Who owns the rights to Lost?

[Obiwanshinobi]

Cuse and Lindleof have said they've told their story. And they don't have any plans for a spinoff, but would probably not object to one being made by somebody else, if that was ABC's decision. It was in the Bill Simmon's interview on his podcast, I think.

I ready this morning that the Lost: Complete series DVD/Blue Ray compilation will have 20 to 30 minutes of additional content, mainly focusing on Ben and Hurley's time on the island before what we saw in the end of the episode. Also said that its pretty self contained, but could be a possibility. Here's the source:

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/tvnews.php?id=66430

Michael Emerson dropped by the G4's "Attack of the Show" this week and revealed that the "Lost: The Complete Collection" Blu-ray and DVD sets, coming to stores on August 24, will have more on Hurley and Ben Linus' story after where the series finale ended.

"Well, for those people that want to pony up and buy the Complete Lost Series, there is a bonus feature, which is, uhm, you could call it an epilogue, a lost scene," he said. "It's a lot, it's 12 or 14 minutes that opens a window onto that gap of unknown time between Hurley becoming number one and the end of the series."

Asked if that could lead to a spin-off series with Hurley and Ben Linus, he added, "It's self-contained, although it's a rich period in the show's mythology that's never been explored, so who knows what will come of it."

You can check out the interview yourself using the player below! The DVD version of the set is available for pre-ordering here and Blu-ray version here.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

If ABC really has to capitalize on Lost, they should do it in a oblique manner. No characters from Lost, definitely no return to the island. Center it on Dharma and the Hanso Foundation, but set it in the normal world, not on people trapped anyplace. Base the story on the notion that there are mystical "centers of power" (ley lines) around the planet that can do some interesting stuff.

Or, just make Sawyer & Straume. Finally, a cop show I'd watch!

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

More ratings news: in the Top 15 shows for the season in the 18-49 demo Lost tied with Grey's Anatomy at #6. Amongst scripted shows, the two shows were tied at #2 for the season in the demo.

 

[McCoy]

Here's an idea: re-do the finale with emphasis on plot. Resolve the mysteries of the island once and for all. Then everyone can be happy.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

If they're going to put the plot first, they're going to have to back up and re-do more than just the finale. I think where the plot went wrong was with Jacob - when you introduce an overly magical element that controls everything, it's carte blanche for lazy writing. Why did that [very convenient thing that allowed the writers to get out of the corner they wrote themselves into] happen? Jacob wanted it that way! End of discussion.

In fact, they might have to backtrack further. For instance, the silliness of characters escaping the island only to decide later, for vague, hand-waving reasons, that THEY HAVE TO GO BACK! Without a magical element drawing them back, there's no excuse for that.

Delete that magical, writers'-ass-save element and the writers have to write a story that works on its own terms, and isn't just a series of things that happen, that we like because they let the characters do characteristic things.

Jack can't be Jack if he's just moping around a hospital. He has to be on the island, being a histrionic control freak, and eventually learning to "let go." He can learn that only on the island and that - not for the sake of any intelligible plot - is why he "had" to go back.

Or maybe the plot went wrong when they invalidated all the fuss about pushing the button by letting Desmond flake on it, yet the world didn't explode. The excuse for that apparently was Desmond's magical immunity to electomagnetism - yet another writer-ass-save by fiat.

Lost, re-written to put plot and not characters first, would be an utterly different show.

 

[Ryan8bit]

definitely no return to the island.

Not having the island would be like a Star Trek show without space. Yeah, it could probably be done, but might also be kinda boring.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I don't think Lost is about the island the way Star Trek is about space. If you discount the idea that Lost is really about the characters, then it's about the universe created by the series, in which oddball things happen, secret organizations try to manipulate things, and everything is frustratingly vague and unknowable, yet everyone strives mightily to figure it all out (when they aren't pouting or trying to kill each other). You could set a Lost-feeling series in the regular world.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

You know what series is like Lost, set in LA, minus the big mythology?
Crash: The Series on the Starz network.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Crash isn't going to have sci fi content. (If it is, that might make it worth checking out.) I would definitely not lose the sci fi content - I'd have time travel and wacky stuff happening in LA.

And I would prefer to set it anywhere besides LA. Or "Seattle." There should be a few locations on the planet where the wacky stuff happen, and the show would be largely set in one of those places. But it wouldn't be cut off from the rest of reality. Maybe Morocco...

So I'd resurrect the old Lost theory of ley lines. Like so.

Lost may have a new owner soon, if Disney can find anyone who wants to buy ABC. Maybe we should pool our funds and buy ABC. Sounds like it'll be going cheap....

 

[Ryan8bit]

I don't think Lost is about the island the way Star Trek is about space.

I dunno about that. They're both settings that are a means to tell the story. There's stories that can be told without them or with very little focus on them, but ultimately that's what it always has to come back to.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

why not seattle? What other shows are based in Seattle, other than Grey's Anatomy? And I guess the 4400 and Dead Like Me. Although the latter 2 shows look nothing like Seattle. I haven't watched Grey's Anatomy.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I object to "Seattle," eg, shows shot in Vancouver for the tax credits that then go on to claim it's Seattle. They do that way too frakken much.

I don't think Lost is about the island the way Star Trek is about space.

I dunno about that. They're both settings that are a means to tell the story. There's stories that can be told without them or with very little focus on them, but ultimately that's what it always has to come back to.

We haven't seen a show in the Lost universe attempt to tell a story outside the island, so we don't know whether it would work. My hunch is that it would.

Star Trek is about Starfleet patrolling and defending the Federation, with occasional bouts of exploration, and that needs to happen in space. Lost is about crazy mystical energies on planet Earth - which do not need to be limited to just on the island - so it could work anyplace on Earth.

The island is to Lost as the USS Enterrpise is to Star Trek. I can remember when people said you couldn't have Star Trek without the USS Enterprise. They just didn't have the imagination to see how it could be done.

 

[Shatnertage]

The only spinoff I want to see is the sideways Sawyer-Miles cop show. Nothing else!

That, and the Ben/Locke teachers' show.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

I object to "Seattle," eg, shows shot in Vancouver for the tax credits that then go on to claim it's Seattle. They do that way too frakken much.

I don't think Lost is about the island the way Star Trek is about space.

I dunno about that. They're both settings that are a means to tell the story. There's stories that can be told without them or with very little focus on them, but ultimately that's what it always has to come back to.

We haven't seen a show in the Lost universe attempt to tell a story outside the island, so we don't know whether it would work. My hunch is that it would.

Star Trek is about Starfleet patrolling and defending the Federation, with occasional bouts of exploration, and that needs to happen in space. Lost is about crazy mystical energies on planet Earth - which do not need to be limited to just on the island - so it could work anyplace on Earth.

The island is to Lost as the USS Enterrpise is to Star Trek. I can remember when people said you couldn't have Star Trek without the USS Enterprise. They just didn't have the imagination to see how it could be done.

Oh right. Maybe I'm just biased being from Seatlte and all that I feel like there should be more shows based in here. You do have a point, we really missed the boat and hiked up the taxes. All those shows and movies could have been shot up here, but noooooo we got greedy.

 

[Ryan8bit]

Lost is about crazy mystical energies on planet Earth - which do not need to be limited to just on the island - so it could work anyplace on Earth.

I think the energies do need to be confined to the island and that it's the only place that's the main source of the light. It needs to be remote and hidden from humanity, and what better than an island that people have trouble finding?

 

[Temis the Vorta]

You do have a point, we really missed the boat and hiked up the taxes. All those shows and movies could have been shot up here, but noooooo we got greedy.

Don't feel bad, the only reason that shows are set in faux-Seattle is because it's hard to pass off Vancouver as any other America city.

I think the energies do need to be confined to the island and that it's the only place that's the main source of the light.

I like the notion that the island has a wide reach around the world - if it really is the "repository of souls" or something, then it has to reach out to all the places where there are souls on the planet. And unless there's a connection to Morocco, how do people get from the island to Morocco? There are tendrils or a web of ley lines emanating from the island, but they are so diminished that they aren't normally perceived. On the island, they smack you in the face.

 

[Hunter X]

You do have a point, we really missed the boat and hiked up the taxes. All those shows and movies could have been shot up here, but noooooo we got greedy.

Don't feel bad, the only reason that shows are set in faux-Seattle is because it's hard to pass off Vancouver as any other America city.

Now, passing Vancouver off as multiple extraterrestrial cities...that it can do.

 

[Kelso]

I'd like a Dharma show. Just have a group from the Dharma Initiative zapped back in time, or forward in time, or to another dimension, or another planet (or some such thing) and give them a big mystery. I'd watch it.

 

[Mallet]

Don't feel bad, the only reason that shows are set in faux-Seattle is because it's hard to pass off Vancouver as any other America city.

We are actually expanding our horizons now days.

With Fringe filming here we are also posing as New York & Boston.

Although I guess we have also posed as almost every possible American city at one point or another over the course of the filming of Supernatural.

In fact it's very rare that Vancouver actually gets to "play itself" on American TV series. It did on Wiseguy and Highlander back in the day. I'm not sure when/where else.

 

[Beagleman]

The only spinoff I want to see is the sideways Sawyer-Miles cop show. Nothing else!

That, and the Ben/Locke teachers' show.

Great idea, too. Ben having to deal with taking care of his father, regrets in his life and a slow developing romance between him and the mother of one of his students. Locke coping with his existance in a wheelchair and difficult marriage... And lots and lots of Alex!