Sci-Fi Storm

After all the rumors and suggestions as to who would make a great Wonder Woman, David E. Kelley and NBC have made their choice – Adrianne Palicki (Friday Night Lights). Reportedly she is the only one that actually tested for the role.

From the random bits of useless knowledge department: Palicki played the part of Judy Robinson in the Fox/WB Lost In Space remake that starred Jayne Brooke and Brad Johnson but didn’t get past the pilot stage. This version had two sons and one daughter (no Penny but a David), and no Dr. Smith either, and if I remember the Robinsons were passengers on a larger ship that gets attacked and they separate from the mothership to escape. The ship’s control props were recycled for use as the Battlestar Pegasus on Battlestar Galactica.

Battlestar Galactica and Dollhouse alum Tahmoh Penikett was announced today to be joining the cast of the online series Mortal Kombat, which we announced Monday. Reportedly he will take on the role of Kurtis Stryker, a NYC cop who uses his police equipment when he fights.

Update: I completely missed the fact that Ryan Robbins (Sanctuary) is also in the cast, reportedly as every gamer’s favorite Thunder god, Raiden…

In the next all-new episode of Being Human, Aidan and Josh discuss a break-up with Josh’s sister Emily. Little do they know that due to the break-up, Emily is going to need a place to crash. She claims with assumption that it’s okay with Aidan, and he says it is Josh’s sister, only to leave the decision in Josh’s hands. When Josh asks for how long, Emily replies, “Just until I get back on my feet.” If they do decide to let her stay, will she even stay safe until she gets on her feet while living with a vampire, werewolf, and ghost? You have to watch the clip and tune in to Syfy on Monday at 9/8c to find out!

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Felicia Day, the darling of geek culture since appearing a number of times on Buffy the Vampire Slayers and since then appearing in all sorts of genre media such as web series (Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and the long-running comedy series The Guild, which she also created) and video games (her character is my current companion in Fallout: New Vegas), announced her next web series creation: Dragon Age: Redemption, a six part series set in the world of BioWare’s Dragon Age video game series. Day will star as Tallis, an elven assassin who goes on a quest to capture a renegade magician. Along the way, she gathers her own fellowship. “She can’t accomplish her mission alone, so finding allies is tricky,” Day says. “The success or failure of the mission will have a big impact on her future and her freedom.”

A gamer herself, she knows that game-to-movie adaptations haven’t gone well (has there really been a good one?) “I put every single effort into making this something that gamers will be proud of. Even though we were constrained a lot as a Web series, none of the people who were involved took that as a constraint. They took that as a challenge.”

Peter Winther (The Librarian: Quest for the Spear) directed.

Dragon Age II, the next installment in the game franchise, comes out March 8th for [asin=B0047TG2R0]XBox 360[/asin], [asin=B0047TLIBU]PS3[/asin] and [asin=B0047THYWC]PC/Mac[/asin].

In the next all-new episode of Merlin, Arthur is approached about his arranged engagement to a princess, Elena. It’s against his own wishes and he’s caught in deciding whether he should honor the royal tradition or if he should make the choice to not go through with it. Watch the clip and tune in on Friday at 10/9c on Syfy to see if Arthur will choose the right destiny of marrying his eventual Queen, or if the true feelings of his heart will prevail.

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Warner Premiere (a division of Warner Bros, which specializes in the development and production of both features and digital content for home entertainment platforms) is producing a live-action digital new media series “Mortal Kombat”, based on the iconic gaming franchise which has already spawned multiple arcade and console games, two movies, two TV series and an animated series, and yesterday they announced the initial cast which will include Jeri Ryan (Star Trek: Voyager) as Lieutenant Sonya Blade (reprising her role from the unofficial short film “Mortal Kombat: Rebirth”), Michael Jai White (The Dark Knight) as Major Jackson ‘Jax’ Briggs, and Darren Shahlavi (300) as Kano.

Kevin Tancharoen, who directed and produced the popular, unofficial “Mortal Kombat: Rebirth” fan short that garnered over 10 million views worldwide, is bringing the same immersive directing style to this live-action digital new media series. Fans will be able to delve deep into the history of the warriors they know and love including “Sub-Zero” and “Scorpion.” Shooting for “Mortal Kombat” is currently underway in Vancouver.

In addition to the digital series (details on distribution have not been released yet), a new game will be released on April 19th, 2011, on both the [asin=B003O6E1JS]Playstation 3[/asin] and [asin=B002I0J998]XBox 360[/asin], in Standard, Kollector’s and Tournament Editions. (link fixed for PS3 version)

Production of Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome began yesterday up in Vancouver. Blood & Chrome represents a return to the action-oriented storytelling that helped make Battlestar Galactica a success, and what many fans felt was lacking in the followup prequel, Caprica.

It takes place in the 10th year of the first Cylon war. As the battle between humans and their creation, the sentient robotic Cylons, rages across the 12 colonial worlds, a young, talented fighter pilot, William Adama (Luke Pasqualino), finds himself assigned to one of the most powerful Battlestars in the Colonial fleet: the Galactica. Full of ambition and in pursuit of the intense action that the Cylon war promises, Adama quickly find himself at odds with Coker (Ben Cotton), the battle-weary officer to whom he reports. With 47 days left in his tour of duty, Coker desires an end to battle just as much as Adama craves the start of it. Though they clash at first, the two men forge an unlikely bond when a routine mission turns dangerous and becomes a pivotal one for the desperate fleet.

Another cast member was added as well – Lili Bordan (Cherry) will play Dr. Beka Kelly, a Ph.D. who worked for Graystone Industries that created the Cylon robots. Currently assigned to a secret military mission, Beka and Adama quickly establish a rapport.

The long on-again off-again history of the Logan’s Run remake is getting longer…Deadline is reporting that Ryan Gosling is finalizing a deal to star in the movie, with his Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn helming. Interestingly, the original book and early versions of this remake had the age at which the inhabitants of the domed city were “renewed” at 21, while the first movie changed that to 30. Gosling turned 30 back in November, so perhaps the age limit will change again…but Warner Bros has been trying to get this going for over 7 years, so I expect in a few months things will change again.

I tweeted about this earlier, but I’ll repeat it here…Syfy hasn’t changed their minds about a future season of Stargate Universe (it’s still canceled), but the final 10 episodes of Season 2 will finally air starting March 7th at 10PM.

Babylon 5 creator and Changeling scribe J. Michael Straczynski has been teasing us for a few days about a big announcement, and we finally know what it is. DreamWorks has picked up an original screenplay from him which is a thriller set in the real-life relationship between escape artist/magician Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of the Sherlock Holmes stories. The script is titled Voices From the Dead, and is a fictional account of the two teaming up with a psychic to solve a set of murders in 1920’s New York. It looks like DreamWorks is fasttracking the production, with a search on for a director and stars with the idea of getting it in front of the cameras as soon as possible.