Entrevista con Dylan Neal de Arrow
Por Craig Byrne 04 Marzo, 2014
The PromiseTo a generation, he was “Deputy Doug” on Dawson’s Creek. For your mom, he is hunky newspaper editor Jack Griffith on the Hallmark Channel’s Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove. For a fan of Arrow, though, Dylan Neal is the nasty Dr. Anthony Ivo, who makes a return appearance in tomorrow night’s episode, “The Promise.”
We spoke with Mr. Neal at a recent Hallmark Channel event about juggling the nice guy role on Cedar Cove with his role as the baddie in Arrow’s island flashbacks.
“You know, I’ve done that my entire career. I probably do 50 percent bad guys, 50 percent good guys, and all that changes is the age over the years,” he laughs. “But it’s fun to be able to do that. I consider myself lucky, to be able to get the opportunity to mix it up. I think it would be kind of boring to just play only one the whole time, and to play him at the same time is just sort of really fun. Most of the year, I’m doing Jack Griffith on Cedar Cove, and this just came along during hiatus, and I don’t know how long it’s going to go. I don’t know if I’m going to keep doing this, but I’ve really enjoyed playing Dr. Ivo,” he says.
“The shows obviously, themselves, are so, so different from each other. Arrow’s so flashy, and they’ve got quite a large budget, and big, flashy sets… it’s so different working on Cedar Cove, where we don’t even have a studio. We do most of our shots outside or in practical locations in real houses,” he says, marveling about how big sets such as the freighter happen to be.
Arrow has reunited Neal with occasional director and Director of Photography of Arrow, Glen Winter, who is the director of “The Promise.” The two worked together before when Neal had a recurring role on Smallville during Season 9. “I really like working with Glen,” Neal says. “He’s a really talented DP and director, and I think we get along well. I’m a technical actor, so directors usually really like working with me, because I make their job easy, and he definitely appreciates that what I bring to my work. Just sort of that technical knowledge – just makes the day go a little bit faster.”
What can he tease about this Wednesday’s episode? “I will say that ['The Promise'] is sort of the culmination of where we’ve been leading to for several months. This is the episode that’s going to decide ‘does Ivo die?’ or ‘does Ivo live?’ I won’t tell you what happens. Ivo suffers a little, I will say, if that ultimately leads to his death or his carrying on. But there is a comeuppance for Dr. Ivo coming, and the episode…. it’s a big on,” he says.
http://www.greenarrowtv.com/paging-dr-i ... neal/16543
Por Craig Byrne 04 Marzo, 2014
The PromiseTo a generation, he was “Deputy Doug” on Dawson’s Creek. For your mom, he is hunky newspaper editor Jack Griffith on the Hallmark Channel’s Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove. For a fan of Arrow, though, Dylan Neal is the nasty Dr. Anthony Ivo, who makes a return appearance in tomorrow night’s episode, “The Promise.”
We spoke with Mr. Neal at a recent Hallmark Channel event about juggling the nice guy role on Cedar Cove with his role as the baddie in Arrow’s island flashbacks.
“You know, I’ve done that my entire career. I probably do 50 percent bad guys, 50 percent good guys, and all that changes is the age over the years,” he laughs. “But it’s fun to be able to do that. I consider myself lucky, to be able to get the opportunity to mix it up. I think it would be kind of boring to just play only one the whole time, and to play him at the same time is just sort of really fun. Most of the year, I’m doing Jack Griffith on Cedar Cove, and this just came along during hiatus, and I don’t know how long it’s going to go. I don’t know if I’m going to keep doing this, but I’ve really enjoyed playing Dr. Ivo,” he says.
“The shows obviously, themselves, are so, so different from each other. Arrow’s so flashy, and they’ve got quite a large budget, and big, flashy sets… it’s so different working on Cedar Cove, where we don’t even have a studio. We do most of our shots outside or in practical locations in real houses,” he says, marveling about how big sets such as the freighter happen to be.
Arrow has reunited Neal with occasional director and Director of Photography of Arrow, Glen Winter, who is the director of “The Promise.” The two worked together before when Neal had a recurring role on Smallville during Season 9. “I really like working with Glen,” Neal says. “He’s a really talented DP and director, and I think we get along well. I’m a technical actor, so directors usually really like working with me, because I make their job easy, and he definitely appreciates that what I bring to my work. Just sort of that technical knowledge – just makes the day go a little bit faster.”
What can he tease about this Wednesday’s episode? “I will say that ['The Promise'] is sort of the culmination of where we’ve been leading to for several months. This is the episode that’s going to decide ‘does Ivo die?’ or ‘does Ivo live?’ I won’t tell you what happens. Ivo suffers a little, I will say, if that ultimately leads to his death or his carrying on. But there is a comeuppance for Dr. Ivo coming, and the episode…. it’s a big on,” he says.
http://www.greenarrowtv.com/paging-dr-i ... neal/16543
- ¿Cómo de lejos irá Slade Wilson para conseguir venganza? (TVGuide):
¿Cómo de lejos irá Slade Wilson para conseguir venganza?
Por Natalie Abrams 4 de Marzo, 2014 06:04 PM ET
Oliver Queen's worst nightmare has come true on Arrow.
Although Oliver (Stephen Amell) believed his former friend-turned-dangerous enemy Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett), aka Deathstroke, to be dead, he is very much alive. Slade is actually the mastermind behind the attempted creation of super soldiers in Starling City that has left Roy Harper (Colton Haynes) forever changed.
"He's basically following through on a promise that he made Oliver back on the island," Bennett tells TVGuide.com. "Slade Wilson has a bone to pick with Oliver in regards to the death of Shado."
Not only is Slade still alive, but he's actually infiltrated the Queen mansion under the guise of being an ally to Moira (Susanna Thompson). "Coming into Oliver's home is a huge statement that everybody is at risk," Bennett says. "From the island, it was obvious that Slade wasn't a wealthy man. He was just a military guy. He's obviously gone to some lengths to accrue [enough] finances that he's shown up in the mansion and is an introduced friend of Moira, which means he's managed to come through society at the level that Moira Queen is used to associating with to the point where she's invited him into her house. There's been a lot of ground work. He's gone to great lengths to execute this revenge plot."
But knowing Slade Wilson is alive and going head-to-head with him are two entirely different situations since Slade practically taught Ollie everything he knows. "Oliver is coming face to face with his equal, if not his master," Bennett says. "Anything he has in his arsenal, Slade Wilson is very aware of. Looking into the history of Deathstroke and Slade Wilson in the comics, characters like Batman couldn't fight Deathstroke. Oliver knows very well that this is a man he might not be able to defeat even with his skills. He's going to be very careful of how he plays his cards with Slade because Slade is every bit the equal."
Back on the island, we'll finally come closer to seeing the great divide between them as Oliver, Slade and Sara (Caity Lotz) attempt to make their way to the freighter — which will be both a blessing and a curse since Dr. Ivo (Dylan Neal) could reveal the truth about Shado's death to the temperamental Slade. "We've heard Oliver saying that he can't tell Slade because he's dangerous and volatile," Bennett says. "When this news is revealed, we've got a very complex situation because Slade is on the edge right now and needs a little bit of a push. Maybe the information regarding Shado is going to be the push that creates everything that's going on in Starling City."
http://www.tvguide.com/News/Arrow-Slade ... 78850.aspx
Por Natalie Abrams 4 de Marzo, 2014 06:04 PM ET
Oliver Queen's worst nightmare has come true on Arrow.
Although Oliver (Stephen Amell) believed his former friend-turned-dangerous enemy Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett), aka Deathstroke, to be dead, he is very much alive. Slade is actually the mastermind behind the attempted creation of super soldiers in Starling City that has left Roy Harper (Colton Haynes) forever changed.
"He's basically following through on a promise that he made Oliver back on the island," Bennett tells TVGuide.com. "Slade Wilson has a bone to pick with Oliver in regards to the death of Shado."
Not only is Slade still alive, but he's actually infiltrated the Queen mansion under the guise of being an ally to Moira (Susanna Thompson). "Coming into Oliver's home is a huge statement that everybody is at risk," Bennett says. "From the island, it was obvious that Slade wasn't a wealthy man. He was just a military guy. He's obviously gone to some lengths to accrue [enough] finances that he's shown up in the mansion and is an introduced friend of Moira, which means he's managed to come through society at the level that Moira Queen is used to associating with to the point where she's invited him into her house. There's been a lot of ground work. He's gone to great lengths to execute this revenge plot."
But knowing Slade Wilson is alive and going head-to-head with him are two entirely different situations since Slade practically taught Ollie everything he knows. "Oliver is coming face to face with his equal, if not his master," Bennett says. "Anything he has in his arsenal, Slade Wilson is very aware of. Looking into the history of Deathstroke and Slade Wilson in the comics, characters like Batman couldn't fight Deathstroke. Oliver knows very well that this is a man he might not be able to defeat even with his skills. He's going to be very careful of how he plays his cards with Slade because Slade is every bit the equal."
Back on the island, we'll finally come closer to seeing the great divide between them as Oliver, Slade and Sara (Caity Lotz) attempt to make their way to the freighter — which will be both a blessing and a curse since Dr. Ivo (Dylan Neal) could reveal the truth about Shado's death to the temperamental Slade. "We've heard Oliver saying that he can't tell Slade because he's dangerous and volatile," Bennett says. "When this news is revealed, we've got a very complex situation because Slade is on the edge right now and needs a little bit of a push. Maybe the information regarding Shado is going to be the push that creates everything that's going on in Starling City."
http://www.tvguide.com/News/Arrow-Slade ... 78850.aspx
- Jefe de Arrow habla sobre el bombazo de Slade para Oliver, las amenazas en ciernes y la 'Agonía' de 'Olicity' (Q&A)
Jefe de Arrow habla sobre el bombazo de Slade para Oliver, las amenazas en ciernes y la 'Agonía' de 'Olicity'
Por Philiana Ng 7:00 AM PST 05/03/2014
Oliver Queen has met his match on Arrow.
His former mentor-turned-nemesis Slade Wilson returned from the dead at the end of last week's episode of The CW's comic-book drama and things between the two will be tense.
"That's the beauty of a cliffhanger is it has people wondering how you're going to get yourself out of this one," executive producer Marc Guggenheim tells The Hollywood Reporter with a laugh. "Episode 15 certainly answers that question in a very surprising way."
Slade's desire for revenge against Oliver has been brewing for quite some time -- from at least episode nine -- but "the timetable and emotional motivation behind Slade's plan" comes to the forefront in Wednesday's episode, titled "The Promise." Guggenheim talks to THR about the aftermath of Slade's resurrection, Oliver's state of mind, another big "Olicity" moment and more.
Can you give us a preview of Wednesday's episode?
The episode is predominantly about Oliver, Slade and Sara trying to take the freighter in the past. We designed episode 15 to be like a sequel to episode 14 last year, where we flipped the paradigm and spent the majority of our story time on the island with Oliver and Slade. That was one of our most successful episodes last year and I think was one of the episodes fans responded to the most. We went into this year thinking we would love to do a sequel to that. "Go big or go home" -- we went very, very, very big and it feels like an epic little action movie directed by one of our DPs Glen Winter, who's directed some of our best episodes.
What is Oliver's state of mind at the moment?
The beauty of the revelation is it prompts Oliver to go through a variety of emotional reactions -- from shock to anger to fear to desperation to resolve. It's interesting for us to put Oliver through these various different emotional states, which you only get to do that if you have a really compelling, exciting incident in the form of Slade coming back to town.
Now that Slade is in the fabric of Starling City, how does that change things for Oliver moving forward?
The truth is [episode] 15 is very much a game-changer for us because as you said, Oliver now knows that Slade is alive and in Starling City, and it really changes the entire season because now a clock is running essentially. Now that Oliver knows that his greatest nemesis is alive and back with a vengeance, it's very hard to go back to quote-unquote villain of the week episodes. Even though there are a couple of what people have been calling villain of the week episodes in our future, all of them now are imbued with a different sense of urgency and a different sense of anxiety because now this huge threat is looming out there. Even when Oliver has to deal with a non-mythology-related villain in a given week, he's always doing it against the backdrop of this looming threat that Slade represents. Nothing will be the same after episode 15.
Every decision that Team Arrow makes is magnified tenfold...
We'll be exploring it. It gets dealt with in episodes 15 and the episode afterwards, 16.
Is there an interaction between Slade and another character that may be surprising to viewers?
The one that always makes me smile whenever I see a cut of the episode is when Roy meets Slade and Slade meets Roy -- in part because of the way Colton [Haynes] and Manu [Bennett] play the moment. Because Roy having been injected with the Mirakuru back in episode nine, [he] has a connection with Slade. Slade has loomed very large in Roy's life ever since he was exposed to the Mirakuru. Oliver certainly mentions Slade quite a bit in episode 12 when he started training Roy. Watching the two of them meet face to face is a lot of fun and I think it's one of the high points -- there are a lot of high points -- but that is certainly one of them.
How does Sara play into all of this?
She has also her own interesting history with Slade from their time on the island and what is most interesting for us as writers is that Sara, because of her time on her island, she knows Slade as well as Oliver does and know the danger that he poses. What's different is in the years that have passed since Lian Yu, she's become a completely different person, she's become a total badass, an international assassin who approaches Slade in a very different way than when she did back when she was a relatively innocent girl off the shores of Lian Yu. For me the fun of something like episode 15 is watching the difference between Sara in the past deal with Slade and Sara in the present deal with Slade.
Last week's episode featured a sweet moment between Felicity Oliver that made "Olicity" fans happy. Any more of those in the future?
(Laughs.) The fun or the agony of Oliver and Felicity is they're always taking one step forward and two steps back and that's what I meant when I said it was a slow burn. I will say by the end of the season, you'll see another big evolution of their relationship. But at the same time I don't want to spoil when and how that's going to happen. I do think part of the fun of the show and certainly Oliver and Felicity, things happen in the least expected ways. We'll be doing something with Oliver and Felicity by the end of the year that will really confound and satisfy some viewers and infuriate others but I think that's when you know you're taking chances.
It was established early on that Sara Lance's Black Canary is the first iteration, but as the series has progressed, has that changed?
The one thing that's always very safe to say with Arrow is never make assumptions. One of the little tricks that we have up our sleeves is we'd like to use the audience's assumptions to surprise them and twist things. All I really want to say on the subject of Black Canary is, there is absolutely a plan and you'll have to watch the show with some degree of patience to see how that plan gets unfolded. But we know exactly where we're headed and we hope that everyone will stay along for the ride.
Is Ted Kord -- whose company was mentioned in the most recent episode -- someone you'd like to bring in to the universe?
I'd love to. Over here on the show we have a great affinity for Ted Kord and the Blue Beetle, the character. For the time being, because of our affection for Ted, we're quite happy to at least have his company present in the show. (Laughs.) With continued good fortune, we will have many years on the year and many episodes and therefore many opportunities to continue to explore the corners of the DC universe.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-f ... ade-686086
Por Philiana Ng 7:00 AM PST 05/03/2014
Oliver Queen has met his match on Arrow.
His former mentor-turned-nemesis Slade Wilson returned from the dead at the end of last week's episode of The CW's comic-book drama and things between the two will be tense.
"That's the beauty of a cliffhanger is it has people wondering how you're going to get yourself out of this one," executive producer Marc Guggenheim tells The Hollywood Reporter with a laugh. "Episode 15 certainly answers that question in a very surprising way."
Slade's desire for revenge against Oliver has been brewing for quite some time -- from at least episode nine -- but "the timetable and emotional motivation behind Slade's plan" comes to the forefront in Wednesday's episode, titled "The Promise." Guggenheim talks to THR about the aftermath of Slade's resurrection, Oliver's state of mind, another big "Olicity" moment and more.
Can you give us a preview of Wednesday's episode?
The episode is predominantly about Oliver, Slade and Sara trying to take the freighter in the past. We designed episode 15 to be like a sequel to episode 14 last year, where we flipped the paradigm and spent the majority of our story time on the island with Oliver and Slade. That was one of our most successful episodes last year and I think was one of the episodes fans responded to the most. We went into this year thinking we would love to do a sequel to that. "Go big or go home" -- we went very, very, very big and it feels like an epic little action movie directed by one of our DPs Glen Winter, who's directed some of our best episodes.
What is Oliver's state of mind at the moment?
The beauty of the revelation is it prompts Oliver to go through a variety of emotional reactions -- from shock to anger to fear to desperation to resolve. It's interesting for us to put Oliver through these various different emotional states, which you only get to do that if you have a really compelling, exciting incident in the form of Slade coming back to town.
Now that Slade is in the fabric of Starling City, how does that change things for Oliver moving forward?
The truth is [episode] 15 is very much a game-changer for us because as you said, Oliver now knows that Slade is alive and in Starling City, and it really changes the entire season because now a clock is running essentially. Now that Oliver knows that his greatest nemesis is alive and back with a vengeance, it's very hard to go back to quote-unquote villain of the week episodes. Even though there are a couple of what people have been calling villain of the week episodes in our future, all of them now are imbued with a different sense of urgency and a different sense of anxiety because now this huge threat is looming out there. Even when Oliver has to deal with a non-mythology-related villain in a given week, he's always doing it against the backdrop of this looming threat that Slade represents. Nothing will be the same after episode 15.
Every decision that Team Arrow makes is magnified tenfold...
We'll be exploring it. It gets dealt with in episodes 15 and the episode afterwards, 16.
Is there an interaction between Slade and another character that may be surprising to viewers?
The one that always makes me smile whenever I see a cut of the episode is when Roy meets Slade and Slade meets Roy -- in part because of the way Colton [Haynes] and Manu [Bennett] play the moment. Because Roy having been injected with the Mirakuru back in episode nine, [he] has a connection with Slade. Slade has loomed very large in Roy's life ever since he was exposed to the Mirakuru. Oliver certainly mentions Slade quite a bit in episode 12 when he started training Roy. Watching the two of them meet face to face is a lot of fun and I think it's one of the high points -- there are a lot of high points -- but that is certainly one of them.
How does Sara play into all of this?
She has also her own interesting history with Slade from their time on the island and what is most interesting for us as writers is that Sara, because of her time on her island, she knows Slade as well as Oliver does and know the danger that he poses. What's different is in the years that have passed since Lian Yu, she's become a completely different person, she's become a total badass, an international assassin who approaches Slade in a very different way than when she did back when she was a relatively innocent girl off the shores of Lian Yu. For me the fun of something like episode 15 is watching the difference between Sara in the past deal with Slade and Sara in the present deal with Slade.
Last week's episode featured a sweet moment between Felicity Oliver that made "Olicity" fans happy. Any more of those in the future?
(Laughs.) The fun or the agony of Oliver and Felicity is they're always taking one step forward and two steps back and that's what I meant when I said it was a slow burn. I will say by the end of the season, you'll see another big evolution of their relationship. But at the same time I don't want to spoil when and how that's going to happen. I do think part of the fun of the show and certainly Oliver and Felicity, things happen in the least expected ways. We'll be doing something with Oliver and Felicity by the end of the year that will really confound and satisfy some viewers and infuriate others but I think that's when you know you're taking chances.
It was established early on that Sara Lance's Black Canary is the first iteration, but as the series has progressed, has that changed?
The one thing that's always very safe to say with Arrow is never make assumptions. One of the little tricks that we have up our sleeves is we'd like to use the audience's assumptions to surprise them and twist things. All I really want to say on the subject of Black Canary is, there is absolutely a plan and you'll have to watch the show with some degree of patience to see how that plan gets unfolded. But we know exactly where we're headed and we hope that everyone will stay along for the ride.
Is Ted Kord -- whose company was mentioned in the most recent episode -- someone you'd like to bring in to the universe?
I'd love to. Over here on the show we have a great affinity for Ted Kord and the Blue Beetle, the character. For the time being, because of our affection for Ted, we're quite happy to at least have his company present in the show. (Laughs.) With continued good fortune, we will have many years on the year and many episodes and therefore many opportunities to continue to explore the corners of the DC universe.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-f ... ade-686086
- En Starling City para cumplir una promesa, 'Slade Wilson es una máquina de matar' (TVLine):
En Starling City para cumplir una promesa, 'Slade Wilson es una máquina de matar'
Por Matt Webb Mitovich 05 Marzo, 2014 09:45 AM PST
There’s your garden variety “unwelcome house guest”… and then there is Slade Wilson cozying up to your mom.
The CW’s Arrow left viewers — as well as Oliver’s jaw — hanging at the close of last week’s episode, by revealing that He Who Is Also Known as Deathstroke has infiltrated the Queen mansion, passing himself off as an inarguably charming backer of Moira’s mayoral campaign.
Tonight at 8/7c, the CW action-drama picks up where it left off, with Slade taking enormous pleasure in deftly taunting his onetime island ally in the course of seeming small talk, until at one point Oliver can take it no more and moves to kill his shockingly resurfaced frenemy.
But as Slade retorts, “Not yet, kid.” No, he has bigger, far more torturous plans in mind for Mr. Queen.
“One thing is absolutely certain,” Manu Bennett told TVLine during our visit to the series’ set in Vancouver. “As of the point where Slade believes that Oliver was responsible for the death of Shado, coupled with the effects of Mirakuru, Slade Wilson is a killing machine — and he has come to Starling City to exact revenge.”
Yet as enjoyable as Oliver’s The Promisecurrent day conundrum is — seriously, Slade misses no opportunity lob veiled threats, while a handshake he shares with the similarly Mirakuru’d Roy makes for a can’t-miss TV moment — much of the episode unfolds in flashback, as Oliver, Sara and Slade plot to take the freighter and thus secure passage home. Aside from squashing Ivo’s small army, the only other question is: Can Oliver bring himself to kill Dr. Ivo before details about Shado’s death surfaces?
Needless to say, one way or another, Slade will become privy to the truth. And much like another comics-verse’s Dr. Banner, he’s not a guy you like when angry. “Slade has a very pure objective: To find the person responsible for Shado’s death,” Bennett notes. “And when he discovers that it is Oliver, his temper spikes. And because of the Mirakuru, he becomes even more intense.”
Stoking Slade’s fire is the deep sense of betrayal he feels, especially so soon after he and Oliver talked of one another as being “brothers.” As Bennett explains, “He brought this kid through a world he would never have survived if it hadn’t been for Slade’s mentorship. It’s a scenario akin to, ‘What would Yoda have done if he thought Luke Skywalker had betrayed him?’ Or Liam Neeson in his Batman [Begins] role [as mentor Ra's al Ghul]. Slade’s feelings are so intense because of the camaraderie they had shared.”
In the here and now of Starling City, however, Slade manages to keep his composure whilst in Oliver’s company — and even while cheating death — knowing that to do so is critical in enacting his end game.
“If you look at the movie Inception, for example, people like to be in control of their reality — and that’s how Slade is in Starling City,” Bennett says. “He has learned to control the Mirakuru rage. Because he must control his past if he is to facilitate his future.”
http://tvline.com/2014/03/05/arrow-prev ... athstroke/
Por Matt Webb Mitovich 05 Marzo, 2014 09:45 AM PST
There’s your garden variety “unwelcome house guest”… and then there is Slade Wilson cozying up to your mom.
The CW’s Arrow left viewers — as well as Oliver’s jaw — hanging at the close of last week’s episode, by revealing that He Who Is Also Known as Deathstroke has infiltrated the Queen mansion, passing himself off as an inarguably charming backer of Moira’s mayoral campaign.
Tonight at 8/7c, the CW action-drama picks up where it left off, with Slade taking enormous pleasure in deftly taunting his onetime island ally in the course of seeming small talk, until at one point Oliver can take it no more and moves to kill his shockingly resurfaced frenemy.
But as Slade retorts, “Not yet, kid.” No, he has bigger, far more torturous plans in mind for Mr. Queen.
“One thing is absolutely certain,” Manu Bennett told TVLine during our visit to the series’ set in Vancouver. “As of the point where Slade believes that Oliver was responsible for the death of Shado, coupled with the effects of Mirakuru, Slade Wilson is a killing machine — and he has come to Starling City to exact revenge.”
Yet as enjoyable as Oliver’s The Promisecurrent day conundrum is — seriously, Slade misses no opportunity lob veiled threats, while a handshake he shares with the similarly Mirakuru’d Roy makes for a can’t-miss TV moment — much of the episode unfolds in flashback, as Oliver, Sara and Slade plot to take the freighter and thus secure passage home. Aside from squashing Ivo’s small army, the only other question is: Can Oliver bring himself to kill Dr. Ivo before details about Shado’s death surfaces?
Needless to say, one way or another, Slade will become privy to the truth. And much like another comics-verse’s Dr. Banner, he’s not a guy you like when angry. “Slade has a very pure objective: To find the person responsible for Shado’s death,” Bennett notes. “And when he discovers that it is Oliver, his temper spikes. And because of the Mirakuru, he becomes even more intense.”
Stoking Slade’s fire is the deep sense of betrayal he feels, especially so soon after he and Oliver talked of one another as being “brothers.” As Bennett explains, “He brought this kid through a world he would never have survived if it hadn’t been for Slade’s mentorship. It’s a scenario akin to, ‘What would Yoda have done if he thought Luke Skywalker had betrayed him?’ Or Liam Neeson in his Batman [Begins] role [as mentor Ra's al Ghul]. Slade’s feelings are so intense because of the camaraderie they had shared.”
In the here and now of Starling City, however, Slade manages to keep his composure whilst in Oliver’s company — and even while cheating death — knowing that to do so is critical in enacting his end game.
“If you look at the movie Inception, for example, people like to be in control of their reality — and that’s how Slade is in Starling City,” Bennett says. “He has learned to control the Mirakuru rage. Because he must control his past if he is to facilitate his future.”
http://tvline.com/2014/03/05/arrow-prev ... athstroke/
- Los jefes de Arrow Adelantan un "Cambio de Juego" en el episodio de esta noche y un rgereso inesperado en el final (EOnline):
Los jefes de Arrow Adelantan un "Cambio de Juego" en el episodio de esta noche y un rgereso inesperado en el final
Por Tierney Bricker 05 Marzo 10:46 AM PST
"Please save Oliver."
Oliver's (Stephen Amell) has finally caught up to his present on Arrow and fans will not want to miss tonight's episode of the CW hit, which finally brings our hero face-to-face with Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett) in the present-day. Crashing their party? Tension!
We've watched "The Promise" and can guarantee that the show, and Oliver, will never be the same by episode's end. Plus, we chatted with executive producer Marc Guggenheim about the flashback-heavy hour, which he compared to season one standout "The Odyssey."
Here are 10 things to look forward to in "The Promise"…
1. Like last season's "The Odyssey," Guggenheim previews that "The Promise" is "20 percent present-day and 80 percent flashback" and that the Arrow team "just blew the doors off of it." Speaking of which...
2. The stunts and fight sequences are always top-notch on Arrow, but "The Promise" raises the bar even higher. "It sets a new record for us in terms of production value," Guggenheim says. "We always try to make the show look like a small movie every week and this episode just looks like a big movie."
3. Two training sequences gift us with shirtless (and sweaty) scenes of Oliver (on the Island!) and Roy (Colton Haynes). Shameless shirtlessness is our anti-drug.
4. The scenes between Oliver and Slade in the present-day are filled with tension and definitely do not disappoint, especially when they come hand-in-hand with the Island scenes that show just how connected they were. Slade even refers to them as "brothers."
"I can teases lot of tension and a mixture of emotions," Guggenheim says of the pair's present-day reunion. "The dynamic between the two of them is obviously fraught with a lot of history."
5. While we only get one quick scene, it's still an absolute delight to see the ever-growing Arrow team all pow-wow in the cave. Even better is watching them all work together.
6. There are two people on the show who have been injected with the Mirakuru serum and those two people will come face-to-face. Take from that what you will.
7. Deathstroke's mask? You'll finally get to see it. On a certain someone. The origins of Oliver's hood? Ditto. Yes, this episode gave us comic book geek chills.
8. We'll let this tease from Guggenheim speak for itself: "It features some gamechanging moments both in the present and in the past. Both the flashback story line and the present day storyline are inextricably altered by the end of this episode."
9. While Arrow has never been lacking in villains (which we love!), it's cool to see Oliver finally get an archnemesis in the form of Slade, who poses an "incredible danger to everyone around Oliver, most particularly the ones that he loves, so that tension and that suspense is going to play a huge role," Guggenheim previews.
10. Obviously not intentional, but there are two Captain Phillips references in the flashbacks that made us chuckle. You'll know 'em when you hear 'em.
Bonus tease: Looking ahead, Guggenheim spills that the season two finale could feature some surprise guests. "If everything goes according to plan, that's a caveat, you'll see some familiar faces in the finale. Maybe ones that you're not expecting."
http://uk.eonline.com/news/517811/arrow ... the-finale
Por Tierney Bricker 05 Marzo 10:46 AM PST
"Please save Oliver."
Oliver's (Stephen Amell) has finally caught up to his present on Arrow and fans will not want to miss tonight's episode of the CW hit, which finally brings our hero face-to-face with Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett) in the present-day. Crashing their party? Tension!
We've watched "The Promise" and can guarantee that the show, and Oliver, will never be the same by episode's end. Plus, we chatted with executive producer Marc Guggenheim about the flashback-heavy hour, which he compared to season one standout "The Odyssey."
Here are 10 things to look forward to in "The Promise"…
1. Like last season's "The Odyssey," Guggenheim previews that "The Promise" is "20 percent present-day and 80 percent flashback" and that the Arrow team "just blew the doors off of it." Speaking of which...
2. The stunts and fight sequences are always top-notch on Arrow, but "The Promise" raises the bar even higher. "It sets a new record for us in terms of production value," Guggenheim says. "We always try to make the show look like a small movie every week and this episode just looks like a big movie."
3. Two training sequences gift us with shirtless (and sweaty) scenes of Oliver (on the Island!) and Roy (Colton Haynes). Shameless shirtlessness is our anti-drug.
4. The scenes between Oliver and Slade in the present-day are filled with tension and definitely do not disappoint, especially when they come hand-in-hand with the Island scenes that show just how connected they were. Slade even refers to them as "brothers."
"I can teases lot of tension and a mixture of emotions," Guggenheim says of the pair's present-day reunion. "The dynamic between the two of them is obviously fraught with a lot of history."
5. While we only get one quick scene, it's still an absolute delight to see the ever-growing Arrow team all pow-wow in the cave. Even better is watching them all work together.
6. There are two people on the show who have been injected with the Mirakuru serum and those two people will come face-to-face. Take from that what you will.
7. Deathstroke's mask? You'll finally get to see it. On a certain someone. The origins of Oliver's hood? Ditto. Yes, this episode gave us comic book geek chills.
8. We'll let this tease from Guggenheim speak for itself: "It features some gamechanging moments both in the present and in the past. Both the flashback story line and the present day storyline are inextricably altered by the end of this episode."
9. While Arrow has never been lacking in villains (which we love!), it's cool to see Oliver finally get an archnemesis in the form of Slade, who poses an "incredible danger to everyone around Oliver, most particularly the ones that he loves, so that tension and that suspense is going to play a huge role," Guggenheim previews.
10. Obviously not intentional, but there are two Captain Phillips references in the flashbacks that made us chuckle. You'll know 'em when you hear 'em.
Bonus tease: Looking ahead, Guggenheim spills that the season two finale could feature some surprise guests. "If everything goes according to plan, that's a caveat, you'll see some familiar faces in the finale. Maybe ones that you're not expecting."
http://uk.eonline.com/news/517811/arrow ... the-finale
- Marc Guggenheim habla sobre el momento a lo ‘Motín a bordo’ de la serie (herocomplex):
Marc Guggenheim habla sobre el momento a lo ‘Motín a bordo’ de la serie
Por Kevin Day 05 de Marzo, 2014 | 4:30 p.m.
The CW’s hit superhero show “Arrow” continues to glide through its second season, getting ever more deeply embedded in the greater DC Comics Universe; already this season it’s introduced memorable DC villains, with other fan favorites such as Suicide Squad still to come. In the run-up to Wednesday’s episode, “The Promise,” Hero Complex caught up with “Arrow” executive producer Marc Guggenheim to chat briefly about the out-of-the-ordinary nature of this week’s story line.
Fair warning, there are some spoilers ahead for anyone not fully caught up with the latest episodes.
Hero Complex: So “The Promise” is bigger in scope than usual?
Marc Guggenheim: This episode is a sequel to last year’s Episode 14, which was an episode where we flipped the paradigm and told more stories in the past than we were in the present. The mission last year was Oliver and Slade were trying to get off the island via plane. In this episode, Sara, Slade and Oliver are trying to take over the freighter that’s been off the shores of the island since Episode 1 of this year. One of the things we did for this episode was we built the entire upper deck of the ship. We originally wanted to film on an actual boat, but we couldn’t find one that was shootable on, so our incredibly talented art department created the entire set for us, just for this episode. It not only features the upper deck, it also features the entire hull. There’s no way for me to talk about Episode 15 without calling out Glen Winter, he’s one of our DPs on the show. He directed this episode. He broke out all the stops. It’s a tour de force directing job, but it’s in the service of an epic story. We basically wanted to do a “Mutiny on the Bounty” type of episode and it’s got all those pyrotechnics and big action and scope to it. It features some really seminal moments in terms of Oliver’s evolution to becoming the Arrow. It also features some seminal moments toward Slade Wilson becoming Deathstroke. It’s very much required viewing.
HC: Seems like you’re continually upping the ante in terms of scope. Are you spending more money or are you finding tricks to make it appear bigger?
MG: We’re actually doing it with less money than we had last year, believe it or not. I don’t think it’s a matter of tricks. It’s that everyone with the show has really upped their game. I think the performances have been better, I think the camera work’s been better, the writing’s been better. Everyone’s figured out how to do better. Just goes to show that practice makes perfect. One of the great things about the “Arrow” crew is that no one is settling for what they did yesterday. They’re always thinking about what they can do tomorrow. And they’re not thinking about how they can do something, they’re thinking about how they can do it bigger. That’s literally at every level and in every department. It has allowed us to tell bigger stories. I wish I could say we’ve found some sort of budgetary magic bullet or some accounting trick that allowed us to pull this off. But it has nothing to do with tricks and everything to do with talent.
HC: There have been references to other DC properties, such as mention of Kord Industries, the company owned by Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle in DC lore. Are those there just for fun or are they planting seeds for something down the road?
MG: It depends. Both. Sometimes we are planting a flag, other times we are just having fun. In last week’s episode, we had a billboard for a movie called “Blue Devil.” In DC Comics, Blue Devil is a superhero who came out of a movie. That was an example of a fun easter egg. At the same time, when we name-dropped Ra’s al Ghul at the beginning of Season 2, we were planting a flag. We like the idea of suggesting there’s a broader universe out there beyond Starling City. At the same time, we’re comic book fans and we love a good easter egg as much as the next geek or comic book fan. Sometimes we’re doing it just to show our roots, basically.
HC: Your supporting cast is much bigger in the second season. Has it been tricky to keep all those stories serviced properly from week to week?
MG: Yes. It’s been very tricky, actually. We threw a lot of balls up in the air this year. I think a lot of shows do in the second season. I leave it up to the audience to decide how adequately we’ve addressed every one. I think the book hasn’t been written on Season 2, but I’d say a strength of Season 2 has been the wide range of characters and perhaps the weakness of Season 2 has been the wide range of characters. My hope is that when the season is complete and we sit down and watch contiguously, as opposed to weeks between episodes and hiatuses, you’ll see that every one was serviced. Even if we don’t see Roy for a couple of episodes, we eventually get back to him. Hopefully, all 23 episodes of the season will come together for a satisfying viewing experience and we tell a complete story.
HC: It’s unique that even though Oliver is this wealthy and powerful superhero, he seems to still live at home with his mom and sister. Any chance he’ll be moving out soon?
MG: I think you’ll see in light of the events of Episode 13 of this year, Oliver has not been living at the Queen mansion. In Episode 13 he learned that Malcolm Merlyn is Thea’s biological father and had a big falling out with Moira, who’d been keeping that a secret. We’ve been writing Oliver as not living at the mansion since Episode 13. The episode where you actually get some indication of that is Episode 16 and you’ll see where he’s been hanging his hood.
http://herocomplex.latimes.com/tv/arrow ... ty-moment/
Por Kevin Day 05 de Marzo, 2014 | 4:30 p.m.
The CW’s hit superhero show “Arrow” continues to glide through its second season, getting ever more deeply embedded in the greater DC Comics Universe; already this season it’s introduced memorable DC villains, with other fan favorites such as Suicide Squad still to come. In the run-up to Wednesday’s episode, “The Promise,” Hero Complex caught up with “Arrow” executive producer Marc Guggenheim to chat briefly about the out-of-the-ordinary nature of this week’s story line.
Fair warning, there are some spoilers ahead for anyone not fully caught up with the latest episodes.
Hero Complex: So “The Promise” is bigger in scope than usual?
Marc Guggenheim: This episode is a sequel to last year’s Episode 14, which was an episode where we flipped the paradigm and told more stories in the past than we were in the present. The mission last year was Oliver and Slade were trying to get off the island via plane. In this episode, Sara, Slade and Oliver are trying to take over the freighter that’s been off the shores of the island since Episode 1 of this year. One of the things we did for this episode was we built the entire upper deck of the ship. We originally wanted to film on an actual boat, but we couldn’t find one that was shootable on, so our incredibly talented art department created the entire set for us, just for this episode. It not only features the upper deck, it also features the entire hull. There’s no way for me to talk about Episode 15 without calling out Glen Winter, he’s one of our DPs on the show. He directed this episode. He broke out all the stops. It’s a tour de force directing job, but it’s in the service of an epic story. We basically wanted to do a “Mutiny on the Bounty” type of episode and it’s got all those pyrotechnics and big action and scope to it. It features some really seminal moments in terms of Oliver’s evolution to becoming the Arrow. It also features some seminal moments toward Slade Wilson becoming Deathstroke. It’s very much required viewing.
HC: Seems like you’re continually upping the ante in terms of scope. Are you spending more money or are you finding tricks to make it appear bigger?
MG: We’re actually doing it with less money than we had last year, believe it or not. I don’t think it’s a matter of tricks. It’s that everyone with the show has really upped their game. I think the performances have been better, I think the camera work’s been better, the writing’s been better. Everyone’s figured out how to do better. Just goes to show that practice makes perfect. One of the great things about the “Arrow” crew is that no one is settling for what they did yesterday. They’re always thinking about what they can do tomorrow. And they’re not thinking about how they can do something, they’re thinking about how they can do it bigger. That’s literally at every level and in every department. It has allowed us to tell bigger stories. I wish I could say we’ve found some sort of budgetary magic bullet or some accounting trick that allowed us to pull this off. But it has nothing to do with tricks and everything to do with talent.
HC: There have been references to other DC properties, such as mention of Kord Industries, the company owned by Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle in DC lore. Are those there just for fun or are they planting seeds for something down the road?
MG: It depends. Both. Sometimes we are planting a flag, other times we are just having fun. In last week’s episode, we had a billboard for a movie called “Blue Devil.” In DC Comics, Blue Devil is a superhero who came out of a movie. That was an example of a fun easter egg. At the same time, when we name-dropped Ra’s al Ghul at the beginning of Season 2, we were planting a flag. We like the idea of suggesting there’s a broader universe out there beyond Starling City. At the same time, we’re comic book fans and we love a good easter egg as much as the next geek or comic book fan. Sometimes we’re doing it just to show our roots, basically.
HC: Your supporting cast is much bigger in the second season. Has it been tricky to keep all those stories serviced properly from week to week?
MG: Yes. It’s been very tricky, actually. We threw a lot of balls up in the air this year. I think a lot of shows do in the second season. I leave it up to the audience to decide how adequately we’ve addressed every one. I think the book hasn’t been written on Season 2, but I’d say a strength of Season 2 has been the wide range of characters and perhaps the weakness of Season 2 has been the wide range of characters. My hope is that when the season is complete and we sit down and watch contiguously, as opposed to weeks between episodes and hiatuses, you’ll see that every one was serviced. Even if we don’t see Roy for a couple of episodes, we eventually get back to him. Hopefully, all 23 episodes of the season will come together for a satisfying viewing experience and we tell a complete story.
HC: It’s unique that even though Oliver is this wealthy and powerful superhero, he seems to still live at home with his mom and sister. Any chance he’ll be moving out soon?
MG: I think you’ll see in light of the events of Episode 13 of this year, Oliver has not been living at the Queen mansion. In Episode 13 he learned that Malcolm Merlyn is Thea’s biological father and had a big falling out with Moira, who’d been keeping that a secret. We’ve been writing Oliver as not living at the mansion since Episode 13. The episode where you actually get some indication of that is Episode 16 and you’ll see where he’s been hanging his hood.
http://herocomplex.latimes.com/tv/arrow ... ty-moment/
- Manu Bennett adelanta que 'Todo está a punto de explotar' (MTV):
Manu Bennett adelanta que 'Todo está a punto de explotar'
Por Alex Zalben 05 Marzo 2014 2:05 PM EST
For the first half of the season on The CW's "Arrow," the threat of Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett) has been slowly simmering in the background. The former ally of Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) has shown up in Starling City, been revealed to be the big bad, and as of the last scene of the last episode revealed himself to Oliver.
This week, all this tension finally explodes on "The Promise."
"The penny is about to drop, and when it drops it's going to be like a matchstick in a bucket of gelignite," Bennett told MTV News over the phone in advance of the episode's broadcast. "Everything is about to explode. The fallout of that is what's going to become the ongoing storyline of the show."
For the uninitiated, "Arrow" takes place in two timelines. In the past Oliver is trapped on a deadly island with Slade, trying desperately to escape by stealing a boat from insane scientist Professor Ivo (Dylan Neal). Ivo killed the woman Slade loved, an act accidentally caused by Oliver; though Slade doesn't know that yet.
In the present, Oliver has escaped the island, and is secretly being manipulated by Slade, who now uses the villain name Deathstroke. What transpired between the two timelines is what's about to be revealed on "The Promise."
"As the episode is called 'The Promise,' be sure that is going to be the key phrase that goes forward for the rest of the series," Bennett continued, "as to what Slade Wilson is doing in Starling City, and the promise that he made Oliver Queen back there on the freighter and on the island."
The episode reverses the normal ratio of island scenes to Starling City scenes, minimizing the present in favor of giant action sequences in the past; most of which are set on Ivo's freighter... Something that doesn't exactly go as our heroes have planned.
"They're basically descending into Hell," Bennett said. "Going after this ship is the set up for everything that's going to bring their relationships crumbling down."
In the real world, though, the freighter action sequences were something special; the biggest action the show has ever attempted.
"They actually built an entire ship inside a warehouse," Bennett recalled. "I kind of walked in when I was doing the first of the explosions on the deck. It was like walking out of Pearl Harbor. There was a stunt guy who had his eyebrows blown off. It was an extreme and dangerous environment, but that's exciting stuff. It's exciting when you have that degree of reality to the special effects."
After the action and reveals of this episode, with the cards all on the table the producers and writers have begun the season two endgame. And three episodes down the road, we get another major marker, with an episode titled "Deathstroke."
"[We] started off nice and slow, and then started picking up pace," Bennett said. "Now we're getting into the heavy stuff, the piano forte of the piece. As an actor, I relish in that. I've just read a script three ahead from now where I just feel this absolute pounding of the piano."
Part of that pacing is the full reveal of Slade in his classic villain persona. Super strong, with healing powers and a precise nature that lets him beat any opponent; Deathstroke is nearly unstoppable in the comics. And it seems, the same can be said of his TV equivalent.
"He's the type of character that superheroes are scared of," Bennett says laughing. "He's got superhero strength, but he's got the ability to go even darker than how a superhero can go."
Given that Oliver Queen doesn't have super strength, just a bow and arrow and extensive training, he's going to need some help to take down Deathstroke.
"Oliver can't deal with Slade Wilson alone," Bennett said, looking even further forward towards the second season finale. "You can't destroy your maker, and he's met his maker. Everything that Oliver knows, I taught him."
Over the course of the second season, "Arrow" has added numerous elements from the DC Comics pantheon, including heroes Arsenal and Black Canary, as well as the villainous League of Assassins — led by Batman baddie Ra's al Ghul — and the upcoming anti-hero team the Suicide Squad. As you might expect, these haven't all been random additions to the show.
"He's not going to be able to beat me up on his own, which means he'll have to call on numbers," Bennett added. "When the numbers thing starts happening, the war escalates, and it's all about numbers. We'll see the introduction of the Suicide Squad. And Ra's al Ghul... These guys have all been seen on the periphery. Starling City is about to become a battleground."
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/172354 ... nett.jhtml
Por Alex Zalben 05 Marzo 2014 2:05 PM EST
For the first half of the season on The CW's "Arrow," the threat of Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett) has been slowly simmering in the background. The former ally of Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) has shown up in Starling City, been revealed to be the big bad, and as of the last scene of the last episode revealed himself to Oliver.
This week, all this tension finally explodes on "The Promise."
"The penny is about to drop, and when it drops it's going to be like a matchstick in a bucket of gelignite," Bennett told MTV News over the phone in advance of the episode's broadcast. "Everything is about to explode. The fallout of that is what's going to become the ongoing storyline of the show."
For the uninitiated, "Arrow" takes place in two timelines. In the past Oliver is trapped on a deadly island with Slade, trying desperately to escape by stealing a boat from insane scientist Professor Ivo (Dylan Neal). Ivo killed the woman Slade loved, an act accidentally caused by Oliver; though Slade doesn't know that yet.
In the present, Oliver has escaped the island, and is secretly being manipulated by Slade, who now uses the villain name Deathstroke. What transpired between the two timelines is what's about to be revealed on "The Promise."
"As the episode is called 'The Promise,' be sure that is going to be the key phrase that goes forward for the rest of the series," Bennett continued, "as to what Slade Wilson is doing in Starling City, and the promise that he made Oliver Queen back there on the freighter and on the island."
The episode reverses the normal ratio of island scenes to Starling City scenes, minimizing the present in favor of giant action sequences in the past; most of which are set on Ivo's freighter... Something that doesn't exactly go as our heroes have planned.
"They're basically descending into Hell," Bennett said. "Going after this ship is the set up for everything that's going to bring their relationships crumbling down."
In the real world, though, the freighter action sequences were something special; the biggest action the show has ever attempted.
"They actually built an entire ship inside a warehouse," Bennett recalled. "I kind of walked in when I was doing the first of the explosions on the deck. It was like walking out of Pearl Harbor. There was a stunt guy who had his eyebrows blown off. It was an extreme and dangerous environment, but that's exciting stuff. It's exciting when you have that degree of reality to the special effects."
After the action and reveals of this episode, with the cards all on the table the producers and writers have begun the season two endgame. And three episodes down the road, we get another major marker, with an episode titled "Deathstroke."
"[We] started off nice and slow, and then started picking up pace," Bennett said. "Now we're getting into the heavy stuff, the piano forte of the piece. As an actor, I relish in that. I've just read a script three ahead from now where I just feel this absolute pounding of the piano."
Part of that pacing is the full reveal of Slade in his classic villain persona. Super strong, with healing powers and a precise nature that lets him beat any opponent; Deathstroke is nearly unstoppable in the comics. And it seems, the same can be said of his TV equivalent.
"He's the type of character that superheroes are scared of," Bennett says laughing. "He's got superhero strength, but he's got the ability to go even darker than how a superhero can go."
Given that Oliver Queen doesn't have super strength, just a bow and arrow and extensive training, he's going to need some help to take down Deathstroke.
"Oliver can't deal with Slade Wilson alone," Bennett said, looking even further forward towards the second season finale. "You can't destroy your maker, and he's met his maker. Everything that Oliver knows, I taught him."
Over the course of the second season, "Arrow" has added numerous elements from the DC Comics pantheon, including heroes Arsenal and Black Canary, as well as the villainous League of Assassins — led by Batman baddie Ra's al Ghul — and the upcoming anti-hero team the Suicide Squad. As you might expect, these haven't all been random additions to the show.
"He's not going to be able to beat me up on his own, which means he'll have to call on numbers," Bennett added. "When the numbers thing starts happening, the war escalates, and it's all about numbers. We'll see the introduction of the Suicide Squad. And Ra's al Ghul... These guys have all been seen on the periphery. Starling City is about to become a battleground."
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/172354 ... nett.jhtml
- Marc Guggenheim habla sobre ARROW, the Suicide Squad, el regreso de The Huntress, THE FLASH y más (Collider.com):
Marc Guggenheim habla sobre ARROW, the Suicide Squad, el regreso de The Huntress, THE FLASH y más
Por Christina Radish 05 de Marzo, 2014
On Season 2 of the hit CW series Arrow, Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) has rededicated himself to his mission of being more than just another vigilante, and is attempting to become a beacon of hope for the city’s most vulnerable, as The Arrow. In Episode 15, “The Promise,” Oliver is shocked when he learns that Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett) is not only alive, but that he has come to Starling City, while back on the island, Oliver, Slade and Sara (Caity Lotz) attempt to take over the freighter from Ivo (Dylan Neal), which turns into a huge battle. As everything changes in both present-day and the past, viewers will not only see Oliver put on the hood for the first time, but also Slade with the Deathstroke mask.
During this recent exclusive phone interview with Collider, executive producer/writer Marc Guggenheim talked about how “The Promise” is epic in scope and feels like a movie, why they wanted to shoot Oliver putting on the hood and Slade putting on the Deathstroke mask, each for the first time, in the same scene, why this episode is a game-changer for both the present-day and the past, how the Suicide Squad evolved, setting up potential further stories for them, who The Huntress will be now, when she reappears in Episode 17, and how they let the characters tell them where they’re going, especially when it comes to the romance aspect. He also talked about everything being on the table, when it comes to possible future cross-over between Arrow and The Flash, how terrific and outstanding the pilot script is, and that he’d love to write an episode of that show, as well. Check out what he had to say after the jump, and be aware that there are some spoilers.
Collider: It’s good to talk to you. You guys have been doing an awesome job this season. You definitely know how to do it right!
MARC GUGGENHEIM: Oh, thank you! We definitely appreciate it. Sometimes we’re not quite sure what we’re doing right, but it’s a fun show to do. It’s very challenging, but it’s also very fun. So, we really, really appreciate that. It’s that kind of feedback, frankly, that keeps me going.
What makes this next episode the biggest episode you’ve ever done? When you say something like, “It makes the season finale last year look like a student film,” do you worry about living up to that hype?
GUGGENHEIM: To be honest with you, I’ve seen that quote retweeted a bunch of times and I’m like, “Wow, I hope I didn’t oversell it!” I just watched the whole episode on the mix stage [on Monday], and I truly don’t believe I oversold it. I’d be very panicked, right now, if I had. It’s pretty epic. It feels like a movie. It just has a scope to it that we’ve just never had on the show.
What can you say to tease what we can expect from the story you’re telling in it?
GUGGENHEIM: It involves Oliver, Slade and Sara taking over Ivo’s freighter, in the past. We actually built the freighter, which is completely insane. It’s funny, when I pitched this episode to the production team, they said, “This episode is unproducable.” And the episode that you’re going to see [tonight] is exactly what I pitched. We didn’t cut any corners. Everyone put their heads together and figured out a way to do this episode. I have to give a lot of credit to J.P. Finn, our line producer, and Todd Pittson, our unit production manager. Glenn Winter, who directed the episode, did such an outstanding job. Glenn has always been one of our best directors, in terms of making every cent that appears on the screen look like a million dollars. It’s basically a huge movie on and underneath this ship, that involves pyrotechnics and explosions and gun battles. There are some shots in it that feel like they’re right out of Indiana Jones movie. I’m just really, really proud of it. I hope that it lives up to the hype, and if it doesn’t, I suspect that everyone will let me know. But, I’m pretty confident.
This episode also features the first time Oliver Queen puts on the hood, and the first time Slade Wilson puts on the Deathstroke mask. Was it important for you to shoot that contrast in the same episode?
GUGGENHEIM: Yeah, actually we wanted to do it in the very same scene, which is what we ended up doing. We actually debated that a lot, in the writers’ room. We were like, “Do we see Oliver put on the hood first, or do we see Slade in the Deathstroke mask first? And what do we want to end that particular act with?” I will say, in addition to the episode having a lot of production value and literal bang for the buck, it also is a game-changer for us, both in terms of the present-day storyline and the flashback storyline. And it’s not just Oliver and Slade having these iconic moments – though they’re certainly iconic moments – but with the way they’re shot and performed, you do feel like you’re seeing something momentous. But both storylines, in the past and the present, are game-changers, in the sense that the series will never be the same, with respect to both storylines. And the rest of the season has changed, from the perspective that there are genies taken out of bottles that you just won’t be able to get back in the bottle, once these revelations come out, and that obviously includes Oliver learning that Slade Wilson is alive and well and back in Starling City. It’s very hard for him to go back to his ordinary day job of being the Arrow with this huge threat looming out there. It’s a threat that’s not only expressed a willingness, but also an ability to harm the ones that he loves.
Having Deadshot on the show, and then adding Bronze Tiger, did you always know that you were headed toward the Suicide Squad, at some point?
GUGGENHEIM: That’s a great question. We started the year off with a list of characters who we wanted to see, and Bronze Tiger was one of them. Once we came up with an idea for how to do Bronze Tiger on the show, we very quickly did the math and were like, “You know, there’s Bronze Tiger, but Deadshot has also been on the show, and that’s already two members of the Suicide Squad,” and we realized that it was something that was possible. It wasn’t something that we backed into. We gave ourselves the freedom to go through Season 2 going, “You know what? If we organically build this group, then maybe in Season 2 or Season 3, we’ll get to see them.” But, we didn’t want to force it. One of the nice things about the Suicide Squad in Episode 16 is that it does feel very organic. It feels like it’s something that just came out very naturally from the characters and the storytelling that we’ve been doing, in the previous 15 episodes of this year. And even, quite frankly, playing with some pieces that we established last year, like the introduction of Lyla Michaels. It just has a nice feeling of completion to it, while at the same time, setting up potential further stories for the Suicide Squad. They’re a lot of fun together. It’s wonderful to see David Ramsey and his character of John Diggle interact with them.
What can you say to tease the return of The Huntress on the “Birds of Prey” episode? Who will she be now, when we see her again?
GUGGENHEIM: It’s been literally a year, in story time, since we’ve seen her. One of the things we told Jessica De Gouw, who plays The Huntress, was that we weren’t interested in treading over old territory with Helena. What we pitched her was the idea that basically Helena Bertinelli is gone. The only thing that remains is The Huntress. It’s been a year of her literally scouring the world to find her father, who was on the run at the end of Episode 17 of last season. We really wanted to show that wear and tear on her. We even aged up her costume a little bit, so you really get the sense that she has been traveling the world and literally has just spent a year killing people to try to get at her dad, and it’s done quite a number on her soul. We get to explore all that, in a really fun episode that also deals with Laurel Lance, in a very big way. One of the things we wanted to do with the episode was give Laurel her groove back, as it were. We have obviously taken Laurel down a very dark path, this year. As we started to see at the end of last week’s episode, she’s going to start turning the corner. And this episode with The Huntress is a very big move in that direction.
In setting up The Flash series, are you already thinking about possible cross-over between the two, or do you think you’d wait a bit before you did that?
GUGGENHEIM: Well, we’re fanboys and we always fantasize about, “Oh, we could do this cross-over. We could do that episode.” Everything is always on the table. I think it’s one of the things that’s made Arrow special. But we also all collectively feel like The Flash needs to stand on its own two feet, now that it’s gotten its launch from Arrow. I would say, as with all things, we trust our instincts to know when is the right time. Our compass has always just been our gut instinct. When the time is right, it will happen. Greg [Berlanti], Andrew [Kreisberg] and Geoff [Johns] have got to finish The Flash pilot first. There are a bunch of things that have to happen before we can start cross-pollinating shows.
Separately from the actors possibly crossing-over between shows, are you looking to write any episodes of The Flash?
GUGGENHEIM: Good question. Obviously, I would love to. Who knows what will happen? That would be a lot of fun. The Flash script is really, really terrific. It’s an outstanding pilot, and I know it will make a phenomenal series. Of course, it would be fun to work on any phenomenal series.
Are you surprised with how much fans are pushing for Oliver and Felicity to get together, especially when often the idea of two characters getting together is usually far more exciting than the reality of it?
GUGGENHEIM: You know, it’s funny. From my perspective, I think there’s a wide variety of fans out there. There are some people who really want Oliver and Felicity to get together. There are some people who want Oliver and Laurel to get together. There are some people who think that Felicity belongs with Barry Allen. Quite frankly, I’m just happy that the show can engender so many different opinions and desires on the part of the fans. Whenever you’ve got characters who have chemistry and who are flirting with each other, the way Oliver and Felicity have done, you think a lot about television history and the small number of shows that have actually managed to stick that landing. But with the possibility of Flash cross-overs, we’re very much instinctual writers and we go where the characters take us. Before we do anything, the characters tell us what they want to do, and we always try to listen to that.
http://collider.com/arrow-the-flash-mar ... p7e2VGm.99
Por Christina Radish 05 de Marzo, 2014
On Season 2 of the hit CW series Arrow, Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) has rededicated himself to his mission of being more than just another vigilante, and is attempting to become a beacon of hope for the city’s most vulnerable, as The Arrow. In Episode 15, “The Promise,” Oliver is shocked when he learns that Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett) is not only alive, but that he has come to Starling City, while back on the island, Oliver, Slade and Sara (Caity Lotz) attempt to take over the freighter from Ivo (Dylan Neal), which turns into a huge battle. As everything changes in both present-day and the past, viewers will not only see Oliver put on the hood for the first time, but also Slade with the Deathstroke mask.
During this recent exclusive phone interview with Collider, executive producer/writer Marc Guggenheim talked about how “The Promise” is epic in scope and feels like a movie, why they wanted to shoot Oliver putting on the hood and Slade putting on the Deathstroke mask, each for the first time, in the same scene, why this episode is a game-changer for both the present-day and the past, how the Suicide Squad evolved, setting up potential further stories for them, who The Huntress will be now, when she reappears in Episode 17, and how they let the characters tell them where they’re going, especially when it comes to the romance aspect. He also talked about everything being on the table, when it comes to possible future cross-over between Arrow and The Flash, how terrific and outstanding the pilot script is, and that he’d love to write an episode of that show, as well. Check out what he had to say after the jump, and be aware that there are some spoilers.
Collider: It’s good to talk to you. You guys have been doing an awesome job this season. You definitely know how to do it right!
MARC GUGGENHEIM: Oh, thank you! We definitely appreciate it. Sometimes we’re not quite sure what we’re doing right, but it’s a fun show to do. It’s very challenging, but it’s also very fun. So, we really, really appreciate that. It’s that kind of feedback, frankly, that keeps me going.
What makes this next episode the biggest episode you’ve ever done? When you say something like, “It makes the season finale last year look like a student film,” do you worry about living up to that hype?
GUGGENHEIM: To be honest with you, I’ve seen that quote retweeted a bunch of times and I’m like, “Wow, I hope I didn’t oversell it!” I just watched the whole episode on the mix stage [on Monday], and I truly don’t believe I oversold it. I’d be very panicked, right now, if I had. It’s pretty epic. It feels like a movie. It just has a scope to it that we’ve just never had on the show.
What can you say to tease what we can expect from the story you’re telling in it?
GUGGENHEIM: It involves Oliver, Slade and Sara taking over Ivo’s freighter, in the past. We actually built the freighter, which is completely insane. It’s funny, when I pitched this episode to the production team, they said, “This episode is unproducable.” And the episode that you’re going to see [tonight] is exactly what I pitched. We didn’t cut any corners. Everyone put their heads together and figured out a way to do this episode. I have to give a lot of credit to J.P. Finn, our line producer, and Todd Pittson, our unit production manager. Glenn Winter, who directed the episode, did such an outstanding job. Glenn has always been one of our best directors, in terms of making every cent that appears on the screen look like a million dollars. It’s basically a huge movie on and underneath this ship, that involves pyrotechnics and explosions and gun battles. There are some shots in it that feel like they’re right out of Indiana Jones movie. I’m just really, really proud of it. I hope that it lives up to the hype, and if it doesn’t, I suspect that everyone will let me know. But, I’m pretty confident.
This episode also features the first time Oliver Queen puts on the hood, and the first time Slade Wilson puts on the Deathstroke mask. Was it important for you to shoot that contrast in the same episode?
GUGGENHEIM: Yeah, actually we wanted to do it in the very same scene, which is what we ended up doing. We actually debated that a lot, in the writers’ room. We were like, “Do we see Oliver put on the hood first, or do we see Slade in the Deathstroke mask first? And what do we want to end that particular act with?” I will say, in addition to the episode having a lot of production value and literal bang for the buck, it also is a game-changer for us, both in terms of the present-day storyline and the flashback storyline. And it’s not just Oliver and Slade having these iconic moments – though they’re certainly iconic moments – but with the way they’re shot and performed, you do feel like you’re seeing something momentous. But both storylines, in the past and the present, are game-changers, in the sense that the series will never be the same, with respect to both storylines. And the rest of the season has changed, from the perspective that there are genies taken out of bottles that you just won’t be able to get back in the bottle, once these revelations come out, and that obviously includes Oliver learning that Slade Wilson is alive and well and back in Starling City. It’s very hard for him to go back to his ordinary day job of being the Arrow with this huge threat looming out there. It’s a threat that’s not only expressed a willingness, but also an ability to harm the ones that he loves.
Having Deadshot on the show, and then adding Bronze Tiger, did you always know that you were headed toward the Suicide Squad, at some point?
GUGGENHEIM: That’s a great question. We started the year off with a list of characters who we wanted to see, and Bronze Tiger was one of them. Once we came up with an idea for how to do Bronze Tiger on the show, we very quickly did the math and were like, “You know, there’s Bronze Tiger, but Deadshot has also been on the show, and that’s already two members of the Suicide Squad,” and we realized that it was something that was possible. It wasn’t something that we backed into. We gave ourselves the freedom to go through Season 2 going, “You know what? If we organically build this group, then maybe in Season 2 or Season 3, we’ll get to see them.” But, we didn’t want to force it. One of the nice things about the Suicide Squad in Episode 16 is that it does feel very organic. It feels like it’s something that just came out very naturally from the characters and the storytelling that we’ve been doing, in the previous 15 episodes of this year. And even, quite frankly, playing with some pieces that we established last year, like the introduction of Lyla Michaels. It just has a nice feeling of completion to it, while at the same time, setting up potential further stories for the Suicide Squad. They’re a lot of fun together. It’s wonderful to see David Ramsey and his character of John Diggle interact with them.
What can you say to tease the return of The Huntress on the “Birds of Prey” episode? Who will she be now, when we see her again?
GUGGENHEIM: It’s been literally a year, in story time, since we’ve seen her. One of the things we told Jessica De Gouw, who plays The Huntress, was that we weren’t interested in treading over old territory with Helena. What we pitched her was the idea that basically Helena Bertinelli is gone. The only thing that remains is The Huntress. It’s been a year of her literally scouring the world to find her father, who was on the run at the end of Episode 17 of last season. We really wanted to show that wear and tear on her. We even aged up her costume a little bit, so you really get the sense that she has been traveling the world and literally has just spent a year killing people to try to get at her dad, and it’s done quite a number on her soul. We get to explore all that, in a really fun episode that also deals with Laurel Lance, in a very big way. One of the things we wanted to do with the episode was give Laurel her groove back, as it were. We have obviously taken Laurel down a very dark path, this year. As we started to see at the end of last week’s episode, she’s going to start turning the corner. And this episode with The Huntress is a very big move in that direction.
In setting up The Flash series, are you already thinking about possible cross-over between the two, or do you think you’d wait a bit before you did that?
GUGGENHEIM: Well, we’re fanboys and we always fantasize about, “Oh, we could do this cross-over. We could do that episode.” Everything is always on the table. I think it’s one of the things that’s made Arrow special. But we also all collectively feel like The Flash needs to stand on its own two feet, now that it’s gotten its launch from Arrow. I would say, as with all things, we trust our instincts to know when is the right time. Our compass has always just been our gut instinct. When the time is right, it will happen. Greg [Berlanti], Andrew [Kreisberg] and Geoff [Johns] have got to finish The Flash pilot first. There are a bunch of things that have to happen before we can start cross-pollinating shows.
Separately from the actors possibly crossing-over between shows, are you looking to write any episodes of The Flash?
GUGGENHEIM: Good question. Obviously, I would love to. Who knows what will happen? That would be a lot of fun. The Flash script is really, really terrific. It’s an outstanding pilot, and I know it will make a phenomenal series. Of course, it would be fun to work on any phenomenal series.
Are you surprised with how much fans are pushing for Oliver and Felicity to get together, especially when often the idea of two characters getting together is usually far more exciting than the reality of it?
GUGGENHEIM: You know, it’s funny. From my perspective, I think there’s a wide variety of fans out there. There are some people who really want Oliver and Felicity to get together. There are some people who want Oliver and Laurel to get together. There are some people who think that Felicity belongs with Barry Allen. Quite frankly, I’m just happy that the show can engender so many different opinions and desires on the part of the fans. Whenever you’ve got characters who have chemistry and who are flirting with each other, the way Oliver and Felicity have done, you think a lot about television history and the small number of shows that have actually managed to stick that landing. But with the possibility of Flash cross-overs, we’re very much instinctual writers and we go where the characters take us. Before we do anything, the characters tell us what they want to do, and we always try to listen to that.
http://collider.com/arrow-the-flash-mar ... p7e2VGm.99
