Tagged: House

Charlaine Harris Charlaine Harris writes more than just novels featuring Sookie Stackhouse.  In fact, she just signed to writer the fourth Harper Connelly novel for Editor Ginjer Buchanan at Berkley Prime Crime, for publication in fall 2009.

Not only that, but she’s teaming with Toni Kelner to edit Death’s Excellent Vacation, a cross-genre anthology. Stories will play mix and match with the science fiction, fantasy, mystery and paranormal genres, with each story revolving around death and a holiday. Such blended anthologies have occurred before and may become a new trend. Buchanan will produce this for the Ace imprint, due out in spring 2010.

Dead and Gone, the eighth Stackhouse book, will be out in May 2009.

Speaking of vampires, the mother-daughter team of P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast’ have signed to write three more books in their House of Night series, plus an illustrated companion with award-winning artist Kim Doner, for Jennifer Weis at St. Martin’s Press.

Sonya Walger (Lost) will play the female lead in ABC’s Flash Forward, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  Christine Woods (House) has also joined the cast in what is probably the hottest pilot currently in production.

Walger will play Ralph Fiennes’ wife, Olivia, “who is disturbed by her vision of being in love with another man.” Woods, meantime, will play Janis, a “computer-savvy FBI agent who helps to uncover a pivotal clue in the mystery.”

Robert J. Sawyer’s science fiction novel is being adapted by David S. Goyer (Blade), who will direct the pilot, Brannon Braga (Enterprise) and ABC Studios. The trade says the novel “chronicles the chaos that ensues after everyone in the world blacks out for two minutes and 17 seconds and has a mysterious vision of the future that changes lives forever.”

ABC has high hopes for the pilot which may become a companion series for Lost for the 2009-2010 television season according to the trade.

P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast’s nine volume House of Night series has been optioned by producers Michael Birnbaum (John Tucker Must Die) and Jeremiah Chechik (Benny and Joon) according to Variety.

The young adult novel series is yet another to feature teens and vampires, a sub-genre exemplified by Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight. The conceit, according to the trade, "’vampyres’ are accepted in society; they possess a genetic anomaly that manifests itself in some people at puberty. Vampyres are ‘marked’ and sent to the House of Night, a school that offers training necessary to become an adult vampyre.”

The lead character, 16 year old Zoey Redbird, has just been turned into a vampire and switches schools with all the attendant teen issues plus the vampire factor.

The series kicked off just last year with Marked. The fourth book, Untamed, was released in September by St. Martin’s Griffin.

"P.C. and Kristin Cast created a thrilling world that juxtaposes teen drama with supernatural suspense, using the transition from human to vampire as a metaphor for the transition from adolescence to adulthood," Birnbaum said.
 

Fox announced a dramatically restructured midseason lineup, radically different than the schedule they outlined over the summer. They have revived the Friday night science fiction dumping ground, placing Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse on that evening, beginning February 13, the beginning of a three-day weekend when viewership tends to drop anyway.

Other shifts sees House slip to Mondays, allowing the return of the American Idol juggernaut on Tuesdays, which makes for a marvelous lead-in to Fringe. Bones shifts from Wednesdays to Thursday pitting the series against Ugly Betty and Smallville.

The Friday night curse began with the genre-related The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. in 1993 and was following in subsequent years by MANTIS (1994), Strange Luck (1995), VR.5 (1995), Sliders (1996), Millennium (1996), The Visitor (1997), Harsh Realm (1999), Freakylinks (2000), Dark Angel (2000), The Lone Gunmen (2001), John Doe (2003), and Firefly (2003).

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Hot off the heels of yesterday’s report that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is endangered, word has come in that Fringe is thriving.

According to Variety, Fox has ordered a full season’s worth of episodes for their newest science fiction serial. That’s hardly a surprise, considering Fringe helped put Fox on top in the ratings on Tuesday night with a strong 9.91 million viewers. Of all new shows this season, Fringe has ranked No. 1 among all adults in the 18 – 49 age range. That ranking is in no small thanks due to House, the show’s lead-in. On Tuesday, Fringe retained 78% of House‘s audience in adults 18-49. Looks like Grumpy McGrump House (that’s his name, right?) is good for something.

Fox’s full season order means that nine more episodes will be produced for Fringe‘s freshman season, totaling the usuaal 22 episodes for a full season. There’s no guarantee that these episodes will be made, however, if the Screen Actor’s Guild approves an impending strike order. In that case, viewers will have a lot more to worry about than Fringe. Fingers crossed that those cooky Bishops can rig something up to stop the SAG!

This is the second freshman series to get a full season order, following on the heels of 90210. CBS’ well-regarded The Mentalist is expected to get its "back nine" order shortly.  Of the sophomore shows, Chuck is the only one with a full season order to date.

Fringe focuses on Olivia Dunham, an FBI Agent investigating mysterious happenings known as The Pattern. She’s assisted by Walter Bishop, an questionably sane but brilliant scientist, and his son Peter, an equally brilliant but arrogant mind. To catch up on the show, check out our weekly reviews by clicking here! (Yes, we know it’s a shameless plug-in, but just do it. It feels so right, and you know you want to.)