The Point Radio: STAR CROSSED Brings Romance To SciFi
Transcript
The Point Radio. Hey, it's Mike Raub. You mix in a little X-Men and throw in a heavy dose of Romeo and Juliet. And it's Starcross, a new series headed to the CW. We talk to the cast and creators, and they tell us what we can expect here.
In the meantime, comic sales in January, not that spectacular. What went wrong? Let's get to The Point. This is The Point. The Point Radio.
Get The Point Radio. Starcross is the new science fiction romance series headed to the CW involving a human girl, an alien boy, and the rest of his race that are hidden away here on Earth. Creator Meredith Haverl and producer Josh Appelbaum give us a little bit of the backstory. Well, it's information we're going to deal out for the next few episodes.
We'll reveal that there was a solar flare in space that erupted and it made their planet uninhabitable. And they had to pile into spaceships and head for their next home, trying to find their next home. And when they crash on Earth, the story is, well, there was a fuel cell malfunction, and that's why we crashed. But we love the idea of being able to explore, is that the truth? Were there a certain faction of A-Creams?
Some humans don't believe that that was the truth. Yeah, that intended to crash here so that they could colonize and make this their new home. So that's definitely something that we… And the fun thing, too, is that at some points in the season, we might be able to show some of this in flashback, too. We could actually go back to Arrival Day, go back to them and the ship, all that stuff that were explored.
Sirius Regular Amy Teagarden told me she got pulled in as soon as she saw the story. I was on a plane, and I started reading on a plane, and by the time I landed, I was so on fire about it. I sent my agent an email, and I was just like, this is amazing, let's set up a meeting, this is like, the show's going to be on forever. I think that there's so many amazing aspects to the show, and obviously it's on the CW, so it's a huge, you know, already open for that teen audience. But it has a sci-fi element, there's romance.
It's set in high school, but the show's not really about high school or about aliens, it's really a bigger metaphor for the prejudice we have as a society, you know, currently and in the cast. So in the cast, actor Matt Lander, who told me the uniqueness of the role, is what drew him in. What really attracted me was that it was so different from what I've been doing the last five years. You know, Meredith and Josh being attached was obviously a big draw for me, and Amy was already attached, and I was excited to work with her. And just the sci-fi aspect, the sci-fi element, the potential for this epic story really drew me in.
Coming off a stand on 90210, Matt said he wanted something challenging in his career. I mean, I wasn't specifically looking for, hey, let's go find something sci-fi and do it. It was just when it came along, it was a whirlwind for me, because the week that 90210 was actually the day that we found out that it was not coming back, we had a few calls and about a few different projects, and this was one of them. And I got to read this script, I believe, the next day. I think it was the very next day that 90210 was canceled that I met with Josh and Amy and Meredith.
And everything clicked, and I loved the script. So, no, I wasn't specifically looking for this, but super excited to welcome this, because it's so different. And like we had kind of said, it's got the sci-fi stuff. It's just exciting and different for me as an actor to be doing something so separate and different and new since the past five years. It's kind of interesting, but Amy and Meredith almost worked together a few other times.
We almost worked together seven years ago on a movie, and then the financing fell through, and then she was working on 90210, and I had been working on it for like three episodes or something. And then he started on 90210, the episode after I did, I think. So we never worked together. So we've kind of been kind of passing each other along the way. So when he came in to read, he was like, oh, hi, I kind of know you, but I don't really know you.
But he's so lovely. So where is the story headed? I asked Amy to tease this just a little bit. I heard some rumblings about what's going to happen throughout the three seasons and some storyline, but nothing's been confirmed, nothing. I haven't gotten the whole scoop on anything.
Typically, as an actor, you also don't want to know too much about what's happening in the future, unless you've already done it, because I think you just tend to play into it. If you know something's going to happen, then you already start playing into whatever it is. And I think that that's sort of the whole point of TV, it's suspenseful, and you don't really know what's happening. For Matt, I asked him about the direction of the show and where he'd like to see that hit. Well, you know, I don't know if I have a specific direction I wanted to go because I feel like it could go so many directions.
I think that whatever direction it does go, I know that it's going to be done with really good storyline and really good writing because of the team that we have. So I don't know. I mean, I guess if I could pick, I would probably have it go towards this epic world-saving kind of a thing, which it has potential to do that. So, I don't know, I think the more kind of huge scale and the more, I don't know, the bigger the scale, the better. And it's like my world, right?
The whole world of science fiction is not unknown to Amy. In fact, it's almost a dream come true. Her love for the genre began with… Star Wars. Star Wars, definitely. I'm an older brother, so I was definitely a bit of a tomboy growing up.
And so anything my brother was into, that was like whatever it was. So, Star Wars was like a huge thing. And then obviously, episode one, two, and three came out in my lifetime. So, there's an awesome picture somewhere. My mother made me his on-the-dollar costume, the red costume with the light at the bottom of it and the full headpiece.
And I was probably eight or something like that. And she constructed this whole costume and I had a switch and I could turn the light on the bottom of it. It was fantastic. I wish I still had it. Starcross premieres on the CW next Monday, and you can always see more right now, at CWTV.com. The flight radio.
It's set for the latest in pop culture. Here we go. Despite the fact that some folks got to see it early, the premiere of the new season of The Walking Dead is off to a great start ratings-wise. 16.1 million viewers so far are tallied up and 10.4 of those among the coveted 18-49 year old demographic. Earlier in the weekend, it turned out that those with Google Play or Xbox accounts actually had a chance to catch that episode early before it was yanked by AMC. Writing partners Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer are moving apparently from Defiance to another sci-fi network project Dominion, the one based on the 2010 film Legion.
It's scheduled to premiere in June and the guys will be not only executive producers, but also co-showrunners as well. No word yet on how any of this affects Defiance. Not a really bang-up start to the sales in comic stores for graphic novels and comics during January. Comics actually dropped just a bit over where they were in January of last year. They're down .42%. Graphic novels took a huge tumble. They're down almost 15% when you compare to January of 2013.
Marvel maintained their dominant share of the dollar is spent as still is pretty much hanging in at around 34% for the month. DC not far behind them again at 28%. We'll check the entire report on sales and comic stores in January coming up in just a bit. It's getting closer and HBO knows you're waiting so they've unveiled a 15 minute sneak peek at the upcoming new season of Game of Thrones. There's a lot of material in here with cast interviews and scenes from the upcoming season as well.
We posted the whole thing for you on our website GetThePointRadio.com. Check it out there. And the new season of Game of Thrones returns to HBO on April the 6th. Bryan Singer and his production company Bad Hat Harry have picked up the rights to haunt a new comic that will be set to debut in stores in April from the publisher Red 5. It's set in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by creatures from the spirit world. The haunted comic, which as I said is not set to debut in stores until April, is written by Scott Chidwood and drawn by Dandy Luckert.
Amazon has released their next 10 pilots for the year including five series for children and five for general audiences. Those include The After from X-Files Chris Carter, Bosch, Mozart in the Jungle, Transparent and The Rebels. These along with the five kids titles can all be seen in Amazon Instant Video. Viewer feedback will help determine which one will go to series and that will be announced later this year by Amazon. It's official NBC has pulled the Michael J Fox show from the schedule.
Ratings of course is this story there as we expected. For the time being the slot will be filled with new episodes of Hollywood Game Night and Fox himself is going over to CBS for a story arc on their series The Good Wife. Last time he was on that series by the way he picked up three Emmy nominations. As expected Marvel is tightening up the continuity between television and movies even more. CEO Robert Iger told Disney investors a few days ago that the upcoming Captain America Winter Soldier will have in his words a major impact on Avengers the Age of Ultron.
That's set of course to be in theaters in 2015. He also said that the events in Winter Soldier will have an impact on the Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D television series as well. No matter what language you enjoy your Marvel comics in it's now just a little bit easier. Marvel has released a new app called the Marvel Global Comics app. It's in partnership with the folks that I verse and it includes some of the most popular Marvel stories in 12 different languages including Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish as well.
Not a big surprise here in the business world recent Marvel films like Iron Man 3 and The Avengers did blockbuster box office in foreign markets. Right now the app offers up Civil War, House of M, Infinity Gauntlet and fear itself. Plus new issues of a few titles including New Avengers and Invincible Iron Man. It's currently only available though on the Apple system. Jay went out in style, big rating style that is.
The final Tonight Show last week with Jay Leno pulled in a whopping 9.2 household ratings in metered markets. The biggest since President Obama appeared on the Tonight Show a couple of years ago. It also gave a boost to Jimmy Fallon as well who had a great night. In fact his best ever late night with Jimmy Fallon following the final Tonight Show drew a 4.6 rating beating his previous high from Super Bowl Sunday in 2012. Jimmy steps into the Tonight Show chair a few days from now on the 17th.
Choice bits waiting for you inside the comic stores this week. It begins over a DC with a second printing of Harley Quinn number one you might want to grab. Writer Eric Garcia begins a new series at IDW called City the Mind of the Machine. Pretty interesting you may want to pick up the first issue of that. Also from IDW if you want to find out what the magic of My Little Pony is all about.
Well the Friendship is Magic first issue is available in a special one dollar penny press edition this week from IDW. Ed Brubaker's Fatale is a book we've told you about a number of times and there's a couple different ways to jump on that this week including the new issue which is number 20. And a trade paperback fourth in that series but I'm sure the first three are easily found. Meanwhile manifest destiny number three from image gets a second printing there's a new issue of that as well number four out this week. Just in time to follow up the premiere Walking Dead is back with an image issue number 121 this week.
Two first issues for Marvel She-Hulk number one and X-Force number one. And if you're one of those missing the FX's series Sons of Anarchy the comic series continues. Sixth issue of that is out this week as well. In a comic store near you is where you'll find all these things and there's a number of ways to find those stores. Check the link in the front of our website ComicMix dot com.
Try the comic book locator service at 1 888 comic book or another website called find a comic shop dot com. Not a tremendous start to a new year when it comes to comic sales inside comic book stores during the month of January. When compared to last year they were down just a little bit point 42 percent. Of course last year sales were up just about every month for the first seven months of the year. So there is a little bit of work to be done.
And being said here's your top 10 best selling comics in comic stores for January. Starting at number 10 with DC's Justice League of America number 11 number 9 Avengers number 25. Second issue of Harley Quinn came at a number eight at number seven Superior Spider-Man number 26. At number six the all new X-Men number 22 at number five Superior Spider-Man number 25. In the top four starting out with Justice League number 27 from DC Avengers World number one came in at number three.
And Detective Comics number 27 despite an almost eight dollar cover price was the second best selling comic of the month. Number one was Batman number 27 also from DC. Just another reminder that you can follow pop culture 24-7 right now at Get The Point Radio. Listen free on your laptop or your desktop computer or if you want to you can take us along on any mobile device. Apple or Android with iNet Radio.
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