The Point Radio: BITTEN – Who’s Afraid Of The Big Blonde Wolf?
Transcript
The Point Radio Hey, it's Mike Rod. It's a popular series of fantasy novels that now come alive on the sci-fi network with a new show called Bitten. We talk to the author and the stars of the show.
Plus more on black sales and it looks like Wonder Woman hits another set pack. Let's get to The Point. This is The Point, The Point Radio, get The Point Radio. Right off the bat, you need to know the new sci-fi series, Bitten, is not your run-of-the-mill werewolf show.
It's based on the works of author Kelly Armstrong and it stars Laura Vanderwort who told me right off the bat how she got involved. I actually had to receive an offer for the role which was amazing first of all and ended up speaking to JB on the phone just to get an idea of the premise of the show and how it would look and how the roles would be done.
So we spoke for about an hour and I heard how passionate he was about the project. He's our executive producer and it just sounded like something I'd really been looking to do with such a weird dynamic character who is both flawed and strong. So I read books, I read Men in the Other World and Bitten and did a bit of research and as soon as I realized the amazing quality of what was there I jumped on and we did some
auditions and chemistry reads with the guys and we just sort of hit the ground running you know, unintended and I mean it was the most challenging six months I've had thanks to Kelly and the writers. Every day was a challenge for me and there were days where I didn't know if I had to be able to handle the emotional side of it or the physical side of it or just being in
every scene and I did and I'm so grateful for the experience. I asked Kelly where the character of Elena originally came from. I mean it is my first published novel so it was way back and I was looking to think I wanted to create a character who would be a werewolf and be uncomfortable with that role but ultimately come to embrace it.
So often we at that time saw werewolves, that was a curse, something that you wanted to and to get out of and I wanted a character who while she would feel that she should think that way really deep down doesn't and Bitten was about coming to understand that what you think you should be is not always what you're meant to be. And Laura agrees.
And I agree with what Kelly said, a lot of, you know there's a lot of parallels with Elena and the show and women in general, you know Elena leads to Toronto to try to hide who she truly is and try to have this almost perfect image of what she feels people need from her, this perfect boyfriend, she's a freelance photographer but she's just pushing down the animal inside of her and you know such an amazing character that a lot of the
skeletons in her closet are explored this season. You learn a lot about her history and some of her demons come back so every episode was shocking to us when we agreed it, we had no idea you know where they were going to go with it. So I think even if you're not a sci-fi fan you're going to find something that you truly
love about the show because it's not just about the sci-fi, it's not just about the werewolf, it's about the characters and their relationships and it's just very layered. So if you're going to compare this to other werewolf shows, well there's some things you need to know. Our werewolves are actually more down to earth, they're life sized to any other wolf, they're
not a fantasy show, it's as realistic as we can be with the situation at hand and the wolf has the actor's eyes and the same colouring, the fur the same colouring as the hair. So obviously we are dealing with a mythical idea of werewolves but we're trying to make it as true to life as we can and that's making sure the werewolves aren't any different to a typical wolf.
One thing that makes a difference, an interesting combination of CGI effects. Yeah, I mean that's been a wonderful part of the show as well. We don't have to do the furry prosthetics and in the make-up chair for four or five hours in the morning. We have a wonderful visual effects team that some of work on Life of Pi on the Tizer's
fur so they're just amazing artists who know exactly how to make the fur move in certain lights and we have actually a German Shepherd that our producer has that will run throughout the scene and we'll get the motion of the wolf and then capture that onto camera with our visual effects wolves. So we haven't had to worry about too much of that, it's more the transition from human
to wolf that the actors portray, the bones shifting and snapping and contorting and then after that it's all visual effects with the actors eyes. As an established author I had to ask Kelly, was it hard letting other creative types have access to her work? I really didn't have any influence and that is what I felt was the correct stance to be
taking. I mean a TV show is an adaptation, it is another version for a different medium and to take a book and translate it directly to screen. What would make a very boring book? If I were to warn you in Bitten I spend way too much time in Olima's head and to put
that on the screen would have been boring. Somebody else has to take it with fresh eyes and reconstruct it for a different medium and I personally feel that by getting involved I'm of course so attached to my characters and so attached to my world that I would be objecting to things that I shouldn't be objecting to and I was so thrilled with the early scripts I read, I was so thrilled with the writing
and how they got the characters and yes there are changes but there should be and I was quite happy to leave it in everyone's capable hands and just step back. It's kind of interesting but this is the 4th January that Sci-Fi has introduced a new series led by strong female characters from being human to lost girl to continuum. Yeah you're right and Sci-Fi has been fantastic with having women being strongly dominant
on their shows so I love Sci-Fi for that. I'm aware of being human my friend Sam Whitworth who was doing Dance Smallville with me is on that and so I think that's a fantastic show and then continuum as well my producer friend Jeff King. So I am keeping tabs on all these shows because not only am I a fan of being in them but I'm
a fan of watching them and watching these women kick the mess and so I think that the lineup is great and I'm glad that we're a part of it especially right behind being human. New episodes of Bitten every Monday on Sci-Fi and see more always at Sci-Fi.com. Here it is the latest in pop culture. Despite their success with Arrow and all the hope for the upcoming Flash series the CW
has decided not to move forward with their Wonder Woman prequel series called Amazon. The process began with writer Alan Heinberg about a year ago but then again the network requested a couple of different rewrites and pretty much things were stalled at the end of that. What it all comes down to is at this point in time there are no projects involving Wonder
Woman other than the upcoming promised appearance in the Superman Batman movie. CBS has given a blanket renewal to all the shows in their daytime schedule including Let's Make a Deal, Price is Right and of course the sobs young. And the Restless and the Bold and Beautiful as well as The Talk. Also renewed was Survivor coming back for season number 28 and The Amazing Race who
will get another season and rack it up a total of 24 for that show. Sci-Fi series Helix which started out with well shall we say mediocre ratings for its premiere got a big boost once they added in all the DVR ratings and it was a big 64% of the audience is what the growth was for adults 18 to 49. It grew 57% among the adults 25 to 54 and 53% in total viewers that makes it one of
the largest series premieres ever in Sci-Fi history. The new comic publisher Red Giant is moving into free comic book day in a big way with four giant size books they plan on offering to retailers to hand out free. It includes zero issues of giant size action, giant size fantasy, adventure and thrills and then the entire line of the giant size books will launch in stores in July.
If you'd like to see more information about what they're going to be offering you can check them all out and previews are waiting for you right now at RedGiantEntertainment.com. DC's Flash Sherries gets a new creative team beginning with writers Robert Vendetti and Van Jensen. You might remember from having worked together on Green Lantern Corps.
Art in the New Run will be by Brett Booth it all begins in flash number 30 and along with that flash annual number three will bring back Wally West into the new DC new 52 universe. Both those issues will be in comic stores and some of the characters in the new stars pirate adventure series Black Sails might seem a little familiar at least by name.
For example actor Luke Arnold plays a character you might recognize. So I'm playing a character called John Silver which is a long John Silver from Treasure Island about 20 years before. And in the first episode he's actually not a pirate he's a sailor on a merchant ship that gets taken over by Clint's crew and we kind of get introduced to the pirate world
through his eyes. Playing such a familiar name was there a lot of pressures for the role? It seems to be my thing at the moment taking on these roles where there might be people that are ready to throw stones if they don't like your interpretation. But it was kind of nice first of all knowing a character such a famous character in literature
and you know cinema films and TV through the years. So it's I guess it was a bit of pressure but it was more excitement of like being able to do the origin story of this guy on screen for the first time. With historical records what they are Luke told me that the story has a lot of different places to go.
I think definitely in storytelling it's perfect like John and Robert are just bringing through such great scripts and they have such a grand plan for this that it's nice that they have complete freedom with timing and what they can show and how they are going to play their story out. So I think we are really lucky to have the freedom in storytelling.
One of the original characters on Black Sails is Max played by Jessica Parker Kennedy who told me that the ladies on the show are no push over. John Steinberg and Robert Levine wrote three really really intimidating female characters and they are just as strong if not stronger than the men on the show. So I think when people watch they won't really really feel like it's a male heavy cast because
we spend a lot of time on screen you know and we make a lot of the decisions and we are very very involved in the story. So I really didn't have to do anything special particularly because the writing is just so so good for the female characters. Ah but again there's those costumes.
Completely I mean I remember the first time I put on a corset because you know we are not wearing pretend corsets we are wearing you know just about as authentic as it got. Corsets like you know two people lace me up every day really really tight. Probably not as tight as would have been you know otherwise you know I learned that's why so many women used to sort of faint back then because they can't breathe you know when anything
exciting or frightening happened. But that helped me. I was just saying yeah the first time I put the corset on I was like uh uh no way I can't act in this I can't be in this for 14 hours a day. Surprising how quickly you get used to it and it doesn't become as claustrophobic but
it did that helped me ground right into the character because of the wardrobe I mean it's exquisite it's really cool and I'm so lucky you know Silver is wearing the same thing you know for six months in a row you know whereas I have ten different beautiful fun outfits that I get to wear it's just really been a dream for a girl on a show like us doing a period piece during all these amazing outfits.
Another important part of the cast Zach McGowan who you might remember from Shameless playing the part of Charles Vane. Zach's character is yet another with some strong historical roots. Charles Vane's a very uncompromising person. Likes doing what he likes to do.
Doesn't like being told anything. You know I kind of liken him you know it's like if I have a young daughter in life it's like anything you tell her that she can't do then she will automatically do and test the limit of and that is Charles Vane. I mean he is just like you can't do this oh yeah well I'm gonna do it and I'm gonna see
how far how long I can do it for and how far I can push this line you've set and that's really in a nutshell you know who he is. He sees definitely somebody who steps up to a challenge and does not walk the other way. Definitely is somebody who would rather be feared than loved. You know he's very different than Jody.
I'll tell you that much. As you may have heard Michael Bay is involved with the project as a producer and I asked actor Mark Ryan just what that meant. Michael I'm on my fourth Transformers for Michael and one of the things I think that Michael's done which is very clever and John said it.
He's brought the best of the stuff he could bring to the show in terms of visual effects and little tweaks and little things regarding casting but John is very very knowledgeable he did his research and very early on I wanted to have a tattoo on the back of my head which you'll see when you see the show. Catch black sails on stars and always get more online at stars.com.
Your pop culture channel. Comes down to image versus Marvel when you look at the top ten best-selling graphic novels in comic stores during December. The top ten starts with Walking Dead volume one days gone by still in there at number ten from image and number nine the second saga trade paperback also from image at number
eight the Deadpool trade paperback volume three good bad and ugly from Marvel at number seven first saga trade paperback from image at number six third Nightwing trade paperback Death of the Family as from DC at number five Star-Lord Worlds on the Brink from Marvel at number four also from Marvel Deadpool Kills Deadpool the trade paperback at number three from IDW Richard Starks Parker Slayground the hard cover at number two Adventure Time
the original graphic novel volume two Pixel Princess from Boom Studios and the number one best-selling graphic novel for the month goes to DC for Fables volume 19 to the trade paperback of Snow White. That does it for the podcast we're back in a few days to give you a preview of the return of the following on Fox but in the meantime keep up with Pop Culture 24-7 to get the point
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