Science Fiction (and Fantasy) on Television

Wednesday 29th October 2003

Hot actor of the moment, Orlando Bloom, is teaming up with top director Ridley Scott again to film Kingdom of Heaven. It's your standard epic, "Young peasant becomes a knight, saves a kingdom and falls in love with a princess in Jerusalem," and is set in 12th century Europe and across the East. Filming is slated for January in Morocco. "Again"? Sure, Orlando was relatively unknown when cast in Black Hawk Down by Ridley before the LotR and PotC things happened.

Tuesday 28th October 2003

The proposed spinoff from the Bond series of the Jinx character, (to star Halle Berry), has been shelved. Thank goodness! Bond is having enough trouble serving up a decent story itself without devaluing the whole lot even more by spinning off a poorly acted, second rate character into another franchise. I know the film business is really about money and profits, but at least put a little imaginative effort into making the films won't you.

Tuesday 28th October 2003

UFOs are back on the TV agenda. A week after the US SciFi Channel announced they were sueing various government agencies to get secret documents on UFOs declassified, the US branch of UK TV company Carlton has announced that they want to redevelop old series UFO. This was the first live action series from Gerry Anderson who created supermarionation shows like Thunderbirds and Joe 90. UFO was originally shown in 1970. Pen Densham, Neil Kaplan and John Watson of Trilogy Entertainment Group (The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone) will work on UFO.

Tuesday 28th October 2003

AP reports on the rerelease of Alien in its polished up final cut. What I found interesting was Joel Silver's comments, (yes, the Matrix films producer), saying "I think Ridley was incredibly groundbreaking with Alien and later Blade Runner. The whole idea of a decrepit future that was evident in both those pictures was a really monumental design choice. Yes, we were all affected by it." Nice of you to say it out loud, but we kinda already knew. Sir Ridley rules!

Wednesday 22nd October 2003

The Six Million Dollar Man was very much a 70s styled show, but yet dealing with the whole idea of the cyborg (which was in fact the name of the Martin Caidin novel on which it was based). A couple of decades of real science later and it was ripe for an update as a major feature movie. It was muddling along as a moderate and probably fairly ordinary project for a while, but then Jim Carrey signed up. With the gigantic success of Bruce Almighty added to his successful career, there is no question that this will now become a Jim Carrey film - a spoof of the original series, (think Austin Powers mimicry of James Bond style). It will probably make lots of money and might even be funny. I hope someone else tries a serious 21st century cyborg film though.

Thursday 16th October 2003

Fans of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl will surely be pleased to know that the main creators have all signed up for the sequel (due 2005). Jerry Bruckheimer will produce again and Gore Verbinski returns to direct from a script by the writers of the first, Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott. Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom will return to sail their ship with their saved damsel Keira Knightley. And given the success of the first one, don't be surprised if they knock out two sequels at once.

Friday 15th October 2003

Sounds like the new version of Barbarella is finally at the fore again after being put on the back burner for a couple of years. John August is the screenwriter who worked through a couple of scripts for this already and is now getting back together after their busy two years with Drew Barrymore, etc. to bring the story to production. I call it a "new version" rather than a "remake" as it is not remaking the original 1968 Roger Vadim/Jane Fonda kitsch cult film (to which they do not have the rights), but is a new venture based on the original French comics.

Tuesday 14th October 2003

There is no point comparing the final Matrix and LotR films as they are so completely different in subject, but which are you most looking forward to? While we have great films out right now, like Kill Bill, the rest of the year is going to be filled with spectacular films as well. For a review of the 20 minute preview of LotR:RotK check out CHUD.

Tuesday 14th October 2003

Joel Silver is heavily into Matrix promotion at present. He told SciFiWire, "It's the end of the movie, and there's really a resolution and everything. The battle to save Zion is truly spectacular beyond your wildest dreams. You haven't seen anything like it before in your life. It's just the most spectacular sequence I've ever seen. I guess people say, 'Of course he's going to say that,' but it is really out there. It is fantastic." The trailer certainly gives credibility to that promise.

Tuesday 14th October 2003

Kevin Burns talks to The B9 Robot Builders Club about the new version of Lost in Space.

Monday 13th October 2003

Fox 2000 has optioned film rights to Eragon, the book written by teenager Christopher Paolini that is now riding high on book sales charts after initally being self-published. The magical fantasy is about a boy, Eragon, who finds a polished blue stone in the forest which turns out to be a dragon's egg. When it hatches Eragon and the baby dragon go on adventures together.

Saturday 11th October 2003

Zap2it has a newsy article on a forthcoming opponent for Angel - a werewolf. (So another battle between vampire and werewolf, just like current movie Underworld.) In early Buffy, Oz was a werewolf, but was described by some as looking like a gay possum. I think you can guess by the picture they definitely didn't want to suffer that accusation again. The article has lots more info and also mentions the latest remake of Frankenstein.

Saturday 11th October 2003

Will Star Wars Episode III be called 'Revenge of the Sith' or 'Rise of the Empire' or something else? And does anyone really care anyway?

Friday 10th October 2003

Will Ferrell has secured the role of 'mortal' Darrin opposite Nicole Kidman's 'witch' wife Samantha in the Bewitched film. Will is star of Elf which will be out this Christmas and he is one of the many comedians who have come through US TV show Saturday Night Live.

Friday 10th October 2003

Less than a week ago I was saying I had no new news on Blake's 7. I do now and it is very bad. Paul Darrow, who played the iconic Avon throughout the original series and has for many years championed the revival of the show, has announced that he has parted company with the production company for "artistic differences". Read the announcement. This is deeply disappointing for Paul and for his fans (including me). It seems to me that if this thing actually does go ahead without him, it will simply be another miniseries or whatever with unknowns trading off the B7 name, but without any essence of the original.

Thursday 9th October 2003

According to scifiwire, a source on Cinescape says the writer who adapted Isaac Asimov's I, Robot for the big screen, Jeff Vintar, has been asked now to adapt Asimov's Foundation trilogy. The suggestion is to split it across two films. Huh? Not clear if this is just the first book or all three. There has been an earlier attempt at scripting Foundation, by John Rogers (as I reported back in March). It is not known if this will be used as the basis or if it will be started afresh. Will it be any good? Well, I, Robot is currently in post-production and due out next year, so perhaps we should at least wait until we see that one before drawing any conclusions. At least we're seeing a (small) continuing trend at bringing more than just empty SciFi Action movies to the big screen.

Thursday 9th October 2003

Do you remember watching Lost in Space when you were a kid? Well, a lot of people don't, because a lot of today's TV viewers were not alive in the 60's. Last year, (when Jonathan Harris died), they scrapped plans to make a reunion type of TV movie, but the idea didn't go away and with all those fresh viewers in sight, a brand new Lost in Space series is now in the works. WB won out on the bidding and are progressing with a pilot, written by Doug Petrie, a Buffy veteran. One of the Exec producers is John Woo and it is possible he might direct the pilot! The show concept will be along the lines of the original, with a family... well... lost in space. Set in 2097, they'll have their friendly robot with them. But are probably not joined by the nasty scientist who has sabotaged the ship to get them lost in the first place.

Wednesday 8th October 2003

Steven Spielberg and Les Bohem are teaming up again to produce another series for the US Sci Fi channel. They were the ones responsible for the tedious Taken (as producer and writer respectively). The new miniseries (called Nine Lives) is described as "an epic story of love, death and beyond." So basically another crappy soap opera with the vaguest of SF backgrounds tying together all the family melodrama.

Wednesday 8th October 2003

No doubt you don't need me to tell you that Arnie has been successful at becoming the Governator of California. But this site isn't about politics so I won't dwell on it. Good luck to him. I suspect we won't see Mr Schwarzenegger do even small cameo parts for the first year, and certainly no major roles during his first term as governor (should be at least 3 years and maybe a second term of another four years). Maybe that break will make it easier for him to return to movies doing other than action parts. (But then Sean Connery just did LXG aged 72, so you never know!)

Tuesday 7th October 2003

Jessica Biel has been talking to Latino Review about starting filming on Blade: Trinity after 6 weeks training in martial arts. Once again she hints at the well forged rumour of a possibility of her "team" doing a spin-off from Blade in the future. This is the backup team that gets called into action when Blade's computer system is attacked. Unlike him though, they have no supernatural powers, only good fighting training, which it sounds like Jessica has been thoroughly enjoying.

Monday 6th October 2003

For news (and pictures) on Catwoman, point your browser at the Hollywood North Report, which has pics and some script as well. Here's hoping that Halle can deliver those one liners without the lead lining of her Jinx delivery in James Bond. Judging by this picture from Time though, we probably won't care. See the big picture at Superherohype. (Note, she only wears this outfit at the end of the film.) Oh, and don't bet on a sequel.

Sunday 5th October 2003

MI6 has a report on spy film Semper Occultus. Roger Moore as 'C' - the ex-spy turned spymaster (Moore was James Bond of course) and Danny Glover is being asked to play the Director of the FBI. However, it is the younger stars that are most interesting. Hot babe Kelly Brook is lined up as the MI6 agent Daisy Norton-Hall and her boyfriend Jason Statham as the bad guy (he's been in The Italian Job, The Transporter, Snatch). Semper Occultus means "always secret" and is the motto for Mi6

Saturday 4th October 2003

Well, this week I said the Red Dwarf film was definitely happening and last week was able to finally announce that Doctor Who was definitely coming back to television, so what now? Well Variety has announced that a third classic British cult series is absolutely definitely past the greenlight stage - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - the masterwork of the late Douglas Adams. Of course regular readers shouldn't be surprised because I said back in June it was all happening, but nice to know it is still moving forwards. And the other one? - sorry, I don't have any new news on Blake's 7, but as far as I know is still scheduled to go ahead next year.

Friday 3rd October 2003

There is a transcript of a Scott Bakula interview on the Star Trek site. In it he talks of filming an episode called North Star, (which is also separately reported on), which involves descendants of a wagon train of people who were abducted from the "Old West" 300 years earlier to create a new colony on another planet, but overcame their alien captors and took charge. Only, their technology has not evolved at all and they still walk around as in the mythical Old West. I find this intensely stupid. It was the single most stupid plot element of Firefly and was very corny in the old ST:TOS and yet they continue to create these things romanticizing this very short period of one country's history which rather than being full of glamorous cowboys, outlaws and sheriffs was actually a period of strife, famine, disease, failed crops, death of settlers and murder of native inhabitants. It is bad enough recreating the Old West, but justifying zero technological advancement in 300 years? Stories like this one really are not helping Enterprise gain viewers.

Thursday 2nd October 2003

Do you remember the film Teen Wolf, starring Michael J. Fox (released in 1985 - the same year as Back to the Future). Well, UPN are trying to create a series inspired by it. I say "inspired" because it sounds like apart from the basic premise of a teenager who discovers he is a werewolf, there won't be much in common with the film. The frivolous humour will be dropped with emphasis instead on dark humour together with Buffy-style fantasy.

Thursday 2nd October 2003

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe will be filmed in Hobsonville in New Zealand. This is on the South Island which not long since was still Middle Earth and is now to become Narnia. Ironic that the same land should be used for both, because both J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were originally inspired in the creation of their fictional lands by the same English woods near Oxford.

Wednesday 1st October 2003

Okay, the Red Dwarf film did not start shooting in September as I said it should back in April. But design work has started, recruitment of crew has started and actual filming is now scheduled and being staffed for May next year, so I was only slightly off - it is still definitely happening.

Archive Index

Archive Index

Odyssey 5, Firefly, Star Trek, X-Files, Babylon 5, Crusade, Dr Who, Andromeda, Lexx, Dark Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, The Invisible Man, Stargate SG-1, Blake's 7, Farscape, The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, The Lone Gunmen, The Avengers, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Red Dwarf, Roswell, Total Recall 2070, Hercules, Xena: Warrior Princess, Earth: Final Conflict, Charmed, Alien Nation, Futurama, Outer Limits and so many more. Essential information, background, links, etc. on all Science Fiction and Fantasy shows are here!