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By
Suzanne

Interview with David Greenwalt and Jim Kouf of "Grimm" on
NBC 1/26/12
NBC UNIVERSAL
Moderator: Akiva Griffith
January 26, 2012 12:30 pm CT
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen thank you for standing by. Welcome to the
NBC Universal’s Grimm Press and Media Conference Call.During the presentation all participants will be in a listen-only mode.
Afterwards we will conduct a question-and-answer session. At this time
if you have a question, please press the 1 followed by the 4 on your
telephone.If at any time during the conference you need to reach an operator,
please press star, 0.
As a reminder, this conference is being recorded Thursday, January 26th,
2012.
I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Akiva Griffith.
Please go ahead sir.
Akiva Griffith: Hi. Thanks everyone for joining us today. We are joined
by our Executive Producers David Greenwalt and Jim Kouf. They’ll be
speaking to you about what’s coming up in February on Grimm and what we
have to look forward to.
I now turn the conference back over to the operator to start questions.
Operator: And ladies and gentlemen, if you'd like to register for a
question please press the 1 followed by the 4 on your telephone at any
time.
Our first question comes from the line of Erin Willard of
SciFiMoffia.com. Please go ahead.
Erin Willard: Good morning gentlemen. Thanks so much for being on the
call.
David Greenwalt: Thank you. Hi.
Jim Kouf: (Unintelligible).
Erin Willard: Hi. Great. Congratulations on your terrific show, and on
the ratings for this last week. I hear it was the highest since early
November.
Jim Kouf: Yes.
David Greenwalt: We’re pretty excited. People came to the party. It was
very fun.
Erin Willard: It was great. It was a great episode too.
Anything you might be able to announce about a Season 2 today?
Jim Kouf: I wish.
David Greenwalt: Well, we’ve got plenty of mythology waiting for Season
2, and we’ve got plenty of good things to happen. So you know, as soon
as we get it we’ll know.
Erin Willard: Good. Well, we’re very excited to hear about that.
How many more episodes do we get this season?
Jim Kouf: We got a back nine.
David Greenwalt: We have a back nine, so we’ll do 22 total this season,
and we’re shooting one - the 16th episode as we speak.
Erin Willard: Great.
So last week we started hearing about the group of those who do not
approve of Monroe helping Nick. Is there - are we going to be hearing a
lot more about them?
David Greenwalt: There will be some issues with that coming up for sure.
Erin Willard: Anything you want to tell us about?
David Greenwalt: Well, it’s going to fold over into the next year, some
of these troubles that haunt him.
Jim Kouf: This is - yes, it’s a pretty deep mythology, so it - there’s -
we’re just cracking the surface right now. Some of that will become more
apparent in the episodes that are coming up here very soon.
Erin Willard: Okay, great. Great.
Real quick. I have a friend who lives in Germany who loves the show but
totally cracks up at the names you give the creatures.
David Greenwalt: We hope so.
Erin Willard: Yes. Yes. He says they don’t always work, so he was
wanting me to ask you where you come with the names.
Jim Kouf: We make them up.
David Greenwalt: We make them up, but sometimes we use a dictionary. But
we make them up sort of.
Jim Kouf: And sometimes they’re not supposed to be a direct translation
of what the creature is. Sometimes it’s a direct translation, and other
times we’re just putting together what we think the personality of the
creature is.
Erin Willard: Right. Okay, good.
Jim Kouf: It’ll be odd combinations.
Erin Willard: Yes, they can get - I’ll pass that along to him. Be
assured that you're tickling the people in Germany.
Jim Kouf: Yes.
Erin Willard: Thanks a lot.
Jim Kouf: Yes, I think it opens in Germany pretty soon, but I’m not
sure. Do they have it already?
Erin Willard: No. Somehow or another they’re - yes.
David Greenwalt: Oh, I see.
Erin Willard: (Unintelligible) actual transmissions, yes. Absolutely.
Jim Kouf: iTunes.
Erin Willard: Yes. Yes.
Operator: Thank you.
And our next question comes from the line of Marsia Powers from
Whedonopolis. Please go ahead.
Jim Kouf: Whedonopolis.
David Greenwalt: Whedonopolis.
Marsia Powers: Good morning David and Jim. This is Marsia. Hi. Thank you
for being (unintelligible)...
David Greenwalt: Hi Marsia. How you doing?
Marsia Powers: Doing well. Usually (Livia) is the one who calls in. For
the first time I’m doing, so please be gentle.
David Greenwalt: Okay. We’ll be gentle.
Marsia Powers: We’re very, very thrilled with the show. In fact, when I
saw it at Comic-Con, I knew it would really do well, and I’m very
pleased that the ratings are holding up.
David Greenwalt: Thank you.
Jim Kouf: Thank you.
Marsia Powers: In fact we - yes. We’re just - we’re thrilled, and the
fans are of course. So the Whedon-based fans are very thrilled. They
love seeing new - every new show, and that it is - the writing is
extremely good. It’s very important to us.
In fact, we opened up questions to our readers, and the first person to
post a question was from (Wendy Garvin) asking about - since (Josh) has
done so much directing and writing episodes for other shows, have you
thought about seeing if he’d like to do a one-off for your show?
David Greenwalt: That son of a bitch! He’s got to come do one for us.
And you know as soon as I saw (Josh) at - this is David. I saw (Josh) at
Comic-Con and didn’t even think to - I mean, of course we would love to
have him write, direct, or do craft service you know.
Jim Kouf: He’s done a little bit (unintelligible)...
Marsia Powers: I think if you can get him on, I’ve got a few people who
will do the craft service for you for free.
Jim Kouf: He’s free. He’s pretty good with a bagel, I’m telling you.
Marsia Powers: Well, that’ll be lovely to know that you're going to try.
And then we have from (David Mellow), he asks, “Do you - did you guys
expect Monroe to take off as a break out character he’s become?”
David Greenwalt: Yes.
Jim Kouf: (Unintelligible) has done good.
David Greenwalt: I think yes, we kind of did. Because when we first
wrote it and we realized we were on to something tremendous, and when we
got Silas Wier Mitchell to play him - he’s just such an interesting
character with a different slant. And in a way, he’s more human than the
human characters, you know, because he’s fighting his inner demons so
forcefully.
Jim Kouf: Yes. He also gets exactly what we’re going for with the
character. Silas is just on the money.
David Greenwalt: So we like to think of them all as break out
characters, you know.
Marsia Powers: We understand that.
And then my last question, to allow some other people to ask, is will it
- and also it’s again from (David). “Will it turn out that Nick has not
been a true Grimm as he approaches the job like a police detective
rather than as a Grimm is supposed to be, which is the Boggie Man?”
David Greenwalt: As a - what was the last word?
Marsia Powers: Okay. Well a Grimm is (unintelligible) the Boggie Man of
the monsters.
David Greenwalt: Oh, a Boogie Man. Oh, a Boogie Man. Okay.
Well, it’s a really good question, and Nick will develop into some - he
is not your average, everyday Grimm, and he does operate differently
than some Grimm’s have traditionally operated. And, we’ll learn more
about that as - this very season.
Marsia Powers: Great, because that’s what we’re looking forward to is
back story. After all, we’re all - we - all your fans have been trained
to always know that there’s back story, and the back story can always
change.
David Greenwalt: That’s true.
Marsia Powers: Thank you very much for taking the time. Thank you.
David Greenwalt: Thank you so much.
Operator: Thank you.
And our next question comes from the line (Chuck Barney) from Off-Color
TV. Please go ahead.
Jim Kouf: Hello.
Christina: Hello?
Jim Kouf: Hello?
David Greenwalt: Hi.
Christina: Hi. Sorry. You said the wrong name. I was confused. My name
is Christina.
Jim Kouf: Hi Christina.
David Greenwalt: Oh, hi Christina.
Christina: I - well first of all, all of us at Off-Color TV, we love
the show. We rave about it. We rated it as one of the top shows in our
year-end wrap up...
Jim Kouf: Great.
Christina: ...for last year.
David Greenwalt: That’s great.
Christina: So we have a question. The show seems to be moving from a
monster of the week format to a show with a larger mythology. Was this
the plan all along, or did you work it out as you went?
And this seems similar to the way Buffy and Angel developed. Did you
have these shows in mind while planning the story, or - and/or how has
working on supernatural shows influenced your work on Grimm?
Jim Kouf: That’s a lot of questions.
David Greenwalt: That’s three questions. I can barely hold my coffee.
Let me see if we can answer and then you remind us if we don’t answer.
Christina: Okay.
David Greenwalt: It was kind of the plan all along to bring in more
mythology as we get deeper in the series, but we don’t want to bring in
so much that your average everyday viewer can’t just watch a show and
have the - so there’ll certainly be a case of the week if not a monster
of the week every time. But in these back nine, you're going to see a
lot more of the personal and back stories of everybody.
Jim Kouf: We’re going to start revealing stuff.
David Greenwalt: And I can’t even remember what the plan was on Buffy
and Angel. But, I’m sure there was a plan.
Christina: And do you find that your experience working on other
supernatural shows influences the way that you work - approached Grimm?
David Greenwalt: This is David. Kind of yes and no. I mean obviously
those were great experiences with great people, but you know working
with my old partner Jim again - and when I say old - we do it a little
differently. We do it one inch at a time you know. We just start at the
beginning and move forward you know.
Although, we do have a little bible of the overarching mythology and
where we think we’re going in years to come. So the answer to that
question is kind of a yes and no thing. It’s just - you know, Grimm is
its own creature and has its own kind of set of rules. But I love it
when there’s an emotional resonance in the stories.
Christina: Oh, definitely. And we’ve been getting that in so many
episodes.
I have one last question. Are we going to see any of the creatures that
we’ve seen already? Like perhaps Holly, who was the wild child, or Roddy
the Reinigen? Will we see any of them come in later episodes - come
back?
Jim Kouf: We hope so.
David Greenwalt: Yes, we certainly hope so? And if not this year, next
year.
Jim Kouf: Yes.
David Greenwalt: We’d love to do like a Dirty Dozen episode.
Jim Kouf: You'll see there’s some recurring characters coming up in the
next episode. Not necessarily those, but from other episodes they’re
recurring.
Christina: Well excellent.
Thank you so much.
David Greenwalt: Thank you so much.
Operator: Thank you.
And our next question comes from the line of (Nadia Glassoff) from
Deadbolt.com. Please go ahead.
Nadia Glassoff: Hi fellows. Thanks so much for taking the time today.
Jim Kouf: Sure.
David Greenwalt: Thank you (Nadia).
Nadia Glassoff: Great to talk to you. We’re really excited about the
show. We just love that it keeps you on the edge of your seat. Every
time you're expecting one thing and then you get - you know, a big
surprise and you just can’t - you just kind of want to shake your fist
at the TV. What can you do, right?
And also, we also love that - you know, the introduction of the female
characters in the supernatural theme. I think like not since Buffy we
haven’t really seen that. And you know, so we really want to focus on
like how important was it to you to bring in a female character with
Brie Turner on the show?
David Greenwalt: Really important to us, and she’s got a great role. And
you know, she’s going to help balance out the power table there.
Jim Kouf: We also have some great female actors coming up too.
David Greenwalt: Yes. There’s an episode coming up in February called (Terentella)
which - where Amy Acker has a great role. Amy Acker from Angel days.
Nadia Glassoff: Angel. Right.
David Greenwalt: I mean, excuse me, in Dollhouse. And we’re really
excited about that.
And then you know, Valarie Cruz is in a show called Organ Grinder, which
is coming I think a week from Friday.
Jim Kouf: Yes.
David Greenwalt: So we - we like to have Nick fight those women.
Nadia Glassoff: I love the fact that Amy Acker is you know, so tiny
and petite. That’s - you know, the way Sara Michelle Gellar was, but you
know don’t let that fool you kind of mentality is what they bring to the
show.
Jim Kouf: Yes. Don’t let it fool you.
And also the female characters in the Grimm Fairy Tales, and all fairy
tales, you know, some of them are some pretty bad women.
David Greenwalt: Pretty formidable opponents.
Nadia Glassoff: Right. Exactly.
And then in following in that vein, you know, there’s been subtleties
planted with Julia all season long, and you sense some type of
foreshadowing. Is there a clear direction with her, since she’s been -
you know, so mysterious, and on a different level than a lot of the
other characters.
David Greenwalt: Well there’s something pretty darn big coming for her
for sure. And we - you know, we watch the - some of the blog site and
Twitter and all this, and every - a lot of people have opinions of what
she might be or what’s to come. But we think we’re going to surprise
them.
Nadia Glassoff: That’s great. You always got to keep them on their
toes you know, and that’s what we love about these kinds of shows,
especially you know what Grimm brings to the table.
David Greenwalt: Yes.
Jim Kouf: Yes. That’s our job.
David Greenwalt: That’s the fun.
Nadia Glassoff: That’s what you do, right?
And the final question. What’s the biggest challenge In keeping Hank in
the dark as to what’s really going on?
David Greenwalt: You need to have two explanations in most of the
episodes of something that could’ve happened in the real world and
something that, you know, is - has a Grimm story. So the biggest
challenge is to have two explanations for everything.
Nadia Glassoff: Right. Okay, well thanks a lot guys.
Jim Kouf: Thank you.
David Greenwalt: And Hank’s got a big thing coming this year too.
Operator: Thank you.
And our next question comes from the line of Earl Dittman from the
Wireless Digital Journal. Please go ahead.
Earl Dittman: Hey guys. How are you all this afternoon?
David Greenwalt: We’re good. How are you?
Earl Dittman: Doing great. You know, it’s wonderful to hear you're doing
22 episodes this year. I’m so sick of series that do 12.
David Greenwalt: Yes.
Earl Dittman: So it’s great to know you've got 22 in the bag, or going
to have 22 in the bag, because it just makes it exciting and not
watching reruns all the time.
Hey you know, two of the best shows this year have been shows based in
science - in fantasy and in science fiction. Not science fiction, but
fantasy and out worldly from Once Upon A Time to your show Grimm. What
do you think it is about shows like that that still appeal to the normal
TV viewer?
David Greenwalt: Well two words from a business point of view; public
domain.
Earl Dittman: Oh.
David Greenwalt: And - but from a you know consumption point of view,
people love these stories, and there’s a reason they’ve been handed
down, you know both in a written and in oral form for all these, you
know, hundreds and hundreds of years and they still have an appeal. And
we’re you know not only taking old fairy tales and kind of fracturing
them - for example, it’s coming up in February where we’re fracturing
Hansel and Gretel and a very little known Japanese fairy tale, and a -
what’s that one with the lion? What do you all that?
Jim Kouf: Androcles and the Lion.
Earl Dittman: Oh, yes.
David Greenwalt: But, we’re also making sort of new fairy tales of
what’s going on today and putting it in a fairy tale context.
Earl Dittman: Wow. So you're going from several sources?
Jim Kouf: Oh, yes.
David Greenwalt: Yes. Our - yes. Our conceit is that all the writers of
fairy tales were in fact some kind of profilers.
Earl Dittman: How many stories did the Grimm Brothers actually write?
David Greenwalt: It’s about 205 that they wrote down, and you know they
took them from various peasants and people. But, some of them are you
know a little hard to adapt, like the Sausage and the Donkey, you know.
Earl Dittman: I don’t even want to ask.
David Greenwalt: They’re just like sausage and Donkey go to town and
play music. So you know, they don’t - not every single one lends itself
to a great big episode.
Earl Dittman: So you do have a - I’m very excited. I’m just excited that
people are watching intelligent television (unintelligible) for a
change, and they’re actually keeping it on the air. And you all are
doing a great job getting people to do that, and I really can’t thank
you enough.
David Greenwalt: Oh, thank you.
Earl Dittman: And I just wanted - and when will they (mention to you
all) about a second season?
David Greenwalt: We don’t know. Sometime between now and May, you know,
but it looks not unpromising at this point.
Earl Dittman: Right. Right. Right. Well good. Well thanks a lot guys. I
appreciate it, and keep on with the great show. I love it.
Jim Kouf: Thank you.
David Greenwalt: Thank you very much.
Operator: Thank you.
And our next question comes from the line of (Megan Ward) from
TVIsMyPacifier.com. Please go ahead.
Megan Ward: Hi guys. Thanks for taking the time today.
David Greenwalt: Thank you.
Jim Kouf: Sure.
Megan Ward: Okay, so Grimm’s definitely one of our favorite on the
site. It’s made - it made our top for 2011.
David Greenwalt: Great.
Megan Ward: That’s - we watch a lot of TV, so that’s a good thing.
Jim Kouf: Yes.
Megan Ward: I was wondering, we - my favorite episode so far has been
the one with the Tree Little Pigs because it was such a reverse on the
actual, so are we going to see more episodes similar to that? Where you
kind of dirty up the original?
David Greenwalt: We are. We will see episodes in which you know, the
kind of critters - we’ll see a couple of those. As a matter of fact, the
kind of critters who are generally you know downtrodden and have been
you know, beaten down by stronger, badder critters you know will get
their day in court.
Megan Ward: Excellent.
And are we going to address the whole Captain with his Grimm royalty and
stuff? Like are going to get that this season?
David Greenwalt: We’re going to get some of it. We’re definitely getting
some of it. You'll be seeing more of him up to all kinds of things.
Megan Ward: Okay.
And in general, just about you guys, like what is it about this genre
that you enjoy writing about the most?
Jim Kouf: The freedom of it. We’re not locked into you know reality. We
can play with reality a little bit, which makes it more fun to write.
David Greenwalt: And I love taking a procedural show and just having a
guy turn into a Blutbad, you know, or a Bauerschwein. It’s just so much
fun because it feels like I’m watching a regular kind of procedural show
and then suddenly there’s critters.
Jim Kouf: We can also - it gives us the opportunity to explain human
behavior in a very bizarre way.
Megan Ward: Okay. And my final question...
David Greenwalt: You know, the child molester is a Big Bad Wolf, et
cetera.
Megan Ward: Yes.
David Greenwalt: We’re going to explain war and famine and all the ills
of the world. It’s all because of these crazy critters out there.
Megan Ward: If only it was that easy.
I have a question coming from Twitter actually. People are wondering is
Juliette officially Nick’s fiancé yet?
Jim Kouf: Well, (unintelligible).
David Greenwalt: Stay tuned.
Megan Ward: Okay, great. Thank you guys so much for your time.
Jim Kouf: Thank you.
David Greenwalt: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you.
And our next question comes from the line of Darlene Long from
TheVoiceofTV.com.
Darlene Long: Hi guys.
David Greenwalt: Hi.
Darlene Long: Hi. Darlene from Canada up here.
David Greenwalt: Oh, good.
Darlene Long: We love the show. It’s great.
Listen. You know, I was really impressed with the pilot. Just the whole
style and look of the show. Who’s responsible for that? Did you guys
decide on a certain style? Sort of that ethereal, yet lush kind of feel
to the visuals?
David Greenwalt: Well, we...
Jim Kouf: Yes.
David Greenwalt: Yes. We picked Portland for that reason, but we had
great help from our Producer Steve Oster and the Director of the pilot
Marc Buckland.
Jim Kouf: And Clark Mathis who shot the pilot.
David Greenwalt: And Eades, who did the...
Jim Kouf: Construction design.
David Greenwalt: (Unintelligible).
Jim Kouf: (Unintelligible).
David Greenwalt: Who did the production design. So there was - it was
pretty carefully thought out to get that look of the moss on the trees
and the moss on the roves.
Jim Kouf: And Portland played a big role in that.
David Greenwalt: Yes.
Darlene Long: Okay. Well, it certainly does set the mood.
Now you talked - you spoke earlier about back stories. Are we going to
get any more information about Marie’s back story? What kind of
situation she found herself in? I just always want to know more about
that character.
Jim Kouf: Yes. It’s coming up.
David Greenwalt: You're going to learn more about her and the whole
history of how this came to be, and - yes, on both sides of the Grimm’s
and the critter sides.
Jim Kouf: We’re being careful how we...
Darlene Long: Okay, now you call them the critters. Is that how we’re
supposed...
Jim Kouf: Well, they’re called that...
Darlene Long: ...what are we supposed to call them.
Jim Kouf: They’re called Wesen (unintelligible).
David Greenwalt: (W-E-S-E-N) and that’s all the different creatures -
all the different Grimm creatures are called Wesen. But people don’t
know that so I call them critters.
Darlene Long: Can you spell that again?
David Greenwalt: W-E-S-E-N, and it’s pronounced (Vesen).
Darlene Long: Okay. All right. Well, that gives us a name to call them
other than the bad guys or the creatures.
David Greenwalt: Right. But they’re not all bad.
Darlene Long: Okay.
David Greenwalt: Some of them are good.
Darlene Long: Yes. That’s very true.
Now you both of course got a history of working in genre TV. Is that
something you favor in your own personal viewing habits? Like, what do
you guys watch?
David Greenwalt: I watch - we watch ourselves going to sleep at night
after a long, hard day.
Jim Kouf: We like (John Stewart).
Darlene Long: Right. Okay. So no time for TV for you guys then, right?
Jim Kouf: Not really.
David Greenwalt: Not much these days.
Darlene Long: Okay.
All right, well thank you very much for taking the call and continued
success, and I look forward to hearing about Season 2. Thanks.
David Greenwalt: Thank you very much.
Jim Kouf: Great. Thank you.
Operator: Thank you.
And our next question comes from the line of Sheri Block from CTV.ca.
Please go ahead.
Sheri Block: Hey guys. How are you doing?
David Greenwalt: Fine. Good.
Jim Kouf: I’m fine. How are you?
Sheri Block: Good. Yes. I’m from Canada as well, and we really love the
show up here.
David Greenwalt: Good.
Jim Kouf: Right. Where in Canada?
Sheri Block: Toronto.
Jim Kouf: Okay. We love Toronto.
Sheri Block: Now - okay, good.
I’m really loving the dynamic between Nick and Monroe. I find it so
entertaining and so funny. Now did you guys always know that they’d have
such chemistry, or was that kind of a pleasant surprise?
Jim Kouf: It was a pleasant surprise as we created the character in the
pilot. We knew that we could - if they gave us a series we could really
do something with that relationship.
David Greenwalt: And we knew Monroe would be a regular from the get go.
Sheri Block: Okay. So what’s next for these two? Will we see Monroe
giving like Nick Pilate’s lessons or anything?
Jim Kouf: We’ll see them helping one another, you know, and sometimes
Monroe will even come to Nick for help.
Sheri Block: Okay.
Now we saw a little bit - someone asked about the danger that Monroe
seems to be in. And Nick and Juliette also seem to be in danger. Do you
think this is all going to come to a head as the season comes to a
close? Or...
Jim Kouf: Yes.
David Greenwalt: Yes.
Jim Kouf: It is.
David Greenwalt: It is. And bad things are going to keep happening to
them as they try to live their lives.
Jim Kouf: This will be a many-headed beast.
Sheri Block: Okay, awesome. Well thanks so much.
Jim Kouf: Thank you.
David Greenwalt: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you.
And our next question comes from the line of Allison Ebner from
PopCultureMadness.com. Please go ahead.
Allison Ebner: Hi guys. Thanks for speaking with us today.
David Greenwalt: Hi Allison.
Jim Kouf: Hi.
Allison Ebner: Hi.
So music seems to be a pretty powerful asset with this show. You know,
it always fits the scene, and then of course there’s those stand out
moments like Sweet Dream in the pilot and the dance music in the episode
with the rats.
So you know as Executive Producers, how important do you find it that
the element of music is involved? And is it something we’ll continue to
hear?
David Greenwalt: Yes.
Jim Kouf: Yes.
David Greenwalt: We loved music. We have a great composer, Rick Marvin
and we get terrific songs when we need them. The ones you mentioned.
And we loved that episode with the rats where we had classical and
techno music in the same episode. We thought that was kind of neat.
Allison Ebner: Definitely. Definitely.
And the show has a great fan base that is really loving this show and
letting people know what they love about the show. So do you listen to
what they’re saying as you know, a congratulation and a compliment, or
as something you know to keep in mind and consider from moving forward
and determining what they react best to?
Jim Kouf: Well, we listen to everything they say.
David Greenwalt: Yes. We try to do all of the above, you know, and see
what people are responding to and what people are liking.
Allison Ebner: Great. Thanks so much.
David Greenwalt: Thank you.
Jim Kouf: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you.
And our next question comes from the line of (Lynne Hackett) from
Sci-FiVision. Please go ahead.
Lynne Hackett: Hi guys. Thanks for doing this and thank you very much
for enlightening my Friday night TV for a change.
David Greenwalt: Oh, thank you.
Jim Kouf: Oh, good.
Lynne Hackett: My TV was kind of biting on Fridays until you guys
brought that show along, so I’m very, very grateful.
Just got two or three short little questions. On Eddie, do you think
that maybe as he becomes more connected with Nick that maybe the other
community will shun him totally and maybe effect his effectiveness to
help out Nick?
Jim Kouf: No. Because not all the Wesen are bad, so some will think what
he’s doing is actually a good thing.
Lynne Hackett: Okay. So - okay.
David Greenwalt: But he will have to pay for his sins.
Jim Kouf: Yes.
David Greenwalt: And there are the powers that be that will not -
(unintelligible) upon him.
Lynne Hackett: Yes. I was just kind of wondering on that because it’s
like how do you help him destroy the rest of us, so...
Also, is he really the last Grimm or could there be a hidden descendant
that could step up? Like maybe to help with your Dirty Dozen creature
reappearance?
David Greenwalt: Sorry. Can you say that again? I kind of lost the
question.
Lynne Hackett: Well is Nick actually the last Grimm, or could there be
a hidden descendent?
David Greenwalt: Oh, are there other Grimm’s?
Jim Kouf: Oh, no. There will be more.
David Greenwalt: There are other Grimm’s in the world. They’re - it’s a
rare thing, but there are other Grimm’s in the world, and...
Lynne Hackett: On his line? Wasn’t he the...
David Greenwalt: In his line? Well, they’re all descendent from the
Brothers Grimm. But yes, there may be somebody even in his line.
Lynne Hackett: A little hidden child.
Last one. Any designs maybe to do some graphic novels just to fill in
some back story? I know some shows are kind of doing graphic novels to
fill in some of the back stories so - because they can’t
(unintelligible)?
David Greenwalt: (Unintelligible). You know, young adult novels. Graphic
novels. We hope video games.
Jim Kouf: Yes. We hope to fill in the back story on the show.
Lynne Hackett: I hope. It’s been really interesting. I do like the
twist you guys have been giving it. It’s a really well put together
show. And, I thank you so much for putting some quality stuff out.
David Greenwalt: Thank you.
Jim Kouf: Thank you.
Lynne Hackett: Thank you guys for taking time to do this.
Jim Kouf: Sure.
Lynne Hackett: And hopefully somebody will get you a bagel.
Thanks a lot guys. Have a very good weekend.
David Greenwalt: And thank you.
Operator: Thank you.
And our next question comes from the line of (Tim Holquin, Jr.) from (TV
Overland). Please go ahead.
Tim Holquin, Jr.: Hi. I’m a massive Buffy-verse, so it’s a great honor
to get to speak with both of you.
Jim Kouf: Thank you.
David Greenwalt: Thank you.
Tim Holquin, Jr.: Be that as it may, believe it or not, I had never
watched an episode of Supernatural until the recent event casting -
stunt casting -- call it what you will -- of Monster and Charisma in the
same episode.
And - so I was wondering if there’s any chance of a - any possible of a
Buffy-verse event casting in Grimm’s future that - such that would
compel even reluctant viewers such as I was to Supernatural to just have
to give you a chance? Because now I’m a Supernatural fan. Been watching
it every day on TNT and everything trying to catch up because they did
in their seventh season.
So I was just thinking maybe if you did it early you could secure a
renewal or such?
David Greenwalt: Well we certainly have Amy Acker coming in February in
a couple of weeks to play a - kind of a Black Widow like you've never
seen before. And you know, I’d love - I mean, I’d love to work with
Charisma again and any of the old gang. And when there’s an appropriate
part, you know, we would definitely make that choice.
Tim Holquin, Jr.: Well perhaps paired with Amy - I had read that (Tony
Head) lead the Comic-Con panel for Grimm this past year. If he can...
David Greenwalt: Yes. We’d love to have (Tony) - we’ve actually been
thinking of what - how we could get (Tony) into the show if he’d want to
do it. We’ve actually thought quite a bit about that.
Tim Holquin, Jr.: Excellent.
Okay, and then one last casting question, or more of a plea. I’m just a
massive fan of Jamie Ray Newman, and so I would lobby you guys to bring
her (Angelina) character back as often as possible.
David Greenwalt: Well, there’s a reason she went off into the night, you
know.
Jim Kouf: We didn’t kill her.
Tim Holquin, Jr.: Right. Well, she’s been one of my favorite aspects
of the show so far. Just her little guest appearance there.
And then I guess my last question is Syfy Channel is also an NBC
Universal network, and they have a show called Face Off which focuses on
creature design and makeup. And I was wondering if your two shows might
have some sort of cross over deal that allows one of the creatures that
you guys would oversee being designed on Face Off become part of your
show?
I was personally disappointed because I missed the recent Q&A that took
place with your show’s makeup designer. I wanted to attend that but
missed it. Is there any chance of that happening with Face Off?
David Greenwalt: You know, anything is possible. You know, we’re so busy
with just getting the creatures into the show you know as they are and
with our great Edward Irastorza and all the people who design and build
these terrific looking monsters.
But you know maybe down the road somewhere, that would be a good idea.
Tim Holquin, Jr.: Okay. Thank you very much for your time. It’s been
great getting to talk to you.
David Greenwalt: Thank you.
Jim Kouf: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you.
And ladies and gentlemen as a reminder to register for a question,
please press the 1 followed by the 4 on your telephone.
Our next question comes from the line of Steve Eramo from The Morton
Report. Please go ahead.
Steve Eramo: Hi David. Hi Jim. Thanks for your time today.
David Greenwalt: Hi. How are you?
Jim Kouf: Hi.
Steve Eramo: Very well, thank you.
Listen. Before I ask my question, I want to echo everyone else’s
sentiments. Absolutely loving the show.
David Greenwalt: Oh, great.
Steve Eramo: When the credits role at 10:00 Friday night I look at the
TV and I say, “I want another hour. I want another hour now.” You guys
are doing a great job. A great job.
Jim Kouf: Thank you.
David Greenwalt: Thank you.
Steve Eramo: My first question, I wanted to find out what - out of all
the episodes you guys have shot so far, is there one that you found
especially challenging perhaps to pull off from a production standpoint
would you say?
Jim Kouf: All of them.
David Greenwalt: All of them. There is a couple coming in February
sweeps here. One - it’s called - one is called The Last Grimm Standing
and it’s coming in about three weeks and change, which is a...
Jim Kouf: It was a monster to shoot.
David Greenwalt: A monster to shoot. A monster to write. It’s a
gladiatorial kind of big fighting episode, and our great team in
Portland just pulled out all the stops for that one.
Steve Eramo: The look of the show - again, someone else has already
mentioned it. The look - shooting in the Portland is giving - it’s
almost like when they shot the X-Files in Vancouver, it gave it its own
unique look. And Portland, you guys did a great job picking that place.
Jim Kouf: Yes. Well we’ve always - it was actually our first choice.
Steve Eramo: Right. Well, well worth it. Well worth it.
Jim Kouf: Yes, we agree.
Steve Eramo: And I also wanted to ask a casting question. I’m really
enjoying David in the Nick role. And I was wondering perhaps if you
could tell us a little bit about casting the Nick character and finding
David to fit those shoes.
Jim Kouf: It wasn’t easy.
David Greenwalt: We saw a lot of people.
Jim Kouf: Yes.
David Greenwalt: It’s a hard guy to find as you know in television - a
guy in that age range who is kind of fresh faced and new, and yet seems
to have - you know, has all the talent and the work history to be able
to...
Jim Kouf: That can shoulder it.
David Greenwalt: ...shoulder a whole show like that.
And we’ve just been so lucky with this cast. They’re all really, really
good and really fantastic people.
Jim Kouf: And very nice people.
David Greenwalt: We’ve been blessed.
Steve Eramo: Well listen guys, again thank you so much for your time and
your hard work on the show. Look forward to many more episodes.
Jim Kouf: Thank you.
David Greenwalt: Thank you very much.
Operator: Thank you.
And our next question comes from the line of Emily Gagne from TV Guide,
Canada. Please go ahead.
Emily Gagne: Hey guys. I’ve got two questions. One sort of picking up on
a lot of what a lot of people have been talking about with the cameos
from Buffy-verse. I heard that you have Azura Skye coming on the show.
David Greenwalt: Yes.
Emily Gagne: Can you tell us a little bit about that?
David Greenwalt: Yes. She plays a bird-like creature with many hidden
talents and gifts. And she - Nick and Juliette are trying to get out of
town, get away from all the madness and they end up helping...
Jim Kouf: Helping madness.
David Greenwalt: ...with more madness and helping her in her life.
Emily Gagne: when do we - is this episode going to air? Is that sort of
more of a later down in the season?
David Greenwalt: That’s a little down the line. That’s probably April.
Jim Kouf: We start shooting it (unintelligible)...
Emily Gagne: Okay.
And now I know you guys had sort of a trial on Thursday nights and you
did pretty well. If NBC asks you to change nights, would you? I mean,
you're doing pretty well on the Friday night slot.
David Greenwalt: Well it’s a very interesting the way our life works. If
Mr. Greenblatt says you're changing nights, we say, “Yes sir.”
But I think rightly so, and certainly we have lobbied, we love this 9:00
Friday slot. It’s the old X-Files slot. It’s the right place to be.
We’re doing a good number, and I think they have no plans to move us
that we certainly know of at this point.
Emily Gagne: Okay. Okay, awesome.
Well I’m really enjoying the show as is everyone on this call obviously,
and everyone that’s watching, so thanks so much.
Jim Kouf: Thank you.
David Greenwalt: Thank you so much.
Operator: Thank you.
And our next question comes from the line of Anita Nicholson from
CliqueClack TV. Please go ahead.
Anita Nicholson: Hi. I just had a quick question about Russell Hornsby.
I love that actor and I loved him when he was on ABC Family. How did you
go about casting him as Hank Griffin?
David Greenwalt: He was the best guy who came in and we had a lot of
great guys that came in and read for that role, but Russell was -
there’s something really special, really cool but warm at the same time
about Russell. And we just fell in love and he - you know, he won it in
the casting process.
Jim Kouf: Yes. He brings an authority to the role which is great.
David Greenwalt: Yes.
An ease and authority. And we’ve got some really cool stuff coming for
him, and he’s - his world is going to get rocked by a woman.
Anita Nicholson: Will it be the creature that he does not know is a
creature?
David Greenwalt: Say it again? Will he see the creature that he does not
know is a creature?
Anita Nicholson: No. Like a creature that he does not know is a
creature? The one that the Captain set him up with?
David Greenwalt: Might be.
Anita Nicholson: Okay.
So I have another question then as well. I like the current formula
where you currently have a covert reveal of the monster at the beginning
of the episode. But, will you eventually change that or actually have a
human as the perpetrator for the crime?
David Greenwalt: Well, we did it initially in the episode last week in
this Of Mouse and Man in which the man, not the mouse, was the
perpetrator of the crime. So - but you know, we’ll do all kinds of
different things. And sometimes there’ll be a good - what we call a
Wesen. You know, a good creature. And sometimes yes - sometimes the bad
people are just normal humans and it’s the Wesen or the Grimm creatures
who are in trouble. We’ll mix it up.
Anita Nicholson: Okay.
And my final question is - again, I love (unintelligible), and I love
his originality. I think he’s heard almost of us say that. But do you
ever watch Once Upon A Time and hope for or a fake cross your fingers
that they won’t cover a similar story right before you cover it? Or that
they...
David Greenwalt: You know, we don’t really have time. We’re not watching
any other shows. We - you know, we’re kind of living here in the office
and doing this show. And you know, we wish them the best and we wish
ourselves the best.
And you know, I think there may be some fairy tale characters that are
similar, but our - the shows are so incredibly different that I don’t
think it matters.
Anita Nicholson: All right, great. Thank you very much. I look forward
to seeing more.
Jim Kouf: Thank you.
David Greenwalt: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you.
And our final question, which is a follow-up question, comes from the
line of Erin Willard from Sci-FiMafia.com. Please go ahead.
Erin Willard: Hi again guys. I presume you've heard about Beauty and the
Beast thing that’s going on with a few pilots (unintelligible) given
green light from ABC and CW?
David Greenwalt: Yes.
Erin Willard: For (unintelligible) - you know, I’ll take them all. I’ll
take every single one of the fantasies (unintelligible) want to put on
as long as it’s written well like yours is. But from your standpoint, is
that a good, more the merrier good thing, or does it kind of dilute the
pool?
Jim Kouf: I don’t think it really matters.
David Greenwalt: I think it’s a neutral move or something like - because
like you say, the - you know if a show is good is what matters. The rest
doesn’t really you know matter.
Jim Kouf: Yes. Our job is to keep the writing strong and the shows
strong, and hopefully we’re delivering good entertainment every week. So
that’s our job.
Erin Willard: Well, you're clearly doing that. That’s not an issue with
any of us on the call.
But the third question I wanted to ask you guys both is what’s been the
biggest challenge and what’s the most fun about this show for each of
you?
Jim Kouf: The biggest challenge is producing the shows because we’re
writing actually what we feel are movies that they’re producing on a TV
schedule. So hats off to our production team in Portland who actually is
you know given the task of making these things, and they’re difficult.
They’re physically challenging to make. That’s the hardest part.
The most fun for me is the mythology that we’re getting into and the
chance to explore some fun stuff coming up.
David Greenwalt: And for me the most challenging thing is to get to the
office before noon. And the most exciting thing is seeing these shows on
television and when they come out really good and they really work, and
they’re dark and psychological and kind of funny. And that feels very
satisfying and encourages me to get up in the morning and get in and
work with Jim.
Erin Willard: Great. Well thanks so much for such a great show.
David Greenwalt: Thank you so much.
Jim Kouf: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. And it appears we have no further questions at this
time.
Akiva Griffith: Great. Thank you everyone for dialing in today. And please tune in next week for our newest
episode of Grimm, Organ Grinder, on February 3rd. Thank you everyone.
David Greenwalt: Woo-hoo. Thank you.
Jim Kouf: Thank you.
David Greenwalt: Bye.
Akiva Griffith: Bye guys.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen that does conclude the conference call
for today. We thank you for your participation and ask that you please
disconnect your lines.
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