Fringe Screening at Comic-Con Preview Night (Wednesday)

The Official Thursday Programming Schedule for Comic-Con has been released and included in it is news about Fringe. If you're lucky enough to have a 4-day pass, and you're quick, you can attend a screening of Fringe on:

Wednesday, July 23, PREVIEW NIGHT

Attention 4-Day Members Only: For the first time ever, Comic-Con adds a special event on Preview Night, and what a special event it is! Be among the first to see the new fall series Fringe!

6:00–7:30 and 7:30-9:00 Fringe Pilot Screenings—Comic-Con and Warner Bros. Television proudly present two exclusive premiere screenings of the pilot episode of Fringe, the highly anticipated new FOX series from J.J. Abrams (Lost), Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the team behind the upcoming Star Trek feature, Mission: Impossible 3 and Alias. When an international flight lands at Boston’s Logan Airport and the passengers and crew have all died grisly deaths, FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv, The Pacific) is called in to investigate. When the search nearly kills her partner, Special Agent John Scott (Mark Valley, Boston Legal), a desperate Olivia searches frantically for someone to help, leading her to Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King), our generation’s Einstein. There’s only one catch: He’s been institutionalized for the last 20 years, and the only way to question him requires pulling his estranged son, Peter (Josh Jackson, Shutter), in to help. Under Special Agent Phillip Broyles (Lance Reddick, The Wire), our trio will discover that what happened on that fatal flight is only a small piece of a larger, more shocking truth. Fringe also stars Kirk Acevedo (Oz), Blair Brown (The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd) and Jasika Nicole (The Mastersons of Manhattan). From Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television, Fringe premieres September 9 and airs Tuesdays at 9:00 PM on FOX. (Please note: we will clear the room between screenings. Seating is limited. Pick the screening time that works best for you!) Ballroom 20.

Edit: Don't miss Fringe at Comic-Con. See our Complete Fringe Schedule for Comic-Con 2008.

JJ Abrams' Fringe Forecast: Hit

[sarcasm]In that case, maybe a fan site for Fringe is a good idea.[/sarcasm]

The Hollywood Reporter.

Fox's J.J. Abrams thriller "Fringe" and CBS' Jerry Bruckheimer procedural drama "Eleventh Hour" will be the highest-rated new shows, while NBC's "Kath & Kim" and CBS' "Worst Week" will prove to be weak links in their respective comedy blocks.

That's according to an annual television report by Horizon Media that includes speculative estimates of how every broadcast show will fare in the fall.

Sci Fi Wire summarizes Horizon Media's report with:

The analysis contained some expected claims, such as those that established hits such as NBC's Heroes will continue to rule their time periods.

But there also were some surprises. In general, the report was skeptical about how new shows in general would stack up against competitors; not one new show is expected to win its time period in the adults 18-49 demographic.

To recap, it's not clear whether this is a story because THR decided to run with it, or because Horizon Media's forecasts actually matter. Suffice it to say, accurately predicting that Fringe will be a ratings winner isn't rocket science. However, if Sci Fi Wire's characterization of the report is accurate, it tempers Fringe's prospects by further predicting that as a new show, it won't win the 18-49 demographic in its time period. While predicting that Fringe will be a hit doesn't raise any eyebrows around these parts, saying it won't beat out the competition does.

So who is Fringe's competition on Tuesday nights? Going off The Futon Critic's Fall Grid:

• ABC: Dancing With The Stars results show.


• CBS: The Mentalist.


• NBC: The Biggest Loser.

An inexpert analysis:

DWTS: Never mind that Dancing With The Stars is tired, does anyone really watch the hour-long results show? All I can say is even before I stopped watching DWTS two or three seasons ago, I never suffered the hour-long results show. So, DWTS is no competition for Fringe.

The Mentalist: The who? Doesn't matter. TM is another "new" show, and this is an exercise in debunking Horizon Media's prediction that Fringe won't beat out the established competition.

TBL: I'll admit to watching The Biggest Loser . . . on DVR, because, honestly, with all the commercials, product placements and post commercial recapping of what took place before the commercial break, TBL is unwatchable in real time. To make matters worse for TBL, FOX will be running even fewer commercials during Fringe than normal, making Fringe TBL's antithesis in regards to real time watchability.

Based on the above analysis alone, we predict the freshman show Fringe will own the 18-49 demographic in its time period.

Fringe's Imagine The Impossibilities Site Updated

A butterfly (or moth) has been added as a sixth element on the ImageTheImpossibilities.com (aka Find The Pattern) website for Fringe. The highlighting triggered by hovering your mouse over the butterfly appears to outline the bone structure of five-fingered hands, two per wing. Clicking on the butterfly cycles through the Fringe radio ads which ask listeners to find the pattern.



The butterfly has also been added to FOX's official site for Fringe, http://www.fox.com/fringe/.

Fringe Begins Filming In Brooklyn

The appropriately named website Filming in Brooklyn has a report today confirming that Fringe is filming in--wait for it--Brooklyn. While there are no real spoilers in the report, which includes a few spy photos of Joshua Jackson, be forewarned that these types of reports essentially deal in spoilers. If that's not a problem for you, the article is here.

Word on the street is the next chance you'll get to catch Fringe filming is the morning of July 10th, in the vicinity of 7th Avenue and 92nd Street, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York.

Update: Make that Friday.

Fringe Teaser Animations

The conceptual design studio Buster, was retained by FOX to develop, animate and produce an on-air teaser campaign for FOX's upcoming Fall 2008 TV series "Fringe." Buster worked from the initial graphic symbols found in nature that had been developed by the internal design team at FOX. These symbols are key points for viewers to key into, and to tap into the show's science and nature themed premise. Buster developed a number of 10-second on-air tease animations which have been seen on FOX Television since mid June.

View all four spots above, or at YouTube.com\FringeTelevision

Two New Fringe Radio Ads

There are two new Fringe radio ads, titled "Cruise" and "Stories". The first three ads can be found here.

Cruise (Download MP3):

Ship captain: (panicked) National Sea Rescue, this is the Solara Cruise Ship, Estrella, come in.

NSR rep: Roger. We read you 5 by 5. Go ahead, Estrella.

Captain: May Day! The navigation system’s down.

NSR: We copy. What was your last position?

Captain: We can’t find our way out. Sudden fog bank off the… coast of Patagonia. I’m gonna try and turn her around. May Day! May Day!

[Tape rewind FX]
Captain: We can’t find our way out. Sudden fog bank off the… coast of Patagonia. I’m gonna try and turn her around. May Day! May Day!

[Tape rewind FX]
Captain: We can’t FIND our way out. Sudden fog bank off THE… coast of PATagonia. I’m gonna try and TURN her around. May Day! May Day!

[Tape rewind FX]
Captain: Find…the…Pattern.
[Tape machine clicks off]

VO: Find the pattern.
VO: FOX

Stories (Download MP3)

AGENT: Case Number 22. Tell me what happened Mrs. Reed.

MRS. REED: I identified my husband at the morgue after the wreck. So, I went home to break the news to my son… and then I got this call from the coroner. He said “I don’t know how to tell you this… but your husband wants a ride home.” [sob/laugh] He’s alive!

Sfx: Static

VO: Find the pattern.
VO: FOX

Fringe News Roundup

TV Guide's Matt Roush suggests Fringe could become a cult phenomena, if given a chance:

Question: I know you're not really into spoilers, but I was just wondering whether you have viewed J.J. Abrams' Fringe yet. I watched the pilot today, and I just wanted to hear your thoughts on it. Being an Alias lover, I adored it. That being said, it was slightly predictable in certain parts (the "for example" omitted for spoiler reasons). Despite that fact, I think this show has a great future, especially with the commercial-lite gimmick. What do you think? — Amanda

Matt Roush: Your analogy to Alias is a good one. That's the show I most thought about while recently screening the Fringe pilot in a visit to Fox's offices — a very cloak and dagger process, because the network has yet to send screeners to critics in fear of more incidents of it leaking onto the Internet, which is where I gather you saw it. Anyway, I won't go into a detailed review here — too early, and I'd like to see a final cut when it gets closer to the September launch date — but my initial reaction was quite positive, and had me thinking and hoping that if Fringe is lucky and given the opportunity, it could grow into a cult phenom like Alias or even The X-Files, a show it resembles even more. The premise is a little too murky and the trappings a bit too sci-fi for me to predict that it will explode out of the gates the way Lost did. But wouldn't it be nice?

---

TVWeek's Josef Adalian has a detailed piece outlining Fox's "more elaborate second phase" Fringe marketing campaign that started this week.

In addition to noting the 'Find The Pattern' fringe radio ads, sponsored search engine links and those 'Imagine The Impossibilities' bleeding banner ads, Adalian learns that FOX isn't alone in marketing Fringe and that "Bad Robot is doing its own marketing on behalf of the show, as well.":

While [Laurel Bernard, senior vice president of marketing for Fox Broadcasting] couldn't confirm the details of Bad Robots efforts, the blogosphere has been buzzing about a YouTube video featuring a 12-fingered man. Fox’s official Web site for "Fringe" features a hidden link to the video, something that appears to confirm a connection between the YouTube video and the show’s producers.

We wondered the same thing when the link to the YouTube video of the 12-fingered man first appeared. In response to our inquiry, Stuart, the video's owner, claimed no knowledge of, nor connection to Fringe.

It seems there may be more read-world appearances or events as well:

Fox’s promo push for “Fringe” will get more specific—e.g., “Watch ‘Fringe’”—as the show’s September premiere date draws closer. Over the next few weeks, however, the network is planning to have some fun with the show’s mysterious science theme.

“We’re planning outbreaks of ‘Fringe’ in all sorts of interesting places,” Ms. Bernard said.

Will there be more cow sightings?

"I cant confirm or deny anything," she said. "But we love the cows."

Fringe Science Demystified

The Fox Youtube channel has a new Fringe video. It is a Science Demystified interview with Author/Near-Death Experiencer Dannion Brinkley talking about fringe science. Brinkley was declared dead for 28 minutes after getting struck by lightning in 1975.

The video briefly shows Brinkley's website - Dannion.com - although it appears to be unconnected to Fringe.

BTW, here is the cloning diagram from the video.

Fringe Pilot Screening at (and near) Comic-Con

News via TVWeek that the Comic-Con veteran Warner Bros. (and not FOX, whose Comic-Con schedule has left some wondering where's the Fringe) will be deftly handling the Fringe marketing at Comic-Con with a panel and multiple screenings of the pilot.

--Warner Bros. Television will present panels for seven shows: “Chuck,” “Fringe,” “Pushing Daisies,” “Smallville,” “Supernatural,” “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” and “The Big Bang Theory.”

The studio is planning two on-site screenings of the “Fringe” pilot, as well as two off-site screenings at the UA Horton Plaza Theater. It will continue its tradition of handing out free tote bags at its massive booth on the floor of the convention, and its animation division will hold a major bash on July 25

As for which pilot attendees will be shown--the rough cut leaked screener or a more polished final or near final cut of the pilot--we'll just have to wait and see.

Fringe Ads: Imagine The Impossibilities

Mysterious flash ads for Fringe have begun appearing online. According to The Hollywood Reporter:

[The ads are] placed on Web sites outside of the usual entertainment hubs to catch viewers attention in unique locations. Users on such sites as Automobile.com and recipe site FamilyOven.com will see mysterious ads encouraging them to "Imagine the Impossibilities."

"They will be very quick sort of messages, leading people to nondescript Web sites that will ultimately lead them back to 'Fringe,' " [Laurel] Bernard (senior vp marketing at Fox) said.

The ads don't specifically mention Fringe, but they do take you the ImagineTheImpossiblities.com website.

One very interesting tidbit about the ads...

The film strips that drop down have printing on the bottom; some sort of date, and the words "Drs Bell & Bishop" - most likely referring to Dr. Walter Bishop, the institutionalized father of Peter Bishop, and Dr. William Bell, the founder of Massive Dynamics.

Fringe Radio Spots - Find The Pattern

The following radio ads will begin airing today, kicking off FOX's media barrage to promote Fringe:



According to The Hollywood Reporter:

The campaign will feature cryptic messages that encourage fans to search on the Internet for more information. Fans of Abrams' hit ABC drama "Lost" and last year's theatrical release "Cloverfield" are familiar with the tactic, so much so that Abrams' name is incorporated into the radio ads as a clue.
...
"Our radio goal was definitely to not say 'Fringe,' " said Laurel Bernard, senior vp marketing at Fox. "We didn't want them to sound in any way like a traditional radio spot. We wanted them to be disruptive and a little mysterious sounding."
...
The Fox network is hoping listeners will piece together these mysterious fragments and realize there is indeed a pattern -- one that leads straight to the network's tentpole fall series "Fringe."

A possible website for the embedded "Find The Pattern" message may be FindThePattern.com. It is currently not active yet, but that may change later today.

Fringe: Expand Your Consciousness

When you select the leaf image (braille #5) on either the Fox.com/Fringe or ImagineTheImpossibilities.com sites, a weird sound is played. By isolating the sound, and playing it backwards, a hidden message is revealed - Expand Your Consciousness!

Thanks to Pwn Master Paladin for noticing the strange sound.

You can hear the original and reversed sound below.

Original (Download MP3):


Reversed (Download MP3):

Fringe: Imagine the Impossibilities

A new official website for Fringe is online. I found it as a sponsored link during Google a search for Fringe:

Google Sponsored Links

What is The Fringe?
Are you a part of “The Pattern?”
Find Out Now!
www.ImageTheImpossibilities.com

As for the site's contents, it would appear to be the same as http://www.fox.com/fringe/, so nothing new there, yet. One positive to note, from my end at least, is the flash seems to load faster on the new site. We'll keep watch.

Of Fringe ARG's, Bad Robot, Experiences & Expectations and Massive Dynamics

In a nutshell, Massive Dynamics may or may not be the bad guys. Formerly Prometheus Corp. according to early script reviewers, Massive Dynamics is a multi-billion dollar high-tech company that exists in the Fringe universe. Massive Dynamics was founded by Dr. William Bell (former partner of Dr. Walter Bishop).

Massive Dynamics' slogan is:

What do we do? . . . What don't we do.

Reviewers of the leaked pilot (without getting too specific) paint Massive Dynamics as a manufacturer of modern miracles, a shadowy, mysterious, all-powerful corporation and secretive defense contractor with hidden agendas, connections to "the pattern", etc.

What makes Massive Dynamics of special interest to online fans of Fringe is Bad Robot's track record of using fictional business entities--The Hanso Foundation and Tagurato Corp. for example--as vehicles to blur the line between reality and the fictions of the Lost and Cloverfield universes. Although often referred to as Alternate Reality Games, or ARGs, what Bad Robot has done with the web doesn't quite meet the definition of ARG since they've yet to award anyone a prize. Instead, Bad Robot has treated the internet as a bridge between universes by casting the internet, our internet, to play itself in these fictional alternate realities.

Is there an ARExperience planned for Fringe? Will JJ Abrams & Co. (and FOX) surprise the fans a full fledged ARG? Has the Fringe universe already hatched a website or video or posting just waiting to be found? It's anyone's guess, but Abrams fans experienced in the art of finding online portals to Bad Robot's television and movie productions will tell you that Massive Dynamics is a good place to start looking.

How Would The Actor's Strike Affect Fringe?

It's only been a few months since the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike ended, and now an actor's strike looms over Hollywood. In a nutshell, actors want what the writers got - a piece of the internet pie.

Fringe has a lot to lose if there is a strike:

[Networks] are puzzled over how to proceed with fall season promotions. Fox, for one, was planning to blow the doors out with barrages of Fringe buzz, but may hold back if the show's early-July production start is in jeopardy.

Fox has given Fringe a superstar schedule with a House lead-in this fall, and an American Idol lead-in this spring, but strike delay could throw everything off. House already has some episodes "in the can", ironically thanks to the WGA strike.

Comic-con would also be affected by a strike, preventing movie stars from attending and giving autographs. So while we might not get an Anna Torv or Joshua Jackson appearance in San Diego next month, JJ Abrams would still be there promoting Fringe (but not Star Trek since Paramount has already pulled out).

Fortunately, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) have already come to a tentative agreement and will vote on July 7^th, which is expected to pass. While the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) has not been able to reach an agreement, and their contract expires on Monday, June 30^th, they would need a 75% approval vote to strike, which is unlikely.

Fringe Forum: Better, Stronger, Faster

The forum has been upgraded in a major way. That's an actual technical upgrade ladies and gents, the likes of which not even the most experienced forum user has ever seen before. So do go here and check out the new forum, and if seeing is believing, take matters into your own hands and respond to the Roll Call.

Fringe's Official Site Updated

See: http://www.fox.com/fringe/

Added: What looks like a braille navigation menu across the bottom where you can manually select from the leaf, hand, apple, or the new frog or flower--which link to a Fringe Trailer on YouTube, and the Fringe Facebook Page.

AICN's Hercules Bullets the Fringe Pilot

Answering such diverse questions as: What’s it called? Who’s responsible? What does Fox say? The big news? What’s this about “a larger, more shocking truth?” Aim? Aquafresh? And all this is somehow tied to the plane mishap? Say. Didn’t Fox already air a series about FBI agents investigating the uncanny? Will subsequent “Fringe” episodes deal with sentient extraterrestrial crude oil, killer bees or humanoid tapeworms? Is the “Fringe” pilot as good as the “X-Files” pilot? “Twin Peaks” had FBI agents investigating weird stuff every week, didn’t it? Is the “Fringe” pilot as good as the “Twin Peaks” pilot? Is the “Fringe” pilot as good as the Abrams-directed “Alias” and “Lost” pilots? How rate you “Fringe’s” cast? Abrams didn’t direct this pilot, right? Isn’t Abrams essentially abandoning “Fringe” as he did “Alias” and “Lost”? This sounds … promising. How long before Fox cancels it?

Some spoilers, but you can read his answers here. Oh, and he gives it 4 stars as in likes it quite a bit.

Fox asks, "what’d you think?" of the leaked Fringe pilot

Odd that they would do that, unless, of course, they're the ones who did the leaking?

So, I ask -- was the Fringe pilot intentionally leaked by FOX/Warner Bros./Bad Robot?

Take the poll (to the right in the sidebar) or leave a comment.

Update: Poll closed/results: 91% believed the Fringe pilot intentionally leaked by FOX/Warner Bros./Bad Robot.

"The high quality of the Fringe download, alongside a source tag that identifies the torrent as a DVD screener, has sparked speculation over whether the pilot episode was intentionally leaked to build early buzz and hype before the show's broadcast premiere. A user on community forum Neowin wrote: 'In my opinion it's Fox themselves that use this technology to generate some talk.'" -- Underwire

"Fox was very careful with this expensive pilot, opting for private industry screenings rather than mailing out DVD screeners." -- THR

"Meanwhile, there are speculations over whether the pilot episode of Fringe was intentionally leaked by the network to create some early buzz." -- Buddy TV

"Yes, the Fringe pilot has gotten out. So, for those of you who have seen it — what’d you think?" -- Future on Fox

Sidenote: It appears FOX has deleted the post where they asked, 'what'd you think?' of the leaked Fringe pilot. It originally read:

Wanted: Little Dutch Boy

HR put it succinctly: That summer rite of passage, the annual leaking of the pilots, is upon us.

Yes, the Fringe pilot has gotten out.

So, for those of you who have seen it — what’d you think?

Fringe Schedule for Comic-Con

Ducky Does TV has posted the Warner Bros. TV Comic-Con Schedule which includes Fringe. According to Ducky's schedule, Fringe is scheduled Saturday, July 26th, 4:45 p.m. - 5:45 p.m. Saturday is sold out by the way.

What does all this mean? To be honest, I can't exactly say. My only experience with Comic-Con was feverishly refreshing last years live bloggers who were covering the Paramount/Abrams/Cloverfield panel. So my best guess is there will be a panel comprised of Fringe writers and/or directors and/or producers and/or stars who may have something to say, or show, or could just be there to look pretty and field a few questions about the show.