Sci-Fi Storm

So, I got a kick today, as a week ago I posted an article pointing out that Lucas never said he had 50 episodes “in the can” (i.e. completed and ready to air) like a lot of the news outlets seemed to think. Yet late yesterday the New York Post posted an article still saying the episodes were in the can, that was reiterated by The Hollywood Reporter today – both articles were later corrected. Deadline also followed the Post’s article, but I only saw it after the corrections to the other two so I don’t know if they had likewise made the same error. Anyways, I get to feel smug for a few minutes about my being correct a week before some of the major industry rags. 🙂

But in the meantime, E! Online has a fun article about “Five Ways to Keep New Star Wars TV Series From Sucking”. Although honestly, “No Jar Jar” should be higher up on the list. And we could easily expand it to 10 ways…or 20 I’m sure.

Hollywood Treasure returns on Wednesday, June 1st, at 10pm ET/9PM CT…and this episode should be interesting to science fiction fans – because it features Robby The Robot from Forbidden Planet, who also made various cameo appearances on many shows and movies.

Does he still work? Check out the preview below!
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So, remember that live action Star Wars series that George Lucas announced many moons ago, where he was planning 100 episodes but planned to have 50 or 60 in the can before bringing it to air? And then the project got shelved due to it being too expensive? Well, there has been lots of reports based on an interview George did for Attack Of The Show as part of the Star Tours re-opening and Star Wars 3D announcements that he said they have 50 hours already filmed – but it seemed very odd to me that they could have 50 hours filmed and then say that they need to figure out a way to make it cheaper. So I watched the interview, and he never actually says that it has been filmed – only that they “have 50 hours,” and that they are trying to figure out a way to make it “economically feasible to shoot the show.” That sounds to me like they’ve got scripts and perhaps some pre-production work done, but no actual filming.

Watch and decide for yourself:
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Seems a lot of people wanted to see how it would end…the series finale of The Event apparently saw a 15% ratings increase (1.5/4), and was the highest rated episode in the 18-49 demographic since last November.

Since a lot of you (me included) probably at least follow @nerdist of not listen to his podcast, comedian Chris Hardwick – a self-professed Doctor Who fan – will develop an original panel talk show for BBC America based on the Nerdist podcast. The show will cover all things relative to geek culture from LA to London and feature celebrity guests with their own nerd obsessions. Hardwick will executive produce alongside K.P. Anderson and Jay James for Comcast Entertainment Studios.

Also, Hardwick will also host the network’s “Ministry of Laughs” comedy block on Saturday nights, which kicks off on June 18th, and will feature British shows The Inbetweeners, Come Fly With Me, and The Graham Norton Show.

I haven’t heard officially the reason yet, but BBC America will not show the next episode, “The Almost People”, next weekend, instead delaying an an extra week. Most likely due to traditional low ratings on the Memorial Day weekend. This means the U.S. will fall behind a week as the UK will still get their episode as planned. It may not be too bad though – there were only two more episodes in the current schedule, as Series 6 was split into two production sets, and episode 7 will air June 11th before the break. Hopefully when it returns to same-day when the second half returns and we don’t have to endure spoilers from every direction.

While we wait for Torchwood: Miracle Day, we can finally see some footage on the new extended trailer that appeared on Access Hollywood yesterday.

Updated: added a much better trailer…

Ashley Eckstein (the voice of Ahsoka Tano in Star Wars: The Clone Wars) is at Disney’s Hollywood Studios gearing up for Star Wars Weekends starting tomorrow, and has made a couple of videos previewing the brand-new version of the Star Tours attraction. You can view one video below, and then an exclusive tour of the new attraction queue is available over at Entertainment Weekly…the new attraction boasts incredible 3D projection, a new variable experience (54 possible variations) and all sorts of new details.

In the meantime, Eckstein’s company, Her Universe, which makes science fiction merchandise targeted at women, in partnership with Syfy (a partnership we reported on in October), will finally unveil a Syfy Gear merchandise line for women at San Diego Comic-Con, which runs July 20th-24th as well as available via Syfy.com and heruniverseshop.com (except for a Comic-Con “exclusive”). Both sides are still tight-lipped about what the merchandise might be…
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Syfy has acquired both seasons (26 episodes) of the hit Canadian supernatural drama Lost Girl from Prodigy Pictures, it was announced today by Thomas Vitale, Executive Vice President, Programming and Original Movies, Syfy. Lost Girl stars supernatural seductress Bo (played by Anna Silk, The Ghost Whisperer), a Succubus (a powerful female entity in folklore) who feeds off sexual energy. Raised by human parents, Bo had no reason to believe she was anything other than the girl next door — until she “drained” her first boyfriend to death.
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Starz Entertainment, which is co-producing the upcoming Torchwood: Miracle Day with BBC Wales and BBC Worlwide, announced the guest star list for the series. In addition to Torchwood alumni John Barrowman, Eve Myles, and Kai Owen and new headliners Mekhi Phifer, Bill Pullman and Alexa Havins, that the 10-episode, hour-long series will also feature an impressive list of guest stars: Wayne Knight (Seinfeld, Jurassic Park), C. Thomas Howell (Southland, The Outsiders), Ernie Hudson (OZ, Ghostbusters), Nana Visitor (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), John DeLancie (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Mare Winningham (Mildred Pierce, George Wallace) and Frances Fisher (Titanic, The Lincoln Lawyer).

Torchwood: Miracle Day will debut in the U.S. on Starz on July 8th at 10pm ET/PT.

Torchwood: Miracle Day begins with a day when nobody dies. The result: a population boom, overnight. With all the extra people, resources are finite. It’s said that in four month’s time, the human race will cease to be viable. But this can’t be a natural occurrence – someone’s got to be behind it. It’s a race against time as C.I.A. agent Rex Matheson investigates a global conspiracy. The answers lie within an old, secret British institute. As Rex keeps asking “What is Torchwood?,” he’s drawn into a world of adventure, and a threat to change what it means to be human, forever.