Sci-Fi Storm

ABC has ordered a show from the team of Jon Favreau (Iron Man), Roberto Orci (Fringe), Seth Green (Robot Chicken, Family Guy), and Michael Dougherty (Superman Returns) called Ex-Comm according to Deadline. The show is being called a sci-fi drama with some humor, and a cross between The West Wing and The X-Files, as well as a “presidential procedural”. The quartet will write the pilot, with Favreau likely directing and produced by 20th Century Fox TV and K/O Paper Products, the production company run by Orci and partner Alex Kurtzman.

Syfy will celebrate Halloween with its fourth annual 31 Days of Halloween fright fest showcasing more than 600 hours of holiday- themed programming, running October 1-October 31.

As always, the centerpiece of the month-long spook-a-thon will be Ghost Hunters Halloween Live on Monday, October 31 from 7PM-1AM/ET. This year, Jason, Grant and team members from both Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters International will head to Pennhurst Asylum in Pennsylvania, a sprawling maze of buildings constituting a former state mental institution. Abandoned for decades, Pennhurst is now one of the country’s most notoriously haunted locales.
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Doctor Who is over until Christmas, but there are still things to unravel more than time itself after the season ender. And for those of us in the U.S. who only get little bits of the Doctor Who Confidential specials until the [sfs=1145]Blu-ray[/sfs]/[sfs=1146]DVD[/sfs] sets arrive, we’ll have to settle for whatever we can get from across the pond. This one is a good start…thanks to the folks over at Doctor Who TV, here is the Confidential segment on River Song’s timeline, from the point of view of River Song – and narrated by River Song (Alex Kingston) herself.

If you are at Universal Studios Orlando this Thursday, October 6th for Halloween Horror Nights 21, you can meet up for a Q&A and autograph session with Steve Gonsalves and Dave Tango of Ghost Hunters!

The Ghost Hunters Q&A session begins at 8 p.m., followed by the autograph session at 9 p.m. at Pantages theatre, located in the Hollywood area of Universal Studios. Access to the Q&A and autograph session are included in regular admission to Halloween Horror Nights 21 on Thursday.

Ghost Hunters has become one of the highest rated reality shows on Syfy Channel. The popular show follows Gonsalves, Tango and a group of real-life paranormal researchers as they track down the presence of paranormals across the country.

With 19 nights remaining through October, Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights is the nation’s best and most intense Halloween event. Guests confront extreme Halloween entertainment that cannot be experienced anywhere else. This year, they scream as they come face-to-face with a horrifying “thing,” panic as they are hunted by savage banshees, feel chills as they are surrounded by fiendish creatures from a third dimension – and watch in paralyzing fear as Lady Luck transforms from a tempting seductress to a bloodthirsty beast.

Syfy’s hit series Sanctuary is back with all-new episodes this Friday, October 7 at 10/9c. In this sneak peek, Magnus and John meet in an alley way and exchange words while being soaked by a downpour of rain. John threatens her by letting her know that hunting him will only make things difficult for her. He realizes there’s only way to make her pay attention to him and draws a knife from his sleeve. Be sure to watch the clip and tune in October 7th at 10/9c to see if Magnus won’t be able to pass through, or if she can hold her own.

“Tempus”:

Executive producer/showrunner will switch Syfy series, moving from Eureka (having just finished production on it’s fifth and final season) and taking over the reins of Alphas from Ira Steven Behr, according to Deadline. Miller has previously worked as a producer for series such as The 4400, Medium and ER.

Isaac Asimov’s Foundation stories seem to have long been a pipe dream of SF-aware producers to get to the big screen…even the latest developments have been long dormant, when Sony won the bidding war almost 3 years ago for the rights after Warner Bros. let them lapse, and it was previously in development with Fox. Well at last there is movement again, with Sony Pictures announcing that Dante Harper has been hired to adapt it.

Harper appears to be relatively new on the writing scene, working on Black Hole for David Fincher/Paramount (based on the graphic novel by Charles Burns), and rewrote the upcoming Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters for Paramount/MGM/Spyglass. Roland Emmerich is still set to direct.

The Foundation series of novels center around mathematician Hari Seldon, who develops a new system of mathematics called “psychohistory”, which can model at a grand scale what will happen in the future – and Seldon discovers that the Galactic Empire, which consists of humans populating millions of other worlds, is in danger of immanent collapse and could lead to a Dark Age that could last thousands of years.

The 21st edition of Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Florida opened last Friday. Whereas Halloween Horror Nights XX was all about paying tribute to past icons (the characters that represent the overall theme) and Fear Himself, this year it’s all new, centered around Lady Luck (think – 21…blackjack…) and her double-sided personality…
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After the success of Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, an unauthorized viral video that breathed life back in to the Mortal Kombat franchise, at least from a feature perspective, led to Warner Premiere asking writer Oren Uziel and director Kevin Tancharoen to create a 10-part web series earlier this year. Now, New Line Cinema has approached the duo to create a feature film. Can they take it to the big screen?

Fueled by its quartet of popular scripted series (Eureka, Warehouse 13, Alphas and Haven) and new hit reality program Paranormal Witness, Syfy scored the most watched Third Quarter prime in its 19-year history, leaping 12% in total viewers (1.45 million).

Syfy jumped 16% in Adults 18-34 (234,000), 8% among Adults 18-49 (613,000) as well as 4% in Adults 25-54 (681,000), compared to 3Q’10. jumped 16% in Adults 18-34 (234,000), 8% among Adults 18-49 (613,000) as well as 4% in Adults 25-54 (681,000), compared to 3Q’10. (continue reading…)