Sci-Fi Storm

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 1979 movie Time After Time by Nicholas Meyer, based on and concurrently written with the novel of the same name by Karl Alexander, is set to become a series from Kevin Williamson, the creator of The Following and Stalker.

The movie followed science fiction (or so we thought) author Herbert George “H.G.” Wells (Malcolm McDowell) after he builds a time machine, which is subsequently used by his surgeon friend Leslie John Stephenson (David Warner), who turns out to be Jack the Ripper, and he’s just escaped to 1979. H.G. pursues him in the time machine, where he is befriended by and falls in love with Amy Robbins (Mary Steenburgen).

ABC has purchased the project with a script commitment from Warner Bros. TV under a deal Williamson has with the studio.

It’s a good evening for Marvel on TV – ABC just announced among a slew of shows returning that both Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Marvel’s Agent Carter have been renewed for another season!

ABC has announced some of it’s mid-season programming slots, including when Marvel’s Agent Carter will fill in for the mid-season break of sibling show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..

Starting Tuesday, January 6th, the Hayley Atwell-led Carter will take over the 9pm timeslot from S.H.I.E.L.D., which will return from hiatus on March 3rd. Similarly, the dramedy musical Galavant from Dan Fogelman (Crazy, Stupid, Love.) with music by composer Alan Menken (The Little Mermaid) and lyricist Glenn Slater (Tangled), will fill in for <>i>Once Upon A Time starting January 4th at 8pm, with Once returning March 1st.

Dan Fogelman (Crazy, Stupid, Love; Tangled; Cars) teams up with the award-winning musical duo of composer Alan Menken (The Little Mermaid; Beauty and the Beast) and lyricist Glenn Slater (Tangled) for a musical comedy fairytale of epic proportions.

Starring: Joshua Sasse (Rogue), Joshua Sasse (Psych), Vinnie Jones (Snatch), Mallory Jansen (Half Way), Karen David (Pixel Face), and Luke Youngblood (Community).

It’s something like “Hell Week” in Hollywood, as the networks clean up their schedules to make room for new programs, while they also decide what new programs to take. NBC has decided not to renew Revolution after two seasons. The show seemed to shed viewers this season, somewhat attributed to the “midwinter break” that has been becoming more common but can disrupt serials like Revolution.

J.J. Abrams, who was an executive producer, was hit with a double whammy when another Bad Robot show, mid-season supernatural drama Believe, was also chopped. On the plus side of the equation, the peacock network picked up supernatural detective drama Constantine from Warner Bros. Based on the DC comic of the same name, it follows former con man John Constantine (Matt Ryan, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior), who becomes a detective fighting against dark forces.

On the ABC side, the network decided to keep strong fairy tale drama Once Upon A Time (and wondering what next season’s theme might be…) and the freshman show Resurrection, while saying goodbye to The Neighbors, it’s cult-following “aliens next door” comedy.

Here is another trailer from the ABC Upfronts…this time for the Once Upon A Time spinoff limited series, Once Upon A Time In Wonderland…

ABC has officially not picked up a back-end order for two of it’s freshman shows, 666 Park Avenue and Last Resort, effectively canceling them – although they do still plan to air all remaining episodes as scheduled.

Both shows underperformed, although both received an order for an extra two episodes early on. The decision on Last Resort came after the show set a new low yesterday, netting 5.8 million viewers and only 1.3 18-49 demo.

ABC’s Once Upon A Time returns this Sunday, followed by the return of Revenge and the premiere of 666 Park Avenue – here’s a little preview of each of those shows!

[Apparently the video expired shortly after the episodes aired]