Fringe Nominated For VFX Emmy

The 2009 Primetime Emmy Award nominations were announced today, and Fringe has been nominated for Outstanding Special Visual Effects For A Series for the Pilot. So give a huge pat on the back to the following guys:

Kevin Blank, Visual Effects Supervisor
Jay Worth, Visual Effect Coordinator
Andrew Orloff, Visual Effects Supervisor
Johnathan Banta, 2D Lead Artist
Steve Graves, 3D Lead Artist
Jonathan Spencer Levy, Visual Effects Supervisor
Scott Dewis, 3D Artist
Steve Fong, Compositing Artist
Tom Turnbull, Visual Effects Supervisor

Also, look for our exclusive interview with Jay Worth (VFX Coordinator) and Chris Scollard (VFX Supervisor) next week.

When I congratulated Jay on the Emmy nom today, he said "Season 2 is looking amazing!"

Two more months...

More Fringe At Comic-Con 2009

In addition to the Saturday Fringe Screening at this year's Comic-Con, there is also an additional Fringe related panel on Thursday, titled "Mad Science: The Science Behind Science Fiction"

Mad Science: The Science Behind Science Fiction
Thursday, July 23rd, 6:00-7:00
Discover magazine and the National Academy of Sciences’ Science and Entertainment Exchange explore science as a double-edged sword—ethically and morally neutral in and of itself, but it depends on who wields it and how. Join moderator Phil Plait (Discover magazine contributing editor and blogger), Jaime Paglia (co-creator and executive producer of Eureka), Kevin Grazier (science consultant Eureka, Virtuality), Jane Espenson (executive producer Dollhouse, Battlestar Galactica, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) Rob Chiappetta & Glenn Whitman (staff writers, Fringe) and Ricardo Gil da Costa (neuroscientist and consultant on Fringe) for a lively and fun discussion on science used for good vs. evil. Followed by Q&A. Room 6DE

* Thanks to Hijinx for the heads up!

Observer Spotted At MLB All-Star Game

The Observer was spotted on July 14, 2009 at the MLB All-Star Game at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri. Where will he turn up next?

Fringe At Comic-Con 2009

The good folks over at SlashFilm just announced Fringe's slate at this month's infamous San Diego Comic-Con (which should really be renamed Media-Con in this day and age).

The Fringe Screening and Q&A will take place on Saturday, July 25th, featuring Anna Torv, Josh Jackson, and John Noble from the cast, along with writer/producers Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinkner, and J.H. Wyman.

Fans will be treated to a "special video presentation" (the season 2 premiere?), along with a question-and-answer session.

If you're planning on attending the Fringe panel at this year's Comic-Con, please let us know! You can email me at adam (at) fringetelevision.com.

Happy Birthday, JJ Abrams!

The King of All Media turns 43 today, so let's all take a moment and reflect on how little we'll have accomplished in comparison by the time we're that age (or alternatively, how little we had when we did). Here's to at least another four or five decades of stellar entertainment from the mind of JJ Abrams!

UPDATE: Here's JJ at the MTV Movie Awards:

Fringe Starts Shooting Season 2 Today

After not-much-of-a-hiatus for the cast (and a virtually nonexistant one for the writers), Fringe starts shooting its highly-anticipated second season in "Hollywood North" (Vancouver) today, June 24th.

Since production moved across the continent from New York over the summer, much of the on-location crew will be new this season. To welcome all the new blood (no pun intended), JJ Abrams himself sent out the following letter, which we received from our inside source.

Directors Named For Season 2's First Six Eps

Our exclusive source on Fringe just named the upcoming directors for episodes 2.01 through 2.06, including some very high-profile names.

2.01 - Akiva Goldsman
Best-known as the Academy Award-winning screenwriter for A Beautiful Mind, Goldsman's other writing credits include The Da Vinci Code and I Am Legend. On Fringe, he wrote and directed Bad Dreams, as well as contributing to the scripts for The Road Not Taken and There's More Than One of Everything.

2.02 - Brad Anderson

Anderson found industry acclaim in 2004 with The Machinist, starring an emaciated Christian Bale; he directed four episodes of Fringe last season.

2.03 - Bryan Spicer

Spicer's directed eps on all four major networks, including Castle, Bones, 24, CSI, House, Dark Angel, and The X-Files.

2.04 - Joe Chappelle

Chapelle was a longstanding director and producer on The Wire and CSI: Miami.

2.05 - Paul A. Edwards

A Lost vet who directed two Fringe eps last season, along with gigs on Pushing Daisies and Battlestar Galactica.

2.06 - Jon Cassar

Cassar's directed and produced over fifty episodes of 24, as well as fourteen eps of the cult classic La Femme Nikita.

And don't forget, shooting for Season 2 of Fringe starts this Wednesday, June 24 in Vancouver.

Happy Birthday Josh!

Everyone's favorite bad boy Joshua Jackson turns 31 today, though I'm sure the man could pass for 25 if he ever needed to, and that's a compliment. Josh might be the happiest Fringy of all regarding the move to Vancouver on June 24th, since it's where he was born and went to high school.

Happy Birthday Josh!

Did you know...Josh was on the shortlist to play Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins?

What Would You Ask: the Visual FX Guys?

The first season of Fringe set a new benchmark for visual effects on television. Some of my personal favorites include Porcuman, Rufus II, and the razor-winged butterflies in The Dreamscape. Most feature films don't have effects as good as Fringe!

In celebration of their hard work, FringeTelevision will be doing an exclusive interview with a couple members of the Fringe visual effects team. So give me some great questions!

Fringe Blu-ray & DVD release date - Sept 8

The release date for the Fringe Season 1 Blu-Ray and Fringe Season 1 DVD sets have been set to September 8th, a mere nine days before the start of Fringe Season 2.

According to DVDActive.com, both versions will feature "lenticular" covers, that will switch between the two versions shown below.

From the Warner Bros press release:

Featuring a collectible lenticular slipcase, and packed with nearly 6 hours of special features, including featurettes, production diaries, producer and writer commentaries, deleted scenes, gag reel, Blu-Ray exclusive content and much more, this is one release that fans definitely won't want to miss this fall.

DVD Special Features Include:

• Evolution: The Genesis of Fringe featurette - The creators of the show discuss how the series unfolded and the qualities that make it so unique
• Behind the Real Science of Fringe featurette - From teleportation to re-animation, Fringe incorporates recent discoveries in science. Consulting experts and scientists who are the authorities in their field address the areas of science which are the inspiration for the show.
• A Massive Undertaking: The Making of Fringe (on select episodes) - An in-depth exploration of how select episodes came to be made: from the frozen far reaches of shooting the pilot in Toronto, to the weekly challenges of bringing episodes to air
• The Casting of Fringe - The story, as told by producers and cast, of how Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, John Noble and others came to be cast in the series.
• Fringe Visual Effects featurette - Goes deep into the creation of the shared dream state with some of the biggest VFX shots of the show.
• Dissected Files: Unaired Scenes
• Unusual Side Effects: Gag Reel
• Deciphering the Scene
• Roberto Orci Production Diary
• Gene the Cow montage
• Three Full-Length Commentaries from writers/producers, including J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtman, J.R. Orci, David Goodman, Bryan Burk, Akiva Goldsman and Jeff Pinkner
  

Additional Blu-Ray Bonus Features:

• Fringe Pattern Analysis - Take a closer look at 6 select scenes from Season 1 with experts who dissect each scene with notes, photos, and diagrams.
• BD-Live enabled features include Media Center, My Commentary, and commentary on Season 1 finale episode.

Fringe Charity Auction

Clothes Off Our Back and Water Partners International are holding a "Gift Bags for Good" online charity auction. There are dozens of TV and celebrity auctions, including this "Fringe" Launch Event Drawstring Backpack gift bag.

The gift bag includes various Fringe promotional items including: a SONY IC Voice Recorder (with a prerecorded message from Bryoles), a "Fringe" lenticular notepad, two "Fringe" t-shirts size XL and the "Fringe" preview comic book!

The auction starts at $75, and runs until June 3rd.

For other auctions, check out the Gift Bags for Good Annual Online Auction site.

Fringe Comic #5 - It Runs In The Family / Hard Copy

The new Fringe #5 comic book will be available tomorrow. It contains two Fringe stories as usual: A "Bell and Bishop" story titled "It Runs In The Family", and a stand alone "From The Fringe" story titled "Hard Copy".

To get your own copy of Fringe #5, head out to your local comic shop.

The final issue - Fringe #6 - comes out June 24, 2009

Here is a sneak peak at the "It Runs In The Family":