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Wanted : Lost: Via Domus Gamers

At the end of February, Lost: Via Domus the new video game will be released around the world. The games release will see hundreds of thousands of curious Lost fans, and thousands of Lostpedians playing the game for new information, to get the chance to explore the locations from the show, or simply to play it as a game.

Lostpedia is hoping to build a game guide/FAQ to go with the game, and is looking for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC gamers to help building the game guide. We'll need people finding puzzle results, finding clues and things that tie into the shows mythology and document it for everyone, like we have for the Lost ARGs and books.

We've just opened a sub-forum for the game on the Lostpedia Forums. Join us there and take part in votes and discussions about the game until it launches, so get ready, cause the game is nearly here!

P.S: Do you have screenshot or video taking capabilities for the different platforms? If so we'd love to have you recording answers for puzzles and clues and upload them to YouTube!

Additional Post-Economist Content

4x03 "The Economist" was yet another fabulous episode, and now just for you, we've found more fabulous extra content directly related to this episode.

The first is from DocArzt, who had obtained a pre-release version of this episode. Being a trusted and upright member in good standing of the fan community, he didn't spoil or leak any details beforehand, but now that the episode has broadcast, he noted a few differences in the earlier version and the final cut. One of these differences was a deleted scene as Miles, Kate, and Sayid come upon the Sonar Fence on their way to the Barracks. What happens there is surprising, to say the least. Read all the details at DocArzt's personal blog here.

The second is the third Official Lost Podcast for this season from ABC. It features Naveen and Michael E. talking about The Economist. Listen to it at ABC's Lost podcast page here, or use the direct m4v link for iTunes here.

Enjoy!

Lostpedia launches in three new languages

Lostpedia is pleased to announce the launch of three translations of our popular wiki. Chinese, Japanese, and Russian are now online. We have a lot of work to do, so any translation assistance is greatly appreciated!

UPDATE: We've had some questions about how to contribute, so I'll paste the following from the comments thread:
Basically you need to register with a new user account on your language Lostpedia, for example ru.lostpedia.com or zh.lostpedia.com or ja.lostpedia.com.

Then using your normal wiki editing process, create new articles or edit existing ones. If you wish to translate the English language ones directly, you may look at the parallel article in en.lostpedia.com.

Note also that any images must be re-uploaded to the new language Lostpedia. If you wish to use the one in the English Lostpedia, download the image to your computer from the English version, then re-upload it to the other language version.

Carlton: Five more episodes

The WGA strike is officially over. The 48 hour formal vote ended today with a 92.5% mandate. See industry source Daily Variety for full details.

In immediate fallout, Lost executive producer Carlton Cuse met with his bosses at ABC about continuing Season 4, and reported the results of that meeting with TV Guide's Ausiello in an exclusive interview.

The two main points from that interview:
1) The aim is to produce FIVE more episodes of Season 4. This is three fewer than the eight scheduled before the strike occurred; the season's total will be 13 eps.
2) The entire order of 48 episodes for Seasons 4-5-6 will still be delivered-- that leaves 35 episodes to be split between Seasons 5-6.

In other words:
Season 4 is to be re-written to end with the same storyline elements as previously written, but in only 5 episodes. The three "lost" Lost episodes will somehow fill in the story arc of the remaining last two seasons.

Another lesser point is that there will be at least a 4 week hiatus between the broadcast of 4x08 and the new 4x09. Note that this may push the final episode of the season beyond the end of the Nielsen May sweeps period, so we may have been lucky to get even five eps. Read the rest of this fascinating interview here.

Rebecca Mader Interview

Just as the strike was winding down, Jon Lachonis of UGO interviewed new Lost actress Rebecca Mader (who plays Charlotte the freighter's archaeologist).

Lachonis also reveals he made a visit to the secret set of Lost during his visit to Hawaii last October: "In one day, I'd be on the set of Lost learning the nature of these new characters... At the last moment, ABC decided whatever they were filming that day was too secret for me to see, and my itinerary shifted a few days."

I'm dying to hear more about that set visit! However for now, we'll have to settle for this interview with a new cast member who is still a relative unknown among the fan community.

Here's an excerpt:

UGO: That's the first question I suppose. I'd read you were really enthusiastic for this part, how was it personally to have this strike come up and cut it short?

REBECCA: Oh, I was gutted. I was having such a good time. I had been out there for a few months so I had gotten to spend some time out there and have a great time. I was really, really disappointed. I never really thought it would last this long I was really optimistic, I really thought it would be three weeks or something I didn't think it was going to be three months y'know.

UGO: Do you follow the fan scene at all? The new characters are well received.

REBECCA: Oh yeah? I didn't know that...

Read more here.

Damon comments on strike result

Good ol DocArzt dropped us a friendly line that Kristin Dos Santos of E! Online had a column interviewing scads of showrunners and similar ilk in the wake of the (almost) end of the WGA strike.

Here's the quote she received from Lost's Damon Lindelof:

"Indeed, it would appear that we are in the endgame of the strike. Personally, I couldn't be more psyched to be part of this union. Like any negotiation, some parts suck and some parts surpassed my wildest expectations for what we could accomplish, but most of all I'm left with a feeling of pride.


"As for Lost (pending the actual lifting of the strike, which we vote for on Tuesday), a game plan should begin to manifest by the end of the week. All I can say is that Carlton and I and the rest of the writers have every intention of making sure you guys get more episodes this season beyond the eight already completed. How many and how they will be aired is a conversation we'll be having with our bosses, but as soon as we've got a plan, we'll tell the fans first."

Read her article here for some additional information about Lost

WGA: Carlton back to work on Monday

WGA show-runners will report back to work Monday, according to Patric Verrone, WGA West chief, at a special press conference held today at WGA West headquarters in LA. (link) This action is in advance of a 48-hour special membership vote to be conducted Monday and Tuesday to end the strike action. That vote is itself in advance of a 10-hour membership vote to ratify the new writers contract.

But the bottom line for Lost fans, WGA negotiating board member and Lost show-runner Carlton Cuse will likely be among the show-runners returning to work tomorrow. So we'll await word from ABC's building 23 at the Disney lot tomorrow, as we assume he'll begin work reassembling the film crew and cast in Hawaii, and the post-production and writing teams in Los Angeles.

WGA Leaders to Members: Strike Must End Now

"We believe that continuing to strike now will not bring sufficient gains to outweigh the potential risks and that the time has come to accept this contract and settle the strike," wrote WGA West chief Paul Verrone and WGA East chief Michael Winship.

With such words the leadership of the WGA have mass-emailed their members, as we predicted, in advance of the general membership meeting later today discuss the terms of the new draft contract.

This draft contract came about through informal talks of the chiefs with Disney's Bob Iger and News Corp's Peter Chernin, as we reported last week.

The e-mail is undoubtedly intended to quell opposition from within their own ranks, such as from a minority of the 300 strike captains who were shown the deal yesterday, as well as outspoken hardliner and WGA board member Phil Alden Robinson, who are uncomfortable in particular about the roughly 2-3 week window for Internet streaming without compensation to scribes-- this point may be a deal-breaker to some members because conventional wisdom is that the bulk of streaming revenue comes within 24 hours of the initial broadcast. However some terms of the deal are better than the DGA's draft deal: In the 3rd year of the contract, compensation (aka "residuals") of 2% of the streaming revenue.

Despite such possible discontent, industry rumors overwhelmingly seem to indicate that the contract will overall be a quick and easy sell to a strike-weary membership. The strike captains have the authority to end the strike at any point, so this may well happen in advance of the formal full-membership vote by mail. We'll keep you in touch as we hear more news about ABC possibly reassembling the Lost film crew and cast over in Hawaii.

SAT NIGHT UPDATE: Both East and West coast meetings apparently went well. (e.g. see here for a blow-by-blow which includes the WGA email.) There will be a special 48 hour vote to end the strike. Then there will be a "quick" 10 day voting process for the membership to OK the contract, although a "back to work" order might well be issued during that time pending the eventual result, as early as this Wednesday. Read more details at Digitalmedialaw blog and over at Daily Variety. The bottom line? There will almost certainly be more episodes of Lost Season 4. We think about 4-6 episodes more, depending on ABC extending the viewing season.
SUN MORNING UPDATE: A press conference is scheduled at WGA West at noon. (link)

DocArzt blog: Lost set video

Popular Lost blogger DocArzt has posted a fascinating video "behind the scenes" from the set of 4x01 (link), from a set of ABC Medianet promotional material that most more mainstream news outlets don't really use-- most simply use the stills to illustrate articles. He's been showing us the promotional stills too, for example here are the stills for last night's episode 4x02 Confirmed Dead. Yes, these have mostly been available on Lost-media.com, but it's good to have another source.

And by the way, in case you have missed them, the Official Lost video podcasts are back, two new ones for Season 4 so far, both narrated by Kris White rather than Carlton and Damon. The most recent one features Lost costume designer Roland Sanchez and the mysterious Lulu the dog. Check them out at ABC's Lost podcast page.

Michael Eisner speaks on strike

Former Disney CEO (and current CNBC host) Michael Eisner opined today that the WGA strike was essentially over (link), meaning that the remaining steps to ending the strike were a mere formality. He said: "It's over. They made the deal, they shook hands on the deal. It's going, on Saturday, to the writers. A deal has been made. They'll be back to work very soon... I know it's over."

To clarify, the strike isn't over until it's over. This means the scheduled Saturday general membership meeting for WGA East and WGA West will still happen-- this will be a townhall-style event to explain the draft contract to the members in order to gauge their opinion during a live meeting. The vote won't occur then-- if all goes well on Saturday, all of the members then will then need to formally vote. I'm not sure how it works, but I'm guessing it will be a relatively time-consuming process conducted through the postal mail.

So what Eisner is saying is that in his opinion, the WGA negotiators are very happy with the terms of the draft deal, and that by extension, the membership are almost certain take the deal with open arms. Eisner is likely to have some inside word on the deal, but the entire world will have a better idea if he was right after the WGA's live meetings Saturday. If these go well, the WGA leadership is likely to email all of their members encouraging them to vote for the deal when ballots come in the mail, a recommendation that will carry much weight. Therefore Saturday's result, if positive, will be interpreted as a de facto done-deal.

Then, the studios might begin re-assembling their various film crews in anticipation of the formal vote result. Yesterday, EW noted that this process might take until early March (link), and in the cases of many series will force story arc rewrites to accommodate a shorter season. An Ugly Betty writer commented, "We would definitely need to change storylines... I know where we're going to end up, but there's going to have to be some major readjustment to get there."

The same may be very well true for Lost, and as we commented last weekend (link), the number of recovered episodes will also depend on whether ABC extends the television season-- something almost unheard of, but possible in a season marred by a strike. We can predict the fan outcry over anything less than the full 8 remaining episodes, but that eventuality appears to be almost certainly unlikely.

And to play doomsayer, don't count on the Season 5 just yet, because the WGA deal may not be good enough for the actor's union SAG, which may have loftier goals for New Media residuals than the WGA. And SAG, unlike the writers, could immediately halt Hollywood on the first day of any strike after this coming June. See Daily Variety's article for more on this.

PC World's Game On interviews Lost:Via Domus producer

The "Game On" blog at PC World has today published an interview with Gadi Pollack, the producer of the upcoming Lost video game "Lost: Via Domus" for XBox 360, PS3, and PC. The interview likely signals a promotional push before it is released at the end of this month.

Pollack answers question such as whether Lost fans as well as the uninitiated may enjoy the gameplay, and the degree of involvement of Lost's Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof in the development of the game's visuals, gameplay, and storyline.

When asked about the canonicity of the storyline, he replied, "Their main goal for the game was not to answer any questions related to the show but really give everyone the experience of being in the show and on that Island. It would have been unfair for someone to be forced to buy the game in order to find out answers to the show."

To read more, go to Matt Peckham's "Game On" blog at PC World here. If you haven't seen it, make sure you also see Gamespot's video interview of Pollack on YouTube here.

And by the way, let me go on record saying in the next week before the game release, my money's on an official Lost podcast featuring the game.

Lost Podcast back home

If you aren't an ardent follower of various Lost blogs, you probably didn't know there was a new official podcast following the Season 4 premiere. A day after the broadcast on Feb 1, a new video podcast featuring ABC podcast producer Kris White appeared in ABC.com's general video section, but not the ABC Lost podcast page.

The oversight has apparently been remedied, and now it's listed a few days later as the "February 04, 2008" video podcast. Damon and Carlton do not appear, possibly due to the WGA strike. What are your theories for the delay? Simple chaos at the ABC web desk?

At any rate the new video podcast is entertaining. We get to see an underwater stunt for the filming of 4x01, and executive producer Jean Higgins is seen supervising in full-on SCUBA gear. Thanks Kris!

The World's Most Popular Lost Fansite

NetWise, the Australian based internet monitor declared Lostpedia the most visited Lost fan site in the world last week, after its analysis showed a 175% increase in traffic to all Lost fan sites and forums following the Season 4 premiere, significantly higher than the 88% spike encountered for the Season 3 premiere. (link) We're delighted, thank you everybody for visiting and contributing!

Season IV: A New Hope

Red Five standing by... or make it the Oceanic Six. Widespread industry rumors have it that the writer's guild may be on the verge of a breakthrough settlement to end their strike, possibly in time to save part of the remaining unfilmed half of Lost Season 4.

If you've really been under a rock, we noted back in October that the writers were about to go on strike, halting the production of scripted Hollywood TV, including halting the filming of Lost Season 4 after episode 8 of a planned 16, a strike that has now lasted three months. And 2 weeks ago we commented on the tentative agreement the director's guild made with the producers about 2 weeks ago here. The progress the directors made put the negotiators for the writers under the gun to make similar progress.

This pressure led to two big guns from the writers (John Bowman, head of the negotiating committee, and the WGA West head honcho David Young) informally meeting with two big producers (News Corp's Peter Chernin and Bob Iger, CEO of Disney which owns ABC and by extension Lost). There was a media blackout that started to break today, with good news.

The Hollywood Reporter reported that these informal conversations resulted in monumental breakthroughs that could result in official negotiations to finalize a settlement soon, perhaps in the next week. The sticking points had to do with payment for rebroadcasts in "new media" such as Internet streams and downloads.

If this actually results in the WGA authorizing filmings to resume, it may mean the salvage of part of episodes 9-16 of Lost if the cast and crew can be reassembled hastily over in Hawaii. Probably all eight episodes cannot be saved at this late date, but that's speculation upon speculation for now, and also dependent on whether ABC extends its general television season this year-- if it doesn't, there might be as few as 4 new episodes. Any shortening of Season 4's planned arc of 16 episodes provides ample speculative ground for how the storyline arc might be re-written with respect to any planned season finale, as well as the segue into the 32 previously-planned episodes of the final two seasons 5-6. So sit tight and follow the entertainment news closely because it just might mean a second installment of several more episodes of Season 4 for Lost fans.

MON FEB 4 NEWS:
See also DocArzt's blog for the debunking of a recent rumor that Lost has already resumed filming. However the facts suggest that some of Lost's laid-off crew and equipment may be tied up in another production for all of February.

UDPATE TUES FEB 5: See Daily Variety for current status. They report a draft contract might be submitted to the WGA leadership as early as Friday. They also report here that the West branch of WGA has scheduled a general membership meeting this Saturday, presumably to gauge the likelihood of the general ratification of any draft deal--this scheduled meeting is one of the most direct evidence so far that the strike is in a possible endgame. Addition: The WGA East has also scheduled a meeting the same day.

Lost: Ratings comeback kid

ABC's enormous investment of three hours of prep for the Season 4 premiere has paid off with a bonanza 16.1 million viewers. Devoting four hours of primetime to one show was in some sense a big risk: 2 hours of a caption-packed enhanced-version rerun of the previous season's finale on Wednesday, and an hour of a recap clip show before the premiere. But in the barren strike-crippled scheduling landscape, it was a smart move.

I had read with some worry Lisa de Moraes' gloom-and-doom prediction in The Washington Post that the Lost premiere would underperform. She noted that conventional wisdom anticipated that original programming, such as the new episode of House in November, and of course American Idol would do very well due to lack of competition in strikeland, then points out that both have turned out to be ratings disappointments.

She further predicted that Lost's Season 4 premiere would perform well below its most recent ratings last May at 14 million viewers, that in itself being a big dip from Lost's all time peak of 20 million.

Luckily her prediction was wrong. The 16.1 million figure from last night (albeit below the S3 premiere viewership of 18.8 million) was an extraordinary affirmation of ABC's strategy: 3 hours of recaps to encourage new or casual viewers, and the Grey's Anatomy timeslot, which further comes with the bonus of not competing with the Idol machine. Also, did you notice the "It's never to late to start watching Lost" tagline? Obviously one prong of ABC's strategy is to garner new viewers, and with Lost's complex storyline, these efforts are necessary, and apparently have been effective. The road to joining as a new viewer is even better lubricated when we add the fact that today's new Lost viewers have New Media options at the ABC.com website: they can view streaming full episodes in HD going back to Season 1. In fact, underlining this importance is that for the first time, viewers can watch streaming downloads of both "catch-ups" programs: The most recent clip show as well as the enhanced version of 3x22. Adding the Oceanic TV ad to Eli Stone (which immediately followed Lost), and retaining 11.6 million viewers, was the icing on the cake.

Good job, ABC, and good job Stephen McPherson. And for fans, Lost's current role as a major anchor for the network bodes very well indeed for the future of the franchise. Now let's hope for a speedy resolution of the WGA strike (we might hear something next week), so that at least some of the rest of Season 4's planned episodes may yet be recovered.

UDPATE FEB 5: See how Lost fared against the Superbowl and other fare during the entire week's ratings at Zap2it: Week Jan 28 - Feb 03 2008

Find 815 and the Oceanic Advert

For those of you who haven't been following the alternate reality game "Find 815" these past few weeks, here's the 2-video catch-up.

Remember how in Season 3 Naomi said the wreckage of Flight 815 had been found at the bottom of an ocean trench? Yes, it doesn't make sense at all. The "Find 815" game's end-video echoes Naomi's comment. Of course we don't know yet if the content in this video will be completely canonical or officially in line with the episodes to come, but if you're extra sensitive about spoilers you can decide yourself if you wish to view it.



And next, here's the Oceanic Air "golden pass" television ad that aired after Lost (during Eli Stone). You should recognize the interloper from the previous video, Sam Thomas, the protagonist of the alternate reality game.



Finally, if you want a more in-depth view of the "Find 815" video storyline, the chapters have been compiled on youtube:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4