More from the ABC Press Tour

Forgive me if some of this has been already posted - Paul has done a great job of getting news out as it crosses the wire. The article does a nice sum up of some of the past material with maybe a few new tidbits. -Edshrinker

LOST producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, confirmed once again that part of the focus for Season 5 will be on the O6 trying to get back to the island and how the island is "drawing them back."

They also used an analogy calling Season 5 The Two Towers (part 2) of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Basically a season that will setup Season 6.

Here are the details:

Speaking at ABC’s TCA press tour today, LOST executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse explained how giving an end date for the series last year has truly reinvigorated the writing staff and streamlined how they’re going to get to the end.

“I think it completely changed our storytelling approach,” says Cuse.

Last year’s writer’s strike also gave LOST the ability to air the finished episodes and return to the show after the strike and utilize fan and friend feedback in the writing and completion of the remaining episodes of the season.

“We got feedback from audience and we were able to course correct,” says Lindelof who notes this year they won’t have that benefit, since the series will air in January, and they’ll be done writing shortly after that. “We’re done by writing the show at end of February, so there’s not an opportunity to get any feedback, which quite frankly scares the sh*t out of us.”

Most importantly, Cuse notes it’s a “tricky year for us,” since Season 5 is the linking mechanism to the final season the following year.

“This is year is the ‘TWO TOWERS year,’” explains Cuse in his reference the middle chapter of THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy that set everything into motion for the final chapter. “This is the year that links us to the past and the present. We knew what we wanted to do for a long time. The challenge for us is how to make this engaging and exciting, where everybody is really excited about the final season of LOST.”

As for teases on the new season, as usual the executive producers are tight lipped, but they do reveal this season will be about the Oceanic 6 getting back to the island.

“The people that are off the island, the island seems to be drawing them back and Ben [Michael Emerson] makes it clear they need to go back to the island,” says Cuse. “So hopefully that’s a lot of what you’ll see of in Season 5 -- the journey how those six return to the island.”

And for Lindelof, he notes “the worst thing we can do on the show is be boring,” and he prides himself on the fact that people are still talking about LOST after last year’s reinvigorated season and that the writers themselves are still engaged with the show’s twists and turns.

“Season 5 is very exciting for us,” says Lindelof. “At 86 hours into the sow, we’re going into Season 5 and the fact people are asking us, ‘what is the show going to be next year, how are you going to tell stories next year?’ It has been exciting.”

Source: IF Magazine