Hollywood Reporter: Comics Writer Grant Morrison Starts His Own Convention – The writer of Action Comics and All-Star Superman talks to THR about Las Vegas’ MorrisonCon, his quest to reshape the convention experience.

Deadline Hollywood: TNT/TBS Announce Development of Genre Dramas The Last Ship and Legends and Sci Fi Comedy Zone Lords

Zap2It.com: Revolution star Billy Burke explains his new J.J. Abrams drama and it’s not actually confusing at all

io9.com: How to Tell From a Trailer That a Movie Is Going to Suck

Hollywood Reporter: Secrets of Ridley Scott’s Prometheus

EW.com: Walking Dead’ comic’s 100th issue to be celebrated with zombie obstacle course during Comic-Con

BleedingCool.com: It Was 22 Years Ago Today That Jim Henson Passed Away

Hollywood Reporter: Tricia Helfer on Balancing Sci-Fi and Serious Drama: ‘It’s Fun to Scream as You’re Killing Someone’

ScienceFiction.com: Joss Whedon Wants More Women Avengers

TheWrap.com: Hulk Series Possible for ABC in 2013-14

BleedingCool.com: Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes Sequel Gets Scott Z. Burns, Is “Taking The Story To The Next Level”

Hollywood Reporter: Mirovision, Kim Moon-saeng Team Up For Empire of the Ants

Here’s the creepy trailer for the Sam Raimi produced horror film The Possession which hits theaters on August 31st:

The modern update of Sherlock Holmes Elementary from CBS likely won’t have much in the way of genre elements, but may still be of interest for its Holmes connection:

New Shows from ABC:

666 Park Ave is a supernatural drama starring Lost‘s Terry O’Quinn:

Zero Hour is a conspiracy-theory tinged drama:

The Neighbors is a sitcom about a family who moves into a community filled with aliens:

Last Resort is a military/political drama that may have some genre elements:

New From FOX:

The Following is a serial killer drama from Kevin Williamson that stars Kevin Bacon and may have some genre elements:

Download Sci Fi TV from Amazon Instant Video or Stream for Free with Your Amazon Prime Membership

TheWrap.com: Munsters Reboot Still a Possibility for NBC Schedule for Mid-Season – NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt said the “Mockingbird” pilot, starring Eddie Izzard (pictured) in the Grandpa role, will be shot next month and could be on the air soon if it goes well.

Hollywood Reporter: Marvel’s Kevin Feige Talks New Iron Man, Thor, Captain America Movies

TV by the Numbers: FOX Fall Schedule – Touch and Fringe to Pair Up on Fridays

Deadline Hollywood: NBC Fall Schedule – Do No Harm on Sunday, Revolution on Monday

Hollywood Reporter: Jon Favreau Talks Iron Man 3, Praises Joss Whedon for Avengers and Leads Revolution

Geeks of Doom: Director Neil Marshall To Captain Dracula Tale The Last Voyage Of the Demeter

BleedingCool.com: DC Cancels Justice League International With Issue 12

Hollywood Reporter: Once Upon a Time Creators Talk Finale and Storybrooke’s Twisted Magic

The post-apocalyptic Revolution comes to us from J.J. Abrams (Lost, Fringe) and Eric Krikpe (Supernatural). It will air Mondays on NBC starting in Fall. Here is an extended trailer for the show:

The Jekyll and Hyde series Do No Harm will air on Sundays on NBC starting in Fall. Here is a teaser clip for the show:

And here is a trailer for True Blood Season 5 which bows on HBO on June 10th:

Finally, here’s a look at the dwarfs from the upcoming Snow White and the Huntsman which hits theaters on June 1st:

Download Sci Fi TV from Amazon Instant Video or Stream for Free with Your Amazon Prime Membership

By John J. Joex

We head into this week’s upfronts when the networks announce their finalized schedules for next season with little in the way of mystery as all of the cancellation/renewal announcements have been made and we also know most of the pickups (we are still waiting to hear about fate of Syfy’s Sanctuary). So what have we learned from this years cancellations and renewals? About the only thing I can say for sure in answer to that is that the landscape has changed, and some of the old rules just don’t seem to apply anymore. Take for example The CW’s decision to cancel freshman series The Secret Circle but renew low-rated sophomore entry Nikita. The former series regularly outperformed the latter throughout the season, and even though it experienced a significant drop in the ratings toward the end of the season, Nikita suffered from that as well. However, the spy drama has built up a strong international audience and apparently Warner Bros. (who owns the series) considers that enough to keep it going. I’m guessing that The Secret Circle‘s severe drop-off at the end of the season is what killed it and The CW decided to keep Nikita going (despite abysmal ratings on Fridays) because of the factors in that show’s favor beyond the overnight Nielsen ratings.

Then look at what happened with Fringe over on FOX. That was one of the lowest rated scripted dramas across the Big Four networks, and yet it received a renewal for a fifth and final season. And while I definitely appreciate that the series will get the chance to deliver a resolution for its ongoing story arc, I’m baffled as to why the network and the show’s studio agreed to that additional expense. The series is losing money, Kevin Reilly over at FOX made that clear earlier in the year. With this season, it has reached the 88 episode mark that the syndication market looks for, so their was not a financial need to extend its episode count. It will make more money from the eventual DVD sales of the fifth season, but enough to recoup the production costs? Did the network and studio give it that final season because they are committed to the show and care about giving it a resolution that will appease the show’s small but devoted fanbase? Dare I even consider that as a possible motive emerging from the Hollywood machine?

I will be looking at the cancellation/renewal decisions on all of this season’s shows in more detail in a later post, but at this point I just wanted to note that it definitely looks like the rules for the networks have shifted a bit this year.

And two shows that have been renewed but that might be on notice going into next season are Person of Interest (CBS) and Grimm (NBC). The later has had decent ratings most of the season and actually really built up its audience after January. But it had a considerable drop-off in its numbers the last few weeks, which is something that CBS will pay attention to going into next season. And NBC’s Grimm never had great ratings, but apparently good enough to keep it alive on the fourth place network. That one has really slacked off toward the end of the season as well, so it will need to show some improvement in performance when it starts back up in Fall.

The finalized schedules for all of the broadcast networks will be released this week at the upfronts and I will put together a schedule of all the genre shows later in the week. Following is when each of the networks will present at the upfronts:
May 14, 2012 NBC Morning
May 14, 2012 FOX Afternoon
May 15, 2012 ABC Afternoon
May 16, 2012 CBS Afternoon
May 17, 2012 The CW Morning

Following are the ratings results for all of the genre shows from this past week. In some cases, the numbers below are based on the preliminary returns and could change slightly when the final results are tallied. And you can see the status of all of the current season’s shows at out Cancellation Watch page.

Once Upon A Time (ABC Sun 8 pm) Rating: 3.0 | Trend: Steady | Renewed
Game of Thrones (HBO Sun 10 PM) Rating: 2.0 | Trend: Up | Renewed
Eureka (Syfy Mon 9 PM) Rating: 0.6 | Trend: Up | Cancellation Alert: Final Season
Vampire Diaries (CW Thur 8 PM) Rating: 1.1 | Trend: Down | Renewed
Person of Interest (CBS Thur 9 PM) Rating: 2.6 | Trend: Steady | Renewed
Secret Circle (CW Thur 9 PM) Rating: 0.5 | Trend: Steady | Cancellation Alert: Cancelled
Touch (FOX Thur 9 PM) Rating: 2.0 | Trend: Steady | Renewed
Awake (NBC Thur 10 PM) Rating: 0.9 | Trend: Up | Cancellation Alert: Cancelled
Nikita (CW Fri 8 PM) Rating: 0.4 | Trend: Steady | Renewed
Supernatural (CW Fri 9 PM) Rating: 0.7 | Trend: Steady | Renewed
Grimm (NBC Fri 9 PM) Rating: 1.2 | Trend: Down | Renewed
Fringe (FOX Fri 9 PM) Rating: 1.0 | Trend: Up | Renewed

Ratings Source: TV by the Numbers

 
Download Sci Fi TV from Amazon Instant Video or Stream for Free with Your Amazon Prime Membership

Genre Films at the Box Office the Weekend of May 11-13 (Based on Early Estimates*):
The Avengers Rank – 1 (LW – 1) / Revenue – $103.2 MM / Fresh Rating – 93%
Dark Shadows Rank – 2 (LW – n/a) / Revenue – $28.8 MM / Fresh Rating – 41%
The Hunger Games Rank – 4 (LW – 3) / Revenue – $4.4 MM / Fresh Rating – 86%
The Pirates! Band of Misfits Rank – 6 (LW – 4) / Revenue – $3.2 MM / Fresh Rating – 86%
The Raven Rank – 11 (LW – 8) / Revenue – $1.3 MM / Fresh Rating – 21%
Cabin in the Woods Rank – 14 (LW – 11) / Revenue – $1.0 MM / Fresh Rating – 92%
John Carter Rank – 16 (LW – 12) / Revenue – $0.7 MM / Fresh Rating – 52%
The Lorax Rank – 18 (LW – 18) / Revenue – $0.4 MM / Fresh Rating – 57%

*Box Office results are based on the weekend’s early estimates and the chart ranks and revenue can change when the final numbers are tallied.

Source: Box Office Results – Box Office Mojo / Fresh Rating – Rotten Tomatoes

12 to the Moon

Description: A group of twelve international scientists are the first to land on the moon. In their exploration of the surface, they run into all kinds of trouble, including threatening messages from alien life forms residing on the moon. Just a short nine years before the historic moon landing, this film¹s understanding of the science of space exploration is fantastically simplistic, but this well-made science fiction film holds interest with a strong cast and intriguingly strange events, photographed with great style by John Alton. Ken Clark, Michi Kobi, Tom Conway, John Wengraf, and Robert Montgomery Jr. portray the intrepid scientists. Newly remastered. (Available 6/1/12)

The Green Slime

Description: After a perilous mission to a huge asteroid, a crew returns to its space station, unaware a bit of ooze from the asteroid clings to a crewman’s uniform. The green goop grows – into murderous, tentacled monsters. And as station members fight to live, gunk from the monsters’ wounds turns into more monsters! That’s the story. Now enjoy as our heroes fight to preserve Earth and, unintentionally, our own senses of humor with a movie that Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called “one of the funniest made-in-Japan sci-fi monster movies ever.” Kinji Fukasaku, whose later work was championed by Quentin Tarantino, directs. The world would be a far more bleak and joyless place without marvels like The Green Slime.  Also Available for Download

The Wild, Wild Planet

Description: It’s groovy to be a spaceman! The way-out ’60s meet the far-out 21st century in this psychedelic sci-fi head trip. Villains from überpowerful The Corporations think they’d found a way to defeat their rivals, the United Democracies: send robot minions to kidnap UD citizens, shrink them down to suitcase size and transport them to a planetoid for hideous human experiments. But a fearless rescue team is on the way! All that stands between the rescuers and success are four-armed androids in wraparound shades, martial artists wearing silk nighties and sporting sky-high hairdos, flying saucers swinging around the cosmos on strings like interplanetary yo-yos and more mod malevolence. It’s all wild, wild fun and fantasy, brothers and sisters!   Also Available for Download

Moon Zero Two

Description: William Kemp (James Olson) was a celebrated planetary voyager years back, the first to set foot on Mars. It’s now 2021, and the celebration – and the era of exploration – is over. Kemp pilots a lunar-based scavenger craft, retrieving adrift satellites for scrap. But he’ll find the adventure he longs for when he agrees to help a woman hunt for her missing brother at a mining camp on the moon’s dark side. “The first moon Western” blazoned ads for this film rife with cowboy-genre motifs. Sci-fi fans may note another influence. From sets to costumes to scenes of men in the blackness of space, Moon Zero Two seems to draw inspiration from a pivotal classic released two years earlier, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Atlantis, The Lost Continent | Also Available for Download

The Cyclops | Also Available for Download

The Giant Behemoth

Trog

More Cult Sci Fi from Warner Archives at this Link

Available from Amazon.com May 15th:

Chronicle (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo +Digital Copy)

Description: Clear your thoughts for a “mesmerizing mind-bender” (Rolling Stone) that’ll blow you away! Seen through the lens of a troubled teen’s video camera, yet filled with eye-popping action and jaw-dropping special effects, Chronicle is as real as it gets. When three ordinary high school friends make an extraordinary discovery, they acquire amazing abilities beyond their understanding. But as their powers develop, so do their darker sides. Fun, harmless pranks soon lead to much riskier activities as the boys’ “gifts” – and their lives – spin dangerously out of control!

The Devil Inside

D Grayman – The Complete Second Season S.A.V.E. Anime

Grant Morrison: Talking With Gods – 2-Disc Special Edition

Fever Night aka Band of Satanic Outsiders

More New and Recent Genre Releases at this Link

Promo Pic from The CW's Arrow

Cancellations:
The River (ABC)
A Gifted Man (CBS)
The Secret Circle (CW)
Alcatraz (FOX)
Awake (NBC)

Renewals:
Once Upon A Time (ABC)
Touch (FOX)
Nikita (CW)

Pickups (Some may only have marginal genre elements):
666 Park Ave (ABC)
Zero Hour (ABC)
Arrow (CW)
Beauty and the Beast (CW)
Following (FOX)
Do No Harm (NBC)
Revolution (NBC)

More Sci Fi News:

Here’s one of the first photos from Pete Travis’ Judge Dredd movie and you can see more and read out the status of the film over at ScienceFiction.com.

Hollywood Reporter: The Avengers Could Hit $1 Billion Worldwide By Sunday

Deadline Hollywood: MGM Acquires Ray Bradbury Book From The Dust Returned, About An Orphan Who’s Adopted By Monsters

EW.com: Damon Lindelof on whether Prometheus is an Alien prequel, plus life after Lost

BleedingCool.com: Guillermo Del Toro To Co-Direct The Jim Henson Company’s Pinocchio

Hollywood Reporter: Joss Whedon’s ‘Firefly’ Crew, Flying High Ten Years Later

BleedingCool.com: Lord Of The Rings To Be Next Lego Videogame

Hollywood Reporter: The Crow Producer Tackling Graphic Novel Feeding Ground

Blastr.com: Another comics writer quits Marvel and DC over ethical concerns

ScienceFiction.com: Read The Official Synopsis Of Stephen King’s Shining Sequel Doctor Sleep

BleedinCool.com: Do You Want To Be In The Walking Dead?

It’s that time of year again when the television networks sift through a myriad of pilots to decided which new shows to pickup for the coming season. These are try-out episodes that establish the concept of a series and introduce the major characters, and only a small fraction of those produced ever make it to series. As we wait for the final word for the shows picked up for next season, here’s a look at a few from the past twenty five years or so that didn’t make it (links are to each pilot’s entry at IMDb.com).

The Robinsons: Lost in Space – This 2004 pilot offered a second attempt to reboot the infamous Irwin Allen series (after the 1998 feature film misfired) and gave a BSG-like spin to the franchise. In the late 21st century, after Earth had fought off an alien invasion, humans are setting out to colonize the stars. Col. John Robinson (a decorated hero from the alien wars) leads the charge as one of the many to take his family into deep space and find a new beginning. But a second alien attack preempts these plans and Robinson and his family find themselves lost in space. The pilot had a much grimmer tone than the campy 60’s TV series and did not have a Dr. Smith character on board. It was directed by John Woo and starred a young Adrianne Palicki as Judy Robinson.

Badlands 2005 – This 1988 pilot starred a young Sharon Stone before she became an A-list movie star. It offered a premise where the old west meets a post-apocalyptic setting in a time where water has become so scarce it’s more valuable than gold.

The Owl – This 1991 Canadian pilot starred a pre-Highlander Adrian Paul as a vigilante hero known as The Owl bent on avenging the deaths of his family. This may have been based on the Dell comic book character from the 40’s.

Them – A 1996 pilot which starred Scott Patterson (who most recently showed up in The Event) in a Invasion of the Body Snatchers type story about aliens staging a silent invasion by replacing humans with lookalikes. In 2007, BSG’s David Eick also produced a pilot of the same name about an agent who is sent to investigate a possible alien infiltration. That one co-starred Tricia Helfer, and we have no idea if it may have been an attempt to revisit the 1996 idea (which Eick had no involvement with).

Bridge of Time – This 1997 pilot starred Susan Dey (Partridge Family, L.A. Law) as an international aid worker whose plane crashes in Africa leading her to discover a utopian society where she is destined to replace the people’s spiritual leader.

Global Frequency – This 2005 pilot starred Michelle Forbes (Star Trek: TNG, True Blood) and was based on the Warren Ellis comic book mini-series of the same name. It’s conspiracy-theory laden storyline followed an underground, covert agency determined to stop plans hatched by the various world governments that threatened the global community.

More Sci Fi Trifles at This Link