A scene from the season one finale of 'Legend of the Seeker'
Actor/Writer/Director Michael Hurst has announced on his website that he will be directing a number of episodes in the upcoming second season of Legend of the Seeker beginning with the second episode.
This is good news for Legend of the Seeker fans since Hurst is the man responsible for some of the best episodes of season one including episode 8 ‘Denna’ and the season finale ‘Reckoning’.
His first episode of Legend of the Seeker season two will commence filming July 21st.
Hurst also confirms that he will be directing two episodes of the new fantasy series from producers Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert titled Spartacus: Blood and Sand. He will direct the fifth episode of the first season and another unnamed episode later in the season.
Spartacus: Blood and Sand follows a soldier in the Roman Auxiliary (Australian actor Andy Whitfield) who is taken prisoner and sentenced to fight as a Gladiator for defying a Roman Legate. After multiple wins as a Gladiator, Spartacus is sold into slavery. The new series is said use Zack Snyder 300 style virtual environments to recreate the Roman Republic.
Spartacus: Blood and Sand will be shown on the Starz premium cable channel in the US beginning January 2010.
I am advised an official press release about Legend of the Seeker season two will be released in the next few days.
Michael Bay’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has now taken $418M worldwide at the box office and doesn’t appear to be slowing down.
Of course, the real heat isn’t so much in the box office as it seems to be on the internet where reviewers worldwide are under attack for their less than glowing reports about the film. Since the vast majority of reviewers are referring to the film as a travesty whilst the box office is exploding, many people are claiming this is a sign that critical opinion is not reflective of what people really want to see.
Chris Phillips, creator of MTV series Mighty Moshin’ Emo Rengers, is one such reviewer who wrote a poor review of the film that has divided opinion. In light of recent events, this is what he had to say:
“I’d written a rather critical review of Transformers 2 on my facebook blog, which a few friends had read, and it seemed to divide opinion. I’d say roughly 70% of people agreed it was a terrible film, but then unbelievably 30% kind of enjoyed it. Unacceptable. I realised that reasoning alone would not be able to crush their ridiculous admiration for such a creative traversty.
“So I set to work creating a youtube clip to rival the millions of dollars poured into the film, the hundreds of experienced technicians who spent years creating the explosive robotic battle sequences, and the unrivaled wisdom of the established script writers who weaved 3 hours of narrative gold from the Transformers universe. It took me 20 minutes.”
Watch the preview to the next episode of True Blood, season 2 episode 4 ‘Shake and Fingerpop’:
Official synopsis: With Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) in tow, Bill (Stephen Moyer) and Sookie (Anna Paquin) head to Dallas to carry out Eric’s (Alexander Skarsgård) vampire-reconnaissance mission – but a surprise awaits them at the airport. At the Light of Day Institute, Jason (Ryan Kwanten) falls victim to a practical joke, but has the last laugh when the Newlins anoint him for a higher calling. Maryann (Michelle Forbes) throws Tara (Rutina Wesley) a birthday party at Sookie’s, attracting much of Bon Temps to its Bacchanalian revelry. Sam (Sam Trammell) postpones his departure from town to attend the bash, connecting with Daphne (Ashley Jones) in the process. Having barely escaped Fangtasia, Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) finds himself reluctantly pulled back into Eric’s orbit.
True Blood ‘Shake and Fingerpop’ airs on HBO Sunday July 12 at 9pm.
Colin Ferguson with his new 'Eureka' love interest, Jaime Ray Newman
The good people at io9 have spoken with Eureka co-creator Jamie Paglia and star Colin Ferguson (aka Sheriff Carter) about what fans can expect from the new season and it seems the answer is “romance”.
Colin Ferguson: From an acting perspective, what’s really nice is about these episodes is that I have these emotional lines, mostly with Jordan, whether she is or isn’t going to go to college. Also there’s dealing with Salli (who plays Allison) in more of a friendship capacity than in a lover capacity, because she’s pregnant. I enjoyed that, and being able to dig deeper on the friendship angle of our relationship.
Jamie Paglia: We wanted to bring in a new love interest for Carter, and change the dynamic that we had traditionally [featured, which was] the two alpha males battling over the alpha female. We wanted to bring in a new character, with the actress Jamie Ray Newman who playing Tess Fontana — who has a history with Allison, they are old friends. But that gets a little tense, when she and Carter begin to develop a romantic connection. Which was really fun to play, and to give Carter a real honest love interest.
Colin Ferguson: Yeah it was a nice change of pace to be both receiving and giving of love with the character, than with the relationship I played with Salli, which is sort of unrequited and confused most of the time. It was nice.
Jamie Paglia: We wanted to bring in a romantic quality of the show…We wanted Fargo to get a girlfriend, which we’ve finally done. We wanted to step up the relationship with Jo and Zane and challenge it. Is it a short term thing, or is it something more? And also for Zoe and her boyfriend Marcus, who’s at an age now where they are talking about college and whether or not they are going to go to the same place. We got a chance to deepen those connections and relationships.
The CW Network have released a new teaser for The Vampire Diaires.
The Vampire Diaries is based on a series of novels by American author LJane Smith that follow the story of a high school girl who falls in love with and becomes torn between two vampire brothers – one good and one evil. The brothers end up at war over her soul as well as the souls of her friends, family members, and town.
The brothers are played by Fallen’s Paul Wesley (Stefan) and Lost’s Ian Somerhalder (Damon). Elena, the girl who they are at war over and who herself becomes torn between both vampire brothers, is played by Nina Dobrev (Degressi: The Next Generation).
If you are yet to see the trailer for this very promising new series, check it out here.
The Vampire Diaries premieres in the US on the CW Network Thursday September 10 at 8/9c.
The third instalment of Russ Pond’s sci-fi thriller Fissure has been released as a webisode titled ‘The Body’. Watch it now:
Fissure is an indie thriller with a sci-fi twist. It follows Detective Paul Grunning (James MacDonald), a man with a tragic past who finds himself knee deep in a time bending situation where he must question his own mind and the nature of reality whilst racing to solve the mystery surrounding him before it is too late.
Fissure’s filmmakers are in the process of releasing the first 35 minutes of the movie as 9 free online webisodes. 35 minutes into the film there’s a huge twist, and they hope that by the time you’ve watched the last webisode you’ll be hooked and want to see the full movie on DVD to find out what happens next.
David Naughton as a monster in a dream in 1981's 'An American Werewolf in London'
In a world of remakes and the new wave of vampire and werewolf popularity it was only a matter of time before John Landis’ 1981 classic horror-comedy An American Werewolf in London would find its way on to the remake list.
Dimension Films have now picked up the rights from Landis to develop the new film, though Landis will still be on board as an executive producer.
Landis wrote and directed the original film about two American backpackers who, whilst hiking in the Yorkshire moors, are attacked by a werewolf. One of them (played by Griffin Dunne) is killed and becomes doomed to remain one of the walking undead as long as the blood-line of the werewolf that killed him remains alive. The other (played by David Naughton) becomes a werewolf and the last of the blood-line who goes on to terrorize London.
The remake doesn’t have a writer or director as yet.
Word is Dimension plans to update the remake for a modern audience whilst retaining the comedic aspect of the original film.
This announcement brings back some memories. I remember watching the original in the cinema when I was 13 years old, scared witless during the opening moors scene. At the end of the scene a mother and her two young daughters stood up in the row ahead of me and announced to the whole theater that the “film was disgusting!” and walked out. Now, around almost 3 decades later you can watch that scene at will on YouTube. You have to love it.
Moon, the debut feature film from director Duncan Jones, won the award for ‘Best New British Feature Film’ at the Edinburgh Film Festival on Sunday.
Over the last two months there have been regular conflicting reports over what Jones’ next feature film will be. At times it has been reported his next film will be a Blade Runner style sci-fi project titled Mute, whilst at others it has been reported his next film will be a submarine survival flick titled Escape from the Deep.
As a result of the win at the Edinburgh Film Festival many news sites are now reporting that his next project will be Mute after all. Whilst Jones has previously confirmed that he hopes Mute is the next film he works on, the up and coming director has exlusively confirmed to Sci Fi Scoop that there is no actual confirmation that Mute is next on the agenda and that it will be months before even he knows what’s next.
“I wish it were,” Jones said. “In all honesty, at this stage, whatever film i am lucky enough to do next, will take time. So there is no way anything will be certain for a good few months yet.”
In other Moon related news, Jones has confirmed that Clint Mansell’s score to Moon will be released in early July. Mansell’s previous soundtracks include The Fountain, Doom, The Wrestler and more recently Blood: The Last Vampire.
Finally, Moon continues to receive wider distribution. If you have yet to see what many are calling the best sci-fi film of 2009, click the link below to find a theater near you where Moon is playing and go see it – you won’t be disappointed.
