Sci-Fi Storm

Syfy announced today a new two-part Treasure Island movie event based on the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, which is already in production and expected to air in early 2012. In addition they announced Elijah Wood, Donald Sutherland and Eddie Izzard are joining the cast. Wood will play the part of Ben Gunn, Sutherland will play Flint, and Izzard will play Long John Silver (which we hope means there will be an interesting comedic bent to the film). They join Toby Regbo (Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, Part 2) as Jim Hawkins, Shirley Henderson (Moaning Myrtle from the Harry Potter films) as Jim’s mother, and Nina Sosanya (Love Actually) as Silver’s wife.

Details of the story were not release, so we don’t know yet if this is a “reimagining” of the story like Alice and Tin Man, or a traditional version.

Sometimes more interesting than the actual Super Bowl is the commercials that will air during it. This year, Volkswagen will introduce a new commercial called “The Force”, with an obvious Star Wars theme…but you don’t have to wait until Sunday to see it – you can see it right here now!
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In the next all-new episode of Being Human, Aidan tries to help Rebecca fight her urge to seek out human blood by bringing her some to quench her thirst. It appears to be simply not as good as the real thing, and certainly not the thrill of the hunt. Aidan starts to become weak towards his own fight against the pursuit and he and Rebecca quickly find they have the same desire for the taste of another, or in this case, each other. Watch the sneak peek clip and be sure to tune in on Monday at 9/8c on Syfy!

NBC’s comic-inspired super hero story The Cape, which stars David Lyons, saw record low ratings Monday with a 1.5/4 rating, down 6% from the previous week and from the 5.0/8 achieved during the premiere. With that, NBC announced late yesterday that they are cutting the episode order from the planned 13 episodes to 10. Given they are just finishing up the 10th episode, this pulls the plug on the production and, unless there is an amazing resurgence, the show overall.

The original Being Human is branching out on to the web, with a spinoff web series caleld Becoming Human which follows Adam, the teenage vampire that was introduced in the second episode of the current series. Adam becomes involved in a mystery involving a missing teenager. Eight episodes are planned to be released weekly each Sunday, with the first being released this past Sunday.

Alas, US viewers (and I’m guessing anyone outside the UK) are unable to watch the content.

Amanda Tapping, who’s current series Sanctuary started as a web series and she also narrated the recent web series Riese: Kingdom Falling, hopes to again help the success of a web series. She will join William Shatner as a voice on the animated web series The Zenoids, which will be featured on Shatner’s MyOuterSpace social networking site. As such she’ll also be the “Captain” of the Starship Orion, the section of MyOuterSpace who’s mission is to produce The Zenoids through social collaboration.

[This was meant to be posted on Friday, but I wasn’t able to get to it]

January 28th, 1986. I remember right where I was.

I was in my senior year of high school. I grew up like a lot of boys wanting to be an astronaut. Never actually shook it off later on. I followed the space program with rapt attention – given free choice of a book report or term paper, it invariably turned towards space. I had a large amount of materials, books, etc.

I watched intently with my class as the Enterprise test flights took place in grade school. Followed each mission as I could through the years.
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A copy of the reportedly original pitch for Star Trek made by Gene Roddenberry has been found online. Although some of the things revealed are generally well known (the ship was originally the Yorktown, the captain was Robert April – who was later canonized as the captain of the Enterprise before Pike in the animated series, etc.) you can see that as early as 1964 several of the ideas for stories that were eventually produced.
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News is is spreading through the universe this Sunday that the new Man Of Steel has been named for the upcoming re-reboot of Superman being done by Zack Snyder and Christopher Nolan. Henry Cavill, currently seen in the U.S. as Charles Brandon in The Tudors and stars in the upcoming The Immortals, beat out a long list of rumored Supes, and is no stranger to this or other comic-based roles – he was up for the role in the McG/Ratner-led Superman film before that project was taken over by Bryan Singer, and also auditioned for the role of Batman – for Christopher Nolan (but lost out to Christian Bale).

So, at the moment three of the premiere American comic book superheroes are currently being played by British actors – Cavill, Bale, and Andrew Garfield (Spider-Man in the yet-to-be-titled reboot).

Saoirse Ronan, the 16-year-old Academy Award-nominated actress (for 2007’s Atonement), has reportedly joined the cast of The Hobbit in an unknown role. IMDB lists here as rumored for the role of Itaril, which is as far as I know an invented role for the movie, but is likely one of the Silvan elves of the Mirkwood.