TV Hot Spot: News
'Scare Tactics' Returns to Sci Fi!
Post by: Sal
Source: Zap2It
After a nearly four-year hiatus, "Scare Tactics" is returning to the Sci Fi Channel.
The cable network has also renewed "Mind Control with Derren Brown" and greenlit several pilots (both scripted and unscripted), including an adaptation of the comic book "The Stranded," a modern-day take on "Alice in Wonderland" from the "Tin Man" team and an offbeat superhero show that actress Rosario Dawson will executive produce.
"Scare Tactics" last aired on Sci Fi in December 2004. The relaunched show will get a new host in "30 Rock" star Tracy Morgan but will retain its premise of friends and loved ones putting unsuspecting marks into elaborately staged scary situations put on by a team of actors and effects and makeup artists. Scott Hallock and Kevin Healey return as executive producers.
Sci Fi has also ordered six more episodes of "Mind Control," which features mentalist Brown for the fall and is working on two pilots: the haunted-house treasure hunt "Estate of Panic" and "Brain Trust," in which a team of geniuses seeks new solutions to common problems. NBC News anchor Lester Holt will also host a special called "Mystery of the Crystal Skulls" that looks into the real-life objects that helped inspire the latest " Indiana Jones" film.
On the scripted side, "Tin Man" director Nick Willing and producers Robert Halmi Sr. and Robert Halmi Jr. are teaming up for "Alice," a six-hour miniseries based on "Alice in Wonderland." Willing is also set to write the script.
Dawson ("Grindhouse," "Sin City") is executive producing a two-hour movie/back-door pilot called "True Believer." Written by David Atchinson and Matthew Spradlin, the show centers on a comic-book geek who hires a down-on-his-luck superhero to teach him the basics of crime-fighting.
Other projects include "The Stranded," based on the Sci Fi/Virgin Comics title about five people who discover they're actually from another world; and "Deputized," about a guy who's accidentally drafted into an intergalactic police force.
Take care,
Sal
