Travis Richey as the Inspector in 'Untitled Web Series About A Space Traveler Who Can Also Travel Through Time'

I met Travis Richey last year at Bent-Con, but as a huge fan of the NBC series Community, and their Doctor Who parody called Inspector Spacetime. I was already a follower of his because by then I was following his Youtube page, Sivartis.There I began watching his videos and so when December last year arrived, I was excited to meet him. Got his picture, and talked to him briefly.

I got a chance to meet him again several months later when he came to a reading for two scripts my friends were getting ready to produce as films in the coming months, Something Like Summer and The Dark Place, both to be helmed by Judas Kiss director J.T. Tepnapa. Something Like Summer is based on the popular novel by Jay Bell, while The Dark Place is written by Judas Kiss producer Jody Wheeler. 

Then is June, I got a Facebook invite to his birthday party. And at first, I was not going to go. I thought, while I know him through his work, did he remember me? But I ended up going anyways, and had a great time. I'm not sure he fully remembered me, but it was still cool to hang with his friends (that included another mutual friend of ours, filmmaker Steven Tylor O'Connor -A Fairy Tale and Welcome to New York). We played Cards Against Humanity into the wee hours.

I had proposed an interview (which I apologize for the long delay) of sorts with him, knowing that he and his writing partner Eric Loya were working on a web series based in and around the Inspector Spacetime character. Of course, by then, there had been some drama about the whole thing, legal stuff that came from Sony. But that did not stop Travis, and coming September 10 is the first episode of Untitled Web Series About A Space TravelerWho Can Also Travel Through Time.

He took the time to answer a few questions:

1. Who is Travis Richey?

I’m just a kid from Wisconsin.  I was always a class clown.  I would watch SNL on Saturday night and go to school the next week doing all the voices and characters from Dana Carvey and Mike Meyers.  It was probably a way for me to deal with growing up with Bells Palsy.  It was either laugh and make other people laugh or curl up into a ball and disappear.  And I’m just not the disappearing type…  When I was 14 I realized that what I needed to do with my life was to be an entertainer.  I’ve been pursuing that goal ever since.

2. How did you get the role on “Community?”

I have been going to casting director workshops for years.  Virtually everything I’ve booked on TV has been from meeting a casting director at a workshop.  It’s a tremendously useful way for unknown actors to be seen when otherwise they wouldn’t get past the role submission process.


3. At what point did you realize this role was bigger than what was originally thought as?

I suspected that the character would recur as soon as I read the script, and Abed says “this is the best show I’ve ever seen in my entire life.”  I’d been a fan of Community since it started, so I knew what happened when Abed became obsessed with something.  Remember Kickpuncher?  Then, when we were on set, we were all talking, joking around about there being an actual episode of Inspector Spacetime for the web or as a DVD extra.  Then, on the way home from that first shoot, I realized that a web series would be perfect, so before I even got home I called my writing partner Eric Loya to say we needed to write something we could pitch to the Community folks, in case they didn’t have time to deal with it.  All that aside, I had NO idea HOW big is was going to be.

4. We’ve seen SNL take characters and expand them into movies. Some have worked, while others have not. Was there any reservation that this could not work?

Nope.  I’m not really sure how to expand on that, but basically, every character can be an interesting character.  Eric and I sat down and spent hours figuring out what the character of The Inspector was, how he was similar to The Doctor and how he was different.  Too many of those unsuccessful movies are extensions of a joke, and that is almost always the low-success choice.

5. Were you shocked that NBC and Sony did not see the potential in this project as Tumblr pages and what not sprung up almost overnight?

Oh, absolutely!  In all the webisode tie-ins of all the shows on TV, I can’t think of another that was more appropriate than Inspector Spacetime.  I mean, fans were literally demanding it!  Plus, major portions of the Community audience is online and web-saavy, and engaged online.  When Eric and I wrote the series, we thought there was a good chance that there was going to be a web series, even if it wasn’t the one we wrote.  And then after the season premiere, when fans created that entire history of Inspector Spacetime online, it seemed so obvious a decision.  To this day, I’m baffled that it didn’t happen through official channels.

6. After the network passed on the idea, you and your writing partner produced the animated teaser. Was your initial idea to do it that way to begin with?

No, I only put the animatic together because I wanted to do something really cool for the Inspector Spacetime panel I was invited to at Gallifrey One this year.  Like I said, I’m an entertainer, I really wanted to do something great for that panel.  So I recorded the episode with by friend Erin Neimeyer, and asked one of my Youtube friends, SharkeyeJones, to illustrate it, and it turned out fantastic.

The panel ended up being a standing-room only event, and everybody had an amazing time.  We were planning at that point to launch the Kickstarter campaign to do the series ourselves, since Community had finished shooting Season 3 without another Inspector appearance, and Season 4 was still very much in the air.  I was approached by at least a dozen people at Gallifrey One who told me that they were Doctor Who fans who found Community because of Inspector Spacetime.

Then, word got out that we were planning on doing the web series, and before I got home from the convention that night, IO9.com had picked up on the story, and then it was everywhere.  So I spent the night finishing up the Kickstarter page and launched it right away, so that we could take advantage of the buzz.

7. Was there a surprise when Sony filed a cease and desist to prevent both of you from moving forward with your Inspector Spacetime idea and doing appearances as the Inspector at conventions?

This is a huge bit of misinformation that I keep hearing.  There was never a cease and desist.  Never anything official from Sony or NBC in relation to the web series.  All that happened was that my agent (who had nothing to do with the web series) got this email from a producer at Community, and forwarded it to me.  All the email said was “It’s still up!” (referring to the Kickstarter) and originated at Sony Legal.

So I called the Producer first and tried to tell him that we pitched the idea to them first and would much rather have worked with the folks at Community directly, and still would love to!  I told him that fans were demanding that this series be made.  His response was that everyone was gone from the show since it was done shooting the season, and that we should wait until Season 4.  Well, at the time, Season 4 was still a huge question mark, which I told him.  I said that the web series could bring fans to the show, if there were a Season 4.  In the end, he said it wasn’t his decision.  It was Sony and NBC calling the shots.

So, I wrote a long, professional email to the lawyer who sent that original email (I should post mine somewhere, I really was proud of it), and she called me back within minutes.  She said stop making the web series.  I said, well, no, because except for the title and the look of the main character, it’s completely original.  I told her what I told the producer, that I thought it was a no-brainer idea to do a web series and that I’d much rather work with them than alone.  She said there was no way for that decision to be made because it would have to be Sony and NBC that would have to make it.  I said it was funny that they were able to make the decision to try and shut down the web series easy enough…  Then I reminded her that we weren’t going ot be making any money off of this project and that I thought it was funny that they allowed other fans to make money off of Inspector Spacetime merchandise like t-shirts, posters and iPhone cases.  She said there weren’t enough personnel  in the legal department to chase down every case of infringement.  Having worked at a studio legal department (and knowing how easy Google is to use), I just let that one slide.  I told her I’d change the name and the look of the character and that I was sorry that we couldn’t work together to bring the world more Inspector Spacetime.


8. I worked on the web series Star Trek: Hidden Frontier for its final season. Paramount seemed aware that all the fan series actually enhanced their product; do you feel you could have done the same here?

Absolutely.  There’s a term called “Brand Ambassador.”  And that’s what all those fans are who make artwork, and t-shirts and posters and iPhone cases (and web series).  They help spread the word about a show or a movie or even a product or business and help to increase it’s success, without prompting by the company responsible for it.

Lucas Films has done a great job embracing Brand Ambassadors.  Joss Whedon is brilliant at it.  Star Trek almost died in the late 90s because Paramount was actually fighting fan-run web sites and productions.

9. How did the new title come about and the costume?

The title was mostly me being snarky.  I didn’t want to call it “Inspector When” or “Inblector Blacetime” (as Dan Harmon himself suggested).  I wanted it to be clear to people that the title wasn’t the real title, and when I came up with Untitled Web Series About A Space Traveler Who Can Also Travel Through Time it just made me laugh, so I hoped other people would get the joke.  I almost added “For Legal Reasons” but decided that was crossing a line.  I didn’t want to fight or piss anybody off.  I just wanted to make some good entertainment.

In the course of the Kickstarter campaign, I had a bunch of people approach me about helping out.  I met a guy named Brian Uiga at Gallifrey One – he helped to restore the 8^th Doctor’s TARDIS console from the TV movie – and besides offering to design and build The Inspector’s optic pocketknife, he introduced me to a couple of costume designers, Rebecca Jordan and Amanda Avery, who both do a lot of brilliant cosplay costumes.  Rebecca designed and built The Inspector’s new coat from scratch.  And isn’t it amazing?!?  We basically worked from the fact that The Inspector, as an Infinity Knight, is sort of a Universe Police.  So we wanted something cool and hip.

10. How much of Doctor Who –both old and new- are incorporating into the project, or are you moving away from parody now that you have some freedom and into another direction?

We are definitely trying to make The Inspector his own man, in a show that will stand on it’s own, but the entire framework for his universe is based on Doctor Who, and me and Eric are both big Whovians.  Our show is not going to be campy, though, so in that respect it is more similar to the latest incarnation of Doctor Who.  The tricky thing is, Doctor Who already has a fair bit of humor in it, right?  So, how do you parody something that already doesn’t’ take itself too seriously?  The answer was to just concentrate on making The Inspector’s series the best it could be, and maybe a touch funnier, but to not focus on The Doctor too much.

11. As the idea evolved due to Sony, at what point did you start thinking about using Kickstarter to crowd fund a full web series?

That decision was made as soon as it became clear that there was going to be no more Inspector Spacetime in Season 3 of Community.  My thought was, “If fans want to see the web series enough to fund it, then we’ll know it’s a thing worth doing.”  Sony had very little to do with that decision, besides not making the web series themselves.  And again, their insistence that we change the title and look of the character resulted in only those two changes.  Nothing else in our original script needed to be modified.

12. I heard that at Comic Con that the new showrunners are planning an episode where the crew go to an Inspector Spactime convention. Do you think you’ll be back?

I certainly hope so!  I had a great idea of how to bring The Inspector to Greendale, but I have no idea what they’re planning.  There are SO many great ways to do a sci-fi convention story, and not all of them would require The Inspector to be there

NBC's 'The New Normal' is less funnier than 'Whitney' -not sure how that's possible

I watched The New Normal pilot that The Advocate posted on their website. It's the new show from Ryan Murphy. And while it's hard to really gauge a sitcom by its pilot, I'm sad to say I felt this was a huge misfire.

I'm not sure what to expect from it, considering Ryan is somewhat uneven in his style. The characters are not only all typical sitcom archetypes, they're also portrayed as stereotypical -especially the gay men.

So the setup is -and stop me if you've not heard this before- Bryan (Andrew Rannells) and David (Justin Bartha) are a happy LA based couple, with successful respective careers (yes, once again, everyone in Southern California, especially the gays, have money). The only thing missing in their relationship is a baby. Cue the awww. Bryan, the obviously feminine bottom, suddenly has his biological clock go off when seeing a baby while shopping. He convinces his partner David, the more masculine top, that they should have a baby.

I’m unsure at what point Murphy or NBC said we need to play it safe, and basically portray the gay couple with an obvious “husband” and an obvious “wife” for those Red Staters, less they don’t get the full idea of the show. 

Anyways, so right now, this could be the plot line of every standard relationship show TV has been churning out for the last 60 plus years. So right now, you know the only thing that makes it different from say Up All Night, is that it’s a gay couple. Wow, revolutionary.

Meanwhile, in Ohio, a girl named Goldie (Georgia King), who apparently had a baby at 15, is in a car with her grandmother (Ellen Barkin) and her 8 year-old daughter Shania (Bebe Wood). After a diatribe from said grandmother after seeing two lesbians with a baby –and who also insults her own granddaughter- and after catching her husband with another woman, Goldie "borrows" her grandmother's car and ends up in Los Angeles.

Through the miracle of circumstances and typical TV luck, Goldie ends up agreeing to be a surrogate for David and Bryan (is it weird that my name is David and I have a brother named Brian?).

The biggest problem with the show is that all the cast members are pretty much unappealing, thus the show is a huge step backwards in sitcom development and better gay portrayals. However, you can't help but love Georgia King, though she is written as an idiot and wimp. Her daughter, following strict sitcom scenarios, is wiser and smarter than her mother and great-grandmother combined.

Ellen Barkin, who has played flamboyant characters and stole whole scenes from other actors (most memorably in 1999's Drop Dead Gorgeous) is set as the Archie Bunker for the 21st Century. And while that is a horrible comparison, and an insult to Carol O’Connor’s acting skills, the idea that she is a racist and potty mouth is neither funny nor dangerous in this day and age. 

The worst, by far, however is NeNe Leakes, who shot to fame in the Bravo reality series The Housewives of Atlanta. Murphy cast her in a recurring role on his other show Glee, as Roz Washington, McKinley High's synchronized swim coach and rival to Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch). On that show, Leakes was just an opinionated, loud, diva black woman who went toe-to-toe with Sue. Here in The New Normal, she is playing essentially the same character and who will probably go toe-to-toe with Barkin's grandmother character.

And she can’t act, which is an insult –again-to the many real actors in Hollywood struggling. It’s a shame, really. 

It's clear that Ryan Murphy is more flash than substance. Glee has failed to recapture the gold it spun in its first season, and his American Horror Story series is just painfully overrated, de-evolved schlock horror with terrific actresses like Jessica Lange trolling for Emmy and Golden Globe statues because she can no longer get roles where women are not victims or trolls. 

While this show seems to be a paint-by-number version of ABC's Modern Family, this pilot does not even come close to MF’s weaker efforts. The New Normal comes off as typical sitcom, cut from the same cloth as so many other failed comedy shows where the creators decide that anything original and different must be squashed, the light leeched out of the scripts. Another words, we've seen this all before and at this point, I can't see the show coming anywhere near being better than say NBC's Whitney, the worst sitcom from last year.

Video: Doctor Who in New York

Husbands: Behind the Scenes, Episode 2

Husbands: Season Two

BBC DOCTOR WHO 50th Anniversary Posters -Low Rez

BBC America's trailer for DOCTOR WHO

About a week and half ago, I posted that the BBC and BBC America was debuting DOCTOR WHO on September 1st. But something strange happened. When the season opener screened back on August 15 in London, someone at the event let it slip that show was returning then, but no "official" statement had been made by the BBC. So the game, one the BBC is fond of playing about when this (or any of their other shows) would debut, continued. It seemed no one could print the return until some programmer within the BBC passed the word. So today comes the "official" announcement and a new trailer.

Phyllis Diller 1917-2012

I’m not sure when I first saw Phyllis Diller, but it was most likely during the early 1970s. She was memorable, with that long cigarette holder, tacky dress, wild hair and what became her signature laugh. While she lived to be 95, passing away today in her sleep, she’ll be longed remembered for a style that was revolutionary when she started. 

She started her career when she was 37, becoming the first woman stand-up. While very beautiful, she dolled herself down for the persona of a put-upon, dowdy housewife who could not cook and had a husband named Fang. She rose to prominence after a chance meeting with Bob Hope in 1959. Over their long association, she guest-starred in 23 of his specials and did 3 movies with him. Also, during the 1960s she appeared on multiple shows, including What’s My Line and Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-in and multiple guest appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. She appeared in the Drew Carey show as well as providing her distinctive voice for such animated shows as Hey, Arnold,  The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and Family Guy. 

Diller provided the vocals for the Queen in Disney/Pixar's animated movie A Bug's Life. In 2005, Diller was featured as one of many contemporary comics in a documentary film, The Aristocrats. Diller, who avoided blue comedy, did a version of an old, risqué vaudeville routine in which she describes herself passing out when she first heard the joke, forgetting the actual content of the joke.

Tributes to her came in as word of her passing was announced:

Joan Rivers posted "The only tragedy is that Phyllis Diller was the last from an era that insisted a woman had to look funny in order to be funny.  If she had started today, Phyllis could have stood there in Dior and Harry Winston and become the major star that she was. I adored her!"

Roseanne Barr tweeted that Diller was "a revolutionary woman who inspired me. Last time I saw Ms. Diller she'd a stroke & when her assistant told her she could no longer drink gin, I immediately took her out 4 martinis.”

She last appeared on TV is 2007, showing up on Boston Legal and doing The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

I will always remember that laugh and her self-deprecating humor, something I've always liked. She tried to make herself look ugly, but she was a beautiful woman who had a talent to make people laugh. It was, and still is, a rare talent.

She is survived by 3 of her 6 children.

Tony Scott 1944-2012

The tragic death of Top Gun director Tony Scott has left Hollywood and his home country of England reeling. The 68 year-old director jumped from the Vincent Thomas Bridge, which spans San Pedro and Terminal Island in Long Beach at around 12:30 yesterday. His body was recovered a few hours later.

As with all suicides, those left behind are filled with questions. Mostly, or course, is why. It had been revealed that Scott did leave a note in his car, and what was contained in that is unknown, however, word has broke today that the director was facing inoperable brain cancer. If this bares out, perhaps his family can come to some solace that knowing that his time was limited, he took his fate into his own hands. Then again, I maybe wrong. But based on his style of filming and editing, Scott took the lead in everything.

Tony Scott, younger brother to Oscar winning director Ridley Scott, shot to fame in the 1980's with the cult hit The Hunger in 1982, which he followed up with the huge hit Top Gun, released in 1985. He went on to helm Beverly Hills Cop II, Revenge, reteaming with Tom Cruise for Days of Thunder in 1990, True Romance in 1993, and Crimson Tide in 1995, the first of five eventual films where Scott worked with Oscar winner Denzel Washington, with their last collaborations being 2010's Unstoppable with Star Trek's Chris Pine.

Through the production company formed with his brother, Scott Free, he was executive produced the CBS series Numbers and The Good Wife. He also executive produced the upcoming A&E miniseries remake of Robin Cook's Coma.

Tributes flooded in as soon as word began breaking late Sunday afternoon and into early evening: 

Actress Keira Knightley, who starred in his 2005 film Domino, said: "Tony Scott was one of the most extraordinary, imaginative men I ever worked with. It was a privilege to have spent the time I did with him. He was a fire cracker and one of the world's true originals."

Duncan Jones, director of Source Code and Moon, said: "Just heard about Tony Scott news. Horrible... Tony was a truly lovely man who took me under his wing & ignited my passion to make films."

Top Gun star Val Kilmer said "RIP Tony. You were the kindest film director I ever worked for. You will be missed." 

Saving Private Ryan actor Adam Goldberg - who starred opposite Denzel Washington in Scott's 2006 sci-fi film Deja Vu - wrote on his blog: "Tony Scott was one of the, if not the, warmest and most generous directors for whom I've ever worked. I was constantly astounded by his ability to balance the massive weight of his movies with unsparing respect and love for his actors and crew all the way down the line. I'll miss you man."

Tributes from David Krumholtz and Julia Margulies, who worked on shows executive produced by Scott are here.

Producer/Director Tony Scott Jumps to his death

UPDATE: As the movie industry reels from the suicide of director Tony Scott yesterday, word has now come out that the director was facing inoperable brain cancer.

Deadline has independently confirmed with the Los Angeles Coroner’s Office that 68-year-old Anthony Davis Scott, better known in Hollywood as Tony Scott, was pronounced dead around 3 PM. He jumped off the Vincent Thomas Bridge spanning San Pedro and Terminal Island. The Coroner’s Office told Deadline it is being investigated as a suicide with no indication it was anything but a suicide. The local Daily Breeze newspaper is quoting Los Angeles County Coroner’s officials as saying that the 68-year-old British film director jumped to his death today from the Vincent Thomas Bridge spanning San Pedro and Terminal Island. Tony Scott climbed a fence on the south side of the bridge’s apex and leaped “without hesitation” around 12:30 PM, according to the Coroner’s Department and port police quoted by the newspaper. A suicide note was found inside Scott’s black Toyota Prius, which was parked on one of the eastbound lanes of the bridge, as U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Jennifer Osburn told the Daily Breeze. Earlier today Deadline was alerted that “an older gentlemen who people recognized from either movies and/or TV tried to jump off a pier” and that the attempt was not successful”.

'Avengers 2' in 2015; '47 Ronin' delayed again

Marvel Studios and Disney have set a May 1, 2015 release date for The Avengers 2. This date comes after the studios signed on Joss Whedon to return as writer/director last week. Whedon’s new deal also will have him develop other projects for Marvel and ABC Studios. Whether this will be an Avenger’s themed drama ABC is developing is unknown, though it seems logical to assume Whedon will have his hands in it. The network is mum on what the show would be like, though it’s not hard to guess that it could be set in the same universe, just with different heroes. ABC Studios is also developing a new Hulk series with Guillermo del Torro.  

The list of big budget films delayed is growing longer, as Universal Pictures is delaying the Keanu Reeves thriller 47 Ronin again. Originally scheduled to open this Christmas, the London based film was pushed to February 2013 due to the need for some pick-up shots and additional work on the visual effects. But it those shots could not be done due to the Olympics in London. So this forced the second delay, with Universal saying the film will open Christmas 2013. The studio is claiming they need only an additional week of reshoots, however other reports –unconfirmed of course- are stating the film will need more, thus the lengthy delay. According to The Hollywood Reporter, first-time director Carl Erik Rinsch has allegedly not done a satisfactory job with a key battle sequence at the film's end. As a result the reshoots will deal with that sequence and additional material to bolster Reeves' role. This delay had a collateral damage on the rest of Universal’s film slate for 2013, with the Melissa McCarthy-Jason Bateman comedy Identity Thief opening three months earlier in Ronin's old Feb 8th release slot, while Richard Curtis' About Time is taking over the May 10th slot that Identity was occupying. Jurassic Park in 3D has moved up three months from July 19th to April 5th, while dates have been announced for Kick Ass 2 on June 28th, R.I.P.D. on July 19th and 2 Guns on August 16th.

In an unusual move, Disney has stopped production on an untitled stop-motion animated feature, which they had previously scheduled for October 2013 that was being helmed by Coraline director Henry Selick. According to Variety, sources within said the film, which had been in production since last summer, was not at the point it needed to be to meet the 2013 release date. It seems instead of shifting the date (as it seems to be customary these days), Disney made the decision to halt production all together. Still, Selick can shop the material to another distributor, mostly because; Disney had started no promotional material on the film yet. Selick is still attached to helm the stop-motion adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, which Disney is producing. 

As expected, 20^th Century Fox will lose their rights to Daredevil, which will revert back to Marvel and Disney this August. This action comes after months and months of issues at Fox on how to proceed with this franchise, as well as The Fantastic Four franchise, which they controlled. Both were scheduled to revert back to Marvel this year if films were not in active production. David Slade was originally slated to helm a reboot, but was forced to drop out due to his commitment to the NBC series Hannibal, and even though they had a potential story – the “Born Again” storyline which screenwriter Joe Carnahan was basing the reboot on- but once Slade dropped out, there was not enough time to get something started. As some have noted, with the franchise reverting back to Marvel Studios and Disney, the darker storylines of the comic book and movies via through Fox, would probably lose favor now that Disney is releasing them. Fantastic Four is in active production and Fox will release it in 2014.

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure 3, which has a script penned by series creators Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson is getting closer to production as Galaxy Quest director Dean Parsiot has signed on to helm the film. According to Keanu Reeves, the story revolves around the boys who’ve been “crushed by the responsibility of having to write the greatest song ever written and to change the world. And they haven't done it. So everybody is kind of like: "Where is the song?" The guys have just drifted off into esoteric and lost their rock. And we go on this expedition, go into the future to find out if we wrote the song, and one future "us" refuses to tell us, and another future "us" blames us for their lives because we didn't write the song, so they're living this terrible life. In one version we're in jail; in another we're at some kind of highway motel and they hate us.”

Back in early June, Universal made unofficial movement on doing a sequel to the moderately successful  Snow White and the Huntsman. And while both Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth had options for two more films, a direct sequel and a prequel. it was rumored then that the studio wanted to do the prequel more, mostly because that follows Hemsworth Huntsman character –some thought going in with the idea that Hemsworth’s hammer is continuing to rise, while Stewart’s reign is near an end. Since early June, when this was first reported, a well-publicized affair between Stewart and the married Rupert Sanders (who helmed the film) broke. This appears to have damped Universal’s high, but it also may have been a blessing for them to move forward with Hemsworth as the Huntsman. While there is no word if Sanders would be asked to come back, it is known now that Universal paid-out screenwriter David Koepp’s contract, as he was expected to return. This could also give Universal a reason to drop Stewart and, maybe, Sanders as well. With Hemsworth not available to film anything until July of next year, this will give the studio plenty of time to find a writer.

Former Doctor Who and Torchwood actor John Barrowman has nabbed a recurring role on The CW’s upcoming fall superhero series Arrow, playing what is described as the “Well Dressed Man.”

Former Buffy actor Danny Strong –who recurred as Jonathan Levinson on the show during its five year run on the WB before becoming part of The Trio, seasons six’s Big Bad- continues to his second career as a writer, selling his first pilot to CBS. The drama is inspired by the father-and-daughter defense attorneys Murray and Stacey Richman. It will center on a fictionalized version of the Richmans’ Bronx firm. The series is produced through Robert DeNiro’s production company, Tribeca Films. Strong is also penning the adaptation of Dan Brown’s The Last Symbol and also wrote the screenplay for the upcoming film The Butler from Oscar nominated director Lee Daniels. 

In Memoriam: 

While science fiction writer Harry Harrison never had the a high profile career like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clark or Ray Bradbury, he none the less is still a legend who helped define the decades that made science fiction one the best genre’s for social commentary. Harrison died on August 15 of undisclosed causes at the age of 87. Most might be unaware that his 1966 novel, Make Room! Make Room! Became the 1973 thriller Soylent Green, a dystopian film that starred Charleston Heston. 

"He believed science fiction was important, that it caused people to think about our world and what it could become," Tor Books' publisher Tom Doherty wrote in a blog post. 

That novel and film was about population that has exploded since the turn of the 20^th Century. And while the novel was set in 1999, the books themes resonate today as they did when the book was released 46 years ago: there are too many people, and not enough resources. As pointed out by one of the characters in the book: 

“I’ll tell you what changed. Modern medicine arrived. Everything had a cure. Malaria was wiped out along with all the other diseases that had been killing people young and keeping the population down. Death control arrived. Old people lived longer. More babies lived who would have died, and now they grow up into old people who live longer still. People are still being fed into the world just as fast — they’re just not being taken out of it at the same rate. Three are born for every two that die. So the population doubles and doubles — and keeps on doubling at a quicker rate all the time. We got a plague of people, a disease of people infecting the world. We got more people who are living longer. Less people have to be born, that’s the answer. We got death control — we got to match it with birth control."

Still, Harrison was not all doom and gloom, and his Stainless Steel Rat series and Bill, The Galactic Hero series proved that he had a wicked sense of humor with those satirical novels. Those books were a parody really of the typical space operas of the day, and he brought a knowing, very subversive, and anti-military, anti-authority and anti-violence tone to them (the Bill series was really a parody of Robert Heinlein’s Starship Trooper).

Also passing is veteran character William Windom,who died August 16th of congestive heart failure at the age of 88. The actor, well known for many guest-star performances during the 60s, 70s, 80s and early 1990's, made a memorable performance in the 1967 Star Trek episode The Doomsday Machine. There he played the tortured Commodore Decker who goes up against a giant planet killer. Much like Ricardo Montalban's role as Khan, Windom excelled in role that could have been too over the top, but his careful, very moving acting choices made him well remembered. So much so, that when Star Trek made the leap to the big screen, Stephen Collins played the son of Decker in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Windom returned to playing the Commodore again in the fan web series Star Trek: Phase II some 40 years later. He was also a regular on the long-running CBS series Murder, She Wrote.

Plot details for 'Doctor Who's' second and third episode

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship:

 

An unmanned spaceship hurtles towards certain destruction - unless the Doctor can save it, and its impossible cargo... of dinosaurs! By his side a ragtag gang of adventurers; a big game hunter, an Egyptian Queen and a surprised member of the Pond family.

But little does the Doctor know there is someone else onboard who will stop at nothing to keep hold of his precious, prehistoric cargo.

A Town Called Mercy:

The Doctor gets a Stetson (and a gun!), and finds himself the reluctant Sheriff of a Western town under siege by a relentless cyborg, who goes by the name of the Gunslinger.

But who is he and what does he want? The answer seems to lie with the mysterious, Kahler-Jex, an alien doctor (yes another one!) whose initial appearance is hiding a dark secret.

'Asylum' plot and how people in NY can see the opener on August 25

Kidnapped by his oldest foe, the Doctor is forced on an impossible mission - to a place even the Daleks are too terrified to enter... the Asylum. A planetary prison confining the most terrifying and insane of their kind, the Doctor and the Ponds must find an escape route.

But with Amy and Rory’s relationship in meltdown, and an army of mad Daleks closing in, it is up to the Doctor to save their lives, as well as the Pond’s marriage.



Also, BBC America announced that they will host a special screening of the new season opener on Saturday 25th August in New York City at 6:00pm, and will be followed by a live Q&A session with Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and executive producer Caroline Skinner. 

Tickets for the screening will go on sale tomorrow, 16th August, and will be announced exclusively via BBC America's Twitter feed - those hoping to get tickets have been recommended to follow @BBCAMERICA in order to find out how to book!

'Doctor Who' returns September 1

It’s been confirmed now how Doctor Who’s 7^th season will unwind. 

The season starts on September 1, on both the BBC and BBC America.

They’ll air five episodes, Asylum of the Daleks, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, A Town Called Mercy, The Power of Three (once called Cubed) and The Angels Take Manhattan.

Then the series will take a break and return Christmas Day with the episode introducing the new companion.  The series then will take another break and return in the spring for the final 8 episodes.

Writer Mark Gatiss has penned a 90 minute movie called Adventures in Time and Space, a docu-drama on creation on Doctor Who which will air sometime close to the series anniversary in 2013. Other specials are planned, another Proms, but nothing is concrete. It’s also been reported that Matt Smith has signed on for at least part of season 8, which would air in 2014. While that seems cool, it does not clarify how much of season eight he’ll appear in. Speculating that 2013 is a "gap season" and that season eight will have the same broadcast schedule for 2012, if Smith is signed on through 2014, he could leave halfway through the run, regenerating into the 12^th Doctor in 2015.

Or, of course, he could appear in all 14 episodes of season 8, and it will start in the fall of 2013 and then regenerate. But like everything that comes out of the BBC, nothing will be confirmed until almost the last minute. Consider the US broadcast fall schedule; all the networks announced the start back in June. The BBC is just announcing the start of Doctor Who only 2 weeks before it starts.

Go figure.

Warners delays Lurhmann's 'The Great Gatsby'

In what may surprise only a few people and upset some others, Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Picture’s announced that Baz Lurhmann’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel The Great Gatsby will not be released this Christmas Day as planned, but will be delayed by at least by six months.

No real reason was given, but the studio heads put out a positive official statement: “what we’ve seen, Baz Luhrmann’s incredible work is all we anticipated and so much more. It truly brings Fitzgerald’s American classic to life in a completely immersive, visually stunning and exciting way. We think moviegoers of all ages are going to embrace it, and it makes sense to ensure this unique film reaches the largest audience possible.” Disitribution presidents Dan Fellman and Veronika Kwan Vandenberg added: “Baz is known for being innovative, but with this film he has done something completely unexpected—making it in 3D—while capturing the emotion, the intimacy, the power and the spectacle of the time. The responses we’ve had to some of the early sneak peeks have been phenomenal, and we think ‘The Great Gatsby’ will be the perfect summer movie around the world.”

Still, unofficially, some have said the delay was needed to finish off the effects and compile a soundtrack that will rival Moulin Rouge. Lurhmann, who is not known for too much substance with his films –he’s all sound and fury mostly- is also well known as a director who takes his time finishing and refining his projects in post-production, but no official has come if this is the reason for the delay or is it something else.

But historically, a film delayed means a film in trouble. The Great Gatsby, which has been adapted several times with the last big screen version coming out in 1974, is known as the “Great American” novel that is also fairly un-filmable. 

When the trailer was released in May, it got somewhat positive reviews –mainly by fans that for reason I’m not able to understand, think Moulin Rouge is a great film. The trailer presents audiences with a caricature of the 1920's rather than attempting to be completely historically accurate, which may impress younger audiences who don’t want a literal adaptation of an 87 year-old novel (indecently, of all the versions of this novel made into films, only one is said to be the truest version. That one, a silent version released in 1926, is gone forever, so we’ll never truly know).

Also, no release date beyond the nebulous “summer 2013” has been given. This strikes me odd as well, considering with April, May, June and most of July is clogged up with event pictures, and sliding in an anachronistic period drama that looks pretty to look at, but seems hallow, is not a way to get a good box-office total. Granted, since the domestic release figures little into the studios coffers these days –bad films that die here seemly do wonders in the foreign markets- maybe that’s what Warners and Village Roadshow will be counting on.

Eccleston in 'Thor 2'; AMC goes to 'Area 51' 'Quakes' time 2; 'X Men' & 'FF' updates

While he helped re-launch Doctor Who in 2005, Christopher Eccleston’s career since then has been somewhat predictable, in the sense that the aloof actor chooses his roles that seem based more on what he wants to do, versus the money and popularity it brings. This is good for him, in a lot a ways, as a lot American actors seem to take roles that are more in quantity than of quality. While the British actor remains indifferent about why he chooses to distance himself from Doctor Who (was Russell T Davies “gaying” up the sci fi institution too much for his liking as some have suggested) as its global reach continues to grow, he has now earned his first huge role in Hollywood, that as the villainous Malekith The Accursed in Thor: The Dark World. Malekith is the ruler of the Dark Elves of Svartalfheim, and will clash with the mightily with Thor in this sequel to be helmed by Alan Taylor (Game of Thrones).

AMC is developing a period sci-fi drama based on the nonfiction book Area 51 by Annie Jacobsen. The book explores the myths about the famed U.S. military installation which many claim is home to all sorts of things from aliens to nuclear facilities. Terminator producer Gale Anne Hurd will executive produce while Todd E. Kessler is attached to pen the script.

While disaster films have always been big tickets in Hollywood, the bulk that was released in the 1970s had a tendency to be too soap opera-ish with well-known old-time Hollywood actors parading through them for their last hurrah. Sure the miniature effects were cool, but the human story of suffering was usually clichéd filled. Still, this seems not to have deterred Star Trek director J.J. Abrams from trying to sort of reboot the disaster flick (something that Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich have done in the past, but only with moderate success). It’s been announced that Oscar winning writer Dustin Lance Black will write the screenplay for Earthquake (which is not a remake of the Charlton Heston 1974 film of the same name), while Abrams will helm it. The project, it seems, has been around for a bit. Back in 2008, screenwriter David Seltzer was supposedly penning the script, and whether Black will be rewriting this or something different it unknown. Abrams' vision will focus on survivors in the wake of a massive earthquake, and how the tragedy changes their lives and relationships. The announcement, however, came on the heels of New Line Cinema setting up San Andreas 3D, what they call a big budget 3D earthquake disaster epic. While San Andreas 3D was announced in December of 2011, production in now moving forward so it seems appropriate that Universal would announce their version as well. 

The Fantastic Four reboot is finding more roadblocks than first thought. After losing one director, the studio went with Chronicle helmer Josh Trank to come on board as director. But Trank is also signed on to helm Warner Bros film Red Star, which is based on the graphic novel where the USSR is still alive thanks to magic and high-tech warfare. Warner’s would like the film out in 2014, which means Trank would have to helm it in 2013, which is the same time 20^th Century Fox would want him directing their Fantastic Four film. One thing Red Star has going for it, however, is a script from writer Jason Rothenberg. While in any other time, Fox might just delay the film due to Trank’s obligation to Warner Bros., the studio needs to have a Fantastic Four film out in 2014, or the property reverts back to Marvel and Disney. Fox could always dump Trank, but they also want him to helm a sequel to Chronicle, which they released. So in some ways, they just don’t want to piss him off. Still, my guess is Fox would hire a Starbuck’s barista to prevent any scenario where they lose the rights. 

The X Men: First Class sequel, which begins filming in January, has a title, The X Men: Days of Future Past and is based on the 1981 2-part issue which featured an alternate universe set between the present day and a future timeline in which Sentinels rule the United States and mutants live in internment camps. 

20^th Century Fox is moving forward with a sequel to Prometheus, with director Ridley Scott and actors Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender all expected to return. One person not coming back is screenwriter Damon Lindleof, who (fairly or unfairly) got the brunt of the bad comments from fans and critics, who while liking the striking visuals, where viscous when it came to pointing out all the numerous narrative issues and inconsistencies.

 

With Paramount reviving and rebooting Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan character with Star Trek’s Chris Pine in the lead (and with British actor Kenneth Branagh set as director and the acting as the villain), they’re hoping to get Christopher McQuarrie to helm the adaptation of the Clancy novel Without Remorse, which features the John Clark character. Expectations are that if McQuarrie is brought on board, they’ll have to pen a new draft of the script to replace the previous one by Shawn Ryan.