Talented Fans

It’s always fun to see what other fans have done to show their love for The Invisible Man.  Fan art is just one of the means that fans use to express themselves and I’m mentioning it now because, recently, a whole page of fan art was brought to my attention by Holly.  She and a few other fans have created and posted some pretty cool artwork and graphics on this page.

As an example, here’s a darling Chibi Darien drawn by Rain, a fan from Australia, who was kind enough to let me post it here.  Isn’t he adorable?

Chibi Darien

To view more artwork by these talented I-Man fans go to Deviant Art.

Nestor Sightings

Lost 

So did anyone notice that Shannon Kenny’s husband, Nestor Carbonell, was in last night’s Lost episode?  I think it would be cool if he came back as a recurring character, even though his character is a bit creepy.  That bus accident was just way too much of a coincidence to be an accident, don’t you think? 

If you missed the episode, it is available for viewing online in streaming video at http://dynamic.abc.go.com/streaming/landing

Smokin’ Aces

Now playing in theaters is Smokin’ Aces, a film in which Nestor has a role.  He plays the character Pasquale Acosta.  Check out http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0475394/cinemashowtimes for show times in your area. 

Paul Returns to “The Wire”

The season four finale of The Wire marks the return of Paul Ben-Victor’s character Spiros “Vondas” Vondopoulos.  I have no information at this time as to whether this is a one-episode return or if Paul’s character is back on a more recurring basis.

The name of the episode is Final Grades.  I’m late reporting this, but there are a couple of airings left of this episode:  one on February 6, 2007 at 11:00 p.m. on HBO East, and again on February 7, 2007 at 2:00 a.m. on HBO West.  As usual, check your local listings.  If you have HBO On Demand, you can also catch the episode during its run from February 12, 2007 to March 4, 2007. 

Fan Club Announces Date of Next Fan Convention

The I-Maniacs Fan Club has announced the date of the next I-Manicon:  July 21, 2007.  So mark your calendars!  If you’re a fan of The Invisible Man, this is a must-attend event.  Seriously, folks, most fans just dream of this kind interaction with their favorite actors.  The fan club makes it happen. 

Last year was hands down the best con we’ve had to date.  We had the pleasure of having Vincent Ventresca, Paul Ben-Victor, Eddie Jones, and Mike McCafferty join us as special guests.  Also in attendance were Eddie’s wife, Anita, and Jason Makiaris, both of whom had guest roles on the show. 

We have yet to get the entire cast in attendance, so maybe this will be the year?  Here’s hoping! 

Check out the following pictures from last year’s con that I-Mom was kind enough to share.

Panel Shot

I-Man Cast 

This year the con will be held in Los Angeles, California, at the same hotel as last year: 

Doubletree Hotel
Los Angeles International Airport
1985 East Grand Avenue
El Segundo, CA 90245

You must be an I-Maniacs Fan Club member to attend, but membership is absolutely free.  It’s a great little fan club and members get some very nice perks.  So if you’re not a member, what are you waiting for?  Go join now! 

Volunteers are needed to help plan the con.  I’ve helped out the two last years, but need to step back this year because it pulls me too much away from the movie project, which has to take priority for me.  So if you can step in and help fill that void, it would be very much appreciated.  You don’t even have to be an attendee to help out. Just go to 
http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/I-Manicon_2007/ and join the Yahoo! group.

The fan club will be sending out more info in the future and I’ll post updates here too from time to time.

Five Years Ago Today…

Five years ago today the Sci Fi Channel aired the last new episode of The Invisible Man, thus bringing to a close a show that ended all too quickly and deserved a much, much longer run.  By the time the last episode, entitled The New Stuff, aired, we all knew that the show had been cancelled and yet many of us were hoping that by some miracle someone in authority would see fit to continue it and give the show the chance it deserved. 

With anticipation we watched Darien getting closer to permanent madness as the Counteragent was losing its effectiveness.  How would he be saved?  Would the Keeper find a way to safely remove the gland?  Knowing that Craig Silverstein wrote the last two episodes as closure to one chapter of Darien’s life and the beginning of a new chapter, that scenario didn’t seem likely. 

Would a new counteragent be developed?  Perhaps giving Darien more time between shots?  That was a possibility.  But, instead, a cure was found for the madness, courtesy of his nemesis, Arnaud de Fehrn. 

In the end, Darien chose to stay with the Agency, which meant that the series could go forward with the same characters we had grown to love.  Not knowing whether the series would continue or not, Craig had set up a sort of closure for Darien and the series, and yet left the door wide open for many more new stories. 

I miss this show.

Each of us who call ourselves fans can describe how this show has touched us and why, after five years, we are still here, still hoping.  We’ve come to care, not for just the show and its characters, but also for the actors who portrayed the characters.  Over the years we’ve been able to interact with them online via bulletin boards, chat rooms, and blogs; and some of us have been able to meet them in person.  We’ve had a relationship with them that very few, if any, fandoms ever develop with their cast.  They have generously given us that unique opportunity.  They all love the show and would be willing to come back to it, and they all enjoyed working with each other and would love to do so again.

It’s for that reason that I’ve taken on this project.  It’s not the project I originally set out to do.  Believe me, I would love to be producing an I-Man movie; and if it weren’t for that little issue of rights, I’d be doing exactly that right now.  But if I can’t do an I-Man movie, bringing together a cast that I care deeply about is the next best thing.  This is a project that I’m thrilled to be a part of.  It is my wish that this will be a movie that will thrill you too.

Call me crazy, but I’m not totally giving up on I-Man.  There is a chance, albeit a slim one, that this movie could possibly trigger interest in I-Man.  But this movie would need to be a hit and be profitable.  Like it or not, money talks in Hollywood.  On the production side of things, I’m going to do everything I can to make that happen, but I can only do so much.  In the end, it’s the audience that decides whether to watch or not.

No matter what happens, seeing our cast together again on the screen is so worth all this work.  I can’t wait for that day!

Urgent: The Sci Fi “Invisible Man” Forum Needs Your Vote!

Do you remember the great little board forum that The Invisible Man had at SciFi.com?  Remember how we grumbled and complained when Sci Fi deleted it?  Well, the I-Man forum has a chance to come back to the Sci Fi board, but it needs your vote!

Sci Fi is holding a poll right now to give fans a chance to vote if they want their favorite shows’ forums restored to the bulletin board.  As of this posting, Invisible Man has 11 votes, and according to Sci Fi, all a show needs is 10 votes, so technically we should see our old forum restored to the site in the near future.  Yay! 

So why am I asking you to go vote?  Well, because I’d love to send a message to Sci Fi that the I-Man audience is still here and still supporting their show.  I, for one, would love to see I-Man reruns back on TV and this could be a way to send Sci Fi executives that message (not to mention that reruns would help the movie project).  I think we can do a heck of a lot better than 11 votes. 

The poll is open until January 31, 2007, so there is very little time.  Please vote and spread the word to everyone you know and get them to vote.

To vote go to the SciFi.com forums and scroll down and click on the General Discussion section.  Then click on the New forums for old favorites topic near the top of the list to vote for The Invisible Man.  You must be signed in to vote.

Thank you for your help.

Eddie Continues His Role in “Death of a Salesman”

Death of a SalesmanIf you’ve missed Eddie Jones‘ previous performances in Death of a Salesman, you’ve got another chance to see him shine in this role.  Eddie has sent the following note, as well as a great review, that I’m passing on to all of you. 

Hello All,
I have been given the privilege of playing Willy again. I think I am getting pretty close to getting it right. Check our production out. Please.

Death of a Salesman at the Odyssey
A Review By Kelly Monaghan

Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman enjoys iconic status in the American theatrical canon and justly so. However, in an odd way, its success has worked against it.  Revivals tend to attract mega-stars to the role of Willie Loman and the productions built around them tend to strive for operatic grandeur. The result is often less than successful, as perfectly illustrated by recent productions starring Dustin Hoffman and Brian Dennehy. The Willies we get in these bloated, star-driven vehicles are intriguingly idiosyncratic (Hoffman) or downright bathetic (Dennehy), but the play inevitably suffers.

Now Los Angeles’ estimable Odyssey Theatre is presenting a human-scale reading of the play that allows it to speak with the quiet power that I think Miller intended.

The Odyssey production, under the unobtrusive direction of Bob Collins, allows veteran character actor Eddie Jones to turn in a masterful performance that is quite literally heart-wrenching. I have never seen Miller’s merciless deconstruction of the American myth of success rendered more powerfully or more simply. I confess that I am unfamiliar with Jones’ work, but if this isn’t the greatest performance of his career then I feel cheated from having missed him in earlier roles.

Linda Loman, Willie’s long-suffering wife, is often portrayed as a beaten-down woman in performances that are muted to avoid drawing attention from the star. Anne Gee Byrd is something a revelation, giving us a Linda Loman who lives up to Biff’s description of her as a “woman with substance.” She is quite simply superb, every inch Jones’ equal and, through her love and loyalty, we are able to see the Willie that was in the sad, beaten man who is.

Ivan Baccarat (Biff) and Aaron McPherson (Happy) as the Loman’s flawed sons do a good job of making concrete the fatal flaws in the world view Willie wants so desperately to pass on to them. Baccarat works especially well with Jones. The scene late in the play in which Biff sees Willie at his most-human and most-pathetic is embarrassing to watch, which is just as it should be.

Miller, unlike most other playwrights, has the gift of creating small roles that allow good actors to score indelible impressions with a few scant moments of stage time. The supporting performers in this production seize the opportunity. Robert Machray (Uncle Ben), Alan Charof (Charley), Jeremy Shouldis (Bernard), and Lou Volpe (Stanley, the waiter) are all excellent. And Jill Jacobson (The Woman) makes Willie’s cruel betrayal of Linda perfectly understandable.

This is, quite simply, a superb production of a great American classic. If you are in the L.A. area, don’t miss it.

Salesman runs from January 20th through February 25th. Tickets are $22 to $26, with discounts for students and union actors. For more information call 310-477-2055 or log on to www.odysseytheatre.com.

See Paul Perform Live on Stage

If you’ve always wanted to see Paul Ben-Victor perform live on stage (what fan wouldn’t?), now is your chance.  The Good Steno is coming to the Hayworth Theater in Los Angeles, California.  It will be playing every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. from February 9 through March 25.  Previews will be on February 3 and 4.

The Good Steno was written by Paul and his mother, Leah Kornfeld Friedman.  Paul also directs and stars in this play.  Busy guy!

The theater is located at:

Hayworth Theater
2509 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 
MapQuest Map

Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at Brown Paper Tickets via their website or by calling 1-800-838-3006.

Paul Ben-Victor