Smoking Bianco
20-01-2007, 18:07
iF MAGAZINE: What is the break down in terms of episodes for the rest of the first season? <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
TIM KRING: There’s a seven-episode block, then we have five weeks off, and then we come back for five more. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
iF: NBC has already picked up HEROES for season 2 as well?
KRING: We were officially picked up for season two. Which is very rare for a show this early in it’s run.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
iF: When we talked before, you said you had storylines for season 2 mapped out, so how far ahead are you now?
KRING: We have storylines for season two, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that things change so quickly when you’re telling this kind of story that things have to evolve in an organic way. You try to get two characters together and you find the actors have no chemistry or the actors are unavailable, so you’re a fool if you lock yourself into set ideas too solidly. We also want to allow the show to tell us where it wants to go naturally. There is a tendency in this kind of storytelling to eat up story very quickly, so when you think something is going to be revealed in episode twenty you instead get to it in episode seventeen. Especially the kind of storytelling we’re doing where s**t happens. We’re focusing obviously on season one, and we’re at the end of the season now in terms of breaking the story and it is naturally leading into two in a natural organic way. We’re putting cards on board and it’s been very gratifying to see that it is still spinning for us. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
iF: Is it liberating in the writing process to have several characters to play with instead of one single character?
<o:p></o:p>
KRING: Ultimately, what I thought was going to be the most frustrating component has turned out to be its salvation. I thought it was going to kill us, because frankly the pilot was a very, very difficult thing to construct both on the page and in the editing room. Everyday we had a different cut, and it was a very challenging pilot to put together. I thought this was going to be the bane of my existence, trying to figure out how to cut between these stories and wondering if people would remember what’s going on if you come back twenty minutes later. The truth is, you drop immediately back into these scenes without any problem whatsoever. I think part of that is because the characters are so delineated from one another and the tones of the stories are so delineated from one another that you are never confused. The guy that can read minds never gets mixed up with the guy that can teleport. It’s also that the characters are real archetypes. They are big block characters. There’s a cheerleader, and a cop, and a dreamer, and I think it’s why the show was successful. It didn’t take a long time to get to know who these people were, like a lot of serialized television (http://www.ifmagazine.com/feature.asp?article=1857#). I watched the new shows with serialized casts, and I couldn’t really tell anyone apart. It was seeing that she was a little skinnier than that girl, and he’s better looking than the other guy but I didn’t have any handles to grab onto. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
iF: What sort of fan response are you getting now in mid-season?
KRING: The number one question that I get now whenever anyone comes up to talk to me is what’s going to happen with this, and where is this going. The truth is they don’t want to know. They tell you they do, but they would be very disappointed if they knew exactly where it was going. People like being on a collective thrill-ride and you can’t be on that ride if you are ahead of everyone. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
iF: When the first season DVD set is released are we going to be able to see all of the different footage not used in the various versions of the pilot?
KRING: Yes all of those scenes are going to be included absolutely. As you know, we cut a 72-minute version of the pilot and we will be including that on the DVD as well, which will be very different. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
iF: I have never seen the 72 minute pilot, the version I saw was slightly different with Santiago Cabrera’s character cutting off his hand and the Petrelli brothers’ flight sequence at the end was a bit different. In the version I saw Nathan doesn’t drop Peter.
KRING: Right. We actually went back and re-shot that scene. That was the only scene we re-shot from the pilot and we were able to spend a little more time with it and do it on a green-screen. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
iF: Are you ever going to address paradoxes and alternate time-lines in the “time travel” realm?
KRING: It makes your head spin the writers’ room, and we spend a lot of time thinking about it. We actually have an episode that we haven’t shot it yet, but it’s going to blow people’s minds and it's going to be the most talked about episode of the year and that’s going to be episode twenty. [Laughs] I mean, hopefully episode twenty will be the most talked about episode, but so far episode twenty feels like the one everyone is going to be talking about. This one deals specifically with the idea of time travel and it blows the doors off of a lot of what were doing with the show. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
You’ve only seen one so far, but you will notice a pattern with the show of what we call “departure episodes”. In other words, we pop off of the serialized story like we did with “Six Months Ago” and we’re going to do it in episode seventeen and again in episode twenty. These episodes are designed rather than to go linearly, to go vertically. So rather than having an experience of width you have an experience of depth; you know more and it enriches the show. They’re really a blast to do. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
iF: And we will be seeing Hiro battle a dinosaur?
KRING: Yes. That’s coming up very quickly.Again, we’re trying to cleverly pay of things, and hopefully have solutions that you didn’t see coming. The writers all got an exact replica of his sword and it becomes a very big thing in the next story arc.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
iF: Have you had pow-wows with show creators like Joss Whedon, where you guys sit and discuss working in genre based serialized television?
KRING: I haven’t yet. I don’t know whether I would be invited to that dinner party. [Laughs] <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
iF: Were you expecting the reaction to Horn Rimmed Glasses that you have gotten?
KRING: I love actors that are willing to go to extremes, like Jack Coleman is one of the best actors on the planet and he is so great at being this delicious bad guy. Kids by the way that I’ve talked to, are really flipped out by that character. I think it’s because again of the archetypes that we deal with on the show. I think it’s an archetype that kids are afraid that their parents aren’t who they say they are, and it really gets to kids. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
iF: The actors on the panel were joking about living in a climate of fear of dying on the show. How true is that?
KRING: I certainly don’t want to foster that. The truth is that this show needs to be able to kill off characters once in awhile. I think I talked to every single one of them very early on that, that was going to be the nature of the show. I also didn’t know I was going to become attached to them personally, and that I was going to become attached to their work. Sometimes, the greater good would be served by thinning the herd or killing off a character that people loved. It has to be a world where no one is safe. Syler would cease to be a bad guy and nothing bad could befall these people.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
The killing of Eden, by her own hand was a noble death. She was actually a much more interesting character as a bad guy instead of as a good guy. Then just when you liked her it was "oop now she’s dead." [Laughs] Again, it’s all part of the idea of giving the unexpected. It’s a very difficult thing to deliver because people expect everything. How many real genuine moments can you count on, and yet we have managed to deliver many of them.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
iF: My favorite of those so far was Claire on the autopsy table.
KRING: If you liked that, wait until you see episode thirteen. [Laughs]<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
iF: Will there be toys for this series? It seems like a tailor made fit.
KRING: Oh yeah. There will be toys. We are all over it. The people that I work with are fanatical toy guys who are making sure they are state of the art toys. Our brand is for the fans that will notice the difference between schlock and quality.
<o:p></o:p>
TIM KRING: There’s a seven-episode block, then we have five weeks off, and then we come back for five more. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
iF: NBC has already picked up HEROES for season 2 as well?
KRING: We were officially picked up for season two. Which is very rare for a show this early in it’s run.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
iF: When we talked before, you said you had storylines for season 2 mapped out, so how far ahead are you now?
KRING: We have storylines for season two, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that things change so quickly when you’re telling this kind of story that things have to evolve in an organic way. You try to get two characters together and you find the actors have no chemistry or the actors are unavailable, so you’re a fool if you lock yourself into set ideas too solidly. We also want to allow the show to tell us where it wants to go naturally. There is a tendency in this kind of storytelling to eat up story very quickly, so when you think something is going to be revealed in episode twenty you instead get to it in episode seventeen. Especially the kind of storytelling we’re doing where s**t happens. We’re focusing obviously on season one, and we’re at the end of the season now in terms of breaking the story and it is naturally leading into two in a natural organic way. We’re putting cards on board and it’s been very gratifying to see that it is still spinning for us. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
iF: Is it liberating in the writing process to have several characters to play with instead of one single character?
<o:p></o:p>
KRING: Ultimately, what I thought was going to be the most frustrating component has turned out to be its salvation. I thought it was going to kill us, because frankly the pilot was a very, very difficult thing to construct both on the page and in the editing room. Everyday we had a different cut, and it was a very challenging pilot to put together. I thought this was going to be the bane of my existence, trying to figure out how to cut between these stories and wondering if people would remember what’s going on if you come back twenty minutes later. The truth is, you drop immediately back into these scenes without any problem whatsoever. I think part of that is because the characters are so delineated from one another and the tones of the stories are so delineated from one another that you are never confused. The guy that can read minds never gets mixed up with the guy that can teleport. It’s also that the characters are real archetypes. They are big block characters. There’s a cheerleader, and a cop, and a dreamer, and I think it’s why the show was successful. It didn’t take a long time to get to know who these people were, like a lot of serialized television (http://www.ifmagazine.com/feature.asp?article=1857#). I watched the new shows with serialized casts, and I couldn’t really tell anyone apart. It was seeing that she was a little skinnier than that girl, and he’s better looking than the other guy but I didn’t have any handles to grab onto. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
iF: What sort of fan response are you getting now in mid-season?
KRING: The number one question that I get now whenever anyone comes up to talk to me is what’s going to happen with this, and where is this going. The truth is they don’t want to know. They tell you they do, but they would be very disappointed if they knew exactly where it was going. People like being on a collective thrill-ride and you can’t be on that ride if you are ahead of everyone. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
iF: When the first season DVD set is released are we going to be able to see all of the different footage not used in the various versions of the pilot?
KRING: Yes all of those scenes are going to be included absolutely. As you know, we cut a 72-minute version of the pilot and we will be including that on the DVD as well, which will be very different. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
iF: I have never seen the 72 minute pilot, the version I saw was slightly different with Santiago Cabrera’s character cutting off his hand and the Petrelli brothers’ flight sequence at the end was a bit different. In the version I saw Nathan doesn’t drop Peter.
KRING: Right. We actually went back and re-shot that scene. That was the only scene we re-shot from the pilot and we were able to spend a little more time with it and do it on a green-screen. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
iF: Are you ever going to address paradoxes and alternate time-lines in the “time travel” realm?
KRING: It makes your head spin the writers’ room, and we spend a lot of time thinking about it. We actually have an episode that we haven’t shot it yet, but it’s going to blow people’s minds and it's going to be the most talked about episode of the year and that’s going to be episode twenty. [Laughs] I mean, hopefully episode twenty will be the most talked about episode, but so far episode twenty feels like the one everyone is going to be talking about. This one deals specifically with the idea of time travel and it blows the doors off of a lot of what were doing with the show. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
You’ve only seen one so far, but you will notice a pattern with the show of what we call “departure episodes”. In other words, we pop off of the serialized story like we did with “Six Months Ago” and we’re going to do it in episode seventeen and again in episode twenty. These episodes are designed rather than to go linearly, to go vertically. So rather than having an experience of width you have an experience of depth; you know more and it enriches the show. They’re really a blast to do. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
iF: And we will be seeing Hiro battle a dinosaur?
KRING: Yes. That’s coming up very quickly.Again, we’re trying to cleverly pay of things, and hopefully have solutions that you didn’t see coming. The writers all got an exact replica of his sword and it becomes a very big thing in the next story arc.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
iF: Have you had pow-wows with show creators like Joss Whedon, where you guys sit and discuss working in genre based serialized television?
KRING: I haven’t yet. I don’t know whether I would be invited to that dinner party. [Laughs] <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
iF: Were you expecting the reaction to Horn Rimmed Glasses that you have gotten?
KRING: I love actors that are willing to go to extremes, like Jack Coleman is one of the best actors on the planet and he is so great at being this delicious bad guy. Kids by the way that I’ve talked to, are really flipped out by that character. I think it’s because again of the archetypes that we deal with on the show. I think it’s an archetype that kids are afraid that their parents aren’t who they say they are, and it really gets to kids. <o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
iF: The actors on the panel were joking about living in a climate of fear of dying on the show. How true is that?
KRING: I certainly don’t want to foster that. The truth is that this show needs to be able to kill off characters once in awhile. I think I talked to every single one of them very early on that, that was going to be the nature of the show. I also didn’t know I was going to become attached to them personally, and that I was going to become attached to their work. Sometimes, the greater good would be served by thinning the herd or killing off a character that people loved. It has to be a world where no one is safe. Syler would cease to be a bad guy and nothing bad could befall these people.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
The killing of Eden, by her own hand was a noble death. She was actually a much more interesting character as a bad guy instead of as a good guy. Then just when you liked her it was "oop now she’s dead." [Laughs] Again, it’s all part of the idea of giving the unexpected. It’s a very difficult thing to deliver because people expect everything. How many real genuine moments can you count on, and yet we have managed to deliver many of them.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
iF: My favorite of those so far was Claire on the autopsy table.
KRING: If you liked that, wait until you see episode thirteen. [Laughs]<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
iF: Will there be toys for this series? It seems like a tailor made fit.
KRING: Oh yeah. There will be toys. We are all over it. The people that I work with are fanatical toy guys who are making sure they are state of the art toys. Our brand is for the fans that will notice the difference between schlock and quality.