So you really, really wanna know how those rascally Cylons were created in the first place, and how they became the human hunting machines they currently are right now in Battlestar Galactica? Well guess what, you’re gonna find out, because the Sci Fi Channel has just given Ron Moore and company the greenlight for 20 hours of their BSG prequel show, Caprica. In industry parlance, the show has “gone to series”, which means the network liked enough of what they saw in the 2-hour pilot that Moore shot to go ahead with a full year’s worth of show.
Archive for December 3, 2008
Battlestar Galactica Prequel Caprica is a Go for Series
Goyer’s Flash Forward Casting
Movie writer/director David Goyer’s stab at sci-fi TV, the intriguing sounding Flash Forward, has hired its first two actors — Courtney B. Vance (pictured, left) and Jack Davenport (pictured, below), according to Sci Fi Wire. Vance will play Stan Wedeck, the Los Angeles bureau chief of the FBI. Davenport will play Lloyd Simcoe, who is trapped in Northern California when the event occurs and struggles to reach his son in a Southland hospital.
Great Moments in Slave Princess Leia Costuming: Jennifer Aniston on Friends
I’m not the world’s biggest fan of the show Friends. In fact, I can count the number of Friends episodes that I have seen in its entirely on one hand. In one of the episodes, Jennifer Aniston dresses up in Slave Princess Leia garb in order to please boyfriend Ross. I’m not sure if the whole thing was a dream or what, but a couple of things spoil what would otherwise have been a pretty awesome moment: one, the scene happens at the end, and is way too short; second, I can’t find a better video clip to pull grabs from, so these will have to do.
CBS Gives The Eleventh Hour 5 More Episodes
I’ll admit it: I haven’t watched a whole lot of The Eleventh Hour on CBS, although I did catch the pilot and the next four episodes or so. I liked what I saw, but it was probably too procedural for my taste, with the usual “scientific crime of the week” deal that CBS has made bank off with the CSI shows and their ilk. Basically, CBS is the network for procedural crime shows, what with all fifty CSI shows, The Mentalist, NCIS, and pretty much every show on the network that isn’t a comedy. In that sense, it’s no surprise that Eleventh Hour seems to be doing very well, if not exactly gangbuster ratings. Enough for the network to order five more episodes (short of a full season), anyway.
Frank Spotnitz Blames X-Files Movie Failure on Batman
I have to admit, I was somewhat excited about the X-Files movie when it was first announced, especially with both Gillian Anderson and David Duchovney returning as Scully and Mulder, respectively. And then the movie’s promo campaigns started, and what I was seeing — well, look, there’s a reason the movie stunk up the box office. It just wasn’t The X-Files that I remembered, or indeed, a lot of other people remembered and wanted. Where were my alien conspiracies? Government cover-ups? Misunderstood mutants? None of that. Just a lame serial killer movie on snow. Blah. It was like Chris Carter set out to make an X-Files movie for everyone but the fans. Anyways, according to the film’s producer Frank Spotnitz, you can blame the movie’s failure on “The Dark Knight”, and not on, you know, a stupid movie title and a generally generic serial killer storyline.
BSG’s 12th and Final Cylon Revealed. Sort of.
Although I’m not a very big fan of Battlestar Galactica, I gotta give the show all the props it can handle, if just for bringing science fiction back to the lips of mainstream audiences. Of course, if you’ve watched the new BSG at all, you probably realized this is less a sci-fi show than a TV version of an arthouse movie, where everything tragic that can possibly happen to human beings do end up happening to these poor saps on the doomed fleet. Anyways, the big question circling the show’s final season is: “Who is the 12th and final human Cylon that has yet to be revealed on the show”?
First Teaser Trailer for the Astroboy CGI Movie
I’ve never actually seen any of the Astroboy cartoons or read the mangas, so I can’t tell you if this English version of the Astroboy character (or what little we see of it in this very short teaser trailer) bears any resemblance to the original character. What I do know is that, well, this is probably very kid-friendly, so anyone over 10 probably won’t have much use for it, unless that is, you grew up with the character, in which case you’ll probably find things to nitpick about it. Then again, my nephew is 7, and this teaser didn’t do a whole lot for him, either. Oh well. Here’s your first look at a moving Astroboy, coming in 2009.
Three More Reasons to Watch Dollhouse
Eliza Dushku in tight black leather pants. Okay, so maybe that’s more than three reasons (I’m not good at counting), but you gotta admit, Eliza Dushku in tight black leather pants is a pretty good reason to do just about anything, especially when it comes to something as easy as watching a TV show in your free time. (Or at least DVR it, ya lazy bums.) Sure, FOX is doing its best to bury Joss Whedon’s show by scheduling it to bow on Friday nights aka The Graveyard, but let’s prove them wrong and watch Dollhouse anyway, shall we? Here are three new images of Eliza Dushku from the show to get you excited.
Preview: Sam Rockwell in Moon
Science fiction movies about isolated individuals who begin to experience things that may or may not actually be happening is nothing new, but no other genre does it better than sci-fi, which has the added benefit of the vastness of space as its background. Add some paranoia, a lot of grungy technology, and isolate the character within an inch of his life, and you have yourself the makings of a great psychological thriller. That seems to be what writer/director Duncan Jones is going for with his movie “Moon”, which stars Sam Rockwell as a lunar miner who begins to suspect that the company he’s working for may be trying to kill him. Or at least, keep him from leaving the moon. Is it real? Is it all in his head, the product of prolonged isolation on the moon?
Behind the Scenes of Sanctuary’s Green Screen World
I hope the Sci Fi Channel’s Sanctuary lasts for a while. I really like the idea behind the movie, and the fact that the whole thing is pretty much shot on a sound stage in front of a green screen is kinda cool, too. Plus, it has Amanda Tapping, and I’ve always had the biggest crush on her. Anyways, the LA Times recently went behind the scenes of Sanctuary to see how they make the show, what it cost, and other topics of interest. Besides the article, there are some great shots of Amanda and company doing their thing in front of the infamous green screen. You gotta admit, acting this way is infinitely harder than with real people and real surroundings you can touch.
First Look: Sandy Collora’s Hunter Prey
Well slap me silly and call me Sally, if these first pics from Sandy Collora’s new movie “Hunter Prey” doesn’t look all kinds of kickass cool, then you just don’t have any taste, because these things look insanely cool. But wait, who is Sandy Collora, you ask? Well, if you’ve seen the Batman short film “Batman: Dead End”, then you know the name. He’s the guy who single-handedly made fan movies respectable when he came out with a Batman versus Predator (and then later, Aliens) in 2003, all of it shot with fantastic production values and killer visuals. Sandy’s back with his first feature-length movie, the sci-fi actioner “Hunter Prey”.
Smallville Creators Writing Robotech Movie
It looks like Tobey Maguire’s “Robotech” live-action movie is still moving forward, this time there’s news that the project has nabbed its writers — Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, the creators of the WB’s Smallville TV show, which followed the adventures of a pre-Superman Clark Kent. The duo recently just bailed from the aging TV show (seriously, how long is Clark Kent going to keep pretending to be a teenager? Isn’t the actor playing him like 30 or something by now?), and recently contributed to the most recent “Mummy” film, as well as Maguire’s “Spider-Man 2″. So yeah, they know how to write superheroes is what I’m trying to say.
Aaron Eckhart Suits up for Battle: Los Angeles!
Holy cow. Are you serious? Aaron Eckhart, ol Two-Face himself, is going to star in the sci-fi movie “Battle: Los Angeles”? Oh hell yeah! Color me all kinds of excited about this. I was psyched when I heard the premise for “Battle”, but then that negative script review came out a while back and it brought me down a bit. Okay, not a bit, but a LOT. Anyways, this news that Aaron Eckhart will be fronting the movie just got me back up again — big time! You couldn’t ask for a better actor to lead a movie, even if this will, technically, be his first leading man role in a strictly “action” movie, although, doesn’t “The Dark Knight” qualify?
New Full-Length Star Trek 11 Trailer
According to published reports, J.J. Abrams is not exactly a big fan of the Star Trek franchise. I think the director has even admitted that he doesn’t plan on making his Trek reboot movie conform to what we already know about the characters. Which may explain why the first 30 seconds or so of this bootleg trailer for Abrams’ Trek 11 doesn’t look anything like, well, Trek. Plus, later in the trailer, Spock puts the neck choke on Kirk, and I may be wrong, but Uhura flashes us her bra in a disrobing scene. Yup. This ain’t your father’s Trek, kids. Behold, the first full-length trailer for J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek 11 in bootleg form.
Sci Fi Greenlights Second Season of Sanctuary
The good thing about being an off-network TV show is that people tend to give you second and in some cases, even third chances. Now I don’t know if the new Amanda Tapping show Sanctuary has managed to maintain its high ratings from its premiere episode, but the Sci Fi Channel has enough faith in it that it’s greenlighted a second season for the show, okaying 13 new episodes for next year. I haven’t been keeping up with Sanctuary since its premiere, but I’ve been meaning to add it to my list of DVR’ed shows.
