The Weekly Round-Up for Jan. 18 to 22

Here are the sci-fi based entertainment news items for this week:

NEWS

The annual PaleyFest held by the Paley Center for Media will be held from February 26 to March 14 and the full schedule was announced this week. It is as follows:

Friday, February 26 at 7 PM – Modern Family
Saturday, February 27 at 7 PM – Lost
Monday, March 1 at 7 PM – NCIS
Wednesday, March 3 at 7 PM – Community
Thursday, March 4 at 7 PM – Dexter
Friday, March 5 at 7 PM – Cougar Town
Saturday, March 6 at 7 PM – The Vampire Diaries
Tuesday, March 9 at 7 PM – Seth MacFarlane & Friends
Wednesday, March 10 at 7 PM – Breaking Bad
Thursday, March 11 at 7 PM – FlashForward
Friday, March 12 at 7 PM – Men of a Certain Age
Saturday, March 13 at 7 PM – Glee
Sunday, March 14 at 7 PM – Curb Your Enthusiasm

President Obama will have his State of the Union speech on Wednesday, January 27.

TV SERIES NEWS

It looks like funding came through, after all, for the UK series Primeval to get a fourth season on BBC. The new season is expected to have 13 episodes.

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

Summit Entertainment and E1 Entertainment announced they plan to develop a television series based on the 2009 paranormal action movie Push.

FOX and BBC Worldwide shocked TV viewers with the announcement of an American remake of the UK hit series Torchwood, which is a spin-off of perennial series Doctor Who. The only good thing about this possibility is that this version will include the original UK production team – including Russell T. Davies and his producing partner Julie Gardner. Davies will write the pilot; but how it will all work out is unsure at this time.

The Gene Roddenberry-created classic series The Questor Tapes, which originally aired as a 1974 TV movie, is being developed by Imagine Television and Roddenberry Productions as a TV series. The original series was about android with incomplete memory tapes who searches for his creator and his purpose. Tim Minear is said to be in discussions to join the project as a producer.

TNT has greenlit the following original series:

• The as-yet untitled alien invasion series executive produced by Steven Spielberg and starring Noah Wyle as the leader of a rag-tag group of soldiers and civilians struggling against an occupying alien force. The show is to co-star Moon Bloodgood (Terminator Salvation), Drew Roy (Lincoln Heights), Maxim Knight (Brothers & Sisters), Jessy Schram (Crash) and Seychelle Gabriel (Weeds). There have been 10 episodes ordered and the show is expected to debut in 2011;

BOX OFFICE NEWS

Matt Damon and Brad Pitt are set to join Elijah Wood and Robin Williams in the Happy Feet sequel.

Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer) will be the director of the retooled Spider-Man which is set to pick up in 2012 with Peter Parker in high school

Kate Mara, Eric Balfour and Laz Alonso have joined the supernatural thriller Skyline which is about what happens when an otherwordly force swallows much of the human population off the face of the Earth, and a band of survivors must fight for their lives as the world unravels around them.

Samuel L. Jackson and Josh Duhamel will appear in the supernatural thriller Sympathy for the Devil, playing lawmen caught in a cosmic confrontation between Heaven and Hell after stopping an assassination attempt of a charismatic preacher.

Jason Momoa (Stargate Atlantis) has landed the title role in the Conan the Barbarian remake

CASTING SCOOP

Both Annette O’Toole and Michael McKeon will be returning to Smallville for this season penultimate episode.

RUMOR PATROL

Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes) is in negotiations to star as the villain Sinestro in the movie Green Lantern.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

The following movie will air this weekend:

The movie Sea Snakes will air on Saturday, January 23 at 9 PM on Syfy and is about a submarine commander (Luke Perry) and his crew who face off against monstrous genetically altered snakes. The movie co-stars Krista Allen and Tom Berrenger.

NEW EPISODES OF EXISTING SHOWS

Here are the new episodes of returning and new series that will be airing this coming week:

Saturday, January 23:
Demons on BBC America at 8 and 9 PM

NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will be back with all new episodes in syndication starting this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Sunday, January 24:

NOTE: Legend of the Seeker will be back with all new episodes in syndication starting this weekend. Check your local listings for date, time and channel.

Monday, January 25:
Chuck on NBC at 8 PM
Heroes on NBC at 9 PM

Tuesday, January 26:
NOTE: If you want to remember what happened on last season’s finale of Lost, you can rewatch the 2-hour finale tonight at 9 PM on ABC. You can also rewatch the 2-hour pilot of Caprica on Syfy at 8 PM tonight.

Wednesday, January 27:
Being Erica on SOAPNet at 10 PM

Thursday, January 28:
Fringe on FOX at 9 PM
The Vampire Diaries on The CW at 8 PM
Supernatural on The CW at 9 PM

Friday, January 29:
Smallville on the CW at 8 PM
Dollhouse on FOX at 8 PM – Series Finale
Caprica on Syfy at 9 PM

NOTE: Please check your local listings for the correct air dates and times for all of the above.

Have a great weekend!

Please note that I will feature a weekly round-up of general news items at our sister site located at http://nicegirlstv.com/. Please visit there as often as you can. Thanks!

Related posts:

1. The Weekly Round-Up for Dec. 28 to Jan. 1
2. The Weekly Round-Up for Jan. 4 to 8
3. Weekly Round-Up for Nov. 30 to Dec. 4
4. The Weekly Round-Up for Jan. 11 to 15
5. The Weekly Round-Up (Dec. 21 to 25)