Sci-Fi Storm

Some Thursday tidbits for you…

Rod Roddenberry, the son of the “Great Bird of the Galaxy”, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and president of Roddenberry Entertainment, will join the upcoming Star Trek series for CBS All Access as an executive producer, along with chief operating officer Trevor Roth. Roddenberry Entertainment will co-produce the series.

Actor Ian McShane (Deadwood) will play the mysterious con man Mr. Wednesday in Starz’ series adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, where the gods of myth are about to enter a war against the gods of modern society representing money, power, etc.

ABC gave quite a few early pickups to its shows, including Once Upon A Time and Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Absent, at least so far, is Agent Carter, which appears to be a long shot at this point – especially since star Haley Atwell has signed on to do a pilot for ABC. While Carter currently operates on a half-season schedule it is possible that if the other show is also half-season she could do both, but the shows only modest ratings already were pointing at an ending for the show.

And finally, the Radio Times is reporting that Peter Capaldi is set to show up in the upcoming Doctor Who spinoff Class which is set at the Coal Hill School – where the very first episode of Doctor Who started and where Clara Oswald had been teaching. “It wil[sic] have a close connection with Doctor Who so don’t be surprised if Peter pops up,” according to someone close to the production. Now, my interpretation of that statement is that it isn’t definite Capaldi will appear, but that the story will allow for it.

With several official live action spin-off series in the history of the show (K-9 and Company (only one episode produced), Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures, and K-9), the Doctor only appeared on The Sarah Jane Adventures – but he did so in two incarnations: both David Tennant and Matt Smith appeared in separate two-parters.

Nicholas Meyer, who helped rescue the Star Trek franchise from near obliteration after Star Trek: The Motion Picture, is joining the team for CBS All Access’ Star Trek series as a writer and executive producer, working with showrunner Bryan Fuller.

Meyer, along with Harve Bennett, waded through the aftermath of the first Star Trek film, which Paramount disliked but was still a financial success to warrant a sequel. He was brought on as director, but took on an uncredited rewrite of a script for the second film in order to get it done in 12 days so they could begin production. He changed the style of the franchise, and came up with what was arguably the best film of the entire franchise in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. And although he pledged not to get tied to a franchise, he would work on Star Trek again – writing the “present day” portions of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and co-writing and directing Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country – thus being involved in what many consider the three best of the six original cast films.

Speaking of Netflix and Marvel, the second trailer for Marvel’s Daredevil was released today, and seeing as how I didn’t post the first one, here are both for your viewing enjoyment…

Deadline reports that Game of Thrones actor Finn Jones (Ser Loras Tyrell) has been tapped for the title role in the Netflix series Marvel’s Iron Fist, the fourth piece of the Netflix The Defenders crossover puzzle.

Based on the Marvel comic, Iron Fist is Daniel “Danny” Rand, who’s father as a young boy discovered the mystical city of K’un-L’un where he saved the city’s ruler, and was adopted as his son. Wendell left, but tried to return many years later with his wife an son, but his parents are killed, and he is rescued by archers from K’un-L’un, and becomes an apprentice where he learns mystical martial arts, and eventually becomes the next Iron Fist, part of the long line.

Iron Fist often teamed with Luke Cage, even having their own title, Heroes for Hire.

A couple of tidbits this weekend…

Syfy’s Channel Zero: Candle Cove finally has a director. Craig William Macneill (The Boy) will take the reigns for all six episodes. Candle Cove is expected to debut in October. A second 6-episode story which has not been named yet will follow in 2017.

And just days after it was announced that Freddie Stroma would play H.G. Wells in ABC’s pilot Time After Time, we now know who will play his nemesis. Revenge‘s Josh Bowman will take on the dark mantle of Dr. John Stevenson, a surgeon and a friend of Wells, who in fact moonlights as Jack the Ripper. Stevenson steals Wells’ time machine and escapes to the modern day.

The Time After Time TV series we reported on in September has found its H.G. Wells.

Freddie Stroma, who played Cormac MacLaggan in the final three Harry Potter films and more recently Adam Cromwell on UnReal, has signed on to play the author of “The Time Machine” who, in Karl Alexander’s 1979 novel after which the series is named, builds an actual working time machine, only to have it stolen by none other than Jack the Ripper and taken to the present day. Wells then embarks on a chase to stop Jack from killing again. The original novel, which was also the basis of a 1979 film starring Malcolm McDowell in the starring role, will be used as a starting point for the series.

ABC commissioned the pilot from Warner Bros. TV. Kevin Williamson wrote the pilot and will executive produce, with Marcos Siega directing.

The Thunderbirds will finally fly into the U.S. (legally that is), and it will do so via Amazon. The streaming video giant has ordered up four 13-episode seasons of the remake of the classic Gerry Anderson supermarionation show.

Two seasons are already in the can, having aired already on ITV in the U.K. Seasons 3 and 4 are expected to air on ITV later this year, but it isn’t certain when Amazon will have them available.

Writer Bryan Fuller, who got his start on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and then Star Trek: Voyager, will return to the franchise to manage the untitled upcoming CBS All Access Star Trek series.

Fuller said, “It is without exaggeration a dream come true to be crafting a brand new iteration of Star Trek with fellow franchise alum Alex Kurtzman and boldly going where no Star Trek series has gone before.” Kurtzman is serving as executive producer, with plans to debut the series next January.

Fuller, who created and produced Hannibal and Pushing Daisies, is also currently working on an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods for Starz.

Syfy today announced it has renewed hit drama series The Magicians for a second season of 13 episodes, expected to air in 2017. The Magicians is from Universal Cable Productions and is executive produced by John McNamara (Aquarius), Sera Gamble (Supernatural), Henry Alonso Myers (Covert Affairs) and Groundswell Productions’ Michael London and Janice Williams (Milk).

Based on the bestselling novels from Lev Grossman, The Magicians is currently airing its first season on Syfy on Mondays at 9PM ET/PT. The series’ fourth episode premieres tonight.

“Thanks to an extraordinarily gifted creative team of executive producers and our partners at Universal Cable Productions, The Magicians has become a buzzed-about hit, enchanting fans of the novels as well as attracting new and younger audiences to Syfy,” said Dave Howe, President, Syfy & Chiller.

During its first three episodes, The Magicians averaged 1.7 million viewers, 853K Adults 18-49 and 910K Adults 25-54 (based on L3 data). The series is also strong among younger viewers, with Adults 18-34 growing consecutively over each episode, averaging 180% above Syfy’s prime time delivery in that demo.

Digitally, the series’ first episode was sampled more than 6.7 million times during its pre-linear launch (January 8 to January 25) across Syfy.com and select partner sites, as well as On Demand cable, satellite and telco TV platforms. Additionally, an on-air sneak peek of the pilot, airing December 16 at 10PM ET/PT, drew 1.3 million total viewers (based on L+7 data).

Starring Jason Ralph (Quentin Coldwater), Stella Maeve (Julia), Olivia Taylor Dudley (Alice) Hale Appleman (Eliot), Arjun Gupta (Penny) and Summer Bishil (Margo), The Magicians centers on Quentin, a brilliant grad student chosen to attend Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy, a secret upstate New York university specializing in magic. He and his 20-something friends soon discover that the magical fantasy world they read about as children is all too real when they unwittingly invite a malevolent entity from the other side into their world. Also reprising their roles for season two will be series regulars Rick Worthy (Dean Fogg) and Jade Tailor (Kady).

We’re gonna need more duct tape…we know CBS has been excited about bringing MacGyver back as a rebooted series, and now they’ve given a green light to a series pilot, to be directed Furious 7‘s James Wan and written by Paul Downs Colaizzo, and now has original executive producer Henry Winkler on board, but Lionsgate has also announced yesterday during an analysts call that they are producing a feature film, as part of a discussion on simultaneous TV and film projects.

The movie is being developed by Fast And Furious producer Neal Moritz, who is working with original series creator Lee David Zlotoff. Nothing else is known at this time.