Reviews Of Menace Are Mixed
tar Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace may have wowed George Lucas' friend and fellow director Ron Howard a few weeks back, but other industry experts aren't nearly so excited about the film.
According to Variety, a recent screening of the movie at Loews theater in New York, N.Y., was greeted with "tepid applause" by an audience of theater executives.
Variety also reported that studio bigwigs from California to New York who have seen the film are "less than enthusiastic" about the flick, although nearly all of them felt the picture would easily be the biggest movie event of the year. Reports trickling in from various fans who have managed to see Episode I are also mixed, with most agreeing that the special effects are wonderful but that the film is aimed at children rather than adults.
Star Wars Lines Go Online
ans who feel like they're missing out on all the Star Wars action by not standing in line for Episode I tickets can now go online to get their waiting fix.
INTERVU and Countdown Productions have teamed up to provide 24-hour Internet audio and video feeds of Star Wars fanatics waiting in line at Mann's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, Calif.
The fans are part of a fund-raising effort that will benefit the Starlight Children's Foundation, with those in the queue lining up sponsors who donate $.25 for each hour the waiters spend on line. Meanwhile, the SCI FI Channel's SCIFI.COM Web site has created "Virtual Fan-Pals" that will wait on line for those too busy to stand still themselves.
In The Waiting Game: The Online On Line Experience, Star Wars fans adopt a Fan-Pal who will stand in a virtual line for Episode I tickets as long as players visit them periodically to keep them healthy and happy. Players whose Fan-Pals have been in line for at least seven days come May 19 will be entered in a random drawing for $1,000 worth of prizes.
Star Wars Video Hits MTV
TV premiered the Star Wars: Episode I music video "Duel of the Fates" at 3:30 p.m. ET on May 3.
The four-minute video features soundtrack music by famed Star Wars composer John Williams set against a backdrop of film clips from The Phantom Menace.
"Duel of the Fates" also includes behind-the-scenes footage of Williams working on the soundtrack with the London Symphony Orchestra. MTV's sister station VH1 showed the video five times back-to-back the same day 6 p.m. ET.
Dallas Star Wars Screening Sells Out
he charity screening of Star Wars: Episode I scheduled to be held in Dallas, Texas, on May 16 has sold out, according to the event's sponsor.
The gala film showing will benefit the Children's Medical Center of Dallas, which said it raised more than $200,000 by selling 700 tickets at $300 each.
Several high-profile sponsors paid between $15,000 and $25,000 to provide tickets so that 60 patients of the Children's hospital could attend the screening with their families. Dallas is one of 11 locations across the country that are holding Star Wars screenings three days before the film's official release to raise money for various children's charities.
Star Wars Charity Screenings Sell Out
he San Francisco and Los Angeles charity screenings of Star Wars: Episode I have officially sold out, according to published reports.
The screenings will be held on May 16 and carry a minimum price tag of $500 per ticket.
The Los Angeles benefit reportedly sold 1,468 tickets and raised $1.1 million for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. The Frisco screening was the first to sell out, moving nearly 1,500 tickets during their first day of availability in support of the San Francisco Boys & Girls Club.
Meanwhile, talk-show host and comedian Rosie O'Donnell said she will host the Chicago charity screening of Episode 1, which is selling tickets for $250-$1,000.
Buffy May Not Graduate
he WB Network may pull an upcoming episode of Buffy, The Vampire Slayer called "Graduation Day" due to its similarity to the recent tragedy at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.
The New York Times reports that the two-part season finale features students carrying weapons in school, which Warner Bros. may think is too similar to the Columbine incident, where a shooting spree by two students left 15 people dead.
Last month Warner Bros. took a Buffy episode called "Earshot" off the air because it centered on a plot by some students to kill their classmates. There is no final word on whether "Graduation Day," which is currently scheduled to run on May 18, will be removed from the WB's lineup.
Millennium Benched, The Net Pulled
hris Carter's struggling TV series Millennium has been pulled from Fox's summer lineup, according to Variety.
Beginning June 4, Fox will replace the dark drama--which airs Fridays at 9 p.m.--with reruns of Mad TV.
Meanwhile, USA Network has canceled the cyber-thriller series The Net, which is based on the 1995 Sandra Bullock movie of the same name. Variety reports that the show's producers are hoping to sell the series to a broadcast network or in first-run syndication.
Pixar Unleashes Monsters, Inc.
ixar Animation Studios announced it will begin work on the computer-animated feature film Monsters, Inc. in August.
The Disney/Pixar flick is described as "a comedy set in the realm of things that go bump in the night."
The story reportedly centers around a hapless monster who inadvertently lets a human child into the monster world. Monsters, Inc. is the latest film from Pixar, the studio behind the computer-animated hits Toy Story and A Bug's Life.
D&D Film Gets Underway
ourtney Solomon will begin shooting the film version of TSR's popular fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons on May 28 in Prague, according to Variety.
Solomon bought the movie rights to the game seven years ago and plans to spend $35 million on the big-screen adaptation.
Douglas Milsome, who was the cinematographer for Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut and Full Metal Jacket, will serve as the director of photography. The special effects are being handled by George Gibbs, who previously worked on all three Indiana Jones films.
No cast has been set for D&D, which was co-written by Solomon, Topper Lillien and Carroll Cartwright.
Priest, Jones, Burns Win BSFA Awards
hristopher Priest, Gwyneth Jones and Jim Burns were the winners of the 1999 British Science Fiction Awards, which were announced April 4 in Liverpool, U.K.
Priest was honored in the Best Novel category for his book The Extremes, Jones won in the Best Short Fiction category for her story "La Cenerentola," and Burns took the Best Artwork award for his Interzone 138 cover "Lord Prestimion."
The BSFA Awards are voted on annually by members of both the British Science Fiction Association and the British National Science Fiction Convention. The awards are presented to works that were first published in the United Kingdom during the previous calendar year.
Sidewise Nominees Announced
reg Bear, Stephen Baxter and Robert Silverberg are among the finalists for the 1998 Sidewise Awards for Alternate History.
The winners will be announced at Aussiecon, the 57th World Science Fiction Convention, which will be held from Sept. 2-6 in Melbourne, Australia. The 1998 nominees are:
- Long Form
- •Dinosaur Summer by Greg Bear (Warner Aspect)
- •Making History by Stephen Fry (Random House)
- •Climb the Wind by Pamela Sargent (HarperPrism)
- Short Form
- •"The Wire Continuum" by Stephen Baxter & Arthur C. Clarke (Playboy, Jan. '98)
- •"The Summer Isles" by Ian R. MacLeod (Asimov's, Oct. '98)
- •"Waiting for the End" by Robert Silverberg (Asimov's, Oct. '98)
- •"US" by Howard Waldrop (Event Horizon, Oct. '98)
The Sidewise Awards, named for Murray Leinster's short story "Sidewise in Time," are presented annually to recognize excellence in alternate history. The awards were founded in 1995, and past winners have included Stephen Baxter, P.J. McAuley and Walter Jon Williams.
Briefly Noted
- Film director Roger Corman and British author Ramsey Campbell will receive the Bram Stoker Award for Life Achievement, which is given each year by the Horror Writer's Association to those whose work has substantially influenced the horror genre.
- Trekkies, a film documentary about the obsessive behavior of hardcore Star Trek fans, will open in 330 theaters nationwide on May 21.
- Dark City director Alex Proyas is planning to helm an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's classic story "The Masque of the Red Death" for Fox, according to Variety.
- A Bug's Life brought in $6.26 million in VHS and DVD rentals during its first week of release. The animated feature also sold more copies in one week than Antz has so far this year.
- DreamWorks picked up Planet Fred, a speculative script written by David Titcher and Mark Valenti about a tiny alien who takes up residence on the head of a Rupert Murdoch-like media mogul.
- Columbia TriStar Home Video said it will release Ghostbusters to DVD on June 29. The enhanced film will include commentary, deleted scenes and several other special features.
