Rapid Fire Q and A with Àdhamh Ó Broin:  His quest to save the endangered Dalriada Gaelic dialect and who (really) was his best student among the Outlander Cast!

Outlanderhomepage Originals
By J.Hines

1. With regard to your fundraising project, what, specifically, are you planning to do to "spread the word" to save the Dalriada dialect, once you get the website up and running?

Not all that much really. I will leave that to others once they've discovered the website. I will be spending my time filling it with everything I have collected over the years so that every fragment of poetry, vocabulary and story appears in the one place. I will make available a grammar and lessons in the dialect. Then I will rely on interested parties making the effort to learn. If I meet with genuine enthusiasm and application, I will likewise try to make myself available as much as possible to help in the language's acquisition. There are a lot of plans which will begin to unfold as the years wear on. One of those will be my taking on apprentices (in the Leanne Hinton model) who plan on having a family so that I can bring them to complete fluency in the dialect which they will then use when bringing up their children. Direct action is the only way forward.

2. Which is more important to achieve, in your opinion:  Increased awareness of the old language, so that it doesn't die out, or the re-institution of the language into the school system for the youth to learn and use?  What do think is the best way to achieve these goals going forward?

Those are the same question to an extent. Awareness alone won't save the language, but then neither will placing it into the school system. All that happens there is that it becomes part of officialdom and the kids learn to reject it like they do everything else that is forced on them from outside. Gaelic becomes an imposition and is then treated as such. The advantage of widespread awareness of the language however is that it becomes less easy for Scots to treat Gaelic like it never existed, making Scotland a less challenging environment for those of us who are willing to commit genuine time and energy to the work ahead to get on with that unmolested.

3. We've just recently published our interview with John Ferguson, creator of Saltire Comics.  Are you familiar with Saltire?  If so, what do you think of it?

I haven't read it, although I like the look of it. It's on my daughter's hit list to read.

4. Are you aware that Mr. Ferguson has been translating Saltire into Gaelic and that it is going to be introduced into educational system in Scotland next year in an effort to get children to read more? What do you think of that idea?

I think anything portraying heroism in connection with the language of our own ancient heroes has to be a good thing. There is a general dearth of that sort of thing across the board in favour of bland PC über-rationalism which is hardly likely to excite adults, nevermind kids.

5. Scottish Gaelic seems to be a difficult language to learn because there are many sounds not present in the English language. Was there one actor in the Outlander cast who picked up the dialect quicker than the others?  Who was your best pupil?

Grant O'Rourke was the quickest mind there, the most capable at grasping the concepts and new sounds, but Sam, of course, was the most natural sounding once he got into his flow. His enthusiasm for the material was second to none. There wasn't a single one of those fellas that weren't an immense amount of fun to work with though. I was very lucky.

6. How long did it take Sam Heughan and Duncan Lacroix to learn the entirely Gaelic conversation in "To Ransom a Man's Soul"?  How did they do (tell the truth!)?

Exceptionally well. We went out on a wonderfully high note in terms of Gaelic in Season 1. It didn't take them too long compared to the start. By that point they were used to dealing with the material and so simply had to learn the living crap out of it. And they did. We had under an hour to shoot all angles of the entire scene and the whole cast and crew were outstanding in making it a success. It was a great relief, as the material was tough and it could have gone either way. I think myself and Ira (Steven Behr) could sense each other's relief about that scene working out the next morning when we met on set!

7. For the people who don’t already know, how did you get the job of being the Gaelic Consultant on Outlander?

I think I've answered this one about 100 times! I saw a circular from the Gaelic College in Skye saying that the production needed a Gaelic Consultant. I contacted them, met the producers and we all liked each other's take on things. The rest is history!

8. How has it changed your everyday life?  Were you surprised by the degree of interest in the language from Outlander fans?

I suppose I was. It didn't surprise me on a personal level as I knew well how attractive the whole culture was, coming from it myself (on both mother's -Scottish- and father's -Irish- sides), but professionally it was a shock at how much my efforts would come to be valued. I give everything when I'm on set -sometimes maybe I can be a bit overzealous!- so it's very rewarding to be appreciated for my work. But I will say again. I am not a celebrity -or I don't consider myself one at any rate- the language and culture are the true celebrities and deserve all the exposure they can get.

9. Will there be more Gaelic used in Season 2? (We must know! lol)

Aye, I've been doing a little consultancy here and there, but French is the biggie at the moment, something I hear is working out very well. As you can imagine, I am not at liberty to give details, but anyone reading Dragonfly will of course have a taste of the sort of Gaelic that might pop up.

10. Are you looking forward to seeing how the battle of Culloden will be filmed on the show next season?

That will be interesting. It's a very delicate one and I'm sure the producers will be giving it a lot of thought and planning to make sure it comes off as realistically as possible. You can tell from Season 1 the sort of dedication to detail that goes into every scene and I can't imagine this will be any different!

A very special "Móran taing" to Àdhamh!  We really appreciate your taking time out of your busy schedule to do this quick Q and A.  

(As a side note:  we can’t tell you how pleased we are that you’ve met your fundraising goal of £10,000!   And to our readers: we’re pretty sure that Àdhamh wouldn’t say “No” to any additional donations you’d like to make to this most import cause).  

Click here to donate: http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/dalriadagaelic 


Also see Adhamh's official fan website 
http://www.adhamhobroin.scot/

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AUGUST 29, 2015

‘OUTLANDER’ STAR SAM HEUGHAN IS BECOMING A PHENOMENON AROUND THE WORLD, AND HE KNOWS WHO TO THANK FOR IT

PERRY CARPENTER

The INQUISITR
Sam Heughan has reached worldwide fame in his role as Jamie Fraser in the hit drama Outlander. To add to his constantly growing list of achievements, the Scottish actor was recently named the 2015 Sci-Fi Champion by Radio Times.

In light of his winnings, Heughan credited his enormously supportive fan base for voting for him during the competition.

“An incredible war has just been fought! Battling some huge Science Fiction icons, and our fans did it!” Heughan stated after winning the award. “I’m honored to be awarded the Radio Times Sci-Fi Champion. Outlander fans have proven they are the most passionate, supportive and dedicated. I gratefully accept it on behalf of them.”

In order to win the award, Heughan had to overcome a very competitive field, which included the likes of Peter Capaldi (Doctor Who), Lana Parrilla (Once Upon A Time), Colin O’Donoghue (Once Upon A Time), and Eliza Taylor-Cotter (The 100’s).

From here, Sam Heughan will have to compete against all the other genre victors to see who will take home the top spot in the Champion of Champions round. With all the Outlander fans that are out there, he should stand a fairly good chance at winning it all.

Speaking of the hit show, Outlander is currently filming for its second season. In fact, according to Scotland Now, Heughan was recently seen by fans in Glasgow during an intense scene involving Jamie and Black Jack Randall in the upcoming season.

The scene included a fight between the two characters and follows what was a series of dramatic events between Jaimie and Black Jack in the first season.

The new season of Outlander is an adaptation of Diana Gabaldon’s second book in the series titled Dragonfly in Amber. While the first season focused on events that occurred in Scotland, the new season will see Jamie and Claire (Caitriona Balfe) make their way to Paris, France to attempt to change history and prevent the Jacobite rebellion.

As production for the new season continues in Glasgow, the crew will also be travelling to Perthshire, Fife, Edinburgh, and West Lothian to round out this round of filming.

With the series filming in different locations throughout Scotland, The Daily Record notes that tourism has jumped considerably in the region. Apparently, the area has attract a record amount of American tourists ever since the first season premiered in the United States.

Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe are currently filming Season 2 of Outlander, but an official release date has not been announced.

How Outlander is Helping to Fuel a Gaelic Renaissance
By scotlandnow

OUTLANDER is continuing to take over the world. And with some of the show’s dialogue in Gaelic, the ancient language has captured the imagination of fans around the globe.

The TV adaptation of American author Diana Gabaldon’s epic time-travel series is helping to fuel a Gaelic renaissance.

Fans have even been following online Learn to Speak Outlander videos to pick up the language.

The Starz television production of the Outlander series employs the knowledge and expertise of a Gaelic speaker, Àdhamh Ó Broin and dialect coach Carol-Anne Crawford.

Gaelic is spoken by around 90,000 people in Scotland and there are expat Gaelic-speaking Scots are all over the world, but especially in Canada and the United States (Na Stàitean Aonaichte).

There are 20,000 people learning Gaelic in Scotland today and the language was quite literally put on the map when Ordnance Surve added Gaelic versions of place name signs in 2010.
We took the quiz.... not so good but we passed.

The results are in!  We reckon you're

57% gaelic

That's a passing grade for Gaelic 101. There's still plenty to learn, but you're on your way!

Click here to find out more about the Gaelic language

Scotland Now

For a Gaelic glossary and a quiz How Gaelic are you.

From DG's Facebook Page

DIANA GABALDON DESCRIBES HER EXPERIENCE WITH WRITING AN EPISODE FOR SEASON 2 OF OUTLANDER

Scripts

Most of you have probably heard that I’m writing a script for one of the episodes of Season Two for the Outlander_Starz TV series. This is new and interesting—I’ve written comic book scripts for Walt Disney (waaaay back in the late 70’s) and I’ve written the script for a graphic novel (THE EXILE—for those of you who haven’t encountered it, it tells the story of the first third of OUTLANDER in graphic novel format—from Jamie’s and Murtagh’s point of view)—but I’ve never done a script for TV or movie before.

Now, I have _read_ a few of these. During the period when the books were under option to various producers who wanted to make a two-hour movie of OUTLANDER (something that is flat-out impossible to do, but many valiant attempts were made), I saw several movie scripts, most of them written by very reputable screenwriters. These were each uniquely horrible, but instructive.

Then along came Ron D. Moore, and a TV series. While you still can’t fit a 300,000 word novel into sixteen hours of television, you can do a much better job of adaptation. And as I told Ron, after he showed me his pilot script for the first episode, “This is the first thing I’ve seen based on my work that didn’t make me either turn white or burst into flame.”

I was lucky enough to be asked to be a consultant on the show, which means that I see script outlines, scripts, script revisions—and ultimately, the actual footage that’s shot. This process has been much _more_ instructive, since I get to see just how often—and how much—a given script flexes and changes before it goes on camera—and how it actually comes out on film. (Then the film gets edited, too, but that’s another process altogether…)

The first time we met, Ron asked me if I thought I’d like to write a script for the show, and I said no. A) I’d never written one, didn’t know whether I’d be any good at it, and didn’t want to be responsible for screwing up the vital first season in any way, and B) I was coming into the Final Frenzy on MOBY and knew I wouldn’t have time to breathe, let alone take on a challenging new project. So I passed—but said that IF we got a second season…then I _might_like to do one…

Since most people don’t either write scripts or know a lot of people who do, I thought you might be interested in the basic process. At least as practiced by Outlanderworld. <g>

When we agreed that I’d write a script, and Ron chose which one (it’s episode 211 – the eleventh out of thirteen episodes in Season Two), the next thing was for me to come to the Writers Room in Pasadena, and work out the basic flow of the story with Ron, Maril, and some of the other writers.

Some of you will have seen photos of the Writer’s Room in its pristine state: comfortable couches facing two walls of magnetic white-board. When in action, the white-board is covered with erasable magnetic sheets, each containing notes on a scene, scene-let, or transition. This is where a script starts to take shape.

Now prior to this, the script/book has been “broken”—literally. The original book has been taken apart, scene by scene, and all the lines of original dialogue stripped out and listed, so the writers can use as much as possible of the original language, even though it may sometimes occur in a different context.

The Writers Room collectively then sorts through all these pieces, and reassembles them (roughly) into however-many episodes the season has. Given that each episode is roughly 57 minutes, _and_ that each episode has to have its own dramatic arc (you can’t have an entire episode of exposition, whereas you _can_ do whole chapters of it in a novel. I don’t recommend that you ¬_do_ that, by the way—but you _can_), the book material is not going to fit neatly and contiguously.

Ergo, the chronology of the story will be roughly the same: the events that take place in Paris obviously precede the events of the Rising in Scotland, and Jamie’s friendship with Charles Stuart naturally has to come before Claire treats the monkey bite on the Prince’s hand, and Jamie’s duel doesn’t take place before he meets the man he’s going to challenge. BUT…smaller pieces of the plot that aren’t necessarily linear may be moved, or flexed a little, or even separated into still smaller pieces that can be included in separate places, in order to achieve an interesting, coherent and more or less self-contained episode. AND in service of this goal, small new pieces and lines may need to be created to blend and support the original pieces in their new configuration.

This is why I was telling people (in response to pre-Ep 15/16 hysteria) to put down the book and enjoy the show. They aren’t gonna be exactly the same (for the reasons described above)—but with luck, goodwill, determination and talent (all of which the Outlander production team have in spades), the result will indeed be recognizably “Outlander”—and sometimes perhaps even an enchantingly novel Outlander.

So I went and spent a very entertaining day in the Writers Room. The script had already been “broken,” so we knew how much material would be included in Episode 211, but not how it might be arranged, or what might or could be tweaked or added to give an exciting, coherent structure.

The rough layout for Episodes 210 and 212 were also on the board, on either side of 211, along with a very rough notion of 213. (Yes, I know how it ends. No, I’m not going to tell you. It will be fine. Don’t worry.) I could therefore see how some elements of what I was handling would look coming out of 210, and _should_ look, going into 212.

What followed was a mass mental jigsaw puzzle, with everybody moving pieces, suggesting new things, arguing about them, vetoing this, approving that, and fitting everything together. The writers were all doing this en masse on the couches, while Richard, the writers’ assistant, and Mike, the script manager, were on Aero chairs at the back of the room with their laptops, taking down everything we said and the conclusions we came to—these being the “room notes,” which were forwarded to me afterward.

OK, the next step in doing a script is for the writer to do an outline of his or her episode, roughing out and expanding the material from the room notes, adding whatever small creative things occur during the process that likely won’t disrupt the agreed-on Big Picture.

I’d seen a lot of script outlines from Season One (and several from Season Two), and frankly, this is Not Difficult. It took me three days of dilatory work (meaning I was doing other stuff at the same time, not that I wasn’t paying attention) to produce this. An outline runs 10-11 pages, and just recounts the linear run of the story, noting occasional specific lines of dialogue or setups that may be important.

The outline went to Ron and Maril, and I got back Ron’s notes on it, which were very brief, and mostly to do with filming logistics—as in, we couldn’t have a full-scale ambush with twenty soldiers and thirty Highlanders, but we could do something like the opening scenes of Season One right after Claire goes back, suggesting such an ambush while using only a few actors.

I tweaked the outline to address Ron’s notes, and he then sent it “upstairs” to the people at Sony and Starz who have script approval. Got back combined notes from these two sources (known as “Studio” and “Network”)—also luckily brief, and as I told Ron, “These look just like the sort of editorial comments you get on a book manuscript. I have a lot of practice in addressing such concerns while still doing whatever it is I want.” (We’ll find out how far that last part goes, in terms of script writing, given that I _am_ the ultimate judge of what goes into a book, and I’m not, at all, with regard to a script.)

Anyway, the Studio/Network notes were minor enough that Ron told me to “go to script,” rather than re-drafting the outline, and so I did.

Now, let me digress here to note that I know a lot of writers who work linearly, and who work from outlines, and some who—finding the scatter-shot methods network thinkers use to be confusing—have latterly taken up the outline method. Everyone who uses outlines insists that having an outline makes drafting the manuscript much easier.

They’re right about that; it ¬¬_was_ easy. Much, much less interesting than putting the pieces together as you invent them <g>, but certainly easy enough—and I did get to make up the dialogue and insert entertaining (well, to me, at least) bits of byplay and business.

Frankly, the most difficult part of it all was the formatting software—FinalDraft 9—and that wasn’t really hard; just a matter of familiarizing myself with it. (Well, that, and its Really Annoying scrolling, which never worked smoothly. Don’t know if it was FD9 or something I was doing, but it would hit the bottom of a page as I was typing, and not scroll up into a blank space so I could continue on the next page. I’d have to fiddle with the cursor control, the PgDn/Up, and the End keys in various combinations every time I needed to change pages or go back and forth to any degree.) I don’t know (yet) how to do fancy things like format the opening title page, but I depend on the kindness of Richard and Mike to explain that one to me.

So—the script is done. But—as with anything involving writing, and especially anything involving television—that’s only the beginning.

First Ron and Maril will read the script and give me any notes they have. Depending on number and complexity, I may redo the script to address those or just add tweaks here and there. Once Ron’s satisfied with it, it goes—once more—to Sony and Starz, who both get to make notes, which may require various fixes (or not so many, if we’re lucky. Who knows?). The script _might_ go through three, four, five iterations before it becomes a “Production” script. But that’s not the end of it!

All kinds of issues arise, before and during filming, that require changes to a script. Many of these are very minor, a few might involve ditching multiple pages and inserting a whole new scene or set of scenes.

And above all—it depends on how the script “plays”. Can the actors do the lines without repeatedly cracking up? (I’ve seen a couple of scenes where they couldn’t. In one such series of takes, after the fourth try ended in giggles, Sam Heughan is saying, ‘This is never gonna work,” and you can hear the director saying firmly in the background, “Yes, it is!” (It did, too, but it took a while. Sometimes persistence will do it, and sometimes the writer (or the actor, or the director) changes the line.) Is the scene physically awkward in some way that only becomes apparent when the actors block it? Does it run too long? Is some speech badly phrased, so it sounds stilted? Does the action need to be re-arranged in order to accommodate camera angles or scenery? Do the actors and/or the director _like_ the script, or do they feel strongly that this or that isn’t working? All these sorts of things have to be fixed on the fly, as it were—which is, I assume, why the writer needs to be on set while his or her script is being filmed.

I will say that I’ve seen seven or eight iterations of a script done _after_ the ‘Production” version.

So far, it’s been a fascinating process, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to do it. I’ll let you know what happens next!

P.S. I had breakfast with George R.R. Martin shortly after the agreement that I’d do a script, and mentioned it to him—knowing that he’d done a good deal of television writing before taking to novels. He laughed and said, “Oh, so you’re about to learn the Great Secret of screenwriting!”

“Reckon so,” I said. “And what’s that, George?” He leaned toward me conspiratorially and said, “It’s MUCH easier than writing a novel!”

For more Diana Gabaldon information click below
http://www.dianagabaldon.com

Outlander' Composer Bear McCreary on Being Inspired by Sounds of Scotland

By Zach Laws at GOLD DERBY


For composer Bear McCreary, scoring the hit TV series "Outlander" presented an opportunity to do something musically he'd always wanted to do. "I always was looking for an excuse to bring bagpipes into my own scores when I became a composer," he says in our exclusive video interview (watch it below). "I grew up adoring Scottish folk music ... I was so immersed in this culture."

He had previously incorporated bagpipes into "Battlestar Galatica," co-created by Ronald D. Moore, yet found there wasn't a place for the signature sound in subsequent projects. Moore went on to adaptDiana Gabaldon's "Outlander" book series for the small screen, and according to McCreary, "When I realized he was doing this new show that took place in the Scotland of the Jacobite Uprising, which was right in the sweet-spot of the kind of music I adored from that era, I realized we could do something really cool with this."

"Outlander" stars Caitriona Balfe as Claire Randall, a British combat nurse in World War II who finds herself transported to Scotland in 1743, tearing her between the love of her husband Frank (Tobias Menzies), a straight-laced officer, and the chivalrous, romantic young warrior Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan). "When we think about the tropes of time travel stories,"says McCreary, "they almost always start in the present and move to the past or the future. The thing that makes 'Outlander' tricky is that it starts in the past and then goes farther back into the past ... So I needed to help create this feeling of the 1940s for the opening of the show, and then separate that from the 1740s for the bulk of the show."

He continues, "When we get into Scotland in the 1740s ... the score gets very folky, and you hear bagpipes and penny whistle and fiddle, and everything's kind of scratchy and raw. So there's a separation not only in time but in culture ... The music takes on a very different character."

McCreary previously won an Emmy for his work on "Da Vinci's Demons," and was nominated twice more for "Human Target" and "Black Sails." "Every time, it's a tremendous surprise," says McCreary of his nominations and win, "and a tremendous honor, because I think some of the best work happening in entertainment is happening in television ... Winning the Emmy for 'Da Vinci' was ... almost like an out-of-body experience when they called my name, and still I have statue up on my desk and I'm amazed that it's there.”

Will "Outlander" bring McCreary statuette number two?

A Heartfelt Thanks to Karen Henry and OUTLANDISH OBSERVATIONS

Outlanderhomepage Originals

By Janis Hines

Our OUTLANDER blog inspiration has just celebrated its 7th Anniversary. 

As fellow bloggers (now), we have often wondered what it was like to be blogging about all things OUTLANDER before the show was even a concept and before the recent books were published -
no Sam Heughan face to stick on Jamie Fraser as we wrote our daily posts, no MOBY material to tell us what Claire was up to this time (no spoilers!).

One of  the top things on our OUTLANDER bucket list was, at some point, to ask for an interview with Karen Henry.  Fortunately for all of us, she answered the very same questions that we wanted to ask in the announcement she posted on of the 7th anniversary of Outlandish Observations (see below).

If it were not for the early original blogs like hers, we may not have known all the details of Diana Gabaldon's insights, ideas, and appearances, or about the show's much-anticipated cast and production information. It makes us wonder if, without people like Karen, the popularity of OUTLANDER would be what it is today, and if others like us would have been inspired to create our own blogs about OUTLANDER.

And what about the next 7 years? If we're lucky, we'll be in our 7th season of the Starz original series, book 9 will have been read at least 3 times by all of us crazy fans and we'll all be discussing what's to come in book 10. A lot.

Congratulations Karen. You are an inspiration to us all. Truly!

Sincerely,

The Three Wee Lasses


FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 2015
Outlandish Observations is 7 years old!

Seven years ago today, I started Outlandish Observations!

I had two goals in mind when I started this blog. The first was simply to learn about blogging. The second was to create a central repository for news and information for OUTLANDER fans, a place where people could go to find answers to commonly asked questions, links to other OUTLANDER-related sites, and the latest information on Diana Gabaldon's new and upcoming releases.

To say that this blog has succeeded far beyond my wildest imaginings is a severe understatement! In the beginning, I never expected anyone to visit my site except a few dozen of my friends from the Compuserve Books and Writers Community and LOL. I didn't talk about it on Compuserve for the first couple of years, because I was very reluctant to draw attention to it where Diana Gabaldon could see -- which seems silly in retrospect, but it's true. Suffice it to say that I did get over that shyness, eventually. <g>

Since the premiere of the OUTLANDER TV series, daily traffic on my site has gone way, way up! The average number of daily visitors over the past year was 1,405, compared to 848 the previous year (an increase of 65.7%!)

Special thanks to all of my followers on the Outlandish Observations Facebook page! Last year at this time I had 5,455 followers on Facebook. Today that number is 7,063, an increase of 29.5%! I'm amazed and delighted that so many new people have found my site in recent months. Welcome, and I hope you take some time to look around and see what else is available here.

Outlandish Observations was one of the first successful OUTLANDER-related blogs. These days there are dozens and dozens of fan-sites, Facebook groups, and so on. The more the merrier, as far as I'm concerned! <g> I'm proud to be a part of such a thriving, creative, and enthusiastic worldwide community of fans, united in our passion for these books and characters and this amazing story Diana Gabaldon has created.

I'm delighted to see so many new people discovering OUTLANDER as a result of the TV series! Here are the links to my Season 1 episode recaps, for those of you who may have missed them:

Episode 101: "Sassenach"
Episode 102: "Castle Leoch"
Episode 103: "The Way Out"
Episode 104: "The Gathering"
Episode 105: "Rent"
Episode 106: "The Garrison Commander"
Episode 107: "The Wedding"
Episode 108: "Both Sides Now"
Episode 109: "The Reckoning"
Episode 110: "By the Pricking of My Thumbs"
Episode 111: "The Devil's Mark"
Episode 112: "Lallybroch"
Episode 113: "The Watch"
Episode 114: "The Search"
Episode 115: "Wentworth Prison"
Episode 116: "To Ransom a Man's Soul"

No question about it, this is a very exciting time for OUTLANDER fans everywhere! It's quite a challenge to keep up with everything that's going on these days, and I hope you're finding this site helpful.

Many, many thanks to all of you who've visited Outlandish Observationsover the past seven years. It's been an amazing journey, and I'm so glad you've come along for the ride.

THANK YOU ALL!!


Check out the entire blog here.


Karen Henry's Outlandish observations

Oct. 27: THE OUTLANDISH COMPANION, VOL. TWO!

Announcement from Herself, Diana Gabaldon on her website:

"On October 27, 2015, THE OUTLANDISH COMPANION, VOLUME TWO (aka "OC II") will be released in the U.S.A.! As the second volume of THE OUTLANDISH COMPANION, VOLUME ONE, this new book will reveal details of how I wrote the second eight major novels in the OUTLANDER series: THE FIERY CROSS, A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES, AN ECHO IN THE BONE, and WRITTEN IN MY OWN HEART’S BLOOD. More information.


Though I will not be going on a book tour for OC II, the Poisoned Pen bookstore will host a live web interview with me in October (time and date to be announced) to discuss the new book. Anyone on the globe may tune in! (Details will be posted when available.) The Pen also will have copies of OC II available that are signed by me."


http://www.dianagabaldon.com

OUTLANDER'S GRAHAM MCTAVISH IN NEW FEATURE "TRAIL'S END (2016)

Action / Western 

Not yet rated

In the 1880's, a disbanded group of outlaws must reunite to go after a hidden treasure, while being hunted by one of their own.

Co directors: Paul Gibbs and Patrick Gibbs 

Writers: Paul Gibbs and Patrick Gibbs

Top billed actors: Graham McTavish Christina Robinson Richard Reihle 

Martin Cove 

All cast: Jed Brophy Mark Markhadlow Daniel Logan 

Exclusive:  OUTLANDER'S SAM HEUGHAN TALKS SWASHBUCKLING, RED HAIR, AND BEING UNLUCKY IN LOVE.

The Scottish hunk talks to ELLE CANADA ahead of the show's next season

For all you Heughlians out there wondering: yes, your Scottish mega-crush really is as nice in real life as you all hope he would be. If you ever get the chance to sit down for a chat with the 35 year-old actor like I did (in a fancy Toronto hotel room while he was in town to talk about OUTLANDER, and no, I have no spoilers), there's a good chance he'll compliment you at least twice before you sit down, and let his herbal tea get ice cold while he indulges your need to tell everyone you've met that you're currently half-way through a 100 day no sugar challenge (more on that later)

Please click the link for the entire Q&A

Sam Heughan Interview with ELLE

OUTLANDER ‘HELPS BOOST SCOTTISH TOURISM BY 30 PERCENT'

Aug 25, 2015 |

JENNY COONEY REPORTS FROM THE SET OF THE HIT STARZ SERIES

Hopetoun House

Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan talk to the HFPA at Gleneagles Hotel


It’s easy to find locations featured on the hit drama series Outlander when you arrive in Glasgow, Scotland. So much so that the Starz series has reportedly helped boost tourism by an estimated thirty percent as the global audience has come looking for the breath-taking locations featured in the story of time-travelling 1940s nurse Claire Randall (Caitriona Balfe) and 18th century Scottish clansman Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan).

“I think it’s so vital that we are here in Scotland filming because it informs everything that we do,” Balfe tells the Hollywood Foreign Press Association during a recent visit to the stunning sets on location and in four sound stages built from an abandoned circuit board factory in Cumbernauld. “The landscape is so beautiful and the places that we go to shoot- the castles and other different locations – they just add so much texture to the show.” The Irish actress also acknowledges that Scotland lived up to its reputation for being cold and rainy but tries not to complain. “That just adds a great realism to it,” she adds unconvincingly. “Some night shoots, I’ve been sitting on a horse for hours in the cold and joked with the director, ‘I’m giving you the shivering for free!’”

Sam Heughan, who is a proud Scotsman, adds: “When I started filming Outlander, I fell in love with my country again and wanted to bring our culture to the rest of the world and I think we did that. I think it’s great for Scotland and it’s generated a lot of jobs but also shown the rest of the world what we can do and what we look like, so it’s wonderful.”

Many popular tourist destinations have been borrowed for the show, from the majestic rural estate of Hopetoun House, which poses in a few episodes as the home of the Duke of Sandringham, to the 14thcentury Doune Castle, which becomes Leoch Castle, the home of Jamie’s uncle Colum MacKenzie and his clan. If it looks familiar, that’s probably because it was also used in the 1975 comedy classic Monty Python and the Holy Grail, although it’s unlikely that cast took their job promoting Scotland quite as seriously!

‘Supergirl’s Melissa Benoist, ‘Outlander’s Sam Heughan Set For Screen Gems Love Story ‘Oxford’

By Mike Fleming Jr

Screen Gems has set two of the hottest stars on television for its feature film Oxford. Melissa Benoist, who’ll soon be starring as the title character in the CBS fall series Supergirl, will team with Sam Heughan, who plays the male lead role of Jamie Fraser on the Starz hit series Outlander.Oxford has a script by Allison Burnett, and Temple Hill’s Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey are producing.


Soon after arriving at Oxford U, an American Rhodes Scholar student falls for an arrogant teaching assistant who is quietly fighting terminal cancer. When she finds out the reason he is so standoffish, they make the most of each day, traveling the world together. Aside from Supergirl, Benoist’s recent films have been The Longest Ride and Whiplash. Burnett previously scripted Underworld: Awakening for Screen Gems, as well as Gone, Fame and Untraceable.

Heughan got a great deal of attention for his work in the final Outlanderepisodes, in which his swashbuckling character was raped by his nemesis. In a coincidence, the actor who played that other role, Tobias Menzies, also just signed on for a Screen Gems film as he will play a key role in Underworld: The Next Generation.

Benoist and Heughan are repped by UTA and Burnett by Paradigm. Heughan is repped by the UK by United Agents.

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'Outlander' Author Diana Gabaldon Likes the Scripts for Season 2

Inquisitr
By Perry carpenter

Outlander is well underway with production of its second season, and it seems as though author Diana Gabaldon is very pleased with how things are progressing. The author recently told Zap2it that she is particularly impressed with the script as the characters move on to Paris, France, in Season 2.

“The Parisian stuff is very good, and in fact I’m deeply impressed by the outlines I’ve seen of those scripts… I think they’ve done a wonderful job of pulling out the most important plot elements and arranging them in a convincing way.”

With the new season being adapted from Gabaldon’s second book in the series, titled Dragonfly in Amber, producer Ron Moore explained that dealing with the political games in Paris has been a challenge to adapt in the new season.

“The Paris section [of Dragonfly in Amber], the plot is not as clean and simple as the plot was in Book 1. Book 1, for a big chunk of it, is Claire going back in time and trying to get home, and then she’s trying to find Jamie, and those are very clean narratives,” Moore stated in an interview with Deadline.

“It’s about many more ideas, other characters coming and going. They’re involved in something that’s more complex, Diana [Gabaldon] shifted points of view, herself, in Book 2. So that alone just makes it a more complicated task to make the adaptation… So, yeah, we’re still struggling with the same things, with trying to be as true to the book as we possibly can while making it a television series.”

Moore went on to reveal that, although the new season is nothing like the first, it will feature a number of surprising elements.

“It’s an urban setting and you’re dealing with aristocracy and the court of Louis XV so it’s a whole different thing. It’s not going to look anything like Season 1, so you’re really kind of prepping and shooting a whole new TV show into the second year. It has a lot of, you know, ‘oh my God, what can we do,’ those kind of moments to it.”

Tobias Menzies in Broadcast - "Fifteen Minutes"

Fifteen Minutes

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By Sarah Wooley

"Making money is art, and working is art and good business is the best art." - Andy Warhol

Set in New York in the heady days of Studio 54, in the late 1970s and early 80s, "FifteenMinutes" looks at the later period in Andy Warhol's life when he was painting portraits to commission and running 'Interview' magazine. Young editor, Bob Colacello has the bright idea of hiring the ageing Truman Capote to do celebrity interviews. In exchange for his monthly column, Capote would be gifted a portrait. And so began one of the most complicated and explosive of collaborations.


A BBC Scotland production directed by Gaynor Macfarlane.


Release date:

24 August 2015

27 days left to listen

45 minutes

Last on


BBC RADIO 4


Credits - Role

Bob Colacello - Will Howard

Andy Warhol - Tobias Menzies

Truman Capote - Adrian Rawlins

Fred Hughes - David Seddon


Director - Gaynor Macfarlane

Writer - Sarah Wooley

OUTLANDER' CAST CAITRIONA BALFE TEASES BIG BOOK MOMENT AND CHALLENGES IN SEASON 2

By Rolly Gacelo |

Several "Outlander" season 2 casting hinted of broader and tougher adventures for main characters Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire (Caitriona Balfe).

The married couple will now head to Scotland and France but there is a bigger challenge for them. There's no more Black Jack Randall but the new obstacle is how to raise a child.

If the confirmed "Outlander" season 2 casting news is any indication, fans of the Diana Gabaldon book series where this show was based from can hope that it will be faithful to the material. Caitriona Balfe assured this in a recent interview.

"I think there's definitely some scenes from Diana's books where the fans have already become - they're very important moments for them," the main "Outlander" season 2 cast said in an interview with MTV. "You kind of know when you're coming up to it, you're like, 'well this is a big moment in the book.'"

"You can't really approach those in any different way than you do anything else," she continued. "I think if you start doing that then it's a disservice to the story as a whole, so you treat it all the same."

"Outlander" season 2 will be about Jamie and Claire's journey into parenthood. This won't be easy for them. Not only they are stranger to the new place they chose to live in, both of them, never really had great childhood.

"It changes everything," Caitriona told Access Hollywood. "When you kind of believe that something is impossible and then that changes... it brings up a lot of stuff about her own family and her past. She lost her parents when she was 5, so she's never really had that kind of mother figure there to guide her, and I think it brings up a lot of that stuff for her, but it's something that brings Jamie and Claire really together, and it's a beautiful part of the story."

The second season is expected to premiere this fall. Among those confirmed in "Outlander" season 2 casting news are Rosie Day, Stanley Weber, Robert Cavanagh, and Margaux Chatelier.

Diana Gabaldon

August 23 at 2:35pm

Daily lines book 9 by DIANA GABALDON

‪#‎DailyLines‬ ‪#‎BookNine‬ ‪#‎Noitsnotout‬ ‪#‎Ittakesmetwoorthreeyears‬ ‪#‎GopesterGRRM‬ ‪#‎Expedition‬ ‪#‎Sharperthanaserpentstooth‬


They were heading northwest. Roger had learned to steer by sun and stars, when he’d surveyed the boundary lines of Jamie’s land, years before, but it wasn’t a skill he’d needed much in Scotland. 
He thought they were near the edge of the land grant now; he thought he recalled this rocky outcropping. Granted, there were thousands of similar rock formations in western North Carolina, but something about this one rang a mental bell.

“It smells like grapes,” Jemmy said, sniffing deep. “Smell ‘em, Dad?”

“Aye, I do.” That was it; the whole hillside was a tumble of pale, huge boulders, unusual among the dark rock of the nearby ground—but more unusual for the vast tangle of wild grapevines that crawled over the boulders and climbed the sparse trees that sprouted among them. The grapes had long since ripened and gone, most of them scavenged by birds, insects, wolves, bears and anything else with a sweet tooth. Still, the faint perfume of raisins lay like a veil on the air and the bitter tang of the drying vines was sharp beneath it.

Jamie had pulled loose a length of the tough, woody vine, and was engaged in chopping it into several gnarled sticks, each about three feet long. He handed one to Jem and another to Roger, with the terse adjuration, “Snakes.”

OUTLANDER Starz Original Series and the Adaptation of DIANA GABALDON'S Book

The Newsletters which came out before and during the episodes, were really telling of the details that went into depicting all of the descriptions given by Diana in every chapter.


1945 Inverness

Diana's description from book:

Of the B&B:

"Mrs. Baird’s was like a thousand other Highland bed-and-breakfast establishments in 1945; clean and quiet, with fading floral wallpaper, gleaming floors, and a coin-operated hot-water geyser in the lavatory".

Of the area:

“There’s no place on earth with more of the old superstitions and magic mixed into its daily life than the Scottish Highlands. Church or no church, Mrs. Baird believes in the Old Folk, and so do all the neighbors .” He pointed at the stain with one neatly polished toe. “The blood of a black cock,” he explained, looking pleased. “The houses are new, you see. Pre-fabs.” I looked at him coldly. “If you are under the impression that that explains everything, think again. What difference does it make how old the houses are? And where on earth is everybody?”“Down the pub, I should expect. Let’s go along and see, shall we? ” Taking my arm, he steered me out the gate and we set off down the Gereside Road. “In the old days,” he explained as we went, “and not so long ago, either, when a house was built, it was customary to kill something and bury it under the foundation , as a propitiation to the local earth spirits. You know, ‘He shall lay the foundations thereof in his firstborn and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it.’ Old as the hills.”


Producers description from newsletter:

Outlander Season Two Spoiler Alert: Ron D. Moore Confirms Brianna Randall Cameo

25 AUGUST 2015 12:01 AM
BY SCOTLAND NOW 

THE Outlander producer has teased fans with details about the second season of the hit show.

RON D. MOORE has confirmed the Brianna Randall will definitely appear in Outlander season two.

In the second book by author Diana Gabaldon, called Dragonfly in Amber, Claire and Jamie Fraser flee Scotland for France to seek out Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Gabaldon’s second book kicks off in the 1960s with Claire and her daughter Brianna visiting Reverend Wakefield's adopted son Roger in Scotland.

And Moore has revealed Brianna will definitely appear in the TV adaptation of Outlander.

Outlander Cast Follows

OUTLANDER HOMEPAGE has been blessed with quite a few CAST FOLLOWS in recent weeks!


GILLEBRIDE MacMILLAN followed us on twitter and agreed to a chat with our writers in the very near future.
GILLEBRIDE plays Castle LEOCH'S singer and poet, GWYLLYN The BARD. In episode 4 "The Gathering."

DOUGLAS RUSSELL followed us on twitter last week. DOUGLAS plays LENNOX, a member of the Watch in episode 113 "The Watch".  You can also see Douglas in the role of Axel in the ITV Miniseries BEOWULF, along with Outlander's LAURA DONNELLY, in 2016 (UK broadcast).

And finally this week, we are honored that SIMON MEACOCK has followed us on twitter and also agreed to a chat with our writers, coming soon. SIMON plays HUGH MUNRO, the mute spy/beggar and close friend of Jamie Fraser, in episode 108 "Both Sides Now".

Check back soon for details

'Outlander' star Tobias Menzies joins 'Underworld: Next Generation' as a Lycan leader

By Sachin Trivedi on August 18 2015 9:48 PM

Outlander” TV series cast member Tobias Menzies has reportedly joined “Underworld: Next Generation.” The actor is said to be playing the role of new Lycan leader named Marius. Kate Beckinsale will be reprising her role as Selene in the movie.

Deadline reports that Menzies will be playing a “major role” in the forthcoming movie. The new role is said to be “mysterious” and there are no additional details about the character. Lycans in the movie are werewolves who can take human form, unlike another category of werewolves in the film franchise.

Lycans and the vampires in “Underworld” are shown to be in a state of war for centuries. Vampires had been using the werewolves as slaves to do their bidding in the ancient times, but due to certain circumstances, war broke out between the two groups. Menzies will now be seen as the new leader of the Lycans who will continue the war between the two mythical species.

The report notes that the actor has delivered some “memorable performances” in popular TV shows like “Outlander,” “Rome,” “Game of Thrones” and “The Honourable Woman.” Some of Menzies’ other TV series include “The Night Manager” and “Catastrophe.”

This will be the first time the actor will be playing a major role in a big budget Hollywood movie. Menzies previously played the role of Villiers in the 2006 James Bond blockbuster movie “Casino Royale.”

Menzies will be joined by Beckinsale and “Divergent” series star Theo James in the forthcoming movie. Beckinsale has already signed a deal to reprise her role in the film, according to a report by The Hollywood Reporter . The movie will be directed by Anna Foerster and the report notes that she will be the first woman to take on a directorial role in the movie franchise.

The previous movies from the “Underworld” series have been directed by Mans Marlind, Bjorn Stein, Patrick Tatopoulos and Len Wiseman. Wiseman directed the first two films in the franchise that were shown in 2003 and 2006.

“Underworld: Next Generation” is slated to be released in October 2016. Menzies is currently busy filming the next season of the “Outlander” TV series and the producers of the show have reportedly allowed him to shoot simultaneously with the vampire movie.