WonderCon moved temporarily to Anaheim in 2012, while its usual home, the Moscone Center in San Francisco, is undergoing a remodel. It is part of the Comic-Con International organization, and although it’s a much smaller-scale event, happily for us they held some great TV panels on Day 3. First up was Alcatraz.
The panel was made up of actors Sarah Jones (Rebecca Madsen), Jorge Garcia (Diego “Doc” Soto), Jonny Coyne (Warden Edwin James), Parminder Nagra (Dr. Lucille Banerjee) and Robert Forster (Ray Archer, Rebecca’s great uncle), executive producers Jennifer Johnson and Daniel Pyne, and co-creators/co-executive producers Bryan Wynbrandt and Steven Lilien.
They started us off with a video montage that we happily share here. Much will look familiar, but the last few scenes are brand new, and will be considered a spoiler by some:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umnVRJJt5v0&hd=1[/youtube]
In fact, a lot of what they told us could be considered spoilers, so I’ll start with the nonspoilery bits first, then clearly mark when we veer off into The SpoilerDanger Zone. Quick program reminder: tonight’s episode is number 11; next week we’ll get two in a row, 12 and 13, the season finale.
Spoiler-Free:
Steven Lilien revealed that the idea for the show literally came to him in a dream after booking a trip to San Francisco, that Alcatraz closing was part of a massive conspiracy. He and his writing partner Brian Wynhart had already been talking about what kind of show to do next, and they knew they wanted to do a hybrid, something with a procedural aspect. When they later saw that Robert Kennedy signed off on closing the prison, they knew the conspiracy idea was perfect.
Showrunner Jennifer Johnson made a point of declaring “We do have a master plan, we do know where we’re going. We’ve set up a lot of that going in to episode 13” which is the season finale. The co-creators wrote a 30-page bible for the show “which has become infamous in the industry, it mapped out everything.”
As we reported to you some months ago, portions of the pilot and other episodes were rewritten. The panel confirmed that one of the story aspects that was added in was having her grandfather kill Rebecca’s partner, and they did it because they were looking for a more tangible and immediate thing that connected Rebecca to her grandfather.
They were legally not allowed to use BART in the episodes. Jorge Garcia sugggested they might not have wanted a major gassing incident to be threatened there, even a fictional one.
Something I never noticed but they pointed out is that all of the flashbacks have been to 1960, so there were three years of things that happened between what we’re seeing and when “the jump occurred.”
When asked “Marvel or DC?” Jorge replied “We’re Warner Bros, we’re hardcore DC!”
When asked what scenes they would like to see, that haven’t yet been written, Jorge said that he’d like to see the scene where Hauser has to instruct Lucille about how modern women wear their makeup.
Spoilery – Tonight’s Episode
Tonight’s episode will show us the continuing genesis of the relationship between Lucille and Hauser.
Though they’ll never use actual historical inmates in their stories, the Birdman of Alcatraz inspired tonight’s episode, at least as far as his behavior caused him to be sequestered away from the other inmates.
Spoilery – The Last Two Episodes/Finale
As you saw in the trailer, Rebecca catches her grandfather at the end of a car chase. That chase scene is a recreation of the famous San Francisco car chase scene from the Steve McQueen classic Bullitt, which took three days to shoot (the original took nine). Rebecca drives the same model Fastback that Steve McQueen drove in Bullitt, which was pilot director Jack Bender‘s idea.
The returned inmates will continue to age naturally now that they’re back, but they heal more quickly than usual.
The idea that the prisoners are coming back one at a time is “a hopeful one” but apparently not the case.
The tension between the warden and E.B. Tiller will ramp up considerably in episode 12.
They answer a lot of questions in the finale but leave us with some very big questions. The cliffhanger we’ll be left with will be huge.
The blood, the origins of the blood, and what it all means in the bigger picture, along with the information about the silver coins, will be discussed in the finale.
When asked if we’ll see Parminder Nagra in the present day again in Season 1, the executive producer replied, after whispering “spoiler alert,” “why would we waste her just in the past?”
In the last episodes of the season we’ll definitely be seeing some of the prisoners we’ve seen before. Some of them will of course be in flashbacks, in cells.
We will be seeing why Ray, who became an Alcatraz guard to help his brother Tommy, is now telling Tommy that if he sees him again, he’ll kill him. Tommy is “a bad guy!” according to Robert Forster who plays Ray.
The warden was there when the convicts disappeared; it’s possible therefore that he is still alive now…
We’ll get info about Rebeccas’ parents in the finale. Tommy asks where Rebecca’s parents are, but that question doesn’t get answered. It raises larger questions instead.
In the last three episodes “we do ramp up that mythology of the season so I think all of our loyal fans will be extremely satisfied with these next episodes” according to Steven Lilien. Jennifer Johnson continued, “A lot of the backstory will play out in the present day. We’re kind of bringing a lot of the mythology into the present day story so things that occurred in Alcatraz in the past are going to play out present day on the streets. So the 63s’ crimes won’t just be against random people or people who are associated with their past but against each other, in a kind of a battle that was initiated in the past and we’re seeing play out present day, because for the 63s who are returning it feels like yesterday that they were waging these battles against each other.”
The character pulling the strings is one we haven’t met so far, working with Warden James, and we’ll meet him in the season finale; we will meet the character behind the warden’s door. Jonny Coyne (who by the way has a charming British accent) was asked if he knew what was behind the door downstairs; he said he had pictured all kinds of monsters, huge Lego sets… but when he learned what it was he said with a grin that it was “as exciting for me as it will be for you.”
Alcatraz, starring Sarah Jones, Jorge Garcia, and Sam Neill, airs Mondays at 9/8c on Fox.
