NBC Orders ‘District 17′ Pilot From Ronald D. Moore

Ronald D. Moore, the showrunner whose work includes science fiction favorites like Star Trek: The Next Generation and Battlestar Galactica, is working on a new pilot for NBC.

District 17 will follow a group of policemen working in a magical town called Excelsior.

Not much is known about District 17 at the moment, though the scuttlebutt describes the show as “Harry Potter for grown-ups.” If the show makes it to air it will probably be quite a bit different from anything currently on network TV, though the fantasy/police procedural premise sounds like a mix between Eureka and The Dresden Files, both from NBC’s sister channel SyFy. If Moore’s recent work is any indication, District 17 would be much darker and more serious than either series.

Rumor has it that the series has already accrued $2 million worth of pilot and series penalties from developer Sony Television, meaning that Sony will pay Moore that amount if the show doesn’t both film a pilot and get picked up as a series. No cast or crew information is currently available.

Moore is a staple of television sci-fi in the 90s and 2000s. He was part of the writing and production staff on several Star Trek properties, cutting his teeth on The Next Generation and its first two movies before working on what many see as the best of the modern Trek series in Deep Space Nine. After producing the later seasons of Roswell, he developed SyFy’s successful Battlestar Galactica reboot for all four of its seasons and various satellite projects.

Though his recent work has had trouble gaining traction (Caprica fizzled after a single season and Fox downgraded the promising Virtuality to a TV movie), Moore seems to be firing on all cylinders. In addition to the pilot order for District 17, he’s currently in pre-production for two other potential series. NBC has ordered a drama about a Coast Guard vessel christened The McCulloch. While a drama without any sci-fi or fantasy elements is relatively uncharted water for Moore, he knows a thing or two about lone, wandering vessels. CBS also has him writing a re-imagined version of the classic Wild Wild West TV show with fellow DS9 alum and CSI showrunner Naren Shankar.

It’s good to see Moore working on so many different projects. The McCulloch is a lock, and while the other two series are up in the air at the moment, there’s a good chance at least one will make it to an initial season order.

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We’ll keep an ear to the ground for more news on District 17.

Source: Entertainment Weekly

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‘Lost’ Star Jorge Garcia Joins J.J. Abrams Fox Pilot ‘Alcatraz’

After six years of battling time paradoxes on Lost, it appears that Jorge Garcia still can’t get enough of that island life, as it has just been announced that he will be returning to television in J.J. Abrams’ new pilot on Fox, entitled  Alcatraz.

When we first reported on Abrams shopping around Alcatraz with fellow Lost executive producer Elizabeth Sarnoff, nothing was revealed about the project or what fans could expect. Now, we know that the series will center on a group of Alcatraz prisoners and guards who went missing thirty years ago, only to mysteriously reappear in the present day.

Described as a show “about secrets and the most infamous prison of all time,” Alcatraz will follow a team of FBI agents who are assigned the task of tracking down these time traveling characters, while simultaneously trying to figure out the mystery behind their disappearance all those years ago.

In the series, Garcia will play Dr. Diego Soto, the world’s foremost expert on Alcatraz, who is described as a “hippy geek.” This marks the first casting announcement for Alcatraz, after the news that Fox picked up the pilot two months ago.

Coincidentally, as Garcia was the first actor to be cast on Lost, he was also the first actor cast in Alcatraz. Although, this time, there was no need for an audition, as the role of Dr. Diego Soto was written specifically with Garcia in mind and he was the only actor they were going to approach for the role.

As usual, Abrams’ name is attached to a series to help promotion, but it is actually former Lost executive producer Elizabeth Sarnoff who wrote the final script for Alcatraz, following an earlier incarnation from former Kyle XY writers Steven Lilien and Bryan Wynbrandt. During production, Sarnoff will serve as showrunner and will be executive producing it with Abrams, Lilen, Wynbrandt and Bryan Burk.

With Alcatraz sounding like it could be an episode of Fringe, one has to wonder what plans Fox has for the series if it gets picked up. With the aforementioned Fringe finally bringing its story together, the ratings haven’t exactly reflected the new-found focus and the series is still considered a bubble show for the network.

So, the question has to be asked: Is there room for two fantastical shows on Fox or will it come down to a decision of one over the other? And, if that question does get asked, which show will make the cut?

Hopefully, in the case, we’ll be able to have our cake and eat it too.

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Source: Deadline

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Artificial brain becomes ace pilot

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Artificial brain becomes ace pilot

The helicopter in the video below may look dangerously out of control. But it is being piloted by a piece of software able to perform the "chaos" manoeuvre shown for indefinite periods.



Researchers in the Stanford University AI Lab have created software able to learn complex aerobatics from human pilots.

Using the data from a suite of sensors (accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers) on a helicopter piloted by an expert human, the software works out how to pull off the same moves. This is not simply a case of mimicking the commands sent from the controller, the software must learn to deal with the effects of varying wind conditions and other complications.

Smart as it is, the Stanford software doesn't get it first time. Watch this video (wmv format) to see a helicopter improve it's "tic-toc" manoeuvre.

Small autonomous aircraft are learning aerobatics elsewhere, too. A team at the Georgia Institute of Technology has created helicopters that can land on slopes steeper than any human pilot can handle, and MIT researchers have built planes that are able to perform vertical, perching, landings. Video of both those craft in action are below.

Tom Simonite, online technology editor



Labels: aerospace, vehicles

Posted by Tom at 5:50 PM