Sci-Fi Storm

Syfy and Universal Cable Productions’ (UCP) latest scripted drama series, The Magicians, will commence season one production on August 4 in Vancouver, Canada. The 13 episode season will air in early 2016 on Syfy.

Starring Jason Ralph (Quentin Coldwater), Stella Maeve (Julia), Hale Appleman (Eliot), Arjun Gupta (Penny) and Summer Bishil (Margo), The Magicians is based on Lev Grossman’s best-selling novels. The series 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 – and poses grave danger to humanity.

Olivia Taylor Dudley will also join the cast as a series regular, it was announced today. Dudley plays Alice, an intensely shy and delicately lovely young woman. Born of a magical but neglectful family, Alice is an outcast among her fellow students at Brakebills, but nonetheless emerges as the most brilliant magical practitioner in her class.

Dudley appears in the upcoming Lakeshore/Lionsgate film Vatican Tapes opposite Michael Pena, just wrapped production on Paranormal Activity 5 for Paramount, and can be seen in the feature Dude Bro Party Massacre III. She was a lead in Oren Peli’s ensemble horror film The Chernobyl Diaries, from Alcon/Warner Bros. and has also appeared in The Dictator, Moneyball and Just Go With It. Her TV credits include The Comedians, CSI: Miami, NCIS, Don’t Trust the B in Apt. 23 and The Mindy Project. Olivia is a founding member of the prolific online sketch comedy group, “5secondfilms.com” which has gained notoriety through their tireless efforts to post a new, original, sketch every single day.

Additionally, The Magicians announces the following recurring guest stars for season one:

· Rick Worthy as Dean Fogg, the formidable Dean of Brakebills — an exacting leader and a keeper of secrets, balancing a great sense of authority with dry wit. Worthy is best known for his roles in Battlestar Galactica as Simon and Supernatural as the Alpha Vampire. His other recurring roles include Aquarius, The Vampire Diaries, CSI, Heroes, Felicity and Star Trek: Enterprise and Star Trek: Voyager. His upcoming projects include a recurring role on The Man in the High Castle.

· Anne Dudek as Professor Sunderland, a smart, charmingly scatterbrained woman dedicated to teaching Brakebills students how to hone their magical skills. Dudek is best known for her series regular role on Covert Affairs, as well as recurring roles on House, Mad Men, Bones, Less Than Perfect, Those Who Kill and Big Love. Dudek’s film roles include Brad Silberling’s 10 Items or Less, Kurt Voelker’s Park and The Wayans Brothers’ White Chicks. She can be seen next in Jenji Kohan’s pilot, The Devil You Know.

· Jade Tailor as Kady, a tough, rebellious and sexy Brakebills student who attracts Penny’s attention in and out of the classroom. Jade previously worked with The Magicians’s John McNamara and Sera Gamble on their NBC series Aquarius. Jade also recurs on TNT’s Murder in the First. Other television credits include True Blood and Vegas. She has appeared in countless independent films including Wedding Day, Karma, Losing Control, Don’t Pass Me By, Cam2Cam as well as the upcoming Higher Power, Juke Box Hero, and Wild for the Night. She has also done numerous musical productions both in New York and LA.

· Esmé Bianco as Eliza, a paramedic who has a hand in initiating Quentin’s journey into real magic. Bianco is best known for her three season-long role of Ros in Game of Thrones. Her film credits include Burlesque Fairytales, Big I Am and Crowley. She will soon be seen in the movies Scorpion King 4, Living Among Us and Mind Puppets.

Groundswell Productions’ Michael London and Janice Williams (Milk) will executive produce The Magicians. John McNamara (Aquarius) and Sera Gamble (Supernatural), writers of the pilot, will serve as executive producers. Mike Cahill (I Origins) directed the pilot. Universal Cable Productions will serve as the studio.

Lev Grossman’s The Magicians trilogy is an international sensation, published and widely praised in more than twenty countries. The epic conclusion to the series, The Magician’s Land, opened at #1 last summer on the New York Times Hardcover Best Seller’s list, and was widely acclaimed as one of the best books of the year.

Update 8/5: We can confirm that the premiere date will be October 8th at 10/9c!

Ironically, on the day I started getting asked, “When is Haven going to start again?”, word is breaking via a promo spot I first got wind of via The Wrap – where prior promos said “Coming in Fall”, now says “Coming in October”. So we finally have a particular month. 🙂

You can see the interesting promo below.

Now what are the chances Syfy renews Haven and goes into production within one week so I can visit my friends when I am up there?

Click here to accept Marketing cookies and load this content

The spinoff from the The CW’s DC properties Arrow and The Flash is rounding out its cast. Falk Hentschel (Reckless) is joining the cast of Legends Of Tomorrow as Carter Hall, an archaeologist who is the reincarnation of ancient Egyptian Prince Khufu who can call on the powers of Horus and transform into Hawkman.

Hentschel joins the retreads from the parent shows including Victor Garber, Caity Loitz, Brandon Routh, Dominic Purcell and Wentworth Miller, plus new cast members Ciara Renee (Kendra Saunders/Hawkgirl, Hall’s soulmate), Franz Drameh (Jay Jackson) and Arthur Darvill (Rip Hunter).

Syfy and Universal Cable Productions (UCP) today announced that production has commenced in Melbourne, Australia on the upcoming thriller series Hunters. The series is from executive producers Gale Anne Hurd (The Walking Dead, The Terminator Trilogy) and Natalie Chaidez (12 Monkeys, Heroes), who will also serve as showrunner, and Emile Levisetti (Royal Pains). Ernest Dickerson (The Walking Dead, Dexter) is set to direct the pilot.

The series stars Nathan Phillips (Wolf Creek) as Flynn, a headstrong Baltimore FBI agent with a dark past trying to piece together the disappearance of his wife. Britne Oldford (American Horror Story) will play Regan, who is one of the government’s most valuable operatives and may be keeping secrets of her own. Julian McMahon portrays McCarthy, an unhinged junkie and Hunter cell leader.

Hunters is inspired by Whitley Strieber’s best-selling novel, Alien Hunter, in which the disappearance of a decorated FBI agent’s wife leads him to a secret government unit assembled to hunt a group of ruthless terrorists – shadowy figures that may or may not be from this world. The series will be tonally dark and offer a unique crossover twist between gritty crime drama and sci-fi thriller.

The 13-part series from Universal Cable Productions will premiere on Syfy in 2016.

Hunters joins other high profile upcoming Syfy originals, including the December 2015 premieres of epic space drama The Expanse, starring Thomas Jane, Steven Strait and Shohreh Aghdashloo; Childhood’s End, the first-ever adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s iconic novel starring Charles Dance, Mike Vogel and Julian McMahon; and The Magicians, based on Lev Grossman’s best-selling books and set to premiere in 2016. Childhood’s End and The Magicians are both from Universal Cable Productions.

A toxic Black Rain storm over Westerly forces John and Pawter to take shelter in the Royale overrun with a gang of dangerous criminals. Tune in for “Come The Rain”, Friday at 9/8c on Syfy.
(continue reading…)

The season finale of ABC Family’s Stitchers is already upon us!

The Stitchers team is on the defense when Cameron and Detective Fisher are targeted in a shooting. Kirsten’s stitch leads them to Robert Barbiero (guest star Henry Rollins), a security expert who has worked with Maggie in the past and was close to Kirsten’s mom. As Kirsten follows the clues that Ed Clark left her, she finds unexpected answers to long-held questions.

Meanwhile, Linus is jealous when Cameron starts training Camille to be his back-up in the Stitchers lab.

Tune in to “Full Stop” on ABC Family tomorrow night at 9/8c!

Wasting no time as usual, AMC during a Television Critics Association panel confirmed that they’ve already ordered up a second season of spinoff series Fear The Walking Dead, with 15 episodes. The first season of six episodes starts August 23rd.

FTWD is set in Los Angeles and deals with the outbreak of the virus and will address the collapse of civilization and the response of the government and the military.

On the next episode of Dark Matter, the crew stops at a space station to refuel and rest, but Six has a different agenda — revenge. Tunr in Friday at 10/9c on Syfy!
(continue reading…)

The search to uncover the mystery behind D’avin’s missing memories triggers a shocking incident that will haunt the team. Guest starring Amanda Tapping (Stargate SG-1, Sanctuary).

Tune in for “Kiss, Kiss, Bye Bye” Friday night at 9/8c!
(continue reading…)

The Stitchers team investigates the murder of an online psychic whose symbolic, layered memories are further complicated when Kristen sees the murder of another person in the stitch. Maggie expresses her reservations about Kirsten’s relationship with Liam. Meanwhile, Camille hesitantly agrees to meet Linus’s parents.

“Future Tense” airs at 9/8c Tuesday on ABC Family!
(continue reading…)