Season IV: A New Hope
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.
30 comments:
Please don't get my hopes up for nothing! This is great news, but I hope it's true.
Also, my opinion: I just want the creators of LOST to end Season 4 the way it SHOULD end. I don't want them to add new episodes just to please ABC and the fans... I want them to stick to whatever plans they had. Maybe they can still do the other 8 and go into June. If not, well... I would rather wait for 8 episodes after a great finale than have to wait for, maybe, 3 episodes after a crappy finale.
Yeh i second that. Don't rush it please, we want your standard epic storytelling! xxx
Yes, I second that. Please don't rush the rest of the episodes though, we want more of your standard, epic storytelling
xx
For a great discussion about these issues (including these rumours) go to unitedhollywood.com
I completely agree, however since when did any lost writer rush any type of literature. I think going into June is a good idea and i think that it will be beneficial for the season. Comin back for a 8 episode season after a 9 month season, then go another one in march to feb 08 would be devestating to lost fans. 16 million fans for the season 4 premiere is excellent, but it is nowhere what it should be, the show is amazing and the strike shows signs of promise.
I concur with all those say that finishing the season should not be rushed. Also, since they have made clear that they had the season well planned out and it had a clear trajectory designed to last 16 episodes, that they don't truncate the season in order to keep rolling with new episodes. If they could give us all 8 episodes in the spring, great, but I would hate for them to give us 5 or 6, feel the need to wrap things up, and shorten the season. I think the best thing to hope for might be that they end in March for now, come back in September with the remaining 8 episodes of the season, and then get back on the regular schedule for next February. Since they could get some of those episodes finished before the summer anyway, I would think that would be possible with production schedules, give us less of a wait for new material, avoid compromising the show's storytelling, and overall make the best of a bad situation.
Great article. Love the title :)
Let's just keep our hopes up for a full fourth season. My understanding is there is still time... :)
I imagine the scripts are written, it's just a matter of filming, so airing the episodes at this point that would probably run into the summer, but so what? Is it really that big a deal to run the season into the summer? Or there's the other idea about trotting the 8 out there in the fall and then crank up season 5 in 2009. That might push back the release of the DVD set, but again, so what? What fans of LOST want is a complete season as originally designed, not some rushed production.
Anon above said "I imagine the scripts are written, it's just a matter of filming"
wasn't that the whole point of not filming? There were 8 episodes written by the time the strike came about, only the writers were on strike, not the whole production team, they filmed the 8 episodes, not sure how many were filmed before strike or how many after but the whole point of only having 8 episodes to air is because there are no more scripts written, just to clarify that for you :D
let's hope the strike ends soon, for not only the writers but indeed the whole industry
Regardless of whether or not this is false hope, as both a Lost and Star Wars fan, I must say I found this title of this article cute and creative.
I think if the season was set to have 16 episodes then it should have 16 episode. I'm already upset that they haven't already been forced to change things in the series in order to fit this shortened Season 4 into the rest of the series.
"I imagine the scripts are written"
wrong. It is a "writer's strike". If they had already been written we wouldnt be having this discussion.
great news!!!
but i want all the 16 episodes this year i dnt wanna wait 4 the remaining 8 eight episodes in feb 2009!
hope they film all remaining episodes of season 4 even it means going into the summer. if not, fans may jump ship.
I totally agree with the peeps who said not to rush it, that would be the worst thing in the world to do, they need to take however long they need to take, to make each new episode as good as they can be.
I just want to make sure we're going to get all 16 eps we were promised for season 4... i don't care if i have to wait, i just want all the story to be told, as they have it planned out!
"I imagine the scripts are written"
This could very well be the case. By the time the writer's strike came, filming was nearly complete on the eight episodes. However, WGA considers editing and certain forms of post production to be a form of "writing." In all actuality, the scripts may be written but Damon and Carlton don't want to film them if they can't be involved in the post-production aspects.
I hope that they do end up finishing season 4, and that they don't just rush the last 8 episodes. But let's say that they don't? Would that mean that there would be a longer season 5?
Here's what I'd love to see ... I want the episode breakdown to remain intact. I don't what the back 8 to be divvied up so the last two seasons go from 16 each to 20 each.
Film the last eight and run them in sequence in the summer or even in the fall. That way, they can be grouped with the first eight and released on DVD together around Christmas like Season 3. Plus, it achieves what they were going for with the Season 3 "miniseries" (but failed).
Then, you trot out Season 5 as it was originally conceived on schedule in Jan./Feb. 2009. Perfect.
As for the scripts ... I believe that "officially" they haven't been written. But with the writers out of work, it's naive to think that work hasn't been done "off the record and off the books" on some scripts. Word is that once the 48-episodes-over-three-seasons deal with ABC was announced, Cuse and Lindelof meticulously mapped out all the arcs and reveals to make sure every question gets answered in timely fashion so nothing crammed in or, more importantly, forgotten and left behind.
I have the utmost faith in these guys.
Well if season 4 does get messed up, they better fix the remaining seasons. I think it's crap that they've reduced the seasons down to 16 episodes anyway. That really put me off.
The end of episode 8 may be a good twist but it isn't season finale worthy. It would be a great episode but it wouldn't stand out in the history of finales. I am praying they have time for at least 1 more episode so they can do a proper season finale.
To anyone who said the possibility of the scripts being written is "wrong": as another poster said, they very well could be, but are being withheld until after the strike to avoid any union action against the writers. We'll probably just have to wait and see what they end up doing filming-wise; we as fans know we'd watch the episodes no matter what time of year they came out, and ABC probably knows that too. They won't give up (or unnecessarily postpone) a potentially huge money-maker.
They should just let me come throw a few scripts together and keep the ball rolling.
Actually I hope they hurry up and finish this season, and the next three seasons and have them all out on dvd by say, oh around summertime, so I can just sit around and watch episode after episode until the end. Sorry, I guess I'm just not patient. :)
So does anyone know an official make or break date for Lost? The date where a strike would have to be resolved in order for Season 4 to be completed as planned?
Also, I wouldn't be opposed to an 8-episode fall season. Yea, it'd be an appetizer, but it would keep us from having to wait another 8 months for new episodes.
PLEASE sort out the settlement! I don't care if it's four episodes or eight. I'm sure it will be good either way. Just don't change your plans too much!
Let's have all 16 or none at all, please. It's bad enough that the first half is broadcast with no guarantee of the final half being aired. Now we are being told we might... just possibly... get another 4 eposides... if we're lucky??? This is beyond a joke!!! Look, just film the entire 16 episodes and broadcast them when done. PLEASE. You are ruining the best tv show ever created.
There's no way that all 16 scripts were completely written. If they were done there's no question they would have kept filming. But NO shows had that many scripts ready that far in advance, it just doesn't happen in TV. I believe in interviews Carlton and Damon said there were a couple scripts after that that were mostly written but needed work.
As for spring versus summer, they probably won't air episodes much into the summer because most people don't watch as much TV. Advertisers want maximum viewers, so ABC wouldn't waste episodes at the weakest time of year.
We'll get all 16 episodes, it's just a question of when, and whether they'll still call the next 8 season 4 or consider them part of season 5.
I think we're well past a make or break date for getting all 16, that's the case for every show on TV. We're rapidly approaching the point where it's too late for shows to make ANY new episodes, much less finish the full seasons of 22-24 episodes. Some shows have already pulled the plug until next fall because they'd only have time to get 4 or so episodes done.
I'd like to think that the writers of Lost are the kind of creative types that won't just stop writing because of contractual disputes. It seemed that the story arc was such that it was already well planned out. The writers strike is surely about stopping production, not the writing itself. If there is a situation where the writers have just tried to stop the "creative juices" then it's not something that can't be condoned.
I'm sure all of us are totally behind the reasons they are striking, but if this starts to ruin TV and film, then they're going to find themselves out of work come the resolution of these problems. I can't believe they would be so short sighted. If they're "only as good as their last work", then this would be a low to go out on. Common sense says that it must be along the lines of some of the earlier posters' comments about filming later for a 2-part season 4 release. Otherwise; Lost is finished now. Just another cute idea that can't deliver a satisfying ending. How Hollywood of them.
No! Not from these writers. They've shown themselves to be better than that so far. They surely can't let themselves down like that. Can they??
*sigh*
Lost is not "finished" or in any sort of danger. The remaining 40 episodes are going to be made - no matter what. This is according to Gregg Nations.
It's possible some shows may get an extended broadcast season, moving on into June or July, but that's just early speculation from those in the industry and we won't know for sure until the strike is "officially" over. So it's possible we still may see those last 8 episodes yet this season. If not, it would make logical sense to air them in the fall, when the beginning of a season normally ends. I doubt we would have to wait longer than that.
Unofficially the strike is over, according to a few people I have contacts with. It's done. One is even returning to work on Monday. It's over. When does Lost go back to filming? Who knows, it could be as late as March since most of their equipment and crew are being used in a... ugh... Lifetime movie. And I type that with as much hatred as possible.
One thing is for sure though: Lost is in no way in any sort of danger of not being completed.
Regarding whether the scripts are written or not I think it is pretty clear that the season outline is written, and the important events of each episode in the series are written. Outlines may even be written. But actual scripts with all the dialogue and details have not been completed yet. But with three months to just thinka bout it in their heads, I'm sure the writers will hammer them out fast. It's just a matter of the time it take to produce them.
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