Sci-Fi Storm

Hopefully our calendar feature reminded you, but the finale of Lost is on at 9pm ET tonight – and I understand Europe is getting it around 5:00am BST, so you better get up real early…

Move over MacGruber, even your grandma Betty White knows the real thing…Jason Richman (Bad Company, Bangkok Dangerous) has been tapped to work on a MacGyver feature film for New Line, to run under Raffaella De Laurentiis’ Raffaella Productions, with Martha De Laurentiis and Lee Zlotoff also producing and Dino De Laurentiis as exec.

Despite a lot of excitement that he was in discussions with producers Jon Landau and James Cameron on a remake of Fantastic Voyage, Bourne trilogy director Paul Greengrass has opted to focus on a Treasure Island project for Lionel Wigram (Sherlock Holmes) instead.

Heroes creator Tim Kring, while taking a polite swipe at NBC for canceling his program watched by “45 million TV viewers around the world” each week, hinted at plans to keep the Heroes universe alive in some form, perhaps in the alternate media forms where it has helped gather its following. Read on for his complete statement.
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Speaking of David Fincher’s future plans, apparently Disney is reviving it’s plans for a new 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea version and is negotiating with Fincher set to direct. Just 7 months ago Disney scuttled plans for the movie when McG was the director, after Rich Ross took over the studio. Also negotiating to pen the screenplay is Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum).

Update: Apparently Fox wants their own high-octane version of the story, announcing their own edition with Tony and Ridley Scott producing, and Travis Beacham (Clash Of The Titans writing). The story has long been in the public domain so anyone is free to make their own version.

Just in: as expected, Chuck and V have been renewed, with the expectation of 13-week orders each for now. Flash Forward, however, appears to be not so lucky.

Update: Heroes has also been canceled, although there may be some sort of conclusion later on.

With David Fincher taking a further step away from the long-smoldering Rendezvous With Rama epic, SCI FI Wire has come up with a list of the 10 most awesome sci-fi movies that never were … so far. Along with Arthur C. Clarke’s Rama and Childhood’s End, there are some other long-awaited classics (The Stars My Destination), but also more recent and questionable entries – apparently Ghostbusters 3 isn’t as sure as we were led to believe – and “most awesome” would really have to wait until we know the story, I’d think…what are some of the other announced epics that seem to have vanished? Ringworld? Has Foundation entered production yet? What other sagas are you waiting for (or at least, still waiting for a good adaptation)?

Update: thanks to decipher_saint for pointing out that the link was completely botched…

The Roller Coaster Tycoon computer game franchise by Chris Sawyer could be the next game to become a movie. David Ronn and Jay Scherick (The Smurfs) are tagged for the script, with Harald Zwart (The Karate Kid) producing/directing. Other than it being planned for a mixed live-action/CGI, nothing else is known.

The ratings for V improved 14% this week with the strong lead-in from Lost, perhaps lifting it from the renewal bubble that a lot of shows are hanging around – including its sibling Flash Forward. So perhaps one of ABC’s serialized SF shows can survive to fill the Lost void?

It looks like Judge Dredd will be returning to the big screen and bring law to the lawless. The script comes from Alex Garland (28 Days Later) and directed by Pete Travis (Endgame), with Garland, Andrew Macdonald of DNA Films, and Allon Reich, who teamed up before for 28 Weeks Later). And – surprise! – it will be in 3D. I may be in the minority, but I actually enjoyed the 1995 movie which starred Sylvester Stallone, for what it was at least…campy, much like Demolition Man.