Da Fringe grad in die Winterpause einbiegt, nur mal ein kurzes Update: Fringe ist erfolgreich. Kein Hit, wie es Fox gerne glauben machen würde, aber ziemlich solide. Die Season bisher zog ungefähr ein 3.7 Rating in der werberelevanten 18-49 Gruppe hervor (was in etwa 5 Millionen Zuschauern entspricht) und bewegte sich insgesamt im 8-10 Millionen-Bereich.

Für Dollhouse sind diese Zahlen Freitags natürlich völlig unrealistisch, aber ich schätze, wenn sie ein 3.0 im Durchschnitt halten können bei 18-49, dann stehen die Chancen relativ gut. Pro7 hat Fringe schon erstanden, übrigens. Das klassische ein Jahr Verspätung... das will ich für Dollhouse auch haben.

Für alle, die sich durch die Videos (leider!) nicht durchkämpfen wollten, hat watchingdollouse.com eine feine Zusammenfassung erstellt:

1. The Dollhouse set is HUGE. It’s clear that a lot of $$’s have gone in to that baby. I hope Fox have enough left over for promoting the series!
2. According to Whedon, the dollhouse facility is supposed to represent contradictory themes - Spa/Prison and fantasy/horror. I like this idea, it tallies nicely with the appealing idea of erasing bad memories - identity gets erased with it. D’oh!
3. Whedon describes the Actives (or Dolls) as being ’shell-like’. There’s many ways to describe the loss of identity, but I like this one the most, and i’ll keep that in mind whilst watching the show.
4. The “very rich and very connected” are the main people in the market for the Dolls. The very ‘powerful’, therefore, will exploit the labor of powerless humans. Hmm, this isn’t just trafficking, it’s a form of slavery, whether or not the Dolls volunteered. Wow, I’m rooting for the Dolls already.
5. Echo’s self-awareness will gradually unfurl over the course of the season. Seriously, how can this not be serialized?
6. I think that Whedon and Dushku believe the Friday night slot is a bad one, but they are also optimistic over DVR potential, and hope that Dollhouse can revive Friday night television. This is really the only attitude they could have if they want the show to be successful, but it’s still good to hear them look at the positives.
7. They also suggest that Dollhouse is actually better off being paired with “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” than “24″.
8. Dollhouse is creatively very much a joint effort on behalf of Fox and Team Whedon. There have been some testing times, as we’ve heard before, but there’s now a healthy co-operation between both network and producers.
9. As we already knew, the original pilot will not see the light of day on Fox (DVD, anyone?). This is because key story events have changed so much that to leave the original pilot in there just wouldn’t make any sense. Fair enough.
10. Whedon and Dushku appear to be acutely aware of the negativity that has surrounded production of the show, but thankfully they seem to be extremely optimistic. Rightly so.

Sklaverei ist mir als Thema bisher gar nicht aufgefallen, aber wie oft betont wird, dass die "rich" eben die Kunden sind, legt das eigentlich schon deutlich nahe.

Undatiert, aber da es um "Nobel Son" geht (aktueller Film mit Eliza, dessen Premiere wohl die Interviewflut erklärt), schätz ich mal, pretty aktuell. Es geht, natürlich auch um Dollhouse, dann auch um Buffy und ihre Produzentenrolle. Die Whedoniten der Welt streiten sich gerade darum, ob Eliza da unterwegs nicht einen gravierenden Dollhouse-Spoiler rausgelassen hat, oder ob der Plotpoint so nebensächlich ist, dass sie ihn eh bedenkenlos sagen darf. Was ich damit sage: Wer kein Risiko eingehen möchte, list es besser nicht:

MoviesOnline: Eliza, can you talk a little about what you’re doing now? I know you’re doing Dollhouse with Joss Whedon and that starts next month, doesn’t it?
Eliza: We air Friday, the 13th of February. It’s awesome. We’re on episode 7 of 13 and I’ve already played 20 something different characters and underneath these clothes I’ve got bruises galore. I’m so proud of them. I’m riding motorcycles, bow hunting, rock climbing, river rafting, moi thai fighting 6’5” dudes, like just everything.

MoviesOnline: Did doing Buffy help you with the martial arts part of that?
Eliza: We have the same stunt coordinator, Mike Gunther. He’s awesome and he was also on Angel so I’ve had 6-page fight scenes that I did with him years ago. Yeah, it helped, but even on Buffy I was kind of like that crazy 17-year-old kid that showed up on Buffy and I grew up with three older brothers and I showed up from Boston and said “I know you have a stunt double here for me but how much can I do? I want to fight. I want to get into it.” And they would just teach me the stuff and that, to me, is really fun. It’s really exciting.

MoviesOnline: So the premise is you’re playing 20 different people?
Eliza: It’s about a group of people that can be imprinted with any personality basically for hire.

MoviesOnline: Does your personality totally change?
Eliza: Yeah. We’re human beings that volunteer for five years of our life. As the story unfolds, there are dollhouses all over in cities around the world and there are these underground private organizations that take people, wipe their personalities clean, and house them in these beautiful, Japanese Zen garden/underground dorm lab and then they put us in a chair and literally put a wedge in the chair and can imprint us to be anything that anyone wants – fantasies, bank heists…

MoviesOnline: It sounds like an actor’s dream come true.
Eliza: Yeah. The last episode they surgically implanted cameras into my eyeballs and sent me into a cult compound as a blind woman. It was cool.

MoviesOnline: Do you have a single injury that’s your biggest badge of honor at this point?
Eliza: Yeah, my neck that I can’t turn. [laughs] I have a really good bruise right here (points to her leg) and a really good one right here (shows her arm) that I’ve been showing off a lot.

(...)

MoviesOnline: With Twilight being such a big hit, the rumor mill is buzzing about the possibility of a Buffy movie. Is that just fans’ wishful thinking or has there been real talk about it?
Eliza: I can give you Joss’ number and you can call him. [laughs] He’s over on the lot right now. I don’t know.

MoviesOnline: Would you ever want to go back and play it again?
Eliza: You never know. That’s what I’ve learned.

Bryan: Keep it open.

Eliza: I mean that show is just such an international phenomenon. There are like college courses now that dissect the world of Buffy. It’s just a testament I think to what an extraordinary creative genius Joss is and I just love the guy. He’s a hardcore feminist, he’s funny, he’s dramatic, he’s twisted, and he’s just dear. He’s my friend and my hero and people gag because we get really lovey dovey.

MoviesOnline: Did you ever do the conventions or anything like that?
Eliza: Yeah, girl. I did. [laughs] And people would show up and be like hey, can we take a picture of our matching face tattoos, and I’d be like, uh, that was a decal. And you watch the color drain from people’s faces and they’d be like I got that tattoo so we could be lifelong sisters and I’m like, sorry. They’d show up with vampire teeth and stuff.

MoviesOnline: After you film the 13th episode of Dollhouse, are you going to be looking at film scripts to try to squeeze in during a potential hiatus?
Eliza: I just launched a production company with my brother. It’s called Boston DIY Productions and we have 3 films that we’re about to do, one of which is with Randy and Jody. The first one is going to be a biopic on Robert Mapplethorpe and my brother is going to play Robert and we have an awesome cast and an amazing filmmaker, Ondi Timoner, who did a documentary called Dig! It won at Sundance a few years ago. She has another movie that just got accepted at Sundance. She’s just awesome. So we’re going to do Mapplethorpe. Jody is actually going to direct and they’re going to write this movie we’re doing together. Then I have a big budget, working class Lara Croft crazy studio thing we’re going to do too.

MoviesOnline: How are you enjoying being a producer and taking a break from acting?
Eliza: Like Bryan said, it’s nice because it gives you something else to do. As an actress, sometimes you go to your trailer and you’re like what do I do? Do I watch Tyra Banks on TV or what? Boredom is just not an option now. I mean it’s really cool. And I’m also a producer on Dollhouse because Joss and I basically put the thing together. I never really wanted to be an actor. I kind of tripped and fell into it and it gives me a chance to feel like I’m doing more than just being…I get to be involved in more of the machine and the operation and yeah, like walking into a room, there’s a different kind of confidence when you feel like you’re actually a part of, as opposed to being rated. So that’s cool. I love it.

Hier das völlig spoilerfreie Ende:

If it weren't for Whedon's pedigree, I'm not sure I'd be dying to see a second episode. But for me, the main draw now is not seeing Dushku become a different person every week, but getting to see Joss Whedon become a different writer every week.

Das ganze Ding spoilert etwas die Handlung des Piloten, streicht aber recht deutlich und nachvollziehbar Stärken und Schwächen heraus. Im wesentlichen stört sie nur, dass es keine Serie, sondern ein Eliza-Showcase ist. Kann man jetzt finden wie man mag.

Edit: gossi weist darauf hin, dass dies wohl der erste tatsächliche Screener ist, der verschickt wurde: "Countdown to screener leak in torrent form begins.. "

Wie vorhin, leichte Spoiler über Echo-Imprints, aber nix gravierendes:

TVGuide.com: Turning to TV, how are things looking for Fox's Dollhouse? [The sci-fi thriller stars Dushku as Echo, an "Active" who has covert mission-specific personalities imprinted on her.]
Dushku: Awesome. We have all these rumors going around [in the wake of a production stoppage], and yet we're on Episode 7 out of our initial 13. We've made some changes.

TVGuide.com: Hey, it's totally fine to stop and catch your breath and do things right.
Dushku: Completely. And we feel like we're in an awesome groove. The scripts are tight and exciting, and we've definitely upped the action. Initially, we were doing a lot of set-up, and Fox and Joss decided that we needed to have the some of the payoffs come sooner. As a result, I sashay to work every day! I know that sounds crazy, but I love it. I've played probably twenty-some different characters in the past couple months, and every one is a thrill. I've been riding motorcycles and deer hunting, I had a Muay Thai fight scene with a 6-foot-5 cop, I went river rafting, rock climbing.... The whole gamut.

TVGuide.com: When we spoke at the summer TCA (watch video), you told me you were bringing some "skills" of your own to the table. But it sounds like you've added a few.
Dushku: Yes, my "mad skills." [Laughs] Joss and I have been good friends over the years, and one of the things we laugh about is how I live a crazy life and am in 10 places at once. I'm a bit of a storyteller, so I share all these things and he puts them in the show. He joked at Comic-Con that this show is a bit biographical.

TVGuide.com: Should your and Joss' fans be worried by Dollhouse's Friday time slot?
Dushku: We're in the age of DVR, man. People watch what they want to watch, and we feel confident that we're going to bring [existing] fans and welcome new ones. The show is extraordinary. It's cool and it's hot and it's different. It's nice being paired with Sarah Connor Chronicles as a sort of female empowerment night. It takes a little bit of the pressure off [versus airing on Mondays], with 24 coming on after two years. I think the time slot gives us time to come on, air all of our shows and hook people. And I truly believe it will.

TVGuide.com: You obviously had certain expectations and things you were looking forward to with Dollhouse. But now that you're well into filming it, what has surprised you about the show?
Dushku: I've obviously played a lot of strong characters, but Joss, from the very beginning, said, "I also see a lot of vulnerability, and different shades of you that others maybe haven't seen." So I get these scripts and they're different for me. We had this joke where Joss put me in a '40s up-do and it totally threw me off. It just threw me off. [Laughs] He said, "Eliza, I have you figured out. Your comfort zone lies in your hair, and I'm going to take you out of your comfort zone as much as possible. I can throw you off a building or dump you in a river or have you get hit by a truck, and none of that fazes you. But a '40s up-do sends you spinning. So get ready, honey — I'm going to take you for a little adventure!"

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