Sci-Fi Storm

Looks like ol’ George has a sense of humor about some things…after trying to build a state of the art movie studio on land he owns in Marin County, CA near San Francisco, for the last 25 years but being blocked by his rich neighbors that don’t want a studio near them, George Lucas put up his hands as if to give up and say, “Have it your way.” But since the local homeowners association seem to have no problem with residential subdivisions, Lucas has a new plan – to create lots of affordable housing for either low-income families or seniors living on small, fixed incomes. And he’s accelerating the process by providing all the survey information done for the studio plan.

It remains to be seen if the homeowners association tries to come up with an objection to the new plan that doesn’t make them look bad.

NBC decided to drop what’s left of it’s bubble shows and pilots that it hadn’t already picked up, and that included freshman drama Awake, which failed in the ratings but did come on strong at the end.

Also, the previously mentioned ABC Beauty & The Beast pilot appears unlikely to get a pickup. This is different that the CW version starring Smallville‘s Kristin Kreuk, which is more of a remake of the 1980s series, which is still in contention.

ABC has just announced the renewal of freshman fantasy drama Once Upon A Time, among several scripted series. The first season finale airs this coming Sunday on ABC at 8/7c.

Star Wars Weekends starts a week from tomorrow at Walt Disney World, but some of the stars and characters are around a bit early…actress Ashley Eckstein, the voice of Ahsoka Tano, founder of Her Universe (awesome Star Wars and Syfy apparel and items for the female fans) and co-host of Star Wars Weekends, was around this past weekend signing pictures and selling merchandise. And it seems she found a rather persistent admirer…
(continue reading…)

On tomorrow night’s Grimm, a strange animal attack near a horrifying double homicide invokes the legend of “Bigfoot.” Tune in to NBC st 9/8c!
(continue reading…)

Check out this full trailer for the SF comedy movie Space Milkshake, starring Amanda Tapping (Stargate SG-1, Sanctuary), Robin Dunne (Sanctuary), Billy Boyd (The Lord of the Rings) and Kristin Kreuk (Smallville, Chuck), and written and directed by Armen Evrensel (The Zero Sum).

The style seems to remind of early Red Dwarf – and that’s a real good thing…release date to be determined.
(continue reading…)

To absolutely no one’s surprise, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced during today’s quarterly earnings call that a sequel to mega-hit The Avengers is already in development, but skipped over any details. He also re-iterated that Iron Man 3, Thor 2 and Captain America 2 are still on schedule.

He also mentioned that Disney’s Imagineers are also stepping up plans for Marvel-themed attractions for it’s DisneyParks division. However, Universal currently holds the rights to most of the top-line Marvel characters in the US east of the Mississippi for it’s theme parks in Orlando – so don’t expect anything other than merchandise to show up at Walt Disney World any time soon.

In next Monday’s Eureka, Jack starts swapping bodies uncontrollably and Allison must help before Carter’s consciousness disappears for good! This episode was directed by creator/producer Jaime Paglia and is star Colin Ferguson’s favorite of the 5th season. Check the preview video below, plus recaps from the last episode and a special featurette on “The Science of Eureka”, then tune in on Monday at 9/8c on Syfy to find out what happens next!
(continue reading…)

This is just amazing – a single guy, doing the theme to Star Wars theme, totally a cappella! And unlike video several years back where someone used his own face on an a capella group’s track where words were used, this is the actual theme…Nick McKaig also covers various other themes by multi-tracking himself to be his own group…not sure how he’d do it live though. 🙂
(continue reading…)

J. Michael Straczynski, creator of Babylon 5 and prolific writer of comic books and movies now, watched the first part of the second series of Steven Moffat’s Sherlock, after which he took to Facebook and Twitter to give praise. On Facebook he said:

After watching tonight’s Sherlock episode the only thing keeping me from getting out of the writing business is knowing it would bring joy to too many people. Goddamn that may be some of the best television I’ve ever seen…I’m doomed.

Then on Twitter, he addressed Steven Moffat directly:

straczynski: @steven_moffat I bow to a superior mind. You do stunning work. If I quit the business for fear of inadequacy it’s entirely your fault.

After which a bit of back-and-forth took place:

stevan_moffat: @straczynski Oh hello! How nice to meet you! Very kind – far TOO kind.

straczynski: @steven_moffat Not at all. Series 1 was amazing but tonight I paused it every half hour to digest just how stunningly great it was bravo.

stevan_moffat: @straczynski No pressure for series 3 then! Cake walk! Hope you keep enjoying.

straczynski: @steven_moffat Honestly one of the best things I’ve seen on TV. I’m in awe. You should be most proud.

This of course ignited a lot of tweets about getting JMS to write an episode of Sherlock, or even Doctor Who. Moffat didn’t respond to any of that, but when asked by another person if he’d write an episode of Who if asked by Moffat, JMS replied, “Totally.”