sf/f TV development news - 2013

[xortex]

I hope nu-trek goes the way of nu-coke. They fired that guy who thought it up, and then when they had such great success bringing back classic coke, they rehired him an gave him a raise and a promotion.

[Temis the Vorta]

nuTrek is more like Pepsi - basically the same taste with a very slight variation, popular in its own right and here to stay.

[Temis the Vorta]

Getting back to the point of the thread (there was a point around here somewhere, I seem to vaguely recall...)

Bella's dad from Twilight (but don't hate him right away!) gets lead in Revolution.

Burke was originally cast three weeks ago in the supporting role of Bass, a charismatic Marine. Meanwhile, the extensive search for an actor to play the lead, Miles, an amazingly resourceful man with dark and dangerous side, continued even after the pilot went into production last week. Then over the weekend, the producers decided to get Burke to play Miles.

EDIT: Burke's vacated role as a Marine goes to that guy from The Cape.

The only thing I remember about that guy is that I can't remember anything about that guy. Not a good sign. Maybe the zombies will eat him early on. There will be zombies, right?

And as an ironic footnote to our naming debate, looks like Revolution's name has been rescinded, and it's back to being untitled. Has JJ Abrams lost faith in his show so soon?

[xortex]

Pepsi is Tos, Temis, but Defyance sounds ultra cool. I could just picture an old fashioned sheriff who is way out of his league trying to deal with advanced aliens and the like and their conflicts, etc. I thought Defyance was the RHW project with their ship being called the Defender and all, it would have been a perfect title, but this show sounds just as good if not better and takes place on like an asteroid town with a wierd mix of aliens and Humans almost like a Star Wars pastiche. Very cool IMO.

I don't even see how Revolution is the right title for his TZ spin off cerebral non reality show where nothing works because it is all one mass hypnotic illusion like the tv itself. They're still working out the spin like lost. Now he's lost in space. Talk about being out of your league. If he's smart he'll bring in Braga. But he's just clever is all and nepotistic.

[Temis the Vorta]

If Pepsi is TOS, then what is Coke? Flash Gordon?

Steven Bocho is developing Evolution.

Evolution is set 3 million years in the future where Social Darwinism is born once more. A discovery by a tribe of Homo sapiens is about to change the world — a Box that offers the whole of human knowledge has been unearthed and the meekest of the group, The Boy, is first to interpret its lessons.

Well, that's different anyway. I'll be on the lookout for that one. They haven't sold it in anyplace yet.

Graham Greene has joined Defiance.

[Christopher]

"Social Darwinism?" I don't think the person who wrote that blurb understands what that phrase means. It's got nothing to do with evolution; it's a corruption and abuse of Darwinian theory (and Spencer's "survival of the fittest," which is often misattributed to Darwin and misinterpreted) to justify class divisions and social inequality.

[Temis the Vorta]

At least all forms of energy have not disappeared from their universe!

"Social Darwinism?" I don't think the person who wrote that blurb understands what that phrase means.

If they do understand, it's a spoiler. The Boy and all his caveman buddies should just not bother to develop a society at all, since it will be a bad "social Darwinism" one.

[Temis the Vorta]

The Nine Trends Dominating Pilot Season This Year. And one is sci fi/fantasy, so chin up everyone! We're on the popular team!

Best trend: fewer cop shows!

[RJDiogenes]

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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If Pepsi is TOS, then what is Coke? Flash Gordon?

Forbidden Planet.

[Christopher]

Actually, back when TNG first came along, people were comparing it to New Coke and TOS to "Classic" Coke. In fact, before it started being called "The Original Series" officially, and even for a while after, TOS was widely nicknamed "Classic Trek" by analogy with Coke.

[xortex]

Well the cola wars is obviously between Star Wars and Star Trek, so take your pick between the sequals and TNG, now nu Trek.

[Temis the Vorta]

Star Wars/Star Trek is more cola vs. lemon-lime sodas (7-Up, Sprite, et al).

More graphic novels/comic books being developed for TV?

Seagle's original graphic novel Kafka -- revolving around a government-enhanced agent on the run -- is being developed for television with the Kenneth Branagh Co.

"Kafka is a thriller, an espionage piece, a romance and a noir and each of those aspects is being dovetailed into a paranoid world of government agents gone rogue," Seagle tells THR. "The story deals with themes of loss and redemption and does a very cool trick with what I call super powers even though it is in no way a spandex show."

Is the main character's superpower that he can turn into a cockroach?

Here's something that sounds fascinating - Showtime is working on a sci fi sounding series with Salman Rushdie.

Salman Rushdie’s Next People ... deals with the radical pace of transformation in contemporary American life -- from politics and religion to technology, science and sexuality.

That doesn't sound very sci fi, but Rushdie has also described the series as "a sort of paranoid science-fiction series, people disappearing and being replaced by other people." Now we're talking!

Stephen King's Under the Dome is still alive and kicking at Showtime as well.

Looks like Showtime wants to be the crowd-pleasing antidote to HBO:

Subversive characters remain a critical piece of the Showtime mandate, but with Nevins, there's a bigger push toward mass entertainment. He acknowledges that he largely shuns the slower-paced snootiness that has come to define a genre of cable, preferring instead what he describes as particularly relevant and broadly entertaining fare.

Expect Showtime to do genre fare that isn't "straight ahead" (by which I guess they mean, not something that comes directly from a known genre like high fantasy or zombie horror). We may be in for more sf/f comedy (which would be great to see on cable):

Straight-ahead genre fare is off-limits, for instance, because HBO (Game of Thrones) and AMC (Walking Dead) are already there, though many suggest he's clamoring for their commercial impact.

Genre comedy, on the other hand, is an area Nevins hopes he can own, and he's working to get the script right on an adaptation of the graphic novel Chew, about an FDA agent who cracks cases by tasting his evidence.

And more on SyFy's Defiance. Oh please, they're blowing up the Golden Gate Bridge again?

They're sticking with the game-show overlap idea, but in different parts of the country:

Both the game and show will take place in the same universe, with the TV action set in a mining boom town outside St. Louis, Missouri; while the videogame will follow a cast of characters in California.

I love the idea of Julie Benz playing the spunky, embattled mayor of an Earth town overrun by sneaky aliens. Never heard of the others, except Graham Greene, who's never made much of an impression on me, acting-wise.

Still skeptical about the game-show overlap. I can't see any substantial overlap being possible without making the show writers' lives too difficult. They've got enough of a challenge just getting a show with aliens to survive in the hostile wasteland of SyFy.

[Enterprise is Great]

Rosario Dawson is teaming up with The Walking Dead's Gale Anne Hurd to bring her graphic novel to A&E.

The drama project, O.C.T., is being developed with both women attached as executive producers. Though O.C.T. --an acronym for the NYPD’s Occult Crimes Taskforce-- is still in its early stages, it is being
considered as a potential star vehicle for the Sin City actress.

Like the graphic novel, co-created by Dawson and David Atchison, O.C.T. will center on the character of Sophia Ortiz, a new member of the bureau who uses magic, spells, ghosts, the undead and the unnatural. At the heart of the story is an ongoing struggle between the O.C.T. detectives and an organized demon-force attempting to take
over Manhattan.

[RJDiogenes]

That sounds promising.

[Sindatur]

RJDiogenes wrote:

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That sounds promising.

Hmmm, if Vampire Diaries doesn't breathe some life into itself, this sounds like a promising possible replacement for it in my viewing schedule