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ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS FOR NOVEMBER 2009
-Being an under appreciated super hero can get to you. Apparently being an under appreciated super hero impersonator can really get to you… Just ask Christopher Loomis, Spiderman impersonator who was arrested the other day in LA. Loomis was working the street taking pictures with fans for tips until an altercation broke out where he hit a man in the face and the arms. Police called to the scene had a little difficulty picking out Loomis– because he was one of four impersonators in costume! While the assault was dismissed since the victim refused to press charges, the web wonder was lead away in irons– because of his several outstanding misdemeanor warrants.
-Gonna’ say three words and you see if you can figure out how they go together—Alan Moore and opera. Give up? Well imagine the genius behind Watchmen, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and V for Vendetta plus the musical freewheeling of the Gorillaz, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett combined into an operatic extravaganza. Should be worth the investigation.
-How do you mix martinis and ad script with rewrites of 1985 horror flicks? Better ask Mad Men writer/producer Marti Noxon before she gets started penning the revamp of Frightnight for Dreamworks. Now Noxon has done genre work before with Buffy and Angel, but it’s a good question just what makes Hollywood want to unearth this film.
-So this is the bad news that everyone’s been expecting—FOX has cancelled Dollhouse. Given Whedon’s record with FOX this can’t come as a surprise. However, FOX will air all of the remaining episodes of the second season (#11 is in production now) so that Whedon can actually try to put together some sort of finale. Maybe, just maybe, its time for a new network, Josh. The good news though is there is more buzz about a continuation of Dr. Horrible. The brothers Whedon have secured the help of Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion and have already started a few songs.
-Season 2 of Legend of the Seeker will add to the show’s star power and continue the story of Richard in the time of chaos created by the power vacuum since Darken Rahl’s death. Charisma Carptenter(Buffy) will guest star playing a Mord Sith character and Jolene Blaylock(Enterprise) as Nicci, as Sister of the Dark. Tabrett Bethell will join the cast as Cara the Mord Sith who allies herself with Richard after helping him kill Rahl.
-Dulce Pinzon is an artist who’s making New Yorkers look twice. Pinzon’s work focuses on Mexican immigrants who work the long hours to support their families- real heroes. What Pinzon’s doing that makes things interesting is that he’s dressing these folks up as familiar super heroes. So his images include Spiderman washing windows on a highrise and the Fantastic Four’s, Thing breaking down concrete rubble with a jackhammer. The pictures will be on display at the Smith Farm Center in Washington, D.C..
-So how much is success worth? James Cameron might be wondering that about now as the release date for Avatar draws nearer. Take 15 years and about 500 million dollars all together and stack it against the recent film intakes and its enough to give the financially wise pause. Five films have crossed the 250 million dollar mark this year and three of them were based on existing franchises. Does Avatar have what it takes to make the big pay off or enough to break even?
-Wil Wheaton was involved in J.J. Abrams Star Trek...Before you go into denial and can’t wait to fast forward through the film on November 21st– you won’t be looking, you’ll be listening. Better listen to the Romulans. Apparently Abrams had Wheaton do the voiceover for all of the Romulan crew. Here’s the interesting part, until recently Wheaton kept this all a secret and finally revealed it on his blog…
-Start planning now, because you’ll need the 4.4 million dollars to book a room in the Galactic Suite Space resort for three nights. The good part is they expect to begin taking reservations in 2012 after a venture capital donation of 3 billion dollars by an anonymous source.
-Russell T. Davies brings hope to fans of Torchwood after the finality of The Children of Earth. Davies feels that despite the recession hitting British TV that there is a need for a fourth season and hopes to have good news to announce in January.
-For a cool $200 million you could decide what’s the right future direction for the Terminator franchise. That’s right Halcyon Company who acquired the rights and created Terminator: Salvation has put up the works for auction.
-Doctor Who dates—finally- “Waters of Mars” will be broadcast on BBC America on December 16th at 9:00PM. The remaining two episodes starring David Tennant are to be announced in December. However a DVD is scheduled for release on February 2nd of 2010 that will contain all of this year’s episodes.
-John Rhys-Davies hangs up his beard– when approached about playing Gimli’s father, Gloin in the Del Toro version of the Hobbit, the actor told them no. John’s comment was that he wasn’t sure his face could take the punishment again referring to severe allergic reaction that he had to the prosthetic make up.
ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS FOR OCTOBER 2009
-Joe Haldeman was recently released from the hospital into a rehab center. Joe was rushed to the hospital after complaining of abdominal pains in September and diagnosed with a twisted bowel and severe pancreatitis. After an operation and subsequent recovery in the ICU, Joe was moved to the Drake Center in Cincinnati on October 15th. Joe is the author of the award winning Forever War series. Also Joe and John Varley were recently awarded the Robert Heinlein Award for works that inspire the exploration of space.
-Baen books has an unusual challenge for you—everybody can come up with something cute or snarky to go with ridiculous cat pictures as evidenced by I-CAN-HAZ-CHEESEBURGER, but what about kzinti? The ferocious felines created by Larry Niven grace the covers of the many volumes of the Man-Kzin Wars collections. So put on your smartizing helmet and come up with something witty to say about one of those illustrations and you might win an autographed print by the cover artist, Stephen Hickman. Multiple entries allowed…
-Everyone wants a little Serenity but at what price? Well for $2495 you can have the 19”x12”x7” “damn big” version available through Qmx Artisan Replicas. There are 32 lighting effects controllable through a remote and all of the exterior is hand painted. The 250 plus parts are all hand assembled so be prepared to wait 30-90 days after ordering. Join the preording rush on October 30th.
-What was Neil Patrick Harris to do in the genre after starring the in Emmy winning Dr. horrible? Why not voice the villain in Batman: The Brave and the Bold’s first musical episode? As the Music Meister, Harris fronts the rock opera themed half hour entitled “Mayhem of the Music Meister” which will premiere on October 23 at 7:30PM.
-What do you do when Johnny Depp breaks the news that your novel is the basis for the next film in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise? Tim Powers sort of threw up his hands and said, sorry couldn’t tell you, I was sworn to secrecy. Film four will be loosely based on Powers’ 1987 book, On Stranger Tides. Powers sold the rights to Disney over three years ago.
-The Observer, the bald man always in the background of Fringe maybe getting the spotlight soon. Michael Cerveris, who plays the enigmatic character says that there is an Observer centered episode on the way soon that explains the culture and activity of Observers.
ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS FOR SEPTEMBER 2009
-Have you ever wanted to be a successful author? Well now you can—you can be John Twelve Hawks, author of the Fourth Realm series, just in time to do his booksigning for his final book in the trilogy, The Golden City. But how or why might I want to be John Twelve Hawks you might ask. See John is very reclusive and lives off the grid, so far in fact he’s not going to do his book tour, you’re going to do it for him. First you need to set up a time and a place with a local bookstore and then email John that you have that task complete. After which John will email you all of the information you need to be John for the appearance. Video tape the appearance and send it to John and you will receive a signed copy of The Golden City. (iamjohntwelvehawks.com for information…)
-Finally getting the Emmy recognition Joss Whedon has to be happy for creating Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog. The web program won an award in the short-format live-action entertainment category. This category is new this year and also contained such entrants as BSG’s—The Face of the Enemy.
-On October 3-4, Kauffman Hall in New York will host the annual Singularity Summit. Speakers include Gregory Benford, Anders Sandberg and Ray Kurzweil.
-It’s in the mud and it makes waves– so far nobody knows a whole lot more about something that is becoming known as the “muck monster”. The mysterious ripples posted on YouTube from the West Palm Beach area in Florida brought in over 4 million hits from viewers. In fact the interest is enough that city officials are considering putting a feeding station at the end of the Lake Worth dock or mounting a telescope to allow fans to watch for what might be causing the unexplained ripples.
-David Lynch responsible for one version of Dune as well as Twin Peaks is known for taking his inspirations in unusual directions. This time his work is on display in the French Department store Galeries Lafeyette du Boulevard Haussmann’s front window. The installation is titled “Machine Abstracted Woman”.
-Besides buying up superheroes Disney also launched Double Dare You, a new Horror label that will be lead by Guillermo Del Toro. What’s the drive here? Make scarier movies that are still family friendly. The first project on the board is Troll Hunters, created by Del Toro. Of course there will also be a merchandise line to go with all of this as well as a series of books aimed at young readers. Del Toro said he wants to “challenge young viewers without out giving them inconsolable nightmares”.
-Apparently playing a vampire gives you strange and possibly stupid urges...Five actresses and a cameraman from Vampire Diaries were recently arrested for flashing motorists while hanging off of an overpass. When apprehended the group tried to pass of the activity as filming for the show...
ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS FOR AUGUST 2009
-Twelve years ago scientists discovered a state of matter known as Bose-Einstein condensate (and no it is not red matter). This state can be used to detect minute deviations in magnetic fields since the material is super cooled removing nearly all of the thermal noise and quantum vibration. The good news is this cooling is done with lasers instead of the superconductors commonly associated with today’s magnetic imagers. This means that the devices can be made on a much smaller scale. So you have something that could be a handheld imager that could allow you to look into a patient’s body.
-The solar sail idea is still trying to take flight. Not from a lack of trying but rather poor luck with the rockets necessary to life the device up to the proper height to deploy. The Planetary Society, whose Cosmos 1 was the victim of a Russian Rocket malfunction in 2005, would like to take another shot at being the first successfully guided sail. What could bring this closer to fruition is NASA’s backup materials for its own sail design Nanosail-D which also experienced delivery issues in 2008. The first part of the sail’s name is a clue to the new thought patterns affecting planning at the Planetary society– nano for small. The Society is considering using the Nanosail-D design with a much smaller payload than its Cosmos 1 that would still allow for control of the sail. In 2004 Japan was able to deploy a sail but it was not a controlled flight which is the ultimate goal. The Society plan to announce their plans once they are finished studying the Nanosail-D design concepts.
-In a super tug of war, media giant Warner Brothers has lost some ground to Superman’s creator’s estate. The Siegel estate has acquired the rights to the early editions of Action Comics and the early Superman comics in addition to the first two weeks of the daily newspaper comic strip. So how does this affect Warner Brothers? Well it means that the Siegel estate owns the depictions of Superman’s origins from the destruction of Krypton through to his landing on earth. One of the key points of the lawsuit was to determine how much royalty was owed to the estate due to use of their material. In reality, Warner still holds the lion’s share of the rights– but only until 2013 when they will revert to the Siegel’s. This means that if Warner wants to do any kind of film involving Superman, to retain the rights to the picture, they can reasonably start no later than 2011.
-District 9 climbed to the top with 37M in earnings for the first weekend.
-Has AMC gone to the zombies? The network won the development rights to Walking Dead, the comic book after a bidding war. NBC was originally in line to start things off but the network the runs such shows as Mad Men and Breaking Bad now has the living dead to play with.
-Awhile ago Richard Drefuss took us on a wild ride across the countryside to the top of Devil’s Tower to finally meet the aliens in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the new movie starring Milla Jovavich is something different. The Fourth Kind looks at the large number of missing persons cases from Nome, Alaska as alien abductions. Interviewees under hypnosis reveal memories of being watched by a white owl and then collapse into screaming fits.
-560,000 fans of comic books– nope, not talking about the San Diego Comic-con which weighs in with an impressive 140-156,000 attendees but rather Comiket. This is the world’s largest comic book convention held twice a year in Tokyo.
-Warehouse 13 attracts all sorts of interesting things including guest stars. Roger Rees will take on a reoccurring role, you might remember him as the Sheriff of Rottingham from Mel Brooks, Men in Tights…
-Are they waiting for SGU before moving on the SG1 & Atlantis movies? Stargate executive producer Robert Cooper says that the scripts for both movies are done but now is not yet the time due to economic
issues. Atlantis: Fan’s Choice was released on Blue-ray August 4th. REBOOT
-Is it too soon for Bryan Singer to re-imagine BSG as a movie? Universal has confirmed that he is onboard as a producer and possibly director for a big screen adaptation of the one of the hottest properties from Syffy. There are rumors floating that this will be a standalone and re-imagine the series. So is it a good thing that someone known as excellent director and producer wants to try and redo something that barely just ended and was widely acclaimed as a success?
-Cruise, Townsend or Downey Jr.– which makes a better Lestat? Apparently like everything else once popular, there is a reboot in the works for Anne Rice’s novels tentatively called The Vampire Chronicles and Robert Downey Jr. is in consideration for Lestat.
-Since we just talked about rebooting things, Sony pictures has hired on James Vanderbilt to write the 5th & 6th Spiderman movies. Sam Raimi and cast are set to begin production next year on number 4. Vanderbilt wrote the script for the original movie. When we look forward enough to the next to films, there is no guarantee that Raimi, Maguire, and Dunst will be available or back. Raimi already has commitments to the World of Warcraft franchise he is starting. So where does that leave Spiderman? Reboot!
ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS FOR JULY 2009
-So if you’ve ever looked at Star Wars and said I could be a better Han Solo or Princess Leia for that matter your moment has arrived and I do mean moment or actually a quarter of one. With the Star Wars Uncut project you and your side kicks could lay claim to a 15 second piece of the movie, refilm it and then have it stitched together into a gigantic frankensteinian version of the original. Casey Pugh, the project’s inventor has successfully farmed off all of the segments. Now we just have to wait for the gigantic psychedelic result. In further Lucas inspired news Robot Chicken releases its second tribute to Star Wars with Robot Chicken: Star Wars—Episode II on DVD. Available on July 21st. Also available same day is the DVD for Coraline from Neil Gaiman
-ABC wants you to think– sex in space. Really? Yeah, I mean while there’s lots of drama that looks like it ought to unfold in Defying Gravity which starts on August 2nd with a two hour premiere and then runs for eleven more episodes, less than artfully hidden in the barrage of images is two folks getting it on. The show is a Canadian transplant purchased by ABC. Eight astronauts and their lives– in space– and zero gravity sex. Probably didn’t use much more to sell it.
-When the Stargate SG-1 was launched based from the movie, the first episode was a two-parter entitled “Children of the Gods”. MGM Home Entertainment has recut and remastered the episode with new special effects to release it as “Children of the Gods:The Final Cut”.
-ComicCon will be visited by the Farscape crew in the form of Ben Browder, Claudia Blackman and Rockne O’Bannon to promote the release of the megaset which includes all four seasons of the show.
-In case you missed it, in the latest comic movie news Ryan Reynolds, who played Deadpool in Wolverine will be crossing the line from Marvel to DC to take on the role of the Green Lantern. Let’s just be thankful that he beat out Justin Timberlake . . . Reynolds was also once tagged for the defunct Flash movie put together by David S. Goyer.
-Apparently New Moon is the new 500lb. Gorilla. ComicCon did some reshuffling of its schedule to move James Cameron’s preview of Avatar to a spot on Friday in consideration of last year’s massive lines in response to Twilight. This will allow for placement of New Moon on Thursday morning. The real loser here is Disney, whose plans to unveil Tron 2 and other 3D material at 11AM maybe be railroaded by fans lining up in advance for the 1:45PM New Moon preview.
-Can’t wait for this one– steampunk plus classic Wells in animation equals War of the Worlds: Goliath. Fourteen years after the invasion, humanity has rebuilt its world incorporating Martian technology convinced that there will be another wave of invasion. This time we’ve got the giant steam powered tripods, biplanes, triplanes and zeppelins all ready– but the Martians are more advanced than their counterparts and its gonna’ take the heroes of the tripod Goliath to take them down.
-NBC’s series Day One has revealed more of its plot with a new extended trailer that expands on the prior information of post-apocalyptic survivors. It’s aliens and they do a fair job of destruction and then create gigantic pillars. But it’s the humans or at least they look like humans who intend to lead the rebellion that make this an interesting hook. Day One is a 2010 midseason replacement.
-Here’s a quick look at where Bear McCreary, the soundtrack artist for BSG has also done work : Eureka, both seasons, Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles and now the new video game Dark Void. Bear was trained by composer Elmer Bernstein and will be playing this summer at the House of Blues in San Diego for Comic-Con. Bear will also be scoring the Caprica series, whose soundtrack just came out and the 2 disc set for BSG season four is due out soon.
-Paramount is the first movie studio to break the billion dollar mark this year with the big hits Star Trek and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. While all of the big three including Warner Brothers and Fox cleared the billion mark last year, its significant that the Paramount has made this many inroads early on. Also the films which propelled this momentum can easily be followed up by sequels. Warner Brothers is the next one to likely cross the line as Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince releases 7-15-09.
-After The Half Blood Prince, the next steps are the final two films, the divided Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. These films are currently in production now and the cast recently took at break after 5 months of work to help promote the current film. Stars talked about the upcoming film describing the first half as an action chase without the typical structure of films set in Hogwarts. The second half was described as operatic with epic battles and a gigantic climax. No clues were given away as to the break point or the handling of the epilogue. The first half of the Deathly Hallows will premier November 19th, 2010 with the second half following on July 15th, 2011.
-Syffy is feeling a little jealous, seems Lucas has stolen one of their ideas and it’ll probably be more popular. Syffy put out a promotional toaster for BSG and offered it up as a prize. Apparently bowing at ComicCon will be the Star Wars toaster, looks sort of familiar... No obvious clues if it makes Vader imprinted toast shown on its picture...
ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS FOR JUNE 2009
-W1n5ton trods the boards as the theatrical adaptation of Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother comes to Chicago. The Griffin Theater Company is putting on the show for the Hugo Award nominated book. For those unfamiliar with the plot, Marcus Yallow is a techno oriented young hacker who finds himself and his friends suddenly losing the rights they take for granted after a terrorist attack in San Francisco. Marcus takes his home grown rebellion all the way against the Homeland Security forces who have curtailed certain liberties through martial law in order to rescue a captive friend.
-Who won the Bram Stoker award? A little bird told me…when the dust cleared after the live video feed of the Horror Writer’s Association presentation ceremony was cancelled, it was the twittering authors in the audience who sent the word out around the web that Stephen King’s Duma Key had taken top honors.
-Guillermo Del Toro put forth some good news about the Hobbit finally. Ian McKellan, Hugo Weaving and Andy Serkis are all set to return to resume their roles in the up coming movie.
-In a side note Peter Jackson is set to appear at Comic-con International in San Diego to promote District 9 which he produced for friend, Neill Blomkamp. Still on the fence about attending is James Cameron who may or may not bring Avatar along for viewing. Comic-con runs from July 22-26.
-The movie adaptation of Y the Last Man takes a step backwards as Shia Le Bouf decides he doesn’t want the lead. The Director D.J. Caruso has had his eye on Le Bouf for the title role for awhile but may have to fall back and punt as Le Bouf’s comment that he wasn’t currently interested in the role and might be too old for it when he was able to consider it, takes some of the wind out of hopes.
-Obamas and Potters? ABC is denying rumors that Michelle and daughters visited Pinewood studios which was a possible location to shoot portions of the seventh movie. BBC indicated that the visit to the set and with stars of the movies was in conjunction with daughter Sasha’s eighth birthday.
-Skiffy is working on an Alice in Wonderland modernization in the same mode as Tin Man, unsurprisingly called Alice. It has a boat load of stars onboard from Kathy Bates, Colm Meany, Matt Frewer and Tim Curry. The four hour series is under production for a December launch.
-After season three, Primeval is done. ITV, the producing network has cited budget cuts and a desire to focus on more adult oriented material. Of course the third season hasn’t even hopped the pond yet… There were rumors however of a possible Primeval movie.
-The Time Traveler’s Wife opens on August 14th and offers a softer side of SF instead of all of the typical explosions expected with a summer movie. Henry and Clare are meant to be together, except Henry has a small problem– his difficulty with staying in one time. An unexpected genetic trait makes him shift from time period to time period. So despite his frequent disappearances Clare still carries a torch for their relationship.
-Can’t hardly wait till September– Fringe makes its reappearance on September 17 with a time slot change. Apparently Fox has big hopes for one of its betters shows as it goes head to head with Supernatural in its final season on Thursday nights. For the Joss Whedon fans, Dollhouse will be restart on the next night, the 18th and take the Friday at 9:00 PM slot.
-Just in time for the season Warner Home video will be releasing a Karloff & Bela Lugosi DVD. Set for release on October 6th, it will contain four classic films.
-Both sides now– since the finale of Battlestar and the release of the Caprica DVD, one might think that the BSG aspect of things is going into eclipse. Not so, with the movie Battlestar Galactica:The Plan. Here we have the viewpoint that was missing from the beginning of the series and only developed more later on, that of the cylons involved in the destruction of the colonies. Actor Dean Stockwell reprises his role as one as the movie looks at the events that comprise the series from a new and different perspective
-Ridley Scott is developing a webseries called Purefold, that while it will not contain Bladerunner material will be set before 2019 with similar themes, primarily the question, “What does it mean to be human?”
-Back and back and back from the dead—news about remakes:
~The Incredible Mr. Limpet is on the block for an update. The 1964 originator followed Don Knotts who turned into a fish during wartime.
~Nightmare on Elmstreet has Rorshach’s actor Jackie Earle Haley behind the blades and the mask.
~The Birds, of Hitchcock fame, is still in scripting development.
~Red Dawn– apparently MGM has opened up the production company site for this one.
~The Thing-Ron Moore submitted a draft and then they brought someone else in to write it. He seems happy enough working on Caprica stating that half of the scripts for the first season are already in and production has begun.
-The flavor of the month is Jekyll and Hyde as director Abel Ferrara announced he wants in on the fun. Universal promoted the idea a month ago with Keanu Reaves picked out for the leading role. Ferrara’s movie will star Forest Whitaker and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson as his alter ego. But the Brits have beat everyone to the punch with the 6 episode series Jekyll that images in a current day descendent of Dr. Jekyll with a genetic inheritance from Jekyll’s experiments.
-ABC aired a brief clip of the upcoming show Flash Forward, based on the novel by Robert Sawyer. In a brief moment all of humanity blacks out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds. All around the world in the missing time, people see glimpses of what will occur six months into the future. ABC plans to air the show in the fall.
-There is more than one of everything and now there will be two of Fringe as the show is renewed for 2010. The 12th’s final episode covered everything from the reason for events that agent Dunham has investigated to the revelation of William Bell, played by Leonard Nimoy.
-Dig it and the fans will find you . . . Daniel Radcliffe, known for his portrayal of Harry Potter was at work digging away on a beach in Wales when the fans caught up with him. Co-stars Rupert Grint (Ron) and Emma Watson (Hermione) were also present at the filming for the movie Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This particular scene was of the burial of Dobby, the house elf.
-When your character dies in the first ten minutes of the movie and then you’re resurrected as a cylon, it shouldn’t be that tough, should it? Allessandra Torresani’s part a Zoe Graystone suddenly became a little more complicated when the series was picked up for 20 episodes.
Suddenly a starring role has become a continuing role. Caprica, the movie is out now on DVD with the series expected to be shown in 2010 -ThinkGeek site earlier this year made the perfect gift for Jedi parents—the Tauntaun sleeping bag. While it is a spoof, the bag featured fuzzy and soft imitation intestines and to top it all off a light saber zipper. We even hear it doesn’t smell bad—inside or out...
-It’s time for more PKD on the big screen as work begins on Flow My Tears the Policeman Said. It’s no secret that Hollywood likes to work with Philip K. Dick’s novels and short stories. Halcyon Co. acquired the rights to Dick’s work in 2007 and selected this novel as the first for conversion. To date movies based upon the writing of PKD have netted over one billion dollars internationally.
-Is Fox perhaps realizing how the Whedon phenomenon works belatedly? The network has given Dollhouse a backhanded compliment with its 13 episode request for next year. The run may total out to 22 if there is sufficient interest and there is talk of changing the night. The series will be out on DVD on July 28th containing 12 episodes. Also included will be the stand alone “Epitaph one” as well as the pilot “Echo” which has not been aired. There are also a number of making of segments as well.
-Downloading the pirate versions of Star Trek out now might change your shirt color to red. Apparently the new movie, of which several versions are currently on the net illegally, could be one of two extremes– a concoction of .exe files that are liable to be viruses or a high definition version which may have escaped from Paramount.
-Post BSG, Ron Moore’s next step Virtuality seems to have faltered. The pilot for the series is now set to be shown on July 4th and any further action is liable to be based upon the viewers response. Fox has cooled on the project since SF writer Joe Haldeman pointed out similarities to his novel Old Twentieth. Both stories focus around a ship on an extended voyage whose crews resort to virtual reality to pass the time with unfortunate results.
-HBO’s Game of Thrones seems more likely than Dances With Dragons. As fans with frayed patience await the next Song of Ice and Fire novel from George R. Martin, the production of the HBO pilot for the series based on the first book begins to take shape. The filming is currently scheduled to begin in October in Belfast. Tom McCarthy has taken on the role of director for the film and actor Peter Dinklage will step into the small but powerful shoes of Tyrion Lannister. Martin is will executive produce and has indicated that each season should encompass the action of one book.
-Dom DeLouise has passed away at the age of 75. While known mostly for his comedy roles, DeLouise also appeared on SeaQuest DSV and Stargate SG1 as well as voicing Pizza the Hut in Spaceballs. His sons have been actively involved in both Stargate and SeaQuest as both actors, writers and directors. Peter DeLouise continues to work with the Stargate franchise by directing an upcoming episode of Stargate : Universe. Dom perfected his comedic approach as Dominick the Great of the Dean Martin Show, where he soon became a regular.
Helicon Arts Cooperative"
ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS FOR APRIL 2009
-Sometimes its good to be the men and women in uniform. This past Saturday 440 of the troops stationed at Camp Arijfan in Kuwait were treated to a special premiere of the new Star Trek movie a full month in advance of movie audiences. On hand were stars from the movie: Christopher Pine, Keith Urban, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, John Cho, Eric Bana and Director J.J. Abrams. In other Trek news, CSI will do an episode where cast members go to a convention for a show that bears a definite resemblance and solve the murder of one of the series stars. This all includes a dream sequence where Hodges imagines himself as the captain in a ship with some very familiar sound effects and his co-star is sporting a hairstyle that will be familiar to first season fans. CSI is the product of CBS, who has the rights to the Trek movies.
-If you have a cool 100+k lying around and are a huge fan of Bladerunner, then clear your schedule for April 30 and May 1st for the Profiles in History auction to bid on the Rick Deckard blaster. This signature weapon is a long sought after piece. Numerous folks have been hard at work fabricating replicas. Unfortunately the owner of the piece rarely made it available for viewing and there were few good photos. Also up for grabs are the mask used in Creature from the Black Lagoon, a poster from the original Frankenstein, Darth Maul’s lightsaber from Star Wars Episode I and more.
-May 8th will mark the season finale for Dollhouse– or will it? There’s some confusion about the number of episodes in the season since the pilot was originally scrapped and then broken out into the first several episodes. There is a 13th episode however. But like in a hotel you won’t find it– until the DVD comes out on July 28th. There is a difference between the studio and the DVD deal which required a 13th show titled suitably enough “Omega”. Fans will just have to wait.
-Since we’re talking Joss Whedon, here’s an adjunct– James Marsden says that it takes longer to apply his make up as Lord Piccolo in the Dragonball Z live action movie. The green full head mask is definitely a step above the forehead masks that took around 20 minutes to attach.
-How would you like to be a Crazy? Overture/Participant Media auctioned off the chance for a walk on role in the remake of the George Ramero movie, The Crazies, on Ebay to benefit Greenpeace on April 9th. In the movie a downed government plane drops a bioweapon into the town’s water supply causing death and mayhem.
-Perhaps in an attempt at redemption, Syffy, or the channel formerly known as SciFi—really why don’t they just change it to some obscure symbol . . . Is now airing Primeval. This is one of the best new things on the small screen in awhile and as usual it’s a British import, which means you only have 6 episodes to enjoy per season. Fortunately so far there are two seasons. Anomalies open onto our world from the past and future and from them come creatures that threaten daily life. It’s up to Cutter and his team to capture or deal with more forcefully, these unexpected invaders. From the mind of the creator of Walking With Dinosaurs and using even better creature animation, the show is quick on its feet and throws many curves but maintains its humor.
-Going back to the remakes– The Clash of the Titans has picked up Liam Neeson and is in negotiations with Ralph Fiennes. Fiennes is hoped to play the role of Hades and Neeson is cast for the role of Zeus.
-Back and back to the lack of a future– Syffy attempts to revive another project with, wait for it, yet another Riverworld movie. However, they are not going to continue their 2003 version, but rather make yet another adaptation that already shows many signs of straying from Philip Jose Farmer’s original text. Absent are the characters of Burton, Alice and Monat however this time it looks as though the characters may actually make it to the end of the river. Battlestar alum, Tahmoh Penikett and Alan Cummings are part of the cast.
-For those of you who were left wondering after the finale of Battlestar Galactica, especially the fate of Kara Thrace, series creator Ron Moore may have some more answers for you– but you’ll have to wait for the DVD release. Moore said that some of the back story that ended up on the cutting room floor will be added back into the DVD as either an extended cut or bonuses. In other Galactica news, props from the concluded show will be auctioned off on May 8th in Pasadena, CA to benefit the United Way. These include a full sized Mark II viper as well as the infamous Blackbird viper.
-Richard Dean Anderson has signed for a guest appearance on the new Stargate franchise. General Jack O’neill will be back for the 5th episode currently in production, titled “Earth”. The show will premiere later in the year and promises to be a darker, grittier version. A preview is available online at Scifi.com as well as the video section of the Watch the Skies website.
-Co-creater of Dungeons and Dragons, David Arenson passed away on April 7th at the age of 61 from cancer. Arenson who started to table top wargame in the 60s, met Gary Gygax at the second Gencon and together the two went on to formalize and codify the rules of one of the most successful RPG gaming systems. Arenson also founded at computer gaming company 4D Interactive Systems.
-You wouldn’t wish it on anyone, but Watchmen was beat out by Race to Witch Mountain in its second week. While Watchmen started with the best opening weekend, a number of people in the community encouraged moviegoers to see the film as second time in hopes to offset the drop off that occurs with a highly anticipated movie. Currently Watchmen has in 86 million dollars. All told, the film cost 150 million dollars to make. On the other hand, even though Zak Snyder sworn he would never make a sequel, the cast members have admitted there is a clause in their contracts for one...
-Zennie Abrahm would like to remind you that while Star Trek the movie is going to be a blockbuster, San Francisco is just not done correctly. The fan and YouTube poster has a brief video in which he states his case that the size of the buildings in the eyeblink shot of San Francisco are simply too large for two reasons. One they are 100 times larger than the current buildings. Looking at pictures from the past and comparing them to the present indicates that the projected growth is all too much. Secondly, the zoning laws and community as a whole would never condone such large buildings. There you have it—over to you J.J. . . .
-For news Who-vian, it sounds as though the promised three feature length productions will now be four as David Tennant rounds out the end of his career as the tenth timelord. One will be out around Easter, “The Planet of the Dead” and the other three closer to Christmas, with the final ones as a two parter. These are all loosely interlinked as an arc explaining the revelation of Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor. Davies will only say this of the Doctor’s final episode, that the Doctor will once again meet the Ood and his song will end. Matt Smith’s companion is rumored to be Hannah Murray. But what of the Doctor’s mechanical companion? While K9 and Company was a one episode wonder back in the day and new spin off is coming featuring the metal canine. This time around the format is a half hour long and the redoubtable hound demonstrates and ability thought to only be available to timelords. K9’s regeneration leaves behind the clunky, dowdy model for a newer high tech version.
-Micky Rourke and Scarlett Johansson will round out the primary villains for Iron Man II as Whiplash and Black Widow, respectively.
-Do you pronounce SyFy the same was as Skiffy but without the special “k”? Apparently the SciFi channel has decided to change its name because the executives feel that the SciFi does not accurately reflect the full programming available to its viewers. Also they will be using a new tag line “Imagine Greater” Apparently the fix instead of upgrading programming and removing wrestling is to call the rose by any other name and you need only imagine greater things than what you’re likely to see…
-With the continuing success of the animated Star Wars movies and series Lucas is apparently turning his attention to the smaller screen as casting calls go out for a live action TV series. The series will be set in the interim between Revenge and A New Hope and will focus on the rise of the Rebellion. Lucas hopes to make the series darker, grittier and more adult. He first mentioned the television show in 2005.
-We’ve got a paperclip, a piece of gum, a staple remover and an idea—according to the DeLaurentis’ and New Line, who are embarking on the journey to remake MacGyver as a movie.
-Apparently Harlan Ellison has been out of the news longer than he wanted so he’s once again suing Paramount and the Writer’s Guild over his script for “The City on the Edge of Forever”. While Ellison is willing to let the Writer’s Guild off for not properly representing for $1, an apology and payment of court fees; he wants Paramount to pay him for the merchandising and other income due to the episode. His comment was simply, “...it’s about the money! Pay me!”
-David Twohy and Vin Diesel are in the works to bring Riddick back to life once again. Twohy says that he looks on Chronicles as the first in a trilogy and that the next movie will deal with the Underverse and the finale with be a journey to Furya. But the next Riddick movie will start with something a little more familiar—pitting Vin against carnivorous monsters right away.
-Marvel is planning long and hard to set the stage for its Avenger’s movie. The studio changed the release dates of the coming films for Thor and Captain America so that all of the single character films will occur before The Avengers to build excitement for the team. This means that adding Ironman II and Spiderman 4, puts the Avengers release as May 4th, 2012.
-If you’ve been out to the theaters or online you may have seen the third trailer for the new Star Trek movie– what you haven’t seen yet is the Burger King ads filmed on the same set, by the same cinematographer… All of that glossy white and clear console top combined with a Whopper and fries.
-How it will be translated to the screen is a good question but Paradox Entertainment has acquired the rights to Chariots of the Gods...
ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS FOR FEBRUARY 2009
-Supernanny beats Dollhouse in the smackdown. Now it’s traditional for Whedon projects to not roll out of the blocks to flying colors and also for Fox to place his shows at a disadvantage. But the Friday 9PM slot seems to not be helping if ABC’s Supernanny gets a higher share of butts in seats. Supernanny had 8.5 million viewers to Dollhouse’s 4.7. Leading into Dollhouse was the midseason restart of the Sarah Connor Chronicles, which hit an all new low for the series at 3.7mil. What beat it? Well SCC just beat out Howie Do It but was rolled by the Ghost Whisperer and … wait for it…Wife Swap– sad state of the nation for the genre…
-But enough being superficial, let’s talk classics. I mean real solid literature that you can sink your teeth into like… Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. This brain child (ha, ha brains!) of Seth Grahame-Smith, with a nod to Jane Austen, imagines what might happen when prim an proper meets the unending appetite. While its not out until May 13th, you can just imagine who makes the bigger stir, Mr. Darcy or Mr. Undead. While we’re on the topic of Austen, a British miniseries titled Lost in Austen is on its way to the big screen. The concept is take one Austen obsessed woman who finds herself catapulted from present day New York into history by swapping places with Elizabeth Bennet.
-Everybody would appreciate a replacement for the high priced oil as a fuel wouldn’t they? But you might have to overlook the bad attitude of the plants that produce it as BBC redoes Day of the Triffids. Is the third time the charm? Originally produced in 1962 and 1981, Day will bow later this year as a two part miniseries on BBC with a well known cast including: Dougray Scott, Jason Priestley, Brian Cox, Eddie Izzard, Joely Richardson and Vanessa Redgrave.
-Blue ray Star Trek will be out around the same time as the movie. Paramount will release the first season boxset on April 28th and another set of the original series movies on May 12th bracketing the May 8th release date of the J.J. Abrams movie.
-Are you sure? You can’t be too sure. Are your friends human or actually toasters? Cylons in disguise? Well Apple wants to put that social issue to rest with their new Iphone Cylon Detector App. I mean really if the genius Dr. Baltar couldn’t come up with a valid test, I’m sure your phone/MP3 player combo-what the frak-ever could take care of that for you as well as finding a new restaurant to eat at and you won’t even have to shake it! Speaking of skinjobs, here’s a new trick Skiffy has decided to release the 2 hour premier of Caprica, the prequel to BSG as a DVD available in April. Production for the show is set to begin this summer with an eventual airdate sometime in 2010. Anybody else wondering if the longevity of this series might be based upon reaction to the DVD? A several minute preview of Caprica is available on line and showcases the virtuality concept that underlies the series plot.
-Eve Myles, who plays Gwen Cooper in Torchwood doesn't want you to think her character callous. After all when Torchwood returns with season three—Children of Earth, she and the rest of the team will already have dealt with the death of their two team members, by way of an appearance in the finale of Dr. Who season 4 and (here’s one to look for) a Radio 4 Audio Drama. Now they’ll have to overcome a secret government agreement with aliens that want all of our children for some nefarious purpose and do it in only 5 episodes as the series rearranges its format. Look for it to air in the summer.
-Now that he’s dead, Mark Valley who played Olivia’s love interest on Fringe is moving on to the WB’s adaptation of the Vertigo comic the Human Target. Valley will play Christopher Chance a freelance security agent who takes the place of potential victims to protect them. Keep your fingers crossed folks, this was a good comic, let’s hope it survives the transition. The other interesting part is that in a twist that fits Fringe, Mark and his former leading lady, Anna Torv were secretly married over the holidays. Their characters started the series with a love affair kept secret from their fellow agents. Well they must have learned well because they fooled reporters interviewing them before the news leaked out.
-Iron Man Two could have a different actress as a villain. Scarlet Johansson has apparently been for the role of Natasha Romanoff/The Black Widow as the Emily Blunt deals with scheduling conflicts raised by her participation in the Gulliver’s Travels movie. While nothing is firm and Blunt’s PR folks are spreading the word the actress would like to do both, the exec’s for Iron Man are obviously covering their bases– just in case of course.
-Universal, the owner of Skiffy, has apparently decided to develop anything and I do mean anything as a potential movie. If it wasn’t enough that they are currently working on a movie based on Monopoly and Candyland it gets worse and by worse I mean Stretch Armstrong. Yes, you did read that correctly, they have tasked Steve Oederkerk, Bruce Almighty, with writing a script for this potential disastrophe...we can only hope he fails. But wait apparently Disney already tried this and failed. Could it be due to their casting choices of first Dan Devito and then Jackie Chan?
-The future of SF TV in pilots:
FOX—Human Target (see prior page); Masterwork (National Treasure/Da Vinci Code/Indiana Jones)-race to recover lost artifacts; Vituality (BSG’s Ron Moore’s brainchild)-two worlds cyber and space; Eva Adams-guy wakes up in girl’s body(yawn)
ABC—Eastwick (based on John Updike’s book)-trio of urban housewives
discover magical abilities; Flash Forward (David Goyer & Brannon Braga from Threshold)-everybody wakes up from 2 minute global snooze with visions of the future; and how could we forget V (80’s favorite)—they’re not just here for the rats, they’re here to oppress us.
NBC—Day One (Day After + Flash Forward) - survivors of an “event” which destroys civilization rebuild and try to understand WTF happened… <yes that is it for the same network associated with Heroes and the SF Channel…>
CBS—nada, nothing in the works <good job guys>
ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS FOR JANUARY
-NBC puts it hopes on the return of Bryan Fuller to bring Heroes back to a more heroic status. Bryan wrote for the first season of Heroes and is know to have a good creative synergy with series creator Tim Kring. With the cancellation of ABC’s Pushing Daisies, Fuller is now free to return to the fold in a move that will hopefully allow the once popular series to once again put butts in seats.
-At the same time NBC has set a March 15th date for the 2 hours premiere of Kings, a drama that has its origins in the story of King David from the Bible and is labeled as “magic realism”. The series centers around the rise to power of a young hero and is the brainchild of executive producer Michael Green, yet another Heroes wunderkind.
-Not everyone is taking the swords and horses comeback of a show like Legend of the Seeker seriously. In fact Comedy Central sees this as an opportunity by launching its spoof series Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire. You may recognize its front man, Sean Maguire from Meet the Spartans. Just to give you a hint Krod is the son of a blacksmith and a stay at home mom and destined for greatness in his position as the chief freedom fighter for the resistance. The series debuts on April 9th, watch it soon before it gets cancelled…
-Where are the girls? Casting has been announced for the next Stargate Franchise, Stargate Universe– and so far its all guys… Robert Carlyle will play Dr. Nicholas Rush; Justin Louis, Colonel Everett Young; David Blue, Eli Wallace the brainy slacker; Brian J. Smith, Lieutenant Matthew Scott; and Jamil Walker Smith as Senior Sergeant Ronald Greer. Brad Wright and Robert Cooper, who’ve made their mark on the Stargate Franchise will serve as executive producers and writers.
-Along with a number of shows returning after the holiday hiatus, comes Fringe. J.J. Abrams’ creation has been given a thumbs up for a second season from the Fox President of Entertainment, Kevin Reilly who says he felt confident that the network would renew the shows contract. What’s next for Fringe? Well Abrams says that there will be a resolution of issues between John Scott and Olivia Dunham and, wait for it folks– giant slugs. That’s right you heard it, giant slugs. If I wasn’t already hooked now I am. If you are really fortunate there may still be a link to the Merry Fringemas song on the Fringe website, just in case you didn’t experience its joy over the holidays.
-Terminator Salvation may include Linda Hamilton as an intro voice over.
-Two great losses to the genre occurred recently with the passing of Ricardo Montalban and Patrick McGoohan. Montalban 88, died on 1-14-09 in his home. He’s best known for his roles as Mr. Roarke the owner of Fantasy Island and as Khan from Star Trek. In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan he reprised his role as the charismatic superhuman from the Original Series episode “Space Seed”. Ricardo also starred in both Escape from Planet of the Apes and Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. Patrick McGoohan is best known for his role as Number 6 in The Prisoner. McGoohan past away on 1-13-09 at the age of 80 after a short illness. Not only did McGoohan star in The Prisoner, but also created the show as well as produced it.
-Watchmen is free for distribution. Due to a recent agreement between Warner Brother and Fox, the film will make its March 9th debut as scheduled. After a US District Judge found that Warner Brothers would be infringing on a prior agreement with Fox by releasing the film, Watchmen has been in an unenviable position. Warners needed to know if it could begin properly advertising the film and preparing its Release. The two entertainment giants have settled amicably as of 1-15-09 and attorneys for the studio have met on 1-16-09 to discuss the terms of the agreement.
-It may have the same title as a Diana Gabaldon book, but Outlander is no romance movie. Take an alien menace, a soldier sworn to hunt it from another world then—add Vikings. That’s right, it’s going to take the battle ready bloodthirst of the Vikings plus the brains of an offworlder to stop the menace known as the Moorwen, January 23.
-I don’t know whether to be happy or cry as Fox considers making a Cowboy BeBop movie. The live action will likely star Keanu Reeves as Spike Spiegel. But I just have to know who they’re planning on casting for Faye. As with the Watchmen, this one could be phenomenal or phenomenally bad, only time will tell.
-Yesterday is a Lie - is a film on the verge of making it. While receiving nods from both festival reviewers and SF reviewers the black and white noir film hasn’t secured major distribution yet. That may stem from the plethora of ideas present in the movie and their lack of resolution. James Kerwin’s creation stars Kipleigh Brown and Chase Masterton, two Star Trek alumns as well as Peter Mayhew– yes that is the man who followed around Harrison Ford in the Star Wars movies as Chewbacca. The film is described as a mystery/love story/dissertation on the nature of reality and there may be its problem. Hopefully someone will step up to the plate so that we can all enjoy the enigma of the film.
-Producer McG has stepped forward with plans to tackle a remake with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo. He states that while he will be influenced by prior works, that there will be updates.
ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS FOR NOVEMBER
-Marc Forster, the man behind the direction of Quantum of Solace, was recently given the reins of the film version of the book World War Z. Max Brook, the son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft, wrote the novel as an oral history of the survivors of the war against the ravenous undead. Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski is writing the screenplay for the movie.
-The End of Eternity may be on its way to the big screen. New Regency has purchased the rights to Isaac Asimov’s 1955 novel about time travel. New Regency isn’t the first one that’s taken a swing at this project. Paramount, Ridley Scott and Tom Cruise were putting together an effort, which unfortunately failed.
-The score of The Dark Knight has been disqualified for Oscar consideration due to technicalities in the application which listed 5 names while the music is generally attributed to Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. The soundtrack of the prior film also suffered from the same fate. The other collaborators signed an affidavit citing that Zimmer & Newton were responsible to 60-70% of the music.
-Typical of Pixar productions, when WALL*E was released on 11-18-08 it came with a new short. This one features a character who was briefly on screen, a welding robot named BURN*E. The action of the short takes place in the background of the main movie, similar to the short in The Incredibles.
-From Abe Sapien to Frankenstein’s monster– Doug Jones is someone who does well by staying in Guillermo del Toro’s good graces. When caught at the premiere of the DVD release for Hellboy II : The Golden Army, Jones opined that while he might be interested in a part in del Toro’s Hobbit, he hadn’t heard anything yet. Word came from another reporter who’d spoken to del Toro who commented that he was considering Jones for the part of Frankenstein’s monster in his re-imagining of the classic tale. Jones seemed elated at the prospect.
-Harry Potter buffs will recognize the actor playing Edward in the recently released Twilight, based on the book by Stephanie Meyer, from his former role as Cedric Digory in The Goblet of Fire.
-After Stardust, the next Neil Gaiman book to make its way to the large screen will be Coraline, a cautionary tale set in modern times. The movie coming in February 2009 is done in stop motion and features the voices of Terri Hatcher and Dakota Fanning.
-Apparently the lack of view support is My Own Worst Enemy’s downfall as NBC has cancelled the show and put a stop to production after the 9th episode. No word as to what will fill the spot after Heroes.
-With Legend of the Seeker rolling into its fourth episode, HBO must assume that swords and horses is once again a viable commodity as they have green lighted the production of a pilot for a series based upon the massive George R.R. Martin series A Song of Ice and Fire that begins with A Game of Thrones. HBO acquired the rights to the books about 2 years ago.
-The CW and the WB have pulled their support from the development of The Graysons. Designed to focus on the life of Dick “DJ” Grayson before the fateful events that lead him to become Batman’s sidekick Robin, the networks originally envisioned the show to fill the void left by Smallville at the end of its run. The president of Warner Brother’s Pictures Group who initially backed the idea has withdrawn his support.
-For some good news, Skiffy has decided to back its new show Sanctuary by ordering a second season. The show will resume production in beginning of next year for another 13 episodes.
-Stargate : Universe’s development continues apace. Wright and Cooper, from both prior series will once again executive produce. Preliminary concept art was produced and ideas are being considered for initial episodes. While casting is in consideration no word of names has leaked to the public. A first draft of the script is scheduled to be delivered before the end of the year. The goal is be able to debut the show with a two hour premiere next summer.
-Battlestar Galactica returns for its final run on January 16th. The remaining 10 episodes will set the finale on March 20th. Action will pick up from this year’s cliffhanger where Galactica discovered Earth to be a nuclear wasteland.
For those of you that enjoy trailers:
-May is a way off but that’s not stopping the release of the second trailer for J.J. Abrams Star Trek (May 8, 2009) film. Bundled with the latest Bond flick Quantum of Solace, the second trailer hit theaters on November 14th.
-A little further down the road in July is the latest Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (July 17, 2009) and its first trailer is now available on the web.
-A second Watchmen (March 6, 2009) trailer is now online.
-The Day the Earth Stood Still’s (December 12, 2008) latest trailer debuted on MTV. The trailer shows more of Gort and Fox launched a contest called Gort Lives where fans are invited to send in their artwork based upon the destructive robot. Winners will be displayed in IMAX theaters and included in the DVD release.
-Ridley Scott may finally be getting what he wants after a 20 year hiatus– the rights to make the movie for Joe Haldeman’s Forever War. Rights complications stopped Scott from his desire to follow Bladerunner and Alien with the big screen version of the classic book.
-Kurt Williams, director of the Hulk wanted something a little extra for the Blu-ray DVD release of the film so a new sequence was shot featuring David Banner in the arctic. Banner tries to end it all and instead transforms. There are rumors that this new portion, shot in Bella Coola, Canada also contains a cameo of another Marvel super hero, possibly Captain America, but Williams is being very close mouthed about the whole affair.
-In order to promote the Blu-ray release of the latest Indiana Jones movie, various retailers are looking at add-ons to the DVD such as a steel case from FYE, or a Lego mini poster & a Lego replica of the original poster from Sears or Kmart. Perhaps if Target is your destination you may find an exclusive 80 page book of making of pictures, lithographs from Circuit City and finally from Best Buy a gift set with a replica crystal skull. Are all of these add-ons going to help overcome the lack of praise from pundits about the movie?
-Pros and Cons of Watchmen: while Alan Moore has asked to have his name removed from the upcoming film, artist Dave Gibbons is taking a more positive view. He states that while Moore has nothing specific against the film, that his experiences with V for Vendetta have convinced him to make the request. Gibbons on the other hand feels that he may have always had a different view of things since he was asked to create the visual end of things. While he admits that it is impossible to create an exact version of the book, Gibbons says that Zak Snyder has, “has taken it by the scruff of the neck and turned it into a really good movie.”
-Tim Burton is heading back into the spotlight with a new version of Alice in Wonderland starring Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp and Ann Hathoway. The film will be a mixture of live action and performance capture technology. Mia will star as Alice, Depp as the Mad Hatter and Hathoway as the White Queen.
-Apparently Bill Murray got a little more than he bargained for in his recent role as the Mayor of the City of Ember, who eats a great deal of sardines– over and over during filming– more than Murray planned on.
-V is back and ABC is fronting it. The 80’s series about alien invasion is set to begin a cycle of rebirth at the hands of its former executive producer Scott Peters. Peters has the new adaptation set to open once again with the massive alien invasion fleet darkening the skies of earth’s cities.
-Recently released on DVD is the family flavor of the Doctor Who franchise : the Sarah Jane Chronicles. The set comprises al 10 episodes of the first Series. The second series of twelve episodes has just recently premiered in England.
-With the heroes developing their own movies, Marvel’s cartoon division’s latest creation is the Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. The 26 episodes are set for a release some time in 2011.
-The AMC is taking on the ambitious task of creating a miniseries based off of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars. AMC is also in the process of creating a new version of the Prisoner starring Ian McKellan and Jim Caviezel.
-Due to good ratings and public acceptance, Fox has ordered a full season of its new paranormal show The Fringe.
-What’s coming your way from the SciFi channel in terms of more movie dreck? How about: Hellhounds, Rise of the Gargoyle, Alien Western, Carney and Sand Serpents. All of these promise to be just as fine as the enviable Mansquito…
-Sanctuary, the new series on SciFi channel, keeps its star, Amanda Tapping very busy. When she’s not dealing with representations of various mythical beauty and being shot in green screen, Tapping is responsible for executive production of the show. Tapping also could be called upon the fill in if the principal photographer were to call in sick. Tapping also finished out her shooting for Stargate: Atlantis and has been approached about reprising her role in another Stargate SG-1 direct to DVD movie, by which point Atlantis will be filming the first of its direct to DVD movies too.
-Set 51 years before the events of Battlestar Galactica, Caprica is now wavering on the cusp of being either a 2 hour movie or a lead in pilot for a TV series. Mark Stern, the SciFi Channel’s Executive Vice President said that Skiffy would accept the delivery of the movie and then make their determination.
-Could there be more than many? Rumors are starting about yet another Highlander film, this time starring Kevin McKidd.
-Morgan Freeman has always been behind a big screen adaptation of the Arthur C. Clarke book Rendezvous with Rama, but David Fincher, who was the most recent directorial candidate, believes the project is dead. Citing Freedman’s poor health and lack of a script, Fincher said that after 8 years of attempts, the project remains dead.
ALL the News That Fits For September
-HBO is gearing up to tackle the epic fantasy of George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones. With other fantasy works being tapped for production such as Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series, the network purchased the TV rights for the adaptation of the book. While Martin cautions that this is not a miniseries, the expectation of the studio is to complete a season focused strictly around the events of first book with the second season following the second book and so on.
-Going back to Blue Harvest, Seth McFarland has plans for a second Family Guy homage to Star Wars, this time centered around the Empire Strikes Back. McFarland says that once again the familiar characters from the show will
reprise their roles. Which puts Stewie in the awkward position of revealing to Chris that he is his father. Boba Fett will be played by Peter’s nemesis, the Giant Chicken. McFarland warns that this episode may be available first on DVD before it is shown on air.
-In other animated parody efforts, this year’s Halloween episode of the Simpson’s will feature the Springfield gang as the Peanuts as they mock It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. The second portion of the episode will use the Transformers movie as envisioned by Michael Bay for their backdrop. The creators have already decided that next year’s Tree House of Horror will be based around zombies like those from 28 Days Later.
-Joss Whedon made some changes in his episode order earlier in his new series Dollhouse, reshooting the pilot and making the original the second episode. Now that he is on the fourth, the studio and Whedon are calling a brief halt since his directing has held up the writing process. Shooting is set to resume September 25th.
-Executive producer, Tim Kring of Heroes promises that the first 3 hours of the third season of Heroes will resolve the lingering questions that remain from the end of the second season. Heroes premieres on September 22nd. Shortly after that the main punch of the season, called volume 3 : Villains, begins.
-October 3rd will see the premiere of the television version of Clone Wars, whose movie was released on August 25th. The Cartoon Network is billing the series as part of its Secret Saturdays lineup. The first episode will contain two parts, making it an hour long.
-While HBO moves forward on the Game of Thrones, one thing that won’t be happening is the TV series adaptation of Garth Ennis’ Preacher. Mark Steven Johnson, known for directing Ghost Rider and Daredevil, was set to start on an adaptation when the new head of HBO began to question the dark nature of the material. Johnson says he’s glad it fell through and while he’s heard rumors of a miniseries or a movie, he hopes that whomever gets involved with the project decides to be true to the source material. Johnson says that his original version was nearly word for word of the books.
-September 16th sees the release of the second season of Torchwood as
filming for the third season begins. The third season is currently a 5 part
miniseries entitled Torchwood: Children of Earth which will debut in 2009.
-The Stargate franchise is being given yet another opportunity with Stargate:Universe. As Atlantis draws to its end after 5 seasons, although like SG1, it will receive a telefilm, the creators Brad Wright and Robert Cooper will be starting yet another installment with Universe. In Universe a 9th chevron is unlocked and a team of explorers finds themselves aboard an ancient ship called Destiny. The unmanned ship is on a mission launched by the ancients at the peak of their civilization. The team finds themselves with no way home and no escape.
-Besides the X-Men Origins:Wolverine film the is set for May 1st, 2009, 20th Century Fox is also considering other X-Men spinoffs. Due to their lackluster showing in the box office this summer, the studio is considering other
possibilities, even going so far as to revive the Daredevil franchise.
-Apparently some things will just not lie down and die. After finishing a live action version of Land of the Lost with Will Ferrell, Universal approached the Kroffts with the concept of a live action Sigmund and the Seamonsters movie which will be written by Dana Gould, a Simpson’s writer. The project was
recently given a green light.
-In more retromania, creator of the 80’s comedy The Greatest American Hero,
Steven Cannell, confirmed that he is working on a feature length film based off of the concept of the TV show. There are going to be some web shorts and a comic based upon the concept, to gauge the public’s response to the idea
-So let’s dig up another one, Ghostbuster’s 3 is apparently a possibility
according to Harold Ramis one of the original creators. While Bill Murray has agreed to participate in a limited fashion and there are no firm ideas, one possible conclusion is that the originals with be there to nursemaid the new ghostbusters as they take up the mantle.
-Things are moving towards Spiderman 4 which has finally been confirmed with both Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire. Kristin Dunst has yet to be signed but the word is the film will have a Mary Jane Watson. The release date is set for May 2011 and there are several questions floating around such as a villain and will the studio attempt to film both 4 & 5 at the same time.
-Guillermo Del Toro is going to be one busy man. If you think your schedule is booked, it is nothing compared to this man’s– Del Toro has movies scheduled through 2017 currently. He will be doing remakes of Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Slaughterhouse 5, The Hobbit and possibly even Lovercraft’s At the Mountains of Madness.
-If you simply can’t get enough of Joss Whedon’s musical insanity, Dr. Horrible’s Sing—Along Blog, then go to I-tunes where you can download the entirety of the soundtrack.
-Just in time for the holidays and the perfect gift for all of your uber-geek buying needs for a mere $2000 you can now be the proud owner or gifter of an official reproduction of Kirk’s Captain’s chair. The chair is life sized, swivels, has the appropriate lights and even spouts snippets of dialog from the show. Get yours now, available soon.
All the News That Fits for August
-Interest in and sales of Watchmen exploded after the release of the long awaited trailor of the upcoming film. Originally written in 1986 by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons, Watchmen sold 10,000 copies that the publisher attributes to interest in the film due for release in March of 2009. Watchmen is touted by booksellers as a bridge to encourage readers to try graphic novels.
-For SF authors, most of their imaginations require room outside of the box of ordinary considerations. At Denvention the think tank known as Sigma, which contains 35 authors who advise the government on dealing with the unthinkable, was lauded by the publication of a 44 page document dealing with some of their work. Usually their topics are so top secret that they cannot be publicly discussed. The group whose membership contains: Greg Bear, Jerry Pournelle, Larry Niven and Arlan Andrews has a motto of “Science Fiction in the National Interest”
-In what is becoming an embarrassing series of accidents, the ashes of James Doohan and astronaut Gordon Cooper once again failed to achieve orbit. This is the third attempt for company Celestis Inc. Other launches have failed do to a leaky fuel line, loss of control over the second stage and most recently rocket failure two minutes and twenty seconds into the flight. While apologetic, the company maintains that it their intent to keep at it until they get it right.
-Author John Ringo will be doing several radio spots on his opinion concerning the presidential candidates and their ability to react to a major disaster. This is part of a National Radio tour to help promote his most recent novel The Last Centurion.
-Wizards of the Coast has dropped all publishing not directly related to D&D and Magic:the Gathering. Their new line Discoveries will be discontinued, but all books scheduled through 2008 will be released.
-Unique Features, the company formed by NewLine Cinema founders Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne may be taking on the ambitious task of bringing Isaac Asimov’s Foundation to the big screen. Bob & Michael left when Warner Brothers incorporated NewLine into its structure and have been searching for just the ambitious project to launch their new company. Currently they are only looking to adapt the first book.
-Stephen King on your phone– no its not an evil entity coming after you via the cell phone, but rather a 25 part adaptation of King’s short story “N” that will be available for download via phone.
-Swords and Sorceresses 23 ran a contest to find the right cover model for their latest anthology. Entrants were encouraged to send links to photos of athletic women dressed in pre-industrial striking a martial pose preferably holding a weapon.
-Kiefer Sutherland said recently that even if asked he would not have participated in Lost Boys 2 : The Tribe . The fact that Joel Schumacher, the original film’s director wasn’t even contacted and that only Corey Feldman was involved from the first cast seems to have soured his view of it. His younger half-brother Angus Sutherland did play a character named Shane. Kiefer was working on his own horror movie Mirrors in Romania at the time and never found out that his relative was involved.
-Robert Sawyer, Walter Jon Williams, and Kevin J. Anderson recently went where few go—into the Cheyenne Mountain. The enigmatic government base has been part of Wargames, Jeremiah and of course the home of Stargate Command. While the base is top secret there are areas that are available to the public. The base was once the primary for NORAD, the joint US/Canadian early detection of ICBMs, it is now the alternate site and Peterson Air Force Base is the primary. One of the most unusual portions of the tour was moving through the tunnel to the base proper. Here large bolts and screws as well as chain-link fence and tarps keep seeping water and rock from falling on visitors. The building structures within are housed on giant springs to alleviate any damage from shifting. While compact in design the base contains rec rooms, gyms, offices even a store where one could purchase NORAD merchandise. Col. Brian Lihani who coordinated the tour said that it was a special occasion due to some of the conversations about letting zombies loose in the facilities or which areas might be more vulnerable to magnetic pulses. In his opinion it was more interesting than the typical tour, after all Walter Jon Williams is one of the authors who are part of Sigma that advises the government.
-While optioning does not guarantee a picture, Universal has bought the rights to Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series in a seven figure deal. Red Eagle Entertainment, which is responsible for the graphic novels is set to work on adapting the first book for the big screen.
-Heroes season opener is on track for September 9th but there are some surprises in the guest star roster, like Seth Green and Breckin Meyer. The two who are well known for their involvement with Robot Chicken, will play comic book nerds who run into one of the heroes and offer valuable advice. Their parts will be reoccurring for an arc.
-November 1st marks the debut of Legends of the Seeker, the TV version of Terry Brooks Sword of Truth series produced by Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert. Despite concerns by fans about the adaptation, Raimi made reassurances that the show’s 22 episodes would be based upon the events of the first book and that while in the past he had used the absurd in Xena & Hecules, this time there was enough humor in characters such as Zedd, that Seeker could be played straight.
-Because more Battlestar cannot be a bad thing, SciFi Channel announced plans for a 2 hour prequel movie be aired after the final episode. The film will focus on characters Anders, Tyrol and Cylon Number one in the events that follow the fall of Caprica. It will also be directed by Edward James Olmos.
-Sanctuary, which bows this fall, was originally an online property. With SciFi’s backing the show, shot against green screen and given digital background’s will open up new depths. The 13 episodes mix the real and unreal.
ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS FOR JULY 2008
-While many well respected scientists and astronauts enjoy science fiction and tout its inspiration, Buzz Aldrin has a slightly different take on things. Aldrin recently expressed his unhappiness at the films of science fiction because they present unrealistic images that do not inspire young people to become involved in the space program. Aldrin says that the youth of today have excessive expectations of NASA and are therefore bored with real space travel. He did however praise Apollo 13 and From the Earth to the Moon stating that while these were fictionalized history they were grounded in reality. Aldrin is working with National Geographic Channel hosting a program called The Unseen Moon that uses high definition cameras to view the areas of the moon where he once walked.
-Eleven fans of Babylon 5 recently got together to make a unique purchase for a good cause. Pooling their resources, the purchased at auction a prosthetic mask of G’Kar worn by Andre Katsulas during filming of the show put up on EBay by writer Mark Scott Zicree. Amy Guskin wanted to see the mask available to all and not merely a private collector, so she set about gathering people of a like mind, many who hadn’t met previously to gather funds to purchase the mask. After careful consideration to its disposition, the mask has arrived at its new home, The Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, NYC where it can be properly appreciated by fans from all over.
-More Metropolis found– the original version of Metropolis clocked in at 3 and a half hours and when the film was to be distributed in the US a third, approximately 100 minutes was cut regardless of how it affected the plot of the film. This additional footage languished in a museum in Buenos Aires until recently. Returned to Germany and reunited with the edited version, plans are still up in the air about a complete DVD release as the newly found film is heavily scratched and will require a great deal of editing and re-mastering.
-Comic book artist and creator of Witchblade, Michael Turner passed away on June 27th due to complications arising from the treatment he was under going to attempt to halt chrondrosarcoma. The cancer was found in Turner’s pelvis and before beginning irradiation, he lost half of his pelvis, a significant amount of bone and his hip. Turner’s Witchblade was turned into a live action series that ran for two season in 1995. He is also known for creating the character Fathom as well as painting the covers for the recent Identity-Crisis series.
-Robert Jordan’s the Wheel of Time series will soon begin its transition to a comic series at the hands of the Dabel Brothers. Jordan’s wife, Harriet McDougal and Del Rey Publishing are supporting the project and the Dabel Brothers have previously produced a graphic novel for A New Spring in 2005. The individual issues, available this December, will eventually be collected into graphic novels in 2009.
-Actor Don Davis, perhaps best known for his re-occurring role on Stargate SG-1 as General George Hammond, passed away on June 29th of a massive heart attack. With an extensive resume in genre television and films including The X-Files, The Outer Limits, Highlander, and Twin Peaks, Davis starred in more than 150 episodes of Stargate. He worked with co-star Richard Dean Anderson in MacGyver as a body double for Dana Alcar.
-Heroes webisodes entitled Going Postal will start on July 14th at 3:00PM. The short bits will focus around a mail carrier, Echo DeMille as he discovers his unusual ability that lets him stand out from the crowd. The webisodes serve as an intro to the new season this fall on NBC.
-Creators of the BBC show Primeval, which concerns characters who fight monsters that slip through a rift in time from the past and the future before they can terrorize the earth, love the involvement their fans have with the show. Fansites have sprung up about the program, which is now beginning its third season, that are making it easier on the writers. Apparently the fans have some really good ideas, such as naming the entirety of the universe where the beasts originate from as the “Primaverse” as well as the 16 year old fan who won a contest to design a new monster which will appear in season three, episode eight.
-After the Andromeda Strain, AMC is moving onto The Prisoner as its second miniseries. Casting includes Jim Caviezal and Ian McKellan as Number Six and Number Two. The series is not on AMC’s docket until 2009, so a great deal is currently hush-hush, but general manager of AMC Charlie Collier, did say that the giant white ball, Rover will be part of the update. Referring to their prior roles, Collier also quipped, “We got Jesus and Gandalf.”
-Apparently genre fans all scream for ice cream…its just one of the ploys that NBC and Skiffy will be using at the San Diego Comic-Con to promote their new fall line up. The Eureka ice cream truck will be running a dedicated route and delivering frosty goodness. If participants go to the NBC booth they’ll find actors from Heroes and the Office while Skiffy’s booth will have stars from Stargate: Atlantis, BSG and Eureka.
-In filming The Dark Knight, director and co-writer Christopher Nolan found that the use of IMAX cameras was more profitable than he’d planned. Originally, Nolan wanted to shoot some of the large scale action sequences in IMAX simply because he was already thinking in that size. Nolan also found that cameras worked for smaller details as well and used them more often. Since the 35mm version can be extracted from the film, he felt more free in terms of deciding what to film. He did say that not everything filmed in IMAX made it into the final, which leaves a tantalizing possibility for another cut.
-The Bastion, look carefully and without too much trouble you can find an Egyptian Cat goddess in the title, is a new online community created by editor Moshe Feder for lovers of SF/F and Felines. The Bastion is a Yahoo Group encouraging readers to share stories, pictures and tips about their felines.
-On July 24th at the San Diego Comic-Con George Lucas will announce this year’s winner of the Star Wars Fan Films Competition. 41 finalists were selected and voting was done on Atom Films, now just atom.com, until July 10th.
ALL THE NEW THAT FITS FOR JUNE 2008
-Get your Mythos on– Boom! Studios will be bringing the Necronomicon to the comic world in a four part installment, written by William Messner-Loebs, artwork by Andrew Ritchie and covers by J.K. Woodward. The story line follows Henry Said an Arkham college student who is sent after the book and follows in the footsteps of the tome’s unfortunate author Abdul Alhazard.
-Since it worked with the Dark Tower series, Marvel is now going to do a comic book version of the Stand. This will be overseen by King himself as the Creative and Executive Director and based off of the “Complete and Uncut” version of the book. The comic is set to start in September and when the run is complete all of the issues will be collected together into a book. Published in 1978, The Stand has sold more than 4.5 million copies and been translated into 22 languages.
-A fire in a back lot of the Universal Studios, Los Angeles did extensive damage. Among the lost sets were the courthouse square from Back to the Future; the King Kong exhibit, including the 30 foot tall mobile Kong as well as some of the sets in use for the TV show the Ghost Whisperer. Also lost was a vault containing 40-50k reels of film, which Universal authorities say were all backed up. The fire started on a soundstage and while contained after 2 hours continued to smolder for twelve hours.
-Universal studios has snapped up the rights to the Dragonology books by Dugald A. Steer. Working with writer Leonard Hartman they are producing a film based upon the series which is fictionally written by Victorian dragonologist Ernest Drake. Dragonologists will seek to save humanity from a foe that wants to use the creatures to wipe out all mankind. Games are also being developed for the Wii and DS.
-Composer Alexander Courage passed away in May. While the name may not be familiar, the theme music of the original Star Trek certainly will be. Courage also did music for Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space and Land of the Giants. He composed works for the soundtracks of Deep Rising, The Thirteenth Warrior and The Mummy. He was also an award winning photographer whose pictures appeared in Life magazine.
-J.K. Rowling continues to use Potter for charity auctions. Similar to her hand created books which were auctioned for charity last year, Rowling offered an 800 word outline for a prequel book as a unique piece to be auctioned to benefit Dyslexia Action and the charity English Pen. The piece ends with the words, “From the prequel I am not working on, but it was fun.” Other works auctioned were provided by Sebastian Faulks, other of the most recent Bond novel and Doris Lessing, Nobel Laureate.
-Fox has set a premiere date for the anticipated J.J. Abrams show Fringe of September 9th at 8:00PM. The show will start with a two hour debut.
-Fox network is looking at a new idea the Remote Free Experiment, which is designed to enourage viewers to stay tuned by showing less commercial content and station self promotion. This does however mean that episodes of programs will need to be longer. As Joss Whedon looks at Dollhouse, his latest project he has several thoughts about the issue. He doesn’t want to overshoot and include material that may not be the best possible. At the same time, he doesn’t mind having extra material to be included once the project is put on DVD. Whedon set himself the goal of writing 46 minute episodes instead of 40 to help maintain the quality. Dollhouse centers around Echo a
character played by Eliza Dushku and is about people who have been cleansed of their original personalities and been imprinted with others which allow them to carry out operations by their handlers.
-Allen Steele has launched a website based on his series about Coyote an earthlike world orbiting a gas giant, www.coyote series.com. The site features interactive maps, a concordance for the books as well as stories and podcasts also set in the Coyote milieu.
-2012 will feature Amanda Peet in the female role. The disaster film, helmed by Roland Emmerich also stars John Cusack, Thandie Newton, Oliver Platt and Roger Glover. Those in the know will remember Peet as the plucky assistant and confidant in Max Headroom.
-Walden Media has found a unique way to promote their upcoming movie The City of Ember at Comic-con International. Redecorating two classic Pullman train cars as part of a private train in the style of the movie to showcase the city and taking 25 members of the media on a 2 and a half hour ride to Comic-con, Walden hopes to wow its passengers with the movie’s concepts. The second of the two cars features screens to view 15 minute exclusive clips from the movie.
-Mishaps seem to be plaguing the filming of the 22nd Bond movie, A Quantum of Solace. Recent reports indicate that star Daniel Crag injured his hand during filming. Craig also a facial cut that required eight stitches. One of the stuntmen suffered injuries after an accident in Italy involving an Alfa Romeo. Just before that another vehicle, an Aston Marten skidded off the road into a lake. Fortunately the driver only received minor injuries in that incident.
-As NBC prepares to prime viewers for a new season of Heroes, they are looking at innovative ways to promote the show. E-comics featuring 12 new potential characters will be available online. The self contained storyline will lead into the beginning of the new season. Fans will be able to vote on the characters for potential inclusion into the TV series when it debuts.
-A&E did not wait on making the new version of The Andromeda Strain available on DVD. The DVD was released on June 2nd, just one week after the series was shown. Robert Shenkkan, writer of the miniseries says that A&E was confident that the show would do well and didn’t want to keep fans from owning it.
-What do music group Garbage and The Sarah Connor Chronicles have in common? Well, now they share lead singer Shirley Manson. The pop star will play the role of Catherine Weaver, the head of a high tech company in a reoccurring role.
ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS FOR MAY
-Ship your friends to the moon or off into space. The LRO, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is accepting names, which will be put on a microchip and launched with the Orbiter. Once you add you name, you can print a nice certificate. Also the Kepler Mission, which is a space telescope to be launched in February of 2009 will take your name as well as 500 words about why the mission is important out into the black. Kepler unlike most satellites is designed to orbit the sun, not the Earth, Names will be placed on a DVD attached to the craft and a duplicate will be given to the Smithsonian for Display purposes. You have from now until November 2008 to get your name in.
-Danton Burroughs, grandson of Edgar Rice Burroughs passed away on May 1st. Danton suffered from Parkinson’s disease but died of heart failure. Tragically this happened a day after a fire at his home which destroyed his collection of memorabilia. Danton was to be named the chairman of Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., a privately held multimillion dollar concern.
-This past Friday was the last episode for Moonlight, the CBS vampire series. The network sites lack of audience interest.
-Bantam books came up with an interesting way to get folks interested in the new Odd Thomas book by Dean Koontz. They produced a 16 minute mini-movie entitled Odd Passenger and made it available in four chunks on YouTube. Odd Hours was released for sale on Tuesday, May 20th.
-It’s not even out and already Lucas is saying that there could be an Indy V. Did anyone ask Harrison? At Cannes Lucas said that he and Spielberg left the ending of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull open enough to allow a sequel. Lucas also added that possibly Shiaf Lebouf would be the main character and Ford the secondary, much as Connery in the third film. Doesn’t Clone Wars just scream Disney? Disneyworld will be hosting Star Wars themed weekends in June with visiting cast members, specialty events and rides as well as sneak peeks at the new animated feature film due out in August 15th.
-J.J. Abrams says that he’s not convinced to do a follow up to Cloverfield. Instead he indicated that he would rather work with his collaborators on something else instead. He did say that there were some good ideas for Cloverfield 2, but that ultimately it would be up to the studio. Abrams also recently finished work on the Star Trek franchise movie, says of working with Leonard Nimoy that, it was difficult to bring himself to tell Nimoy about acting part of Spock since he made the role what it is. Nimoy however broke the ice and asked Abrams what he wanted. -One of Joss Whedon’s new projects which is nearing completion is Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog. The 40 minute musical stars Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day. Written by Whedon and his brother and put together during the writer’s strike, the short film was shot in six days and three parts. Whedon is looking at various methods of distribution after completion, like through I-Tunes and DVD.-You can chat with the men who will bring the Hobbit to life. WETA is putting together a large internet chat to allows fans to comment and ask about the two films the Hobbit and its follow up with director Guillermo Del Toro and producer Peter Jackson. Fans can register at the WETA site under the listing “Unexpected Party”.
-Visitors from Latino Review got a small surprise when they visited the creature workshop to look at some of the effects for Hellboy II: The Golden Army. There was a picture of a young Beast that they were told would be part of the new X-Men franchise film, Magneto that the workshop would be designing.
-Times Square, Will Smith was observed as scenes were re-filmed for his up coming movie Hancock. Due out in about 2 months, the film is having some issues with the MPAA. Submitted twice, it is still receiving an ‘R’ rating where the producers would like a PG13, apparently there is still more editing on the way.
-To Darko or not to Darko, Richard Kelly, the writer and director of Donnie Darko, stated recently after questions asked of his personal blog, that he has not connection to the proposed Donnie Darko 2, nor has he seen the script. He added that since he does not own the rights to the original that he would not make anything from a sequel.
-Love ahead for Sheriff Jack Carter, finally. Executive Producer Charlie Craig confirmed that Colin Ferguson’s character in Eureka will finally have a relationship this season and so will his house. Apparently SARAH wants to see what all the fuss is about and downloads into a physical avatar to experience the ups and downs of dating. On the other hand Fargo will not get the girl, just unrequited crushes once again.
-Uwe Boll, the director responsible for such movies as Bloodrayne and In the Name of the King, has been the target of an online petition– to stop him from creating any more movies. Boll responded with a challenge to garner a million signatures and then he would stop. He also posted a rejoinder petition for people to sign if they would like him to continue. So far it’s 154,000 against, 1180 for…
-George Lucas in general accepts that Stars Wars has become a cultural phenomenon, to which he owns the property rights. In general the man looks the other way with good reason when Robot Chicken or Family Guy decides to spoof his material, but selling imperial storm trooper costumes is too much. Prop maker Andrew Ainsworth designed the original helmet so it shouldn’t be surprising that he still has the mold. What’s surprising is that he’s been casting them and selling them. Lucas surprised him with a lawsuit attempting to stop production in Britain. The American suit in 2006 was already successful. Ainsworth is of course countersuing that he did not receive merchandising revenues to the tune of 24 million dollars.
-On another Star Wars note, Kenny Baker, the actor who motivated the original R2D2, is currently in the hospital with a chest infection. The 73 year old actor, who chronically suffers from asthma, came down with the illness at a recent convention.
-Now that the military robots like SWORDS and other war drones are possible, perhaps that gave Dimension films the idea that it made sense to go back and acquire the rights to do a remake of Short Circuit. The original writers and creators of the concept have been hired to be part of the project which Dimension says will be part of its family films.
-Simon Pegg, of Shaun of the Dead as well as now the latest Star Trek franchise, says that his part in the movie is done, but that he’s been offered the opportunity to be involved in two more planned sequels, dependent on how well the first on does. The latest Star Trek movie will open May 9th, 2009.
-In four years Disney has some very ambitious goals set for its animated films. It is not only looking at releasing 10 films, with its partner Pixar but also a film based on, wait for it, a Philip K. Dick short story. The films will all be in Disney Digital 3-D and also Disney will be releasing Blu-Ray versions of Toy Story & Toy Story 2 in 3-D to prepare for the release of Toy Story 3. Cars 2 is also in the line up which consists of six films by Pixar and four by Disney Studios. The Philip K. Dick inspired movie is entitled King of the Elves and is of course, the last one due out.
-Disney is also at work on a SF thriller entitled The Surrogates starring Bruce Willis. The film deals with a future in which humans isolate themselves and interact with each other indirectly through androids which are idealized versions of themselves. The movie is based off of graphic novel and will also star Rosamund Pike and Radha Mitchell.
-Production will begin this month for the SciFi Channel series Sanctuary which will be 13 episodes and premiere this fall. The series stars Stargate alum, Amanda Tapping and focuses strange and unusual creatures which Tapping’s character, Dr. Helen Magus protects the world from or in the case of the good ones, protects from the world. What makes this one unique is that similar to 300 and Sin City, the actors will be shot against green screen and the entire set will be added in post production.
-In an interview, taking a very dark view on things, that only fits with the show, Edward James Olmos, said he wouldn’t be surprised if everyone in BSG all dies in the final episode. Olmos says that the show is a commentary on our times and the in a very true fashion we may all not make it and it depends on our choices. This is BSG’s final season, currently airing. Ronald Moore, the co-executive producer said that all along the team has been planning the final episodes, but that the writer’s strike actually game them a breather in which to further refine things. The final nine shows will air in 2009. DVICE, SCIFI.COM and Make magazine are all teaming up to allow you the opportunity to make a better cylon. The entrants may be machine type or humanoid. Winners will be judged by stars Tricia Helfer and Grace Park, and the finalist may appear on the SciFi Channel, the contest which started March 25th will run through early June.
-To help promote the new X-files movie, X-Files-Revelations, an 8 episode set will show fans vital information, due out July 8th.
ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS FOR MARCH 2008
-The meteor that hit Peru in September and gauged out a large crater is still puzzling scientists. At first the reports of sickness caused by fumes from the meteor were the news of interest, but now scientists want to know how the crater occurred. According to common knowledge most rocky meteors will break up in reentry and then make holes in impact– not gouge out craters. The pieces of the meteor traveled together 40-50 times faster than expected. In fact it was odd enough that initially investigators thought the crater might be a hoax. The rock from the impact is completely unfamiliar to meteor specialists.
-Richard Garriot, computer game developer and soon to be space tourist offered the grade school students of the UK a unique challenge. While onboard the International Space station in October the American game designer plans to do several experiments of his own, but he has graciously offered a contest to allow 7-10 year olds in Britain to come up with an experiment of their very own that he will perform while in space. Students have until June 20th.
-The ultra secret world of the X-Files is headed for the big screen once again on July 25th. March 13th marked the end of production of the second X-files movie in Vancouver. Typical to its background very little is known about the movie except that it is a stand alone from the Mythology. It is already attracting attention as paparazzi attempted to snaps shots from a black unmarked vehicle. Duchovny was quick to point out that the photo posted online of the two agents in a lip lock was “staged”.
-With the work on the latest Trek movie in progress rumors are flying that Paramount maybe repackaging or re-editing the movies for re-release. This includes everything from adding additional content to redoing the transfers for eventual blue-ray release.
-Get Heavy again, Paramount pictures is going back to the format of the original Heavy Metal film and is backing a production of eight or nine individual animated segments of an adult nature. David Fincher is heading up the project and will be joined by current Heavy Metal magazine owner Kevin Eastman and Tim Miller, owner of Blur studio which will be responsible for the animation of the feature.
-Stargate SG1’s finale the Ark of Truth is currently available right now and ties up the loose ends of the series mythology. Ben Browder in a recent interview said that the follow up coming out in July, Continuum will be more accessible to the new viewer and casual fan. Browder also revealed that he got a little fried in one of the explosion stunts during the filming of Ark. While most of danger was dealt with by his stunt double, he sis comment that his clothes were smoking after the shot. Ark also includes an extra segment where Browder compares playing Colonel Mitchell and John Crichton. Browder is also busy developing a miniseries for the SciFi Channel called Going Homer about a young boy who discovers Greek Gods and Goddesses alive and well in the US.
-Two big for just one film, Warner Brothers announced that the final Harry Potter film will be split into two installments. Part one of the Deathly Hallows will bow in the holiday season of 2010 with the second part in 2011. Director David Yates, responsible for Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince will direct. The two parts will be filmed concurrently.
-In order to refocus attention on the returning BSG, 10 stars from the show will be appearing on the David Letterman show on March 19th. Battlestar returns to the SciFi Channel on March 28th with two half hours specials and the first episode of the fourth season premiering the following week.
-SciFi has brokered a deal to show the fourth season of Doctor Who as well as the spinoff The Sarah Jane Adventures to start in April. The Doctor is joined by the runaway bride from the second Christmas special and when Martha Jones is done with her stint at Torchwood will return to give the Doctor two traveling companions. The Sarah Jane Adventures focuses on former companion Sarah Jane Smith who continues the good work of saving the earth from inimical alien influences and is aided by a younger cast of companions. K9 even makes an appearance. Recent magazine covers with the Doctor, Martha and Donna also included another evil alien from the past, a Sontaran.
-What’s in a name? Apparently the title “Watch the Skies” strikes a chord with Tor publications as they are using the same name for their online electronic newsletter. In order to encourage you to sign up and read the newsletter, Tor is offering free book download every week. Perhaps imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...
-Terry Pratchett, who announced to his fans in December that he is suffering from early onset Alzheimer's, is hoping to complete his new novel Nation in the next few days. He reports that he has started taking medication which will aid in increasing his typing speed and decreasing the levels of errors. He is working with the Alzheimer’s Research Trust and other medical associations to keep an eye on research for a cure. Fans are encouraged to donate to the Trust.
-To celebrate the 7th birthday of his blog, yes you did hear me correctly, Neil Gaiman will be putting a complete novel up for free download. Fans are in the process of determining which one by voting and currently American Gods in is the lead. The book will be posted for download on the Harper Collins website and his blog.
-While NewLine is capable of producing wonderful films as evidenced by the Lord of the Rings trilogy, their finances leave something to be desired. Now it is the Tolkien Estate’s turn to be unhappy with their accounting practices. Peter Jackson and Saul Zaentz, the holder of the rights to the film, both sued NewLine which settled out of court. The Tolkien Estate was to receive 7.5% of the gross ticket sales. The Estate have so far only received the initial payment of $62,500. They are seeking 150 million in damages.-Actor Roy Schneider, known mostly for his role in the movie Jaws but also for starring in 2010 and SeaQuest DSV passed away on February 10th. Schneider had been receiving treatment for multiple myeloma.
-GLAST is not good enough, NASA is searching for help naming its next big telescope. The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope is too much of a mouthful. NASA is looking for a name that calls attention to the field of gamma-ray and high energy astronomy. Names do not have to acronyms. Names maybe of deceased persons if they have not been used for other missions, the contest is open until March 31st.
-NASA has also been busy in another sense, to celebrate a series of anniversaries the agency broadcast the Beatles “All Across the Universe” towards Polaris 431 light years away. This celebrates the 50th anniversary of NASA, the 45th anniversary of the Deep Space Network, the international system of space telescopes and the 40th anniversary of the song itself. When asked about the event Paul McCartney told NASA,” … Send my love to the aliens.”
-How do you know your father writes science fiction? When you’re named Poesy Emmeline Fibonacci Nautilus Taylor Doctorow. Apparently Cory Doctorow is doing well enough now as an author that he can spare the change for more than just one name for his new daughter. Poesy was born on February 3rd.
-The wait for the new Star Trek Movie just got a little longer. Concerned over the movies coming out in opposition to the film’s 2008 Holiday release, the studio has moved the date to May 8th of 2009 to take advantage of the summer film rush.
-Some things apparently come back to life as movies, evidenced by Bender’s Big Score, the latest Futurama installment, Looking to cash-in in a similar fashion expect Tripping the Rift: The Movie.
-When you’re thinking big screen versus small screen and trying to keep your Terminator franchises separate, know for your own personal mortification that the new movie is Terminator Salvation: the Future Begins. This is the one where Skynet wins and John Connor is played by Christian Bale.
-Send in the Clones, this summer a theater version of The Clone Wars, the Lucas ones, will be in box office August 15th. A television series with 30 minute episodes will premiere on the Cartoon Network. 30 shows are already complete.
-Yet another lawsuit is in the offing due to a film and this time its over Watchmen. While the film is still in production, Fox is calling Warner Brothers on their rights to develop the film property. The rights were acquired by Fox in the late 80’s, then given to another production company who gave the rights to a producer with the agreement that fees would be paid before any development of the property was undertaken. Fox wants Warner to stop going forward with the project and pay damages.
-Heroes, despite its shortened second season has been renewed for 2008-09 and will get a massive media re-launch.
-Coming to the really small screen, iTunes & Jim Henson company made Farscape season one available a $1.99 / episode.
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Torchwood and Buffy, what a combo. Apparently James Marsters (Spike) will be playing Captain John Hart another time agent similar to the infamous Captain Jack Harkness in the first episode of the second season. His character is described as charismatic and psychopathic, big change for him there. Torchwood premiers in England on January 26 and shortly thereafter on BBC America. Torchwood is the grownups only spin-off from Dr. Who.-Ron Howard and Universal Pictures are lobbying for a look through the Lens. Imagine Entertainment is in talks with the estate holders of E.E. Doc Smith the creator of the Lensman series to acquire the rights to the books in the series for possible films. Smith began the Lensman series by serializing the novel Triplanetary in Amazing Stories in 1934.
-Lionsgate has accepted an offer by Nu Image/Millennium Films to be the North American distributor for the Conan film written by Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer. Production is set to begin later in the year if things change with the writer’s strike. To that end, the film company is looking to possibly make a deal with the Writer’s Guild to speed things along.
-Director Kimberly Peirce has announced that she would like to be the one to see Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End as a big screen production. Peirce has a potential draft and is looking to approach Universal with the concept.
-If you can imagine Salma Hyek with a beard, then it’s got be because you know she’s signed on to play Madame Truska in the movies version of Cirque du Freak. The film adaptation of the first of Darren Shan’s series will also star John C. Reilly as the vampire who snares a young teenage boy to be his assistant.
-Genre films make up the lion’s share of the 7 short-listed films for the Oscar for best special effects. They are: I am Legend, 300, Transformers, The Golden Compass, Pirates of the Caribbean Three: At World’s End, Evan Almighty, and The Bourne Ultimatum. Three will selected Jan. 22nd to continue.
-Going as far back as the Lensman books, Robert Howard’s Solomon Kane is being brought to the screen in a trilogy starring James Purefoy, Max von Sydow, Alice Krige, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Peter Postlethwaite and Mackenzie Crook. The books center around a 16th century soldier who battles an evil threatening the kingdom in an attempt to atone for past deeds. The novels were serialized in the 20’s and 30’s.-For those of you who enjoyed one of the better productions by the SciFi Channel recently, Tin Man’s DVD will be available for purchase on March 11th. At $19.95 it won’t set you back to far and will also contain a 30 minute making of featurette.
-In an attempt to rescue the Journeyman back to a second season, fans are sending in boxes of Rice and Vermicelli Rice-a-roni to NBC executives. The San Francisco treat is to encourage the Exec’s to hold on to the show set in that city. Similar ploys in the past have sent SciFi’s Exec. a drum stick to try to rescue The Dresden Files and Jericho fans shipped CBS peanuts.
-Fans4Writers is a website that is helping to support the writers involved in the current strike and they have chosen a unique way to raise money. They are auctioning scripts of BSG, autographed pictures from Serenity, Smallville and Buffy.
-Is Anakin Case? Could the star of the two final Star Wars movies be the broken down hacker at the center of a film adaptation of William Gibson’s Neuromancer? Rumors are flying.
-It’s been how long since the publication of Harry Potter 7 and apparently J.K. Rowling is now admitting to considering an eighth installment to the series. She calls these weak moments and lays some of the blame upon her 14 year old daughter who keeps requesting more adventures. Rowling makes no promises but says that if she were to consider it, Harry would not likely be the main character.
-Brandon Sanderson, the author chosen by Robert Jordan’s widow Harriet Popham Rigney, to complete the Wheel of Time saga’s final book, A Memory of Light is somewhat in awe of his responsibility and the notes that will help him accomplish the task. Sanderson is overwhelmed by the outline and the quality of the information and as much as he can he promised that the loose links would all be tied up in the final volume. Sanderson will be working closely with Rigney to ensure that the book turns out the way Robert would have wished.
ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS FOR NOVEMBER 2007 -The amazing effects and computer generated imagery of Beowulf are turning some heads–
including those of the actors who suddenly realize that the characters who are based off of their images are wearing less
than they thought they would. Ray Winstone, the voice of Beowulf, found his character wearing nothing but his birthday suit
in the final fight with Grendel. However through some clever camera work nothing really is over exposed. Angelina Jolie said
she felt a little shy about her character but then added she like the tail. Apparently nobody told Anthony Hopkins that his
character’s robe occasionally slips enough to moon the audience, he asked if the interviewer had seen the right movie
and then commented, “I must have been drunk at the time.” -In exactly one year, the next installment of the Harry Potter movies will make its way
to the big screen. Casting has just been completed for the new members of the 6th movie, Harry potter and the Half Blood
Prince with Jim Broadbent as Horace Slughorn, Jessie Cave as Lavender Brown, and Helen McCrory as Narcissa Malfoy. All
of the other actors from the prior films will reprise their roles. -Tim Burton working with Disney has laid out two future projects. One is a live action and
motion capture animation version of Alice in Wonderland. The second is the opportunity to revamp one of his older works
Frankenweenie into a full size movie done in stop-motion. -Mark Young (no relation, unfortunately) trashed Philadelphia for his post apocalyptic movie
Tooth and Nail by doing such things as closing the Ben Franklin bridge and covering it with garbage and car wrecks
to achieve a backdrop for his film. Tooth and Nail is part of the After Dark Horrorfest, had a budget of 4.2 million
and was shot in 20 days. The film centers around a group of people trying to escape cannibals in remains of the City of Brotherly
Love. -Apparently the movie version of The Mist gets a thumbs up from its creator Stephen
King. Directed by Frank Darabont who is responsible for four King adaptations including The Green Mile and The Shawkshank
Redemption, the film is based on the novella that originally appeared in King’s collection Skeleton Crew. King said
that he was impressed with the documentary feel to the movie and that it reminded him of childhood favorites such as The
Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. King was also happy with the casting of Jeffrey DeMunn who has a actually recorded
the audio versions of King’s books. -Twentieth Century Fox is bringing one of the long standing manga/anime franchises to the
movies with director James Wong producing a Dragon Ball Z movie. Justin Chatwin will be playing Goku and Buffy’s favorite
vamp to hate, James Marsters will take on the villain’s role once more as Captain Piccolo. Releasing April 15, 2008. -Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather will make its American premiere on the ION cable
network on November 25th at 7:00pm. The British miniseries is four hours long, and having seen it myself, I can tell you that
it is a wonderful adaptation true to the story. If you look carefully you can even find Mr. Pratchett himself making a cameo
appearance as the Toymaker. While it is creepy and sadly cool, Death is voiced by the recently deceased Ian Richardson. -Futurama for you! Futurama : Bender’s Big Score returns with a straight
to DVD movie on November 27th. With a totally ridiculous plot centering around nudist alien internet scammers, time travel
secrets (found tattooed to Fry’s buttocks), true love for Leela, the Xmas holiday and starring the voices of none other
than Al Gore, Coolio and Sarah Silverman—the film promises the usual blend of fine genre insanity. -With the continuing Writer’s Strike the genre shows are beginning to feel the pinch.
The Bionic Woman stopped its production a month early and Heroes has shelved the idea of the Heroes: Origins
and is even now in the process of readying a stand in season finale. The episode this early finale would replace would
have been a close to the current arc, but in light of the continuing disagreement the studio is covering all of its bases,
just in case. Sadly the Writers Strike does not seem to be stopping NBC from going forward with its two hour movie of Knight
Rider with Justin Bruening as Michael Knight’s son and Kit supposedly having abilities more like a Transformer .
. . -Mix one part X-files, one part Indiana Jones and one part comedy and you
get—well SciFi would like you to believe that you get Warehouse 13 which has recently been given the go-ahead for a
one hour premier which will hopefully lead to a series. It involves two FBI agents who, after saving the President’s
life a promoted to Warehouse 13 where the government stores all of its bizarre and mystical artifacts. The hapless duo are
then tasked to recover more unusual objects. -Space Shuttle Discovery took something a little unusual into orbit last time, one of the
prop lightsabers from Episode VI: Return of the Jedi—so to compliment that the Star Wars Site is partnering with
the Huston Space Center to create a CD filled with greeting from various Star Wars fans for the astronauts when they returned
to earth. -”Once More With Feeling” is something Fox doesn’t share, the network
shut down screenings in theaters where fans dressed as the Buffy characters to sign along with the episode due to rights
issues.
ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS FOR OCTOBER 2007
-From Hot Fuzz to the engine room. When he’s not dealing with the undead or over the top police antics, apparently Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead) has no problem dealing with keeping the Enterprise running as he accepts the role of Scotty in the latest Star Trek installment. Also more known for his comedic roles such as Harold and Kumar Go to Whitecastle, John Cho will portray Sulu. According to rumors actor Chris Pine has been offered the prestigious captain’s seat. The studio’s goal is to begin shooting in November for a Christmas Holiday release in 2008.
-Richard Matheson’s story “Button, Button” is being adapted into a movie called The Box which will star Frank Langella and Cameron Diaz. The box, given to Diaz by a stranger, Langella has the power to grant wishes, but each wish costs a person’s life.
-Making some late changes to the ending of the film adaptation of The Golden Compass, director Chris Weitz decided to end the movie sooner than the book. He, after discussion with the author, Philip Pullman who has been assisting with the adaptation, saved the action that would have occurred in the last three chapters for use as the beginning of the second movie The Subtle Knife. All of this comes as the movie’s premiere on December 7th draws closer.
-Saturday mornings in the 70’s used to have a show that made the production quality of Red Dwarf and Doctor Who look like HD and apparently Chris Farrell can’t wait to star in a spoof of it. Universal Pictures has put a stamp of approval on a comedic version of Land of the Lost. The Sid and Marty Kroft show featured a father and his children trapped in a land of dinosaurs, australopithecines and reptilian creatures called Sleestak.
-Halycon Co. has apparently made an offer that the executors of Philip K. Dick’s estate couldn’t refuse. Halcyon has acquired the options to produce films and other media based upon the library of Dick’s works which include 45 novels and 120 short stories. Currently 9 movies have been made that are based upon Dick’s works.
-What an unusual combination this may be, Disney/Pixar is preparing to embark on an animated adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs, John Carter of Mars. Purported to be the first in a trilogy of movies with a release date as early as 2012, the movie brought several Pixar executives to the Burroughs archives in Tarzana, CA for research.
-From star to director, Sid Haig, who has amassed more than 100 acting credits in genre films, gets set to make a directorial debut with his film, The Last Door. The film, about a family that tries to save their son from a secret society is set to start filming in October with a release in 2008. Haig’s credits include several Star Trek appearances, George Lucas’s THX-1138, House of 1000 Corpses and the recent Rob Zombie Halloween remakes.
-Another well known name, Jeffrey Combs, (Re-Animator, 4400) was the only actor asked back for a continuation of a 1999 film, in Return to the House on Haunted Hill. The movie will go straight to DVD so that a new system of menus and navigational will allow the user a greater flexibility and interactivity as they watch. Combs will reprise his role as the phantom of the insane asylum director, Dr. Vannacutt.
-Starting October 15th, fans of the Doctor Who spin-off, Torchwood can vote for the cover artwork of their choice for the DVD box set of the American release in January of 2008. 20 voters will be chosen at random to receive a copy of the box set.
-Recently George Takei, Lieutenant Sulu from original Star Trek, was honored by the Committee on Small Body Nomenclature of the International Astronomical Union by the naming of an asteroid, 7307 Takei, in his honor. Nichelle Nichols, Lieutenant Uhura and show creator Gene Rodenbberry have also previously had the honor.
-The SciFi Channel, in one of its few moments of sanity and wisdom has approved a third season of the show Eureka for 13 episodes. This past year the show did a good job of balancing a mythology thread in a show that is primarily episodic in nature.
-Shades of Third Rock are revisited in Earthlings a comedy drama being developed by the SciFi Channel as a 90 minute pilot for a possible series. The show focuses on the misadventures of three aliens trapped on earth an their run ins with social mores. It is supposedly based off of some of the general ideas from The Day the Earth Stood Still, Stranger in a Strange Land and Starman yet with in a Southpark vein.
-Things you find in the attic– like Batman or at least an issue of Detective Comics #27 in nearly mint condition that features the debut of the dark knight. The comic was in near mind condition and has an estimated worth of up to $500,000 and is the second most sought after comic next to Action Comics #1 in which Superman arrives. Comics experts estimate that 20-200 issues of #27 are in existence.
-Just in time for Halloween Universal has updated parts of its theme park to include some familiar faces such as Freddy, Leatherface and Jason. The work involved was extensive to recreate the backdrops and scenes from the famous films so that fans could enjoy a hands on experience from now until the end of the month.
-It all started off so good for the 6 hours adaptation of the Stephen King and Charles Straub book The Talisman. But the project, initially set for a summer 2008 release, has run into a budgetary blockade. TNT and Dreamworks have begun to realize the capital necessary to accomplish the elaborate special effects which were planned and have called a halt to the project as they consider alternatives.
-Reworking classic Star Trek starts again with the episode “Galileo 7”. Besides the cleaned up sound and redone beginning, news effects include a digital rendering of the shuttle craft as well as the space storm which causes the crash. The episode update premiered last week on TVland.
-With all of the SciFi on TV, the Emmys snubbed the genre only recognizing Terry Quinn with the best supporting actor award for his work in Lost. Quinn will read some material about and from the show as an accompaniment to the Honolulu Symphony Toyota Pops as the musicians perform the world premiere of the score on Saturday, the 22nd. Lost is filmed in Hawaii on Oahu.
-The Doctor will be in– in 2010. Season four will start with another Christmas special, then begin its regular run in the spring of 2008. Season five will begin in the spring of 2010. In 2009 fans will not be left completely out of the loop as head writer Russell T. Davies plans to have 3 special episodes for throughout the year. All of this is still with David Tennant starring as the Doctor. The darker sibling of the Doctor Who franchise which will have its first series released on DVD on January 2, 2008 will contain in its boxset a series of 10 additional short episodes about the making of Torchwood. Season 3 of Doctor Who will be available on November 6th, 2007 and will contain additional material as well as an easter egg of the Doctor’s message from the amazing episode “Blink”.
-Colm Meaney, a familiar face from Star Trek, both NextGen and DS-9 (as Miles O’Brien) as well as Stargate: Atlantis is in final talks to star in the US adaptation of the BBC show Life on Mars. Life on Mars is a time travel detective story where the hero is sent back to 1972.
-Much as Helo was brought back from the dead by fan outcry such is the fate of Dr. Carson Beckett, the medic from Stargate: Atlantis. Actor Paul McGillon said that he was glad to be back. Beckett is currently only slated for 2 episodes, creating a question as to the character’s fate.
-In order to help keep rabid BSG-fans in check before the premiere of Battlestar Galactica : Razor, the 2 hour movie set for November 24, the SciFi Channel will release a series of mini-episodes, 2-3 minutes in length in October. The episodes will air for 8 weeks and chronicle the events of the original Cylon war from the viewpoint of a young William Adama who discovers a cylon weapon that weapon that will tie into season four. The episodes will also be available on SciFi.com.
-Not surprisingly given its recent accolades, the nod from Oprah and the Quill award for best fiction novel, Cormac McCarthy’s the Road, a tale of a father and son traveling in a post-apocalyptic America searching for civilization is now being readied for the big screen. Production is set to start in January. Viggo Mortensen is rumored to be interested in the lead role.
-No Connery for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. George Lucas explained recently that while he and Sean had discussed having him reprise his role as Indy’s father, that the fact that the character had such a limited role in the film, that fans would want him to be present throughout the entire film. Since his father isn’t key to the plot, the character was replaced and Connery can go back to enjoying his retirement. The movie is currently in production and slated for a release of May 22, 2008.
-Jamie Bamber (Apollo, BSG) is set to star in the two straight to DVD sequels that follow the horror film Pulse. Pulse:Afterlife and Pulse:Invasion will keep the BSG star busy since the canceling of the show.
-Fans of the Mummy franchise will have to adjust their views as actress Maria Bello steps into Rachel Weisz’s shoes to take on the leading actresses role in The Mummy : Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Bello said that her role makes her much more of an active rather than passive participant and that she had to practice with a rifle, learn various martial arts and swordfighting for her role. Despite a black eye received from the butt of a Winchester rifle in the first two weeks of shooting Bello seems to have settled into the role of Evelyn Carnahan. The movie is set for an August 1st release, 2008.
-Director Joseph Kosinski is in final negotiations to direct what is billed as the next chapter of the classic 80’s science fiction movie Tron. Kosinski will deal with the visual development and have input on the script being written by Lost writers Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. Kosinski was recently signed on to helm the remake of Logan’s Run.
-Tobey Maguire of Spiderman fame will take on the role of producer for the film version of the well known anime, Robotech. Maguire may also star in the film which he hopes may produce a franchise similar to Paramount’s Transformers. The original anime was show in a serial format in the 1980’s.
ALL THE NEWS THAT'S FIT TO PRINT FOR AUGUST
-Some lucky fans at the Wizard World convention in Chicago got a look at footage from the next Batman movie, The Dark Knight, set to be released July 18, 2008. The teaser featured: a new batsuit, the Joker-played by Heath Ledger, the Batpod-a newer version of Batman’s motorcycle, some close quarters fighting between Batman and Joker and Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes-replacing Katie Holmes.
-News continues to trickle slowly out about the Watchmen movie, helmed by Zack Snyder (300). Recently Carla Gugino (Threshold) was confirmed as The Silk Spectre/Sally Jupiter. Filming is set to begin in the fall in Vancouver.
-Continuing the thought of adaptive films, New Regency is considering turning the 80’s TV show Voltron: Defender of the Universe into a feature film franchise. Transformer’s success is obviously fueling the concept and Justin Marks is working not only on the Voltron script but also one for He-Man and the Masters of the Universe as well.
-Save the cheerleader– if you can find her. Claire and her family go into hiding at the Heroes season ender and Hayden Panatierre says that despite their low profile her character inadvertently continues to find ways to test her endurance and durability. Apparently there are still plenty of scenes with copious amounts of blood and nasty bone fractures and snappings coming up.
-What does Ronal D. Moore do when he’s not dreaming up more BSG? Apparently plan for 2008 where as Galactica wraps, he will begin work on several projects which will allow NBC to garner one of his shows for 2008. Full length feature projects in the near future include a remake of The Thing and a follow up to I, Robot.
-After winning a charity auction for a dinner with Joss Whedon, Suzanne Brockmann walked away with some interesting information on the writer/producers upcoming projects. Whedon is working on a 90 minute TV feature on Rupert “ripper” Giles and a horror movie called Cabin in the Woods with ex-Buffy writer Drew Goddard.
-Chiller network is running several contests which accept entrants during September to highlight October as The Scariest Month on Television. These include the Dare to Direct short film contest with categories: best picture, creepiest character and best special effects which will be voted upon online and the America’s Next Top Monster where fans can enter Halloween Costume pictures.
-Howard Berger, in charge of the creature effects and look for Prince Caspian, the second installment of the Narnia Franchise due out on May 16, 2008, has decided to request a greater variety of creatures. He wants to vary the ages, sizes and other attributes of the various fantasy creatures in order to diversify their appearance. This time there will also be an actor, Shane Rangi who will be present on stage during filming to represent Aslan similar to Andy Serkis standing in for the digital Gollum. Shane also has other creature parts to play including the chief of the minotaurs, a character that was added by director Andrew Adamson, not in Lewis’ original book.-The rights to Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian were acquired by Millennium Films after their release from Warner Brothers in the spring. Rumors have flown back and forth for a long time about new movies based upon the book series but Millennium’s goal is to start production as early as next spring and to be truer to the spirit of the books than the prior movies starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
-Remakes, remakes and more remakes seems to be the theme any more but some studios are at least looking at films outside of the language barrier for inspiration. Nicole Kidman will produce and star in a remake of the Colombian Horror film El Final del Espectro, where she plays a shut in who has a ghost for company, with Vertigo Films. Her fellow producers also worked with her on Invasion. They are also working on an English version of the Eye, by the Pang Brothers. Screen Gems is looking for other opportunities as well with Rec, a movie about a rabies outbreak in LA-originally in Spanish.
-Apparently the money is talking to New Line Cinema’s Co-chairman Robert Shaye as he admitted to the Los Angeles Times that he is speaking with Peter Jackson in the hopes that they might be able to reach an agreement to have Jackson’s involvement in the Hobbit. Their prior disagreement brought about by Jackson’s suit concerning payment for some of the Ring’s films had prompted Shaye to state he would not work with Jackson again.
-Katee Sackhoff, Starbuck of BSG isn’t giving any hints as to the method or reason for her miraculous reappearance at the end of the season finale. According to her the writer’s haven’t shared the reason with her yet, which considering the way other actors were kept in the dark about being cylons follows the previous path. David Eick when asked at Comic-con assured his interviewer the mystery would be revealed but so far, as Katee and crew wrap the 7th episode in their finale season, nothing more has been revealed.
-Farscape Fans—rejoice the webisodes are coming. From 3-6 minutes in length, the mini-isodes will serve to expand the Farscape universe. Let’s have a moment of silence in hopes of a revival—hallelujah...
ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS FOR JULY
-With the advent of the final volume in the Harry Potter series and the release of the fifth movie, movie studios are looking at other books to inspire movies that could ride the coat tails of the Potter popularity. Warner Brothers has acquired the rights to Septimus Heap, a familiarly enough, seven volume set based upon surprise—wizards and magic. Relativity Media has acquired the rights to Tunnels, the book which the publisher who signed Rowling is touting as the next big sensation. Again more wizards but this time, you guessed it—underground.
-To promote the new Indiana Jones movie, due out May 22, 2008 and currently in production the website IndianaJones.com is showing some small clips as well as items from the props archive.
-Universal is returning to the classic monsters with three films. Director Alex Proyas(Dark City) will be working on Dracula Year Zero that will focus upon the background of Vlad the Impaler before his transition. Also in the works for revamp
(sorry) are Wolf Man starring Benicio Del Toro and the third installment of the Mummy franchise.-Director James Isaacs is also returning to the classics with Skinwalkers. Based upon the werewolf premise, the movie deals with a civil war between skinwalkers that have accepted their curse and those who wish to return to a more normal life. Enter twelve year old Timothy who upon his thirteenth birthday will suddenly have the ability to change the curse. Suddenly the conflict is about protecting him.
-Return to being bald. That’s what Kevin Spacey has to look forward to as he returns to the role of Lex Luthor in the next movie Superman : Man of Steel. Bryan Singer whose plate is currently filled with Valkyrie and the Mayor of Castro Street hopes to meet a 2009 release date.
-J.J. Abrams, director for the new Star Trek film seems to be at the heart of controversy or perhaps causing it. He has denied any Involvement with several viral advertising campaigns that have arisen over his secret laden current project called Cloverfield. And now also William Shatner has let it drop in a recent interview that in speaking to Leonard Nimoy, he’s found out that Nimoy is in on the latest script for the next Star Trek movie and Shatner is not.
-As the Emmy list begins to get whittled down, Heroes and Lost both have episodes in the running. Battlestar Galactica did not make the cut. The judges will select 5 from the current list of ten entrants to be unveiled on July 19th and the awards will be given out September 16th.
-Some truth to the rumors—Freema Agyeman, the lastest in the long string of Doctor Who companions will be taking a break from the Doctor’s company in the fourth season. Fansites had been spreading the news that she was off the show earlier in the year. However her character Martha Jones won’t just be sitting on her laurels instead she’ll be hoofing it with the spinoff Torchwood for three episodes before returning to her rightful place aboard the Tardis. But who is the Who’s companion in the mean time? Remember a certain unhappy bride? Catherine Tate will be back to start things off with another Christmas episode, Voyage of the Damned, this time including Australian singer Kylie Minogue, and Tate will continue as the good Doctor’s Companion throughout the season as well as Freema.-Andre Braugher(Homicide) has joined the cast of A&E’s miniseries based up Michael Crichton’s Andromeda Strain. The 15 million dollar, four hour series is the biggest undertaking A&E has ever done.
-ABC is hoping that like the Office, a Brit show can be transposed for a Yank audience with Life on Mars. The US version will star Jason O’Mara and is based around time travel where a detective is transported back to the 1970’s after the kidnapping of his girlfriend.
-Cartoon Network has seen their opportunity after the success of the summer movie Transformers and are reviving the franchise with new animated episodes set to premier in January.
-Rumors continue to fly about the Watchmen movie and new ones indicate that Billy Crudup may take the role of Dr. Manhattan .
-In other unconfirmed tidbits, Neil Gaiman maybe directing a version of Death : The High Cost of Living. Shooting could start as early as this fall and Shia LaBeouf may have one of the lead roles.
-Doesn’t this sound familiar– Stargate : Atlantis will be encountering a new race in the Pegasus galaxy in their fourth season called the Travelers
(hmm, shades of Star Trek Next Gen.?). The technologically advanced race, Travelers will have gained their technology from scavenging the remains of civilizations brought down by the Wraith.-Last year’s Battlestar Galatica season finale brought about revelations concerning crewmembers who were actually cylons in disguise. What’s interesting is that the cast members were kept in the dark about the development as long as possible and have had different reactions to the revelation. Michael Hogan(Colonel Tigh) found it hard to take at first but now considers that it makes him try harder as an actor and that his character has an extra depth. Aaron Douglas(Chief Tyrol) had some offset acting to do when he accidentally found out before everyone else the fate of his character. After a long talk with executive producer Ron Moore he finally came around and says he doesn’t portraying a cylon god, and adds, our models have differences too.
ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS FOR JUNE -Roberto Orci admits that the script for the latest Star Trek Movie is complete. Preproduction
are casting is beginning to allow production to begin in November. Orci said that hopefully they may have some of the cast
members, such as Kirk nailed down by Comic-con in July. As to the rumors of Matt Damon and Adrien Brody as potential Kirk
and Spock, his reply was that he has heard those rumors as well as well as ones indicating CBS was considering a series based
on the movie. -The Repossession Mambo will feature Forest Whitaker and Jude Law. In the future
you can buy new organs to replace your worn out ones with credit. Things are fine as long as you keep up the payments . .
.Shooting begins this summer. -The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova is being turned into a script for a movie by
former child star, now writer Brad Caleb Kane. -Twisted Pictures has cut a deal with RKO Pictures to remake four classic horror films.
Three have been chosen so far: I Walked With a Zombie, Bedlam and The Body Snatcher.
-Upon completion of Iron Man, Marvel pictures will next turn its attention to Captain America. This will be a mix of period piece and modern elements. Marvel still has many other irons in the fire such as Thor, Sub-Mariner, The Incredible Hulk, Punisher 2 and Wolverine.
-Universal’s version of The Incredible Hulk gains more star power mass with the addition of William Hurt to the roster as General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross. Currently Ed Norton will play the Hulk, Liv Tyler, Bruce Banner’s love interest, and Tim Roth the villain, Abomination. Shooting is set to take place in Toronto this summer.
-With the expectation of The Chronicles of Narnia 2 : Prince Caspian set with a release date of May 16th 2008 and currently in production, perhaps the studio has been feeling rather confident because they have now issued a date for The Chronicles of Narnia 3 : The Voyage of the Dawn Treader at May 1st 2009.
-Heroes has added yet another reoccurring cast member with Nick D’Agosto who will play West, Claire’s boyfriend. Rumors are flying that he has a very cool superpower. Look for Season 1 DVDs August 28th.
-When ABC Family shows the first three Harry Potter movies starting on July 6th, watching fans will be treating to unreleased footage from the upcoming Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which is set for release on July 11th.
-Animated upcoming-Two of the Stars of the Rise of the Silver Surfer (which pulled in 57.1 million dollars on its opening weekend) Michael Chiklis and Chris Evans have recently provided vocal talent for two animated films set for a 2008 release. Chiklis voiced the villain for Legend of the Secret Pass a story based on the Native American Indian culture also featuring the vocal talent of Frankie Muniz and Ron Perlman. Evans’ story Terra is set in the future where mankind having used up earth is looking for a new world, but the one they choose is already inhabited and war ensues. Also involved in the project are Ron Perlman, Amanda Peet, Danny Glover and Rosanna Arquette.
-Following the trend of being unseen, David S. Goyer is writing and directing The Invisible Man. The movie is conceived as a continuation of the traditional H.G. Wells story where the nephew of the Invisible Man finds his formula and creates more of the invisibility compound. Subsequently, he is drafted by MI6 in World War II. Prior to this Goyer wrote and produced a remake of the Swedish ghost film The Invisible.
-Fans of the new Transformers movie know Peter Cullen as the voice of Optimus Prime but his next gig is reprising his role as the voice of Eeoyre of Winnie the Pooh fame. Cullen has also been the voice of the Evil K.A.R.R. in Knight Rider as well as voiced characters in Johnny Quest, The Gummi Bears, My Little Pony, Rainbow Brite, Dino-Riders and DuckTales. Hard to reconcile those two images, isn’t it?
-ABC will finally make available four of The Masters of SciFi programs that it ordered which are based around classic works of science fiction by such authors as Harlan Ellison, Robert A. Heinlein and Walter Mosley. Shows feature such acting talent as John Hurt, Terry O’Quinn, Anne Heche, Judy Davis, Sam Waterston and Malcom McDowell. They will be shown at 10:00PM on Sat. starting August 4th.
-In a recent interview Joe Flanigan who plays Lt. Col. John Sheppard on Stargate:Atlantis let slip a few facts about the fourth season. Not returning are Tori Higgins, Dr. Weir and Paul McGillion, Dr. Beckett while joining the team is Amanda Tapping, Colonel Samantha Carter from Stargate:SG-1. Also Rachel Luttrell, Teyla Imagen has found that her pregnancy has been accommodated by the shooting of episodes out of order since this seems to be a very active season for her.
-With the last episode of Stargate:SG-1 airing this Friday, the loose ends of the finale arc will be tied up in the straight to DVD movie Stargate : The Ark of Truth. A stand alone movie Continuum will continue the team’s adventures. Continuum was born of an opportunity offered to Stargate:SG-1 creator Brad Wright by the US Navy to shoot in the Arctic on nuclear submarines. The military has maintained a very friendly relationship with show since they had to approve initial shots of the Cheyenne Mountain complex.
ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS FOR MAY -We’ve never really heard him, but in the next Hellboy movie, we will. Doug
Jones, the man behind the wet suit, that really makes Abe Sapien come to life was covered by voice over by David Hyde Pierce.
As if to add insult to injury, the same thing happens when he dons the outfit of the Silver Surfer in the next Fantastic
Four movie, where his voice is supplied by Laurence Fishburne. With Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, we’ll be
finally hearing as well as seeing Doug. This time Abe is in for a twist, how will falling in love affect the clear thinking,
logical aquatic man? Doug is flying to Budapest in June to begin filming. The movie is currently set for an August 1st, release
in 2008. -Dutch producer John De Mol wants to pump some new blood into the studio that produced 300
films in the SciFi and horror genre and made Hammer Film Productions famous. Backed by a private equity company, De Mol has
acquired the rights to the prior films and plans to produce 2-3 new horror or thriller films per year. -It’s not dead yet– the Terminator franchise will rise again under new
direction by Halycon, a private company which has acquired the rights to the movies and plans T4. T4 will pick
up John Connor in his 30s leading the last of the humans in rebellion against the machines. Arnold is unlikely to return but
the executive producer of T3, Moritz Borman will produce the film which has a summer 2009 release date. -It happens all the time with the stars on the front of tabloids, but Warner Brothers is
dealing with what appears to be IMAX altering some of Hermione’s attributes on a promotional poster for the HP5.
The image has been removed from the website under Warner’s orders. -Daybreakers focuses on 2017 where a plague has transformed the population mostly
into vampires and humans are farmed. Ethan Hawke has been signed on to star and effects will be done by Weta Workshop. Shooting
will begin July in Australia. -Will a Neil Gaiman film finally make it to the big screen? Stardust is set for an
August 10th release. The film stars Ian McKellan, Michelle Pieffer, Claire Danes and Robert De Niro. -Spiderman 3, pulled in 148 million dollars in the first three days of its release
breaking the former record set by Pirates of the Caribbean 2 at 136.5 million dollars, last summer. -Grand prize in a Marvel Comics contest is a walk on role in a future Marvel comics film.
Enter now online until August 9th. -Heroes watchers will get a reprieve. When the show goes on hiatus, NBC will fill
its spot with the Heroes: Origins, which will feature new characters. Watchers will be able to vote on their favorite
who will then be added to the regular show upon its return. -Edward James Olmos let slip at the Saturn awards that in BSG ,Galactica might be
close to finding earth. Executive producer David Eick was quick to point out that BSG is a very open series, with no
end in sight and that this isn’t the first time that rumors were spread. -Bionic Starbuck? Katie Sackoff has been given the role of Sarah Corvus in the new version
of The Bionic Woman. The original experiment to produce cyborg parts has given her replacement eyes, both legs, an
ear and part of her chest as well as some mental instability and an attitude. Produced by David Eick, also part of the BSG
production team, the show has not been picked up by a network, although NBC is rumored to be its eventual home. -Tony and Ridley Scott(Bladerunner) will be bringing Michael Crichton’s classic
The Andromeda Strain to the small screen as a mini series for A&E running 4-6 hours. -There is now an end date set for Lost. ABC has bowed to the will of the writing
and creative team and set the end date some time in the 2009-2010 season. Lost will air three more seasons set in 16
episode arcs. The executive producers wanted the series to end in 2 seasons, but agreed to shorter seasons spread over three
years. -Robot Chicken is headed for a galaxy far, far away. Robot Chicken:Star Wars
is a 30 minute special featuring nothing but Star Wars spoofs featuring the voice talent of Mark Hamill, George Lucas
and others. -Doctor Who is once again being broadcast across the pond and the Daleks have been voted
the scariest villains by a survey of 21k fans in Britain. Season 3 features two episodes Daleks in Manhattan and The
Evolution of the Daleks about the metal monsters. The SciFi Channel will begin airing the third season in July. -The SciFi Channel is developing Ani-Monday which will feature anime titles in its 11PM
to 1AM slot. SciFi will premier Ghost in the Shell:Solid State Society. Also in the feature film arena: Ninja Scroll,
Blood: the Last Vampire, Read or Die and Blackjack, as well as the shows: Tokko, Noein and Street
Fighter II. -On June 16th, the Science Fiction Museum will induct its most recent additions to the hall
of fame: artist Ed Emshwiller, Gene Rodenberry, Ridley Scott and Gene Wolfe. The event will be hosted by science fiction author
Neal Stephenson in the museum’s Sky Church. -300 Buffy fans in Pasadena, CA raised $3500 dollars for charity in a giant sing-along with
the episode “Once More, With Feeling” on the show's tenth anniversary.
ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS THE PRINT FOR APRIL
-James Doohan, Scotty from the original Star Trek, will reach his final resting place high overhead finally after a 2 year wait. Space Services packed some of Doohan’s remains into a rocket on March 30 in preparation for a flight on April 28th. The launch has been delayed several times due to tests and a misfire last year.
-Back to the usual, saving the human race, the universe and whatever– the Doctor is once again on call. The third season of the BBC revival starring David Tennant and now Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones, the latest companion starts with a bang putting London’s Royal Hopehospital on the moon in the hands of an alien police force.
-The SciFi Channel is offering some lucky or unlucky contestant the opportunity to “Die” in one of their made for TV movies. By texting the word ‘die’ to 72434 the contestants will be entered in to the contest. The winner will be given a trip for two to the location of the shooting and a walk on or fall down role. The deadline (ha,ha) is May 26th.
-The SciFi Channel’s intriguing miniseries The Lost Room is available now uncut on DVD. The creators, Christopher Leone and Laura Harkcom encourage fans to be patient, that they are working on a project which will answer the numerous loose ends.
-Out of the many shows that tried and died last year, Supernatural seems an unlikely survivor. In its second season, the 20th episode turns things completely around as a Djinn lets Dean see what his life would have been like if the boys mother hadn‘t been killed by a demon.
-Will it be underwritten by Geico? ABC’s Cavemen is being written by the folks that made Third Rock work and given a 2 year commitment.
-The auction house Profiles in History announced the results from its recent auction featuring several pieces of SciFi memorabilia. The highest bid was for an creature suit used in Alien, at $126,500. Also Christopher Reeves Superman suit went for $115,000 tying with a Winkie Guard Uniform from the Wizard of Oz. Val Kilmer’s Batman suit went for $63,250 and Leonard Nimoy’s Spock Tunic for $34,500.
-What the Harry Potter book seven release isn’t the only thing happening in July? The folks of Roswell, NM would like to remind you about the Amazing Roswell UFO Festival which runs from July 5-8. Events and activities include speakers both pro and con, authors, live entertainment, family friendly activities even possible alien abductions and you’ll still get home in time to stand in line for HP7.
-Galactica fans will be able to pick out Helo, Tahmoh Peniket, when he co-stars in Trick r’ Treat a supernatural thriller set in a small town where Tahmoh plays the dutiful husband to the main character. Tahmoh’s part as Helo definitely got his foot in the door with writer/director Michael Dougherty who is a big Galatica fan. Returning the favor Tahmoh got Michael onto the set of Galactica for a tour.
-Helo is the only one doing a little sidelining, if you listen and look carefully at Command & Conquer III– Tiberium Wars, you’ll see and hear Grace Park (Athena) as well as Tricia Helfer (Caprica Six). Grace said she wasn’t a gamer but jumped at the opportunity to play the part.
-For those of you suffering from BSG withdrawl there may be a reason for the wait as the shows jumps to a full 22 episodes for the fourth season as well as a two hour long episode which will run midseason.
-The Dresden files (see the review) ties up its first season with– that’s right, no cliff hanger according to executive producer David Simkins. The Dresden Files has moved to a 10:00pm timeslot on Sun.
Revivals , Revisions and Continuations
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Speed Racer-done Wachowski brothers style, will star Christina Ricci,Emile Hirsch, Susan Sarandon and John Goodman. The live action remake of the old school japanese anime is aimed at a 2008 release.-Mummy 3-Brendan Fraser will be back but Rachel Weisz has had enough. The third installment will be set in China featuring Jet-Li as the new villain.
-Barbarella-Dino and Martha DeLaurentis have acquired the rights to the original and with the help of Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, Casino Royale writers, are revamping the camp to a new film.
-Get Smart-Starring Steve Carrell and Ann Hathaway, the movie version of the classic TV show takes into account the current political situation and looks at things with the typical satirical bent. The movie also features a flashback that shows how Smart and 99 met.
-Jurassic Park IV, a movie franchise that will apparently take an asteroid strike to stop, lumbers on again– but director Joel Johnston has been adamant he will not be involved. Laura Dern however has been telling folks that she is headed back to the island again.
-Angels and Demons– Ron Howard and Tom Hanks are trying to iron the last few details with Columbia to get started on the sequel that is actually the prequel. Akiva Goldsman is working on the script.
-Pirates of the Caribbean III– Disney is selling tickets for the premiere at Disneyland at $1500 a seat to benefit the Make a Wish Foundation.
-Director Scott Derrikson is rumored to be taking the reins on the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. The movie is being prepped to shoot in Vancouver Canada and will likely be updated to current times.
ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS FOR MARCH
-Jeff Bridges said ‘goodbye’ to his hair as he shaved his hair in preparation for his role as Obadiah Stane in the upcoming Iron Man film. In the works for a May 2008 release the film is currently being shot. Iron Man, Tony Stark is being played by Robert Downey Jr. with Terrence Howard and Gwyneth Paltrow in supporting roles. Bridges said he likes working on this film because Iron Man is not your typical superhero with unlimited power.
-Alex Kurtzman and Robert Orci, two of the minds behind the coming Star Trek movie have caved in a revealed a few secrets. One, the movie will be called Star Trek, nothing else, no numbers or any other words, just Star Trek. It will take place on a ship, the writers basically said they couldn’t imagine a Star Trek movie taking place anywhere else. It will have more action than any other previous Star Trek movie. And finally they are OK with the idea of Matt Damon playing Captain Kirk, even though they haven’t confirmed that with Matt yet. Wonder what the Shatman thinks of all of this?
-When Katie Holmes gave up on The Dark Knight, the follow up to the Batman franchise, Maggie Gyllenhaal was approached to fill the role of Rachel Dawes. Gyllenhaal is in final talks to be brought on board.
-Coming back to the idea of animation into reality Enchanted follows the footsteps of Who Killed Roger Rabbit?, Cool World and the Incredible Mr. Limpet. Amy Adams play as princess in a traditional Disney style animated world who is ousted by her evil stepmother, Susan Sarandon into the real world—ie. New York city.
-The Reaping, a supernatural film starring Hilary Swank, has been on hold because of the damage done to some of the areas they were filming due to hurricanes Katrina and Rita. While a great deal of the necessary scene work was done the weather kept the crew from shooting pick ups and Hilary’s schedule made it impossible to begin again. The Reaping focuses on a small town where ten biblical plagues have appeared. Swanks character, an atheist who debunks miracles is sent in to investigate.
-September 21st will see the revitalization of the Resident Evil zombie movies with Resident Evil: Extinction. This time there are only a few survivors from Raccoon City who are traveling to reach a safe haven in Alaska in world where zombies have overrun the entire country.
-When it returns in June, producers of the show 4400 promise that everything will be different. The show is looking at a new direction, with the move of handing out the miracle drug at the end of season 3, the future has been changed and the catastrophe that the 4400 were sent back to avert has also changed. This time the show will be more about how the future changes due to the advent of the promycin as well as resolving the cliffhanger endings.
-The second animated Hellboy movie Hellboy: Blood and Iron will premiere on the Cartoon Network on March 17 at 7:00PM. Liz Sherman, Hellboy and Abe Sapien are sent by Professor Broom to investigate the possibility that someone is attempting to bring back Erzsebet Ondrusko, a vampire the professor put down 60 years ago.
-The Sarah Connor Chronicles gets terminators, that’s right not one but two and you might even recognize one from Firefly . . . Summer Glau will be playing the female terminator Cameron. Owain Yeoman will be playing the male terminator Cromartie. The Chronicles will start directly after the second movie with Sarah, Lena Headey and John, Thomas Dekker, on the run and looking for ways to foil Skynet. One of the terminators is good, the other bad, no one’s saying which.
-Would you believe PeeWee Herman is an alien? Paul Ruebens has been added to the cast of Area 52 a SciFi comedy about government employees who are given the job of watching over a detained alien.
-Vampires are the driving force for two new TV series. Blood Ties airing on Lifetime is based off of Tanya Huff’s The Blood Books series and features a romantic triangle between an ex-cop turned PI, her former partner and a vampire who is the illegitimate heir of Henry the 8th and a writer of romance novels. Based off of Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire series, True Blood will feature Anna Pacquin, Rogue from X-Men as the main character Sookie who falls for a vampire in a world where vampires are being integrated into ordinary society with the invention of synthetic blood.
-If you look fast enough you can see Rohrshach. At least that’s what they say when viewing the 300 trailer one minute 52 seconds in Zach Snyder had a little fun by inserting an image of the character Rohrshach from his long awaited project, Watchmen. The graphic novel written by Alan Moore looks at what happens to super heroes who age and asks “who watches over the actions of such men? Who watches the watchmen?”
-If you are a fan of Battlestar, here’s your opportunity to make your own fan film using the BSG Videomaker toolkit which includes 30 visual and 20 audio effects as well as sound track cuts. Fans are encouraged to make their own 4 minute films and post them at SciFi.com. Producer David Eick will select his favorite to be shown on SciFi.
