SciFiAndTvTalk

Buffy The Vampire Slayer's Felicia Day Sees Red on Syfy

FELICIA Day, star of web videos The Guild and Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog, who also played Vi in the final season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, will portray a werewolf-hunting descendant of Little Red Riding Hood in the new Syfy Saturday Original Movie, Red.

Scheduled to premiere in 2011, Red is Syfy's latest re-imagining of classic fairy tales, legends and pop culture characters. The new line of films launched with Beauty and the Beasts: A Dark Tale, which starred Estella Warren, on February 27th.

Syfy, one of television's most prolific producers of original movies, is also developing films around the stories of Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor and Hansel & Gretel, among other projects.

In the action-packed Red, Red (Day) brings her fiance home, where he meets the family and learns about their business - hunting werewolves. He's skeptical, until bitten by a werewolf. When her family insists he must be killed, Red tries saving him. Red also stars Kavan Smith (Stargate Atlantis) and Stephen McHattie (Watchmen). Red is produced by Angela Mancuso and Vesuvius Productions in association with Chesler Perlmutter Productions.

In addition to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Felicia is most widely known for her work in web video. She co-starred in Joss Whedon's Internet musical Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog, which was voted the Best Web TV of 2008 by Time magazine, Entertainment Weekly and People magazine. Currently, she stars in the web series The Guild, which Day also created and writes for. The Guild was the winner of YouTube, Yahoo and SXSW Best Web Series Awards for 2008. The series has generated more than 50 million views web-wide. The actress also has a hugely popular Twitter following, reaching more than 1.7 million fans.

The Syfy Channel Unveils New Saturday Night Movie Genre Slate

Rhett Gilles and Estella Warren star in Syfy's re-imagined Beauty and the Beast. Photo copyright of the Syfy Channel.

THE Syfy Channel has announced it is adding a new Saturday original movie genre to its popular mix, re-imagining classic fairy tales, legends and pop culture characters - from Little Red Riding Hood, Aladdin and Sinbad the Sailor to Handel and Gretel - beginning with the premiere of Beauty and the Beast on Saturday, February 27th @ 9:00 p.m. EST/PST.

Starring Estella Warren (Planet of the Apes), Beauty and the Beast is not the traditional Disney fairy tale. In this gritty celebration of Valentine's Day, a young Beauty (Warren) with a gift for healing helps a deformed Prince (Rhett Gilles, Wraiths of Roanoke) regain his throne and defeat the ruthless nobleman who wants to be king - and then together they try to destroy a power-hungry witch. Beauty and the Beast was directed by David Lister and written by Gavin Scott.

Said Thomas Vitale, Syfy Executive Vice President, Programming and Original Movies, "By turning familiar timeless stories inside out - like retelling Little Red Riding Hood as a werewolf tale or envisioning a dark version of Shrek - we're creating an entertaining new genre for our popular Saturday night movie franchise, which has become the television destination for fans of action-packed, independent Sci-fi, Horror and Fantasy films."

Vitale also announced a preliminary development slate for the new line of Syfy original movies, including:

Red - A young woman who is a descendant of the real Little Red RIding Hood brings her fiancé home, where he meets the family and learns about their business - hunting werewolves. He's skeptical until bitten by one. When her family insists he must be killed, Red tries saving him.

Hansel - Twenty years after his encounter with the witch, a grown-up Hansel returns to the haunted forest, seeking revenge. But there's a surprise waiting - his sister Gretel (who he thought had been killed) is the witch's protegé.

8th Voyage of Sinbad - Sinbad searches for the golden head of the long lost Colossus of Rhodes and, instead, discovers an island where the mythical Minotaur still rules, protecting a vast treasure. Sinbad and his crew have to battle the creature and its minions to get the treasure and save their own lives.

Aladdin (working title) - After accidentally releasing an evil genie from an ancient lamp, Aladdin must find a way to imprison the genie again before it wreaks havoc on the world.

Black Forest - A group of naive tourists take a sightseeing tour into a supposed enchanted forest, where they encounter evil creatures from the world of Fantasy. Trapped in the Black Forest, their only hope of survival is fighting their way out.

As noted above, photo copyright of The Syfy Channel, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!