Sci-Fi Storm

Eureka‘s Colin Ferguson, who more recently appeared in the last season of Haven and is now on many TVs as the current Maytag Man in commercials, surprised everyone on Twitter when he tweeted that he’s apparently got a new role on The Vampire Diaries.

“Hmmm…. Seem to have ‘tripped’ my way into a new role… Mystic Falls, hunh? This is gonna be fun :)” was his first tweet, followed later by, “Classic! Everyone who knows the show is telling me I’m going to die. I think I packed too much…”

No details yet as to how long exactly…

Update:: This appears to be a major role, a character called Tripp (and thus his tweet…), and according to executive producer Julie Plec, “He’s in town to give Sheriff Forbes a run for her money.” The role starts with the Season 6 premiere. Tripp is described as “the head of a community militia and surrogate father to his young trainees who will do anything to protect his town,” and was formerly called Mitch in the casting calls.

Syfy and Alcon TV today announced that three-time Golden Globe nominee Thomas Jane (Hung, The Punisher) will star as the world-weary Detective Miller, a native of “the Asteroid Belt” between Mars and Jupiter, in The Expanse, the new 10-episode space opera based on the international best-selling book series, premiering on Syfy in 2015.

Miller portrays a detective for a corporate security force operating as the law in The Belt. Ragged, in search of something even he can’t identify, Miller remains a dedicated cop with great instincts who discovers a new found sense of purpose when he’s put in charge of the investigation into a missing heiress.

Jane received three Golden Globe nominations for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy for Hung. Jane is the lead of three studio movies being released this year: The Veil for Universal Pictures and Blumhouse, Somnia for Relativity Media, and Vice for Lionsgate and Emmett/Furla/Oasis. He also stars in the History mini-series Texas Rising, which is currently in production

Jane’s other notable roles include The Mist, Dream Catcher, Deep Blue Sea, Thin Red Line, Face/Off, 61* and Boogie Nights.

Jane is represented by Paradigm and Jamie Afifi at Ziffren Brittenham.

The Expanse is a thriller set two hundred years in the future. The series follows the case of a missing young woman who brings a hardened detective (Jane) and a rogue ship’s captain together in a race across the solar system to expose the greatest conspiracy in human history.

In making the announcement, Bill McGoldrick, Executive Vice President, Original Content, Syfy, said: “Thomas Jane is exactly the type of high caliber actor we hoped this project would attract. The intelligence and nuance he brings to every performance is perfect for the role of Miller.”

Said Sharon Hall, President, Alcon Television: “We knew this material would attract highly skilled actors and could not be happier about having Thomas Jane on board.”

The Academy Award-nominated screenwriting duo Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby (Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men, Iron Man) wrote the pilot and will continue to serve as writers as well as executive producers. Fergus and Ostby are showrunners alongside fellow executive producer Naren Shankar (CSI, Farscape)

The Expanse is produced by Alcon Television Group (ATG), a division of Alcon Entertainment, and marks the company’s first series order.

Alcon co-founders and co-CEO’s Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson will serve as executive producers with Hall. Alcon Television executive Ben Roberts will serve as co-producer. Ben Cook will serve as producer. Sean Daniel (Graceland, The Mummy) and Jason Brown of the Sean Daniel Company developed the original pitch, with Fergus and Ostby, and will also executive produce.

Developed with the Sean Daniel Company as a direct-to-series project, Alcon is financing and executive producing the hour-long, 10 episode series, based on the popular New York Times bestselling book series collectively known as The Expanse, written by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck (under the pen name James S. A. Corey). Abraham and Franck will be show producers.

The multi-installment, best-selling book series is published in 17 countries, including China, France, Japan, Australia, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom. Book one in the series, “Leviathan Wakes,” was nominated for a Hugo Award as well as a Locus Award, while the second novel, “Caliban’s War” was nominated for a Locus Award.