Journey Remake

A new adaptation of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth will be shown on ION television on Sunday, January 27. Starring Ricky Schroder and Peter Fonda, it's two hours long and features a mysterious underground passage in Alaska leading to a lost world, "complete with prehistoric creatures, primitive tribes and amazing discoveries."

Beyond Loch Ness

Yep, it's another SciFi Saturday night flick, this one on the Loch Ness Monster. (Emphasis on Monster, of course.) Airs Saturday, January 5, 2008. Website. Only a brief plot note is mentioned, so hard to say if it'll be better than average. (And, apparently, "beyond" means the hunt is now on Lake Superior.)

More From Loch Ness

A television personality (the paper says "cult tv presenter," but I don't know how accurate that is) is taking advantage of the recent Nessie publicity. From the news:

"A cult American TV presenter arrived at Loch Ness this week pledging to woo a whole new generation of Nessie hunters.
"For glamorous former model Sonia Uribe is making a documentary on the mystery which will target younger audiences around the world." ...
"And US TV personality Sonia Uribe believes she can also introduce thousands of youngsters to the legend of Nessie in an hour-long programme and ensure the enduring mystery of the loch continues." ...
"'I firmly believe Nessie exists and I don't want the mystery to die out. So this is why my documentary, whilst appealing to every generation, will particularly appeal to the young.'
"To achieve that Sonia is going scuba diving in the loch, camping out over night on its shores, and flying over the loch in a bid to capture further evidence of the existence of the monster of the loch."

Doesn't want the mystery to die out? Same old, same old...

Blood Monkey

Ran across this trailer for a Sci Fi Channel movie that is more cryptozoological (it appears) than most of its Saturday evening monster flicks. Don't know when it will be out; wouldn't start watching it with high expectations, but you never know...

Missing Link - a 13 Part Show on SPACE

Starting on June 28th at 10 pm (EST) a new show on the television channel Space will air. Entitled Missing Link the show will look at the unexplained in the world.

Note that episode one (1) and nine (9) feature topics of interest to cryptozoology, while other episodes touch on the fortean world.

June 28 – Episode One: Strange Species and Curious Creatures
July 5 – Episode Two: Survival and Reincarnation
July 12 – Episode Three: Possession
July 19 – Episode Four: Near-Death Experiences
July 26 – Episode Five: UFOs
August 2 – Episode Six: Premonitions and Psychic Powers
August 9 – Episode Seven: Ghosts, Haunted Houses and Poltergeists
August 16 – Episode Eight: Supernatural Death
August 23 – Episode Nine: Marine Monsters
August 30 – Episode Ten: Magic, Witchcraft and Satanism
September 6 – Episode Eleven: Miracles
September 13 – Episode Twelve: Mysterious Disappearances
September 20 – Episode Thirteen: Stone Mysteries

Lost and the Chupacabra

Popular culture crosses into the realm of cryptozoology and the paranormal from time to time. Even on prime time television.

The April 18th episode of the ABC show LOST entitled Catch-22 included one such reference.

In the background of one scene some of the characters are sitting around a campfire. Hurley, the big guy on the show cursed by the cryptic numbers, can be heard faintly in the back telling a tale of the Chupacabra.

Not the main portion of the show of course, but just to show you that a reference can pop up anywhere. We saw this before with the animated Open Season reference to Bigfoot, as well as the past show Surface.

While on the subject, if you like out-of-place animals and remember the movie Lake Placid, well it is back. The Sci-Fi channel will be airing Lake Placid 2 on April 28, 2007. This time there is more than one crocodile in the lake.....