Previews and spoilers: CSI, Lie to Me, Burn Notice

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Some minor TV updates. (If you are a spoilerphobe, you wanna skip this post entirely or just scroll down to the clips.)

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First, Adam at TV Guide spoils the ending of Lie to Me, “Honey”:

What can you tell me about the new season of Lie to Me? — Christina
ADAM: It’s a good thing the show bumped Mekhi Phifer up to series regular, because come Episode 2, his character will save the day when guest star Garret Dillahunt takes Lightman & Co. hostage.

Then, a poster at TWoP attempts to reconstruct the plot of the Burn Notice season finale from the casting sides six months before the air date:

I’ve read more of the casting sides for the season 3 finale, “Devil You Know” (#316), and in the episode Michael rappels down a rope into his loft via the skylight in order to avoid being captured. While at his loft, Michael calls Management to warn him that Simon has escaped and has asked Michael to help him take out Management in order to clear Michael’s name. Michael proposes that Management show up at the arranged meeting point with a team of his own to take out Simon. Michael voices over the scene that sometimes keeping your enemies’ phone numbers comes in handy if you ever need their help in the future. At the end of the scene, Michael sees an FBI team closing in on the loft, so he creates a diversion with C-4, blowing out the windows in the loft while he escapes through the skylight.

Later, Management takes a helicopter to meet Michael, but Simon knows where the helicopter is landing, and the helicopter blows up after Management has gotten out. Michael and Management are hurled to the ground.

There’s also an explosives expert named Keith in the episode, whom Sam and Fiona surprise by driving their Hyundai through a window into his house’s Miami room.

Finally, a couple of clips from the CSI season premiere, which airs next Thursday (Sept. 24). One is a teaser, the other is a scene with Laurence Fishburne and a guest star.

From the looks of it (bullet time, Morpheus), they filmed the episode in the Matrix so make sure you tune in.

Terminator DVD details, commentary clips

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Save The Sarah Connor ChroniclesBlu-ray.com posted a review of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – The Complete Second Season [Blu-ray]terminator bluray last week, along with a list of the special features (scroll all the way down).

The region 1 DVD comes out next week (Sept. 22). No details on the bonus material for region 2 yet. (The DVD doesn’t come out until November.)

Television Without Pity has revealed the winners of the Tubey Awards. The show won in 16 categories, including Best Drama, Best Returning Show, Most Painful Cancellation, Best Single Episode (Allison from Palmdale), Best Season Finale, Best Smackdown (Cameron vs. police station), Best Onscreen Death (Derek) and Favourite Actress (Summer Glau).

Next stop, the Scream Awards – if you haven’t voted yet, head over to Spike.com.

In the meantime, some preview clips from the DVD showed up on YouTube yesterday. Embedded below are the ones from Adam Raised a Cain, with commentary from Josh Friedman, Summer Glau, Thomas Dekker, John Wirth and James Middleton. Big thanks to Summer-Glau.net for posting them. (Make sure you visit for more clips.)

Finally, the Blu-ray extras:

Disc One

Disc one features a pair of commentary tracks, the first for the episode Samson and Delilah and featuring Executive Producer Josh Friedman and Actors Lena Heady, Thomas Dekker, Summer Glau, and Shirley Manson. Commentary track two, available on Allison from Palmdale, features Executive Producers Josh Friedman, James Middleton, and John Wirth, and Actors Thomas Dekker and Summer Glau. Also included is The Storyboard Process: Cameron Goes Bad (1080i, 2:55), a brief piece that looks at the importance of storyboards to the filmmaking process, including a side-by-side storyboard vs. final product comparison.

Disc Two

While none of the five episodes found on disc two sport a commentary track, the disc does offer two “Terminated Scenes,” one each for the episodes The Tower is Tall but the Fall is Short (1080p, 1:04) and Complications (1080p, 0:26). Also included here under the “Behind the Story” heading is Cameron vs. Rosie: Fight Rehearsal (1080i, 5:27), an informative piece that looks at the process of bringing this fight sequence to life, featuring raw behind-the-scenes footage, interview clips with the crew, and storyboard analysis.

Disc Three

Only a pair of “Terminated Scenes” for Strange Things Happen at the One-Two Point (1080p, 0:50) and Earthlings Welcome Here (1080p, 1:04) are included on disc three.

Disc Four

Like disc three, disc four features only a collection of “Terminated Scenes,” this time one from Today is the Day — Part 1 (1080p, 1:19) and four from Today is the Day — Part 2 (1080p, 2:50 combined).

Disc Five

Disc five contains the bulk of the supplementary material, headlined by another pair of commentary tracks. Track one, accompanying Adam Raised a Cain, features Executive Producers Josh Friedman, James Middleton, and John Wirth, and Actors Thomas Dekker and Summer Glau. The second track with the same participants is available for the series finale episode Born to Run. Collision With the Future: Deconstructing the Hunter Killer Attack (1080i) is an interactive piece that takes viewers on an in-depth tour of the many layers of work that came together to create the season’s climactic sequence. Viewers may choose from one of four boxes — one each for “Production,” “Direction,” “Special FX,” and “Visual FX” — from a main menu that features all four pieces playing simultaneously with an overlaying commentary with Creator/Executive Producer/Writer Josh Friedman. The Continuing Chronicles: Terminator is a collection of eight featurettes presented in 1080i high definition: Write the Future (12:39), Conceptualization (8:18), Blood and Metal (7:39), Designing Deconstruction (7:32), Choreographing Chaos (7:21), War Stories (9:15), Setting the Tempo (13:15), and Motivations (9:51). Rounding out disc five are three “Terminated Scenes” — two for To the Lighthouse (1080p, 0:43 & 1:32) and one for Born to Run (1080p, 0:27) — and a gag reel (1080p, 6:04). [Blu-ray.com]

The Road pushed back to November

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This bizarre little article showed up on Variety yesterday and was edited today to confirm the latest release date for The Road — November 25.

Dimension Films has confirmed a Nov. 25 wide release for Cormac McCarthy adaptation “The Road,” which premiered at the Venice Film Fest. (…)
Weinstein is planning a multi-layered marketing operation for “The Road,” targeted at both fans of McCarthy’s book — which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2007 — and auds fascinated by the more ghoulish aspects of the tale such as the hordes of cannibal killers roaming the barren landscape. Pic will go out in 1,200 to 1,500 locations. (…)
“I can work with my brother Harvey on the artistic side of the film, which has the potential for awards,” Bob Weinstein told Daily Variety. “There are also people out there who may not have read the book but would love the aspects that deal with the basic survival story and are like an action thriller.”

Peter Sciretta over at Slashfilm reported the same, confirming that the Weinsteins indeed meant this Thanksgiving.

Just received word from my local San Francisco reps that Dimension Films will be pushing back the release date of The Road, yet again, this time for a Thanksgiving release – November 25th 2009.

The film has so far been screened in Venice and Telluride and will be shown this Sunday/Monday (Sept. 13 & 14) in Toronto. It’s also been added to the London Film Festival lineup, so those in the UK will get an early chance to see it in mid-October (Oct. 16, 17 and 19 – details here). The film doesn’t open wide in the UK until January 8.

Here are the new posters:

The Road,The Road poster,The Road John Hillcoat,The Road Viggo,Garret Dillahunt

The Road,The Road poster,The Road John Hillcoat,The Road Viggo

The Road,The Road poster,The Road John Hillcoat,The Road Viggo

Terminator update: The Freaking Big Push campaign

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Season two of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles comes out on DVD and Blu-ray in two weeks (Sept. 22) and the fans at SaveTheSCC.com have launched a massive campaign — The Freaking Big Push — to promote the release.

With news that the show might come back as a straight-to-DVD film and that producer James Middleton is still working on making this happen, it is essential that the DVD sales are big enough to convince Warner executives that picking up the story where it left off would be a good idea.

From the site:

The Freaking Big Push is a massive campaign directed at Warner Brothers to demonstrate our love for the show and convince the WB to bring it back. According to a loyal, anonymous source, there is talk of a DVD movie. It’s our objective to convince the WB to make sure this happens. The campaign is broken down into various missions which will each launch on a specific date throughout the month. We can’t stress enough how important it is that everyone do these things on the same day. The only way to make a real impact is with strong numbers, pushing each avenue together on a daily basis, together.

The campaign has been supported by people related to the show. Thomas Dekker recorded a message for the fans the other day (visit the Sarah Connor Society for the video) and Ashley Miller has helped spread the word on Twitter.

For updates and all the info you need about the campaign and what you can do to help, head over to SaveTheSCC.com. The September calendar is here.

If you are looking for a place to start, the show has been nominated for several Scream Awards (Best TV Show among others). You can vote on Spike.com.

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In related news, the British Royal Academy of Engineering puts John Henry on trial, Swiss robots learn to lie and cheat, and Noel Sharkey channels Sarah Connor.

Terminator,Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles,Save Terminator

Also, you can (pre-)order Terminator on Amazon.

The Road – premiere, reviews, clips

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The Road was screened for the press yesterday and premiered today in Venice, so the first reviews are in. But you probably want to see this first:

[media id=74 width=560 height=340]

For more clips from the film, go to TrailerAddict.com.

John Hillcoat, Joe Penhall, Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee were at the premiere. For some pics, visit Zimbio.

The Road has also been added to the Telluride lineup. The festival opens tomorrow.

Here are some initial reviews from the Venice screenings:

In “The Road,” director John Hillcoat has performed an admirable job of bringing Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel to the screen as an intact and haunting tale, even at the cost of sacrificing color, big scenes and standard Hollywood imagery of post-apocalyptic America. [The Hollywood Reporter]

John Hillcoat’s superb adaptation of the prize-winning novel by Cormac McCarthy leads its audience on a road to nowhere. The route takes us through blighted forests and past derelict homes, all this way to a grey and barren ocean that breaks against the shore. (…) What a haunting, harrowing, powerful film this is. Before last night’s premiere there were rumours that its lengthy post-production period (the movie was actually shot back in February 2008) spelled signs of a troubled, sickly production. By and large, those fears have now proved to be unfounded. [Guardian.co.uk]

As heartbreaking on screen as it was on Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer-prize winning pages, The Road is an almost unbearably sad film, beautifully arranged and powerfully acted – a tribute to the array of talents involved. There is so much in this picture, from dread, horror, to suspense, bitterly moving love, extraordinary, Oscar-worthy art direction and a desperate lead performance from Viggo Mortensen which perfectly illustrates the wrenching desperation of parental love. But its hopelessness will make The Road hard going for general audiences: critical and awards support are vital to its commercial success or failure and even still The Road will be a challenge. [ScreenDaily.com]

John Hillcoat has made a film of power and sensitivity that works remarkably well on the big screen. It plays like a Dystopian version of Huck Finn. “Tattered gods slouching in their rags across the waste,” was how McCarthy described the father and son on their grim odyssey south across America toward the coast.

The film captures well the strange mix of heroism and seeming futility that characterises the journey. What is most impressive is the restraint the filmmakers bring to their material. The look of the film is muted and grey other than in the flashbacks to the pre-apocalyptic moments that the man (Viggo Mortensen) enjoyed with his wife (Charlize Theron) before the world ground to a halt. [Independent.co.uk]

The Road is harrowing and beautifully composed. It aestheticises horror, thus getting away with ugly, disturbing, even ghoulish scenes by turning them into the cinematic equivalent of those Sebastiao Salgado photographs of Brazilian gold miners.

McCarthy’s novel worked partly because of what it left to the imagination. The film leaves nothing to the imagination — not even a cellarful of desperate human cattle who are being kept alive for slaughter. So although Joe Penhall’s script is remarkably faithful to the original, it doesn’t feel quite right. The film is bleak and visionary, but it leaves a faintly nasty taste in the mouth, as if it wanted to rope in the horror fans under its arthouse cloak. Yet there’s no denying its raw power. [London Evening Standard]