New SciFi Wire Article

The status and storylines of Jordan (Bill Campbell), Alana (Karina Lombard), Kevin (Jeffrey Combs) and Ryland (Peter Coyote) are revealed in this interview with Ira Steven Behr.

Pictures, videos and more, OH MY!

All of the content below is used with written permission from the USA Network. Please do not repost it on your own web site and be sure to link back to us when referencing it! Thank you.

I have confirmed with the USA Network that this is, indeed, the new official logo and graphic for the show this season. Click to see the high-res version. It looks really sharp, USANetwork people! It's much more organic than the previous one, which looked like some kind of government logo. That wasn't objectionable because of course NTAC is a pseudo-government agency, but I think the shifting of focus into a human us-against-them drama is a good one. Telling the stories of the 4400 returnees juxtaposed with the government conspiracy stuff is always what this show has done best, so the logo change is particularly effective in this regard.

Below are the promotional photographs that do NOT contain spoilers. I will simply put a hyperlink to the ones that do, so that those of you who want to see them, can, and those of you who want to remain "unspoiled" can do so as well.

CLICK TO SEE A HI-RES VERSION!






Here are the direct links to the graphics that could be even slightly spoilery. PLEASE USE CAUTION. These DO give away plot points of the premiere and beyond:

• http://assets.electricartists.com/assets/4400/FFH0603_EPS20_21_AZ0026.jpg
• http://assets.electricartists.com/assets/4400/FFH0603_EPS20_21_AZ0171.jpg
• http://assets.electricartists.com/assets/4400/FFH0603_EPS20_21_AZ0260.jpg
• http://assets.electricartists.com/assets/4400/FFH0603_EPS20_21_AZ0348.jpg
• http://assets.electricartists.com/assets/4400/FFH0603_EPS20_21_AZ0728.jpg
• http://assets.electricartists.com/assets/4400/FFH0603_EPS20_21_AZ0408.jpg

As if that weren't enough, I've also got PREVIEW VIDEOS. They're the same ones that are on the USA site, but these are in WMV format for your downloading and personal use and viewing. Obviously, these are spoiler heaven. Please be considerate and right-click and save these to your own hard drive before viewing instead of playing them directly off the servers, and do NOT hotlink anywhere!

• Season 3 Preview
• Jordan Collier
• Tom Baldwin
• Richard Tyler
• Diana Skouris
• Maia Skouris
• Shawn Farrell

I will be posting any and all goodies I get from the network in the near future, including a big giveaway contest that will be giving away season 1 and 2 dvds, t-shirts, hats and zip goodies, as well as possible interviews with the cast and crew. Thank you to the folks at USA Network for their amazing generosity with this site!!!

As a totally minor footnote, the counter has been fixed and is now visible again. :)

Official S3 Press Release

Hot off the presses, y'all. I just got a hold of tons and tons of promotional awesomeness straight from the USA Network that I am making available to you. Because I love. So very much.

***

Taken for a reason. Returned with a purpose.

THE 4400
A USA NETWORK ORIGINAL SERIES
RETURNS FOR SEASON THREE
ON SUNDAY, JUNE 11 AT 9:00PM ET/PT

THE 4400, the critically-acclaimed series that chronicles the reappearance of 4400 people previously reported missing or dead, returns for a third season on Sunday, June 11 as a two-hour special from 9:00-11:00 PM ET/PT on USA Network, and then will air as weekly one-hour episodes at 9:00pm ET/PT starting Sunday, June 18.

THE 4400 premiered as a limited series on July 11, 2004 on USA Network as the highest-rated and most-watched new series premiere ever on a basic cable network. Last summer, the show ranked as the #1 original scripted series on cable in P18-49, beating every other cable network’s new series launches. THE 4400 received three Emmy nominations in its first season, including Outstanding Miniseries, as well as Outstanding Writing and Cinematography for a Miniseries or Movie.

Before the much-anticipated third season launch, fans and newcomers have two opportunities to familiarize themselves with the show or to finally see what they’ve been missing out on! In a first for a cable network, on Sunday, June 4 USA will air THE 4400 Special: Unlocking the Secrets from 10:00pm-11:00pm ET/PT - a powerful one-hour clip special reintroducing the past events of the show to prepare fans for the third season. Earlier in the day, audiences can tune in to THE 4400 Marathon: The Essential Episodes from 9:00am-10:00pm ET/PT.

THE 4400 stars Billy Campbell (“Once and Again”) as Jordan Collier, Joel Gretsch (“Taken”) as Tom Baldwin, Jacqueline McKenzie (“Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood”) as Diana Skouris, Patrick Flueger (“The Princess Diaries”) as Shawn Farrell, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali (“Crossing Jordan”) as Richard Tyler, Conchita Campbell (“Scary Movie 4”) as Maia Rutledge and Samantha Ferris (“The L Word”) as NTAC Director Nina Jarvis. In addition to the return of the original cast, Karina Lombard (“The L Word”) joins as a series regular playing Alana Mareva. Megalyn Echikunwoke (“That ’70s Show,” “Supernatural”) joins the cast as the newly grown-up Isabelle. Peter Coyote (“Commander in Chief”) returns as Dennis Ryland in the season opener.

The third season sparks a new beginning for the 4400 people who, over a span of years, mysteriously disappeared - only to be returned to Earth all together in a ball of light. Though the returnees had not aged physically, many of them reappeared with dramatic abilities ranging from enhanced reflexes to precognition. NTAC (National Threat Assessment Command) is the government agency responsible for keeping track of the returnees and investigating all things related to the 4400.

The premiere picks up mere seconds after we last saw a year-old baby, Isabelle, become a beautiful twenty-year old woman. Her father, Richard, is forced to deal with his daughter’s sudden transformation – and an even more surprising change in his wife, Lily. Meanwhile, Tom and Diana pursue a radical 4400 organization called the Nova Group that has launched attacks against Dennis Ryland and the other bureaucrats that they perceive as threats.

THE 4400 was created by Scott Peters and Rene Echevarria. Ira Steven Behr, Scott Peters, Maira Suro and Perry Simon are executive producers. THE 4400 is produced by CBS Paramount Network Television in Association with Sky Television, Renegade 83 and American Zoetrope for USA Network.

Fans seeking the truth about the destiny of THE 4400 learn all they need to know at USANetwork.com. The official site of THE 4400 offers the opportunity to examine the returnees through detailed profiles, weekly blogs by the characters, and exclusive webisodes that go beyond the script. Videos interviews with the cast and crew, blogs by the series writers and episode guides offer fans additional clues as to where the show is headed. And in time for the season three premiere, viewers will discover which 4400 they resemble thanks to an interactive personality profiler that pairs fans and 4400 characters.

CBS Paramount Network Television is a division of CBS Studios Inc.

USA NETWORK is cable television's leading provider of original series and feature movies, sports and entertainment events, off-net television shows, and blockbuster theatrical films. The #1 basic cable network across the board in 1Q06, USA Network is seen in 90 million U.S. homes. The USA Network Web site is located at www.usanetwork.com. Characters Welcome.

USA Network is a program service of NBC Universal Cable a division of NBC Universal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience.

****

I will be posting the promotional materials, like the videos and special cast photos, in my very next post. =) Enjoy!!

Season 2 DVDs - DISH, PEOPLE.

I don't have the S2 DVDs yet (they are on order!) but since it came out yesterday, those of you who have gotten it, let us know what you think of the extras, commentaries, etc. What do you think? Well worth the expenditure or still slim on the special features? The S1 miniseries had NOTHING, though, so I guess anything's an improvement!

And if you haven't gotten yours yet, do try to buy it from the Amazon.com link there on the lower right hand corner. It's cheap at Amazon, and the commission will go toward eventually purchase ctual server space for this web site so that it's not on Blogspot anymore. =)

New Layout Hotness!

In celebration of the upcoming third season, I've completely revamped the layout of 4400fans.com. A few little details, like the now-blinding count down to S3, still need hammering out, but I'm pretty happy with the way it looks. I made it a light background with dark text, as several people told me the other version was hard on the eye. I'm gonna miss all that fluorescent green though!

Go check it out and tell me what you think in the comments!

Unlocking The Secrets - Online

Yahoo! TV now has an entire web page dedicated to The 4400 which has a bunch of S3 promotional galleries (some with new characters, for you spoilerphobes reading this) and, most importantly, the clip show Unlocking the Secrets of The 4400.

It has only a brief trailer for the S3 season premiere at the end, but it is a nice recap of the first two seasons as well. Unfortunately, it's only viewable if you're browsing from the United States, but we know someone who knows someone who's working on making it available to the rest of you, so we'll keep you posted. =) As we previously reported, it's a Yahoo! exclusive for now, but next week, it'll go on the official site and then be aired on the USA Network itself as well as NBCU outlets SciFi and Bravo.

Cujoy has posted seven new promotional stills from the S3 season premiere, including what may be the show's new logo (pictured right). The pictures are all found here. I personally really like the people-shadow effect of the new logo. It is a little more organic than the clinical looking older one. The pictures aren't that spoilery. There are 2 actors that have never appeared on the show before the S3 premiere, but the pictures don't give away who they are or what their roles on the show may be. (Seriously, guys, I'm stumped on that last guy.)

Pre-Season 3 Promotional Goodness

Everyone go say hi and be extra nice to the awesomeness that is Kimi, the new contributor here at 4400fans =) Thanks to her, and her friend Elien over at Conchita-Campbell.org, 4400fans is about to get a whole new look and header and stuff. I'm of various minds about using an actual graphic from the show for the header for copyright reasons, so if anyone from NBC/ USA is lurking here and takes offense to this idea, please drop me a line and let me know and I'll keep the park bench theme.

Cujoy has posted the recent casting-sides spoilers for episode 3.9. Small but amusing Shawn plot line. Details can be found here. There are also thumbnails available for viewing of about half a dozen new S3 promo pictures. Warning: one of them is spoilery about an S3 plotline. They can be seen here. It concerns me that Richard Kahan, Laura Allen and Chad Faust are not part of the promotional pictures AT ALL. Richard, I guess I can kind of understand, since we're still not 100% sure that he's a regular, but I'm starting to wonder if Laura and Chad are even on this show any more. Maybe they were both just busy that day?



I have no idea where this is from, but here's an article from Us Weekly on Patrick Flueger all shirtless and scruffy and stuff. He looks good, though he mentions having a girlfriend! Patrick, did what we have mean nothing to you? I feel so USED AND BETRAYED, or something! ;)

Ten Questions with DragonCon Staffer Dayna Baldwin

I recently got a moment to sit down and chat with my childhood friend and DragonCon volunteer staffer Dayna Baldwin, who is actively involved in broadening this mega-convention's programming for The 4400. She had a lot of interesting things to say about what's in store for fans of The 4400 at this year's convention, which takes place Labor Day Weekend in Atlanta, GA. My questions are in bold, and her answers are directly below them.

Tell me a little bit about what kinds of events the SciFi track staff puts together for sci-fi fans. Is it the biggest track at the convention?
[The] American Scifi [Track] primarily features discussion panels, Q&A with actors, writers, and other members of the entertainment industry, as well as providing social venues for fans of the various television shows we focus on to meet up and share what they love about their favorite programs. I honestly couldn't say if it's the largest track at the convention, but I would definitely say it's one of the biggest.

What do you do as a staff member? For what are you responsible?
As a volunteer staffer, I'm involved both the planning for the track as well as its execution during the con. Lead by our track director Aaron Dunne, we determine what shows will be recieving coverage and how much, which is generally based on what guests will be joining us that year. During the convention itself, my job is to help set up the track, and along with my fellow volunteers, keep it running smoothly and our director Aaron sane!

The 4400 is in its third season. What made the SciFi Track decide to include it now and not before?
I think part of the problem is that "science fiction" is such a general term. There's another track that has an emphasis on alien abduction - our X-Track run by
Lee Bennett, and there might have been some initial confusion as to [what should be included in that].

What kind of turnout are you expecting?
Dragon*Con has about 25,000 to 30,000 people coming through its doors throughout the course of the con!

Are you hoping to get actors from The 4400 to make appearances at the convention? What's involved in that happening?
We'd love to see actors from The 4400 at Dragon*Con! If any of the performers would like to attned, they or their management are welcome to go here and download the registration application, fill it out, and submit it to Dragon*Con's
Guest Services Committee.

What kinds of topics do you hope to cover that will include The 4400?
We're going to have at least one 'Beginner's Guide' sort of topic, to sort of go over the story thus far, and allow people who are potential new fans of the show to find out more information about it. We're also hoping for panel discussions that are also more topic specific. In fact, we're really trying to encourage feedback from fans of The 4400... to give us potential topic ideas.

How can 4400 fans get involved in helping to plan the panels/ events/ etc?
There are two ways to keep aware and be able to share your thought on the track's development. The first is through our Yahoo Group which can be joined by emailing
DCon-SF-Television-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. We also have a Livejournal Community.

Tell us a little bit about the fan video competition that's happening.
We're doing our first ever fanvid competition. [Note: They are actively recruiting 4400 vids - I already submitted Purpleyin's!] The full details can be found at our livejournal as well as the main Dragoncon livejournal community, as well as the Yahoo group archives. We've already got our first submissions in, and some of them are really amazing work!

So people don't have to be AT DragonCon to submit a video? Can they submit other people's videos?
You don't have to attend the convention to participate. We're accepting three submissions per vidder - which means if you submit three for yourself, you can still submit up to three belonging to as many other vidders as you want. The videos will be shown at the convention, and after the con I'll be posting the master list of submissions for anyone who wants to watch them but was unable to make the convention.

What other kinds of things should fans of The 4400 and other scifi look forward to at the convention?
There's so much to see and do, I'd be surprised if anyone attending couldn't fill up all the hours of their day! In addition to all the current tracks like Star Trek, Star Wars, X-Track, Film, Comics, Gaming, etc - there are also currently two new additions: Silk Road which will emphasize Asian cinema, and Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, which will focus on the written word. In the evenings there's always dances and concerts and various competitions like the Dawn Look-Alike contest and the Masquerade. So I can guarantee that there's something for everyone at Dragon*Con. It's definitely the biggest convention of its kind in the Southern US, if not the entire country.


***

Thanks for your time, Dayna! And see you Labor Day weekend. ;)

USA to Air Compilation Ep, Web Site to Finally Join 21st Century

On May 21, USA [network] will release a special "4400" compilation episode - "The 4400 Special: Unlocking the Secrets"-designed to introduce the show to new viewers. The episode will premiere exclusively on Yahoo TV for one week, then will air on USA's Web site, and next will appear on USA's regular network, as well as on fellow NBCU outlets Sci Fi and Bravo.

This summer, USA will also expand "4400" content online, adding Web exclusives such as audio podcasts, an "interactive diary" game and weekly blogs from writers, producers and characters on the show.

[source]

WOW. That's amazing. Hopefully, unlike its current set-up, it all works on Firefox. I'M JUST SAYIN'.

And the moral of the story is...

Being a pushy broad pays off.

This week, I have had a chance to personally ask both Amy Amatangelo aka TVGal at Zap2It.com and the E! Channel's Kristin Vietch about the conspicuous absence of The 4400 coverage in their columns. And I have to preface this by saying I absolutely adore both their columns and them personally, so please take any and all haterade elsewhere, thanks!

First, I jokingly threatened to actually send Kristin the S1 DVDs via the E!Offices if she didn't start scooping on this show soon. She told me that the omission had been by default - there's just been a lot going on with the traditional season's May sweeps and she just hadn't had a chance to mention it yet, but she says she watches and really likes the show and does plan on covering it in her column this year. Huzzah!

I also emailed the TVGal being all "OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU LEFT OFF THE 4400 IN YOUR SUMMER TV RECS LIST!" I was substantially less psycho adamant about it, though. I did point out that The 4400 was cable's highest rated show for a reason (it kicks butt AND chews bubble gum, and is currently ALL OUT OF BUBBLE GUM). Her supernice response was that she could not BELIEVE she had left off The 4400! She promised me that she would definitely talk about it more when the show started up. This makes for a happy RandomAbductee indeed.

Much love for Amy and Kristin as always. Thank you, ladies!

TVGuide Channel Features The 4400

I can't stop posting today, I'm sorry.

Thanks to Cujoy over on 4400Spoilers on LiveJournal for this heads up. This is a couple of weeks old, but still cool, especially if you're hankering for a Bill Campbell or Mahershalalhashbaz Ali fix.

The TVGuide channel a show called InFanity, which does features on different TV shows. They recently featured The 4400. This is a very cool little video. It features brand new interviews with Joel, Jacqui, Patrick, Karina, Billy, and Mahershalahashbaz. There is also an interview with Scott Peters. It is only very mildly spoilery and should be safe for most of us to view, even the spoilerphobes.

Our friends and affiliates at KarinaWorld have put up the entire video up in two parts:

Part One
Part Two.

Cast Website Updates

This week, the always fabulous Jacqui "No Relation to Benjamin" McKenzie launched her official site and it is COMPLETELY AWESOME! It not just has her music (and just as a reminder: you can hear her song that was featured in the finale of The 4400 by visiting her MySpace site) but lots of new pictures, a wonderful gallery of her artwork, a newsblog she updates herself, which will prove to be useful to moi, seeing as she does not update her MySpace blog, links, contact info, you name it.

Anyway, that is one great official site - even though there are still some areas under construction, absolutely nothing is missing. There are only some placeholders for her photo albums, but the pages themselves have some really gorgeous pictures of Jacqui from a shoot I've never seen before. Rock the 1940s glam, girlfriend! And color me impressed!

I've also discovered that Kaj Erik Eriksen ("Danny Farrell") has a frequently updated blog which is now added to my list of links and can be found here. Kaj is a very funny man. Kinda foul mouthed, but funny. =) Kaj will be returning this season to The 4400, probably to be a thorn in Shawn's side. Cujoy and I speculate about this (with spoilers) further in this post. Come join the fun!

I'm pretty happy to hear this, as I always thought the Danny-Shawn dynamic was painfully underexplored on the show. The fallout of having been "Put Back" is interesting from the POV of the 4400 returnees, but it's also always been interesting when they've portrayed the effect on the returnees' loved ones, as well. That's part of why "The New & Improved Carl Morrissey" remains one of my favorite episodes of the series.

Without spoiling anyone for what's coming up on Season 3, I'm curious to see how Danny's story interweaves with Shawn's, and hooray for more interesting, organic, high stakes fraternal angst! Does anyone on any scifi show do it better than those two? ... Okay, fine, does anyone on any scifi show that isn't Supernatural do it better than those two?

ComicCon 2006 Scoop

Though the official ComicCon site has no new information, yesterday I heard from an excellent and reliable source that "the entire cast" of The 4400 will be at this year's convention for meet-and-greets and autograph signings as they were last year. Last year's attendees included: Mahershalalhashbaz Ali (who patiently walked my friend Craig from Kryptonsite through how to pronounce his first name like the good sport he is), Chad Faust, Jacqueline Mackenzie and Joel Gretsch. However, Patrick Flueger and a few others were NOT there, so I'm not sure what "the entire cast" means this time around either. More information as I get it.

In other cast appearance news, last week Joel Gretsch and his wife Melanie Shatner, of the Star Trek Shatners, along with their wee adorable daughter Willow, attended William Shatner's Hollywood Charity Horse show, hosted by... you guessed it. Since 1990, Bill Shatner has been running this charity event to benefit several organizations that provide services and support for children with disabilities. You can donate right on the page via PayPal! There is a photo album, but only of past years. However, there are pictures of Joel, Melanie and Willow up on WireImage. I don't have access to that since I'm not "real press" or anything (*waves hand airily*), but if you get a chance, do a search on "Joel Gretsch" in the Wire Image search box and check out the thumbnails. They're not to be missed.

If I find the larger versions somewhere, I'll post them here, natch.

Dammit, Bill

By any chance, does anyone have a good resource for keeping up with Bill Campbell's career? Besides Google Alerts, I mean. I tried that already, and you guys have no idea how many Bill Campbells are walking around coaching softball, selling pottery, being suspected of various and sundry crimes in the English-speaking world, and, well, being the mayor of Atlanta.

But to my abject horror, OUR Bill Campbell has no fan sites OR official web site, no major fan forums, nothing, and IMDB is no help. It's like he totally is trying to stop me from stalking him or something! Oh, wait.

New SciFi Magazine Article

SciFi Magazine's June issue has a terrific two-page article about the upcoming season of The 4400, focusing on Shawn and Isabelle. They interview Patrick, Megalyn, and Ira Steven Behr, and it's got quite a few spoilers, including a picture of Patrick and Megalyn.

Cujoy has posted the highlights and summary of the article as well as the photo here.

+++

Coming up this week on 4400fans.com: An interview with a staffmember of DragonCon's SciFi track about their decision to be the first ever major scifi convention (and I do mean major - last year got over 40,000 visitors!) to include multiple tracks and features on The 4400, including a fan video competition, among other many cool things. DragonCon will take place in Atlanta, GA the first weekend of September, 2006. I will henceforth spend the next four months attempting to weasel myself onto at least one of the 4400 panels. Be there or be shaped like a big square thing.

Abducted, Returned, Changed... Canadian.

If suddenly 137 countries start airing this show, don't expect to see me updating y'all on the viewing schedules of The 4400 in, I don't know, East Timor or something, but for now, this is kind of big news:

The Canadian television network Space has started re-airing Season I on Mondays at 10:00 pm EST. The second episode aired last Monday. Airdates for Season 2 have yet to be announced. Check your local listings, Canadian fans!

Commander-In-Chief Pining for the Fjords

No, not our actual president - the show on which Peter Coyote ("Dennis Ryland") had a recurring guest star spot has been killed off by ABC. According to Zap2It, the show has been pulled for the rest of May sweeps with no airdate for the remaining episodes. Ouch. That's what happens when you lose over half your audience in the span of a few weeks, I guess. I only saw one episode and kind of hated it, (and not just because there were no space aliens or stuff getting blown up) so I won't personally miss it, especially if it means Coyote's ambiguously evil presence is now more available on The 4400.

Speaking of extracurricular stuff our intrepid cast did that totally bombed, has anyone seen darling little Conchita Campbell in Scary Movie 4? I hear she has the misfortune of playing the Dakota Fanning character and gets punched or struck in the face at least four times during the course of the movie. *facepalm* Dear Parents of Conchita: Next time, opt for summer camp instead, 'kay?

Also, speaking of Zap2It, Amy the TVGal over there, with whom I have occasionally corresponded, did a feature on stuff you should watch over the summer and did NOT include The 4400! Well, FINE, Rescue Me, Entourage and Deadwood are completely amazing and a good friend of mine is a staff writer for that new Luke Perry series, so I am therefore obliged to watch (damn!) and don't object to the TVGal including it, but at the expense of The 4400? Psh, I think not. Email her and tell her she left the best summer scifi show off her list! She's super nice, and if enough of us write her she'll mention something about the show. =)

Welcome to the Revolution, Little Girl!

Major MAJOR updates to the official site have been done, and it looks HOT!!! It's been completely revamped and is much more user friendly than it was before. Some differences: now the caption of the header reads: Taken for a reason. Returned with a purpose. Ooooh. And there's a very, very exciting S3 trailer up with some amazing new scenes. I've only watched it, like, thirty times so far. Also the character bios have been updated - Maia's name now reads Maia Skouris, for example. Spoiler-avoiders: beware of a major spoiler in Diana's new bio. And I'm not just referring to Jacqui Mackenzie's smokin' new highlights. (Diana done got her hurr did over the summer!) Those of us who can't resist spoilers and will read it anyway: Eeeeeeee!

There are pictures, updated episode guides, a new member forum where you can make up your own returnee character and register and geek out with other 4400 fans, etc. And it looks like Cujoy and I have gotten our wish and Richard Kahan seems very likely to be in the opening credits. And seriously, that's just the tip of the web site redesign iceberg. It's like Christmas in May, y'all!

So, come on, don't be shy - what's your new 4400 character that you're going to register as? You know you want to. Post it in the comments. I'd like to have been returned with the ability to set fire to things with my brain. It's a desire I've had since childhood when I read Stephen King's Firestarter at too young an age. It just seems like a really convenient and impressive superpower to lord over people. "Don't piss me off! I'll set you on fire with my brain!" See? Barring that, I'd like to have been returned by the Morally Ambiguous Mystery Dudes From the Future having inexplicable ninja powers, because ninjas are totally sweet.


Here are a few of the pictures thanks to Lily_Lemony and Cujoy, who have posted many more S3 pictures as well as a summary of the new site's spoiler content over on 4400spoilers on LiveJournal. Thank you, ladies! I'd seriously be so lost without you guys.

Click to see the bigger versions below!

MEGALYN AS ISABELLE:


A SIGHT FOR SORE EYES, OH YES:


REFER ABOVE RE: DIANA'S SMOKIN' HURR DO:


Yay!!! And finally, speaking of upgrades to 4400 web sites, this site has added a few new links - a Brazilian 4400 blog and another 4400 blog/ fan site and a few other new affiliates and links to the theme song and other cool things like that, so if you've gotten used to tuning out the sidebar, you might want to check out if there's something new for you to look at. I am contemplating totally redoing the layout for 4400fans.com, though. The current one is so ghetto compared to the official site now, which is all shiny and pretty. [/competitive]

DragonCon to Show The 4400 Some Love

I'm not sure that this has been posted anywhere on the Internet before. It's definitely big news for fans of this show.

The SciFi track of DragonCon 2006, the largest scifi and fantasy convention in the southeast, which takes place Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, GA, has confirmed on its Yahoo! group that it is going to be having some panel discussions on The 4400. They aren't sure how many, but the show is one of their covered topics this year. This is a first for DragonCon, and a seriously huge deal for the show. I've been thinking of going this year, and this pretty much cements it for me. I'm totally there.

Last I heard, they were considering attempting to get an actor or two from the show to participate in a discussion panel. That'd be supercool for 4400fans.com - I'd try to get a media pass and score this site an interview or two, so call me, Patrick! good luck with that, DragonCon people.

Joel Gretsch Gets Emo

SciFiWire posted an interview with Joel Gretsch that I didn't link to a couple of days ago in which he discusses his approach to portraying our intrepid investigator Tom Baldwin on The 4400. It's totally spoiler-free unless you consider "Tom has to deal with a lot of stressful stuff!" to be a spoiler. It's actually quite an interesting interview, though brief; I liked the mention of how he prefers to stay in the dark about the upcoming storylines because it helps him play an investigator more effectively. Method acting by default!

My love for Joel Gretsch's acting and screen presence has both grown and turned more wary since I decided to rent Taken from my local Blockbuster. They didn't have Lost, Veronica Mars, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Battlestar Galactica or anything else sci-fi, but they did have Taken. Okay then! I only got it because a) it involves aliens and spaceships and my inner 12yo geek is wicked easy to please and b) it stars a bunch of people from The 4400, including Joel, Chad Faust (playing the older version of a child actor that he does not IN ANY WAY resemble, I might add) and Michael Moriarty, most remembered by 4400 fans as Orson Bailey in the pilot, y'know, the high strung old guy who returned to a senile wife, a creepy log cabin and a RAGING case of telekenesis. Don't you hate when that happens?

Anyway, Joel Gretsch plays an evildoing megalomaniacal villain in Taken. I mean, he's so evil that it's almost a production defect that he doesn't have a pencil thin moustache to twirl in every scene. It's really pretty fabulous. Its production values are top notch (of course, 'cause this is a Spielberg vehicle, after all), the acting is fantastic, the effects are seamless and the script has nary an awkward line in sight. This is one seriously underrated mini-series. And I'm not just saying that because it allowed me to watch Catherine Dent and Eric Close snog a lot.

I've considered adding a permanent link to it over at Amazon on the right hand column, I stark crazy love it that much so far (still haven't seen the very last installment) and the mini-series is so closely tied to The 4400 - when it first came out, people mused that it was almost the exact opposite premise as Taken, so Internet fans everywhere referred to The 4400 as Put Back. Hee!