sf/f TV development news - 2013

[Venardhi]

Re: the state of sf/f TV development for 2012-13

"The Magicians" could be great if they get a really sharp team on it. While it isn't an easy adaptation, it isn't a particularly hard one either and one can assume they'll be taking the basic premise and running pretty wild with it, using mostly the middle of the book where they've all graduated from Brakebills and are enjoying all the perks that magic and the modern world can provide.

Basically: What does Harry Potter do after Hogwarts, if Harry Potter were a manic depressive genius surrounded by equally damaged magical geniuses?

The rest of the book is a bit too plot-driven to turn into an ongoing storyline, not to mention expensive as hell(and too quirky for primetime) once you start including talking bears, giant ram gods, a generic version of Narnia, etc.

In any case, I doubt it'll get past the early development stages.

 

[The Green Mushroom]

Re: the state of sf/f TV development for 2012-13

Defiance (SyFy) – This. Will. Not. End. Well.

Hyde orJeckyll & Hyde (ABC) - One of them could work.

The Last Resort (ABC) I like it. A lot. Which means it has almost no chance of making it out of its first season, even if it gets that far.

Pandemic (FOX) - Could work as an arc driven show, but will be tired and cliched as a paint by numbers procedural.

Powers (FX) - I like it.

Source Code (CBS) - I like the premise but never saw the movie. It could work. Was the movie any good?


Untitled Frankenstein Project (NBC) - I find it interesting

Untitled Fun with DNA Project (ABC) - drama about a genetic scientist who uses his Newfound discovery that he has the psychopath gene to help the FBI catch killers.

When I first read this, I thought it was about a Newfie mad scientist.

Zero Hour (HBO) – Just what we need, Da Vinci Code dribble on TV

American Gods (HBO) – Yes please

Bewitched (CBS) -Why?

Haunted (ABC) - Didn't we already have two or three series just like this?

Pillars of Smoke (NBC) - Sounds like it could make a decent movie, but I can't see it being successfully drawn out over a season or more.

Sleepers (CBS) - Been there. Done that.

Under the Dome (Showtime) – Yes please.

Untitled Ghost Hunters Project (TNT) - Ghost Busters meets CSI? I find it oddly appealing.

Untitled I See Dead People Project (CBS) - Been there. Done that. On this very list too.

Untitled More Weird Shit in British Columbia Forests Project (TNT) - Can we keep the title?

The Watchers (ABC) - "I'd give up forever to touch you..."

Cosmos (FOX) - Is this the one that Seth MacFarlane is somehow attached to?

Some of them I like. Some of them I think are awful. Some are so pointless that I won't even bother mentioning them. it does give me hope, but I am still realistic enough to know that most will go nowhere, most of the rest won't make it to series, most of those that get to series will be gone by November sweeps.

Like (at least based on the premise, bring in Braga and I will hate it like a chili pepper enema)--The Last Resort, Powers, American Gods, Pillars of Smoke, Under the Dome, CSI: Ectoplasm and Stewie Griffin Presents: Cosmos

Could Like (again just based on the premise, in theory anything could be surprisingly good and capture my attention, even a new godforsaken reality snorefest): Hyde, Pandemic, Source Code, Frankenstein

 

[Kegg]

Re: the state of sf/f TV development for 2012-13

Source Code (CBS) - I like the premise but never saw the movie. It could work. Was the movie any good?

Movie's fantastic. Duncan Jones, who directed Source Code and Moon (a nice double whammy sci-fi bill, that) has nothing to do with this series though.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Re: the state of sf/f TV development for 2012-13

Cosmos (FOX) - Is this the one that Seth MacFarlane is somehow attached to?

Yes, weirdly.

 

[Kegg]

Re: the state of sf/f TV development for 2012-13

Cosmos (FOX) - Is this the one that Seth MacFarlane is somehow attached to?

Yes, weirdly.

And this improbably cool astrophysicist as the host, which seems smart.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Re: the state of sf/f TV development for 2012-13

Cosmos (FOX) - Is this the one that Seth MacFarlane is somehow attached to?

Yes, weirdly.

And this improbably cool astrophysicist as the host, which seems smart.

Yeah I like him. He's been the host for, uh...I gotta look it up...I watch too many science documentary shows to keep them all straight...Nova Science Now. He's been doing a good job with that. He'll be great on Cosmos.

I thought the end of that story was going to be Cameron hiring him as the astrophysics adviser on Avatar, to make sure the sky is right from the perspective of Pandora's location in space. And lo and behold, it made even more money than Titanic.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

Re: the state of sf/f TV development for 2012-13

I'm looking forward to seeing a new take on Cosmos, but somehow, without Carl Sagan's humanity, I wonder how indelible the new series actually will be -- and I like what I've seen from Neil deGrasse Tyson. I hope for the best ... but fear for the worst.

Or to put it another way ... I'll definitely give the show a chance, and allow it to forge its own identity ... but merging science and history and philosophy into a compelling narrative, the way the original did, is a very tall order. As an example, Morgan Freeman's Through The Wormhole has been very good, very evocative, but it certainly isn't at the same level as Cosmos.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Re: the state of sf/f TV development for 2012-13

I'll miss the Vangelis music if they don't have that.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Re: the state of sf/f TV development for 2012-13

I suppose we have to count this kind of stuff...

Disney Channel is looking for a few musically inclined zombies.
The youth-skewing cable network has given pilot orders to Zombies and Cheerleaders, a music-driven project from Scrubs and Death Valley producer Eric Weinberg.

Zombies and Cheerleaders revolves around Zed Necrodopolis, a high school student who happens to be a zombie. Despite a watch designed to quell his appetite for his classmates, Zed and his zombie friends remain unpopular with the school’s cheerleaders.

I hate snobby bitchy cheerleaders who pick on the poor, nerdy cannibalistic zombies!!!

 

[RJDiogenes]

Re: the state of sf/f TV development for 2012-13

Powers (FX)

This could be good, but I'd rather see it on HBO or Showtime. It needs to be uncensored.

Untitled Warehouse 13 Spinoff Project (SyFy)

I'm looking forward to this. Go, Steampunk.

American Gods (HBO)

This could be good, although I wasn't as impressed by the novel as others were.

Cosmos (FOX) -

This could be amazing, considering how much more we know now-- and, boy, do kids today need something like this.

Most of the rest doesn't sound very interesting, but ultimately it's all in the execution....

 

[RJDiogenes]

Re: the state of sf/f TV development for 2012-13

And this improbably cool astrophysicist as the host, which seems smart.

Beautiful.

Imagine if he posted at TrekBBS.

 

[PlainSimpleJoel]

Re: the state of sf/f TV development for 2012-13

Source Code sounds interesting, but could be a watered down version of the movie.

Like many others I miss the days of space operas.

 

[Hugo Rune]

Re: the state of sf/f TV development for 2012-13

Powers (FX)

This could be good, but I'd rather see it on HBO or Showtime. It needs to be uncensored.

I think FX is a fair hit. Shows like The Shield and Nip/Tuck managed to squeeze in a whole heap of adult content and still keep it on the safer side of HBO/Showtime. I can live without the "Fucks" and the nudity, as long as the grittyness is kept.

I've just ploughed through the first 30 issues of this comic and been blown away. It begins in a more real place than most SuperHero titles and has only slowly grown into an utterly fantastical world. It has felt organic and if the producers of the show follow that trend it will give the regular, non-nerdy audience, a chance to adjust and adapt over time. And the central theme of the comic can be easily adapted to new stories, so the show can veer off from the comic's path if and when required. And given the outlandishness of some of the later stories, this WILL happen for budgetary reasons alone, if the show makes it.

Though Jason Patric iisn't phsyically "Walker" he can mtost certainly play the intensity of the character (go and watch Neil LaButes "Your Friends and Neighbours" and see him tear up the rest of the talent in the film), so I can live without him being 6'6".

This is the only SF show I am actually excited about overall and it need only be a modest hit to keep playing on FX. if Charles Eglee can get a solid crew of writers on board I can see this actually being exciting TV.

Now if he can just round up some of the unattached Shield writers he worked with a few years ago, then the show has a chance!


Hugo - And they cast Titus Welliver as Triphammer, Charles S Dutton as Captain Cross sand the wonderful Jo Harvelle as Zora, so they're onto gold already

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Re: the state of sf/f TV development for 2012-13

I don't see FX as being watered down vs HBO or Showtime, not with the likes of Sons of Anarchy and American Horror Story. I have the feeling FX allows "shit" but not "fuck" (never will understand the logic there) and no nudity or soft-core porn, but that sort of stuff is rarely necessary anyway.

 

[USS Kongo]

Re: the state of sf/f TV development for 2012-13

I don't see FX as being watered down vs HBO or Showtime, not with the likes of Sons of Anarchy and American Horror Story. I have the feeling FX allows "shit" but not "fuck" (never will understand the logic there) and no nudity or soft-core porn, but that sort of stuff is rarely necessary anyway.

Hey, for some of us, it's always necessary!

 

[RJDiogenes]

Re: the state of sf/f TV development for 2012-13

Actually, don't I remember hearing about some nudity on both of those shows? Gina Torres on The Shield for one? Well, we'll see. As long as it's well done, I suppose....

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Re: the state of sf/f TV development for 2012-13

FX allows "strategic" nudity - in other words no nipples and certainly no full frontal, but bare butts (like Gina Torres in The Shield) and breasts with the nipples carefully kept out of sight are okay.

 

[Greg Cox]

Re: the state of sf/f TV development for 2012-13

There's also been nudity (male) and explicit language on American Horror Story . . . .

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Re: the state of sf/f TV development for 2012-13

Yeah, FX has no problem with Dylan McDermott's butt. But it's not keeping the ratings from diving.

More development news: Zombieland, the TV series.

Fresh off the record-breaking ratings for Sunday's Season 2 premiere of AMC's The Walking Dead, the network and Sony Pictures Television are developing a potential half-hour comedy based on the Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson and Emma Stone starrer Zombieland.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Re: the state of sf/f TV development for 2012-13

Well, I think the nudity in Powers has been fairly rare, anyway, but they'll certainly have to tone down the language if FX won't allow "fuck."