Holiday Time Equals Fringe Marathon
Morning kids,
So what did you do this wonderful holiday season? Me? I holed myself up in my apartment to avoid the tundra that is downtown Toronto and threw in the first season of Fringe to enjoy. I’ve seen every episode a few times before last week’s marathon, but I’m beginning to think that Fringe is one series that I can re-watch quite a bit. Similar to X-Files, the JJ Abrams, Rob Orci and Alex Kurtzman series about fringe science has so many things going on at the same time that you can really lose yourself within any number of story lines the series follows.
I was lucky enough to get the first season on DVD from the fat man in a red suit so when I first popped in disc one of seven I immediately jumped to the special features. The most interesting pieces were those that focus on the creation of the show, but one piece of information that was missing was the important casting process of Joshua Jackson who plays Peter Bishop. They showed footage of everyone’s audition from Olivia all the way to Astrid, but for some reason didn’t even mention how they were able to cast Jackson.
So, for all of you who were wondering (like myself and the one other person in this world that actually cares about this trivial gold mine) here is how it all broke down according to some dodgy Internet sources and Wikipedia:
After a successful run in movies and TV Jackson hit the London stage with Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard) for the two-man Mamet play A Life In The Theater. After critical and public success for the year, Jackson auditioned for the role of James Tiberious Kirk for JJ Abrams’ Star Trek remake. Although the part eventually went to Chris Pine, Jackson impressed the producers so much with his audition that they asked if he would play the part of Peter Bishop for a pilot they wanted to shoot. The pilot was of course Fringe and Joshua Jackson has since moved back to his hometown of Vancouver for the second season.
So, maybe not that interesting, but I don’t know what is up with special features only going half-ass. It’s not like Jackson’s casting was a big secret, especially if the internet already knows the story. In any case, here’s an interview he did with George Sssstrom…. whatever…
