• Okay, did anyone else watch the return of V? I confess I’m struck by how incredibly bad it is: every scene is so simple-minded without any nuance or subtext whatsoever, and don’t get me started on all the plot contrivances. They had eight months to retool, and this is the best they could do? On the plus side, however, it’s gotten so bad that it’s rapidly approaching “camp,” which means it’s almost so-bad-it’s good. (And at least they’re finally showing us what the Visitors look like! USA Today has a spoiler pic.)
  

• Speaking of “bad” projects, the buzz on Nic Cage’s Season of the Witch is that it’s a stink-o-rama. I was going to review it anyway, but I’ll be gone on Thursday and Friday (and they didn’t screen it for critics), so I won’t be able to. Damn!

• A look at SyFy’s American remake of Being Human. I’d say it looks stupid, but I’m afraid I’ve already used my “negative” quota for this Palantir:

• Hilarious: Tom Felton, who played Draco in the Harry Potter movies, says he’s now able to get a tan, after a ten-year ban. (But if he’s anything like me, and with his fair skin he is, he’s probably better with spray-on.)

• A Lord of the Rings-themed iPhone game app.

• A clever campaign by the folks at Save Our Seeker (who are trying to bring back the syndicated show Legend of the Seeker): they’re planning to all watch the season 1 episode “Deena” non-stop on Hulu (where it’s available for free viewing) in order to get it on a front-page spot and increase visibility. Join in between January 11th and 18th.

• Behind-the-scenes look at the underwater bedroom scene in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (one of the most interesting scenes in the movie, IMHO). Featurettes these days are a dime a dozen, but this one is worth watching:

• In terms of quality, how do sequel movies compare to the originals? Someone graphs it out. Fascinating, but not at all surprising.

• The Razzies (given to the worst films of the year) has a new category: worst eye-gouging misuse of 3-D. Brilliant!

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• A Power List of the movers-and-shakers in sci-fi and fantasy in 2010. As they say, these aren’t necessarily the people I wish had all the power, but it’s hard to argue that they don’t.
  

• Author Neil Gaiman had a patch of land that looked “always Winter, never Christmas,” so he bought a lamp-post for it, and had it installed. Instant Lantern Waste!

• Pictures from the upcoming fantasy movie Ember Days, about a fallen angel teaming with a Greek god, starring Raw Leiba, right.

• Win a copy of Legend of the Seeker (DVD) signed by Bridget Regan — and help support a really good cause! But hurry, the deadline rapidly approaches.

• I approve! It’s reportedly Viggo Mortensen or Javier Bardem leading Ron Howard’s upcoming The Dark Tower.

• A list of the year’s best and worst spoilers. Yet another reminder: just cause you read it on the internets, that don’t make it true!

• A damn interesting (and funny!) list of all the sci-fi cliches.

• How incredibly depressing: the cool Zoltar machine from Big is now … a Pepsi machine.

• Everyone’s talking about the dead birds that fell out of the sky in Arkansas, just like in Flash Forward (and lots of other sci-fi projects). Yup, however you slice it, we’re screwed:

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• Ah, the canceled TV series that leaves the whole show on a cliffhanger! A pretty decent list. Some of these — like Odyssey 5 — still kinda haunt me.

• NBC’s highly-hyped The Event disappointed in the ratings.

• Oh, my Lord, they’re talking about a third movie in the Bill & Ted (Excellent Adventure) series. As anti-sequel as I am, I actually think it could be kinda meta after all these years (not to mention after Reeves starring in The Matrix).

• The unstoppable folks over at Save Our Seeker are working on a campaign to get the People’s Choice Award to include a new fantasy-related category (which, of course, they hope Legend of the Seeker would win). Go, SOS!

• Please, God, not another Godzilla reboot. But apparently he’s fighting other monsters. They don’t say who, but Mothra seems like a given, right?

• Firefly re-imagined as a musical, below. The browncoats will truly never die, will they?

• Orson Scott Card is an unmitigated bigot, but Ender’s Game is still a great book — and it looks like the movie version might finally happen.

• The most (only?) interesting thing about the Hulk movie franchise is, and always has been, the behind-the-scenes drama. Edward Norton is the latest to speak out, about not being cast in the upcoming The Avengers. It was all about greed, he says.

• Twenty “epic” failures in TV sci-fi/fantasy.  Damn, there’s been a lot of crappy sci-fi/fantasy! But it still seems weird to have a list that includes both Firefly and the horrible Bionic Woman reboot.

• After being knighted last year, Terry Pratchett made his own sword. Out of meteorites. Which is just so beyond cool:
  

  

TheTorchOnline.com confirmed the cancellation of the syndicated fantasy show Legend of the Seeker back in May, but that hasn’t stopped an intrepid group of fans who have organized at SaveOurSeeker.com to continue to advocate for another season for the series.

Since ABC/Disney, which produced the show, will not be producing a third season, these fans have concentrated on finding another producing entity to take it over. They’ve raised almost $25,000 to date, which they’ve used to place ads in Variety, Hollywood Reporter, and on a bus shelter in Burbank.

They’re also doing email and Twitter campaigns, fan videos, and online petition, and plan to have a presence at the upcoming Dragon-Con convention in Atlanta.

“I think it’s incredible what they’re doing,” says Mary D. Brooks, the webmaster of a number of Seeker-themed websites.

Such fan campaigns have been successful before with other syndicated shows: once Xena: Warrior Princess seemed doomed to cancellation, but  fans rallied and ended up bringing it back for another season.

But to date, there has been no public movement toward the possibility of a third season for Seeker.

UPDATE BELOW!

There’s been some confusion floating around the blogosphere about whether or not the syndicated fantasy show Legend of the Seeker has really been canceled.

To set the record straight, it has been. I’ve heard it directly from the studio itself. “It is true that we won’t be producing a third season,” they told me.

I didn’t write another article to this effect because I’d already reported the news once and, frankly, I didn’t want to throw cold water on the efforts by fans to encourage the producers and studio to try to find a way to make a third season work.

In short, just because the show has been officially canceled, that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be brought back to life, should the studio find another network or channel for it, or another way to make the finances work. It’s rare, but a few shows have been “resurrected” like this before.

The latest good news, a real feather in the cap of the Save Our Seeker effort, is that they’ve now raised enough money to place a second “save the Seeker” ad in a second industry publication. The ad will appear this Friday in The Hollywood Reporter.

The point of these ads, shrewdly conceived and cleverly executed, is to use the entertainment industry media to appeal directly to other financing entities.

Author Terry Goodkind hinted that the fan effort is having an impact. He specifically said in his letter of support earlier this week that, “your words and efforts are getting notice.”

He’s in a position to know.

My personal “read” of all this is that a third season is a long shot, and the more time goes by, the more difficult it becomes, as actors and other talent line up new jobs for next year.

But it’s absolutely not impossible. I’m personally crossing my fingers very hard.

Update (in response to comments, below): Bridget Osterhaus, the show’s publicist at ABC Disney, has just confirmed my story for the third time: “No. A third season of Legend of the Seeker will not be produced.”

Update (5/13): Please don’t shoot the messenger, but in my further discussions today with representatives from the show and studio, they made it very clear to me that, as of today, there are currently no negotiations going on with anyone regarding a possible third season for the show. They say the actors have moved on. The people I spoke with are very, very pessimistic that a third season is possible. They claim that the person who is posting on online bulletin boards claiming to have had discussions about sponsoring a third season is not in contact with anyone with any position of authority at the studio or on the show, and may possibly be a fraud or a hoax.

Further Update (5/13): To clarify, the person posting on bulletin boards (who I made several efforts to contact, without success) has never claimed to be offering to sponsor a third season of the show (though his comments have frequently been interpreted that way, including in the comments here, below). The person, LOTS_Sponsor, has been involved with sponsoring the show in the past and has reportedly been working with the studio to license their logo for promotional purposes; he is not involved in any planned third season for the show. He says he tried to contact me, but I did not receive those emails or phone calls. Still, he has posted a response here.

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Terry Goodkind

A flawed Legend of the Seeker is better than no Seeker at all.

Terry Goodkind, the author of the Sword of Truth books upon which the canceled syndicated fantasy series is based, has reportedly been critical of the show in the past, as a result of the liberties it’s taken with the plot and characterization of the books. There have also been reports that he was no longer working directly with the producers, even in an advisory capacity.

Even so, he has posted a letter on his website, coming out in support of the Save Our Seeker fan campaign to encourage a third season for the series:

Legend of the Seeker has served as a wonderful new entry-point to the rich tales of the beloved world of Richard Cypher and Kahlan Amnell, characters that I first created in 1992. As the creator of this world and these characters, I’m proud to lend my support to the Save Our Seeker fan community. What I like about the television series is that it offers a glimpse into the beautiful, often dangerous world of my books, a world that at its core is driven by the strength and nobility of the characters. There are too few stories of such heroes today.

In Richard and Kahlan’s world, the road is never easy. This road is no easier. But your words and your efforts are getting notice. Now more than ever is the time to rise in support of Richard and Kahlan, and their story, by keeping the show alive for well into the beyond. The TV series has only just begun and there is so much more to tell. With your help, we can make sure that happens. Thank you. Terry Goodkind, May 9th, 2010.

Save Our Seeker, the online campaign to encourage a third season of the syndicated fantasy show Legend of the Seeker, has let fans vote on which of four ads they should place in Variety — and fans have chosen a winner (below).

Last week, concerned by reports that the show had been canceled, Save Our Seeker solicited funds from fans to place the ad. More than $8000 was raised.

The ad, which is directed at industry professionals, will hopefully run Friday, May 7th.

The “fandom name” of the artist is Tarlanciel. The winning ad received 309 votes. Second ad: 129; third: 78; and fourth: 21

See the three ad designs not chosen here.

The campaign is $600 short of being able to afford a second ad in a different publication, so they’re still accepting contributions.

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Last week, with the news that the syndicated fantasy show Legend of the Seeker had apparently been canceled, fans decided to mount a campaign to raise money for an ad in the industry publication Variety, thanking the producers for the show, but also pleading for a third season.

In three days, the organization, SaveOurSeeker.com, raised $8000, which will be used for an ad that will probably appear next week, according to Laura Ventura, one of the organizers of the campaign.

They are no longer accepting contributions, but in an effort to communicate enthusiasm for the show, they’re encouraging fans to pre-order Season Two, download the next episode on iTunes, and write and Tweet various industry folks.

In a show of support, people involved with the series, including Bridget Regan, have retweeted news of the fan effort.

For more information, go here.

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