3rd Rock Picks Up 2 Emmys
BC's hit SF comedy 3rd Rock from the Sun picked up two statues during the 1999 Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony, which was held in the Shrine Auditorium in Hollywood, Calif., on Sept. 12.
3rd Rock's Kristen Johnston earned the award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Sally Solomon, while John Lithgow was honored with the Outstanding Lead Actor in Comedy Series award for his portrayal of Dick Solomon.
Although those were the only Primetime Emmys earned by an SF show, the genre fared better when the Creative Arts Awards Emmys were given out on Aug. 28 in the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, Calif. The NBC special Alice in Wonderland led the pack with awards for Best Makeup, Best Music Composition, Best Costume Design and Best Special Visual Effects, all for a miniseries or movie.
UPN's Star Trek: Voyager picked up an Emmy for Best Special Visual Effects for a Series, Fox's The X-Files was honored for Best Makeup for a Series, and HBO's Todd McFarlane's Spawn was named Best Animated Program. Finally, the WB's Invasion America earned an Emmy for Best Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore), and ABC's Stephen King's Storm of the Century, Part 2 was honored for Best Sound Editing for a Miniseries, Movie or Special.
Millennium Gets An X-Files Finish
hris Carter told The Los Angeles Times that he plans to wrap-up his canceled series Millennium in an upcoming episode of his hit drama The X-Files.
The X-Files episode will feature an appearance by Lance Hendriksen as Frank Black, the main character in Millennium, though no other plot details are known at this point.
Millennium was taken off the air by Fox after three seasons, although many people have blamed the show's failure on Fox's poorly performing lead-in sitcoms.
Sirtis, Schultz Will Visit Voyager
tar Trek: The Next Generation alums Marina Sirtis and Dwight Schultz will guest star in an upcoming episode of Star Trek: Voyager.
Paramount announced that Sirtis will reprise her role as Counselor Deanna Troi and Schultz will reprise his role as Lieutenant Reginald Barclay in the Voyager episode "Pathfinder."
"Pathfinder" takes place on Earth and revolves around Barclay's obsession with contacting the missing starship Voyager. When Barclay becomes consumed with holographic representations of the Voyager crew, he turns to Troi for help with his growing problem.
"Pathfinder" is tentatively scheduled to air on Wednesday, Dec. 1, at 9 p.m. on UPN.
Hatch Reveals Galactica Plot Details
ichard "Apollo" Hatch recently spoke to the British magazine SFX and revealed some plot details about his upcoming Battlestar Galactica project.
Hatch said he plans to pick up the Galactica story 20 years after the events in the first TV series, beginning with the funeral of Commander Adama.
The story will focus on the power struggles between the various colony factions within the ragtag fugitive fleet, although the ever-present Cylon menace will also play a big role in the picture. To that end Hatch said he is updating the Cylons, who have evolved from their original form after suffering through a civil war.
Although Hatch is hoping to get the new Galactica off the ground as a feature film, it's unclear who holds the rights to such a project. Hatch said he is also interested in continuing the Battlestar saga as a new TV series or even as a CD-ROM product.
Red Planet Takes Off
he Warner Bros. film Red Planet began principal photography on Aug. 30, according to a company press release.
The picture is being directed by Antony Hoffman and stars Val Kilmer, Carrie-Anne Moss, Tom Sizemore, Benjamin Bratt, Simon Baker and Terence Stamp.
Red Planet follows a team of American astronauts on the first manned expedition to Mars. Earth has become a dying planet, and establishing a Martian colony is humanity's only hope for survival.
During the mission the astronauts, each a specialist in a different field, struggle to overcome the differences of their personalities, backgrounds and ideologies. When their equipment is damaged, the crew members are forced to depend on one another for survival.
Doctor Who Gets Edgy
eremy Bolt, one of the producers of Paul Anderson's upcoming Doctor Who feature film, told the British magazine SFX that the movie hopes to introduce a new generation of fans to the good doctor.
Although Bolt said the movie will appeal to hardcore Who fanatics, the filmmakers are going to make the doctor more contemporary by giving the film an edgier feel, along the lines of Anderson's SF horror-fest Event Horizon.
"I don't want to give away too much away, but there will be a large time travel element to it," Bolt said. "And it will have an edge, like we did with Horizon. There won't be as much gore as in Event Horizon, but we do want to scare people."
UPN Announces Doomsday
PN has ordered 13 episodes of Film Roman's animated SF comedy series Doomsday, which stars the voice of radio "shock jock" Howard Stern.
The show centers around members of the Bradley family as they travel by RV across a post-apocalyptic America in search of traditional family values and a new home.
Throughout their travels, the Bradleys encounter a world turned upside down by a mysterious, cataclysmic burst of radiation, which destroyed much of the civilized world. Mutated humans, a band of barbaric road warriors, 50-foot-tall hillbillies and IRS agents (the only branch of the government to survive) plague the Bradleys, who must also cope with limited food, water and gasoline amid sporadic reports from two Emergency Broadcasting System deejays and their drifter sidekick.
The series was created by former Sliders executive producer Tracy Torme and is being produced by Film Roman, the company behind The Simpsons and King of the Hill. Stern will lend his voice to Orinthal, the Bradley family's dog.
The series is currently slated to launch in fall 2000.
Warner Plans Giant Video Promo
arner Bros. is planning a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign to bolster the Nov. 23 home video release of its animated SF film The Iron Giant.
According to Variety, Warner feels that the film bombed in theaters--despite an excellent reception from those critics and moviegoers who did see the flick--largely due to a poor ad campaign.
Warner reportedly plans to spend more promoting the home video and DVD release of Giant than it did to push the film when it was actually in theaters. Warner also said it will release the video at both a rental and sell-through price of $22.95, while the DVD will go for $24.98.
The DVD will include numerous special features, such as a 22-minute making-of documentary, a music video by Eddie Platt, the theatrical trailer, puzzles, posters, screen savers and more.
Lion's Gate Bites Into Vampire
ion's Gate Films has acquired the North American distribution rights to the supernatural thriller Shadow of the Vampire.
The film is being produced by Nicolas Cage and stars John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe in a fictionalized account of the making of F.W. Murnau's historic movie Nosferatu.
Dafoe will play the part of Max Schreck, the actor who starred as Nosferatu in the original film, which was the first big-screen adaptation of the Bram Stoker novel Dracula. Malkovich will play Murnau in the story, which centers around the question: Did Murnau's desire for cinematic authenticity go beyond society's accepted moral limits?
Elias Merhige is directing the picture, which also features Cary Elwes, Eddie Izzard and Catherine McCormack. The screenplay was written by Steven Katz (Interview with the Vampire,
American Gothic).
Briefly Noted
- James Marsden has been signed to play the role Cyclops in the upcoming X-Men feature film, according to Ain't It Cool News.
- Universal reportedly canceled two Los Angeles, Calif., test screenings of the upcoming Arnold Schwarzenegger supernatural film End of Days after a local radio station urged its listeners to sneak into the theater and report back with reviews of the movie.
- 20th Century Fox has set June 30, 2000, as the official release date for Bryan Singer's X-Men film.
- Ethan Hawke will play the role of Faramir, the younger brother of Boromir, in Peter Jackson's upcoming Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, according to various news sources.
- Rick Eid and Gavin Harris are writing a movie adaptation of E.M. Goldman's SF thriller The Night Room for Paramount, according to Variety. The book is about college students who take part in an experiment that allows them to glimpse the future, only to learn that one of them will become a serial killer.
- William Peter Blatty, the Oscar-winning writer of The Exorcist, recently told Entertainment Weekly that he is not involved with the upcoming Exorcist IV film project and that he hopes the movie never makes it into theaters.
