Sci-Fi Storm

J. Michael Straczynski has been teasing about some announcement Saturday at his spotlight session at SDCC on his Facebook page – he’s calling it a “meeting of the clans”, referring to the fans of his rather diverse work, from comics to Babylon 5 to movies, and this might not be what he is alluding to (will I have any spies at SDCC? Alas, I can’t attend yet again 🙁 ), but STARZ announced a couple of series in development, one of which he is involved with. [Edit: See the next article]

The first project, titled Incursion, comes from Spartacus creator Steven S. DeKnight and is described as “an epic science fiction action-thriller that follows a squad of soldiers caught in a war against a hostile alien race. Each season the battle will be fought on a new, exotic planet as humanity punches deeper into enemy territory. Grittily realistic combat, darkly complex characters and intrigue on a cosmic scale will permeate the tale of fighting men and women facing the pressures of war and an enemy unlike any ever seen.”

In the second, JMS is teaming with horror master Roy Lee (The Ring, The Strangers, The Woman in Black) and producer Rob Tapert (Spartacus, Xena: Warrior Princess, Evil Dead) to develop Vlad Dracula, a unique spin of the classic tale, blending the historical facts of the 15th century Prince of Wallachia, with the fictional Dracula whose story is known around the world and continues to fascinate audiences. “Vlad Dracula” traces his evolution from a revered ruler to the world’s most feared vampire, and his slow downfall as he struggles desperately to hang on to his humanity, his wife and his kingdom.

Carmi Zlotnik, Managing Director of STARZ, called all 4 of them “legendary talents, having created some of the most groundbreaking and iconic television series with incredibly passionate fan bases the world over.”

TNT has given an early pickup order for a third season of hit drama Falling Skies, consisting of 10 episodes to air in 2013. TNT is currently about halfway through the second season of the show, which stars Noah Wyle as a history teacher turned resistance fighter with the 2nd Massachusetts Regiment, fighting off alien invaders while trying to discover what it is they want.

Series stars Noah Wyle, Moon Bloodgood, Will Patton, Drew Roy, Connor Jessup, Colin Cunningham and Sarah Carter will be appearing along with executive producer Rene Aubuchon at San Diego Comic-Con for a panel moderated by Wil Wheaton on Friday, July 13th, at 4:30pm PT in room 6BCF at the San Diego Convention Center if you are attending.

From the press release:
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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).

The Hollywood Reporter interviewed filmmaker Dean Devlin, who also currently is the executive producer and director on TNT’s Leverage – and it seems that with Devlin re-uniting with partner Roland Emmerich, who together created Stargate and Independence Day, sequels to both movies are still possible.

Having resisted the idea of an ID4 sequel for 16 years despite its box office success, he things they’ve got the right concept. “I feel like we got it,” he said. “I think it took a long time, but I feel like we finally got something that really feels like, ‘that’s worth seeing as a sequel to Independence Day.’ ”

And it appears they are already talking to the cast about possibly returning.

As for Stargate, “Stargate has always had this empty hole,” he confessed. “When we made the first one, we always intended on doing part two and three, and we were prevented for years. And our hope is that we can get another chance at Stargate and tell the entire story we wanted to tell.” I presume “prevented” means that while the TV franchise was active, MGM wouldn’t entertain the idea of movies that were outside the the universe established the series. But we’ve heard this from Devlin before – just a few days more than a year ago – so we’ll wait and see.

Warehouse 13 return in just a couple weeks on July 23rd, but here is a tease to whet your appetite…

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Gateworld reports several new castings for roles in the Canadian Primeval spinoff, Primeval: New World, which will air on SPACE in Canada but has no reported U.S. outlet yet. Chief among them is Eureka‘s Colin Ferguson (Sheriff Jack Carter), who will re-unite with his Eureka co-star Niall Matter in and unspecified role, along with a number of Stargate franchise alums.

Lexa Doig, who appeared as Dr. Carolyn Lam in several episodes of Stargate SG-1 but is perhaps best remembered as Andromeda/Rommie in Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda (and in real life is married to Stargate SG-1‘s Michael Shanks), will reportedly appear as a doctor in the two-part finale. She has most recently been playing Sonya Valentine in the Canadian SF series Continuum.

Stargate Universe‘s Louis Ferriera (Colonel Everett Young) will appear in the last three episodes as Colonel Henderson Hall, who will come into conflict with Evan Cross (Matter).

And fellow SGU alum Patrick Gilmore (Dale Volker) will also appear as a local entrepreneur named Blake in Episode 4.

Disney will pass $1 billion in domestic gross receipts for it’s movies this year faster than any other studio and faster than it’s best previous year – in only 188 days.

The Avengers was a big part of that, grossing over $600 million alone so far, outpacing even The Hunger Games this year. The Avengers come out on [sfs=1249]Blu-ray[/sfs] and [sfs=1250]DVD[/sfs] September 25th. We managed to catch The Avengers while on a cruise – it was an extremely fun movie to watch. Sure, there were plot holes, etc. but it was just fun!

All 4 Indiana Jones adventures: Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Temple of Doom, The Last Crusade and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, will be released all on Blu-ray in the [sfs=1243]Indiana Jones: The Complete Adventures set[/sfs] on September 18th, 2012 – marking the first time that the first three movies will be released on Blu-ray, and includes a specially remastered version of Raiders of the Lost Ark!

From the press release:
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After 266 days of shooting, Peter Jackson announced on his Facebook page on Thursday that they have completed principal photography for The Hobbit, and will be heading in to start editing – although with a side trip to Comic-Con!