'Lost' gets a letter from George Lucas

By Rick Porter

May 14, 2010 9:04 PM ET

The Force is with the producers of "Lost."

At Thursday's (May 13) "Lost Live: The Final Celebration," ABC Studios executive Barry Jossen read a letter from George Lucas to executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. No, he wasn't demanding royalties for all the "Star Wars" references that have littered "Lost" over the past six seasons. He was merely congratulating the show on its run and offering some words of support.

Here's the text of the letter:


Congratulations on pulling off an amazing show. Don't tell anyone ... but when 'Star Wars' first came out, I didn't know where it was going either. The trick is to pretend you've planned the whole thing out in advance. Throw in some father issues and references to other stories -- let's call them homages -- and you've got a series.

In six seasons, you've managed to span both time and space, and I don't think I'm alone in saying that I never saw what was around the corner. Now that it's all coming to an end, it's impressive to see how much was planned out in advance and how neatly you've wrapped up everything. You've created something really special. I'm sad that the series is ending, but I look forward to seeing what you two are going to do next.


Afterward Lindelof said, "I just want to apologize to Mr. George Lucas for everything I said about the prequels ..." -- drawing one of many big laughs from the hugely appreciative crowd at UCLA's Royce Hall.

Other notes from "Lost Live":

- Malcolm David Kelley, who played Walt in the show's first couple seasons, admits that his teenage growth spurt knocked him out of a regular role: "It messed me up a little bit. I wish it could have waited a couple years." Kelley, who turned 18 last week, is a good eight to 10 inches taller than he was when the series began.

- A crowd of UCLA students gathered across the street from the red carpet to wave at and cheer for the actors as they arrived. We heard one girl yell "Daniel, you're my constant!" at Jeremy Davies, and as he made his way up the carpet, Jorge Garcia heard chants of "Jorge, Jorge!"

- Hearing pieces of Michael Giacchino's score played live was kind of magical. Giacchino final selection from the show was "Parting Words," the music that accompanied the raft launch in the Season 1 finale "Exodus." The scene was shown on a big screen above the orchestra as they played, and let's just say that the room got rather dusty right around then, and some of it got in our eyes.
http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2010/05/lost-gets-a-letter-from-george-lucas.html

'Lost' Live: The Final Celebration Recap

by Maggie Furlong, posted May 14th 2010 3:00AM

I've done some cool things for my job, but last night's 'Lost' Live event in Los Angeles will be a tough evening to beat.

Honoring Academy Award-winning 'Lost' composer Michael Giacchino -- who is responsible for the chilling main theme and every note of every episode that makes the scenes of the show that much stronger -- fans gathered at UCLA's Royce Hall to enjoy Giacchino leading a full live orchestra playing some of the show's most memorable tunes in time with a comprehensive slideshow of key moments. Proceeds from the event's ticket sales benefited The Colburn School for the performing arts in Los Angeles.

As if that weren't enough, we were then treated to an early screening of the penultimate episode of 'Lost,' which won't air for another five days. All that in the company of some of the show's biggest stars ... just amazing.

Here are some of the highlights ...

* The red carpet was loaded with 'Lost'-ies past and present, including several Candidates: Josh Holloway, Jorge Garcia, Daniel Dae Kim, Michael Emerson, Nestor Carbonell, L. Scott Caldwell, Henry Ian Cusick, Sonya Walger, Rebecca Mader, Jeremy Davies, Harold Perrineau, Malcolm David Kelley, Ian Somerhalder, Titus Welliver, François Chau and Lance Reddick, just to name a few. (Look for my video interviews with them very soon.)

* I also had the chance to talk to Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, who both seemed pleasantly surprised to hear that I loved this week's episode, 'Across the Sea.' Haters, take note: You'll eat your words with this next episode.


* Once inside, Damon and Carlton introduced all of the stars above -- as well as Sterling Beaumon (young Ben!), William Mapother (Ethan!) and Daniel Roebuck (Arzt!) -- all greeted with rousing applause.

* There were seven orchestral arrangements: 'Lost' Main Theme, Hollywood and Vines, Oceanic 6, The Temple of Boom, Life and Death, The Tangled Web and Parting Words.

* Each song was followed by a cast member reading random letters from the 'Lost' bottle of messages. Call them background players, expendables or socks, but the tear-jerkingly heartfelt letters were all "written by" characters we knew very little about (ahem, Neil Frogurt!), proving that these writers can make us emotional about even the nameless few on this show.

* For his final swan song, the Converse-clad Giachinno threw on a Dharma jumpsuit -- emblazoned with "Conductor" across the back, naturally -- and the orchestra played the 'Up' theme song, one of the songs from the Pixar film that won him the Oscar.

* While the orchestra exited the stage, Damon and Carlton brought out the people who've made 'Lost' possible, episode after episode, year after year. Executive producers Bryan Burk and Jean Higgins; EPs and writers Liz Sarnoff, Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz; and go-to director Jack Bender all received huge rounds of applause.

* Then, settling in for the "What They Died For" episode screening, you could feel the anticipation in the ballroom. In my opinion, the episode did not disappoint, and truly succeeded at getting the pace moving forward again, toward the big finale event.
http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/05/14/lost-live-the-final-celebration-recap/