Phantom Menace Or Phantom Movie?
hile George Lucas is busy telling reporters that bad reviews of Star Wars: Episode I just don't matter, critics continue to pummel the film.
In his review of The Phantom Menace, Rolling Stone's Peter Travers wrote, "The actors are wallpaper, the jokes are juvenile, there's no romance, and the dialogue lands with the thud of a computer-instruction manual."
Travers did have some kind words to say about the film's technical wizardry and even went so far as to call Lucas the "king" of the virtual universe, but he was not nearly as awed by the director's real-world talents. "As for Lucas' directing skills, his work with actors still belongs to the 'Don't emote, just stand there' school."
Time critic Richard Corliss was also less than enamored of The Phantom Menace, calling it "a phantom movie, the merest hint of a terrific saga that the final two episodes of the new trilogy may reveal." Corliss also complained about the film's "dry exposition," saying it felt like being in school.
Menace Gets Poor Reviews
tar Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace may be the biggest movie event of the year, but film critics don't seem to think too much of the flick.
Variety reviewer Todd McCarthy has been the film's biggest nay sayer, calling it a "letdown" and saying that it "lacks resonance, freshness and a sense of wonder."
The New York Daily News was also lukewarm on Episode I, giving it just 2-1/2 stars. The film fared slightly better with The Los Angeles Daily News, which gave it 3-1/2 stars but said that it was only "pretty good."
Meanwhile, Menace distributor 20th Century Fox is incensed over the reviews because they have appeared more than a week ahead of the film, which opens on May 19. Traditionally newspapers will wait to run their critiques until the day a movie opens.
Lucas: It's Only A Movie
peaking to reporters at a recent New York, N.Y., press conference, George Lucas tried to quell some of the hype surrounding Star Wars: Episode I by saying it's "only a movie."
Lucas also dismissed recent criticism of the film by the press, saying that most of the Star Wars pictures "have gotten generally bad reviews."
"They've mostly been trashed one way or the other, especially in the major media," Lucas added. "So, I certainly expect not to do well critically. I never have."
Lucas did defend Episode I from critics who have said the movie is geared toward young children, noting that it isn't "any more kid friendly than the other films." Lucas also said he would definitely direct the second and third installments of the new trilogy, but that that's where the film series would end.
"I will not do VII, VIII and IX," Lucas said. "This is it. This is all there is."
Scalpers Strike The Phantom Menace
theater exhibitor in New York, N.Y., sold two tickets to a May 7 screening of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace to fans for $400.
The incident, according to The Hollywood Reporter, prompted Fox to require reporters attending May 10 screenings of the film in Los Angeles, Calif., to present picture identification in order to get inside the theater.
But while Fox is busy frisking reporters who are clamoring to cover the movie, a man who bought two $500 tickets to the San Francisco, Calif., charity screening of The Phantom Menace is reportedly trying to sell them on the Internet for $1,500.
The Mummy Is A Monster Hit
niversal's remake of the 1932 Boris Karloff horror flick The Mummy stomped into theaters with a record $44.7 million in ticket sales during its first three days of release.
According to Variety, that's the biggest opening ever for a May movie that didn't premiere on a holiday weekend.
That also gave The Mummy the best three-day debut so far in 1999, a record formerly held by The Matrix and its $27.8 million open. Meanwhile, The Matrix pulled in another $6 million at the box office during the May 7 weekend, bringing its domestic gross to $138.7 million.
Zeta-Jones Joins The Tenth Victim
ntrapment star Catherine Zeta-Jones has agreed to headline New Zealand director Lee Tamahori's SF film The Tenth Victim, according to Variety.
The movie is a remake of the 1965 Italian picture La Decima Vittima, which in turn was based on the Robert Sheckley short story "The Seventh Victim."
The Tenth Victim takes place in a society where organized murder hunts are used to channel violence. Zeta-Jones will play one of two rival contestants who fall in love with each other even as they are closing in on their tenth victim. The male lead has not yet been cast.
Sorbo Leaves Hercules For Roddenberry
evin Sorbo is quitting his role as the star of the syndicated series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys to headline one of two TV projects based on ideas by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.
Variety reported that Sorbo will have his pick between the two shows--Gene Roddenberry's Starship and Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda--which are both under development at Tribune Entertainment.
Starship is said to be a Star Trek-like series that focuses on the adventures of the crew of an exploratory space vessel, which is helmed by a dynamic captain. Andromeda tells the story of a scientist on the planet Korkyra who has to find his way back in time after accidently being sent 500 years into the future.
Both series are being developed under the guidance of Roddenberry's widow, Majel Barrett Roddenberry, who helped Tribune launch the successful syndicated show Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict in 1997. Meanwhile, Hercules producer Studios USA will reportedly air two new half-hour series--developed by Hercules creators Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi--in place of the hour-long Legendary Journeys.
Martha Coolidge Goes To Mars
ames Cameron has tapped Martha Coolidge to direct his upcoming Fox TV miniseries about Mars, though he has not yet completed the script for the project.
Variety reports that the TV epic will include more than two parts, and that Cameron himself may direct a spin-off, fact-based film for Imax theaters.
The Mars TV series will center around a crisis that overtakes the first manned mission to the Red Planet and an ensuing rescue attempt. Cameron had previously planned to base the project on SF author Kim Stanley Robinson's award-winning Mars trilogy.
Coolidge has previously directed several TV shows, including an episode of The Twilight Zone. She recently finished work on the HBO telefilm Introducing Dorothy Dandridge.
Warner, Disney Race To Mars
arner Bros. has put its SF movie Mars on the fast track in hopes of getting it into theaters ahead of Disney's similarly themed film Mission to Mars.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner is hoping to cast its flick--formerly titled Alone--as soon as possible so that shooting can get underway in August.
Meanwhile, Mission is scheduled to begin filming in July for a release in May or June of 2000. Tim Robbins, Gary Sinise and Don Cheadle have already agreed to star in the picture, which is being directed by Brian De Palma.
Anthony Hoffman will be helming Warner's Mars, while Meg Ryan and Joseph Fiennes have been approached to headline the film. Both films involve expeditions to the Red Planet that go awry.
Cosmic Encounter Heads Online
osmic Encounter, a legendary science fiction board game that has been delighting SF fans for decades, is headed to the Internet.
Cosmic designer Peter Olotka said the game's creators have teamed up with a group of programmers and artists who plan to have an online version up and running by 2000.
"Given the current controversy swirling around the heavy-handed violence of many games, we believe that the market is poised to embrace a game with a 20-year history of making players laugh and endlessly surprising them, while inviting them to interact with one another," Olotka said.
Cosmic Encounter Online will encourage players to help each other while they make deals and strive to achieve group victories using the special powers of 75 different alien characters. The game is currently undergoing beta testing while Olotka and his company, Creative Consultants, look for a publisher.
Buffy Will Graduate After All
he WB Network said it will go ahead with plans to air a two-part episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer this month even though the show depicts high school students carrying weapons.
Last week The New York Times reported that the WB was considering pulling the episode because it was too similar to the recent tragedy at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.
In the Littleton incident, two teens armed with guns and bombs went on a killing spree that left 15 people dead. In the two-part Buffy season finale "Graduation Day," some students at Sunnydale High School arm themselves in preparation for a sinister event called the "ascension."
Last month the WB pulled a Buffy episode called "Earshot" that had been slated to run on April 27 because it centered around a plot by high school students to kill their classmates.
Briefly Noted
- Warner Bros. is moving the release date of its science fiction Western Wild Wild West up two days, from July 2 to June 30, according to Variety. The change likely means Warner is expecting big things from the Wil Smith film.
- American Gothic and Roar creator Shaun Cassidy signed a three-year, $6 million development deal with Studios USA to create TV dramas.
- Starship Troopers headliner Caspar Van Dien, 30, married former Dynasty star Catherine Oxenberg, 37, on May 8. The couple was reportedly wed in the Elvis-themed Graceland Chapel in Las Vegas, Nev.
- NBC is retooling its disaster special Atomic Train to eliminate all references about nuclear waste. The move was made after NBC learned that anti-nuclear organizations wanted to use the miniseries to thwart nuclear-waste disposal legislation.
- Jeffrey Tambor, former costar of The Larry Sanders Show, is in final negotiations to play the Mayor of Whoville in Universal's upcoming film Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
- One in three Americans plans to see Star Wars: Episode I, and 56 percent would pay more than the average ticket price for the privilege, according to a Newsweek survey.
