Lance speaks at BIFFF about Millennium!

Lance Henriksen, Frank Black himself, received a lifetime achievement award in Belgium at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival as we reported earlier this month.

Below is a video taken of Lance's Q&A from that event! Naturally he speaks about Millennium and his hopes for the movie! Keep watching to the end, his talk about the beginning of his career is fascinating!

Hope you enjoy!

Seven and One: Sean Stubblefield!

This is fun - our first Seven and One "advanced" questionnaire return! As you may recall, we added a new set of questions for those more adventurous in their answers, and the first one back has come from Millennium/BacktoFrankBlack diligent follower, Sean Stubblefield! For an interesting comparison, Sean has already had his Seven and One [Basic] published, so for those feeling studious, why not cross compare what he says! Anyway, without further ado, the stages is yours Sean!

1. About You.

White male, 37, single, residing in Houston TX.

Relatively unknown “starving artist” writer of sci-fi short stories, philosophy and media commentary, with Bachelor’s degree in TV/Film production and media studies. An advocate for media literacy & liberty.

Stories and storytelling are important to me. I take their power and creation seriously… respectfully.

I have a deep fascination with the unknown and the unusual, as well as the paranormal.

I feel most alive when I’m traveling/ exploring… wandering & wondering. Discovering.

Other interests include story consulting, photography, rock climbing, mountain biking and beaches.

I collect books and gargoyles. Proud and happy to be geek.

2. What was the most horrifying moment in the show?

The most disturbing moment for me was in the pilot, when Frank & Bletch opened that box to reveal a guy with eyes and mouth sewn shut. That really creeped me out, and definitely stuck with me. I was impressed that a TV show would be so bold in mainstream prime time—back in the ‘90s. to me, no other scene in the show lived up to the graphic horrificness of that.

But, of course, there are different kinds and degress of horrific. such as when Frank dipped Jordan in the ice water, or when Lara went insane. perhaps Bletcher hanging gutted in Frank's basement, or Frank killing Polaroid Man there while Catherine watched. Frank in shock to realize Catherine is dead. maybe some of the questionable things The Group did under Mabius' influence.

3. What's your favourite quote from the show?

FRANK: “They believe we can’t just sit back and hope for a happy ending.”

and

PETER: “The future. Of the future.”

In response to MR. OTTO: ”It's clear Johnston has been murdered. If any evidence should indicate responsibility of either Owls or Roosters, I'm sure you know what's in danger.”

4. What's your favourite piece of music in Millennium (incidental or song)?

Mark Snow’s opening theme music has always struck me as the best intro music of any TV show I’ve ever seen. I love the whole style of his approach, and can’t narrow my fave to a single song.

5. What is your opinion as to the nature of Frank's Gift?

Despite Frank’s (and Carter’s) denial/preference otherwise, the gift is clearly psychic in nature. As Peter says, “We both know your daughter doesn’t just dream, Frank.”

If Jordan’s gift is “supernatural”, then so is Frank’s. If Frank’s gift isn’t supernatural, then why the bonding over the issue between Frank and Lara? Or the relating of Frank to his mother? Simply being very “insightful” doesn’t account for all the things he could “see”.

6. What's your favourite episode ending?

The first one that comes to mind is when Frank carried Jordan up the snowy mountain to share with her the view that he and Bletch had shared.

1. If you were given the chance to make a Millennium movie, what would you focus on and why?

The reconstitution of The Millennium Group to fulfill their objective.

Well, an obvious reference would be the approaching 2012 serving as another millennial event. However, the millennium isn’t an event… it’s a process.

Also, I would comment on how our culture—our governments—our media failed to properly use the millennial anxiety to propel us into creating a better future for ourselves. We are still in the millennial age, still racing. The end hasn’t been averted, as most apparently assume; indeed we are fully immersed in it.

But the principal message would be that “we can’t just sit back and hope for a happy ending.” We are all shepherds.

We must live as if pulled by the future, not pushed by the past.

Email your "seven and one" profile to info@backtofrankblack.com and we'll share you those responses to the Millennium world! We have a choice of 2 questionnaires - up to you which you use!

HARD SET (new!):
1. About You.
2. What was the most horrifying moment in the show?
3. What's your favourite quote from the show?
4. What's your favourite piece of music in Millennium (incidental or song)?
5. What is your opinion as to the nature of Frank's Gift?
6. What's your favourite episode ending?
1. If you were given the chance to make a Millennium movie, what would you focus on and why?

EASY SET:
1. About You.
2. Why are you a fan?
3. How long have you been a fan?
4. What's your favorite episode?
5. What's your favorite scene or moment?
6. If a movie was made which characters would you like to see in it?
1. What are you watching right now?

Video Avatar: Dawin's Eye

It's the welcome return of Video Avatar! And this week we have one of my favourite episodes from season three. It was confusing, it was misdirecting, it was rather awesome. Yes, it's Dawin's Eye!

I have had many long debates over this episode on the TIWWA forums. You're welcome to throw your opinions in the blog comments - and of course, give Josef much love for his hard work and skillful output!

Enjoy!

Millennium Virtual Seasons: Season 4

Sorry for the quiet period chaps. Real life has been massively crazy.

So where were we? Where indeed! When you're searching far and wide for material that will be interesting to a campaign, its very easy to ignore what's sitting there. Right. Under. Your. Nose.

BacktoFrankBlack is about bringing Frank Black back - and as a logical extension, what would happen if Frank did come back?

Aside from a previous attempt at bringing back Millennium, there has been another very prominent group which has been exploring this notion for several years now. This group has even had recognition from Chris Carter himself and their work is of the highest quality. Many of you will have heard of them - I hope many have indulged in them...

Millennium's Virtual Seasons.

I don't need to tell you Millennium finished after three seasons. Millennium Virtual Seasons were started with Virtual Season Four and Virtual Season Six is due later this year.

So to celebrate the efforts of the Millennium Virtual Seasons, we are going to promote a of what's come before - give you people a chance to read some of the high quality work the guys on the Virtual Seasons have produced. We'll also be looking at what's up ahead with an interview with one of their head honchos.

So to begin with, let's look at Millennium Virtual Season Four:
Virtual season four "aired" July 2nd to December 24th 1999. The project was 22 episodes in length all written as scripts by a collective of fans. You can read all the scripts online at www.Forthhorsemanpress.com. The archive is here: http://www.fourthhorsemanpress.com/Abyss/Fiction/VS4.htm

Enjoy!

Ezekiel Editorial: Campaign Mandates

Hello birdies.

It saddens me when I have to make editorials that are less than "happy-happy-joy-joy" in their full content, but sometimes it has to be done. Though while the initial outlook to this editorial is gloomy, the sun does burst through at the end showering us all with Millennium wonder.

We keep getting one persistent troll who keeps bringing up the same point in as many not-too-dissimilar ways and with as many different unverified handles as he can imaginatively conjure. We could mock him as he attempts to mock/demean what we do here, but that's not my style - neither is it Troy's. We are fans of Millennium, ergo we are Millennium fans, but neither of us have time for silly attacks and waging pointless wars. The drive of the silly message is always the same, "this place isn't as good as it used to be" with a hint of "wow, is this the Lance Henriksen fan page now?" added in of late. So I've done this editorial to address this point in three sections sensibly.

1. This place isn't as good as it used to be.
Well that depends on your context - and context isn't always clear. What defines BacktoFrankBlack? Is it the podcasts? The written interviews? Is it the video blogs? The themed weeks? Is it the fun graphics? The interaction with campaign and fans?

Well they are all part and parcel of BacktoFrankBlack, but they aren't what defines it. This is what we're about - This Is Who We Are:

We're here to bring the show back and we're in a better position right here, right now than we were before. Ever before.

So by that criteria, we are FAR better than we have ever been. Pure and simple. If one looks at us and says "are we as fan interactive or filled with fan debates as other places?", then no, we're less about that now as the campaign has a more serious slant. Clock's ticking and myself and Troy would rather have the campaign focus on the industry than on too much, too be rude, padding.

Bottomline, this is a campaign. We do offer interactive stuff and themes because we know followers love Millennium, it's interesting - and we love doing it, but this year we're balancing that out with the serious drive to get Millennium back. So we're doing more media promotions, more interviews and working closer with the industry - all of which doesn't always make for a fun Millennium fan page, but that is not who we are. For that, we heartily recommend our big brother Graham Smith's wonderful, Millennium: This Is Who We Are and the This Is Who We Are forums. Or even join one of the Millennium Facebook Groups such as this one by campaign supporter Steve Trotter. They are great spots for Millennium fans!

2. There's a lot of Lance Henriksen these days, is this like the Lance Henriksen Fan Page?
I shouldn't really need to explain this one. Millennium fans by nature are bright, so apologies if this is something which stands to reason.

Currently what we're working on can't always be mentioned in public, simply because deals aren't finalised, we're waiting on the go to announce stuff or we feel we'd like to hold back news until specific dates. That's part of promotions in a campaign unfortunately. So we can't always bring you campaign news. Rather than fill the blog up with reviews, debate or stuff best handled by a fan forum like This Is Who We Are, we look to find you news you won't find elsewhere, that is pertinent to the campaign in some broader way. What the cast and crew do is very much a part of that and after EVERY podcast we offer the actors and crew we interview the option to promote themselves through us. We get free interviews, these people spend their time valuable time with us, imparting their memories and hopes for Millennium with no reward, so the least we can do is support them as they support us, and given I think 90% of fans are interested in what Millennium cast and crew do, I think it works well. So yes, we will give details from cast and crew when we get them.

With Lance, he is involved in this campaign as much as myself and Troy these days so we do get inside scoops a lot. I'm willing to bet no one reading this in our position would ignore them given we have so many Lance Henriksen fans reading this, its publicity for the campaign and it keeps us current.

If you have objective concerns and rational feedback, let us know - but really I'm disappointed I've had to make this post as I would like to have imagined, as a silly idealist, that ALL fans would be behind a campaign that has the lead icon actually working on it! How often do you get a campaign in which the lead guy is actually working on the campaign to bring it back? And fans criticise us for having such close connections with him? Crazy?

So bottomline, yes we will update the blog with any exciting news from cast and crew from Millennium, yes we'll have quiet periods with such details help us keep the blog updated while we work behind the scenes, and yes the campaigns close association with the lead actor and the fact so many, many people reading this adore Lance as much as the show, means we will have Lance Henriksen articles.

So the bright stuff I mentioned at the beginning? Still got magazine articles to come, more websites have signed up to the campaign, looking at more radio interviews to spread the word, we have more podcasts being prepared, charity event is being reworked after talks with Lance as how to make the most of it.. yes the writers idea we teased you with is still in the works, we just need to time it right and sort out the details.. plus we've got a themed week being put together slowly. On top of that, we're hoping to announce another major campaign step shortly. Plus the usual video blogs, fan surveys and of course, cast and crew updates.

BacktoFrankBlack is doing what its meant to do. So is it as good as it was? It's better. Believe it.

Lifetime Achievement Award for Lance from BIFFF

Lance Henriksen, Frank Black himself, is receiving a lifetime achievement award in Belgium at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival. Nice to see they mention Millennium with such respect in their schedule (see below).

From the BIFFF website:
Lance Henriksen
Saturday 10 April: 22h00 - ceremony / 23h45 - Q&A

After a childhood around the world, young Lance studied at the Actor’s Studio and began his career in Broadway in the 70’s. At this moment, he got the opportunity to play in some films of Sidney Lumet (Dog Day Afternoon and Network). Truly a cult face in the science-fiction genre (Aliens, Alien³, Absolom 2022, The Terminator), he appears in various genres like western (The Quick and the Dead, Appaloosa), thriller (Color of Night) or even a cartoon (Tarzan). But, what’s most important, he gained success (and 3 Golden Globes) at the end of the 90’s through his famous role in Chris Carter’s cult series: Millenium. It is the very first time we have the honor to welcome Lance Henriksen, and believe us, we are proud of it!

We wish Lance all the best (as I recall he flew out yesterday or today). And hope he has a great weekend. For more on Lance from BIFFF's website, click here! If you're booked to go to BIFFF - let us know how it went when you get back!

Interview with Lance and BacktoFrankBlack on Nick Digilio show available as podcast!

Last night's interview with Lance Henriksen (with myself and Troy joining in the chat as well representing BacktoFrankBlack) on the WGN 720's Nick Digilio show, has been uploaded as a podcast by the station. If you wish to hear it please click the link to their website and you can listen and/or download the segment.

Click here to download/stream the segment of the show.

Needless to say, Lance was great, the publicity priceless and fun was had all round. Lance has said he enjoyed it - and I know myself and Troy got a kick out appearing! Special thanks goes out to Nick Digilio and show producer Andy Hermann!