The new series “Stargate Universe” will boldly explore a hitherto unexamined corner of TV’s sci-fi landscape by including two principal lesbian characters. Ming Na (“ER”) and Reiko Aylesworth (“24”) play a romantically linked couple – the first gay characters in a “Stargate” show – who will be prominently featured in the new series, which revolves around a group of humans (some civilians, some military) who are stranded in the far reaches of the universe and try to survive. (Genre fans are already comparing the series, the third of the “Stargate” franchise, to the recently completed, critically acclaimed “Battlestar Galactica” reboot.) The cast also includes Robert Carlyle, David Blue (who recently played the rumpled, regular-guy gay photographer on “Ugly Betty”) and Lou Diamond Phillips. “Stargate Universe” premieres on SciFi – sorry, “SyFy”– in October. Take that, “Star Trek”! You’ve been one-upped!

She recently snagged an Oscar nomination for nailing her scene in Doubt, so it’s no surprise that Viola Davis’ name is being tossed around for the latest batch of high-profile Hollywood projects. The acclaimed actor is now set to join Julia Roberts, Javier Bardem and Richard Jenkins in Eat, Pray, Love, the screen adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir that’s being written and directed by gay TV (“Glee,” “Nip/Tuck”) and movie (Running with Scissors) mogul Ryan Murphy. Davis would play the best friend of Roberts’ character; the latter sets out on a worldwide journey to discover herself after going through a bitter divorce. And while Davis has had to make the most out of thankless best-friend-of-color roles before – did you happen to catch “Nights in Rodanthe”? – she’ll no doubt make this one crackle when Eat, Pray, Love hits screens in 2011.

Sofia Coppola memorably brought Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel The Virgin Suicides to the big screen, but everyone wondered who would adapt his complex next book, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Middlesex. That novel dealt with the life of Calliope Stephanides, a Detroiter raised as a girl who discovers during her college years that she was actually born intersexed. It is 40-something male “Cal” who narrates the novel and tells his story, which includes family history and even a glimpse at 1924’s war between Greece and Turkey. Rita Wilson and Donald Margulies are producing the hour-long drama series for HBO, with Margulies (whose Pulitzer-winning play Dinner with Friends also became a production for the cable network) slated to write the show. HBO optioned the Eugenides novel this summer, so it probably won’t hit the airwaves until 2011 at the earliest. Until then, you can just watch your DVD copy of Orlando a few more times.

Get ready for the teen spin on those great old Pam Grier prison flicks: MTV Films has announced Bad Girls, based on the novel by Alex McAulay, about an unruly teenager whose parents ship her off to a wilderness reform school/boot camp on a remote Caribbean island. Once the troubled young ladies arrive, however, they find themselves having to fight for their lives against drug dealers and other marauders while simultaneously battling their own worst impulses. This one sounds like a winner all around, with sharp-tongued mean girls for the gay men and sexy chicks running through the jungle for the lesbians. Advance buzz has Dakota Fanning and Emily Browning (The Uninvited) vying to play the lead character, but nothing’s set yet; look for Bad Girls to start some trouble (and hopefully do a lot of making out with each other) in 2010.

While he’s currently starring as a well-endowed-but-down-on-his-luck basketball coach on HBO’s “Hung,” Thomas Jane will soon be seen wielding another weapon entirely in the violent detective story “Give ’em Hell Malone.” Directed by gay filmmaker Russell Mulcahy (Highlander), “Malone” features Jane as an old-school private eye who dresses and talks like a Raymond Chandler gumshoe. (It goes without saying that he shoots first and asks questions later.) The film’s eclectic cast also includes Ving Rhames, French Stewart (“Third Rock from the Sun”), Gregory Harrison (remind Romeo to tell you about how his adolescence was rocked by Harrison in the male-stripper TV movie “For Ladies Only”) and Leland Orser (“ER”). After a well-received screening at Comic-Con this summer, look for “Give ’em Hell Malone” to hit theaters with both barrels blasting before year’s end.

With Chicago, gay filmmaker Rob Marshall scored a Best Picture Oscar for his very first movie; now, with Memoirs of a Geisha and the upcoming Nine under his belt, he may be climbing into the director’s chair of one of the world’s most lucrative movie franchises. Marshall is in talks to direct the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie – and relax, they may be switching directors (Gore Verbinski is off working on other projects), but Johnny Depp will definitely be back as the androgynous and seemingly perpetually loaded Captain Jack Sparrow. No word yet regarding a plot or title for this next Pirates adventure, or even a clue about who else will be in the film, since Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley have both said they won’t be back. (But what about Keith Richards?) In other words, Pirates 4 probably won’t be sailing into theaters until 2011 at the earliest.

While Marvel Comics treats characters (including Spider-Man, Iron Man and Daredevil) with a certain amount of seriousness on the big screen, the company is set to find the laughs in its universe of heroes and villains on “The Super Hero Squad Show.” Not only will this new animated TV series mix comedy with the usual action and derring-do, but it will also boast an impressive cast of voice actors. Romeo can’t wait to hear Star Trek vet and same-sex marriage activist George Takei as planet-eater Galactus, and the ensemble also includes Taye Diggs (Black Panther), Greg Grunberg (Ant-Man), Mark Hamill (Red Skull), Cheryl Hines (Stardust), James Marsters (Mr. Fantastic), Michelle Trachtenberg (Valkyrie) and, as a bonus for comics nerds, Stan Lee as the mayor of Super Hero City. “The Super Hero Squad Show” soars onto Cartoon Network this fall. No word on potential cameos from Master Shake, Frylock or Meatwad.

Coming out of the closet hasn’t affected Cheyenne Jackson’s status as one of Broadway’s most sought-after (not to mention hunkiest) leading men. After wowing audiences in Xanadu, All Shook Up, Aida and Thoroughly Modern Millie, the United 93 star returns to the Great White Way with a new revival of Finian’s Rainbow. Jackson will reprise the lead role he performed in a recent concert staging of the show in New York. Originally produced in 1947, Rainbow tells the story of Irish fortune hunters looking for leprechauns and their treasure in the American South. Francis Coppola directed the big-screen adaptation of the beloved musical in 1968, with Fred Astaire and Petula Clark in the lead roles. This latest revival opens in New York City in October. Wear green.