Heroes News (Page 9)

The DVD for Heroes season one hits stores today.

As countless fans make this purchase and relive their favorite moments from their favorite show's inaugural episodes, Wizard Universe got the creative forces behind Heroes to reminisce on a few key scenes, revealing how there was a method to their madness, why fake blood is truly nasty and what's in store next year...

Scene: YATTA! (Episode 1, "Genesis")

Tim Kring: We filmed this on the same day we shot Peter [Milo Ventimiglia] falling off the rooftop. We did it on top of a parking lot in downtown Los Angeles with a green screen, and it was done late in the day with just two very quick shots that took only about 15 minutes to do. We could only do a limited sort of size on Hiro against the green screen and then with that, we put a composite of footage from Times Square that we had gone out to shoot, a 360-degree plate of Times Square.

Scene: Stripping for Supper (Episode 1, "Genesis")
Ali Larter: [Stripping on camera is] absolutely difficult and makes you completely uncomfortable. You worry about your dad, your grandpa. But on the other side, it's sexy and it's fun, you know? There are two sides of the line you have to balance: One side is serving the character and the other is making sure it doesn't get gratuitous.

Scene: Fly, Peter, Fly (Episode 1, "Genesis")
Kring: We hung both Milo and Adrian Pasdar on these harnesses and shot them while they were about 10 feet off of the ground. We shot up using wide-angle lenses to make it look like we were shooting really high up. Then it wasn't until after we got picked up for a series that we went back and did one day on a green-screen stage and we got close-ups and performance stuff there. So a lot of stuff like that was added literally two months later.

Ventimiglia: I love doing that stuff. There were some things they wouldn't let me do for insurance purposes, but I would have been jumping off that 15-story building into an airbag the size of a Volkswagen if I could.

Scene: Painting for Sale (Episode 1, "Genesis")

Producer Jeph Loeb: [Kring] called and asked whether or not there was an artist who could do the things he required, which was someone who could work quickly and who could draw on a large canvas and work in various mediums—pencil, ink, paint. There really was only one choice, and that was Tim [Sale]. So that was sort of my first real contribution, finding Timmy, and putting the two Tims together. The world will never be the same.

Aritist Tim Sale: I'd never been asked to do anything like this before and thought it was exciting. I remember telling Jeph it'd make a cool comic, and depending on how that was set up, it could be something I'd really like to draw. It reminded me a lot of his scripts with some of the dialogue.

Scene: Gruesome Girl (Episode 3, "One Giant Leap")

Hayden Panettiere: It was a freezing-cold steel table. I had this piece on top of me that was really heavy and they kept spraying it and it was wet. The [fake] blood was trickling down the sides and it's made of corn syrup and so you can imagine how sticky it gets—It never fully hardens and it's ripping the little tiny peach fuzz [hair] off your skin. It's not pretty. But that scene [in the autopsy] I was in practically nothing, just a bra and underwear on this cold metal table. There was gobs of blood and it was not fun. My hair was pink for a while.

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We're inching closer and closer to season two of Heroes.

As fans count down the days, and read up on Heroes spoilers and alerts, NBC has released a few promotional photos of new and old stars.

Kristen Bell, formerly of Veronica Mars, will come aboard as Elle.

Dania Ramirez will portray Maya, another new character on the show.

And the rest: Hayden Panettiere, Masi Oka, Adrian Pasdar and the Heroes cast prepares for season two.

The Heroes World Tour has been split into three legs, with four cast members traveling to each destination. Here are the dates and details about each locale:

Europe:

• Munich (8/26-8/27)
• Paris (8/28-8/29)
• London (8/30-9/2)

Cast members on the trip: Jack Coleman, Hayden Panettiere, Adrian Pasdar and Milo Ventimiglia.

Asia:

• Tokyo (8/26-8/28)
• Hong Kong (8/29-8/30)
• Singapore (8/31-9/2)

Cast members on the trip: Greg Grunberg, Ali Larter, Masi Oka, and Sendhil Ramamurthy.

North America:

• New York City (8/27-8/29)
• Toronto (8/30-9/1)

Cast members on the trip: Noah Gray-Cabey, James Kyson Lee, Zachary Quinto and Dania Ramirez.

Save the Cheerleader, Save the World.

Tonight's rerun of Heroes is the culmination of that famous tagline. Peter finally tracks down the cheerleader (Claire, obviously) in Odessa, Texas and realizes his life mission: to save her from death at the hands of Sylar.

Hayden Panettiere and Milo Ventimiglia will host the episode on NBC.

Peter arrives, hopefully in time to save the cheerleader and the world.

And Heroes Fanatic will have you covered with a full recap tomorrow. Remember: we're always your source for Heroes spoilers, quotes, pictures and more. Thank you for visiting our site.

Of all the guest stars or new regulars added to the Heroes season two cast - from Dianna Agron to David Anders - it's hard to imagine any garnering more excitement than this one:

Veronica Mars star Kristen Bell is coming aboard.

NBC has snagged Bell for a key multiepisode arc of Heroes. This is a major casting coup for the show, as the actress was being sought after by multiple other programs, including ABC's Lost.

Bell is likely to become even more well-known and popular, too, as her next gig is playing the lead role in Judd Apatow's upcoming Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

The actress will make her first Heroes appearance in October. She'll play Elle, a character described as a sexy, mysterious young lady who has ties to the supposed death of Peter, Mr. Bennet's past and the future of Claire. Those are a lot of connections for one character to possess.

Variety reports that Elle will kick off her arc by committing a serious crime, though it's unclear whether she's good or bad.

"This was not easy to pull off," said Heroes creator-exec producer Tim Kring. "But since we're an ensemble show, with many arcs playing out through the year, we found a way to jump into a small window in (Bell's) schedule."

Universal Media Studios prexy Katherine Pope also hinted that landing Bell wasn't easy, noting that "many studios (were) chasing her in both film and TV" and that she was happy that Bell "chose to star in our show."

Perhaps we should add Bell to our latest Heroes poll, huh? She'd win in a landslide.

Milo Ventimiglia was recently featured in Zink Magazine.

Now, the entire cast of Heroes graces the cover of Emmy Magazine.

The PR machine is obviously in full swing, as our favorite show hypes up the soon-to-be released season one DVD, as well as the premiere of season two on September 24.

Say this about the growing number of new cast members and guest stars on Heroes: it's an eclectic bunch.

There's a former Alias star who is now a series regular: David Anders.

There's a Star Trek veteran of the big screen coming aboard for a few episodes: Nichelle Nichols.

And now there's Janel Parrish, an actress from the recent Bratz: The Movie who will play May, the head cheerleader at Claire's new school.

In addition to playing one of the leads in Bratz, which opened to an underwhelming $4.2 million at the box office two weekends ago, Parrish wrote and recorded a song for the film's soundtrack.

Maybe she can team up with Hayden Panettiere - another occasional singer - for a song-and-dance number on Heroes.

No one can argue with the success of Heroes after just one season.

But further proof of this program's popularity lies in how many new shows on the fall schedule appear to be influenced by the NBC hit.

Other network look to have studied the Heroes model. Characters with extraordinary powers can be found in:

• ABC's Pushing Daisies
• CW's Reaper
• CBS' Moonlight

NBC will also schedule two such series with Heroes on Mondays: Chuck and Journeyman.

"We've got to be a little careful that just because a Heroes works in Season 1 that 10 shows like that can work," says Steve McPherson, president of ABC Entertainment.

Still, it makes sense that others would hope to piggyback on the wild success of this show. But are there limits to how far NBC Universal can extend the Heroes brand. What about a theme park ride, for instance?

"No one has talked to me yet," creator Tim Kring says.

The man behind Claire Bennet, Sylar and company also dismisses the notion of a movie version of his program. And that's probably a good thing for now.

Let's at least give season two of Heroes a chance to captivate us first.

It started this week with the episode "Collison."

And for the rest of the summer, we'll be treated to reruns of Heroes every Monday night in its usual time slot.

The shows won't be unfolding in chronological order, however. Instead, various cast members will host the hour and present us with their favorite episodes from season one. Here's the schedule:

• Monday, August 20 Hayden Panettiere and Milo Ventimiglia host "Homecoming." (A photo from this episode is featured below.)

• Monday, August 27 Masi Oka and James Kyson Lee host "Six Months Ago."

• Monday, September 3 Jack Coleman and Greg Grunberg host "Company Man."

• Monday, September 10 Sendhil Ramamurthy and Zachary Quinto host "Parasite."

Well, reruns of Heroes return tonight.

The actual second season premiere isn't until September 24.

But it's refreshing to actually have a repeat of our favorite show back on NBC this evening. We'll take that any time over the latest reality TV fare.

So tune in at 9 p.m. to watch Collision, the fourth episode from season one. This hour picks up with Claire on a table in the morgue and Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg) on a table within the Primatech Paper headquarters.

Also, Nathan (Adrian Pasdar) has his first run-in with Mohinder, as the scientist tries to warn the politician about a certain evil-doer named Sylar.

It all goes down - again - tonight on NBC. Here's a photo from the episode to whet your Heroes appetite: