Syfy will celebrate the holiday season with its second annual Countdown to Christmas Week (December 4-10) featuring the two night miniseries Neverland, stand-alone holiday episodes of hit series Eureka, Warehouse 13, Ghost Hunters, for the first time, Haven, and the Saturday Original Movie Snowmageddon starring Michael Hogan (Battlestar Galactica), David Cubitt (Medium), and Magda Apanowicz (Caprica).

This original prequel to author J.M. Barrie’s classic Peter Pan sweeps in time from the turbulent seas of the pirates of the Caribbean and the back alleys of Dickensian London to a world of pure imagination. The film stars Rhys Ifans (The Amazing Spider-Man) as James Hook, Oscar nominee Keira Knightley as the voice of Tinker Bell, Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies) as Captain Elizabeth Bonny, Oscar nominee Bob Hoskins as Smee (who previously played the character in Steven Spielberg’s feature Hook), Raoul Trujillo (Tin Man) and Charlie Rowe (Pirate Radio) as one of literature’s most cherished characters, Peter Pan.

Photo Credit: Scott Miller/Syfy

The entire main cast of the four hour mini series agreed that while taking on this project meant big shoes to fill, they did the story justice while turning it on its head. Having already seen Neverland, I can say that the cast and crew did a terrific job with this origin tale. Expect an advanced review when it gets closer to the television premiere date. Although I can say now that I was glad Anna Friel mentioned that her character, an entirely new character to the story, had an Irish accent. At times, I was a bit confused as to what origin this pirate had.

Rhys Ifans had the perfect words to describe Neverland as a miniseries, “It’s thrilling. That’s the beauty of a miniseries is that, in a film, you wouldn’t have the time that a miniseries offers to explore such complexities. And it is a real, kind of model roller coaster for Hook.”

It doesn’t end there. Ifans’ has given such a depth to this character and he is so well spoken, that it was such a joy hearing him speak about his character. “We all know the Hook that we were presented with in the novel, and that Hook is essentially bad to the bone. And I wanted to kind of explore a journey. How would a man become that bad? What would it take for a man to shed pretty much all of his moral fiber and what happens to the mind when it’s offered eternal life? Does it corrupt, or does it illuminate? In Hook’s case, it corrupts, but it also liberates him from a very, kind of stifled, unrepressed Edward in England. Bonny liberates him completely and sexually, which wouldn’t have been the case in England. Men were scared of women and women were scared of men. So it’s a kind of double-edged sword, and it’s an interesting question, you know. What’s the price of liberty? So that was all very interesting to play… As Peter becomes better, Hook becomes worse.”

And of course, there’s a lot of action. 15 year old, Charlie Rose (who avoided watching Hook as prep to make Peter his own) even said, “Me and Anna have had a lot of lunch breaks just trying to beat each other with swords, which was fun. And we had long sessions on wires and stuff which is pretty exciting stuff. I mean, it’s every boy’s dream and every man’s dream. I shouldn’t say just a boy.

Charlie Rose On Wrapping Neverland:
Nick Willing also said at the beginning of the shoot, “We are going to end exactly 7:00 on our last day.” And after 54 days of filming, we ended at two minutes to 7:00, and that was like the icing on the cake. That was awesome.

Here I am with Charlie Rose and Anna Friel:

Neverland premieres Sunday, December 4 at 9PM & Monday, December 5 at 9/8c.

Photo Credit: Scott Miller/Syfy

On Tuesday, December 6, 2011 from 8-11pm, Syfy’s scripted series get into the spirit of the season with Eureka’s first ever animated episode including guest star Jim Parsons (Big Bang Theory) at 8PM, Warehouse 13’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” homage at 9PM, and a Christmas fantasy which makes the residents of Haven disappear, one by one, airing at 10PM.

In Eureka’s “Do You See What I See,” the quaint town of geniuses is transformed into animated versions of themselves. Sheriff Carter (Colin Ferguson) and Allison Blake (Salli Richardson-Whitfield) are secretly planning the perfect holiday surprise for their kids. But a mysterious kaleidoscopic wave of color crashes over Eureka, leaving the entire town and its inhabitants animated.

Here I am with Sammi T from TVGrapevine and Colin Ferguson:

In Warehouse 13’s “The Greatest Gift,” Pete Lattimer (Eddie McClintock) is hit in the head by an artifact and wakes up to a life where he was never born. Pete must hunt down and persuade the Warehouse team (none of whom recognize him) to go on this life or death mission with him to vanquish a long dead nemesis from the past to get everyone’s lives back. This episode takes a page from It’s a Wonderful Life and The Greatest Gift, which is the short story on which the iconic movie was based. As he did last year, showrunner Jack Kenny directed the holiday episode.

Here I am with Eddie McClintock:

In Haven’s “Silent Night,” Audrey Parker (Emily Rose) begins seeing Christmas decorations mysteriously popping up all over Haven in the middle of July yet nobody else, including Nathan (Lucas Bryant), seem to feel anything is unusual. Yet, when Haven residents start disappearing into thin air, Audrey convinces Nathan they must find a way to stop it.

Here I am with Emily Rose:

Stay tuned to Twitter for my thoughts on Eureka, as we were given a screener of the holiday episode. No spoilers from me, as per usual about what we can expect. At the actors mainly talked about what a joy it was on set/location shooting Christmas episodes in July and such. The real joy will be seeing all of these episodes back to back in December. Until then, I’ve got last season’s Warehouse 13 Christmas episode in my head. How about you?

The holiday episodes of Eureka, Haven, and Warehouse 13 will air Tuesday, December 6, 2011 from 8-11pm only on Syfy.