“There Is No Normal Anymore”

“There Is No Normal Anymore”

The second episode of the series has typical second second troubles. Without the big bang of the arrival and coupled with the having to more establish groundwork before the series goes running again, it’s typical to have a slower second episode and V is no exception. Although in a good attempt to waylay that we start with a mini-action sequence following up from the warehouse sequence of the pilot.

Today, the world woke up to find spaceships over every major city. The Visitors claim to have come in peace, bringing gifts of medical miracles and technological breakthroughs. They promise to do no harm. They’re lying. Most people believe the aliens have arrived just when we needed them most. We’re eager to embrace their generous offers of help, but while tracking a terrorist cell, Homeland Security agent Erica Evans stumbles upon something far more sinister. When her partner tries to kill her, Erica discovers that the aliens have plans to infiltrate our governments and businesses, planting seeds for their plot to control mankind. Convincing anyone of the truth will be impossible because the Visitors have two powerful weapons. First, they’ve given the people faith with their reassuring presence and gifts. Second, they’ve rallied our youth. Thousands of teens, including Erica’s son, have been recruited as ‘Peace Ambassadors’ but they’re actually serving as unwitting spies. Erica’s violent introduction to the truth thrusts her into the resistance movement, where she joins forces with Ryan, a rogue alien driven to save humanity. She’ll have to balance her covert activities with her job, and her role as a mother, fighting to protect her son Tyler even as he joins forces with the enemy. From executive producer Scott Peters, Emmy-nominated creator of The 4400, comes a bold re-imagining of the sci-fi classic. Let the invasion begin.

Cast: Elizabeth Mitchell as Erica Evans; Joel Gretsch as Father Jack Lowery; Scott Wolf as Chad Decker; Logan Huffman as Tyler Evans; Morris Chestnut as Ryan Nichols; Morena Baccarin as Anna

I was out sick for a few days so I didn’t get to post the following:

Stefan Arngrim has been cast as Roy, a parishoner of Father Lowery who was paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair until the Visitors healed him. Arngrim is a genre TV vet with roles in X-Files, Highlander, and Battlestar Galactica.

Christopher Shyer from The Practice and Monk has been cast as Marcus, Anna’s top aide. This was the final piece of the major casting puzzle.

Visitors Among Us posted an exclusive actor with newly cast Morris Chestnut which of course involved V. Here are some highlights:

(continue reading…)

Lourdes Benedicto has joined the cast of V as Valerie Holt!  The actress has previously acted with Scott Wolf in The Nine.

Meanwhile Logan Huffman has landed the role of Tyler Evans.   He was seen in America. 

Finally Tyler’s friend Brandon is going to be portrayed by a Jesse Wheeler.

According to Visitorsite.net, some cool genre casting news here. Laura Vandervoort, of Smallville fame, is joining the cast as Lisa, the flirty seductive Visitor.

Alan Tudyk will join his Firefly castmate Morena Baccarin in the cast. Tudyk will play Dale Maddox, Erica Evans partner.

The site also confirmed that Morris Chestnut has landed the role of Ryan while “Guest star” Elizabeth Mitchell actually landed the leading role of Erica Evans. I’m not sure how that is “guest star” material…I’m assuming this means her character on Lost will be meeting an untimely end and ABC is just trying to protect this spoiler.

Good news all around as far as I’m concerned.

Lost’s Elizabeth Mitchell will be a “guest star” on the new V according to The Ausiello Files at Entertainment Weekly. No mention of a character, but if she’s a “guest star”, I’m guessing that she is not the not yet announced lead Erica Evans.

An interview posted at Visitors Among Us lets us take a peek into some ideas that Jace has regarding the new V.

A multi-tiered approach will be applied to various HDFilms projects, including “V” and other TV concepts. “It started from the idea of not a lot of my audience – or who I believe my audience is – watching a lot of television,” Hall details. “So what’s going to get them to watch? We came up with a concept of how all of these other mediums can help support and drive a television program. A lot of times television programs will say something like, ‘Go to our website and you’ll learn more about the show.’ Well, in that situation you’re sending your TV audience to a different medium and they may never come back. What you kind of want is the reverse of that. More like, ‘I’m so interested in these Internet things that they’re motivating me to watch a television program for my own reasons.’ So a lot of thought went into it. ‘How can you create that mechanic? How does it make sense? How can it be exciting for someone so that all of these pieces work together in a way that feels like the total sum of it is greater than its individual parts? “
A project like “V” , for instance, was designed from its inception to cut across a variety of mediums, each offering a unique component for the audience to explore. “It’s what I would need to watch television,” he muses.
As far as what those components are….Hall ain’t revealing any of them. “There are plans for different aspects of ‘V’ ,” he allows, “but they won’t be in the traditional form that people will expect them to be, which is critical because those tend to be exploitive. There’s going to be a web presence that will be very different from what has gone before. You have to understand that this show is steeped in plausibility and conspiracy and the intermixing of reality and fiction. The tools available to support that kind of entertainment are unprecedented, and we’re going to try and take as much advantage of that as we can to really make ‘V’ something that is fun to be involved with and something that’s fun for the audience to invest themselves in.”

According to Moviehole David RIchmond-Peck, recently seen in The Day The Earth Stood Still with Keanu Reeves has joined the cast of V as George, an intense, edgy, mysterious Resistance leader, with a powerful speaking voice, who drags old friend Ryan back into their old life.

Sounds like a Ham Tyler archetype.

Joel Gretsch, who worked previously with Scott Peters on the 4400 has joined the cast of V playing Father Jack Lowery. He was great in the 4400 so we’ll see what he can do here.

Also the Futon Critic has posted a mostly positive review of the pilot script!