Sci-Fi Storm

It’s been a while since we said anything about the Mark Wahlberg starrer Six Billion Dollar Man project, but it was ready to go in front of cameras in a couple months and be released next May, or so we thought. Now it appears that scriptwriter and director Damian Szifron is off the project, apparently due to creative differences over his script and possibly a “language barrier” – Szifron (Wild Takes) is Argentinian, and this appears to be his first major English language project.

12 Monkeys will air its fourth and final season next month on SYFY, and the network will air the 11-episode season over four weeks, with a 3-episode premiere on Friday, June 15th from 8-11pm ET, and the final two episodes on June 6th from 9-11pm. Check out the teaser…

Fiona Dourif is set to join SYFY’s upcoming The Purge, based on the movie franchise of the same name. Dourif will play Good Leader Tavis, described as a “cool and offbeat” charismatic cult leader. Considering her wonderfully bizarre turn as Bart Curlish on Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, I’m looking forward to “offbeat”…

The CW picked up The 100 for a sixth season, just two weeks after season 5 started airing. The show was left behind when the network renewed the bulk of its lineup last month, but it received the renewal yesterday after showing decent ratings on its return.

Just some catch-up stuff before the weekend…

The CW has completed their full house of returning shows, ordering a fifth season of The 100, so all its returning scripted shows that weren’t previously announced as ending have received early renewals for an additional season. Among it’s freshman series, however, the story is less rosy – Riverdale did get a second season, but No Tomorrow and Frequency seem unlikely.

Also, on the less rosy side, remember that little heard of movie Avatar? And the multiple sequels that were supposed to be out by now? Well, they are delayed again. Although James Cameron now says there are no less than FOUR sequels planned, Avatar 2 isn’t even going to make it’s latest planned date of December 2018. Cameron told the Toronto Star, “2018 is not happening,” mainly because they are making four movies, not one. But, “We’re full tilt boogie right now. This is my day job and pretty soon we’ll be 24-7.” I think it is safe to say Cameron is all-in on this, and it will be released when it is ready.

Lastly, we’ll be back in Westoros on July 16th…HBO finally announced that Season 7 will start on that date. If you are like me and HBO is the only channel you don’t get, expect a Season 6 marathon that weekend with a free preview… 🙂

Some tidbits as I get caught up:

The Prototype series developed for Syfy is not moving forward at the network, but might be shopped elsewhere. The pilot starred Jack Davenport (Smash) and Cote de Pablo (NCIS), and followed Edward “Eddy” Conway (Davenport), an aging playboy and former Silicon Valley wunderkind who has retreated from the tech world to return to UCLA as a physics professor. Eddy’s lack of self-control, be it with coeds or sports cars, has made him familiar with some unsavory characters, but his latest project might prove to be his most dangerous endeavor to date.

The CW announced that Alexandra Metz (Chicago Fire) will join the upcoming Frequency series, based on the 2000 film, as Maya, a college student desperate to prevent herself from becoming a victim of a violent crime. In addition Chai Romruen (Mako Mermaids) will join The 100 as the recurring character Ilan, a Grounder haunted by the horrors he committed while under Alie’s control.

Co-creator Brian Michael Bendis tweeted that the second season of Powers on Playstation Network – for now. But it seems the second season premiere episode was available for free not just on PSN but other outlets like YouTube – and YouTube recorded over 4.6 million views and counting. So maybe it could find life elsewhere…and the comic will continue.

No surprise that a sequel to the upcoming Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is being worked on, but it already has a release date – November 16th, 2018, almost 2 years after the first.

And in case you haven’t heard (I did, but was on vacation at the time…) HBO’s Game Of Thrones will definitely end with the conclusion of Season 8. HBO would like to do more according to programming chief Casey Bloys, but the decision was from series creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. It’s not suprising as they overtake the source material from George R.R. Martin. Also, Season 7 won’t air until Summer of 2017, as they need to take advantage of some colder weather for shooting the upcoming season and thus are delaying production.

The CW has been cleaning up it’s schedule today for the next season to make room for the pilot pickups, and some genre shows have felt the axe. The Tomorrow People and Star-Crossed were not renewed, with the former not finding a foothold with the CW’s primary demographics, and the latter’s mid-season start possibly falling victim to the weak lead-in.

On the other side, The 100, which looks to be a surprise hit, gained renewal along with the rebooted Beauty and the Beast, but the number of episodes has not been decided – some believe they may get less than the full 22 episodes. The 100 will also say goodbye to two of the co-runners of the show, Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain, who were there to help shepherd executive producer and creator Jason Rothenberg for it’s freshman run, but he will go solo going forward.