Joseph Mallozzi, one of the show-runners for Stargate Atlantis, has confirmed in his blog that the show's currently airing fifth season will be its last.

"We came into this year knowing that renewal would be a longshot," Mallozzi said. "With 100 episodes under our belts, rising production costs, and the US dollar's steep decline, the odds were stacked against us." (Factored into the economic picture is the particular problem of rising cast salaries once a show passes the syndication-minimum hundred episodes.) Still, it was not until this month that the Sci Fi network let them know the series would not be picked up for a season.

Mallozzi noted that the hundredth episode, "Enemy at the Gate," which will turn out to be the final episode of the series, does not involve a cliffhanger. A "clean" ending to the season was always the plan. He also essentially promises a Stargate Atlantis movie, not surprising considering the success of the SG-1 DVD films Ark of Truth and Continuum.

Which Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper, co-creators of SG-1 and Atlantis, affirmed recently in so many words. "The successes of the two original Stargate movies The Ark of Truth and Continuum have shown us the opportunities that the movie format offers. We have plans for both SG-1 and Atlantis to remain vital as we expand the franchise."

"To remain vital": Well, that's ... vague. Still, obviously we can expect more DVD films in the Stargate universe, which is good news if they stay at least on par with what's been offered.

Am I sad Atlantis is on its way out? Yes and no. Atlantis has a lot of potential, but its overall execution has been hit or miss. I continue to be a big fan of the show, and I'm enjoying season 5 so far – "The Shrine," for example, offered some fantastic acting moments for David Hewlett and a good reminder of the measurable, if not extreme, evolution that the key characters have undergone since their introduction.

The LA Times gives Atlantis the backhanded compliment that "simply put, Stargate Atlantis is the best comic book television we have." The show isn't self-important like Battlestar Galactica (which, given its awesomeness, has a right to be) or cutesy like Eureka is in its lesser moments: Atlantis, like SG-1, has retained the wry humor that took the series beyond the origins of its somber source material.

And of course the Stargate itself is not going away. Cooper and Wright are busy developing the third season in the franchise, Stargate Universe. "In Universe, we plan to keep those elements that have made the franchise a success, such as adventure and humor," they said, "while breaking new ground in the relationships between mostly young and desperate explorers, thrust together and far from home." ETA for Universe is still up in the air, but knowing the new series and the movies will keep things going makes the demise of Atlantis more of a transition than an ending.

No sooner do we get the luscious trailer for Watchmen, Zack Snyder's big-screen adaptation of the seminal graphic novel, than the actual release of the film itself next March gets called into question, much to the dismay of its potential audience.

20th Century Fox, which says it owns the rights to Watchmen, is seeking an injunction to stop Warner Brothers from distributing the film – even though Fox apparently passed on the project and stood by while it first allowed the producer, Lawrence Gordon, to shop it to other studios, and then watched Warners actually sink $100 million into the picture.

The wrangling is mired in Hollywood contract-ese, but the upshot is Watchmen's release, after 20 years of development hell, could be further delayed while the two studios fight over points and profits on a very hot commodity that both studios are no doubt hoping will be the next Dark Knight.

Variety aired speculation that Fox preferred to see Watchmen canned rather than not get a percentage, promoting threats of boycotts against upcoming Fox projects like The Day the Earth Stood Still and X-Men: Wolverine. Read more...

Filming for the third season of Torchwood, set to air here in the States on BBC America next spring, has started up in Wales. The new season will take the form of a five-part miniseries called "Torchwood: Children of Earth," and it's being talked up by its creators as an especially high-adrenaline adventure with the customary Torchwood "edge."

The returning cast for the miniseries, which will air over a single week on BBC1 and then some time afterward on BBC America, includes John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness, Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), and Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones), alongside Kai Owen as Gwen's husband Rhys and Tom Price (PC Andy).

Guest stars will include Peter Capaldi (who played Caecillius in Doctor Who's "The Fires of Pompeii"), Paul Copely (Coronation Street), and Liz May Brice (Bad Girls).

This would seem to confirm that Freema Agyeman, who has reportedly been signed to ITV's ambitious UK adaptation of the Law & Order franchise (together with Battlestar Galactica alumnus Jamie Bamber), will not be involved in Torchwood's third season – despite previous speculation, not to mention the job offer her character, Martha Jones, got at the end of Doctor Who's season finale, "Journey's End," from Captain Jack.
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More good news for Hobbit fans. The executive producer and director of the two forthcoming films based on The Hobbit, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro, have announced they're keeping the writing duties at home, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

After an unsuccessful eight-month search for the right screenwriter to adapt the novel and conjure up a sequel, Jackson and del Toro have decided to write the pictures themselves alongside Jackson's writing collaborators from The Lord of the Rings, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens.

Jackson had said he'd be unable to help write the screenplays because of prior commitments, but his schedule has freed up; besides, Jackson, who was deeply immersed in the development and writing of Lord of the Rings, really wanted to get involved himself. The intimate familiarity of the team with the intricacies of Middle Earth will also help the production meet release dates more easily and free up more time for getting visual magic onscreen.

The films will be shot simultaneously starting in late 2009. Co-distributors New Line and MGM hope to release The Hobbit in 2011, with the second film, covering events between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring, slated for the following year.