Tag: Fringe

Is “Fringe” on the edge? The weird-science series  is a favorite here at Hero Complex and, like many other observers, we had a ripple of panic when Fox announced a few weeks ago that the series would shift to Friday — sci-fi shows like ”Dollhouse,” ”Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” and “Firefly” all walked the plank and one of their final steps was being moved to Friday night. But we got an e-mail from the show’s mad-genius scene-stealer, John Noble, and he was upbeat about the notion of sidestepping Thursday’s tough primetime competition — namely “Grey’s Anatomy” and “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” — and he’s also mighty confident in the work being doing right now on the set in Vancouver. “It was an interesting decision by Fox. We are creating some very exciting episodes, I think — we are making some great TV. The ...

The second season of “Fringe,”  the most inventive sci-fi series on television these days, just hit stores on DVD and Blu-ray. Here’s a deleted scene from the collection, which is packed with extras… 1bafd678-6997-4feb-a542-1e9687ac15b8 – Jevon Phillips RECENT AND RELATED John Noble: Walter is the King Lear of TV ON THE SET: “Fringe” looks for it’s own identity Nimoy on “Fringe”: ‘I never paid much attention until …’ ‘Trek,’ ‘Fringe,’ ‘Transformers’ trifecta for Orci & Kurtzman Abrams and Orci talk ‘Trek’ sequel and terrorism theme Leonard Nimoy: “Trek” fans can be scary Duchovny: “The ‘X-Files’ is equal to God’ J.J. Abrams, the Hero Complex interview

I spent some time with John Noble on the set of “Fringe” last November and then spoke with him again by phone after the season finale. This story is pieced together from those interviews. This is a longer version of a story that will appear in the June 10 Emmys issue of The Envelope, the Los Angeles Times’ special pull-out section on entertainment industry awards. You don’t need one of the strange laboratory contraptions from “Fringe” to detect that John Noble is an actor to watch this Emmy season — television critics and fans of the Fox sci-fi series have crusaded to bring attention to the Australian actor’s inspired, quirky and sometimes heartbreaking portrayal of the mad scientist Walter Bishop. None of that is lost on the 61-year-old Noble, but last fall as he brewed a pot of coffee in his trailer on ...

HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE, PART ONE Stressed about finding the perfect gift for that special Muggle, Trekkie, Twi-Hard, Jedi or Bat-fan in your life? Relax and read on: You’ve come to the perfect place at the perfect time, because this is the 2009 Hero Complex Holiday Gift Guide — just think of us as a sort of retail Yoda guiding you through the complicated swamps of holiday shopping. “Buy or buy not. There is no browse…” It’s the perfect time to get your geek on, too. The fanboy culture is in full blossom at the box office and in pop culture beyond, and this holiday season there’s a mountain of gifts and gadgets that speak to the Comic-Con constituency. Here are some of the most heroic: “FRINGE: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON” ($60 for DVD, $80 for Blu-ray): “Fringe” may be the ...

  Leonard Nimoy, who was coaxed out of retirement for “Star Trek” and then lingered in order to portray the mysterious William Bell on “Fringe,” says it may be the logical time to say farewell to acting for good — especially since the Bell role hasn’t been a compelling one for him. “I have such a great life,” the 78-year-old actor said at his home last week. “I’m not looking for work.” Nimoy had invited me over to talk about his Halloween night photography exhibit at the Santa Monica Museum of Art (watch for a full story on that event and his photography career here tomorrow), which is just one of the many pursuits that Nimoy would rather focus on these days. “As an actor you’re always wondering when you’re going to work again, who you’re going to work with, what it will be. I ...

This is a significantly longer version of an article I wrote on Akiva Goldsman that ran Sunday in the Los Angeles Times Calendar section. Goldsman is one of the busiest Hollywood figures in comics and sci-fi projects with four adaptations coming based on DC characters and his new role as a key figure for the Fox series ”Fringe.” He’s also a figure of controversy for fans who have not forgotten the sight of a Bat-suit with nipples.  Akiva Goldsman arrived at the door of producer Brian Grazer in 1998 with one purpose. “I went there,” the screenwriter says, “to beg.” Goldsman, who had enjoyed a steady ascension in Hollywood for years, was coming off a string of films that had badly battered his reputation. He had produced and written the forgettable dud “Lost in Space” — and far worse, he had written the screenplay that ...

ON THE SET Here’s a longer version of my cover story on “Fringe” in today’s Los Angeles Times Calendar section. The season premiere is tonight on Fox. The low-slung motel looked like the sort of place Norman Bates might open as a north-of-the-border expansion of the old family business. The roadside sign promised “TELEPHONES” in every room but the brownish-orange carpeting and peeling paint were nothing to call home about. The radioactive Russian cosmonaut in the parking lot, however, was something you don’t see everyday. “Who comes up with this stuff?” asked a smirking Joshua Jackson, one of the stars of the Fox series “Fringe,” which returns tonight with the premiere of its second season of conspiracies and codes, parallel worlds and evil corporations, mad scientists and con men. “Seriously, who are these people?” Jackson was waiting for the camera to start rolling ...

I’m still digesting last night’s epsiode of “Fringe” (and wondering why Leonard Nimoy was grinning so zealously in that anti-climatic ending — and why exactly the makers of the show felt compelled to shroud Nimoy’s face in shadow for so long when his name is in the opening credits), but I wanted to draw attention to Robert Lloyd’s review of the season finale. As usual, he is sharp in his analysis and I particularly like this vivid paragraph: Like most science fiction, the show is an invitation to obsession, but like much science fiction, it helps if you think more about the fiction and less about the science, which is, one might say, loosely based on a few convenient facts. But what makes the show work in any case is not so much character and plot — the first is barely explored, except as ...

I was a huge fan of “Detective Comics” and “The Brave and the Bold” comics as a kid so I smiled when I read a brief item in the trades today about a new television series featuring Christopher Chance, the Human Target, a character that popped up in both those comics in the 1970s and 1980s. Here’s the brief blurb today by Nellie Andreeva, who notes that one of the stars of “Fringe” (and an oft-mentioned but so-far-unofficial candidate to play Captain America) will star… Mark Valley has been tapped as the lead in Fox’s drama pilot ‘Human Target’ for director Simon West, while Kathryn Hahn has been tapped to star in Fox’s comedy pilot ‘Absolutely Fabulous.’ ‘Target,’ from WBTV, DC Comics and McG’s Wonderland, is based on the DC Comics title and centers on Christopher Chance (Valley), a mysterious ...

Welcome to today’s edition of Everyday Hero, your roundup of hand-picked headlines from across the fanboy universe … A WEDDING GOWN WITH "FRINGE": Ah,  weddings always make me cry … especially when the groom is a dead counter-agent involved in a shadowy global conspiracy. I’m a big fan of "Fringe" and its star, Anna Torv, and apparently so is coy costar Mark Valley (whose name, by the way, keeps popping up when people discuss the film adaptation of certain Marvel Comics icon). Here’s the report from gossip writer Kristin Dos Santos: "A rep for Anna Torv has just confirmed to us that the ‘Fringe’ star secretly married Mark Valley, who plays her love interest on the Fox show. OK, ‘love interest’ may be simplifying things just a wee bit. Mark plays her ex-lover John Scott, who turned out to be ...