Chris Fedak Drops Clues for Season Finale & Season 4

Chuck co-creator Chris Fedak gave Sci Fi Wire in exclusive interview leading into tonight’s Chuck season finale which not only teases what we’ll see tonight, but gives us a clue about what’s coming up in season 4.

Chuck’s enormous two-hour, two-episode finale airs tonight, and there’s one thing creator Chris Fedak wants you to know. “It’s the craziest two hours of Chuck we’ve ever done,” Fedak said in an exclusive interview. “We’ve done a couple of two-hour episodes in the past, and we always say, ‘Oh, each week is like a little movie.’ But this finale is not little. There is nothing little about it.”

(Gigantic Spoilers Alert!)

How big is it? Well, big enough that we’ve got 10 reasons from Fedak why you should watch tonight’s season-three finale on NBC at 8 p.m. ET/PT:

1. You get two episodes for the price of one, Buy More style! First up is “Chuck Versus the Subway,” and no, we’re not talking that Subway! Sandwich eating is optional… And the second episode is “Chuck Versus the Ring, Part II.” Do not expect to see Ellie get married again. It’s so not that kind of ring this time. (That was last year!) In fact, Fedak said, “That ‘part two’ is just me being pretentious. I just wanted to be like The Godfather, Part Two.” In the finale Brandon Routh is back as Daniel Shaw, and guess what? He “has his own Intersect loaded into his head,” he said.

2. Yep, Shaw’s back, and you can call him Two-Face! “We do have the return of Shaw, and that’s one of the big changes. But it’s not the Shaw that you know, that we left in episode 13 … the tortured agent who decided to seek revenge. This is a version of Shaw who’s embracing the dark side. And Brandon is wonderful in the part as the guy who’s flipped the coin. He’s embraced the Two-Face of it all and has become the villain,” said Fedak.

“We had always planned that he would be our Harvey Dent character. That we would essentially take someone who was an expert in the Ring and someone with a kind of tragic backstory and fold that back through our characters. And that in the end the season would boil down to Chuck and Shaw.”

3. Which means, Chuck’s going to meet his match! “Absolutely. I mean, in truth there’s a great kind of intensity. I love westerns, and there’s that great moment as you’re heading into the third act of a western.” Cue the spaghetti-western good guy/bad guy face-off music … “Let’s put it this way. I’m never above using some Ennio Morricone on my show.”

4. Luckily, Chuck’s got some serious backup! Chuck and Sarah “make for a wonderful couple, and we were just so excited to tell those stories of their relationship. And not from the perspective ‘will they/won’t they,’ but from the perspective of a young couple,” said Fedak. And then there’s the other wonderful new couple on the show, Casey and Morgan. “They’re obviously a couple. We realized that we had this perfect odd couple earlier in the season.” We’ll also see Elli and Awesome in action, as well as Papa Bartowski (Scott Bakula), and, of course, the Buy More gang.

5. But someone’s going to die! “Nobody is safe. … The show this season is a dangerous show, and the world that Chuck lives in is a dangerous place, and not everyone’s going to make it.” So someone we care about is going to die? “Yes,” said Fedak.

6. In fact, it’s so sad that even Fedak gets “emotional” talking about it! “There’s a scene that we have—it’s very hard to go there,” he said, choking up just a bit. “It is so emotional and such a big moment for the show in total, all the episodes … that I actually have a hard time watching. I actually get very emotional. … So it’s a, it’s a, um … yeah, it’s a, um, you know.”

(Read the full interview here…)

Julia Ling Talks Anna Wu’s Return To ‘Chuck’

Julia Ling returns as Anna Wu on tonight’s episode of Chuck, and she’s after one thing: Morgan. TV Squad has an interview with the MIA Nerd Herder in advance of “Chuck vs. the Tooth”:

How is Anna returning to ‘Chuck’?
Anna is coming back from Hawaii. She’s got the whole sexy tan going. She’s coming back for Morgan. She has some things to settle with him.

This is interesting, because supposedly Morgan dumped your character because she was cheating on him … or is there more to it than that?
We’re going to find out. There are some things that Anna is coming back to settle.

Is Anna ready to go back to work at the Buy More, ready to become a Nerd Herder again?
Anna could do that, but I don’t think that’s what’s on her mind. She didn’t come back for that. She’s not thinking about Buy More. She’s really back for Morgan.

(Read the rest of the interview here…)

Yvonne Strahovski talks Sarah, Subway, stunts and more

iF Magazine has an exclusive interview with Yvonne Strahovski who talks Sarah, Subway, stunts and more.

iF: How did you like doing the sequences where Sarah was interacting with the British super-spy played by Jonathan Cake last season, where she had a peer for a little while?
STRAHOVSKI: Yeah. That was great. I mean, it was great for Sarah to get a love interest and it was fun, because he was a super-spy as well, so we had a little fun shooting those episodes.
iF: Was that similar to playing opposite Brandon Routh as experienced-albeit-very-troubled spy Daniel Shaw this season?
STRAHOVSKI: It’s different. Everyone brings a different dynamic. Brandon’s character [was for a long time] a little more stoic and sturdy and a real level-headed guy, so it’s a whole different thing. As you [watched] the show, and his back story got revealed, you [saw] why there was a common thread between the two characters and why they were sort of drawn to each other.

iF: And the episode with Gary Cole as Sarah’s father?
STRAHOVSKI: Oh, I loved that episode. I loved going back in time and becoming the seventeen-year-old Sarah with the braces and the [bad] hair. She was so different and so nerdy and I loved that.

(Read the full interview…)

Yvonne Strahovski in French Magazine, On G4

Yvonne appeared in a beautiful photo shoot for French magazine Gala, where she models some of the hot fashion trends for spring. Visit YvonneStrahovski.net for the full set of scans. (Thanks, Joe!)

Yvonne was also a guest on last night’s edition of G4′s Attack of the Show. Although the interviewer was less than savory, she handled herself well and we were treated to (spoiler alert!) some exciting clips from episode 3.13, “Chuck vs. the Other Guy” and episode 3.14, “Chuck vs. the Honeymooners”. She also ‘fesses up on why she’s not attending WonderCon: she has Lakers tickets.

Joshua Gomez Talks About Morgan & Keeping Secrets

Chuck‘s Joshua Gomez sat down with Matt Mitovich from Fancast for a chat about Morgan, keeping secrets, and the rest of the season:

When did you first find out that Morgan would be learning Chuck’s secret?
I think it was between seasons. See, Morgan can keep a secret!

Were you happy with Morgan’s reaction? Do you feel it was true to character?
Yeah, I was happy we didn’t get bogged with, “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me….” I think the fans feel the same way; so far, their reaction has been very positive. After all, it is pretty true to the character [to think,] “This is the coolest thing on the planet!”

What’s cool is that Chuck no longer has to lie to Morgan. The longer he did that, the less we tended to like him and the worse we felt for Morgan.
I’m glad to hear you feel that way. They wanted that to be resolved for a while, but you couldn’t do it too soon. Awesome found out last year, but he has so much more at stake with Ellie and the danger of all that. Morgan is the one guy who can be Alfred to Chuck’s Batman. He can make Chuck a spot of tea as he tells about his day. Awesome is a great character, but he’s not Chuck’s boy!

(read the full interview here…)

On the Phone with Zachary Levi & Joshua Gomez

Chuck stars Zachary Levi and Joshua Gomez were part of a conference call with bloggers today that was joyfully geek-ridden. Here are some highlights:

• Scott Bakula (or “Scotty Back” as Zac calls him) is 1) awesome, 2) prone to break out in song on set, and 3) appearing in episodes 3.17-3.19.
• A tiger is an integral part of an upcoming storyline.
• We informed Josh Gomez of the new (as in about 5 minutes old at that point) grassroots campaign to get him on Twitter. He responded with, “Duly noted. Cyberspace cannot be denied.” Stay tuned.
• Zac raved about working with Tony Hale. “It was really a bummer to see him shot.” Emmett’s demise was a result of budget cuts. Josh predicted Emmett would return…as a cyborg! “Milbarge 3.0!”
• Speaking of raves, Josh had nothing but good things to say about Zac’s directorial debut, Chuck episode 3.09 (airing March 8). Both of them chose 3.09 as a favorite episode of the season, along with 3.05, although it sounded like they were itching to choose a future episode as well but couldn’t because it might reveal too much.
• They were curiously tight-lipped about the scene in the just-released promo that shows Chuck extracting Casey’s tooth. More than meets the eye?
• Zac’s response to finding out Christopher Lloyd was going to guest star? “I think I had an accident in my pants.” Both Zac and Josh were clearly geeked out about having Doc Brown on the set.
• Zac and Josh appear to share a geek brain. Zac revealed that Josh showed up to his audition opposite Zac wearing an R2-D2 t-shirt. And during the “get to know each other” gathering before filming began, Josh whispered to Zac, “So…are you a gamer?” They’ve been buddies ever since.
  
• Josh revealed that Morgan does not have a “permanent” love interest on the horizon. “He’s a lone wolf; he has a lot on his plate.”
• Both of them mancrushed on Adam Baldwin, calling him both “a rock” and “a teddy bear”. Josh confessed to feeling particularly proud of himself if he manages to get Adam to crack up during a scene.
• How does Hannah impact Chuck’s Buy More life? Without putting to fine a point on it, she causes Morgan to be increasingly suspicious of Chuck’s obvious non-productivity. As Josh said, “Even Casey’s moving a Beastmaster now and then.”
• Morgan’s heartbreak at the end of 3.07, seeing Chuck and Hannah in the home theater room, isn’t directed at Chuck. Morgan is disappointed that he didn’t get the girl, again. Neither of them knew the other was interested in Hannah.
• They have not yet read the season finale script.
• If they could shoot a fantasy storyline, what would it entail? Some sort of first person shooter game feel, with Yvonne Strahovski and Sarah Lancaster in “scanty” costumes and Adam Baldwin stuffed into the elf costume Josh had to wear in vs. the Santa Claus. It would take place in exotic locations like “Hawaii, Paris…and Hoth!”
  

Don’t forget, new episodes of Chuck start up Monday, March 1 at 8/7c on NBC!

Chuck Interview Round Up: Vik, Julia, Kristin

Amid the hulabaloo of new episodes, sometimes bits of news get lost, like these interviews that have been sitting in my Inbox for, well, longer than they should! If you haven’t already, catch up with some of our favorite Chucksters:

• Vik Sahay talks to the A.V. Club.
• Kristin Kreuk gets cheeky with IGN, Zap2It and Fancast.
• Josh Schwartz wants Chuck Norris.
• Chris Fedak wants Roan to return.
• Julia Ling gives a birthday interview.
• Reminder: Lee interviews Adam Baldwin on Thursday at 9/8c.

All caught up!

Schwartz & Fedak vs the Controversy

Alan Sepinwall snagged both Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak for a phone chat today to talk about the controversy over last night’s episode of Chuck. Here’s an excerpt from the transcript:

There’s also been a lot of speculation about why she might have gone from being so annoyed with Shaw to being interested in him within this one episode. Some people suggested she went running for a rebound guy when she saw Chuck with Hannah, while others think she might be checking Shaw out because she doesn’t fully trust him.

JS: We don’t want to answer everything. Some of the fun of being an audience member, I hope, is projecting onto the scenes and reading between the lines. There’s such pressure, anyway, on a network show to spell everything out and leave everything completely unambigious, and then that pressure is doubled by fans who want an answer and want it now. And, look, we have been saved by our fans. We will most likely need to be saved by our fans again. We are incredibly invested in and respectful of our fans and their response. We are receptive and read almost everything that’s out there. This is a show that we’re doing as much for us as we are for them. That being said, we still have to tell the story that we’re going to tell.

CF: A lot of the questions that you’re asking, we actually address, but we address in upcoming episodes.

Well, in terms of being receptive to the fans versus telling the story you want to tell, is there a danger in just giving the fans what they want?

JS: Absolutely. Having been raised in the slums of the teen drama – just kidding, it’s not a slum, it’s a beautiful part of the state – those kind of shows, they just exist on the relationships that people are invested in. It’s what they drive on week in and week out. As you stated yesterday in your blog, Chuck and Sarah is but an element of our show. There’s a lot of other storytelling imperatives that are driving how these episodes unfold. Chuck and Sarah is a critical element of the show – we have said before that it is the heart of the show, and we stand by that – but there are other factors that are driving the story here. Given time, I think you will see this is a story that’s unfolding not just on a romantic plane. There’s a lot of Chuck and Blair fans on the “Gossip Girl” sites who’ve heard that couple’s in trouble and are up in arms in a similar way, and it’s like, if people are only happy, there is no conflict, therefore there is no storytelling, or drama. We’re not arbitrary about it, we don’t do it to drive conflict, We’re not just going, “How do we keep them apart?” Part of your job as a storyteller, part of the writer’s jobs here on the show is to mine all of these characters for maximum conflict and drama. There is an overarching design to the season, these stories are more than just romantic stories, and people have to trust that the journey we are taking them on is one that is designed to give audiences both what they want and what they need.

CF: The other thing, Alan, is you know us, we’ve watched way too much television growing up. We’re very familiar with all the will-they-won’t-they romances out there. It’s an equation that we’re always constantly thinking about. We realize there’s the pitfalls as well as the successes.

JS: And to whatever fan out there who thought the way to get the story back on track was to boycott the show, we’re about ready to start writing the finale, which is 12 episodes later than the one last night. Look, we are in a dogfight for our survival once again, and it would be a shame if people reacted in a way that was scorched earth.

CF: Who closes the book after chapter seven? That’s the thing.

(read the full interview here…)

TV.com Talks to Yvonne Strahovski

Louis Peitzman of TV.com has a new, fairly brief interview with Yvonne published today in which she gets away with not telling us much. Here’s an excerpt:

Sarah has had some really great fight scenes throughout the series. Could you talk about what goes into filming those scenes, and if we can look forward to more big fight scenes this season?

Let me honestly say that the best is yet to come. I get really excited when we have to do fight scenes. It’s nice that this season Zac [Levi] is getting more involved with them as well, now that he has this whole new Intersect in his head. We do a lot of it ourselves, which is great for us. There’s stuff that’s a little more complicated this season.

(read the full interview here…)

Tim Jones, Are You Smarter Than A Class Full Of Fifth Graders?

What tv show has the best music? That’s an easy one! It’s Chuck of course. All that music comes from the mind of Tim Jones.

My name is Al (you may know me better as agent52) and I am a music teacher in Massachusetts. My fifth graders have been studying composers this year. They wrote reports on all the famous composers you might expect – Beethoven, Bach, Stravinsky and Ives (okay, maybe you didn’t expect that one!). Then we got talking about how music is used to influence your emotional response in a movie or TV show. That lead to what follows.

I asked Mel if she could put me in contact with Tim Jones, composer for the music we listen to on Chuck every week, so my students could interview him. Have you ever REALLY noticed how good that is and how it influences what you see and feel? Try re-running a current episode, but close your eyes when you do it. You will be amazed by what you hear.

Tim graciously agreed to be interviewed by a bunch of fifth graders, so they set about coming up with some questions. These kids are 10 – 11, but they asked some pretty astute questions. Tim’s answers are just as interesting and give quite a bit of insight into the life of a working composer in the world of weekly scripted TV.

Al: A quick question from me before I give you the ones from my students: it seems that there is more music in this year’s episodes than in the past. Is this so?

Tim: Al, We’ve always had anywhere from 35-38 minutes (or more) of music in a 42 minute episode. I think the difference may be a few less songs, which means more score. NBC has always wanted almost wall-to-wall music. I don’t always agree with that, as it can diminish the effectiveness of the music. Silence is as important as sound in a score. Most really effective film scores use silence in a way that heightens the music when it comes back in. ‘Jaws’ is an excellent example. When Captain (Shaw?) tells his story about the USS Indianapolis, there is plenty of foreboding silence. Check it out, it’s pretty cool.

Now from my fifth grade students…

1. How long does it take you to write a piece of music?

Tim: This is an excellent question, and one to which I have several answers…

I have written music in a few minutes and I have written it over a period of weeks. Sometimes, inspiration for a piece of music is quite sudden. In these instances, music pops out of my head almost fully formed (from somewhere else). Sometimes I feel like just writing something down that is already done. I’m working really fast just to capture the idea before it goes away. Other times, I find that the inspiration for a piece of music (a theme or sequence of notes) can happen and then I spend time (using my knowledge of music theory and experience matching music to film) to craft that idea into the finished product.

On Chuck I sometimes have as much as 15 minutes of new music to write for an episode. I usually have about 5 days to complete the music (including revisions and rewrites from the Producer’s notes). That translates to 3 min / day of finished material (which is a lot).

2. How old are you?

Tim: I am 38 years old. (John Williams was 40 when he wrote ‘Jaws’ for Steven Spielberg)

3. How many instruments do you own (and do you use them as part of your job)?

Tim: I have: a B Flat Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone, Electric Cello, Digeridoos, dozens of ethnic flutes, Drums of all shapes and sizes, a piano key accordion, over 20 guitars (acoustic and electric), hammered dulcimer, bagpipes (Irish and Scottish), recorders (alto and soprano). I’ve lost count… Well over 100 things that make noise of one type or another. I use these things all the time. Just about every film and episode of Chuck that I write has me playing some of my live instruments.

4. How do you handle your everyday life with your work schedule?

Tim: I try to get up and go to bed at about the same times everyday. I get up with the kids in the morning (I have two kids. My daughter, Tess, is 8. My son, Finley is 6.) I’m usually in my chair composing by 9am. I work till lunch then take a break. I then work till dinner (around 5 or 6). If I’m on schedule for the day (meaning I’ve gotten my 2-5 minutes done for the day) I can stop working. Sometimes, I work after dinner till about 9-9:30 when my eyes start to close on their own. The times I have to work till 11 or 12 in the evening make me extremely grouchy! I’m not a composer that works best at 4am. I’ve written much better stuff at 10am than 10pm. That’s just the way that works for me.

5. What’s the shortest deadline you’ve ever had to work to?

Tim: I had to rewrite the big fight scene where Chuck flashes on intersect 2.0 (episode 222 ‘The Ring’ where he uses Kung fu on the bad guys then says ‘I know Kung fu’) in about 12 hours. That was stressful.

6. How old were you when you got the idea to become a composer?

Tim: When I was in Jr. High (seventh grade in Arizona), I bought my first synthesizer. I thought I wanted to be a rock star. You’ve probably never heard of them, but the synthesizer band Depeche Mode was a big deal in 1985. I didn’t connect the idea of writing music for film until college.

7. Did you go to school to be a composer or something else?

Tim: I started college at the University of California at San Diego, which is in La Jolla, CA. It’s a great school. I was a dual major in Music and Electrical Engineering. Nobody (my parents) thought that music was a viable way to make a living so I was hedging my bets with the ‘useful’ major of engineering. Eventually, my parents and I figured out that I wasn’t a particularly gifted engineering student. In my junior year of College (with only 2 semesters to go) I transferred to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA.

This was the best thing I could have done. I was like a sponge, and the Boston program had a major in Film Scoring! I was hooked. I am, however, very glad that I had the experience of a large university in San Diego. Once I got to Boston, it was more like a small, professional school. It was good to have both experiences.

8. What is the worst music you ever composed?

Tim: I once wrote music for a film called ‘Attack of the Sabertooth’ about a giant tiger that eats a bunch of scientists at a research facility in Fiji. That movie was so bad that it wasn’t ‘released’ on DVD… it Escaped.

9. What is your favorite Chuck episode and why?

Tim: I particularly enjoyed the episode in season 2 where the Buy More is taken hostage at Christmas time. I really enjoyed using the Chuck theme in the orchestration style of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite. I also made an homage to ‘Die Hard’ that was a lot of fun (Beethoven’s 9th symphony)

10. Do you write all your own music or do you model it after the style of other composers?

Tim: You know, it is impossible to create in a vacuum. I’m continually influenced by music that I’ve heard over the course of my life. However, I try to find a unique way to communicate through my music. Plagiarism is as illegal in music as it is in the printed word. Even when I’m asked to do something ‘like’ another piece of music, I try to filter it through my own experience. So, the answer is: I write all my own music, but I can’t help being influenced by all the things my brain has heard and cataloged over the years. That ‘Barney’ song is really hard to get out of your head you know?

11. Are you a gamer?

Tim: Sadly, yes. I’m pretty addicted to the ‘Call of Duty’ series and now the ‘Modern Warfare 2’. I actually find that gaming is a good way to relax my brain between composing sessions. There is something about it that uses a different part of the brain and I’m able to come back to composing with less burn-out. I know that’s a little weird, but true…

12. Do you write music for anything else besides Chuck?

Tim: I wrote some music for the new Universal film ‘Wolfman’ that comes out in February. I worked for my friend, Conrad Pope, who is a wonderful composer and also happens to be John William’s orchestrator. I wrote the score for a film called ‘Smokin’ Aces 2’. Not a great movie and certainly not OK for 5th graders. You can tell your parents I said that…

And a bonus question!

13. Do you like pie?

Tim: No, Cartman I don’t like pie. I LOVE it! My grandmother makes a pie called ‘Black Bottom’ pie that is worth the drive to Arizona. Chocolate custard with a cream custard layer on top with whipped cream and chocolate shavings… Mmmm, I’m getting my car keys.

Ladies and Gentleman, Thank you for the great questions! I’ve enjoyed sitting and thinking about the answers. I hope my responses will help you in your exploration of modern day composers. People really do make a living writing music, but you have to really want it and be willing to sacrifice some comforts along the way. For me, there is no more gratifying job in the world. I never really had a ‘Plan B’. Have an awesome school year and be sure to thank your teacher for going the extra mile for you. He is obviously a teacher who cares a great deal about your education. Plus, he’s cool!

Kindest Regards,

Tim Jones

There! I’ve been called ‘cool’ by Tim Jones. My street cred just went way up.

(For further information on Tim and what he does, please see the excellent interview from Chuck vs the Podcast.)

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