MTV premiered its new quarterly movie show Spoilers on Friday night, and it looks like they're a little unclear on the concept. Taylor Lautner wears a wig in Twilight? That's a major spoiler, worthy of a flashing banner! Luckily, we've got some real spoilers here: Zack Snyder explains a bit more about the controversial changes to his movie of Watchmen, and a new pic shows you what a crucial Decepticon may look like in Transformers 2. There's new footage from The Day The Earth Stood Still, The Spirit and Benjamin Button. And new details about the filming of next spring's episodes of Heroes and Lost. Plus spoilers for Dollhouse, Sarah Connor, Chuck, Fringe, The Survivors and Eleventh Hour. It's all spoilers and no wigs. And yes, before anyone else jumps in and says it, I'm aware that we do stretch the definition of "spoilers" a bit here at MS as well on occasion. But we have never stooped to wig spoilers. Watchmen: Director Zack Snyder won't exactly give away what replaces the infamous squid in the end of the movie, but he says:
No-one knows yet what we've done but we hope it's similar in philosophy to the ending of the graphic novel. I mean the end is all about taking a superhero all the way - you know it's the bad guy who is the one who wants world peace. It's a moral dilemma for all the characters involved.
And original artist Dave Gibbons says the moral dilemma remains intact. (As far as I know, the new ending is the one where Ozymandias' alternative energy project turns out to be a scheme to create nuclear explosions with the same "energy signature" as Dr. Manhattan, thus framing the blue guy.) Meanwhile, Snyder says the DVD will include the full Behind The Mask documentary, apparently shot in 1985 but including a show from 1972 where the heroes appear and a comedian tells them to fuck off. [IGN] Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen: Here's a slightly less blurry image of the Soundwave toy, showing how the Decepticon will look in the new movie. Also, it's looking more likely that this is genuine. Bigger version at the link. [TFW2005]
The Day The Earth Stood Still: The MTV special did include some good stuff, though, such as this new trailer for the Keanu Reeves remake. A bit more Gort action and crazy destruction, and a teeny bit more insight into the reasons why Klaatu has been sent to wipe us out. The Spirit: Here's a new TV spot for Frank Miller's movie of Will Eisner's classic comics series. Will The Spirit be Christmassy? Judge for yourself. Also, apparently, someone thinks the Spirit is a menace. [ScreenRant] The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button: A new TV spot shows more of Brad Pitt's backwards-aging character as a cranky kid who looks like an old guy. Dollhouse: Creator Joss Whedon explains his new show's premise and why, in spite of all that mind-wiping, it will never be a "reset button" show. [TheWriteEnvironment] Lost: Season five will be "more science fiction-y" and season six will be "fucking crazy," say producers Lindelof and Cuse. The show's ending will answer all of the major questions about the island, but if you've fixated on some minor mystery, it may or may not get resolved in the end. There will be an upcoming episode focusing on "the oft-confused Steve and Scott," and they're involved in a very tragic event. We'll never "meet" the DeGroots, but we are going to "see" them. And the producers' favorite moment from the show's final episode supposedly involves a volcano — but they may have been kidding about that. [Spoilers Lost] Someone in Hawaii witnessed the filming of an upcoming Lost episode with a submarine in it. [The Hart Family Hawaii Chronicles] Also, the show is looking for actors who are fluent in Tagalog (the main language of the Philippines) to dub some dialogue for an already-recorded episode. English accents a plus. And meanwhile, a new promo showing before Quantum Of Solace in some theaters includes a few new clips: Desmond and Penny are in bed, and Desmond gets up to Penny's dismay. Jack is in a tuxedo and says "Let's get them back." And Locke falls from a tree or some other high object. [Spoilers Lost] Heroes: Here are some set pics from the "Fugitives" arc, probably the same one that has commando Sylar. Looks like Mohinder is back to "normal," and he and his co-dad Matt have patched things up. Are they helping to hunt down the fugitives, or are they on the run? Either way, I welcome the return of the Matthinder bromance. [Heroes Spoilers] Also, those pics from last week, showing Sylar in swat gear carrying a young guy with a Darth Vader thing on his chest? Seems like the young guy is David, the angsty new teen character, who is rumored to be Sylar's new apprentice. [SuperHiro] Plus here's Masi Oka talking about the new season on the Today Show, including a 30 second clip from tonight or next week, when the amnesiac Hiro tries to remember how to teleport. The reason the villain of that Haitian storyline is named Samedi is because he's very powerful, in the context of the story. Samedi does have some "abilities" to manipulate and control, but they're not exactly "superpowers." Meanwhile, Nathan and Peter have a bit of "dischord" in the Haitian jungle, until it comes to a head just as they find what they need to find. They run through the jungle being chased by soldier guys. [E! Online] Chuck: Someone is going to try and kill Sarah — and you'll never believe who's holding the gun. Or maybe you will, I dunno. [E! Online] Here's the official description of the Dec. 8 episode, "Chuck vs. the Delorean":
Chuck (Zachary Levi) spies on Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) and sees her on a date with an older man (guest star Gary Cole). Chuck frantically tries to warn Sarah after he has an Intersect flash, but she assures Chuck that she is not in danger and reveals the identity of the mystery man. Meanwhile, Anna (Julia Ling) wants to move into an apartment with Morgan (Joshua Gomez) forcing him to finally act like an adult. Awesome (Ryan McPartlin) offers to help Morgan pay for the apartment, but a relic from the past causes Morgan to lose focus on his new grown-up responsibilities.
[SpoilerTV] Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: It sounds as though Riley doesn't find out about the whole robots-from-the-future thing any time soon, judging from this interview with Leven Rambin. Also, says Leven, "She's just a regular person. Not a Terminator." (Side note: Apparently Leven is recording music with George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic. I cannot picture this.) [Crave] And here are some pics from the Nov. 24 episode, "Strange Things Happen At The One-Two Point." Sarah and Cameron try to impress members of a start-up company, where they're pretending to be investors. (I think most start-up companies would be falling all over themselves to impress potential investors at this point.) [Fox] Fringe: In upcoming episodes, the show will have more of a "rogue" feel to it, as the crew goes "off the books" to work their cases. The storyline about Olivia and Agent Scott will play out by mid-season, and Olivia's issues will revolve more around her stepfather. With her stepdad in mind, she'll be leaping before she looks more often. "Her drive and her intensity is going to increase," says J.J. Abrams. The characters we met last week, including the parasite-ridden agent and the German guy, will figure into future episodes. Also, we'll learn why Nina took Scott's body, and what weird connection Broyles has to Nina. [USA Today] And here's what happens in the Dec. 2 episode, "Safe":
While investigating a series of bank robberies, Olivia, Walter and Peter are shocked to find one of the suspects inexplicably trapped inside a vault wall as if it solidified around him. Walter realizes that the high-tech thieves have figured out a way to defy the law of physics and that, much to his dismay, the crooks are after something of his. As the ongoing investigation unfolds and the mystery deepens, the perilous situation climaxes when a member of the trio is ambushed.
[SpoilerTV] That Dec. 2 episode features some great moments of Walter being inappropriate, says actor John Noble. And in this week's episode, when he goes back inside the institution, it's a very fearful Walter who comes back out. The ensemble will start to gel, and in the first episode of 2009, we'll see the cast bond a bit more and act more like people who've known each other for a while. At some point in the future, we'll see Walter and Olivia coming together, in a father-daughter way. (I think.) [FringeFanatic] Eleventh Hour: Does Jacob Hood discover illicit experiments in this show's Dec. 4 episode, "The Titans"? Yes. Yes he does.
Hood travels to Oklahoma to investigate why some college students are dying of the bends, a condition normally associated with scuba divers, and discovers an enormous medical cover-up on campus.
[SpoilerTV] The Survivors: In the remake of the classic plague show, Abby is a wife and mother whose kid has just recovered from leukemia, and she fusses over him. She and her husband go off on vacation leaving their kid at a camp, and when they come back, the plague breaks out. She panics, because people are dropping like flies and there are long lines for petrol and other supplies. Once most people are dead, Abby goes looking for her son, who she thinks may be alive. Along the way, Abby becomes a bit of a leader. Also, don't assume the plot is just like the original series. [DigitalSpy via SurvivorsBBC] Meanwhile, Max Beesley plays Tom:
A lifer given a chance of freedom when his prison guards all die from the virus, we first meet Tom looking in distaste as his plague-victim cell-mate gasps his last. In the scene I'm watching being filmed, Beesley's character is being hit in the small of the back with a rifle by a member of a rival gang. This is the version of the future as violent and feral, competed over by warring tribes.
And Nikki Amuka-Bird plays the last government official left alive, a junior health minister in charge of responding to the crisis. In a shocking twist, one of the major characters from the original series, who survives all the way through, dies in the first 20 minutes of the remake. [The Independent] And here's what happens in the series' fourth episode:
Abby learns of a group of young boys living at a nearby mansion called Waterhouse.... She is determined to see if Peter is there, and leaves her new friends in order to find her son. When she arrives at Waterhouse, she walks into the middle of a land dispute between Jimmy Garland, an ex-Army officer who has an ancestral claim to the mansion, and an aggressive group of teenage boys who have taken up residence there. When Jimmy is injured in a skirmish, Abby nurses him and the two quickly become close. Despite her growing loyalty to Jimmy, Abby must find out if Peter is at the house. She must earn the boys' trust and convince them that a truce with Jimmy would be beneficial for both sides. In Abby's absence, her surrogate family is in danger of falling apart. Tom, Sarah, Al and Najid are drawn to the comfort and security that Samantha's community provides. Tom settles into his new surroundings quickly and starts to see himself in a position of power in the new society that Samantha hopes to build. Things quickly go wrong for Al, however, as he is ejected from the community when Samantha decides he will not fit in. Tom sees the chance to prove himself to Samantha, but will his criminal past catch up with him? Greg and Anya, meanwhile, are left to protect the survivors' house alone, and an encounter with some unwelcome visitors provides a vivid reminder of how vulnerable they are without the group.
And then in the fifth episode:
When a so-called spiritual leader called John turns up at the survivors' home with his group of followers, some in the house are suspicious of his motives... Charming and eloquent, John is a preacher with a unique perspective on the new world, but the family's opinion of him is split. Some find comfort in his message, while others are deeply distrusting of his motives. Linda, a woman in John's group, is pregnant, and Abby allows her to stay until the baby is born. Anya fears that she will be forced to reveal the fact that she is a doctor if there are any problems with the birth. Worse than that, she picks up on some unusual remarks made by John, which make her concerned for the group's safety. Al is much more positive about John's group. He spots a pretty woman called Louise and uses his charm to seduce her. He is feeling much more like his old self – until he realises that Louise isn't as innocent as she seems. Meanwhile, Anya's fears are realised when Linda experiences complications and John's serene façade starts to crumble. As the situation reaches crisis point, Anya is forced to confront some harrowing truths about her own past, putting her relationship with Tom on a new footing. Abby and the others also realise that, through a misguided act of kindness, they have put themselves in terrible jeopardy.
[BBC and BBC via SurvivorsBBC] Additional reporting by Katharine Duckett.