About.com Sci-Fi / Fantasy

Syfy Will Revive Alien Nation

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:39:35 +0000

Matthew Sikes (Gary Graham) and George Francisco (Eric Peirpoint) in the 1989 series Alien Nation.
© Fox

Everything old is being resurrected again. Sometimes it works (Battlestar Galactica); a lot of times it doesn't, perhaps because the planning process doesn't progress beyond "Let's bring back Bionic Woman!"

And yet the trend seems to be escalating, despite recent disasters like the unloved update of Knight Rider. Current projects for next season alone include revamps of V: The Series, Eastwick, and The Prisoner. Fran Kuzui is reviving Buffy (the movie, not the series). Even Teen Wolf, the 1985 Michael J. Fox teenage werewolf romantic comedy, is being brought back by MTV.

So it's perhaps inevitable that someone should turn to Alien Nation, the story of a small population of spotty-headed Newcomers who try to integrate into human society. It began as a film (1988) and then ran on Fox for one season (1989-1990). It was canceled, the victim of a network financial crunch, but Alien Nation never really went away: its loose ends were explored in a series of books and comics and five made-for-TV sequel films airing from 1994 to 1997. Unlike some properties with a lot of potential that flared brightly and then vanished in the ether, Alien Nation has maintained a presence in the sci-fi pantheon.

And its time is now again. Sci Fi Channel, which next week will start calling itself Syfy, has let on it's in development on a new version of Alien Nation.

Alien Nation has a great pedigree: Rockne S. O'Bannon (Farscape, seaQuest DSV) wrote the original movie, and the 1989 series was adapted by O'Bannon and Kenneth Johnson (V, The Incredible Hulk series, The Six Million Dollar Man, and The Bionic Woman).

For the new project, Tim Minear has been tapped to handle the writing, and this is great news. Minear, who has a gift for exploring character and morally complex situations with wry humor, has written classic episodes for Lois & Clark, Strange World, Firefly, Wonderfalls, and particularly some of the best episodes of Angel. This should be a strong fit for the Alien Nation property, which has in the past concentrated on finding new, often darkly comic, angles on entrenched social issues in the context of the relationship between its human/alien odd-couple cop partnership.

"It's genre mixed with procedural mixed with funny mixed with big, giant scary," Minear told Variety. "I love serialized stuff, but this is also a cop franchise. That Starsky & Hutch/Lethal Weapon buddy-cop comedy is absent from TV right now."

The revamp is "very much in keeping with what we've been looking to do," said Syfy programming executive VP Mark Stern: "find themes that are more than just hard sci-fi, something that feels contemporary and relevant and invites a broad audience in."

"The challenge," he added, "is how do you do it in a way that will reinvent it without it feeling like a derivative rehash. [Minear's] approach felt like it wouldn't be a traditional adaptation. We got excited." At least Stern has identified the problem with resurrecting old franchises. We can hope the Minear knows how to create something old that's new again.

The Price for More Chuck: Escalated Product Placement

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:59:10 +0000

Hey, Big Mike, want a delicious Subway sandwich? Because you really don't have a choice.
© NBC

NBC's last-minute renewal of Chuck in May was all about the numbers, so it's not surprising that the network looked to the show's major sponsor, Subway sandwiches, to shoulder a greater burden of the costs. NBC officials have confirmed that their decision to renew the show was made after Subway agreed to (shudder) "step up" its level of brand integration in the show next season.

Of course, you know what we'll be getting in return: even more intrusive product placement on a show where we've already had to watch major characters tell each other how wonderful and delicious their Subway sandwiches are.

Subway ended up getting drawn into the campaign to save the show after industry news mavens reported in April that its renewal was in jeopardy. Online fans decided that one of the most obvious ways to leverage their virtual numbers was to purchase lots of 5-dollar footlongs at their local Subway shops, which were already kitted out with tie-in Chuck imagery.

Chuck's producers haven�t said so far exactly how Subway will be introduced into the series, but they expect the chain to be a prominent fixture. There are lots of obvious possibilities: in previous seasons the cover for CIA handler Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski) was as a counter girl in a nearby wiener or frozen yogurt shop. Before, those shops were fictional chains (like Buy More), allowing the writers to use or abuse the fictional products as they pleased; but if Sarah's working at Subway, what choice will she have but to shill the sandwiches to her costars – and to us?

Industry watchers have noted this trend coming: traditional commercial breaks, which viewers tune out or fast-forward across on their TiVos, are becoming passe. The only solution is "brand integration." We've been seeing this done a lot lately, and on sci-fi/fantasy shows it tends to be done as artlessly and crassly as possible: the sponsor's gum will give you superpowers; the sponsor's antiperspirant will protect you from an actual fusion reaction.

Some people don't mind product placement, and wonder why I go on about it. After all, we live in a world that constantly bombards us with brand names in every context. Brand names in our entertainment is only realistic, right?

The problem is that we're not talking about reality, we're talking about drama – and in our case, we're talking about science fiction drama. Chuck's writers and actors and technicians are asking us to come with them to a place where downloading the Intersect into your brain is possible, where an underemployed computer geek can press a button and, Matrix-style, know kung fu (as we saw in the season finale). And all that careful world-building comes crashing down suddenly winks at the camera and holds up a big Italian sandwich. "Mmmm, try the zesty chicken! There's a free Intersect in every one!" Hey, Chuck's a sci-fi geek himself. How would he like it if the rations Yoda was tossing out of Luke's gear on Degobah turned out to be carefully lit Oh Henry bars?

And if Subway seems innocuous to you, they're not exactly newcomers to this game. They've been product placing for years, and not in a subtle way. Remember Roger Ebert's review of Happy Gilmore? "I'm fairly sure Subway paid for placement," he mused at the end of his pan of the film, "since they scored one Subway sandwich eaten outside a store, one date in a Subway store, one Subway soft drink container, two verbal mentions of Subway, one Subway commercial starring Happy, a Subway T-shirt, and a Subway golf bag. Halfway through the movie, I didn't know what I wanted more: laughs, or mustard." And that was 13 years ago.

I love Chuck, but I wonder – if it's going to look like that, if sandwiches are going to be pelted at us for an hour every week, will it really be as much fun to watch?

Lucifer Will Show His Face After All

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:19:54 +0000

Mark Pellegrino
© Stephen Shugerman/Getty Images

The thrilling season finale for Supernatural, in which Sam and Dean were maneuvered into raising Lucifer, definitely upped the ante for a show that's been driving its characters harder with every year of slogging against evil. It's easier to maintain the menace with the culminating evil in the shadows, and minions like Christopher Heyerdahl doing the dirty work and making things look desperate for the boys. And at first creator Eric Kripke was saying Lucifer would be a "presence" rather than a person in season 5.

But Lucifer will be made manifest at some point next year, and the man cast for the recurring role is seasoned bad guy Mark Pellegrino. Pellegrino has probably made the biggest impact as Paul, the wife-beating ex of Dexter's girlfriend on several episodes of Dexter in late season 1 and early season 2, and he showed real promise there – on the one hand, you hated the guy because of what he did to Rita (Julie Benz), but it was fascinating to watch him fight Dexter's hastily set-up frame. Pellegrino has also done Lost (where he turned out to be the leader of the Others) and a bunch of other movies and TV.

Also up for next season is a one-off return of always welcome Adrienne Palicki (Friday Night Lights), apparently reprising her role as Sam's long-dead girlfriend Jess. Since Jess's death, way back in the pilot, had a lot to do with setting Sam on the path that eventually led to demon-blood-drinking and being totally duped by Ruby, that actually sounds perfect. Chuck, the prophet played by Rob Benedict, may also return, though that has yet to be confirmed.

As usual, I can't wait. I'm already reprising my season 1 DVDs. Sept. 10 – the season 5 premiere for Supernatural seems a long ways off.

New Smallville Zod Cast

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:38:45 +0000

Callum Blue.
© Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Smallville's eighth season came to an end with the foreshadowed return of Clark's Kryptonian archenemy, General Zod.

Last time around on Smallville, back at the top of season 6, Zod possessed Lex Luthor, so it was Michael Rosenbaum that was hollering "Kneel before Zod!"

But this time, at some point after season 9 premieres (on Fri., Sept. 25), Zod will arrive on Earth in person, in the form of British actor Callum Blue. Wait – Callum Blue? Mason from Dead Like Me? As Zod? I was thinking something a little more along the lines of Callum Keith Rennie... If, you know, we're doing Callums...

Actually, I'm kidding. Callum Blue is a great actor, with plenty of dark side (he's also dome a bunch of episodes of The Tudors), and he's also an unexpected choice, which usually turns out well. Not to mention, he has the Terence Stamp skinny, hollow-eyes thing down.

Blue also presents a huge contrast from last season's conflicted supervillain, the broad-shouldered Sam Witwer (who I recently saw on an old episode of Angel, totally randomly) – and from series star Tom Welling, who'll be exploring Clark's own Kryptonian side more than ever next season.

Weirdly, both Blue and new Supernatural villain Mark Pellegrino were both in the movie Caffeine. Evidently that was some kind of TV bad guy nexus.

This Week (June 28 - July 6)

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:14:33 +0000

Santiago Cabrera as Lancelot in Merlin.
© BBC/NBC

MOVIES – Opening this week:

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009) is the third installment in Fox Animation's overextended Ice Age franchise.
- Watch trailers and video for Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

HOME VIDEO – Out on DVD this week:

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, the sequel to the video game adaptation, comes out on DVD on June 30.
- Watch trailer for Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li.
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) have been out on DVD before, but they're being reissued in a new keepcase version June 30. Rumor has is that director George Miller is working on a fourth film, without Mel Gibson involved. No one knows why.
- Watch trailer for The Road Warrior
- Watch trailer for Beyond Thunderdome

TELEVISION – Not much on TV this week, though Merlin, already off to a strong start, is introducing its version of Lancelot, played to great effect by Santiago Cabrera (Isaac Mendez from season 1 of Heroes).

Next week: the return of Eureka and the premiere of Warehouse 13, both on the channel that as of July 7 we will be calling Syfy.

New episodes this week from:

Eli Stone, and
Merlin.

Synopses below the jump. For details see the listings (regular or alphabetical).

Eli Stone "Tailspin" (212). Jordan and Eli take up the cause of a room-service waiter (Kurt Fuller) who was one of hundreds of employees laid off from a failed financial institution that awarded its former CEO a multimillion-dollar golden parachute. Meanwhile, Eli's latest vision involves his father and an airplane.
Merlin "Lancelot" (105). Merlin would have been killed by a giant griffin (half eagle, half lion) if it hadn't been for valiant Lancelot, who bravely attacked it and got them safely away. Learning Lancelot's life dream is to become a knight, grateful Merlin brings him to court, and when told only noblemen may apply magically forges proof of nobility. Lancelot passes hazing and close combat tests against prince Arthur, but is found out as commoner and jailed. When the griffon attacks Camelot, even inside the royal castle, the knights' arms prove unable to penetrate the monster. Merlin frees Lancelot, and magically helps him triumph where all knighthood fails miserably, but will Uther hear Arthur's plea to allow the best sword to serve in chivalry against his law?

This Week (June 22 - 29)

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 03:08:02 +0000

Season 2 of True Blood is in full swing.
© HBO

MOVIES – Opening this week:

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen on Wednesday (June 24). The sequel to 2007's blowed-up-real-good surprise blockbuster returns director Michael Bay and star Shia LaBeouf in a geographically expanded threat to Earth. Check out the latest video, trailers, and clips.

HOME VIDEO – Out on DVD this week:

Inkheart (2009) on Tuesday (June 23). The little-noticed Brendan Fraser version of the latest Hollywood trope, the adult bringing his child's bedtime stories to life, deserved better than it got. Based on the novel by Cornelia Funke. Video, trailers, and clips.
Phoebe in Wonderland (2008) on Tuesday (June 23). A dreamy fantasy about a misfit girl (Elle Fanning), her hyperactive imagination, and her unconventional teacher (Felicity Huffman). Video, trailers, and clips.

TELEVISION – New episodes this week from:

Guest stars this week include David Morrissey in the 2008 Doctor Who Christmas special, debuting on BBC America, and Michelle Ryan (Bionic Woman) on the Merlin two-parter.

Synopses below the jump. For details see the listings (regular or alphabetical).

Primeval "Episode 10" (204). A group of creatures, called the mer, slip into the city's canal system after floodwaters pour through an anomaly to the future. The case gets personally when Abby is swept underwater by one of them.
Primeval "Episode 3.07" (307). An anomaly opens in the middle of a huge junkyard and a dinosaur from the Cretaceous era comes through. The Dracorex is wounded, which only makes it more aggressive. The team is trying to force it back when, suddenly, a medieval knight on horseback gallops through the anomaly, chasing what he thinks is a dragon. The knight decides the modern world must be hell and his only chance to make it to heaven is by slaying the creature�this is his quest. The team finds itself in the unusual position of dealing with, not only a dinosaur on the loose, but a deranged medieval knight who is convinced he is a latter-day St. George.
Doctor Who "The Next Doctor" (414). In the 2008 Christmas special, the Doctor encounters a man who seems to be an amnesiac future incarnation in Victorian London.
Eli Stone "Mortal Combat" (211). When Eli represents a newscaster who has lost his job, Eli's relationship with Maggie reaches new levels both inside and outside of court. Meanwhile, Matt faces a difficult decision concerning the fate of his former firm.
Merlin "The Mark of Nimueh" (103). When a strange plague strikes the people of Camelot, Gaius suspects the source is sorcery, leading Uther to instruct Arthur to search for the person behind it. The disease strikes close to home for Gwen, causing suspicion to fall on an innocent and Merlin to learn the responsibilities that come with being a warlock. Nimueh: Michelle Ryan.
Merlin "The Poisoned Chalice" (104). After the evil Nimueh (Michelle Ryan) tricks Merlin into drinking from a poisoned chalice, Arthur embarks on a dangerous quest to retrieve the only known antidote, a rare flower. Gaius and Gwen, meanwhile, care for Merlin. who is near death, but still comes to the aid of Arthur.
True Blood "Scratches" (203). A savage attack on Sookie by a strange creature catches Bill, Eric and the other vampires off guard; a shy Hoyt is drawn to Jessica on her first visit to Merlotte's; Sarah and Steve try to boost Jason's confidence in his calling; Sam considers a change of scenery; Tara is shocked by the revelry at Maryann's latest bacchanal.

Live-Action Akira: Not Happening

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 08:26:45 +0000

Compare Prices on Akira

Now that there are no new ideas, everything is being remade. But fans of the 1988 cult classic anime Akira waiting (excitedly, angrily, or otherwise) for the live-action remake announced last year can stop waiting, because the project has reportedly died a gruesome death in development hell.

The project, initiated by Leonardo di Caprio of all people, collapsed after the departure of up-and-coming director Ruairi Robinson, according to the horror site Bloody Disgusting (which is enjoying lots of hits off what for them is a slightly off-topic report, as they did when they broke the story that the film was in development a year and a half ago). Robinson had been nominated for an Oscar for the sci-fi animated short Fifty Percent Grey.

The film, which might have been divided into two parts, was to have been written by Gary Whitta, based on the original manga by Katsuhiro Otomo. Whitta's current project is the futuristic Denzel Washington film The Book of Eli.

Considering that – while the storyline is certainly powerful – it's the revolutionary animation that makes Akira a landmark film in both the east and the west, the idea of a live-action version struck many as downright perverse, and many bloggers and fans are reacting to this news with jubiliation. Still, as Bloody Disgusting points out, an anime as innovative as Akira might just have spawned a seriously cool live action film that broke new ground in its own way. Either way, we'll have to wait for someone else to take up the challenge.

Rowling's Publisher Sued for Plagiarism

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:42:32 +0000

A strange lawsuit by the estate of Adrian Jacobs alleges that "substantial parts" of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth book in J.K. Rowling's worldwide bestselling series, were cribbed from the late author's 1987 fantasy short story The Adventures of Willy the Wizard, No. 1: Livid Land.

The suit was filed against Bloomsbury Publishing, the British publishers of Rowling's books. Scholastic, the American publishers, and Rowling herself, are not yet named in the �500 million lawsuit put forward by Jacobs's son and grandson.

Bloomsbury responded that the suit was without merit, asserting that Rowling had never heard of Jacobs or his book until the claim was first floated in 2004 by a lawyer for Jacobs's son.

The nature of the alleged plagiarism is conceptual, not textual, involving ideas like wizard contests and wizards traveling on trains. "Both Willy and Harry," representatives of the estate claimed in a statement, "are required to work out the exact nature of the main task of the contest which they both achieve in a bathroom assisted by clues from helpers, in order to discover how to rescue human hostages imprisoned by a community of half-human, half-animal fantasy creatures."

In terms of Harry Potter, this refers to Harry's completion of the second task, which involves deciphering a message underwater in the prefects' bathroom with the help a a ghost and another competitor, and then rescuing hostages from the merpeople.

The suit, as Bloomsbury's statement points out, fails to identify any specific text in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire based on wording from Jacobs's book. Meanwhile, what appears to be the official website for Willy the Wizard makes a considerable effort to make the book seem like Harry Potter, highlighting terms like "empowered child wizard" and the like, despite the fact that Willy is full-grown adult. According to the site, only 5,000 copies were printed, and the sequel went unpublished.

Most Harry Potter infringement suits a taken by Rowling and her publishers, not against them, as in Rowling's action last year against RDR Books over the print version of The Harry Potter Lexicon (now resolved), earlier lawsuits blocking translations of the Russian take-off Tanya Grotter and the Magical Double Bass, and so on. But Jacobs's family might perhaps have taken closer to heart the lesson of what happened to Nancy Stouffer, whose allegations a decade ago that Rowling had stolen the word "Muggle" from Stouffer's works resulted in a fine of $50,000 plus legal fees against Stouffer for suing in bad faith, levied in 2004.

Futurama Returns!

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:20:06 +0000

Comedy Central is bringing back the hit animated sci-fi comedy Futurama as a regular series, commissioning 26 new episodes from 20th Century Fox TV for a mid-2010 relaunch.

Even better, the three lead actors have been confirmed as returning: Billy West (Fry), Katey Sagal (Leela), and John DiMaggio (Bender).

Comedy Central has been airing Futurama reruns since January 2008 to strong ratings, and has been showing the four top-selling direct-to-DVD movies as new four-part episodes. 20th Century has already revived another canceled cult animated series, Family Guy, so the template is already in place.

Futurama, created by Matt Groening and David X. Cohen, originally aired regularly on Fox from 1999 to 2003.

"We're thrilled Futurama is coming back," Groening told EW. "We now have only 25,766 episodes to make before we catch up with Bender and Fry in the year 3000." And hopefully by then our heads will all be in jars next to Jonathan Frakes's, so we can still be watching.

This Week (June 15 - 22)

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:53:02 +0000

New episodes this week from:

Primeval,
Eli Stone,
Merlin (series premiere!), and
True Blood.

In fact we get double helpings of both Primeval, which is airing the second season for the first time on Sci Fi and the third on BBC America, and also of Merlin, which is airing the premiere and the following episode.

Synopses below the jump. For details see the listings (regular or alphabetical).

Primeval "Episode 10" (204). A group of creatures, called the mer, slip into the city's canal system after floodwaters pour through an anomaly to the future. The case gets personally when Abby is swept underwater by one of them.
Primeval "Episode 3.06" (306). The ARC is invaded by the military, and the team is besieged by a flock of ‘terror birds’.
Eli Stone "Sonoma" (210). Getaway plans for Taylor and Matt morph into a road trip with Eli and Maggie to Sonoma, where a witness in an important case is in jail, but the efforts to get her released are hampered by Matt's history with a local judge. Meanwhile, Eli's dangerous flirtation with a risky acupuncture procedure results in a new health crisis.
Merlin "The Dragon's Call" (101). The fantasy series, which offers a new spin on the Arthurian legend, opens with the young warlock Merlin (Colin Morgan) arriving in the kingdom of Camelot, whose king (Anthony Head) has outlawed the practice of magic upon punishment of death. He seeks out the court physician, Gaius (Richard Wilson), to whom he inadvertently reveals his gift, has a run-in with the king's headstrong son, Prince Arthur (Bradley James), and meets an enchanting young maid named Gwen (Angel Coulby).
Merlin "Valiant" (102). Arthur participates in Camelot's annual sword tournament, which also attracts the knight Valiant (Will Mellor), who employs a magical shield to vanquish opponents. Merlin, meanwhile, adjusts to being Arthur's manservant.
True Blood "Keep This Party Going" (202). Sookie goes a bit too far in her effort to help Jessica adjust to her new life; Maryann wields her influence at Merlotte's, much to Sam's dismay; Jason makes friends---and at least one foe---at the Light of Day leadership conference; Eric mulls the addition of another member to the ranks.