Season 4 Restart: Tentative date

This date would also be well past the end of the MarVista movie production currently on O'ahu ("Special Delivery"), a production that was recently mistaken for Lost (see this) because it apparently shared crewmembers and hardware-- the same crew and materiél that may be essential for Lost production to operate at capacity. However another movie production is scheduled to begin on the island soon (the Princess Ka'iulani biopic featuring Q'orianka Kilcher), but it is unknown what impact that production will have on the prospects of reconstituting the core of the Lost crew.



At any rate, keep your eyes peeled around the island for "GSP" set signs or other signs of Lost activity at the Hawaii film studio come the second full week of March. We'll post updates if we hear news from mainstream sources. As a reminder, in accordance with our strict "no-spoiler" policy, we will not post information about specific filming locations until after the episode has actually been broadcast, but we will credit you at that time if the information is new.



UPDATE-- TV Guide's Ausellio just interviewed the show-runner of Lost, Carlton Cuse, who revealed that there will be 5 more episodes beginning after a 4 week hiatus after episode 8 is broadcast (link). Let's do the math:



Broadcast schedule-- Episode three is due tomorrow February 14, so running weekly that means episode eight is due March 20. Four following weeks w/out Lost means episode 9 returns on April 24, and the finale episode 13 will be due on May 23 if the second half also broadcasts weekly without breaks. The finale will thus be two days after the end of May sweeps.



On the ground in Hawai'i-- If production starts Mar 10, and guessing each of 5 episodes requires about 10 days to complete filming, that's 50 days of production. If they use a 6 day work-week, that's eight and half weeks, ending approximately May 9, leaving only 2 weeks for postproduction in LA before May 23's episode 13.



Thus it's a tight schedule but a March 10 start date is certainly plausible, especially if the 10 day "guesstimate" per episode is wrong, or if a 1 week hiatus is thrown in the middle of the second half to fudge things if they run out of time.



UPDATE: Again from TV Guide's Ausellio, the current batch of episodes may end at episode #7 rather than 8, as it provides a story cliffhanger. After four weeks off, episode #8 and the new #9-13 will likely be broadcast as a block.



UPDATE 2: New rumors indicate actual filming may not begin until March 15, whereas the March 10 date is likely for the first day of work for the some of the crew prior to the commencement of filming. Since the 15th is a Saturday, Monday March 17 might be more likely for a full scale startup.