Sci-Fi Storm

Two reboots, four castings…

Both Zendaya (The Greatest Showman) and Oscar Isaac (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) are currently in talks to join Denis Villeneuve’ Dune reboot at Legendary Entertainment. Zendaya would play Chani, the Freman love interest of Paul Atreides, played by Timothee Chalamet. Isaac would play Paul’s father, Duke Leto Atreides. Neither have been confirmed at this point.

The casting for War Of The Worlds, however, is confirmed –
Gabriel Byrne (Hereditary) and Elizabeth McGovern (Downton Abbey) will lead up an ensemble cast in the Urban Myth Films reboot to be directed by
Howard Overman (Misfits). From the sounds of it, this will be loosely based on the H.G. Wells novel, set in present-day Europe and focusing on the aftermath of an alien attack.

Speaking of The Greatest Showman, star Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Ferguson will team again, but this time for a sci-fi thriller
Reminiscence written by Westworld executive producer Lisa Joy, who will also make her directorial debut. Set in a near-future Miami affected by global warming, Jackman will play a private investigator who specializes in recapturing vivid cherished memories for clients, with Ferguson as one of his clients.

So the nominations for the 91st Oscars are out, and as usual we take a look at where the science fiction/fantasy genre landed – and it’s mostly Disney vs. Disney between Black Panther and Mary Poppins Returns – but neither received any acting nominations, which is disappointing.

Black Panther scored a Best Picture nomination, along with Production Design, Costume Design, Original Score, Original Song for “All The Stars”, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing,

Mary Poppins Returns is nominated for Production Design, Costume Design, Original Score, Original Song for “The Place Where Lost Things Go”,

Avengers: Infinity War, Christopher Robin, Ready Player One, Solo: A Star Wars Story all received one nomination for Visual Effects.

A Quiet Place received one nomination for Sound Editing.

Incredibles 2, Ralph Breaks The Internet and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse all share the Animated Film nomination with Isle of Dogs and Mirai.

Just before tomorrow’s Season 4 premiere, Syfy has insured there is enough magic in the world for a fifth season of The Magicians!

“The Magicians raised the bar at Syfy and has gained momentum season after season, attracting a new audience to the channel. We are proud of this series as it continues to break the boundaries of storytelling,” according to
Bill McGoldrick, President of Scripted Content for NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment.

The series, based on the novels by Lev Grossman, follow the students of Brakebills University as they learn to harness magic – and defend magic against those who would destroy it.

Executive producer Henry Alonso Myers (Ugly Betty) joins as a co-showrunner alongside John McNamara and Sera Gamble who have shepherded the series since the first season.

Now who you gonna call? It appears another Ghostbusters film will be a reality, but this time it will be a true sequel to the original team as opposed to be a sequel to the 2016 remake. And Jason Reitman, the son of original director Ivan Reitman, will be directing. It has not been announced if the original Ghostbusters team will be involved. Production is expected to start this summer.

Reitman even released a teaser for the movie:

A couple of recent Syfy items – first, Season 2 of Happy! will debut Wednesday, March 27th. A trailer has been release which you can see below. Based on the graphic novel of the same name, it follows former cop and now hit-man Nick Sax (Christopher Meloni) and and an imaginary blue unicorn only he can see (Patton Oswalt) as they hunt down child kidnappers.

In less, well, happy news, the anthology series Channel Zero was not renewed for a fifth season. The series devoted each short season to a different “creepypasta” – short horror stories told online. The final series, “The Dream Door”, aired this past October.

Deadline reports that primary production on the third Fantastic Beasts film will not start until the Fall, pushed back from a planned July start, likely in order to have more prep time which would have had to start by now to make the original scheduled start.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald left fans with a LOT of questions, and few answers. Author and script writer J.K. Rowling promised that answers will be found in this upcoming film, and the new production start date might mean they aren’t going to rush things.

The next chapter in Peter Parker’s journey as the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, trying to take a vacation…

Thwips into theaters July 5th, 2019

Hot on the heals of finding out that Dave Bautista was joining Denis Villeneuve’s Dune adaptation, another MCU actor will join him – and they’ll be related.

Stellan Skarsgard, who played Dr. Erik Selvig in the first two Thor movies as well as the first two Avengers movies, will play Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, the scheming leader of House Harkonnen who collaborates with the Emperor on a plan to rid themselves of House Atreides and maintain control of the planet Arrakis, the only source of the spice melange, the most valuable substance in the universe. Glossu “The Beast” Rabban (Bautista) is the Baron’s sadistic nephew, charged with the subjugation of Arrakis.

Skarsgard most recently appeared in Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again.

Guardians Of The Galaxy‘s Dave Bautista will reunite with his Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve for the latter’s upcoming version of Frank Herbert’s Dune, one of the biggest SF book series that has previously been a [asin=604]feature film[/asin] from David Lynch and a [asin=158]Syfy (then Sci-Fi Channel) mini-series[/asin]. Bautista’s role is not currently known. [Update: We now know he will play “The Beast” Rabban – as if there was any question…]

He will join Timothée Chalamet (Lady Bird), who will play hero Paul Atreides, and Rebecca Ferguson (Mission: Impossible – Fallout), who will play Lady Jessica.

The David Lynch film was a visual spectacle but a box office failure, with Lynch himself distancing himself claiming there was too much interference from the producers and financiers, and in some cuts the director was credited as “Alan Smithee”, a code name for a disavowed credit. The mini-series proved more successful, spawning a sequel series for Children of Dune, both of which were some of the highest rated programming on the network at the time.

We are very saddened to learn of the passing of actor W. Morgan Sheppard, father of fellow actor Mark Sheppard, yesterday per an instagram post by his son.

View this post on Instagram

We went to spend some time with my father today. Though he couldn’t speak, we held hands, he laughed and was so happy to see us. We left and came home. A good day. He was rushed to hospital and passed at 6:30pm, my mother by his side. I am so grateful that he didn’t have to suffer any longer. Thank you for all your kind thoughts, love and prayers.

A post shared by Mark Sheppard (@realmarksheppard) on Jan 6, 2019 at 8:16pm PST

Sheppard appeared in many genre shows…I first saw him that I recall in Shogun, but what I most remembered him from originally was in the role of Blank Reg, the mohawked pirate radio operator in Max Headroom. He also played the memorable and eponymous “Soul Hunter” on Babylon 5, and even played the older version of his son’s character of Cantor Everett Delaware III in the Doctor Who episode “The Impossible Astronaut”. More recently he appeared in an episode of The Librarians. His jovial face and white beard also earned him the the title role in Farewell Mr. Kringle, and he voiced “The Big Guy” in the Prep & Landing specials.