Sci-Fi Storm

This could be good, or a another serious blow to my childhood memories, given past Land of the Lost attempts – but Amazon Studios has entered into an agreement with Sid and Marty Krofft to develop a pilot to bring back the 70s kids show Sigmund and the Sea Monsters.

The [asin=B0055CP9R2]original[/asin] was pure Krofft camp – an unusually nice sea monster is kicked out of his mean family and is kept hidden from his family and other humans by two kids. The costumes were obvious but still fascinating, and the plots probably limited to 8 year old levels, but it is still remembered fondly by children of the 70s, when it ran originally from 1973-1975 and then kept alive in syndication for another decade.

“Sid and Marty are geniuses, and we are honored to be working with them to bring to the world a return of what we believe is TV’s most fabulous and funniest sea creature ever,” according to Amazon Studios Vice President Roy Price.

That earthquake you felt wasn’t real…it was just a rumored-but-still-surprising deal being made in Hollywood.

Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios, owned by Sony’s rival Disney, struck a deal on Monday for Spider-Man which will allow the character to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe – basically all the Marvel movies not done by Sony or Fox thus far, which all exist within the same “universe”, allowing for the crossover of the characters. Kevin Feige, who has led the MCU juggernaut, will come on board as a producer for a new Spider-Man film alongside Amy Pascal, who helped shepherd the Spider-Man franchise for Sony.

Sony will likely want to re-launch the franchise for a third time with a new face. With the second round starring Andrew Garfield, the release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 made a decent amount of money but was considered a disappointment given its very large budget.

In the meantime Marvel has wanted to include Spider-Man alongside the Avengers – Spidey is a member of the group in the comics after all. Word is that they’d like to include him at least in a cameo for Captain America: Civil War, and I can forsee a bigger role for the webslinger in the third Avengers team film.

In the meantime, Sony had already penciled in a July 28th, 2017 release date – which had already been planned by Marvel/Disney for Thor: Ragnarok. So Marvel/Disney has agreed to shift all of the Marvel films back, with Thor moving to November, taking Black Panther‘s slot, who moves back to Captain Marvel‘s slot, etc. All the relevant dates have been updated in our calendar.

Did you know FXX aired a pilot for a series based on the late Robert Jordan’s hugely-popular Wheel of Time book series? And that it aired in the wee hours Monday morning? Nope, no one else did either.

How could such a momentous occasion pass by so unnoticed by so many? Well, first let’s just say that “momentous” is most certainly not the correct word to use. Second, it was less about producing a true pilot as much as it was to meet a contractual requirement to retain the rights.

As we’ve learned from the Dungeons & Dragons rights suit, as well as Fox reportedly rebooting Fantastic Four just to retain the rights, most rights contracts for adaptations have clauses that say some minimum level of production is required to retain the rights, or they revert back to the owner of the original work. It doesn’t necessarily have to meet quality goals, unfortunately.

In this case, Jordan sold the rights back in 2004 to Red Eagle Entertainment to produce some films (although there were likely other options – reportedly some games were tried as well), with those rights apparently set to expire on February 11th, 2015 – today – if some goal wasn’t met. And getting a pilot on TV is ( or is at least believed to be) a goal.
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On an all new Helix, Kyle is attacked as he tries to quarantine the orchard. Check out the preview below, and check out the music…reminds me of 70s action flicks or something…and tune in for “Oubliette” Friday at 10/9c on Syfy!

In Friday’s new 12 Monkeys, Cole and Cassandra have finally located the Night Room, but do they have a plan of attack? Catch the “The Night Room”, Friday at 9/8c on Syfy! And check out the recap for last week as well!

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It appears that the Wachowskis struggles at finding an audience for their epic SF films is continuing. The latest casualty is the super-expensive Jupiter Ascending, which although buoyed by a decent overseas haul (where it was #1 this weekend) managed a mere $18 million domestically, against a more than $200 million (estimated) price tag, not even including marketing.

The brother/sister team of Andy and Lana Wachowski hit it big with The Matrix in 1999, and since then have been trying to develop big epic SF movies. But with now three straight box office flops – the live action revival of Speed Racer, the complicated Cloud Atlas, and Jupiter Ascending…the Wachowskis may need to sets their scope smaller for a while.

We don’t know what they are about…but we might know who will star in the first “interstitial” Star Wars movies that will release in between the main saga movies.

Deadline has confirmed that The Theory Of Everything star and Oscar nominee Felicity Jones is in talks to take the female lead for one of the movies. LucasFilm/Disney is still looking for a male lead.

Jones will next appear with Jonah Hill and James Franco in True Story.

USA Network has ordered 10 episodes of Colony, an alien drama from Lost showrunner Carlton Cuse, Ryan Condal (Hercules).

Colony takes place in a near-future Los Angeles, which exists in a state of occupation by a force of outside intruders. Some people choose to collaborate with the authorities and benefit from the new order, while others rebel and suffer the consequences.

It stars Josh Holloway (Lost) and Sarah Wayne Callies (The Walking Dead), and is a co-production between Legendary Television and Universal Cable Productions.

In case you missed it, here is the teaser for the upcoming Heroes Reborn, which was announced almost a year ago. The teaser, dubbed “The Aurora”, doesn’t give us much but we do see that Jack Coleman appears to be returning as Noah Bennet, looking at someone who appears to have the ability to affect auroras, and joining the show is Zachary Levi (Chuck), who appears to be watching Bennet…
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Production has commenced in Toronto, ON for the 13-episode third season of Syfy’s highly-rated Defiance, featuring new cast additions Lee Tergesen (The Americans) as military leader General Rahm Tak, Nichole Galicia (Django Unchained) as Kindzi and Conrad Coates (The Strain) as her father, T’evgin (both part of a new alien race known as the Omec). Produced by Universal Cable Productions, season two of Defiance delivered an average of 1.2 million viewers 18-49 and 2.7 million total viewers (based on Live +7 data).

Following the events of the season two cliffhanger finale, season three of Defiance opens on the eve of an impending military siege upon the town, which has fallen on hard times following the collapse of its lucrative mines. Their fate uncertain, the townspeople face further threat with the surprise arrival of the mysterious and nearly extinct Omec, an alien race of warriors marked by the decades of subjugation they imposed upon the galaxy in the years preceding the Pale Wars.

Lee Tergesen will portray General Rahm Tak, a ruthless, arrogant leader in the Votanis Collective who sees Defiance, now free of Earth Republic oversight, a symbolic target in his unrelenting pursuit of power. A Castithan, Rahm is a well-read, brilliant strategist who imposes his army upon the town with decisive force.

Conrad Coates plays T’evgin, the leader of the Omec who reluctantly carries the burden of his species’ survival on his shoulders.

Nichole Galicia is Kindzi, the fierce, beautiful and tough daughter of the Omec leader T’evgin; she is his second in command and a skilled fighter unafraid of danger.

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 Trenna Keating as Doc Yewll and Anna Hopkins as Berlin.

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 Anupam Nigam serves as co-executive producer. Michael Nankin (co-executive producer) is set to direct the season three opener.

Season three of Defiance is set to premiere on Syfy in Summer 2015. 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.