Douglas Adams returns to television with new Dirk Gently show

io9.com: Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy creator Douglas Adams’ other great work of anarchic science fiction, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, comes to the BBC this fall/winter, as a one-hour pilot. But what happens if Dirk gets an ongoing series?

From the sound of things, the first 60-minute Dirk Gently episode will be an adaptation, at least in part, of the first book — the only plot summary so far is that Dirk tries “to solve the disappearance of a cat from an old lady’s house.” It’s being shown on BBC4 — not exactly the most high-profile channel, it must be said — and the script is written by Howard Overman, creator of Misfits and Vexed.

Two hot promo posters for Vampire Diaries 2nd season

blastr.com: The CW really wants to make sure we tune in when The Vampire Diaries returns. First they teased us with news that Kevin Williamson would be introducing a gay character this season. Now along come two smoldering-hot ads to remind us of the eye candy the show has in store.

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Allison Miller Signs on For ‘Terra Nova’

www.craveonline.com: Although Fox’s “Terra Nova” was pushed back until next year, production on the series is beginning to pick up.

Allison Miller has been cast in “Terra Nova,” according to a report in Variety. Miller has previously appeared in “Cold Case,” “CSI: New York,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Boston Legal” and “Kings.” She is perhaps best known for her roles in the films “17 Again” and “Blood: The Last Vampire.”

Jason O’Mara (“Life on Mars”) was previously cast as the lead character, Jim Shannon, a man who flees into the prehistoric past with his wife and two children in order to save themselves and the rest of humanity from extinction in the year 2149. Unfortunately, their lives are soon threatened by several dangerous and carnivorous dinosaurs.

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‘Conan’ Star Stephen Lang Confirms Supernatural Story Elements

splashpage.mtv.com: No offense to Jason Momoa and his bulging biceps, but perhaps the most intriguing photos to trickle out from the “Conan” set in Bulgaria earlier this year were not focused on the Cimmerian warrior. Rather, what captured our attention were a series of pics that showed a ghost-white creature in the midst of acrobatic battle with Conan. We didn’t know who or what this freaky-looking figure was, but we knew it couldn’t be human.

Did this mean “Conan” would incorporate supernatural elements, as much of Robert E. Howard’s source material does? Well, we know now that the answer is “Yes,” thanks to a conversation with co-star Stephen Lang.

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Emmy Countdown: We Pick Our Fave Shows (‘True Blood’! ‘Glee’! ‘Friday Night Lights’!) And Actors!

hollywoodcrush.mtv.com: This year there are so many contenders to love in both the comedic and dramatic categories, we had to give kudos to the actors and shows that kept us glued to our sets. Here are some of our faves, let us know if you agree!

Of course, some of our favorite dramas are up for Emmy’s on Sunday night too. In the Outstanding Drama Series category there are four amazing shows that we love: “True Blood” (no love for the actors to be found this year, so maybe some of our favorite sexy vampires will go home with the glory here), “Dexter,” “Mad Men,” and the dearly departed “LOST.”

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Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer’s True Blood Costar Reveals His Musical Wedding Gift!

www.popsugar.com: Todd Lowe plays sweetheart Terry Bellefleur on True Blood and yesterday we chatted with him at Kari Feinstein’s Emmy Style Lounge in Beverly Hills. The actor shared his amazement at the paparazzi madness surrounding Anna and Stephen’s wedding last weekend and told us about his special gift for the newlyweds. While the show’s resident nice guy insisted that he’s sworn to secrecy on the upcoming finale, he did weigh in on what’s to come next season and whether he might be the next male castmember to go shirtless. Here’s more:

PopSugar: This was a big weekend for Anna and Stephen. Were you at the wedding?
Todd Lowe: I did! I have a band and my band played there. . . my playing for them was my gift. . . This was my first time dealing with paparazzi in helicopters and boats. We saw them down standing on the beach and we thought they were surfers waiting for the right tide, and it’s like, no, they all have cameras with amazing, high-powered lenses.

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I loved the new Vampire Diaries promo posters. It looks like Nina is more in a Katherine character than Elena. Don’t you think? Still, I can’t wait for the new season to start! What did you think of the new posters? Would you have liked to see more with different cast members?

Are you looking forward to seeing Terra Nova?

Are you a Conan fan? What did you think of that interview?

Will you be seeing the Emmy’s this Sunday? Which TV shows would you give the Emmy to?

I’m a Gilmore Girls fan, so since the moment I saw Todd Lowe in True Blood I was amazed to see him there. He totally change from one character to the other. And if there’s more fans like me, you would remember that he used to have a band there, so I already new about that hidden talent. It was so sweet from him to play as a gift. I guess you can enjoy the music better if your friend is playing What did you think of that?

‘Mockingjay’ Author Suzanne Collins ‘Stamps Books’: WIN One Of 5 Signed Copies

Over 150 fans gathered Thursday morning to hear Suzanne Collins read from “Mockingjay,” the final installment in the author’s blockbuster “Hunger Games” trilogy, at Scholastic’s flagship store in SoHo. Fans at the store also received “custom stamped books” pressed with a unique stamp designed for Collins’ book tour in lieu of signing books due to a hand injury.

“This is the biggest event since ‘Harry Potter’,” store manager Michael Strouse said. “We’ve been anticipating this book for over a year.”

Fans lined up well before the store’s opening at 9:00 a.m. Thursday, eagerly scheming for a prime position to see the author speak. By 11:00 a.m. when Collins was scheduled to speak, 50 children gathered on the storeroom floor, while many more adults stood behind them. Some adults wore “Hunger Games” t-shirts of their own and, judging by the looks on their faces, were more excited than the kids.

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When fantasy takes wing, cultures don’t matter!

Explore cultures other than your own, says David Hair, New Zealander and author of The Bone Tiki, to young writers who prefer to work within their own comfort zone.

Hair is coming to Bangalore to launch his book Pyre of Queens, published by Penguin Books India. The story is about Ravindra-Raj, the evil sorcerer-king, who devises a deadly secret ritual where he and his seven queens will burn on his pyre, and he will rise again with the powers of Ravana, demon-king of the epic Ramayana. But things go wrong when one queen, the beautiful, spirited Darya, escapes with the help of Aram Dhoop, the court poet.

Hair’s first book, The Bone Tiki, won the Best First Novel award (in the Young Adult Fiction genre of books at the 2010 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards). The Bone Tiki and its sequel The Taniwha’s Tear are fantasy novels set in New Zealand.

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Vampire business is bloody good
From books to film to TV series, creatures of night taking big bite

Hollywood has repeatedly peddled the apocalyptic threat from aliens, machines, comets, viruses and zombies, but who was watching the vampires?

Never exactly absent from the entertainment scene, those eternal bloodsuckers lately have infiltrated everything from big screens and little screens to bookstore shelves, clothing racks, download services, video games and video, record and jewelry stores.

The low-budget Fox/New Regency Twilight parody Vampires Suck grossed $20 million in its first six days, and five million regular viewers are rabidly following HBO’s newest hit, True Blood, as it swoops toward its Season 3 finale Sept. 12. Meanwhile, Justin Cronin’s The Passage, Stephenie Meyer’s Breaking Dawn and Charlaine Harris’ Dead and Gone hover on bestseller lists.

“By starting with one simple mythological creature that’s been part of our literary universe for centuries, you can create a story that has it all: romance, horror, action, special effects, sex, epic love, wish fulfilment, romantic leading men, delicious bad-boy villains, female badasses, damsels in distress, death, monsters and, ultimately, the perfectly flawed hero who would give it all up if it meant they wouldn’t have to spend eternity alone,” says Julie Plec, writer and executive producer of the CW series The Vampire Diaries. “It doesn’t get more universal than that.”

Read more HERE

What did you think about today’s book news? Have you read ‘Mockingjay’ yet, how would you like to have a signed copy? (uh, me too!) Is the Vampire business here to stay, or will it burn out soon enough?

Supernatural Extended Preview for New Season

www.thedeadbolt.com: Supernatural returns to The CW airwaves on September 24 when the saga of the Winchester brothers continues. Ahead of the new season of Supernatural, The CW recently released a new extended preview that shows the start of the end of the world and the trigger of a new battle for Sam and Dean.

Torchwood Season 4 details: alien sex a possibility

sciencefictionworld.com: When Torchwood Season 4 airs next year on Starz, the American cable channel, it will be set in the US rather than Wales and will run for ten jam packed episodes, according to its creator.

“America is the heartland of the story,” said Russell T. Davies. “The story moves city in the US, so we have some scenes in Washington, we have some scenes in LA. It’s a very, very fast-paced storyline, with a lot of movement. Our intention is absolutely to base ourselves here and work with the best crews and the best actors.”

Entitled Torchwood: The New World, Davies told the Television Critics Association that Season 4 would be far more involved than simply the appearance of an alien monster. It also won’t follow on directly from Season 3′s downbeat ending.

“…That’s why you end those shows on that note, because they’re ending. We’d never start The New World that way… He [Captain Jack] was left very dispirited and almost defeated at the end of the last series, which we acknowledge and we deal with in a language that will both satisfy old fans and also will move forward into the future.”

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The ‘Vampire Diaries’ Season 2 Trailer Is Here

www.celebuzz.com: Nina Dobrev, Ian Somerhalder and the rest of the sexy suckers from The Vampire Diaries return to the little screen on September 9, and to prepare everybody for the vampy thrills and chills, CW has released a little teaser for the season of awesomeness to come. Looks like viewers will have more than their share of romantic intrigue, suspense and epic catfghts to look forward to.

Lionel Luthor Is Returning to Smallville!

screencrave.com: We know what you’re thinking. If there’s one Luthor you’d love to see return to “Smallville” it would be Lex, but at the moment the closest thing we have is his dad. According to EW, John Glover will reprise his role as Lionel Luthor during the tenth and final season of the show. Like several other defunct cast-members, he supposedly bit the dust a few seasons ago, so how will he contact Clark from the grave?

According to the site’s sources, Glover has signed on to appear in multiple episodes for his return stint as Lionel. The last time we saw him on the show was in season 8 via archival footage, and prior to that in season 7 when he was pushed out of a window to his death — at the hand of his own son! Glover is booked for a minimum of two episodes both of which are expected to air in November.

Wow, all of these sneak picks and trailers are amazing! I can’t wait for the new seasons to get here. Evil Sam, Evil Katherine, more Smallville villains on their way, it makes it more thrilling. Not to mention that Smallville comes to an end, being a comic fan and even thought it had some character changes I really liked it and it brought some of my favorite character to life. I’m gonna miss it.I really hope Lex comes back, even for a glimpse

I don’t know what to say about Katherine, she’s boring me. Couldn’t she stay “dead”? Leave my poor Damon alone

What do you think of the new seasons? Which one are you waiting to see?

Syfy’s ‘Sharktopus‘ Premieres September 25, ‘Stargate Universe‘ & ‘Sanctuary‘ Premiere on September 28

Source: tvbythenumbers.com

Not a lot new here, but any chance to type “Sharktopus” usually is enough motivation for me.

via press release:

SYFY FALL PROGRAMMING INCLUDES NEW SEASONS OF GHOST HUNTERS, STARGATE UNIVERSE, DESTINATION TRUTH, SANCTUARY, SCARE TACTICS AND FACT OR FAKED

WWE FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN MOVES TO SYFY OCTOBER 1st

HOLLYWOOD TREASURE AND BEAST LEGENDS PREMIERES

WAREHOUSE 13 AND EUREKA HOLIDAY EPISODES

AND GET OUT OF THE WATER – SHARKTOPUS IS COMING!

New York, New York – August 18, 2010 – Syfy’s 2010 Fall Programming spans the imagination with new seasons of powerhouses Stargate Universe and Sanctuary, (both moving to Tuesdays), Ghost Hunters, Scare Tactics and Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files, Destination Truth traveling to Thursdays, and WWE Friday Night SmackDown climbing into the Syfy ring beginning October 1.

The Autumn primetime schedule also features the premieres of Hollywood Treasure (formerly Hunting Hollywood) and Beast Legends.

For the first time, Syfy’s two most popular original scripted series – Eureka and Warehouse 13 — will debut special stand-alone holiday episodes in December, showcasing guests stars Chris Parnell (Saturday Night Live) and Matt Frewer (Eureka), and Judd Hirsch and Paul Blackthorne (Warehouse 13).

Upcoming popular Syfy Saturday Original Movies include Roger Corman’s highly anticipated Sharktopus on September 25.

Following are highlights of Syfy’s Fall Programming schedule (all times ET/PT):

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‘Diaries’ star: ‘Jeremy will change’

Source: digitalspy.co.uk

warning; spoilers

The Vampire Diaries star Steven R. McQueen has admitted that he enjoys exploring the dark side of his character Jeremy Gilbert.

He told HollywoodNews.com that the character will continue to evolve in the forthcoming second season.

“Jeremy has been one of the most favourite characters I’ve ever played, just because he has gone through so much, and he has been forced to make so many changes,” explained the actor.

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What do you think of today’s tv news?

Join us in the forum to discuss!

The real explanation for that long delay in George R.R. Martin’s next book?

Source: io9.com

Fans have been waiting years for A Dance With Dragons, the fifth book in George R.R. Martin’s Song Of Ice and Fire series. A vocal minority have gotten snarky about it. But really, they misunderstand the reasons for the delay.

I’ve been reading the Song Of Ice and Fire books for the past few weeks, and I’ve gotten up to midway through A Storm Of Swords. They’re pretty amazing, in the way that a lot of Charles Dickens is amazing — there are a ton of characters, almost all of whom are memorable, managing to live in on your mind long after you put the books down.

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‘The Vampire Diaries’ prequel novel: An exclusive cover peek

Source: shelf-life.ew.com

While Damon from The Vampire Diaries is busy tearing up the polls in EW’s official Sexy Beast competition, the show’s other bloodsucking protagonist is set to get a series of prequel books named after him. HarperCollins Children’s Books and Alloy Entertainment have announced that they will be releasing Stefan’s Diaries #1: Origins, the first in a planned trilogy of novels that will shed sunlight on the vampire brothers’ long, troubled history, including the Civil War-era romance that turned them against each other.

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Letting a Flying Hairy Arm Take It Away

Source: nytimes.com

Following a dedication page that offers his fifth novel to the memory of Kurt Vonnegut — implicitly announcing as his goal to employ Vonnegut’s shades of dark comedy and fluorescent farce — Rick Moody turns things over in “The Four Fingers of Death” to one Montese Crandall. This character is not the narrator of the novel but the “author” of a slab of sci-fi horror hack work coextensive with it. This is to say that Mr. Moody here undertakes an extended impersonation of a long-winded ham, convincingly so.

Crandall lives in a scruffy Arizona town in the year 2025, a zany, dystopian time when many consumers have smart phones surgically implanted in their wrists, and Major League Baseball allows players to use not only performance-enhancing drugs but also even bionic limbs. Though a sports memorabilia dealer by trade, Crandall thinks of himself first as a writer doing innovative work in the genre of the one-sentence story. “He was just a kid,” is the whole of his tribute to a teenager who died in a motorcycle accident. “The 350 pages of a novel,” Crandall argues early on, “are tedious elaboration.” He nonetheless proceeds to deliver himself of a book clocking in at roughly twice that length

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What did you think of today’s book news?

Join us in the forum to discuss!

Vampire Diaries Season 2 To Create New Triangle With Bonnie & More

Posted by Andre at On The Flix

MTV’s Hollywood Crush caught up to CW “Vampire Diaries” producer Kevin Williams at the recent 2010 Comic-Con event,and he revealed some new season 2 spoiler info for characters Bonnie,Caroline,Matt,and Tyler. There’s also going to be a new game changing event that takes place.

He stated, “Something happens in the first episode that’s sort of a game changer. Everyone here was sworn to secrecy because it involves everyone. It’s going to help launch us into the second season in a fresh way and it will be fun.”

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Uncut script reveals classic Doctor Who villain who ALMOST returned

By Nathalie Caron at Blastr

Doctor Who‘s return in 2005 meant more than just a comeback for the Time Lord—a ton of classic villains have returned as well, such as Daleks, Cybermen and, most recently, the Silurians. But one old villain who was intended to return … DIDN’T. And an unexpurgated draft of a recent script reveals exactly which villain got derailed.

In an interview given to Doctor Who Magazine, Gareth Roberts explained that in earlier drafts of his episode “The Lodger” there “was a different villain at its center.” The villain in question was to be Meglos, a sentient, shape-changing (wait for it) cactus, who appeared in a Doctor Who story starring the fourth Doctor, Tom Baker, back in the 1980s.

The four-part story, simply titled “Meglos,” was apparently not one of the more fondly remembered Doctor Who episodes.

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Who could Bonnie be in a triangle with? What do you think of the cactus villain returning in Doctor Who? (How did a cactus get that wool scarf on?)