Sci-Fi Storm

Star Trek‘s 50th Anniversary is officially tomorrow, having debuted on September 8th, 1966. And Syfy will be in on the fun with a movie marathon starting in the morning…but to get you warmed up, here are a couple humorous videos from the whales in Star Trek: The Voyage Home…

Tomorrow, fans and viewers can send photos into the Twitter handle @Syfy with their best Vulcan Salute – Live Long and Prosper. Using the hashtag #SyfyLLAP , they have a chance for their photo and user generated content to be featured on-air during the marathon. Additionally, all day Thursday fans can interact and guess answers to on-air Star Trek trivia by using the hashtag #StarTrekTrivia

A couple quick tidbits for tonight…

Kryption, Syfy’s Superman prequel series, found a lead in British actress Georgina Campbell (After Hours), who will play Lyta Zod, daughter of General Alura Zod and a member of the military caste, who has been having a clandestine relationship with Seg-El, Kal-El’s grandfather, who is trying to restore the honor of the ostracized House of El. No casting of Seg-El has yet been announced.

Across the hall at flagship NBC, the Peacock Network is developing Unidentified, a high-octane thriller with sci-fi elements from Universal Television and Zachary Levi’s Middle Man Productions. Levi recently hosted Syfy’s Geeks Who Drink, and of course helped make nerds cool in Chuck. Levi is executive producing along with Turi Meyer and Al Septien (Smallville, Salem), with Middle Man partner Justin Allen co-executive producing with Sean Finegan, who is writing the script. The show follows a CIA operative trying to protect his family from an unimaginable secret.

Hooray! As the summer shows reach their season finales, Syfy today announced a season three renewal for the space action dramas Killjoys and Dark Matter. Both are currently wrapping their second seasons on Syfy: Killjoys will air its second season finale tomorrow, Friday, September 2 at 9/8c, while Dark Matter will air a double episode on Friday, September 9 at 10/9c and 11/10c, and its season two finale on Friday, September 16 at 10/9c.

From Temple Street Productions (Orphan Black, Being Erica), Universal Cable Productions and creator Michelle Lovretta (Lost Girl), Killjoys follows a trio of interplanetary bounty hunters sworn to remain impartial as they chase deadly warrants throughout the Quad, a distant system on the brink of a bloody, multiplanetary class war. Starring Hannah John-Kamen as Dutch, and Aaron Ashmore and Luke Macfarlane as brothers John and D’avin, this season the Killjoys struggled to find the balance between politics, family and the good of the Quad. The series is produced by Temple Street Productions in association with Space and Syfy. Creator and showrunner Lovretta serves as executive producer, along with Temple Street Productions’ David Fortier and Ivan Schneeberg. Universal Cable Productions distributes the series worldwide.

From Prodigy Pictures and Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie (both of Stargate), Dark Matter centers on a crew who awaken on a derelict spaceship with no memories of who they are or how they got there. Facing threats at every turn, they have to work together to survive a voyage fueled by vengeance, betrayal and hidden secrets. This season, the crew found themselves embroiled in an intergalactic conspiracy, seeking a mysterious device that may hold the key to victory in a looming all-out corporate war. Created by Mallozzi and Mullie, developed and produced by Prodigy Pictures, Dark Matter is based on Mallozzi and Mullie’s graphic novel of the same name, published by Dark Horse Comics. The series features Melissa O’Neil, Anthony Lemke, Alex Mallari Jr. and Jodelle Ferland with Roger Cross and Zoie Palmer. Executive Producers are Jay Firestone, Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie.

Grimm was only renewed for 13 episodes in its sixth season back in April, but there were hopes it could get extended. But when it was left off NBC’s Fall lineup, fears were setting in. But now NBC has confirmed that the sixth season will remain at 13 episodes and be its last when they announced that the “final” season will begin January 6th at 8/7c.

The series, which reached the 100-episode milestone last season, has long been a fan and critical favorite, with the Los Angeles Times calling it “terrific and trendsetting… ‘Grimm’ has become a beacon of solid narrative and a weekly reminder of why monsters matter.” The New York Times said “Grimm” is “engaging, clever, tense, funny and well-paced, featuring a remarkably appealing cast.”

As for events leading into the final season, the nefarious forces of Black Claw have been silenced and Nick (David Giuntoli) faces an all too familiar foe in Capt. Sean Renard (Sasha Roiz). Now in the seat of power as the mayor elect of Portland, Renard is poised to bring rise to his own brand of law and order. Nick must take a stand to protect his city and those closest to him, especially his child with Adalind (Claire Coffee). It will take the full force of Nick and his allies to find a way to bring the peace.

Meanwhile, Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) and Rosalee (Bree Turner) grapple with bringing a child into a new and tumultuous world, and Eve (Bitsie Tulloch) faces unsettling identity issues as her former self lurks below the surface.

“Grimm” also stars Russell Hornsby and Reggie Lee.

This may have flown under my radar, but Family Guy creator and voice actor Seth Macfarlane has a straight-to-series order from Fox for a yet unnamed hour long sci-fi comedy series, in which he will also star and executive produce. Also in the cast are Adrianne Palicki (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Scott Grimes (ER, Party of Five), Peter Macon (Friendship!) and J Lee (Family Guy).

Now Jon Favreau, who really got the Marvel Cinematic Universe off on the right track by directing the first two Iron Man installments and has been hitting gold with his latest, Disney’s Jungle Book, has signed on the direct and executive produce the first episode.

Set in space 300 years in the future, the show follows the adventures of the Orville, a not-so-top-of-the-line exploratory ship in Earth’s interstellar fleet.

Anyone else having flashbacks to Quark?

The second half of Syfy’s upcoming Channel Zero anthology series has its title and its star.

Amy Forsyth (Defiance, A Christmas Horror Story) will headline the cast for Channel Zero: The No-End House, which will be based on a “creepypasta” story by Brian Russell, telling the story of a young woman named Margot Sleator (Forsyth), who visits the No-End House, a bizarre house of horrors that consists of a series of increasingly disturbing rooms. When she returns home, Margot realizes everything has changed.

The first part of the series, i>Channel Zero: Candle Cove debuts September 27th on Syfy. Channel Zero: The No-End House will premiere in 2017.

Things are getting cray-Z – Z Nation Season 3 is coming soon!

Universal Cable Productions (UCP) and Syfy today announced they have signed Grant Morrison (Batman, The Invisibles) and Brian Taylor (Crank, Gamer) to adapt Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World for Syfy with Amblin Television. Morrison and Taylor will also serve as executive producers, along with Amblin Television Co-Presidents Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey (The Americans, All The Way).

Considered one of the most influential genre classics of all time and named fifth among the 100 best English-language novels of the 20thCentury by Modern Library, the 1931 novel looks 632 years into the future and anticipates new developments in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning that combine to profoundly change society.

UCP is also developing Happy! for Syfy, an adaptation of a graphic novel originally written by Morrison and co-created with artist Darick Robertson. Morrison and Taylor are set as executive producers and co-wrote the pilot; Taylor is attached to direct. This grimy crime black comedy features Nick Sax, a corrupt, intoxicated, ex-cop turned hit-man adrift in a twilight world of casual murder, soulless sex and betrayal. After a hit goes wrong, Nick finds a bullet in his side, the cops and the mob on his tail and a monstrous killer in a Santa suit on the loose. But his world is about to be changed forever by Happy, a tiny (imaginary) blue winged horse with a relentlessly positive attitude.

This appears to be a second attempt at the adaptation for Amblin and Syfy – way back in May 2015 we reported on the adaptation with some of the same names, except Les Bohem was tied to it as the writer at the time.

At the recent TCAs, ABC entertainment president Channing Dungey said that talks are still ongoing between the network and Lucasfilm, two divisions of corporate parent Disney, for live action prime time series based on Star Wars. “We have had conversations, and we will continue to have conversations with Lucasfilm. It would be wonderful to extend the franchise.”

This comes as no surprise as Disney has been going full-Death Star with the franchise since acquiring Lucasfilm in 2012. A second animated series, Rebels airs on Disney XD, Episode VII was released last year, the first anthology film, Rogue One releases this December, Episode VIII is in production, and Disney’s theme parks are greatly expanding the presence of Star Wars in the parks.

In addition, Disney has already brought two of its other acquired properties, Marvel and the Muppets, to ABC although the latter had trouble finding an audience, not helped by creative issues with the production.

But what will the possible series entail? It could be anything – they may be discussing the possibility of the setting as part of the negotiations. But we are reminded of how five years ago George Lucas was hot on a live action series so much that they wrote as many as 50 multiple draft scripts for a series set between Episodes III and IV, which may still be available. At the time it was too expensive to actually produce. However, this is the same time period already covered by Rebels as well as the upcoming Rogue One and the second anthology movie about Han Solo, making it a crowded space – and it is possible that some of the plots were re-tuned for the other projects.

Personally, with the expanded timeline that the Star Wars universe already has, I’d like to see them explore a completely different time period, perhaps dealing with the initial reformation of the Sith and the early Republic, whether they use the former Expanded Universe as the basis or not.

Syfy has announced the fall premiere dates for scripted shows…in all one returning and 4 new programs.

Z Nation – Special 2-hour premiere 8/7c Friday, September 16th, will air regularly at 9/8c the following Friday.

Van Helsing – NEW – Friday, September 23th, 10/9c – Van Helsing reimagines the timeless Dracula brand with the resurrection of Vanessa Helsing, a descendent of the Van Helsing lineage of warriors who now must lead mankind against a world controlled by vampires in the post-Rising landscape. Starring Kelly Overton (True Blood), Jonathan Scarfe (Hell on Wheels), Christopher Heyerdahl (Sanctuary, True Blood), Paul Johansson (One Tree Hill), David Cubbit (Medium), Vincent Gale (Bates Motel) and Tim Guinee (Homeland)

Channel Zero: Candle Cove – NEW – Tuesday, September 27th, 9/8c – Channel Zero is an anthology series where each set of episodes relates to to a single story. The first six-episode run, called Candle Cove, is based on the “creepypasta” (a viral story copy and pasted around the net) story of the same name written by Kris Staub that takes the form of a forum discussion about remembering a short-lived children’s TV show.

Aftermath – NEW – Tuesday, September 27th, 10/9c – The show centers on couple Karen and Joshua Copeland, and their children Dana, Brianna and Matt, who must battle for survival after civilization comes to an apocalyptic end, triggered by massive storms, meteor strikes, earthquakes and plague – and the rise of supernatural creatures. Anne Heche and James Tupper play the parents and Julie Sarah Stone (The Killing) and Levi Meaden (The Killing, Olympus), and Taylor Hickson (Deadpool) play the three Copeland children.

Incorporated – NEW – Wednesday November 30th, 10/9c – Set in a near future where corporations have unlimited power, Incorporated centers around Ben Larson (Sean Teale, Reign), a young executive who conceals his true identity to infiltrate a very dangerous corporate world to save the woman he loves. But he’ll soon learn that he’s not the only one whose secrets may have deadly consequences. From Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s Pearl Street Films, it also stars Eddie Ramos (Teen Wolf), Golden Globe nominee Dennis Haysbert (24), and Emmy Award winner Julia Ormond (Mad Men). In addition, Denyse Tontz (The Fosters) was recently announced for the regular role of Elena, the love of Ben’s life, who is forced to sell herself into servitude to pay off her family’s debts.