'Nemo 2', 'Doctor Who', CW's pick-ups, 'Vampire Academy' and a 'Terror'

Depending on how you look at, either Andrew Stanton said to Disney that he do Finding Nemo 2 only if they allow him a chance to helm another live-action film after the debacle of John Carter, or Disney knew the only one who do a sequel to one theirs -and Pixars- biggest films was to get Stanton back -at the cost of him doing another live-action film. Still, Pixar and Disney Animation is run by John Lassiter, so one guesses that he carry's a lot of weight with Bob Iger, Disney's CEO. And if Iger wanted a sequel to Nemo, the only person that could do was Stanton. So in the end, I think Stanton won. And everyone will win if the creative crew at Pixar can come up with a good story -one assumes they have- for the sequel. Albert Brooks has just signed up to return, him being the last hold-out, to play Nemo's neurotic father Marlan, while Ellen DeGeneres already agreed to return as everyone's favorite fish, Dory. The film is scheduled to bow sometime in 2016.

One of the most unwavering networks –beyond CBS- is The CW. The mini network and its stable of cult like genre shows have been able to sustain good ratings in the all-important 18-34 demographic, at times beating last place NBC. So far, for the 2012-13 TV season, they’ve only canceled one show, the medical drama Emily Owens, MD.  Now, the network has announced early pick-ups of freshman superhero show Arrow, The Vampire Diaries (which is headed into season five, with a potential spin-off called The Originals may be added) and Supernatural –which heads into season nine, becoming the networks longest running show behind Smallville. Beauty and the Beast is also likely to be renewed as well. But other shows like 90210, Nakita, and The Carrie Diaries remain questionable network until the network heads can look over the upcoming pilots.

Independent distributor The Weinstein Company has made its first foray into the highly profitable young adult book market by picking up the domestic rights to Blood Sisters, the first film adaption based on the young adult novel series, Vampire Academy. Mean Girls director Mark Waters will helm the film (written by his brother Dan), which begins lensing this summer, and is scheduled to bow on Valentine’s Day, 2014, which is also a long weekend due to President’s Day. The books are about two vampires, played by Zooey Deutch and Lucy Fry, who attend a school designed to help vampires remain somewhat human as they mature. The two eventually team with a guardian -Danila Kozlovsky - and together, they must battle evil forces intent on harming them.

AMC has put into development a drama series based on Dan Simmons historical/supernatural epic The Terror to be executive produced by Scott Free TV, Television 360 and feature producer Alexandra Milchan. The novel is a fictionalized account of Captain Sir John Franklin's lost expedition of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror to the Arctic to force the Northwest Passage between 1845 and 1848. The crewmen of the Terror, and its sister ship, the Erebus, have been trapped in Arctic ice for two years without a thaw when the novel begins.  As the story moves, we learn that the real threat to their existence is not the ever changing, ever shifting arctic landscape, the victuals that are poisonous even before they’re opened, or even the slow destruction of the two ships caught in the grips of unforgivable ice. The real threat comes from the darkness of the winter nights, and from a supernatural creature that is stalking the crews one by one or whole groups, leaving bodies mangled or just plain missing. David Kajganich, who is also adapting Stephen King’s The Stand for the big screen, has written the adaptation of this novel as well. 

Legendary author Richard Matheson will be teaming up with his writer son, Richard Matheson, Jr on a reboot of his The Incredible Shrinking Man for MGM. The 1957 original remains a classic science fiction film of the era, with the author saying that “My original story was a metaphor for how man’s place in the world was diminishing. That still holds today, where all these advancements that are going to save us will be our undoing.” There have been attmpts over the years at a reboot, but the closet they got was the 1981 Lily Tomlin comedic take, The Incredible Shrinking Woman. As of last year, MGM was considering Eddie Murphy for another comedic redo, but that never got off the ground.

The Doctor Who story Tomb of the Cybermen will be BBC America's next episode they'll air on February 24th. This second Doctor adventure was thought lost until 1991, when it was found -in all places, Hong Kong. Each month through November, BBC America will revisit a Who serial from the 10 previous incarnations of the Doctor. Alongside Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor, the story stars Frazer Hines as the young highlander Jamie McCrimmon and Deborah Watling as the Victorian refugee Victoria Waterfield. It sees the TARDIS crew land on Telos, where members of an archaeological expedition are searching for the legendary tomb of the Cybermen.

Creators of 'Judas Kiss' start Kickstarter campaign for their next 2 projects

Two and a half years ago, Kickstarter backers helped us make our first feature film, Judas Kiss, which went on to win many awards — and now it's available all over the world! That critically acclaimed film about love, second chances and getting it right was a meaningful story, with relatable characters and top-notch production values.

We quickly raised enough funding to get two new feature films ready to shoot in 2013: The Dark Place and Something Like Summer, two very different stories. One is a mystery-thriller and the other an adaptation of a wonderful love story; both will be presented with all of the care and skill we brought to Judas Kiss.
This time out we want to do even better. Now we want to go to the technological cutting-edge for these two films — and beyond.

Little films like ours don't have to look little. We pushed Judas Kiss well past the place other, comparably budgeted features go. We're raising a lot of the money for these two films on our own, but we're seeking backing on Kickstarter to help us push the technological edge.

Your backing allows us to make these films with a Red Scarlet, a state-of-the-art, 4K camera that will allow us to shoot images on par with big-budget studio pictures — ready for the screens of the future.

'Superman' controversy brewing at DC

In perhaps a move that caught them by surprise, DC Comics is facing some backlash from comic fans after they announced science fiction author Orson Scott Card had been commissioned to write a story for their Adventures of Superman series.  Card, who is an award-winning and best-selling author of the Ender's Game series, is also a long-time critic of homosexuality and has written and called gay marriage "the end of democracy in America.” In 2009, he became a board member of National Organization for Marriage (NOM), a group that campaigns against same-sex marriage.

For some, this is an odd move as DC has attempted to include LGBT characters in its superhero universe.

Card, a Mormon, was called out by Salon's Donna Minkowitz as a "disgustingly outspoken homophobe" after an interview in 2000. Said Card during the exchange with Minkowitz, "I find the comparison between civil rights based on race and supposed new rights being granted for what amounts to deviant behavior to be really kind of ridiculous. And the idea of ‘gay marriage’ — it’s hard to find a ridiculous enough comparison," Per Minkowitz, Card added this little bit: "By the way, I’d really hate it if your piece wound up focusing on the old charge that I’m a homophobe.” Sadly, the irony of that statement was lost on him, because in 2004 he wrote: "[I]t is a flat lie to say that homosexuals are deprived of any civil right pertaining to marriage. To get those civil rights, all homosexuals have to do is find someone of the opposite sex willing to join them in marriage." Then, in 2011 he published a version of Hamlet in which the prince's father is a gay pedophile. Card wrote: “Old King Hamlet was an inadequate king because he was gay, an evil person because he was gay, and, ultimately, a demonic and ghostly father of lies who convinces young Hamlet to exact imaginary revenge on innocent people.” Publishers Weekly took him to task for that, saying Card’s focus on Hamlet's father was "primarily on linking homosexuality with the life-destroying horrors of pedophilia, a focus most fans of possibly bisexual Shakespeare are unlikely to appreciate."

Actor Michael Hartney -who describes himself as "as big a Superman fan as you'll ever meet" - has written to DC voicing his concerns about Card. "If this was a Holocaust denier or a white supremacist, there would be no question. Hiring that writer would be an embarrassment to your company. Well, Card is an embarrassment to your company, DC. And of all the characters Card could have been hired to write, you give him Superman? The character that taught me to lead by example? To do the right thing, even when it was hard? To keep going, even when it seemed hopeless? What an insult. Kids are killing themselves. They are killing themselves in a climate of intolerance and homophobia publicly fostered by people like Orson Scott Card. You don't have to contribute to this. You shouldn't. You mustn't." 

Petition website,Allout.org, has started an appeal, calling for DC to drop Card.

But, while I’ve known the man to be a raging homophobe for a long, long time (working in the book business as long as I have, you learn these things) and refuse to buy or read any of his work, and felt dirty even talking about the film version of Ender’s Game due this November on DoorQ, but should he be denied work because he is a fucking, altogether, raging homophobe? And if so, what difference is this then, than the McCarthy witch hunts of 1950s? 

The biggest impact readers of Superman can do with this issue -first in digital format, and then a physical comic- is to make it the poorest selling comic in DC’s line. But then I hear it already, from the collectors, those completest fans whom won’t skip an issue because...well, they can’t do just do that. The consumer ultimately makes the decision for the company selling the work, and if Card’s Superman story sells poorly, he’ll never be asked back. And that is more of win than signing a petition, which I will admit, seems rather pointless here. 

And while DC –which is owned by Warner Bros- has not released a statement, the other thing fans can do is impact the box office of The Man of Steel –though I admit that seems just as pointless. 

And this November, when Ender’s Game comes out, no matter what the reviews, don’t go and see it and make sure you friends and family are aware of the issue.

We must stick firm to our beliefs as much as Card has stuck to his. Maybe this dust up will give pause to movie goers and comic book fans that have gay friends and family members. Card will always have fans –I’ve been telling readers for years about his horrid homophobia, and they just shrug and say they can read his work and ignore his politics. That is fine, even as I shake my head. I have hopes that if I can stop one reader, well, I’ve won and Orson Scott Card did not get a new reader.

Ice Warriors to return to 'Doctor Who'

For a time during the late 1960s and mid-1970s, Doctor Who villains the Ice Warriors seemed destined to become as popular as the Daleks and the Cybermen. Through four serial appearances (totaling 22 episodes), the Ice Warriors went from aggressive, military style race –seen in their first adventure, 1967’s The Ice Warriors (which was set hundreds of years in the future)- to more passive race (seen in 1969’s The Seeds of Death and 1972’s The Curse of Peladon to 1974’s The Monster of Peladon, all set before the events of their first serial). This may explain, in the end, why they faded into history after that last serial. 

While the Ice Warriors would pop-up here in there in the non-canon original novels published in the 1990s, they vanished from the TV series altogether. But when the tenth Doctor made a cursory mention of them in The Waters of Mars episode that aired in 2009, fans got hope that maybe, just maybe, the Martians might make an appearance in the new show.

When Doctor Who was revived in 2005, there had been some speculation that the green armored monsters would return, but just like Russell T. Davies, current showrunner Steven Moffat understood that to return a classic monster to the current show, you needed an excellent story –and not do it just because you can. 

Now it’s been confirmed that Mark Gatiss has scripted the episode in which the Martians return, which will be broadcast as episode eight (airing on April 13), in the second half of season seven. No episode title has been announced, but we do know it is set on a submarine, possibly during World War II.

It will be interesting to see how the Ice Warriors are portrayed –and how they’ll be updated for the 21^st Century. We know the Neil Gaiman penned Cybermen story airing a month later will return them to their original creepiness (well, that’s the intention), but will Gatiss’ script do the same thing, or will they be portrayed more as they seemed to becoming nearly forty years ago when the last made their TV appearance, a conflicted race with both elements of good and evil? 

Meanwhile, the only other rumor that seems to always be on people’s lips is how much longer Matt Smith will remain playing the Eleventh Doctor. While it’s more or less confirmed season eight will not debut until 2014, Moffat recently made comments, saying that Smith will return as the Doctor in whatever 50th anniversary story the showrunner has planned -which films in May- as well as the Christmas Special, which begins filming in mid to late summer. Smith, meanwhile, has scored his first leading role in an American film, How to Catch A Monster -the debut of actor Ryan Gosling as writer/director- which also stars Christina Hendricks, Saoirse Ronan, Eva Mendes and Ben Mendelsohn. The story is set against the dreamscape of a vanishing city where Hendricks’ character gets swept into a macabre fantasy underworld while her teenage son discovers a secret road leading to an underwater town. Production begins in April in Detroit.

While that may placate a lot of fans, we know that Moffat lies, and -much like director J.J. Abrams- hates the idea that fans should know every element of the story before seeing it. Due to our love of spoilers, it takes great effort for showrunners like Moffat to keep as much as secret as possible. Personally, I like to see Smith stay on for at least one more season, but only he can make that ultimate decision. 

Troubling times at NBC

The NBC network is quickly becoming a waste land of failed programming. With the peacock loosing Thursday night stalwarts 30 Rock and The Office and its latest drama to fill the 10pm hour on that day, Do No Harm, has now been added to the cancellation bin. The Jekyll & Hyde drama premiered last week to the lowest ratings ever for an in-season scripted series opener on any of the four networks last week with an underwhelming 0.9 18-49 rating. It dropped 22% to a 0.7 last night, effectively sealing its fate. Its lead-in, the anemic 1600 Penn, did not help either, as the sitcom nosedived from 1.9 the previous week, to a 1.1 last night. It will be pulled for a super-sized The Office next week, but its fate seems sealed.

The other latest drama is what will happen to Up All Night, now that Christina Applegate has decided to quit the show, which was in the process of going from a single-camera production to a multiple camera series with a live audience. “It’s been a great experience working on Up All Night, but the show has taken a different creative direction and I decided it was best for me to move on to other endeavors,” Applegate said in a statement. “Working with Lorne Michaels has been a dream come true and I am grateful he brought me into his TV family.  I will miss the cast, producers and crew, and wish them the best always.” The comedy show has struggled in the ratings, but since it’s from Michaels, and NBC pretty much owes a lot to him, the only reason it survived into a second season was him and –at first- it’s Thursday timeslot. But it’s faced an uphill battle behind the scenes as well, with the exit of series creator/executive producer Emily Spivey as well as original showrunner Jon Pollack. The series original concept was about a family who were new parents, which was inspired by Spivey’s real-life experiences of going back to work soon after giving birth. Applegate, a new parent then, liked the idea as well. When Maya Rudolph was cast, the PR firm idea was dropped in favor of Rudolph as an Oprah-like talk show host. The concept was tweaked for season two, but somewhere between the season opener and 11 poorly received episodes (now on Wednesday) NBC, instead of pulling the plug, said the show would go on hiatus, with everything converted to the three camera system and return in the spring with five new episodes. With Applegate’s departure, can the show continue or will –as some are already speculating- recast? 

But it does not stop there, as most of their shows are some the lowest rated of the Big four networks, and if Community cannot get picked up for a fifth season, NBC will have to find something to fill the hole that is three hours of programming on Thursday. At this juncture the only show that has shown any legs is Revolution, but the shows in its last month of a three month hiatus, and there is no guarantee that anyone of those viewers who watched the first ten episodes will come back for twelve more.  

Sure, unscripted fare like The Biggest Loser, The Apprentice and The Voice do well for them, but you can’t fill in every empty spot with them. And Rock Center, the Brian Williams lead magazine show, is cheap, but it too does not bring the ratings.

NBC still has Hannibal, the Bryan Fuller created thriller that reboots the Thomas Harris character of Hannibal Lecter from the novels, but little else to build a network that is still in fourth place.