Source: Variety

Sci Fi is developing a new take on “Alien Nation,” the 1988 feature that previously spawned a spin-off series on Fox.

“Angel” alum Tim Minear — no stranger to sci-fi tales, having worked on “The X-Files,” “Firefly” and “Strange World” — is penning the fresh take on the franchise. Fox 21, the alternative production arm of 20th Century Fox TV, will produce.

“Alien Nation” centers on the partnership between a veteran cop and his alien detective partner, set against the larger tale of alien “newcomers” who move to Earth and attempt to assimilate into society.

Fox 21 topper Chris Carlisle said he believed “Alien Nation” could rep the next franchise revival for Sci Fi, which found huge success in dusting off “Battlestar Galactica” and reworking it for today’s auds. Carlisle said “Alien Nation” works both as a sci-fi piece and a procedural drama.

“It’s absolute perfect timing for this type of show,” Carlisle said. “They’re looking for more grounded sci-fi and close-ended episodes, and at the heart of ‘Alien Nation,’ it’s a cop movie. It’s grounded. And it has a tremendous amount of dramatic possibilities and humor.”

The new “Alien Nation” would include a mythology that evolves over time and will also touch on some of the issues of the day, such as the immigrant experience and how society integrates an incoming culture.

Minear is currently busy outlining the “Alien Nation” script and mapping out the project’s mythology. The new “Alien Nation” will likely take place in the Pacific Northwest, and will take place about 20 years after the first ship of aliens – who have been banished as slaves – crash lands into Earth.

By the time the show begins, some time in the 2020s, the alien population has multiplied from a few thousand to 3.5 million. And much of the “newcomers” live their own segregated existence, in what Minear compares to the North African ghettos in France.

“You can take (the original ‘Alien Nation’) a step forward and really do a show that encompasses the clash of civilizations, and the idea of a ghettoized minority,” he said. “You can touch on racism, terrorism, assimilation, immigration. And there’s room for satire.”

Agents of Atlas #7	Agents of Atlas #7 70s Decade Var	Amazing Spider-Man Family #8
Astonishing Tales #6	Batman and Robin #2	Batman and Robin #2 Var Ed
Batman Confidential #31	Cable #16	Captain America Vol. 2: Fighting Chance TP
Captain America: Reborn #1 Sketch Var	Daredevil: Father TP	Deadpool: Merc With A Mouth #1 Mcguinness Var
Exiles #4	Fantastic Four #568	Green Lantern Corps #38
Green Lantern: Rebirth #1 Special Edition	Invincible Iron Man #15	Jonah Hex #45
Looney Tunes #176	Marvel Illustrated: The Three Musketeers TP

Marvel: Your Universe #6	The Mighty #6	New Avengers #54 Bachalo Variant
Official Index To the Marvel Universe #7	Scourge of the Gods – The Fall #1 (of 3) (MR)	Scourge of the Gods – The Fall #1 (of 3) (MR) Us Var
Secret Six #11	Spawn #193	Trojan War #3 (of 5)
Uncanny X-Men #513	War of Kings #5 (of 6)	Wolverine #72 2nd Ptg

DC comics in 1970 published a survey asking for feedback on a number of topics but one question was really interesting.   ”How interested are you in reading about Black people?”  The choices where – very interested,  fairly interested or not interested.     Its interesting they way they reduced a whole race of people to a category along with Breakfast cereal and afternoon cartoons.

Source: Comicbookresources

Michael Jackson Captain EO comic

The Wiz

Last Night they gave out the 35th annual Saturn Awards.  No big surprises other than my usual gripe about things getting nominated or even worse winning that aren’t in the genre, like Angelina Jolie winning Best Actress for Changeling.   It makes me wonder if they simply gave her the award with hopes of getting her to attend the awards or to generate some press for the event.  Yes she may have done a number of genre films, but this wasn’t one. 

 I was curious as to how films get nominated and this is what it says on their site.  The nominations are done by committee.  The committee is divided evenly between fans, academics and industry professionals.  It also says that they use the broadest definition possible to determine nominations for the categories.   I guess their definition of broad means that we can make anything fit as long as it serves our puposes. 

The Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed, who felt that films within those genres were never given the appreciation they deserved.

Winners below the break

-THE LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD went to Leonard Nimoy and it was presented to him by his most recent director, J.J Abrams.

-THE LIFE CAREER AWARD (whatever that means), went to one of the best character actors in the world, the one, the only, Lance Henriksen, and the award was presented to him by none other than pal Ed Harris.

-THE VISIONARY AWARD went to Jeffrey Katzenberg, and it was presented to him by everyone’s favorite multi-tasking producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

-BEST SCI-FI FILM: Iron ManThe Curious Case of Benjamin ButtonTV SERIES: LostDVD RELEASE: Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer

-BEST FANTASY FILM:

-BEST HORROR FILM: Hellboy II: The Golden Army

-BEST ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLER: The Dark Knight

-BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM: Let The Right One

-BEST ANIMATED FILM: WALL•E

-BEST ACTOR: Robert Downey, Jr. (Iron Man)

-BEST ACTRESS: Angelina Jolie (Changeling)

-SUPPORTING ACTOR: Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)

-SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Tilda Swinton (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)

-BEST PERFORMANCE BY A YOUNG ACTOR: JadenChristopher Smith (The Day The Earth Stood Still)

-BEST DIRECTOR: Jon Favreau (Iron Man)

-BEST WRITER: Christopher Nolan and Jonathon Nolan (The Dark Knight)

-MUSIC: Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard (The Dark Knight)

-COSTUME: Mary Zophres (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls)

-MAKE-UP: Greg Cannom (The Curios Case of Benjamin Button)

-SPECIAL EFFECTS: Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Timothy Webber, Paul J. Franklin (The Dark Knight)

IN TV:

-BEST

-BEST SYNDICATED/CABLE TV SERIES: Battlestar Galactica

-BEST PRESENTATION ON TV (???): The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice (accepted by uber producer Dean Devlin)

-BEST ACTOR: Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica)

-BEST ACTRESS: Mary McDonnell (Battlestar Galactica, accepted by co-star and hottie Grace Park, on behalf of Mary)

-SUPPORTING ACTOR: Adrian Pasdar (Heroes)

-SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter)

-BEST GUEST STAR: Jimmy Smits (Dexter)

IN DVD:

-BEST

-BEST CLASSIC FILM RELEASE: Psycho, Universal Legacy Series

-BEST COLLECTION: The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration

-BEST SERIES ON DVD: Moonlight

-BEST RETRO SERIES: The Invaders (accepted by show producer and infamous filmmaker Larry Cohen)

-BEST DVD SPECIAL EDITION: Stephen King’s The Mist (Two-Disc Collector’s Edition)

Luke Cage and Iron Fist are “Heros for Hire” again. –  In Thundrbolts #136  Luke Cage and Danny Rand, Power Man and Iron Fist, find themselves in the employ of Norman Osborn as his deadliest new assassins.

“Doctor Voodoo: Avenger of the Supernatural” – New on-going for the former Brother Voodoo by Rick Remender

There’s been lots of HP-related news lately, and it would take way too long to post everything, but what I will post is an extended clip of the “Tom Riddle Orphanage” scene, which previously debuted at the MTV Movie Awards a few weeks ago.

Extended Orphanage scene from \"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince\"

Also, the Official HBP website is now live, and it looks amazing!! Check it out at www.harrypotter.com

C’mon Potter fans, tell me what you think!!

(On a side note, for Potter fans planning to attend DragonCon, Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) has been confirmed to attend!!

If you missed last months New Avengers # 53 you missed Brother Voodoobecoming Marvel Sorcerer Supreme .     In the interview with CBR Bendis covers several things his approach to the character, the name change fr0m Brother Voodoo to Doctor Voodoo,   and the confirmation of a new series for the character written by Rick Remender .

Here’s a few excerpts from the article :

“If you hear the pitch of who Doctor Voodoo is, you go, ‘Hey that’s pretty interesting,’” Bendis said. Doctor Voodoo had to learn magic to stop a powerful sorcerer and avenge his brother’s murder. “His dead brother’s soul is inside him so he’s got this constant voice telling him what to do. He was a reluctant hero who had things thrust upon him and those characters are always the best.

“We also thought him not knowing he was going to be chosen as the next Sorcerer Supreme opened up different layers of magic as well,” Bendis continued. “Sometimes lazy writers would write Doctor Strange as a wash away, but there was a lot of logic to his powers. With Doctor Voodoo, if you do your research on Voodoo and use it as the template to build your fantasy, there’s a lot of cool stuff you can do there. It’s a new bag of tricks.”

Pages from “New Avengers” #54

Once Jericho Drumm was chosen as the next Sorcerer Supreme, Bendis undertook an extensive amount of research on the subject of real-life Voodoo. “I felt like Voodoo was something I knew nothing about and writers are supposed to do research, so I felt I needed to learn a lot. I spent most of the winter reading books on Voodoo, what it means and its history. I was in New York and I had all these books on me and [Marvel Editorin-Chief] Joe Quesada asked, ‘What are those for?’ I said they were for Brother Voodoo and mentioned that part of the problem with the character was that no one had really done a god damn bit of research on Voodoo. I didn’t really use any of my research but I felt better writing him. I felt like I understood where he came from and what was going on.”

In writing scenes with the newly appointed Doctor Voodoo, Bendis found the dynamic between the character and the spirit of his deceased brother to be highly enjoyable. “I imagined if my brother, who I adore, lived inside me, I would punch myself in the face about 85 times a day. It’s like there’s someone just over your shoulder constantly bothering you and they won’t go away. That’s a very unique dynamic in the Marvel Universe and I thought it was a lot of fun to write.”

Additionally, Doctor Voodoo is simply a curiosity in the Marvel Universe. “Doctor Voodoo has also been by himself a lot. He’s popped in and out of some adventures, but his relationships to the rest of the Marvel Universe are unique; it’s like no one knows what to make of him,” Bendis explained. “You’ve got all that, which is very interesting, but now there’s the question of what does it mean now that he’s Sorcerer Supreme? What did the Eye of Agamotto bring him? And how does that mix with the abilities he already has? So the amount of stories that can be told with the character is overwhelming. There’s hundreds of brand new stories. This also opens up a lot of brand new stories for Doctor Strange. He’s no longer Sorcerer Supreme, but he’s not out of the picture. He’s in more of a mentoring position now.”