TV News

Since it went so well, SciFi will live stream the third episode online this Friday at noon.

After Jewel Staite said she went in to record a commentary track for a "special release" of Firefly, TV Shows on DVD came out with this saying it's a Blu-ray version.

After negotiations between producers and ABC, Lost will be extended by a two hour season finale on May 29, at 9 pm ET/PT. The fourth season was shortened from 16 one hour episodes to 13 because of the strike, this will bring it up to 14 hours.

John Carpenter will not be working on NBC's horror anthology Fear Itself. Larry Fessenden will direct the episode Skin & Bones: "Skin & Bones concerns a cattle herder who returns home to his family after being lost in the woods for days. Soon, a terrible mortal struggle ensues against the terrifying monster possessing him."

Fox has green lit Ronald D. Moore's two hour backdoor pilot, Virtuality. The twelve member crew of the starship Phaeton is on a ten year journey exploring a distant solar system. To help them deal with the trip, NASA has installed virtual reality modules that allow them to go anywhere and be anyone. Until a bug is found in the system. Production begins in July.

Stan Lee will be working with Japanese animation studio BONES on an animated series called Hero Man [tentative title]. On the west coast in the U.S., a boy named Joey finds a toy that becomes a giant robot named Hero Man that he can pilot to fight evil. Hitoshi Nanba directs, Shigeto Koyama character designs, and Toshihiro Kawamoto will be chief animator.

David Wyler will be remaking Ben-Hur as a miniseries with Alchemy TV. The rights for $30 million project has already been sold to Spain, Germany, and Canada, with Wyler (whose father, William Wyler, directed the 1959 Oscar winner) negotiating in the states. Christian Duguay will direct this version that will downplay the religious parts of the novel. “We want to look at the spirituality within the piece rather than directly relating it to a specific religion. It’s a very complex story. It’s been 50 years since my father’s version, and we think we can bring something new and contemporary to it in the same way that ‘Gladiator’ did for that genre,” said Wyler. Filming starts this year.

Animated series Speed Racer: The Next Generation will premiere on Nicktoons Friday, May 2, at 7:00 pm (ET) with a 90-minute episode. "In the 90-minute premiere, "The Beginning," Speed, a teenager who had been orphaned as a baby, arrives at the prestigious Racing Academy and tries to get acclimated as the new kid. He meets friends and enemies, finds out he is the son of the famous driver Speed Racer and begins to deal with his new brother, X, and uncle, Headmaster Spritle (voiced by Peter Fernandez, original voice of Speed Racer in the original U.S. version). After finding parts of Speed Racer's car -- the Mach-5 -- in a junk yard, Speed, with help from his new friends Conor and Lucy, rebuilds the legendary vehicle, but wrecks it during an intense race. Dejected and in need of a new car, Speed discovers his father's schematics for a revolutionary gasless engine and builds the Mach 6." 26 half hour episodes will air at 7 pm on Fridays.

John Shiban is on to executive-produce Sam Raimi's Wizard's First Rule.

Thomas Schlamme will direct and exec produce Tom Wheeler's Captain Cook's Extraordinary Atlas pilot for ABC. It's about a girl who finds a magical atlas that reveals a secret world.

Jeff Pinker will be executive producer and show runner on J.J. Abrams' Fringe.

John Michael Higgins and Mikey Day have been cast in the American Kath & Kim.