Fringe - Fans Ask: Blair Brown

Your questions answered by Blair!

John Noble Talks Season 4, Emmy and More

Here's a new interview with John Noble. Where he talks about season 4, his favorite episode and more.

GeekTime! RadioShow Scores Josh Jackson Interview Hat Trick

Ponder Season 4 Peter Possibilities

Over at the Joshua-Jackson Network fan site they have linked to a May 27th Radio Talk Show Call-In Appearance.  Josh Jackson made good on a promise to return to the Geek friendly Sirius XM Radio show - GeekTime! for his third appearance.

To Exist Or Not Exist?  That is the question of Season 4.

The Joshua-Jackson Network have conveniently provided a downloadable audio file link of the interview which runs for about 9 minutes.

Joshua Jackson and the show host talk about Season 4 and Joshua puts down several great theories including the popular one of Peter sporting a hairless look.  The real interesting item Joshua puts forth is the timing of when that look would appear.

Great interview and well worth taking the time to listen to.

Enjoy.

Fringe - Fans Ask Anna Torv & John Noble

Anna Torv and John Noble answers more fan questions.

'Fringe' stars talk past, present & future

'Fringe' stars talk past, present & future
May 18, 2011 ι Jarett Wieselman

Last night Anna Torv & John Noble were honored by The Paley Center for Media as the organization presented An Evening with "Fringe" -- where the stars talked to a rapt room full of actors and show devotees about their experiences on Fox's sci-fi phenomenon.

But before they took the stage, Anna & John exclusively talked to PopWrap about the season three finale, what they think it means for their characters and where they hope things go in season four!

PopWrap: Congratulations on a truly incredible season finale -- what did you think of it?

John Noble: I loved it. The script was evolving as we were doing it too – in particular, the ending with Peter evaporating. That was kind of a light thought that came in at one point and just made everyone say, “whoa.” But scripts often evolve like that, especially as they built the trilogy of episodes at the end of this season. So many things were happening, it was kind of mind boggling and very exciting, but kind of insane.

PW: Do you understand what happened?
Anna Torv: I do, but I’m not quite sure where it’s going.
John: At a psychological level, I absolutely understand it. For Walter/Walternate, I see them as the same man, so psychologically, I do understand. In dreams this happens, in other mental states this happens. So it doesn’t concern me that we do a literal representation that’s in another mind dimension, we all have those things.

PW: What excites you about the potential this universe bridge opens up for season four?
Anna: So much! I don’t know for sure, we haven't talked to the showrunners yet, but I would think this obviously means her baby doesn’t exist. I'm also curious to the concept of, "How much pain has Peter caused Olivia over the last three seasons?" Now, who is she without ever having experienced that? What kind of shifts will the characters make without Peter in our lives? But simultaneously how are we going to find him?

PW: I would imagine it also means you'll be playing both versions of your characters a lot more next year.
John: I think so too, and that is such a gift as an actor.
Anna: I love it. I’m also excited because we seen a lot of interaction between the characters, which we will now that they’re in the same world. Also, with Lincoln too! I know Seth [Gabel] is coming back!
John: Oh, he's so great!
Anna: It’ll be fun to see him on both sides as well.

PW: That could get messy for Fauxlivia!
John: Well she hasn’t committed to him yet!
Anna: That’s true! Maybe Olivia will get her back and date Lincoln! She needs some love too [laughs].

PW: Tonight is all about the actorly part of "Fringe" and obviously these dual performances are an excellent example of that. How have you approached it?
John: I’ve always seen these characters as the psychological parts of the same man. It’s that melding together – now the pressure is on enough that they have to stop compromising and come together. Because, and this is my personal opinion, but to survive this situation, this man needs to be his very best and that’s a combination of Walter and Walternate. That’s the approach I’m taking to it and it seems to be working. But we'll know for sure on Thursday, when we talk to the showrunners about season four.

PW: Oh man, you know that fans are going to be stalking your life on Friday now!
Anna: [laughs]
John: They’ll tell us just enough to keep us tantalized – that’s what they do.

PW: What are you hoping to talk about?
Anna: In that last speech where Peter talked about who brought the parts back – Astrid or Ella – I’m interested in that. I wonder if we’ll do more back and forth with the future.
John: I’m excited to continue with the different universes, I like that they’re going to work together. That’s always something we’ve wanted to do – not show a black and white world. This way you don’t automatically choose one side. We work really hard to humanize both sides.

PW: Back to the alternates, do you prefer playing one more than the other?
John: I do. I enjoy Walter more because he’s so random. And as an actor, that means I can do whatever I want and get away with it, whereas Walternate is so stitched up. Walter is a lot more fun.
Anna: It changes, I vacillate. When Faux-livia first came about I was thrilled not to be in the suit, but then I played Olivia Over There and I loved her during that period. It changes.

PW: Favorite episode this season?
John: I loved the one with Christopher Lloyd. It was such a joy to work with him and he was so good in the role.
Anna: I actually think “Entrada” – I enjoyed that because I had so much fun stuff to do,. You’re always biased towards things like that. It was my favorite episode to make, I don’t know how it would be watching it.

PW: And lastly, this show has really lived and died by the fans -- a very fickle community, it should be said. What kinds of comments have you been hearing from fans?
Anna: One of the things I love about doing the show is that anyone who stops me on the street, always asks “what’s happening next?” To be a part of something that’s bigger than you is fun because it means that the show you're making is the star.
John: That’s true. When people stop me on the street, it’s so generous and then “what do you know?” [laughs]. We have incredible fans.

"Fringe" airs Fridays at 9pm on Fox -- and for more information on The Paley Center for Media, click here!

Source:nypost.com

Fringe Panel: Anna Torv & John Noble [Paley 2011]

Here's a better quality video from the Paley with Anna Torv and John Noble.

'Fringe':Exec producers Jeff Pinkner, J.H. Wyman answer fan questions about the finale--EXCLUSIVE

May 13, 2011
04:45 PM ET

'Fringe': Exec producers Jeff Pinkner, J.H. Wyman answer fan questions about the finale -- EXCLUSIVE
by Jeff Jensen

One week after Fringe’s time-traveling, parallel world-bridging, and thoroughly brain melting season 3 finale, fans of the Fox sci-fi series are still steaming with burning questions. Did Peter (Joshua Jackson) erase himself from history? Who took the doomsday machine back into the paleolithic past? And whatever happened to the Blimp Guy that Olivia (Anna Torv) predicted would one day kill her? We culled our message boards for the most frequently-posed inquiries and then presented them to Fringe masterminds Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman. They were kind enough to respond, even if they acknowledged that for now, there’s little they can actually say. After all: There is going to be fourth season.

Read more »

Fringe - Aftermath 322 "The Day We Died"

Joel Wyman and Jeff Pinkner talk about the last episode of this season.

Fringe Finale Exclusive:WTF Just Happened?!

Fringe Finale Exclusive: WTF Just Happened?! Producers Answer (Some) Burning Questions
Matt Webb Mitovich
[Warning: The following story is chockablock with spoilers from Friday night's Fringe season finale. Watch before you read. Seriously.]

Fringe‘s Season 3 finale could have ended with Peter emerging from the Machine, as he and Olivia survey the roomful of doppelgangers he just united. Or, it could have gone a step further and left us with the jarring image of Peter “fizzling” away in the midst of debriefing the Walters on his learning from the future.

But this is Fringe. And the envelope-pushing sci-fier dialed up the WTF to 11 by closing the season with an Observer explaining that no one inside Lady Liberty is batting an eye at Peter’s vanishing because to them — now, having “served his purpose” — he “never existed.”
Source:tvonline.com

OK…. What?

Speaking with executive producers Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman after we previewed the finale, TVLine led with the No. 1 question on our list: Does Joshua Jackson have a Fringe gig come fall? Or should he have been auditioning for pilots? “He’s got a job. He’s still under contract,” Wyman confirms. “We can’t yet reveal what exactly we have in store for him, but he’s definitely not going out for other shows.”



As for those final two scenes, Pinkner said that even the most time paradox-savvy viewers “should be wondering” how it is that Peter vanished from existence, yet said he would be remiss to shed much light on that or what’s in store for Season 4. “The less spoilerage, the better,” he deferred. “The reason to come back and watch is exactly for the questions you’re asking.”

Wyman instead points viewers to this scene: “When Walter in the future says he has figured out a plan to send a message back to the past, he says that bringing Peter’s consciousness forward of course would have consequences.” Or as Future Peter himself remarked when presented with Walter’s plan: “Imagine the repercussions.” Indeed.

But could even the brilliant Walter have surmised that preventing a future doomsday would rob him of being with his son in the past? “One of the things we were playing with this season,” says Pinkner, “is a journey of acceptance for Walter, accepting what the Observers were trying to teach him in ‘Firefly’ – that in order to undo the damage he has done, he may have to be willing to sacrifice Peter.”

To briefly recap the finale episode, before we share more from Wyman and Pinkner: After glimpsing an instant of disorientation, we realize we are observing Peter as he exists in the year 2026, complete with memories of what he made wife (!) Olivia that morning for breakfast. The recovery of a “light bomb” used by a terrorist named Moreau sets in motion a chain of events in which Walter — now “the most reviled” man on the globe, as the deliverer of doomsday — deduces that it is he who will design the Machine and send it into the very distant past via the Central Park wormhole. He hypothesizes that if he can bring Peter’s 2011 consciousness “forward” in time long enough to realize that he must make another choice once in the Machine, both worlds can be saved. Alas, though Walter is spot-on in his assessment, it appears there are in fact “repercussions” to this correction, when Peter fades away from his 2011 existence, never to be remembered.

Now, a few other burning questions the Fringe EPs took on:

If Peter “Never Existed,” Wouldn’t That Mean No Feud Between the Walters, No Machine Activated, No 2026 Doomsday…? In a word, no. “Walter and [William] Bell were always trying to find a way to cross over, even before the Peter [abduction] incident,” Pinkner reminds. “So things may have happened differently.”

What Was “Lost In Detroit,” As Future Peter Alluded To With Broyles? “That’s not something the audience needs to understand just yet,” says Wyman. “It’s obviously something heavily emotional between them – that may or may not be the cause of Broyles losing an eye.”

Was Olivia In Fact the “Beloved Character” Spoiled To Be Dying In the Finale? (Or Was It Gene the Cow?) “In the course of the episode, it was Olivia,” confirms Pinkner, noting that Gene had gone to that great dairy farm in the sky sometime between 2011 and 2026.

Is That It for Big Baddie Moreau? Sadly, yes. Played by Dune‘s Brad Dourif, Moreau and his End of Dayers threat was simply the Case of the Week for Fringe Team ’26.

Have We Also Seen the Last Of Grown-Up Ella (Boardwalk Empire‘s Emily Meade)? Yes, says Wyman — “for the time being.”

Did Fox Execs Have As Many Questions About Fringe‘s Latest Freaky Finale As I Did? “Probably more!” Pinkner says with a laugh. “But everybody is asking the right questions – not questions of confusion but questions of intrigue, of being compelled. We always like it when it’s like that.” Adds Wyman: “We’ve gained a lot of trust over the years [when pitching ideas to the network]. They have now seen the way we operate, how we always have tent posts that we are moving toward and from.”

What did you think, Fringe fans? Did the finale sufficiently blow your mind?
Source:tvline.com

Season Finale Tweet-Along Answers From Joel Wyman

Fringe executive producer Joel Wyman

During tonight's Fringe Tweet-along event for "The Day We Died", Fringe executive producer Joel Wyman (@JWFringe) answered questions from fans during the west coast feed.

Here is a list of some of his most interesting tweets:

@RKon Hi Mr Wyman! Will we learn more about the beacon in season 4?
@JWFRINGE Hi! We try and answer all. Things always come back and get revisited.

@CoryAllenHurst will Joshua Jackson be back on season 4?
@JWFringe Let's just say Josh has a contract for season 4.


@monkeyswimmer Great finale! I just want to know how you plan on keeping the "Without" Peter...
@JWFRINGE "Without" Peter are your words, not ours. ; )


@hollywoodgrrl Joel, will we get to find out more about Mr. X and Olivia's epic love for toast
@JWFRINGE Absolutely! Yes. Certainly we will learn about Mr. X.

Read more »

Season Finale Tweet-Along Answers From Tanya Swerling

Fringe producer Tanya Swerling
(with John Dudkowski and Scott Vickrey)

During tonight's Fringe Tweet-along event for "The day We Died", Fringe producer Tanya Swerling (@TSFringe) answered questions from fans during the east coast feed.

Here is a list of some of her most interesting  tweets:

@Irishgirlnc Question, how is the doomsday machine in our universe functioning when it's missing a part? Fauxlivia stole a part to ours.@TSFringe the machine's are quantum entangled...

@aimeexamazing7 why is only one side of walter's mouth working?@TSFringe he had a stroke in prison...

@dezzii87 ok this is crazy! first have you notice the pic, how the child is only holding peters hand and not olivias??!!@TSFringe good eyes

Read more »

FRINGE:Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman Tease 'The Day We Died'

FRINGE: Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman Tease ‘The Day We Died’

May 6, 2011 by Marisa Roffman

FRINGE fans were thrown for a loop last week when upon Peter’s entry into the doomsday machine, he ended up 15 years in the future. Not quite the universe destruction that had been hinted at, but the future Peter woke up in wasn’t so pretty.

Dying to know what happens next? I chatted with FRINGE executive producers Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman about the show’s trip to the future, what it means for season four, why they jumped forward and more…

I think it’s safe to say that the end of “The Last Sam Weiss” — when Peter is transported 15 years into the future — is one of those moments in a show that is actually game-changing.
Jeff Pinkner: If you could allow us to tease for a second, it’s both game-changing watching it and it’s more game-changing when it’s over.

Wow. My friend pointed out to me after last week’s episode that the hour could have very easily have worked as a great season finale, so if you guys had that up your sleeve for the penultimate episode, what the heck do you have planned for us for the finale?
J.H. Wyman: [Laughs] That’s a good position to be in. That’s great.

What can you tease about “The Day We Died”?

JW: Well, we definitely — look, we knew where we were going from the beginning of the season and we had an end in mind that maintained to be our end. Like always, Jeff and I try and recontextualize the end of the season to make it mean something new and make the fans look at the show a different way going into next season. And we feel that’s what we’ve accomplished this year, as well.

JP: I think by way of tease, the notion of jumping forward to the future — I think sometimes, as we’ve always said, our show is a lot about choices and sometimes it’s only by looking back at things from the future can you really tell the consequences certain actions had. And as we said earlier, the point of the episode is to recontextualize everything that’s happened this year. And there are certain events we just wanted to jump past because what’s more interesting is the consequence of those events than the events themselves.

When a science fiction show jumps into the future, the question becomes whether that is the set future or if anything can be done to prevent events from happening. Will that be dealt with in the finale?
JP: That’s absolutely — I think you’re asking the exact right question and that will sort of be the question of the episode: whether or not our characters are successful, that’s the point.

You mentioned jumping forward in time to explore the consequences of events, and it seems like we’ve missed a lot of important things in the meantime — Peter is an agent, Broyles has a freaky weird eye, etc. Will we be getting backstory on some of the more major changes?

JW: There are stories and those things are there for a reason. You know, we know how Broyles got there, we know how Peter got there, we know what they’re referring to in conversations that are kind of vague to the viewer, but specific between themselves. We wanted to use these type of logical and sometimes illogical progressions of characters in the future to expand our audiences’ imagination and allow them to fill in some blanks, you know? “I wonder how that transpired? How did that come about? That’s really interesting.” We always pose questions and we always plant the seed and I think, by now, we try and answer most of them. Maybe someday you’ll understand more.

Well, we have all of season four to find these things out! Will this jump forward in the future alter the way stories are told, much like the flashforward device was introduced in the season three finale of LOST?

JW: I don’t think we’re necessarily introducing a new paradigm.

JP: We’ve told stories out of our timeline before — we’ve gone to the past a couple of times — but as Joel just said, I don’t think we’re introducing literally a new paradigm that we’re going to do frequently. But there are some events in the episode that will dramatically shift the paradigm of the show.

And with the jump forward, I don’t think I spotted Nina or Lincoln in the promos. Are they there in the final hour of the season?

JW: Hm.

JP: Some of them are, some of them aren’t.

JW: Yep.

Some of the people I just mentioned in my question or just in general?

JP: It’s both. In the context of the storytelling, you’ll understand — or at least you’ll have the strong ability to surmise — why the characters that are or are not in the episode…why that is.

It almost seems like we’re going back to the beginning in many ways with Walter, locked up and bearded — yet Walternate is still there. Are fans supposed to be confused at this point how they could both be existing in one universe?

JW: I think you will definitely have the answer to that when you watch the show. You will understand conceptually what has happened — why you’re seeing what you’re seeing.

What about Peter and Olivia? In the present they seemed to doing well, with her declaring her love and him embracing his inner Han Solo and didn’t exactly say the words back. But how are they doing in the future?

JP: I don’t think he said the words out loud, but our intent…he was equaling her statement with his eyes and actions in that moment. I know some people read it that [it wasn't reciprocated], but it wasn’t intended that way.

And the future Peter and Olivia?

JP: [Pause] I think, Marisa, [that answer] falls under the category of spoiling one of the cool moments. And not a wildly significant one, but in the context of the episode, you’ll find that out real quickly.

Is Peter aware of Fauxlivia’s kid in the future? You have teased he would find out before the end of the season…

JP: Um…whether or not he’s aware, it probably won’t play a big role in the episode.

Are we going to be spending the bulk of the hour in the future?

JW: Hm.

JP: Yeah, I think it’s safe to say the majority of the storytelling takes place in the future.

Before I let you go, is there anything else you want to tease for the fans before they watch “The Day We Died”?

JW: We feel it’s set up to — if anyone feels a fraction what you said at the beginning of the call, Marisa, we’ll be happy. If they’re saying, “How could they outdo ['The Last Sam Weiss']?” we’re thrilled with that. We feel anything we give [to spoil] would take away from that experience. [The finale] will definitely change the way you look at the program going forward.


This is it guys…the final episode of season three. Are you ready to have your mind blown?

And if you need a further incentive to watch the episode live tonight, not only do you get the chance to win props if you check into GetGlue, but Pinkner and Wyman will be live tweeting the finale! Make sure to follow @JPFRINGE and @JWFRINGE to see what they have to say about “The Day We Died”!

Source:givememyremote.com

Fringe Finale Scoop:Producers Tackle Burning Questions(Including "Who's Going to Die?")

Today's News: Our Take:Fringe Finale Scoop: Producers Tackle Burning Questions (Including "Who's Going to Die?")
May 5, 2011 09:18 PM ET
by Natalie Abrams

The penultimate episode of Fringe saw Peter (Joshua Jackson) enter the machine, which transported him 15 years into a decimated future. As the very fabric of our universe is being ripped apart, Peter will attempt to prevent this grim future from happening. And along the way, lives will be lost (yes, that was plural!) Executive producers Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman answer burning questions about the finale:

How is this flash-forward different from others we've seen on TV before?
J.H. Wyman: The very nature of Fringe is that it's all about choices that we make, so we get to celebrate that authentically. Whatever we see in the future can be adjusted and might be adjusted. We feel like we've actually earned the ability to go backwards and forwards to eliminate and re-contextualize the show for the viewer. There's so much story to tell in the future, in the past, and the present with Fringe. It's kind of like a wheelhouse that we feel comfortable playing in.

Is this a permanent jump or will you decide to jump backwards and forwards next season?
Jeff Pinkner: The ending of the finale sort of answers your question. As the Observers once told us, there are many futures happening simultaneously. Which one will come true is based on, as Joel just said, the choices that we all collectively make. The finale is the future in 2026 that our characters are on a path towards if nothing were to change. By the end of the episode, that change has occurred. So we may continue to tell storytelling that's both in the past, like we've done a couple of times to see Walter's story with Peter, and we may jump to the future again. But it won't be necessarily the same one that we're in in this episode.

The whole season has been building towards the destruction of one universe or the other, but in jumping ahead 15 years, you skipped over that. Will we see what happens or will that be mirrored in the deterioration of our universe in the future?
Wyman: We love to answer questions. There's some great shows that love to ask them and maybe not answer them so quickly. We've always tried to sort of fill in the blanks and get the viewer to feel satisfied that they're watching a story for a reason. We both feel that you'll be satisfied, that you will understand what the future held for each universe and their collective and individual fates.

How have the characters' relationships changed 15 years in the future?
Wyman: Some of them are what you would expect, but some of them are not. We tried to make sure that each one was at least logical, of course, and colorful in its own way; how they grew and what happens to them. But we looked at this as a huge possibility to paint a canvas in the future to allow the viewer to fill in some blanks and take that away with them and go, "Wow, that's really interesting. How did this transpire?"

Thanks to the promos, we've seen glimpses of how bad the future is. Will Peter be able to prevent this future from happening?
Pinkner: It's bad! I think that the question of the episode is: What's to come? And for Peter, Olivia (Anna Torv), Walter (John Noble) and, obviously, the rest of the team — what is their role in trying to prevent what seems to be a pretty awful fate?

What can you tell us about the End-of-Dayers and Walternate's plan to destroy our universe?
Wyman: The concept of End-of-Dayers is an interesting one because it deals with faith and loss of faith. That's kind of a big theme for us; that people are constantly looking for things to believe in. Right now, in society, we feel that there's a breakdown in a lot of different areas in life that people once had great faith in, like politics or religion or whatever. People are looking for something to believe in. So the End-of-Dayers are basically people that have faith, but faith in the end of everything. That it is the end of days that would deliver them into some sort of salvation. It's tough to have faith when the environment is what it is and you're living in conditions that these people are living in. It's pretty dire.

Are the future citizens of the world aware of the cross-universe war?
Pinkner: Yeah. Fifteen years in the future, when the story takes place, everything has become much more public and necessary.
Wyman: Eventually you can't hide it any longer.

We're going to be losing a main character in the finale. What can you tell us about that? Is it permanent?
Wyman: Is this death permanent? You'll see it's not exactly what happens. Maybe the best hint is that there's actually more than one.

Is this a mass casualty situation?
Pinkner: The deaths are actually both in entirely different contexts.

The Fringe finale airs Friday at 9/8c on Fox.
Source:tvguide.com

New Kevin Corrigan Interview: "The Last Of Sam Weiss?"

Here's a new interview with Kevin Corrigan. A demon's twist rusts?

FOX All Access: John Noble Discusses Season Finale

John Noble spoke with Fox All Access, in a two-part interview. In part one, John talks about the Fringe season finale, and why Walter = Walternate. In part two, he discusses about filming the season finale and what prop would he take from the Fringe set, followed by a strange "trip".

Fringe Sneak Peek and BTS of "The Day We Died"

Here is a not-too-spoilery sneak peek and behind the scenes look at the Fringe season finale "The Day We Died". Featuring interviews with Fringe season finale director Joe Chappelle, 1st Assisstant Director Brian Giddens, and Joshua Jackson, who reveals:

The big surprise will catch people completely off guard.

Fringe: "The Future Is Now" Video

Joshua Jackson, John Noble, Jasika Nicole, Anna Torv, and Lance Reddick talk about the Fringe season finale episode the "The Day We Died". They do explain a little about what happened to Peter at the end of "The Last Sam Weiss", so proceed with caution if your are trying to avoid any spoilers.

Meet the Genius Behind Fringe's Mind-Bendingly Good Promos!

Meet the Genius Behind Fringe's Mind-Bendingly Good Promos!Fri., Apr. 29, 2011 6:13 PM PDT by Jennifer Arrow

Are you a crazed Fringe fan? If yes, then you must already know the work of one Ari Margolis, the behind-the-scenes savant who created a little marketing masterpiece we like to call "Strawberry-Flavored Death," the promo that (a) shattered all our pessimistic assumptions that Fox moved the show to Friday to die and (b) brought Ari's brilliant advertising to our attention once and for all.

We squeak with joy every time a new Margolis original comes out, and we decided it was high time we talk to Fringe's secret weapon about which universe he's from anyway and how he'll be tantalizing us with Fringe goodies for the remainder of the season!

Q&A with Fringe Promo Mastermind Ari Margolis

When did you start working on promos for Fringe?
I work at the Special Ops department here at Fox, and we get assigned to different shows, so I was working of Fringe from the beginning along with a couple of other people in our department. I did a couple for the premiere, these short 15-second spots with little soundbites from the cast, kind of teasing and it would end with static, just to tease the show and then it slowly grew.

I was working on it all first season, doing interview pieces and stuff like that, and we have different people going to the sets so I would give them questions, and they would get content for me and then I would cut it up and stuff. Then that started to grow and I would go to set and talk to the cast and then started going to interview with Jeff Pinkner and Joel Wyman and things just started growing.

And then in the second season for the premiere I did a promo that fast forwarded through the entire premiere episode, which was actually based on this trailer that I had seen, I think it was a European trailer for Femme Fatale. So it fast forwards and then stops so you can see a little bit and then fast forwards again. It even shows you the entire credits and end credits. The trick was that when you fast forward you can cut out frames because I didn't want people to see certain things but you want to give viewers the impression that they have seen everything without actually seeing everything.

And the Friday night death slot promo that I'm in love with, did you do that on your own or were you asked to do it?
Well, basically, I started to get more noticed towards the end of the second season. I did the Fringe noir black-and-white movie trailer and then a movie trailer for "Over There," then for I did a second movie-trailer promo, for "Entrada."

What happened was, I think sometime after that there was an announcement that the show was moving to Fridays and everyone started freaking out. So I looked up Fringe fan reactions and what I noticed is that people really liked the "Entrada" trailer and people would say, "Why would Fox do all this cool promotion if they're just going to move the show to die?"

When I read that I thought that we need to address that, so that is how the idea got launched, from the reaction, people just seemed convinced that that was what was going on and if people begin to believe that then people will stop watching the show. Everyone I work with is a big fan of the show so we tried to figure a way to let people know that we are behind the show and that we are moving it so it can do well not go away. So that is how that whole idea came about.

Where are you from and how did you learn know to do all this?
I went to film school at RIT in Rochester, N.Y. and then came out here with a friend of mine, Jim Morley. We came out here to be writer/directors and started at that, writing scripts. We made a feature film called black days which is like a film noir which premiered at Sundance. So we have been trying our hand at the whole thing and we have had some success with a couple of scripts here and there so this is kind of the job to pay the bills. And I have been here a while and have gotten to work on some shows that I really like like 24 and Arrested Development but this is the dream job because Fringe is my favorite show. When I first saw the show I thought it was cool and it would be cool to work on but by the fourth episode I was like whoa and that is when the show really started to click in for me and then by the end of the first season I was just very excited about the show.

And what is the Special Ops department?
Special ops is a part of Fox marketing and it's headed up by Dean Norris and we get to do all kinds of cool stuff. There is an on-air department and a creative services department and we do a little bit of everything. We do some on-air stuff, web stuff, we do sizzle reels and sometimes…we did an Idol special…so we get a little bit of everything. And we have a cool name.



...What's the process of cooking up these trailers?
Well, I kind of have a lot of freedom at this point because I have built up a lot of trust and have a good report with Jeff and Joel, so usually what will happen is I will read the scripts when they come in, and that's where the ideas start to hatch.

Then usually I will just do a rough cut of something because I have a lot of freedom but if it is something really elaborate, I will script it out first and then show it around internally.

For the big trailers we show them to Jeff and Joel first because we want to make sure that they're cool with it. I am super sensitive about not revealing too much because I don't want to spoil the show for anyone but I want to make sure that the executive producers are good and comfortable with it too.

It's been just crazy as of lately because they've mentioned me a couple of times in the press and then we had a live Twitter thing and Jasika Nicole me a shoutout on Twitter and that's when all the messages from fans started pouring in. So it's been kind of crazy because you don't really expect it. It's all about the Fringe fans, they're just the best fans. Working on promos for Fringe is more than a job because I love the show so much.

Also, one other geek detail you'll appreciate, I wear a Fringe shirt every Friday (including right now) and alternate between a normal Fringe one and alternate-universe Fringe Division one, depending on where the ep is set. And when it's set in both, it's a coin toss!

So what can we look forward to for the rest of the season? Is there anything you can tease?
I am planning on completing the movie trailer trilogy with a movie trailer for this season's finale, "The Day We Died."

Can. Not. Wait.
Source:eonline.com

FRINGE - Fans Ask Fringe (Part 3)

Here is part three of the Fox video series "Fans Ask Fringe", featuring fan questions answered by the stars of Fringe.

In this third edition, we get two question answered by Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, Blair Brown, Lance Reddick, and John Noble:

• What is the best prank or joke that has been pulled on another cast or crew member?
• Does the cast watch the show as it airs on TV? How different is it from what they expect after filming it?

'Fringe' interview:My lunch with John Noble

‘Fringe’ interview: My lunch with John Noble
Andrew Hanson
April 29, 2011 9:00 am

When you sit down to speak with John Noble, you almost expect to be having lunch with Walter Bishop. Walter is one of those television characters that almost seems real. Sure, he’s usually pulling giant worms out of people or breaking holes in the universe, but Bishop also struggles with his own frailties, his own mistakes. After watching him every week on "Fringe," you feel like you know him. Like he’s a normal human being. A lot of that has to do with the writing and direction of the show, but even more comes from John Noble himself.

I’ve spoken with Mr. Noble before, but only for phone interviews. Once you get past the Aussie accent, you hear a lot of Walter in the actor that portrays him. They both speak with a calm intelligence, but at the same time they can get caught up in their passion for the subject. Almost to the point of giddiness.

Yet meeting face to face is quite a different story. Instead of the hunched, insecure scientist wracked with guilt about his past, you get robust, confident John Noble. A man who, even though he was coming off a daunting shooting schedule and flights crisscrossing the globe, warmly sat down with me to talk about the third season of "Fringe" as it comes to a close.

“It’s like an endless stage play.” Noble told me. “The first few seasons were about the audience getting attached to these characters. Then the funny thing is, this season was about creating a whole new set of characters. What an extraordinary risk to take! We’ve got these characters that people like. They’re developed. OK, push them aside.”

“Our big challenge was if we could get the audience to care about the people on the other side,” Noble said.

Not an easy task. Season 1’s finale gave us a glimpse of the parallel universe. A quick visit to William Bell’s office on that side’s World Trade Center. Then throughout Season 2, the only visitors we encountered were the shape-shifting soldiers from another dimension. Then building to last year’s finale, Walter’s other-world counterpart Walternate appeared to take back Peter, the son that was stolen from him.

“It would have been easy to make Walter the classic villain,” Noble explained over coffee, “but he could be much more if we could humanize him. No hurry, but every now and again sneak in a moment where it’s ‘Oh, I do understand why he does that.’ ”

In Walternate’s world, he is the hero. His son was stolen by invaders from a different world. Invaders who broke holes in reality and caused horrible blights. “I don’t have an issue playing Walternate in almost anything he does because as the key decision maker in the land of the other universe, he has to make some tough decisions. But he’s probably the sort of bloke you want in charge.”

Walternate is willing to use the Amber to seal up weak spots in his universe, even if it traps innocent bystanders as well. He brainwashes Olivia into thinking she belongs over there in order to find out the secret of moving between universes. He is bent on defending that universe at any cost. Well, almost any cost. Unlike our Walter, Walternate has a steadfast rule against using children. “He discovered that in himself after his son was stolen. In his fury. In his rigidness. He really made this a national rule. That crimes against children were a top priority. He’s made it the law of the land.”

Our Walter’s Cortexifan experiments on Olivia and the other kids in Jacksonville show that he had a much looser ethics code when it came to younglings. “In ‘Subject 13’ he was being pushed and pulled by different forces,” Noble explained. Walter was trying to make soldiers to defend us against invaders from the other side, even if it meant turning a blind eye to the home life of little Olive, but Walter lived up to his doppelganger’s example. “I was very pleased in the final outcome of that, that Walter came to save the Olivia from her stepfather, which was something we discussed as well. It wasn’t in there originally, but if you paint this man as oblivious to the children, then you’ve lost two years of development.”

“I find these characters particularly interesting in that these two, Walter and Walternate, are essentially the same person. Changed by events. Whether you’re Jungian or Freudian, you can see how they’ve developed,” Noble said. “The war between the worlds exists because of fathers’ instincts. One who stole a son and one who’s had one stolen.”

Each of the "Fringe" regulars got to play characters in both universes. Except, of course, Joshua Jackson. “He tried to protest,” Noble joked. “Everyone else has a double, except poor old Lance. Loved his alternate character, but they killed him. He was so upset.”

As the rest of the cast had two different characters this season, Noble’s costar Anna Torv had three. Olivia, the other universe’s Fauxlivia and Olivia possessed by Leonard Nimoy’s William Bell. “She has been wonderful, hasn’t she? I’m so proud of her,” Noble beamed. “She’s just gotten richer, better and taken the risks you have to take as an actor. If you don’t take risks as an actor, you’re going nowhere."

“When Anna first found out she was going to play William, we talked about it a lot. I knew the Bill character and I knew the relationship that Walter would have had with him. It was just having fun with my old mate, and she responded amazingly.” Noble reminisced. “I was truly thrilled with Anna’s courage to just go with it.”

Noble felt that Bell’s reappearance was necessary. “We’d set the character up so strongly in Season 1. There had to be some moment between" Walter and Bell. That moment came during an animated trip inside Olivia’s head. “When that script came up, I thought, 'That’s going to take someone six months. But we don’t have six months. We have three weeks. How will this happen?' But that’s the sort of things that happen all the time with ‘Fringe.’ Impossible things.”

In that moment, Walter confesses that he thinks he needs Bell to be his balance, but Bell tells Walter he’s ready to go on alone. “The writers told me earlier this year that would be a crucial point. Walter would have to accept that he has everything he needs. A lot of people go through their lives thinking, ‘If only I.... If only had this. If only I had that. If I just get a little more plastic surgery. If I change something, I’ll be something.' ”

“It’s what propels Walter forward to the finale of the season.”

I confessed then that I always love "Fringe" finales. How Season 1 left us in William Bell’s alternate realty office. And Season 2’s reveal of Olivia trapped over there. They always have the ability to leave me simmering all summer long.

At that John Noble grinned. “This one will make you simmer too.”
Source:latimesblogs