The only sci fi flick to debut this weekend was the Spanish-language Sleep Dealer, whichwas shown only an a hanful of theatres in Los Angeles and New York. It debuted at No. 10 on the genre movie list and No. 37 overall with just over $30 thousand.

The sole genre film set to debut next week: The Mutant Chronicles also is set for a limited release befire going to DVD and a broadcast TV debut on the Sci Fi Channel later this summer.

Following are the Top 10 speculative fiction movies in release in North America for the weekend of April 17-19 , 2009.

RANK #. (Overall Rank) Title – Weekend Gross | Total Gross [Budget]

1. (1) 17 Again – $24 milllion | $24 million [N/A]
2. (3) Monsters vs. Aliens – $13 million | 163 million [$175 million]
3. (8) Knowing – $3.4 million | $74 million [N/A]
4. (10) The Haunting in Connecticut – $3.2 million | $52 million [N/A]
5. (11) Dragonball Evolution – $1.6 million | $7.8 million [N/A]
6. (15) Race to Witch Mountain – $0.7 million | $64 million [N/A]
7. (23) Coraline – $0.2 million | $75 million [N/A]
8. (26) Push- $0.09 million | $32 million [$38 million]
9. optical channel(30) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – $0.06 million | $127.5 million [$150 million]
10. (37) Sleep Dealer – $0.03 million | $0.03 million [N/A]

Source: Box Office Mojo – list only includes science fiction, spy fi, fantasy and dark fantasy/horror titles.

The TV series the Sci Fi channel originally rejected as “too intelligent” for an American audience three years ago is finally making its U.S. debut on that very channel Friday after a 21-episode run in Canada, South Africa, the UK, Japan, Korea, France, Romania and just about every other developed country on the globe.

Hailed by critics for its writing and acting and cinematic artistry, the alternate universe- and bind-bending Charlie Jade with its catch phrase, “Three worlds… One hope,” follows the adventures of a missing persons detective who finds himself caught between three parallel universes.

Created by the team of Chris Roland (Lexx) and Robert Wertheimer (Friday the 13th: The Series), Charlie Jade was filmed almost exclusively in urban South Africa, which gives the series an odd familiar/unfamiliar, otherworldly feel.

SYNOPSIS
from the SciFi.com Sci Fi Weekly:

The series is about a detective named Charlie Jade who lives in a cold, corporate world called Alphaverse. Charlie finds missing people. However, his life is turned upside down when he tries to help a lost young woman with no identity, only to be thrown into a parallel universe. Suddenly Charlie is the lost one as he attempts to get home, along the way discovering an intricate mystery involving three separate parallel universes, Alphaverse, Betaverse and Gammaverse.

“I have to say how thrilled I am that it’s actually going to get an airing on SCI FI in the United States, because when I started this, that was my ultimate objective,” Wertheimer  said in the Sci Fi Weekly interview.

The series’ tone is dark, gritty, violent and very sexy – similar to that of Sci Fi’s current hit series, Battlestar Galactica, although some of the sex scenes which played unedited in other countries are ripe for censor trimming in the U.S.

Nominated for [[Gemini award]]s in 2006 for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Series for Michael Filipowich, Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Series for Patricia McKenzie, Best Picture Editing in a Dramatic Program or Series, and Best Visual Effects; the series won a Gemini for best sound editing.

CAST
Jeffrey Pierce (Close to Home, The Nine) as Charlie Jade
Michael Filipowich (Earth: The Final Conflict) as 01 Boxer
Michele Burgers as Essa Rompkin
Tyrone Benskin (Persian Emmisary in 300) as Karl Lubinsky
Danny Keogh as Julius Galt
Marie-Julie Rivest (Leonidas’ mother in 300) as Jasmine
Patricia McKenzie as Reena
Graham Clarke as Brion Boxer
David Dennis as Sew Sew Tukarrs

Fan Favorite Returns for Two Episodes

Torri Higginson and Christopher Judge Also Guest Star in New Season

Reports of Dr. Carson Beckett’s untimely demise last season on SCI FI’s Stargate Atlantis have been greatly exaggerated – or have they? Paul McGillion will reprise his role as everyone’s favorite Scottish physician in a two-episode arc during the series’ fourth season, which will premiere on Friday, September 28 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

It was the fan cry heard ’round the Pegasus galaxy when Dr. Beckett was unexpectedly killed in an explosion at the end of season 3. His return to Atlantis promises to be every bit as shocking.

In addition to McGillion’s return, Atlantis viewers can also look forward to season 4 guest appearances by Torri Higginson (“Dr. Elizabeth Weir”) and Stargate SG-1‘s Christopher Judge (“Teal’c”).

Stargate Atlantis is executive produced by Brad Wright, Robert C. Cooper, Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie. The series is currently in production on its fourth original season in Vancouver, BC. with Mallozzi and Mullie sharing the reins as showrunners.

The Stargate legacy continues to burn bright on SCI FI with the fourth original season of Atlantis. Amanda Tapping, one of the most beloved stars in the Stargate universe, travels to the Pegasus galaxy to join the Atlantis cast by reprising her role as television’s most adored astrophysicist, Colonel Samantha Carter. Firefly’s Jewel Staite also joins the cast this season as “Dr. Jennifer Keller.” Taking the torch from SG-1 as television’s most thrilling adventure series, Atlantis, promises to up the ante this season by introducing a powerful new race, welcoming new cast members and mourning the loss of some beloved friends.

About Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., through its operating subsidiaries is actively engaged in the worldwide production and distribution of motion pictures, television programming, home video, interactive media, music and licensed merchandise. The company owns the world’s largest library of modern films, comprising around 4,000 titles. Operating units include Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc., United Artists Films Inc., Ventanazul, MGM Television Entertainment Inc., MGM Networks Inc., MGM Distribution Co., MGM International Television Distribution Inc., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home Entertainment LLC, MGM ON STAGE, MGM Music, MGM Worldwide Digital Media, MGM Consumer Products and MGM Interactive. In addition, MGM has ownership interests in international TV channels reaching nearly 110 countries. MGM ownership is as follows: Providence Equity Partners (29%), TPG (21%), Sony Corporation of America (20%), Comcast (20%), DLJ Merchant Banking Partners (7%) and Quadrangle Group (3%). For more information, visit www.mgm.com.

SCI FI Channel is a television network where “what if” is what’s on. SCI FI fuels the imagination of viewers with original series and events, blockbuster movies and classic science fiction and fantasy programming, as well as a dynamic Web site (www.scifi.com ) and magazine. Launched in 1992, and currently in 89 million homes, SCI FI Channel is a network of NBC Universal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies.

According to a report in Variety, NBC Universal (NBCU) has struck a deal to keep Ronald D. Moore around for another two years.

Under the terms of the deal, Moore will continue to lead the production of the new Battlestar Galactica (BSG) on the NBCU-owned Sci Fi channel.

In addition to that, NBCU will produce other projects by Moore, including a pilot for a new one-hour series called Warehouse 13 for Sci Fi. He also will create a science fiction series called The Pen and the Sword for NBC.

Past TV works by Moore include the first season of HBO’s Carnivale (he left after the first season to create BSG as an updated series), Good vs. Evil, as well as many scripts for Star Trek:Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager.

NOTE: Sci Fi has not officially confirmed this.

The following story is provided thanks to an alert from SFTV.org.

According to the January Sci Fi channel schedule, reruns of former Fox series John Doe will be added to the cable network’s Friday night lineup at 7/6c p.m.. starting January 20, 2006.

This move is more than a little ironic to Firefly/Serenity fans. After Firefly was cancelled by Fox in the 2002-2003 season, it was John Doe that replaced it on the that network’s schedule.

John Doe the series follows the life of the character “John Doe,” a man with amnesia, played by Dominic Purcell (Prison Break, Blade Trinity, Mission Impossible II). As the show progresses, we discover abduction and government conspiracy issues as Mr. Doe tries to find the answer to his true identity.

Adding the sci-fi (or spy-fi) zing, it is apparent from the very beginning that Mr. Doe has some astonishing talents; talents that go way beyond those of normal humans.

Although John Doe lasted longer on the Fox Network than Firefly, it too was cancelled at the end of the season. Networks executives thought the show’s 20- and 3-something audience was a little too old for its tastes.

Nightstalker will live again on the Sci Fi channel – at least temporarily.

According to a report in television industry magazine Broadcasting & Cable, the ABC network and Touchstone Television have reached a deal to sell all nine episodes of Nightstalker to Sci Fi. The episodes are set to air of Friday Nights at 7/6c p.m. as a lead-in to the new season of Stargate:SG1.

Sci Fi is following the successful strategy it used last year when it picked up the rights to cancelled FOX network show, Firefly. Sci Fi will only air the nine filmed episodes already made; there are no plans to produce new episodes of the show.

B&C says Sci Fi will announce the arrival of Nightstalker to its summer season Friday lineup as soon as Monday morning.

Sci FI’s parent company, NBC Universal, reported played between $15,000 and $50,000 an episode for the rights to Nightstalker. This ending is a fitting, if ironic, twist to the Nightstalker story. Just last year, ABC and Touchstone Television bought remake rights to the series from NBC Universal based on the failed 1970s TV series, Kolchak: The Night Stalker.

After it went into production, ABC aired just six episodes of the X-Files-flavored Nightstalker in the deadly timeslot of 9 p.m. on Thursdays. It was quickly slaughtered by the triple threat whammy competition of CSI on CBS, The Apprentice on NBC and baseball playoffs on FOX.

An additional seventh episode is only available for download on Apple’s iTunes website. B&C says the eighth and final episodes of the new Nightstalker also will appear on video iPods well before the series ports over to the Sci Fi channel this summer.