Okay. Now that we’ve all seen “Lost” ‘s season finale, we’ve had some of our questions about this hit ABC series answered. Like what’s actually inside that hatch. Or what the “Black Rock” is.
But — for every “Lost”-related question that got answered by last week’s two-hour-long episode — two more have popped up in their place. Questions that are sure to torment us all ’til the start of the next television season. Like:
- Who took Walt? And where were they going?
- Why did Charlie bring that statue of Mary back from the plane wreck? As a sign of faith or because he plans to get hooked on drugs again?
- And why did that ladder only go down 10 feet or so? Did it fall apart all on its own or had it been deliberately sabotaged?
Come late September / early October, I’m sure that “Lost” co-creators J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof will start providing some answers to the above questions.
But me? I’m still looking for Abrams & Lindelof to answer the BIG “Lost” -related question. The one that’s been bugging me since I first saw the pilot for this ABC show back at last year’s San Diego Comic Con.
And that question is … Why does Jorge Garcia’s character look so much like Harry Knowles?
I mean, surely I can’t be the only person on the planet to ever look at Hurley and think: “This guy looks an awful lot like the webmaster of ‘Aint It Cool News.’ ” On a show like “Lost” (I.E. A TV program where there’s no such thing as a co-incidence, where everything has a hidden meaning), it just can’t be a co-incidence that this particular actor was hired to play this particular role.
So — over the past few weeks — I’ve been doing some investigating. I’ve made a few phone calls, called in a few favors. And — finally — someone at “Bad Robot” (I.E. Abrams’ production company) filled me on what the real deal is with Hurley.
You wanna know the real reason that this Knowles look-alike has supposedly been stranded in the South Pacific? … Well … Let’s just say that this is J.J.’s way of paying Harry back for what happened after AICN told the world about Abrams’ “Superman” screenplay?
How many of you remember when that happened? Back in September of 2002, when AICN ran an exclusive on the new “Superman” film that Warner Brothers was thinking of making? It was Moriarty who wrote the first story. Which described in great detail the first draft of Abrams’ script.
Given that this proposed film (which was to have been the first of a trilogy) featured such non-Superman-canon touches as:
- Krypton did NOT explode at the very start of the story. Superman’s home planet remained intact throughout the entire picture.
- Jimmy Olsen was gay.
- And — in the last 20 minutes of the film — Lex Luthor was revealed NOT to be an arch villain. But — rather — another super-powered escapee from Superman’s home world.
Well … As you can expect, the fan community wents nuts. They posted angry messages in AICN’s “Readers Talkback” section as well as on discussion boards around the Web. Basically taking Abrams to task for daring to write a screenplay like this.
Never mind that J.J. had hammered out his first draft of this “Superman” screenplay in less than three weeks. Or that — because he wanted to show Jon Peters that some of the “notes” that that producer had given Abrams to incorporate into his script (like having the Man of Steel use “Matrix” -like moves to battle his enemies in mid-air) were simply stupid — he deliberately hadn’t done all that good a job of folding this material into the script. With the hope that — once J.J. got to work on the next draft of the “Superman” script — he’d then be able to cut Peters’ dumb ideas out.
But before Abrams ever got the chance to do that, he found himself being attacked — on the Web as well as in the mainstream press — for daring to write a “Superman” screenplay that took such a radical departure from this much beloved DC character’s established history. Which was when J.J. supposedly started to get hate mail from angry “Superman” fans. And when his wife started getting death threats at home.
Finally — when Abrams read where Knowles was urging AICN readers to go to upcoming book signings and confront the “Alias” creator about his plans for the “Superman” film franchise — J.J. knew that something had to be done. So the writer reached out to the webmaster. J.J. called Harry directly and pled his case.
As a result, Knowles backed off a bit. Softened the sort of language that he was using about the new “Superman” film. After reading Abrams’ screenplay for himself, Harry even went so far as to say it had ” … great potential.”
But — by then — the damage had already been done. Warner Brothers now saw J.J.’s involvement in the “Superman” project as a liability. After all, this was the guy who had so upset the fan community with his rotten screenplay. A script that was loaded with ideas that these very same Warner execs had insisted on being shoehorned into the project.
Which is why — when “Superman Returns” finally went into production earlier this year in Australia — this film didn’t feature a J.J. Abrams screenplay. But — rather — a new script by Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris.
To J.J. ‘s way of thinking, AICN had cost him the opportunity to work on a major Hollywood motion picture. To be the screenwriter of an epic film trilogy. All because Moriarty had made such a big deal about how bad the first draft of his “Superman” script supposedly was.
But how do you get back at someone who does that sort of damage to your career? You can’t, really. By that I mean: You can secretly wish that Harry Knowles and his website would go away forever. But that ain’t gonna happen.
So — if you’re a J.J. Abrams — you don’t fuss. You don’t curse. You just get back to work. Which — at this point (mid-2003) — meant that you got back to work trying to get “Alias” back on track.
But then — in early 2004 — you get a call from Disney. It seems that the guys in charge of ABC want to do a series that’s sort of like “Survivor,” only scripted. Where a diverse group of people are stranded on a remote island and have to fight for their lives.
Now Aaron Spelling’s people had already taken several passes at this project and turned in two truly rotten scripts. Which is why Disney now turns to Abrams. With the hope that the “Alias” creator can then come up with some sort of workable concept for this project.
So J.J. supposedly gets together with a writer he likes, Damon Lindelof. And the two of them start spitballing ideas for this new TV show.
And Damon allegedly asks: “Who would you like to see stranded on a desert isle?”
And Abrams reportedly replies: “You mean besides Harry Knowles?”
And that — my friends (I swear to God) is supposedly why the Hurley character was added to the cast of “Lost.” So that J.J. Abrams (by way of an in-joke) could get a little revenge on Harry Knowles. By stranding a character that was based on the webmaster of “Aint-It-Cool-News” on a remote island.
Don’t believe me? Okay. Then consider this interesting bit of info. Jorge Garcia was the very first actor cast on “Lost.” That Abrams reportedly saw Garcia’s guest appearance on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and deliberately went out of his way to recruit Jorge to come audition for his new ABC show.
Now — given that Jorge didn’t exactly have what you’d call a dazzling array of credits (I.E. Up until he was cast in “Lost,” Garcia’s most high profile performance was as a series regular on “Becker,” not to mention guest leads in “Spin City” and the 2003 TV movie, “Columbo: Columbo Likes the Nightlife”) — Garcia seems like kind of an odd choice for the role of Hugo “Hurley” Reyes. Unless — of course — you factor in his physical resemblance to a certain red-headed webmaster.
Of course, given that Abrams has never gone on record about this story, just shared it discreetly with various staffers who work at his “Bad Robot” production office … It’s highly doubtful that J.J. will ever admit publicly that trapping Hurley on a tropical island was just the co-creator of “Lost” ‘s somewhat twisted way at getting back at Harry Knowles.
But Jorge might.
After all, the actor who play Hurley will be taking part in the first official “Lost” convention. Which will be held at the Burbank Airport Hilton and Towers on June 10th & 11th. So perhaps some enterprising soul can stand up during Garcia’s Q & A session and ask: “What do you know about your character’s reported link to Harry Knowles?”
Wouldn’t it be “cool” if we actually got this confirmed straight from the guy who was supposedly hired just because he bore such a strong resemblance to Knowles?
What do you folks think? Can we find someone on the West Coast who’d be willing to go to the Burbank Hilton just to ask this question?