Watching Heroes

It seems our "speedy" new villain will not be named Joy at all but instead will be called Daphne. Daphne, played by Brea Grant, will be a villain who is described as "Hiro’s nemesis." In an interview with the Associated Press, Grant describes her character as The Joker to Hiro’s Batman. Grant explains, "I’m stealing a secret that’s been kept in Hiro’s family for a long time that he’s just now found." It sounds like she’ll be playing a big part in Hiro’s storyline in the upcoming season. The photo at right is from the AP article. An additional photo can be found at the source.

If you’re looking for more Season 3 scoop, make sure you check out this TV Guide interview with Jack Coleman. Jack gives us some scoop on what we can expect from his character as well as with Claire, Hiro and Mohinder. As with anything Season 3-related, the interview is slightly spoilery. I’m just warning you…

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Do you ever get so far behind that when you finally have the time to try and catch up, you don’t know where to start? Well that’s how I feel about this blog. I have been so busy the last couple of weeks and I finally have time to update you with some Heroes news but I have no idea what to write. So if this post seems all over the place, you’ll know why.

Let’s see…Spoiler TV posted a casting call for the Season 3 premiere, entitled “The Butterfly Effect.” In it they are looking for minor roles like paramedics, reporters and “scary guys,” but they also are casting a recurring role for a character named Jesse. He is described as “28-38, Male. Jesse is an intense guy with an explosive temper. Violent. Cruel. A mean looking S.O.B.” I’ll venture a guess that he’s going to be a villain.

Producer Allan Arkush talked with TV Guide about Season 3. He revealed that they are shooting 25 episodes for the season. That’s 2 more than we got in Season 1! The cast is slated to be back at work shooting the eppys by May 1 (2 more days!). He also discusses “Villains” and just who that might include. Check it out, it’s a good read.

It appears that the new character, Joy, may be a little on the villainous side. According to E! Online’s Kristin, Joy has the power of superspeed and uses it to steal some valuable art from a museum (where she happens to meet up with Hiro).

Don’t forget that the graphic novel is back and posting new installments every week. This week’s issue is entitled “Career Choices.”

Spoiler TV has confirmed the title, writer and director for the first 4 episodes of Season 3. As we told you before, the premiere will be a 3 hour event. The first hour will be a recap/clip show, followed by the two hour premiere, entitled “The Butterfly Effect.” That title refers to a theory about time travelers and the creation of a time paradox.

Here is the complete info for the first four episodes:

Episode 3×01: “The Butterfly Effect”
Sept. 15, 2008
Written By: Tim Kring
Directed By: Allan Arkush

Episode 3×02: “Dreamtime”
Sept. 2008
Written By: Tim Kring
Directed By: Greg Beeman

Episode 3×03: “One of Us, One of Them”
Sept. 2008
Written By: Joe Pokaski
Directed By: Sergio Mimica-Gezzan

Episode 3×04: “The Year of Our Lord”
Fall 2008
Written By: Aron Coleite
Directed By: Adam Kane

The titles definitely have me intrigued. I’m counting down the days until the premiere!

For all of the Heroes fans across the pond who have been waiting to see the second season of Heroes, the wait is almost over. BBC Two will begin airing the show on Thursday, April 24 at 9pm. Check out the BBC’s Heroes page for a sneak peak at season two, recaps, videos, games and more (unfortunately some of the content is only viewable by users in the UK so I wasn’t able to actually play the games or watch some of the video).

British fans will have to keep in mind that the second season was cut short due to the WGA strike here in the U.S. Hopefully season 3 will benefit from the long hiatus though and come back with some great stories and an extended season!

Sorry for the lack of news lately but besides the big NBC announcements that I posted yesterday, there hasn’t really been a lot of Heroes news to report over the last couple of weeks. I’ve scoured the internet and found a few tidbits about some of the cast to bring you, though and I’m hoping to get a picture post up a little later today.

Kristen Bell graces this months cover of Cosmo. There are some fabulous photos of Kristen inside the magazine as well as a great interview. You can see scans here.

Hayden Panettiere has signed on for two more movie projects. The first is an adaptation of the Rachel Cohn/David Levithan novel Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List. Hayden will play Naomi, a New Yorker who creates a "No Kiss List" with her gay BFF, Ely. The friendship becomes strained, however, when Ely plants a big one on Naomi’s boyfriend. Hayden will also voice Alpha the wolf in the animated family film, Alpha and Omega. Justin Long will co-star as Omega.

TV Guide’s Michael Ausiello reports that Mohinder may face some competition in the job as narrator. Tim Kring is rumored to be looking for an Australian Aboriginal actor in his fifties to appear in multiple episodes as a storyteller with great wisdom and a soft, soothing voice.

And finally, Ausiello recently talked to Greg Grunberg, who honestly seems like the nicest guy. Greg talked a bit about Heroes and his work with charities supporting Epilepsy and also revealed the cast of his upcoming movie, Group Sex. I can’t get the embed to work out quite right so check it out here.

Fans won’t have to wait until the September 15th premiere to see some original Heroes episodes. NBC has announced plans to run original Heroes, Chuck, and The Office webisodes at NBC.com beginning in July. The Office has previously run webisodes, which were honored with an Emmy award last year. 

Web content was a big point of contention during the strike but the new contract negotiated with the WGA is helping to make way for the webisodes. The so-called "new media" projects, written by professional scribes, are now covered by the Guild.

No word yet on what the episodes will be about, how long they will run, or who will star in them. They could be used to continue the storyline, or introduce new characters. We’ll just have to wait and see how they will use them. I’ll keep you posted as more details are revealed.

News Corporation and NBC Universal launched their new free online television service, Hulu.com this past Wednesday, March 12. The much-anticipated online service, which has been in beta testing over the last few months, offers complete episodes of over 250 television series. You can find full-length episodes of current fan favorites like 24, The Simpsons, The Office and Friday Night Lights, as well as classic shows like Night Gallery, Remington Steele and SWAT.

In addition you can find clips from dozens of other shows and movies as well as 100 full-length films. Just browsing I ran across The Jerk, Weekend at Bernies, Sideways and Ice Age. The content is ad-supported so you will have to watch a few commercials but that’s how you get it free!

The first five Heroes episodes from Season 2 are available as well as about 75 Heroes clips which include scenes from the show, behind-the-scenes pieces and interviews.

Optimedia has published their first Content Power Ratings Report and Heroes makes an appearance at number 4.

The report, which will be issued quarterly, ranks shows according to four factors: audience size (via TV, Web and mobile devices), audience appeal (awareness, core values and quality), interest (public relations, buzz) and streaming (extent of Web play). Through their ratings, Optimedia looks to measure a show’s “commercial value.” Their data comes from their own research as well as Nielsen Media Research’s NTI database, comScore’s Media Metrix, E-Poll’s FastTrack, Keller Fay Group’s TalkTrack and Factiva.

A show’s rank in the Optimedia report does not necessarily correlate with its power ratings, as evidenced by Heroes’ showing. Heroes ranked number 27 in the Nielsen Ratings for 2007, but made a much better showing on Optimedia’s list.

The Top 10 shows were: (more…)

The first of the five video montages to advertise the upcoming Heroes Soundtrack is now up for preview at MSN and available as a free download at Zune. This one is set to Nada Surf’s “Weightless” and features Claire, West, Nathan, Peter and Caitlyn. I’m a little disappointed because this is not a full music video but rather a few clips set to just over a minute of the song.

Four additional music video podcasts will be available on Zune Marketplace between now and the cd release on March 18. They will feature “He’s Frank” by Brighton Port Authority featuring Iggy Pop, “Not Now But Soon” by Imogen Heap, “Keeping My Composure” by The Chemical Brothers featuring Spank Rock, and “Man In The Long Black Coat” by Bob Dylan.

‘Heroes’ clip: “Weightless”

According to TV Guide’s Michael Ausiello, the Heroes will be back to work filming new episodes in May which should result in 10-13 new episodes ready for Season 3 in September. That means we could get a huge arc of shows without any breaks. I haven’t officially seen a start date for the season, but I have seen September 7 mentioned in some other blogs. September 7!

Ausiello also reported that Kristen Bell has not yet been signed for Season 3. He says that she is in negotiations to come back but a deal has not yet been reached. I’ll keep you posted as I learn more.

Zachary Quinto will be a guest on VH-1’s Free Radio on March 7th at 9:30/8:30 central. You might remember that Jack Coleman was a guest on an earlier episode. If you didn’t catch that, check out this video:

Hiro celebrates a third season renewal.

While it doesn’t look like we will get any more Heroes this season, the network has confirmed that we will see it back in the NBC lineup come Fall 2008. They also announced renewals for freshman series Chuck and Life (both of which are favorites of mine). Two other new series, Bionic Woman and Journeyman, aren’t expected to return.

Despite a second season “slump,” Heroes remains one of the highest rated shows for the coveted 18-49 demographic. It was pretty much assured a third season, but it’s nice to get the official word.

If you’re wondering about your other favorite shows, check out Ausiello’s post-strike chart. He’s updating hourly as the networks make announcements concerning what will return this season, time-slots as well as renewals and cancellations for next season.

With a rumored end to the strike near, fans are wondering when they might see see the beginning of Heroes Volume 3, “Villians.” The answer, unfortunately, is next fall. Tim Kring told the Hollywood Insider that, even if the strike ended today, Heroes would be lucky to pump out 3 quality episodes. The show is much more production and special effects intensive than a lot of network television, so producing more than that would be difficult. Of course, this is assuming the season would still end in May.

“To come back with just three episodes could be creatively dangerous,” says Kring. “But that’s my personal opinion. I’m not sure where the network stands in the matter. Hopefully we’ll hear that in a few days.”

If the network wanted to extend the season out by a month or two, the situation could change.

Remember a few months back when Greg Beeman posted that blog with photos of all the characters drinking “Slusho” brand drinks? He said, “The next group of photos falls into the ‘don’t ask/don’t tell’ category…Their cultural significance will become clear in the coming months, so…pay attention.” Then later, we saw Elle (Kristen Bell) slurping on a “Slusho” in her car as she spied on Claire and her family. Silly me, I thought I was grasping the significance of Slusho by catching the name on Elle’s cup. There’s a little more to it than that. (more…)

Good news today as the Director’s Guid of America (DGA) reached an agreement with the AMPTP. Their agreement could act as foundation for the WGA to resume negotiations with AMPTP.

 According to a statement from the DGA, the new tentative agreement includes:

• Increases in wages and residual bases for each year of the contract
• DGA jurisdiction over programs produced for distribution on the Internet
• A new residuals formula for paid Internet downloads (electronic sell-through) that essentially doubles the rate currently paid by employers.
• Residual rates for ad-supported streaming and use of clips on the Internet

This is less than the writers have asked for, but more than they are getting now. Cross your fingers that they are willing to resume talks and get this thing settled sooner rather than later.

Should an agreement be reached in the next week or so, it is possible that some shows could resume production and bring 4 or 5 more new episodes to the season. Other, more production-intensive shows (like our beloved Heroes) still might not return until next season.

Let’s hope this is a step in the right direction for all concerned!

Source

Toyfare Magazine, Issue #127, which hits stores today, has the first look at the new Heroes action figures which are being produced by Mezco Toyz.  The magazine will also include an interview with Mezco about the line, which characters it will feature and what they will look like.

Mezco is slated to produce several different figures including 7″ articulated figures (which I believe we see below), 3 3/4″ Diorama scenes, and larger, more detailed “deluxe” figures. No release dates have been announced yet and most of the information being released is pretty vague.

The ToyFare cover gives us a preview of the Claire and Sylar figures and, according to the website, there are more photos inside the magazine. Check it out (click to enlarge): (more…)