Marx Madness Is Here!

Hello world,

My new entertainment blog over at NEWS 25 is now live. You'll find all sorts of news including science fiction and fantasy news. I will still post here from time to time, but most of my posting will now be there.

Here is the link, please check out the blog: http://marxmadness.news25.us

Until next time... Marx out.

Casting Call: 'Stargate Universe'

The official call sheets for the upcoming Stargate Universe series is being passed around on the web.

Casting calls are those breakdowns given to casting agencies to entice actors to come in for auditions. They also give us a nice sneak peak to what the main characters will be like.

Stargate Universe will premiere on the Sci Fi Channel in summer 2009. Shooting begins February 4, 2009. Sadly it will be replacing Stargate Atlantis, which will be transitioning to TV movies.

Colonel Everett Young: 40’s handsome, capable, former SG team leader. Like the Jack O’Neill of ten years ago, but Young’s edges have tended to sharpen over time. He requested permission to serve the remainder of his commission on Earth upon marrying his wife, Hailey, two years ago, but for now he’s temporary commander of a secret off world base. The loss of two members of his team several years ago has taught him never to take anything for granted, and be prepared for anything. He stays on top of his team so they stay alive. STAR NAMES ONLY. SERIES REGULAR

Tamara Jon: 20-25, all ethnicities (Asian Preferably). SGC Field medic, Captain grade. Off world experience. Beautiful, tough, smart, capable. Paramedic level training. Able to triage serious injury. Modest background. Dreamed of being a doctor but couldn’t afford medical school and the Air Force was her best option. She ends up being the most medically inclined person on the ship but is overwhelmed by the lack of knowledge and experience treating seriously wounded and ill patients. She also lacks the medicine and supplies and has to make do. SERIES REGULAR

Chloe Carpenter: 20ish. Stunning and sexy. Daughter of a U.S. Senator. Silver spoon upbringing and a little spoiled but not stupid either. Politically and socially savvy. Dreams of following in her father’s footsteps but for now she’s a bit of a party girl in her first year at an Ivy League school. Her father’s tragic death and the dire circumstances of being trapped on a spaceship seriously tests her character. SERIES REGULAR

Eli Hitchcock: 20-25. Total slacker. Utter genius. Mathematics, computers, anything he puts his mind to. Acerbic sense of humor. A social outcast. Comes from a broken home. Lacks confidence because his true intelligence has never really been recognized like Matt Damon’s character from Good Will Hunting with a little Jack Black thrown in. SERIES REGULAR

Lt. Jared Nash: 20-25. Junior SGC team member. Officer material but green and rough around the edges. Every teenage girl’s fantasy. Like a college quarterback thrown into his first pro game, he is thrust into the role of leader well before he’s ready for the responsibility and must learn to take command, earn respect through action, and manage the diverse personalities on the ship to keep everyone alive. Like Jason Bourne, he is skilled and well-trained however he is mentally unprepared for the urgency of the situation. SERIES REGULAR

Ron “Psycho” Stasiak: 20, all ethnicities. Marine. Big, strong, silent. You want him on your side. You don’t want him mad at you. Lacks control over his temper in non combat situations. His past is a mystery but it’s clear something dark formed the hard shell around him. Yet, there must also be some moral center because otherwise he’d kill everyone around him. Think Eric Bana’s character “Hoot” in Blackhawk Down. SERIES REGULAR.

AMC Journeys to 'Red Mars'

Cable network AMC is going scifi on us, with a new series based on Kim Stanley Robinson's 1992 novel, Red Mars.

Writer/executive producer Jonathan Hensleigh (Armageddon) wants to bring the first book of Robinson's Mars Trilogy to TV. The book chronicles the first colonial voyage to Mars with the crew of the "First Hundred" colonist.

"This fits in with our bigger vision of wanting series that feel like cinematic one-hour movies," Christina Wayne, senior VP original series and miniseries at AMC, told The Hollywood Reporter. "We're always looking for big genres but to do them in slightly different ways so they feel fresh and new,"

Hensleigh will executive produce with Michael Jaffe and Howard Braunstein of Jaffe Braunstein Entertainment and Vince Gerardis, Ralph Vicinanza and Eli Kirschner of Created By.

AMC is also developing a miniseries remake of the 1960s sci-fi series The Prisoner, starring Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellen.

An Actors Strike Inches Closer To Reality

Remember the Writer's Strike that caused many of your favorite TV shows to air short seasons, be delayed, interrupted or postponed last year? Well, another strike may be about to happen in Hollywood. This time it's the actor's turn.

The Screen Actors Guild negotiating committee has called for its board to support a strike authorization vote. They are saying it "is necessary to overcome the employers' intransigence."

Contract talks have been going nowhere since the last contract expired on June 30th. Currently actors are working under the terms of the old deal.

A strike authorization vote needs the approval of 75 percent of the guild's approximately 120,000 members.

Most of us learned what the WGA were striking over, but what is SAG threatening to strike over?

Similar to the WGA strike, the big issue is how royalties from sales through new media methods are being handled. But it isn't just royalties from online distribution services like iTunes, but also DVD sales. None of these are currently written into actors' contracts.

I don't think I need to tell you how a strike would affect the film industry. The 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike lasted four months and cost the Los Angeles economy somewhere between $380 million to as high as $2.1 billion (depending upon which report you read).

Lets hope that things get worked out before another strike happens.

Holy 'Graysons' CW!

I don't think anyone would be surprised if this turns out to be the last season of Smallville. Nothing confirmed mind you, but I've been hearing for over a year now that many of the people that work on the show are growing more and more tired of it.

So, that leaves one to wonder if The CW will try to spin the series off (like the once rumored Supergirl series or the fan demanded Justice League series) or perhaps find something else with a similar tone to keep that audience. Well, it looks like they may now have a plan and it has been revealed.

Variety reports that The CW has committed to a pilot for a series called The Graysons. Yes, you Batman fans can probably already guess what I'm talking about, but for those of you puzzled I'll explain further.

Dick "DJ" Grayson was the first young man to become Batman's sidekick known as Robin. In the comic books Grayson was a young acrobat, a member of his family's act called The Flying Graysons. Sadly, he became an orphan when a mafia boss kill his parents. Bruce Wayne takes him in as his ward and costumed sidekick. Eventually Grayson goes solo as Nightwing and leads the Teen Titans. He forever leaves behind the role of Robin, which is filled in over the years by other teenagers.

This proposed series, similar to Smallville, would follow Grayson before his eventual destiny of becoming Robin.

Smallville executive producers Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson, as well as Supernatural executive producer McG are developing the project.

After the success of Smallville, with 8.4 million viewers for the pilot, Warner Brothers has tried to duplicate that achievement. But, they have yet to accomplish that goal. The short lived Birds of Prey was cancelled after 13 episodes and 2006's Aquaman never made it past the unaired pilot.

If this concept was "The Waynes" I think they would have gold, but I'm a little skeptical that a pre-Robin series would work. But maybe they will surprise me.