Ianto Jones will not return in future episodes of the Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood television show, should it return for a third season, according to actor Gareth David-Lloyd in a panel at Dragon*Con 2009.

“It looks very likely that they’ll get a full season, but all we know is that they’re in talks,” David-Lloyd said. “As far as Ianto is concerned, he won’t [be returning]…”

“But, there’s always a chance,” David-Lloyd said, perhaps giving fans a spark of hope. “I really don’t know.”

Ianto met his untimely demise in the Torchwood Children of Men special, which evoked outrage from fans of the series and several campaigns to rally the show’s writers to change their minds [...]

Today’s Goldbox spotlight item of the day over at Amazon is Seinfeld – The Complete Series on DVD for only $99.99 (that’s 60% off the list price of $250.95).

The long-running show infamously known to be about “nothing” starred comedian Jerry Seinfeld as himself, along with Jason Alexander as his conniving best friend George, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as his ex-girlfriend turned gal pal Elaine, Michael Richards as his eccentric next door neighbor Kramer, and Wayne Knight as his neighbor/nemesis Newman. Jerry and his pals live in New York City and somehow manage to turn the mundane into a laugh riot, making the show — created by Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Larry David one of the funniest in sitcom history.

This 32-disc two-volume DVD set contains all 180 episodes of the nine-season series along with The Official Coffee Table Book, a 226-page, bound anthology filled with photos, quotes, trivia from every episode, and personal reflections from Jerry Seinfeld. The collectible book comes with a bonus disc featuring “The Roundtable,” an hour-long feature that’s a reunion of the entire cast along with Larry David on the ninth anniversary of the series finale.

Note, this deal is only good for today until midnight PST or until supplies last before then, so grab this well you can. It’s absolutely a worthy investment. Check out the DVD bonus features [...]

It’s being reported that HBO has given the greenlight to a new series called Boardwalk Empire. Eleven episodes of the show have been ordered to start the ball rolling. This is another in a slew of new shows that HBO is bringing to the table — a table that features, or has featured, some of the best shows on TV. Empire will be joined by another drama called Treme, which is set in New Orleans right after Hurricane Katrina and is from the creators of The Wire. If the much-talked about fantasy show Game of Thrones — based on George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series — gets the full greenlight, then HBO will have one of the most exciting TV slates imaginable…if they don’t already have it.

Boardwalk Empire is a period show, which takes place in the roaring ’20s during prohibition. It follows Nucky Thompson (set to be played by Steve Buscemi), who acts as “equal parts politician and gangster,” while likely building a prosperous illegal alcohol selling empire. [...]

The clever folks over at io9 have put together a video montage of science fiction moments from the NBC hit comedy 30 Rock.

Fans of the show who know their scifi know that quite often the show’s leading lady, Liz Lemon (Tina Fey), loves to spout out references to scifi and other items of geek culture, and even wore a Princess Leia costume to jury duty to get out of serving. One time she was so impressed with an apartment that she exclaimed, “By hammer of Thor!” You don’t hear much like that on TV sitcoms. The sitcom has also incorporated spoofs of popular scifi and has had some primo scifi alumni guests like Carrie Fisher and Adam West [...]

The spotlight deal of the day over at Amazon today is the Family Guy – The Total World Domination Collection (with Stewie Head Packaging) DVD box set for only $74.99 (that’s 56% off the list price of $169.98).

This 22-disc DVD collection is the ultimate for any Family Guy fan. The set includes all 100 episodes of the hit animated television series through Season 6, along with the movie Family Guy Presents: Stewie Griffin – The Untold Story, Star Wars spoof, Family Guy: Blue Harvest, and an entire disc for “Family Guy Off The Cutting Room Floor.” All of this comes complete in a packaging that looks like Stewie’s head [...]

Yesterday we found out that comedian Patton Oswalt had joined the cast of the Battlestar Galactica prequel series, Caprica. Now comes word that another well-known name to the geek community will be joining the cast as well.
MTV News is reporting that Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel star James Marsters has officially [...]

It appears that director Oliver Stone will be branching off into the world of documentary film making with a new 10-part series called Secret History of America, which will air on Showtime in a one-hour episodic format. The show’s content is all-but-guaranteed to stir up controversy and get people fumed and debating.

The series will be narrated by Stone, and will cover many different hugely-important and “under-reported” events in American history of the last 60 years, revealing many “newly discovered facts and accounts” that we never knew about before. Of the project, Stone stated that “through this epic 10-hour series, which I feel is the deepest contribution I could ever make in film to my children and the next generation, I can only hope a change in our thinking will result.”

Topics that will be covered range from the Cold War and the decision to drop the bomb on Hiroshima, to the Vietnam war, the Kennedy administration, and America’s impact on the world since Communism fell. [...]

Patton Oswalt is hitting on all cylinders lately, starting as a hilarious stand-up comedian who also appeared in multiple movie and TV comedies. He then went on to voice the culinarily inclined rodent Remy the rat in Disney/Pixar’s Ratatouille before showing off his dramatic chops in the upcoming Big Fan. Now, it’s being reported that Oswalt will add the science fiction genre to his resume, as the actor has joined the cast of Syfy’s Battlestar Galactica prequel series, Caprica.

Though this will be a whole new genre for Oswalt, his character will still be more fitted to his roots. The actor will play Baxter Sarno, who is a humorous talk show host on the planet Caprica. At some point in the show, Daniel Graystone (Eric Stoltz) and Amanda Graystone (Paula Malcomson) will appear on Baxter Sarno’s show — likely to talk about their daughter and the remarkable breakthrough that Graystone has had. No word on exactly how extensive the role will be, but we do know that it will be more than just one episode, which means we’ll probably see Mr. Oswalt on a lot of TVs and billboards in the background. [...]

James Cameron’s Avatar will be released on December 18, 2009 and the first trailer is due to be released on Avatar Day August 21 (Read: ‘Avatar’ Day Details Emerge; Let The Chaos Begin!), so it is a little odd that only today, we’re getting our first official image from the movie. We’ve seen plenty of concept art and some behind the scenes pictures, but nothing from the actual film, and nothing of these mysterious blue Na’vi that we’ve only seen said concept pictures of.

/Film was one of the lucky few who were sent this first image. It shows star Sam Worthington sitting in front of what looks like a tank full of liquid holding one of the Na’vi aliens. We also get a better description of what the movie is about, including a better explanation of what the title of the movie means. We all know what avatars are — we all have them, whether they’re on our IM, E-mail, or Wii, we have a little avatar to represent us — but until now, we didn’t know what that meant in regard to the movie. [...]

G.I. Joe
A Real American Hero: Season 1.1
Starring Chris Latta, Michael Bell, Frank Welker, Arthur Burghardt
Shout! Factory
Released July 14, 2009

GI Joe is the codename for American’s daring highly trained special mission force.

Its purpose, to defend human freedom against Cobra — a ruthless, terrorist organization determined to rule the world.

If I had to list my favorite cartoons when I was a kid, one of the shows that would show up on that list would be GI Joe. I can fondly remember waking up before school, getting a bowl of healthy cereal (because my Mom would never let us have the sugary stuff), going downstairs, and watching GI Joe and Transformers. It was a great ritual for me, and thanks to the magic of DVD, I can relive those days. GI Joe has been released on DVD before, but the old sets have been long out of print. Fortunately, there’s a new movie to cash in on, so the show is coming back into DVD.

The plot for the show is right there in the theme song. The Joe team spends all their time trying to stop Cobra and their dastardly plans to take over the world [...]

HitFix has the exclusive scoop that Universal is reaching out to Bryan Singer to develop and produce a new feature film based on Battlestar Galactica. There’s also the chance that Singer could direct the new film, under the right circumstances.

If you’re not aware, Singer was actually the one developing Galactica for Sci Fi back in 2001, even having concept work completed on the project (Image at right is a Cylon concept, click to go big). Then the September 11 attacks occurred, and given the nature of the show — particularly how it begins — everything was delayed, and eventually everyone moved on to other things until Ronald D. Moore and David Eick were brought in for another go of it.

As you’ll recall, it was announced a while back that Universal was developing a new movie based on the original 1978 TV show, with original show creator Glen A. Larson writing and producing the film. It seems pretty obvious that they aren’t making two separate movies here, so this must be the project that they’re bringing Bryan Singer in for. Kind of like everything coming around full-circle — quite fitting, if it does all work out. [...]

AMC, the television network best known for hugely-popular shows Breaking Bad and Mad Men, is in the process of completing a deal that would see Frank Darabont write and direct a new series based on the Robert Kirkman graphic novel, The Walking Dead. The deal is said to be one of the the largest financial deals in developmental history.

The Walking Dead is from Image Comics, and follows a cop and his family who are some of the few survivors of a zombie infestation. They, along with a group of other survivors, work together (sometimes) to find somewhere safe that they can turn into their new home. But as you might imagine, in a situation as stressful as this one would be, as time goes on, these people change. Some grow stronger and smarter, some slide into the vast insanity. Think of it like Battlestar Galactica, but with zombies!

AMC Senior VP of programming, production, and original content Joel Stillerman assured fans of the graphic novels that the show would remain faithful to the story, and that Kirkman’s fantastic story was the reason the show could work so well. [...]

Let’s lead off with my asking forgiveness. I saw this a while ago and meant to write something immediately, but floated off to outer space for a while. It actually took two viewings of the interview to even pick up on it, but that’s just how things work, right?

While doing an interview recently with Attack of the Show, Edward James Olmos spoke about multiple things, including the United Nations meeting and his upcoming Battlestar Galactica directorial effort, The Plan. The science fiction god-among-men — best known as the no B.S. Admiral William Adama on BSG — ended up telling a heated story about the U.N. which every fan should see. When time was running out, he squeezed in a quick-speaking push for all to be sure to watch The Plan, which is a sort of prequel, revisiting some of the crucial situations from the BSG mythology and telling them from the perspective of the Cylons. In this quick reminder, Olmos stated: [...]

Mad Men: Season Two
Special Collector’s Edition
Created by Matthew Weiner
Starring Jon Hamm, Elizabeth Moss, January Jones, Christina Hendricks, John Slattery and Vincent Kartheiser
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Release Date: July 14, 2009

It was F. Scott Fitzgerald who once posited that the things that people are ashamed of are the things that make the best stories. Fitzgerald, had he come later and not, y’know, drank himself to death, would have been proud to have come up with Mad Men. It was last year’s Emmy winner for Best TV Drama, and if my estimation of last season’s complete and utter swill that called itself television is correct (a year that spawned a disappointing third season of Dexter, a godawful season of Weeds, and the advent of the neon storm of ass that calls itself “True Blood“), it will win again this year. They should just rename the Emmys “Let’s Throw Gold Shit at Matthew Weiner and Tina Fey for Three Hours.” ‘Cause if I’m a fan of anything, it’s honesty.

For those of you who have yet to fall head-first into Mad Men like the unbearable hipster jackass at the record store told you you should have by now, allow me to set the scene:

In the early 1960’s, Don Draper (Jon Hamm) is an advertising executive at the New York agency Sterling-Cooper. He has a lovely wife named Betty (January Jones) and two darling children and a big expensive house. Naturally, someone who has all these things should have deep problems and Don most certainly does. He’s a serial philanderer, has barely any love for his wife at all and bears a huge secret that haunts him at every turn. From season to season, Draper attempts to build up his success while his baser natures do everything they can to tear it all down.

Mad Men has gained a reputation, somewhat, as “That Show Where Everybody Smokes.” And it’s true that, in order to reflect the tenor of the middle of the twentieth century, everyone has a cigarette in his or her hand. As a smoker, no show has ever sent me into crazier nicotine fits. I go through smokes watching this show like fat children go through Tootsie Rolls…

MTV Movies Blog recently chatted with Brian Henson — son of the late, great master of puppets, Jim Henson — who currently runs the Jim Henson Company with his sister Lisa. Among the topics discussed, Henson was asked about the reported Fraggle Rock movie that was in the works. And unlike most, he was happy to fill us in on not only where the Fraggle project stood, but also the sequel to The Dark Crystal that has been talked about in the past.

What we know about Fraggle Rock is not much, but it is known that it will involve a little adventure to what they called “outer space,” which was just out of their little cave in the real world where humans live. Henson added to that as well, saying music will be involved and that it will be developed for all audiences (considering most fans are now in their 20s and 30s) and not just children. [...]

Burn Notice, the hit tv series about blacklisted spy Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan), shows no sign of cooling down on the eve of its third season finale.

It’s no surprise that the series is already gearing up for a fourth season after drawing an all-time high of 6.8 million viewers during last week’s episode, according to the network.

The finale, “Long Way Back”, involves a dangerous man from Fiona’s (Gabrielle Anwar) past that shows up in Miami after years of hiding. Michael (Donovan) teams up with Fiona’s ruthless brother to save her even if it means crossing a few lines.

Co-star Bruce Campbell, who plays Michael’s closest friend and ex military intelligence contact “Sam Axe,” said he thinks the show will stay on for a while.

“We’ll go at least eight [seasons] — Monk did eight and we’re outpacing them in ratings” compared to Monk’s third season, Campbell said in a conference call Tuesday. “Admittedly, I have to say, I’m not looking over my shoulder. I’m fully prepared to drive this show to the bitter end.” [...]

Tomorrow night marks the season finale of the USA Network show Burn Notice, starring Jeffrey Donovan, Gabrielle Anwar, Bruce Campbell, and Sharon Gless. In conjunction with the conclusion of Season 3, we here at Geeks of Doom have a Burn Notice prize pack to give away to one (1) lucky reader! Note, the contest ends tomorrow night and we will be picking a winner soon after, so be sure to enter right away for your chance to win.

One (1) winner will receive:

• One (1) Burn Notice Season 1 & 2 DVD
• One (1) Burn Notice T-Shirt
• One (1) Burn Notice Novel
• One (1) Burn Notice Beach Umbrella
• One (1) Burn Notice Beach Boogie
  Board
• One (1) Burn Notice Frisbee

What do you have to do to get a chance to win? Glad you asked ’cause it’s really easy. Just make sure you’re a subscriber to our email digest, and then go ahead and fill out the handy dandy form below. Done.

Good luck!

RULES: One entry per person. All entries must be in by Thursday, August 6, 2009 at 11:58pm PST* [...]

David Tennant’s last final episodes as the Tenth Doctor were the main topic of discussion in Ballroom 20, which hosted the packed Doctor Who panel at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. So much so, they showed the teaser trailer for his last episode, “The End of Time,? twice during the hour-long panel. Although not airing until Christmas Day 2009, fans went wild as this was the first glimpse of the much anticipated episode. Which you can watch here below.

Tennant was joined by producer Judy Gardner, director Euros Lyn, and executive producer/writer Russell T. Davies for this most interesting and enlightening panel. One of the most talked about rumors spreading across Doctor Who fans has to do with a possible film version based on the long-running BBC program. This was among the first rumors dispelled by the panel during the presentation. Even though a film is not in the works, they did give fans some hope by saying they thought it was a good idea. Sadly, neither Tennant nor his producers would comment further. Another rumor Mr. Tennant shot down was regarding him being cast in film adaptation of the J.R.R. Tolkien classic, The Hobbit. According to the actor himself, he “hasn’t even gotten a phone call about it yet.” [...]

The Discovery Channel’s most popular week of the year is without doubt the massive Shark Week. Even though the hugely-popular traditional summer event began last night, we wanted to send a quick little reminder to all of you who may still be unaware that it’s going on right this moment!

Shark Week is now on its 22nd annual broadcast, and just like every other year, they have some vicious and awesome new shows that the shark fan in all of us just can’t miss.

Their main event of the week is a special called Blood in the Water. The two-hour show tells the story of a multitude of shark attacks in New Jersey in 1916. These events were the actual events that inspired Steven Spielberg’s classic ocean horror movie, Jaws. The events were also at a time when people just didn’t know anything about these sea monsters, so as you can imagine, mass chaos ensued. [...]

UPDATE: Since the SDCC panel, there’s been an update on the Futurama casting dispute, with reports that so far three cast members have signed on for next season.

***

None of the voice actors for Fox’s animated comedy Futurama were present for the show’s panel on Saturday at the San Diego Comic-Con, as the actors were still in contract disputes and its still unclear as to whether they will return for the upcoming season. Series creators Matt Groening and David X. Cohen (as well as some of the other show runners) were on hand at the panel, which turned out to be was a pretty laid back panel, with the writers discussing some of the ideas they have for the new episodes (which will be going forward, with or without the original cast).

Episodes will include the secret origin of Scruffy the Janitor; a storyline involving Bender and Amy getting married, which will lead to a debate on Robosexual marriage and will be voted on (in the show) Proposition Infinity [...]