Sci-Fi Storm

Syfy has signed actress Valerie Cruz, who most recently starred on ABC’s Off The Map along with stints on True Blood, Dexter and The Dresden Files, as a recurring guest star on its newest original series Alphas, it was announced today.

Valerie Cruz will portray Special Agent Kathy Sullivan, an employee of the Department of Defense whose exact role and intentions are a mystery. She will first appear in the third episode of the series entitled “Cause and Effect” premiering Monday, July 25, 2011 at 10:00 PM ET/PT.

Cruz is well known for portraying multiple complex roles on the small screen over the last decade including Grace Santiago on FX’s Nip/Tuck and Sylvia Prado on Showtime’s Dexter. She also starred in the Syfy original series The Dresden Files. Most recently she portrayed Dr. Zita Alvarez in ABC’s midseason entry Off the Map. She is represented by David Rose of Innovative Artists and Pearl Hanan.

Alphas follows a clandestine group of average everyday citizens with amazing abilities operating within the U.S. Department of Defense. Led by preeminent neurologist and psychiatrist Dr. Lee Rosen (Emmy Award-winner and Academy Award-nominee David Strathairn), the team investigates cases that point to others with abilities like theirs, and as they work against the clock to solve this new brand of crime, they must prevent their own personality differences and disparate backgrounds from interfering with their missions. Alphas premieres on Monday, July 11th at 10/9c, behind the season premieres of Eureka and Warehouse 13.

Here are a few more clips about what powers might make you one of the Alphas…
(continue reading…)

Think you might have what it takes to be one of the Alphas? Check out some of the following videos showing their powers, and then head over to AlphaPowers.com and find out if you do qualify…I’ll post some more videos on the weekend.
(continue reading…)

Alphas was created by comic book movie writer Zak Penn (X2, X-Men: The Last Stand, The Incredible Hulk, The Avengers) and Michael Karnow, directed by Jack Bender (Lost), and executively produced by Ira Steven Behr (The 4400, Deep Space Nine, Dark Angel). The series is a procedural thriller about ordinary people with extraordinary mental and physical abilities that operate within a special branch of the Department of Defense and are tasked to investigate cases committed by others with Alpha abilities.

Emmy® winner and Academy Award nominee David Strathairn (Temple Grandin/Good Night, and Good Luck) headlines a cast of both familiar and new faces including Warren Christie (October Road), Malik Yoba (New York Undercover), Laura Mennell (Watchmen), Ryan Cartwright (Bones) and Azita Ghanizada (Castle). Callum Keith Rennie (Battlestar Galactica/24) guest stars in the pilot.

See the preview video below and find out who the Alphas are and the feel of the show, along with some stills from the show.

Alphas premieres on Monday, July 11th at 10PM ET/9PM CT on Syfy.
(continue reading…)

Syfy has announced their summer schedule for their new and returning programs, along with the air date of the eagerly anticipated game-turned-movie Red Faction: Origins, which debuts on June 4th at 9pm ET, and stars Robert Patrick (Terminator 2), Brian J. Smith (Stargate Universe) and Kate Vernon (Battlestar Galactica) (more details below). And Warehouse 13 and Eureka are now paired up back-to-back on Mondays, along with the new series Alphas. We can call it, “Scripted Mondays”…

Here is a list of the series debut/return dates and descriptions:

(continue reading…)

Syfy just announced it’s new slate of shows…and it is big. Yes, it includes a lot of reality shows (they pay the bills), but there are some interesting twists…below you can read the full press release for all the details, but here are some highlights…FYI, exact dates are to be determined later…

First off, the scripted programming…Alphas, which will debut in July along with new episodes of Warehouse 13, Eureka and Haven, is about a team of seemingly ordinary people who have brain anomalies that give them extraordinary mental and physical powers. They form a team led by Dr. Leigh Rosen (Emmy Award-winner and Oscar nominee David Strathairn) to investigate cases of other possible Alpha activity.

Battlestar: Blood & Chrome (see previous news) is still in development and is awaiting a debut date.

On the reality side, three series are ready for this summer:

Haunted Collector (June, working title) follows John Zaffis and his family of renowned paranormal investigators as they investigate possible paranormal objects (Ghost Hunters meets Hollywood Treasure?)

Legend Quest (July) follows Ashley Crowe, a renowned real-life symbologist, in what is described as “Indiana Jones-type adventure and Da Vinci Code-style connections”

Paranormal Witness (September) – a combination documentary and drama recreation about people who have had paranormal experiences that defy explanation.

In the development bin there are three series described as “Single-camera half hours”. I believe this is what Mark Stern referred to as comedies in dinner last October, but done single-camera style, more typically associated with dramas:

Three Inches, about daydreamer and underachiever Walter Spackman who gets struck by lightning and develops the power to transport objects with his mind – but only three inches. And he discovers others with these “super” powers…

In The Dark, which follows a team of inept paranormal investigators.

Me and Lee, where Lee Majors comes to the rescue of a down-on-his-luck 20 something who has back surgery that goes bad, and brings him to his high-tech lab and makes him bionic.

And in development in reality series is a very long slate, with shows that feature Motley Crüe’s Tommy Lee investigating secret societies and rituals, Cleve Hall and his family run monster factory; Deepak Chopra having dinner and discussions with interesting guests; and a Scrapheap/Junkyard Wars type show for making “chain reaction” machines.

On the movie front, there is a lot as well, going well into 2012. Red Faction: Origins, based on the video game series, is probably the most anticipated and features Robert Patrick (Terminator 2), Brian Jacob Smith (Stargate Universe), and Gareth David-Lloyd (Torchwood). A few other titles that stood out (titles subject to change – you can get more details below): Zombie Apocalypse, Snowmageddon (they stole the title from my tweet in February – they WERE filming at my house! :)), and Dungeons and Dragons 4 – although I’m not aware of a third movie having been produced…oh, and let’s not forget Bigfoot, The Asylum’s next stunt-cast monster movie, featuring Danny Bonaduce (The Partridge Family) vs. Barry Williams (The Brady Bunch). Time to start thinking of some of my own celebrity deathmatch movies…how about Billy Mumy vs. Wil Wheaton? 🙂

LOTS of interesting stuff. Of course, more scripted dramas would be nice…
(continue reading…)