Television News

Terminator DVD details, commentary clips

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]

Terminator update: The Freaking Big Push campaign

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.

News roundup – August

Okay, since I haven’t posted that many updates last month (vacation) and news just keeps piling up, here is a quick roundup:

The Last House on the Left was released on DVDThe Last House on the Left (2009) and Blu-rayThe Last House on the Left a couple of weeks ago. The region 2 DVD will be out on October 19.

The Road will premiere in Venice on September 3. That’s tomorrow. It will then be shown 10 days later (Sept. 13 & 14) in the Special Presentations program at the Toronto Film Festival. The listing is here. There are also rumours that it will be screened at Telluride (Sept. 4-7) so if you are in the Colorado area, keep an eye on the festival’s official site. The film opens wide on October 16.

Oliver Sherman starts filming in about a month. A couple of weeks ago, they were still casting a whole bunch of characters.  The casting call is here.

On the TV front…

Life: Season Twolife season two was released on DVD on August 25. You can find a review and the DVD details here.

The Burn Notice season three finale will air some time in March. Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly describes Garret’s character  as a “scary-smart new client of Michael’s (Jeffrey Donovan) — and perhaps the first person to outsmart him.”

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles might still return as a movie. Here is what Thomas Dekker told the TV Addict the other day: “They’ve spoken about doing a TV movie. Well, not a TV movie, but kind of like a direct-to-DVD movie. Obviously it’s difficult because the show is based on a movie and they just had one come out, so it’s kind of hard to make a movie with our show because everyone has kind of forgotten about us. But they’re hoping, at least when I spoke to [Producer] James Middleton that’s where they are with it.”

The teaser for the CSI season premiere is online, as well as the press release and some pics from the episode (of Jorja Fox mostly). The show returns on September 24.

More updates as they come.

New TV alert – Burn Notice 3×16 The Devil You Know

UPDATE: IMDb has the right character, but the wrong episode. Garret will appear in the season three finale, “The Devil You Know,” not in “Dressed to Kill.”

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Some confusing news:

A new TV credit has appeared on the IMDb for an upcoming episode of Burn Notice, “Dressed to Kill,” which is either episode 3×13 or 3×14 (sources disagree). SpoilerTV has set pics dated August 21, which corresponds with the filming of the season three finale, “Devil You Know,” which is ep 3×16.

The casting call for “Dressed to Kill” doesn’t mention a Simon (Garret’s character, as listed on IMDb), but there is a character with that name mentioned in the casting call for a different character in ep 3×16:

[MANAGEMENT] Male, Caucasian, 45-60 years old, POWERFUL, DANGEROUS AND INTIMIDATING, he works for the person who rigged Michael’s file and burned him years ago. He’s taken aback by Michael’s assertion that Simon (the man who really committed the crimes in Michael’s file) has escaped and is after him and his boss. They agree to Michael’s plan, but threaten to end him if anything goes awry…GUEST STAR. PLEASE SUBMIT ACTORS WITH STRONG CREDITS ONLY.

Here is the plotline:

Michael is forced to team up with the psychotic criminal who actually committed the crimes that Management used to burn Michael.

So either the IMDb has the wrong episode or it’s a recurring role. More likely, IMDb messed up and Garret shows up only in 3×16.

Here are the set pics, with John Mahoney and Jeffrey Donovan:

Garret Dillahunt,John Mahoney,Burn Notice,spoilers

Garret Dillahunt, Burn Notice,Jeffrey Donovan

Garret Dillahunt,Burn Notice,Jeffrey Donovan

For all the pics, go to SpoilerTV.

Burn Notice is currently on a break and will return in January 2010.

New appearance – Law & Order: SVU 11×05 Hardwired

From TV Guide:

Rosie Perez and Garret Dillahunt will square off on an explosive episode of Law & Order: SVU this fall about pedophiles’ rights, TVGuide.com has learned exclusively.

On the fifth episode of the new season, Dillahunt (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles‘ Cromartie, No Country for Old Men) will play the head of a pedophilia organization (think NAMBLA — or, you know, don’t). “It’s called ‘Hardwired,'” executive producer Neal Baer says, “because they believe that pedophilia is [a genetic predestination].” [TV Guide]

The casting call for the episode is up at SpoilerTV. From the report, it seems to be this character:

[KEVIN SHEEHEY] Male, Caucasian, Late 30s-Late 40s; A meticulous, charismatic; intensely focused man; with deep dark dubious undercurrents who is the President of “Safe Place”, an organization that promotes pedophilia as a legitimate sexual orientation. He has a cult-like ability to charm and connive. His goal is to change people’s attitudes toward adults dating children. He even convinces his members to take videos of them abusing children and send it to him. (GUEST STAR)

Season 11 of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit premieres on Wednesday, September 23, so episode 11×05 will air some time in late October (Oct. 21 at the earliest).

For updates, follow Neal Baer on Twitter and keep an eye on the SVU production blog on NBC’s site.