SFTV Roundup & News Tidbits

Taking a break from the Comic Con stuff to update a few things in the SFTV world.

SFTV Schedule Files Updated - The SFTV Schedule files have been updated as of August 4th with current schedule info for upcoming shows. Use the links on the right hand side of the SFTV Blog.

Dresden Files Not Renewed - After what seemed like a long time of "No Decision Has Been Made" responses from the SciFi Channel, they did finally confirm that they have not renewed The Dresden Files for a second season. Reports such as this one by TV Guide's Matt Roush indicate SciFi's costs were higher than they could justify even though the show did comparable ratings to Battlestar Galactica and almost double what Painkiller Jane has been getting. The people running Dresden City have some additional information including a post from Robert Wolfe. Efforts are continuing to get Lionsgate to try to find another home for the series, but indications are they were waiting for SciFi to officially cancel the show and may not have any other potential outlets in mind. The Dresden Files DVD set comes out this week, so if sales are good, Lionheart could look into other possibilities including a direct to DVD release somewhere down the road. In the meantime, the Dresden Files books are still selling strong and Jim Butcher is still planning on continuing the series through 20 books and possibly more. I really think if SciFi had given the show more of a chance, it would have picked up additional viewers, but they seem to be putting a lot of their eggs into the new Flash Gordon series starting this week which there doesn't appear to be real high expectations for from the fan community.

Masters of Science Fiction debuts on ABC - The long awaited Masters of Science Fiction debuts on ABC last night in the 10 pm Saturday time slot. No word yet on how the ratings were but it is unlikely we will see more than the four bought by ANC and the two additional ones produced. The do have a MoSF Blog on TV Guide's web site and the producers have a very good Official Masters of Science Fiction web site with lots of info about the series including the episodes ABC is not airing. ABC has a basic information page on their web site and don't appear to be offering any online episode viewing. As I've indicated before, the show had a lot of promise but I think them going with ABC pretty much killed any likelyhood this will do well enough to be an ongoing series.

Doctor Who Rumors Squelched - One of the British tabloid papers had indicated that at the end of Series Four for the new Doctor Who, David Tennant would be leaving and be replaced by James Nesbitt, currently starring in the BBC series Jekyll with Steven Moffat taking over as showrunner. Moffat posted a message on Outpost Gallifrey stating "The James Nesbitt story is a total fabrication. Made up. A fantasy. Just a guy sitting at a desk and just inventing stuff.I wasn't going to say anything, but I'm getting embarrassed for the deeply wonderful Jimmy Nesbitt. So tell everyone please, cos it's getting very silly. Steven Moffat".

FOX Pushes Back New Amsterdam to Midseason - FOX announced schedule changes this week that took their new series New Amsterdam off of the schedule, pushing it back to mid-season. Also debuting on FOX in mid-season will be The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Pratchett's Colour of Magic filming, Hogfather to debut in US on Ion. Currently filming in the UK is a new miniseries based on Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic, the book that introduced Pratchett's Discworld series. It will air on Sky One in the UK this fall. Sean Astin is Twoflower, the first Discworld tourist, David Jason is the wizzard Rincewind, Tim Curry is Trymon, and Christopher Lee is doing the voice of Death. The Hogfather miniseries produced last year for Sky One will be airing in the US on Ion TV as part of the RHI Weekend movie package. The producers are looking to first distribute The Colour of Magic as a movie first. This past week, a group of fans got to be extras in a crowd scene. Be on the lookout for some reports on the filming....

Lee

Comic Con Links, Reports, Videos and More

I've been looking around the net to find all the various sites that covered this year's Comic Con, including some video feeds and such. Here's a summary (with some updates to come as I find other stuff).

Newsarama.com has a big index to all of their reports, obviously focusing on comics and comics related media stuff.

On the Newsarama blog, they have a post with a lot of links as well.

IGN.com has a Comic Con Index for all of their reports.

SciFi Channel had a special Comic Con area for reports as well. They also had a bunch of reports on SciFi Wire (but no index, you'll have to page through the news items).

Of course, G4 TV did a live broadcast from the show and has a lot of video clips availble to view on their Comic Con area.

Comic Book Resources did a lot of reporting but don't have an index that I can see.

Some of their reports include:

• Neil Gaiman Spotlight Panel
• Flash Gordon Panel
• Jericho Panel
• Pushing Daisies Panel
• Bionic Woman Panel
• Smallville Panel
• Babylon 5: The Lost Tales Panel
• Heroes Panel

More of their panel reports can be found on the Comic Reel archive pages for August and July. They also had several photo reports, this is linked to #4 with links to their three previous ones including in the report (with a fifth one promised).

The Futon Critic did live blogs of most of the TV panels at Comic Con.

Kryptonsite had some special reports on Smallville from Comic Con, including bits from the press conference. First was a report on the Smallville panel, then interview bits with the producers and Erica Durance, and then with Supergirl, Laura Vandervoort.

Check back for updates to this post as I find more places to link to.....

Lee

More Comic Con Pics - Superheroes and more

Here's some more pictures from ComicCon, mostly superhero & celebrity themed

First up, one of the press events I made it to was the Who Wants to Be a Superhero? event, that had Stan Lee, the first season's winner Feedback, and two of this year's contestants, Hygena and Hyperstrike. I got to do short interviews with Stan, Hygena and Hyperstrike, which I will have up later.

The TV Guide Channel was also in the room interviewing everyone.

Hygena and Hyperstrike. Hygena got the idea for her character at last year's Comic Con when she noticed how messy it was and thought it would be neat to have a Super Hero to clean up after the other superheroes. Hyperstrike changed his character from the one he auditioned with since SciFi gets the rights to the characters and he uses that persona as part of the circus act he does.

The top three from last year, Feedback, Fat Momma and Major Victory were also on hand, signing autographs and getting photos taken in the autograph area.

I also made it for part of the Ghost Whisperer press conference that had star Jennifer Love Hewitt on hand along with Executive producers Ian Sanders, Kim Moses and P.K. Simonds. Hewitt wasn't doing any panels at ComicCon, but did do a signing at the Inkworks booth. At the same time as her signing, Marvel was unveiling the Iron Man costume with Jon Favreau, which caused near gridlock around those booths at the time. The room for the Ghost Whisperer press conference wasn't really set up for picture taking, so right in the middle of the Superhero press event next door, they brought Jennifer into the room, stood her against the ComicCon backdrop for a quick photo op (about 15 seconds!) and then whisked her out of the room to head down for the signing. This was right in the middle of TV Guide interview Stan Lee.

J. Michael Straczynski was on hand to promote the Babylon 5: The Lost Tales DVD release and also did a spotlight panel as well as several comics panels and a couple of autograph sessions. When I caught up with him on Sunday at his signing, he admitted he was pretty exhausted and had only gotten about an hour and half to shop in the dealer's room.

At Neil Gaiman's signing on Saturday, Babylon 5 star Claudia Christian came up to say hi to Neil, wanting to let him know how much she liked his work. That's a somewhat bemnused Brian Froud in the background. More on Neil to come in a subsequent blog post.

During the Paramount panel on Thursday, J.J. Abrams and company announced casting for Spock for the Star Trek movie, with Zachary Quintos (Sylar on Heroes) announced to be playing Spock.

Additionally, they also announced the Leonard Nimoy would be playing Spock as well and brought him out. Nimoy indicated he thought that it was a very good script and that the casting choice made was "Logical". See the Trek part of the panel online at IFC.com


Paramount also had a live video feed from the set of Indiana Jones IV with Spielberg, Ford and other cast including announcing that Karen Allen would be returning as Marion Ravenwood. The video can be seen on the official Indiana Jones website. Copies on You Tube have been removed.

NBC had a booth for Heroes, set up like Iassac's loft with paintings including the big bomb blast on the floor. During exhibitor hours, the place was packed as the cheeleaders handed out various goodies including comics, temporary tattos, and tickets for a drawing for a Heroes lunch
box. Look for all of those items on Ebay now!

I took some photos one day before the hall was opened to the public.
Here's the floor painting.

A look inside.

A display of props on the outside of the booth.

ComicCon Report of sorts

Here's a report with pictures of some of the stuff at ComicCon 2007. I'll have some reports on specific events later. (As I've discovered trying to put a bunch of pictures into a blogger post is a pain...)

A panoramic view of the exhibit hall from the mezzanine on preview night...

Stargate Atlantis water on sale at the concession stands.

Fans getting their head shaved so they can get a Stargate symbol spray painted on the back of their head!

And now, A parade of buses..

Stargate Atlantis buses

Stargate: The Ark of Truth

With an autograph on the back of the bus, it appears.

Spaceballs: The Animated Series

Species: The Awakening

The bus driver insisted that I take a picture of her as well.

Her name tag was Ralph Kramden....

The War Games Bus

There was also a bus for Dead Like Me: The Resurrection, but I never got a picture of that one...

That takes care of the Stargates and Buses for now.

There were also a group of Stargate fans posing for a picture as well.

Comic Con - The Weekend of Neil and more

I'm having some issues uploading images here tonight and I kindof want to get some sleep, so I'll post a few random tidbits from the last couple of days.... (Likely to be updated with some pictures at some point).

J.J. Abrams wearing an infocom t-shirt (woohoo Zork!)

Overhead as I was getting on the escalator going down from the Mezzanine from a mom to her 10 year old son "I am not your pack horse!"

Watching Claudia Christian go up to Neil Gaiman and tell him how much she likes his work and Neil giving Claudia a hug (with Brian Froud looking on somewhat bewildered).

Being accused by J. Michael Straczynski of doing unnatural things with his cat, Buddy... (that's what I get for shouting out "How's buddy doing?" when he asked for a quick question from the audience in his spotlight panel).

Getting to see a preview of the 3D stop motion animation being done for the movie based on Neil Gaiman's Coraline by Henry Selick and getting a signed posted afterwards.

Realizing that my room number, 1602, also had a Neil Gaiman connection (the Marvel series he did a couple of years ago).

Getting a chance to chat with Stan Lee one on one.

Having to choose between way too many things going on at the same time. Although realizing that in order to get into either the Heroes or Galactica panel on Saturday would have required several extra hours of waiting in line, made some decisions easier.

Being sent on secret mission by Peter David (after getting a bunch of stuff signed by him and J.K. Woodward, his artist on the IDW Fallen Angel series)

Realizing that I missed seeing Neil get Snogged by Jonathan Ross at the Eisners (I had gone out with friends to get some real food), thus not having completely stalked Neil all weekend (I missed out on the Beowulf presentation as well due in part to the clueless Paramount booth people).

Being amazed at the people willing to get their head shaved and a Stargate Chevron painted on the back of their heads. I probably need a haircut, but not like that!

Being additionally amused by all the buses with Stargate, Spaceballs Animated, and Dead Like Me ads on them (the Dead Like Me direct to DVD movie was a big surprise since nothing has been announced prior to the con)

Getting to see the new Spock and the original Spock together on stage.

Pointing out to a couple wandering by the autograph line who the authors were and the husband realizing that he went to high school with Harry Turtledove and hadn't seen him for many years.

Having a conversation with someone dressed up as The Question on the down escalator discussing what DC has done with the character in 52.

Having my usual random encounter with Marc Scott Zicree. He was in the Straczynski spotlight panel on Saturday and was in the crush of people around Straczynsk after the panel. I would have stuck around and chatted but wanted to get to the Coraline screening...

That's it for now...

For all sorts of news on the movie and TV side of things at ComicCon, check out The Futon Critics panel blogs and Ain't It Cool News has a lot of reports. I don't yet see any there for the Coraline screening, though...

Lee

ComicCon Thursday

I just got back from the preview screening of Stardust with Neil Gaiman and Jane Goldman introducing the movie and doing a short Q&A afterward. I really enjoyed it and will have a more detailed writeup later. As Neil has been explaining, it is like the book, but is different from the book, but is still very good. Like the book is the Earth 1 version of the story and the movie is the Earth 2 version of the story. Definitely worth checking out in the theatre. If it does well it will help to ensure more movies based on Neil's work get made.

A few news tidibits from today.

Sylar is Spock and Spock is Spock
At the Paramount panel today, J.J. Abrams announced that Zachary Quintos (Sylar on Heroes) was playing Spock in the new Star Trek movie and brought him out on stage. After playing with the audience a bit, they then announced that Leonard Nimoy would also be playing Spock and brought him out on stage as well. Full reports can likely be found on Ain't It Cool News and elsewhere.

Dead Like Me reunion movie. According to the reps at the MGM booth, the Dead Like Me DVD movie will bring back the entire cast except for Mandy Pantikin. Replacing him (not sure if it is as a new character or the same character) is Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond on Lost).

Straczynski gets a new project green-lighted?
I caught up with J. Michael Straczynski at his signing this afternoon. While he was in the middle of signing my books and comics, he got a phone call. The call was to inform him that some project had gotten the go ahead and Joe was very pleased to hear that and had a big smile on his face. He confirmed it was good news and also indicated he couldn't say anything about it yet. Maybe we'll get some hints from him tomorrow? (actually later today.)

Lee

ComicCon is Here!

Comic Con International started tonight with Preview Night, with definitely the biggest turnout for preview night I've seen. Tons of people are trying to get to that special booth for a freebie or exclusive or tickets to a screening. There was definitely more stuff going on this preview night with lots of signings at the comics booths and more of the exhibitors doing the exclusives and freebies. I spent most of the night checking booths, grabbing some exclusives and freebies and trying to track down signing information for some of the booths. I did get a chance to chat with some of the artists on hand including Charles Vess, Brian Froud and Kinuko Y. Craft and got some stuff signed by Warren Ellis. I'm glad I did the CBLDF VIP package for the Stardust screening. When Paramount handed out regular passes they were gone in just a couple of minutes.

Biggest bag award goes to Warner Bros for their gigantic Smallville/Doomsday bags.

MGM has buses decorated with stuff for their shows, including this one for Stargate SG-1.

Other busses have ads for Dead Like Me promoting a new direct to DVD movie that I hadn't heard anything about.

Lee

A New Blog Post - Catching up and Getting Ready

Lots of things going on right now, almost too many to keep track of as I get ready to head out for ComicCon International. Let's take on the TCA Press Tour and related developments in this post....

TCA Press tour - The annual Television Critics Association press tour has been going on, starting off with cable and going into the networks. You can look at the blogs of a lot of critics by following the links from the TV Critics.org web site. Others worth checking out in total include:

Michael Ausiello of TV Guide, who's been doing live blogs from the network presentations (I've linked to the July Archives which gets you easy access to most of his reports).

Matt Roush of TV Guide (again, July archive)

Zap2it.com's reports & blogs

Maureen Ryan's reports from the Chicago Tribune
Mixed in with her TCA reports are some interviews and such:
Ron Moore on Battlestar Galactica's Razor
Bionic Woman panel report
Torchwood panel and John Barrowman interview

SciFi made several announcements, with associated press releases (with links to the press releases)

SciFi.com Online content to include Farscape webisodes
Followup reports have indicated the deal for the Farscape webisodes had just been made and they don't know yet which actors will be involved.

Galactica Razor preview minisodes online and on the channel and other development news
Essentially stuff filmed for Razor that was trimmed from the final broadcast version. More details on Maureen Ryan's report. Also in the SciFi press release is info on shows and miniseries in development including a modern day take on The Odyssey with Ben Browder and Andrew Prowse (Farscape director). Other shows include UFO Hunters from the people who brought you Ghost Hunters.

SciFi Wire has a lot of reports and interviews that have likely come from the TCA sessions. Best way to look at them is to check out the Television and SciFi Channel categories.

A few miscelleaneaous notes on SF TV oriented news and info...

Flash Gordon Pilot now 90 minutes - According to the SciFi Schedulebot, the originally announced two-hour debut of Flash Gordon is now 90 minutes.

Doctor Who Ratings Soft for return. - The SciFi ratings report today on SciFi Wire shows that the debut of Doctor Who did a .9 household rating, which is a bit lower than the run for series two in the spring. Enterpise's Monday night airings are still doing well. Notice that, as has been the case, Painkiller Jane failed to make the top ten, garnering less than a .8 household rating.

Top Ten SciFi Channel Shows

Bruce Almighty 1.4
ECW 1.2
Final Destination 2 1.0
Star Trek Enterprise 1.0
Doctor Who 0.9
Death Valley 0.9
Twilight Zone 0.9
Freddy vs. Jason 0.8
Cabin Fever 0.8
Final Destination 0.8

Source: Nielsen Galaxy Report, 7/2/07 -- 7/8/07


lee

Emma & Will on the Road & Westercon Toast

Emma Bull & Will Shetterly started a three week road trip/signing tour at the Poisoned Pen tonight. Both have new books out, Territory for Emma and Gospel of the Knife for Will. Emma sang a few songs and each read a bit from their new novels and then answered some questions. Will talked about how he did this book in a different point of view than most books, which has put some people off of it. He does have it currently available online to read if you want to try it out first (Will is a real pixel-stained technopeasant web scab). Emma talked about how Steven Brust got her interested in Tombstone by dragging them to the movie when it was originally out. Will pointed out that she did a lot of research on the book and the real life events depicted in Territory are probably more accurate than most other accounts that have been publised or dramatized. As always, they were fun to chat with and after they were done they did a bit of looking around the store and picked up a couple of books (which usually happens at the Poisoned Pen for some reason). They will be heading up the West Coast and into Canada over the next few weeks, so try to catch them if they come your way.

Finally, getting my camera hooked up to the computer meant that I also can share this picture from WesterCon 2007 in San Mateo of Toast! (Actually Toastmaster Jay Lake and artist/filmaker/author Frank Wu (wearing the Toast costume) . Jay's new book, Mainspring, has just been released, and he and Frank have recently collaborated on Greetings From Lake Wu.

Its been busy these past few weeks, between moving, unpacking, Westercon, unpacking, catching up on various stuff and getting ready for San Diego ComicCon.

For some reason, I can't put anything into the title for this post....

Westercon in San Francisco was not an overly busy convention or overly crowded. Most of the panels I participated on were sparsely attended, including one with Tad Williams and Tom Galloway where we talked about the DC Universe's recent big events and upheavals and how Tad's work on Aquaman fit into the whole scheme of things. I did get to do a SF TV preview which on Sunday night which was probably the largest crowd of any of the panels I did. One panel where the panelists and the audience were about equal numbers was one about "If I ran a TV network" with Derek McCaw of Fanboy Planet. We talked about a wide range of subjects, not just necessarily much related to the actual topic of the panel.

Also at the Westercon, the Phoenix in 2009 bid for the 2009 Westercon was victorious in the site selection voting. It is FiestaCon and will be held over July 4th weekend in 2009 in Tempe, Arizona.

The latest updates for the SFTV Schedules is now up, including a list of the SFTV oriented panels at the San Diego Comic Con. I'll be there based out of the Arizona SF Conventions table on the Mezzanine where we will be promoting upcoming Arizona SF conventions including the Westercon. Stop by and say hi and pick up a SFTV.org badge ribbon (while they last).

Lee