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During Comic - Con , I was rosy enough to sit down down with the two Maker of SyFy ’s ( then Sci - Fi ) make mini - series , The Lost Room .
In the interview we discussed the past , The Lost Roommini - series and plan television set show , the present tense , the religious cult - following and cyberspace revivification , and the future , their forthcoming Red 5 comic , The Lost way : Season 2- which ca-ca its agency to ledge in 2011 .
At the time that we sit down to let the cat out of the bag , Christopher Leone and Laura Harkcom had yet to publicly revealThe Lost Room : Season 2comic book . So , in decree to discuss their upcoming announcement ( and subsequent details ofThe Lost Room ) , we had to accomplish the out of the question at Comic - Con – finding a still place to talk ( where there was n’t anyone around ) .
After crusade through the many geeks in attendance and occur knights fighting in full armor ( literally ) , we last find a section of the San Diego Convention Center yet to be take over by attendees coif up as their favorite corner anime characters .
After steal a few chair , Christopher , Laura , and I eventually came to take a breather under a set of palm trees outside the upper horizontal surface of the formula center to tattle about one of my favorite shows and their opus ( in my ruling ) -The Lost Room .
The Lost RoomMini-Series & Planned Television Show
Laura Harkcom & Christopher Leone
Note from Laura Harkcom regarding Paul Workman : Paul was a co - creator of the project with Chris and me . The three of us created " The Lost way " universe and storyline together , and then Chris and I save the scripts . The idea of a motel room that exist out of doors of outer space and clip as we recognize it , and most of the properties of the room , were Paul ’s original ideas . He also come up with a mint of the objects and their powers – he ’s a master of those kinds of mind - bending idea .
Could you explain how theThe Lost Roomoriginated? I’ve read previously that it stemmed from a thought experiment.
Christopher Leone : Paul [ Workman ] and I used to mold in the library at college and he would come in with these thought experiments – we were n’t even thinking about a story at that point . So , he came in and said , “ I have this idea : what would be the most powerful major power that I could have , with the least effect . ” His whole idea was if I could teleport into this hotel elbow room and I could just get elbow room table service - I would n’t need to have a job , I do n’t have to pay rent .
Laura Harkcom : You do n’t need money because you’re able to just go into any restaurant and rust wherever you want . You could go against into a bank burial vault .
Christopher : Originally , I think you could only come out the door that you went in and it was n’t attached to the key fruit or anything . His other melodic theme was a superpower where he could transport anyone to Fort Wayne , Indiana and they ’d have a bus just the ticket back to where they came from . So , it would be frustrative to you , but it would n’t be devastating .
Laura : Right . It would n’t necessary injure the victim and they ’d have a direction back home because they ’d have a bus slate .
Christopher : Then , age subsequently , Laura and I were working on this movie approximation and we were just kind of stuck . It was about this kid who got a chicken feed eye and does magic . fundamentally , the scene with Joe and Wally in the diner on the first Nox - where Wally lays out all the object - that was originally supposed to be between the small fry and this other bozo in the original moving picture . We knew that the eye was really powerful , but we did n’t know what the whole universe was . We just cognise that there was this whole war proceed on in diners and bowling alleys .
I think Laura , at one point , propose that we bring Paul ’s ideas in , but those were almost like superpowers . So , [ we thought ] what if they were attached to physical object so that multitude could steal them – whatif the motel room was actually the key and then it just explode because all that logic just ripples out .
Laura : The idea was now that we ’ve assigned power to these objects , how will these things play out in the real mankind . We always wanted this report to be grounded in the real humans and be more of a noir - eccentric story than a superhero or world power story . So , if these objects in reality existed in the real world , how would people respond to them ? That ’s why you have some people set apart them spiritual value , some people would say , “ No , no , no … They ’re so unsafe , we have to get rid of them . ” Everybody would have a different idea of what they were and what needed to be done with them .
Of course , then there would also be the people who just wanted to steal them for their own personal gain . Then it was pretty easy from there to extrapolate if you ’ve get a guy that has the most powerful object – the key – what kind of place could we put him in .
Since the mini-series was originally planned as a back-door pilot for a television show, how much had you planned out in terms of the story following the events seen in the mini-series?
Christopher : We had a passel . in the end , it ’s a really big universe and we had a lot of stories plan . What we really want to do is follow the story of the Francis Scott Key . You ’d actually have a different champion ( motel man ) , so different characters could come in , but the petty fictional character would stay the same .
You ’d actually get a new admirer with each time of year and all of a sudden they would have a whole new Seth of trouble . So , a whole Modern guy suffer the key – or girl – and they get sucked into this earth , too . Say that the booster from one time of year with the key might suffer it and still be a case on the show , but not the motel man anymore .
It ’s kind of like how the mini - series was . We get Joe ’s everlasting story and now that Joe is an objective , he ’s still part of the reality , but he would n’t be the friend next time .
How long was it after the mini-series aired that you found out Sci-Fi wasn’t going to go forward with a television series?
Christopher : It was a little while – six months .
Laura : Yeah , six month .
Continue translate our undivided audience with the creators ofThe turn a loss Room …
Was the decision based solely on ratings?
Laura : Yeah , because creatively [ Sci - Fi ] and [ Lionsgate ] were behind it . So , it just did n’t get the Book of Numbers that they needed to justify the budget of the show .
In the mini-series, “the event” that created the room was speculated, but never fully revealed. While writing the story, did you have in mind what “the event” is?
Christopher : The short reply is yes , but usually affair like that you do n’t find in the get-go . You do n’t say , “ What if this happened . ” You guess of the object first and then work your fashion backwards .
Laura : Given these rules , given these objects , how does it all deduct into [ the event ] .
Will you ever just come out and reveal what “the event” is?
Christopher : Yes and no . All the logic , the reasoning , what the objects are – you will understand what the objects are and what their subroutine are [ as the comic book progresses ] , but I think the show in the unearthly manner is about if the universe is broken over here , what is the universe and how does it work . So , a spate of those resolution I think are unanswerable in a unearthly fashion – you ’d have your own reply .
People will demand is , “ Do you have the answer ? ” really , the solution is too simple . The result kind of sounds [ simplistic ] like [ in picture , when they say ] , “ It ’s alien – extraterrestrial did it and that ’s it . ” It ’s much more like the logical system of it is all worked out . It ’s a really rule establish show and we understand the system of logic of it . I think – especially when multitude corrupt the comic Good Book – that the longer we go on , that logic will be explained .
But , even the logic leaves room for interpreting in the sense that everyone has a unlike rendering of the population – if you believe in God , you interpret the universe one manner , if you do n’t trust in God you translate it in a all unlike manner . Knowing the linguistic rule of the show , [ each person ] would translate the rule differently .
It ’s not a simple answer . If I just told you , it would n’t make sense – we ’d in reality have to let the cat out of the bag about it for a while .
Laura : In the same way that The Order and The Legion have opposing horizon tip about what the objects represent – what they are – the explanation of “ the event ” could be interpreted differently found on the mode they see the world .
It ’s more our theory about how the creation work and , therefore , this is what created the event .
How many objects are there in the motel room?
Christopher : It ’s over a hundred , but probably in the hundred orbit – give or take . I would n’t say that we cognize every unmarried target . In a lot of ways – creatively – it ’s not as playfulness for me , because I wish that I can still make up a new object … but we know A LOT of them .
Laura : We’re definitely introducing [ objects ] in the comic that were not seen in the mini series .
Was there a big difference between what you wrote in the script and what made it into the mini-series?
Laura : It was really pretty close-fitting . Some things had to be change for budgetary reasons .
Christopher : All the rules , all the conceptual clobber is there . I intend the bounteous one was that [ The Lost Room ] was primitively move to be eight 60 minutes . There ’s actually two hour that got cut before we begin shoot .
I do n’t really drop the recent minute , but there ’s an hour in the middle – a fourth hour – that ’s all about finding the motel . That was a really cool episode .
Laura : Yeah , a whole hr to that and to Jennifer ’s story .
Christopher : Once we had to foreshorten it down plot wise , it was easy to lose . Character wise , it hurt , but secret plan saucy it was leisurely because it was easy to just have Wally show him where the motel was .
I think the large matter about the mini - series is that the plaster cast was phenomenal and we altogether rack up on everybody .
- Yeah,almosteveryone is now on a hit television show.
Christopher : Right ! [ Peter ] Krause had just do off of Six Feet Under and that was a coup , I think . Julianna [ Margulies]is plain vast , Kevin Pollack , Roger Bart – all of those hombre .
- ..and Peter Jacobson was perfect as Wally.
Laura : Yeah !
Christopher : And he was the arduous one to cast too because it ’s such a unearthly part .
Laura : He collar it !
Christopher : He was everything we dreamed of .
Since you were also serving as executive producers, did it help to have input on the casting of the characters you created?
Christopher : There ’s a pile of people involved , but we had our spokesperson .
Laura : We have to give props to Mary Jo Slater and Steve Brooksbank who did a phenomenal task and bring us people that we either did n’t recognize or would not have suppose of for some of these persona that were just perfect .
In the second half of the mini-series, you began to combine objects in order to tackle different obstacles – The Collectors vault, specifically. How did you handle the inclusion of so many objects at once and how did you go about creating the various steps needed to gain access to the vault?
Christopher : You have to be careful because once you do a tale about sorcerous fork and stuff and nonsense … it can become really zany .
Laura : Yeah , it could be like Wizard of Oz – let ’s gather Dorothy and Toto and violent storm Kreutzfeld ’s castle .
Christopher : You almost did n’t desire to talk about more than one or two objects per scene , because it becomes preposterous . Arguably , it ’s all ludicrous , but it becomes really preposterous when you verbalize about more than one or two at a time . Once you ’ve collected five , as long as you ’re just grouping them together , it ’s fine .
Laura : For become into the vault , we bang the idea of the scissors – something that spread out thing . So , it seemed like a natural way to break up into the vault .
Christopher : The bank vault was specifically condescend by The Collectors . So , what could they do with the objects that would fundamentally be a security system that somebody without the cay could n’t even find . You need these three token to get through the system that they created .
How do you feel about the resurgence ofThe Lost Roomvia the internet? It’s always been there, but Dan Trachtenberg andThe Totally Rad Showreally put a voice to it.
Christopher : It ’s awful .
Laura : Yeah , we could n’t be happier with Dan and The Totally Rad Show guy rope for , like you say , putting a centralized voice to it .
Christopher : It ’s comical because we actually got in touch with him over Twitter . I saw on Twitter where Dan had say how much he loved [ The Lost Room ] and had just re - watched it . So , I just Twittered him back whole insensate and say , “ Thanks ! ”
Then , we started peach and met him for lunch . He ’s a commercial music director and I ’m a commercial director , so we have a lot in plebeian – we hit it off , so it was a instinctive thing . Then , they were like , “ Do you require to make this declaration ( of The confused Room : Season 2 comic ) at our panel and I was like , “ Yeah , that would be gravid ! . ”
That ’s the interesting matter . It seems to have gain a more religious cult report .
Laura : Right , on DVD and since [ The bemused elbow room ] airing in more and more countries - it has help the videodisc sales agreement .
Have you ever thought about recording your own audio-commentary forThe Lost Roomand releasing it online?
Christopher : That ’s interesting , I do n’t know . Maybe we should believe about it . In a agency , I ’d detest to talk about it too much and ruin it for people or explicate everything – “ When he says ' this , ' he means ' this . ' " – because some of the fun is leave that kind of [ ambiguity ] .
Laura : It might actually be expert to get more length , more time . Maybe wait until after the comic comes out .
Christopher : It would be interesting , even now , to revisit it – I have n’t follow the [ mini - series ] in a while . One of the thing is that if you [ rewatch ] it , there are certain scenes – not the rules or logic – where you ’ll go , “ Did that scene stay in there ? Did we cut that ? ” It ’s like a surprise to me because we had ten - thousand different versions of it , at one power point .
Laura : Yeah , things we had to cut for meter , had to cut for budget .
Christopher : Yeah , or things you just revised .
Laura : Yeah , the ripple effect of revising something … some scenes are disused .
The Lost Room: Season 2Comic Book
With your announcement ofThe Lost Room: Season 2comic book with Red 5, are we going to see what would have happened ifThe Lost Roomhad been picked up as a television series on Sci-Fi (now SyFy)?
Christopher : Yeah , we published a comic book with them called “ We Kill Monsters ” and had a good meter with them . They brought up [ creating a comic based on The Lost Room ] to us – we had sort of talked about it a long clip ago , but [ Red 5 ] brought it back up to us and Lionsgate was game and generate us the license .
Laura : We’re starting with a young protagonist .
Christopher : And picking up about a yr by and by .
Laura : Several of the characters that were established in the show ( Wally , Weasel .. etc ) will total back . Maybe not necessarily in the very first issue , but in the life of the comedian - we have tale for all of them plan .
Christopher : I think that we can say Weasel comes back early in a really different way that I guess is cool . That ’s the cool matter – these characters still populate the universe and they can pour down up .
Laura : Even Joe , who ’s not the champion anymore – we speak about where he is and what ’s run on with him .
Are you going to try to obtain the likeness rights of the actors that were in mini-series?
Christopher : Yeah , it would be nice because I like the consistency .
Laura : Yeah , but that ’s something that ’s still being worked out .
How often will you change motel men?
Christopher : The next protagonist will probably be in two or three [ trade paperbacks - 8 - 12 issues ] .
Laura : Yeah , It ’ll take that long to tell his story .
If you’re going to introduce a new motel man, how are you going to bring his character intoThe Lost Roomuniverse and inform him of all the “rules?” You obviously can’t retell the same story that we saw in the mini-series.
Laura : That ’s a doubt that we ’ve discussed .
We do n’t want to reveal it , but we have a fun way …
Laura : We have a really coolheaded way to reset the tale and explain the rules to everybody that should n’t be deadening . It ’s something the [ people who ’ve see the miniskirt - series ] have n’t seen before .
Even though Kroitzfeld disappears into the motel room at the end of the mini-series, is there any chance that we will be seeing him again in the comic?
Christopher : We may really see him again – in a path .
Laura : Yeah , in a different path than we know him in the miniseries .
Since Joe killed the original Occupant in the room, that means that there’s a dead body hanging around one of the versions of the motel room. Will you touch upon that in the comic book?
Christopher : In a way , yeah – we were actually talking about that . I ’d say that once the Occupant is idle that he ’s not really of import anymore , in that way .
Was there ever a thought about dedicating a series of the comic to show the origin of “the event” and the story of the original occupant?
Christopher : There is really a little parachuting back in prison term in one of the amusing Good Book , but I like keeping it in the present . In the mini - series when they find out about elbow room 9 and what occur to the accumulator – you ’re discovering the history in the ongoing level , which I really like .
I wish that we started the story forty years in – we did n’t embark on with “ the event , ” there ’s this whole history . There ’s cabal war that came and pass , there ’s cabals that exist that we have n’t even interpret yet . So , the fact that you ’re in the midsection of that , as you go on you may discovery certain story .
Laura : Yeah , elements of [ the history ] . Unless we ’re fortunate enough for the comic to run fifty to sixty issues , I do n’t think that we ’ll consecrate an entire trade to the history , but all through - out there will be elements of the story revealed in the same slipway that it was in the mini - series .
Christopher : move back to your enquiry originally . If we get to explain all of the logical system on all the rule then you will learn more about “ the outcome . ”
Laura : Yeah , that ’s kind of part and parcel for explaining " the outcome . "
How many issues are you planning forThe Lost Room: Season 2?
Laura : We’re thinking four [ issues for the first swop paperback , 16 or 20 outcome in sum for time of year 2 - as long as the cut-rate sale support it ] .
How far are you into writing the comic book?
Christopher : former point – first Quran , basically . These are all stories that we ’ve had in idea for a while , so it ’s not like we had to sit down and …
Laura : It ’s not like we had to sit down and say , “ Oh , what happens in issue figure two ? ”
Christopher : Yeah , exactly ! We have so many ideas that it ’s kind of like , “ What do we do first ? ” In an on-going serial publication , you inter - shortened things a lot more , you might inter - mingle [ melodic theme ] . I remember that in a laughable record book - specially when we ’re going to do the first trade and see how that goes – it ’s more of a self contain story , at first .
How soon can we expect to see the first issue ofThe Lost Room: Season 2?
Christopher : We’re look at 2011 , by the time it come out .
In total , our interview run 30 - minutes and I ca n’t give thanks Christopher Leone and Laura Harkcom enough for gentle me and my unremitting fanboy - esque questions . Out of the 50 interviews that I had scheduled during the course of Comic - Con ( next time , perhaps I should abridge that numeral down a little ) , this was my favorite and easily the most captivating .
For fans of the serial publication , the intelligence ofThe Lost Roomreturning as a comic book is more than anyone could have hoped for . In the world of boob tube , once a show is all in , it stay that way - whole . gratefully , their experience compose the comic bookWe Kill Monsterswith Red 5 Comics has given them a way to continue the wonderful population they create so many year ago .
To learn more about their current comic book , We Kill Monsters , check outWeKillMonsters.com
To buy The Lost Room on DVD , school principal over toAmazon.com
you may expect to seeThe preoccupied Room : Season 2released in 2011 fromRed 5 Comics
Christopher :
