'S.H.I.E.L.D.' casting done, Lindelof not writng 'Prometheus' sequel, 'Doctor Who' & 'The Nerdist' score at BBCA

Chloe Bennet, who currently plays record company assistant Hailey on Nashville, has reportedly become the sixth and final regular cast member on ABC's S.H.I.E.L.D. She will play Skye, who is a confident woman who is slightly obsessed with superhero culture and the shadow organizations that exist within it. She's edgy and can out-talk anyone with her unflappable nature. Bennet joins Ming-Na as Agent Melinda May, Killing Lincoln's Brett Dalton as Agent Grant Ward, Elizabeth Henstridge as Agent Gemma Simmons, Ian De Caestecker as Agent Leo Fitz, and of course the incomparable Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson.

 Though it proved a solid hit at the box office, Ridley Scott's Prometheus was a love-it-or-hate-it affair for most sci-fi fans. Many blamed Damon Lindelof's (Lost) rewrite, which took a more straightforward Alien prequel and tried to flesh it, encompassing some big ideas that got mixed up. Lindelof, though, has confirmed he will not be writing the sequel to Prometheus, due to other commitments already on his plate. "The thing about Prometheus was it was a rewrite.  Jon Spaihts wrote a script and I rewrote it.  And still it was a year of my life that I spent on Prometheus, kind of all in.  The idea of building a sequel to it--from the ground up this time--with Ridley is tremendously exciting. But at the same time, I was like, "Well that's probably going to be two years of my life." I can't do what J.J. [Abrams] does. I don't have the capability.  I'm usually very single-minded creatively. I can only be working on one thing at a time.  So I said to him, "I really don't think I could start working on this movie until I do this other stuff.  And I don't know when the other stuff is going to be done." And he was like, "Well, okay, it's not like I asked you anyways."  He and I are on excellent terms and it was a dream come true to work with him. But much to the delight of all the fanboys, I don't see myself being involved in Prometheus-er." Still, Lindleof did say he and Scott discussed ideas for future installments. "Ridley [Scott] and I talked at great length during the story process of the first movie about what subsequent movies would be if Prometheus were to be successful. And I think that the movie ended in a very specific way that hinted at, or strongly implied that there were going to be continuing adventures worthy of writing stories. What those stories would be would not necessarily usurp or transcend the Alien franchise as we saw it because we know that the Nostromo hasn't come along yet.  So the idea was to set up a universe that... Is it a prequel?  Okay.  If that's what we want to call it, sure.  But the sequel to this movie is not Alien. The sequel to this movie is this other thing."

Doctor Who, it appears, will always be referenced as a cult show, despite its huge growth in popularity both in the UK and the US. The Christmas special The Snowmen delivered 1.4 million viewers. That’s not quite enough to topple the show’s record-setting fall premiere, but it’s huge for BBC America on a holiday (considering here in the States, every show is in reruns). The special was up 54 percent from Doctor Who‘s 2011 Christmas special, plus set a record among adults 25-54. 

 

Meanwhile BBC America has become so enamored of Chris Hardwick’s Nerdist specials that it’s turning the podcast adaptation into a full-blown show, giving Hardwick 10 episodes in which he can continue to talk about nerd and pop culture. The newly expanded Nerdist will premiere in the spring, kicking off the network’s “Supernatural Saturday” programming block that includes Hardwick-favorite Doctor Who as well as Being Human. 

 It is truthful when I say Pixar’s Cars movies don’t appeal to me. The first film, while technically brilliant, has a predictable story done a million times over at Disney and thus showed that even they can be lazy when it comes to stories. Its huge success, though, was based on the car culture and the appeal of racing, mostly NASCAR. Cars 2 seemed just a pointless as the first, with another weak, lazy story that appeals to the lowest common denominator. While rest assured we’ll see a Cars 3, in the meantime, Disney will release Planes in August of 2013. Planes is a spin-off of the franchise –though Pixar is not actually making it- and it was originally planned as a direct-to-DVD release but it appears Disney thinks that this can work as a theatrical film. We’ll see.