One thing that SCI FI does really bad are those Saturday night movies. The one thing that SCI FI does almost flawlessly great is the miniseries and it looks like they are going to continue that trend.
Coming up for the new season will be “Tin Man,” a six-hour miniseries that takes a new look at the Dorothy and Wizard of Oz story and brings it into the 21st Century. We have already discussed this series on our last Slice of SciFi show and won’t bother to elaborate on it here.
The other new six-hour miniseries on tap for SCI FI will be something called “Going Homer.” This one will make good use of “Stargate SG-1” and “Farscape” star Ben Browder and will be directed by Andrew Prowse (“Farscape”). Prowse is currently in post-production with his new film “Heatstroke,” a scifi actioner starring D.B. Sweeney.
“Going Homer” is a modern-day turn on Homer’s Odyssey but takes place on a road-trip that a 12-year old boy takes from Los Angeles to New York. He makes the journey to avoid the bitter custody battle ensuing over him. During his travels he is able to see and communicate with the ancient Greek and Roman gods. Problem is no one else can see or hear them as these giants of Earth’s past walk among mortal men, which makes it hard for the young boy to seek refuge from those gods out to destroy him. Other gods in the pantheon, however come to his rescue as he struggles to find his way home.
Ben Browder and Andrew Prowse is an awesome combo, can’t wait to see it.
Is Ben also starring in the mini, or is he writing only?
More info. (from the Chicago Tribune, July 16, 2007):
[….Browder has another project to keep him occupied, at least part of the time: Sci Fi also announced that it had picked up “Going Homer,†a miniseries he developed with “Farscape†director Andrew Prowse.
Here’s Sci Fi’s description of the project: “Greek and Roman deities walk among us, but only 12 year old Homer Ulysses Jones can see them for what they truly are. When Homer and his father are forced to flee a custody battle that would likely separate them, they journey from Los Angeles to the home of their ancestors – in Ithaca, N.Y. As they travel through the heart of Americana, Homer’s eyes will be opened to a mystical landscape of capricious Gods; some will help our heroes, some will divert them and others will try to kill them to prevent them from reaching their ultimate goal – home.â€Â
“We’re really in early days,†with that project, Stern said. “We’ve bought the concept we’re going to be attaching a writer to work with him and we’re going to see where it’s going to go. It’s probably going to be a 6-hour miniseries. He and his partner have a full on story and an outline of where they want to go,†but the script has yet to be written, so there’s no projected air date for the miniseries.]
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2007/07/farscapes-unlik.html
Frell yeah. Good to see Sci-Fi doing something good. They had turned crap since 1999
Where’s the SciFi? TinMan was horrible, badly acted, badly written. Now they say they’re going to make it an ongoing series.
There’s going to be a huge backlash soon if SciFi doesn’t start showing more SciFi soon. Shows about greek gods? sigh.
Maybe we’ll get more ECW too
/sarc