материалы со съемок Баффи, Мари собрала наиболее полную подборку, ее можно увидеть здесь: http://dusty273.livejournal.com/181618.html
Мы тут недавно обсуждали, можно ли считать нас всех вуайеристами...
Жаль, не читала. Наверное интересное было обсуждение, особенно, если учесть, что существуют два определения понятия вуайеризм. Дай, пожалуйста, ссылочку.
Васкез, можно ли дать твою ссылку на второй клип Джеймса в bloodydoit? Народ там тоже жаждет приобщиться к прекрасному.
На JM.com блуперы с Летнего рыцаря Забавно слушать как ДМ пытается читать на тарабарском языке http://jamesmarsters.com/james/summerknight.html I wasn't lurking. I was standing about. It's a whole different vibe
IrinaVi - прошу прощения за столь поздний ответ. Совершенно нет времени на Интернет - проклятая работа!
Обсуждали мы живьем, у меня дома, в тесной баффоголической компашке. Пришли к выводу, что мы не просто вуайеристы, а злостные вуайеристы. Но, с другой стороны, смотреть съемки, и виждеть, как Сара и Джеймс изображают дикую страсть, и сразу же после команды "стоп" начинают хохотать - это даже забавнее, чем сам сериал.
Все ссылки можно давать кому угодно. Я выкладываю на YouSendIt, когда появляется что-нибудь вкусненькое. Как правило, ссылки работают неделю.
И, кстати, о вкусненьком...
Angel: Auld Lang Syne, пять выпусков зазипованы в одном файле. Качество посредственное, но чем богаты...
Кимбер порадовала фотографиями Джеймса с Q&M и с выступлений в Торонто в 2005 [url=http://flickr.com/photos/73664573@N00/]flickr.com/photos/73664573@N00/[/url]. Некоторые фото раньше не встречались. И еще о Джеймсе: в мае-июне состоятся несколько выступлений в Англии и Америке. Подробнее можно узнать на его сайте.
Последняя новость. Рискую открыть Америку через форточку, но все же: недавно натолкнулась на torrents.ru и обнаружила там все сезоны Баффи. Первый и второй сезоны очень приличного качества, правда перевод оставляет желать лучшего (один голос, молчу какой, и переводчик с трудом успевает говорить за всех сразу), про остальные не знаю, пока не качала.
SHADOW PUPPETS NEWS April 11th, 2007/JAMES MARSTERS on Talk Radio
Writer-director Michael Winnick is on his way to Belgium to represent "Shadow Puppets" at the 25th Annual Brussels International Film Festival (BIFFF). The movie is closing the festival the night of April 16th. Joining Michael in Brussels is Shadow Puppets Director of Photography Jonathan Hale and actor Marc Winnick.
James Marsters will be appearing on Canadian talk radio tomorrow morning (Thursday April 12th) at 9am PST to talk about Shadow Puppets. He will be joined on the show by Producer Bob Crowe. Even if you don't live in Canada, you can listen to the program LIVE on-line: the link is www.newstalk650.com and it's under "Listen Live".
James will also be appearing this weekend (April 14th and 15th) at the "Grand Slam" Sci Fi Convention in Burbank, CA at the Burbank Airport Marriott Hotel.
Tony Todd will be appearing this weekend (April 14th-15th) in New Jersey at Chiller Con!
Джеймс дал интервью канадскому радио. Berengaria from Cold Dead Seed сделала сокращенную расшифровку, а Lilycat сделала полную расшифровку. Спасибо, Berengaria и Lilycat!
This may have mistakes and is not word for word...but is the best I could get from writing down what everyone (and mostly James) was saying:
Interviewer: The movie "Shadow Puppets" is getting a remarkable buzz at film festival at Brussels....as a quintessential BTVS fan I noticed from the cast list that James Marsters was starring in it....James is joining us from LA. Thanks for being in Canada. James:Canada has always been a wonderful place to come to. I'm sipping my strong coffee. (laughs) I seem to have lost a guitar I was going to use at a gig this weekend. Interviewer mentions James British accent... James:"I have a British accent but only if you pay me. " Interviewer mentions album "Civilized Man" James:I'm looking forward to recording my new album,so...my old album still sounds good to me but I think I've gone from a really good amateur musician to a really crappy professional musician (laughs) . I'm really proud of that. Bob Crowe( producer of Shadow Puppets) tells about being involved with Michael Winnick in a project that fell thru 2 weeks from shooting because a distributor went backrupt . Crowe felt bad and assured Winnick that if he brought him a script,they would do something together. Six months later,Michael brought him a script. Crowe liked it. Michael said "Good,I wrote it." I think James and I would agree... James butts in: It read like Rod Sterling. The dialog was nice and tight. Got to the point. Didn't tell you about the character dog or past....no fat. It moved like a freight train. Some joking about James butting in...host asks if this was a first time experience for James in this genre? James: Nope,it was a normal day on the set. This was the Buffy experience. Except in SP,I was running away from the scary, in Buffy,I was inflicting the scary. It's easier to be the scary one...you just walk medium fast forward and they put great music behind you. Being the victim is harder. One of the really great things about the movie is that you don't know what you're running from. Winnick extended that thru half the movie. I was literally tingling when I was reading it...made me feel I was one of the people running from it.
Nadia calls in:Really loved the Civilized Album. It inspired me to pick up my guitar after 3 years. James: (laughs delightedly) Music is infectious. Right on. Nadia mentions hearing he got a guitar from Roger Daltry. James tells the Roger Daltry story.
Interviewer says:How do you get Shadow Puppets into theaters? Bob Crowe who runs Angel Productions (lawyer from Saskatchewan) says: The shooting was done in LA. We were fortunate we had a writer/director. We pulled together a hard-working crew out of LA. And then James was cast. James is just brilliant in this. I hope you don't mind me saying that...and I think Tony and James formed a friendship on set. James:Yes, acting with Tony is like working with a small hurricane. He looks like he's going to lose it...and he's a wonderful,warm human being...but artisticaly you have to have that in you...we bonded over video games. We just loved the new video game system PSP.
Logan calls in: My whole family loves you. We are happy to have you in a Saskatchewan movie. James: I like coming to Canada. Once I was there with my girlfriend who shot a movie about dinosuars. Logan invites him to come up more often. James:I keep bouncing around the idea of moving to Canada.
Bob Crowe: James would sit on the steps of his trailer on the set of SP and play his guitar for anyone who would listen...or for himself. he made the atmosphere on set so relaxed.
James laughs...well,that could be a good thing or not.
Interviewer asks about a release of SP. Crowe: For theaters in North America we have a solid distributer in Anchor Bay. they own the STARS network. We had it looked at by all the majors. Takes more money than we spent making the movie to do all the advertising etc. But we have,and I don't know if you knew this James, a theatrical release in Beverly Hills at the Fine Arts Theater on June 22...and we are talking to people in NY about doing it there at the same time.
They thank James for being there. James: It's been my pleasure.
Lilycat:
цитата:
JG - A new film Shadow Puppets which is getting a remarkable buzz at the international film festival in Brussels, it is just out now and when we heard about this which is a 'treat for horror fans' it's being billed- it's a psychological thriller about a group of people who wake up in an insane asylum with no memory of who they are or why they're there. So a great horror flick, but then we realise this thing is produced by a Saskatechewan company, Angel Entertainment from Saskatoon, Sask. Canada. But then when I saw the starring list and we've talked about this how many years on this radio programme, yes of course as the quintessential Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan, whose love of this show long extended past my teenage daughters at the time in the '90s. When I saw that James Marsters was starring in it, he of course is Spike, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. So I thought we'd have a sitdown this half hour with the man who produced the film, Bob Crowe, well known local film producer/lawyer - he's in Saskatchewan, James Marsters is in LA. Gentlemen, welcome aboard.
BC - Hi John, how are ya.
JG - I'm good, James Marsters thank you for joining us up here in Western Canada.
JM - Hello John, it's good- I'm glad to be here. Canada is always- its like Canada has always been a wonderful place to come to.
BC - Hey James, how're you doing it's Bob here.
JM - Bob, I'm doing very well man, sipping my strong coffee. I'm doing great except I seem to have lost the guitar I was gonna use for a gig I'm doing this weekend.
JG - The funny thing about you James Marsters is a lot of us that were Buffy fans, I always assumed you had a British accent until I saw you on Bill Maher one night and then I realised that you were Californian.
JM - Yeah, yeah. I have a British accent but only if you pay me. [laughs]
JG - So six years on Buffy, in fact a couple of listeners, when they heard you were coming up, have your new album Civilised Man, which is your solo acoustic album, how's that whole thing going?
JM - Um, I think pretty well. I'm looking toward recording my next album, and because I'm looking at that sound my old album uh, uh still sounds good to me but there are things I wish I could change- it's interesting. I was very fortunate to meet some good people and start a band about three years ago, and that kinda took me all over the world, playing little clubs and big clubs- and I think that I listened more than talked and I think that I went from being a really really good amatuer musician to being a really crappy professional musician. And I'm really proud of that.
JG - You've still got acting to fall back on
JM - Yeah, yeah if that doesn't work out I can act.
JG - James Marsters you know him as Spike of course, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, also of course the cast of Smallville, he's been appearing in that as Brainiac for those - Bob Crowe is in the studio, Bob tell me about how the this whole production of Shadow Puppets came about.
BC - Well actually I was working with a director by the name of Michael Winnick, who's a young fellow in LA, we'd been working on another project and we were two weeks into prepping tobeginshooting that project when the distributor that was backing us went bankrupt. Um, Michael had done a lot of work, and I felt very badly for him, and said 'Michael, find me another script - something that's written really tightly, confined spaces we can shoot for a pretty reasonable budget and I'm gonna come back down to LA and do it with you'. And you know I kept in touch with Michael but it was six months later that a script turned up at my door and he said 'what do you think' and I said 'oh, it's pretty darned good' and he said 'thanks, I wrote it. I couldn't find anything that you described so I wrote it myself.'. I think James would agree, he and I were having a chat on set one day and he said you know the dialogue really just kind of,it flows so naturally, it- Michael's a really-
JM - It read like Rod Sterling. [the others laugh] No, I mean that in the best way, the dialogue was nice and tight, it was clipped it got to the point, we didn't spend time learning about the character's dog or cousin, or lost love or anything it was to the point, there was no fat in there, you know what I mean. It moved like a freight train I thought.
JG- In terms of each of your experience, as a producer Bob, and as an actor James,
JM - Did I interupt you boss, oh my god, go ahead - I interrupted the host, I just interrupted the host which is not a good thing to do. Sorry.
JG - James Marsters in LA - we're talking about this new film that has a great buzz, we're gonna talk in a minute about the international film festival in Brussels, where the film Shadow Puppets is now being included.[..] So Bob Crowe, experience before in a thriller slash horror film like this?
BC- Only from a fan point of view, I did have experience in the film industry of course, we started Angel in 2000 and way back I won't tell you how many years back when I first finished law school my first job was an an in house lawyer for a film company. No, going into this genre was a new experience for me and it was actually kind of cathartic because I would tend to be very squeamish going into a movie that was showing a horror film before and of course now when you spend three/four weeks watching it get made and seeing where the blood actually comes from it's not so scary.
JG - Suspended disbelief - So James, experience for you as an actor in doing this kind of film?
JM - Hmm?
JG - Was this a first for you, the horror thriller genre like this?
JM - No, nope. That was like a normal day on the set. That was, we lived, that was the Buffy experience.
JG- So in Buffy you had that experience anyway, yeah.
JM- Oh,yeah. Oh yeah, you know there'd be foam heads, weird people, bloody people walking around all the time, yeah. I felt quite at home.
JG - You were sinking your teeth in them anyway
JM - yeah, yeah except in Shadow Puppets I was running away from the scary, and in Buffy I was inflicting the scary, yeah.
JG - James Marsters here with us in Los Angeles-
JM - But it's always - but I have to say it is better as an actor to have to run away from the scary, 'cause that's more probably real, I've probably actually been scared more than I've actually inflicted horror but it's a lot easier to be scary, 'cause when you're afraid you have to like fall down, you know you have to pant and run fast - when you're scary you just have to walk medium fast and they put good music behind you. I think being the victim is actually harder.
JG- [laughs] good point
BC - James when you also can't see what's chasing you, when- our creature was created in post,
JG- So the creature was completely created
JM - Yeah, and you know I think that's one of the really great things about the movie, is that you don't know what it is that you're running from -in fact in the beginning of the movie, for a long time you don't know much of anything, which is my favourite part of a movie really, is maybe the first ten minutes or five minutes, sometimes in a really good movie maybe it's a fifteen minute period where you don't know who's who, or you don't really know the whole situation yet. And so your mind is really active and you're asking questions and you're a bit uncomfortable becuase you don't know the lay of the land yet. And what I loved about what Michael did with the script was he extended that through I don't know what would you say Bob, about half the movie or more? More than half the movie.
BC - yeah, you're kept, you're kept in this state of wondering, pretty much up to the half way point James.
JM - That, I think I was literally tingling, when I was reading it. On page 45 it was like I still don't know, you know what the deal is. And itmademe feel like I was one of the people who was running through these dark hallways.
JG - We're gonna talk in a minute about how it ended up at the Brussels international film festival, it's produced by Bob Crowe of Saskatchewan company Angel Entertainment.[...] Nadia in Chicago, you're on with James Marsters and Bob Crowe
Nadia- Hi guys
JM - hey Nadia
Nadia - I just wanted to call, um, first I had a comment for James, I really loved the Civilised album, and it actually inspired me to pick up my guitar again after three years
JM - Yes! best thing I could ever do. Right on. [nadia can't hear]I said music is infectious, isn't it?
Nadia- It really is, I started out as a groupie and now I'm a musician and it's awesome.
JM- Keep going - what sort of stuff do you like to do?
Nadia- started out playing drums, 'cause I was a Keith Moon fan, and then I went on to bass, and kind of dabbled with the guitar but wasn't really good at it, and then I listened to Civilised Man and some of your other stuff and I was like, probably give guitar a chance again
JM- You know if you started with drums I bet you'd have a big leg up, 'cause guitar is surprisingly percussive.
Nadia- yeah
JM - or at least the way I play it, I beat my guitars up like--
Nadia - I heard you got one from Roger Daltrey, like that's the coolest thing ever
JM - Yes I did, he told me that my guitar was crap. But he got me another one, he got one for a hundred dollars, and could tell which one was broken in the right way and he came up to me he was like was like 'James this one sounds like a Martin, it sounds like a Martin, take it' and he signed it for me and I played it until his autograph about weared off and I thought I should probably keep it.
JG- James Marsters in Los Angeles, Nadia has a question about how do you get Shadow Puppets into theaters? We'll ask Bob CroweJG - If we get back to the actual production of something like this movie, Shadow Puppets, Bob walk me through if you would the component parts, obviously we think of the shooting of the movie - that was done in LA?
BC - the shooting was done in LA, of course it all starts with the script, you take several passes of the script until you're sure you've got it right and then if the writer is different from the director the script sometimes changes on the set. We were fortunate we started with a good script, had a writer director on it, put together the crew in LA, usually we would try to shoot here at home- personally I like shoot at home because my family's here and I don't have to spend time so much away but this particular deal came together, we had some financing out of the States, so we pulled together the crew out of LA, a hardworking crew and then of course you have to spend a lot of time on casting and we were very fortunate James of course who's online with us here, he's just brilliant, brilliant in the show James if you don't mind me saying Jolene Blalock from Star Trek Enterprise, she plays Commander T'Pol, is also in the picture as well as Tony Todd, a lot of people know Tony from Candyman, I think James and Tony struck up a bit of a friendship on set and-
JM - Yeah, Tony just uh, Tony just brings it - acting with Tony is like acting with a small hurricane and he doesn't bite you but he's just swirling inside in there. I was just amazed by him
JG - usually anything to do with Candyman just terrifies me so much anyway.
BC - There ya go
JM - Yeah - but he's also such a nice guy, he's just a wonderful warm human being who doesn't need to do any method stuff or get into it and action happens and he looks like he's about to absolutely lose it- I know artistically you have to have that inside you to get there, but we just talked about video games, we just both loved a new videogame system called the PSP and we bonded over that
BC- Lets take one more call real fast Logan, you're on with James Marsters and Bob Crowe
Logan - [him and his family are big fans of JMs] We're really really happy to have you participate in a Saskatchewan connected movie
JM - Why thank you, Logan I had a really good time shooting it and now I realise, I remember Bob coming through the trailers and just, ah, he would walk on the set and make everyone kind of laugh and smile and feel better about the day, not that we were having a bad time but when the producer showed up it was always kind of nice, which is not always the case - because you're from Saskatchewan my brother which I've always loved Saskatchewan, 'cause I came up there and filmed - my girlfriend shot a small movie about dinosaurs and we were up in Saskatchewan and I've always wanted to get back
Logan - the invitation is open - you were up in Canada filming smallville and you've dealt with a great Saskatchewan producer, when are you gonna come up here and film some more stuff? you know spend a little more time up here with some of your Cannadian fans.
JM - I keep bouncing around the idea of moving to Canada actually. Um. I don't know if you guys would have me, but I was thinking I should start the process. Um,
JG- If you're gonna do that make sure it's here in Western Canada, Sakatchewan, we'd love to have you
JM - Thank you, whenever I go overseas people always say 'you're Canadian aren't you' and I always say 'yes!' you know or I don't lie, but I always think woah, that's a big compliment
BC - James is being very gracious when he talks about me keeping things cool on the set- the coolest thing was whenever James wasn't on set he would go off and sit on the steps of his trailer, pull out his guitar and start singing for anybody who would listen or just for himself and it just really, it made the mood on the set really very nice
JM - Thanks Bob 'cause that could either be nice or very annoying.
JG - Shadow Puppets, distribution, new release, what's it doing in terms of theaters?
BC - It's been picked up for North America by a company called Anchor Bay a very solid company, they own the Stars network and one of the largest DVD distributors around, we had it looked at by all of the majors, and really there's only two ways to get your picture onto the screens and one is somebody has to put up a tonne of money, way more money than it took to make it, in order to do all the advertising and the prints and the television support in order to get people in to the theaters - the other way is the way we're doing it - James I don't even know if you know this yet, but we're doing a limited release launch on June 22nd down in your home town in Beverley Hills [JM: right on] at the Fine Arts theater, we've got a one week run set up we're also right now talking to people in New York to do a simultaneous run, see if we can generate enough of the fan support that we can generate some of that P&A fund that prints and advertising fund that it takes to get it in the theaters.
JG - Its at the Brussels Film Festival now, which is getting a lot of buzz too
BC - Yes, and a lovely review, I had to get my mother in law to do the French translation of the review of it, but a very glowing review very nice, particularly the sound design, which they [someone from some Saskatoon studio did] got nice accolades for his sound design
JG - Post production was done here as well-
BC - Post production was done in Saskatoon, all of the edits and the, as well as the graphics over at Media Group, it was a terrific job done by all.
Джеймс будет играть на сцене: он получил главную роль в спектакле "Маленький пес смеялся", который только что прошел на Бродвее. Спектакль поставил в Сан-Франциско режиссер Скотт Эллис
James Returns to the Stage
James Marsters will return to his roots and first love in the San Francisco production of the hit play "The Little Dog Laughed" fresh from its Broadway run. James will appear in the production in a limited engagement starting June 13, 2007 and running through September 9, 2007 (he will continue to appear at his previously announced convention appearances as well). The production will take place at the Post Street Theatre in the heart of San Francisco. Ticket details to follow shortly.
"The Little Dog Laughed" by Douglas Carter Beane is a witty, biting look at what could happen if one of Hollywood's hottest leading men decided to come out of the closet! James will play the leading male character of 'Mitchell'.
James is incredibly excited about the opportunity to return to the stage. Joining him will be Julie White who originally created the role of 'Diane' both off-Broadway and on Broadway. The production will be directed by Scott Ellis.
Scott Ellis He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1995 (1994 season) for Best Director of a Musical for She Loves Me.
Has been nominated for Broadway's Tony Award as Best Director (Musical) three times: in 1994 for a revival of "She Loves Me," in 1997 for "Steel Pier" and in 1998 for a revival of "1776."
А у меня грустная новость: пьесу Джеймса отменили. В последний момент люди, финансировавшие постановку, решили не давать деньги.
С сайта Джеймса:
"The Little Dog Laughed" Update:
The play "The Little Dog Laughed" that James was to have starred in this summer has been permanently cancelled. The financial backers have decided to pull out at the last minute. We are all extremely disappointed with this turn of events. James is disappointed of course, but fine - he knows there will be many other opportunities on the horizon for him. We appreciate all the excitement and support many of you have expressed at the prospect of seeing James on stage.
The last ever issue of the official Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel magazine will go on sale next month.
The magazine was first published as Buffy the Vampire Slayer magazine in 1999, when the show was in its third season, and incorporated Angel magazine in 2005. It has remained popular with fans, even though the last season of Buffy aired in 2003.
The last issue of the magazine is a special 100-page edition with a commemorative wraparound cover and a farewell message from Buffy and Angel creator Joss Whedon. It also includes interviews with Nick Brendon, Juliet Landau, Mercedes McNab and Mark Lutz.
When the latest Spike miniseries, Spike: Asylum, debuted in late 2006, it captivated many fans, including one in particular who would write Brian Lynch a special note of praise. That “fan”? Spike creator Joss Whedon. And the note of praise? An offer to work together to continue Angel’s story beyond “Not Fade Away,” the final episode of Angel: Season 5. You know, the episode that saw Angel and company about to engage in an apocalyptic battle in a Los Angeles alleyway.
Before that tale is told, though, Brian is once again teaming up with his Asylum artist, Franco Urru, to bring about another Spike adventure. An adventure that just might see Spike “puppetized” in the same way that Angel was in the classic Season 5 episode “Smile Time.” Spike: Shadow Puppets is a four-part adventure guest-starring Lorne, some returnees from Spike: Asylum, and a cast of thousands. Thousands of ninja puppets, that is.
Brian was good enough to share a bit more about Spike: Shadow Puppets as well as the upcoming Angel series… and as a special bonus, below the interview, you get an exclusive look at the first five pages of Spike: Shadow Puppets #1, along with some commentary from Lynch, too.
Newsarama: Spike: Shadow Puppets, on top of everything else, is quite the team-up between Spike and Lorne. The two never really had much to say to each other in the TV show, but their interplay in the comic feels right, and works really well. What made you think they'd pair up so well?
Brian Lynch: It kinda came about while I was writing Spike: Asylum and needed someone outside of the rehab facility to help Spike. Since it was established that they were near Las Vegas, I thought Lorne was an easy one to bring in. Once I started writing Spike and Lorne's dialogue together, I noticed how well they play off each other. I think it's because they're two of the funnier characters from Angel. They both enjoy taking the piss out of other characters, so if they were in a situation where they had to hang out, it was only natural they'd start digging at each other. Halfway through issue one of Shadow Puppets, the miniseries definitely becomes a "buddy picture" with Spike and Lorne being thrown together and not enjoying it. Of course, like all good buddy pictures, they form a bond by the end. Around issue three, in fact, there's a downright "nice" moment between them... until Spike realizes it's a nice moment and goes out of his way to mess it up.
NRAMA: The covers seem to give away the fact that Spike, and possibly Lorne, too, get "puppetized" just as Angel did in the "Smile Time" episode. But there are some unexpected surprises and guest-stars in this series, too, aren't there?
BL: Oh yes. A few Angel favorites pop up briefly in issue two, and one of the big bads working behind the scenes at Smile Time: Japan is definitely a crowd favorite. Puppet Spike is awesome and Puppet Lorne is even more awesome, but let's just say that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Puppetizing Angel characters. I hope Diamond Select Toys is paying attention; we just handed them their product line for the next few years.
NRAMA: Cuter: puppies or puppets? Discuss.
BL: Puppet puppies. Definitely. No wait, I'm gonna change my answer. Let's think this one through: the cutest puppy ever? One of those little wrinkle dogs, probably. Sharpei, I think they're called. Damn cute. But the cutest PUPPET ever... I'd have to go with Kermit's nephew Robin, who is WAY cuter than a Sharpei... answer: Puppets are definitely cuter. Even the Smile Time puppets are cute as hell. They're murderous demons, but they're so adorable.
NRAMA: Following this 4-part tale, your next comic-book effort seems to be a dream gig for many people, and certainly for Angel fans: you're working alongside (figuratively, I mean, you're not crowding him at his desk) Joss Whedon and picking up Angel's story where it left off with the finale of the TV show. We’re talking about the project that’d had the working title of Angel: Season 6, a story Joss has dubbed “After the Fall.” How'd such a thing come about in the first place?
BL: He begged and begged and begged, until I relented. That's the story I tell the ladies, anyway. The true story is, I ran into him the day before Spike: Asylum #1 came out and told him about it. A few weeks later, he e-mailed Mr. Chris Ryall and said that he enjoyed the series and that he was thinking about a post-series Angel book, and he thought I'd be right for it. I was shocked and elated. We met for breakfast, traded ideas (his were better, mine were mostly of the "what if Angel and I went to a Bachelor Party? Can you imagine the fun that would be?" variety). He also indulged me in my geeky questions, Angel and otherwise.
NRAMA:I know there's not much you can say now, but will you please tell us everything? Who lives, who dies, who ends up wearing an eyepatch, and so on?
BL: All the lead characters die. Or should I say, have died, when the series begins. The series is basically two new characters at a diner talking. At first the topic of conversation is this vampire with a soul that got killed in an alleyway fighting a dragon, but eventually they move onto discussions about the upcoming weekend, fixing their boat, complaining about their boss. It's pretty awesome, a real slice of life. I wish I could really tell you about Angel, but come on, you wanna be surprised, no? I will say that the whole thing feels very, very epic... but still full of those character moments that people have come to expect from Mr. Whedon.
NRAMA: How do you and Joss go about plotting out the return of these (well, some of these) beloved characters? Who does what? BL: Trading e-mails back and forth. I come up with an idea, he molds it into what is called a "good" idea, I work on it some more, he works on it some more...it's really fun. Basically it's like when I was younger playing with Spider-Man action figures, but I have Stan Lee playing right next to me.
Spike: Shadow Puppets #1 by Brian Lynch and Franco Urru (with variant covers by David Messina) will be available in June. Diamond Code APR07 3783.
EXCLUSIVE 5-page preview of Spike: Shadow Puppets #1. Commentary by Brian Lynch.
Here's some commentary:
PAGE 1 More comics should begin with the violent death of an old man at the hands of teeny, tiny ninja puppets. Take notes, Meltzer! And Meltzer, if you HAVE taken notes and you do this, DO NOT HAVE THE PUPPETS RAPED AND KILLED. They have done nothing to you, Meltzer. Moving on...
PAGE 2 Spike's intro. Look, he pulled a low-rent Ghost Rider with the demon. Take notes, Mark Steven Johnson! I like that Spike is very MacGyver here. Hopefully youngsters reading this book will have their own fun at home with some alcohol and a lighter. I think comic books should encourage youngsters to make their own fun.
PAGE 3 Each issue of Shadow Puppets will have its own title. They'll be plays on popular Buffy and Angel episode titles. I thought this was a fun idea. I love the guy in the tweed suit in the background. He looks like he just stepped out of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
PAGE 4 Spike's business card is a play on Angel's business card from the first episode of Angel. Also, the cute waitress? The only hot girl in issue one of Shadow Puppets. Which is a real shame, because our artist Franco Urru draws the prettiest women in comics. That said, in issue two, some very attractive ladies join the fun. Wait, you know what? Another hot girl is in issue one. Sure she's a puppet, but I'm not going to pass judgment if the reader gets a comic-book crush on her. Hey, I can't point fingers, I wanted to marry She-Hulk when Byrne drew her. Now that Slott has made her a bit easy, I'm fine with just being friends with her.
PAGE 5 SPIKE GETS AMBUSHED! By some jerk in a suit. And it's not even tweed, like the super dude on page 3. Why is that guy attacking our hero? Will Spike survive? And where the hell are all these puppets we've been babbling about? Check out Spike: Shadow Puppets #1, on sale in June!
Обложечка 6 выпуска 8 сезона "Баффи" (интересно, что пятой пока так и не было)
SHADOW PUPPETS will be getting an exclusive one week theatrical engagement June 22nd-28th in Beverly Hills, CA! The movie will be presented digitally and in full surround sound at the historic Fine Arts Theater.
ADVANCE TICKETS ARE NOW ON SALE! The "Shadow Puppets" myspace site can link you directly:
www.myspace.com/shadowpuppetsmovie
....or you can go to the theater's website (select the date and time you wish to attend).
Fine Arts Theater 8556 Wilshire Blvd. Beverly Hills, CA 90211 www.studioscreenings.com
Как, по-вашему, на этом его прокат и закончится? Когда же это все выпустят на ДВД, а самое главное появится в сети Запостила эту же новость в топике Acting
-------- "Удача улыбается смелым, но потом долго ржет над ними" Риша "Маггла на тропе войны"
JOSS WHEDON (W), PAUL LEE (P), ANDY OWENS (I), DAVE STEWART (C), JO CHEN (Cover), PAUL LEE (Cover), and GEORGES JEANTY (Cover) On sale Aug. 1 FC, 40pg $2.99 Ongoing
Buffy’s new position as leader and figurehead of the world’s five hundred most powerful women has made her a bigger target than ever before. “The Chain” tells the story of one of the decoy “Buffy” Slayers, a tale personally important to series creator Joss Whedon. Guest artist Paul Lee (Conan, Tales of the Vampires) pencils the first standalone issue of Season Eight.
Buffy creator Joss Whedon brings Buffy back to Dark Horse in this direct follow-up to season seven of the smash-hit TV series.
JOSS WHEDON (W), GEORGES JEANTY (A), ANDY OWENS (C), and JO CHEN (Cover)
On sale Nov. 14 FC, 136 pages $15.95 TPB, 7" x 10"
Since the destruction of the Hellmouth, the Slayers—newly legion—have gotten organized and are kicking some serious undead butt. But not everything's fun and firearms, as an old enemy reappears and Dawn experiences some serious growing pains. Meanwhile, one of the “Buffy” decoy slayers is going through major pain of her own.
Buffy creator Joss Whedon brings Buffy back to Dark Horse in this direct follow-up to season seven of the smash-hit TV series. The bestselling and critically acclaimed issues 1-5 are collected here for the first time, as are their covers by Jo Chen and Georges Jeanty.
И альтернативная обложка 6 выпуска
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #6
BRIAN K. VAUGHAN (W), GEORGES JEANTY (P), ANDY OWENS (I), DAVE STEWART (C), and JO CHEN (Cover)
On sale Sept. 8 FC, 40 pages $2.99 Ongoing
The second arc of our bestselling Season Eight starts here. Top creator Brian K. Vaughan ( Y: The Last Man; Pride of Baghdad; Lost ) takes over writing duties and dives headlong into what Faith is up to—infiltration, assassination, and nonstop Cleveland. The fugitive Slayer is given the assignment that could change her life . . . if Giles's specialized training doesn't make her want to end it first. Artist Georges Jeanty ( The American Way ) remains at the top of his game—and Joss Whedon stays on as Executive Producer—in this first part of “No Future for You.”
Buffy creator Joss Whedon brings Buffy back to Dark Horse in this direct follow-up to season seven of the smash-hit TV series.
IDW объявило 4 выпуск Spike: Shadow Puppets на сентябрь
Spike: Shadow Puppets #4
Brian Lynch (w); Franco Urru (a); Urru, David Messina (c)
He's been kicked, beaten, stabbed, blown up, and worst of all, turned into a puppet. Now Spike has to battle Smile Time for the fate of every child in Japan! But Smile Time has one more trick up their adorable, murderous felt-covered sleeves—puppet versions of ALL of Spike's friends and foes! It's a battle royale, puppet-style, courtesy of the Spike: Asylum team of Brian Lynch and Franco Urru! David Messina provides a variant cover, and Sean Galloway offers up a puppet-laden incentive cover, too!
*Covers will be shipped in a 1-to-1 ratio.
*Retailers: See your order form for a special incentive
Джеймс снимается в английском сериале "Торчвуд" в гостевой роли. Подробности пока неизвестны. Серия выйдет в начале следующего годаю А 21 июля он даст концерт в Кардиффе.
Daffodils, Dragons and Demons James will be playing a one-off concert in Cardiff on Saturday, July 21.
He will be appearing at The Point in Mount Stuart Square in Cardiff. Tickets cost £20 (subject to booking fee) and are now on sale from The Point. Full details of the concert are available here.
James is in town filming for the second series of UK sci-fi television favourite Torchwood.
He will be appearing as a guest star alongside leading actor John Barrowman in the BBC's adult spin-off of long-running television series Doctor Who.
Torchwood - an anagram of Doctor Who - is a secret task force that deals with alien encounters. John Barrowman plays mysterious multi-sexual time agent Captain Jack Harkness, who leads the Cardiff-based team. Series creator Russell T Davies, winner of the 2006 BAFTA Dennis Potter Award for Outstanding Writing for Television, has also written Casanova, Dr Who and Queer As Folk.
The episode will be broadcast in the UK by the BBC early next year.
THE PULSE: You're working on the first stand-alone issue in the new series. How influenced were you by what Georges Jeanty had done in the prior issues in terms of how you illustrated the issue?
LEE: I did try to incorporate some of his characters in some of the background scenes, and I tried to keep in step with his visual direction.
THE PULSE: What were some of the other things that influenced how you saw these characters?
LEE: Well, in my issue, Giles and Andrew are the main cast members I dealt with. There are also appearances from some of the "Slayerettes" from season 7. I actually try really hard to get accurate likenesses. That's one of my strengths, and why I got the gig.
THE PULSE: How tough is it to draw characters who were immortalized on television, but have to make them slightly different for the comic book universe? Do you ever find yourself slipping and maybe making Buffy look too much like Sarah Michelle Gellar? Was there even something in place that said you couldn't make them look like their TV counterpoints?
LEE: Well, likenesses are always a challenge. And, translating anything to a different medium always requires some adapting. I don't think there is a prohibition against making Buffy look like SMG, though.
THE PULSE: I know your story features one of the "decoy" slayer slayers. How did you approach that character?
LEE: I pictured a girl who was of similar build but looked different enough as to clearly not be SMG. I thought of a girl who would be your typical fan of the Buffy show. Joss wrote her with great edgy attitude. She had a subversive streak to her. So I did my best to capture that.
Нашла немного спойлеров по Торчвуду, перекидываю их сюда (Из поста Ameer с BuffyForums.)
цитата:
Last weekend, James Marsters talked briefly, though somewhat cryptically, about his guest spot in the upcoming second season of "Torchwood" at the Fangoria convention in New Jersey.
The actor best known to genre fans as Spike in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," said he did a preliminary screening of the episode he shot in Cardiff, Wales, but since then the writers have rewritten the script which means he's heading back across the pond to finish filming his episode.
What should fans expect of Marsters, as he takes on the adult spinoff of "Doctor Who"?
His role is "going to offend some, titillate others - to the point where they would need to finish themselves off afterwards." He also said that Brits are more liberal in their approach to sex and sexuality than Americans, but wouldn't spill the beans on what exactly we'll happen during his stay. However, there were implications that something "omnisexual" was going to happen in the episode.
"Torchwood," an anagram of "Doctor Who," is a secret task force that deals with alien encounters. John Barrowman plays ageless omnisexual time agent Captain Jack Harkness, who leads the Cardiff-based team. The series was created by Russell T Davies, who is responsible for reviving the series "Doctor Who."
"Torchwood" Season 1 will air on BBC America beginning Sept. 9.
SOURCE: syfyportal
And
цитата:
Spike Is Omnisexual For "Torchwood" - by Garth Franklin
James Marsters, best known for his roles as Spike on "Buffy" and Dr. Milton Fine on "Smallville", talked up his guest role in the second season of raunchy BBC sci-fi series "Torchwood".
Marsters tells Syfy Portal that his role is "going to offend some, titillate others - to the point where they would need to finish themselves off afterwards."
Whilst he wouldn't be specific, the hint is that something "omnisexual" was going to happen in the episode - which would fit right in with the cast as each of the five main cast members have shared smooching and love affairs with members of both genders.
Значитца, так. Это пересказ слухов, пришедших через третьи-пятые-десятые руки. По идее первоисточник - человек, который был на съемочной площадке "Торчвуда" в Кардиффе и видел съемки издалека. Слов не слышал. Снимали сцену с Джеймсом и главным героем. Действие происходит в баре. Герой Джеймса Джон Харт почему-то отбирает красивых людей, а некрасивых отсылает прочь. Появляется ГлавГер, между ними "эмоциональная сцена" с поцелуем. То, как это описывается по-аглицки и какой писк подняли слэшеры, подразумевает поцелуй отнюдь не в щечку. Потом они снова разговаривают, начинают ссориться, а затем драться, причем капитально. Снимали каскадеров, которые отлетали на несколько метров в стороны. Потом парни устают драться, садятся за стойку разгромленного бара и снова начинают разговаривать. Судя по их поведению, они хорошо друг друга знают. Такие вот дела. Повторяю, эта инфа пришла окольным путем, в открытых местах, насколько я знаю, ничего не появлялось, так что относиться нужно с определенной дозой скептицизма.
И немножко забавностей: ЖЖ-коммьюнити ai_art_images проводит челлендж на лучшую обложку
Written by Brian K. Vaughan, penciled by Georges Jeanty, inked by Andy Owens, colored by Dave Stewart, cover by Jo Chen.
Faith's out to kill a Slayer.
Lady Genevieve Savidge is one of the most dangerous women on the planet. If she's left unstopped, the British heiress will usher in the apocalypse. Faith has accepted Giles's offer of an early retirement package for this gig -- but the wetworks will have to wait till she's infiltrated Savidge's mystically protected estate.
Now, I hear issue #5 of "Buffy," an issue with a stand-alone story, ties in some way with your work with Equality Now, at least thematically.
Well, it doesn't officially tie-in. The thing is everything I do ties-in with Equality Now in the sense that Equality Now is about taking a look at the world and the gender injustices and inequality and trying to very actively and specifically do certain things. For instance, I just got an e-mail from Jessica Neuwirth, who runs Equality Now, saying they had just stopped a couple from being stoned to death. They had 24 hours notice that these people, who have been in jail for 11 years, were about to be executed and they managed to put pressure on the government and NATO to make it stop. That kind of looking at the world and the extraordinary panoply of injustices, moving on one and choosing one, it's kind of what the Slayer army is all about, in that sense of they're addressing problems all over the world. Now, obviously mine is a fantasy and I realize that, and this issue is about one slayer who has a particularly difficult task, but it actually is a very personal story in a weird way. It's not about what it's about, exactly - it's kind of a metaphor, something new I'm trying! I can't really explain it because if you explain it before people read it I think the experience isn't as pure, but yeah it works on a political level because pretty much the scenario that Buffy is working under does, but it's also very personal.
Now, as I understand it we'll see stand alone issues every fifth issue of the series, right?
Yeah, the basic structure of the season is going to be a four-issue arc, then a standalone, and so forth. It's great for me because it allows me to pop-in from time to time. I did issue #10, which is the one featuring the contest winner from the MySpace contest. It was a joy to write. In fact it was such a joy to write that I was three pages over the normal length. I could have really used a couple more pages, but I couldn't do that to poor Scott [Allie, "Buffy" editor].
Oh, I'm sure Dark Horse would bend over backwards to accommodate you, if need be.
They always have. They've been extraordinary, including working on and helping fund this Equality Now auction. Dark Horse has jumped through hoops for me and Scott and I have become e-mail buddies to the point where my wife is asking questions. [laughs] I don't like to abuse that, though. It was just an example of how I can't stop Buffy and Willow talking. I love them so much! ....................
OK, so Brian's first issue stars Faith and is a four part story. How has Faith changed since we last saw her?
It's a very Faith centric story, so it steps a little to the left of the main story, although that's a part of it, it folds into it, but it really is Faith's story. Where we find her is not really in a great place. Because she's so hard core and always has been, she's been doing some of the nastier jobs and it's starting to grate a bit. Brian writes Faith beautifully - her patter and her attitudes are spot on and with Georges Jeanty drawing her, it's Faith-a-licious.
How's Buffy taken the General's revelation that members of the human race have declared war on her and her friends and associates?
Oh, they laugh and laugh and that's it!
I'm sure.
Since the next story arc is Faith's and dealing with the next huge thing, we don't spend a lot of time exploring how she feels about that, she's just trying to figure out what exactly they have up their sleeve more than reacting to it emotionally. At the end of the day there's this cult - and I should mention because people have been getting it wrong that it's not the American military. There is a military wing involved, but it's more global and shady than that, so this is not a book about hating the Army or anything like that. But, after the Faith thing, Buffy will be dealing with it on a lot of levels, asking who it is that really hates her. I don't think she really believes the entire human race is out to get her, but some things are going to happen that are going to make things, well, what's that word I love? Worse.
It appears from the end of issue #4 that Buffy has access to some of Willow's magical abilities? How does it work? Is Buffy casting spells? Or is Willow actually casting spells through Buffy?
In that instance the idea was simply that Willow had given Buffy a little hit so that in case something did happen, because they knew they were up against Amy, she gave her a little protective mojo. It's not something I plan to repeat that often because it could get too convenient and that's sort of what separates the two of them. However, as we did in episode 21 of season four, making that connection between them really highlights the strength of their friendship, so I like doing that.
Wrapping up, Joss, have you heard from any of the cast of the show about the book? Are they reading it and have they given you any thoughts on it?
I just saw Aly yesterday and Tom Lenk brought her some issues. None of the cast are really aware of it and, generally speaking, you don't want to show the actors it because they'll just go, "Hey, that's not my nose!" Aly was like, "I guess that's an OK picture of me, but I seem kind of big!" And Tom said, "That's Dawn, you ninny!" [laughs] But, no, I haven't really heard anyone's opinion about it and [whispers] that's probably best! They are being beautifully rendered; don't get me wrong, I wish someone would draw me looking that hot.
Джон Барроумэн, который играет главного героя в "Торчвуде", сказал в интервью:
цитата:
“James Marsters, who was Spike on ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer.’ He’s on Torchwood [in season two]. I can’t tell you very much, but he guest stars. And there’s a scene between he and Jack when they first meet, all I’ll say is, this scene is so hot, so horny, so horny, so violent, that all the fans who watch it are going [er, appreciate it greatly].”
И еще одна весточка со съемой этой самой сцены: Человек слышал часть диалога: герой Джеймса заказывает у бармена "всего - по одной порции". Очевидно, соскучился по земным радостям. Скорее всего, красивых людей он отбирал именно поэтому...
Новая позиция Баффи - лидера и лица пятисот самых сильных женщин в мире - сделала ее еще более соблазнительной мишенью. "Цепь" рассказывает историю одной из "подставных" Баффи - истори, лично важную для создателя сериала Джосса Уидона.
Guest artist Paul Lee (Conan, Tales of the Vampires) pencils the first standalone issue of Season Eight. Buffy creator Joss Whedon brings Buffy back to Dark Horse in this direct follow-up to season seven of the smash-hit TV series.
This series secured spot #8 in Entertainment Weekly’s “The Twenty Big Events of 2007.”
“I should probably say that it’s the awesomest thing ever. I’m having so much fun.” -Joss on Season Eight
“Series creator Whedon effectively sucks devotees back into his Hellmouth.” -Entertainment Weekly
Publication Date: Aug 01, 2007 Format: Full color, 40 pages Price: $2.99
Ну-c каковы мнения о способах размножения фей? По-моему, Джосс решил заодно и "Чужого" попользовать ( в слегка измененном виде, чтобы его в плагиате не обвинили)! ))))))
Васкез, извини, что надоедаю, но у меня не получается скачать второй номер комикса про Спайка. Видимо у моего компа особые отношения с рапидом. Нельзя ли скачать его где-нибудь еще? Заранее спасибо.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8: #8 No Future for You Writer: Brian K. Vaughan Cover Artist: Jo Chen Inker: Andy Owens Colorist: Dave Stewart Genre: Horror, Action/Adventure
Faith hits the ground running after she infiltrates the estate of a rogue Slayer, that is until Buffy pops in and is confronted by her longtime nemesis. Certainly, chaos ensues.
A smash hit, Season Eight continues to enthrall readers with writer Brian K. Vaughan (Y: The Last Man; Pride of Baghdad; Lost), artist Georges Jeanty (The American Way) and Buffy creator and Executive Producer Joss Whedon all at the helm.
* Brian K. Vaughan (writer of Lost and Ex Machina) takes on Faith in Season Eight.
* Top-ten seller Buffy #1 went immediately back to press-three times-to satisfy demand . . . totaling over 150,000 copies!
Joss Whedon's Season Eight continues!
Publication Date: Nov 07, 2007 Format: Full color, 40pages Price: $2.99
Интересно, кто этот "давний враг" Баффи. Опять Эми? Или Глори?
Джеймс будет сниматься в криминальном сериале "Без следа"
цитата:
JAMES JOINS CBS HIT DRAMA WITHOUT A TRACE
James has been cast in a recurring/guest star role on the hit CBS one hour drama Without A Trace. He will portray в€˜Detective Marsв€™, who is described as: mid 30s to 40. Attractive in a real way, a bright, full-of-life personality, charming, possibly from around the Washington DC area, so could have a slight southern accent. Mars is a Police Detective who has started to investigate what seems to be a ring of Human Trafficking. He has information our FBI team is interested in and comes to New York to speak to Vivian about what he knows. Eventually he will become part of a task force to deal with Human Trafficking. GUEST STAR, RECURRING ROLE.
The role films in both New York and Los Angeles. Once we have air dates, we will post them.
И интересный кусочек от Аузиелло
цитата:
Michael Ausiello at TVGuide.com
As I revealed in this week's Ask Ausiello, Det. Mars will be brought in to investigate a human-trafficking ring. The role is recurring, but I hear there's definite series-regular potential.
Checking in With James Marsters The ''Buffy'' alum talks about his upcoming arc on ''Without a Trace,'' acting alongside Oscar winners Hilary Swank and Kathy Bates, and if we'll ever see him as Spike again
By Vanessa Juarez James Marsters has a theory about showbiz: ''I keep meeting people that are really, really good and they keep being really cool. If you can't get along with people, is it possible to get up to the top echelons?'' In other words, if you're socially inept, you ain't getting anywhere in Hollywood. And Marsters, who's best known for playing the immortal Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off Angel, should be in the know, considering he's been getting around quite a bit himself lately: The 45-year-old has a five-episode arc on Without a Trace coming up, a role in Richard LaGravenese's dramedy P.S., I Love You (out Dec. 21), and a new solo record he's working on. We caught up with Marsters to talk about those projects — and to ask if there's any chance he'd revisit the bleached-blond look to play Spike again.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How are you? I hear it's your birthday. JAMES MARSTERS: You want to sing me a song? Just kidding.
You want to sing me a song? Mine was yesterday. Well... [Sings] Happy birthday to you... Happy birthday to you... Happy birthday, Vanessa... Happy birthday to you. Okay, my turn.
[Singing] Happy Birthday to you... Happy Birthday to you... Happy Birthday, deaaaar... James.
...Jaaaaames. I couldn't decide on whether to go with your last name or not. [Laughs] Right on.
So I wanted to talk to you about life and things that are going on in your career, specifically Without a Trace. How'd that come about?It was an audition like many others. Interestingly, I met Nick Brendon [who played Xander on Buffy] in the waiting room for the audition and we caught up. I'm sure he was both happy and not happy that I got the role. There's been 100 roles that I've auditioned for that I didn't get, but I didn't see Nick. The one that I meet Nick on, I beat him out of the role. So I think he's probably in the process of forgiving me for that.
What's your character like? I play Detective Mars. He's from Baltimore and he has been working on a case for a good while and hasn't been able to crack it. The FBI in New York [on] that same case call him in to help. And then, in dramatic fashion, they stumble into something bigger than they expected.
You've been pretty busy since Buffy. What have these various experiences been like? It was a love fest over on [TNT's Holly Hunter series] Saving Grace — I walked into a Woodstock. Everyone was coming off of having filmed a fabulous pilot and being very proud of that and really loving the experience. You have to check when they're on episode 20, see how they're doing, if they're still feeling the love. I've had some difficult ends of seasons for sure. I was in luck, I got on [for the] first episode.
What was the cast like? I was totally outclassed by Holly Hunter. I have gotten used to being one of the older actors in a young cast. [She's] probably younger than I am, but just better. [Laughs] So effortlessly herself. I hopefully took some notes. That was a rude eye-opening but also a wonderful thing, you know: ''Keep walking, brother, you're not quite there yet.''
Any chance you'll be back? Well, [my character] killed somebody, so unless...
I haven't actually seen the episode, to tell you the truth. I played a character named Dudley, man. And if you're in a cop show and your name is Dudley, you have one episode. You can't count on more than that.
You also have a role in Richard LaGravenese's P.S., I Love You, with Gerard Butler and Hillary Swank. Yeah, Hilary... Again — outclassed, man. Hilary is...just no filter at all. She really is that nice. I play the best friend of Hilary's husband [Butler], who dies of cancer but finds a way to help his wife get through the mourning process even though he's dead. Not a large role, but a nice little role, actually. And the entire cast was just outrageous.
Anyone stand out? Kathy Bates. Really fabulous and so incredibly good it makes me nervous. [They] were filming...a very emotional scene for like 11 hours, and then they finally turned around to us and it was 2 o'clock in the morning. Kathy is sick — she's got like a fever — and she turns around to us and goes, ''Okay, guys, this is what separates the men from the boys... You ready?” She said it like a drill sergeant. I was in heaven because that's what I've been saying to younger actors for years. When times get tough, I go, ''All right, we're going to find out who can act — ready?'' I [thought], ''I'll follow you to the end of the Earth.'' And she liked my videogame when I let her play my PSP. It was a car race game, Need for Speed. She has a quality that all of my favorite people have: There is a child still left in her and it's very well protected by an adult in her as well. You wouldn't want to mess with her at all. But there's something about her that can have fun very easily, and that's just gold.
What are you watching on TV right now? I like the Science Channel, the Discovery Channel, I like Discovery Times, which is a fabulous hybrid of the New York Times and Discovery Channel. Maybe I'm just an old man, but I like to watch that stuff. I think truth is weirder than fiction. As far as fiction, not so much, which is really ridiculous because that's what I'm trying to make my money in.
Well, you have to have a reprieve from what's going on in your career. Yeah, but my manager gets really frustrated sometimes.
NEXT PAGE: Marsters on why he thinks Joss Whedon ''never really got into'' Spike — and the cast he McDreams about joining There have been rumors about a Spike spin-off. What can you tell us about that? Joss came to me as Angel was coming down and asked me if I would be interested in that, and I said, ''Heck yeah, I'd love to work with you anytime, call me — I'll come across the Earth for you.'' But to do Spike, let's do him [before] seven years [go by], because otherwise, I'm going to get too old and vampires don't age. Frankly, I think I'm looking a little better than I thought I would, and with a decent screen test we could find out if it was still possible. It has to be believable.
[But] I don't think the character of Spike really sparked Joss' imagination. I think that he was designed to be a throwaway character that got popular with the fans. Personally, he never really got into him. Every character on the show was a version of Joss, but Joss didn't see Spike that way. Spike was the other guy. He was the guy who might mess up the show, actually, because vampires are supposed to be ugly and hated.
What about Angel? Angel was an exception too, but Angel wasn't Joss' idea and I think by the time I came on, he was afraid that these good-looking vampires were going to take over the theme. So whenever Joss would write an episode, Spike would have, like, five lines. [Laughs] That's fine. I mean, the man gave me a job and he's a great guy and everything. What Joss has said is that he's done with television.
Any chance he'd take any of the Buffy characters to the big screen? I think the only thing he wants to take to the big screen would be Buffy herself, and I don't think Sarah [Michelle Gellar] is interested. But you know, I can't talk for her. As far as Spike, there was some interest about a year and a half ago, but it fell apart right away.
So what's after Without a Trace — is there anything else you'd like to be in? What's the show that my good friend, Marti Noxon, who used to head up Buffy, is heading up this year? Oh God, it's such a popular show. You know, with Dr. Dreamy...
Grey's Anatomy? Yeah, Grey's Anatomy! They called me in to talk to me last year, so I went down to the Television Academy and watched five episodes, and that was so great. I would love to do that show. I think that show has a wit and a sparkle that just bubbles from underneath. I'd love to do House. I think everybody would like to do House right now.
Is your band Ghost of the Robot still together? No, you know, we just got a little tiny bit famous. But some of the people...were probably too young for that experience.
What was your sound? The thing I loved about that band is that we had a sound that I hadn't heard before. We had a pop-rock sound [that] was kind of like Jimmy Eat World but with more complex chord progressions. So the band broke up while we were recording our second album. We did very well. We sold like 60,000 copies of the first album, we toured all around the world, sold out everywhere we went.
Who were you guys signed with? We weren't signed with anybody — we sold all of our records over the Internet and kept all of that money, which is nice. There were a couple of record companies that came to us, but the kind of contracts they were putting in front of us were just ridiculous. So I went solo after that. And it was just me and my guitar going out on the road, which was very scary in the beginning. I just got back [from] playing Jersey and Wales. I've toured all through England, and I'm working on another album right now. I've got 20 songs [that] I'm paring down to 12.
So, for the short-term: What are you doing for your birthday? I'm shooting a fabulous TV show called Without a Trace. [Laughs] I'm going to try and save the world from horrible people, and I'm going to draw my gun manfully.
Hopefully you'll get a cake, at least. I hope not. It's so funny when they do the cake thing on the set because they don't have time for cake. The EP doesn't get a cake on his birthday.
Интервью с Энтони Хэдом насчет спин-оффа про Джайлза (Ripper):
цитата:
The former “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” star is definitely not going back to Sunnydale anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean his adventures have ended entirely as the Anthony Stewart Head spin-off series “Ripper” is about to finally come to life. “It’s more likely than it has been for some time,” Head told SyFy Portal’s Alan Stanley Blair during the recent Collectormania convention in Glasgow, Scotland. “Joss [Whedon], I think I’ve actually got to talk to him to find out if he’s got it. It’s all about Fox now, whether Fox will give permission but the BBC [is] up for it.”
Rumors of “Ripper” featuring Head's character Giles from The WB and UPN series have been in circulation for more than a few years since he departed from “Buffy” at the end of its fifth season almost seven years ago. The original premise of the series was that Giles would come out of retirement in England in order to solve some ghost stories on a more grown-up and sophisticated scale than “Buffy” itself.
Since then however, the project went cold and the proposed two-hour backdoor pilot was never produced. However, Head said the project was finally moving ahead and that producers have received a green light for the series to be developed."
Although Fox may have given a nod to “Ripper,” it’s still a long way off coming to fruition as the go ahead for development is still a few steps short from a commitment to the series. But as Head himself says, it’s a lot more than fans had before.
“They’ve only made an announcement that they’ve given the go ahead for development,” he said. “But that’s a lot further down the line than we were a year ago. It’s a good story, too. [Whedon's] told me … but there is no script.”
And if the prospect of Giles returning to solve paranormal mysteries isn’t enough to get fans excited, there is always the possibility that Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) or Angel (David Borenanz) may pop in for a small cameo, even though the latter is tied up with a new series on Fox called "Bones."
“If all things are equal we’ll do it next summer,” Head later told fans at the event. “It could involve her, it could involve him but it doesn’t hinge on that.”
Как-то все это... хм. Многообещающе - но тем слабее верится...
На форуме Dark Horse идет голосовалка: с кем должна остаться Баффи - А Ангелом или со Спайком? Ангел пока лидирует. Если есть желание - зарегистрируйтесь и проголосуйте.
www.televisionwithoutpity...o%20Extras The James Marsters Interview By Couch Baron | Season 8 | Episode 42 | Aired on 2007.09.21 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So up until this point, I can honestly say that I give myself some degree of credit (although said degree has varied) for getting every interview I've ever done for TWoP. That streak has now ended, although given the interviewee, I'm not exactly complaining. I'd like, on behalf of TWoP, to thank James's publicist Jenni, who was a total sweetheart in arranging this interview, and, of course, the man himself, the former star of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel, who gave me about fifty minutes when we were scheduled for twenty. He's a real good and fun guy, folks, and here's what he had to say.
Couch Baron: You grew up in Modesto, a small inland town in Northern California.
James Marsters: Yeah. Good place to grow up. A lot of orchards and dirt roads.
CB: Nice. I see that you wanted to be an actor from a pretty young age.
JM: Yeah. From sixth grade.
CB: Did you eventually get a case of the small-town blues there? Were you dying to get out and pursue your dream?
JM: Uh∦yeah! My father lived near San Francisco, and when I first saw San Francisco, I was like, I want to live in the city. I just liked that rhythm.
CB: Did you go to theater down there?
JM: Yeah, I went to ACT, which is a really good theater on Geary Street. Byron Jennings was sort of there, Michael Winters was there -- that was a great, great company. In fact, they were so good that when I went to Broadway, I was like, "You know what, this is okay." Not that great, actually.
CB: Really! San Francisco was better.
JM: Yeah! I saw two complete seasons on Broadway, and I was like, I'm not seeing it. And I finally kind of came to the conclusion that Broadway was a for-profit market, and therefore the direction had to be a little simpler. I would see plays where I'd seen them in a not-for-profit theater, and they were more complex -- the same plays, same scripts. Good actors, on Broadway, but it just was simplified because it was a different market -- they're not trying to make art. They're trying to make money, and they want to widen the audience, I guess.
JM: Oh, I almost punched the preacher, man. This guy interrupted…we were doing a Sam Shepard and a Joseph Chaikin play -- Joseph Chaikin's a great playwright who suffered from aphasia, and Sam went to him as he wrote these plays to try to be a kind of therapy for Joseph. It's about an angel who falls to earth and is disoriented ["I believe it's called The War In Heaven: Angel's Monologue" -- CB] , and it's very emotional -- the angel gets caught by a cop and everything, and the good old pastor comes in and sits in the front row right next to me! I'm playing the angel and there's the other actor, and we're playing a scene where we're about to kill each other, and we stop and we're like, "Ed, what is it, is there a fire, an earthquake, what?" "No, I'm just watchin'." "Well, Ed, you can't interrupt rehearsal. We're going to have to go back forty-five minutes to get this." [George W. Bush voice] "Well, you know, just carry on. I ain't leavin'. I'm the pastor here. You act, now." And, you know, I finally got him out, but as soon as he left, I punched the floor and I totally broke my hand and I had no medical insurance. So I talked the hospital into treating me because I was a service to the community! [both laugh] But the doctor just kept re-breaking the bone -- they wouldn't pin it because that was like, too much money, so they just kept re-breaking it every couple weeks.
CB: Oh my God. You don't have any lingering problems with it, do you?
JM: Uh, not yet. They say I'm gonna have pretty bad arthritis later.
CB: That sucks.
JM: Yeah. It sucks ass.
CB: Well, you started your own theater company in Chicago and then moved it to Seattle. Did it have a particular focus, or was there a niche of theater you were trying to explore?
JM: Nope, not at all. We were doing…my then-wife, Lianne Davidson, and I were doing this production of a Brian Friel play, Lovers. Great script -- sad and happy and fabulous. And it was, despite not the best production…well, it was the direction, I guess, it still was a success, my then-wife and I kind of looked at each other and said, well, you know, "We can @#%$ it up this good." [both laugh] Let's try this out ourselves, you know? And we did a pairing of Lanford Wilson's Home Free! and Leonard Melfi's The Bird Bath, and it was not a critical success -- the critics, like, took after us, but we were told…my friends told me that they do that to every actor that dares to start doing something like that. But luckily we were right across the street from Steppenwolf and they noticed us, and they kinda took us under their wing and kinda helped us a little bit. We had a better success with A Phoenix Too Frequent, the first play from Christopher Fry, and…that was a great story that almost ended in violence as well, as a matter of fact!
CB: [both laugh] I'm sensing a theme here!
JM: Yeah, we were renting this huge space in the West Side of Chicago. It was like, half a football field, but twenty-two-foot ceilings, twenty-five-foot ceilings -- huge. And my scenic designer, Greg Musick, said cool, and I take one look at the space and I'm like, I can't afford to fill the space. And Greg goes, dude, don't worry about it, I can do it. And I'm like, @#%$ you! I put up my little hand and I was like, "I can afford to fill this much space." Like, nine feet by ten feet. I don't have the money! And he's like, trust me. He tells me that he just needs me to get him a bunch of sheets. Three hundred sheets. And he was gonna dye them to look like rose marble, and put them in huge columns, sweeping columns from the roof, and then plait them on the sides of the thing, and it was going to work beautifully. So we spent the whole winter making∦I got the sheets from hotels that were turning over their sheets, and we just worked on our knees, made all the rose marble, and we had∦we were ready by the time we were gonna start rehearsal. And we were two weeks into rehearsal, and the owner of the place says, oh, we can't do it, I'm moving downtown. There's no theater space where I'm going. And we'd already spent money on rights, on advertising, on all that stuff.
CB: And you had three hundred rose-colored sheets!
JM: [both laugh] Exactly! Worked the whole winter, right? So I said, let me see what you have, and I'll tell you if you have theater space. So I went down there and there's nothing, and I said, come on, there's got to be a closet, show me anything. And he showed me a basement, which was like, unused for thirty years. But again, my scenic designer was like, "Oh my God, it's perfect, it's perfect," like, dude, are you @#%$ kidding me? It's a tomb, dude, it's a tomb! And so we mucked it out, with no plumbing -- we had to put buckets in there, and opened it up, and luckily, one of the lighting designers from the Goodman Theater, which is a great theater down the road, was passing by, and one of my producers who could talk anybody into anything, she talked him into watching rehearsal, and he came and lit it for us! We only had, like, coffee cans as lamps, but we had lots of them, like thirty of them. They're called festival lanterns, and he placed them really carefully and made it look so beautiful. And we opened, great reviews, didn't have enough seats for people. And two weeks later the guy comes and is like, you know, we're doing plumbing, you gotta get out. The same landlord is like, you gotta get out, two weeks. And I'm like, I got a hit! So I'm screaming at him over the bar, and I try to leap over, and Greg and my wife pull me back, and then they start in on it, and then my ex-wife tries to leap over the bar, and Greg and I pull her back. But we ultimately had to get out.
CB: Man! So outside your acting, you're a professional musician. Have you been interested in music as long as you've been into acting?
JM: Um∦well, I started learning guitar about the same time -- maybe like two years after that. And I was playing in bars when I was thirteen, fourteen, and I was with a band called The Vandals for a while. But when it came time for college I decided to study acting, so guitar was just in my personal life. And then I got on TV, and then clubs found that out, and knew that they could sell tickets whether I sucked or not, and I played and I sucked, and they sold their tickets and I kept trying, and I met a guy, started a band and learned a lot, did that for two years, at which point I went out just playing solo, which was terrifying. [laughs] But ultimately, people said they liked it better, because ultimately I was just singing my own songs, and everyone sounds better when they're singing their own songs. Frankly, Charlie's stuff was just too high.
CB: That was Ghost Of The Robot, right?
JM: Yeah! Yeah. That was a great band 'til the fuckin' singer started singing! Then it was horrible! [both laugh] And it's just a terrible feeling when that guy is you! And you're like, "I don't have the notes, dude!" Finally, we were recording the second album and I finally had the notes required for the first album. I was working on it, 'cause you know, he's a tenor, he writes for himself and then makes me sing it, but I'm like, a baritone. But you know, I finally had the notes for the first album, and he added three on top! I'm like, you @#%$! I can't! I can't!
CB: Heh. You're not the only famous actor to tour professionally. Without speaking for anyone else, do you find part of the appeal to be the performance aspect, especially in front of a live audience that you don't get when you're doing TV?
JM: Yeah. Definitely. There's a danger and also a freedom, that you definitely don't get with TV.
CB: So I'd imagine you don't get the same sort of thrill out of recording an album in the studio, either.
JM: Uh, no, but luckily I'm working with such good people that I'm more nervous in the studio than I ever have been in front of an audience, and I've been terrified in front of an audience. I'm working with Ben Peeler, a guitarist from The Wallflowers, for a couple days and he's just so @#%$ amazing! I think he's going to be working with us all through it. Also Blair Sinta, who's just an incredible drummer who's worked with Alanis Morissette, and Curt Schneider, the bassist ["from Five For Fighting" -- CB], and GOD, he's amazing. And I'm working with Ryan Shore as a producer, who does a lot of soundtracks for movies and stuff. I had a lot of different sounds that I wanted to kind of try to make into one holistic album. [laughs] So I needed a guy who understood a lot of different kinds of songs. So ultimately, in a recording studio, no matter how wonderful it is, it's a different sort of pressure and it's a different sort of experience; it's really fun, and in its own way it's dangerous. But when you're in front of an audience, you know, you're entertaining, more than anything else you're entertaining them, and you're using either your music or if you're doing a play you're using your words, because you're trying to make a conversation with the audience, basically, and you're using whatever medium you have at the time to do that. So that's the cool part of it. And sometimes, the audience will want to talk back, you know? [both laugh]
CB: After your theater company, you eventually made the transition to television and film. Technically, those are like night and day.
JM: Totally.
CB: You might be doing a thirty-second scene, cutting, going six times in a row. How did you cope with that transition? Was it jarring for you?
JM: Yeah, totally. And I knew it. I knew before I moved down to L.A. that there was a whole different need for film than onstage. I quickly sussed out that I needed to dump basically everything that I'd learned. I was thirty-four, and I hadn't conquered the stage, but I was a good usable actor in Seattle and Chicago, and thought I knew basically how to do the job. And I basically had to just flush it. Okay, here it is: onstage, you're like a Benihana chef. You ever been to Benihana, where the chef comes out and serves it to you?
CB: Sure.
JM: And all the costumes and the script and the lighting and everything else, that's like the celery and steak and onions and it's all of your ingredients, but at the point of sale, when you actually create the product, it's just you, and you use the ingredients as you do. And you know, I hate to say it, but the playwright could be dead. The producer could be dead. And the lights could fail, frankly. You're right in the driver's seat, making product and selling it to the customer. But in film, you're the celery. [laughs] And so, if you try to tell the story, you're really barking up the wrong tree. If you try to manipulate the rhythm, or try to hang up words in the air to try to make a certain color or effect, you're way up the wrong tree. Like I've heard, I don't know if it's true, but I heard that Meryl Streep doesn't even focus on where the scene comes in the story. Like she reads the script once to see if she wants to do it and then she just focuses each scene as if it's its own play.
CB: That's interesting.
JM: Yeah. So I had to dump everything, absolutely everything, and, like, I knew it, and I told the producers on Buffy that I knew it, and, like, I remember Joss once told me, "A little less Laurence Olivier and a little more Tim Roth." I was like, "I know, I'm trying! I'm trying!" But it only really worked when I was completely apathetic. I was so tired, and I came to work and I really didn't care anymore. And then I saw that it was the best stuff I ever did.
CB: You seem like kind of an anglophile these days -- you've spent a lot of time in England touring. Had you spent a lot of time there before Buffy?
JM: No. No,. I wanted to, but I was always poor. My family, Marsters, is in The Book Of Domesday. We were part of the original Saxon invasion -- 1056, I think. Yeah, and we were recorded -- we were the masters of something, and we were given a lot of land, right after Norman The Conqueror's invasion. Norman gave us a bunch of land and titles, and made us lords of our dominion. [both laugh]
CB: Nice! Well, the reason I ask is that I'm sure you've heard a million times that you did a great job with your accent as Spike. I think I read -- was it originally supposed to be a Creole accent?
JM: No, it was supposed to be∦it was originally supposed to be English, and then as a lark, they said, well, can you do any other accents? And I was like, yeah, well, what do you want, basically. They said, well, can you do southern, and I did it in an old N'Awleans fifty-year-old white man, like, white people don't talk this way. ["This bit is in that accent, which is awesome." -- CB] And that kinda was cool, but ultimately I don't think it was as inherently violent, or at least to the stereotypes we have.
CB: So did it come naturally to you, doing the English thing?
JM: It's just kinda funny, I was talking with a theater friend about this and we were laughing, 'cause in the theater world it's just totally not a big deal to be able to do a bunch of accents. Anything you could be hired for. And basically, I do all the white-guy accents. Like I don't really do Korean that well, but anything I could make money off of -- Russian, French, Norwegian, South African -- you have at least an auditionable one in your pocket, and if you get the role, you get it better. And Spike was not that great starting out, man. Spike went Southern a couple of times, totally.
CB: Did playing that character with the accent get you a lot of notice in England?
JM: Um, yeah. They just thought I was English. They were like [in English accent], "Rock on!" Digging me in England.
CB: So when you meet English people and you talk like yourselfв...
JM: They always go [English accent], "Talk in your sexy British accent!" And I'm like, what's wrong with the American accent? Isn't it sexy? And they're like [English accent], "No. Not really."
CB: Heh. I lived in England for a couple years, and I know what that's like. Spike had a real punk vibe -- I think the Sex Pistols was a pretty apt comparison. Were the punk music and ethos things you were into before?
JM: Totally, yeah. I grew up∦in high school, I graduated in '80, so I remember when the Sex Pistols' "Never Mind The Bollocks" came out, that was∦my junior and senior year, The Clash came out with like four albums, and one of them was the double ["'London Calling'" -- CB], it was just a great time. Patti Smith was rocking. We went to the Cow Palace, man, and saw The Clash, and we snuck in some tequila, and like, the Cow Palace doubles as a basketball court or whatever, so they put out a trampoline wooden thing over it to protect it, but we all, like, pogoed. The Dead Kennedys were there -- I'd like kind of passed out. I took a bunch of No-Doz, but they didn't kick in, and so I kinda passed out, and I remember trying to stay up for the Dead Kennedys but just not really being able to, but finally I heard "AND NOW, THE CLASH!" And all my senses popped on -- I was like seventeen years old, and I fought my way right down the center of the pogo line, and by the way, we ruined the Cow Palace. They didn't allow any more rock concerts in there for like twenty-five years, 'cause we ruined the floor with pogo-ing. It was just that dance style where you jump up and down. But right down the center of the floor -- basically, it was the left against the right just smashing up against the center, and I went right up the center and threw my tequila bottle up onstage! And Joe Strummer was like, "ONE! TWO! What the @#%$?" [both laugh] And he picks up the little tequila bottle and goes, who the @#%$ threw this? And I kind of raise my little hand, and he goes, "Thank you!" And he takes a swig and they all pass it around, and finish the bottle, so at that point, I think I'm friends with the band! So I try to get backstage, take like three steps backstage and get thrown out. But I talked my way back in. It was good. So yeah, punk was good.
CB: I see you list "Once More, With Feeling" as your favorite Buffy episode. Was that partially because you got to meld your acting and music abilities?
JM: No, it's mainly because as a company, mainly the actors but I'm sure the cinematographers as well, everybody was just terrified, because of the extra needs of doing a musical. All the more tracking shots, the more items, the stuff people have to come up with. And the actors, really, they didn't sign on to be musical actors. Tony Head and I were already singers, so we were like, "Right on!" It's fun, and it was just a walk in the park for us. But everybody else, they were like∦well, you know, you might be the best dramatic actor around, but you might not be a comedic actor. And if suddenly you're on this great drama and it suddenly decides to be a comedy one episode, you might go, you know, I didn't sign on for this. I'm gonna be made a fool of. And if they say, suddenly it's a musical, and you didn't audition for a musical, suddenly you know, it's like, there's enough egg gonna fly around here that it's gonna catch me right upside the head. Like, all the other actors went through this. They bore down and learned their parts, you know, dance parts and singing parts, and came up with the goods.
CB: Yeah, I thought it was really brave of a lot of them.
JM: Yeah. And the thing was, it wasn't very long before we realized it was gonna work. Joss released a little bit of tape, and we saw that it was going to be actually really good. So as a company, we went from just, like, people just depressed and angry and GRRRR! to just flying. And it reminded me more than anything of being in theater, when sometimes you do a play∦like, we did weird @#%$. The Interrogation was just like a four-hour play about the 1965 Nazi trials in Frankfurt, Germany, and it's all real, it's just edited from the transcripts, where, you know, the guards stand up and tell their side, and then the prisoners stand up and tell their side, and that's IT. For like, four hours. And we did it. [laughs] And it was a hit. And it reminded me of when, I would tell cast, we're jumping off the cliff with this one again, and we're either gonna fly or we're gonna splat, so let's start flappin'. It reminded me of that.
CB: Nice. Did they look for your input at all in doing the songs, since you're a musician?
JM: Noooo. Joss doesn't look for input.
CB: [laughs] He's not an input kind of guy, huh?
JM: No. [laughs]
CB: All right, then. Well, let's talk about Without A Trace.
JM: Right on.
CB: Your character, Detective Mars, is going to be introduced in the season premiere. What can you tell us about him?
JM: Um∦he wears brown. So he's a trustable cop. In the cop world, if you wear blue, you might be dicey, or you just might be sexy. But if you wear brown, then you're the trustable cop. I'm the good guy. Which means I wonder if I'm going to be just killed and slaughtered and come to a bloody end. It's gonna be a bloody end for me! It's Mars! They named me Mars. It means fuckin' pain. No, he's a good guy that's been chasing criminals who do horrible things to young women, and it gets a lot larger than he thought it would very quickly, and he gets caught up with the FBI. He's from Baltimore, and he kinda gets sucked up into an investigation∦he kinda starts the investigation because the most recent killing was in his city, and then they move to New York, and he kind of follows it from there, and starts working with the FBI. We're just in the beginning of it, so frankly, I don't know more than that.
CB: How many episodes have you shot?
JM: Uh∦two? Or it might be one. I don't know -- it's a B-plot, so they can just lay it in as they want.
CB: Sure. Well, you alluded to it earlier, but I've read about the plotline surrounding your character, and it's pretty dark material even for this show. You've found a lot of humor in dark roles in the past -- do you think you'll be able to do that here?
JM: I don't know if they're gonna need that here. I think what they need from me is just the gut-reaction stuff of the normal good person. I don't think there∦you know, dude, I don't know. We might get into it and decide that they need some gallows humor, I mean, at some point you have to have that.
CB: So talking about how you're the good guy, how does that play against some of the other regular cast members so far?
JM: So far, I've only shot with Marianne [Jean-Baptiste], and all they've told us is that they need more warmth from us, that's all. [laughs] And we joke about that, and then we talk about Aretha Franklin. But, you know, I think that∦I may be inferring something, but I think that they're two good cops, and they both want to catch the same person, and they find no reason to distrust each other, and I think they∦I don't know if they'll become, like, best friends or anything, but I think that they don't think that they're dicks. I think that they wanted some kind of connection, some kind of, like, you know, I guess we were kind of dry out on the helicopter pad in the first couple of takes, and they said, "We need more warmth." That's all I can tell you! And then we gave them warmth, and I batted my eyes at her. [both laugh] She's fabulous, by the way.
CB: She's great. Speaking of Marianne, we talked before about how you've spent a lot of time in England, but I think you've spent a good amount of time in Australia as well?
JM: Um, you know, I've been to Australia, I think it's three times now. And I haven't really been able to see Sydney yet, because they keep trying to find me, like they keep, on radio shows, they're like [Australian accent], "Find James Marsters!" And so I stay in the hotel room. But I was in Melbourne, and that was really good. Melbourne kind of reminded me of a Seattle kind of feel.
CB: Well, the reason I ask is that Marianne is obviously English, but Anthony LaPaglia and Poppy Montgomery are from Australia.
JM: Wow, I didn't know that!
CB: Yeah!
JM: Two more great actors from Australia! What is it? You know, they know how to do clothes. Australia knows how to do male clothes -- simple, strong clothes.
CB: Well, given that you've only worked with Marianne, is that fun to be working with an English person? Because when you look at Without A Trace you think American procedural, but then you've got this sort of international cast in there.
JM: Yeah, I'm kinda tempted to go, man, I kind of earned some living doing an English accent, and now you're earning some living doing an American one. [laughs] That's the great thing about joining the circus, man. Yeah, she's just been very light, and very fun, and∦they're obviously a very good company, and they know what they're doing, and you just kind of stand on your tape and say your lines and they move on. It's easy, and there's not a lot of futzing and there's not a lot of oh, dear, we gotta go back to this, we blew the focus or we gotta change this angle, they just have already figured that out fifteen minutes ago, and you're just not even aware of it. So I get to fool around with Marianne and they tell us to shut up, and then we say our lines, and we both know our lines, and then we move on. Kind of a Woody Allen kind of deal. Or like Clint Eastwood -- like, they say Clint sometimes just puts out word, "I will not take more than two takes. I'll probably only take one, so be ready." And that's when it's really good. I think the first take is the best.
CB: So with a procedural such as Without A Trace, it seems like, by design, every episode is pretty much going to be a stand-alone. You want people to tune in and know what's going on -- it's not like a show like Buffy where if you come in in the middle of a season there's a lot of mythology to get straight. Yet it seems like the most interesting characters dramatically, both for the audience and, I would think, for the actors are the ones that go through fundamental changes. How do you balance that in a procedural? Do you look for an arc with your character? Or do you just sort of see what they throw at you?
JM: That's a really good question. Um∦I tend to think that there's always an arc. [laughs] You just can't help but go there, and whether the writers know it or not, there kind of is. And if you give over to the writing, and explore it honestly, then they see the dailies, and then they are more aware of what they're doing. Sometimes you just clarify, or make obvious what they're not even admitting to themselves. It's kind of a dialogue that you go through. But you really∦one of the great things about procedurals, I think, is that they don't really address character very much. Character is best defined through action, through what do I choose to do now. From this room, we're gonna go to where? And where we go says a lot about who I am.
CB: Absolutely. And especially under the stress you see in procedurals -- the life-threatening, life-changing decisions you've got to make.
JM: Exactly. And it's not∦realistically, it's not so much∦to address character in television, oftentimes you have to stand still and talk about yourself, which is not that interesting. And that's the great thing about procedurals∦but the thing is, for television, it's a lot more efficient. You can actually explore character, because just going through action is very expensive and it takes a lot longer to write, frankly. But so procedural a lot of times just doesn't address that, and just trusts that the actors who are playing these characters will imbue them with a human quality that will give a reality, but it really is just about, "Are we gonna get this guy?" Like David Mamet says, it's much more interesting to feel emotions than to watch them. You know, if you watch House Of Games, some actors can deal with that, and some actors, it's hard for them. And I think he's a little too maniacal about wiping off all emotion, but he's got a good point. So I think I don't want to play too hard on finding an arc for my character, but in the back of my head, there's always that. There's always, "Who is this guy?"
CB: Right. So you think by being honest and exploring what's on the page, the arc will come.
JM: Yeah! I'm exploring what they give me, and hopefully if I'm in tune with∦it's kind of like, you know, I write a song, give it to the bassist and drummer and they take it, and they∦it's like magical! It's like, how they treat my dream, how did they know that's what I love? And they're just exploring what the song is. They're not trying to change it, or trying to make it a different song, they're just trying to address it on its own terms, and it's just a great process.
CB: Well, speaking of that, can you talk a little bit about your acting process? Do you have any people or methods that are particularly influential for you?
JM: I think Brando. More for what he said, 'cause you can't try to be Brando. You know, one of the things he said that I think is so good, is he said you can't be bigger than you are. And that can be a joke, because, you know, he was a little overweight, but that's not what he meant. You can't be more interesting than you are, you can't be more fiery than you are. You can't be anything more than you are, and it's really silly and funny to see someone fake it. And only when you are just who you are, do you start to get power. And so that one stayed with me, that's always been really good. He also said just 'cause they say "action" doesn't mean you have to do anything. [laughs] What it means, to me anyway, is you're totally in control. Once they say action, they have to shut up. They're just counting on you to do something filmable at that point, so you are absolutely in the driver's seat for that moment. You know, it's very freeing. And ultimately, if you want to keep your job, you're gonna do something.
CB: So if I'm not mistaken, you did a lot of your own stunts on Buffy and Angel.
JM: Yeah.
CB: Did you have any martial-arts or acrobatic training, anything like that?
JM: Uh, yeah, I had judo when I was growing up. I think I ranked brown, or purple, by the end. And so, that was about it for formal training. I had friends show me stuff for fun, and then just, you know, stage work. Stage work, you seriously with stage work, especially Shakespeare, you have to do stunts. So they train for that in acting college. So by the time…when I got to Buffy, I was like, "Stunt man? You don't need a stunt man! Do it yourself, man!" But yeah, my kind of rule is, if the character's feet are on the ground, it's me. And if the character's feet…if both feet are off the ground, either flying up against the wall or doing a fancy kick where both feet are off the ground, that's not me, that's Steve Tartalia. And Steve is a maniac who does stuff that other stuntmen would never touch. He comes from Hong Kong -- he's American, but he cut his teeth in Hong Kong. He was the principal Caucasian actor in Hong Kong, and his reel is just…it'll make you queasy.
CB: So you've done more than your share of dark roles. Would you say you're more drawn to them than other roles?
JM: Mmm…I don't know! I guess so! Because I certainly get cast in those, and then I…I don't feel like I'm an @#%$, you know, I always feel I'm kind of the nicer guy. But I guess all assholes think they're the nicer guy. Uh…I gotta say, it's very liberating to play a decent person, because sometimes, especially when you play really horrible people, you have to dredge up things that you don't normally want to think about. But now I'm playing a decent guy who's gonna be confronted with horrible things, so they're gonna come in anyway. [laughs] I don't consciously try to go for darker roles, but I seem to keep getting them. To some degree that's because I got known for a dark role, and to some degree that's probably because I do pretty well in them.
CB: Speaking of Spike, one more question about him. Obviously, I don't have to tell you how popular a character he is, but if you can separate acting ability and looks from the equation, what is it about his essence that makes him so alluring?
JM: Hmm…that's a really hard question for me to answer, because I wasn't objective about it. I think at the end of the day, it's either of two things or both of them, and one is probably more for women than men. But the first is that the show wasn't supposed to be about sexy vampires. It was supposed to be about ugly vampires who die. The mythology was that the vampires stood for what sucks about high school, and so Joss got talked into Angel, which was not in his ground plan, and the character just took off, and he's like, that's it, it's one sexy vampire, I will allow you no more. And then I come along, and I think that he was trying to keep a cap on…he recognized that I was thematically dangerous to his show. He didn't want it to become a soap opera of sexy vampires. And so he, uh, marginalized the character, and it's ironic, because the show is about outsiders, it's about people who are not the popular people, and he didn't really realize it, but he created within…so the show is about these outsider outcasts, and in this group of outcasts, there's this other outcast. So he made me the super-outcast, and the show speaks to everyone who feels sometimes like an outcast, which is pretty much everybody. So thematically, I don't know that he meant to set it up that way, but it kind of went down that way.
CB: What do you consider the most challenging role you've done so far?
JM: Toby Belch, in college. Just picture me at age twenty-one, and I looked probably sixteen, doing Toby Belch in Twelfth Night. Big, Falstaffian, loud character, drowning in sweat and failure. That would be the most challenging role. [laughs]
CB: Wow. Awesome. What further acting aspirations do you have?
JM: Ahh, well, I'm realizing one of them is that I've wanted to be in a procedural, because they seem to hire good actors for procedurals. It takes an ability to take very dry language and invest it with something. And I've wanted to do that ever since Buffy and Angel went down, I said I want to get on these cop shows and just talk about story. So that's one that I can say I did it. [laughs] And, you know, beyond that, I would like to work with good writers. I got spoiled on Buffy -- all the writers that worked on Buffy are just now hugely successful and are the engines behind some very popular shows. And I'd like to do that again, and I think that it's just…it's false. If you ask an actor, "What do you want to do next," you know, he'll take good work. There's a very small percentage of us who say, yeah, I would like to do a crime drama now, and then they get a bunch of crime drama scripts. Probably like, you know, a hundred people in Hollywood can do that. I would like to work with writers who are exploring themselves in a dangerous and honest way.
CB: Cool. And what about music?
JM: I would like people to buy my new album! [both laugh] And I wish I had a title for it. It'll be available on November first, and I would like them to buy the holy hell out of it, so that I can do another one. I had twenty songs, we cut down to twelve, so, you know, I'm one more good visit with my girlfriend away from a double album, but I'm only producing twelve, so I'd love to do it again. I would like to do a tour with at least two more musicians, at least -- I've been going out by myself for many years. It's getting better, but man, is it nice to talk to another sound, like that.
CB: Is your girlfriend a musician as well?
JM: She writes the blues pretty good, actually. And she plays piano. She's not a professional musician, but she plays piano pretty well. She writes some nice, strong blues chord progressions. And they're not, like, locked in E like mine. [both laugh]
CB: Was she involved with your album?
JM: No, but she's my muse. It's a happy album, because she treats me well.
CB: Awesome. Well, that's all I've got for you, James.
JM: All right, man.
CB: Thanks for doing this and being so generous with your time!
‘Angel’ comic drags readers in where popular TV series left off
Comics Corner column
By Jeff Johncox THE NORMAN TRANSCRIPT (NORMAN, Okla.)
NORMAN, Okla. —
In May 2004, Joss Whedon’s “Angel” was canceled by the WB.
Yeah, it was a dumb move, and like most things TV executives decide to do, it made no sense.
For the first time since 1997, there was no Whedon show on TV, since “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” ended its run a year earlier.
The abrupt cancellation left the series’ heroes ready to fight some really nasty demons in an L.A. alley.
Angel had turned on the senior partners of Wolfram and Hart, major characters were dead and the fates of the rest of the crew were left up in the air.
Until now.
That’s right, Whedon and co-writer Brian Lynch (“Spike: Asylum”) are bringing “Angel: After the Fall” to comics shelves starting in November, and like the “Buffy: Season 8” comics that have been highly successful, the new comic follows the TV show’s characters immediately following the show’s abrupt series finale.
“It deals with the repercussions of Angel standing up to Wolfram and Hart and the senior partners,” Lynch said. “They do what you’d expect demons to do: They punish what he holds dearest. His friends and the people of L.A. who he’s always trying to protect. So, they send everyone to Hell.”
Yep, that’s right.
As many times in popular fiction that Los Angeles has been referred to as “Hell on Earth” in some metaphor or another, this is definitely one of the few times the term can be taken literally.
Whedon and Lynch have the senior partners turn L.A. into Hell.
“We messed around with it a little bit, and even had one of the characters say something about ‘Hell A,’ and then we immediately said that we would never be able to use that pun again,” Lynch said.
Of course, fans of the show have myriad questions about their favorite characters.
There’s the situation vampire-with-a-soul Spike finds himself in, for example.
“Spike has decided that he’s done everything he’s supposed to have done,” Lynch said. “He’s just running around Hell having a good time now.”
So, he’s like a kid in a candy store?
“And candy happens to have boobs and bikinis,” Lynch said with a laugh. “Hey, he’s died a couple times now. He’s retired. He’s like, ‘I’ve earned this. I’m taking some time off.’”
But don’t worry, Spike fans, that pesky soul of his always gets in the way when he really tries to go back to his decadent ways.
“It’s a really fun storyarc, and I love the character, so it’s fun to write,” Lynch said.
But the most popular question fans have when they talk to Lynch about the new series is always “What happens to Wes?”
“It’s unbelievable,” Lynch said. “You think they’d ask about Angel or Spike, but they always ask about Wesley. I think that’s just the way (Alexis Denisof) played the character. The character was originally meant to kind of be funny and kind of a nebbish, and he turned it into a great, great character with a lot of depth. If the show wasn’t cancelled, that character wouldn’t have died.”
So Wes will see time in “Hell A,” and yeah, Lynch was right, it hurts just to say that. It’s a one-shot deal, definitely.
Angel’s son, Connor, will be back, too.
The character had fans rooting against him by the time Angel’s final season started. After all, he had slept with his father’s love interest, Cordelia, and helped bring an evil, manipulative being into power in Southern California.
“On the show, he was kind of whiny,” Lynch said. “I always thought, if I had Angel as a dad, I’d just think it was the coolest thing in the world. Now Connor is one of the coolest characters in any series or comics issues. He addresses all that stuff about he and Cordelia, and about being used by a supernatural power. He’s not happy about all that stuff, either.”
Lynch co-writes the series with Whedon. They bounce ideas off each other and work to keep the feel of the series alive.
And yes, this is the official continuation of the TV series’ mythos.
This is canon.
“When it started, (Joss) had the big ideas, knew the arcs the characters needed to go through and where he wanted to take things like he would have in Season 6,” Lynch said. “But we work things out now. It’s exciting, sending him an E-mail with 30 ideas. The weirdest ones I come up with are the ones he would be like ‘I want to do that one!’”
And to answer some other questions fans are sure to ask: Yes, Illyria is in it, and she’s pissed about what happened to Wes. Yes, Harmony is back. No, Fred hasn’t made an appearance without Illyria controlling her body. And yes, Gunn is still around, too.
“But I’ve only written through the first five issues,” Lynch said.
Don’t worry, skeptical fans, this is still an Angel book. The heroic vamp is the main character. This isn’t a Spike series.
“Spike gets a great arc in it, but at the same time, it doesn’t take away from Angel,” Lynch said.
And this series will last a while.
Whedon and Lynch expect it to run at least 12 issues, maybe more.
“It’s going to last around a year,” Lynch said. “I don’t know if it’s like any of the seasons (of the show). It’s a totally new season. It’s more of an epic story, rather than episodic. It’s definitely not just about Angel. It’s all the characters we like and them dealing with L.A. having been turned into Hell. But at the end of the day, their boss is still Angel. It’s more like season 3 or 4, I’d say.”
Next week: It’s been a year of Comics Corner, so we’ll hand out some fake awards!
Then, some of the best comics and trades to pick up as you get in the Halloween mood … Boo!
James Marsters is best know for playing Spike on both Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel, where his mix of intensity, wit, and soul (pun intended) earned him a devoted following. He currently has a recurring role on Without A Trace and later this season will return to Smallville for multiple episodes (reprising a role from last year) as well as appearing on the upcoming second season of BBC America's Torchwood. Recently Boston Now talked to him about his acting, his singing, and the part that made him famous.
BN: You've got a lot on your plate these days. Was it a conscious decision to work more or is this just when the jobs came in?
JM: Life goes in cycles. This is just when the jobs came in. I'm hitting a good part of my life mentally ... I don't know if biorhythms are correct but sometimes you just hit a good part of your life and things are just humming. People want to hire you, people can't get enough of you and everything you do seems to turn out well, and then sometimes you can't seem to catch a break. Frankly for about nine months now I have been a little golden. That probably means in a year I'll hit a skid but right now things are humming.
BN: How did you end up on Without A Trace?
JM: I don't know why the cast me. I know they like me on set but I think they just like my haircut (laughing). They didn't need me for ratings; it was just an audition. They needed a cop that the audience would trust quickly and I was in a good mood ... I think I bragged about the brand new suit I was wearing (laughing). I think I'm the trustable cop, which probably means I'm going to die.
BN: That leads into my next question. Reports have been that you are doing four episodes with the potential to turn into more.
JM: I'm glad they told you (laughing). That's great. Really?
BN: That's what's on the Internet.
JM: Great. I think they should hire me. I'm having a great time with them. I've only acted with Marianne Jean-Baptiste so far and she's just fabulous. She's a really cool person but don't mess with her (laughing). I'd never mess with her - I always know my lines and we're bonding over Aretha Franklin right now. The crew and the directors are so tight; they don't make any mistakes. I'm used to being the guy that knows his lines while the crew makes a few mistakes but they never screw up anything. If you know your lines it's two takes and out and you go back home.
BN: How is it different doing a series that has been on for six years compared to appearing on a brand new show like Saving Grace?
JM: The Saving Grace environment was so fantastic. It was their first episode after the pilot, which had gone really well, and it was this time of "could be" and possibility and everybody was believing that they might be on to something special. What was great about Without A Trace is that they have held on to that "happy to be with you" kind of feeling. Everybody is not sick of each other at all but they're very comfortable...the people are just so pleasant. You can't really overstate that - that's so important for an actor, to be in an environment that is easy to be in because an actor is supposed to play. We're called players, not workers. If we're working, it's not working.
BN: And you're doing Torchwood, too.
JM: (laughing) I hope America can deal with Torchwood. I thought I was going to do this nasty Dr. Who spin-off over in England because, you know, English people are kind of randy. They like their entertainment a little spicier than Americans can deal with, frankly.
BN: Are you bringing back the accent (much to the shock of many of his fans, Marsters is from California, not England)?
JM: Yes. I decided I was going to England so I should have an English accent. I got the script and he's a total criminal, so he should be lower class, and then immediately I'm in Spike territory.
BN: Was it easy to slide into?
JM: Completely. The nice thing was that there is a difference to the two characters that was central; Spike was a romantic, he would only date one person at a time, whereas this new character, Captain John, will do anything that moves. (Laughing) In the script is said "anything with a zip code." I'm introduced and kiss the hell out of the male lead and then kick his ass. Or maybe he kicks my ass. We kick each other's ass.
BN: Did you know that at the end of last season that you would be coming back to Smallville?
JM: No, I didn't know. It was kind of a synchronicity. I was thinking that it was Smallville's last season and that I'd like to go up and see them one more time and called my manager and said, "they're probably closing down this year. What about going around with them one more time?" and he said, "oh, didn't I tell you? They've been calling asking if you're willing."
BN: Buffy, Angel, Smallville, Torchwood...there's a lot of science fiction and fantasy in there. Is there something about that genre of storytelling that appeals to you or is it just that those are the good scripts?
JM: I think I grew up like many young boys liking that stuff and believing that you could actually give your heart to that stuff, that you could act it as if it was as meaningful as any other script, which is true if it's good. People have noticed I'm willing to commit that way. I enjoyed it as a kid but at the same time I did 15 years of theater and never did any sci-fi and had a great time. I got known for doing a vampire and I think that people still do think of me that way.
What's weird is that all the Buffy writers - I talk to them every once in a while - they're all in hugely popular shows. They're working on CSI, on Grey's Anatomy, 24, you name it, they're all on the big shows, and they all have the same complaints. They say, "God, I'm bored. I want to have a big demon jump out and rip his throat out. I want something big to happen, something special. We're just sitting here talking about nuclear weapons and it's boring." There is something free and liberating about sci-fi and fantasy.
To tell you the truth, when Buffy went down, I had wanted to get into a quality procedural cop show because what had frustrated me about Buffy, and television in general, is that when characters reveal themselves they just talk about themselves, usually near a kitchen sink.
BN: There's a lot of expository dialogue.
JM: Exactly. That's the way that you do in television because to do it through action, which is the better way, is too expensive. It takes too long to write, it means your characters are on the move more and you just can't shoot that in a week. What I like about these procedurals is they don't talk about their feelings; the writers just rip that part out and trust that the actors will put that into the performance. I think it's a brilliant recognition of television to realize what they can do and what they can't, and if the actors know their lines and are willing to reveal themselves, they still get the character stuff across anyway.
BN: When you create such an iconic role like Spike, is it hard to pick the next part? How do you follow that up and avoid being typecast?
JM: Ralph Waldo Emerson said something I've always found really helpful as an actor; "within all men are all men", and I'm sure if he was born a little later he would have said, "within all people are all people." The truth is I took aspects of my own personality to use for Spike and then slapped the accent and the hair on top of it. I've tried to take roles that still play on those aspects that I used as Spike, without the hair and without the accent; loners, criminals, people who might be a bit frustrated, but tried to stay away from vampires ... and from blonde hair (laughing). I've tried to continue with the same aspects of my personality and at the same time branching out into new kinds of characters. Also I'm taking what comes. Acting is so much surfing; you just hope people saw your last performance and then want to meet you.
BN: There are always rumors about spin-off's or movies; do you think you'll ever play Spike again?
JM: I told Joss that he had 7 years to get a Spike project going after Angel went down, which would have given him 14 years with the character. I thought that given that the character is not supposed to age, that was the edge of the envelope. When I am rested though I think I could still play him without having to say he's drinking poor blood so he's aging slowly. My thinking is that's the only way you'd be able to do it since one of the coolest things about vampires is that they don't age. If we did a screen test and with the right lighting I could hold to the look I had 14 years ago, yeah, that would be cool. I don't think that Joss is really interested; I think he's moved on.
BN: Do you keep up with the various comic book incarnations of Buffy and Angel?
JM: Sometimes the fans will give me the books and I think they're great. The recent one is fabulous. Joss is writing the books but they don't have a lot to do with Spike so I haven't needed to check them out on that level. I think he's interested in other characters.
BN: Did I read that you're playing Ted Bundy?
JM: Yeah! John Pielmeier, who wrote Agnes Of God, I worked with him years ago in Seattle on a play called Voices In The Dark, he was doing a movie and he wanted me to come play Ted Bundy. I asked if I had to kill or torture anybody and he said, "no, you're just in jail" talking about how to catch the next guy, and I thought, "oh, ok, that's fine." I didn't want to do anything gruesome.
BN: Did you do any research?
JM: I didn't want to do the research because he's a sociopath who doesn't feel bad about what he's done, where if I look at that stuff, I'd feel awful. It was weird because I'd be in my trailer and they'd say, "oh, you look just like him" and I'd say, "shut up!!!" I didn't want to hear that (laughing).
BN: I know you've got an album that just came available on your web site. What style of music would you tell people to expect?
JM: Blues and folk. There's a punk rock song on the album. Some pretty good pop. It sounds like it's all over the map but we made a real effort to keep it together and I think it grooves really well.
BN: Thanks for chatting. I look forward to seeing you all over my TV the next few months.
JM: Yeah, I'll be a pandemic on television (laughing).
Новое интервью Брайана Линча о шестом сезоне "Ангела"
BRIAN LYNCH TALKS “ANGEL: AFTER THE FALL” by Emmett Furey, Staff Writer Posted: November 6, 2007 — More From This Author "Angel: After the Fall" #1 on sale November 21
In the concluding episode of "Angel's" fifth and final season, the titular character and what remained of his supporting cast had just assassinated every last member of the Circle of the Black Thorne, and the full weight of the Senior Partners' wrath was bearing down upon them in the prelude to a battle that none of our heroes believed they could survive. Despite the odds, Angel creator Joss Whedon and his fellow writers always intended for the character to have a life beyond Season 5, and thanks to IDW Publishing, writer Brian Lynch and artist Franco Urru, fans will finally get to see more of the continuing adventures of Angel and company in the pages of "Angel: After the Fall." CBR News sat down with Brian Lynch to find out what's in store for the vampire formerly known as Angelus. Lynch is a longtime Whedon fan and jumped on the Buffy-verse bandwagon in the middle of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer's" first season. Before landing the gig writing "Angel: After the Fall," Lynch penned two IDW miniseries featuring that other vampire with a soul, Spike. Interestingly, some of Lynch's earliest comics work was a comic strip called "Monkey Man" on Kevin's Smith's moviepoopshoot.com, and as fate would have it, IDW Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall was Lynch's editor at the time.
"[Ryall] eventually left, but he always remembered that a lot of the jokes in 'Monkey Man' were Buffy and Spike related," Brian Lynch told CBR News. "And when he got the [Spike] license, he said, 'Do you have any ideas?'" Lynch had already been developing a sci-fi series set in an asylum for supernatural problems, so he just plugged Spike into that story and "Spike: Asylum" was born. From there, Lynch went on to write "Spike: Shadow Puppets," in which Spike travels to Japan to combat the Japanese division of the wee little puppet men that plagued Angel in the fifth season episode "Smile Time."
It was then, Lynch revealed, that the genesis of "Angel: After the Fall" was inextricably linked to the very restaurant where he and this reporter were conducting our interview. Lynch lives a scant few blocks away and is a fixture at the famous West Hollywood restaurant in question. The place has no dearth of celebrity patrons, and while eating breakfast there on the day before "Spike: Asylum" #1 hit stands, Lynch had a fateful encounter with Joss Whedon himself.
"I was sitting right there at the corner table, really early in the morning waiting for my friends, and [Whedon] walked out and walked by," Lynch explained. In what he described as a "machine gun" delivery, the star-struck Lynch rattled off a deferential greeting to the creator of the Buffy-verse, and informed him of the imminent release of "Spike: Asylum" #1. "And Joss was like, 'Okay, yeah, can't wait to read it, that's great,'" Lynch said. "And then he ran, because I was overexcited."
After three weeks had passed with no word, Lynch was convinced his exuberance had frightened Whedon off -- until Chris Ryall received an e-mail from Whedon himself saying Lynch had "hit a home run." More than that, "Spike: Asylum" convinced Whedon that the time to revisit Angel's story was finally at hand, and that Brian Lynch was the man to write it.
One of the things that attracted Whedon to Lynch's writing was Lynch's penchant for capturing the voices of the Buffy-verse characters. "When I started writing 'Spike: Asylum,' I just watched all his episodes; you get a feel for it pretty quick," Lynch said. "The biggest thing with Spike specifically was you don't want to overdo the British."
Fans of Whedon know that his work is eminently quotable, and Lynch admits to making the occasional "Angel" reference in everyday conversation. So you can imagine Lynch's surprise when he heard that Whedon had been quoting "Spike: Asylum" to fellow "Angel" showrunner Tim Minear. "I was like, 'Joss Whedon quoted something I wrote, that's the greatest thing in the world,'" Lynch said.
Over the course of a long breakfast which Lynch described as "the best breakfast ever," Whedon laid out where he and the other "Angel" writers had planned to take the series had it returned for a sixth season. "He told me all those ideas, including ideas that they weren't going to try, but he always kind of liked, in case I wanted to grab little pieces from it," Lynch said.
After their initial meeting, Lynch and Whedon exchanged many an e-mail, fine-tuning what was to become the plot of "Angel: After the Fall." The first set of notes Lynch received from Whedon read, "I think it's really well done, and I think this would be entertaining. But it's safe, and I don't want you to play safe." With that in mind, Lynch went back to the drawing board and crafted a story that could only be told in a comic book.
Lynch is cagey about who survives the battle in the alleyway. Obviously the title character survives, and leaving Angel alive was a calculated move by the Senior Partners. "Wolfram and Hart sent all of Los Angeles to Hell as punishment for trying to rise up against them," Lynch said. "You can kill Angel, and you really didn't win, because Angel's never out for himself, he wants to defend everybody, so they literally sent everybody to Hell. So the opening is Angel trying to get over the fact that he ruined everybody's life who he was trying to save, and the reasons why he steps up and how he steps up. He has to take an entire city back, and fight against not just Wolfram and Hart, because once they go to Hell, there's bigger things than Wolfram and Hart."
Lynch said that some of Angel's friends have drifted away from him as a result of his involvement Los Angeles' current plight, and that, on the other side of the spectrum, living in hell makes for strange bedfellows.
As for the fateful battle to which the final moments of "Angel" Season 5 were building, Lynch confirmed that fans will get the opportunity to see Angel, Spike, Gunn and Illyria get down and dirty in the alley, but not for the first few issues. "I actually thought the first issue was going to be the fight, because when Joss told me he wanted me to do the series, I was like, 'Oh, my God, I get to write that battle that I always wanted to see.'" However, Whedon advised the writer that more interesting than the battle itself is the affect it has on the characters. "And he's right, because it would have just been 22 pages of swords and people dying, whereas it's much cooler to see people you care about in peril and distraught."
That said, the events of the alley battle will be chronicled in a one-shot entitled "First Night," tentatively scheduled for release after "Angel: After the Fall" #5. In addition to the core cast, "First Night" also focuses on characters who don't factor into the main thrust of "Angel: After the Fall" itself. And though the specifics of the battle will remain a mystery for a time, Lynch assured CBR News that readers will know the fate of all four characters who were directly involved in the conflict by the end of issue #2.
Will everyone who we saw die in the fifth season of "Angel" stay dead? Yes, and no. In the Buffy-verse, death is almost as much of a revolving door as it is in superhero comics. Wesley Wyndam-Pryce was one of the many characters who met their end in the final season of "Angel," and Lynch said fans have been sharply divided on the subject of whether or not his character should return. Lynch said that Wesley definitely factors into "After the Fall," but he was quick to add that that doesn't necessarily imply that Wesley will return to the land of the living.
In a lot of ways, fans are just as sharply divided on the subject of "Angel: After the Fall's" very existence. A large contingent of "Angel" fans believe that Angel steeling himself for a battle he knows he cannot win was the perfect ending for his character and the series, so for them idea of Angel's continued adventures is a dubious prospect at best.
"I was one of the people who thought it was a perfect ending," Lynch admitted. "I think they all died. I think that was the point." But when Whedon approached him about writing "Angel: After the Fall," the writer quickly changed his tune. "I said, 'Maybe they didn't all die, maybe I was wrong, because it would be really boring if they all died and they had a comic following it.'"
Angel's estranged son, Connor, who took a back seat for the majority of the show's final season, will have a much larger role in "Angel: After the Fall," despite the fact that he was initially the character that Lynch had the hardest time wrapping his mind around. "I didn't love Connor on the show," Lynch confessed. "But you know when I really liked him was the last season when he came back and he was well adjusted."
Still, Lynch was still at a loss as to how to incorporate Connor into "After the Fall." It was Whedon who eventually hit upon the character arc that Connor would follow in the series. "Joss said, 'Connor's a young kid, he's got powers, he doesn't have any of the bad things, he's not a vampire, so maybe he would enjoy it, and maybe he would be the closest thing to a superhero hell has,'" Lynch recounted. "And that's exactly who he is." Thus, Connor went from the character Lynch had the most trouble with to the character he enjoys writing most. "I actually want to do a book called 'Son of Angel' because I really like writing him now."
One beloved character that did make it out of the final episode of "Angel" unscathed was Lorne, the demon lounge singer. But after carrying out one last task on Angel's behalf (the murder of one-time Wolfram & Hart lawyer Lindsey McDonald), Lorne washed his hands of the vampire with a soul. Nevertheless, Lorne will make an appearance in "After the Fall," just not right away. "He comes in later, and we kind of see where he has set up his camp," Lynch said. "He's trying to make the best of the worst situation, and he's paired with someone you maybe wouldn't expect him to be paired with."
Lynch's other Buffy-verse stories, "Asylum" and "Shadow Puppets," were originally conceived as taking place after the series finale of "Angel," but Fox had other ideas. Lynch's original scripts made oblique references to things that went on during the alley battle and beyond, but Fox insisted that all such lines be removed. Fans of "Angel" would be hard pressed not to remember the penultimate line of the final episode, when Angel says of the onrushing horde, "Well, personally, I kind of want to slay the dragon." In an early draft of "Spike: Asylum," Spike was going to cop to stealing Angel's thunder by running ahead and slaying the dragon before Angel had the chance, but that was one of several lines that Fox unceremoniously vetoed.
"And thank God," Lynch said. "Because now the dragon is one of the leads." That Angel should train the dragon instead of killing him was an idea that Whedon brought to the table, and an idea that Lynch latched onto right away.
Angel soaring over a Hell-infested Los Angeles atop a giant dragon is just one way Lynch took advantage of the comics medium' nigh-limitless budget for special effects. Artist Franco Urru, who's providing pencils for "After the Fall," also worked with Lynch on both Spike projects. It was artist Frank Mecina who originally recommended Urru for "Spike: Asylum," as Mecina had drawn several "Angel" stories for IDW, and Urru was his mentor.
"[Urru] sent some pictures of Spike and some other comics he had done, and we kind matched," Lynch said. "I'm so excited that he got brought in on 'After the Fall. He's an Italian man, who's very good looking, and just the sweetest guy." Lynch went on to say that Urru's level of emotional investment in the pages he draws is unprecedented. One of Spike's fellow inmates in "Spike: Asylum" was a flying, telepathic fish, and Urru took it particularly hard when the fish's number was up. "Franco just couldn't draw that page, he was so sad when he was drawing the death scene of a fish. Whedon, too, was a fan of the fish from "Spike: Asylum," so much so that he suggested the fish make a return appearance in "After the Fall." Apparently rumors of the fish's death were greatly exaggerated.
Lynch is also working on another comics project called "Everybody's Dead," based on one of his original screenplays. Lynch had optioned the horror comedy to the now defunct Artisan Entertainment, but now that the rights have reverted to him, the writer is pursuing the story as a comics project with artist Dave Crosland. Lynch is also writing a number of projects for the big screen, including Fox's "The Sims" (based on the video game of the same name) and the DreamWorks' "Shrek" spin-off "Puss in Boots." Lynch was writing the film at the same time he was working on "Angel: After the Fall," and admitted to the occasional bout of confusion. "There were literally two parts in 'Puss in Boots' where instead of 'sword' it said 'stake,' because I was so tired."
The first issue of "Angel: After the Fall" hits stands on November 21.
Twentieth Century Fox is bringing the Japanese manga phenomenon "Dragonball" to the bigscreen. Justin Chatwin will star as Goku, a powerful warrior who protects the Earth from an endless stream of rogues bent on dominating the universe and controlling the mystical objects from which the film takes its name. James Marsters is onboard as the film's villain Piccolo.
Actor-director-writer Stephen Chow ("Kung Fu Hustle" is producing. "Final Destination" helmer James Wong will direct from a script he penned. Ben Ramsey wrote an earlier draft.
Story is based on Akira Toriyama's popular manga that has spawned graphic novels, a long-running TV series and more than 25 videogames, which have sold more than 10 million units since May 2002. The Jump Comics division of Tokyo-based Shueisha published the "Dragonball" manga.
With shooting scheduled to begin later this month, Fox will bow the sci-fi/adventure worldwide Aug. 15. Chatwin has already begun training with 87Eleven, the stunt performance company behind the action sequences in "The Matrix," "The Bourne Supremacy," "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" and "300."
Chatwin's credits include Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds."
Marsters is best known for his role as the evil vampire Spike on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel."
Wong was an executive producer-writer on "The X-Files," "Millennium" and "Space: Above and Beyond." He co-wrote and directed "Final Destination" and "Final Destination 3."
По данным из Монреаля, бюджет - около 100 миллионов долларов.
The 20th Century Fox studio is expected to shoot three big-budget movies in Montreal over the next year; each has a budget of at least $100 million. The films are the Night at the Museum sequel Another Night, Independence Day director Roland Emmerich's remake of the sci-fi flick Fantastic Voyage and a big-screen adaptation of the Japanese manga Dragonball Z
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8: #12 Wolves at the Gate
Writer: Drew Goddard Artist: Georges Jeanty Cover Artist: Jon Foster Inker: Andy Owens Colorist: Dave Stewart Genre: Horror, Action/Adventure
Acclaimed television series writer, Drew Goddard (Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Alias; Lost), takes the reins on Season Eight with his four-issue arc titled "Wolves at the Gate." The gang (yep, Dawn too) travels to Tokyo where they duel vampires with unusual, yet strangely familiar, powers.
With Joss Whedon serving as executive producer, Georges Jeanty (The American Way) as series artist, and Jon Foster on covers, Buffy Season Eight continues to entertain longtime Buffy fans and newcomers alike.
* Drew Goddard wrote J.J. Abrams's highly anticipated top secret film Cloverfield.
* Executive-produced by Buffy creator Joss Whedon
Acclaimed Buffy and Lost screenwriter, Drew Goddard writes Season Eight!
Publication Date: Mar 05, 2008 Format: Full color, 40 pages Price: $2.99
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER SEASON EIGHT 10 JOSS WHEDON (W), CLIFF RICHARDS (P), ANDY OWENS (I), DAVE STEWART (C), GEORGES JEANTY (Cover), and JO CHEN (Cover) On sale Jan 2 FC, 40 pages - $2.99
Buffy and Willow meet a demon who reveals a dim future, forcing the two to reflect on their past. Meanwhile, back in Scotland, Dawn confides in Xander the deed that led to her mysterious growth spurt. Series creator Joss Whedon writes Buffy Season Eight 10 with veteran Buffy artist Cliff Richards serving as guest penciller.
Не то чтобы полноценная новость, но тем, кто зарегистрирован на БаффиФорумз (бывшем BuffyWorld), возможно, будет интересно. Туда пришел общаться Брайан Линч, так что если кто хочет подискутировать с создателем Angel: AtF, то вот он, шанс
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