Sci-Fi Storm

Here’s good news for a change this week: Syfy has confirmed it has renewed Warehouse 13 for a 4th season with a 13 episode order, to air in 2012. Not much is known beyond that at this point, but congrats to the whole team!

It seems that the abrupt departure of Walking Dead showrunner Frank Darabont is still shrouded in mystery, and if the reports are correct, rather disturbing on the part of network AMC. According to The Hollywood Reporter, AMC may be strong-arming the cast and crew to not speak at all about the departure.

Everyone was surprised by the announcement of his departure, when the cast and crew were brief in separate meetings by Ben Davis, AMC’s vice president of scripted series, but without explanation as to why. Now sources from the inside explain the lack of anyone from the cast talking to the press as AMC “terrorizing” them, given that “They’re on a zombie show. They are all really easy to kill off.”

There is still much to be learned about the situation, but it may be a long way off before we really know the story. But it seems that AMC, relatively new to original scripted programming, is having trouble grasping how to handle that programming.

Just found this out, and it has been confirmed by executive producer Amy Berg: E! Online is reporting that Syfy has given Eureka one additional episode with which to wrap of the series.

Previously, when the tentative 6 episode 6th season was abruptly dropped, it was thought that there was no way to properly conclude the series – the 5th season finale is about to go in front of the cameras and there would be little time to completely rework the script and alter the production schedule, and we’d end up with just an incomplete show.

But now Syfy and the producers have reached an agreement for one additional episode, which will give them time to wrap up the series. They are working on the script now, and as Berg said on Twitter, “we’re ALL writing it”.

Syfy’s popular series Haven will become the first television series to create a storyline that flows between the show itself and the micro-blogging service Twitter when it launches a special seven-episode arc beginning Friday, August 12, at 10PM (ET/PT).

“The Haven writers and producers have done an amazing job of crafting a story line that seamlessly moves between the TV show and Twitter,” said Craig Engler, General Manager and Senior Vice President, Syfy Digital. “Although there have been simple integrations before, no one has fully and organically integrated Twitter into the fabric of the show in the way Haven is doing. If you watch Haven and use Twitter, you’re in for a real treat.”
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[The following is a submitted article]

On the weekend of August 13 and 14, a new science-fiction event will be splashing down in London, and it will be presided over by Claudia Christian, who starred in “Babylon 5.”

The event will allow fans unrivaled access to all the genre stars that will be attending, many of whom are some of Claudia’s personal friends.

Proceeds from ClaudiaCon will go towards helping out BlESMA, that provides war veterans with prosthetic limbs and Guide Dogs, which provide seeing-eye dogs for the blind. Both of these are UK-based charities.
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After the odd short season order and speculation about cancellation afterwards for Eureka, from which Syfy backed off a bit, now comes news that Syfy’s canceled plans for that 6th season – which apparently leaves the show more or less canceled.

According to The Hollywood Reporter‘s James Hibberd, Syfy issued the following statement:

After painstaking consideration, we have had to make the difficult business decision to not order a season six of Eureka. But Eureka is not over yet. There is a new holiday episode this December and 12 stellar episodes set to debut next year, marking its fifth season and six memorable years on Syfy. The 2012 episodes are some of the best we’ve seen, and will bring this great series to a satisfying end. We are very grateful to Bruce Miller and Jaime Paglia, their team of incredible writers, and an amazing cast and crew who have consistently delivered a series we continue to be very proud of. We thank the fans for their support of this show and know they will enjoy its final season in 2012.

Syfy has not yet publicly released a statement. (Update: This is now Syfy’s official statement on the matter.)
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I’ve mentioned a bit about the finer details shown in the pilot episode of Falling Skies, especially for the location, in our First Look article. After all, when they are portraying the area you live in and you are generally a nitpicker (although I don’t let that spoil my enjoyment), you notice things.

The show is shot in the Toronto area, and has provided an architectural and landscape match for the areas of Acton, Concord and Littleton in Massachusetts. However I noticed that they appeared to avoid signage in the area. I wasn’t sure why, but different locations do tend to have uniqueness to their signs.
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The upcoming In Time looks very interesting. A touch of Logan’s Run, time – in the sense of how long you live – is a commodity which can be earned and traded.

When Will Salas is falsely accused of murder, he must figure out a way to bring down a system where time is money – literally – enabling the wealthy to live forever while the poor, like Will, have to beg, borrow, and steal enough minutes to make it through another day.

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The two-hour season finale of Falling Skies airs tonight on TNT, and tonight the stars will take to Twitter to chat and answer questions about the show live from 9PM-11PM ET/6PM-8PM PT.

Series star Noah Wyle, will be joined by cast members: Drew Roy, Sarah Sanguin Carter, Colin Cunningham, Connor Jessup and co-executive producer and writer Mark Verheiden. Wyle will tweet from the @fallingskiesTNT account with other cast members and Verheiden will use their personal Twitter accounts.

Falling Skies Twitter Handles:
Noah Wyle: @fallingskiesTNT
Drew Roy: @drew_roy
Sarah Sanguin Carter: @sanguin_carter
Colin Cunningham: @CunninghamColin
Conner Jessup: @ConnorJessup
Mark Verheiden: @MarkVerheiden

Fans can submit questions on Twitter via the #FSChat

So fans – and even cast – were caught by surprise by Deadline’s interpretation of the news that Syfy had commissioned a sixth series of Eureka – but for only 6 episodes, which Deadline took to mean that the series was wrapping up.

Well, the tweets were ablaze after that, with stars Colin Ferguson and Salli Richardson getting in on it, and Colin making phone calls. Since then, Syfy’s president of original programming, Mark Stern, released an official statement:

“Bruce Miller and Jaime Paglia have brought a creative vitality to Eureka that has kept it fresh and inventive. Although we do not have a commitment beyond six episodes for the sixth season, we are hopeful that this will not be the end of the franchise.”

So it seems that, like with any series, it could be the last episodes, there has been no definitive decision in that regard. For whatever reason the network and the producers could only agree on the 6 at this point, and it could be a way to tie up story lines in a way that it could be, but not necessarily be the end.

Even still, we have 19 more planned episodes (not including the rest of Season 4.5) including a holiday episode to look forward to!