Sci-Fi Storm

Peter Jackson made a couple of announcements today: first, Wellington, New Zealand will host the world premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in late November 2012, and also that the Hobbiton set will remain standing and become a permanent tourist attraction once filming has been completed.

Trying to find the funds for the trip now…

Syfy Films, created last December as an offshoot of Syfy Ventures in partnership with Universal Pictures, made it’s first rights acquisition for George R.R. Martin’s anthology series Wild Cards, announced today by Syfy Films Senior Vice President of Production Gregory Noveck. Melinda Snodgrass (The Outer Limits, Star Trek: The Next Generation) will write the script, with herself and Martin exec producing.
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Pretty much as expected, Matt Smith countered last week’s rumor he was leaving Doctor Who after the next series (which suddenly exploded earlier this week with various sites saying he “confirmed” it, referencing the same report). I love playing this role, and I don’t want to give it up anytime soon,” he said. “I feel very lucky. In the current climate for actors, I’d never say, ‘This is too much’ – quite the opposite, in fact. I’d say, ‘Bring it on’.”

Again, it looks like more was read into his earlier statement than was intended. Still, it doesn’t mean that he’s under contract any longer than the next series either, so the future remains unclear…

Former The View and Today host Meredith Vieira is a guest on tonight’s Ghost Hunters, which airs at 9/8c on Syfy…while you wait, check out this clip with Meredith talking about believing in ghosts and being part of the investigation…

The off-and-on The Dark Tower project, based on the Stephen King book series, may have found a home for the TV portion of the multi-media production, according to an interview that Brian Grazer gave to MTV News. Reportedly going through a budget-slimming process after Universal balked at the price tag for a “3 movie and 2 TV series” plan (Grazer says they’ve already cut $45 million), at least the TV portion may land at HBO. “We’re going to do [‘The Dark Tower’] with HBO,” according to Grazer. “We’ll do the TV with HBO, and we’ll do the movie with… to be determined. We’ll do it right.”

No confirmation has come from HBO yet, but given that HBO greenlighted the ambitious Game of Thrones to excellent results, perhaps they can see the benefits beyond the risks. Meanwhile, Deadline reports that there is no deal actually in place.

Told you zombies were all the rage…AMC’s super-hit The Walking Dead has already been renewed for a third season, after only the second episode of the second season has aired.

We’ll see if they decide to fire anybody at the last minute this time 🙂

Henry and Will are looking for yet another abnormal, and have their guns out in front of them. That quickly changes to retreating while firing when they see what they’re trying to catch. Will is able to calm it down and gets it to retreat, but not after Henry is knocked against the wall and caught in some electric sparks. Be sure to watch the clip and tune in this Friday at 10/9c to see if Henry can join Will to minimize the damage.

“How many fingers?” “Tuesday.” “He’s going to be fine…”

How do you handle the origin of a World War II era propaganda comic character, make him believable to contemporary audiences, and also set him up for him to appear in the present-day superhero team film coming up? You do what they did in Captain America: The First Avenger, which is out on [sfs=1162]Blu-ray[/sfs], [sfs=1161]Blu-ray 3D[/sfs], and [sfs=1163]DVD[/sfs] next Tuesday, October 25th.
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Take this with a block of salt…SFX reports that during an interview with VH1, Matt Smith let slip that he only has a year left on Doctor Who. But it appears that it’s all in how you read it. When asked if he would think of staying in the U.S., his response was:

Well, hopefully soon, you know. I’ve got another year of Doctor Who, but then I’m certainly going to come and give it a shot – come and hang out in LA…

Now we know he’s committed to a seventh series. beyond that may not have even come up for discussion yet, the seventh series isn’t even in production yet and won’t apparently air for a year. So it doesn’t mean that he is definitely leaving – more like that when he does in fact leave, he’d consider moving to LA.

Vampires are so passé (well, we still love Being Human); Zombies are all the rage now. Even the CDC has a “Preparedness 101” comic on how to survive a zombie attack (seriously they do, although it is tongue-in-cheek). The Walking Dead is breaking records. Finally, zombies are coming to Syfy!

Zombie Apocalypse, starring Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible) and Taryn Manning (Hustle & Flow), debuts next Saturday, October 28th, at 9pm as a feature of the 31 Days of Halloween. Catch a sneak peek below, and never forget…just because it seems like you scared off a zombie, you probably didn’t…