Sliders Movie Is In The Works
liders co-creator Robert K. Weiss said he is hoping to develop a feature film version of the SF television series, with production starting in late 2000 or early 2001.
Weiss made the comments in response to questions in an online chat with fans, according to the Earth Prime fan Web site.
Weiss said he hopes the film will reflect the characters and situations in the first two seasons of the series, which premiered on Fox, then ran later on the SCI FI Channel. He also said he hopes to reunite the original cast, though he added that no talks have occurred with any of the actors.
Once he writes a screenplay, Weiss said he'd have to persuade Universal, which owns the rights to the show, to agree to develop a feature film.
Buffy Leaving The WB?
ould Buffy the Vampire Slayer move from The WB to the Fox network?
The WB's contract for Buffy expires in 2001, and negotiations could get so heated that the show and network part ways, Entertainment Weekly reported.
Buffy is produced by Twentieth Century Fox TV, but it plays on The WB, a network owned by a rival studio, Warner Bros. The WB pays Fox TV about $1 million an episode to produce the show, and that price is sure to go up.
If The WB balks at the higher price tag, Fox TV could then shop the series to the studio's sister network, Fox Broadcasting Co. Fox TV chairman Sandy Grushow, who also holds responsibility for Fox Broadcasting, has publicly threatened to do just that.
If Buffy moves, it wouldn't be unprecedented. A few successful series have jumped networks in the middle of their runs, notably Taxi, which moved to NBC from ABC in 1982. Buffy is now in its fourth season.
Roddenberry's Starship Put On Hold
tarship, a proposed computer-animated television series based on an idea by late Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, is on hold, according to Roddenberry's son.
Eugene W. Roddenberry Jr. told The 11th Hour Web magazine that the series is still being shopped around to animators.
"Right now, it's on the back burner, but they're still trying to get it out there," Roddenberry said. "It's currently being pitched to several animation companies." Roddenberry works as a technical adviser on the syndicated series Earth: Final Conflict, executive produced by his mother and Gene's widow, Majel Barrett Roddenberry.
Starship is one of the ideas revived by Majel Roddenberry after the Trek creator's death in 1991. It focuses on a gigantic starship built to explore the far reaches of the galaxy.
Studio Says There's No Trek Insurrection
here's no truth to rumors that Star Trek: The Next Generation stars Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner are trying to oust producer Rick Berman from the proposed tenth Trek film, a Paramount spokesman told SCI FI Wire.
"These rumors are absolutely incorrect and erroneous and couldn't be further from the truth," said Blaise Noto, a spokesman for Paramount, which owns the rights to the Trek franchise.
Noto denied rumors that Stewart and Spiner have held meetings with Paramount executives, that they have contacted writers or that they have expressed their own ideas for the tenth movie. But Noto said a new Trek film is definitely in the works. "There will be one, but we have no information at this point," he said.
D&D Director Plays By The Rules, Mostly
orey Solomon, director of the feature film version of the game Dungeons & Dragons, said the movie will follow the rules of the game--unless they get in the way of a good story.
Solomon told the DNDMOVIE.COM fan Web site that filmmakers "took very careful care since the inception of the script to ensure that the D&D [game] rules would be followed in the film."
But, he added: "Obviously, with the difficulties of translating D&D to a film and creating an exciting film, some of the rules had to be compromised or altered in order to make the film work. But generally speaking, we followed the rules. We have altered some spells, or created new ones, but we have also used a bunch of the spells people would expect to see in a D&D world."
Solomon added that the movie won't use settings from the games or from books based on them. "Sumdall is a city of mages created by mages, and much of the film revolves around the city of Sumdall and [the] Empire of Izmer. The film needs to be looked at ... as an adventure that takes place in a D&D world. Due to the nature of the game, and every adventure's being different, we felt that this was a good approach."
Iron Man Will Become A Film
long-delayed feature film based on the Marvel Comics character Iron Man may be on the front burner again.
New Line Cinema has hired Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott (The Mask of Zorro) to write a screenplay about millionaire Tony Stark, who's forced to live in an armored suit after he is shot in the heart, Eon magazine reported.
"We heard New Line was looking for writers for Iron Man, we went in and pitched our approach, pitched it a second time to the Marvel folk, and got the job," Elliott told Eon.
"Obviously, everyone is interested in seeing what happens with [Fox's upcoming movie] X-Men, but the only real similarity between the two projects is: they are based on Marvel Comics properties," Elliott said. "I think New Line feels pretty confident, based on their success with Blade, that they're capable of doing a good movie based on a superhero character--even if other studios can't."
Soap Star Set For Anakin?
eneral Hospital soap star Jonathan Jackson, 17, is a top bet to play grown-up Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode II, the actor's manager told Newsweek.
Jackson will meet with casting directors soon and his calendar will be cleared to accommodate director George Lucas' schedule.
For his part, Lucas denied most rumors about Anakin's casting in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. "The chances are extremely good that whoever plays Anakin is going to be somebody no one's ever heard of," he said.
Bloopers Will Be Added To Toy Story 2
isney and Pixar could rerelease Toy Story 2 as early as next week with new blooper "outtakes" similar to those in A Bug's Life.
Adding faux bloopers to the end of the animated film is a way to give something extra to repeat viewers of the hit movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Disney first added manufactured bloopers to the end credit sequence of its 1998 hit film A Bug's Life. Those drew critical praise and proved popular with viewers.
Jerry Doyle Runs For Congress
erry Doyle, best known as Security Chief Michael Garibaldi on TV's Babylon 5, has filed papers to run as a Republican candidate seeking the U.S. congressional seat now held by Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks, Calif.).
Los Angeles resident Doyle will face Jewish Defense League founder Irv Rubin in the Republican Party's primary election March 7, 2000, according to the Los Angeles County Registrar Recorder.
The winner of the GOP primary faces incumbent Sherman in the general election in November 2000. Sherman faces no opposition in the primary election for the Democratic Party nomination.
The only other candidate seeking Sherman's seat is libertarian Juan Carlos Ros.
Is Harsh Realm Returning?
arsh Realm, the Chris Carter SF series that was canceled by Fox after three episodes, may come back on Fox's sister cable network, FX, in March 2000.
Five more episodes of the virtual-reality thriller have finished shooting, and special-effects house Pixel Envy completed the visual effects on the eighth and final episode this month, according to the VFXPro Web site.
VFXPro quoted a source saying that FX is considering picking up the remaining unaired episodes, though there are no plans to shoot additional ones.
Chris Carter, creator of Fox's hit The X-Files, has been quoted previously as saying that he was not happy with Fox's decision to dump Harsh Realm so soon.
X-Men Producer Gives Plot Hints
producer of Fox's upcoming X-Men movie provided Cinescape magazine with hints about the much-anticipated film's plot.
"It's sort of like this giant game of chess between [Magneto and Prof. X]," producer Tom DeSanto said. "It's Wolverine's story as he enters into these two men's worlds and their two philosophies and tries to find his way."
DeSanto also tried to calm fan fears that the film's costumes will differ from those depicted in the Marvel comic of the same name. "It's tough to translate something that looks good in two dimensions, like Wolverine's mask," DeSanto said. "You see it on a piece of paper and it looks great, but when you try to build it in three dimensions it looks like a bad Mardi Gras mask. To give the mask--and those ears that fly up--weight is impossible.
"But I think fans and non-fans alike are going to be really happy with the costumes, because they're rooted [in X-Men history]," DeSanto said. "Each of the costumes pays a
little homage to the comic book costumes. But they're unique among themselves."
Crazy Jane Heads For Big Screen
razy Jane, the DC comic book heroine who's part of the Doom Patrol anthology series, may be the latest superhero headed for the big screen.
Warner Bros. is developing a feature film based on the character, a woman with multiple personality disorder whose various identities each possess a different super power, according to Variety.
The film version of Crazy Jane will have the dark tone of Batman. Brian Nelson (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) is writing a script.
Metal Lover Heads For Silver Screen
anith Lee's SF novel The Silver Metal Lover may become a feature film based on a screenplay by Randal Kleiser (The Blue Lagoon).
Kleiser's screenplay, titled Silver Metal Lover, was optioned by Marty Katz Productions (Reindeer Games), according to Variety. Kleiser may also direct. Dimension Films would have first crack at the project.
Lee's 1981 novel concerns the love affair between a woman and an android.
Mage Goes To The Movies
pyglass Entertainment (The Sixth Sense) will develop a feature film based on Matt Wagner's Image Comics hero Mage.
Wagner told the Comics 2 Film Web site that Spyglass will adapt The Hero Discovered, the first book in Wagner's Mage trilogy.
The final chapter (No. 15) of The Hero Defined--the second installment of the Mage trilogy--makes its way into stores Dec. 22. The Mage comics are an urban update of the King Arthur myth, with characters caught in the middle of an epic battle between good and evil.
SF&F Films Dominated 1999
cience fiction and fantasy films dominated North American ticket sales in 1999, leading Hollywood to its best year ever.
Dominated by Star Wars: Episode I, Hollywood movies rang up a record $7.5 billion in box office revenues, an 8 percent increase over 1998's take, according to the Reuters news service and Exhibitor Relations Co.
Top money-makers of the year included Episode I ($430 million), The Sixth Sense ($274.4 million), Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me ($205.4 million) and The Matrix ($171.3 million).
Other big hits were The Mummy and The Blair Witch Project. The World is Not Enough this week became the 17th film released this year to earn more than $100 million.
Complete Superman Score Coming
ohn Williams' complete soundtrack to the 1978 hit movie Superman, with 40 minutes of previously unreleased music, will come out on Feb. 15, 2000.
Warner Archives/Rhino Movie Music is releasing the soundtrack as a two-CD set, including full liner notes with annotations by film historian Michael Matessino.
The release also has seven bonus tracks, including alternate takes and an instrumental version of the love theme, "Can You Read My Mind." The soundtrack will retail for $29.98.
Sense Director Deals With Disney
. Night Shyamalan, the writer and director of The Sixth Sense, is nearing a deal to give Disney a first look at any future films.
Shyamalan's supernatural thriller has earned more than $250 million domestically and was the second-highest-grossing film of 1999, behind Star Wars: Episode I, Variety reported.
Disney had a first look at Shyamalan's next movie, Unbreakable, and paid him a record $5 million for it. Filming starts in April with Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson starring.
New SF&F TV Shows Coming
roducer Neal Moritz is developing several teen-oriented SF and fantasy television series under a new three-year deal with Columbia TriStar Television.
Dark Visions tells the story of a group of teens with psychic powers who take over a secret government research project, according to The Hollywood Reporter. It's being developed for NBC.
For UPN, Moritz is developing an hour-long comedy, Kar Kulture, which takes place in an alternate universe where monster trucks are everyday vehicles. For ABC, Moritz is working on a parallel universe story, Both Sides Now, which looks at how life plays out if a young man breaks up with his girlfriend and if he stays with her.
Trek Star Nichols Develops Web Books
ichelle Nichols, who played Lt. Uhura on Star Trek, is developing Eureka Road, a series of online children's books for the SF Web site GalaxyOnline.com.
The series of books, targeting 7- to 11-year-olds, will use original music and stories to
teach reading, logic and mathematics.
Nichols has written several books, including Saturn's Child and her autobiography, Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories. GalaxyOnline.com launches New Year's Day 2000.
Battlefield Earth Screening Goes Well
ilmmakers screened a rough cut of the upcoming Warner Bros. SF adventure film Battlefield Earth recently, and reaction was good enough that executives were ready to approve a sequel, according to the Dark Horizons Web site.
The movie is based on the first half of the novel of the same name by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. Plans were to film the second half of the book only if the first one did well.
Battlefield: Earth is reportedly being moved from an early May 2000 release to a Memorial Day weekend slot, where it will compete with Mission Impossible 2.
Goldwyn Will Battle Arnold In The Sixth Day
ony Goldwyn (Ghost) will star as the main villain facing Arnold Schwarzenegger in Sony's upcoming SF action thriller The Sixth Day.
Goldwyn will play a wealthy industrialist whose scientists illegally clone him after he dies, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The Sixth Day, which also stars Robert Duvall, is now shooting in Vancouver, Canada.
SCI FI Commits To Invisible Man
he SCI FI Channel has ordered 13 episodes of Invisible Man, an action/comedy series starring Vincent Ventresca (Romy and Michele's High School Reunion).
Production of the show will begin in February 2000. A two-hour pilot has already been completed.
Created and executive-produced by Matt Greenberg (Halloween: H2O), Invisible Man stars Ventresca as Darien, a small-time thief who is drafted into secret government experiments on invisibility. Rebecca Chambers and Joel Bissonnette also star.
Invisible Man is slated to air in June 2000 as part of SCI FI's Friday night SCI FI Prime lineup.
SCI FI Picks Up Crypt
CI FI Channel has purchased the exclusive rights to rebroadcast episodes of the HBO horror anthology Tales from the Crypt.
SCI FI has acquired 92 half-hour episodes and one one-hour episode of Crypt.
Tales from the Crypt will air on Wednesdays at 7 p.m., starting Dec. 22,
as part of SCI FI's "Four Play" programming strategy of mini-marathons. On Wednesdays, SCI FI airs four hours of Tales From the Crypt episodes back-to-back. On Mondays, SCI FI airs four hours of The Outer Limits; on Tuesdays, it's four hours of Sentinel.
Tales from the Crypt is executive-produced by Joel Silver (The Matrix), Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump), Richard Donner (Lethal Weapon) and Walter Hill (Alien).
James Bond Tops Box Office
ames Bond's latest movie, The World Is Not Enough, remained the box-office champion in foreign movie theaters over the weekend of Dec. 10.
World earned $21.7 million in 20 countries, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The Blair Witch Project opened in the top slot in Australia and rang up $4.5 million in seven countries. Toy Story 2 took in $2.5 million in six countries over the weekend.
ID4 Sequel Is A Go
ilmmakers are finally talking out details of the anticipated sequel to Independence Day.
Special effects designer Patrick Tatopoulos told Popcorn.com that he and others behind the 1996 hit are already working out how the aliens will return for the second installment.
"Every time we do a show like that, we create a back story which nobody knows about just to make sure we have something solid for a future sequel," he said.
Tatopoulos wouldn't divulge details, but did say, "We established on the first movie that maybe they're just a small group sent by the main alien, and that we discover a new race."
Tatopoulos added that he has spoken with ID4 director Roland Emmerich and that Fox is giving its full support to a sequel.
Fantastic Four Film May Be Coming
hris Columbus, the director who is reportedly in the running to direct a feature film version of Spider-Man, is also talking about directing a new movie based on The Fantastic Four.
Columbus told the Calgary Sun that a film based on the Marvel comic-book quartet might become a strong possibility if Fox's upcoming feature film based on Marvel's The X-Men is a success.
That film, also based on a Marvel comic book of the same name, is now in production in Canada and set for release next summer.
Columbus' new SF film, Bicentennial Man, opens later this month.
Toy Story 2 Game Protested
alt Disney Co. agreed to remove a Mexican bandito character out of the video game version of its hit film Toy Story 2 in response to protests by Latino activists.
Latino protesters demonstrated outside the Los Angeles-area headquarters of Activision, the company that created the game with Disney, CNN reported.
One level of the game featured a villain wearing a sombrero and a bandolier, a character that Latino activists denounced as an offensive stereotype. The character does not appear in the film Toy Story 2.
Hanks Beats Hanks At The Box Office
t was Tom Hanks vs. Tom Hanks for the weekend of Dec. 10th's top box-office slot.
Toy Story 2, voiced by Hanks, remained the No. 1 U.S. box office champion, earning $18.3 million, according to figures reported by Variety.
The Green Mile, also starring Hanks, was a close second in its opening weekend, taking in $18 million, according to Variety.
The first and second slots could reverse as final box-office figures come in this week. Toy Story 2, in its third week of release, looks to be on its way to a $200 million total.
The World Is Not Enough took fourth place, with $6.2 million. The James Bond film is closing in on $100 million.
Irons Doing D&D For The Money
eremy Irons said he took on a role in the upcoming movie Dungeons & Dragons in part so he could help pay for renovations to his castle in Ireland.
Academy-Award-winner Irons told the Argentine newspaper Espectaculos: "There are some movies which are done with the heart, and others for the pocketbook. ... I just finished Dungeons & Dragons, in which I play a real demon. And, considering the bills I am paying in Ireland, I agreed to do it."
Dungeons recently finished shooting in the Czech Republic.
Another Rings Film Is In The Works
eter Jackson's epic movie trilogy Lord of the Rings isn't the only live-action film project based on J.R.R. Tolkien's famous fantasy saga.
Elemental Films, a small Los Angeles film production company, said it is working on Elessar, a short, digital video movie based on the Rings characters of young Aragorn and Arwen, according to TheOneRing.Net Web site.
Elemental Films said it is revising final drafts of a script and seeking copyright and licensing permissions from Rings publisher Houghton-Mifflin and Tolkien Enterprises. Once those are granted, the filmmakers will begin production, perhaps at the beginning of the new year.
Briefly Noted
- Being John Malkovich won three awards from the New York Film Critics Circle. The movie was named best first film, star John Malkovich won the award for best supporting actor, and Catherine Keener won for best supporting actress.
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Sigourney Weaver got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles Thursday, Dec. 16. Weaver, who is best known as Ellen Ripley in the Alien movie series, stars in the SF comedy Galaxy Quest, which opens Friday, Dec. 17.
- The official Web site is up and running for Studios USA Domestic Television's Back2Back Action Hour. The syndicated Action Hour alternates two TV series: Jack of All Trades and Cleopatra 2525. It premieres the week of Jan. 17, 2000.
- George Lucas shot down most rumors about who will play grown-up Anakin Skywalker in the upcoming Star Wars: Episode II. "The chances are extremely good that whoever plays Anakin is going to be somebody no one's ever heard of," the director told Entertainment Tonight.
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Film composer Danny Elfman (Sleepy Hollow) is tentatively set to write the soundtrack music for Fox's upcoming feature film X-Men, based on the Marvel comic of the same name, Daily Radar reported.
- Reruns of The X-Files took the No. 1 slot among weekly syndicated television series in 102 of the 111 weeks they have been on the air. The X-Files dominated the latest sweeps ratings period for the third straight year.
- The Fifth Element director Luc Besson will head the Cannes 2000 film festival jury. The Fifth Element, an SF action film starring Bruce Willis and Besson's former wife, Milla Jovovich, opened the Cannes festival two years ago.
- Toy Story 2 star Tom Hanks lends his to voice to narrate Passport to the Universe, a 3-D space show at the American Museum of Natural History's newly reopened Hayden Planetarium in New York City.
- Being John Malkovich won the best screenplay award from the Boston Society of Film Critics, and Sleepy Hollow won the award for best cinematography.
- Three SF and fantasy films won awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Being John Malkovich won for best screenplay. Sleepy Hollow took the honor for best production design. The Iron Giant was honored for best animation.
