Emile Hirsch Joins Alien Invasion Flick ‘The Darkest Hour’

by Jordan Raup at The Film Stage

Into The Wild star Emile Hirsch will star in The Darkest Hour, a new sci-fi action flick directed by Chris Gorak (Right At Your Door) for Summit and New Regency.

Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov and Tom Jacobson. Gorak and Josh Zetumer, who is working on the Bourne reboot script, have written the one for this flick. The film is set in Moscow and “follows a group of Americans traveling in the city when an alien invasion occurs.”

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Predators Scribes To Write A New He-Man Movie

By Cyriaque Lamar at io9

The screenwriters who penned Robert Rodriguez’s upcoming Predators have been hired to write a new Masters of the Universe script. I’m sorry, Hollywood. You can remake MotU, but you’ll never replace Dolph Lundgren. My He-Man killed Apollo Creed.

Mike Finch and Alex Litvak of Predators are writing Columbia Pictures’ adaptation of Masters of the Universe. The project had previously gone to Warner Bros – John Stevenson, who co-directed Kung Fu Panda, was slated to direct MotU, but the project fell apart after the studio and Mattel reached a creative impasse. Columbia nabbed MotU this fall, and Mattel has since approved Finch and Litvak’s script.

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Rumor: Percy Jackson star is the new Spider-Man

By Patrick Lee at Sci Fi Wire

Looks like Sony has found its new Spider-Man, and his name is Percy Jackson: Logan Lerman, star of this year’s Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, is “almost 100 percent locked” to take over the role of the webslinger from Tobey Maguire.

That’s the report today on HitFix.com, citing anonymous sources:

“HitFix has exclusively learned that Logan Lerman is first choice for Sony Pictures and the clear frontrunner to replace Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker in the reboot of the blockbuster franchise. A source close to the production tells HitFix Lerman is “almost 100% locked” but not in contract negotiations for the role yet.”

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From vampire to Musketeer?

By Raelynn Coombs at The Examiner

There is an abundance of chatter on the net about The Three Musketeers movies. Yes, I did say movies. There are currently two movies, both said to be coming to us in 3D, that are in the works. One will be Warner Bros.’ version of the legend, and the other will be brought to us from none other than Summit Entertainment, the company who gave us the popular vampires from The Twilight Saga.

With two movies happening, who do you think should be cast as the musketeers? Well, there is a new campaign online and the fans are backing Kyle Schmid to play the role of D’Artagnan in either movie.

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The rise of 3-D: Game-changer or gimmick?

By Ty Burr at The Boston Globe

If you don’t get it by now, you really should: The movies are poised to undergo their greatest conceptual mutation since the advent of sound. With the unparalleled commercial success of “Avatar,’’ the 3-D revolution just isn’t upon us, it’s over — and the invaders won. Last year was the watershed, with 10 major studio releases offered in the newly digitized technology and almost all of them posting healthy grosses thanks to premium ticket prices. Since the James Cameron film opened — followed by several other high-profile entries — 3-D has accounted for 33 percent of all film grosses. Quoth Variety in a recent article: “It’s found money.’’

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After getting used to Tobey Maguire as Spiderman, it seems weird for someone younger to play him. But maybe the movies will be better this time around. And I’m still not sure about 3D, but I’m definitely not paying extra to see movies that way. But I don’t have kids either.

What do you think of the choice for Spiderman? Do you prefer movies in 3D? What do you think of the new He-Man movie?

Learn Sign Language from Sanctuary’s Creature from the Black Lagoon

Bigfoot, a werewolf, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon walk into an episode of Sanctuary, and what do they do? Mostly, they trade sign language, perform mundane medical procedures, and wait for the episode’s true villain to emerge.

I’m not sure what I could have hoped for from this classic monster match-up — certainly not a cage match, but maybe abnormals playing poker? Alas, Sanctuary has not time for such frivolities. Our rubber-suited movie monster is Jack, a creature called a Plesky who has been living in captivity with werewolf Henry’s pal Rachel. Rachel has been socializing Jack and teaching him sign language; he’s basically like Koko the gorilla if Koko occasionally shot out deadly spores. Yes, Jack has shot his deadly, deadly spores into Rachel, who will die if Magnus and her team can’t find a cure.

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We review the 2009 sci-fi pilots you’ll never see

Just before every fall TV season begins, the excitement of new possibilities swirls through the air as we anticipate what new shows are in our future. That excitement fades once we realize that only a couple of shows are actually worthy and is dashed once we see promising shows like Eastwick and Dollhouse killed off.

So now that the cancellations have begun, let’s take a look at the season that might have been. Here are four pilots the networks passed on, with our take on whether they missed an opportunity to unleash something great (or even just mildly entertaining) on viewers:

Back, CBS
Boldy Going Nowhere, Fox
Captain Cook’s Extraordinary Atlas, ABC
No Heroics, ABC

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12 Sci-Fi Shows That Were Canceled Too Soon

Joss Whedon has become something of a tortured artist since ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ ended its highly successful seven-season run in 2003. Since Sunnydale was destroyed and ‘Angel’ got pulled right when it was finding its own identity post-’Buffy,’ Whedon has yet to find another long-running hit. It’s still hard to believe that a show as great as ‘Firefly’ only lasted one season!

Whedon’s bad luck continues with the recent announcement that Fox is pulling the plug on ‘Dollhouse,’ a series that had enough of a following — and potential — to warrant another season. Would ‘Dollhouse’ have really hit its stride further down the road? We’ll never know. Here are some other sci-fi television series that met their makers too soon.

‘Angel’
‘Bionic Woman’
‘Birds of Prey’
‘Brimstone’
‘Firefly’
‘Invasion’
‘Jericho’
‘The Lone Gunmen’
‘Millennium’
‘Star Trek: TOS’
‘Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles’
‘Tru Calling’

MORE HERE

Some of the Sci-Fi Pilots – it’s a shame we won’t ever see them. A few of them don’t sound that bad.

As for the shows that were canceled too soon, I at least agree with Angel, Firefly, Bionic Woman and Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Which pilots do you think would have been good shows?

And which of the canceled shows were your faves?