Josh Friedman

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 DVD & Blu-ray special features

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Season Two, DVDWarner Home Video has announced the full list of features that will appear on the Terminator season two DVD & Blu-ray sets. Season two will be released on September 22. See the details from the press release below.

Josh Friedman talked to Sci Fi Wire this week. Here are a few quotes:

For you, over the two seasons, what storylines took on their own life, maybe in a way you didn’t expect?

Friedman: I was pleased by how much we got out of Cromartie/John Henry [Garret Dillahunt]. Most of that is due to the genius that is Dillahunt—there’s a reason David Milch couldn’t leave him dead in Deadwood. I always knew we’d have a Terminator body aiding in the A.I. development, but I’ll admit it wasn’t always the Cromartie body. We explored other ideas there, but ultimately we couldn’t stand removing Cromartie from the chessboard.

The ending could be looked at as an actual end to the series or as a cliffhanger. Was it difficult to come up with the finale? Why did you want to end it on such a big note?

Friedman: The finale wasn’t really any more difficult than any other episode. Frankly, “Adam Raised a Cain” almost f–king killed the writers’ room, so the finale was a vacation compared to that. I’d known for quite a while where we were headed, so once we got to that point it was pretty organic. I don’t think I set out to end “on a big note,” but I knew I wanted John Henry to be attacked, and the drone seemed the most dramatic way to hit that beat. I needed to drive people to the future, and making the present an extremely dangerous place to be seemed like an important part of the equation.

Do you ever see the story continuing, perhaps in a comic book or another format?

Friedman: I don’t own this franchise or control it in any way. I can’t just go make a deal to do a comic book or a DVD movie or anything like that. The people that control the franchise need to be interested in another iteration of not just Terminator, which clearly they are, but TSCC, which at this point they are not. I’ve tried to pull this proverbial band-aid off as quickly as I can, but I don’t want that confused with me giving up on the show. It’s been my entire creative existence for years, and nothing strokes my ego more than hearing about people clamoring for more TSCC and e-mailing network executives to that effect. But I want people to have a realistic understanding of what’s going on. I owe them honesty.

Is there anything you’d like to say to the fans?

Friedman: I don’t think there’s much I could say to fans that I haven’t already said. TSCC has been my life for almost four years, and the fans have been a huge part of that experience. Nothing exists in a vacuum, and television is nothing if not a social compact—I’ll try to make something worth watching, and you’ll try to watch it. It’s a handshake, and you don’t want to leave the other guy hanging. Hopefully, we’ll try again soon.

Bigger Terminator screencaps are up. Pics from individual episodes are all linked here: TERMINATOR IMAGE GALLERIES.

Season two can be pre-ordered on Amazon. DVD & Blu-ray details below.



DVD and BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES

  • The Continuing Chronicles featurettes
  • Write the Future – An inside look at creator Josh Friedman and the writing process and how it guides the creative decisions for each episode
  • Conceptualization – Visual Effects supervisor James Lima and others discuss the production challenges of bringing the sci-fi world of Terminator to television
  • Blood and Metal – Go behind the scenes with special makeup effects artist Rob Hall and the cast as they reveal the process of creating realistic cybernetic organisms
  • Designing Destruction – Production Designer Marek Dobrowolski and others discuss the challenges of combining real locations with futuristic sets to create a world in which the present fights to avoid a horrific future
  • Choreographing Chaos – See how Stunt Coordinator and 2nd Unit Director Joel Kramer and Special Effects Supervisor Steve Galich work closely to create the stunts and on set effects that add an undeniably kinetic quality to each episode
  • War Stories – From an unexpected earthquake on the jam-packed Santa Monica pier to the intricacies of filming underwater sequences, the producers and cast reflect on some of the most memorable production challenges from Season Two
  • Setting the Tempo – Composer Bear McCreary and the producers explain the process of taking cues from the Terminator mythology and incorporating them into the score. Bear, Josh Friedman and Shirley Manson also talk about the process of recording the season opening song “Samson and Delilah”
  • Motivations – The producers and cast discuss the themes of Season Two and how these informed both the writing and acting
  • Terminated Scenes
  • Cameron vs. Rosie: Fight Rehearsal – The raw fight rehearsal and choreography session between Summer Glau and a contortionist is interwoven with storyboards and interviews explaining this intricate battle sequence
  • The Storyboard Process: Cameron Goes Bad – The production team outlines the process for mapping key sequences from the show in Storyboard format
  • Audio Commentary with Lena Headey, Thomas Dekker, Summer Glau and Shirley Manson and Executive Producers Josh Friedman, James Middleton and John Wirth
  • Gag Reel

BLU-RAY ONLY SPECIAL FEATURES

  • Collision with the Future: Deconstructing the HUNTER KILLER Attack – Interactive exploration of the climactic Hunter Killer attack featured in the Season Two finale. Four simultaneous points of view show all elements of the filmmaking of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles from Production, Direction, Visual Effects, and Special Effects. Additional focus points allow the viewer to explore even more elements of what it took to create this dramatic stunt sequence.

EPISODES FEATURED

1. Samson and Delilah
2. Automatic for the People
3. The Mousetrap
4. Allison from Palmdale
5. Goodbye to All That
6. The Tower is Tall But the Fall is Short
7. Brothers of Nablus
8. Mr. Ferguson is Ill Today
9. Complications
10. Self Made Man
11. Strange Things Happen at the One-Two Point
12. Alpine Fields
13. Earthlings Welcome Here
14. The Good Wound
15. Desert Cantos
16. Some Must Watch, While Some Must Sleep
17. Ourselves Alone
18. Today is the Day (Part 1)
19. Last Voyage of the Jimmy Carter (Part 2)
20. To the Lighthouse
21. Adam Raised a Cain
22. Born to Run

BASICS
Street Date: September 22, 2009
Running time: Approximately 1,012 minutes

DVD
Price: $59.98 SRP
Language: English, Portuguese
Subtitles: ESDH, French, Thai, Portuguese, Spanish
5.1 Audio

Blu-ray
Price: $79.98 SRP
Language: English, Japanese
Subtitles: ESDH, French, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Japanese
5.1 Audio

Terminator – from the Wondercon panel

Josh Friedman, Summer Glau and Shirley Manson were at Wondercon over the weekend to talk about The Sarah Connor Chronicles and io9’s Charlie Jane Anders (best T:SCC reviewer ever) has a report on what was shown in the clip reel from the last six episodes as well as some general stuff about the show, e.g. the reason why “Desert Cantos” sucked and something about the last three episodes being among the top four this season.

For the full report and all the spoilers, head over to io9.com.

Here is the part that involves John Henry (highlight to read):

We saw Savannah, Catherine Weaver’s daughter skipping and playing hopscotch in ominous gray tunnels, until she comes upon the mysterious room where the artificial intelligence John Henry is. “Would you like to play hide and seek?” John Henry says. Later on, Ellison is demanding to know where Savannah is, and John Henry won’t answer. John Henry asks Catherine Weaver what would happen if people knew she wasn’t Savannah’s real mother, and Catherine asks if she’s being threatened.

Ellison is telling Catherine he’s sorry, and she says he should be. And then John Connor is decking Ellison and yelling that he’ll kill him. And Sarah meets Jesse, but doesn’t seem to know who she is. And Sarah meets Catherine Weaver(!).

Sarah Connor episodes in March/April – from Fox & the Terminator blog

Fox has issued a release with all the March highlights, including info about episodes 2×17 – 2×20 of The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Here is the combined info about all the remaining episodes from The Futon Critic and the Terminator blog:

TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES (8:00-9:01 PM ET/PT) – “Ourselves Alone

Friday, March 6
Written by Toni Graphia and Daniel T. Thomsen
Directed by Jeff Woolnough

The return of Cameron’s (Summer Glau) glitch results in regrettable consequences for everyone, and Riley (Leven Rambin) fears Cameron has discovered her secret.

TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES (8:00-9:01 PM ET/PT) – “Today is the Day, Part 1 of 2

Friday, March 13
Written by Ashley E. Miller & Zack Stentz
Directed by Guy Bee

In the first part of a game-changing two-part installment, Jesse (guest star Stephanie Jacobsen) flashes back to a life-altering mission aboard her submarine, the Jimmy Carter. Meanwhile, Sarah (Lena Headey) and John (Thomas Dekker) decide they can’t continue living in their house and make plans to leave.

TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES (8:00-9:01 PM ET/PT) – “Last Voyage of the Jimmy Carter/Today Is the Day Part 2 of 2

Friday, March 20
Written by Ashley E. Miller & Zack Stentz
Directed by Guy Bee

The exciting two-parter continues as Jesse’s submarine mission in the future takes a fatal turn that has unforeseen consequences for John, Sarah and Derek (Brian Austin Green) in the present. Also, Sarah deals with Cameron, who has become a liability, and John steps up and makes a life-or-death choice.

TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES (8:00-9:01 PM ET/PT) – “To The Lighthouse

Friday, March 27
Written by Natalie Chaidez
Directed by Guy Ferland

Fearing for her life, Sarah stashes John in a safe house with the only person she believes she can rely on, Charley Dixon (guest star Dean Winters). Cameron and Derek struggle to work together after she reveals a big secret, and Weaver’s (Shirley Manson) entire effort is at risk when John Henry (Garret Dillahunt) is compromised – but by whom?

TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES (8:00-9:01 PM ET/PT) – “Adam Raised a Cain

Friday, April 3
Written by Toni Graphia
Directed by Charles Beeson

TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES (8:00-9:01 PM ET/PT) – “Born to Run

Friday, April 10
Written by Josh Friedman
Directed by Jeffrey Hunt

Josh Friedman about Terminator ratings and the rest of the season

Josh Friedman has addressed some hot topics in the Terminator fandom in a lengthy new entry on the Terminator blog: the show’s ratings in the last two weeks, the promos Fox is airing to promote T:SCC and Dollhouse, and the creative direction of the show this season.

He also made some hints as to what to expect in the remaining episodes, to address some of the speculation that’s been going around lately:

I get the sense that you want answers. You’ve got enough plant, you’re looking for payoff. I get that. And so will you.

So here are my campaign promises. And because I’ve already shot the episodes, I know they’re promises I’ll be keeping… by the end of the season you will see/know:

–the resolution of the Riley story
–the resolution of the Jesse story
–a future story about Jesse’s Terminator–piloted nuclear submarine explaining how Jesse got to be how she got to be and how it relates to John Connor’s present and future
–the return of Cameron’s glitch in new and deadly ways
–much more Jameron (for those of you who like it)
–not too much Jameron (for those of you who don’t)
–an explanation of the three-dots
–Catherine Weaver’s backstory/origin story
–Savannah in mortal danger
–the revelation of Catherine Weaver’s exact mission
–a fight between Catherine Weaver and another Terminator
–a faceoff between Sarah Connor and Catherine Weaver
–a deadly attack on the Connors by agents of Skynet
–the death of a loved one
–the death of a loved one
–the death of a loved one

And some big things I won’t reveal. Hate spoilers.

Thanks for reading, thanks for watching, thanks for caring, thanks for hating.

To read the full entry, head over to the official blog.