REAL-TIME BAUER! '24' RETURNS IN 'LIVE ANOTHER DAY'

America's modern-day TV hero, Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), returns in 24: LIVE ANOTHER DAY. Image: FOX.

It looks like someone in the upper echelons of FOX USA thankfully read my opinion last month about the future of 24, and made some fast-paced executive decision-making which we all really wanted to hear. Pioneering action hero Jack Bauer is back, and hell's coming with him (again!), in the new limited series, 12 episode adventure coming May 2014- the intriguingly James Bond-esque 24: LIVE ANOTHER DAY. The lack of a 24 film may ultimately prove to be one of the biggest loses for the action genre and summer multiplexes, but at least we'll have Jack back on the small screen one more time, where he belongs, in what apparently is being touted by insiders as a re-start for the franchise.

There's no plot details yet apart from its being set several years after our hero became an exiled figure from his political and spy-dom superiors, but with two of the award-winning, pioneering series best creative talents back aboard, THE X-FILES and HOMELAND's Howard Gordon (also showrunner) and David Fury, we're sure icon Kiefer Sutherland will have lots to mentally and physically engage himself in, hopefully sparring anew with his tantrum computer genius best friend, the lovable Chloe O'Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub).

Let the mayhem begin all over again. Welcome home, Jack....

TRUE BELIEVERS! THE GRAPHIC NOVEL RETURN OF 'THE X-FILES'

Faith and dedication: Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Mulder (David Duchovny) head into the comic universe for more sci-fi/horror adventures. Images: 20TH CENTURY FOX/IDW PUBLISHING.

There may not be any signs (yet) of a live action film or TV series return/continuance for those paranormal investigating, alien invasion fighting FBI heroes, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, as so iconically played with warmth, heroism and occasional oddball humour by David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, but fans can at least celebrate the shows 20th anniversary this year with a brand new comic series from IDW PUBLISHING, written by respected fan and storyteller Joe Harris, illustrated by Michael Walsh, and, most importantly, given the official seal of approval by the series creator Chris Carter (who's also coming up with story ideas and maintaining series continuity cannon),  which takes place after the events of the duo's second theatrical movie, the under-rated I WANT TO BELIEVE, and leads into the planned colonisation/Armageddon towards Earth by those black oil possessed grey aliens seen on and off during the original series impressive, and now legendary, nine season run. Also promised in the book series are standalone adventures that will capture the atmosphere and variety of the series, hopefully with lots of intriguing and intriguing new monsters and horrific transmogrification's, plus an explanation of just what happened to THE X FILES successor agents, tough realist John Doggett and spiritualist Monica Reyes (played on screen by Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish) after the events of the original finale 2002 episode. And, even though they're dead, expect a return of some kind from those three charming computer nerds/ conspiracy theorists, The Lone Gunmen.

One of the excellent covers for the new comic series.

Officially regarded as the shows "tenth season", with Mulder and Scully back in the FBI after friends and associates linked to the FBI are slowly but surely being killed off, the truth is still out there, waiting to be uncovered more than ever, starting from June 19th...

BAUER'S BATTLES! '24' - NOW SHOWING ON NETFLIX

Don't get on his bad side! Kiefer Sutherland, now a TV legend as Jack Bauer in 24. Image: FOX.

In an age where James Bond is back to bigger box office business than ever before, and where Jason Bourne has managed to be a success within a series where, at one point, he wasn't even in one of the movies!, you'd think that 20th Century Fox's handling of their potentially biggest action hero-American patriot and badass Jack Bauer, as played by the dedicated Kiefer Sutherland, and his destiny in the once planned for premiere big-screen 24 movie, would've been handled better. With much time wasted trying to find a scripter and director (which took two years), then Sutherland committed to the now axed after two seasons TOUCH, the on-track production ball has seemingly been well and truly lost forever, and, according to top action director Antoine Fuqua (once attached to the project-one of many, including the likes of the late, great Tony Scott), dead in the water. A great pity-so much potential, time and big-league profit revenue lost.

I think it likely that, if 24 eventually does return, it will be back on the small screen a few years from now, in all probability "re-imagined" with a younger lead actor/character. But regardless, no one will ever forget the incredible contribution to the series made by Sutherland- he'll truly be a hard act to follow...

Despite the loss of the film, we still have eight exciting seasons of Bauer-ness to enjoy, too. And if you've never sampled the series and its always innovative format, created by Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran, check it out from the beginning on NETFLIX: Watch 24 Online | Netflix

Get the complete series here: Amazon.co.uk: 24 box set

SPACE ODDITIES! THE RETURN OF 'FUTURAMA'

Spaced-out! The cast of FUTURAMA return. Image copyright: Matt Groening/20th Century Fox.

Matt Groening and 20th Century Fox's other animation child supreme, the sci-fi comedy of intergalactic proportions, FUTURAMA, returns from Friday 29th March on SKY ONE HD. Once cryonised ex-20th century boy Pizza boy Philip Fry and his way out there crew of the Planet Express continue their final frontier adventures in the 31st century, with the kind of warped-out ideas and all-round humorous chaos that fans have loved on and off since 1999.

As always, that lovable robot rogue Bender (voiced with attitude by John DiMaggio) gets the lions share of all the best foul-mouthed, egocentric and misanthropic storylines: this time even getting to becoming self-replicating (heaven help us!), whilst Fry has to deal with the return of the once extinct common cold and the rest of the crew encounter a strange life-form with gender-bending powers. It looks like its gonna be one of those days numerous times over...

With a guest cast including THE SIMPSONS Dan Castellaneta, returning to voice his iconic role of Homer, plus other modern day heroes the likes of real-life space legend Buzz Aldrin and scientist Stephen Hawking, and even a cameo from Tom SpongeBob Squarepants Kenny himself, this season looks set to be the most ambitious, and hopefully funniest, yet...

SPRING-FIELD INTO SUMMER WITH 'THE SIMPSONS'!

 Fun before chaos with THE SIMPSONS. Image copyright: Matt Groening/20TH CENTURY FOX. 

After their huge success with Maggie Simpson's charming Oscar nominated feature short, The Longest Daycare, and now going beyond their landmark 500th episode, the latest season of THE SIMPSONS-its incredible 24th!- arrives with all comedy guns blazing exclusively on SKY ONE HD from March 24th. And this time they're bringing even bigger modern star power than ever before, including worldwide teen pop sensation Justin Bieber, comedians Tina Fey and Steve Carell, Natalie Portman, Anne Hathaway and British talent like SHERLOCK's Benedict Cumberbatch.

The series kicks off with Zooey Deschanel as Bart's long-lost love in The One That Got Away. Later on, Marge ponders the prospects of having a new baby-can't wait to see Homer's reaction to that one!, Lisa becomes hooked on online poker, lovably deranged Grandpa leaves his nursing home, and a tornado hits Springfield- the end of the world is surely nigh!

Season 24 Premiere Preview | The Simpsons | Animation on FOX - YouTube

OFFICIAL FACEBOOK PAGE: The Simpsons

EVIL NEVER DIES. WILL 'MILLENNIUM' RETURN?

Through a dark lens. The legacy of Frank Black and the eerie MILLENNIUM TV series are explored in the new book, BACK TO FRANK BLACK. Image: FOURTH HORSEMAN PRESS.

Regrettably cancelled one season shy of reaching the new era of mankind, Chris Carter's horror/thriller series MILLENNIUM always had rocky support from its makers at 20THE CENTURY FOX, seemingly never quite sure what to make of it, or how to schedule/promote THE X-FILES creators all-together darker second show, with it's sombre but brilliant lead star Lance Henriksen playing seasoned serial killer hunter Frank Black linked to the mysterious, decades old Millennium Group, but its die-hard viewers loved every moment of the often disturbing, yet also at times enlightening and emotional series, and for years its huge worldwide fan base have valiantly tried to get the show resurrected in numerous online campaigns, supported by Henriksen and his equally fine co-stars at varying times, all of whom realised that the shows storytelling and character potential had only just started to be tapped when it was unceremoniously ended with its back to basics third season.

Trailers: Millennium TV series promo starring Lance Henriksen - YouTube
Millennium Series 3 promo - YouTube

Check out the KOOL TV Seasons One to Three articles on MILLENNIUM here:
KOOL TV: MILLENNIUM

New attempts to get MILLENNIUM resurrected are underway, but in a bigger and more consertive pull than ever before, linked to a brand new retrospective book going behind the scenes of the landmark series and its popular themes. Titled BACK TO FRANK BLACK, edited by Adam Chamberlain and Brian A. Dixon, the publication has received very positive word from critics, fans and the shows behind the scenes talents, with key players Henriksen, Carter and writer/producer Frank Spotnitz having added sterling foreword contributions to the project.

Support the fan efforts and get hold of the book, whose proceeds go to charity, here:
Back To Frank Black - Who We Are…

Facebook page: BacktoFrankBlack Campaign

OF GODS AND MONSTERS! 'PROMETHEUS' ARRIVES ON DVD AND BLU-RAY

Life and death, science and destruction: key elements in Ridley Scott's epic return to the ALIEN universe in PROMETHEUS. Images: FOX.

"We were so wrong...."

Dr. Elizabeth Shaw's shocked and frightened words have never been more chillingly prescient than in the trailer for PROMETHEUS, which soon launched us, or should that be lunged us, into Ridley Scott's hugely enjoyable return to the dark and dramatic sci-fi universes of wonder and terror he first created in the original, and still stomach-churning (and stomach busting!) ALIEN back in 1979 (based on characters and a screenplay by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett), following hot on the heels of STAR WARS success two years earlier.

Humanity comes looking for its creators. Bad idea...

Attempting to take the ALIEN franchise in a whole new and equally ambitious direction of storytelling, Scott's 2012 unveiled PROMETHEUS, almost like the film-makers own version of STAR TREK in some respects, what with its grandiose concepts of alien Gods, Humanity and our place in the universe, but mixed together with lots more atmosphere, dread and violence, is an intriguing Prequel to the world acclaimed Xenomorph saga, which sees the aforementioned scientist Shaw (in a nicely judged and played performance from Noomi Rapace that manages to be heroic yet different from Sigourney Weaver's previous, iconic Ripley) and her partner Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) embarking on a top secret scientific quest alongside the Weyland Yutani corporation ("Building Better Worlds" being their key motto!), in the search for a mythical race of other worldly "engineers" located in a far-off system, who may have the key to the development, and preservation, of life on Earth from its influence on the planet millennia ago. But once arrived on the storm shrouded, atmosphere hostile world of LV-223, the crew of the Prometheus discovers a scenario totally at odds with their original thesis, at first both beguiling and incredible, which soon turns everything mankind ever knew about its genesis on it head and sends our heroes into a fight for their lives of which they are totally unprepared, alongside a bigger and far more ominous threat to humanity's very existence, as the very nature of existence is sent head over heels with a shocking discovery, and a powerful biological weapon which has been inadvertently unleashed that, even in its early stages, has the potential to break boundaries and annihilate worlds...

Original trailer: Prometheus Full Trailer 2 - YouTube

Blu-ray trailer: PROMETHEUS | Available on Digital HD Now! - YouTube

Terror awaits Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace)

A critical and audience success, PROMETHEUS got this years worldwide summer box office clash of the titans to a strong and satisfyingly adult start, away from the equally enjoyable, more family fare and superheroism of THE AVENGERS. Scott indeed brings freshness to a tired saga, gives us several moments of genuine, and much talked about horror, then teasingly introduces and develops concepts from the 1979 ALIEN film that we've always wanted to know more about and which hadn't and should have been explored previously. There's harkening back to that classic film in other clever ways, of which this prequel has a lot more of the originals DNA than Ridley Scott at first said it had (He's such a good liar!). Only at the end, he says? My foot! This is very much an ALIEN film, right down to the amazing nightmare visuals based on Swiss artistic genius H.R. Giger, the crowd pleasing entrance of one of the iconic "Space Jockeys" and a very satisfying and promising last scene that bodes well for the future (and potential sequels). Intriguingly, PROMETHEUS is also a flip side to ALIEN. Wheras the original was mostly in darkness, the white lights and technology of the starship Prometheus shine brightly in a clinical but still scary way in contrast to the earlier working ship turned slaughterhouse horrors of the Nostromo. And whilst the original had very little incidental music from Jerry Goldsmith, this plays on the grand scale of the alien "engineers" and their galaxy traversing technology, with some fine work from Marc Streitenfeld.

Will curiosity kill the android? David (Michael Fassbender) discovers more about the alien species.

Main stars Rapace and Michael Fassbender (as the android creation of "The Company", David-a more malevolent version of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION's kindly Mister Data), are excellent throughout, and there's some other noteworthy performances from Guy Pearce, Idris Elba and Logan Marshall-Green. Other female lead Charlize Theron doesn't really have enough to do but looks lovely and adds some welcome bitchiness as the expedition boss and glacier personality ultimately afraid to take any risks-probably the most sensible person on the ship, actually!- Meredith Vickers.

Behind the mask: the iconic figures behind the original ALIEN-the Space Jockey- are revealed...

There's a few little bits of painfully obvious exposition here and there from screenwriters Jon Spaihts and LOST's Damon Lindelof that noticeably flop and definitely feel a bit clunky: such quirks should have been fixed somewhere down the production line, alongside one sequence of important revelations towards the end of the film that I also felt should have been re-interpreted and made bigger in scope, rather than left as an intimate conversation between a couple of characters: a scenario that was definitely the fault of Ridley Scott in this instance, and whom should have spotted it. In the end, however, the sheer talent on display and the exciting ending win out to make PROMETHEUS a notable and quality entry in modern sci-fi and movie making.

Never before seen deleted scenes, including more of the engineers, can be found on the DVD and Blu-ray release.

With no new STAR WARS live-action feature movies in the pipeline from George Lucas, and James Cameron's also anticipated AVATAR sequels a long way off, there's a dearth of truly exciting movie sci-fi out there, so I think we should all get behind Ridley Scott and 20th CENTURY FOX's bold re-imaginings for ALIEN and enjoy/support PROMETHEUS. There's a lot of potential to come with the now green-lighted second movie of his planned trilogy, intriguingly titled PARADISE (hopefully arriving by at least 2014), and if the next one can keep to the mostly high standards of this, or even go one step better, then we could all be very happy bunnies indeed!

Available on DVD, Blu-ray and 3D COLLECTORS EDITION Blu-ray combo packs from October 8th (with never before seen deleted scenes, and the latter release version having the most special features, including a special making of documentary), prepare to experience the awe and contemplate the unanswered questions raised by PROMETHEUS all over again...

One of the key international posters for the movie.

Blu-ray preview: PROMETHEUS - BLU-RAY 3D COLLECTORS EDITION, BLU-RAY AND DVD 8th OCTOBER - YouTube

PROMETHEUS | Available on Digital HD Now! - YouTube

Behind the scenes clip: An exclusive clip of Ridley Scott terrorizing the hell out of the Prometheus crew

Ridley Scott talks Prometheus’ 3D | TotalFilm.com

New Prometheus Viral Video Featuring Noomi Rapace! - ComingSoon.net

Origins featurette: Prometheus review - Yahoo! Movies UK

"Big things have small beginnings..."

Details of all the PROMETHEUS releases:

Details of PROMETHEUS releases:

Prometheus Blu-ray 3D Collector’s Edition

Disc 1

•       3D Theatrical Cut of Film

Disc 2

•       Commentary by Director/Producer Ridley Scott

•       Commentary by Writer Jon Spaihts and Writer/Executive Producer Damon Lindelof

•       The Peter Weyland Files          

•       Deleted and Alternate Scenes that include an Alternate Opening / Ending

•       Prometheus: Weyland Corp Archive Second Screen App    

•       The Furious Gods: Making Prometheus

•       Enhancement Pods

•       Weyland Corp Archives which includes Pre-Visualizations, Screen Tests and more

Disc 3

•       Blu-ray

•       Digital Copy

Prometheus Blu-ray

•       Theatrical Cut

•       Commentary by Director/Producer Ridley Scott

•       Commentary by Writer Jon Spaihts and Writer/Executive Producer Damon Lindelof

•       The Peter Weyland Files          

•       Deleted and Alternate Scenes that include an Alternate Opening / Ending

•       Prometheus: Weyland Corp Archive Second Screen App    

•       Digital Copy

Prometheus DVD

•       Deleted scenes

Official UK Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PrometheusMovieUK

Official UK Twitter: https://twitter.com/UK_Prometheus

Official YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/FoxHomeEntUK

KOOL TV WANTS ON DVD AND BLU-RAY: 'HILL STREET BLUES'

"Let's be careful out there!" The award-winning ensemble cast of the classic cop series HILL STREET BLUES. Image: FOX.

It's hard to believe, I know, but the seminal seven year running eighties cop-show created by Michael Kozoll and Steven Bochco, which changed the face of episodic TV forever and inspired/launched a whole new approach to the genre (tough and uncompromising, yet also showing a lot of heart and humour) and bringing us innovative multi-arc story telling (both in its scripting and visual realisation), alongside beautifully conceived and acted characters, is not properly available on DVD or Blu-ray. All those dedicated HSB fans are most likely shouting at their screens whilst reading this article that the first two seasons of the show were released on DVD in the US and later in the UK, but I'm not counting those, especially the CHANNEL 4 UK releases which were very low quality conversions at best, often from VHS tapes (the transfers containing picture noise! Something you should never get on a DVD!) which were notably cut versions of the episodes then edited down further for violence (HSB never shied away from it and always commendably presented it in a non fantastical, realistic way) so as to make the release palatable for general viewers as a 12 certificate. And, with only one of the UK season releases having any type of extras (a cast and crew reunion special and cast commentaries), it's not unfair to say that British fans of the show would be poorly served compared to what was on the US releases (extra commentaries, deleted and alternate scenes, trailers).

Season Six titles: Hill Street Blues - Season 6 Intro (1) - YouTube

Episode trailers for Seasons One and Two: Hill Street Blues - Trailers (1) - YouTube
Hill Street Blues - Trailers (4) - YouTube
Hill Street Blues - Trailers (5) - YouTube
Hill Street Blues - Trailers (6) - YouTube
Hill Street Blues - Trailers (8) - YouTube
Hill Street Blues - Trailers (10) - YouTube
NBC PROMO - HILL STREET BLUES - YouTube
Hill Street Blues - A Season 4 Roll Call and Intro (Phil Esterhaus Dies) - YouTube
Hill Street Blues - The Last Scene - YouTube

Despite the differences, though, one thing was sadly consistent with HILL STREET BLUES debut on DVD, and that's the fact that, for reasons I just cannot understand, the two individual box sets failed to sell enough copies in either territory to make it commercially worthwhile for the TV companies to release further additional box sets- a real shame of a situation. With the passing of time since those mid-2000's releases, the way series are now released on home DVD and Blu-ray has thankfully changed considerably-as lots of well known older and classic titles which prior captured high esteem with critics/audiences are now being sought out for audience viewing consumption, as have selected attempts by TV companies, desperate for profits, to seek out additional special materials to accompany them.

I think the time is both right and ripe for somebody out there in Hollywood/FOX to re-evaluate the award winning HILL STREET BLUES and put it in a fully restored, complete and unedited form, entire series box set. If released with clever marketing, alongside a solid but not bank busting price tag, plus a really worthy set of extras alongside it, I think it would sell very well.

As one of America's finest and iconic ever TV series, of which shows like THE WIRE, THE SHIELD and SOUTHLAND owe it so much, it deserves no less special treatment...