Sci-Fi Storm

Executive Producer David Michael Latt, co-founder of The Asylum, took to Twitter to announce the bad news – Z Nation was not renewed for another season by Syfy and thus would be ending.

#ZNation https://t.co/UfKAQlkkn5

— David Michael Latt (@DavidMLatt) December 22, 2018

In the video, Latt thanks the fans and everyone involved in the show. Plus there was a new announcement – Black Summer would premiere next year as an origin story of sorts, and would appear exclusively on Netflix.

Let us say thank YOU to the cast and crew of Z Nation for five great seasons! It’s been a wonderfully enjoyable ride…mercy.

The upcoming sequel series to Jim Henson’s 1982 fantasy epic [asin=B0016BWACI]The Dark Crystal[/asin] is looking great and keeping to the style of the original…but have you seen the list of everyone who will be voicing the characters? Check this out:

Taron Egerton (the Kingsman movies, Eddie The Eagle), Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones) and Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch) will voice the three lead characters of Rian, Deet and Brea, three Gelflings who uncover the horrific truth behind the power of the Skeksis, when an adventure unfolds as the fires of rebellion are lit and an epic battle for the planet begins.

Also voicing Gelflings:

Caitriona Balfe (Outlander)

Helena Bonham-Carter (The King’s Speech)

Harris Dickinson (forthcoming Maleficent 2)

Natalie Dormer (Game of Thrones)

Eddie Izzard (Ocean’s Thirteen)

Theo James (The Divergent Series)

Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)

Shazad Latif (Star Trek: Discovery)

Gugu Mbatha-Raw (The Cloverfield Paradox)

Mark Strong (Kingsman)

Alicia Vikander (Tomb Raider)

The Skeksis & Mystics are voiced by:

Harvey Fierstein (Torch Song)

Mark Hamill (Knightfall, Star Wars)

Ralph Ineson (Game of Thrones)

Jason Isaacs (The OA)

Keegan-Michael Key (Key and Peele)

Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (True Detective)

Simon Pegg (Mission Impossible)

Andy Samberg (Brooklyn Nine Nine)

Aughra will be voiced by Donna Kimball (The Happytime Murders)

I can’t wait…

Lucasfilm announced today that Pedro Pascal (Narcos, Game Of Thrones, Kingsman: The Golden Circle) will join an all star cast and crew and take the title role of The Mandalorian, the live-action Star Wars series set to debut on the upcoming Disney+ streaming service. The show will follow a lone Mandalorian (Pascal) gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy.

Pascal joins a cast that includes Gina Carano (Deadpool), Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad), Emily Swallow (Supernatural), Carl Weathers (Predator), Omid Abtahi (American Gods), Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man), and Nick Nolte (Affliction).

Dave Filoni (Star Wars: Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels) will direct the first episode. Other directors to follow include Deborah Chow (Jessica Jones), Rick Famuyiwa (Dope), Bryce Dallas Howard (Solemates), and Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok).

The teaser trailer for the upcoming Netflix series The Umbrella Academy…based on the comic series from Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, it follows a dysfunctional family of superheroes comes together to solve the mystery of their father’s death, the threat of the apocalypse and more. The series will be released February 15th.

Everyone can put down their sonics…despite rumors that 13th Doctor Jodie Whittaker might take a quick exit ala Christopher Eccleston after only one series as the Time Lord, she put those rumors to rest in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter:

“I really can’t wait to step back in and get to work again,” Whittaker told The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s such an incredible role. It’s been an extraordinary journey so far and I’m not quite ready to hand it over yet.”

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jodie-whittaker-confirms-return-doctor-who-season-12-116738

So now we can all continue enjoying this fresh take, and don’t forget – she’ll be returning on New Years Day!

It’s finally here…it’s called Avengers: Endgame and the release date is moved up to April 26th, 2019!

The 2019 Golden Globe Award nominations are out, and so it’s time to round up all the genre nominations…

On the movie side of the house, Black Panther scored a Best Motion Picture – Drama nom, along with a Best Original Score for Ludwig Goransson and Best Original Song for “All the Stars”. Mary Poppins Returns scored in
Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, along with Best Actress for Emily Blunt, Best Actor for Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Best Original Score for Marc Shaiman.

The animated features Incredibles 2, Wreck-It Ralph: Ralph Breaks The Internet, and Spider-Man: Into The Spider-verse all received Best Motion Picture – Animated noms.

On the TV end, The Good Place was nominated for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy along with Kristen Bell for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy, while Elisabeth Moss got one for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama for The Handmaid’s Tale and Thandie Newton scored a nom for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television for Westworld.

A couple of movie news items while I’m in the tech week of helping produce a school musical…

Zoey Deutch (Set It Up) will join the cast of Zombieland 2, which will feature all the original stars – Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin. The followup, to be released about 10 years after the original in October 2019, will follow the survivors through both the White House and the Heartland while dealing with evolved zombies and other survivors. Just remember – double tap.

Sony, in the meantime, is hoping that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse will help launch a female-centric animated hero franchise and is developing Spider-Women, to focus on three female Spider-powered heroes, one of which might be Spider-Gwen who will be featured in the highly-anticipated movie releasing next month. Bek Smith (Zoo) is tagged to write the script. Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse‘s Amy Pascal will produce.

Syfy is getting into late-night original animation programming with Alien News Desk, a series that will cover up-to-the-minute news and commentary about the universe’s most baffling species – the inscrutable Humans of Planet Earth.

The 12-episode series will feature the voices of Will Forte and Saturday Night Live‘s Heidi Gardner, and is executive produced by the Saturday Night Live team of Lorne Michaels, Erik Kenward and Dennis McNicholas, Joel Kuwahara and Scott Greenberg from Bento Box Entertainment, and Andrew Singer from Broadway Video. Scott Gairdner (Moonbeam City) and Broadway Video’s Katy Jenson will co-executive produce. McNicholas will act as showrunner.

“The expansion into original animation and late night marks the next step in the evolution of SYFY, and builds on the successes we’ve had bringing new, younger viewers to the network,” said Chris McCumber, President, Entertainment Networks for NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. “Tackling news, politics and entertainment from the perspective of alien newscasters completely puzzled by our human ways, Alien News Desk is a fun, irreverent way to put a uniquely ‘SYFY’ spin on the late night current affairs genre.”

This reminds me of then-Sci-Fi Channel’s first ever original scripted program, FTL Newsfeed, a 30-60 second “micro short” series of news segments broadcast from 150 years in the future, and ran for four years and over a thousand episodes from 1992-1996, with the launch of the channel. To my knowledge, however, it has never been rebroadcast or released in any medium since then.

The Magicians return on January 23rd, and we…can’t…wait…