Sci-Fi Storm

Budget and policy are taking their toll at ITV, and Primeval is one of the victims. “Basically ITV have changed their policy about drama before 9pm in that they’ve decided they really don’t want any, at least not of the quality and cost of Primeval,” according to a source close to the production. “Obviously we’re devastated that things should end this way with ITV. But we’re absolutely certain that although this stage of its evolution seems to be over, Primeval isn’t dead. We’re very proud of what we’ve achieved over the past three years and we have every intention of keeping Primeval alive in other ways.”

X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Friday Night Lights star Taylor Kitsch will star as the title character in Disney’s John Carter Of Mars production, which should finally get started in 2010. It will be the first live action production from director Andrew Stanton, whose Pixar efforts Wall-E and Finding Nemo won Oscars.

Could a game resurrect a franchise? That could possibly happen with Ghostbusters. A long-in-development game is set to release on Tuesday (Formats: Standard Edition Windows, PS3, XBox 360, Wii, PS2, DS, Amazon Exclusive Slimer Edition: XBox 360, PS3, Wii), and it has renewed the interest in another film, not only from the producers but the actors as well.

Apparently I missed the original announcement, but the final season of Stargate Atlantis will be released on DVD on June 30th. This concludes the releases of all currently published Stargate episodes/movies, until Stargate Universe hits the screens.

Another animated Fox castoff will return: Comedy Central is resurrecting Futurama for 26 episodes, with an “eye” towards a mid-2010 debut. Comedy Central acquired the rights to the original 72 episodes in January 2008, and aired 4 feature-length episodes for high ratings.

I just spent a brief weekend down at Walt Disney World for Star Wars Weekend at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. For those not familiar with it I thought I’ve give a rundown of what went on…

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Actor/Martial Artist Ray Park, who is best known for playing Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace has signed for a story arc on Heroes, although little is known about the character yet. Ironically I was just at Star Wars Weekends at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (more on that later), where Park often puts on demonstrations and talks with the fans.

Yet another sign that Hollywood cannot come up with any original ideas: Columbia has attached Kurt Wimmer (Ultraviolet) to write a new Total Recall, which was based on the Philip K. Dick story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale”. There aren’t any details other than it is a “contemporized adaptation.” Note to Hollywood: There are plenty of really good stories still out there. Instead of seeing who can make the best (or worst) interpretation of a story already done, how about actually trying something new?

Rumors were sort of true – yes, director Carl Rinsch (who only appears to have done some shorts) will helm a new movie in the Alien franchise for Fox – but it is a prequel, not a remake, according to Tony Scott. Not much more detail than that, other than they hope to start filming by the end of the year.