Sci-Fi Storm

I was going to post something early this morning on the Oscars, but had to give up when there were too may fires to fight…anyways, although the SF&F genres had a good chance to take some top prizes last night, The Hurt Locker ended up the big winner. Avatar did take prizes in Cinematography, Art Direction, and Visual Effects, while Star Trek did get Best Makeup. Avatar and James Cameron did get a lot of attention, however, including Ben Stiller as a snazzy dressed Na’vi.

Disney announced at their upfront presentation that a Tron animated series is in development for the Disney Channel, and is to be aimed at 6-14 year olds, to appear following the release of Tron: Legacy. And prior to release there may also be a 10-part micro-series on Disney XD. Almost 30 years have passed, and now they smell franchise…I’ve even heard that they will dress up a WDW monorail to look a bit like a lightcycle. Also on the docket: An animated series based on The Avengers, courtesy of their Marvel acquisition.

ROBERT DOWNEY JR. TO APPEAR ON “JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE: AFTER THE ACADEMY AWARDS®,” ALONG WITH A MUSICAL PERFORMANCE FROM GRAMMY® AWARD WINNER KEITH URBAN

Host Jimmy Kimmel welcomes two-time Academy Award®-nominated Robert Downey Jr. and a musical performance by Grammy Award® winner Keith Urban to the fifth consecutive “Jimmy Kimmel Live: After the Academy Awards”, SUNDAY, MARCH 7, immediately following the late local news (12:05-1:05 a.m., ET, approx). Downey will introduce the world premiere of the new “Iron Man 2” trailer only moments before Urban performs his new hit single, “‘Til Summer Comes Around,” from his 2009 album, “Defying Gravity.”
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Asteroids is already on its way. Missile Command is also an apparently possible Fox franchise. So what’s next? The venerable Space Invaders, leader of the modern video game movement, looks to get set up at Warner Bros.. So, what could be next? Monster movie Centipede? Dig Dug saved the world from an underground mega-quake?

Fans of Jeremiah have been waiting patiently, hoping for Season 2 to finally be released on DVD – considering [sfs=372]Season 1[/sfs] was released 6 years ago. But now you can [sfs=1005]finally get it tomorrow[/sfs], but only from Amazon.com (through our links of course). However, it isn’t your standard DVD set, but rather Amazon is publishing these on-demand on DVD-Rs…perhaps the future model for lower-demand titles? It will be interesting to see the quality of the release in this model.

The George R.R. Martin fantasy novel series A Song of Ice and Fire has been greenlighted by HBO for production as a series, with 9 episodes plus the pilot ordered. It appears it may run under the name of Game Of Thrones, which is the name of the [asin=0553381687]first novel[/asin] and also of the pilot episode. Taking place mostly on the continent of Westeros where winter can last decades, it deals with the conflicts between seven kingdoms in the aftermath of a civil war, struggling to take the ultimate throne – some with force, others with subterfuge, while the Others from the north prepare to renew their threat from across the Wall.

Found these on Sci-Fi Wire: First, someone built Minas Tirith out of 420,000 matchsticks over the course of three years – and it looks awesome. And someone else built a foosball table out of Star Wars legos…Read our full article to see some images.
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The new Doctor will make his U.S. debut on April 17th on BBC America, as Doctor Who hits the airwaves again, not long after it does in the U.K. (anyone have an exact date on that?). The first two episodes, “The Eleventh Hour” and “The Beast Below”, were written by new exec runner Steven Moffat (who previously wrote some of the best at creepiest episodes) and the third is “Victory of the Daleks”, which as you might think features some Daleks, written by Mark Gatiss. See below for the full press release, and also check out the trailer – you’ll see some familiar enemies (including the weeping angels from “Blink”), but it ends with an interesting reptilian skull – a foreshadow of a major enemy?

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As an unfortunate followup to a previous story, it appears that Andrew Koenig’s body has been found in a Vancouver park. A police conference is set for 5pm PT (8pm ET). Our condolences to the Koenig family. Update: Walter Koenig confirmed in a press conference. “My son took his own life,” he said.

The Fourth Realm trilogy, written by John Twelve Hawks and deal with parallel universes, secret organizations and population control, has been optioned by Fox for adaptation into a movie, with Alex Tse (Watchmen) adapting the screenplay and Gil Netter (The Blind Side) and Andrew Tennenbaum (The Bourne Identity) producing. Can anyone provide a good overview or even better a review of the books?