Doctor Who in the USA?  Possibly, according to rumors denied by the BBC.   In a much-rumored expansion, the BBC looks to set up BBC Worldwide West Coast, which would be based in Los Angeles and focus on production for Britain and the US.   Jane Tranter, former BBC exec and key to returning Who to the screen has been selected to head the development.  According to one rumor, at least one Who special would be based in the US with the Doctor having a new American companion.   <>   Stephen Moffat announced he is interested in bringing Who to films.  David Tennant has been said to be interested in playing the Doctor on the big screen. "A movie is a one-off 90 minutes a year ... yes, as long as it never gets in the way of the show." Who has also been called the TV program fans most want to be adapted for films.   <>   Moffat also revealed he is not a fan of bringing back former companions or enemies - instead bringing new threats and allies.  "Doctor Who is at its best when it's brand new, and you've always got to remember that there's a new bunch of eight-year-olds watching every year and it has to be original - it has to belong to them."   <>   Filming has begun on Torchwood series 3, with promos promising "a battle for the future of the human race against the fiercest force they have encountered."   The season is pltted as a serial, and co-producer Russell T. Davies promised it would be "bigger and better than ever".  Current plans call for it to run every night of one week in 2009.

Doctor Who has been named best programme of 2008 at the Edinburgh International Television festival, the second year running.  The award is selected by a panel of British journalists and TV executives.   <>   Steven Moffat won his third Hugo award for Blink, the best dramatic presentation. Moffat previously won for The Girl in the Fireplace and The Empty Child.   <>   Doctor Who has been available on Itunes, but now several classic stories, including out-of-print The Krotons and Planet of the Spiders are available.  The stories are available episodically, at the steep rate of $1.99 per episode.   <>   The BBC Restoration team released details about The War Machines and Four to Doomsday, soon to be released.  This includes never released "Coming Soon" footage and additional behind-the-scenes material from John Nathan-Turner's personal archive.

David Tennant has opened Hamlet to rave reviews.  Patrick Stewart (Star Trek) also stars as Claudius and the ghost of Hamlet's father.   <>   Billie Piper admitted in was hard shooting for series 2 of Secret Diary of a Call Girl, since she is pregnant and showing.  When asked about Doctor Who, she hesitated, saying "at some point you've just got to let go."  She added that she has been stressed by school kids - "Every child just thinks you're Rose and you don't want to spoil the illusion."   <>   Sylvester McCoy is also lopping off heads in theater, in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado.  While "a very bloodthirsty production" according to McCoy, the music is "about people threatened with torture and execution" and is said to be a social commentary against the British empire.  McCoy commented he is not jealous of Tennant, but hopes to have even more Scottish Doctors.   <>   Colin Baker will star in Noises Off in Glasgow, a part that only opened up for Baker when an American convention series was canceled.  Baker was scheduled to conventioneer through July with Sylvester McCoy, Mary Tamm, Frazer Hines, and Jackie Pearce in the JumpCon conventions - which were canceled. This also allowed Baker to add additional commentary to the Trial of the Time Lord DVD set expected in September.   <>   Stephen Moffat will write a contemporary Sherlock Holmes, a pilot for the BBC. If picked up, the show will pass to Mark Gatiss (The Unquiet Dead).

NBC has released spoilers for season 3 of Heroes including the theme - "Villains".   One key character will die, two unpowered stars gain new powers, Hiro gains a speedy nemesis, and more future stuff will be exposed.  Seth Green (Buffy) and Breckin Meyer (Robot Chicken) may be close to signing on as comic fans who obsess over a regular.  Add to that two scorching new hookups among the heroes, and the revenge of Sylar and return of Adam, there's a lot to see.   <>   NBC has picked up Chuck for the back nine episodes in a show of faith (TV typically shows about 13 episodes and waits for the back nine based on ratings).     <>   Knight Rider returns following a semi-successful TV movie las spring.   Justin Bruening plays Michael Tracer, the estranged son of Michael Knight, the legendary owner of the intelligent car KITT.  KITT now is a 2008 Ford Mustang with CGI effects galore.   <>   NBC also offers Kings, a modern-day tale of David & Goliath as the alternate- reality nation of Gilboa tempts young David Shepherd, who joins the court of king Silas Benjamin after a heroic battle.   <>   Fringe teams Australian Anna Torv and Josh Jackson (Dawson's Creek) in an X-Files-like investigation of events on the "fringe of known science".   <>   Fox has announced it will stream online Fringe and The Sarah Connor Chronicles simultaneously with their TV premieres, but only for college campuses.  The shows as well as behind-the-scenes footage will be revealed to .edu web addresses, since college students make up a majority of the viewers of those shows.   <>   Producers of Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles announced at Comic-Con that a major character will die.  The season promises John Connor will step up as the leader of the machine resistance.  Garbage singer Shirley Manson will debut as Catherine Weaver, chief-executive of Zeriacorp, a new company developing computer and machine technology.   <>   Stars from Heroes, Lost, and Desperate Housewives took to the stage for Band from TV in a Netflix LIVE! concert on Aug. 9.

ABC has planned a publicity tour including free pie to promote Pushing Daisies leading up to the Oct. 1 premiere.  A mobile version of The Pie Hole will show series highlights as well as hand out sweets.  The tour comes to Chicago Sep. 24.   <>   Michelle Rodriguez will return for a cameo in the upcoming season of Lost.   In addition stars Matthew Fox and Evangeline Lilly have received huge raises, to the surprise of other show regulars.  Also added to Lost, two new team members will be introduced - Caesar, a 35-45 dangerous, physical man with a dark secret, and Ilanna, a 25-35 European woman that is attractive, intelligent, charming, but incredibly dangerous.  Both may continue to season 6.   The producers are also looking for seaworthy ships, of 1500's vintage.  Entertainment Weekly has reported Zuleikha Robinson (New Amsterdam) has been cast as Ilanna.   <>   ABC has green-lighted a remake of Cupid a 1990's drama about a man who claims he is Cupid, brought to earth and stripped of all powers, forced to play matchmaker the hard way, while in the custody of a doubting female psychiatrist.   <>   The Ex List finds Bella (Elizabeth Reaser - Grey's Anatomy) on a quest to reconnect with all her past loves - since she has been promised one of them is "the one", but by the end of the year she will lose him forever.  (One wonders what they would do if the show is successful enough to get to season 2?)   <>   Smallville will see the "superization" of Clark.  It started with the Justice League, continues with the Legion of Super-Heroes, and sees the monster Doomsday and the seductress Maxima as Clark joins a certain Metropolis paper and finds himself closer to Lois Lane than to Lana Lang.   <>   HBO also has a sci-fi offering with the vampire drama True Blood.   The program, by Six Feet Under's Alan Ball, offers a world where vampires try to exist in peace with humans through a blood alternative, in what is widely understood as a thinly veiled allegory to human tolerance, particularly with homosexuality.

The SciFi channel has greenlighted Stargate Universe, the third attempt to milk the Stargate franchise.  This latest offering promises to unlock the secret of the ninth chevron and finds the cast trapped aboard the Destiny, an Ancient ship which is part of a grand experiment in which our heroes are trapped. Universe will air as a 2-hour movie, and air as a regular series in 2009.   <>   In addition the SciFi channel has greenlighted a two-hour movie based on Stargate Atlantis, now ending.  The movie will be written by producers Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie.   <>   Ricky Schroder will direct Hellhounds for the SciFi channel in 2009.   In 500 BC, Kleitos (played by Scott Elrod - Men in Trees) must fight the beasts of Hades to rescue his bride.   <>   Christopher Lloyd will appear in the upcoming SciFi miniseries Mirabilis, a fantasy tale of four knights who must save the land of Mirabilis.  The series also stars Natassia Malthe (Bloodrayne 2).

Disney has released publicity for Legend of the Seeker, produced by Sam Raimi (Spider-Man) for syndication and based on the fantasy series Sword of Truth.   Craig Horner (???) stars as Richard and Bridget Regan (???) stars as Kahlan, a young couple in love chosen by an old wizard to fight a ruthless mystic tyrant.   Ted Raimi (Xena) will guest-star in an episode.   <>   Amy Smart (Mirrors) has announced she has a completed pilot for a midseason replacement for CBS titled The Meant to Be's.  Smart plays a self-absorbed New Yorker who comes back to help others as an angel after her untimely death.

Roberto Orci, co-writer of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, has confirmed that the movie was changed to incorporate lead actor Shia LaBeouf's hand injury due to the heavy action sequences planned.  LaBeouf injured his hand in an auto accident in July.   <>   Mathieu Kassovitz, director of Babylon A.D., currently in theaters, has panned the film as "pure violence and stupidity" and resembling "a bad episode of 24".   Sources close to production blame Kassovitz for a three week delay, while the former director of Gothika blamed Fox lawyers for the state of the film.   <>   A web site has reported Kevin McKidd (Rome) reported he was asked to star in a Highlander remake.   <>   Columbia is rumored to be pursuing a new Ghostbusters movie, with plans to reunite the original cast.  The studio refuses to comment, likely until a script and arrangement is finalized.   <>   Helena Bonham Carter (Sweeney Todd) has confirmed she will be the villain in Terminator Salvation.  Christian Bale (Batman Begins) and Bryce Dallas Howard (Spiderman 3) also star.   <>   Columbia and MGM have pushed back Quantum of Silence, the next James Bond film, to Nov. 14 (not Nov. 7 as originally scheduled).  The shuffling is a consequence of moving Harry Potter from Thanksgiving to summer 2008.  The movie will premiere in London on Oct. 29 as part of a charity event.

Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire have signed on for Spider-Man 4, with a rumor that Spider-Man 5 may shoot at the same time.  Although Kirsten Dunst has not been signed, the studio has said her character, Mary Jane Watson, is in the film and the role will not be recast.   <>   Mark Millar (Wanted) has pitched a Superman movie trilogy to shoot starting summer 2009.   DC has announced the next Superman will be darker, in line with the successful Batman line.   <>   Warner Brothers has announced it will focus on 4 major superhero projects in the next three years, including a third Batman, a new Superman film and two others.  Several projects had been rumored and are in some cases in development.   <>   The legal battle over Watchmen is stepping up.  Warner has a completed film ready for March release, while Fox submitted it owns the rights to the movie, which it gained in 1994.  Warner is partnered with Paramount and Legendary Pictures.   <>   Tom Cruise and Sam Raimi are involved in Sleeper, a sci-fi adaptation of a graphic novel from DC.  Cruise would star as a government operative who uses alien technology in spy missions, falling for a counter-agent named Miss Misery.   <>   Nicholas Cage and Lyndsy Fonseca (Desperate Housewives) will star in Kick-Ass, the adaptation of a violent Marvel comic.  Dave Lizewski, a high school dweeb, decides to be a superhero despite his lack of athleticism or aptitude.  Cage plays a former cop and father to Fonseca, who is the love interest.   <>   Despite a rumor that Voltron: Defender of the Universe had been shelved, New Regency has now backed the film with a more modest budget using CGI similar to the movie 300.  Voltron is a post-apocalypse story of five survivors banding together to pilot five lion-shaped robots and repel an alien invasion.   <>   Kristin Bell (Heroes) will voice the leading lady in Astro Boy, joining Nicholas Cage, Donald Sutherland, and others.  Set in Metro City, Astro Boy tells of a young robot given incredible powers by a brilliant scientist looking to replace his lost son.

Stone Village has acquired Lobo a werewolf thriller.  The independent movie will film in Rio de Janeiro and be set in Brazil.  In the film, a man receives a strange letter, moves to the Amazon, and finds his connection to the nearly-extinct werewolves.   <>   Woody Harrelson has signed on for Zombieland, which sees Harrelson as the leader of a mismatched band of survivors in a world overrun by zombies.   <>   Denzel Washington will star in Book of Eli, a post-apocalypse drama by Allen & Albert Hughes.  Washington plays a lone hero who fights across the barren US to bring to society the knowledge for its redemption.

Inkheart is an upcoming fantasy where young Meggie Folchart finds that her father can read fictional characters out of "Inkworld" into reality.  This becomes a problem when the biggest villains also get out.  The movie, set for January, stars Brendan Fraser (The Mummy and Sienna Guillory (Eragon).   <>   Universal has acquired rights to Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time in a seven-figure deal.  Movie adaptations would begin with the first book Eye of the World.   The Wheel of Time is a saga filled with dozens of characters, focusing on the rise of a boy destined to become "the Dragon" in a mythological final battle.   Jordan died in 2007, but since Chris Cebula didn't have a tribute night, Tor books has decided the death didn't count and has commissioned author Brandon Sanderson to finish the final book in the series from Jordan's notes and tapes.   <>   Dirk Blackman and Howard McCain are reworking Conan.  Lionsgate hopes to reinvigorate the classic warrior into a new franchise.   <>   Zak Penn (X-Men) is writing The Argonauts, a new version of the Greek myth.   The film tells the tale of a heroic band of sailors in search of the golden fleece.  In a confusing twist, Dreamworks is also working on a project named The Argonauts about a current group of treasure hunters who find the wreckage of the mythic ship and are transported back in time.   <>   The Day the Earth Stood Still will contain a new Gort, originally an 8-foot silvered robot.  Keanu Reeves plays Klaatu, an alien who delivers an edict to Earth to change its ways, while Jennifer Connelly plays Helen Benson, a scientist who comes to his aid.

Following the experience of Wizard Rock an online community designed for fantasy music, a youtube poster has coined Time Lord Rock (Trock).  The community includes new music dedicated to characters and places from Doctor Who, including Blink, and An Awful Lot of Running.   <>   A Fort Wayne-based company, Dreamseed, has launched an audio version of Hollywood.   Called Echo Fiction, the audio theater contains classic radio programs as well new created material.  The shows are available streaming for free, or for a small fee without commercials.   <>   Sony Pictures has auctioned a one-hour visit to Spider-Man 4, including a walk-on role in the film, on Ebay.  Proceeds were donated to "Stand Up to Cancer".   Bidding started at $5000.   <>   Marvel Entertainment has signed with anime producer Madhouse for an anime-animated line of its superheroes, retouched so that they fit more with Japanese culture and history.   <>   X-Files star David Duchovny has voluntarily entered a rehab facility for sex addiction.   <>   The latest additions to the Chris Cebula tribute to the modestly-talented acting deceased include Ken Campbell, a British actor (Fawlty Towers).  Campbell was 66.  Julius Carrey (Adventures of Brisco County) died from pancreatic cancer.  He was 56.