kats83

Hey guys, welcome to the new thread for anything and everything new about James! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] I guess right now he may still be on honeymoon (*sniff*) but hopefully we'll hear more about what's going on with him soon!

This isn't exactly new, but my sister is a big anime fan, and she just recently got into this animator/director/writer from Japan named Miyazaki, who did "Spirited Away," which more people might have heard of because it won the Academy Award for Best Animated Picture last year at the Oscars... (that is an awesome movie, by the way! Very very cool)

He also did a movie in the mid-80's called "Castle in the Sky" that was dubbed in english a few years ago with James Van Der Beek as the main character! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] my sister just bought the dvd and we watched it this morning and i totally loved it!! and james is just seriously the cutest thing ever in it! [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img] he's playing this kid that's on an adventure to look for this flying castle, and to save this girl that he's totally fallen for, and it's such a fun movie, and his voice job is just too cute!!

There was a "behind the microphone" thing too where it shows him and the rest of the voice actors in the recording studio, and talking about their experiences, and he said he loved doing it because he liked the freedom of his face not being onscreen, and how he could just go all out and make some crazy sounds cuz it looks GREAT in a cartoon! [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img] And the sounds of him falling and landing hard and getting smashed by something are just really funny. [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img] I'd definitely reccomend it!! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Stela

Thanks for starting the new News/Info thread, Kats. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

That is so cute. Note to self: Purchase a copy of Castle in the Sky from amazon.

In other news: James's wedding has been mentioned in both US Weekly and In Touch Magazine. If anyone picks up a copy and has a scanner, you know we'd love you forever. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

[ 07-16-2003: Message edited Stela ]

kats83

stela- [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img] Yeah, it's definitely a lot of fun, especially if you were ever into anime. "spirited away" is also incredible.

It's hilarious though, I guess James' characters are always smooth little sweethearts, cuz even as this little thirteen-year-old kid that he's playing, he has got game. [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img] Me and my sister's favorite line: "I'm glad you still laugh like a normal person, because when I saw you falling from the sky, I thought you were an angel." [img]smilies/eyebrows.gif[/img] Too cute!

DaWsonSReaLJoEy

It's funny you guys are talking about this because I was on this "Actors Voice Work" page the other day and saw James' name for "Castle In The Sky" and i was like "i didnt know James did cartoons." [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img] I wanna see it too...

Mel [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

Beatriz

Thanx for the new tyread Kats [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

I had heard about that movie before, and I guess someday I will buy the DVD through amazon (in Spain is translated into spanish, so... [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img] )

I´m sure he sounds lovely *sigh*

[ 07-17-2003: Message edited Beatriz ]

Kayden

Posted on Fri, Jul. 18, 2003

Catch a rising star
Just like an old-time movie studio, the WB is building a stable of sexy, young actors whose faces will brighten the screen for years and increase the network's cachet
By Ken Parish Perkins
Star-Telegram Staff Writer


THE WB
Alexis Bledel plays Rory Gilmore on Gilmore Girls, one of the WB's most successful shows.


THE WB
Milo Ventimiglia


THE WB
Megalyn Echikunwoke


THE WB
Amanda Bynes


THE WB
The WB has annointed Travis Fimmel, the star of Tarzan, as the network's Next Big Thing.


UPN
WB network executives are hoping for a film career for actors like Gregory Smith of Everwood, above, and Smallville's Tom Welling.


THE WB
David Boreanaz was part of an ensemble on Buffy the Vampire Slayer before getting the starring role on Angel.


THE WB
Fort Worth's J Mack Slaughter includes shooting a photo layout for Seventeen magazine as being part of his WB duties.


Travis Fimmel as Tarzan

Travis Fimmel, the Australian undies model who turns a hardened female detective to Silly Putty in the upcoming WB drama Tarzan, does not so much arrive at the red-hot Hollywood eatery White Lotus as materialize.

One moment, the line of limos waiting to send WB wannabe stars onto the red carpet is organized chaos; the next it's simply chaotic as throngs of gaping, gushing fans push the limits of the outnumbered security detail.

For months, these fans have lustily admired Fimmel's to-die-for abs and blond Adonis hair on mountainous Calvin Klein billboards placed strategically throughout the city. But with a shirtless cover on the July 12-18 edition of TV Guide, the pop culture bible of middle America, Fimmel's fan base has grown exponentially, and just in time to prevail upon the nation's TV writers gathered here, searching for something, anything, interesting to say about the 40 or so new series slated for fall.

This is exactly how one show generates buzz and rises above the rest, even if the public hasn't seen it yet and critics aren't necessarily enamored by it (which is the case with Tarzan). With timing this good, one could assume that God is a WB fan. But it isn't divine intervention as much as the work of some talented, youth-obsessed network executives and their finely-tuned star-building machine.

•

Although the rule of thumb at networks like CBS and ABC is to let the shows make the star, WB, always the rebel that younger generations tend to be, begins with the opposite approach: Position the star to bring viewers to the show.

Generating big buzz for Tarzan is more than half the fight for the WB, which measures success not by beating the Big Four in overall ratings but by attracting the eyes of really young America.

And it goes deeper than that.

To see the life-size posters of the network's sultry, pouting adolescent stars littering the entrance of White Lotus is to view the WB as a throwback to the movie studio system of the '30s and '40s, when stars are discovered and meticulously groomed for mutual benefit.

Actors don't just sign up for shows at the WB; they sign up for career enhancement and to be part of a lifestyle brand.

When 19-year-old J Mack Slaughter, who grew up in Fort Worth and attended Country Day, signed on to the WB comedy Like Family, he was quickly whisked off to a photo layout for Seventeen magazine, where he met other WB stars. (The network had pitched the idea to the magazine.)

If a show is successful, WB wants the audience to identify strongly with not just the character but the actor.

"If something is good for their career and has to get done, we'll find a way to get it done," says WB spokesman Brad Turell. Such as shutting down production of the comedy What I Like About You to allow Amanda Bynes time to be on a film set.

Jordan Levin, WB's 35-year-old head of entertainment, is proud of the blank looks he gets after asking people to name the young female lead of NBC's American Dreams (it's Brittany Snow). Surely those same folks know Katie Holmes from Dawson's Creek, who now has a promising film career and once hosted Saturday Night Live.

Holmes was a painfully shy 18-year-old when she first met Kathleen Letterie, WB's executive vice president in charge of casting. Almost immediately, Letterie saw Holmes as the female focal point of that series.

The WB's star-building formula includes taking chances on unestablished actors, such as Fimmel, who has never acted before. And also giving meatier roles to those who have tested the waters in smaller parts on WB. Chad Michael Murray, the star of the new drama One Tree Hill, got his start on Gilmore Girls before shuttling over to Dawson's Creek. Aimee Garcia of the new All About the Andersons co-starred on Greetings From Tucson. Before Jason Behr was Max, the sexy, soft-spoken alien on Roswell, he, too, had spent time on Dawson's Creek. David Boreanaz, of course, was on Buffy the Vampire Slayer before heading out on his own as Angel.

"And that's the old studio system, what the studios did 30, 40 years ago," says Jamie Kellner, WB's chairman and CEO. "You build stars and use them in multiple films."

Letterie has a team of foot soldiers who work with marketing and publicity departments on the actors' behalf. The WB tries hard to operate on the same-page theory, eliminating the usually tense relationship between the network and an actor's support system of personal publicist, manager and agent by bringing everyone to the table to discuss a master plan beyond the show.

"The idea is to put them front and center, and when movie opportunities come along, try and introduce them to those studios and promote the movies on our air," Turell says.

•

The WB marketing strategy wasn't always this way.

Rushed on the air in January of 1995, the network was in a footrace with UPN to vie for fifth network status, the understanding being that only one could survive.

Shows heavy on comedy and with black casts (Steve Harvey, Jamie Foxx and the Wayans brothers were its staples) were the WB's calling cards.

My, how times have changed.

In an effort to counter the Big Four's broad-based programming, WB's strategy shifted almost exclusively to dramas geared toward teens. Most were set in high school, college or young adulthood and usually featured an ensemble of mostly white characters wrestling with teen-size traumas: friend betrayals, crushed affairs, hidden romantic feelings and, of course, whether to have sex.

Hollywood has always cared about young viewers, but with teen-age children of baby boomers forming the largest audience of teens in history, teens, particularly girls, became a late '90s obsession and turned Dawson's Creek and Felicity into hits.

The Big Four networks are quick to point out that overall ratings for the WB are minuscule compared to theirs, but WB couldn't care less; it has cornered Madison Avenue's most coveted niche.

Gilmore Girls, about a young single mother and her daughter, is the fourth-highest drama among girls and women ages 12 to 34, behind mega-hits ER on NBC and CSI on CBS. Smallville, a spin on the Superman legend, and Everwood, about a father and his teen-age son, held up well this past season against Fox reality competition like Joe Millionaire.

WB would now love to create a film path for Smallville's Tom Welling and Everwood's Gregory Smith and Emily VanCamp. They represent the network's future.

And the WB is always reloading. This season's crop of potential stars includes One Tree Hill's Hilarie Burton, Like Family's Megalyn Echikunwoke, and Fimmel, who was asked to audition based solely on a photograph.

"It's easier to launch new faces that are younger," says Kellner. "The upside is much greater than if you're finding an unknown 45-year-old lead, for, you know, a crime show on a broader skewing network. I think the odds of it becoming some kind of a phenomenon are much less than if you're finding a Travis Fimmel and putting somebody on who's going to get the cover of TV Guide even before it goes on the air."

As for WB's expectations, "it's a little pressure, I guess," Everwood's VanCamp says, peering at the gathered crowd outside White Lotus. "But it's up to you. You can move forward in your career with their help or you can, you know, just stay where you are. I want to keep moving."

Fimmel, the TV Guide cover boy, admits to feeling "a little bit of pressure. I just hope my acting is up to scratch."

New kids on the block

Travis Fimmel, Tarzan

Chad Michael Murray, One Tree Hill

Hilarie Burton, One Tree Hill

J. Mack Slaughter, Like Family

Megalyn Echikunwoke, Like Family

Drew Fuller, Charmed

Works in progress

Alexis Bledel, Gilmore Girls

Milo Ventimiglia, Gilmore Girls

Tom Welling, Smallville

Gregory Smith, Everwood

Emily VanCamp, Everwood

Already minted

Katie Holmes, Dawson's Creek

James Van Der Beek, Dawson's Creek

Sarah Michelle Gellar, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Keri Russell, Felicity

Amanda Bynes, What I Like About You

Jessica Biel, 7th Heaven

FALL TV: FIRST LOOK

Amid this summer of reruns and reality TV, the networks have been aggressively hyping their fall shows. Over the next few weeks, we'll cut through the slick promos and give you some clear-eyed impressions of the upcoming season's most-talked-about shows.

The concept: It used to be called Tarzan and Jane, which was more self-explanatory. It's kinda Like Lois & Clark. Or Beauty and the Beast, except that the beast is a hottie.

Their spin: ". . . an epic and contemporary adaptation of one of the most popular tales of all time."

Our backspin: The WB is already working this one, scoring a TV Guide cover featuring studly star Travis Fimmel. He's an urban Tarzan who digs Jane (Sarah Wayne Callies), an empathetic police detective. And he's under the thumb of a nefarious uncle (The X-Files' Mitch Pileggi). The Smallville crowd will probably go for it; former underwear model Fimmel doesn't do much acting, but he doesn't have to. Not with those abs.

Tarzan

Scheduled for: 8 p.m. Sundays, KDAF/Channel 33
http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/living/6322432.htm

Madison

Thanks Kayden. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Stela

Thanks, Kay. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

There's also a page on James and Heather's wedding in People Mag.

kats83

Hey, cool! I had never thought of it like that before, like the old 1930's-40's studio system... that's a really interesting comparison, and sooo very applicable. [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img] And plus, it's just really funny seeing Professor Wilder spawning evil children through Cordelia on Angel. [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img]

It is funny too, on the WB Studio Lot, the main entrance just has these huge beautiful framed behind glass pictures of all their stars. It is very old Hollywood. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

VaNderBeEkFreAk

May i ask what u are talking about, im not really following u.

Kayden

THE STARR REPORT

By MICHAEL STARR July 23, 2003

Last, but not least . . .

* Us Weekly reports that "Dawson's Creek" star James Van Der Beek and his new wife, Heather McComb, honeymooned at the Four Seasons in Maui - where James "punched up a lot on his laptop" while McComb showed off her ring.
http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/starr0723.htm

Lyndsi

I still cannot believe he got married...lol im in *shock* [img]smilies/pinkie.gif[/img] [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img]

VaNderBeEkFreAk

he brought the laptop on his HONEYMOON???

[img]smilies/redface.gif[/img]

Stela

What's wrong with that?

Kayden

I second that. Gotta love that James is so focused. <g> But Maui is a spectacular place -- not many people can keep their attention on a notebook computer while there on their honeymoon.

[ 07-23-2003: Message edited Kayden ]