Menu
What's new
Troll Kingdom

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Heroes: Origins dead (plus devious strikes and pens)

Eggs Mayonnaise

Eggs Mayonnaise

All In With The Nuts
NBC Shelves 'Heroes: Origins'
Strike fears lead to project's demise, at least for now

November 1, 2007

The not-yet-official Hollywood writers' strike has already claimed its first casualty: "Heroes: Origins," the planned anthology spun from NBC's "Heroes."

The network has put the six-episode series, which was slated to air in the spring, on the shelf -- at least partly in anticipation of a strike, the showbiz trade papers say. The Writers Guild of America's latest contract expired at midnight Wednesday (Oct. 31), and the guild and producers remain at loggerheads over several issues, most notably residuals for DVD sales.

The guild has a membership meeting planned for Thursday night, and its members could walk out as soon as Friday.

"Origins" attracted considerable buzz following its announcement last May. The show would have introduced six new characters into the "Heroes" universe and let the audience decide which one would stick around for the following season. Several big names were attached to the project -- Kevin Smith ("Clerks," "Dogma") and Eli Roth ("Hostel") were set to write and direct episodes, and "Superman Returns" co-writer Michael Dougherty was writing a third.

In addition to strike fears, NBC is also staring at fan dissatisfaction and a slight ratings slump for "Heroes." Critics and others have attacked the show's somewhat sluggish pace to start the season, and overall ratings are down a bit from last year, even with DVR usage factored in.

For all that, though, "Origins" isn't completely dead. The project could be revived for next season, but NBC didn't want to commit to it financially while facing the possibility of writers not working, the trades report.
Click to expand...
Strike shmike, it's because the ratings are softening.
 
I was initially against Kevin Smith writing an episode because he'd apparently never watched any Heroes before being offered the job, but considering the current writers are just recycling bits of last year's plot, I've changed my tune.

Heroes needs some life breathed into it. :(
 
I thought Heroes was much better after the first couple episodes.

OMG what are we going to do if the writers actually strike? It's gonna be one crappy reality show after the next.
 
Aren't most of the good shows already written most of the way through? BSG's gonna be done by Christmas, and so will Heroes and Lost most likely.
 
I read somewhere that if they strike we won't really be affected this year but next year. I can't take anymore bad reality TV, they're scraping the bottom of the barrel already. I like to have a couple good dramas to go along with the crap.
 
Most shows went into production earlier than usual this summer, I read that most of them should have new episodes to last till February. After that is when we get hit with the hurricane of reality and game shows.
 
I guess we will know the strike has kicked in around april when we tune into lost and see them all sat around playing cards and ad libbing to each other, while over on Heroes, Hiro spends the entire episode watching the trouble with tribbles.
 
Considering the pittance writers get compared to everyone else involved in a production you can't really blame them for wanting to strike.
 
Yeah but considering voyager and enteprise, there are some writers I'd like to strike, with an iron bar!
 
LOL, but they do pretty much the most important job. You could even get rid of actors with today's technology, but it's no good without a professional writer.
 
It's mostly about internet and DVD royalties, from what I've read. They're still catching up with the fact that much of the money is no longer made by mere TV airings.
 
I wonder if they're gonna strike or not :rwmad: I NEEDS MY TV DAMMIT!!

lol.. I should look for some news.
 
I can't feel all that bad for these writers to be honest...

My reaction to the whole thing was "life is hard".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top