WB ORDERS FILMING OF NEW DS PILOT

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Michael D. Roberts' casting is mention on the futon critic site today, along with a complete roundup of the cast.

It's interesting that they should include Dennis Patrick in their list of actors who've played Sheriff Patterson in the past - hoDS tends to gets overlooked in these sorts of things...

[Stuart]

Continuing my one-man campaign to get Don Warrington cast as Professor Stokes...  please indulge me



Here's an MP3 of Don Warrington in the "Doctor Who" audio play "Neverland" - he's playing a slightly abstract, mercurial figure, but I think there's a lot of qualities here that are very Stokes-like...

http://www.collinwood.net/vids/don.mp3

And, only fair since I've nicked a bit of their CD, encouraged parties can buy "Neverland" here: http://www.doctorwho.co.uk/drwho/bf033_neverland.shtml

I think he's perfect for it

[Cassandra Blair]

Stuart, I've seen Don Warrington in two or three episodes of Manchild, and I am more than inclined to agree with you.  He has the range, he has the gravitas, and his voice is perfect.  He would be a fabulous Professor T. Elliot Stokes, and if the opportunity arose, can you imagine what he could do with the parts of Ben Stokes or Count Petofi?!? 

[Gerard]

He definitely has that regal James Earl Jones quality about him.

Gerard

[Raineypark]

I don't recall how long production of the pilot was supposed to take....have we passed that point?  And when does it have to be shown to the network in order to be able to start production in time?

Is it my imagination or have all the "rumours"  and "leaks" sources dried up all at once? 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

The pilot supposedly wrapped production on the 23rd (though Darren had speculated that it might go longer). The WB will announce their fall schedule on May 18th, so they'd need to see something before then (though Darren felt that the pilot wouldn't be able to complete post production by then, so the WB will most likely get to see a montage of footage or a few completed scenes instead).

I'm sure that once ShadowGram has more info to report on the pilot's progress, we'll be hearing about it. There probably isn't much to "leak" at this point. 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

According to an account of Dan Curtis' salute at the Museum of Television and Radio this past Thursday, when asked about the WB pilot, his comment was, "It looks pretty good." Who knows if he meant the show itself looks good or if it looks good to be picked up? (I suspect the former.) But a link to the article is provided in this post on CE/A '04:

Zap2it.com has...

[Darren Gross]

deleted

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Shooting is finished.

That's for confirming that shooting has wrapped. 

[dom]

In this link:

...

there is another link to an article from which I've copied the following;

CW: Robert Cobert has been your go-to composer since Dark Shadows. Will he be involved with Our Fathers?

Curtis: He will be involved in everything I ever do, including this show. He's the most brilliant composer around, and he's never let me down. What he did on Winds and War was unbelievable. The guy just writes dead-perfect scores.

Does anyone have any professional insight (or an educated guess) as to whether the WB DS project could be considered DC's "anything I'll ever do" enough so that we might expect Mr. Colbert will be doing the score for the new DS?

And for those who know, did the 91 series use any of the same themes and or cues as the 60's series had?

[Darren Gross]

The 91 series was all Cobert music-many re-orchestrated, expanded and updated pieces from his 60s DS repertoire.

[Stuart]

Mark Verheiden's already commented that it's very unlikely that Robert Cobert will score the series.

It's possible he could oversee a rerecording of the theme tune, but an ongoing weekly series would be a helluva grind for a 79 year old man who's been semi-retired for several years.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

David Fury as a potential writer? I respectfully disagree with that idea. In fact, the mere idea of it practically sends me into cardiac arrest!!

I just read on Sci-Fi's Web site that Fury is attached to NBC's "Transylvania" pilot (which is somewhat based on the movie "Van Helsing," with Hugh Jackman). So, hopefully that will prevent him from being able to have anything to do with the WB DS, should it go to series...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

And speaking of Sci-Fi Wire, here's another report on DC's comment about the WB pilot: Curtis Likes New Shadows

[victoriawinters]

During my brief conversation with Verheiden on Thursday, April 22, he said they were editing material as they were shooting to have it done in time for the brass.  Not an exact quote, but the Reader's Digest Version.  It was also stated that the last day of shooting was Friday, April 23.

He is the only composer given credit for the 1991 series.

I can't even imagine how he would keep up with a weekly show.  There's not only writing out the score, but the orchestration (picking out which notes get played by which instrument) which has to get to the copyist with enough lead time to have the parts copied out,  learning the score you wrote and then conducting, etc.   (I've only heard of two composers that ever write (wrote) out the orchestration of their scores as they are composing.  One was WA Mozart and the other is Linda Dattrell.)

Further, Robert Cobert has no scoring credits since 1998's "The Love Letter".  I would find it improbable that he would come out of retirement.