Watching Heroes

TV Guide’s Michael Ausiello tells us that 2 new recurring roles are being cast for Season 3. The first is “Joy,” a young woman in her 20’s who is described as “quick on her feet — and adept at getting herself into and out of trouble.” The other is “Senator Robert Malden,” a man in is in his fifties described as “a political straight shooter.”

Kristen Bell told EW.com that her reps are working to get her back on Heroes next season. “I have made it more than clear that I want to come back and they have made it more than clear that they want me back.” She said it’s all a matter of scheduling at this point. She also said she’s excited about the possibility of having more scenes with her friend, Zachary Quinto. (more…)

Well they may not be Emmy’s, but Heroes has received nominations from two more organizations, The Constellation Awards and The Webbys.

The Heroes mobile site is up for a Webby Award. The Webby Awards are just what they sound like - awards for outstanding websites. The Heroes mobile site is up for the Best Entertainment Mobile Site. The site is up against Bravo Mobile Web, Cosmo Mobile: 100 Hot Cities, Fake Calls, Dude Decoder & Cocktails!, Disney on Mobile and Radical Media for Iphone.

Fans can register to vote here: http://pv.webbyawards.com/. The direct link to the category ballot is here: http://pv.webbyawards.com/ballot/home/127/128/131#entry485304050. At last count Heroes was in the lead by a small margin. Go vote and keep their lead!

Also recognizing Heroes is The Constellation Awards. The Constellation Awards are Canada’s annual science fiction awards. It’s relatively new, now in its second year. The nominees are selected and voted upon by the Canadian viewers. This year, they’ve selected Heroes for several nominations:

For the category Best Male Performance in a 2007 Science Fiction Television Episode, Heroes gets 2 nominations: Christopher Eccleston for the episode “Distractions” and Jack Coleman for the episode “Company Man.” Other nominees in the category include David Tennant (Doctor Who), Jared Padalecki (Supernatural), Jensen Ackles (Supernatural) and Zachary Levi (Chuck). (more…)

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.

The finalists have been chosen in Sprint’s “Create-Your-Own Hero” campaign. Over the last few months, fans were able to vote on various physical and personality attributes to create the two finalists, one male and one female. Over one million votes were cast. Now, it’s time to vote again to decide which hero will star in a new, online, live-action series which will run on NBC.com. Voting for this phase of the contest will run through February 15.

The male finalist is Santiago:

(more…)

The biggest news to come from this past weekend (besides the New York Giants winning the Superbowl) would be the rumor that the WGA strike may be coming to an end very soon. Word is that the AMPTP and the WGA have come to agreement on the key issues and will hopefully be finalizing the wording and bringing it to the union’s board sometime this week. Whether an end to the strike would bring us any more Heroes episodes this season isn’t clear. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the deal goes through and we will see a few more episodes!

Set your TiVo for Friday, February 8. Jack Coleman (HRG) will be guest starring on VH-1’s new improvised comedy, Free Radio. The show centers around a radio talk show and Jack will be playing himself. Back-to-back episodes start at 9:30 pm Eastern. Rumor has it that Zachary Quinto (Sylar) will also be guest starring in a future episode. I’ll keep you posted as I find out more about that. (more…)

The latest 2 chapters of the graphic novel are “The Ten Brides of Takezo Kensei,” which looks at the relationships Kensei has had over the last several hundred years, and “The Golden Goose,” which delves further into the character Richard Drucker. View them now at NBC.com.

NBC also has several features devoted to the new Heroes novel, Saving Charlie, by Aury Wallington. You can read an interview with Wallington, view a trailer previewing the book or send a Saving Charlie e-card. They will also be posting 4 complete chapters of the book for readers to sample. Chapters 2 and 8 are available now with 9 and 16 coming up over the next couple of weeks. 

Remember Claire’s friend Zach? The actor who played him, Thomas Dekker, will be starring in the new Fox series Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles as John Conner. The series debuts Sunday night, January 13 at 8pm eastern with another episode airing on Monday night at 9pm eastern. Since there will be no new Heroes episodes to watch, you might as well check it out.

Metro Weekly, a gay and lesbian publication in the Washington DC area, has a great interview with George Takei. There isn’t much Heroes discussion, but he talks a lot about Star Trek, his involvement with different causes over the years, and what his life has been like as an “out” gay man. It’s a good read. 

Some of your favorite Heroes actors have their own “official” MySpace pages. Most of them are updated regularly and they are a great way to keep up with what is going on with them during the strike. This may not be all of them, but these are the ones that appear to be official:

Greg Grunberg (Matt Parkman) - www.myspace.com/greggrunberg
Hayden Panettiere (Claire Bennet) - www.myspace.com/haydenpanettiere
James Kyson Lee (Ando Masahashi) - www.myspace.com/jameskysonlee
Kristen Bell (Elle Bishop) - www.myspace.com/officialkristenbell
Jimmy Jean-Louis (The Haitian) - www.myspace.com/jimmyjeanlouis
Dania Ramirez (Maya Herrera) - www.myspace.com/daniaramirez

I have a few more that I am trying to verify as official and, if I am able to do so, I will update this post.

Don’t forget about the Official NBC Heroes page - www.myspace.com/nbcheroes. If you haven’t added our page to your friends yet, you can do that too. Find us at www.myspace.com/watchingheroes.

No, you can’t get new Heroes episodes on TV, but you can still follow the stories at the Heroes Evolutions site at NBC.com. A new mystery man, Richard Drucker, is being discussed on Hana Gitelman’s blog (yes, Hana is apparently alive and well). He is being called the “Godfather of the Internet” and may have connections to Charles Deveaux.

The graphic novel has had several updates as well. The latest was posted on December 24 and features the Bennet family and an encounter with a man with abilities on their way to a new life.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out the Sprint Create Your Own Hero contest, you can do that or vote for others.

I know. I know. It’s not as good as new episodes but you take what you can get, right?

Hey Heroes fans. I apologize for my absence the last few days. The holiday threw me off a bit. I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving. I’ve got a recap coming later tonight. Here’s some news in the meantime.

The Heroes website Activating Evolution has posted some interesting new videos about the Shanti virus. If you haven’t looked at this site, it is worth checking out. It goes into great detail about things related to Dr. Suresh’s research and theories.

Congratulations to Heroes’ Evolutions for winning Best TV Show Site in the TV Guide Online Video Awards.

Heroes’ ratings are up a bit (now that the season is coming to a close - at least for a little while). Monday’s episode earned a 6.7 rating/10 share. That’s up slightly over the 6.6 from the previous week. It put the show in third place behind the CBS comedies and ABC’s Samantha Who?. They won the key demographic of adults 18 to 49, as usual.

Ever wondered what it’s like to visit the set of Heroes? Well the Google Reader team got to do just that. Lucky Bastards! Check out their blog to read all about it.

Check out the latest Beaming Beeman for insight into “Truth and Consequences” as well as great photos of the cast. I love Greg’s photos!

The latest chapter of the Graphic Novel, Revolutionary War, is up now. It tells the story of a man who could not die. Guess whoooo!

And finally, here is a sneak peak of the upcoming final episode, “Powerless.”
 

It’s less than 3 days until the season premiere, and NBC is really gearing up. They’ve announced the premiere week Heroes contest (where you can win a car) and now have re-launched the official Heroes website with fresh content and a streamlined look.

At the revamped site, you can access graphic novels, get episode information, view Heroes World Tour photos and videos, see a preview of the 9th Wonders blog, check out the fan forum, and much more. There is also a section inviting you to visit the companion websites of Primatech Paper, the Yamagato Fellowship and Activating Evolution, where you can see new exclusive video about Mohinder’s sister, Shanti, and the mysterious illness she suffered from.

The most exciting bit for me, though, was the big announcement on the home page that Heroes creator Tim Kring and H.R.G. himself (Jack Coleman) will be liveblogging on Monday night immediately following the season premiere. The blogging begins at 10 pm eastern/9 pm central on September 24 but you can visit http://blog.nbc.com/heroes/ right now and leave questions for Tim and Jack and they’ll do their best to answer all of them when they go live.

And if that’s not enough excitement for one day, watch this video (from YouTube user EzraSmall) featuring five (count ‘em, FIVE) full scenes from Monday night’s premiere. We get a glimpse of Mohinder, Claire, H.R.G., Hiro and a few newcomers as well. But remember – this could contain spoilers, so if you don’t want to be spoiled, don’t watch.

Thanks to my buddy Shankar for the scoop!

The creative minds behind Heroes have launched a new website which will explore the mythology surrounding Takezo Kensei, a legendary Japanese swordsman and former owner of Hiro’s sword. The season one finale saw Hiro come face to face with the master swordsman.   

The site, Yamagatofellowship.org, was “founded” by Hiro’s faither, Kaito Nakamura and actor George Takei appears in video on the site. According to TV Guide, the site will be running a video series narrated by John Rhys-Davies (of Indiana Jones fame) called Sword Saint. The series will chronicle the tales told to young Hiro by his father. (As of press time, the video was not yet live.)

“It’s a fake documentary — actually it’s more like a Ken Burns mockumentary — that explores the legend of Takezo Kensei,” says Heroes creator Tim Kring, referring to the iconic samurai whom Hiro (Masi Oka) will encounter this fall in 17th-century Japan. “Like Burns, we use academic professors, only ours are actors, and they share their historical insight against a background of paintings, tapestries and graphics. It’s a chance to dig a little deeper into the new season. Part of the social currency our fans trade on is their knowledge of the show, and this is a fun, cool way to know a lot more than the next guy.”

Former Alias star David Anders, a Caucasion, will play Kensei in season 2 of Heroes. “I promise you’ll get the scoop behind this in the season premiere,” says Kring. “We’re going to reveal why — contrary to legend — Kensei is not Japanese.”

Watching Heroes, NBC Heroes, Takezo Kensei, Hiro Nakamura, Kaito Nakamura, Masi Oka, George Takei, John Rhys-Davies, David Anders, Season 2, Yamagatofellowship.org, Tim Kring

Heroes may be off for the summer, but NBC is cranking out content like these Inside Heroes clips or commentary on earlier episodes like this replay of .07% (episode 19) all the way through How to Stop an Exploding Man (episode 23). For those of you fiending for your Heroes fix, this should hold you over for a bit.

Heroes will be launching an 8 episode series over the summer that will
deal with behind the scenes type material in the hopes of keeping fan
interest up over the summer hiatus. This is definitely new ground for
television networks to go to the web in the off months to give the
fans something extra. NBC deserves
big props for this decision.

NBC Digital Entertainment says it will launch an
eight-episode Web series May 21 on nbc.com.

The series, Inside Heroes, goes behind the scenes of NBC’s biggest
hit, Heroes. Part of the goal is to keep viewers interested and
engaged in the show during it summer hiatus, with episodes spaced out
until the fall beginning of season two.

As an additional
plus the online graphic novel will continue as well, so that should be
enough to keep even the die hard fans happy.

source: broadcastingcable.com

Heroes, Summer Hiatus, Inside Heroes, Web