The Box: T.V. & Electronic News – 3/30/08

1) Japanese t.v. anime is coming to the Web, via Japanese production and licensing company GDH/Gonzo, with video broadcasts at sites like YouTube, Crunchyroll and BOST. The English-subtitled versions of the company’s series will be available immediately, while the shows are still airing on Japanese t.v., starting with The Tower of Druaga on April 4th, on Gonzo’s special channel at YouTube and other sites.

2) NBC in the States has signed up actor Christian Slater for a new t.v. sci-fi spy series from writer-producer Jason Smilovic, a former feature film project at Fox that is now being developed by Universal Media Studios. A mix of The Bourne Identity and Jekyll & Hyde, the show has Slater play a mild-mannered suburban dad, who learns of his secret agent alter ego.

3) The SciFi Channel in the U.S. has announced a list of new up-coming shows/pilots, including:

Caprica: The Battlestar Galactica spin-off prequel series, starting with a two hour pilot/film by BSG’s producers. It tells the story of two rival family dynasties, whose work in robotics brings about the Cylons.

True Believer: From actress-writer Rosario Dawson, David Atchinson, Mathew Spradlin and Tom Feister, the adaptation of Dawson’s comic book series for Image Comics -- Occult Crimes Task Force, about a comic book nerd who hires a washed-up superhero to be his crime-fighting sidekick and teach him the ropes.

The Stranded: From the cable channel’s partnership with Virgin Comics, to develop t.v. shows and comic series in conjunction. The comics version of the story is already a hit. The Stranded tells the story of five people who learn that their human lives were a lie and they are actually stranded aliens from another world and are in great danger on their adopted planet.

Deputized: A dramedy about an average Joe who gets accidentally fitted with an alien exoskeleton that gives him special abilities and so he becomes an inter-galactic police officer.

Alice: A six hour miniseries from the creators of The Tin Man miniseries, retelling the classic story of Alice in Wonderland.

The channel is also launching a Web-only series called Starcross late in 2008, about the goings on behind the scenes of a long running sci-fi soap opera show, on the Sci-Fi Channel's website.

4) Producer Glenn Gordon Caron, who created the U.S. t.v. show Medium, will produce a new fantasy pilot for CBS called Meant To Be's. Amy Smart will star as a rich, young art gallery owner who impulsively marries and then dies in an unexpected act of violence. She finds herself in Limbo and is ordered to help people on Earth with the things they were meant to do.

5) South Park has finally gotten their website, South Park Digital Studios, up and running. On the site, fans of the satirical, animated television show can watch video streams of every single South Park episode of the last 12 years for free. The site also includes some 3,000 embeddable clips and will be an “incubator” for future projects by series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Watch Kenny get killed in every way imaginable at: South Park Digital Studios