Sci-Fi Storm

On a conference call Friday, producer David Eick talked about Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome, where the first two webisodes went online Friday. And he wasn’t too happy about the characterization that it was a “failed pilot”.

“I feel like there’s a certain record to set straight which was a little bit frustrating to me a few months ago when I saw the headlines that the Blood & Chrome project had somehow been rejected or was a failed pilot or wasn’t going to make it on the air,” he said. “It was never intended to be a traditional pilot, so to speak, such that Syfy not picking it up in a traditional manner to an episodic series was some kind of a rejection or failure. It was always developed at least from my point of view as a project for an online environment. And there’s something that we would develop and structurally, narratively build as a ten-part sort of a series.

“Kind of like the Raiders of the Lost Ark style, adapted to the 1930s style movie serials where you have ten minutes of story and a cliffhanger followed by ten minutes of story and the cliffhanger. And then after ten of these episodes, it would all kind of resolve itself in a pre-act structure as a whole movie. And so when I set out to develop this, my thinking was to design a mission, so to speak.
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Syfy released a couple of announcements today…first up, Ghost Hunters, Syfy’s longest-running original reality series, returns for a ninth season this winter. Sixteen all-new season 9 episodes are slated to premiere beginning January 16, 2013 at 9 PM ET/PT.

Second, just in time for the joyous holiday season, the new Syfy Original Movie ’12 Disasters of Christmas takes on the ancient Mayan prophecy of worldwide destruction at the end of 2012, airing Saturday, December 8th, at 9PM (ET/PT).

More information on both below.
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Syfy will begin airing Continuum, which joins Lost Girl and the upcoming Primeval: New World as acquisitions from Canada, on Monday, January 14th, at 8/7c. Continuum was Canada’s highest-rated scripted basic cable series when it aired recently.

Continuum stars Rachel Nichols (Criminal Minds, Alias) as Kiera Cameron, a cop from the future who finds herself trapped in the present day. When a group of fanatical terrorists escapes their planned execution in 2077 by vaulting back in time to 2012, they inadvertently sweep along Kiera, a dedicated City Protective Services officer.

With unexpected assistance from teen tech genius Alec Sadler, played by Erik Knudsen (Jericho, Scream 4), Kiera infiltrates the local police department and forms an uneasy alliance with her new partner, detective Carlos Fonnegra, portrayed by Victor Webster (Castle, Melrose Place). Though desperate to get back to her husband and son, Kiera concentrates on bringing down the terrorists before they change the course of history.

The January 14 premiere of Continuum will lead into the third season premieres of Syfy’s hit series Being Human at 9PM and Lost Girl at 10PM.

Executive producers of Continuum are Simon Barry (The Art of War), Jeff King (Stargate SG-1, White Collar), Tom Rowe (Tin Man), Pat Williams (Smallville), and Reunion Pictures. Writer: Simon Barry. Director: Jon Cassar (24, Terra Nova).

In addition to the first two seasons for on-air, Syfy has also acquired the U.S. home entertainment rights to Continuum. Universal Studios Home Entertainment will handle the DVD distribution and are targeting a DVD release shortly after the season finale on Syfy.

Syfy has announced that Haven has been renewed for a fourth season! Consulting producer Gabrielle Stanton has also been promoted to co-showrunner with executive producer Matt McGinnis. Currently ranked 1st among cable programs in the Friday 10pm slot in Live+7 ratings, with the season premiere reaching 2.8 million people.

Episodes 1 and 2 are now online of Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome thanks to MachinimaPrime – but you can watch them right here!

Syfy will air the uncut two-hour version in February 2013, along with a [asin=B00A3718IS]Blu-ray[/asin] and [asin=B00A3717C0]DVD[/asin] release on February 19th, 2013 which will include deleted scenes and a visual effects featurette! (pre-order now and help us pay the bills…)
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First it was Captain Jack Harkness. Now it’s Commander John Crichton and Lt. Colonel Cam Mitchell. Actor Ben Browder, who starred in Farscape and later the last couple seasons of Stargate SG-1, and more recently had guest appearances on Chuck and Doctor Who, will join the cast of Arrow as Ted Gaynor.

In the DC Comics universe, Gaynor was a bodyguard working for the Blackhawk Squadron in the Blackhawk comics. In Arrow, he will be John Diggle’s (Queen’s bodyguard) former commanding officer in Afghanistan, now working as a bodyguard with the “Blackhawk Squad Protection Group”, as an apparent nod to the comics.

Helmer Steven Moffat confirmed today that Neil Gaiman is indeed writing an episode of Doctor Who that will be part of the current season (it was earlier suggested that his episode may get pushed back for budgetary reasons), and that the episode will mark the return of the Cybermen. Not much else is known, but we do know that the episode will co-star Warwick Davis (Willow, the Leprechaun and Star Wars movies, and more recently Life’s Too Short), Tamzin Outhwaite (EastEnders) and Jason Watkins (Being Human).

Neil Gaiman won a Hugo award for last season’s episode, “The Doctor’s Wife”.

Update: The first day of filming was today!

Here is a a sneak peek for Syfy’s upcoming Saturday Night Movie, Ghost Storm, which stars Battlestar Galactica‘s Aaron Douglas, in which a storm of angry spirits wreak havoc…tune in at 9/8c on Syfy!

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In next Friday’s Haven, Audrey is pushed to her extremes with a dying Nathan. Tune in Friday at 10/9c on Syfy!

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I started hearing rumors over the weekend, but they appear to be true: The pilot of Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome, a prequel to Syfy’s Battlestar Galactica which did not get picked up as a series, will be released online as 10 “webisodes” to 7-12 minutes each via Machinima’s MachinimaPrime YouTube channel. The first episode will be released this Friday, with the remaining episodes following over the next 4 weeks.

Syfy still plans to air the entire two-hour pilot sometime in early 2013.

Check out the trailer below, along with the press release!
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