SciFi News - Full Galactica, Getting Mental, & O.Z. Casting

SciFi Upfront

The annual cable upfronts are in full swing and SciFi held theirs this week. The main news is that they extended the Battlestar Galactica fourth season renewal to the full 22 hours, which includes a two hour movie that will air this fall before the fourth season proper starts in January 2008. Read the full press release here.

One of the reporters from CHUD made it to SciFi's party and has a report on it, including a short chat with Bonnie Hammer about the Galactica renewal and how many people watch it via DVR.

You can read all of the SciFi Channel Press Releases at the NBCU Media Village's SciFi Page. Other bits of news with links to the full press release:

Tin Man - Full casting has been announced for SciFi's big December Miniseries, currently titled Tin Man. SciFi describes it as follows (with casting noted):

A sometimes psychedelic, often twisted and always outrageous take on the book, SCI FI's Tin Man is the epic tale of DG (Zooey Deschanel), a young woman plucked from her humdrum life and thrust into The Outer Zone (the O.Z.) – a fantastical realm rife with wonder, but oppressed by dark magic. In the adventure of a lifetime, DG discovers her true identity, battles evil winged-monkey-bats, and attempts to fulfill her destiny. Her perilous journey begins on the fabled Old Road that leads to a wizard known as the Mystic Man (Richard Dreyfuss). Along the way, she is joined by a decidedly strange trio of companions – "Glitch," (Alan Cumming) an odd man missing half his brain; "Raw," (Raoul Trujillo) a quietly powerful wolverine-like creature longing for inner courage, and "Cain," (Neal McDonough) a heroic former policeman (known in the O.Z. as Tin Men, for their tin badges) seeking vengeance for his scarred heart. Ultimately, DG's destiny leads her to an emotional and terrifying showdown with the scintillatingly wicked sorceress Azkadellia (Kathleen Robertson), whose ties to DG are closer than anyone could have imagined. DG's life, as well as the very future of the O.Z., hangs in the balance.

It has the potential to be a fun take on the OZ mythos and will likely do better than The Lost Room did last year.

Ghost Hunters - SciFi announced a fourth season of Ghost Hunters already, including another all night Halloween special. They still have 12 episodes left in the current season, six this spring and six in the fall according to the press release.

Phenomenon - They team up with Keifer Sutherland for a two hour movie (i.e. a pilot) for a series described as "a fast-moving and enigmatic thriller, Phenomenon follows a crack team of experts, lead by a mysterious young female prodigy, as they investigate bizarre and supernatural anomalies of nature." Read the full press release here.

In the reality genre, they will have a new series this summer with British mentalist Derren Brown and online on SciFi Pulse they will have a Super After Show hosted by Major Victory following each episode of Who Wants to be a Superhero?. Note in the CHUD report that both Major Victory and Feedback were on hand at the party. When I saw "Feedback" aka Matthew Atherton at the Phoenix Cactus Comic Con, he said he was in talks to be involved with the new series. . Check out his official website.