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Lilja
An exclusive found on this 3-DVD set is an unaired extended episode starring William H. Macy. You'll also find commentary tracks with the cast and crew, along with exclusive documentaries. The cost is $39.92 SRP. Here's an early look at the cover art:
Tune in tonight!
It has the ring of DVD "extras," only for the Web.
Content will include actor and director interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and even feature films related to the content, which TNT will trot out of its library.
The Web site, built and hosted by Veoh, officially launches today -- as does the series.
KUDOS!!!! They did an awsome job!!
yay!!
The first installment of the anthology, the William Hurt-starring "Battleground," drew 5.2 million total viewers at 9 p.m. More importantly, its 18-49 and 25-54 demo totals were the highest a scripted cable series has seen year-to-date, topping a mark set last week by the new USA Network drama "Psych."
A second "Nightmares" episode at 10 p.m., "The Crouch End," reached 4.8 million.
From a Zap2it story on the show:
"Once again, TNT has lit up the summer with critically acclaimed programming that really scores with viewers," says Steve Koonin, COO of TNT and TBS. "We are very proud of 'Nightmares & Dreamscapes' and thrilled that the audience response to its well-crafted stories has been so strong."
Lilja
BUT... I'm still excited about this series being out there. And not taking anything away from ABC... but it's nice to see another network willing to bring SK's stories out there.
Looking forward to the next ones!
(from today's Close to Home)
Rival TNT pulled in second with 2.46 million total viewers and a 2.0 household rating on the strength of its Stephen King horror/suspense anthology Nightmares and Dreamscapes, which averaged 5 million total viewers during its two-part debut Wednesday night (9:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m.). The first installment, "Battleground," delivered 2.52 million adults 18-49 and 2.88 million adults 25-54, beating out Psych’s one-week record for 2006 in both demos.
"I had 24 hours," he said. "They said, 'Take it or leave it.'"
He decided to take it. That meant several weeks in Australia, which substitutes for rural New England in the miniseries.
"I was throwing stuff together in a suitcase," he said. "When I got to the airport, I realized I didn't even know what the weather was going to be like." He didn't start reading the script in detail until the flight.
But he doesn't mind the rush. "I just enjoyed it," he said. "I had a great time. We had a terrific director (Sergio Mimica-Gezzan). It was very pleasant, what can I say?"
Nightmares & Dreamscapes is an anthology series based on short stories written by King, with two episodes shown each Wednesday on TNT. Berenger is featured in the third week of the series, at 9 p.m. this Wednesday.
Berenger plays the lead role in the short story "The Road Virus Heads North." His character: a horror writer from Maine. "Who does that sound like?," Berenger asked. "I wondered, was I supposed to look like (King)?"
Berenger's character, Richard Kinnell, becomes entranced by a painting that he finds at a yard sale - and by the fact that details in the painting seem to change each time he looks at it. The story is based on a real painting that King has in his home.
Though Berenger essentially played King's alter ego, he said he still has not met the famed author. "He didn't go to Australia (for the filming), and Maine's a hard place to get to," he said. "I've only been there once in my life."
Berenger lives in Beaufort, S.C., when he isn't on location for movie or TV roles. He used to co-own a bar in Wilmington but has gotten out of that business. "It's nothing but problems," he said. "You've got to book bands and all that stuff, and you've got to have your eye on things."
What's lacking in the highest quality - or true creativity - is more than made up for in consistent quality. That's the whole point of a "brand."
Mega-pulp maestro Stephen King is an American brand name on the page - probably the most successful bookstore "brand" of modern times.
On a screen, it's a whole different story. He's a mere label, not a brand. The quality of a "Stephen King" on screens large and small varies crazily from Brian DePalma's movie "Carrie" and Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" and Frank Darabont's "The Shawshank Redemption" all the way down to "Pet Sematary 2" and King's own essay in the film-directing business "Maximum Overdrive" (which I must confess I rather like for its deliberate and absolutely shameless drive-in junkiness).
Television's newest "Stephen King" is TNT's "Nightmares and Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King." The four-week anthology series, which began July 12, airs two episodes at 9 p.m. Wednesdays through Aug. 2. Halfway through, it's as creative, I think, as anything that has ever been done on TV in King's name.
In fact, it is more than a little reminiscent of one of TV's greatest "brand names" - "The Twilight Zone."
I've seen the first four episodes and the first one, "Battleground," was an absolute stunner. Imagine the animated "Toy Story" blended with Joe Dante's wickedly nasty "Small Soldiers" and the classic 1961 "Invaders" episode of "The Twilight Zone" and you've got the general idea of "Battleground," which kicked off the miniseries with William Hurt and was created by two hugely talented members of Hollywood's second generation - writer Richard Matheson's son Richard Christian Matheson and Jim Henson's director son Brian.
If school had still been in session, I could well imagine a 15- or 16-year-old watching the entirely wordless "Battleground" on "Nightmares and Dreamscapes" and being almost as wowed by it as my friend Jimmy was in 1961 when he saw Agnes Moorehead batting away tiny, pesky "alien" space ships in "The Invaders" on "The Twilight Zone."
The idea of "Battleground" couldn't have been simpler: a hit man knocks off a toy magnate only to be beset, when he gets home to his luxury apartment, by a small army of toy soldiers - itty, bitty termites, all - complete with attack helicopters that can blow basketball-sized holes through bathroom doors.
The episode was wordless, as "The Invaders" had been on "The Twilight Zone" and was presented without commercial interruption. It revealed filmmaking gifts on Brian Henson's part that could be formidable.
Last Wednesday's first episode, "Umney's Last Case," was a simple little bit of high-concept razzle-dazzle about an unhappy writer caught in a tragic life who trades places with his creation, a private eye with bad breath, a good heart and an ever-present bottle of cheap whiskey who lives forever in "Chandler American time." Forget scares. "The End of the Whole Mess," the concluding episode, was full of wit and flash and filigree on an equally "Twilight Zone" bit of high concept - what if there were a chemical that could end all violence in the world? What would be the consequences of putting it "in the water?" (Hint: think O. Henry twist.)
There is a reason "Nightmares and Dreamscapes" is on the level of TV's very best King: It merely uses King (as Kubrick, DePalma, and Darabont did) to go off into dramatic and cinematic realms of its own. It's an old story - the transformation of mega-pulp into something uncommonly artful, if not exactly art.
I'm really enjoying the series... I can't wait to see the others!
From USA Today:
•Ratings slumber. TNT's Nightmares & Dreamscapes took a ratings tumble in its second week. The first of two hour-long episodes attracted 2.9 million viewers, a 44% drop from the premiere, while the second episode drew 3.1 million viewers, falling 35% from the comparable episode a week earlier.
So a reminder: episode 5 + 6 are on tonight!