Variety is reporting that the Sci-Fi Channel has enlisted top-drawer Hollywood talent to create a couple of four-hour TV mini-series.  Ridley Scott (Bladerunner) will produce and 'supervise' a new four-hour version of Michael Crichton's 1971 medical/science fiction thriller, The Andromeda Strain; while Frank Darabont (The Green Mile) will take charge of a four-hour version of The Thing, which has been brought to the big screen successfully twice -- first in the Howard Hawks-produced 1951 The Thing From Another World, and again in John Carpenter's 1982 remake, The Thing.  Both The Andromeda Strain and The Thing properties come from Universal Pictures, a sister company of the Sci-Fi Channel, and NBC Universal TV is producing both mini-series.

The Sci-Fi Channel has done very well with its previous 'event' mini-series, including Steven Spielberg's Taken (see 'Viewers Taken With Taken'), and currently has projects in the works with a number of big name Hollywood figures including Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Bryan Singer, and Dean Devlin.  Coming off its best ratings summer ever, with prime time viewing up some 17%, the Sci-Fi Network currently ranks tenth among ad-supported cable networks and sixth among adults 24-54.  The growing ratings of the Sci-Fi Channel should indicate to pop culture retailers that this particular genre of entertainment remains robust.