Sci-Fi Storm

Check out the latest trailer for Disney’s Maleficent, which re-tells the Sleeping Beauty story from the point of view of the evil witch…this trailer blends some of the original movie’s animation with the re-spun live action scenes as well.
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So, how do you scare a guy who kills zombies all the time? Catch him a little off guard…

Norman Reedus, who plays zombie-killer Daryl Dixon The Walking Dead, was in Japan for a press junket promoting the second half of the season along with a number of other members of the cast and crew, including Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes) and makeup artist/producer Greg Nicotero. And while they were there, they decided to pull of a little prank on Norman…they invited Nick Santonastasso, who was born with no legs and only one arm and has been making a name for himself online for pranking people as a zombie, to come out to Tokyo with them, be put in full makeup, and then come out and scare Norman while he’s trying to shoot a short promo spot in front of a camera.

See the whole thing here…
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The Oscar nominations are out, and there were some sure things (like Gravity) and surprising snubs (Saving Mr. Banks only getting Original Score and Tom Hanks completely shut out). And of course, other than Gravity (which had Oscar star power to start), it is perhaps not surprising to not see genre movies get much appreciation – even with the expanded 10 film Best Picture slate, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug missed the cut.

Here is a roundup of the nominations of genre-related films and their nominations (forgive me if I miss some):

The Croods
Best animated feature film

Despicable Me 2
Best animated feature film
Original song – “Happy”

Frozen
Best animated feature film
Original song – “Let It Go”

Gravity
Sandra Bullock – Performance by an actress in a leading role
Cinematography
Directing
Film editing
Original score
Best picture
Production design
Sound editing
Sound mixing
Visual effects

Her
Original score
Original song – “The Moon Song”
Best picture
Production design
Original screenplay

The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug
Sound editing
Sound mixing
Visual effects

Iron Man 3
Visual effects

The Lone Ranger
Makeup and hairstyling
Visual effects

Star Trek Into Darkness
Visual effects

TV Line reports that Big Bang Theory producers Bill Prady and Steve Molaro said on the red carpet last night at the Golden Globes that they’ve signed James Earl Jones, best known as the booming voice of Darth Vader, and Princess Leia herself Carrie Fisher, to play themselves in cameo roles in an upcoming episode of the show where they will cross paths with Sheldon.

We know that Sheldon is a huge fan of That Other Franchise, but we’ve not seen a lot of Star Wars representation on the show. I wonder what reaction we’ll see?

In the meantime, The Hollywood Reporter is reporting on some of the names being bandied about as possibly up for roles in the upcoming Episode VII movie, including Michael Fassbender (X-Men: Days of Future Past), Hugo Weaving (The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix), Adam Driver (Girls) and Breaking Bad‘s Jesse Plemons.

But there is also this interesting nugget…that with the departure of Michael Arndt, who was originally writing the script which focused on the offspring the of the original trilogy’s main characters – Luke, Leia and Han, with them and the original actors taking supporting roles, J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan, who have taken over the writing, have rewritten the script to put the three back into the lead roles!

Apparently even George Lucas, who had given guidance at the start, has acquiesced to Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy, President of Lucasfilm.

Is this a good idea? I can see them perhaps using this film as a transition, launching the new characters forward, but I can’t see it working for three movies.

The fourth season of Game of Thrones will debut April 6th on HBO.
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Helix, Syfy’s highly anticipated new series from Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica), garnered robust numbers during its special 90-minute premiere on Friday, January 10 from 10-11:30PM (ET/PT), ranking as the #2 cable entertainment program among Adults 25-54 (893K) in its time period.

Helix also delivered 1.82 million total viewers and 734K Adults 18-49.

This represented Syfy’s best performance in the time period (Fridays at 10-11:30pm) in more than four years among total viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49.

As well, the 11:30PM encore delivered nearly one million total viewers (988K).

Powered by Helix’s debut, Syfy was the #2 cable entertainment network from 8-11PM (ET/PT).

Helix also set records across Syfy’s diverse digital platforms:

· Helix was Syfy.com’s best series premiere day ever in all key metrics, ranking as the #1 section of Syfy’s Digital Portfolio.
· Helix’s premiere was Syfy’s second most social scripted series premiere (behind only Defiance), outperforming recent competitive cable series premieres including BBCA’s Orphan Black, Showtime’s Masters of Sex and Starz’s The White Queen.
· Driven by Helix, the Syfy Now website and mobile app set records for full episode segment starts.
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Here is a transcript of the press call we had with Helix producer and showrunner Steve Maeda and star Kyra Zagorsky (Dr. Julia Walker)…its a rough transcript at this point, but I wanted to post it before the show’s debut in just a few minutes on the east coast, so read fast! Helix premieres tonight at 10/9c on Syfy with a special double-episode debut. And don’t forget our brief preview including the first 15 minutes…

[ I’ve removed most press members names, as they aren’t always accurate, and I want to distinguish who is asking the questions – a few I can identify will be listed – I was on the call but got in late so I didn’t get to ask any questions myself 🙁 ]

Q: Steve, the setting of being up in the Arctic really seems to work well for this kind of thing. It makes you think of, like, “The Thing,” and stuff like that. Kind of talk philosophically about why a setting like this works so well visually and emotionally for this kind of story.

Steve Maeda: Sure. It’s a setting that is great for us because it’s not the newest setting under the sun. It seems familiar enough, but I think we’re doing a pretty interesting spin on it.

And what works for us really well is that it lends itself to a very claustrophobic environment because you can go outside but only for brief periods of time. It’s really dangerous. The weather is horrible, as I’m sure people who are in the Midwest and the East Coast right now can relate to.

And what it does is it forces you to be inside most of the time and that’s how we really saw this. That’s how Cameron, who wrote the pilot script, really envisioned the thing to begin with, which was a contained environment, someplace, you know, it’s almost like being set on a spaceship where you’re trapped inside with, you know, unseen horrors and then there’re all sorts of human problems as well that develop from that. So it really lends itself to the series as a whole.
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While details of what is exactly going to be in it, Walt Disney World finally broke ground at its Animal Kingdom park to add the new land based on James Cameron’s Avatar – more than two years after it was announced.

And not only was Mickey Mouse present, but a Na’vi as well – as well as (pictured, l to r) George Kalogridis, president of Walt Disney World Resort; Meg Crofton, president of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Operations, United States and France; Tom Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts; Jon Landau, producer of Avatar; Bruce Vaughn, chief creative executive for Walt Disney Imagineering; and Joe Rhode, creative executive for Walt Disney Imagineering.

Check out the video as well for what they said about Avatar.
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Just learned from the official Game of Thrones Facebook page…Season 4 begins on April 6th at 9/8c on HBO!

And catch the debut of the trailer on HBO this Sunday at 8:58pm ET right before True Detective.

Finally, there are a few details about the upcoming Netflix series Sense8, from Andy and Lana Wachowski (The Matrix Trilogy) and showrunner J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5).

According to TV Line:

The sci-fi drama will focus on eight people scattered around the globe who are connected by a shared — violent — vision. (Because it’s never a vision of kittens, is it?) Each episode — shot in the UK, Seoul, Mumbai, Nairobi, Berlin, Mexico City, San Francisco and Chicago — will follow the characters’ separate stories, even as one entity tries to bring the octet together and another tries to kill them.

Among the regulars (as yet uncast) are: a closeted Mexican telenovela hunk, an Icelandic party girl, a German safe-cracker, a Korean businesswoman, an African bus driver and a transgender American blogger (a la Lana?). Perhaps most intriguing, though, are Jonas, an apparently magic African-American who appears to all of the “visionaries,” and his evil counterpart, Mr. Whispers (arguably the best-named villain since The X-Files’ Cigarette-Smoking Man).

With JMS running the show, I’m sure the story will be compelling and told well…next up, director and cast!