sf/f TV development news - 2013

[Temis the Vorta]

Actual space opera sighting: Clandestine!

SyFy has put in development Clandestine, a drama produced by Universal Cable Prods. Written by actor-writer Todd Stashwick and artist Dennis Calero, Clandestine is described as a swash-buckling space drama/adventure and revolves around mercenaries who masquerade as part of an Intergalactic fleet...The project stems from an option at UCP had on Stashwick & Calero's online comic Devil Inside.

[Jeff O'Connor]

Hell yes.

Please don't suck too badly.

[Temis the Vorta]

Who says HBO doesn't do sci fi?

Michael R. Roskam, who got a Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar nomination last year for his Belgian film Bullhead, is at the center of a new HBO pilot script order, one which teams him with Michael Mann and Breaking Bad executive producer Mark Johnson. HBO has ordered a pilot script for a drama titled Buda Bridge, a Belgian-set crime story that takes place in Brussels in the near future. It unfolds when a woman is found dead on Buda Bridge, which leads to a series of violent crimes and strange science that bring mayhem to the dark capital of the European state.

Hmm. I have a feeling that swashbuckling space opera is going to be more my kinda thing...

[Gov Kodos]

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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Who says HBO doesn't do sci fi?

Hmm. I have a feeling that swashbuckling space opera is going to be more my kinda thing...

Time for an 'Ice Pirates' remake?

[Jeff O'Connor]

Masquerading as part of an intergalactic fleet... I wonder how that one will be played. Hopefully not primarily for laughs, but I'll take what I can get, and who knows, maybe it will be funny.

I'm tempering my expectations as best as possible.

[sojourner]

Jeff O'Connor wrote:

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Masquerading as part of an intergalactic fleet... I wonder how that one will be played.

I read a series of short stories some years ago with the same premise. In the end the mercenary team ended up being drafted into the intergalactic fleet thus validating everything they did.

[Caliburn24]

Never heard of this Todd Stashwick guy, so I looked him up. As an actor he has been in a great many shows including Enterprise, but as a writer/producer he doesn't seem to have done anything besides a few comics. I can't imagine SyFy making him a showrunner with so limited experience.

His twitter has some interesting tidbits. Apparently the logline from Deadline made Clandestine sound more like Firefly than it really is.

[RJDiogenes]

sojourner wrote:

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Even the great artists steal/are influenced by previous artists. Especially in fiction. There is no plot that hasn't been used before.

Influenced, yes. Steal, no.

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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Actual space opera sighting: Clandestine!

That's two Space Operas that Sciffy is working on. Hopefully at least one of them makes it (I'm rooting for RHW, of course, but it would be nice if they both survive).

[CorporalCaptain]

RJDiogenes wrote:

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Influenced, yes. Steal, no.

I really must see The Hidden Fortress someday.

[stj]

Robert Hewitt Wolfe has a co-executive producer credit on Alphas. Is this just a golden parachute-type formality and he's already been kicked out (along with Ira Steven Behr?) Or is he planning on leaving Alphas if his series gets picked up?

The notion of space as so friendly an environment people can just wander about ad lib doesn't seem very promising. Actually, the notion that people can just sneak into an army at all seems more like something borrowed from old movies rather than a real idea.

[Sindatur]

stj wrote:

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The notion of space as so friendly an environment people can just wander about ad lib doesn't seem very promising. Actually, the notion that people can just sneak into an army at all seems more like something borrowed from old movies rather than a real idea.

If that's what the article means, yea, that doesn't sounds very promising at first sight. I took it to mean instead that when they run into other folks at outposts or whatever they claim to part of a real armada, rather than actually sneaking into formation with the armada.

[xortex]

Does anybody have a definition of intellectual property? Would it's theft just be constituted by using an idea's specific expression, and not the idea itself? Plots and premises can't be stolen? as there are no new plots or premises? that seems awefully short sighted to me. Harlan had a good case against 'In time' but not 'Terminator' it seems to me. Was 'All Good Things' a homage or a rip off of Vonnegut's 'Slaughter House Five'? Beethoven used the same melody for one of his most popular overtures as a Mozart violin concerto. Obviously everyone's expression is going to be different. The same ideas can be done from different angles and perspectives and directions/approaches just as some trek ideas were done over and over again from head to tail as it were but where does derivitive rights end and stealing begin?

[Kegg]

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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Who says HBO doesn't do sci fi? [...] Hmm. I have a feeling that swashbuckling space opera is going to be more my kinda thing...

I dunno. The pedigree of the HBO series is pretty promising and the idea of sci-fi show set in continential Europe (even an American one) is appealing.

Clandestine has a nice enough premise, but I've never heard of the guy involved (unlike RHW's Defender) so it's more of an unknown quantity at this point. I think a space opera series with a sense of fun would be nice, but it needs to be fun and good.

[Vendikarr]

xortex wrote:

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Does anybody have a definition of intellectual property? Would it's theft just be constituted by using an idea's specific expression, and not the idea itself? Plots and premises can't be stolen? as there are no new plots or premises? that seems awefully short sighted to me. Harlan had a good case against 'In time' but not 'Terminator' it seems to me. Was 'All Good Things' a homage or a rip off of Vonnegut's 'Slaughter House Five'? Beethoven used the same melody for one of his most popular overtures as a Mozart violin concerto. Obviously everyone's expression is going to be different. The same ideas can be done from different angles and perspectives and directions/approaches just as some trek ideas were done over and over again from head to tail as it were but where does derivitive rights end and stealing begin?

It's not the plots, but the similarity in details. Yes, you can write a movie about stolen time as a currency, but if too many of your ideas in the script coincide with someone elses story, it will get a closer look. Yes, some things may seem obvious in a certain type of story, but it will not be looked upon favorably if someone got there first.

[sojourner]

RJDiogenes wrote:

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Influenced, yes. Steal, no.

Incorrect.