San Diego Comic-Con News

As you may know Comic-Con was last weekend (23rd - 26th July), and so I've rounded up some of the interesting bits of news and written them up here. Enjoy.

Halo: Legends is a collection of seven short anime films (much like The Animatrix) made by about 5 different studios, including STUDIO 4 C which is making a two-part 30 minute film titled "Origins", which gives an overview of the 100,000 years of Halo history. For more info on the different films, click here. A DVD release is expected to be available in Spring 2010.

In other Halo news, Neill Blomkamp denies that his upcoming film, District 9, is a showcase for how he could handle a Halo film, and confirms that he is no longer involved. "The rumours are completely wrong... The answer is, I probably wouldn't do it if it was offered to me. But creatively, I would like to do it. It's kind of like I'd be sad to not work on it, but I would still say no." Elaborating he stated "I worked on it for five months... I put a lot of sort of sweat and blood into it. Creatively it's very compelling. I love it. But, when you work that long on something and you have it bottom out and collapse... I mean, I got out of it, I think I'm probably better off because it's more a personal film. But yeah, I love the world of Halo. I don't think I would go back there."

To watch the panel talk with Peter Jackson and Neill Blomkamp about how the Halo movie became District 9 click here.

Wil Wheaton joins the cast of The Guild for season 3 which premieres on August 25th across the Microsoft Network (Xbox, MSN and Zune). All of season 1 is available to watch on YouTube, and season 2 episodes are being uploaded on a weekly basis. I will be using my Wednesday post to post episodes here. Also you can check out Felicia Day's blog where she has posted a few pictures and a video interview with herself, just click here.

Dark Horse will be releasing a one-shot Dr Horrible comic book featuring an all knew story, which will be released in November.

Watch a video interview (below) with Joss Whedon as he talks about Dollhouse, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Dr Horrible and more.

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan will not be the last Battlestar Galactica movie, according to Edward James Olmos. Battlestar Galactica: The Plan is set to come to DVD on 27 October 2009.

If you're a Heroes fan you can watch the entire panel video here.

The Prisoner is a 6 part series starring Sir Ian McKellan and James Caviezel. It will air in the UK on ITV1 in the winter. It has to have the longest trailer I've ever seen, but it is also one of the best.

Trailer

Panel Highlights Video

On 21st August the trailer for James Cameron's first feature film since Titanic in 1997, called Avatar will be released. As will the trailer for the Avatar: The Game.

Here is a little none comic-con new, Ridley Scott is to direct a prequel film to Alien. For more info, click here.

Heroes Webseries Catch Up

Since Heroes: Volume 4: Fugitives started on Monday I thought I'd take this moment to catch up on the latest Heroes websieres.

The first one is Heroes: The Recruit which is a five part webseries and follows on from the Heroes graphic novel Stuck In The Mud, which was released after the episode titled Dual (which was the last episode in Volume 3: Villains).
Here is the promo:



The second is Heroes: Hard Knox which is a four part webseries, which was released between Volume 3: Villains and Volume 4: Fugitives.
Here is the first webisode, Part 1: Choices:



When these webseries first started I was really into them because I thought that they would tie into the show and would simply provide avid fans like myself a little more info and story to enjoy. However, it seems to me that each webseries ends on a massive cliffhanger, and none of them have yet crossed over into the show itself (I'm am excluding Heroes: Hard Knox from this review as it is actually just a set of deleted scenes from the show). Whilst I'm not too bothered that they haven't crossed into the main show, I am a little bothered that they all end on a cliff hanger. It feels like we are getting fed all these cool characters and stories and then simply getting cut off from them.

If NBC are to continue with these webseries spin-offs then I hope that we will get some closure on these stories, whether it is in the show itself, in more webseries or in the graphic novels.

Being Human

To see the three prequel videos to the up coming BBC series Being Human, click here. They are designed to provide a bit of background on how the ghost, the vampire and the werewolf all came to be.

2009

Here is a summary of some of the things we can expect this year in the world of television.

ITV1 has been hard at work with a new program called Demons. It is about a young Van Helsing, aided by his Godfather Rupert Galvin (played by Philip Glenister), who must keep the living dead from taking over London. For more info click here. Demons will also launch with an online game (to read more click here). Demons airs tonight (Saturday 3 January) at 19:20 on ITV1.

Hustle is coming back with a fifth series this year. However, Marc Warren (who plays Danny Blue) is not reprising his role and neither is Jamie Murray (who plays Stacie Monroe) who is filming her role in Dexter, instead Adrian Lester is back. Adrian plays the character of Mickey "Bricks" Stone who is keen on getting the old crew back together after they have all gone their separate ways. For more info click here and for an interview with creator Tony Jordan click here. But that is not all. There are also plans for a Hustle movie. Hustle airs Thursday 8 January, at 21:00 on BBC 1.

Doctor Who will not see a full series this year and neither will its' spin-off Torchwood. Doctor Who will have 3 to 5 episodes this year, allowing for David Tennant to star in his stage productions, with the full series returning in 2010. It is unknown as of yet as to when these episodes will air and whether they will be longer than the usual 45 minutes. Torchwood will only get 5 episodes, which will be aired on BBC 1 within one week. These changes are most likely due to a change around in staff. Within Doctor Who, producer and head writer Russell T Davies is stepping down and Steven Moffat is taking control. Where as with Torchwood a new producer and director will be coming on board. Torchwood should be airing sometime in March on BBC1. There are also plans in the works for K9 the series.

There are reports about the possibility for another spin-off of some form to run along side Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. However, with ratings being very low throughout season 2 and the show on the verge of cancellation at one point, it seems unlikely that anything will come of this.

America does it all the time with our shows. They buy one of our shows and instead of showing it as it is, they remake it with an American cast. This has been done with many shows including The Office and Life On Mars. But this time it is the other way around. Law & Order has been a popular American TV show, and ITV1 seems to think so too and so are making a UK version. Trouble is, are people used to watching the American version on channel Five. For more info click here.

From Dexter's executive producer Sara Colleton comes Exterminators, a new series based on a comic. According to http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/, "Created by Simon Oliver and Tony Moore, the comic centers on an ex-con who joins an exterminator company, working with a freakish supporting cast of characters. A mystery surrounding his girlfriend and the manufacturer of an insect poison percolates on the periphery, and the insects are much more dangerous than they seem." For more info click here.

Miranda Hart's Joke Shop is six 30-minute episodes written and starring Miranda Hart, and will be shown later this year. The BBC's description of the show is as follows, "Meet Miranda. She's desperate to fit in, but can't. She has never managed to flirt successfully; has never fitted in with "the girls" (not least because she's a foot taller than them) and, due to years of agoraphobic tendencies, she doesn't know how to behave socially or how to avoid embarrassment, especially around men. Also she is a constant disappointment to her mother Penny. Miranda Hart's Joke Shop (working title) is a farcical, affectionate and thoroughly modern comedy about being the odd one out."

If you saw the Being Human pilot earlier this year then you might be interested to know that BBC3 has been hard at work turning it into a full series. The pilot episode will not be airing again though. Instead the original pilot is being ignored and a new pilot has been written due to there being some casting changes. This also will allow for new viewers to watch the show from the start and understand the full story. Being Human should air later this month. I you wish to know more about the show click here.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Season 2 Update

After last weeks disturbing news I can happily report to you this week that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has been picked up for a full season. So there is no longer any threat of it being cancelled.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Season 2

Here we have another show that has managed to reach the UK before it has even finished in the US. Unfortunately I don't currently have freeview though and so have been watching all of my TV off of the Internet on BBC iPlayer, ITV Catch Up, 4oD and Demand Five. This means I haven't been able to watch season 2 of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles which started on Virgin 1 on Thursday, and so will probably end up buying the DVD Boxset if it comes out.

Yes Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles isn't scoring very high in the ratings over in the US and the show is close to being cancelled. It appears to be managing to stay alive for the moment as Fox has ordered some more scripts.

But it seems such a shame that the show is now struggling when it started off so well. My only hope is that if it does end up getting cancelled, that they are allowed to tie up the story so we won't get left without any closure, like so many other good shows that get cancelled (e.g. Firefly).

Sanctuary

It would seem that American and UK television networks have been working more cooperatively recently, with shows such as Heroes arriving in the UK only a few weeks after their American broadcast. Sanctuary seems to be one of those.

Sanctuary started life off as a webseries, but now it has been picked up by an American network. I didn't actually know much about Sanctuary before last month so I never actually watched all the webisodes (I believe there were quite a few of them). Instead of being a continuation of the webseries they seem to have started a fresh. A definite positive for new fans but possibly not such a good move from the point of view of old fans.

I've seen the first four webisodes of which the two hour pilot episodes (all though ITV4 only showed one this week, part two is obviously next week) are basically a re-write of. But old fans should not be worried, they won't just be watching repeats of the webseries as the TV version will be taking a different root.

I was quite surprised that the TV version of Sanctuary had the same cast as the webseries. But when I watched the webseries and realised Amanda Tapping was in it I wasn't surprised. Although I was surprised that she was in a webseries to begin with.

The TV version is still shot mostly with green/blue screens although the special effects look much better in the TV version than the webseries, obviously due to the higher budget.

The show looks great so far and it definitely has a lot of great potential. If you haven't already checked it out then it is definitely worth doing.

Bring Back Firefly Petition

There is currently an online petition to bring back Joss Whedon's Firefly. If you wish to sign the petition, follow the link below.

Bring Back Firefly Petition

Out With The Old And In With The New

Last week saw the end of the season for a number of TV programs: Chuck, Heroes, The Graham Norton Show, House and Doctor Who. But what new programs are coming our way? Well considering how many great programs finished there weren't many more that started this week. Bonekickers was pretty much the only one. Although the BBC has been showing the teasers for a new series called Merlin. I am guessing that it is about the wizard and so is probably going to be something like Robin Hood, which has been on the BBC for the last two years on the approach to Christmas. It will most likely take the place of Doctor Who on Saturdays. Although it doesn't look to be arriving to our screens for another few weeks. I am guessing that they are waiting till closer to the air date for the website to launch, since the page does exist, but is currently blank (http://www.bbc.co.uk/merlin/).

As for Bonekickers, it is about a team of archaeologists and the best way to describe it is probably Waking The Dead meets Time Team. It was pretty fast paced and kept me interested throughout. It possibly went a bit too far at the end, but so far the series looks promising.

Another upcoming show is Burn Up, which is a two part political thriller addressing one of today's big issues, climate change. It sees the battle between politics and economic success against fighting climate change as oil executives, environmental activists and politicians fight it out. For more info click here.

Another show to keep an eye out for in the future is Survivors, which is set in the present day in the aftermath of a virus which has wiped out most of the world's population. The remake of the 1970s program, which ran for three series, is set to come to our screens this autumn. For more info click here.

BBC 2 has also unveiled which shows will be coming to the channel this autumn. Returning shows include Heroes season 3, the popular documentary series Horizon, Jack Dee's Lead Balloon. Brand new shows include Einstein and Eddington and My Zinc Bed. And that's just for starters. For more info click here.

In other news, with season 2 of Heroes now at an end we have caught up with the US. NBC (the network behind Heroes) is launching a web only mini-series called Heroes: Going Postal. It follows a postman named Echo De Mille who is a new hero. I imagine that he will also appear in season 3 of Heroes, but for now you can catch the webseries on NBC.com from Monday. In the mean time here is the trailer for the webseries:

Heroes

Heroes has finally returned. After a trully amazing Season 1, Season 2 looks to be just as exciting, if not more.

Every episode from Season 1 was amazing, except the last one which was still good but slightly disappointing, given how they bigged it up throughout the rest of the season. But Season 2 seems to jump straight back in and after watching the first episode I was again on the edge of my seat jumping up and down with excitement due to the amazing cliff hanger at the end.

Just in this first episode we have already been introduced to two new characters, Maya and Alejander, although it looks as though it is only Maya who has the powers. However, we aren't sure yet exactly what her powers are. I wouldn't say they are particularly good powers though since she seems to have just killed a load of people by accident. How? We don't yet know.

So it looks as though Season 2 is going to kick some more ass, and I'd have to say that it is currenlty one of the best shows on television. Unfortunatly though due to the writers strike Season 2 was cut short and there are only 11 episodes. Could this mean it's going to be a repeat of the Season 1 finally or is it quality not quantity? I can't wait to find out.