Kindred, which drops today on Hulu, is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Octavia E. Butler. The series follows Dana James (Mallori Johnson), a young Black aspiring television writer who has moved to Los Angeles. However, after arriving in her new home, she is pulled back in time to the nineteenth century to a plantation that is linked to her and her family.

Branden Jacob-Jenkins, who serves as showrunner on the series, was a huge fan of the book. “I'm fanatically devoted to Butler and definitely this book,” he told SciFi Vision during a recent press day of interviews promoting the series. “I just wanted to see it…I wanted to watch the show, and that was really where it started. The more I worked on it, the more I kind of felt the necessity of it in this moment, and also just the necessity of drawing all the attention I can to Octavia Butler, because her vision was so profound, and her work so captivating and entertaining and inspiring. If anything, I just want to bring people back to her books.”

The series clearly deals with an important but difficult subject matter, which of course affected those filming it. “The scenes that really showed the brutality of what it meant to be an enslaved person in that time were probably some of the most difficult to film,” Johnson told the site. “The history was palpable. During the scenes I could really feel the presence of my ancestors there surrounding me. That was emotional for me, for sure.”

Based on the award-winning series, When Heroes Fly, by Omri Givon and inspired by the 2008 Israli novel by Amir Gutfreund, the ten-episode high-stakes action thriller Echo 3, created by Academy Award-winner Mark Boal, follows Amber Chesborough (Jessica Ann Collins), an American scientist who is kidnapped and held hostage in Venezuela. When her husband, Prince (Michiel Huisman), and brother, Bambi (Luke Evans), who have backgrounds in Special Forces, find out she is gone, they decide they will bring her back no matter the cost.

Recently, the stars chatted with SciFi Vision about their time working on the series.

Another episode of the popular series Leverage: Redemption dropped today on Amazon FreeVee. On the series, Gina Bellman, who recently spoke with SciFi Vision, stars as Sophie Devereaux, “The Grifter,” and as such she takes on a lot of different identities that she gets to create. “As good as the writing is, sometimes, it's not on the page, and maybe that's partly because they trust us,” the actress explained to the site during the interview. “[For example] this season, I had to play a reporter, and it just said, you know, ‘reporter’ on the page, but I sort of went away, and I was like, ‘Okay, I want to be like a real kind of old school reporter. She's going to wear a three-piece linen suit, and she's going to smoke a pen.’ It just becomes a language that you speak, and that probably might sound really pretentious, but you start to read the scripts, and it kind of jumps off the page, and you can see the people. You can see the character in very kind of vivid ways…Sometimes I can just read, you know, ‘Sophie's gets out of the car dressed as a reporter,’ and I build something just from that from the first thing that pops into my head.”

Today, Amazon FreeVee released another episode of the hit series Leverage: Redemption. On the show, Beth Riesgraf plays the part of Parker, “The Thief,” however, as time has passed the series, Parker has done more and more grifting, of which her skills are improving. When SciFi Vision spoke with Riesgraf about her character during a recent interview, one of the things she discussed was Parker’s growth and how she’s gotten better at that grifting part of it. “In the earlier seasons of Leverage,” the actress told the site. “She struggled with keeping a character together. She would crack, and that was part of the fun of watching her. I kind of thought, ‘She has gotten good at social kind of veneers and things like that when she's in a con,’ but I don't want her to lose that thing entirely, because it's not as much fun. So, I think ultimately, she is a thief. She's an adrenaline junkie; that's what her mind goes to. ‘Where's the prize? What are we going after?’ She's all instinct. So, I think, it was important with the writing and everything to make sure that you could see her as a leader and someone that can run a team efficiently and proficiently and not go off on the wild all the time.”

Miracle at Manchester tells the true story of high school sophomore Brycen Newman, both a football and baseball player, who was preparing to travel to Japan to compete with his San Diego team when he was diagnosed with a medulloblastoma, a brain tumor. The teen survived surgery to remove the tumor, however the cancer remained. Brycen never gave up and still continued to fight. On the Manchester Athletic Field, his classmates prayed over him, hoping for a miracle. The film is an inspiring tale of the power of prayer and overcoming the impossible.

The film was directed by Warehouse 13’s Eddie McClintock, who also plays the role of Brycen’s father, Richard.

Mammals, which is now streaming on Prime Video, tells the story of Jamie (James Corden), a Michelin-starred chef, whose world is turned upside down when he discovers secrets about his pregnant wife (Melia Kreiling) that will change their relationship forever.

To promote the series, SciFi Vision recently spoke with director Stephanie Laing about working on the series and bringing it to life. Read the full transcript below, and be sure to check out the series on Prime.

Irreverent premieres today on Peacock. The series follows a criminal mediator, Paulo, who on the run from the Chicago mob, assumes the identity of Reverend Mackenzie Boyd (Colin Donnell) and flees to the small Australian reef community of Clump in Far North Queensland, posing as clergy. Things there, however, are not what he expected when he finds himself in a small town with no phone or internet, and the townspeople are desperate for a leader. Can he keep up the illusion and settle into the new life? What starts off as an escape and pretending to care may just become a bit real for the criminal.

SciFi Vision recently spoke with members of the cast as well as the showrunner and executive producers about the new series.

The idea for the series came from showrunner Paddy Macrae, whose father is a church minister. “I grew up with my mom and my dad and my sisters and my brother in a very, very remote church, in a little house right next to a church, where the Minister is relied on for absolutely everything,” Macrae explained to SciFi Vision. “They're involved with the sports in the town, with every community event, every wedding, every funeral, every time there's a police matter…I thought [about how] I grew up in a small community. I love the sense of community and family around people. So, I wanted to make a show about community, and I thought, ‘What better place to put it than a small church?’…I didn't want to make a show about religion so much as about people and about connection.”

The Walking Dead - Live Finale Event - 11/20/22

SciFi Vision was invited to the finale special of The Walking Dead on Sunday, and our writer, Christiane Elin attended.

Below are photos from the event, after the jump.

Daniel Craig is back on the big screen as Detective Benoit Blanc, last of the gentleman sleuths. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is out today for one week only, as a special sneak preview before the film jumps to streaming. Catch it in theaters now until November 29, or you'll be forced to wait until the film premieres globally on Netflix on December 23.

In the sequel to 2019 hit Knives Out, Blanc's latest case takes him to a tech billionaire's private island, where he encounters a new cast of colorful suspects. As in all the best murder mysteries, each character harbors their own secrets, lies, and motivations, and when someone turns up dead, everyone is a suspect. Returning to the franchise he began, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Rian Johnson wrote and directed Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and assembled another all-star ensemble cast to star alongside Craig, including Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Kate Hudson, and Dave Bautista.

“[Despite the upcoming spin-offs] it ends with a really definitive conclusion for both the series and then each individual character.”
--(Scott Gimple on the series finale, interview with Entertainment Weekly, 25 October 2022)

The first stories most Western children hear end with happily ever after, and that phrase settles into their subconscious as the model for what an ending should look like—an ending in life as much as in fiction. With maturity comes the understanding that happily ever after is as fantastic an element of those stories as are the dragons and fairies. Nonetheless, fiction, for adults as well as children, exists not only to reflect reality, but also to redress it. Stories hold up a mirror, and are, too, a window into somewhere else: a place not subject to the whims of fate, but controlled by storytellers.