Sci-Fi Storm

Syfy announced that it will acquire the second season of Canadian import werewolf series Bitten from Entertainment One, which will premiere in 2015 with 10 new episodes.

The show, based on the Women Of The Otherworld series of novels from Kelley Armstrong, stars Laura Vandervoort (Smallville), a lone female werewolf trying to live a normal life when she’s recalled to her pack to help against an unknown enemy.

It’s been a long time in the works, but Stargate will finally get a reboot, with original creators Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich returning to take the reins.

Devlin and Emmerich have always wanted to finish the story they started in the original Stargate movie, with ideas for two more movies. But MGM, who owned the rights, eventually decided on a different direction, instead opting for a TV series that didn’t involve either Devlin or Emmerich, which bloomed into a successful franchise.

Most recently Emmerich spoke of the idea of rebooting it altogether, with the plan to do all three movies with new actors given how much time has passed since the original. Now that appears to be the plan, with the announcement that MGM and Warner Bros. will team up to create whole new re-imagined trilogy, with Devlin and Emmerich back in charge.

The first of four planned serialized event series as part of a master plan between Netflix and Marvel will be Daredevil, a 13 episode series that recently signed a showrunner in Steven S. DeKnight (Smallville, Spartacus), and may have found their superhero star in Charlie Cox (Boardwalk Empire).

Deadline reports that Cox is likely to take on the mantle of the blind superhero Daredevil, otherwise known as Matt Murdock. Cox has been a hot commodity, with CBS trying to give him a series lead with two straight pilots, but neither have been picked up. Reportedly he hasn’t been announced for the role yet because he hasn’t officially been released from the last pilot.

This won’t be the first live action Daredevil however – it was infamously made into a feature film in 2003 starring Ben Affleck in the title role, and was pretty much universally panned by critics and fans. Prior to that, Rex Smith portrayed the character in 1989’s The Trial of the Incredible Hulk, a TV movie continuation of the TV series. It is also famous – it marked the first appearance of Stan Lee in a cameo in a Marvel adaptation, starting a long tradition…

TNT has given the green light to a series based on The Librarian TV movies that starred Falling Skies‘ Noah Wylie, and Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s Jonathan Frakes will return to direct several episodes in the 10-episode order.

In an interview with StarTrek.com, Frakes, who directed the second and third installments of the the TV movies, said, “We’re in Portland shooting a new show based on the movies that I did with Noah Wyle, Bob Newhart, Jane Curtin and Olympia Dukakis. Dean Devlin shot the two-hour pilot and I’ll be directing three of the 10 episodes.”

As for the cast, Noah Wylie will return for the premiere but will not stay. “Noah is in the two-hour pilot and then he’ll be recurring over the season, probably in two other episodes close to the end of the season,” Frakes said. “Noah’s character (Flynn Carsen) has passed the torch to these other librarians, mostly because Noah is still doing Falling Skies for TNT.

“Bob Newhart is back, too, and his scenes will be filmed in L.A. It’s a great group, a lot of the same people that I worked with on Leverage and The Librarian movies. So you know what you’re getting.”

Added to the cast will be Rebecca Romijn (X-Men), Christian Kane (Leverage) and John Larroquette (Night Court).

The CW may have canceled Star-Crossed with all the humans unconscious leaving the survival of humanity in doubt, but fear not – you can find out what was planned for the not-happening Season 2, thanks to an interview by Zap2It with series creator Meredith Averill. So there is some help to closure for the show – most simply are never heard from again with plans unknown, leaving viewers wondering.

Of course, if you were a fan of that show, or any other show canceled before a planned ending, and hope beyond hope that another network would pick it up…it’s very, VERY hard for that to happen. First, remember – it’s been canceled by a network already. That means that the viewership (which the advertisers pay for, which in turn pays for the show) wasn’t sufficient to support the cost of the show. It would be difficult to argue that it would somehow do better on another network, or somehow become cheaper to produce. Now it could be that it was doing OK but canceled because the network wanted the room on the schedule for something that could do better for it – in that case, another network might consider picking it up if it at least would do better than its own programming and don’t have anything in the pipeline as good. But it’s unlikely.

Now, add to that, what about the cast and crew? The show’s been canceled, are they expected to sit around and wait in the hopes of it getting picked up by another network? They aren’t getting paid any more, and as they say, people gotta eat. This includes not only the actors, but the writers, the cameramen, the electrical workers, etc. – all the people who work on the show every day. The show was their full time jobs, essentially, and they’ve been given pink slips. And they’ve often had a bit of notice that it could be coming if the show was on the bubble of being renewed. They’ve been looking for other jobs already.

Star-Crossed writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe actually tweeted an explanation on his timeline. As I can’t link to the specific start of it and it spanned a number of tweets, I’ll reprint them here (I hope he doesn’t mind):

Okay so, cancellations. First remember everyone working on a show is doing it for a living. They have kids, mortgages, etc. So… If a show is on the bubble, everyone working on it goes looking for work once they’re wrapped (finished with work). If they don’t have a long term contract, they get other jobs. That’s all the hardworking camera crew, sound folks editors etc. Gone. If they do have longterm contracts, they get conditional deals. Backup jobs. That’s writers and actors especially. So for example, I went onto #Elementary with the understanding that if #StarCrossed came back, I’d leave to go back to SC.

BUT when a show gets canned, those 2nd position deals become 1st. So now my #Elementary deal now comes 1st. I’m gone no matter what. But not just me. Actors, show creators, directors, etc now have contracts with other shows. They are gone. Also, the sets are recycled. That would cost 100s of thousands to remake. Studio and office space are let go. No more home.

So the #Enlisted actors all did pilots, if those got picked up, they’re gone. When #DresdenFiles got cancelled, Paul & Terry got other gigs. So if Keifer Sutherland’s show Touch were still being made, no 24 mini. We couldn’t get Paul for Dresden again cause of #Arrow. So that’s the deal. It’s not impossible, but it’s really hard. Not from malevolence. But because folks gotta eat.

So there you have it. While everyone hopes that a show could be revived, there are many, many factors against it. And if it did manage to come back, it very likely wouldn’t be quite the same – risking loss of viewers who liked it the way it was. And that’s a risk many networks aren’t willing to take.

The official Doctor Who Twitter account broke the news Whovians have been waiting for…the Doctor will return – new face and all – in August. BBC America later confirmed it for U.S. audiences as well. Exact date yet to be determined.

BREAKING NEWS! The new series of #DoctorWho starts August, 2014! pic.twitter.com/OZN1NxGp4w

— Doctor Who Official (@bbcdoctorwho) May 23, 2014

It appears that Marvel has decided to part ways with director Edgar Wright and get Ant-Man back on track. In a joint statement they say the split is “amicable”, but word on the street is that the studio and Shaun Of The Dead director Wright have been at odds for a while and it deteriorated recently over creative differences. A replacement has yet to be named, but Marvel says the release date of July 17th, 2015 will be unaffected.

A triple of Syfy stuff for you tonight!

First, if you need to catch up of Defiance, or just want to watch it again, Syfy is running a marathon of the entire first season starting at 8am ET/7am PT on Monday, May 26th…and be prepared for the second season starting June 19th at 9/8c!

Next, Defiance will be followed new series Dominion, based on the movie Legion – and here is the upfront trailer:

Lastly, Syfy has announced that it has acquired all 39 episodes of Starz’ series Spartacus – three seasons plus a six episode mini-series, and will follow Defiance and Dominion on it’s new Thursday night lineup.

Spartacus will make its basic cable premiere on Thursday, June 26 at 10PM (ET/PT), rounding out the channel’s potent primetime lineup of original series Defiance at 8PM and Dominion at 9PM.
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We’ve known for a while that aside from a new “epic” trilogy (with Episode VII now in production), that at least two side films were planned (what do we call them? Interstitial? Spin-off? I think I like the former better, especially as they are filling in the time between the epic episodes) if not more. Well, now we know when the first one will be released, who is writing it and who will be in charge.

Gareth Edwards will direct the first stand-alone film, with a screenplay by Gary Whitta. The film is due out December 16, 2016.

Gareth Edwards blazed into the filmmaking forefront with his acclaimed work on Monsters, a film he wrote, directed and served on as cinematographer and visual effects artist. The skill and vision readily apparent in Monsters earned him the high-profile spot directing this year’s smash hit Godzilla.

“Ever since I saw Star Wars I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life — join the Rebel Alliance! I could not be more excited and honored to go on this mission with Lucasfilm,” said Edwards.

Gary Whittas screenwriting credits include 2010’s The Book of Eli starring Denzel Washington. He is also well known as a journalist and editor in the video game industry, as well as part of the BAFTA award-winning team on Telltale Games adaptation of The Walking Dead.

Whitta states, “From the moment I first saw the original movie as a wide-eyed kid, Star Wars has been the single most profound inspiration to my imagination and to my career as a writer. It is deeply special to me,so to be given the opportunity to contribute to its ongoing legacy, especially in collaboration with a film-maker as talented as Gareth, is literally a dream come true. I’m still pinching myself.”

Little is known at this point what the plot of the interstitial films will entail, but most internet rumors revolve about stories involving Boba Fett and Han Solo – perhaps origin stories.

Today in a special video message from the set of Star Wars: Episode VII, director J.J. Abrams announced the creation of Star Wars: Force for Change, a brand new Star Wars initiative from Disney and Lucasfilm in collaboration with Bad Robot dedicated to finding creative solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems. The first Star Wars: Force for Change campaign will raise funds and awareness for the United Nations Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF) Innovation Labs and its innovative programs that are benefiting the world’s most vulnerable children.

Disney has committed US $1 million to support the launch of Star Wars: Force for Change. Fans can now contribute directly at Omaze.com/StarWars for a chance to appear in Star Wars: Episode VII. For each $10 contribution made through the Omaze fundraising platform, eligible participants will be automatically entered for a chance to win this once-in-a-lifetime experience. The campaign runs from 12:01am PST on May 21st until 11:59pm PST July 18th.

The Star Wars: Force for Change Grand Prize includes:

• Airfare and accommodations to London for one winner and a guest
• Behind-the-scenes access on the closed set of Star Wars: Episode VII as VIP guests of J.J. Abrams
• Winner will have the opportunity to meet members of the cast
• Winner and their guest will then be transformed by makeup and costume teams into a Star Wars character and filmed for a scene in Star Wars: Episode VII