Tagged: Sci-Fi

Sci-Fi Sends ‘Ghost Hunters’ to College

News
October 23, 2008

Searching for the paranormal has become incredibly popular across the world and has propelled stellar ratings for Sci Fi Channel’s various shows where various people seek the unknown or unexplained. The most popular of the bunch is Ghost Hunters and now a second spinoff series is in the works.

Ghost Hunters: College Edition will be, according to The Hollywood Reporter, “features a group of students going around the country to seek out paranormal activity”. We imagine their tour bus will compete with the Girls Gone Wild bus for prime parking spaces.

Conceived by GH’s Executive Producer, Craig Piligian, the series will use an experience investigator to show the students how it’s done. At present, it has not been determined if a member of the TAPS domestic team seen on Ghost Hunters or the international edition from Ghost Hunters International will be recruited to play professor. The cast for GHI seemed like castoffs from the prime series and experienced turnover by the beginning of its second season.

The original GH began airing in 2004, featuring Grant Wilson and Jason Hawes as Roto Rooter staffers by day and investigators by night. The series has averaged over two million viewers a week with the October 8 episode notching an all-time high of 2.7 million total viewers.

GHI began airing in January averaging 2.4 million viewers and has been renewed.

The lead investigators have become celebrities and have been seen at the New York Comic-Con and Comic-Con International. Some of their cases have been collected in a book, co-written with Michael Jan Friedman from Pocket Books with a second volume due in 2009.

"Ghost Hunters’ appeals to a wide demographic, and we felt the college edition would be a great asset to the franchise," Piligian told the trade.

Paterson Joseph Latest Suspect as 11th Doctor

News
October 22, 2008

Sci-Fi Wire is joining the growing chorus of place claiming that Steven Moffat, the incoming new producer for Doctor Who has cast the first black Doctor, actor Paterson Joseph, to replace David Tennant.

Of course, Tennant, the Tenth Doctor, is contracted through the 2010 season and may well sign for more seasons. However, since he is not yet signed beyond a fifth full season, speculation has been running rampant as to whom Tennant could regenerate into.

Joseph as an option first surfaced a few weeks back in Rich Johnston’s Lying in the Gutters column. He wrote, “Previously playing Roderick in the Doctor Who episodes “Bad Wolf”/”Parting Of Ways,” Joseph is known for fine upstanding and terribly-well-spoken-dontcha-know roles as Johnson in Peep Show, the Marquis De Carabas in Neverwhere, Space Marshall Clarke in Hyperdrive, Lyndon in Green Wing…and more importantly Benjamin in Jekyll. Written and produced by upcoming Doctor” Who showrunner, Steven Moffat.”

Joseph initially told Sci Fi Wire, "I am on a list of God knows how many others, but flattered to be considered."

A follow up e-mail said, "The news on Who was news to me as of last Wednesday, when my agent said they’d had lots of journos asking if the rumors were true. That’s all I know, and I’m very pleased to even be thought of in this way. It’s a blast!"

On the other hand, TV Scoop reported a while back that James Nesbitt would replace Tennant while the London Telegraph wrote just months back that Russell Tovey, who played Midshipman Frame in the most recent Christmas special, was being eyed by producer Russell T. Davies as a potential replacement. He wrote in an e-mail, "He’s amazing. I think I’d make him the 11th Doctor."

Regardless, Tennant is working on the four Specials for 2009 and then will shoot the fifth season to air in 2010. By then, he may have re-signed for a sixth season or someone else will be taking up residence in the TARDIS. Isn’t this fun?

‘Star Trek: Countdown’ Begins in January

News
October 21, 2008

IDW has released details about the prequel comic book miniseries leading into next May’s Star Trek reboot. Entitled Star Trek: Countdown, it will focus on Nero, the villainous Romulan played by Eric Bana and said to be seen at the film’s beginning set in Trek’s present before the time travel elements kick in and we see the familiar crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise unite for the first time.

The miniseries will be written by Mike Johnson (Superman/Batman) and Tim Jones from a story crafted by Trek director J.J. Abrams and screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. Art will come from Italian draftsman David Messina who has previously drawn for IDW’s Trek line.

Countdown launches in January and will run for four monthly issues with the trade collection already announced for April 29, just a week prior to the May 2 release of the feature film.

“[Star Trek: Countdown] is about how you connect the Next Generation era to our continuity, inspired by when we last saw Mr. Spock in ‘Unification’,” Orci told TrekMovie.com.

“I can assure you that we all (IDW and Bad Robot) are at work in order to be faithful to the spirit of Star Trek!” Messina enthusiastically posted at the site. “…and believe me, you can’t imagine how huge and picky is our ‘pre-production’ work for this book! Mike and Tim are great Star Trek fans, while even if I’m not a Trek’s guy, I’m a really great lover of Sci-Fi… I really hope that you’ll like our book, we are at work on it with great passion.”

Interview with Robert Tapert

News
October 19, 2008

I recently got a chance to sit down and chat with legendary producer Robert Tapert, who you know best as Sam Raimi’s better half working with him on things like Hercules, Xena, Evil Dead, and even producing some great horror films to hit theaters in the past few years such as The Grudge and 30 Days of Night. I talked to Rob about some of his newer projects, including The Ghost House Underground Collection, a collection of eght horror films hand picked by Tapert and Raimi, which we will be reviewing here in the coming weeks. We also chatted about his newest TV project, Legend of the Seeker, and even a possibility of an Evil Dead remake.

ComicMix: The Ghost House Underground Collection recently was released on DVD and they are slated as being "hand selected by Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi". Is that true?

Robert Tapert: Sam and I picked the bulk of them. we are partnered with two other guys [Barry Brooker and Stan Wertlieb] who come from a long line of building DVD libraries. There was some guidance that was needed so that we didn’t pick all foreign flicks and had a wide enough variety to make the collection worth while. Overall, though, most of our picks made it into the final box set.

CMix: Were any of the eight films in the box set produced by your and Raimi’s production company, Ghost House Pictures?

RT: When we created GHP, [Sam and I] would be approached by dozens of directors and agents and young filmmakers who wanted to be hired. After a while we would follow up with them and hear terrible stories about how they got ripped off and lost tons of money through distribution. Then a little over a year ago, Barry and Stan came to us and told us that there is a business to be built in creating a Ghost House Underground consumer brand for direct-to-DVD movies. [Sam and I] were worried about becoming just another distributor who wouldn’t help these young filmmakers, but Barry and Stan said "as long as you pay the filmmakers what their due — wouldn’t you have been happy being payed what you were due when working on Evil Dead?" We agreed and have been happy with the outcome thus far. These films, and probably for the next incarnation are pre-existing films that are sent to us or we’ve at festivals or thousands of other ways.

(more…)

Pitt Embarks on ‘Odyssey’

News
October 18, 2008

Warner Bros. is quietly setting up The Odyssey with Brad Pitt’s Plan B producing and George Miller (Mad Max) attached to direct. The hope is that Brad Pitt will also star as Odysseus, who embarks on his long journey home from the Trojan War after declining to become a god.

WB previously released Troy, which was essentially a retelling of Homer’s The Illiad. While The Odyssey would continue the translation of Homer’s poems to the big screen, there’s a big difference between the two versions: Warner Bros. wants to put Odysseus in space.

Variety reports: "[The WB’s] intention is to transfer the tale [of The Odyssey] to a futuristic setting in outer space."

The announcement of a science fiction twist on The Odyssey comes shortly after Ridley Scott’s recently announced The Forever War. Scott describes that flick, which is based on the Joe Haldeman novel of the same name, as "a science-fiction epic, a bit of The Odyssey by way of Blade Runner." Forever War is being set up by Fox 2000, a rival company of the WB’s.

Brad Pitt will next be seen in David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a reverse aging epic with much rumored Oscar buzz. George Miller is currently most known for Justice League Mortal, the controversial adaptation of the beloved DC Comics property. It’s still unclear as to whether the film is being made, as several executives and journalists call the project "dead in the water," but others attached to the film, such as would-be Batman Armie Hammer, continue to speak as though the movie is still on track. Personally, a George Miller directed sci-fi version of The Odyssey sounds a lot better than his proposed Justice League film.

Kevin Smith to Make Sci-Fi Comedy

News
October 17, 2008

During the promotion for his new film, Zack & Miri Make a Porno, Kevin Smith began talking up a science fiction comedy he had in mind. In fact, he was riffing for reporters about how it was going to be dark and different for him as a filmmaker.

This morning The Hollywood Reporter runs the story that Smith will do this as his next project after Red State, which he will shoot next spring. He anticipates the film to run in the $45-50 million budget range. The trade says the new feature “will reference other sci-fi movies and revolves around a father-son relationship.”

Smith will produce with View Askew partner Scott Mosier and The Weinstein Company is the most likely studio to handle the project. The trade reports Harvey and Bob Weinstein have already read a draft of the film’s script.

"The moment someone steps out of the spaceship, it’s going to cost a little more," Smith said of the budget, his largest ever.

"All the relationships in the flicks I’ve done have been done before, have been either a guy falling for a girl or two dudes hanging out in a ‘bromantic’ comedy," he said. "I wanted to explore a father and son."

What do Jonah Hex and George W. Bush Have in Common?

News
October 10, 2008

Update: Variety is now confirming that Josh Brolin is in talks for Jonah Hex.

Just yesterday we reported that several films are gearing up for production starts between spring and summer of 2009. One of those films is Warner Bros.’s adaptation of Jonah Hex, DC Comics’ resident western gunslinger. Though actor Thomas Jane put himself through make-up testing to prove himself right for the role, it looks like the studio has its eye on a different actor — someone who’s no stranger to the Country.

Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere reports that "the deal is sealed for Josh Brolin to star in Jonah Hex." The film will be directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (Crank, Game). Although representatives from the Brolin camp say that the actor isn’t attached, Wells is confident that the actor is locked in.

"A voice is telling me to consider the word of a friend who tells me the deal was locked down last night," Wells says.

According to Wells, the movie will be "some kind of sci-fi western with CG up the wazoo. There’s nothing sci-fi-ish about the Hex comic book that’s explained on the Wikipedia page, but there’s always the creative option."

(more…)

‘New Scientist’ Polls Readers About Best SF

News
October 5, 2008

Even scientists like to have fun every now and then. England’s New Scientist magazine will be exploring the SF world in their November issue and along the way want to get reader input on the best and worst to date.

“We plan to explore this question in a special edition of New Scientist out on 15 November – as well as reviewing the best new science fiction books and talking to some of the world’s leading writers,” they write at the magazine’s website.

To engage readers prior to the issue’s release, they ask for people to vote on their favorite science fiction books and films. In order to kick start the debate, they polled themselves and named Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy the best book. “Hitchhiker’s Guide as the out-and-out best sci-fi book by several dead whales and one bowl of petunias. Anyone who disagrees with me is clearly a crass Golgafrinchan who should be forced to listen to Vogon poetry for as long as it takes," wrote one of their editors.

We applaud their choice of L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics as the worst science fiction novel.

Blade Runner was the clear favorite film among the magazine staff, noting "It’s a great story, emotionally involving and well acted – and still has a mystery. Was Harrison Ford’s cop really a cyborg?"

Steve McQueen’s The Blob took the worst film title. "I saw The Blob when I was about seven years old and haven’t eaten jelly since," said one of the staff.

ComicMix Radio: Pixar And The Muppets Go BOOM!

News
October 4, 2008

Imagine an inter-company "Crisis" style crossover that included The Muppets, The Incredibles, Farscape and even some of the cast of Cthulhu. Ok, farfetched, but all these titles from one company are not. We have the latest from Boom! Studios, plus:

Four big sellouts and now variants coming from Marvel
Who has the Best Death in sci-fi films and TV?
An opera based on the last days of Walt Disney

All presented in living color – just Press the Button!

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via or RSS!

AMC Goes to ‘Mars’

News
October 3, 2008

The Hollywood Reporter details AMC’s plans to develop Red Mars, a new science fiction series based on the novel of the same name. Jonathan Hensleigh, writer of Armageddon and The Punisher, is on board as writer/executive producer. Michael Jaffe, Howard Braunstein, Vince Gerardis, Ralph Vicinanza and Eli Kirschner will also executive produce.

"[Red Mars] fits in with our bigger vision of wanting series that feel like cinematic one-hour movies," says Christina Wayne, AMC’s senior VP of original series and miniseries. "We’re always looking for big genres but to do them in slightly different ways so they feel fresh and new."

Red Mars, which AMC is touting as character-driven, is based on a 1992 novel by Kim Stanley Robinson. It chronicles the inhabitants of the first human colony on the planet. Robinson wrote two sequels to the novel, titled Green Mars and Blue Mars, as well as several short stories published in The Martians. AMC will certainly have a lot of material to mine for their series.

This is not the first time that Red Mars has threatened to invade television. James Cameron once held the rights to the Mars trilogy, hoping to develop it as a five-hour miniseries to be directed by Martha Coolidge. He eventually passed on the option. Gale Anne Hurd later planned a similar Mars miniseries for the Sci-Fi Channel, but that too never took flight. It remains to be seen whether AMC’s version will follow in the series’ already ill-fated track record.

In addition to Red Mars, AMC is currently developing a separate sci-fi miniseries, The Prisoner. The miniseries is a remake of the 1960s sci-fi series of the same name, with Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellen set to star.

Tagged: Sci-Fi

Sci-Fi Sends ‘Ghost Hunters’ to College

Paterson Joseph Latest Suspect as 11th Doctor

‘Star Trek: Countdown’ Begins in January

Interview with Robert Tapert

Pitt Embarks on ‘Odyssey’

Kevin Smith to Make Sci-Fi Comedy

What do Jonah Hex and George W. Bush Have in Common?

‘New Scientist’ Polls Readers About Best SF

ComicMix Radio: Pixar And The Muppets Go BOOM!

AMC Goes to ‘Mars’

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