Showing posts with label non-who news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label non-who news. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Tennat's Hamlet on PBS

America's Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has announced that the Royal Shakespeare Company's recent production of Hamlet starring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart will air in the US as part of the network's "Great Performances" series in 2010. The RSC says that the television adaptation "will retain the quality and tone of the critically acclaimed stage production but filming will take place on location"

Tennant will also be seen on PBS as host of the "Masterpiece Contemporary" series, which returns on October 25.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Little Britain USA

If you have never seen Little Britain, and most people in the US haven't HBO this Sunday will give you the chance. The sketch comedy show has taken the UK by storm and it will no doubt be the same here in the US. Now you might ask why I'm posting this on a Doctor Who site, well Tom Baker the 4th Doctor does the narrating of both versions of the show. Have a look see at the video below.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Big Bang...

You have to hope the Doctor is nearby if this goes wrong. Have a look.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

ITV to remake ‘The Prisoner’

It may not be the first time that this cult series has been rumoured to be remade, but this time there is too much speculation for it to be ignored.
But with so many remakes topping the TV ratings it would seem that whoever remakes this show would have a ready made audience.
ITV have confirmed that they are looking into the prospect of remaking the cult series that was originally filmed in the 1960’s, starred heart throb Patrick McGoohan and was filmed at the highly attractive village of Portmerion, in Wales.
But before fans of the show both past, and hopefully new, get too excited, Sky One was looking into this a couple of years ago and about ten years ago there was even talk of a movie being made.
However fans were disappointed when these failed to materialise.
Should this get beyond the development stage, former Dr Who, Christopher Eccleston is rumoured to play “Number Six”.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Vote for Tennant

David Tennant is among eleven other British stars being featured in Hello Magazine's Most Attractive Man. If you would like to vote for him, or any of the others go here: http://www.hellomagazine.com/specials/grand-finale07/menattractive.html

Monday, December 24, 2007

Merry Christmas: Back on the 26th

Have a wonderful Christmas. I'll be back on Wednesday the 26th with reports on Voyage of the Damned and a run down of the top stories of 2007.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Make the World BBC

The BBC's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, is to launch a further 30 channels internationally, as well as a high-definition outlet and an on-demand service in the United States, as part of the next stage of its aggressive expansion plan.
The launches, which will be based on four thematic brands - BBC Entertainment, with shows such as Doctor Who; BBC Knowledge, featuring programmes such as Top Gear; BBC Lifestyle, with What Not To Wear; and children's outlet CBeebies, featuring the Teletubbies - come on top of 21 channels it already plans to launch before the end of this financial year.
There will also be a mixed-genre high-definition channel, while Worldwide also looks after the distribution of BBC World, the international news channel, which is due to relaunch next year. The 30 new channels will launch over two years from the beginning of April. They will join existing brands such as BBC America and BBC Canada to take Worldwide's channel count to nearly 70 in more than 160 countries.
The launches come as Worldwide, which has been given the task of doubling the profits it pumps back into the BBC to at least £222m within five years, is pushing for rapid growth across its businesses.
It recently bought a 75% stake in the Lonely Planet travel guide firm for around £75m as well as opening a production hub in India - the third of eight planned around the world, following offices in Australia and the US, which makes the highly successful American version of Strictly Come Dancing. Worldwide will also benefit from the controversial decision to allow advertising on the bbc.com website, which is due to bring in £70m a year, while it also plans 15 "passion-based" global portals based on brands such as Top Gear as well as a commercial version of its video on demand service, iPlayer.
The US is a key target of the expansion plans, with Worldwide aiming to build on the success of its BBC America entertainment channel with a simulcast high-definition version, which is due to launch early next year. BBC America is now available in 58m homes in the US - up nearly 15m in the last year - while a new strategy of concentrating on contemporary programming, at the expense of classic shows such as Benny Hill, has seen ratings reach their highest peak since 2003, with the drama Robin Hood recently pulling in its biggest ever audience.
Worldwide will also launch its four thematic channels as branded video on demand services through BBC America, while there are also plans to expand BBC World, which is currently only available in New York, across the country.
An American-focused news programme, BBC World News America, was launched on BBC World in the US and BBC America at the beginning of October, doubling that channel's news ratings. The programme has already made a splash with an interview with former president Jimmy Carter, in which he attacked vice-president Dick Cheney. Worldwide is looking to launch its channels in nearly every other major territory globally. The first in Europe are due in Poland in December, with four channels going live, with France, Germany and Scandinavia set to follow.
In Asia, Malaysia and the Philippines will follow 10 channels launched in the continent in just five months, while two are due to go live in Latin America this year. Launches are also planned in Africa, while the new high definition channel is planned for developed markets such as Japan, South Korea, Australia and Italy.
"There is not a market we are not looking at," BBC Worldwide's managing director of channels, Darren Childs, told the Guardian. The new channels would commission locally produced content as well as broadcasting core BBC shows.
"We are not doing expat channels any more," Mr Childs declared. He said the ambitious roll-out of channels would help build the BBC brand internationally as well as challenging the big American media companies such as Viacom, owner of MTV, and Turner, which broadcasts CNN.
"It will take us three to five years to take us to the scale of our competitors, but I am confident we can do it," he said.
"We are taking on the big American channel providers and there isn't another UK competitor who can."
He said the BBC's plans had been met with enthusiasm by global channel providers. "This is a brand-led business and we are trying to build the BBC brand overseas by understanding our audiences better than our competitors," he said.
Worldwide's aggressive expansion has met with criticism from some quarters, particularly from the online world over its plan to sell advertising on bbc.com. "Where it is not helping UK plc is in doing anything that has a negative impact on private businesses in Britain," said Hugo Drayton, chairman of the British Internet Publishers' Association.
"Selling ads is not very helpful and is clearly detrimental to others." The BBC still wanted to "park its tanks on every lawn. It is too big and too insensitive to the needs of commercial operators."
Worldwide's managing director of digital media and director of strategy, David Moody, dismissed the concerns. "No business wants more competition. People want us to be only moderately successful but we have very clear instructions to go out and use our commercial returns to subsidise the licence fee."

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

STARGATE: ATLANTIS RENEWED

The Sci-Fi Channel has ordered a fifth-season renewal to their franchise STARGATE: ATLANTIS, says Variety. The new order calls for 20 additional episodes for next year. They've also recently brought Col. Samantha Carter (actress Amanda Tapping) to lead the show after the original SG-1 series came to an end, finishing its run at 10 seasons. "'Atlantis' truly came out from under the shadow of its sister series this year and proved that it's a hit in its own right," said SCI FI's Mark Stern, executive vice president of original programming.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Knights Templar win heresy reprieve after 700 years


Not really Sci Fi news, but cool nonetheless. VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Knights Templar, the medieval Christian military order accused of heresy and sexual misconduct, will soon be partly rehabilitated when the Vatican publishes trial documents it had closely guarded for 700 years.
A reproduction of the minutes of trials against the Templars, "'Processus Contra Templarios -- Papal Inquiry into the Trial of the Templars"' is a massive work and much more than a book -- with a 5,900 euros ($8,333) price tag.
"This is a milestone because it is the first time that these documents are being released by the Vatican, which gives a stamp of authority to the entire project," said Professor Barbara Frale, a medievalist at the Vatican's Secret Archives.
"Nothing before this offered scholars original documents of the trials of the Templars," she told Reuters in a telephone interview ahead of the official presentation of the work on October 25.
The epic comes in a soft leather case that includes a large-format book including scholarly commentary, reproductions of original parchments in Latin, and -- to tantalize Templar buffs -- replicas of the wax seals used by 14th-century inquisitors.
Reuters was given an advance preview of the work, of which only 799 numbered copies have been made.
One parchment measuring about half a meter wide by some two meters long is so detailed that it includes reproductions of stains and imperfections seen on the originals.
Pope Benedict will be given the first set of the work, published by the Vatican Secret Archives in collaboration with Italy's Scrinium cultural foundation, which acted as curator and will have exclusive world distribution rights.
The Templars, whose full name was "Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon," were founded in 1119 by knights sworn to protecting Christian pilgrims visiting the Holy Land after the Crusaders captured Jerusalem in 1099.
They amassed enormous wealth and helped finance wars of some European monarchs. Legends of their hidden treasures, secret rituals and power have figured over the years in films and bestsellers such as "The Da Vinci Code."
The Knights have also been portrayed as guardians of the legendary Holy Grail, the cup used by Christ at the Last Supper before his crucifixion.
The Vatican expects most copies of the work to be bought up by specialized libraries at top universities and by leading medieval scholars.
BURNED AT THE STAKE
The Templars went into decline after Muslims re-conquered the Holy Land at the end of the 13th century and were accused of heresy by King Philip IV of France, their foremost persecutor. Their alleged offences included denying Christ and secretly worshipping idols.
The most titillating part of the documents is the so-called Chinon Parchment, which contains phrases in which Pope Clement V absolves the Templars of charges of heresy, which had been the backbone of King Philip's attempts to eliminate them.
Templars were burned at the stake for heresy by King Philip's agents after they made confessions that most historians believe were given under duress.
The parchment, also known as the Chinon Chart, was "misplaced" in the Vatican archives until 2001, when Frale stumbled across it.
"The parchment was catalogued incorrectly at some point in history. At first I couldn't believe my eyes. I was incredulous," she said.
"This was the document that a lot of historians were looking for," the 37-year-old scholar said.
Philip was heavily indebted to the Templars, who had helped him finance his wars, and getting rid of them was a convenient way of cancelling his debts, some historians say.
Frale said Pope Clement was convinced that while the Templars had committed some grave sins, they were not heretics.
SPITTING ON THE CROSS
Their initiation ceremony is believed to have included spitting on the cross, but Frale said they justified this as a ritual of obedience in preparation for possible capture by Muslims. They were also said to have practiced sodomy.
"Simply put, the pope recognized that they were not heretics but guilty of many other minor crimes -- such as abuses, violence and sinful acts within the order," she said. "But that is not the same as heresy."
Despite his conviction that the Templars were not guilty of heresy, in 1312 Pope Clement ordered the Templars disbanded for what Frale called "the good of the Church" following his repeated clashes with the French king.
Frale depicted the trials against the Templars between 1307 and 1312 as a battle of political wills between Clement and Philip, and said the document means Clement's position has to be reappraised by historians.
"This will allow anyone to see what is actually in documents like these and deflate legends that are in vogue these days," she said.
Rosi Fontana, who has helped the Vatican coordinate the project, said: "The most incredible thing is that 700 years have passed and people are still fascinated by all of this."
"The precise reproduction of the parchments will allow scholars to study them, touch them, admire them as if they were dealing with the real thing," Fontana said.
"But even better, it means the originals will not deteriorate as fast as they would if they were constantly being viewed," she said.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

The Sarah Connor Chronicles,

This is coming to FOX in Janurary, Thought you might want to see it.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Doctor Who Scribe Travels to Tintin

Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg have found a writer for their trilogy of TINTIN films, says THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Steven Moffat wrote the scripts for the new DOCTOR WHO and BBC's JEKYLL. Created by Herge, the comics followed the adventures of Tintin, a young globetrotting reporter, and his loyal dog Snowy. The European iconic comic has been translated into 50 languages, selling more than 200 million copies.Kathleen Kennedy will produce the performance-capture films, which will be helmed one each by Jackson, Spielberg and a yet-to-be-announced third director.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Billie Piper Hit

BBC NEWS reports Diary of a Call Girl, starring Billie Piper in the title role, is turning in to a ratings success for ITV2. The first episode of the raunchy series recorded one of the biggest audiences for the channel since it began in 1998. It also scored higher ratings than the programmes showing at the same time on BBC Two, Channel 4 and Five. The drama is based on an online diary, written under the pseudonym Belle de Jour, which became a best-selling book.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Mummy Director on GI Joe

It's official and confirmed, readers. Director Stephen Sommers is back on for the live action adaptation of G.I. JOE, says Robert at IESB and Variety. He was first announced earlier this month as being the director and then a week later, there were whispers about Paramount rejecting the "salary price" that director Sommers wanted for the gig. Apparently, that's been worked out between the parties because the studio has now confirmed he will be the director in another team production between Paramount & Hasbro (same team to adapt TRANSFORMERS). Variety is saying that Sommers pitched his version of the film to the studio executives on Wednesday night and was hired on the spot after they were satisfied with what they heard.

New Hero

Variety reports that former VERONICA MARS star Kristen Bell is joining the cast of NBC's HEROES for a multiepisode arc. Bell was reportedly being sought for several TV gigs, including a part on ABC's LOST. Bell will make her first HEROES appearance in October. She'll play Elle, a character described as a sexy, mysterious young lady who has ties to the supposed death of Peter (Milo Ventimiglia), the past of H.R.G. (Jack Coleman) and the future of Claire (Hayden Panettiere). Elle will kick off her arc by committing a serious crime, although it's unclear whether she's good or bad. Bell co-stars in the Weinstein Co.'s upcoming Star Wars-themed movie FANBOYS.

Logan Running Again

According to the Hollywood Reporter, producer Joel Silver's update of the classic SF movie LOGAN'S RUN is back up and running at Warner Brothers with a new director and new script. Commercial director Joseph Kosinski will make his feature-film directorial debut on the SF thriller, which is being written by Tim Sexton (Children of Men). Silver is producing through his Warner-based Silver Pictures. X-MEN director Bryan Singer had at one point been signed to develop and direct, with an eye toward a 2005 release. Singer had begun previsualization work on the project before he left to helm SUPERMAN RETURNS. The original LOGAN'S RUN in 1976 starred Michael York, Jenny Agutter and Farrah Fawcett and was based on a 1967 novel by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson. The movie's premise was that anyone who reached a certain age was sentenced to death; the protagonist was a so-called Sandman dispatched to capture those who try to escape. While details of the new take are being kept mum, it is known that it will be low-tech science fiction in a futuristic setting and hew closer to the book than the 1976 movie. The new film will tackle idea of the "greater good" and people devoting themselves to an ideology blindly, while keeping the novel's concepts of runners, Sanctuary and gangs outside the system

Jekyll

According to BBC Video, the DVD of JEKYLL, a modern TV adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novella "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," will be released on Sept. 18. The miniseries, written by Steven Moffat (Doctor Who), premiered on BBC America on Aug. 4. The miniseries stars James Nesbitt (Match Point) as Dr. Jackman, a contemporary man with an ancient curse. This two-disc DVD set features more than five hours of content and bonus material, including the featurettes Jekyll: The Tale Retold and Jekyll: The Anatomy of a Scene and audio commentary. The DVD carries a suggested retail price of $29.98

Monday, August 13, 2007

The Hobbit

According to a story in the LA Times, New Line co-chairman Robert Shaye said that he has been quietly trying to mend fences with LORD OF THE RINGS director Peter Jackson. When asked if it was true that company insiders had been in talks with Jackson's representatives, Shaye told the newspaper: "Yes, that's a fair statement. Notwithstanding our personal quarrels, I really respect and admire Peter and would love for him to be creatively involved in some way in The Hobbit." Jackson withdrew his name from consideration for helming the Rings prequel movie in the wake of Jackson's lawsuit against New Line over Rings profits. That prompted Shaye to tell SCI FI Wire in January, "I do not want to make a movie with somebody who is suing me. It will never happen during my watch." But Shaye's latest admission suggests that New Line is eager to get The Hobbit going again with Jackson

CONAN

According to Variety, the option rights to Robert E. Howard's CONAN has been acquired Millennium Films and is now looking to begin production sometime next spring. The plan from Millennium is to make a new series of films based around the mythical conquerer adapted from Robert Howard's novels. This is the same production company behind the upcoming JOHN RAMBO installment and RIGHTEOUS KILL (a film starring Al Pacino & Robert De Niro as NYC detectives).

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Dresden's End

In a crushing blow to fans like me, Sci Fi Channel has announced the official decision to end their new show, The Dresden Files. Starring Paul Blackthorne, Valerie Cruz, and Terrence Mann, the show followed Chicago wizard Harry Dresden as he struggled to make sense of supernatural crimes going on around him. With a 1.37 Nielson household rating (which translates to 1.73 million viewers), the show just wasn't able to turn the profits that Sci Fi wanted in order to continue the series