Sci-Fi Storm

The popular character of Captain Jack (John Barrowman), who appeared in several episodes of the recent Doctor Who, will get his own show with the BBC picking up a 13 episode order of Torchwood (an anagram of Doctor Who). The show will center around a group of renegade investigators and will get its launch via the upcoming Who Christmas special and second season. However, there will be no crossover of stories between the two shows.

The on-again, off-again John Carter of Mars project, based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ series of novels about a civil war veteran who finds himself caught up with a princess on the planet Mars, has Jon Favreau attached to direct. The project has wandered in development hell for many years, but Favreau believes technology has come to the point that it can be made. Now all the need is a script…that’s currently Ehren Kruger’s (Scream 3) job.

Orson Scott Card’s new pay-per-issue webzine, Intergalactic Medicine Show, has gone live with short stories from a number of authors, and Card promises a new Ender’s Game story with every issue. Each issue (published quarterly) is US$2.50.