Sci-Fi Storm

If at first you don’t succeed…Syfy apparently still wants sci-fi/pop culture news on its channel, so it is looking to Chris Hardwick’s Nerdist Industries to take it’s popular Nerdist News YouTube program and bring it to the TV screens in a 30-minute commercial format.

Syfy tried last year with the Wil Wheaton Project starring the popular king nerd himself, using a “Talk Soup” style. While entertaining, at times it seemed like it tried a little too hard early on, and wasn’t able to gain viewership.

Wheaton and Hardwick are in fact former roommates, and Hardwick did appear in the debut episode of Wil Wheaton Project, so I’d expect Wil might not be a stranger to the new show…but no host has been announced yet, and Hardwick himself would only produce the show. Jessica Chabot currently hosts the YouTube show.

Heads up! The Wil Wheaton Project and Heroes of Cosplay are swapping time slots starting next week…The Wil Wheaton Project will air at 9/8c on Tuesdays, and Heroes of Cosplay will air at 10/9c.

Syfy’s The Wil Wheaton Project starts in just one week – Tuesday May 27th at 10/9c. What is it you ask? Well, here’s the official description:

The Wil Wheaton Project, a weekly topical comedy show hosted by actor, blogger and champion of geek culture Wil Wheaton, is coming to Syfy on Tuesday, May 27th at 10/9c. The 30-minute show will offer a fast-paced, lighthearted exploration and celebration of all things within the realm of science fiction and genre entertainment. Each week, Wil provides his insider point-of-view, sense of humor and genre expertise as he dissects the week’s most popular and trending topics across science fiction film, television and pop culture, video games, viral videos and news. Wil is on his feet for the rapid-fire half hour, delivering witty commentary on the things he knows and loves in this golden age of sci-pop culture. The result is a fun appreciation and celebration of fandom and all things science fiction.

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Syfy has greenlit the 12-episode summer series, The Wil Wheaton Project (working title), a weekly topical comedy show hosted by actor, blogger and champion of geek culture Wil Wheaton. The 30-minute show will offer a fast-paced, lighthearted exploration and celebration of all things within the realm of science fiction and genre entertainment. The series premieres Tuesday, May 27 at 10PM ET/PT on Syfy. The announcement was made today by Dave Howe, President, Syfy.

Each week, Wil provides his insider point-of-view, sense of humor and genre expertise as he dissects the week’s most popular and trending topics across science fiction film, television and pop culture, video games, viral videos and news. Wil is on his feet for the rapid-fire half hour, delivering witty commentary on the things he knows and loves in this golden age of sci-pop culture. The result is a fun appreciation and celebration of fandom and all things science fiction.

“Wil Wheaton’s rock star status within the genre fan base, along with his insatiable passion for all things pop culture make him the ideal arbiter of what’s hot and what’s not in the genre space,” said Dave Howe. “Wil’s legion of fans will relish his wry sense of humor and sharp wit, coupled with his unique commentary on the most popular genre entertainment out there.”

“The Wil Wheaton Project has been incredibly fun to develop, and I can’t wait for my fellow geeks to see it,” said Wheaton.

Wil Wheaton began acting in commercials at the age of seven, and by the age of ten had appeared in numerous television and film roles. In 1986, his critically acclaimed role in Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me put him in the public spotlight. In 1987, Wil was cast as Wesley Crusher in the hit television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. Recently, Wil has held recurring roles on Syfy’s Eureka, TNT’s Leverage and CBS’s The Big Bang Theory. He played Axis of Anarchy leader Fawkes in Felicia Day’s webseries, The Guild, and currently hosts Falling Skies: Second Watch for TNT. Off-camera, he is the creator producer, and host of the wildly successful webseries Tabletop, which is currently in its second season. Tabletop was awarded the 2013 Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming and the gold ENnie for Best Podcast at the 2013 Gen Con EN World RPG Awards. Wil was also awarded Best Host (taped) and the webseries was honored as the Best Hosted Series (Pre-Recorded) at the 2013 IAWTV Awards.

Wil is also an author, blogger, podcaster, voice actor and widely-followed original Twitter user. Wil personally maintains a popular social media presence, and his frequently-cited Twitter account is followed by over 2.3 million people from all over the world. He has published a number of acclaimed books, among them: Just A Geek, Dancing Barefoot and The Happiest Days of Our Lives. His latest book is Memories of the Future Volume 1, a humorous and nostalgic episode guide of the first half of the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. All of his books grew out of his award-winning weblog, which he personally created and maintains at WIL WHEATON dot NET. Wil is also widely recognized as one of the original celebrity bloggers, and is a respected voice in the blogging community.

All-new summer episodes of Heroes of Cosplay also debut that night, airing at 9:00PM ET/PT on Syfy.

The Wil Wheaton Project is a production of Pilgrim Studios. Craig Piligian and Mike Nichols (Ghost Hunters) are executive producers.

Want another contemporary fantasy drama? We’ve yet to see ABC’s Once Upon A Time or NBC’s Grimm, but now Fox wants in. The network has reportedly purchased a script commitment with penalty (they have to pay a penalty if they don’t go to series) to adapt Lev Grossman’s 2009 fantasy novel The Magicians. Something akin to Harry Potter with older protagonists, the novel tells the stories of some young adults that discover that the fantasy books they read as kids were not fiction, and find themselves attending a school of magic.

The scribe team of co-writers Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz (X-Men: First Class, Thor) will write the script, with Michael London (Milk), Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum, Real Steel) and Michael Adelstein (Desperate Housewives) producing. And a little tweety bird tells me that Wil Wheaton wants a role – well, it was a tweet from him: “And so begins my relentless campaign to secure a role in the TV version of Lev Grossman’s The Magicians…”