The Sci Fi Channel is to launch its biggest campaign of the year to promote Tin Man, the Wizard of Oz-inspired series that has outgunned shows such as Battlestar Galactica in the US. The show, which stars Alan Cumming and delivered Sci-Fi its biggest ever audience in the US, launches in the UK on May 11.
Sci Fi UK, which is launching a national campaign from this weekend, is making the first hour of the three-part mini series available to watch online from Sunday, May 4. The campaign, which uses the famous image of the yellow brick road, includes a nationwide poster campaign, ads on the London Underground and national press ads targeting Sunday newspapers.
"It is a beautiful, ambitious and bold re-imagining of an all time classic," said Maya Bhose, the marketing director at Sci Fi Channel. "We wanted to embrace comparisons with the Wizard of Oz which is why we chose such an iconic image to lead the campaign."
Marketing activity also includes an innovative, surreal virtual "fly through" of the land of Oz that will be accessible at www.scifi.co.uk/tinman from today. The ad campaign has been created by agency Karmarama with media planning and buying by Rocket-PHD.
The £10m fantasy production has proved to be Sci-Fi US's biggest ever ratings winner with 6.3 million viewers. This is more than the audience for shows such as Battlestar Galactica and Dune and Steven Spielberg's Taken, which all debuted on Sci-Fi in the US.
Tin Man will run on the Sci Fi Channel at 8pm on May 11, 18 and 25.
Showing posts with label Science Fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Science Fiction. Show all posts
Friday, 2 May 2008
Thursday, 24 April 2008
Blake 7 returns
Science fiction fans can celebrate the revival of a famous cult hit after plans to revive the BBC series Blake’s 7 were announced. Sky One is to remake the science fiction series following the recent re-imaginings of Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica and Bionic Woman. The satellite channel has given the go-ahead for the development of two 60-minute scripts with a view to a potential "event series". It is rumoured producers have mapped out a six-part series reviving Blake, his self-serving lieutenant Avon, Servalan, the ruthless Supreme Commander, and the show’s other fondly-remembered characters.
Elaine Pyke, the commissioning editor, drama, at Sky One, Two and Three is working with Andrew Mark Sewell at B7 Productions on the project. "At a time when science fiction shows often discard good storytellng for overblown visual effects and following the lead of Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica, the time is ripe for a revival of a show that represents the best traditions of the genre, not to mention one of the best-loved and most successful dramas of all time" Pyke told Broadcast.
Created by sci-fi legend Terry Nation, Blake's 7 ran for four series on BBC1 between 1978 and 1981, and followed a band of rebels in their fight against the totalitarian Federation that ruled the galaxy. Blake is the political dissident who escapes deportation to a remote planet by forming a gang which includes a smuggler and a thief. It was launched in the wake of Star Wars’ success, and challenged viewer expectations with its cynical characters, who were eventually massacred in a shoot-out. Although the production values of the original series have dated, the show has proved both influential and enduringly popular. Blake 7 Productions will now have the technology to create the epic space battles which were constrained by the BBC’s budgetary demands in the late 70s.
The new Blake’s 7 will fly on Sky One after the satellite broadcaster asked the rightsholders of Terry Nation’s creation to develop a fresh series. In many ways it's hardly a surprise that Roj Blake and his band of intergalactic renegades are next in line for the remake treatment. B7 Productions is a subsidiary of B7 Media, the company that owns the licence to the show. In recent years it has already developed the brand with a series of Blake's 7 audio dramas, featuring actors such as James Bond star Colin Salmon and This Life's Daniela Nardini.
The prospect of a new Blake's 7 follows Russell T Davies's highly successful reworking of Doctor Who for the BBC, and the new Battlestar Galactica, the fourth and final series of which is currently showing on Sky One. NBC's revival of Bionic Woman, starring former EastEnders actor Michelle Ryan, has been less successful, with the show expected to be axed after just one series. Crucially, the success Life On Mars- with its time-travel scenario- has proved that such concepts can have broad and populist appeal.
Sky One is showing quite a talent for reinvention these days: it's not long before we'll be, erm... enjoying the all-new Gladiators. Blake's 7 represents a great opportunity for Sky One. The channel has enjoyed some success with original programming in recent years, with big-budget adaptations of Terry Pratchett's fantasy tales, but this is still a tiny fraction of its import-dominated output. As imports and sports rights get ever more expensive, it pays to manufacture your own hits. A home-made, high-quality Blake's 7 would also do wonders for Sky One's profile among TV connoisseurs.
But the operative word is "high-quality". According to the Guardian's Chris Tryhorn what lets the old sci-fi series down is the frankly appalling production values - rubbish special effects, wobbly sets and leaden pacing. The somewhat hammy acting style doesn't help either, he notes. To modern eyes this can render a lot of old TV drama, unlike films - and indeed TV comedy - of the same era, almost unwatchable.
Although the UK audience will be limited to Sky subscribers, the series will be sold to international broadcasters - the original was shown in 40 territories. The Blake’s 7 brand also has significant potential for programme downloads and DVD sales.
Battlestar Galactica, praised as a complex allegory about US interventionist foreign policy, has shown that if you give high-concept sci-fi the look of a serious feature film, it becomes credible and gripping in a way that far surpasses its analogue antecedents. It's also hoped the new Blake's 7 can invest money in getting the writing talent, which is the key factor that makes much US TV so entertaining and compelling. In fact, thinks Tryhorn, they should hire Battlestar's Ron Moore if he has time on his hands after bringing BSG to a close.
The BBC will challenge the revival with a new sci-fi show that echoes Blake’s 7. Outcasts follows the race to find an alternative home to Earth in the Universe. In return for their liberty, a group of social misfits and criminals become the pioneers of a large new settlement on a near planet.
Elaine Pyke, the commissioning editor, drama, at Sky One, Two and Three is working with Andrew Mark Sewell at B7 Productions on the project. "At a time when science fiction shows often discard good storytellng for overblown visual effects and following the lead of Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica, the time is ripe for a revival of a show that represents the best traditions of the genre, not to mention one of the best-loved and most successful dramas of all time" Pyke told Broadcast.
Created by sci-fi legend Terry Nation, Blake's 7 ran for four series on BBC1 between 1978 and 1981, and followed a band of rebels in their fight against the totalitarian Federation that ruled the galaxy. Blake is the political dissident who escapes deportation to a remote planet by forming a gang which includes a smuggler and a thief. It was launched in the wake of Star Wars’ success, and challenged viewer expectations with its cynical characters, who were eventually massacred in a shoot-out. Although the production values of the original series have dated, the show has proved both influential and enduringly popular. Blake 7 Productions will now have the technology to create the epic space battles which were constrained by the BBC’s budgetary demands in the late 70s.
The new Blake’s 7 will fly on Sky One after the satellite broadcaster asked the rightsholders of Terry Nation’s creation to develop a fresh series. In many ways it's hardly a surprise that Roj Blake and his band of intergalactic renegades are next in line for the remake treatment. B7 Productions is a subsidiary of B7 Media, the company that owns the licence to the show. In recent years it has already developed the brand with a series of Blake's 7 audio dramas, featuring actors such as James Bond star Colin Salmon and This Life's Daniela Nardini.
The prospect of a new Blake's 7 follows Russell T Davies's highly successful reworking of Doctor Who for the BBC, and the new Battlestar Galactica, the fourth and final series of which is currently showing on Sky One. NBC's revival of Bionic Woman, starring former EastEnders actor Michelle Ryan, has been less successful, with the show expected to be axed after just one series. Crucially, the success Life On Mars- with its time-travel scenario- has proved that such concepts can have broad and populist appeal.
Sky One is showing quite a talent for reinvention these days: it's not long before we'll be, erm... enjoying the all-new Gladiators. Blake's 7 represents a great opportunity for Sky One. The channel has enjoyed some success with original programming in recent years, with big-budget adaptations of Terry Pratchett's fantasy tales, but this is still a tiny fraction of its import-dominated output. As imports and sports rights get ever more expensive, it pays to manufacture your own hits. A home-made, high-quality Blake's 7 would also do wonders for Sky One's profile among TV connoisseurs.
But the operative word is "high-quality". According to the Guardian's Chris Tryhorn what lets the old sci-fi series down is the frankly appalling production values - rubbish special effects, wobbly sets and leaden pacing. The somewhat hammy acting style doesn't help either, he notes. To modern eyes this can render a lot of old TV drama, unlike films - and indeed TV comedy - of the same era, almost unwatchable.
Although the UK audience will be limited to Sky subscribers, the series will be sold to international broadcasters - the original was shown in 40 territories. The Blake’s 7 brand also has significant potential for programme downloads and DVD sales.
Battlestar Galactica, praised as a complex allegory about US interventionist foreign policy, has shown that if you give high-concept sci-fi the look of a serious feature film, it becomes credible and gripping in a way that far surpasses its analogue antecedents. It's also hoped the new Blake's 7 can invest money in getting the writing talent, which is the key factor that makes much US TV so entertaining and compelling. In fact, thinks Tryhorn, they should hire Battlestar's Ron Moore if he has time on his hands after bringing BSG to a close.
The BBC will challenge the revival with a new sci-fi show that echoes Blake’s 7. Outcasts follows the race to find an alternative home to Earth in the Universe. In return for their liberty, a group of social misfits and criminals become the pioneers of a large new settlement on a near planet.
Saturday, 5 April 2008
The great sci-fi shoot-out
It's back! The best science-fiction TV series ever created is at last returning for its long awaited fourth series. And so, by a curious coincidence, is Doctor Who, snarks Dominic Maxwell...
Yes, Battlestar Galactica really is that mighty. If your only knowledge of BSG is from its initial incarnation, a so-so space-opera starring Dirk Benedict in the late 1970s, that may be hard to take seriously. But not only is the new show better than the original, it's also stronger drama than pretty much anything out there, give or take a Sopranos or a Wire. It's brilliantly written, perfectly played, and credits its audience with plenty of intelligence.
Meanwhile, Doctor Who has grown cocky. Confidence has turned to glibness, as the Doctor cheerily saves himself with a smart comment and a spizz of his sonic screwdriver. Can it ever again be the best science-fiction series around? Not on Battlestar Galactica's watch - here's why.
TOUGH OPPOSITION
BSG starts with the villains, the Cylons, knocking off billions of people - leaving the 40,000-odd survivors the sole remnants of humanity. Mankind's chief weapon? The rusty old spacebucket of the title. The Cylons' chief weapon? Having white-hot technology, looking human (handy for infiltration) and never dying. Cybermen? Daleks? Amateurs.
PEOPLE GET HURT
OK, Billie Piper got sucked into another dimension, and Kylie copped it. Other than that, though, not much really gets to our invincible Time Lord. In the ensemble BSG, there's always the danger that one of our heroes might die at any moment. The President (Mary McDonnell) has cancer; Admiral Adama (Edward James Olmos) gets shot at close range by one of his own crew, and several second bananas lose their lives as the show progresses.
IT'S NOT FOR KIDS
Which, OK, doesn't make this an entirely fair fight. But BSG depicts an adult moral universe that comes in lifelike shades of grey, where people must often choose between competing evils. Doctor Who, meanwhile, is a family show. You don't have to be a kid to enjoy it. But it helps.
SEX, SEX, SEX
There is sexual attraction in the Tardis, but thankfully no consummation. The rebooted BSG, however, was sexed up from the off, as super-sexy Cylon Number Six (Trisha Helfer) literally screwed secrets out of Gaius Balthar (James Callis). And while Number Six looks smashing in a cocktail dress, and the more rippled male cast members aren't averse to getting their shirts off, the sex isn't just titillation: it deepens the drama.
IT'S REALLY FILMED IN SPACE
It isn't? Well it certainly looks like it is. Respect to the special effects on the new Doctor Who, but BSG looks out of this world.
IT PLAYS A LONG GAME
You can't really watch BSG out of sequence, as each season has a shape. In last season's Doctor Who, on the other hand, the Master conquered the Earth in two episodes.
SCARCITY BRINGS VALUE
This fourth season will be its last, which means there's no time for the show to repeat itself. BSG episodes can be overcomplicated, but there are no actual duds. Doctor Who, meanwhile, has too many brisk one-offs in which the aliens barely have time to announce their grievances before they've been sassily outfoxed.
BREADTH OF REFERENCE
Doctor Who is the story of a superman hero. BSG is the story of a human society, and looks at the competing priorities of government and military, leader and worker, duty and desire. It also features sexy people in fetching outfits. In short, it's got the lot.
Battlestar Galactica Revisited, Tues, Sky One, 9pm (followed by The Phenomenon at 9.30pm & Razor, 10pm). The fourth series starts next week. Doctor Who, Sat, BBC One, 6.20pm
Friday, 28 March 2008
Eick adapting Children of Men for the small screen
David Eick is writing a pilot script for a TV version of Children of Men. The story originated with P.D. James's science-fiction novel and was adapted for film in 2006 with Clive Owen in the lead role.
Eick, who steered the Battlestar Galactia and Bionic Woman remakes, is looking to make the proposed series a faithful adaptation of the book. "It's really taking root more in the origins of the novels in that it will focus on the cultural movement in which young people become the society's utter focus," he explained to Sci Fi Wire. "Much like our culture, whenever Lindsay Lohan does something [and] it becomes the headline of every news show, it's about how, when you don't have a responsibility to the next generation and you're free to do whatever you want, where do you draw the line?"
Eick added that the pilot would differ from the film and explore ideas of social responsibility and freedom. "It's a very compelling, human question that science-fiction has always explored extremely provocatively," he said. "It's not really a war show like the movie was. It's more an exploration of that issue."
Elsewhere, Doctor Who will lose 1.5m viewers per show because of BBC One's decision to move it from 7pm to 6.20pm, according to executive producer Russell T Davies. The drama will take up the new slot when it returns on April 5 to allow I'd Do Anything to air at 7.10pm. Davies said he was worried because the series is the last full run of Who before 2010. Next year there will be three specials. "At 6.20pm, it'll get 1.5m less viewers than it already has," he said, speaking at a Broadcast event in London. "I've told them this, but they won't shift at all. You need to maintain slots and they've gone and cocked it up now. Maybe they're right, but I think they're wrong."
The producer, who was behind the revival of the show, also confessed to rewriting others' scripts if he did not like them. He said: "I'll rewrite 100% if I have to. With Steven Moffat's scripts, I don't touch a word, but anyone else's I do... We're not there to experiment and we're not there to let someone fail. You've got to do everything you can to make it brilliant every week."
In other news, Tahmoh Penikett, Fran Kranz, Dichen Lachman and Enver Gjokaj have joined the new series from Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon. The drama is about a group of men and women, known as dolls, who are charged with carrying out a series of "assignments". They can be imprinted with different memories, skills, language and abilities appropriate to each task.
Penikett (Battlestar Galactica) will play FBI agent Paul Smith who wants to find the dolls, viewed by others as an urban myth. Kranz (Welcome to the Captain) joins as bright-spark programmer Topher Brink who does the imprinting. Lachman (Neighbours) and Gjokaj takes the role of dolls Sierra and Victor respectively. Both are friends of main doll Echo who begins to become self-aware. Eliza Dushku (Buffy, Angel) has already signed to play Echo.
Fox is planning a seven-episode season of the show for September.
Further reading: Welcome to Josh Whedon's Dollhouse
Eick, who steered the Battlestar Galactia and Bionic Woman remakes, is looking to make the proposed series a faithful adaptation of the book. "It's really taking root more in the origins of the novels in that it will focus on the cultural movement in which young people become the society's utter focus," he explained to Sci Fi Wire. "Much like our culture, whenever Lindsay Lohan does something [and] it becomes the headline of every news show, it's about how, when you don't have a responsibility to the next generation and you're free to do whatever you want, where do you draw the line?"
Eick added that the pilot would differ from the film and explore ideas of social responsibility and freedom. "It's a very compelling, human question that science-fiction has always explored extremely provocatively," he said. "It's not really a war show like the movie was. It's more an exploration of that issue."
Elsewhere, Doctor Who will lose 1.5m viewers per show because of BBC One's decision to move it from 7pm to 6.20pm, according to executive producer Russell T Davies. The drama will take up the new slot when it returns on April 5 to allow I'd Do Anything to air at 7.10pm. Davies said he was worried because the series is the last full run of Who before 2010. Next year there will be three specials. "At 6.20pm, it'll get 1.5m less viewers than it already has," he said, speaking at a Broadcast event in London. "I've told them this, but they won't shift at all. You need to maintain slots and they've gone and cocked it up now. Maybe they're right, but I think they're wrong."
The producer, who was behind the revival of the show, also confessed to rewriting others' scripts if he did not like them. He said: "I'll rewrite 100% if I have to. With Steven Moffat's scripts, I don't touch a word, but anyone else's I do... We're not there to experiment and we're not there to let someone fail. You've got to do everything you can to make it brilliant every week."
In other news, Tahmoh Penikett, Fran Kranz, Dichen Lachman and Enver Gjokaj have joined the new series from Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon. The drama is about a group of men and women, known as dolls, who are charged with carrying out a series of "assignments". They can be imprinted with different memories, skills, language and abilities appropriate to each task.
Penikett (Battlestar Galactica) will play FBI agent Paul Smith who wants to find the dolls, viewed by others as an urban myth. Kranz (Welcome to the Captain) joins as bright-spark programmer Topher Brink who does the imprinting. Lachman (Neighbours) and Gjokaj takes the role of dolls Sierra and Victor respectively. Both are friends of main doll Echo who begins to become self-aware. Eliza Dushku (Buffy, Angel) has already signed to play Echo.
Fox is planning a seven-episode season of the show for September.
Further reading: Welcome to Josh Whedon's Dollhouse
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
