Sci-Fi Storm

In Monday’s all-new Being Human, Sally enlists an old friend to solve a mystery while Josh & Nora get a glimpse of what could be. Plus, a werewolf baby?! In this sneak peek, see what Aidan’s sweet dreams are made of. Tune in for “Panic Womb”, Monday at 9/8c on Syfy! And don’t forget to check out the extras below as well!
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And you thought Ben Affleck as Batman seemed odd at first…but Jesse Eisenberg, best know for playing the geek who turned “The Facebook” into the web page no one seems to do without, has signed on to play megalomaniac and Superman’s arch enemy Lex Luthor in the upcoming Batman vs. Superman flick. But perhaps a younger Luthor isn’t so surprising – Eisenberg and Henry Cavill are both 30, and Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) is 28. Affleck is actually the senior member of the comic superheroes/villains at 41, with Amy Adams (Lois Lane) at a very lovely 39. So it appears the whole DC Universe is being skewed younger.

Following that shift, Alfred, the butler/background mentor for Bruce Wayne/Batman, makes a similar shift with Jeremy Irons at 65 taking over the role last played by Michael Caine, who is 15 years his senior, and the late Michael Gough (the only real constant in the original Batman films in the 90s) was 73 when he first played the role. However, Alan Napier, who played Alfred in the original 1960s camp series, was only 63 when he took the role.

It may be the slowest executive shakeup, but it seems to still be happening…after Universal Cable Productions/Syfy’s Mark Stern departed in November, Syfy seemed to be relatively untouched since while Universal’s parent company Comcast continues its reorganization of roles in the company, at least until today.

Tom Lieber, who oversaw project development at Syfy for Universal Cable Productions, appears to be following Stern into an producer role for a TV series for Syfy, in the case the upcoming Dominion, leaving his role at the corporate level, and heading to South Africa where the series is being filmed.

Dawn Parouse Olmstead was named a few weeks ago as the Executive Vice President of Development at Universal Cable Productions, overseeing all development for the cable networks.

While Helix might have been a bit soft at the start, it certainly appears to be picking up momentum. And with the shocking end of episode 4, it certainly seems to be making surges. Helix is setting DVR records for Syfy, leaping 82% among Adults 18-49 (1.34 million), 74% in Adults 25-54 (1.55 million) and 64% in total viewers (3.0 million) for the premiere on January 10 – the largest increases ever for a Syfy scripted series in L7 viewing.

Helix also rose 102% in Adults 18-34 (454K), while posting strong gains among women viewers, up 85% in Women 18-49 (541K), 73% in Women 25-54 (649K) and 232% in Women 18-34 (166K).

The series also grew 81% among Men 18-49 (797K) and 75% in Men 25-54 (903K).

Ready to find out what’s in “The White Room”? What star Catherine Lemieux has to say about last week’s episode? And all the moments that made us go, “What the hell?” Check out these videos…
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Good news whether you are a member of the Guard or avoiding the Troubles…Syfy has renewed Haven for a fifth season, but not just that, it’s supersized the order, asking for a “full season” of 26 episodes this time around – the biggest season for Haven yet, after having posted gains in the Adults 18-34 and Adults 18-49 demos last year. The season will be split, with production to begin this Spring and 13 episodes to air this fall, with the remaining 13 to air in 2015.

Tallying its best season ever in social mentions and Twitter activity, Haven’s recently wrapped fourth season was up 11% among Adults 18-34 (314,000) and up 3% year-to-year among Adults 18-49 (926,000). Overall, Haven averaged 1.1 million Adults 25-54 and 2.3 million viewers per week and ranked second in Adults 18-49 and Adults 25-54 among original cable series in its Friday 10PM ET/PT time slot. (All data Live +7).

Series stars Emily Rose, Lucas Bryant and Eric Balfour will reprise their roles of Audrey Parker, Nathan Wournos and Duke Crocker, respectively. Production on 26 all-new episodes is set to begin on location in Halifax, Nova Scotia this spring.
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Another classic sci-fi story looks to be getting a modern big-screen retelling…Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire director Mike Newell has signed on to direct a big-screen adaptation of the book by John Wyndham, about life after a strange meteor shower leaves most of the world’s population blind, and those that can still see dealing with a widespread infestation of mysterious aggressive and mobile plants called triffids.

The book has previously been turned into a film in 1962, a television serial, several radio adaptations, a comic series and most recently a BBC mini-series in 2009.

Universal Orlando Resort is finally telling the world some the details about the expansion everyone knew was going – the expansion of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Some of the details we basically knew, but others are a surprise – and the expansion is so big, they haven’t even revealed all the details yet, so there will be more surprises yet to come.

In advance of their “A Celebration of Harry Potter” event which starts tomorrow and goes through the weekend, Universal spilled the beans on details about the expansion, which brings the Harry Potter experience over to its other park, Universal Studios Florida, and connects the two via a ride on the Hogwarts Express. They even kicked it off with a webcast, featuring some of the stars of the movies: James Phelps (Fred Weasley), Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom), and Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood):

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Programming alert: Syfy will be swapping the time slots for Bitten and Lost Girl on Monday nights starting next Monday January 27th. Bitten will now air at 8/7c, while Lost Girl returns to the 10/9c slot. Being Human will remain in the 9/8c slot between the two.

Now that Barry Allen has been left in a coma after being splashed with chemicals and radiation in an explosion on Arrow, it’s time to start thinking about the upcoming pilot for spin-off series The Flash. While originally there were to be three episodes featuring the character, played by Grant Gustin, with the third occurring at the end of the season and to be a backdoor pilot (a pilot filmed as an episode of another series or a standalone movie, that the network may pick up as a series later), it was decided instead to give the show a standalone pilot instead (it is unknown if Allen will appear again this season on Arrow.) This will allow the introductory episode to lead directly in to a series rather than have a delay between the introduction and the start of the series.

So, now you need to come up with a new cast to work with Gustin…first in line is Jesse L. Martin, who played Detective Ed Green on Law & Order for many years. And he will have a familiar role as well – playing a detective. Martin’s character is Detective West, described as an “honest, blue collar cop” who will be a father figure to the young Allen.

Lawsuits seem to never end in Hollywood, but these might be on life support…

In the never-ending battle between the estate of Joe Shuster and Warner Bros. over rights to the character of Superman, it may have finally reached a conclusion (barring an escalation to the Supreme Court) after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied petitions by the estate for a rehearing and a rehearing en banc (by the whole court instead of a panel of judges), which essentially marks the end of the road for appeals, and a top court challenge seems unlikely.

While Avatar hasn’t been around nearly as long as Superman, it seems to make up for the long line of people suing James Cameron claiming it lifted their ideas, although one by one they get tossed aside (here is the most recent one we reported on.) Now another one gets tossed aside. Bryant Moore’s $2.5 billion lawsuit against Cameron, 20th Century Fox and Lightstorm Entertainment was dismissed in summary judgement yesterday. The court said that while “certain limited commonalities” existed between Avatar and Moore’s screenplays he says were submitted to Cameron’s Lightstorm in 1993 and 1994, Cameron provided “a comprehensive declaration that specifically addresses Moore’s allegations and points to past projects and other sources of inspiration from which he drew in writing Avatar.”