THIS WEEK:
J.J. ABRAMS LOCKS WEDNESDAY NIGHT DOUBLE
SPOILERS - CHARMED
SERENITY OPENING DELAYED

THIS WEEK IN SCI-FI #12
14-27 NOVEMBER 2004

This week on Girls Kick Ass: Keira - pride of Kent; Blankety blank; Geek goddess; Emilie de Ravin slays Santa; Summer Glau - diving into River; Keira treats herself - and Jamie; New film role and U.N. missions keep Jolie on point; Jolie puts adoption plans on hold; Angelina conquers Hollywood!; Jolie and Farrell impressed with cover up; Jolie named among top Hollywood mums; Colin and Angelina in strange embrace

J.J Abrams locks Wednesday night double

As expected, Alias will be moving to Wednesday nights when it returns to ABC next January.

Building on the momentum provided by Lost and Desperate Housewives, the Disney-owned network will shake up its Monday and Wednesday lineups in January.

Starting 5 January, Alias will inherit the 9pm slot after Lost on Wednesdays. The series has had trouble finding a wide audience, but Lost is the sixth most-watched series this season.

The scheduling is also a huge vote of confidence in executive producer J.J. Abrams, who is responsible for both Alias and Lost.

"Not only do both shows have similar audience profiles with great appeal to television's most coveted young adult viewers, but they also share J.J.'s unique sensibility," said Stephen McPherson, president of ABC's prime-time entertainment..

The Bachelor has been losing its ratings allure in the post-Lost slot, so ABC will shift the reality show to 9pm on Mondays and start the third edition of The Bachelorette on 10 January. It will feature Bachelor alumna Jen Schefft as the title figure who will look for love in New York City.

ABC will spin off Extreme Makeover: Home Edition with How'd They Do That? The new series will air at 8pm on Mondays, starting 10 January, and explain how Ty Pennington and his team overhauled the home featured the night before on Home Edition, which ranks no. 13.

ABC will complete the renovation of Monday's schedule with a third reality series, Supernanny, which debuts at 10pm on 17 January. The show features what the network calls "a modern-day, tough-love Mary Poppins who is placed with families in need of guidance or care."

"What to do with Monday night after football has always been one of the network's biggest challenges," McPherson says. "But we think that we've come up with a strategy for success - three hours of compelling programming that speaks to our proven, wish-fulfillment brand of reality."

Spoilers follow

Meanwhile, J.J. Abrams told USA Today that Sydney gets a new boss, played Angela Bassett; a new job in the CIA; and a new permanent addition to her family, as Mia Maestro joins the cast as her half-sister, Nadia. Sydney and the rest of the team move to "a black ops division in the CIA ... a cool new organisation with cool new headquarters."

Abrams adds: "I think we have found a way to click back into the Alias we all enjoyed." That means a return to more streamlined stories. "The plot became our god, which was a huge problem. It ended up superseding character."

Spoilers - Charmed

Some spoiler-ish comments from a TV Guide interview with Kerr Smith, who has a recurring role in season 7. His character, Agent Kyle Brody, splits his time between probing occult mysteries and cuddling Rose McGowan's Paige (which is perhaps less fun that probing Paige and cuddling occult mysteries).

TV Guide Online: Kerr, you've signed up for 10 episodes of Charmed. [The sixth one airs this Sunday.] Any chance you'll stay as a series regular?

Kerr Smith: They've actually asked me. It's something I would entertain. I love the group and it's a good show. On the other hand, it'd take me out of pilot season; that is usually January through April. It's a very difficult decision because you want to try and get your own show, but then, working on a show as good as theirs is also a really good deal.

TVGO: I don't hear you saying no for sure.

Smith: I guess it's still up in the air. It's a tough decision. I'd love to stay, but you've also got to move forward into the black unknown. Staying in the nice cushy job is not taking a chance.

TVGO: How's life behind the scenes? We've all heard tales of backstage drama.

Smith: You gotta understand, I come from the most amazing crew family on Dawson's Creek. I didn't think I'd ever have that again. [My TV sister] Meredith Monroe and I are still great friends. After getting to know everybody on Charmed, it was unbelievable. They welcomed me right into this friendly atmosphere with great working conditions. It's the kind of job you really don't want to leave - which is why, I'm sure, they've been there for seven years.

TVGO: So Kyle's a federal agent who's into the supernatural. Sounds familiar...

Smith: He's Fox Mulder but he's not as sombre. He's more charming. But he is a mysterious FBI agent who's into the supernatural. (Chuckles)

TVGO: At least your sister wasn't abducted by aliens, right?

Smith: No - though you never know with this show.

TVGO: You're romancing Rose McGowan on Charmed. Her ex, Marilyn Manson, must be a tough act to follow.

Smith: (Snickers) A tough one, huh? Let's just keep it at a different act to follow.

TVGO: Ouch! Burn. So tell us more about Rose and Kyle's budding love.

Smith: At first, Rose's character got curious about my character because she didn't know if I'm a demon or an actual agent. Once she found out I'm good, we started working closely together against the big bad threat of this season, the Avatars. We've started to get too close, especially in the '30s noir episode we did in black-and-white last week.

TVGO: Yeah, I wondered about that. Was life actually black-and-white in the '30s?

Smith: Yeah, right. Rose and I got sucked into this magical book that was made by a couple of witches. It was a lot of fun to shoot and looks really cool. You'd think they'd run out of story lines after seven years of this crazy stuff, but they don't!

TVGO: UPN didn't pick up the pilot for Silverlake, another Aaron Spelling series you were to star in.

Smith: We shot it back in the spring. That's a bummer because we thought it would be picked up. It's set in the Silverlake neighbourhood of L.A. Dead people came to me for guidance or advice to solve crimes and mysteries or save a loved one who's still alive.

TVGO: Hmm... Sounds suspiciously similar to Fox's Tru Calling.

Smith: It's similar to Tru Calling, but we made ours less serious. (Chuckles) I did say "I see dead people" at one point, but I didn't steal Haley Joel Osment's [style of] line reading.

Serenity opening delayed

Joss Whedon dropped by the Whedonesque.com website to announce that Serenity, the film version of Firefly, has been pushed back from April 2005 to September 2005:

"Are you guys starting to hear that fanfare? Those distant drums? Are you slapping on your side-arms, pulling on your long brownish-colored coats and thumbing your crisp new bills in anticipation of the cinematic event of the year? Well, it's official: on April 22nd you, the true the blue the loyal, can step right up with the rest of America and WAIT FIVE MORE MONTHS.

"Heh. See, sometimes studios shuffle around release dates...

"Okay. Don't panic. right now you're panicking. you're thinking, 'how could they do this to me?' But what you SHOULD be thinking is: 'How could they do this to JOSS?' Seriously. That pity is mine and I want it back.

"So what happened? Well, nothing terribly original. April got crowded with a lot of titles aimed at a similar demographic, and the studio decided September was a clearer corridor for the film to make the kind of impact it should. This isn't about a lack of confidence in the film - in fact, they told me this before they even saw it. And now they have seen it, and unless they're way better liars than I'm used to, they dug it. Actually, they dug it pretty large, which is a good sign since there's not a single finished effect in the film. There's no reworking the end, no reshoots, no "does it have to be in space?" It's just a marketing issue. Now you'll get to watch lots of trailers in the summer. And hopefully, by the time it comes out, other people, people who ain't us, will get a whiff of what we're up to, and come along too.

"I love this movie. I HATE waiting to show it to you. I felt pretty much the way I imagine you're feeling right now when they told me. But these guys know what they're doing, and they're trying to protect their investment, not bury it. So I gotta be a grown-up. The release date is September 30th. Hopefully it won't change again.

"Spread the word. Keep the faith. And gleam the damn cube already."

Originally, Serenity was supposed to open before Star Wars: Episode III, but the change means it will now open afterwards.

Whedon says: "...opening before Star Wars would have been mondo beyondo, but opening in a month crowded with crowd drawin', flashy early-summer titles might not be. As my editor Lisa explained, 'April is the new May'. We don't wanna get buried...ALIVE!"

That's not to say that he's happy with the decision to open the film later:

"The fact is, I'm crushed, because I'm so anxious for you all to see what we've done. I want the world to know that Nathan Fillion is the next Harrison Ford (Well, he IS). I want them to see how amazing Summer Glau is... not to mention the whole cast and Jack Green, the greatest DP in DP-land, everybody just did such good work it almost makes me wish I'd written a coherent script! Or, I mean... um, hey, no pants! (Note to self...) So there you have it, or me, disappointed and impatient. But I really do believe in this studio. They supported this project since before I'd even thought up the SURPRISINGLY COHERENT script (nice save!) and they've been very up-front about their scheduling and marketing strategies, so I stand with their decision, but, as Abe Simpson would say: 'They're in for the frowning of a lifetime!'" back to the top