The Box: Television & Game News – 3/1/08

1) Jerry Bruckheimer is producing a U.S. remake of the British SF miniseries Eleventh Hour for CBS as a drama series. British actor Rufus Sewell will star as Jacob Hood (previously played by Patrick Stewart,) a special science adviser to the government who, along with his feisty female bodyguard, saves people from the worst abuses of science. Writer and director Mick Davis did the script for the American version, set in the U.S., and CSI’s executive producer Danny Cannon will direct the pilot.

2) CBS has also followed U.S. network NBC in putting its classic television shows online at its website: http://www.cbs.com Their sci-fi shows include The Twilight Zone, MacGyver and the one, the only, the original Star Trek series, as well as other shows like Melrose Place and Hawaii Five-O. 

3) As a tie-in to the cult hit sci-fi show Supernatural on the CW network in the U.S., there will be a Supernatural magazine from Titan publications, containing information about the show’s mythologies, plotlines, actors and behind-the-scenes production secrets. The first issue debuted in February, featuring interviews with the cast. Unfortunately, the CW has taken the show off the air on hiatus, replacing it in its Thursday timeslot with new sci-fi show Reaper. So those jonesing for a Supernatural fix can at least enjoy the magazine until the network announces its scheduling plans.

4) U.S. network CBS has picked up Mythological X, a drama pilot about a woman who discovers via a psychic that she has already dated the man she was destined to marry, and so she embarks on a mission to find him. Diane Ruggiero, who did Veronica Mars, will executive-produce with Jonathan Levin.

5) Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain have joined the staff of Joss Whedon's sci-fi series Dollhouse for U.S.’ Fox network. Fain and Craft were most recently executive producers of ABC's Women's Murder Club. Dollhouse stars Eliza Dushku as a secret agent imprinted with different personalities whose memories are wiped clean each time she completes an assignment.

6) NBC Universal Television will release the first original soundtrack CD for sci-fi series Heroes in mid-March. The CD will feature exclusive new singles from artists including Wilco, Panic! at the Disco, Nada Surf and Imogen Heap, classic tracks from Bob Dylan and David Bowie, and the Heroes theme music. There will also be several music videos that are montage podcasts, featuring footage from the show with music, through free downloads at the Zune Marketplace online store and for streaming at MSN, starting this weekend. The CD will be available at Best Buy stores as a CD or digitally at Zune and other digital service providers. The television show Heroes had the second half of its second season delayed by the writers strike, and now will not be returning until fall 2008.

7) Fox TV in the States is developing a spin-off from its animated series Family Guy, centered on a neighbor character, Cleveland Brown. The project is tentatively titled Cleveland, and is being written and developed by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, Mike Henry, who also does the voice for the Cleveland character, and Rich Appel.