Sci-Fi Storm

Syfy has announced that Graham Greene (Dances with Wolves among many roles) will join the cast of its upcoming drama series Defiance. Greene will portray Rafe McCawley, a self-made success who owns and operates the largest mine in the territory. However, Rafe’s status as the richest and most powerful human in the town of Defiance comes with a price, as he struggles to navigate both familial and political alliances in this precariously assembled new world.
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On the heels of a an apparent trailer (which as it turns out was really a demo reel) for the long-developing Battlestar Galactica prequel series Blood & Chrome (followed by NBCU getting it pulled from YouTube), Syfy finally announced a decision on the series, after a long silence – and it’s not good for those hoping to see it on TV.

Deadline is reporting that the network has decided not to go forward with a full TV series. It took over a year from getting the green light to start production on the 90-minute pilot to being delivered to the network in at least a rough cut, due to all the digital effects and post-production work required, and Syfy said little afterwards, except for President of Original Programming Mark Stern saying they were “trying to figure out the economics right now,” back in January. With such a long and expensive production cycle it looked more and more like it wouldn’t be doable as a series.

All is not lost, however. First, the pilot will be aired at some time in the future. And as the series was originally envisioned as a web series, it looks like they will return to that idea, with Stern saying, “We are actively pursuing it as was originally intended: a groundbreaking digital series that will launch to audiences beyond the scope of a television screen.”

Syfy has just announced that it will air the mini-series Treasure Island, which aired in the UK earlier this year, as a one-night-only special event.

Presenting a fresh, new spin on the classic tale, Treasure Island, featuring an all-star cast led by Eddie Izzard (Oceans 12, and just yesterday announced to star in The Munsters), Elijah Wood (The Lord Of The Rings, The Hobbit) and Donald Sutherland (Pride and Prejudice among many, many other roles_. Robert Louis Stevenson’s swashbuckling adventure story about fantastical treasure, youthful courage and murderous greed will premiere Saturday, May 5 from 7-11PM (ET/PT) on Syfy.
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Syfy made two casting announcements today.

Syfy has inked actor Shane McRae to star in the two-hour pilot for the action thriller Rewind from BermanBraun and Universal Cable Productions. Jack Bender (Lost, Alphas) is set to direct the pilot penned by Justin Marks, who will also executive produce with Tom Spezialy, Gail Berman, Lloyd Braun and Gene Stein. Rewind is set to begin production in April 2012.

McRae attended the NYU Graduate Acting program where he received his master’s degree. Soon after, he landed his first role in the Tony Award-winning play Richard Greenberg’s Take Me Out on Broadway. He was recently seen in The Help, Bad Teacher, The Adjustment Bureau and Killer Pad among others. He was also a series regular on NBC’s Four Kings. His theater credits include Fifth of July directed for Bay Street and Williamstown by Terry Kinney, Killer’s and Other Family (Rattlestick) and Richard III (Public Theatre). He’s represented by Gersh and TMT Entertainment.
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We got a special preview of the new competition show Total Blackout back in October (including a great demonstration by Eureka‘s Colin Ferguson), but here’s an all new sneak peek of the show, hosted by Jaleel White (who, incidentally, will also be appearing on ABC’s Dancing With The Stars this season).

It’s a competition that you never saw coming where contestants battle each other and their fears in a series of challenges, confronting their own worst enemy – themselves. However, there is a twist — all the challenges are played in complete darkness; no lights, no blindfolds and no-holds barred as the players face their fears and unexpected surprises in a series of nerve-wracking games. Catch the sneak peek and tune in to the premiere of Total Blackout on Wednesday, April 25th at 10/9c.
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It’s been a full year since production started on Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome, Syfy’s announced prequel to Battlestar Galactica. But over the last several months, Syfy has been very, very quiet about it’s status, which moved from an originally planned web series to full pilot. Questions about why it was taking so long, would it ever be seen, etc. abound. What little Syfy did say wasn’t encouraging either, with how long it would take to do the visual effects for a full series – and they hadn’t even decided to pick it up yet.

Well, our friends over at Airlock Alpha report that Composer Bear McCreary, who did the music for Battlestar Galactica, told a panel at the EMP Science Fiction Hall of Fame’s Galactibash celebration on February 17th that he completed the score for the pilot…and that’s a very good sign that it will at least see the light of day in some form, at least.

Blood & Chrome is a “near-prequel” to the reimagined Battlestar Galactica, taking place at the beginning of the first Cylon War (later than the previous prequel effort, Caprica). As the battle between humans and their creation, the sentient robotic Cylons, rages across the 12 colonial worlds, a young, talented fighter pilot, William Adama (Luke Pasqualino), finds himself assigned to one of the most powerful Battlestars in the Colonial fleet: the Galactica. David Eick is executive producing.

Syfy has announced that Jack Bender, who directed many episodes of Lost (and exec produced) as well as the pilot for Alphas and most recently several episodes of Alcatraz has been hired to direct the pilot for Syfy‘s upcoming pilot Rewind, which was ordered just last month. Rewind is a joint production of BermanBraun and Universal Cable Productions, who also produce Alphas.

Some news tidbits from this morning: Eureka star Colin Ferguson will join the cast as the lead in a comedy pilot for Fox titled Like Father, where Ferguson will play Van “The Hurricane” Lyons, nicknamed for his personality, who moves in to his son Will’s campus apartment after his wife passes away. Also cast are Phil Lewis (The Suite Life… shows on Disney) as Van’s best friend, and Kevin Michael Martin (My Little Princess) as Will’s best friend and roommate. The pilot is being written, directed and produced by Bill Lawrence (Scrubs, Cougar Town) for Warner Bros. TV. Eureka fifth and final season will air beginning April 16th.

Also, Syfy has bought a spec script from Brett Conrad (Sons Of Anarchy, Covert Affairs) to adapt into a 90-minute pilot called The Dover Agenda. It is described as a thriller where a young man is recruited into a secret branch of military intelligence – and the one who recruited him is a future version of himself. Barry Josephson (Bones) will executive produce for FreemantleMedia.

Syfy is bumping up its programming schedule this Spring season with more original series and more hours of programming than any prior Spring season. Here are some of the highlights coming up:

March:
Monster Man (NEW ORIGINAL SERIES)
Special Premiere Wednesday, March 14 at 11PM following Face Off season finale; regular time slot Wednesdays at 10PM beginning March 21 — Monster Man goes behind the scenes of one of Hollywood’s most respected monster prop building workshops. For more than 30 years, when studios have wanted a bizarre creature or out-of-this world alien, they’ve turned to Cleve Hall and his very unique family business. Only the horrifying monsters they build match the craziness of this extremely talented family. Monster Man stars Cleve Hall, his daughters Constance and Elora Hall, his ex-wife Sonja Maddox-Hall, best friends Roy Knyrim, Hill Vinot & Johnny Saiko, as well as office manager Cindy Miller. Executive producers are Scott Gurney and Deirdre Gurney for Gurney Productions.
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February 08, 2012 – SYFY RENEWS HIT SERIES BEING HUMAN FOR THIRD SEASON

NEW YORK, NY – February 8, 2012 – Syfy is ordering a third season (13 episodes) of its hit drama series Being Human, it was announced today by Mark Stern, President of Original Content, Syfy and Co-Head of Original Content, Universal Cable Productions. The announcement comes just four episodes into the 13-episode second season, which premiered on Monday, January 16.

To date, viewership for the second season has increased by an impressive +27% in Adults 18-49, +35% in Adults 25-54 and +15% in total viewers.
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