Happy Birthday Wade!

It is also Wade Williams' (aka Brad Bellick) birthday today as well! Happy 46th Birthday Wade, from PBREAK.org!

Latest on the Strike!

Finally some new info! Everything in the Prison Break world seems to have all dried up since "Bang & Burn" (3.08) but luckily Wade Williams wets our appetite by talking exclusively on his blog about the latest happens on the strike. He also answers some fan's questions. Read it or else!

We just finished shooting the last script written before the writers strike began. Now we are on vacation/hold/hiatus/looking for a gig while the writers and producers hopefully bang out a deal sooner rather than later. My instinct is that this strike could go on for a while — the stakes are high and the players are dug in. I'm just gonna save my dough and hopefully get a gig in the mean time. We'll see what the future brings. It's not time to worry yet.

The production is completely shut down here . Most of the cast in PB have given up their apartments here in Dallas and moved back to L.A. The over- 200 member crew of Prison Break is out of work, as well. Nice timing for the holidays huh? It's hard for everyone. We all want to continue working on PB but we can't just wait around hoping for the strike to end and turn down other work. I think everybody is in "hope for the best, prepare for the worst" mode, taking work if it comes our way and saving the greenbacks. Since our daughter is in school here, we're gonna stay put in Dallas until we resume production again.

But don't despair. There are still 5 new episodes of PB to air this season. In the USA they will begin airing the new episodes on January 14, 2008, and continue them into February. I'm not sure what the foreign airdates will be. There's some classic PB yet to come so hold onto your hats. I think this has been my favorite season so far — despite my wardrobe and the brutal prison Sona — with all the new complicated characters, the unimaginable deaths. I think it's been Prison Break at it's ruthless best.

As I promised I'm gonna answer some questions you asked in your comments:

Bijoux asks: "Have you been hearing anything about the spin off on the set or is this breaking news to you? Any thoughts?

Well actually we have been hearing rumors about a spin off called Prison Break: Cherry Hill about a women's prison. The Rumors going as far as whispering that they were looking for the lead female actor for the show! I don't know how true any of them are, but it sounds like a cool idea to me. What do you think?

ZZZ99 asks: "Why can't they make fake tattoos (like the ones for kids that you just press on) for Michael's tattoo. It would only take about 10 minutes versus hours! It just makes no sense to me that somebody couldn't come up with something like that in TV land! So much easier."

They do make fake tattoo; in fact that's what they use on Wentworth: industrial strength wet-and-lift tattoos a lot like the ones little kids love. These are made with better inks and are alcohol based so you apply them using alcohol and then lift them off. They use separate tattoo pieces for his arms, chest and back. After they are applied, a make up artist uses alcohol soluble make up to tweak the tattoo art. The whole process to apply then paint and tweak Went's tats takes 4 hours…so if he has to be ready to work at 7 am that means he's in the make up chair at 3 am to begin getting his tattoos applied. He's been a good sport every time…thank goodness for him the tattoos haven't been used much recently.

The SonaExpress asks: "Do you see
shows such as Prison Break as evidence that the gap between feature film and television is narrowing? We as viewers are getting shows that are increasingly more serialized with high production values and great acting, since tv is no longer a matter of having to tune in at a particular time or have to worry about missing episodes.

Thanks! I think you're right; the gap between TV and film is narrowing. It used to be that TV and Film were two different animals. In the past, the visual language of television and film, as well as the acting, directing, writing, and editing styles were very different. More and more film actors, writers and directors are doing TV shows now. Many feature film directors are becoming executive producers on TV shows, take Brett Ratner for instance. Stylistically, shows like Prison Break have film like forms in the serial nature of the story line and in the way the camera is used to tell the story…its not just a bunch of talking heads like a lot of TV…although PB is edited into close ups often.

The DVR/computer has changed the way people can watch television…we can watch what we want when we want and fast forward through the commercials. I think the present/future holds downloadable TV where we will be able to program our TV/computer to download whatever TV show or movie we want to watch onto our hard drive whenever we want…that's already the case here in the US. That's what the writers strike is all about…revenues from digital media. Soon for a fee, all TV and Film will be available in best quality digital form for immediate download…itunes is just the beginning…writers, actors, directors…we don't receive a penny for any of that.

S1mulat10n0ne asks: "Is it really you writing this blog, or do you have someone doing this for you?

Yep, its me that writes it! I enjoy doing it, thanks for reading.

Source: TVGuide.com

New Wade Williams Blog Update!

William Shatner Wade Williams has just updated his blog! Check out what he had to say about his wardrobe (or lack of) on set, among other things, below:

Splash, right back into the breach as we dive into the worst possible prison: Sona. The sick, twisted writers once again have conjured a fantastically frigged-up storyline that will rocket us through what so far is a wicked Season 3. I think this year may be our best season yet.

Yet again it is proved true that no character is sacred on this show, except for, of course, Michael and Lincoln. Bellick's still alive... and I still got a job!

So far the themes for Bellick in Season 3 have been "tighty-whities" and Tiger pants. I spent a month walking around set in my grunds... covered with dirt and dried movie blood, sweating my bare ass off in the 105-degree Texas sun. Then the writers put me in MC Hammer tiger pants with a nasty short T-shirt. If I hear one more, "They're gr-r-rreat!" or tiger growl, I'm gonna go postal.

The whole tighty-whitey thing was the writer's riff on an idea I had in the last episode of Season 2. There is a scene where Michael is walking down the hallway in Sona seeing what a dreadful place he's landed in and he sees Bellick lying on the floor beaten to a pulp, stripped almost naked. It was originally written that Bellick was on the floor beaten up, never mentioned that he was stripped down to his grunds.

That's when I had the brilliant idea: Why don't we strip Bellick naked and add makeup like he's been almost beaten to death? That'll show what a truly horrible place Michael and the cast have landed in. Kevin Hooks, the director of Episode 222, "Sona," said, "Good idea. But you can't be naked, you gotta wear something." So the wardrobe department whipped me up a nasty pair of tighty-whities. Little did I know I'd spend the next two episodes (it took a whole month to shoot them) wearing nothing but Fruit of the Looms, covered with dirt and blood, shoeless, hobbling around in the hundred-degree heat. It took two hours in the makeup chair every day to get me ready. (That's nothing compared with the four hours it takes them to do Wentworth's tattoo.)

Again it's been a battle here in Texas with the heat, and two of the sets for Sona are exterior sets and both are like working in a convection oven. One day we were shooting a scene where the military guards of Sona have entered the courtyard and all of us prisoners, including Michael, all the other incarcerated characters, and the extras, had to kneel on the clay with our hands behind our heads while this huge scene was shot. It took 10 hours to shoot. Six people went to the hospital with heatstroke. I was drinking water and finding shade every chance I could. It took me three or four days to get over the dehydration. Brutal.

I think we have some great new characters this season and a fascinating new story with Sona, the plans to escape, the ticking clock, the mysterious Whistler and the commanding Lechero. What's gonna happen? I wish I knew. I've been having a great time telling Bellick's twisted storyline. I love the dark, weird stuff the writers have written for Bellick so far this season.

I'd like to make this blog thing a little more interactive, so if you have any questions, put them in a comment and I'll do my best to answer a few each time.

It's good to be back and good to be Bellick!

Source: TVGuide

Wade Williams Diary: Chapter I

Wade Williams interviews the cast and crew of Prison Break for Sky One (UK). Funny stuff. Check it out!