SYFY CELEBRATES THANKSGIVING WEEKEND WITH HELIX BLACK GOO FRIDAY MARATHON

ORIGINAL EPISODES OF Z NATION AND HAVEN

SCI-FI HOLIDAY MOVIE MARATHONS

NEW YORK – November 11, 2014 – Syfy will celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday weekend with a Helix Black Goo Friday marathon, all-new episodes of the popular series Haven and Z Nation, and a two-day festival of iconic sci-fi films.

Syfy will kick off the movie fun on Thanksgiving, Thursday, November 27 beginning at 9:30AM (ET/PT) with 2001: A Space Odyssey, followed by Star Trek Nemesis, Space Cowboys, Stargate and Poseidon.

To get fans ready for the return of Helix, Syfy will telecast the entire first season of the hit drama on Friday, November 28 from 6AM-6PM. The Black Goo Friday marathon features cast interviews as well as a never-before-seen sneak peek of Season 2, which premieres Friday, January 16 at 10PM.

SYFY AND UNIVERSAL CABLE PRODUCTIONS ANNOUNCE KEY ROLES FOR THE MAGICIANS

PILOT FOR SERIES BASED ON LEV GROSSMAN’S INTERNATIONAL BEST SELLING NOVELS TO BEGIN FILMING THIS DECEMBER IN NEW ORLEANS

NEW YORK – November 6, 2014 – Syfy and Universal Cable Productions have cast Stella Maeve (Chicago PD), Hale Appleman (Teeth) and Arjun Gupta (Nurse Jackie) in key roles for the upcoming pilot The Magicians, an adaptation of Lev Grossman’s beloved #1 New York Times best-selling book series, which begins production in New Orleans this December.  Acclaimed independent film producer Mike Cahill (I Origins, Another Earth) is signed on to direct. 

Stella Maeve will play the beautiful and confident Julia, a wealthy and brilliant Ivy-Leaguer who seems destined for success. But Julia’s future plans are forever altered after she is denied admittance to the mysterious Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy. Unaccustomed to failure, Julia finds life meaningless now that the possibilities of a previously unseen magical world have been denied to her. But she may get another chance to pursue a career in magic when she’s recruited by a secret society.  Maeve can currently be seen in a recurring role on the NBC series Chicago PD. She most recently starred in the independent features Dark Summer opposite Keir Gilchrist, All Together Now, which premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival, and Independent Spirit Award-winner Starlet.  Previously, Maeve co-starred with Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart in The Runaways. Maeve is repped by Paradigm Agency and Principato-Young Entertainment.

This season Syfy premiered their new reality show Town of the Living Dead, which follows a group of people in Jasper, Alabama trying to make a zombie movie. Using their sweat and tears and not much in the way of a budget, the group struggled for six years to try to create their film Thr33 Days Dead when Syfy came to the rescue. The quirky team eventually made it through, taking the knowledge with them that the network would air their film upon completion. The documentary is their story.

The producer Tina Teeter recently talked to Jamie Ruby in an exclusive interview about their time making the film.

Teeter talked about how she became involved in creating the film. "Originally I had acted for many years; I did theater. And I actually got involved with this by going into RadioShack to buy my daughter a phone for Christmas. And I met John M. Ware; he's the director and the writer. I met him, and he mentioned to me he had a little bit part that he would like for me to do, which is mom in the movie, and I wanted to be a zombie. So that's how I became involved; I basically just wanted to be a zombie, a bit part.

Recently NBC premiered its new series, Constantine, based on the popular DC Comics series Hellblazer. Matt Ryan stars as demon hunter Constantine. Constantine, having his soul already damned to hell, he’s given up on fighting against evil, until the balance of good and evil is threatened and he has a chance to save the innocent, and possibly his own soul.

Ryan recently talked to the press about his new series.

The star talked to SciFi Vision about how his preparation was different for Constantine, because he was already a character from pop culture. “It’s different in the fact that there’s so much source material, which is a great thing actually. It’s different, and it’s a great thing when you create a character, because you start from scratch, and you kind of build it from the ground up.

“But with this you have such amazing source material that you can keep on going back to that and keep on finding new things...And so many amazing writers have written him. And, you know, they all have their own little takes on him, so it’s great that you have the opportunity to have so much material in terms of viewing and to keep on going back to.”

The third panel during the Syfy Press Tour was Helix. After an introduction by Bill McGoldrick, star Kyra Zagorsky, who plays Dr. Julia Walker, and executive producer Steven Maeda took the stage.

First off, Maeda talked a bit about the new location the series takes place in in season two. “One of the things we always talked about doing with the show, if we were fortunate enough to have a second season, was changing up the location. And because the show is so self-contained, it really occurs in one space for all 13 episodes.

“Obviously, season one, we were in the arctic at Arctic BioSystems, and it all blew up at the end of last year, so we can't go back.

Recently Alpha’s Laura Mennell joined the cast of Haven as epidemiologist Dr. Charlotte Cross, working for the CDC. The town of Haven struggles to keep her in the dark about what is really going on in the town.

The actress, along with showrunners Matthew McGuinness and Gabrielle Stanton, talked to the media recently about her role on the Syfy series, as well as what's still to come this season.

Mennell talked to SciFi Vision about whether her character can be trusted or not by those in Haven. “Well I think that’s part of the fun of this new introduction of Charlotte being this epidemiologist working for the CDC, because, I mean, yes, generally speaking she does pose a bit of a threat, which is kind of interesting coming into town, coming into Haven, not only as an outsider, but as this woman working for the CDC where Haven’s secrets could be exposed to possibly the worst person possible. But yes, I mean, throughout this season you’ll get to see whether she is a threat, whether she’s not a threat, whether she possibly could help. I think that’s part of the fun of it all.”

By Marcina Zaccaria

A directorial debut from Chris Lowell, Beside Still Waters wades through ripples of sorrow before discovering that friendship can steady the stormiest waters.

It is an honorable film by Lowell, who acted in the Oscar nominated movie, The Help and the box office hit, Veronica Mars. Beside Still Waters won both the Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the 2013 Austin Film Festival. A finalist for the Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab with his first screenplay, The Bridgewater Umbrella, Lowell considers sorrow and unexpected tragedy with his latest effort.

The truth comes out when a group of friends visits an old lake house, after the unfortunate death of the lead character’s parents. Ryan Eggold, as Daniel, never misses the opportunity for connection or the chance to share his story. When moving out of the house, the friends recall old times, as they sort through their past.

The first talent panel of the day at the Syfy Press Tour was 12 Monkeys. The panel was attended by stars Aaron Stanford, who plays time-traveler Cole, and Amanda Schull, who plays Dr. Cassandra Railly, Co-Executive Producer Travis Fickett, as well as EVP of Original Content of Syfy, Bill McGoldrick, who did the introduction.

McGoldrick gave the journalists some information on the series, and talked about how it is based on the film, which commemorates its 20th anniversary next year, and features the character of Cole who time travels from 2043 to present day. As in the film, Cole is on a mission to stop a deadly plague.

After a trailer of the show, Fickett talked about why it’s a perfect time now for the show. “I think because the audience was ready for a serialized time-travel show, something that Terry [Matalas] and I always wanted to do, and they, I think, were educated. The audience is educated now as to the intricacies of that kind of narrative style. Lost tricked everyone into doing a time travel show. At the start of season four, they're like, "Oh, by the way, we're a time travel show now," and it worked really well.

First up during the Syfy Press Tour was a sit-down panel with President of Syfy, Dave Howe, and EVP of Original Content at Syfy, Bill McGoldrick. Joining them was fellow journalist and editor at Blastr, Aaron Sagers, who gave the introduction.

First news of note was about Sharknado. Unfortunately due to conflict, Ian Zierling couldn’t be at the press tour, so there was no panel. However, Howe had some exclusive news for the journalists. “Next year, Sharknado 3 will be storming the east coast. It will make landfall and attack America's favorite institution, Washington DC, and finally, Washington is getting what's coming to it. And then it will swallow the entire eastern seaboard, head down the coast, and end up, miraculously, in Orlando, Florida, where it will take out some of Orlando. And we're calling it "Sharknado Takes on the Feast Coast."

Sunday marked the first day of the Syfy Press Tour. I arrived relatively early in the day at Loews Royal Pacific Hotel at Universal, and the Potterhead that I am, went straight over to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and visited Diagon Alley for the first time (more on that in subsequent articles) with fellow journalist Gavin of SpoilerTV. We happily spent a few hours there until we had to return to get ready for the evening activities.