Fringe #4 & Fringe #5 Comics Announced

DC Comics' Wildstorm has announced the street dates of the next two Fringe Comics:

• Fringe #4 — April 29, 2009
• Fringe #5 — May 27, 2009

You can preorder them at your local Comic Book Shop

For more info, check out the Fringe Comics page at Fringepedia.net.

Where's My Fringe?

Only four more weeks to go until Fringe returns on April 7th, but don't worry... there's plenty to do until then!

If you've missed any episodes, you can catch up for free online:

• Watch and comment in our Fringe Episodes section
• Watch at FOX On Demand at Fox.com
• or at Hulu.com/Fringe

There have also been two new Fringe Podcasts since the hiatus:

• The Fringe Podcast discussing the Fringe Comic #3
• Following The Pattern podcast discussing Fringe at the NY Comic Con
  

Also, there's always things to learn about Fringe and The Pattern over at Fringepedia, the best Fringe Wiki around!

Fringe Nominated for Saturn Awards

The Academy of Science Fiction Fantasy & Horror Films nominated Fringe for TWO Saturn Awards, which honors the best in Science-Fiction TV and Film.

Fringe was nominated under the Best Network TV Show category, along with Heroes, Life On Mars, Lost, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and Supernatural, and Anna Torv was nominated for Best Actress In Television, along with Lena Headey, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Evangeline Lilly, Mary McDonnell, Anna Paquin, and Kyra Sedgwick.

Lost, that other J.J. Abrams show, led the field with 11 nominations. For the complete list of nominees, visit SaturnAwards.org.

BTW, unlike the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences or the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, which gives out Oscars and Emmys respectively, the ASFFHF is open to the public.

No 'Glee' For Fringe Fans, Season Cut to 20 Episodes

Fringe Executive Producer J.R. Orci confirmed today that the Fringe season has been officially cut to 20 episodes.

The two main culprits for the shortened season are the Osbournes: Reloaded special on March 31st, and the High School Musical/Bring It On ripoff called Glee, which "previews" May 19th, following the American Idol season finale. This leaves room for only six new Fringe episodes before the end of May 'Sweeps'.

It should be noted that Fringe has still not been renewed for a second season yet, but Fox Entertainment president Kevin Reilly did have some nice things to say when speaking to The Hollywood Reporter:

THR: What is the future of RemoteFreeTV?

REILLY: The jury's still out. We've gotten outstanding viewer feedback. I think the year hasn't helped. Fortunately, "Fringe" was a keeper. Can you sell the real estate for free? If we don't do it on a full series, we might use it for a special episode or stunt something. So we'll keep it in the mix in some fashion.

THR: There's a perception that "Lie to Me" and "Fringe" have been dependent on being paired with strong lead-ins. Is that fair? And even if it is fair, does it matter?

REILLY: No, it's not fair, and no, it doesn't matter. That's good television. "Fringe" has established a really dedicated audience, and "Lie to Me" is also very charming. Look across the board at 10 o'clock. Look at Thursday night, with the "Grey's Anatomy" lead-in and the "CSI" lead-in. Nobody forces anybody to watch a show even with a lead-in.

Fringe Comic #3 - The Escape / Run Away

I just received an email from DC Comics letting me know that Fringe Comic #3 was released yesterday. They also sent me an official preview of Fringe Comic #3, which you can download as a PDF here, or check out the pages below.

To get your own copy of Fringe #3, head out to your local comic shop.

Fringe # 3 (of 6)

Written by Mike Johnson, Alex Katsnelson, Matthew Pitts and Danielle DiSpaltro; Art by Tom Mandrake

The FOX television phenomenon Fringe continues in this special tie-in comic series from creators J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. Don't miss any of the clues as the mysteries of FRINGE unfold here!

Exclusive: Jared Harris Interview

Right before Ability aired, the wonderful Jared Harris (aka Mr. Jones) was kind enough to chat with me about his character and his experience on the show. Unfortunately, the audio file was too low-res to post, but here's the transcription:

Q. Mr. Jones has been portrayed as a villain so far, but is there any chance he's more of a misunderstood hero?

A. No. I think he's a villain who might be temporarily cooperating with the forces of righteousness, but he's only doing that to pursue his own agenda. He's an opportunist. Look at what he did to that poor guy in the suit! I think he's a sociopath. He doesn't really care. But I can't really tell you for sure, because I don't know where the story's going.

Q. That was my next question. Do the writers and producers give you background information for your character, or do you just get the script?

A. They give you some background, but they don't tell you where it's going, for precisely this reason. We're having a chat, and if I give something away that their whole season finale hinges on...

Q. We wouldn't want that to happen...

A. As far as background, they said he was in the world of espionage and bioterrorism, very dangerous, very bright. That he got himself into that German prison on purpose, because it was the safest place to be for the time being. I asked Jeff Pinkner about the character back when I started, about where I should try to take him.

Click here to read more...

Q. Are we going to see more of you after Ability?

A. I don't know! I'm in pretty bad shape.

Q. You personally? Or Mr. Jones?

A. Jones. He's in pretty bad shape, and I'm not sure where it's going. That episode opens some pretty interesting doors about the connection between [Mr. Jones] and Olivia, and about the Pattern. It's a really good episode. A page-turner of a script. I absolutely loved it when I read it.

Q. Jones certainly seems obsessed with Olivia.

A. Yeah, there were all those drawings a few episodes back. I mean, she's very good looking, but I think it's more than that with him. He needs her, he's trying to manipulate her into trusting him so that she'll do something for him. It's not answered in [Ability] but it's developed a little further.

Q. I sure hope you're coming back; Mr. Jones is my favorite character.

A. Is he? That's very sweet of you to say. My favorite character is the cow. I can't say enough about the cow. I love John Noble, I think he's brilliant, where he takes that character. The dynamic between him and Peter is fantastic. They make me chuckle a lot. And I'm a huge fan of Lance from The Wire. As an actor, he's just incredibly precise, utterly convincing.

Q. What's your experience been like on the set?

A. It's a really good atmosphere there. I mean, it's hard work. For one hour of dramatic television, you're basically shooting a movie every nine days. It's very ambitious. But the atmosphere is very good. There's good banter, a great sense of humor. It's an exciting show, and you can sense that from the attitude of the people involved. They all enjoy what they're doing. It's a great vibe. And of course everyone plays the game that we are right now, try to guess where things are going. The guy that runs Massive Dynamic, William Bell, he always comes up at lunchtime.

Q. Which scene was your favorite to film?

A. The opening scene in Ability definitely ranks up there among my favorites. I love that shot where I'm in the shadows, out of focus in the background, and then I suddenly pop up behind [Mr. Kohl]. That look of insanity in Jones' eyes. He's a nutcase!

Q. How much time is there between when you shoot an episode and when it airs.

A. Well this one (Ability), we finished about two weeks before it aired. That's a really fast turnaround. Normally there's about six weeks turnaround for post-production, but for some reason this one was unusually fast.

Q. As an actor, how do you approach this role on a television show differently from a role in a film, like Captain Mike in Benjamin Button?

A. With Captain Mike, I knew I had that part three or four months before I started shooting. The longer you have to work with a character, the more connections you can make with your own life, your own history. The characterization becomes more detailed and deeper, more intense. It's very hard on Fringe, when you don't know where the story's going. It's much more impressionistic. You go with your gut in the moment, but it's difficult. Some of the choices that you make are probably going to be contradicted later on, and that can be frustrating as an actor.

Q. Yeah, with a film you know the entire arc of the story, whereas with television you only get bits at a time.

A. But it's exciting too. The great thing about television is that it's so immediate. We shot it two weeks ago and now it's coming out. And people are so excited about Fringe, it's this immediate feedback. With Benjamin Button, I shot that two years before it came out. With Lady in the Water, I did an audition without reading the script and then went on my honeymoon. I was in the bush, on safari, with no telephones, and when I got back by agent said we'd made a deal. Then I finally read the script, and I was like "Oh. So that's what this is about." [Laughs]

Q. What's it like to sit in front of the television and watch yourself?

A. It's great fun. When you watch yourself in anything, it's quite a laugh. You can't really concentrate on the story! You remember everything about the day you shot it, the shots and the lines they cut out. You've got an emotional memory of that day. It takes a long time for that to drop away, to just see the character. It takes a couple years to just see it for what it was.

Q. I imagine it's the same for a writer or director, to get that personal experience out of the way.

A. I don't know how directors do it, because they have watch the movie or the episode two or three hundred times. I don't know how they keep the audience's anticipations in their head, how they shape that experience, since they can't trust their own gut reactions anymore. It's amazing how they do that.

Q. Do you have any advice for budding actors out there looking to be as successful as you've been these last few years?

A. It's a tough job. You have to develop a really skin. You're going to get knocked down a lot, but you've got to dust yourself off and get back off. The one thing that keeps you going is your passion. You've got to keep in touch with that part of yourself. Acting itself is the fun part. I love auditioning for that reason. Any day you actually get to do a bit of acting is a good day.

Fringe: Top 10 Things Entertainment Weekly Loves

Fringe made Entertainment Weekly's "Must List", which is "The Top 10 Things We Love This Week". Considering the fact that the show hasn't been on the air for the last three weeks, and won't be back on until April, I'd say making the list this week is quite an honor!

[scan: Fox Fringe Blog]

Fringe Moving to Canada For Season 2

It's official - Warner Bros will be moving the Season 2 production of Fringe to Vancouver, Canada. The preemptive move was prompted by the possible lack of tax credits in NY, where Fringe is currently filmed.

Employees of the show had hoped Warner Brothers would at least wait to see if the tax credits were renewed. “We’re all fighting for our livelihood and nobody understands the rational,” said Beth Kushnick, set decorator on the show. “Why is there collateral damage when they don’t even have the word about the tax credit?”

The film industry is still fighting to get the program re-funded in NY's upcoming budget, expected to be announced April 1. Unfortunately it will be too late for the impatient WB, even though filming for Fringe season 1 is not due to wrap up until the end of April.

Also, it is important to note that FOX has not yet picked up the series for Season 2, and it is unclear if the move will affect the decision.

There's been no comment from Warner Bros yet as to the fallout of this decision, but as mentioned previously, it could mean hundreds of lost jobs.

* Thanks to Josh-Jackson.net for the Joshua Jackson photo

Fringe mentioned on Bones

Fringe got a little brotherly love from fellow Fox show Bones last night, when it was mentioned in the same breath as some other Sci-Fi classics: Star Wars, Star Trek, Buffy, Xena, and Akira.

Fringe Dwellers Podcast 19: Ability

Adele, Jason and Courtney listen to John Bailey's recap, talk about the many events of the Fringe episode Ability and come up with a truly bizarre Nina Sharp theory.

Listen now:


You can also subscribe to the Fringe Dwellers podcast on iTunes.

If you have a comment or question for The Fringe Dwellers, you can email them at fringedwellers@gmail.com. You can also leave a voicemail for them at (206) 333-0072, or reach them on Twitter as fringedwellers, or Facebook as Gene the Cow Worshippers

For more information, visit the Fringe Dwellers homepage.

Courtney comes courtesy of The Fringe Podcast, and Jason's podcasts can be found on iTunes - Film in Focus and The Shadowy Flight: A Knight Rider podcasts.

For more Fringe podcasts, visit the Fringe Podcast Network .

Fringe Episode Review: Ability

I didn't think Fringe could get any better than Bound, but Ability proved me wrong. Talk about a mythology download. Midway through the first season, we already know what the Pattern is, and the show's meta-narrative is being slowly revealed. In a word: fascinating.

But it wasn't just the script that worked; the score and the cinematography were both flawless. I'll go ahead and say it: Fringe is the best-looking show on television. And if it weren't for Lost, it would be the best-sounding one too.

"If I wanted to harm you, I would have...long ago."

My favorite character, the eerie Mr. Jones, revealed the reason for his infatuation with Olivia. He's been keeping tabs on her since the tender age of three, when she was exposed to the consciousness-altering drug Cortexiphan (by William Bell, no less). I think we've all suspected there's something special about Olivia, so kudos to the writers for giving us a tangible answer: she's got an unknown set of powerful mental abilities. Looking forward to seeing more of them!

Knowing what we do about Olivia, Jones and Loeb's actions start to make sense: they need Olivia's abilities. But as members of this cult-like organization, are they themselves capable of similar feats? Jones certainly seems like a powerful man. And his "that's-my-girl" pride in Olivia made me wonder if he might be her real father. I really hope we haven't seen the last of Mr. Jones (or Jared Harris). His improvised, MacGyver-esque gadgets are too cool.

"What was written will come to pass."

So it turns out the Pattern isn't completely unprecedented. It was prophesied. Predicted in an obscure, unpublished manifesto that argued against the unchecked progress of technology. And it looks like Walter may have written it himself.

The most telling clue? Jones' reaction to meeting Walter face-to-face. The man was in awe, like a disciple in the presence of his religion's inspiration. But does Walter even remember writing ZFT? Or perhaps the show is misdirecting us. We only know that the typewriter in Walter's lab was used to compose ZFT. But that also means that William Bell could've written it.

My guess? Walter. It sets him opposite from Bell, the tech-tycoon, and I like the symmetry implied.

"Only one world will survive."

Here's the real kicker. Fringe is rolling out the Multiverse Theory. The primary conflict involves a world similar to ours, "but whose history is slightly ahead of our own." When people from that world start visiting ours, bad things will happen. The technology involved must be pretty harmful. In the end, it's us versus them. This sounds like the "two sides" Mitchell Loeb was preaching about.

Could these visitors from a parallel universe be Observers? That's my best guess. I hate that we'll have to wait until April for more clues, but at least we've got plenty to chew on.

Stray Thoughts

• Best Line of the Night: "The man was clever enough to Star Trek himself out of a maximum-security German prison."
  
• Is it just me, or does Fringe have the coolest voices of any TV show? Between Jared Harris (Jones), Kirk Acevedo (Charlie), and Lance Reddick (Broyles), I could just listen to an episode and be entertained.
• I'm dying to see Creepy Cult Recruit Tests 2 through 10.
• How did Jones escape the hospital? Does using Walter's Dizray eventually transform you into something not-quite human? I gasped at the hole in the wall.

Adam Morgan is a writer for both the page and screen in Chicago, and blogs daily on writing, film, pop culture, and strange news at Mount Helicon.

Exclusive: Alternate Ending For Ability

FringeTelevision.com has an exclusive look at the final page of the script for the Fringe episode Ability. In the episode, Walter is silent after typing the "Y" in "Ability", but in the script, he poses the question "Why?" Either way, it's clear that the ZFT manuscript was typed on the same typewriter, but it is still unclear who actually typed it - Walter Bishop or his lab partner William Bell.

Want more? Head over to the Fringe Spoilers section for another exclusive - the title to Fringe Episode 117.