23 years of this site still chugging along...
Lifeforce TV remake finds home at Chiller
by Doc on May.05, 2015, under Television
Syfy’s sibling network Chiller is going to take another adaptation of Colin Wilson’s novel [asin=0982324618]The Space Vampires[/asin], which will be called Lifeforce (as was the 1985 adaptation starring Steve Railsback and Mathilda May) to TV screens in the form of a TV movie.
Steve B. Harris (Friday the 13th, Amityville: The Awakening) will produce for Diversion3 (www.diversion3.com) along with Mark Altman (Castle, Necessary Roughness) Mark Gottwald (DOA: Dead or Alive) and David E. Williams (Femme Fatales) from a story by Harris, Altman and Steve Kriozere (NCIS, Castle).
We mentioned the project in 2013, where it was planned as a TV/multimedia series, although right now it is listed as just a TV movie, but this could be a backdoor pilot for a future series.
Syfy gives series green light to The Magicians
by Doc on May.04, 2015, under Television
NEW YORK – May 4, 2015 – Continuing its commitment to developing bold, high profile scripted dramas, Syfy today announced it has greenlit The Magicians to series.
Based upon Lev Grossman’s best-selling books, The Magicians stars Jason Ralph (A Most Violent Year, Aquarius) as Quentin Coldwater, a brilliant grad student who enrolls in 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. Stella Maeve (Chicago P.D.), Hale Appleman (Teeth), Arjun Gupta (Nurse Jackie) and Summer Bishil (Towelhead, Lucky 7) also star in this one hour drama.
Groundswell Productions’ Michael London and Janice Williams (Milk) will executive produce. 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.
“The Magicians pilot beautifully delivers a world filled with wonder, fantasy and intrigue,” said Dave Howe, President, Syfy. “We can’t wait to delve deeper into the lives of Quentin and his college friends, as they struggle with the enormity of their burgeoning powers – and unleash them upon the world.”
“Ever since ‘[asin=0525427341]The Magicians[/asin]’ was published I’ve wanted to see this story on screen,” said Lev Grossman. “The people, the school, the other worlds, the magic. I’m so thrilled that it’s finally happening, and I’m beyond thrilled that we found the right people to do it. Get ready; you’ve never seen anything like this.”
“Lev is a visionary world-creator. It’s an awesome responsibility to honor the novels’ core audience and also to translate that vision to the screen,” said Jeff Wachtel, President and Chief Content Officer, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. “We are lucky to have Sera Gamble, Michael London, John McNamara and Janice Williams as the team bringing this series to life.”
Lev Grossman’s “Magicians” trilogy is an international sensation, published and widely praised in more than twenty countries. The epic conclusion to the series, “[asin=0670015679]The Magician’s Land[/asin],” 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.
The twelve episode season will begin shooting in Vancouver in July.
Grace Lee Whitney, Yeoman Janice Rand of Star Trek, 1930-2015
by Doc on May.04, 2015, under Obituaries, Television
Grace Lee Whitney, who for a short but memorable time played Yeoman Janice Rand on the original Star Trek, passed away on Friday at home at the age of 85, confirmed by her son. She was the oldest surviving original cast member.
Whitney started as a singer, appearing with Billie Holiday and Buddy Rich, but then turned to acting and appeared in guest roles in a number of TV shows including Gunsmoke, The Rifleman and 77 Sunset Strip, but then landed a role as what was supposed to be a regular “love interest” character for Captain James T. Kirk on Star Trek when it went into production.
Her and her infamous blond beehive wig (“I swear they had to nail that thing to my head!”) would only last 8 episodes, however. Numerous reasons for her departure were rumored, including her alcoholism, but according to her the primary reason was that they didn’t want to tie Kirk down and leave him free to mingle with others. Gene Roddenberry claimed it was to cut the budget. But in her [asin=1884956033]1998 autobiography[/asin], she also said she was sexually assaulted by a Desilu (the production company) executive, and was cut from the show a few days later.
Her career after that, along with her addictions, would spiral out of control, but she credited the Star Trek fans who never forgot her for helping her beat her additions and became an advocate for beating substance abuse. She would return to Star Trek and her character with small parts in Star Trek: The Motion Picture as the transporter chief, Star Trek III: The Search For Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home working in Starfleet Command, and Star Trek IV: The Undiscovered Country and an episode of Star Trek: Voyager as the communications officer on the U.S.S. Excelsior, which they believed might spin off into a series.
Ad astra per aspera, Grace…
Trank out of the director’s chair for second Star Wars Anthology film
by Doc on May.01, 2015, under Movies
About 11 months later, the marriage between director Josh Trank and the Star Wars universe is over.
“After a year of having the incredible honor of developing with the wonderful and talented people at Lucasfilm, I’m making a personal decision to move forward on a different path,” Trank said via a press release on StarWars.com. “I’ve put a tremendous amount of thought into this, and I know deep down in my heart that I want to pursue some original creative opportunities. That said, the Star Wars universe has always been one of my biggest influences, and I couldn’t be more excited to witness its future alongside my millions of fellow Star Wars fans. I want to thank my friends Kathleen Kennedy, Kiri Hart, Simon Kinberg, and everyone at Lucasfilm and Disney for the amazing opportunity to have been a part of this. May the Force be with you all.”
Although this sounds like the typical “amicable” split, Rebel spies tell is otherwise. Trank was the director for the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot for Fox, which was produced by Simon Kinberg, who is also working at various levels in the upcoming Star Wars films and reportedly as a producer on Trank’s film, and was less than thrilled with Trank on the Fantastic Four film (which some circles believe was made just to stop the rights reverting back to Marvel). In addition, Trank was a no-show at Star Wars Celebration, having what he tweeted was the “worst flu of my life,” but rumors were that he was already on the way out and Disney asked him not to come.
So it remains to be seen who will take the center seat for this movie which is still in development, but if the current environment towards production dates holds, it should not delay the expected 2018 release date.
Syfy cancels Helix
by Doc on Apr.29, 2015, under Television
Alas for Helix fans, Syfy has canceled the show after the conclusion of its second season, which aired on April 10th. The show’s first season did incredibly well for the network, with the premiere debuting with 1.82 million Live+Same Day viewers, and broke records with a 53% total viewer gain and 64% in the key 18-49 demo on Live+3.
However, with the change of scenery that went with the new season, it appeared that the time-hopping, nature-commune plot lost people, as ratings on average dropped significantly, losing more than half of the total viewers from the first season.
Every callout from the original Battlestar Galactica premiere in 2 minutes
by Doc on Apr.29, 2015, under Fun Stuff
Just frakkin’ cool…here is every character (and group) callout mentioned in the original premiere episode of Battlestar Galactica, edited into 2 minutes.
Man, Boxey can be annoying… 🙂
And you can watch full episodes online
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Marvel sued over Iron Man movie armor, but does it have a chink?
by Doc on Apr.28, 2015, under Movies
Last week Ben and Ray Lai, owners of Horizon Comics Productions, filed suit in the Federal Court of Massachusetts against Marvel and parent company Disney over claims that Marvel lifted the design of the Iron Man body armor designs from their own title, Radix.
The two allege that after they created Radix in 2001, they worked for a time for Marvel as artists, and that Radix materials had been distributed within Marvel. Then, in 2008 after the Lai brothers left Marvel, the first Iron Man movie came out, with a full mechanized body armor.
In the suit they say that “Marvel’s “Iron Man” comic book character first appeared in 1963. From that time until the first movie in the franchise was released, the comic typically depicted Iron Man wearing simple spandex-like attire and minimal armor.” But with the movie’s updated look and Marvel employees having access to the Radix designs, they believe their designs were lifted for the movies’ more modern high-tech armor.
However, it appears that their description of the “traditional” Iron Man armor isn’t quite accurate. Going all the way back to the first appearance of Iron Man in “Tales of Suspense #39”, we see him in full body armor…pretty clunky, and not unlike the armor Tony Stark built to escape his captors in the beginning of the 2008 movie. And through the years, although artistically you could probably mistake the depiction as being spandex, showing musculature, it was originally stylized full armor. And if you need other examples of full body armor with anatomical design, just do a Google image search for “George Clooney nipple suit” and witness the destruction of a franchise. 🙂
We’ll see what becomes of it. There is in fact a clear resemblance between a poster shot of Stark/Iron Man in a three point stance to a Radix promotional image…
Syfy’s summer programming lineup
by Doc on Apr.23, 2015, under Television
Syfy announced today their Summer 2015 programming lineup, which includes two returning series, 2 new scripted series, a game show…oh, and more sharks…
In June, Syfy’s new 8-11PM scripted programming block kicks off Friday, June 12 at 8PM with the two-hour premiere of Defiance, followed by the debut of Dark Matter at 10PM. On Friday, June 19, Killjoys joins the schedule, premiering at 9PM.
Defiance is the story of a ravaged planet Earth thirty-five years in the future, the lives of its citizens permanently altered following the sudden arrival of seven alien races. In this unknown and unpredictable landscape, the diverse, newly-formed civilization of humans and aliens must learn to co-exist peacefully. Following the events of last season’s cliffhanger finale, the series’ two-hour Season 3 premiere opens on the eve of an impending military siege – and the surprise arrival of the mysterious and nearly extinct Omec, an alien race of warriors.
The new season features cast additions Lee Tergesen (The Americans) as military leader General Rahm Tak, Nichole Galicia (Django Unchained) as Kindzi and Conrad Coates (The Strain) as her father, T’evgin. Returning cast includes Grant Bowler, Julie Benz, Stephanie Leonidas, Tony Curran, Jaime Murray, Graham Greene and Jesse Rath. Kevin Murphy (Desperate Housewives, Caprica) resumes his role as executive producer and showrunner.
In the new original series Dark Matter, the crew of a derelict spaceship awakens 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.
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Netflix renews Marvel’s Daredevil
by Doc on Apr.21, 2015, under Television
It seems Netflix’s entry into the superhero universe was successful – it has renewed Marvel’s Daredevil, about Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), a blind lawyer by day whose heightened senses make him a formidable masked vigilante at night.
The second season will debut on Netflix in 2016. Other upcoming Marvel titles on Netflix include January Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist.
Paramount mines archives for new TV shows – comes up with Galaxy Quest
by Doc on Apr.21, 2015, under Television
Paramount has been digging deep in the archives looking for properties that it might be able to turn into TV shows (can’t we get some original ideas guys?), and it appears they may have found a nugget in the form of Galaxy Quest, the 1999 DreamWorks spoof about the stars of a long-canceled SF TV show being taken by aliens to help them against a malevolent enemy.
Nellie Andreeva at Deadline reports that Paramount is developing Galaxy Quest for the small screen, with original feature writer Robert Gordon, director Dean Parisot and producer Mark Johnson all on board to executive produce, with Gordon also expected to write the pilot.