Spock Weds Saavik In Vulcan's Heart
earts broke all over the galaxy on the second day of the month of Sharveen, when Ambassador Spock married Commander Saavik during one of the biggest events in Star Trek history.
The nuptials are part of the new Pocket Books Trek novel Vulcan's Heart, written by Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz.
According to a Pocket press release, T'Pau of Vulcan presided over the wedding, which was attended by Dr. Leonard McCoy, Lieutenant Jean-Luc Picard and Captain Truman Howes. Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan, the groom's father, was also present.
Aside from the wedding, Vulcan's Heart also tells the story of how Spock travels incognito into the Romulan Neutral Zone in order to prevent a catastrophe that could threaten the peace of the entire quadrant.
Stephen King Seriously Injured
est-selling horror writer Stephen King was seriously injured on Saturday, June 19, when he was struck by a minivan while walking in North Lovell, Maine, according to CNN.
The 51-year-old author was walking on the shoulder of a road in North Lovell, where he owns a home, at about 4:30 p.m. when an approaching motorist lost control of a Dodge Caravan and hit the famed novelist.
King was first taken to Northern Cumberland Hospital and then flown by helicopter to Central Maine Hospital, where he is reportedly in serious but stable condition. The author suffered numerous injuries during the accident, including a collapsed lung, a fractured pelvis and hip, and two breaks to his right leg below the knee.
King will reportedly remain in the hospital for two to three weeks while he undergoes several surgeries to repair all of the damage. He will then undergo nine months or more of rehabilitation therapy.
Is Bradbury Upset With Fahrenheit 451?
F novelist Ray Bradbury is reportedly unhappy with the progress of Mel Gibson's feature film adaptation of Bradbury's classic novel Fahrenheit 451.
A SCI FI Wire reader wrote in to tell us that the author--who recently spoke at the Chautauqua Theatre in Boulder, Colo.--is upset because he has been completely left out of the project since turning in his script for the film.
The movie has supposedly undergone eight rewrites already, but Bradbury has seen only one of the new screenplays so far, and that one was loaded with crass, un-Bradbury-like language. Worse still, the author wouldn't have had a chance to read that version if not for a bookstore in Georgia that slipped him a copy on the sly.
When Bradbury called Gibson's office to talk about the script, they were reportedly shocked and surprised that he'd been able to obtain a copy.
Did Leo Turn Down Star Wars?
! Online gossip columnist Ted Casablanca is reporting that Leonardo DiCaprio doesn't particularly want to play the grown-up Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode II, despite previous rumors that this was all but a done deal.
Casablanca says there have been some informal discussions about the idea, but that DiCaprio told George Lucas no because he thought the script for Episode II was "so bad."
Worse still, DiCaprio was apparently so unimpressed with the first new Star Wars film that "disappointed" was the best thing he had to say about it.
The Matrix Won't Sell On VHS
arner Home Video has made the unusual decision not to release the SF blockbuster film The Matrix as a sell-through VHS title.
According to Variety, Warner will forego consumer sales of the movie and instead release it only as a rental video.
The decision was supposedly made to avoid attracting the attention of lawmakers and activists who are campaigning against violent entertainment aimed at teens and pre-teens. Warner apparently felt that The Matrix's gun-toting cast of trenchcoat-wearing heroes was too similar to the so-called "Trenchcoat Mafia" members who recently went on a high school killing spree in Littleton, Colo.
Warner estimates that The Matrix could have sold as many as 7 million copies on VHS, a loss of about $50 million to the company. However, The Matrix will be priced to sell on DVD, a format that generally attracts an older audience than videos.
The Matrix is scheduled for home release on October 5.
B5 Game Gets A Name And A Crew
ierra Studios has officially announced that Babylon 5: Into the Fire will be the name of its upcoming B5 space-combat simulation game.
B5 creator J. Michael Straczynski and Sierra agreed on that title because it highlights the "impending danger and action" of the game's story.
Sierra has also announced that a number of B5 actors will make appearances in Into the Fire, including: Bruce Boxleitner as John J. Sheridan; Mira Furlan as Delenn; Jerry Doyle as Michael Garibaldi; Tracy Scoggins as Capt. Elizabeth Lochley; Wayne Alexander as Lorien; Thomas MacGreevy as the Centauri Minister of Defense; and Beata Pozniak as President Luchenko.
The game will also feature a number of B5 TV sets that were recreated inside the Babylonian Productions sound stage, as well as special effects by the show's costume and prosthetic designer, Optic Nerve. The script for Into the Fire is more than 100 pages long, which is roughly equivalent to a feature film.
Into the Fire is scheduled for release in early 2000.
Sonnenfeld Defends Wild Wild West
irector Barry Sonnenfeld blames the Internet and The Matrix for the bad buzz surrounding his upcoming Western science fantasy Wild Wild West.
Sonnenfeld recently told Entertainment Weekly that the trouble started when Warner Bros. held a test screening of the film but told moviegoers they were going to see The Matrix.
"The entire audience booed," Sonnenfeld said."Have you ever heard of an audience booing over seeing a Will Smith comedy? When the [rating] cards came back, on the part where people wrote [what they] liked the least about this movie, 20 percent said, 'It wasn't The Matrix.'"
Although Sonnenfeld said most of the audience feedback was positive, the complaints were soon reported on the Internet and then were picked up by the mainstream press. "The Internet, and the bad reporting based on the Internet, is ultimately going to hurt the quality of movies," he lamented.
Wild Wild West is scheduled to open on June 30.
Stars Give Voice To Final Fantasy
lec Baldwin, Ving Rhames, Ming-Na Wen, James Woods, Donald Sutherland, Steve Buscemi and Peri Gilpin have agreed to lend their voices to the upcoming computer-generated SF film Final Fantasy.
Final Fantasy is based on Square Soft's best-selling game franchise of the same name, which tells the story of an alien race that attempts to take over Earth in the year 2065.
According to Variety, the movie has a budget of more than $70 million and is being readied for a summer 2001 release. The computer-generated characters in the film are being described as "photo-realistic," although they will not be based on the actors who are voicing them.
Warner Bros. Catches Pokemon Film
arner Bros. has acquired the worldwide distribution rights--excluding Asia--to Pokemon The Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back, the first animated feature film based on the popular Pokemon game and TV series.
The film, produced by Shogakukan Productions Co., was released in Japan last summer and became the fourth-highest grossing movie of all time in the Land of the Rising Sun.
It tells the story of Ash Ketchum, accompanied by his friends Misty, Brock and Pikachu, as he continues his quest to become the world's greatest Pokemon trainer. The challenge becomes greater when Mewtwo, a bio-engineered Pokemon, creates a strain of Super-Pokemon, setting the stage for the ultimate Pokemon battle.
The film will hit U.S. theaters on November 12 and will include a 22-minute short feature called "Pikachu's Vacation." The Pokemon TV show airs in the U.S. both in syndication and on Kids WB!
Sizemore Joins Mars Crew
om Sizemore (Saving Private Ryan, Strange Days) has joined the cast of the upcoming Warner Bros. SF film Mars, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
He has signed on to play an astronaut named Burcheval, part of a manned mission to the Red Planet who learns that he and the crew are in danger due to a government coverup.
Sizemore will star opposite Val Kilmer and Carrie-Anne Moss under the direction of Andy Hoffman. Shooting on the film will get underway in August.
WB Rounds Up The Oblongs
he WB Network has ordered 13 episodes of a new animated TV series called The Oblongs, which is based on Angus Oblong's upcoming book Creepy Susie and Thirteen Other Tragic Tales for Troubled Children.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show is being produced by the WB's sister studio Warner Bros. Television under the auspices of top writers/producers Bruce Helford (The Drew Carey Show) and Jace Richdale (The Simpsons).
The show tells the story of a bizarre family that has been inflicted with a number of physical and emotional abnormalities due to "toxic conditions." Oblong developed The Oblongs as an illustrated series that he originally sold through the mail, before Ballantine Books agreed to publish the story in October.
The TV show is scheduled to air in fall 2000.
Iron Giant Toys Announced
rendmasters has announced its lineup of toys based on Warner Bros.' upcoming animated SF film The Iron Giant.
So far the toy manufacturer plans to create six miniature versions of the giant itself, including an ultimate motorized giant and a super plush giant.
Trendmasters also has plans to release an Iron Giant animated digital watch and an Iron Giant bank that will chew your change for you. In the meantime, Warner Bros. is gearing up for the Aug. 6 release of the film with an Iron Giant Web site that includes a movie trailer and still pictures.
Phantom Menaces Euro Theaters
uropean theater owners are anticipating the overseas launch of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace with mixed emotions.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, film exhibitors and trade associations in various European territories aren't happy with the terms Phantom distributor Fox is placing on the film.
For instance, in Germany Fox is asking for rental fees of 56.5 percent from theaters in large cities and 51.4 percent from cinemas in smaller markets. That's about three percent higher than the usual cap placed on such costs, and theater owners are afraid that if they accept those terms, other studios will soon up their fees as well.
Fox played the same game in the United States, where its unusual demands for theaters showing Episode I caused quite a stir in the film industry. As a result, the Loews Cineplex theater chain in New York City refused to show the movie, though most cinemas met Fox's demands or negotiated concessions.
The European theater owners and trade associations are planning a special meeting to discuss Fox's rental demands.
Briefly Noted
- Director Roger Spottiswoode is reportedly in talks to helm the Arnold Schwarzenegger SF film The Sixth Day.
- Shooting on Columbia Pictures' SF film The Hollow Man will be suspended until August while star Elisabeth Shue recovers from a torn Achilles tendon.
- Warner Home Video is planning to release the Stanley Kubrick Collection to VHS and DVD on June 29, a nine-title compilation of the legendary director's films that includes 2001, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining and Dr. Strangelove.
- Peter Chung, the creator of the animated SF series Aeon Flux, is reportedly at work on a live-action film adaptation of his show for MTV and Paramount Pictures.
- "Weird Al" Yankovic's new music CD Running With Scissors includes a Star Wars: Episode I parody called "The Saga Begins" set to the music of the song "American Pie."
- The final episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine earned a 5.4 rating in the Nielsens, making it the No. 1 SF syndicated show for the week ending June 13.
- Pocket Books has signed a deal with electronic publisher Peanut Press to make seven Star Trek books available for reading on 3Com's Palm Computing platform. The books will retail for $6.50 apiece.
- TBS has picked up the first-run cable rights to Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, according to Variety. The Fox Network is reportedly working on a deal for a second and third run of the film.
