Sci-Fi Storm

Stock up on your Jelly Babies! The Express is reporting that Tom Baker has been approached to participate in whatever form the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who takes.

Tom Baker famously owned the role for a record 7 years, becoming the most well known and loved of all the actors that have played the role. However, after leaving the role in 1981, ceding it to Peter Davison, he famously shunned the 20th anniversary episode, “The Five Doctors”. There have been a variety of stories as to why, but it generally seemed at the time that he just wanted to distance himself from the role. He did agree to do a publicity photoshoot, but didn’t show up, and was replaced by a waxwork model borrowed from Madame Tussaud’s in London, which they had on standby – reportedly producer John Nathan-Turner had suspected he might not show. Baker did appear in the episode, however, but from unused footage from the incomplete episode “Shada” (along with Lalla Ward’s Romana). He later said he regretted not appearing in person in the episode.

More recently he has more readily embraced the role, lending his voice to Big Finish audio stories starting in 2009 and a new series of audio stories that started release this year.

The movie adaptation of the third and final book of the Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay, was given release dates today by Lionsgate, showing that the movie will in fact be split into two parts, with part one being released on November 21st, 2014 (a year less a day from the first sequel, Catching Fire), followed by part two a year later on November 20th, 2015.

The original movie, The Hunger Games, comes out on [asin=B0084IG7KC]Blu-ray[/asin] and [asin=B0084IG8TM]DVD[/asin] on August 18th.

In addition, the rumored casting of Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was confirmed this week. He will play the role of Head Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee in Catching Fire, replacing the character of Seneca Crane (Wes Bentley).