ABC's Once Upon a Time - Part 1

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This is a continuation thread, the old thread is [split]348626[/split]

 

[Sawyer]

We Grill Two Former Lost Writers on Their Dark Fairy Tale Pilot
2/14/11 at 3:30 PM

When Lost was on the air, pilot season was always abuzz with the question, "What's gonna be the next Lost?" Now that that show is over, the question has become all the more incessant, since many of its writers are free and now pitching new shows: Surely they know the secret to giving us an addictive new series dense with mythology! One pilot in development by Oceanic alumni that's currently being closely scrutinized and prayed for by Lost fans is ABC's Once Upon a Time. It's written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, who earned a rep for scripting some of Lost's funniest (and often most touching) episodes, like the season-three hour in which Hurley successfully started an old VW van on the island. Once Upon a Time (on which Damon Lindelof is also consulting) has a twisty, dual-plotted premise reminiscent of their previous gig: A young boy lives in Storybrooke, Maine, where he's convinced things aren't what they seem, and we also get glimpses — through flashbacks? flash-sideways? — of a fairy tale land where familiar evil queens and dwarves with sharply drawn personalities are quite real. Though the project is still early in its development and might not make it to air, the Lost-size hole in our heart propelled us to call up Kitsis and Horowitz to get some early details.

What is Once Upon a Time about?
Kitsis: What we want to do is take a look at well-known characters and stories and kind of dig deeper than what you know, and say, "Here's what you didn't know." We want to try to bring [the characters] out as people instead of just metaphors to deal with our fears
Horowitz: For us, first and foremost, this is a character show. We want to take the iconography that we've always loved and find find a new way to look at what makes these fairy-tale characters tick.

How was this idea born?
Horowitz: It was eight years ago. We had come off Felicity. And we got into a discussion about the kind of show we'd like to do, and why we write. We started talking about the myths and fairy tales that had inspired us, which led to, "How do you explore that in a new way?" We had no interest in retelling every story everyone knows.
Kitsis: And we started to say things like, "What if you were the evil queen? How annoying would it be to live in the enchanted forest ... [and] you have no hope of a happy ending?" It was that kind of weird take on it. We were younger writers, so people weren't in such a hurry to buy a crazy idea from two guys who were very young in their career. But the idea stuck with us.
Horowitz: The six years of Lost were rather intense and didn't really afford us the opportunity to develop it.
Kitsis: Then when Lost ended, ABC came to us and asked if we wanted to do our own show. We said we'd like to do this. They immediately said, "Great." And the very first thing we did was go to Damon and said, "Here's this crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy idea. Is this a show?" He's really been a godfather to us in helping us shape this.

In the pilot script, you cut between two worlds — Fairytale Land and Storybrooke — and two different times. Lost didn't invent flashbacks, of course, but it definitely seems you're borrowing a technique that's worked before.
Kitsis: After six years of Lost, the DNA of that show is in us. We just found it to be an effective way to tell this [story]. The Lost pilot was wide enough and included enough things so that when season five came, and we spent half of the year in 1973, nobody cried foul. It felt like it was already a part of the DNA. We want to go into battle with as many tools as we can so we can tell as many stories in as many ways as possible.
Horowitz: This [technique] was the best way of telling the story in the pilot. If we're lucky enough to move forward, we'd love to explore many different ways to tell stories.

Will this be a show, like Lost, that you need to watch religiously to fully understand?
Kitsis: There will be self-contained stories in each episode. [And] there will be a larger mythology at work. But it's not like if you miss an episode one week, you can't catch up.

Tell me more about how Damon has been involved with the development so far.
Kitsis: He's been great in every situation. We can go to him and say, "We just got this phone call [from the network] — what does it mean?" And he's able to translate that because he's been through it all. What Damon has been really great about is helping us find our vision for the show.

Will we see other Lost-ies pitch in on Once Upon a Time? Maybe Michael Giacchino doing the score?
Kitsis: I would love to have Michael for the score! I would kill for him. But I think he's a little busy right now doing movies. There are some things that might pop up. Geronimo Jackson might appear on the show at some point.

Trying to tell stories with characters we all know could be tricky, especially when it comes to bringing humor to stories. Things could easily get cheesy or corny real fast, right?
Horowitz: It really comes down to grounding it in real characters. If what the characters are doing is real, you have license to be as funny as you want to be. On Lost, Hurley was very funny, but he never told jokes. He never had pratfalls.
Kitsis: The two favorite episodes of Lost that Adam and I wrote were "Dave," which was where Hurley has an imaginary friend, and "Trisha Tanaka is Dead," where Hurley finds a van and starts it. That feeling you got when the Three Dog Night song plays, and Hurley gets the van started — that's what we wanted this to be. It's funny like that. We don't want it to be "Wink, wink, aren't we clever." We want it to feel real and emotional. We want people to be swept up in the story and stop saying, "Hey, there's Pinnochio!" and instead say, "Oh, there's a child with a problem."

So this show won't be afraid to get a little twisted?
Kitsis: We're not doing the 12-year-old kid version of this. We're gonna tell stories that are dark and complex and emotional. They're not going to be lowered for younger people. Because at the end of the day, we want to do something that doesn't suck.
Horowitz: Not sucking is very, very important.

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/02/lost_kitsis_horowitz_new_show.html

I'm plenty intrigued. I hope this all works out.

 

[Specter313]

My guess: Stranger is [BLACKOUT]Rumple's son. There's a production still of the next episode floating around in which it appears Rumple is giving his dagger to his son. It could explain Stranger's 'shin splints' if he's carrying that dagger around his ankle.[/BLACKOUT]

The only thing I think going against that is the fact that I think we're supposed to believe that Rumple is really, really old so [blackout]his son[/blackout] is likely long dead in the fairy tale world. Take for example, in Rumple's initial backstory ep, they were either fighting the first or second Ogre War. In Red's ep, Granny said in her speech in the town hall that the second Ogre War happened over 60 years prior. So unless something happened to him to give him immortality like Rumple or put in some kind of stasis until the curse happened, he likely died of old age.

 

[Sawyer]

TV Line:

Once Upon a Time: Emilie de Ravin to Return as Belle! Plus, a Frenemy Is Back!
by Vlada Gelman

Lost beauty Emilie de Ravin will return to ABC’s Once Upon a Time, TVLine has confirmed.

Additionally, True Blood vamp Kristin Bauer van Straten will be back as the Evil Queen’s fairy tale frenemy Maleficent in a May sweeps installment.

De Ravin, who plays Rumpel’s true love Belle, will reprise her role in an episode airing next month. While her fairy tale character was recently seen giving love advice to dwarf Grumpy, it’s been a while since viewers have glimpsed her Storybrooke counterpart, who has been locked up in a ward by Regina.

“She’s sitting there [alive], with the person who loves her [Rumpelstiltskin] not realizing it, and he would be someone I would not want to piss off,” co-creator Eddie Kitsis previously teased.

to both.

I hope Mal's got a new costume, though...

 

[Specter313]

Gold's gonna be so pissed when he finds out Regina has Belle stashed away like she does.

 

[Destructus86]

Gold's gonna be so pissed when he finds out Regina has Belle stashed away like she does.

Oh yeah. There's gonna be a whole lot of WRATH going on at that point.

 

[Donut]

Mr. Gold will be Gold Smashing Hulk style when he finds that out

 

[Sawyer]

Short Description of "The Stranger"...

Spoiler

August takes Emma on a journey that will show her how to beat Regina and possibly attain custody of Henry; Regina tries to seduce David.

http://www.ksitetv.com/once-upon-a-...isode-20-the-stranger-short-description/13271

lol at the bolded part. This ***** is getting desperate.

 

[Prison Mike]

Regina is already sexy just standing there. Imagine her trying...t:

 

[Donut]

Short Description of "The Stranger"...

Spoiler

http://www.ksitetv.com/once-upon-a-...isode-20-the-stranger-short-description/13271

lol at the bolded part. This ***** is getting desperate.

I would imagine that Mary would want nothing to do with David after being proved that she is innocent & then Regina would want to do the next best thing. Take Prince Charming away from Snow White permanently. Makes sense in a Regina strange way

 

[Destructus86]

Something i've been curious about...do Mr. Gold and Ragina have magic in the "cursed" world? Because there IS magic...for example, the hearts. The fact they can't leave. So, if those two know who they are...don't they also have magic?

 

[spideyboy_1111]

Something i've been curious about...do Mr. Gold and Ragina have magic in the "cursed" world? Because there IS magic...for example, the hearts. The fact they can't leave. So, if those two know who they are...don't they also have magic?

its possible. though, i'm not quite sure why they'd go through so much trouble black mailing people when they could just use "magical persuasion"

 

[Destructus86]

ah true...so maybe the curse only effects people. Now that I think about it, that is likely it since it seems objects are not affected.

 

[The Question]

its possible. though, i'm not quite sure why they'd go through so much trouble black mailing people when they could just use "magical persuasion"

They were always blackmailing and manipulating people in Fairy Tale land as well. Maybe jedi mind tricks are just a power neither of them has.

Although, in Rumple's case, it might just be that he enjoys playing people more than magicking them into doing things for him.

 

[JP]

Has there been any indication of what they plan in doing season 2?

 

[<(o_o)>]

Has there been any indication of what they plan in doing season 2?

Probably more of the same only with a few new fairytale characters.

 

[Donut]

Has there been any indication of what they plan in doing season 2?

The first thing that has to happen is for Emma to become a believer about the curse. Then once she fully believes. The next thing to do would be is to get everyone else to start remembering. I would think she would want to start with mom & dad in that regard

 

[jaymes_e06]

^That would be my guess but riddle me this; what would they do once they all started to remember? Would they overthrow Regina and Mr. Gold? Try and get back? See what I'm saying?

 

[<(o_o)>]

^That would be my guess but riddle me this; what would they do once they all started to remember? Would they overthrow Regina and Mr. Gold? Try and get back? See what I'm saying?

Who would want to give up the luxuries of the 21st century to go ancient times?

 

[Primal Slayer]

Not as if they are using it that much right now anyway. Plus they have magic.

 

[xisaacx]

Fables

 

[Sawyer]

I just realized that the Mad Hatter's name being Jefferson was probably a reference to Jefferson Airplane, since they did the song "White Rabbit". I can't believe I didn't put two and two together sooner...

 

[Doc Vape]

I just started watching this....from the dreamy/grumpy episode forward
Plus caught episode 1 on abc.com

Unfortunately Hulu.com does not allow me to watch episodes on my ipad

 

[carrrnuttt]

Unfortunately Hulu.com does not allow me to watch episodes on my ipad

If you have an iPad, just download the ABC app. That's why you can't watch in on Hulu, because they'd rather you watch it with their app.

 

[Speedball]

I just realized that the Mad Hatter's name being Jefferson was probably a reference to Jefferson Airplane, since they did the song "White Rabbit". I can't believe I didn't put two and two together sooner...

WHOA! I didn't even think of that either, but it totally makes sense.