Lost: Exclusive interview with Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof
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Carlton Cuse - Creator, writer and executive producer; Damon Lindelof - Creator, writer and executive producer
As the penultimate series of Lost comes to an end, tvnz.co.nz's Kate Marshall catches up with the two brains behind Lost and tries to find out what's planned for the show's final series next year.
Closing in on Lost's final chapter
The two brains behind Lost sit next to each other and speak with an almost telepathic understanding.. This isn't surprising when I learn that Cuse and Lindelof have worked together for up to 80 hours a week, 11 months of the year and over the past 5 years - now that's partnership for you!
These days, it's hard to fathom that Lost - one of the largest, most-expensive TV productions in the world - was never anticipated to run for more than 12 episodes. However, when it premiered in 2004, the show was an instant cult and popular hit.
In the wake of this success, Cuse and Lindelof embarked on
building the mythology of the show drawing upon such shows as Twin
Peaks, The Prisoner, the work of Stephen King and - interestingly -
The Bible, for inspiration. Cuse says the stand-out influence for
him was King's novel, The Stand - it became a real road map as they
planned out the intertwining stories of the characters and the
mythology of the Island.
The pair are very vocal about the essence of the show especially
after it moved into its penultimate year, and now focused on
the characters' lives - the hero's journey and destiny for all 14
characters, especially for the Oceanic Six. Cuse and Lindelof
want fans to arrive at the end of the fifth season of the show and
be more excited than they've ever been before with the knowledge
they're (the producers) going to give a lot of answers away so that
Season 6 can be more character focused - who ends up dead or
alive.
Creating such a beast for Lindelof isn't "as much confusing as it is complicated," given the notion of moving in time and the characters's individual tracks through the island's history. But for Cuse "the most significant event that occurred during the course of the show was being able to negotiate an end date with the studio."
Cuse simply wants Lost to be a "pristine experience" as he discussed the time and effort the team spend on creating surprises and unforeseen events for the fans but admits with 425 people working on the show and shooting in public locations, it's hard to keep things under wraps.
And so the big question -what about in 2010, when Lost comes to an end?
According to Lindelof, the debate will still be raging:. "No-one will watch that final episode of the show and go, 'Oh, my God. It's so clear that they knew this from the moment they wrote the pilot they knew this is where they were going.'
"You know, it's an exercise in sort of creativity but the good news is because of the end date, the show is going to end so whether or not we were making it up as we went along is less important than can we convince you that we weren't make it up as we went along because we haven't."
Cuse explains that the end of Lost will be kind of a combination of trying to answer some of the mysteries that have existed throughout the show and that the audience still cares about - he gives the four-toed statue and smoke monster as examples of these. He also confirms they are going to answer the skeleton question and things they feel are important and central to the show, but they will still leave a mystery element - after all, we are talking about Lost here.
Lindelof concludes by likening their masterpiece to the Sistine Chapel. He explains they want look up at it, walk out and go elsewhere.
There can be little doubt the grand finale is going to be anything less than spectacular and something Cuse and Lindelof will be proud to walk away from. I, for one, can hardly wait to find out what they've got up their sleeves.
