Sci-Fi Storm

Lots of Defiance news, and I haven’t even talked about they sets!

Brian J. Smith is set to guest star in an episode of Syfy’s groundbreaking series, Defiance, set to premiere April 2013. Smith will portray Gordon McClintock, a NASA hero from the pre-Arkfall days who was presumed dead following a space station catastrophe in 2013. The astronaut is discovered to still be alive when he is revived from an induced sleep, and is overcome with shock and disbelief at the dangerous new world of Defiance.

Originally from Dallas, Texas, Smith is a graduate of the four-year acting program at The Julliard School in New York City. Smith starred in the Syfy original series Stargate Universe and the Syfy original movie Red Faction. He also starred in the 2009 feature film The War Boys, written by award-winning playwright Naomi Wallace and Bruce McLeod, and appeared in the 2009 thriller Redhook. His additional television credits include Poirot : Murder on the Orient Express and a guest star role on NBC’s Law and Order. Smith also appeared on Broadway in Come Back, Little Sheba opposite S. Epatha Merkerson, and, off-Broadway, in Good Boys and True, and Three Changes, opposite Dylan McDermott and Maura Tierney.

An unprecedented collaboration between Syfy and Trion Worlds, Defiance is the first-ever convergence of television and online gaming, featuring an interconnected world and storylines that will co-exist throughout a scripted drama series and a multiplatform online shooter. Produced by Universal Cable Productions, both the series and the game will debut simultaneously in April 2013.
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Apparently while we were having dinner with Syfy executives and talent (I was with Being Human‘s Meaghan Rath and her brother, Defiance‘s Jesse Rath), Syfy released the trailer for Defiance! If you’re following development of the show, you’ve probably seen it, but in case you haven’t, here it is below.

I can tell you, EVERYONE is excited about this show!
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Syfy announced yesterday that Being Human will return on Monday, January 14th, taking the 9/8c time slot, and that Kristen Hager, who plays Nora and I had the great fortune to meet Sunday, will return as a series regular, joining Sam Witwer, Meaghan Rath, and Sam Huntington for 13 episodes.

Season 2 ended with Aidan (Sam Witwer) buried alive as punishment from vampire leader Mother, Sally (Meaghan Rath) lost in a state of limbo, and Josh’s (Sam Huntington) plot to kill his Maker Ray, endangering Nora instead.

The new season also features a stellar lineup of new and returning guest stars including: Mark Pellegrino (Lost, Revolution) as Aidan’s vampire mentor Bishop; Amy Aquino (Harry’s Law, ER) as Donna, a witch whose supernatural spells are sought out to help find Sally; Xander Berkeley (Nikita) as Liam, father of purebred werewolf twins who is intent on locating his missing children; Bobby Campo (Final Destination) as Max, a young mortician who develops a connection with Sally; and Kyle Schmid (Copper/The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) returning as Aidan’s vampire protégé/”son” Henry.

Season 2 of Syfy’s Being Human delighted both fans and new viewers seeing its audience increase over its first season. This year the show averaged 2.115 million viewers per week (10% over Season 1) and also increased double digits in key demos: 1.27 million Adults 18-49 (+19%) and 1.28 million Adults 25-54 (+23%).

Being Human is a Muse Entertainment production in association with ZODIAK USA and is based on the acclaimed series created by Toby Whithouse and produced by Touchpaper. Executive producers are Michael Prupas (The Kennedys, Pillars of the Earth), Anna Fricke (Men in Trees, Everwood) who is both writer and showrunner, and Rob Pursey and Toby Whithouse. Irene Litinsky (Human Trafficking, The Phantom) is series producer.

I’m in Toronto for the Syfy Digital Press Tour, and will be visiting the sets of Defiance and Warehouse 13. I’ll be tweeting and taking pictures via Instagram (user scifistorm) as much as possible. And you can also see tweets from myself and other press members below.

Got questions for the cast and crew? Tweet me (@scifistorm) and include the hashtag #syfytour and I will try and ask it during the panel!

Dinner shortly with the Syfy execs and the casts of Haven and Being Human!
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Fans of Summer Glau (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Firefly) and Syfy’s high-octane hit-series Alphas will get a double dose of the actress as she returns as Alpha Skylar Adams in the final two episodes of the season beginning this Monday, October 15 at 8PM ET/PT. The thrilling and shocking second season finale of Alphas airs Monday, October 22nd at 8PM ET/PT.

In the season’s penultimate episode, “Need to Know”, Dr. Rosen (David Strathairn) kidnaps and interrogates an Alpha prisoner forcing the team to wonder how far Rosen will go to avenge the death of his daughter Dani. Meanwhile, Harken (Malik Yoba) and Gary (Ryan Cartwright), desperately search for Skylar Adams (Glau), only to discover that Stanton Parish (recurring guest star John Pyper-Ferguson) has imprisoned her in a twisted form of captivity.

In the Season 2 finale, “God’s Eye”, separated from his team and haunted by vivid hallucinations of his daughter, Dani (guest star Kathleen Munroe), an increasingly desperate Dr. Rosen seeks a final confrontation with malevolent Alpha leader Stanton Parish. Meanwhile, his team of Alphas, with Skylar’s help, battles both the clock and their issues of mutual distrust to try and thwart Parish’s deadly plans.

It was announced at NY Comic-Con that Valiant Entertainment and Sean Daniel (The Mummy) will team with J. Michael Straczynski to adapt Valiant Comics’ Shadowman into a feature film, with JMS writing the script.

Shadowman has sold millions of comics and was adapted as “Shadow Man” for Acclaim’s video game franchise which likewise sold millions of copies, and follows (in the original story) the character who is one day attacked and barely escapes, but then discovers that at night he has supernatural abilities and a desire to rid the world of demons that stalk the night.

Wow.

The following video shows the storyboarded scene that was never filmed for the mid-season finale of Doctor Who, which addressed the long-rumored departure of the Ponds, and was to feature Mark Williams playing Brian Williams (yes, Mr. Williams played Mr. Williams).

Mr. Moffat, please film this and get it included on the DVDs, NOW. THIS scene has the emotional impact that seemed to be lacking.
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Well, as previously thought, the NBC Munsters reboot Mockingbird Lane is dead. At least mostly dead.

NBC has decided to air the already-produced pilot, however, as one-hour TV special ob Friday, October 26th, at 8/7c, as a lead-in to a Halloween-themed episode of Grimm.

The pilot, produced by Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies), stars Jerry O’Connell (Herman Munster), Portia de Rossi (Lily Munster) and Eddie Izzard (Grandpa), and reportedly cost $10 million to make. A series is still possible but is considered a huge longshot, and would depend on massive ratings – and if the network wants that, they’d better start pushing the publicity bandwagon.

Stan Lee Media, Inc. (which isn’t really related to Stan Lee himself, since the company filed for bankruptcy back in 2001), is swinging for the fences. The company filed a $5.5 BILLION lawsuit against Disney, claiming that Disney does not actually own the rights to Stan Lee’s creations, and therefore want all the profits from the massive movie hits that Marvel, and now Disney since they acquired Marvel in 2009, plus a declaration of full control over the characters. This directly affects the Spider-Man, Iron Man and X-Men franchises, and several characters in The Avengers.

This appears to be a continuation of lawsuits that started back in 2007. SLMI claims that when the company was formed, Stan Lee assigned all rights to his characters to the company. But later on, Lee assigned the rights to Marvel, the company he originally created and published all those characters. It all hinges on what Lee actually gave to SLMI – was SLMI created to work on new properties, or to administer the old ones?

In this Friday’s all-new Grimm, an unsettling murder scene leads Nick and Hank to what looks like a bitter custody battle. Tune in Friday at 9/8c to NBC!

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