January 8th, 2009
Heroes News Roundup: Someone Wants Out, Greg Grunberg, New Heroes Writer Speaks, PCA
Today’s Heroes news roundup is a pretty full one, but probably the most important has to be comic book/screenwriter Mark Verheiden joining the show as a writer/”consultant”, who along with the returning Bryan Fuller are replacing the departed Jeph Loeb and Jesse Alexander. Verheiden comes with an impressive resume, having just recently worked on Battlestar Galactica, the show all the critics have been going ga-ga over. Speaking of which, those same critics may have had problems with Heroes’ Season 3, but apparently the viewers didn’t, because Heroes won the People’s Choice Awards for Favorite Sci-Fi Fantasy Show, beating out the CW’s Supernatural and Fox’s Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles last night. Take that, critics!
First up, Comic Book Resources has an interview with new Heroes writer Mark Verheiden. Here are some of the highlights:
Tim and the people there certainly had an idea of what they wanted to do with the “Fugitives” arc before I came on board. “Villains” was basically done when I joined. I did not contribute to that, that all happened before I came. For the “Fugitives” arc, they certainly knew what they wanted to do, so for me it was about coming on board and jumping in. I started “Galactica” in Season 2 so it’s not like I’m unfamiliar with jumping in and catching up and rocking and rolling. In fact, like “Battlestar,” on ‘Heroes” I wrote and produced the second episode of the “Fugitives” arc so I got in there pretty quick. [laughs]
I was able to work in the room with the writers and the writers have been very accepting and helpful. And look I needed help, and probably still do, to get caught up and understand all the ins and outs of the show’s mythology and how things work and how to get things to work. It’s been good. I’ve been there at this point four or five months and so the new guy-itis has drifted off and now I’m able to contribute as much as I can. But it’s Tim Kring’s show and my job is to help realize his thoughts and offer my own too and see where we can go.
What we tried to do with the show as a group, people will notice that we’re not doing as many stories per show and lingering a bit on the stories we’re doing. And we’ll see how that goes. It’s a crazy world out there
Meanwhile, in potentially show-changing news, Kristin at E! Online is saying that a major actor on the show wants out, and has already asked Tim Kring and company to kill off/remove him/her character from the show. Kristin knows who it is, but won’t say, though she did gave these hints:
1. It’s a series regular who’s been on since season one.
2. Some of you fans would freak if this actor were to leave.
3. This particular Hero-ic soul has more name recognition than others in the cast.
4. According to Peacock-net insiders, NBC is not likely to release this actor. (See number three.)
5. If this actor does return for season four, there’s an easy way to bring him or her back from the planned “death.”
Let’s face it, we all know who it is: Ali Larter. She’s got a big movie with Beyonce coming out this year, and she’s supposedly in line to continue the “Resident Evil” franchise. Plus, it might make sense to knock her off now, considering that her Tracy Strauss is being written as not exactly the most beloved character on the show. In fact, people are probably rooting for her demise…
Agree, or disagree?
Finally, Greg Grunberg (Matt Parkman) will be on The Authority radio show this coming January 12, 2009. You can listen in on the podcast live here. They are asking listeners to submit questiosn to ask the mind-reading Matt Parkman.
