Sci-Fi Storm

It looks like the Dawn Trader may yet sail. 20th Century Fox, which now has a partnership with Walden Media, is set to co-finance the third film in the Narnia franchise, Voyage of the Dawn Treader after Disney stepped away. Details of the financing arrangement are yet to be worked out but they still hope to release the film for the holiday season in 2010. I guess the Narnia exhibit at Walt Disney World will go away quickly.

I first learned of plans to bring Red Dwarf back to the small screen for a few episodes and specials last October. The BBC has finally announced when it will happen – Easter weekend (April 11/12), nearly 10 years after the last episode aired. There will be a two-part story, “Red Dwarf: Back to Earth” which will then be followed by a “no holds barred” special – no sets, special effects or autocue (teleprompters to us Americans), and then a “making of” special. So if they go “Back To Earth”, will it be full of trash? Or did Wall*E steal that idea? No word on if it will see an outlet in the U.S. Update: I missed the fact that it will NOT air on the BBC itself, but on the UKTV digital channel Dave.

As a followup to this report, ABC has ordered a pilot for a new V series to be produced by Scott Peters (The 4400). Only a tiny bit more of the new plot has been revealed: that it will center on a female Homeland Security agent.

Michelle Ryan, who recently starred in the short-lived NBC Bionic Woman reboot as well as Jekyll and EastEnders, and British comedian/actor Lee Evans (There’s Something About Mary) have joined for the first of four Doctor Who special episodes airing this year, titled “Planet of the Dead”. Eyan will play Lady Christina de Souza who encounters the Doctor on a bus trip. Also returning is Noma Dumezweni, who plays UNIT Captain Erisa Magambo, who appeared in the episode “Turn Left”.

The Thunder Child writes “Steve Vertlieb, who contributes regular essays to The Thunder Child in our Vertlieb’s Views section (bios of Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, appreciations of Bernard Herrmann, “How I Met the Blob” and so on) knew Forry Ackerman for over 40 years. He has penned a rememberance called The Most “Famous Monster” of Them All. Check it out at: http://thethund.ipower.com/Movies/VertliebViews/ForryAckermanTribute.html (Forrest J. Ackerman was the editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland, and the only non-Ray of the three-Rays – friends with Ray Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen since teenage-hood.)”

If you think you’d like some BSG merch, and wanted to save a few cubits, I’ve got a code for you. If you go to the SCIFI.com Battlestar Galactica store, select some items, and check out with the coupon code “BSGFAN”, you’ll get 10% off BSG items (excludes the life-size Cylon Centurion and whatever “QMx” items are…) This coupon code is good through April 15th, 2009.

Roland Emmerich (Stargate, Independence Day) and Sony/Columbia have won the bidding war to finally bring Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy, with Emmerich and his partner Michael Wimer producing. Emmerich also has a remake of Fantastic Voyage (for which Asimov wrote the novelization based on the original screenplay) on his plate (although perhaps consigned to development hell), and 2012, about the apocalypse predicted by the Mayan calendar, coming out this year, although its release has been delayed until November 13th.

Could a big-screen, big-budget Babylon 5 feature be in the works? Well, not yet, but according to JMS Warner Bros is warming up to the idea – now that JMS is a big screen writer. The first item for discussion from WB is apparently, “…how big a movie would it have to be for you to come back and make a B5 movie for us??

Another bad week for the genre…veteran actor/stuntman Bob May, who donned the metal suit of Robot B9 (primarily know as just “Robot” for most of the series), passed away earlier today from congestive heart failure at the age of 69.

The Thunder Child writes “A couple of weeks ago I shared the fact that Terry Farrell was returning to the acting stage in a play in Hershey, Pennsylvania, with her husband Brian Baker. Terry graciously consented to an interview with The Thunder Child, which you can read here: http://thethunderchild.com/Theatre/FarrellLoveLetters.html
Note: It’s about her life now, with only a couple of questions about DS9, but it’s a fun read. And if you go see the play, make sure you tell her you read about it in The Thunder Child!”