Amazon casts Siuan and Min for their WHEEL OF TIME TV series

Amazon Prime have announced the casting of the key roles of Siuan Sanche and Min Farshaw for their Wheel of Time television series.

Siuan Sanche is the Amyrlin Seat, leader of the Aes Sedia, the society of female channellers of the One Power. Siuan, born in the far southern nation of Tear, is young for the role but is strong-willed and determined. She is a friend and ally of Moiraine Damodred (Rosamund Pike), both of them having trained together in the White Tower when younger.

Playing Siuan is well-known British actress Sophie Okonedo. Okonedo is best known for her roles in Dirty Pretty Things, Hotel Rwanda, Mrs. Mandela, Skin and Christopher Robin, as well as appearing in TV shows such as Criminal Justice, The Hollow Crown, Doctor Who, Spooks and Tsunami.

Min Farshaw is a young woman hailing from the mining towns in the Mountains of Mist. Resourceful and independent, Min is unable to wield the One Power but has somehow gained the ability to foretell people's destinies, an ability that makes her of interest to Moiraine, something that Min is uncomfortable with.

Playing Min is British actress Kae Alexander. Alexander previously played the roles of Jing Hua in Bad Education and Linh Xuan Huy in Collateral. She also played the role of Leaf in the sixth season of Game of Thrones and has appeared in Krypton, Deep State, Fleabag, Strangers and Hard Sun, as well as the film Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.

Both roles are expected to recur across the entire series.

Amazon has also confirmed several roles which had previously leaked: 

• Kate Fleetwood as Liandrin Guirale
• Peter Franzen as Stepin
• Clare Perkins as Kerene Nagashi

Other roles which may appear in Season 1 but have not yet been cast include the entire family Trakand (Morgase, Elayne, Gawyn and Galad), Gareth Bryne, Elaida do Avriny a'Roihan, Dain Bornhald, Lord Agelmar Jagad, Lord Ingtar, the Green Man and the Forsaken Aginor and Balthamel. It is possible that some of these roles have been delayed until the second season.

The first season of The Wheel of Time is due to resume shooting in the Czech Republic imminently for a month or so to round off production on the eight-episode first season. Season 2 is expected to start shooting news year, whilst the first season is expected to air in the first half of 2021.

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON sends out casting call for Daemon Targaryen and announces filming dates

HBO's House of the Dragon, their prequel spin-off to Game of Thrones, is looking to cast the role of Daemon Targaryen.

Daemon Targaryen is the younger brother of King Viserys I Targaryen. Unlike his diplomatic brother, Daemon is a man of action and determination who prefers to solve problems with his sword and the fire of his dragon, Caraxes. His ambition and ruthlessness vexes his brother, whom is often left to clean up the mess left by Daemon's intemperate actions. Daemon was initially insulted and angered when his brother declared his daughter Rhaenyra to be his heir rather than his brother, but more recently Daemon has come to show his niece more affection; both are united in their dislike of the king's second wife, Alicent Hightower, and her poorly-concealed ambitions for her son, Prince Aegon.

HBO is looking for an actor aged between 40 and 50 for the role, available to film between January and December 2021. This matches their plan to get the show on air sometime in 2022.

The show is also looking to cast Alicent Hightower and Rhaenyra Targaryen. If production is really going to start in January (pandemic permitting), I'd be expecting to hear some roles being confirmed fairly soon.

House of the Dragon is based on the book Fire and Blood by George R.R. Martin, and will chronicle the multi-sided civil war known as the Dance of Dragons, which takes place 170 years before the events of Game of Thrones, a civil war in which all sides are armed with dragons. Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik are executive producers and showrunners, with Sapochnik also serving as main director and Condal as the main writer.

More details emerge about HBO's unmade GAME OF THRONES spin-off shows

Thanks to detective work courtesy of user Zionius via Reddit, more information has come to light about the various spin-off Game of Thrones shows HBO had been working on back in 2017-18.

As we know now, HBO at one point had six Game of Thrones spin-off shows under consideration. They ordered a pilot for one of these shows but then cancelled it - Jane Goldman's The Longest Night (developed under the codename Bloodmoon, likely the name of the individual pilot episode) - and have now greenlit another, Ryan Condal's House of the Dragon, based on an earlier pitch by Bryan Cogman.

The nature of the other four shows has been unclear, although various rumours have surfaced over the years. However, thanks to Zionius analysing material HBO filed with the US copyright office, we now have a better idea.

Spinoff #1 was to be produced by Max Borenstein and Steeplechase Amusements Inc. It was copyrighted on 24 May 2017.

Spinoff #2 was to be produced by Brian Helgeland. It was copyrighted on 6 July 2017.

Spinoff #3 is not shown on the list, but logically must have been copyrighted in July or August 2017 and was to be produced by Carly Wray. 

Spinoff #4 was to be produced by October Lodge Ltd. and was copyrighted on 20 September 2017. Based on UK Company House filings, October Lodge is the production company owned by Jane Goldman/Ross, so this was The Longest Night (aka The Long Night aka Bloodmoon).

Spinoff #5 was to be produced by Bryan Cogman and Randy Mailman Productions, and was copyrighted on 6 April 2018. This show morphed via a seventh pitch (so #5 and #7 are the same thing, effectively) into House of the Dragon, the only one of the shows to get a full season order. We also know now that the production company for House of the Dragon "Bastard Sword." HBO plan to shoot this series next year for airing in 2022.

Spinoff #6 was to be produced by HunterFed and Far Shariat and was copyrighted after 8 February 2018. Far Shariat is an experienced TV producer, often working with Rand Ravich, and they have an overall development deal with HBO at present.

So #4 was The Longest Night and #5 became House of the Dragon. So what were the other shows?

Max Borenstein's show - #1 on this list - was reportedly called Empire of Ash and was set 100 years before the Doom of Valyria, and would have been a sweeping historical epic set in both Valyria itself and in the colonies in Sothoryos across the Summer Sea. Going by (massively unconfirmed) rumour, this show had a lot of development done for it which makes sense given it was the longest in development, but HBO was skittish about it because of the high cost of both the dragons and also depicting a much more fantasy-ish setting, with relatively limited direct connections to Game of Thrones. On the other hand HBO liked the similarities to their own, earlier show Rome. Apparently this idea has been moved to a backburner and maybe brought back into play at a later date (Borenstein is primarily working in film as a writer, so may be available later on).

Helgeland's show - #2 on the list - has never been formally identified. In an evasive interview, Helgeland only confirmed that his show was set in Westeros hundreds of years before GoT itself (he also suggested afterwards, but my information is that no show set "hundreds of years" after GoT was ever seriously considered). It is possible to likely that Helgeland's show was the "Aegon's Conquest" series revolving around the Conquest of Westeros by Aegon the Conqueror and the forging of the Iron Throne. Looking further back in the timeline, it's hard to see other events that may have been of interest.

Carly Wray's show - #3 on the list - has also never been formally identified. In this interview she confirms it's a prequel based in Westeros and is based on an episode in the earlier material. It also sounds like her idea was not as developed as others. It's unclear what it might have been (and runs into the same problem as Helgeland's setting). Assuming one of these two shows is the Conquest show, speculation can thus run rampant over the second, since GRRM has confirmed that neither a Robert's Rebellion or Dunk & Egg series was ever seriously considered (GRRM vetoed both ideas early on).

It should be noted that apparently only two of the shows - the Dance of Dragons and the Conquest - were based on material from the book Fire and Blood. That suggests the remaining Westeros pitch was set before the Conquest but after the Long Night. The only event with dramatic potential for a TV show in this time is Nymeria and the Rhoynar's flight from Essos to Dorne, via a hazardous journey through Sothoryos and the Summer Islands, sort of like a fantasy version of Battlestar Galactica. That could have been intriguing.

Spinoff #6 is an interesting one. It was proposed after all the others and seems to have been floated as an idea not long before The Longest Night was given a pilot order. As of May 2020, it was "still in contention," although the producers have since moved on to HBO's J.J. Abrams project Demimonde.

It'll be interesting to see if these other showrunners ever speak up in future about what their ideas would have been. In the meantime, we still have two years before House of the Dragon launches on HBO. 

AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER creators depart Netflix live-action reboot after losing "creative control"

In a shock move, the original co-creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender have resigned from their positions as showrunners and executive producers of Netflix's live-action remake.

Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, the creators of the original animated show, were tapped by Netflix two years ago to lead a live-action remake of the series. Their plan was to correct the mistakes that led to M. Night Shyamalan's badly-received 2009 live-action film and to deliver a story that was true to the spirit of the original series whilst also allowing for some changes due to the shift in medium.

In particular, DiMartino and Konietzko were keen to ensure continuity in terms of ethnic casting (the 2009 movie infamously "whitewashed" several key roles, replacing characters meant to be inspired by Inuit or Asian backgrounds with white actors) with the original animated show. It appears that Netflix has disagreed with some of their choices. It's unclear if casting itself was in dispute, but it is notable that for a show that was due to start shooting in the spring (before a pandemic delayed things) and which had already had sets and costumes created and some test-filming done, no final casting had been announced as of the start of this year.

DiMartino, in his statement, notes that Netflix promised to honour his and Konietzko's vision, but more recently had apparently rolled back on this statement. He notes that he and Konietzko were no longer in "creative control" of the project, suggesting that higher-ups at Netflix had enforced decisions on them that they were not willing to accept. DiMartino notes that the project is continuing and may end up being enjoyable, but it is not the project he or Konietzko "envisioned or intended to make." He notes that he and Konietzko had also resigned in June.

Intriguingly, DiMartino noted that they were "not done" with the Avatar universe and the recent surge in popularity of both Avatar: The Last Airebender and its sequel series, The Legend of Korra, had re-inspired them, hinting at the possibility of a third animated series in this universe.

Netflix have, so far, not offered any response.

Terry Pratchett Estate distances itself even more from BBC America's THE WATCH

Following the publication of yet another publicity image from BBC America's The Watch, a TV series loosely "inspired by" Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, his family and associates have once again made it clear that they do not approve of the project and have distanced themselves from it.

The Watch - then also referred to as The City Watch and also less seriously as CSI: Ankh-Morpork - began life way back in 2011 as a co-development between Sir Terry Pratchett and the BBC. Pratchett had seen several adaptations of his work undertaken in the past, most notably the animated Channel 4 versions of the novels Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music, both released in 1997, and Sky One's live-action versions of Hogfather, The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic and Going Postal in 2007-10. Although none of these adaptations were outright terrible, none arguably were as good as they should have been given the strength of the source material. Pratchett wanted to get more involved in these adaptations and in 2012 set up a company called Narrativia. Narrativia's goal was to try to establish greater control over the process and ensure greater fidelity to the feel of Pratchett's work transplanted to the screen, although not necessarily being completely 100% book-accurate in all respects (Pratchett understanding well that changes were needed given the shift in medium).

Sir Terry himself led discussions with the writers and it looked like everything was set for a faithful adaptation based on the novels, but with the freedom to move things around and take different ideas from different books. One idea apparently baked in from the start was that the series would not directly adapt the novels, but would instead pick up in the "present day" Discworld setting and use the novels as backstory, with the characters already in place. Among Pratchett's own ideas were using Ankh-Morpork's oft-mentioned, never-seen hospital as the setting for one storyline and using the creation of a City Watch band as a running gag.

Pratchett and his assistant and business partner Rob Wilkins were filmed discussing the project with the team from Prime Focus, the production team originally slated to make the show, by SFX Magazine in March 2011. Gavin Scott (Small Soldiers) and Terry Jones (Monty Python) were slated to write and possibly direct some episodes, and Pratchett's daughter Rhianna, now a respected writer in her own right, was also attached. The series was envisaged as being made in the UK on a relatively modest budget of $2 million per episode for a 13-episode first season, to air on the BBC. Crucially, the deal for the project was signed in 2011, before Narrativia was founded, with Sir Terry as the only named person involved on the book side of things.

Despite there being a strong wind in the sails of the project at this juncture (in October 2012 it was even reported - later erroneously - that the show had been greenlit), it appears that the BBC began to have second doubts and around 2013 put the brakes on the project. The BBC was under fire at the time for what was deemed to be over-extravagant spending in the aftermath of the global recession, and with The Watch coming in at significantly more expensive than Doctor Who, one of the BBC's own flagship programmes, it appears that enthusiasm for the project had dried up.

At some point between 2013 and 2016, possibly around the time of Sir Terry's sad passing in March 2015, the rights for the project were transferred from BBC Enterprises to BBC America, which decided to completely re-tool the project from the ground up with a whole new writing team. It appears during this time that Narrativia was effectively shut out of the process. Both Rhianna Pratchett and Rob Wilkins later reported (with somewhat-but-not-really concealed misgivings) that neither they nor Narrativia as an entity had been involved in the show for "many years." Nevertheless, when the show was formally greenlit (for real this time) in October 2018, Narrativia was namechecked as still being involved.

Prior to this point it appeared that the project was still going to be in line with Pratchett's original vision, where the novels are canon background material but the story takes place in the present-day of the book universe. Early reports that Ankh-Morpork was being modernised makes more sense in that context; although the city starts life in the first Discworld novel as a traditional medieval fantasy city, by the end of the series it as become a lot more Victorian and steampunk in technology and character, complete with railways and telegraphs. However, the initial casting reports from the series provoked concern, particularly when it was revealed that Sybil Ramkin, a middle-aged, rotund woman in the books who is nevertheless a major and powerful character, was being aged and slimmed considerably down to add sex appeal and action in her newfound role as a "vigilante," fighting crime on the streets of the city. The character of Cheery had also been changed from a young dwarfish woman anxious to prove her worth in her patriarchal society whilst also retaining her femininity to a young, non-binary human raised by dwarfs, borrowing Carrot's background and story for no immediately obvious reason.

By November 2019 it was clear that the project bore little, if any, resemblance to the source material, causing an immense backlash from fans and critics alike. In January 2020 the first publicity pictures from the project were released, reigniting the furore as it became clear that Ankh-Morpork in the TV show was a much more contemporary city, inspired by "punk rock" and featuring very modern-looking street lights and graffiti. It was at this point that Rhianna Pratchett and Rob Wilkins addressed the situation. Wilkins noted, rather forcefully, that The Watch is "inspired by, NOT based on," the series. Rhianna Pratchett further noted that the series being developed by BBC America is not the same series that her father signed off on, when it was a very different (and presumably better) beast and she hadn't been involved for years.

The Discworld Monthly published a run-down of the project here which seems to explain the root cause of the problem: the original contracts between the BBC and Sir Terry Pratchett stipulated that Sir Terry had some degree of influence and approval over the production, not Narrativia; Narrativia wasn't formally founded until after the initial contract was signed. As a result, when Sir Terry sadly left this Mortal Disc in 2015, there was no longer any kind of creative control being exercised from the book end of things and that allowed BBC American to effectively do whatever it wanted with no input from Narrativia.

The Watch is currently scheduled to air on BBC America in January 2021. Narrativia has signed a series of new deals with Moving Pictures to develop TV and film projects based on the other Discworld novels. The Wee Free Men is also in production at the Jim Henson Company, with Rhianna Pratchett attached as a writer. It appears that BBC America only has the rights to the City Watch sub-series of Discworld novels (Guards! Guards!, Men at Arms, Feet of Clay, Jingo, Night Watch, Thud! and Snuff) and cannot include any elements from the other books. Moving Pictures may have the rights to all the other books (including those previously filmed by Sky One and Cosgrove Hall, since the rights reverted to the Pratchett Estate in the early 2010s), with Narrativia likely having more say over these adaptations.

The Discworld book series consists of 41 novels and numerous ancillary works and is the joint-biggest-selling adult fantasy series since The Lord of the Rings, currently tying with Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time and George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire at around 90 million book sales apiece.

Christopher Eccleston to return as the Ninth Doctor for Big Finish Audio

In surprising but welcome news, Christopher Eccleston is returning to Doctor Who for the first time since his short but well-regraded stint as the Ninth Doctor in 2005.

He's not coming back to TV - yet - but instead the long-running and well-regarded series of audio dramas by Big Finish have contracted with Eccleston to appear in no less than twelve new stories. Big Finish have tapped almost every single living actor to play the Doctor or a companion to appear in audio stories set during their runs, allowing fans to revisit their favourite Doctor/companion pairings without that pesky ageing issue getting in the way. Christopher Eccleston was the biggest missing piece of the puzzle.

Eccleston will appear in twelve stories, to be released as four box sets of three stories each. These will be released in May, August and November 2021 and in February 2022. It's not yet been revealed who else will be starring in the dramas, although fans will be hoping that Billie Piper (who has done several dramas) might be persuaded to return as Rose. 

Eccleston was cast as the Doctor when Russell T. Davies - whom he had just worked with on the ITV drama Second Coming - resurrected the show for the BBC. Although the plan was for him to stay in the role for several seasons, Eccleston suffered an early creative clash with one of the directors working on the series, whom he believed was bullying and harassing cast and crewmembers, and stepped in to address the situation. He was upset when he felt he was not given sufficient backup from the producers and decided to quit. He did feel things improved by the end of his stint on the series, particularly his collaboration with director Joe Ahearn on the concluding episodes of the season, but by that point had already resigned and his replacement, David Tennant, had already been cast.

Eccleston's experiences on the show and resulting mental health issues (discussed candidly in a recent autobiography) soured his feelings towards returning, despite his respect for his fellow castmembers and many of the crew. In 2013 he entered into discussions with then-showrunner Steven Moffat about returning for the 50th anniversary special, but wanted to have a say in the choice of director. When the BBC was unable to provide that, he decided not to return; John Hurt was drafted in as the previously unseen "War Doctor" to replace him, although Eccleston's face is briefly seen at the end of the episode when the War Doctor regenerates into the Ninth Doctor.

With the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who looming in November 2023, this may also renew hopes that Eccleston could return to the role on screen as well for a reunion special.

Why J.R.R. Tolkien Never Won a Hugo Award

The Hugo Awards are the premier awards for science fiction and fantasy literature, first given out in 1953 and every year since 1955. One of the more interesting mysteries of the award is that J.R.R. Tolkien, widely regarded as the most prominent fantasy author of the 20th Century, was never given one despite being eligible on multiple occasions.

The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien's best-known work, was originally published in three volumes despite being written as a single novel: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers were published in 1954 and The Return of the King in 1955. This made the individual books eligible for the 1955 and 1956 Hugo Awards, and the novel as a whole also eligible in 1956. Similarly, The Silmarillion, published in 1977, should have been eligible in the 1978 Hugo Awards. Later Tolkien works, consisting of off-cuts from his notes and repackaged material previously published, would have been more controversial but likely could have made eligibility in other categories (particularly Unfinished Tales, effectively a short story collection, published in 1980).

The Lord of the Rings' failure to qualify is perhaps unfathomable to modern readers given its titanic impact on genre history, but more understandable when given context. When the book was originally published, it attracted strong reviews from the likes of W.H. Auden and C.S. Lewis, but opprobrium from a lot of mainstream critics. Although The Hobbit (1937) had already become a well-regarded classic of children's literature, its sequel initially was deemed too long, too weird and too unclear in its audience. There was also a modest delay between the UK and US publication, and the book was only available for more than a decade in hardcover, putting it out of the price and reach of many readers.

The Lord of the Rings also had two other things going for it: although the Hugos did not ban or omit fantasy, it was generally seen as a science fiction award first and foremost; an outright fantasy novel did not win the award for the first time until 2001, when Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire took the top prize. Once that happened the floodgates opened and more followed (American Gods, Paladin of Souls, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, The Graveyard Book and all three volumes of The Broken Earth trilogy), but for much of its history, the award has not regarded fantasy in a good light. Secondly, Tolkien was British, and the Hugos were seen as a predominantly American award. To win a Hugo Award, British authors had to have their work published by prominent US genre publishers or become so dominant in the field that they couldn't really be ignored (as with Arthur C. Clarke). This cross-Atlantic ignorance also went both ways, with the Hugos having almost zero profile in the UK. The first Brian Aldiss knew that he'd won the 1962 Hugo Award for Best Short Story (for his Hothouse collection of interlinked stories) was when the award showed up at his house in the post. The first issue probably penalised Tolkien, although the latter did not, as his books were distributed by a reasonably big US publisher within a year of their UK release.

Although certainly not obscure on release, it was not immediately regarded as a classic and the American WorldCon attendees (the two ceremonies were held in Cleveland, Ohio and New York City, respectively) seem to have pretty much ignored it. The 1955 Best Hugo was instead given to Mark Clifton and Frank Riley's They'd Rather Be Right (later regarded by some as the "worst book ever to win the Hugo Award") and the 1956 award to Robert A. Heinlein's Double Star.

The Lord of the Rings retained a somewhat low profile until 1965, when Ace Books used a copyright loophole to issue an unauthorised American paperback edition of the book in its original three volumes. A legal kerfuffle and fan backlash followed which eventually led to the issuing of an authorised paperback edition and Ace Books agreeing to pay royalties on their pirated version of the book. The "war over Middle-earth" made national headlines and catapulted the book to superstardom, as it was then picked up by young British and American readers and became part (not entirely to Tolkien's approval) of the 1960s counter-culture movement.

In 1966, the Hugo Awards introduced a one-off "Best All-Time Series" category. It was widely assumed by many (but most notably Isaac Asimov) that the award was introduced solely to reward The Lord of the Rings and to make up for the book's initial publication being overlooked. Surprisingly, the award went instead to Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, as it then was. Although few could argue with anything remotely approaching a straight face that Asimov's work was of greater literary merit, it was inarguably Science Fiction with a capital S and a capital F, and Tolkien's fantasy was once again left out in the cold.

With J.R.R. Tolkien dying in 1973, it would appear that his chances of winning a Hugo would have been reduced to zero. However, his life's work and what he regarded as his magnum opus, The Silmarillion, remained unpublished. Working to his directions, his son and literary executor Christopher Tolkien, assisted by future fantasy author (and likewise inexplicably non-winning, and even more inexplicably, non-shortlisted) Guy Gavriel Kay, organised The Silmarillion into a publishable form and the book was released in 1977. Although "difficult" and unusual in structure, The Silmarillion received critical praise and modest commercial success, and would seem to have been a shoe-in for the 1978 Hugo Award.

Instead, it didn't even make the shortlist: Frederick Pohl's Gateway won the award and was joined by nominees Marion Zimmer Bradley (The Forbidden Tower), Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (Lucifer's Hammer), Gordon R. Dickson (Time Storm) and some obscure guy called George R.R. Martin (for his debut novel, Dying of the Light).

The Silmarillion not even being nominated would seem unlikely, and it turns out that it actually was nominated and may have even got enough votes to make the shortlist, but it was kept out by pedantry: a man named Jim Corrick who was in charge of eligibility that year deemed that The Silmarillion was a short story collection containing a novel-length work (the Quenta Silmarillion) and thus if people had specifically nominated the Quenta Silmarillion, it would have made the shortlist, but since they didn't, it didn't.

It seems that at this point interest in getting Tolkien a Hugo Award evaporated: Unfinished Tales and its constituent stories were not nominated in 1981, and none of the twelve volumes of The History of Middle-earth was nominated for Best Related Work. The Children of Hurin (2008), Beren and Luthien (2017) and The Fall of Gondolin (2018) would have been of questionable eligibility, since they were repackaged material that had been previously published many years earlier. However, a case could have been made for them and for the latter two making the entire Middle-earth legendarium eligible for the Hugo Award for Best Series, but it seems no attempt was made.

Tolkien himself was probably vaguely aware of the Hugo Awards. He was a fan of Isaac Asimov's fiction in the 1950s and 1960s, and during the tussle with Ace Books, he had been in communication with the SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America) over the matter. He also had built up an extensive body of correspondence with American fans of his work. It is, however, unlikely that he spent a huge amount of time worrying about not winning awards. The immense fan recognition of his work and the resulting "grosser forms of literary success" as he put it (i.e. lots of money) was reward in itself. 

Still, although Tolkien himself never won a Hugo, adaptations of his work finally did. Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring won the last-ever Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation in 2002, and The Two Towers and The Return of the King won the first Hugo Awards for Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form) in 2003 and 2004 respectively. And the list of "influential writers who never won a Hugo Award" is distinguished company, also consisting of Gene Wolfe, Terry Pratchett and Iain Banks (among many others).

DUNE trailer to arrive this month

SF fans have been eagerly awaiting their first proper look at director Denis Villeneuve's next film, an adaptation of Frank Herbert's sprawling SF epic Dune. Now star Timothée Chalamet, who plays Paul Atreides in the film, has indicated that we should get a trailer before the end of the month.

A number of publicity images from the movie were released back in April, leading to speculation that a trailer was imminent. However, the trailer seems to have been delayed as the studio considered the chances of them actually hitting their planned 18 December release date considering the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

It now appears they are happier with the likelihood of the film going ahead as planned. It should be noted that releasing a trailer in late August, just three and a half months ahead of the film's release, is awfully short notice for a film of this scale, leading some industry watchers to speculate if this will hurt the film's box office prospects. There is also speculation that the movie might move early to VOD services, like Bill & Ted Face the Music and Mulan, although it's bee noted that Dune's immense budget and the requirement to make the money back makes this less likely.

STAR TREK film franchise put on hold

Paramount has put its Star Trek film franchise on hold whilst it figures out how to proceed.

After a seven-year delay in the movie series (following the box office bombing of the Next Generation crew-starring Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002), Paramount released J.J. Abrams' Star Trek in 2009 to a mostly solid reception, before following it up with the much more negatively-received Into Darkness in 2013 and the mostly-ignored Star Trek Beyond in 2016. In 2017, CBS released Star Trek: Discovery via streaming services, creating a renewed TV franchise which, despite dividing critics and fans, has chalked up three seasons of live-action television and one of animation since then, with several new shows in development. Paramount are keen to get back in on the act.

Paramount originally started developing a fourth film starring Chris Pine and the rest of the Abrams-era crew back in 2016, but ran into problems over pay. They wanted a budget reduction after Star Trek Beyond's modest performance and this required everyone to take a pay cut. However, Chris Pine (fresh off a solid turn in Wonder Woman) and returning first film guest star Chris Hemsworth (who had since become Thor in the Marvel universe) refused to renegotiate their compensation, leading to a stand-off.

In the meantime, Paramount had been in discussions with Quentin Tarantino over directing a Star Trek feature, although reportedly Tarantino had not settled down on one idea. At one point he was considering adapting the Next Generation episode Yesterday's Enterprise with a new crew, and at another was reportedly interested in remaking the classic episode A Piece of the Action (where Kirk and his crew arrive on a planet that is effectively run by prohibition-era gangsters). Tarantino later decided to not direct the film, but to co-write and produce.

Last year, Fargo and Legion showrunner Noah Hawley was announced as the writer-director of a new film. After initially a strong positive reception to the news, it sounds like Hawley wanted to move in the direction of hiring a whole-new cast and creating new characters for the film, something Paramount seem to have been more sceptical about.

Newly-arrived Paramount motion picture group Emma Watts is now considering her options. The Hawley and Tarantino films have been put on the backburner (with a view to being developed as spin-offs rather than mainline films) and instead the Pine/Hemsworth-starring script has been put back into contention, with Paramount more willing to consider their salary requests. There is also the possibility of all these ideas being put out to pasture a clean slate being adopted. Paramount are to consider their options in the coming months before deciding how to proceed.

THE WATCH gets an airdate

BBC America's controversial adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books featuring the City Watch has finally gotten an airdate. The show will debut on BBC America in January 2021.

The Watch is "very loosely" based on Pratchett's source material, but has seen a raft of changes made to the books which have alienated the fanbase. These include creating a "young, sexy," crimefighting version of Lady Sybil Ramkin (a larger and older woman in the books) and turning Ankh-Morpork into some kind of steampunk metropolis rather than the Renaissance-level post-medieval city of the books.

Terry Pratchett's business partner Rob Wilkins and daughter and literary executor Rhianna Pratchett were originally both involved with the project, when it was a much more faithful adaptation with the UK BBC, but have publicly distanced themselves from the show since it was transferred to BBC America.