Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode 3
I loved the first 2, and i’m so happy to see Robot Chicken Star Wars back for Episode 3. Seth Green & Matthew Senreich’s brilliant Adult Swim stop-motion animated show is back with it’s 3rd run at Lucas’s classic franchise.
This time round, you can see Darth Vader fall into a toilet, while Emperor Palpatine rides the endless Death Star escalator! See Gary the Stormtrooper’s speederbike test-drive come to a gruesome, Ewok-splattering end! And witness the firepower of Boba Fett’s fully armed and operational T-SHIRT CANNON! Yes it’s everything you’d want from Robot Chicken Star Wars Episode III.
There’s also masses of DVD extras this time with 3 hours of special features, including: For the Love of Toys Featurette – For the Love of Star Wars Featurette – For the Love of Filmmaking Featurette – Trailers – Skate tour – Sunday in the – Boardroom with George Lucas – SW Celebration Panels – Easter Eggs – Voice Records Featurette – Writing Process Featurette – VFX Featurette – Skywalker Ranch premiere – Deleted Animatics – Chicken Nuggets – Gag Reel – Commentaries
Robot Chicken Star Wars Episode III is out on July the 4th… be with you… (damn it, i promised myself i wouldn’t use that gag!)
‘Torchwood: Miracle Day’ trailer arrives, and it’s awesome!
For those of you wondering what the new ‘Torchwood‘ series will look like, wonder no more!
Captain Jack and Gwen Cooper are back, but this time with a heavy American slant. Made as a co-production between the BBC and US Starz network, ‘Torchwood: Miracle Day’ looks less like ‘Torchwood series 4′, and far more ‘Torchwood Season 1 USA’. They have previously said it’s ‘not a reboot or remake, we’re just moving countries’, but I have to say, the US influence is extremely apparent in that trailer. Not that i think that’s a bad think necessarily. I mean, there’s only so long you can have Cardiff as the centre for alien weirdness! And with most of the team and the Cardiff Hub gone, it seems like a good time to move overseas.
Head writing duties are still in the hands of Russell T Davies, but now strongly supported by the brilliant Buffy/Battlestar writer Jane Espenson. RTD has never been shy of admitting his love for recent US scifi/fantasy shows, and Jane is one of the best veteran genre writers out there, so I’m really looking forward to see what the pair of them have come up with. The central plot of this 10 episode run focuses on the idea that suddenly, on one ‘Miracle Day’, no one on the planet dies. Joining John Barrowman & Eve Myles are Kai Owen – back as Gwen’s other half Rhys; Mekhi Phifer (ER, Lie To Me) stars as CIA agent Rex Matheson; and Star Trek’s ‘Q’, John de Lancie also joins the cast. They also seem to have been raiding the 80′s for actors, with Ghostbuster’s Ernie Hudson and The Outsider’s C. Thomas Howell both taking roles!
Having just seen the trailer below, i’m really really looking forward to this! ‘Torchwood: Miracle Day’ will air on Starz in the US on 8th of July. Still waiting on confirmation from the BBC on the UK airdate, but I guarantee it’ll either be the 1st or the 8th of July at 9pm on BBC1.
Supernatural With a British Twist? BBC’s The Fades
More new fantasy/sci-fi, but this time not a US import, but a new British show from writer Jack Thorne (This Is England ’86, Skins, The Scouting Book For Boys).
Daniel Kaluuya - Mac
The Fades (previously titled Touch, but Kiefer Sutherland’s new show nicked that!) stars Iain De Caestecker (River City, Coronation Street) as Paul, a young chap haunted, not only by apocalyptic dreams, but also the spirits of the dead which he can inexplicably see all around him. Unfortunately for Paul and his best friend Mac (Daniel Kaluuya – Skins, Psychoville, Sucker Punch), a rather bitter and vengeful spirit (refereed to as ‘Fades‘) has found a way to break through the barrier from the spirit world and placed the pair at the centre of a crisis that could lead to the end of the world as we know it!
They aren’t totally alone in this spirit battle though. The duo have help in the form of Neil (Johnny Harris – This is England ’86, Spartacus) ‘a lone warrior against the forces of darkness’ who becomes Paul’s mentor, and Helen (Natalie Dormer – The Tudors, Silk, W.E.) who, like Paul also has a unique gift – the ability to see the future.
Natalie Dormer - Helen
Additional cast include Tom Ellis (Miranda, Harley Street, Merlin), playing Helen’s ex-husband Mark; Lily Loveless (Skins) as Paul’s feisty twin sister Anna, who’s less than impressed with her sibling, and Claire Rushbrook (Ashes To Ashes) as Paul as Anna’s mum.
Hard to tell from just the write up, but it’s sounding a little bit like the brilliant Supernatural, but with a very British edge to it. There’s a sneak peak of The Fades coming at next Sunday’s London Comic Con, so hopefully we’ll soon have a trailer and some more info to share!
To keep track of all your air dates for sci-fi, fantasy and other tv shows, check out our UK Air Dates page here.
New Trailer for Primeval Series 5
Primeval is back for it’s 5th series, and this time you can catch it’s first run on Watch (Sky 109, Virgin Media 124) on Tuesday 24th May at 8pm. It’s got all the usual Primevaly stuff, with Abbie and Connor being chased by (some more convincing than others) prehistoric creatures!
For more on Primeval, join the facebook page at www.facebook.com/watchprimeval.
First clip of J. J. Abrams Alcatraz
This is the 2nd J.J. Abrams show to get picked up this season after Person of Interest. Created by J. J. Abrams (Lost, Star Trek, Fringe etc…) & Elizabeth Sarnoff (writer/producer Lost, Deadwood), Alcatraz starts off with a fingerprint at a homicide found by Detective Rebecca Madsen (Sarah Jones – Sons of Anarchy, Big Love) which appears to be from a former inmate of the prison, who should be long dead. As she digs deeper, Madsen enlists the help of Alcatraz expert Dr. Diego Soto (Jorge Garcia - Hurley in Lost), and also encounters the hindrance of government agent Emerson Hauser (Sam Neill – Jurassic Park). It turns out not only is the inmate alive, he’s merrily killing again on the streets of San Francisco, and it seems he’s not the only ex-Alcatraz resident on the loose. Madsen and Soto reluctantly team up with Hauser and his sidekick Lucy Banerjee (Parminder Nagra – ER, Bend It Like Beckham) to track down the various miscreants. Alcatraz is due to air mid-season 2012 on Fox.
After the blood bath, what’s next for SciFi?
It’s been a pretty harsh few weeks for people who love their scifi and fantasy shows… Smallville ended. Stargate closed on SGU. Chuck renewed (but only for one final season). V, No Ordinary Family, & The Event cancelled…
So what’s going to fill the void left by this hacking down of scifi shows? Have the US given up on genre tv? Well, no it seems they haven’t. Here’s a few shows that are coming soon, or have been picked up for the US Fall 2011 season.
Falling Skies
Created by the legendary Steven Spielberg & Saving Private Ryan scribe Robert Rodat, the story follows a group of survivors in the aftermath of an alien invasion of Earth. ER’s Noah Wyle stars as leader of the 2nd Mass resistance movement Tom Mason, a history professor pre-invasion, who uses his knowledge of military history to outwit the invaders.
Falling Skies will air on FXUK – 5th July at 9pm.
Terra Nova
Terra Nova starts in 2149 as the Earth is dying. So to try and save the human race, scientists manage to send a group of settlers back through time 85 million years to prehistoric Earth. It’s a set up that’s sounding rather like Outcasts with dinosaurs, although i suspect will fair rather better than both. It’s exec producers include Steven Spielberg with Brannon Braga (Star Trek, 24) as showrunner, so it’s got some talented backing. The lead is being taken by Jason O’Mara – arguably one of the better parts of the Life on Mars US car crash, and Steven Lang, who knows something about fighting creatures in jungles, after battling giant smurfs in James Cameron’s Avatar. No UK network announced yet (although i’d guarantee we’ll get it soon rather than later), it’ll air on Fox as part of the Fall 2011 season.
Grimm
In an intriguing twist on the cop show genre, Grimm takes place in a reality where Grimm’s Fairy Tales characters exist. Not a lot more is know about the show at the moment, but the reason it’s got me interested is because it’s writers and showrunners are Whedon alumni David Greenwalt & Jim Kouf (Angel, Buffy). Stars include Kate Burton (Grey’s Anatomy, Law & Order), Silas Weir Mitchell (My Name Is Earl), and Reggie Lee (No Ordinary Family, Prison Break). It’s currently shooting and slated for Fall 2011 season on NBC.
Person of Interest
James Caviezel
By rights, Person of Interest should be brilliant, as it’s written by Memento & The Dark Knight scribe Jonathan Nolan and exec-produced by J.J. Abrams (Lost, Fringe, Alias), so you really couldn’t ask for a better pedigree! The story follow an MIA ex-CIA agent played by James Caviezel (The Prisoner, The Passion of the Christ) who teams up with a mysterious billionaire, played by Lost’s Michael Emerson, to fight crime in New York City. Is it me, or is this sounding a little bit Batman-esque (not that that’s a bad thing!) Person of Interest is slated for Fall 2011 season on CBS.
Touch
This is Kiefer Sutherland first post-24 tv show, and sees him play Martin Bohm, a ex-journalist and father of Jake – a mute and autistic boy who can seemingly predict future events. It’s created by Tim Kring, the man behind NBC’s Heroes, so there’s some hope it’ll at least start off well. 
Touch goes into production in June and will be part of Fox’s Fall 2011 lineup.
Awake
Hello to Jason Isaacs
Described as an ‘Inception-style’ drama, Awake stars Jason Isaacs who finds himself living in 2 alternate realities after a car accident with his wife Hannah and teenage son Rex. In one reality his wife is alive, in the other his son is alive. Not sure about the ‘Inception-style’, but it sounds a little ‘Life on Mars’, a little ‘My Own Worst Enemy’. It’s created by Lone Star writer Kyle Killen, and also stars Cherry Jones (24), Sasha Roiz (Caprica), Wilmer Valderrama (The 70s Show), Michaela McManus (One Tree Hill, The Vampire Diaries) & B.D. Wong (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Oz). Awake is due on NBC as part of the Fall 2011 season.
So there are a number of of ‘genre’ related show in production, although a lot of them we may not see in the UK till 2012. There’s also no guarantee all these shows will make it out of the brutal US schedules. Whilst there’s no real out and out space scifi in the new Fall season crop so far, there are some interesting ideas coming through. It’s just a case of ‘wait and see’ which ones make it.
For more on renewed and cancelled show, click here to view our Renewed/Cancelled Shows 2011-2012 Season list.
For UK air dates for all your scifi & other tv shows, check out our UK Air Dates page.
