As nerds, we connect to fictional personalities in a way “normal” people often look at as oddly serious, if not downright creepy. I’m not saying we don’t understand the difference between fantasy and reality – I’m merely pointing out that many of us are creative, sensitive people. Well-crafted imaginary characters often resonate deeply with us, and their losses can be quite harrowing. While I’m sure there are a few folks out there who’d love to re-enact key scenes from Misery with, let’s say, Joss Whedon (I’m half convinced he’s only bringing back Agent Coulson for S.H.I.E.L.D so he can slaughter him in an even more traumatizing manner), most of us stick to bitching and moaning on the Internet, threatening to boycott the shows in question, and then coming back for more next week.

But however much outrage and despair they may inspire, character deaths are often some of the most memorable moments on television – and feature some of the best writing and performances as well. Sure, there’s no shortage of poorly thought out, bullshit deaths, but they’re for another list. Get out your hankies, my nerdy brethren and sistren, and prepare to have your hearts kicked in the balls all over again with The Top 10 Saddest, Most Gut Wrenching Deaths in Nerdy Television.

NOTE: As most of you will have assumed simply from the nature of this list, it features spoilers galore. If you haven’t seen one of the shows featured, and wish to feel the full emotional impact of seeing one of its characters snuff it, I advise you to skip the entry in question. Enjoy!

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Is there a more divisive name in nerdery right now than Damon Lindelof? The Lost co-creator and Prometheus screenwriter has stayed fairly busy lately with a lot of film work, but he made his name on TV, and considering the success of his last show, there would obviously be a lot of interest in his next project if he should have one.

And so he does. Vulture is reporting that HBO has decided to greenlight the pilot for The Leftovers, Lindelof’s next project which is based on the novel of the same name by Tom Perrotta (Little Children). The novel focuses on those left behind after “the Sudden Departure,” a Rapture-like event where millions of people suddenly disappear from the Earth. The novel picks up three years after the Sudden Departure as those that remain struggle with the aftermath.

“The fact that there’s this reaping which occurred, and you don’t make the cut, some of us don’t feel worthy, seemed very ripe territory for a cool character drama,” Lindelof tells Vulture.

Lindelof pitched the project just six months ago, so the project seems to be moving through development rather briskly. When will we see the finished series? Excellent question. My guess would be sometime in the summer or fall 2014. HBO has a pretty full plate right now, so maybe the premium cable channel is looking to the future with a plan to fill a whole in the schedule when one opens up.

The whole concept sounds very Lost-y if you ask me. Perhaps Lindelof is looking to do some penance given the way that series ended up in 2010. Or maybe he saw those awful Kirk Cameron Left Behind movies and saw potential. Anyway, are you anxious to see The Leftovers?

Source: Blastr

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Every day the internet produces an astounding amount of goodies and gems. Most hilarious, some amusing, but all worth at least a few seconds of your time. We here at Nerd Bastards try to bring you the best bits of news and nerdery the webz has to offer, with a bit of snark thrown in. But sometimes not everything makes the cut. Monday through Friday we’ll be bringing you our inbox leftovers, our forgotten bookmarks, the nerdy bits that simply slipped through the cracks. You can submit items to Nerdy Bits by emailing us at nerdybits@nerdbastards.com.

ABOVE: Gina B. makes a fine Velma from Scooby Doo, though I’m thinking the next mystery they need to solve is what happened to her skirt. Or not. [CBM]

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Sure, we were all sent into a tizzy when it was announced that the production of World War Z was going into seven weeks of major reshoots. Compounded by the six month delay in release, the fact that two writers were brought on to pen those rewrites and rumors of bad blood between star Brad Pitt and director Marc Foster, and it seemed that the film, based on the highly popular book of the same name, was in some deep… Well, you know.

Not so, says co-star Matthew Fox. While talking to Collider, Fox said that despite the hiccups, the finished project will be worth the wait:

“And they can have no basis in fact at all and suddenly it become[s] like a notion out there that World War Z is having problems. Everybody who I’ve spoken to that’s seen the film – it rocks, dude; it’s going to kick ass.  And the only issue that I’m hearing with the film is that they want to work on the third act; the end of the film.”

Which more or less confirms what’s already been said. Fox went on to say that the third act re-work was about making the film less open ended. Although the studio wants a trilogy of World War Z films, Fox says that the original ending left a few too many threads hanging:

“Obviously it’s supposed to be a trilogy, so they’re, you know I think they’re fine tuning an ending that feels like this movie wraps. In the original script I always felt it was the perfect combination of a complete film on its own and yet at the same time left you going like, ‘Oh my god, we need another installment.’  And so I think they’re just really fine tuning that, and it might require some additional shooting to get it the way they want it.  And I hear that Mr. Lindelof has been brought in to help with that.”

What do you think, Bastards? Has Fox assuaged your pessimism about the film, or are you dubious as you still harbor hard feelings about the Lost finale against him?

Too soon?

Source: Blastr

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In a move that will surely raise the ire, or at least suspicion, of fan boys and girls everywhere, Damon Lindelof is returning to TV for the first time since the series finale of Lost in 2010, and the premise for this new show definitely has a Lost kinda vibe.

The series, which Lindelof will write and showrun at HBO, is based on the book The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta. The novel follows events in a small town after a Rapture-like event where millions of people around the world simply disappear and the implications that follow. Sounds very Twilight Zone, but so did Lost. One wonders though that given the chilly reception for all of Lindelof’s post-Lost endeavors, up to and  including the Lost finale, if potential fans of the show will cut Lindelof some slack.

Check out the plot description of The Leftovers below:

What if—whoosh, right now, with no explanation—a number of us simply vanished?  Would some of us collapse? Would others of us go on, one foot in front of the other, as we did before the world turned upside down?

That’s what the bewildered citizens of Mapleton, who lost many of their neighbors, friends and lovers in the event known as the Sudden Departure, have to figure out. Because nothing has been the same since it happened—not marriages, not friendships, not even the relationships between parents and children. 

Kevin Garvey, Mapleton’s new mayor, wants to speed up the healing process, to bring a sense of renewed hope and purpose to his traumatized community. Kevin’s own family has fallen apart in the wake of the disaster: his wife, Laurie, has left to join the Guilty Remnant, a homegrown cult whose members take a vow of silence; his son, Tom, is gone, too, dropping out of college to follow a sketchy prophet named Holy Wayne.  Only Kevin’s teenaged daughter, Jill, remains, and she’s definitely not the sweet “A” student she used to be.  Kevin wants to help her, but he’s distracted by his growing relationship with Nora Durst, a woman who lost her entire family on October 14th and is still reeling from the tragedy, even as she struggles to move beyond it and make a new start.

With heart, intelligence and a rare ability to illuminate the struggles inherent in ordinary lives, Tom Perrotta has written a startling, thought-provoking novel about love, connection and loss.

What do you think Bastards? Will you watch The Leftovers, even if Lindelof is in charge?

Source: Geek Tyrant

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Hey, would you like an example of how time flies? Well check this, the season finale of LOST was 2 years ago. Yea, 2 whole years already. Where did the time go? I felt like it was just yesterday when I threw my 7-11 frozen Coke slushie at my TV in utter dissatisfaction. I invested 121 hours of my time on that show. I sat through an endless list of loose ends, unanswered questions, and an uncomfortable amount of time being entranced by Richard’s dazzling eyelashes. I invested myself into that show and all I got was a some vague biblical bullshit involving our ‘Losties’ meeting up at a metaphorical, mythical church? What the hell is that all about?

Clearly I was one of those people, who were only in it for the answers and were disappointed. Heck, I’m still calling for answers to all of teeny-tiny loose ends yet to be tied up.

There are others out there, however,  that were satisfied with the ending. They see the show for what it was: A 6th season drama about characters that were not lost on an island, but who were lost onto themselves. Those broken-shattered souls were, through the island, their fellow losties and the bizarre situations, able to make right with themselves.

Damon Lindelof, one of the shows executive producers, is in the camp of those who are satisfied with the ending. In an interview with The Verge Lindelof takes the time to face the faults voiced by many fans of the show. Even though he faces the negative feedback, and clears up many different meaning behind the mysterious that made many unsatisfied, he is still optimistic certain portions of the finale being ambiguous.

In this video, we can really see that Damon Lindelof desperately wants to convince fans of the show who didn’t like the finale that this is the best way to end the show.  So did he convince you or are you still nonplussed on the whole situation.

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It looks like the TV miniseries adaptation of Stephen King‘s 2009 best-seller Under the Dome is making some progress forward. Produced by Steven Spielberg and King himself, it’s been announced that the series will be penned for the screen by Brian K. Vaughan, a name familiar to genre fans for his comic books Y: The Last Man and Runaways, and for his gig as a writer on Lost, seasons 3 through 5.

Under the Dome is based on the plot from The Simpsons Movie about a town in Maine that becomes trapped by an invisible, semipermeable barrier of unknown origin. I kid, I kid, King has actually been trying to write this book since his Night Shift and The Stand days. Vaughan, meanwhile, has been shopping a number of original scripts since leaving Lost, and will return to comic books next year with, Saga.

So what do you think, Bastards? Exciting news, right?

No word yet on when we might see Under the Dome on the small screen.

Source: ComingSoon.net

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Everyone that was part of the Lost: One Year Later panel got a very special surprise, brand “new” Lost footage! What started as a Twitter war between Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse became a surprise visit from said duo to show something called “the Marble Rye”.

At the beginning of the One Year Later panel moderators and Lost fans Jeff Jensen and Dan Snierson opened by suggesting that fans would be better off at virtually any other panel at that time, then continued to bicker over whether Jensen should be allowed to screen his bootleg DVD copy of whatever “the Marble Rye” was. To the surprise of many in the room a man in a Stormtrooper costume charged in, yelled that the DVD was never meant to be shown, and ripped off his helmet to reveal Cuse, quickly followed by Lindelof in a Dharma Initiative jumpsuit. What a Stormtrooper has in common with Lost I’ll have now idea, must be another one of those unanswered questions.

Carlton explained that they had planned out the entire series mythology in the first season, and that the season 1 finale, “Exodus,” contained a pivitol scene to explain everything - but ultimately decided that it would be too much. Lindelof then griped that the whole “Were you making it up as you went along?” question had only gotten worse since the series ended, though they said ”We have the smoking gun. We can show them a scene that clearly and specifically can make the question go away forever.”

“The integrity of the show would be violated!” insisted Carlton.

“Since when do you care about the integrity of the show?” Damon retorted.

The crowd – all shocked by the sudden surprise and chance to see the footage – overwhelmingly voted to see this “smoking gun”, and… well, what do you think. For those that want it the footage is now up on ABC.com, for the rest of us- we’ll use Youtube.

Follow the jump for the whole video
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In this week’s Nerdist Podcast, Chris Hardwick and the gang interview Damon Lindelhof, of Lost and Star Trek writing/producing fame. It’s a great podcast, as always, but Lindelhof gives some interesting bits about his writing process and how it is to work behind closed doors with the super-secretive, J.J. Abrams. If you’re hoping for some Star Trek 2 spoilers to slip, sorry, none of that here. But, Lindelhof does make a good argument for why some details are best kept secret. The fine folks over at TrekMovie collected some of the best snippets to share. Here’s Lindelhof on collaborating with Abrams, Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman,

I function best in collaboration so I have sought out writing partners….On Trek 1, I produced it, but was obviously very involved in the story process with JJ [Abrams], Bob [Orci], and Alex [Kurtzman], so that was great. For Trek 2 I am actually writing, but again it functions a lot more like a TV show. We are all sitting in a room together throwing ideas around and seeing what sticks…I do not like sitting by myself staring at the blank page.

“Functions a lot more like a TV show,” oh, how I wish Star Trek could be a television show again. I crave some weekly Star Trek. At least until Netlflix get’s their act together and starts offering it streaming.

Lindelhoff also chatted about keeping his mouth shut,

It’s tough. JJ is really good at secrecy and really good at playing the game because ultimately people want to know but they don’t want to have stuff spoiled for them. … We are working on Trek 2 now and there is such an expectation that it is top secret, because everything we do is top secret. And with that expectation comes this idea that “they are going to do something that is totally mind-blowing that is going to friggin’ fry our brains!” Because we are keeping it such a secret. As opposed to the fact that we are just keeping it a secret because we don’t want the audience to know too much going in. The fact that people went to go to see Trek and they didn’t know we were going to blow up Vulcan. They might have known that time travel was involved and they knew that Nimoy was in the movie, but they didn’t understand how it all worked so when you get to that point in the movie it’s cool because you get to emotionally experience it without being primed for it. It requires a tremendous amount of – there are only so many people you can include in your circle of trust.

See what I mean about a good point on why not all spoilers are good? I was crushed when Vulcan imploded, literally crushed. It never would have had that emotional impact had I read about it months before on the webz. And I’m a girl who can’t say no to a spoiler, believe me. Sometimes though, it’s really nice to be surprised.

Definitely give this week’s Nerdist Podcast a listen. In fact, you should listen weekly, it’s hilariously good nerdy fun. In this episode Hardwick recounts seeing Star Trek with his good friend, Wil Wheaton and Lindelhof also talks about “nerding out” when he first met George Lucas.

source: TrekMovie

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Do you remember watching ABC’s ‘Lost’ finale with your family and friends waiting for a proper ending only to have one of those “What The !#@*” endings. Well don’t worry, you and ‘Game of Thrones’ creator George R.R. Martin can share in your dislike of the Damon Lindelof series together. For those of us that don’t frequent the gossip columns of nerdness Martin publicly claimed in an interview that he felt “cheated” by how Lost ended, causing Lindelof to respond in the manner befitting of an executive producer and screenwriter. He jumped on twitter and bad-mouthed Martin like a Rebecca Black music video, thankfully they’ve sorta resolved their issues. It’s not quite a ‘kiss and make up’ situation, it’s more like a you stay out of my sandbox and I’ll stay off the monkey bars.

It’s not that I hate it, I just dislike it greatly

Sitting down to speak with  TV Squad about the Lost finale, the final episodes and to clarify the previous statements he made about the ABC series:

“By the time we reached the finale, I was still hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. I still think ‘Lost’ told a terrific story… a terrific story with a terrible ending.

If the payoff had been equal to the set-up, I’d rank ‘Lost’ among the very best series in the history of television. It didn’t, so I can’t. So in that sense, maybe the finale did change my opinion of the show.

It certainly made me less likely to go back and watch the series again. If ‘Lost’ had delivered an ending that tied everything together in some brilliant and unexpected but satisfying fashion, I would have been first in line to buy the boxed set of DVDs so I could go back and watch it again episode by episode, exclaiming with pleasure, “Aha, so that’s what that meant,” and, “Oho, now I see, I thought that meant X, but it really meant Y.” Instead, I fear, watching the series over again would give me more frustration than pleasure, and I’d fid myself muttering, “Well, that was never explained,” and “Oho, that was a great puzzle that led nowhere,” and “Hmmm, that was kind of arbitrary.”

Admittedly, I’ve only watched the show once, as broadcast. Which makes me a casual viewer rather than a devoted fan, I suppose. I haven’t made a study of it, haven’t read any of the blogs or criticism, haven’t subjected the older episodes to any kind of analysis. Maybe I need to do a rewatch. Maybe if I did I would see that I was wrong, that the eventual end was actually being hinted at and foreshadowed in the first season, that all the puzzles are explained if only I looked a little deeper. Maybe.

I have my doubts, though. Unlike Locke, I am not a man of faith. I am a man of skepticism.”

Now if that didn’t make you want to throw on your Dharma uniform and go all Sawyer on Martin’s ass then listen onward. Martin went on to say that in the interview that while he did enjoy the series as a whole, he hated the ending of Battlestar Galactica even more than the way Lost wrapped up. Looks like round two is going to be George vs. Ronald D. Moore, this might be the start of an East Coast/West Coast writers fight.

Via: Topless Robot

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