Sci-Fi Storm

We lost two amazing individuals this weekend.

Oscar winner Martin Landau, who came to prominence among television audiences as the master of disguise Rollin Hand in Mission: Impossible for which he received 3 Emmy nominations and won a Golden Globe, and then followed up with Moonbase Alpha Commander John Koenig on Space: 1999, passed away Saturday at the age of 89 after unexpected complications while hospitalized for a short length of time.

Landau always put all in when playing a role. This helped earn him the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Ed Wood for his portrayal of Bela Lugosi. I was also impressed by his portrayal of the President after a limited nuclear exchange in By Dawn’s Early Light. But after Space: 1999, roles for himself and then-wife and costar Barbara Bain disappeared, and they both turned to the corny roles of evil rich guy J.J. Pierson and evil scientist Dr. Olga Schmetner in The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island, the last attempt to revive that franchise. Landau persevered though, until he peaked yet again with his Oscar-winning performance in Ed Wood.

Landau became a member of the Actors Studio in 1955 when he and Steve McQueen were the only two accepted out of 2000 applicants. He learned under Lee Strasberg himself, and later taught acting there. Landau and Bain were married in 1957, and divorced in 1993. They had two daughters, Susan (who works in film and theater production), and actress Juliet.

Legend George A. Romero, the “Father of Zombie films” and “Godfather of the Dead”, passed away on Sunday at the age of 77 after a brief battle with lung cancer. Romero would change the horror film forever with his writing and directorial debut of Night Of The Living Dead. He would follow that with many other shocker monster films, including several more “… Dead” films and Creepshow, and executive produced the 1990 remake of Night Of The Living Dead. His use of black and white film and maximizing low budget productions showed it didn’t take money and gore to make scary. We can thank Romero for helping ignite the flame that has resulted in the current explosion in zombie-related productions.

Romero’s wife Suzanne and daughter Tina were by his side when he died peacefully listening to the soundtrack of The Quiet Man.

BBC announced moments ago the BBC announced live after the Wimbledon men’s final the new Doctor will be Jodie Whittaker, who played Beth Latimer on Broadchurch…and we finally have our first female Doctor!

“I’m beyond excited to begin this epic journey – with Chris [Chibnall] and with every Whovian on this planet,” she said. “It’s more than an honour to play the Doctor. It means remembering everyone I used to be, while stepping forward to embrace everything the Doctor stands for: hope. I can’t wait.”

This reunites her with Chris Chibnall, who was the writer and executive producer on Broadchurch and is taking over the showrunner duties on Doctor Who from Steven Moffat.

Just released for your drooling pleasure…

The successor to Peter Capaldi as the Doctor in Doctor Who (officially the 13th, not counting the War Doctor or the semi-10th duplicate) will be announced by the BBC and BBC America after the conclusion of the men’s final at Wimbledon on Sunday. As the time it takes for the final is indeterminate, for U.S. viewers it starts at 9am Eastern, and is expected to run 2-3 hours.

How BBC America will handle the announcement is uncertain – they will certainly post on their Facebook page, but they might cut in to the live BBC feed when it happens as well. When we know, we’ll post as well.

Update 7/15: Regretfully we have to report that John Bernecker passed away yesterday.

Previous: We are hearing from multiple sources that the production of The Walking Dead has halted production after John Bernecker, a stuntman on the set, suffered a serious life-threatening injury. We understand he suffered a 30-foot fall and injured his head. He was immediately transported to an Atlanta hospital.

SAG-AFTRA, who represents the stunt performers, released a statement, “As always, the safety and security of our members and others on set is of crucial concern to us and we are focused on this in our investigation. Our thoughts and prayers are with the performer and his family.”

Syfy Films today announces the release of the upcoming sci-fi film Realive, in theaters on September 29 and on VOD and Digital HD on October 3. The film is written and directed by Mateo Gil (Vanilla Sky, The Sea Inside). The cast includes Tom Hughes (About Time, London Town), Charlotte Le Bon (The Walk, The Hundred-Foot Journey), Oona Chaplin (Taboo, Game of Thrones) and Barry Ward (The Fall, The Journey). Realive premiered at the 2016 Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal followed by official selections of the FrightFest Film Festival in the U.K. and Sitges International Film Festival in Spain.

In Realive, Marc Jarvis (Tom Hughes) is diagnosed with a disease and given a short time to live. Unable to accept his own end, he decides to freeze his body. 60 years later, in the year 2084, he becomes the first cryogenically frozen man to be revived in history. Marc discovers a startling future, but the biggest surprise is that his past has accompanied him in unexpected ways.

Realive is produced by Ibon Cormenzana and Ignasi Estapé of Arcadia Motion Pictures, in coproduction with Jérôme Vidal of Noodles. Marina Fuentes of Dreamcatchers acted as associate producer.

For more information on the film, please visit https://www.facebook.com/RealiveMovie/

Freeform picked up a 10-episode straight to series order for Marvel’s New Warriors several months ago, but The Hollywood Reporter today announced that the cast has been set, including the coveted role of Squirrel Girl.

Milana Vayntrub (This Is Us) and Derek Theler (Baby Daddy) will take up the lead roles of Squirrel Girl and Mister Immortal, respectively. Also joining the cast are Jeremy Tardy (War Dogs) as Night Thrasher, Calum Worthy (Austin & Ally) as Speedball, Matthew Moy (2 Broke Girls) as Microbe and Kate Comer (Hello, My Name Is Doris) as Debrii.

The scripted comedy series, a first from Marvel Television, follows six young people with powers living and working together. Not quite super, not yet heroes and with powers and abilities on the opposite end of the spectrum of The Avengers, the New Warriors want to make a difference in the world, even if the world isn’t ready. The series is about the entry into adulthood when you feel like you can do everything and nothing at once – except in this world, bad guys can be as terrifying as bad dates.

Kevin Biegel (Couger Town, Scrubs) is executive producer and showrunner, with Jeph Loeb (head of Marvel Television) and Jim Chory (Heroes, Daredevi) also executive producing.

It’s been a light holiday week (a working one for me…) unless you are in the political news arena, but I thought I’d just do a quick roundup of the most interesting stories…

Comic Con International is coming up, and I won’t be there again (yes, we know Doc, every year…hey, it’s pretty far away!) and so there ls lots of news swirling around about who will be there…but just recently announced is a reunion of the Syfy version of Battlestar Galactica. So far confirmed are Tricia Helfer, Katee Sackhoff, Mary McDonnell and Grace Park, with many more expected. It will take places at 2:30 PM on Thursday, July 20, in Ballroom 20. Word is that Peter Capaldi will appear one last time as well for Doctor Who on the final day (July 23rd) in the massive Hall H.

Comic Con International also re-upped with the city of San Diego to stay put for four more years.

Remember that lawsuit by the Tolkien estate against Warner Bros over the license for gambling devices and games? Well, it’s finally over. The parties agreed to a settlement in the case, and in a joint statement said, “The parties are pleased that they have amicably resolved this matter and look forward to working together in the future.” Hmm…could they be considering more productions?

Oh…Sony Pictures posted an interesting YouTube video:

A lot of people seem to think this may mean an sequel to Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, but we would put money on this just being viral hype for a 40th Anniversary release of the original.

Supergirl fans will see the return of a character this upcoming season, but with a slightly different face. Laura Benanti, who played Alura Zor-El and Astra in the first season (and an appearance in one episode in the second season), is apparently not available due to commitments in New York. Erica Durance, who played Lois Lane on Smallville and most recently was starring in Saving Hope which finishes it’s final season this summer, will take over the role of Alura.

And lastly, it is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Stan Lee’s wonderful wife Joan yesterday at the age of 93. She’s widely considered to have helped convince her husband to come up with a new kind of superhero – flawed and human – that propelled Stan Lee into comic royalty. They had been married for 69 years. Our thoughts are with Stan.