Sci-Fi Storm

I was sadly notified yesterday that actor-turned-radio show host Jerry Doyle, who played Michael Garibaldi on Babylon 5, passed away suddenly at the age of 60, which has been confirmed by his family. The cause of death has not been determined.

After Babylon 5, he turned his eye on politics. A staunch conservative, he ran for the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican in 2000, but spent little money on the campaign and only received 30% of the vote. He then became a nationally syndicated radio talk show host. He also created the website and podcast Epic Times.

Babylon 5‘s creator J. Michael Straczynski released a statement on his death.

Babylon 5 has lost many of its cast members far too soon, having already lost Andreas Katsulas, Richard Biggs, Michael O’Hare, and Jeff Conaway.

Some tidbits as I get a break from vacation/traveling…

On the movie front, Oprah Winfrey is near set to star as Mrs. Which in a new adaptation of A Wrinkle In Time to be directed by Ava DuVernay (Selma) for Disney. Amy Adams and Kevin Hart are also in talks.

Speaking of Disney, Disneyland is about to rebuild it’s Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attraction with a whole new theme based on Guardians of the Galaxy. The new attraction will be called “Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout” and be ready for next summer. Here is a video of Joe Rhode explaining the attraction:

Also on the Disney park front, if you can get to Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Florida, you have to check out the “Star Wars Galactic Spectacular” fireworks and light show. It is AMAZING!

The new Captain Marvel has been announced, and it will be Brie Larson. Kevin Feige made the announcement at Comic Con, but wouldn’t say what movie she might first appear in.

Syfy renewed Wynonna Earp for a second season.

Lastly, Fox has tapped Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind) to adapt Isaac Asimov’s Caves of Steel, which has been in the works for a few years with Simon Kinberg with Henry Hobson. Ironically, Akiva Goldsman co-wrote 2004’s I, Robot, which is often mistaken as an Asimov story due to similar themes with a collection of stories Asimov wrote with the same title, but the movie was based on a short story by Eando Bender.

So many trailers out from Comic Con…here is just a dump of a bunch of them…

Doctor Strange

Dirk Gently

Legion

Star Trek Discovery
(I’m not yet digging the new ship design…)

Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them

Wonder Woman

A duo of returning items…first, the 80s sci-fi program Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future is underdevelopment as a reboot under the title of Phoenix Rising, with original co-creator Gary Goddard on board with former Syfy executives Greg Vitale and Craig Engler.

The original show followed a small band of guerilla fighters in the 22nd century revolting again the intelligent machines which enslaved mankind after the Metal Wars. The show was notable not only for their storylines that could appeal to kids and adults, but also the direct marketing the show also as a “game” that kids could play along with using specially equipped toys they needed to purchase. The show proved to be expensive to produce and the complex storylines and allegories drew criticism, and it was canceled after one season.

In other news, it appears that a fourth Star Trek reboot movie is already in the works, and this one will feature the return of Captain Kirk’s father, who was played (briefly) in the first movie by Chris Hemsworth. Not sure how that will be accomplished, but it’s Star Trek, and the “Kelvin Timeline” was kicked off by playing with time travel…

I’m glad to hear that our friends to the Northeast are getting another television production, in yet another Stephen King adaptation. This time it is an adaptation of his novella The Mist. The multi-million dollar original television series begins principle photography today in Halifax, Nova Scotia. American cable network Spike TV has ordered 10 hour-long episodes of the series which will premiere on Spike in 2017.

The Mist tells the story of a foreboding mist that arrives in one small town ushering in a terrifying new reality for its residents, putting their humanity to the test. What will people do to survive when blinded by fear? The cast includes Morgan Spector, Frances Conroy, Alyssa Sutherland, Gus Birney, Dan Butler, Luke Cosgrove, Danica Curcic, Okezie Morro, Darren Pettie, Russell Posner and Isiah Whitlock, Jr.

“We were intent on finding the perfect location – a place that could double for Maine, where the story is set, and one with an experienced crew base and proven track record that would work to fulfill our other requirements,” says Tom Prince, Executive Vice President of Physical Production/Post of TWC-Dimension Television, which is producing the series in conjunction with Halifax-based Magic Rock Productions.

“We intend to see this series develop into a signature show for Spike, and after hearing the pitch for Nova Scotia, we felt confident that the look, feel and the overall attitude of the province were right for this project,” says Sharon Levy, Executive Vice President, Original Series, Spike.

The series will be shot mostly in Halifax with some additional shooting in the Windsor area.

The same region was chosen for the production of Haven for Syfy, based on the short story “The Colorado Kid” by King. The choice of area was for the same reasons – it could stand in for coastal Maine.

I wish I was in London this weekend for Star Wars Celebration! Lots of cool things coming from across the pond. One of which is this sizzle reel for Rogue One! Enjoy!

The primetime Emmy nominations are out…so how did our favorite genres fare?

Naturally Game Of Thrones leads the pack by far, with 23 separate nominations (which led all shows), including three for Best Supporting Actress and two for Best Actor. It was good to see Tatiana Maslany still on the list for Orphan Black, hoping she finally gets what she deserves. Walking Dead was still noticeably absent, with two minor noms.

Here is the list of all the genre nominations (apologies for omissions…)
(continue reading…)

Fox already has a Marvel/X-Men-based TV series in production for it’s FX cable network in the form of Legion, but they aren’t standing pat, with comic book series starting to take over the airwaves of broadcast nets…Fox has ordered up a put pilot for another show, untitled at the moment, that will focus on two ordinary parents who discover their children possess mutant powers. Forced to go on the run from a hostile government, the family joins up with an underground network of mutants and must fight to survive.

The same production team for Legion and the X-Men franchise of Lauren Shuler Donner, Bryan Singer, and Simon Kinberg will executive produce, along with the Daredevil/Jessica Jones team of Jeph Loeb and Jim Chory. Matt Nix (Burn Notice) is the writer/creator and will also executive produce.

Interesting news coming through the grapevine…with Supergirl moving to the CW, it almost certainly would include budget cuts, likely with some concessions in the cast especially with the move of the production to Canada. One possibility is that Callista Flockhart, who plays CatCo head honcho Cat Grant, may be seen less, as apparently Ian Gomez (Cougar Town) has been signed to play Snapper Carr, who Cat hires to be the editor-in-chief at CatCo.

Meanwhile, the CW released a pic of Kid Flash/Wally West, who will debut with the third season of The Flash and played by Keiynan Lonsdale (Allegiant)…looks pretty slick…

Syfy has canceled Hunters, one of two shows that just concluded their freshman runs on the network.

The series, which starred Nathan Phillips, Britne Oldford, and Lewis Fitz-Gerald and is based on the Whitley Strieber novel Alien Hunter, followed FBI agent Flynn Carroll (Phillips) as he tries to find out about the disappearance of his wife, and gets involved with the Extra-Terrestrial Unit (ETU), which is tasked with dealing with the threat posed by the alien Hunters, who have taken on human disguises. He befriends Regan, an ETU agent, who is herself a Hunter.

The show languished in the ratings, despite the high hopes the network had when it gave a straight-to-series order for 13 episodes. The premiere episode only landed a 0.54 audience, lost 20% the second week, and by episode 6 dropped below 0.3 and never recovered. Critics were harsh, and on Rotten Tomatoes it has a 0% tomatometer score.

Personally I didn’t enjoy the show as much as I did its freshman sibling, Wynonna Earp. I think the show was alright, but it felt like it was yet another police procedural ala CSI but with an alien twist, and visually I thought it lacked something – it’s hard to describe, but I’ve seen this with a lot of shows where the color palette seems to tend towards darker, muted but at the blue end of the spectrum. I don’t know if this is due to new video equipment, specific stylistic decisions, or perhaps in some ways a reflection of trying to keep the budget down – I just don’t like it. I’ve seen it in other shows that I otherwise enjoy immensely, like Killjoys, but they mix in more colorful scenes as well (Episode 2 is airing right now, and the sunrise with the bright primary colors is an example).

At any rate, I don’t like to see shows get canceled, but I’m not surprised at this one and I’m not hearing a clamoring of fans screaming at Syfy like with other shows. And that’s probably why.