Sci-Fi Storm

Syfy’s Defiance starts production on its 13-episode second season next week on August 12th in Toronto.

The most ambitious project in Syfy’s 20-year history, and produced by Universal Cable Productions, season one of Defiance delivered an average of 1.5 million viewers 18-49 and 3.2 million total viewers, ranking as the second-highest Syfy scripted original to date among total viewers based on Live +7 data (behind Warehouse 13 in September 2009). The season one finale on July 8 earned a solid 1.6 million viewers 18-49 and 3.4 million total viewers. .

Grant Bowler returns as Nolan, along with Julie Benz as Amanda Rosewater, Stephanie Leonidas as Irisa Nolan, Tony Curran as Datak Tarr, Jaime Murray as Stahma Tarr, Graham Greene as Rafe McCawley and Jesse Rath as Alak Tarr. The cast also features Dewshane Williams as Tommy, Trenna Keating as Doc Yewll, Justin Rain as Quentin McCawley and Nicole Munoz as Christie McCawley.

As the story of Defiance resumes, the lives of the townspeople are in drastic turmoil. The Earth Republic has assumed control of the town, with far-reaching consequences including a new mayor. Nolan traverses the badlands to find a lost Irisa, Amanda has an unexpected new role in the town as she searches for Kenya and the Tarr family desperately tries to keep control of their criminal empire in the midst of dramatic changes.

James Murray joins the cast in the integral role of Pottinger, the new mayor of Defiance. Appointed by the Earth Republic, Pottinger is shrewd, polished and charming; he quickly wins the trust of most people he meets. But his civilized veneer hides a ruthless pragmatist who traffics in information and secrets, and mercilessly punishes those who defy him. Pottinger sees people as tools to be exploited or prizes to be won; his latest object of desire is ex-mayor Amanda (Benz). Born in Manchester, England, Murray found initial fame in ITV’s soap opera Coronation Street as Sandy Hunter. He has starred in numerous British film and television pieces including the popular BBC series New Tricks. He also appeared on the NBC series Beautiful People and CBS’s Chaos.

Kevin Murphy (Desperate Housewives, Caprica) resumes his role as executive producer and showrunner. Smallville’s Darren Swimmer and Todd Slavkin return as executive producers for season two and Michael Taylor serves as consulting producer. Michael Nankin (co-executive producer) is set to direct the season two opener.

A first-rate production team returns, including visual effects supervisor Gary Hutzel (Battlestar Galactica, Caprica), whose work has earned Defiance a 2013 Emmy nomination, alien language and culture consultant David J. Peterson (Game of Thrones) and music supervisor Bear McCreary (The Walking Dead, Battlestar Galactica).

Season two of Defiance is set to premiere on Syfy in June 2014. The series is an unprecedented partnership between Syfy and Trion Worlds and the first-ever convergence of television and online gaming, featuring an interconnected world and storylines that co-exist on both platforms.

If you’d like to get a view of the set, check out our article, “A Day on the Set of Defiance”.

BREAKING: The Twelfth Doctor for Doctor Who will be a bit older – actor Peter Capaldi was just announced on the live BBC One/BBC America program.

Torchwood fans will recognize him as John Frobisher, the Home Office Secretary who dealt with the return of the 456 in Torchwood: Children of Earth.

In an interesting and perhaps prophetic note, Peter Capaldi’s character in World War Z is credited as “W.H.O. Doctor”.

Peter has appeared previously on Doctor Who. He played Caecilius in the episode “Fires of Pompeii”, which also featured a future Doctor Who regular…Karan Gillan.

Peter’s biggest role up to now was probably the role of Malcolm Tucker in In The Loop, the UK Prime Minister’s chief spin doctor.

Every fan of Star Trek knows who actor Michael Ansara was…he played the Klingon commander Kang in the episode “Day of the Dove”, and then reprised the role not once but twice, on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. Ansara passed away Wednesday at the age of 91.

You’ve probably seen him in many other things as well, with his distinctive face and voice…just in the SF and fantasy realm, Ansara had guest roles in Babylon 5, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (as Kane, Princess Ardala’s right-hand man, replacing the original actor from the pilot), Lost In Space (as the father of a young Kurt Russell), Land of the Giants, The Outer Limits and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea as well as the 1961 movie – overall, he has 189 different titles to his credit. In the late 50s, he had starring roles playing Native Americans in the series Broken Arrow and Law of the Plainsman.

He received a star on the Walk of Fame in 1960. He was also married to I Dream of Jeannie‘s Barbara Eden for sixteen years.

BREAKING: BBC America announced that they will reveal who will play the Twelfth Doctor on a live TV special, airing simultaneously on BBC One in the UK and BBC America in the US.

DOCTOR WHO LIVE: THE NEXT DOCTOR SPECIAL TO AIR LIVE THIS SUNDAY ON BBC AMERICA

What: The next Doctor of BBC AMERICA’s hit series Doctor Who will be announced during a live special this Sunday afternoon.

When: Sunday, August 4, 2 pm ET LIVE on BBC AMERICA and BBC One in the U.K.

Who: Widely regarded as one of the most hotly contested roles in British television, the special’s host Zoe Ball will unveil the Twelfth Doctor in their first-ever interview in front of a live studio audience. The half-hour show will include live special guests, Doctors old and new, as well as companions and celebrity fans. Current Doctor Matt Smith and lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat will both give interviews in the special.

Steven Moffat says: “The decision is made and the time has come to reveal who’s taking over the TARDIS. For the last of the Time Lords, the clock is striking twelve.”

Matt Smith will make his penultimate appearance in the 50th Anniversary special on Saturday, November 23, and his Eleventh Doctor will regenerate in the Christmas Special. Doctor Who is produced by BBC Cymru Wales.

In tomorrow night’s Continuum, Julian is released. Kiera can stop his rise to power, but the only way to do it is with a bullet.

Tune in Friday at 10/9c for “Seconds” on Syfy!
(continue reading…)

It appears that we won’t get two sequels to Avatar – we’ll get three.

According to Deadline, the plan is now for three sequels to be developed and produced simultaneously, an extremely ambitious plan and one that could have a price tag topping $1 billion – but given the original grossed over $2.8 billion to become the top grossing film of all time, it seems a pretty safe bet for 20th Century Fox.

To get things moving, James Cameron has actually set four writers to work: Josh Friedman (War of the Worlds, The Black Dahlia) will write one, Shane Salerno (Armageddon) will write another, and the last will be done by the team of Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), all in collaboration with Cameron.

Production is expected to begin next year, with yearly releases starting in December 2016.

Update: Sort of a false alarm…but we did get the announcement about the announcement…

Previously:
According to the Radio Times, any moment now we might be hearing a special announcement from the BBC about Doctor Who – and everyone is expecting to find out who the next Doctor will be.

Midnight (UK) seems a strange time to make that announcement, but if true we should find out in the next hour.

Who could be the next Doctor? Apparently the British betting parlors, where you can pretty much bet on anything, apparently believe the odds-on favorite at the moment is actor Peter Capaldi, who currently appears in World War Z but fans of the franchise would recognize him from Torchwood: Children of Earth as Home Office Secretary John Frobisher. He’s an older chap, currently 55, so it would be a switch since the return of Doctor Who…right now I’m not picturing him with the personality to pull it off, but I’ve said that about every new Doctor since Peter Davison…

Syfy has announced that it will air the third season of the popular time traveling police series Continuum. The #1 original cable drama in its Friday 10PM time period, Continuum will return to the network in 2014 with 13 all-new episodes.

Currently airing season two, which concludes on Friday, August 30, Continuum ranks as the #1 original cable drama in its time slot among Adults 18-49, Adults 25-54 and total viewers. Based on Live +7 data, the series is currently averaging 728K Adults 18-49, 836K Adults 25-54 and 1.8 million total viewers, up 21 percent, 18 percent, and 21 percent, respectively, from season one.

Continuum stars Rachel Nichols as Kiera Cameron, a cop from the future who finds herself trapped in the present day, swept along when a group of fanatical terrorists escaped their planned execution in 2077 by vaulting back in time.

Continuum co-stars Victor Webster (Castle, Melrose Place) as detective Carlos Fonnegra and Erik Knudsen (Jericho, Scream 4), who plays teen tech genius Alec Sadler.

Executive producers of Continuum are series creator Simon Barry (The Art of War), Pat Williams (Smallville), and Tom Rowe (Tin Man). Continuum is a Showcase original series and is produced by Reunion Pictures in association with Shaw Media.