‘Fringe’ Q&A

July 27, 2008 on 1:38 am | In San Diego Comic Con, TV | 1 Comment

After the limited preview pilot showing on Wednesday night, the “Fringe” panel today began with an extended trailer for the highly anticipated new series from “Lost” creator J.J. Abrams.

After the trailer, the panel—which included series creator J. J. Abrams, writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, executive producers Bryan Burk and Jeff Pinkner and stars Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson and John Noble—took the stage and began with a question about ground rules for Fringe.

“The rules are going to try to make this show—the only thing that scares us is finding the right pace. We don’t have any of these rules that we’ll find ourselves breaking anyway,” said series creator J.J. Abrams. “A lot of the stuff dealing with ‘Fringe’ has to do with stuff I liked as a kid…This is really about saying what do we love and how can we do a show that lets us play with those toys.”

The panel was then opened to general questions from the audience. Joshua Jackson was asked about his decision to come back to television.

“The decision to come back was based on the pilot script which read as an incredibly dense movie, frankly. I wasn’t really anxious to get back into the TV world, so it was the [show that got me back.]”

“In fairness the role was originally called Pacey,” joked Abrams, “What’s great about having Josh is that he’s obviously a very smart guy and we think what Josh brings is an incredible wit with great skill. He’s just a pro.”

“Fringe” boasts one of the most eclectic staff of writers, drawing on scribes from “The X-Files” to “Gossip Girl.”

“We looked for and hired writers…to find as many talented people as we could no matter what genres they came from,” said Jeff Pinkner. “We were looking for people who could bring different things to the show. We were very lucky to have Darin Morgan who was one of the signature ‘X-Files’ writers, we have one of the Whedons on our staff. We have perhaps the best writing staff in Hollywood, so we’re going to try hard not to f— it up.”

For those unaware, “Fringe” will have a comic produced in tandem with the series. Abrams explained, “[The comic will allow us to] tell some stories about characters and create this peripheral world.”

Roberto Orci echoed this sentiment, explaining, “I think it’s something we haven’t done before.”

Abrams agreed saying, “There are certain things you can’t do in TV that you can do in a comic book.”

A certain fan asked about the value of internet criticism.

Jeff Pinkner responded, “I think that feedback from the internet is not only valuable, it’s necessary.” He went on to describe some of his experiences with internet feedback during his time on “Alias,” and continued, “We’ve found feedback from the internet was very valuable.”

The panel wrapped up with some tidbits about other highly anticipated projects from the creative team. When asked about the upcoming Star Trek film, and whether or not George Takei would appear, J.J. Abrams mentioned, “We had a meeting with that guy and he was awesome, he was just the greatest guy. So…sure.”

Orci and Kurtzman were also asked about the upcoming Transformers sequel, and were unable to reveal any details except Orci who mentioned, “If you like giant robots, you’re going to LOVE Transformers 2.”

That’s it from “Fringe,” look forward to it this fall on FOX.

-SS