Sci-Fi Storm

In Monday’s all-new Being Human, Sally enlists an old friend to solve a mystery while Josh & Nora get a glimpse of what could be. Plus, a werewolf baby?! In this sneak peek, see what Aidan’s sweet dreams are made of. Tune in for “Panic Womb”, Monday at 9/8c on Syfy! And don’t forget to check out the extras below as well!
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It may be the slowest executive shakeup, but it seems to still be happening…after Universal Cable Productions/Syfy’s Mark Stern departed in November, Syfy seemed to be relatively untouched since while Universal’s parent company Comcast continues its reorganization of roles in the company, at least until today.

Tom Lieber, who oversaw project development at Syfy for Universal Cable Productions, appears to be following Stern into an producer role for a TV series for Syfy, in the case the upcoming Dominion, leaving his role at the corporate level, and heading to South Africa where the series is being filmed.

Dawn Parouse Olmstead was named a few weeks ago as the Executive Vice President of Development at Universal Cable Productions, overseeing all development for the cable networks.

While Helix might have been a bit soft at the start, it certainly appears to be picking up momentum. And with the shocking end of episode 4, it certainly seems to be making surges. Helix is setting DVR records for Syfy, leaping 82% among Adults 18-49 (1.34 million), 74% in Adults 25-54 (1.55 million) and 64% in total viewers (3.0 million) for the premiere on January 10 – the largest increases ever for a Syfy scripted series in L7 viewing.

Helix also rose 102% in Adults 18-34 (454K), while posting strong gains among women viewers, up 85% in Women 18-49 (541K), 73% in Women 25-54 (649K) and 232% in Women 18-34 (166K).

The series also grew 81% among Men 18-49 (797K) and 75% in Men 25-54 (903K).

Ready to find out what’s in “The White Room”? What star Catherine Lemieux has to say about last week’s episode? And all the moments that made us go, “What the hell?” Check out these videos…
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Good news whether you are a member of the Guard or avoiding the Troubles…Syfy has renewed Haven for a fifth season, but not just that, it’s supersized the order, asking for a “full season” of 26 episodes this time around – the biggest season for Haven yet, after having posted gains in the Adults 18-34 and Adults 18-49 demos last year. The season will be split, with production to begin this Spring and 13 episodes to air this fall, with the remaining 13 to air in 2015.

Tallying its best season ever in social mentions and Twitter activity, Haven’s recently wrapped fourth season was up 11% among Adults 18-34 (314,000) and up 3% year-to-year among Adults 18-49 (926,000). Overall, Haven averaged 1.1 million Adults 25-54 and 2.3 million viewers per week and ranked second in Adults 18-49 and Adults 25-54 among original cable series in its Friday 10PM ET/PT time slot. (All data Live +7).

Series stars Emily Rose, Lucas Bryant and Eric Balfour will reprise their roles of Audrey Parker, Nathan Wournos and Duke Crocker, respectively. Production on 26 all-new episodes is set to begin on location in Halifax, Nova Scotia this spring.
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Another classic sci-fi story looks to be getting a modern big-screen retelling…Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire director Mike Newell has signed on to direct a big-screen adaptation of the book by John Wyndham, about life after a strange meteor shower leaves most of the world’s population blind, and those that can still see dealing with a widespread infestation of mysterious aggressive and mobile plants called triffids.

The book has previously been turned into a film in 1962, a television serial, several radio adaptations, a comic series and most recently a BBC mini-series in 2009.

Programming alert: Syfy will be swapping the time slots for Bitten and Lost Girl on Monday nights starting next Monday January 27th. Bitten will now air at 8/7c, while Lost Girl returns to the 10/9c slot. Being Human will remain in the 9/8c slot between the two.

Now that Barry Allen has been left in a coma after being splashed with chemicals and radiation in an explosion on Arrow, it’s time to start thinking about the upcoming pilot for spin-off series The Flash. While originally there were to be three episodes featuring the character, played by Grant Gustin, with the third occurring at the end of the season and to be a backdoor pilot (a pilot filmed as an episode of another series or a standalone movie, that the network may pick up as a series later), it was decided instead to give the show a standalone pilot instead (it is unknown if Allen will appear again this season on Arrow.) This will allow the introductory episode to lead directly in to a series rather than have a delay between the introduction and the start of the series.

So, now you need to come up with a new cast to work with Gustin…first in line is Jesse L. Martin, who played Detective Ed Green on Law & Order for many years. And he will have a familiar role as well – playing a detective. Martin’s character is Detective West, described as an “honest, blue collar cop” who will be a father figure to the young Allen.

So, how do you scare a guy who kills zombies all the time? Catch him a little off guard…

Norman Reedus, who plays zombie-killer Daryl Dixon The Walking Dead, was in Japan for a press junket promoting the second half of the season along with a number of other members of the cast and crew, including Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes) and makeup artist/producer Greg Nicotero. And while they were there, they decided to pull of a little prank on Norman…they invited Nick Santonastasso, who was born with no legs and only one arm and has been making a name for himself online for pranking people as a zombie, to come out to Tokyo with them, be put in full makeup, and then come out and scare Norman while he’s trying to shoot a short promo spot in front of a camera.

See the whole thing here…
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TV Line reports that Big Bang Theory producers Bill Prady and Steve Molaro said on the red carpet last night at the Golden Globes that they’ve signed James Earl Jones, best known as the booming voice of Darth Vader, and Princess Leia herself Carrie Fisher, to play themselves in cameo roles in an upcoming episode of the show where they will cross paths with Sheldon.

We know that Sheldon is a huge fan of That Other Franchise, but we’ve not seen a lot of Star Wars representation on the show. I wonder what reaction we’ll see?

In the meantime, The Hollywood Reporter is reporting on some of the names being bandied about as possibly up for roles in the upcoming Episode VII movie, including Michael Fassbender (X-Men: Days of Future Past), Hugo Weaving (The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix), Adam Driver (Girls) and Breaking Bad‘s Jesse Plemons.

But there is also this interesting nugget…that with the departure of Michael Arndt, who was originally writing the script which focused on the offspring the of the original trilogy’s main characters – Luke, Leia and Han, with them and the original actors taking supporting roles, J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan, who have taken over the writing, have rewritten the script to put the three back into the lead roles!

Apparently even George Lucas, who had given guidance at the start, has acquiesced to Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy, President of Lucasfilm.

Is this a good idea? I can see them perhaps using this film as a transition, launching the new characters forward, but I can’t see it working for three movies.

The fourth season of Game of Thrones will debut April 6th on HBO.
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