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Avatar returns, The Prisoner is in the works, and there’s something strange going on around The Fringe. It’s a quick look at the fannish TV news.

IN THE WORKS
AMC is developing an American version of the cult British classic The Prisoner. Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellen are slated to star in the series about a government agent who finds out the hard way that there’s no quitting the biz. He’s drugged, kidnapped and dropped in “The Village,” a mysterious community where people are just numbers and from which there is no escape.  The original was known for its perplexing plot and highly metaphoric imagery, a style that is much more popular today in TV. I expect the new series will be highly ficable!

CASTING COUCH

Clea DuVall is taking over co-pilot duties on Ronald D. Moore’s Virtuality.

WATCH THIS

Calling all Avatar: the Last Airbender fans! The last 10 new episodes of book three, including the showdown between Aang and the Firelord, are about to begin. 

Nickelodeon bows the new Avatar episodes beginning Monday, July 14, with an hour-long special, The Boiling Rock, on Wednesday.  The week will end with the debut of the 2-hour TV movie Sozin’s Comet, Saturday, July 19, 8-10p.   Meanwhile, that same week, Nicktoons Network will host daily Avatar 5-hour marathons each day, Monday-Saturday, July 14-19, featuring 10 episodes of Avatar each day.

And don’t forget, Stargate Atlantis returns for a fifth season this Friday, July 11.

READ THIS

Need a Lost fix?  ABC.com is here to help with their new “Lost Book Club.”

The club gives fans a new insight to a number of books that have been referenced or seen on episodes of Lost. Each week, a new book will be introduced with a synopsis and reference of how it fits into the show. Then a message board area will be created for the discussion.  Books include Sawyer reading Watership Down, Juliet’s book club reading Carrie and an orientation film hidden behind The Turn of the Screw.

LISTEN TO THIS
Fox’s new radio ads for their upcoming X-Files-ish series, Fringe are leaving many people scratching their heads in wonder. First up is a typical auto dealership radio spot which is disrupted first by static and then the words “find the pattern.” Next up is a news report that is disrupted and finally a strange report over a police scanner about a wedding party who can’t remember a thing.

The commercial spots make no mention of Fringe, though there is a whispered “Fox” at the end of each indicating that it’s likely a promo for a TV show.  Listen in:

According to Fox, these radio ads are just the start of the convoluted and cryptic campaign they have planned. Have you spotted “the pattern?” If you have a link to a part of the Fringe puzzle, post it in the comments below.

SITE OF THE WEEK

Tired of seeing your favorite show canned because of a ratings system that is horribly outdated? Viewers with Voices agrees with you and they’re banning together to give Nielsen what for.  The forum is hoping to united the fannish communities for shows such as Jericho, Moonlight and Dark Angel into one, loud and proud force to be reckoned with. The long term goal? To rework the method of collecting TV ratings so it gives a more accurate sampling of how many people are actually watching a show.

Sadly, the one thing ratings will never be able to evaluate is the level of enthusiasm fans have for any given show. Grey’s Anatomy might be one of the highest rated programs on TV, but how many fans of that show will buy the mug, the books, the TV shirt and convention tickets to see the stars?

YOUR TURN

I can’t do this alone people. Use the comment section to add your casting news, production news, con reports, vids, podcasts, charity efforts — if it’s about a fan favorite TV show we want to hear about it.  NO SPOILERS in the comments please, but feel free to link to them with a proper spoiler warning.

So, The Spiderwick Chronicles released yesterday. Did anyone see it yet? I haven't, but I'm excited to go.

TSC got me thinking about other children's books that could be coming to the big screen in 2009 and beyond. I did some digging and here are a few of the possibilities:

Life of Pi (book by Yann Martel)
Girl of the Moment (book by Lizabeth Zindel)
Beastly (book by Alex Flinn)
Ramona (We're probably all familiar with Ramona Quimby!)
Almost Home (book by Jessica Blank)
The Alchemyst (book by Michael Scott)
The Lightning Thief (book by Rick Riordan)

Pretty exciting, huh? I adored Beastly and it would make a fantastic movie for sure.

Know of any others that I didn't mention? When I was searching, I noticed that a lot of upcoming kids movies had one glaring theme--girl power. Yep, girls are taking bigger, stronger roles and being adventurers, princesses and cowgirls. Yay for girls doing it all!

Also, I wanted to thank everyone who e-mailed me or found me through my contact page since The Writer article came out. Thanks so much for your kind words and I'm glad to have made so many new contacts over the past week because of it. :)

TGIF! What are your weekend plans? I've got to edit and update my poor, ignored contact roster. I've got a thousand sticky notes with people's names and info that haven't made it into the book. Sigh.