23 years of this site still chugging along...
Filming done on Judge Dredd, but he’s in trouble
by Doc on Oct.07, 2011, under Comics, Movies
Hoping that Karl Urban’s take on Judge Dredd would help alleviate the pain of all Dredd fans that suffered through the Sylvester Stallone flop (truthfully, I enjoy it as a humorous schlock film)?? You may have to wait a while – possibly forever. Because even though filming is done, everything has been thrown into turmoil after director Peter Travis has reportedly been ejected after disagreements with the producers over the quality of footage. Writer/producer Andrew Garland has taken over as editor, and could possibly ask permission for the unusual co-director credit on the film.
Although it is unlikely the entire film might be scrapped, there could at least be some reshoots. And such editing-room fighting does not often bode well for the reception of the movie…
Got questions for Syfy talent/execs?
by Doc on Oct.06, 2011, under Television
I’m heading off in a few days to hang with the Syfy folks including some of the stars and executives, and will be asking questions – if you’ve got an interesting question you’d like answered, I can see if I can get it answered for you. Serious questions only! And no guarantees on answers. Send them to syfyquestions @ scifistorm.org .
Although things could change, I should be meeting with some of the talent of the following shows: Being Human, Sanctuary, Neverland, Warehouse 13/Eureka/Haven (mostly about their Holiday episodes), Lost Girl, Face Off and Monster Man, along with Josh Gates from Destination Truth. Also, if you have specific questions about Halloween Horror Nights 21 or The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, I could potentially get answers on those as well. And don’t forget to follow @scifistorm on Twitter, where I will be tweeting from the event!
Lev Grossman’s The Magicians to become Fox series
by Doc on Oct.06, 2011, under Television
Want another contemporary fantasy drama? We’ve yet to see ABC’s Once Upon A Time or NBC’s Grimm, but now Fox wants in. The network has reportedly purchased a script commitment with penalty (they have to pay a penalty if they don’t go to series) to adapt Lev Grossman’s 2009 fantasy novel The Magicians. Something akin to Harry Potter with older protagonists, the novel tells the stories of some young adults that discover that the fantasy books they read as kids were not fiction, and find themselves attending a school of magic.
The scribe team of co-writers Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz (X-Men: First Class, Thor) will write the script, with Michael London (Milk), Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum, Real Steel) and Michael Adelstein (Desperate Housewives) producing. And a little tweety bird tells me that Wil Wheaton wants a role – well, it was a tweet from him: “And so begins my relentless campaign to secure a role in the TV version of Lev Grossman’s The Magicians…”
ABC orders Ex-Comm SF political drama
by Doc on Oct.05, 2011, under Television
ABC has ordered a show from the team of Jon Favreau (Iron Man), Roberto Orci (Fringe), Seth Green (Robot Chicken, Family Guy), and Michael Dougherty (Superman Returns) called Ex-Comm according to Deadline. The show is being called a sci-fi drama with some humor, and a cross between The West Wing and The X-Files, as well as a “presidential procedural”. The quartet will write the pilot, with Favreau likely directing and produced by 20th Century Fox TV and K/O Paper Products, the production company run by Orci and partner Alex Kurtzman.
Syfy’s 31 Days of Halloween
by Doc on Oct.04, 2011, under Television
Syfy will celebrate Halloween with its fourth annual 31 Days of Halloween fright fest showcasing more than 600 hours of holiday- themed programming, running October 1-October 31.
As always, the centerpiece of the month-long spook-a-thon will be Ghost Hunters Halloween Live on Monday, October 31 from 7PM-1AM/ET. This year, Jason, Grant and team members from both Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters International will head to Pennhurst Asylum in Pennsylvania, a sprawling maze of buildings constituting a former state mental institution. Abandoned for decades, Pennhurst is now one of the country’s most notoriously haunted locales.
(continue reading…)
See River Song’s timeline – explained by River Song
by Doc on Oct.03, 2011, under Television
Doctor Who is over until Christmas, but there are still things to unravel more than time itself after the season ender. And for those of us in the U.S. who only get little bits of the Doctor Who Confidential specials until the [sfs=1145]Blu-ray[/sfs]/[sfs=1146]DVD[/sfs] sets arrive, we’ll have to settle for whatever we can get from across the pond. This one is a good start…thanks to the folks over at Doctor Who TV, here is the Confidential segment on River Song’s timeline, from the point of view of River Song – and narrated by River Song (Alex Kingston) herself.
Meet Ghost Hunters Steve and Tango at Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando
by Doc on Oct.03, 2011, under Fun Stuff, Television
If you are at Universal Studios Orlando this Thursday, October 6th for Halloween Horror Nights 21, you can meet up for a Q&A and autograph session with Steve Gonsalves and Dave Tango of Ghost Hunters!
The Ghost Hunters Q&A session begins at 8 p.m., followed by the autograph session at 9 p.m. at Pantages theatre, located in the Hollywood area of Universal Studios. Access to the Q&A and autograph session are included in regular admission to Halloween Horror Nights 21 on Thursday.
Ghost Hunters has become one of the highest rated reality shows on Syfy Channel. The popular show follows Gonsalves, Tango and a group of real-life paranormal researchers as they track down the presence of paranormals across the country.
With 19 nights remaining through October, Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights is the nation’s best and most intense Halloween event. Guests confront extreme Halloween entertainment that cannot be experienced anywhere else. This year, they scream as they come face-to-face with a horrifying “thing,” panic as they are hunted by savage banshees, feel chills as they are surrounded by fiendish creatures from a third dimension – and watch in paralyzing fear as Lady Luck transforms from a tempting seductress to a bloodthirsty beast.
Sanctuary returns – sneak peak: “Tempus”
by Doc on Oct.03, 2011, under Television
Syfy’s hit series Sanctuary is back with all-new episodes this Friday, October 7 at 10/9c. In this sneak peek, Magnus and John meet in an alley way and exchange words while being soaked by a downpour of rain. John threatens her by letting her know that hunting him will only make things difficult for her. He realizes there’s only way to make her pay attention to him and draws a knife from his sleeve. Be sure to watch the clip and tune in October 7th at 10/9c to see if Magnus won’t be able to pass through, or if she can hold her own.
“Tempus”:
Miller replaces Behr as Alphas showrunner
by Doc on Sep.30, 2011, under Television
Executive producer/showrunner will switch Syfy series, moving from Eureka (having just finished production on it’s fifth and final season) and taking over the reins of Alphas from Ira Steven Behr, according to Deadline. Miller has previously worked as a producer for series such as The 4400, Medium and ER.
Sony finds Foundation scribe in Dante Harper
by Doc on Sep.30, 2011, under Movies
Isaac Asimov’s Foundation stories seem to have long been a pipe dream of SF-aware producers to get to the big screen…even the latest developments have been long dormant, when Sony won the bidding war almost 3 years ago for the rights after Warner Bros. let them lapse, and it was previously in development with Fox. Well at last there is movement again, with Sony Pictures announcing that Dante Harper has been hired to adapt it.
Harper appears to be relatively new on the writing scene, working on Black Hole for David Fincher/Paramount (based on the graphic novel by Charles Burns), and rewrote the upcoming Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters for Paramount/MGM/Spyglass. Roland Emmerich is still set to direct.
The Foundation series of novels center around mathematician Hari Seldon, who develops a new system of mathematics called “psychohistory”, which can model at a grand scale what will happen in the future – and Seldon discovers that the Galactic Empire, which consists of humans populating millions of other worlds, is in danger of immanent collapse and could lead to a Dark Age that could last thousands of years.