sf/f TV development news - 2013

Ooooo, period piece. That could be fun!

 

Yeah, that does sound pretty cool. I think that is the most interesting I've found a short description like that in a while.

 

Cary Elwes To Star In USA Pilot 'Horizon'

 

Syfy Gives Pilot Order To ‘Dominion’ As Quartet Of Other Projects Heat Up

 

Looks like RHW's Defender is definitely dead, but at least we've got a couple of space-based shows in the running.

As for the others-- they don't sound too exciting, but we'll have to see how they develop.

 

I recognize those two space projects from the April press release. But it sounds like the prospects are fading for Orion, the premise about "an adventurous female relic hunter" against an interstellar-war backdrop, and Infinity, Javier Grillo-Marxuach's lost-in-space premise. Perhaps they felt Infinity was too derivative of Farscape or other similar ideas, though I'm sure JGM would've found a fresh twist on it.

As for Defender, that apparently died a while ago. The April announcement mentioned that RHW was developing an alternate-world fantasy called Silver Shields.

 

Since RHW recently joined the writing staff of Star-Crossed, does that mean Silver Shields is also dead? Or is it normal for writers to join other shows while still pitching their own projects?

 

Sojourn is the generational ship show, right?

As much as I like to see any Bryan Fuller show, I'm glad he's focusing on Hannibal instead of splitting his time with High Moon (which didn't really grab my interest when I read its tiny blurb in the SyFy press release).

Fingers crossed for the space shows still in the running.

 

I believe so, yes. Although isn't there another generation-ship show in development on another network? Maybe I'm thinking of The CW's The Hundred or whatever that's called.

 

Thanks for the confirmation on Sojourn, Christopher.

As for the 100 show, it sounds more like a space station in orbit over Earth since the apocalypse nearly a century prior. Since it's just parked in orbit, does that still qualify as a generation-ship? Or does that designation only apply to vehicles on a long journey TO somewhere?

[When I was looking up the 100, I knew it was based on a book series (knowing the CW, presumably a young adult novel series) but I was surprised to learn that the first book in the series hasn't even been released yet. According to Amazon, it comes out in September with the first handful of chapters available for free download in a few weeks.]

 

I'm glad to see them looking at some more space shows. Even though I enjoy the fantasy stuff they've been showing lately it's still nice to see them looking at doing more science fiction.

 

^Well, like I said, I think there's another generation-ship idea out there, and I wondered if I was misremembering that show, but maybe that's not it and there really is another one.

 

AMC is developing a show called Ballistic City, which is described as a cop show set on a generation ship travelling to another star system. That's probably the show you're thinking of, Christopher.

 

^Yeah, that's the one. Thanks.

 

Didn't SyFy already announce Blake's 7 with a full season of 13 episodes? I think it startd with Pilot commision, then changed to full season order? Haven't heard a thing more on that?

 

^
A description of the first scene of the pilot (set in Blake's London flat) has been online:

Otherwise nothing.

 

Take a look at Star Trek Secrets of the Universe On the History2 channel:
[COLOR=#006699]http://www.history.com/shows/star-trek-secrets-of-the-universe/episodes[/COLOR]

It showed a generation ship that looked like the argus array, as well as footage of the Enterprise that looked to be made for that documentary--not just bits from the two JJ movies.

 

Incursion, described as Band of Brothers meets Halo, is still in development at Starz, but it's moving slowly as they try to figure out how to tackle such a difficult production within a reasonable budget. Starz's Chris Albrecht said this at the Television Critics Association panel recently:

 

Josh Hartnett and Eva Green have been cast in Showtime's Penny Dreadful. From Deadline Hollywood:

 

Huh, Eva Green...I'm in.