Sci-Fi Storm

Hope this isn’t too late for anyone – was quite busy lately. Doctor Who starts up again in the U.S. on the SCI FI Channel at 8:30pm ET tonight with “Voyage of the Damned”, the Christmas special episode.

N.E. Lilly writes “Just a brief note to announce SpaceWesterns.com’s first full year of publication.

The new year of SpaceWesterns.com brings: a creative refresh of the home page, the launch of our blog (The Sideshow), and the creation of a (nearly) complete Space Western list.

All that in addition to the publication of Space Western stories and articles. This week we’ve published “Craphound” by Cory Doctorow, and part 1 of an 8 part serial “A Man Called Mister Brown” by A.R. Yngve. Next week we have an interview with David Weddle, screenwriter for Battlestar Galactica.

http://www.spacewesterns.com/“

The Japanese manga/anime Ghost In The Shell is next to get the live action treatment – including 3D – after Steven Spielberg helped Dreamworks get the rights. ” ‘Ghost in the Shell’ is one of my favorite stories,” Spielberg said. Avi Arad (almost every comic book adaptation in recent history, including the upcoming Iron Man) and Steven Paul (Ghost Rider) of Seaside Entertainment will produce, and Jamie Moss (Street Kings) will write the screenplay.

The upcoming miniseries remake of The Andromeda Strain, which won’t air for another month on TV, is following suit with some other recent issues and set a release date for the DVD already: June 3rd, 2008. The miniseries stars Benjamin Bratt as Dr. Jeremy Stone, and is executive produced by Ridley and Tony Scott. Read More for the complete press release, and check out the official site.

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ABC confirmed a rumor that they have ordered another hour of Lost, making a total of 14 hours for the strike-shortened season. Lost will return April 24th in a new timeslot of Thursdays at 10pm. The original finale was scheduled for May 22nd, but that will be pre-empted by a two-hour Grey’s Anatomy, how it and the additional hour will be scheduled is yet to be seen.

Guillermo del Toro, in a posting on the official Hellboy 2 forums from earlier this month, says that nothing is official yet about him working on the two The Hobbit films, “BUT there has been a lot of movement.” A lot of work has been done, but he can’t discuss it yet because “I have to be patient and wait until the papers are done and my attachment is real.”

I was curious, having not heard anything about the fate of this show, so I did a little searching, and found out that the SCI FI Channel has quietly cancelled the show. Ratings apparently weren’t very good, and I wasn’t terribly impressed with the show in general. SFC president David Howe said that he felt “that the series wasn’t developed enough,” and that they may try the concept again in a few years.

Another DVD release this Tuesday is Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, the latest in the merged franchises, picking up where Alien vs. Predator left off. This bloody slugfest will be out in two versions – the theatrical version and an unrated version (with some additional extras), plus the Blu-Ray version will have both. If you don’t have some of the other movies in either franchise, check our Sci-Fi Movies store for some different packages. Read More for a review of AVP-R.

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Alien Nation fans are going to love this one. All 5 TV movies which followed the series after it was canceled in 1990 have now been collected on a single DVD set, called [sfs=813]Alien Nation: The Ultimate Movie Collection[/sfs]. Not only do you get all 5 movies, but full length commentaries by producer/director Kenneth Johnson, behind the scenes featurettes, and even gag reels. Read More for for a review.

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No, it’s not some weird pseudo-reality show. Fox has greenlighted a backdoor pilot for Virtuality, with a script from Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica). The show is about Earth’s first starship, the Phaeton, and the 12 astronauts on a 10-year mission. To cope with the long mission, the ship is equipped with virtual reality modules, allowing adventures in a variety of environments. However, the system has a bit of a bug…