At last week’s Supernatural convention in the UK, Jared Padalecki was quoted as saying that he and co-star Jensen Ackles both had six year contracts. Where creator Eric Kripke was only signed for five.  This has always been the case, but a half a year ago Jared and Jensen were both leaning heavily on the idea that they’d be leaving when Kripke left — at the end of year five.

Today, TVGuide’s Matt Mitovich addressed the question in his column saying that CW boss Dawn Ostroff might “override” the five year plan and extend the show if the ratings keep going through the roof as they did this past year.

Smallville without Gough and Millar, Buffy without Joss Whedon and now Supernatural without Eric Kripke?!? What is this world coming to? On the other hand if it’s a choice between Supernatural without and no Supernatural at all, I’d pick the former.

The Supernatural Season 4 DVD  streets on September 1, 2009. Special features include:

• The Mythologies of Supernatural: From Heaven to Hell
• 3-Section Featurette Gallery Bridging Heaven, Purgatory and Hell to Examine Key Mythological Precepts
• Creator Commentary on 3 Key Episodes
• Extended/Unaired Scenes
• Gag Reel

Once again, no commentary from the boys. The DVD is available for pre-order at Amazon.com

Box Art: Amazon

Post from: SF Universe

What do Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi have in common with Sam and Dean Winchester? More than you might think.  Supernatural creator Eric Kripke once referred to the show as “Star Wars in truck stop America,” but the connection actually goes deeper — down to its very roots.  Wanting to explore it more, I found the perfect person to discuss it with — she’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars scribe Julie Siege who also happens to be a story editor on Supernatural.

“When I talked to Eric Kripke about doing this interview, he said, ‘Oh absolutely, our boys are compared to Han Solo and Luke Skywalker, often.’ Then, as I started thinking about it more, I was struck by all the similarities.”

Maybe not so surprising, when Julie realized that both of her “bosses” had worshiped at the same alter.

“When George [Lucas] was developing the very first [Star Wars] movie, way back in the seventies, he was, to a greater or lesser degree, a student of Joseph Campbell,” says Julie.  “My boss now, Eric Kripke, has Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero With a Thousand Faces” on his bookshelf.”

Even Jared Padalecki, who plays Sam Winchester on Supernatural, has mentioned his passion for Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey.” Given this history, it’s safe to assume that it’s no coincidence that Mary Winchester’s maiden name is Campbell.

Still, the roots of Campbell’s works and thus the stories behind both Star Wars and Supernatural go back even further.

“It all goes back to the Greeks,” says Julie.  “It’s the very cornerstone of storytelling, the universal nature of that battle of good versus evil.”

THE SAME ONLY DIFFERENT

A simple concept, and yet it’s been the basis for thousands of stories, books, movies and TV shows. So how does a writer stick to the plan but still keep it fresh?

“There it is, you know.  Its storytelling that’s tried and true for thousands of years but because these are such universal themes, there’s so much room to explore. So much territory that can be mined.  I’m always saying, ‘let’s find the grey area. Let’s find something that might be a little bit good in a bad character, and what might be questionable in our heroic characters, and Eric’s head explodes and he shakes his head and goes ‘I don’t know, I don’t know’ and I’ll go, ‘Okay, just throwing it out there,’ but I think that that’s where you get some interesting storytelling. Audiences want things that are both familiar but at the same time surprising.”

Which can be very tricky on a show like Star Wars: The Clone Wars where the future of the character is already mapped out.

“The cool thing about writing Anakin now, in this series, is that he is a hero. He’s an absolute hero, but we know where he’s going, and I think that that’s just very rich territory to mine.  You can start to layer in little indications of Anakin’s discontent at having to be the follower and his ambitions and his desire to be as strong and as powerful as he can be at this particular moment in his life.  It could break one way or the other, and we know it’s going to break the other way, but just seeing that all those qualities can be heroic, and taken too far down the wrong road… anti-heroic.”

Boy, that sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Sam Winchester, walking the line between using his powers to save people and crossing over to the dark side?

Says Julie, “I know. Sam’s battling with that in a very epic way this season.  One of the things, and we talk about all the time, is that he needs to believe that the things that he’s doing are heroic.  It might be a bad thing, but he’s doing it for the right reason, and it’s a very fine line to navigate, but I think as long as we’re adhering to that, we’re honoring the character and honoring the story.”

HELP ME, DEAN WINCHESTER. YOU’RE MY ONLY HOPE

So if Sam is Anakin, does that make Dean Obi-Wan?

“Yeah I was kind of thinking about that, but you know, especially with the Clone Wars, that particular cross-section of the Star Wars story at that particular moment, Obi-Wan’s relationship with Anakin is that he’s mentoring him, he’s teaching him, Anakin is learning.  That’s a lot like Dean’s relationship to Sam at the beginning of the show.  The difference is, of course, that Sam is reluctant, but Dean was definitely the more experienced one.  He was the one who had followed in Dad’s footsteps and he was the one who was kind of bringing Sam up and bringing him along like Obi-Wan was bringing Anakin up and bringing him along.  We’re reaching the moment now on the show, and eventually on Clone Wars we know they’ll reach that point too, where the student is about to surpass his teacher, and what that does to the dynamic of their relationship. . . I think it’s just fascinating.”

This shift in the teacher / student dynamic became abundantly clear in this week’s episode of Supernatural, “Sex and Violence.” Compelled to speak their minds by a love-starved siren, Sam says that he’s become the better hunter and Dean is merely holding him back.  Dean, like many mentors and parents, worries that Sam has gone too far, too fast and he longs to see their relationship go back to what it was when they were younger.  Sadly, that can never happen. The rift between them is growing and now it’s just a question of how far and how fast.

“Our fans can be a little dogmatic and, I have to tell you, incredibly astute. I’ve been very impressed with a lot of their observations and comments on one of the first episodes that I wrote. There was a moment when there was a handshake and it was pulled apart and they turned it one way and turned another way, and they actually got exactly what the intention was for this handshake between Castiel and Sam.  I’m very impressed with the fans, but they tend to be, ‘demons have to be bad, and we can’t let Ruby have any redeeming qualities, and Sam and Dean have to be good, and the angels have to be good, and I don’t want to watch it if there’s a grey area.’  But if all of those characters are so absolute then you really don’t have any conflicts, and you really don’t have any tension.  I think, eventually, all of those characters will land exactly where they’re supposed to land, but in developing arcs and stories you need, at some point, to be on the edge of your seat wondering which way a character is going to break.”

That’s a scary thought for some fans and a point to look forward to for others. It seems inescapable that Sam, like Anakin, will eventually become Darth Vader and Dean (Obi-Wan) will have to battle him for the good of the universe. History tells us that a battle like that is not going to end well.

Now that I’ve thought it through, I agree with Dean.  I liked it better when they were Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, exchanging witty barbs, fighting the good fight, while flying by the seat of their pants.

Either way, I’ll be watching every second of it, gloriously anticipating and yet hoping to be surprised by how it all ends.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars can be seen Fridays at 9:00 on Cartoon Network.

Supernatural returns with new episodes beginning March 5 on The CW.

Jensen Ackles as Dean and Jared Padalecki as Sam in SUPERNATURAL on the CW. Photo credit: Sergei Bachlakov ©2008 THE CW NETWORK, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Trademark information for Star Wars: The Clone Wars images:  TM & © 2008 Lucasfilm Ltd. All rights reserved.

Post from: SF Universe

KRIPKE TAKES THE STAGE

Throughout his talk, two things were fairly obvious.

1. He loves the fans but we make him crazy. Funny, Jensen made a similar remark about golf!

“I want to make you guys happy,” he proclaimed. “But you’re never happy. It’s so quixotic!”

2. He spends way too much of his day dealing with the bureaucracy of TV production and not enough on the creative end where he’d like to be.

Over and over, he expressed his frustration at having to cut scenes due to budget, lose actors due to other commitments and generally produce a product that is a compromise in so many ways. The Gordon storyline was a great example.

BEWARE SPOILERS MAY BE FOUND IN THE GREAT BEYOND

At one point in the season, the boys found out that Gordon had a roadhouse connection who ratted out Sam. This sent Gordon on a rampage and to his eventual death. Kripke explained that the mysterious roadhouse connection was a character we never met, a surly hunter who had a small run-in with Dean which was blown out of proportion. These scenes, however, never made it to air. Next, Kripke wanted to draw out the storyline of Gordon and the other hunters gunning for Sam, but the Lifetime Network had something to say about that. Sterling K. Brown, who played Gordon, was under contract to Army Wives, so Lifetime made a deal. You can have him for two episodes and no more. It was that ruling that made Kripke decide to send the volatile vampire hunter out in a blaze of glory.

Much to Kripke’s delight and chagrin (there’s that paradox again!), the Supernatural fans asked plenty of detailed meta-style questions about the mythology behind the series. There was much talk of Lilith, whom he assured us was a mix of all of the Lilith mythology, biblical and otherwise. “Destroyer of children and temptress of men,” but since she’s going to stay as a 10-year old girl for the rest of the season, Kripke figures it will mostly be the destroyer of children part and not so much the temptress of men! He did say she was going to do all sorts of “creepy shit” and the cliffhanger at the end of the season would leave us all wanting to have to his head.

Speaking of which, when asked if he’d cut back on the gore level he gleefully replied, no! It’s his favorite part and he mentioned the legend of Doc Benton which is full of hearts and goo and . . . well, he looked positively orgasmic at the thought. Yikes.

When talk turned to the women of Supernatural, Kripke did admit to making two mistakes with Bella. “She made the boys look foolish a few too many times and she wasn’t part of the mythology.” To correct at least one of these errors, he assured the crowd that Bella would get her comeuppance at the hands of the boys very soon.

As for Ruby he said, “if you don’t like her, tough.” Apparently, she’s not going anywhere.

Soon the conversation turned to thoughts of the fourth season. Kripke’s reply was concise. “All singing. All dancing. All nude!” The audience cheered with delight, of course. We’re nothing if not predictable.

Kripke also confirmed that he’s still planning to pull the plug after season five so the show can go out on a proper finale. “Season six would be the boys go to Hawaii and meet Vincent Price and then Dean would get on a motorcycle and literally jump a shark.”

The crowd was not pleased with the answer but he backed it up by saying that Jensen and Jared were also good with ending at five. [EDITED: See Comment from "Cindy" below].

My favorite, oh so Kripke moment, came when a fan asked him about when he decided to become a screenwriter. He said that at age 9 he went to see ET and spend the whole time watching the audience watch the movie and he was so fascinated by the effect a film could have on people he told his mother he wanted to make movies when he grew up. Prior to that, his goals were a tad less ambitious. Says Kripke, “I wanted to be a fish, a stop sign and then a filmmaker.” Though the fan suggested his mother must be proud, I think she would have preferred he be a stop sign — saving lives and all that, you know.

I’ll wrap this up with a final thought from Kripke that I wish came with an audio file, because seeing it flat on the page here just doesn’t do it justice. He was asked about why Dean keeps dying on the show and his answer was giving in that way he has of being both flip and sincere at the same time.

“In a show about brothers who will die for each other. . . sometimes they do!”

Stay tuned, I’ll have more con coverage for you very soon.

A Note:

Creation expressly forbid audio or video taping of the events, so even though some small bits have popped up online, my recaps are from my notes only and thus the direct quotes are minimal.

Photos:

Kripke at the con is mine.

“Fresh Blood” — Pictured Sterling K. Brown as Gordon and Katie Chapman as girl star in SUPERNATURAL on The CW. Photo Sergei Bachlakov/The CW © 2007 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved

“Red Sky at Morning”– Pictured (L-R) Jensen Ackles as Dean and Lauren Cohan as Bela star in SUPERNATURAL on The CW. Photo Sergei Bachlakov /The CW © 2007 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved

Post from: SF Universe

Though the last week has been full of spoiler-ific surprises such as director’s cuts and angst-ridden photos, it’s not the same as having an actual new episode to go wild over! 

Tonight, the boys take on a coven of witches and this ain’t Charmed, baby.  These gals are playing for keeps.  Watch Malleus Maleficarum tonight at 9:00 on The CW.

Now we know that there’s one other huge choice on TV tonight in that same slot and you’ll hear more about THAT show tomorrow when SFUniverse welcomes its newest columnist, Brian Allen.

In the meantime, Supernatural fans, head over to TV.com to read a wonderful interview with Eric Kripke.  I’m putting on my gypsy garb to make a prediction. . .

I see all of the fangirls going “awww” over one particular line in that interview.  Leave a comment here and tell me which line you think I’m referring to.

Then come back here first thing tomorrow because we hope to have more Supernatural goodies for you to enjoy — like maybe another First Look at an upcoming episode!

Post from: SF Universe

Enjoy?

Now head over to E! Online and read this fun new interview with Kripke where he talks about the “boisterous and rowdy” fan community among other things.

Post from: SF Universe