Last night, luminaries from the world of sci fi and horror were honored at the 35th Annual Saturn Awards. The awards are given out by The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films for work in film, TV and on DVD. This years winners will join an illustrious list of former honorees including Vincent Price, Rod Serling, Dan Curtis, Ray Bradbury, Gene Roddenberry, Robert Wise and Lon Chaney Jr. just to name a few.

The Dark Knight was the evening’s biggest winner, taking home five awards including Best Action Film, Best Writing, Music, Special Effects and Best Supporting Actor for Heath Ledger.

On the television side, it was Battlestar Galactica that took home the most awards winning Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series, Best Actor on Television: Edward James Olmos, and Best Actress on Television: Mary McDonnell. Lost received the Saturn Award for Best Network Series, beating out Supernatural, Fringe, Heroes, Life on Mars, and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Battlestar was up against an odd mix of shows for Best Syndicated / Cable including The Closer, Dexter, Leverage and more predictable, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and True Blood.

Moonlight took the award for the best modern DVD with Invaders winning for retro DVD.

Several special awards were presented throughout the evening, Lance Henriksen took the Life Career Award, Jeffrey Katzenberg received the Visionary Award and Leonard Nimoy was handed the Lifetime Achievement Award.

You’ll find a full list of winners after the jump. You can find the list of nominees here at the Saturn Awards Website.

Photos by Newscom

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Hollywood Reporter says that actor Rick Worthy, who played Cylon Simon in Battlestar Galactica may be headed over to Heroes for the new season. Worthy is in talks to play Greg Grunberg’s new partner.

Worthy comes from a long line of scifi projects. He was Jannar on Enterprise, and he guested on Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Fallen, and he had a pivitol role in the series finale of Dark Angel. Without checking IMDB — can you name the character he played?

Photo: Mar 16, 2009 - New York, New York, USA - Actor RICK WORTHY at the New York premiere of ‘Duplicity’ held at the Ziegfeld Theater

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It’s that time of year again folks, time to reach into your wallet and bid on a cool scifi collectible in the name of charity. Stargate’s Michael Shanks (Dr. Daniel Jackson) is the man behind this yearly effort and the auction always features some really amazing items, like this autographed cap (see below for the list of signers). Other auction items include:

* Michael Shanks’ signed, personal “SG-1″ scripts (with hand-written notations), plus scripts and call sheets from his appearances on the USA Network series “Burn Notice” and the Fox Network series “24″

* Stargate DVDs signed by the original movie’s stars, Kurt Russell, Mili Avatal, Erick Avari and Alexis Cruz.

* Photos, posters, DVDs and action figures signed by – among others – Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles and Misha Collins (”Supernatural”), Jeffrey Donovan (”Burn Notice”),  Jamie Bamber and Katee Sackhoff (”Battlestar Galactica”), Joe Flanigan, David Hewlett and Paul McGillion (”Stargate: Atlantis”), Sean Astin (”The Lord Of The Rings”) and Gareth David Lloyd (”Torchwood”).

* “SG-1″ team and individual photos, DVDs, and more, signed by Michael Shanks, Claudia Black, Amanda Tapping, Beau Bridges, Ben Browder and Christopher Judge, among others.

The profits from this auction will be donated to the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada. The auction starts today and new items will be added daily for the next two to three weeks. You can go straight to the auction on ebay or visit Michael’s website for more detailed information.

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Michael Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Katee Sackoff will be joining the cast of 24 this coming season. The Battlestar Galactica star has been in talks to play Dana Walsh, a highly respected and down-to-earth data analyst at the new and improved New York branch of CTU.

As part of her regular role, she’ll develop a relationship with fellow agent Davis Cole (played by Freddie Prinze. Jr.), but since this is 24, you know that she has a few skeletons in her closet  which she’s trying desperately to keep hidden.

Ausiello’s report makes it sound like it’s all systems go, even though last week, Sackoff (seen here at the Collectormania con in the UK) took herself out of the running for the role.

Read the full story at EW.com

Photo: Newscom

Battlestar Galactica and Caprica composer Bear McCreary will be celebrating the release of the new Caprica Soundtrack CD with two live concerts in the Los Angeles area.

First, on June 13, McCreary will conduct the music from Battlestar Galactica to kick-off the 2009 Grand Performances Series at California Plaza. It’s a free concert in downtown Los Angeles so all you have to do is show up and enjoy. Not going to be in the area? Then mark your calendar for June 16. That’s the day La-La Land Records will release the soundtrack for Caprica on CD.

Next, on July 23-25, McCreary will be performing at the House of Blues in San Diego just for all you Comic-Con fans. That concert will celebrate the July 21 release of a special 2-CD set, Battlestar Galactica: Season 4. The first disc features music from seasons 4.0 and 4.5, with the music from “Daybreak”, the stunning series finale, featured on the second disc.

Two concerts and two new CDs. It’s music that will inspire you. Get more information or order your CDs at the La-La Land Records website.

CD cover: La-La Land Records

It’s going to be an all-star scifi summer on SCI FI Channel when some of your favorite stars pop up on the new dramedy adventure Warehouse 13.

Top of the list, Stargate Atlantis’ Joe Flanigan, Tricia Helfer from Battlestar Galactica, and one of my personal faves, James Naughton who starred in the Planet of the Apes TV series, but is more commonly known for his role on Gossip Girl.

Warehouse 13 is the story of two Secret Service agents who are assigned to guard a massive, top-secret storage facility in windswept South Dakota which houses every strange artifact, mysterious relic, fantastical object and supernatural souvenir ever collected by the U.S. government. The Warehouse’s caretaker Artie (Saul Rubinek) charges Pete (Eddie McClintock) and Myka (Joanna Kelly) with chasing down reports of supernatural and paranormal activity in search of new objects to cache at the Warehouse, as well as helping him to control the warehouse itself.

Guest Stars Include:

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Now that Battlestar Galactica is over, NBC Universal and Propworx are holding one last auction this weekend, May 8, 9 and 10 at the Pasadena Convention Center with some of the proceeds to benefit The United Way. But this isn’t any ordinary auction. On hand to make this event extra special, will be cast and crew members who will answer questions in two panel sessions.

The panels will take place on the auction preview day, Thursday, May 7. From 5:00 to 6:00 p.m., Grace Park, Michael Trucco and Kate Vernon will discuss their work on Battlestar Galactica and then at 6:00 p.m., several of the production executives will discuss how they worked together to create the series, including Emmy-nominated and MPSE award-winning sound designer Daniel Colman, producer Harvey Frand, Emmy Award-winning VFX supervisor Gary Hutzel, co-producer Paul Leonard, the show’s music composer Bear McCreary, award-winning director Michael Nankin, associate producer Andy Seklir, supervising producer/co-writer Bradley Thompson, supervising producer/co-writer David Weddle and Emmy Award-winning director Wayne Rose.
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We all wondered what Sci Fi Channel would do with Battlestar Galactica’s old digs and at least for the summer, Fridays at 10 p.m. will be the stomping grounds for Sheriff Jack Carter.

Starting July 10, the dramedy about a town full of geniuses and their numerous mishaps is back on what will then be known as Syfy. Taking over the old Eureka Tuesday night timeslot is new series Warehouse 13. Hopefully the move won’t hurt the audience Eureka has already established.

When last we left the town, Carter had saved it for the I don’t know - 100th time now. But he disobeyed a direct order from the government to do so, thus losing his job. I’m betting the bigwigs realize the error of their ways sooner rather than later.

Sci Fi Channel Photo: Liane Hentscher

Battlestar Galactica’s James Callis, aka Gaius Baltar will be creating a little havoc for Don and the team on the season finale of Numb3rs. Callis is playing a “charismatic sociopath” who kidnaps someone very close to Charlie making this crime more personal than ever!

Numb3rs is my favorite non-genre TV show and this episode write-up rocks my world. I know Callis is going to creep the heck out of me as the crazed cult leader. It’s going to be an ‘on the edge of your seat’ wild ride for sure.

It all happens on Friday, May 15 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

Photo courtesy of CBS

Going through the photos from the Paley Festival Battlestar Galactica / Caprica red carpet, I can only think that the heat has gotten to these poor people (it’s been over 100 degrees here) — why else would these lovely ladies be in such a cranky mood? (For a detailed report on the panel, visit The Futon Critic.)

It’s Alessandra Torressani and Paula Malcomson.

Tricia Helfer seems a bit happier to be here and then there’s the funky Seth Green Read more