Sci-Fi Storm

Merlin returns next Friday, January 6th on Syfy! In this preview, qw Merlin struggling with his magic and finds himself being attacked by a mysterious skeletal ghost though luckily, one of Arthur’s men was able to ward it off by waving fire before him. Quickly, Arthur and his men come running behind and urges everyone to retreat to a safer place. Next, we see the mayhem back at the castle and we witness the ghost taking the life of a guard leaving Guenevere fearful and terrified. Tune-in to the Season Premiere of Merlin on Friday, January 6th to find out of Merlin can regain his powers to destroy the evil demon.
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In Friday’s season finale of Sanctuary, Henry enters the room carrying with him what appears to be a heavy piece of electronic equipment that was recovered outside the homeland district that he intends on studying to find out whats keeping everyone inside. Nikola quickly determines that he had single handily designed this little machine years before he was fired from SCU, which could contain almost any type of creature through pure electricity. Suddenly, they realize that a handful of these machines could produce enough energy to create an electrified web to destroy hundreds of bodies. Tune-in to the season finale tomorrow, as the team races to prevent the unleashing of a doomsday weapon.
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The 1953 George Pal version of The War of the Worlds has been named one of the 25 films that will be added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry, which lists films that are considered culturally, historically or aesthetically significant. Films so registered are then preserved by the LOC for future generations.

Another movie included is A Computer Animated Hand, a one minute short created by Ed Catmull as a grad student in 1972, which is one of the earliest examples of computer animation. Catmull would go on to co-found Pixar Animation Studios.

Other movies in this year’s class include Disney’s Bambi, Forrest Gump, The Kid (Charlie Chaplain’s first full-length feature), The Silence of the Lambs, and Stand and Deliver (an early starring role for Battlestar Galactica‘s Edward James Olmos).

Tracey Gold, the child actor who starred on Growing Pains in the 80s and then fought a public battle with anorexia to become a spokesperson for treating the disease, and starred in many TV movies, will join the cast of Arachnoquake, an upcoming Syfy Saturday original movie scheduled to premiere on Syfy in 2012.
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The last couple days have been busy for me but not for SF news, so Happy Holidays…and don’t forget if you’re getting any last minute gifts, or belated ones, head on over to [aml] via our link and help keep us running another year!

Don’t forget…Doctor Who Christmas night!

As usually, we’ll still be around the net so if anything major transpires, we’ll let you know!

According to Variety (paid subscription may be required), Harrison Ford is returning to space, having been confirmed for the role of Colonel Hyram Graff in Ender’s Game, based on Orson Scott Card’s novel and adapted and directed by Gavin Hood (X-Men Origins: Wolverine).

Graff is in charge of training at a military academy, which Andrew “Ender” Wiggin attends after showing an aptitude for military decision making, where the students are trained to help battle the insectoid Formics.

Make a lot of money on a movie, and everyone claims they came up with it. Make a bomb, and it’s all yours.

James Cameron is getting sued again over the profits from Avatar, and the most recent claimant according to TMZ is Bryant Moore, a science fiction writer, who alleges that Cameron stole ideas from two of his unproduced scripts, “Aquatica” and “Descendants: The Pollination”. According to TMZ, some of the similarities between his scripts and Avatar are “bioluminescent flora/plant life, unbreathable atmospheres, matriarch support of hero vs. heroine, spiritual connections to environment and reincarnation, appearance of mist in scene, sunlight to moonlight, crackling from gargantuan foliage, blue skin/green skin and battle scene on limbs/branches.”

Umm…wow. Mist in a scene? Really? Green skin was his idea? Hide the Orion slave girls…

All I can say is…YES. I’m going back to Middle-Earth.

In an interview with MTV (audio available here), director David Fincher talks about Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), along with some of his upcoming projects. Mentioned very briefly is the long-dormant Rendezvous With Rama (which we last mentioned in 2008, and it was pretty dead then), and it wasn’t a good mention. When asked if the interviewer should keep asking about it (around the 14:40 mark), he said, “You should drop that…it’s great, it’s just…a really hard, expensive movie…talk about having the bones have been picked clean by so many other stories.”

No decision has yet been made by Fox on the renewal of Terra Nova after last night’s 2-hour season finale, which fared slightly before last week’s season-low ratings by getting 7.2 million viewers, but to provide a little breathing room the producers are picking up the options on the contracts of series stars Jason O’Mara and Stephen Lang, and they are looking to pick up some heavyweight writers to help out with a second season. With some of the contract pressure off, Fox is expected to decide on its fate in January (and I suspect after some cost negotiations for the expensive show).