The SciFi Diner Podcast
SciFi Diner Podcast Ep. 150 - Our Interview with Jonathon Young (Nikola Tesla from Sanctuary) at Shore Leave 34
SciFi Diner Podcast Ep. 150 Our Interview with Jonathon Young (Nikola Tesla from Sanctuary) at Shore Leave 34 The SciFi Diner Podcast A 2012 Parsec Finalist
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Menu: Interview: Jonathon Young (Nikola Tesla from Sanctuary) Trivia: Win Kate Mulgrew TV News: Contiumm renewed; Whedon back to small screen Movie News: We say Good Bye to Michael Clarke Duncan; Former Dark Knight goes from hero to villain for RoboCop Audiobook Review: No Small Bills by Aaron Rosenberg TWIST: New Con of Wrath Teaser, Update on the Star Trek/Worf film SciFi Five in Five: Kahless's Top Five McCoy Quotes New Trivia:Trivia: In the context of the episodes of Warehouse 13 that aired on 2/13 and 2/20, what does it have in common with Stargate Universe? (Hint: IMDB is your friend if you don't watch Warehouse 13)
Prize: An Autographed copy of Kate Mulgrew (Captain Janeway)
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PromosFringecasting with Wayne and Dan
Our Interview:
Jonathon Young is a Canadian actor known for his role of Nikola Tesla on the SyFy show Sanctuary. Appearances include The Fog, Eureka, and Stargate Atlantis. Jonathon is a well-respected stage actor. He is the co-founder of Electric Company Theatre in Vancouver, Canada in which he is also the artistic director, playwright, and actor.
He was raised in British Columbia, along with his brother and sister. Their father was a school teacher who started acommunity theatre in Armstrong, British Columbia. At a "Q&A" after the play No Exit, Young told the audience that his father often brought him and his sister to watch him act and that this is where his love for theatre began. Becoming an actor was never a choice, but rather just something he knew he was going to do.
Young is a graduate of the Studio 58 theatre school at Langara College, Vancouver. In 1996 he co-founded Electric Company Theatre along with fellow Studio 58 alumni Kim Collier, David Hudgins, and Kevin Kerr.[4] He is a multipleJessie Richardson Theatre Award winner. His play Palace Grand was commissioned for production by Vancouver'sPuSh International Performing Arts Festival in 2008.
TV News:'Continuum' Renewed For Second Season
Specialty channel Showcase has announced that sci-fi television show "Continuum" has been renewed for a second season. The phenomenally successful series, which performed very well over the usually slow summer season, will begin production on the 13-episode season 2 in Vancouver in 2013. Ratings for the show shattered all previous Showcase premiere records, and dominated its Sunday night 9-10 p.m. timeslot.
"'Continuum' was a tremendous success for the channel," said Barbara Williams, Senior Vice President, Content, Shaw Media, in a press release. "We are proud to green-light such a prolific ratings hit and original series for a second season, and to continue Kiera's journey through time for our dedicated viewers."
A one-hour police drama centered on Kiera Cameron (Rachel Nichols), a cop from the year 2077 who finds herself trapped in present-day Vancouver, "Continuum" follows Cameron as she searches for a group of convicted criminals from the future, known as Liber8. With unexpected assistance from teen tech genius Alec Sadler (Erik Knudsen), Kiera concentrates on bringing down the terrorists before they can change the course of history forever. Impersonating a local law enforcement officer to expedite her investigation, she forms an uneasy alliance with her new partner, detective Carlos Fonnegra (Victor Webster).
In the season finale "Endtimes," Kiera raced against the clock trying to prevent a Liber8 bombing, which ultimately killed hundreds of innocent people. The shocking twist led to an explosive finale, leaving many unanswered questions.
Seems that fans won't have to wait too much longer for some well-deserved answers.
Joss Whedon coming back to TV for Marvel S.H.I.E.L.D. series
Avengers and Firefly fans, rejoice! Joss Whedon is coming back to the small screen, and he's bringing the Marvel universe with him.
ABC and Marvel have confirmed that Whedon is developing a TV series spinoff from The Avengers, based around the top-secret Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division (S.H.I.E.L.D.) organization that recently brought Earth's Mightiest Heroes together on the big screen.
The series will technically be set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, though Variety reports the storylines will be mostly "autonomous" from upcoming sequels such as Avengers 2 and Iron Man 3. That means it's unlikely that big-screen mainstays like Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury, Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow and Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye will be prominently featured on the show—but who's to say they can't pop up from time to time?
Whedon is signed on to co-write the pilot with his brother (and frequent collaborator) Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, and will stay on to help develop the broad strokes. Assuming it's picked up, Jed and Tancharoen would join Jeph Loeb and Jeffrey Bell as executive producers.
If some of those names sound familiar, they should, because virtually everyone Whedon is bringing on board has worked with him on his former TV projects Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.
For us, that means all these excellent writers are going to have big budgets and a bigger platform to play with, and with some autonomy from the films, they may get a long leash to really dig in and make this a compelling series.
Hoping to capitalize on the box-office love, ABC is putting the series into production immediately—so hopefully we'll have some more details soon.
Sound off: Do you think the Marvel universe is a good fit for live-action TV?
Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D. series won't have much to do with The Avengers
It was recently announced that Joss Whedon is bringing S.H.I.E.L.D. to the small screen. With the exception of The Avengers, the agency has stayed in the background of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now it's finally coming to the forefront.
The day after the news broke, Whedon revealed, "The S.H.I.E.L.D. show kind of dropped in my lap, and I love working in TV." His previous television credits include Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly and the short-lived Dollhouse. S.H.I.E.L.D. is a huge organization, with many stories to tell, most of which will steer clear of The Avengers.
"I get to really build a show with people I really trust and love. What we're building is entirely autonomous from The Avengers. It's gotta be a show that works for people who haven't seen the Marvel movies. It will please Marvel fans, I think."
Marvel's done a great job integrating their properties, but it sounds like S.H.I.E.L.D. will be a separate entity. We're excited to see what heroes they'll pull from the comics. It's time to share the Marvel spotlight.
Movie News:RIP: actor Michael Clarke Duncan is dead at 54
Michael Clarke Duncan, the Oscar-nominated actor known for his massive frame and roles in The Green Mile, Daredevil and many other films, died this week at the age of 54.
Duncan passed away on Monday (Sept. 3), two months after first being hospitalized for a heart attack in July. Known for his gentle good nature, down-to-earth demeanor and—at 6 foot 5 and as much as 315 pounds—commanding onscreen presence, Duncan was born in Chicago and worked there for a gas company and as a security guard in clubs before heading to Hollywood.
There he pursued an acting career while continuing to work security for celebrities such as Will Smith, Jamie Foxx and the late Notorious B.I.G. It was the latter's shooting death in 1997 that led Duncan to quit that line of work for good.
After landing several bit parts in films—usually as a security guard or bouncer—Duncan got cast as Bear in Michael Bay's 1998 meteor disaster movie Armageddon. He struck up a friendship with star Bruce Willis, who in turn recommended Duncan for the part that would be his breakthrough—John Coffey in Frank Darabont's adaptation of Stephen King's The Green Mile the following year.
Duncan was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe as Coffey, the simple-minded giant with a supernatural gift for healing who is falsely sentenced to death for raping and murdering two little girls. Coffey brought deep emotion and empathy to the role, earning him wide acclaim and putting him on a career track that kept him working steadily in movies, animation and TV until his death.
Duncan's other genre-related outings included roles in director Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes remake (2001), Sin City (2005), Michael Bay's The Island (2005), The Last Mimzy (2007) and the voice of Kilowog in last year's Green Lantern. In 2002 he played Wilson Fisk, aka the Kingpin, in the Marvel Comics-based film Daredevil (2003)—a character that had been portrayed as white in the comics and anticipated Marvel's similar color-blindness when casting Idris Elba as Heimdall in 2010's Thor.
The actor played many other roles in movies and TV shows, while also lending his voice to a number of animated features and programs, and also acted as a spokesman for PETA and the American Stroke Association. His friend Frank Darabont told Ain't It Cool News that Duncan was "one of the finest people I've ever had the privilege to work with or know. Michael was the gentlest of souls—an exemplar of decency, integrity, and kindness."
Rest in peace, gentle giant.
Former Dark Knight goes from hero to villain for RoboCop
Hugh Laurie, you have been replaced. Jose Padilha's RoboCop remake has finally nailed down a villain. After Dr. House backed out, they went after the next best thing—Batman.
Michael Keaton has snagged the role of Raymond Sellars in RoboCop. His casting comes just in time, because the film begins production next month. According to Padilla, Keaton was the missing link to this sci-fi puzzle.
"Michael is the final addition to the amazing cast we have assembled for this film and it is so great to have the last puzzle piece in place," said Padilha. "It is thrilling that everything has come together to bring this innovative new vision of RoboCop to life. We've got a great script, a great cast, some killer ED-209's and I can't wait to get Alex Murphy back on the streets."
Keaton joins Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson, Abbie Cornish, Michael Kenneth Williams, Jennifer Ehle, Jay Baruchel and Marianne Jean-Baptiste.
RoboCop is scheduled to hit theaters Aug. 9, 2013.
What do you think of Keaton as the bad guy?
(via Deadline)
This week in Star Trek:The surprise premiere of a new teaser for THE CON OF WRATH at Comic-Con San Diego July 14 showed off a few more of the early faces who have talked to us so far about “The Ultimate Fantasy” gone wrong in 1982. Only fans in that room have seen it so far—not even at Vegas....
Until today, when we posted a version of that teaser at the conofwrath.com website. You'll know a lot of those faces, too.
Our documentary on the infamous Houston "glorious failure" Trek event ... and the human spirit... is still collecting faces and moments, and I just found a couple more Survivors at Vegas. Our live meetup-fundraisers at conventions have raised cash, spread the word and most of all been a lot of fun all year long as we add more fan donors to the screen credits and gift list. We still have a lot of funding and producing to go, though.
In the new mini-teaser, watch for a few words from the first of the original Houston crew to see daylight, in an uncredited appearance: You'll see Marc Dowman up in the arena catwalk—graphic artist for the event and a stage and pyro assistant for the show. He's just burning up to tell one of the best weekend stories ....
NOTE: This preliminary piece was put together for big-room conventions and does not feature final graphics, rendering looks and of course music score. Director of Photography Neal Hallford whipped it up in July, and edited it for this showing. So—just for fun and a little taste of what's to come...
--Larry Nemecek, executive producer/director
Michael Dorn spills the latest on his Worf-centric Trek spinoff
Earlier this year we heard that Star Trek: The Next Generation star, and everyone's favorite Klingon, Michael Dorn was pitching a new Trek flick centered on his character, Worf. We've already seen how fans have responded to the idea, but what about Hollywood?
Though he's also busy with other things, most notably a romantic comedy he's funding through Kickstarter, Dorn's Worf idea has been making the rounds among people who might want to help make it happen ... and it turns out there's quite a bit of interest.
"Once I started thinking about it, it became obvious to me that I wanted to at least put it out there, which I have, and the response has been pretty amazing. We've been contacted by different individuals-I can't say who and all that-about wanting to come on board and be part of this. Also, there's all the political stuff going on with the new movies, with J.J. Abrams and Paramount and all that stuff, which I have no clue about and what it all entails, but that's where it is right now."
According to Dorn, the film would be a darker take on Trek, and would feature a post-Next Generation Worf captaining a Federation ship, "out there in the front lines basically chasing terrorists." It's too early for even Dorn to really know if the idea will become a reality, but how confident is he?
"Interestingly enough it has gotten traction. I was very surprised, I was on a movie not too long ago, where one of the producers was basically lobbying to be part of it. He was like 'Michael, I'd love to write it, if you haven't.' So at this point, my agents and my manager are looking at all the avenues and trying to figure out which is the best one. My agent and manager have been in the business for awhile, so they're very savvy about where to start and how to get it going. Like I said, in this business you never know and I've been through pitching things and I never want to do that again [laughs]. It's pretty brutal, but definitely I think once again, if Paramount or CBS or anybody thinks this is a viable thing, they'll jump on it."
In the meantime, Dorn will no doubt keep lobbying for the flick. But what about other opportunities to put on the Klingon makeup one more time? When asked if he'd ever appear in a dream sequence or something similar on The Big Bang Theory, where co-stars Wil Wheaton, LeVar Burton and Brent Spiner have already had cameos, Dorn wasn't very intrigued. Worf might get his own movie, but sitcom life isn't for him.
"That's a long shot I think. Not so much about the process, but you're pushing the envelope by putting the Worf makeup on and going on another show in another genre, you're asking for trouble. Even in a dream sequence its one of those things where if you did that, I think you're driving the stake into his heart at that point-not into his heart, but into the character's heart."
So, what do you think? What are the chances that we'll see Worf again?
B-Rela Presentz: The New Star Trek Sci Fi 5@5
Kahless gives his top five McCoy quotes
furture 5