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'Lost': The 'M:I 3' Connection

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Image credit: Mario Perez/ABC

FAKE LOCKE POLL Don't forget to email the Doc with your vote: Did Fake Locke originate Before Ajira or After Ajira?

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I literally had just gotten back from Hawaii when I learned that Tom had sent something over for me — the first six episodes of State of Play [the 2003 BBC series that inspired the 2009 movie starring Russell Crowe]. I called him to thank him and he said he wanted to come by. I knew he was working on developing Mission: Impossible 3 and during our meeting I kept waiting for him to bring it up. Like maybe he wanted me to look at the script or something. But he didn't. Instead, he invited me to a concert. I couldn't go, and then he asked me to do this other thing. It was like we were dating. I ended up inviting him to my birthday party. Tom shows up and he is the nicest guy in the history of time to all my friends, especially my most cynical of friends. Everyone sees it and gets it; he's a sweetheart; he's real. It was the most normal fun time...

So, we're friends. And then one day I get a phone call from my agent. ''Are you aware of the conversations?'' he asked me. I said, '''The conversations'? Uhhh...no.'' He said, ''Tom wants you to direct Mission: 3.'' It couldn't have made less sense... [EW note: Cruise had been working with director Joe Carnahan on Mission: Impossible 3. In July 2004, one month before shooting was to have begun on M:I 3, Carnahan left the project, reportedly due to creative differences. Abrams was hired in August 2004.]

Now, by this time, we had finished the Lost pilot and had begun writing the first season. I realized if I did M:I 3 I would not be there at Lost, which was a struggle for me. But I decided I wanted to pursue M:I 3, and Damon brought aboard Carlton Cuse, who proved to be a perfect partner. Still, I couldn't direct the movie when they needed to start it, which was, like, immediately. In fact, I thought the script wasn't the best script for me to direct. So I told Tom that while I would be thrilled to direct the movie, I couldn't do the version he had developed. So he and Paula agreed to push the whole movie by a year so we could develop a new script. Tom was supposed to shoot Mission first, then War of the Worlds, which David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Spider-Man) ended up writing, doing a killer job. Spielberg was supposed to be doing Munich first, then War of the Worlds. Tom talked to Steven and they all convinced each other to flop their movies. They would shoot War first, giving us time to develop a new Mission script...

The next thing I know, Tom has brought me to a meeting with Sherry Lansing [who was the head of Paramount Pictures at that time] so he could explain the situation to her.... And I was sitting there watching Sherry trying to be kind about it, but I'm sure she was freaking out that one of her tentpole movies wasn't going to be there as scheduled, and that this TV director was going to come in and direct a script that had not yet been written. Bottom line: It was crazy.

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QUESTIONS FOR A SUPER-FAN: VOZZEK69
In the bookmarks cue of my browser there are the names of the 10 Lost recappers that I enjoy the most and trust the most to tell me what the show is really about. No. 2 on that list is Vozzek69's ''Thing I Noticed...'' column at darkufo.blogspot.com. Vozzek — real name Danny McAleese, 39, a New York-based self-employed business owner, web programmer, and Internet marketer — has been posting his insights on Lost since season 2. I admire his punchy prose and his close attention to the ways Lost references not only other pop culture but also — and most importantly — itself. Vozzek's ''Theory of Everything'' is one of the best, clearest iterations of time loop theories you'll find in Lost fandom...though I am also especially fond of his Lost/Land of The Lost comparative analysis. He has just come out with a book, Things You Never Noticed About Lost, which you can learn more about at his new website, thingsinoticed.com. If you haven't been following Vozzek, I encourage you to make him a traveling companion during the forthcoming final leg of the Lost journey.

FUN FACTS ABOUT VOZZEK69! ''Vozzek'' refers to the name he made up for a troll back when he was playing adventure games on the Commodore 64. The ''69?'' That's just his old hockey jersey number, you dirty bird.

DOC JENSEN: What episode of Lost made you go, ''Yep. I'm obsessed.''
VOZZEK: The pilot had me in an inescapable headlock. But the second I saw Locke wiggle his toes after realizing he'd been in a wheelchair? That was it for me.

NEXT PAGE: Vozzek on his Theory of Everything as it pertains to Lost