The Weekly Round-Up for Jan. 25 to 29
January 30, 2010 by Rueben
Filed under News, Uncategorized
Here are the sci-fi based entertainment news items for this week:
CONDOLENCES
Legendary author J.D. Salinger (The Cather in the Rye) passed away this week at the age of 91.
Petite actress Zelda Rubinstein, who played the psychic in the classic movie Poltergeist passed away at 76 this past week.
NEWS
The new FOX drama Past Life will be airing one week earlier than originally planned and rather than a two-hour debut, the show will have a one-hour premiere at 9 PM on February 9 with the show moving into its regular time slot of Thursdays at 9 PM on February 11. The series should finish on March 11.
The film Avatar has officially become the biggest-grossing movie of all time even over former king of the movie world Titanic.
TV SERIES NEWS
Mark Pellegrino and Titus Welliver will reprise their roles of Jacob and his nemesis on Lost when it returns for its final season.
ABC Family Channel has picked a one-hour drama: Pretty Little Liars:
The series will follow four estranged best friends who are reunited one year after their best friend and queen bee of the group, Alison, goes missing only to discover they are receiving messages from an anonymous “A” who knows all their secrets. The drama stars Lucy Hale (Privileged), Troian Bellisario (NCIS) Ashley Benson (Eastwick), Shay Mitchell, Laura Leighton (Melrose Place), Nia Peeples (The Young and the Restless) and Bianca Lawson (The Vampire Diaries).
The second season of the UK series Being Human has yet to air here in the States, but is nearly at an end on the BBC and has been renewed for a third season with the regular cast returning.
DEVELOPMENT NEWS
One of the new shows in development at ABC includes:
NO ORDINARY FAMILY (ABC) – This pilot come from Greg Berlanti and Jon Harmon Feldman and is about a typical American family whose members have special abilities. ( Kind of like Brothers & Sisters x Heroes?!)
A spinoff of Supernatural, called Ghostfacers, which revolves around a group of ghost hunters who film their adventures (who have appeared in several episodes of the series in the past) will initially run as three-minute episodes online on TheWB.com and on the CW’s website and will star A.J. Buckley, Travis Wester, Brittany Ishibashi, and Austin Basis.
NBC has picked up the drama The Cape, which is a light drama with a comic book sensibility set in a fictionalized version of Los Angeles, centering on a former cop framed for a crime who becomes the Cape, a masked hero, to clear his name and reunite with his son.
BOX OFFICE NEWS
James Marsden will star in the live-action/computer-animated hybrid comedy I Hop that follows an out-of-work slacker (Marsden) who accidentally injures the Easter Bunny (voiced by Russell Brand) and must take him in as he recovers.
Naomi Watts and Daniel Craig will star in the psychological thriller Dream House about a family that relocates into what appears to be the ideal residence in small town Connecticut only to discover that their beautiful new home was the site of another family’s slaughter, believed to be at the hands of the husband who survived.
The production group behind the film The Spiderwick Chronicles have optioned Kat Falls‘ underwater adventure novel Dark Life, which is set in a near-future world in which rising ocean levels and natural catastrophes have led some people to homestead on the ocean floor. The action centers on an underwater teenage boy and a surface girl who join forces to uncover a government conspiracy.
British actor Nicholas Hoult (Skins) has joined the movie Mad Max: Fury Road, which is to be set a short while after events in 1985’s Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy are set to star in lead roles.
Guy Pearce and Mary-Louise Parker will star in the thriller The Well that revolves around a well-to-do Manhattan couple whose obsessive pursuit of salvation ultimately leads to destruction. Actor Tim Guinee wrote and will direct the movie.
CASTING SCOOP
Newcomer Odessa Rae will appear on an upcoming episode of Smallville as DC villain the Silver Banshee, aka Siobhan McDougal who is a vengeful spirit of a fallen Gaelic heroine. She’s accidentally released from the underworld, and takes out her vengeance at an unassuming country bed and breakfast.
Michael Shanks has landed a role on Supernatural where he will portray a character named Rob, who is part of a local militia. He is married and has a son – but a loss will force Rob to dedicate himself solely to a cause.
Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger himself) will terrorize Booth and Brennan in a slasher-themed episode of Bones that is to air this spring.
RUMOR PATROL
Mel Gibson is in negotiations to star in the spy thriller Cold Warrior about a Cold War spy who comes out of retirement to confront a domestic terrorism threat from Russia by joining with a younger agent.
Sam Worthington (Avatar) is the frontrunner to star in movie Dracula Year Zero that will be part historical fact and literary fiction that centers around the life of young Transylvanian Prince Vlad, better known as Vlad the Impaler, leading the charge to fend off the Ottoman Empire’s attempts to use Romania as a foothold to conquer the rest of Europe.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
The following movies and special will air this weekend and throughout next week:
The Syfy movie Meteor Storm will air on Saturday, January 30 at 9 PM. The movie is about meteors that strike San Francisco, causing a city official to evacuate the populace while a scientist tries to determine the cause of the strikes. Stars include Michael Trucco and Kari Matchett.
Also, Lost will return for its final season on Tuesday, February 2 for a 2-hour premiere, starting at 9 PM.
NEW EPISODES OF EXISTING SHOWS
Here are the new episodes of returning and new series that will be airing this coming week:
Saturday, January 30:
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 31:
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, February 1:
Chuck on NBC at 8 PM
Heroes on NBC at 9 PM
Wednesday, February 3:
Being Erica on SOAPNet at 10 PM
Thursday, February 4:
Fringe on FOX at 9 PM
The Vampire Diaries on The CW at 8 PM
Supernatural on The CW at 9 PM
Friday, February 5:
Smallville on the CW at 8 PM (Two-Hour Special)
Ghost Whisperer on CBS at 8 PM
Medium on CBS at 9 PM
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!
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