Sci-Fi Storm

Syfy has announced their summer schedule for their new and returning programs, along with the air date of the eagerly anticipated game-turned-movie Red Faction: Origins, which debuts on June 4th at 9pm ET, and stars Robert Patrick (Terminator 2), Brian J. Smith (Stargate Universe) and Kate Vernon (Battlestar Galactica) (more details below). And Warehouse 13 and Eureka are now paired up back-to-back on Mondays, along with the new series Alphas. We can call it, “Scripted Mondays”…

Here is a list of the series debut/return dates and descriptions:

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The Hollywood Reporter’s cover story this week is about the upcoming Marvel super-hero movie Thor, directed by director/actor Kenneth Branagh, and how the director has staked his career on the $150 million production. Thanks to THR, here is the whole article:
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Syfy’s Being Human is done for now (likely until the Fall), so here is a final recap for the season finale episode, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Me Killing You”. I won’t post a description as they’d be spoilers if you haven’t watched the whole episode yet.
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Peter Jackson posted a cool video from the sets of The Hobbit on his Facebook page, showing some of of what the recreated from The Lord Of The Rings, a welcome/dedication ceremony, and more.

In the next sneak peek clip of the all-new episode of Stargate Universe, the crew aboard the Destiny are under attack from a command ship gaining on their heels. The command ship sends out six smaller fighter ships to take aim on the Destiny, and while they’re picking them off one by one, they fear there might be more on the way and don’t know how long they can defend themselves. They move forward to maximum acceleration to try and outrun their hunter. Watch the clip and tune in on Monday at 9/8c on Syfy to find out if the Destiny can find safety.

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The season finales of both Merlin and Being Human scored big in the ratings for Syfy. Merlin, just concluding its third season, and scored it’s highest household rating (1.3) and total viewers (1.87 million) since premiering on Syfy in April 2010, and a whopping 31% higher than the previous week. With that and its WWE Smackdown lead in that also saw an increase in viewers, it propelled Syfy to the #1 cable network in 8-11PM primetime for both Adults 18-49 and Adults 25-54 viewers on Friday night.

Monday’s Being Human finale also scored big, becoming the channel’s most successful new winter scripted series since Battlestar Galactica in 2005, entrancing 1.66 million total viewers, 1.0 million Adults 25-54 and 944,000 Adults 18-49. This was the best performance in all three measures for Being Human, which has been renewed for a second season, since the January 24 episode. Compared to last week’s telecast, Being Human rose 17% in Adults18-49, 29% in Adults 25-54 and 16% among total viewers. Being Human is Syfy’s youngest skewing scripted series since Battlestar Galactica in winter 2007, as well as Syfy’s most female-skewing original scripted series ever, comprising 53 percent women viewers through its 13-episode season. Led by Being Human’s strength in this demo, Syfy rose seven percent in Women 18-34 during First Quarter ’11. I wonder if it has anything to do with the Sams (Huntington and Witwer)? 🙂

Maybe Syfy will give us the fourth season of Merlin faster this time – there was a delay of several months over the original BBC airings.

Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles, which was previously made into a TV mini-series by NBC in 1980, has been optioned by Paramount for a feature film. The option was previously held by Universal starting in 1997, with various people attached over the years including Steven Spielberg, but they never got the project going. Note that this doesn’t mean it is any closer to production – just that a new studio is holding on to the rights.

The Martian Chronicles is a complex story – can it be done in a feature film’s time limits?

If you’ve been to Disneyland or Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in the past few years, you may have seen the Jedi Training Academy – your younglings may have even taken part in it (both of mine have – alas, no adults are allowed), where they get to dress up and be trained by a Jedi Master, and ultimately have a quick fight with Darth Vader while a couple of Stormtroopers look on. It’s a lot of fun for the kids, especially if the love Star Wars, and it can be fun to watch too.

Well, in Disneyland a youngling by the name of Sariah Gallego managed to surprise the Jedi Master, Darth Vader, and the Stormtroopers, as she pledged allegiance to Vader and joined the Sith…

I’m sure her parents had something to do with it…the Jedi Master did recover pretty quickly though…

Sanctuary returns this Friday at 9pm ET, and we’ve got a preview for you below, along with some images. In this clip Magnus discusses the current state of maintaining peace between humans and the abnormals, but she suspects Ranna is hiding something. Magnus and Ranna pull weapons on each other when they are threatened by a quake, but Magnus knows that Ranna needs her help. Watch the clip and tune in to find out if Magnus is able to make peace with Ranna or if other measures need to be taken…

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To celebrate the upcoming release of Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, The Walt Disney Company will be hosting a star-studded gala to benefit the Boys & Girls Clubs of America at Disneyland, Anaheim, CA on May 7th, 2011. Individual tickets for the premiere event are priced at $1,000 and are now available for sale at www.piratespremiere.com. Disney is donating 100% of the proceeds from the ticket sales directly to Boys & Girls Clubs of America, whose mission is to enable all young people, especially those who need it most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens.

Read more below, but here is a short new featurette entitled, “From Disneyland to the Big Screen”, about making the Pirates Of The Caribbean attraction into a big screen franchise.

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