The Sci Fi Channel is raiding its parent company’s vaults to remake two classics of the genre, with the help of some big-name producers.

Brothers Ridley and Tony Scott will executive produce a remake of “The Andromeda Strain,” while Frank Darabont will oversee a reworking of “The Thing.” Both projects will be four-hour miniseries; airdates are yet to be determined.

“The Andromeda Strain,” based on Michael Crichton’s first novel, first hit theaters in 1971. It follows a team of scientists working to contain an alien virus that has wiped out a small town. Ridley (“Gladiator,” “Blade Runner”) and Tony Scott (“Top Gun,” “Enemy of the State”) will serve as executive producers with writer Robert Schenkkan (“The Quiet American”) and Tom Thayer.

CBS faces fine for Jackson ‘show’

The Federal Communications Commission is preparing to levy a $550,000 fine against CBS-owned stations for Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl “wardrobe malfunction.”

The nation’s broadcast watchdog will announce the fine in the next week or two, according to several news reports. All five commissioners are expected to approve the fine, although some on the panel believe the penalty isn’t harsh enough.

Jackson’s brief breast flash, which came at the end of the Super Bowl halftime show, launched many an election-year speech about broadcast decency and spurred both houses of Congress to consider giving the FCC greater power to penalize broadcasters. The House has passed a bill increasing maximum fines, and the Senate is working on a similar measure.

The FCC’s action for the Super Bowl incident, which Jackson termed a “wardrobe malfunction,” would impose the current maximum fine – $27,500 – on each of the 20 local stations that CBS owns. As fines are issued against holders of broadcast licenses for a given city, the action would not include the 200 or so CBS affiliates owned by others.

CBS has said it will fight any fine resulting from the Super Bowl broadcast.

“We think the idea of a fine for that is patently ridiculous, and we’re not going to stand for it,” Les Moonves, co-president of CBS parent Viacom, told reporters at the summer TV press tour in July.

-Zap2it.com

“We’re going to take that to the courts if that happens. … We obviously had no control over it. We deeply regret what happened. Having said that, we think the fine is inappropriate.”