New Babylon 5 Stories Coming
. Michael Straczynski, creator of Babylon 5, will write new adventures of the space station saga for publication in Amazing Stories magazine, he told fans on an Internet news group.
He has already written and published two such stories; a third is coming this spring.
"The first one was a Londo story, because I really wanted to do something
different and cool with the character, go inside his head and show the
transition to being emperor, let folks know that inside he was still the same
Londo," Straczynski said. "The second one with Lyta and G'Kar was mainly for fun, to play with them and see their relationship together out there.
"The third, which I just finished and turned in to Amazing Stories, and which will appear I think around May, was written with one express purpose: to set the proverbial cat amongst the proverbial pigeons with something that's going to send a ripple all through B5 fandom; it's a story I don't think anyone ever expected to see. Just the first line alone should stun a number of B5 folks," Straczynski said. "And that's all I'm going to say about it. But just know...there's a real toad-strangler coming up in May."
Meanwhile, the official Babylon 5 magazine will start printing original stories by Straczynski starting in March. "These will be brand new stories, written just for the B5 magazine (the first of which will be determined by fan vote from four possible story areas)," Straczynski said.
Leo Wants To See Episode II Script
eonardo DiCaprio said he'll decide whether to play grown-up Anakin Skywalker in the upcoming Star Wars: Episode II only after he's read the script.
Asked if he was interested in the role, DiCaprio told IGN Movies, "I'll see when I read the script."
The Titanic star confirmed meeting with Star Wars creator George Lucas about playing Anakin. "Yeah, I have talked to him," DiCaprio said. "There's no script as of yet." He added that Lucas had given him no firm date on when a script would be finished. "He just does what he wants."
DiCaprio also withheld a strong opinion about Star Wars: Episode I. "I think it was interesting. I think there's more that can be done, though."
New Anakin In The Running?
orget Leo: Unknown actor Jeffrey Garner is the new guy rumored to be in the running to play grown-up Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode II, according to the Dark Horizons Web site.
Quoting an unnamed source at the Sundance Film Festival, the site says the Indiana-bred actor is "one of those very few 'up there'" for the coveted role.
The site also says soap actor Jonathan Jackson told Empire Magazine that he will meet with Star Wars creator George Lucas to talk about the part in the next few days.
Meanwhile, fans eager to see how supposed Anakin front-runner Leonardo DiCaprio would fit into the Star Wars universe can check out a fan-created phony Episode II trailer on The Force.net Web site.
New Look Coming For Episode II
tar Wars: Episode I principal designer Doug Chiang said he is busy working on the look of Episode II, which will be completely different.
"We are trying to bridge the design aesthetic between Episode I and Episode IV [the original Star Wars film]," Chiang told Yolk magazine.
"We're slowly starting that progression where the designs now need to look like what we've seen before perhaps," Chiang said. "But knowing [Star Wars creator] George [Lucas], he's probably going to try something ... unique in there, and I'm not quite sure what that is yet."
Chiang said the work is no easier than it was on Episode I. "Now that we have started on Episode II, it's like starting all over again, because everything needs to be new. The rules are all the same, but the demands are so much greater, and so in some ways I have to wipe all Episode I stuff away and start over, because we're creating a completely new design aesthetic."
Star Wars DVDs Not Coming Soon
tar Wars fans frustrated that none of the movies are slated for DVD will have to wait a little longer, Episode I producer Rick McCallum said.
Speaking on the official Star Wars Web site, McCallum said, "Well there's no conspiracy at work here, I assure you. It's really about exploiting an exciting medium in the best possible way."
He added that Star Wars creator "George [Lucas] hopes to do something special with the DVD release [of Episode I], but he isn't available to work on it right now since we're in pre-production on Episode II, with principal photography scheduled to begin this summer in Australia.
"Until George has some time to concentrate on it, we don't anticipate releasing any of the Star Wars movies on DVD in the foreseeable future," McCallum said.
Star Wars Books Tank In U.K.
bout 10 million books tied to the release of Star Wars: Episode I in the United Kingdom have stayed on bookstore shelves, leading to the resignation of a British children's book executive.
James Middlehurst, chief executive of Dorling Kindersley publishers, quit because of "a seriously misjudged" over-investment in the Star Wars books, according to the Associated Press.
The publishing house printed 13 million Star Wars books in the last year and a half. But sales totaled only about 3 million. The failure of the books will account for more than half of the publisher's expected pre-tax loss of $41 million for the fiscal year.
Battlefield Earth Takes On Lucas
he makers of Battlefield Earth, the John Travolta feature film version of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's SF novel of the same name, are aiming to give Star Wars creator George Lucas a run for his money.
"Nobody had ever seen some of the things [Lucas] did in [Star Wars]," producer Jonathan Krane said in an interview on the official Battlefield Earth Web site.
"We felt that Battlefield Earth should be done in a similar way," Krane said. "In other words, this would be the new science fiction movie for the new millennium, totally different from what anybody had ever seen before."
Krane, a fan of Hubbard's book, added that the movie will closely mirror the novel, which tells of the struggle of a band of human survivors against alien invaders. "The passion and vision that everyone has had has been the same vision as the book," Krane said. "No one has tried to change that vision. The screenplay reflects the book."
The trailer for the movie will be in theaters Feb. 18.
Battlefield Earth Prequel Planned
attlefield Earth, the feature film based on L. Ron Hubbard's SF novel of the same name, may have both a sequel and a prequel in the works even before its May 12 release.
Producer and star John Travolta and the other filmmakers have hired writer Algis Budrys to develop a script for the prequel, according to Variety.
A sequel to Battlefield was reportedly already under consideration, with Corly Mandel writing the script. Battlefield Earth covers only the first 500 pages of Scientology founder Hubbard's 1,050-page book.
X-Men Film To Wrap Soon
om DeSanto, a writer and producer of Fox's upcoming feature film X-Men, said shooting of the Toronto production should wrap at the end of February.
"We're in the home stretch. We're digging in our heels and finishing the movie," he told Marvel Comics' official Web site.
DeSanto also said a composer has yet to be hired to score the film. "We're still on the composer hunt, but we'll be making the decision within the next month or so," he said.
DeSanto said fans of the Marvel Comics series on which the movie is based won't be disappointed. "It's looking great. It really is," he said. "Just as a fan, it's like stepping into Oz every day at work. It's just fun to get up and go to work with Professor X and Magneto, and go to the mansion."
As for the much-anticipated trailer for the film, which premieres July 14, De Santo said, "We're deciding when we want to go out with the first trailer. Right now, there's no definite time element in going out with the trailer. It'll probably be out in February or March. One of those two months is pretty safe. Late February or early March."
X-Men Details Revealed
ebecca Romijn-Stamos (the shape-shifter Mystique in the upcoming X-Men movie) told Movieline magazine that her character will have an unusual costume. "Mystique is covered in blue scales and morphs into other characters. I mean, 70 percent of my
body is covered with prosthetics, so nothing's hanging out. It's very revealing, but I'm totally unrecognizable once I go through this whole process."
In response to fan questions on his own Web site, Ian McKellen (Magneto) denied persistent rumors that his character will have Nazi leanings. "Neither in dress nor action is he sympathetic to fascism. Magneto's political ambitions may be tainted by his relish for power, but then whose aren't? This confusion, entirely unsupported by the shooting script, arises from my having acted a Nazi in [X-Men director] Bryan Singer's Apt Pupil, and from the opening of the [X-Men] movie, where [Magneto alter ego] Erik [Lehnsherr] is a prisoner at Auschwitz."
McKellen also praised his co-star Hugh Jackman (Wolverine). "In his X-Men uniform, he transforms his own gangling gait into a ferociously energetic swagger. ... [I] know that he will be one of the biggest assets to the film's impact. On and off set, Hugh is a gent and a friend I hope to work more with."
The Coming Attractions Web site, meanwhile, reported that the movie will feature cameo appearances by mutants other than those in the principal cast, including Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat) and younger mutants from the more recent X-Men comic titles.
X-Men Images Online
ans eager for a glimpse of the big-screen versions of their favorite Marvel Comics heroes, the X-Men, can now view publicity stills from the film of the same name.
The Ain't It Cool News Web site has acquired images of characters from the upcoming Fox movie.
The images depict Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), Cyclops (James Marsden), Storm (Halle Berry), Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and others, as well as a pair of grainy shots from the set.
The site reports that the images are early photos given to merchandising partners for the film and were likely taken before the start of production. The movie is now filming in Toronto for a summer release.
Anderson Confirmed To Helm X-Files
s rumored, Gillian Anderson (FBI Agent Dana Scully) will write and direct her first episode of The X-Files, the 17th installment airing later this season, the official X-Files Web site confirmed.
Meanwhile, David Duchovny (FBI Agent Fox Mulder), who has already directed one episode and provided story ideas for others, goes behind the camera again for the very next episode, No. 18.
Cyberpunk author William Gibson, who wrote the script for one X-Files episode, co-writes another with Tom Maddox; "First Person Shooter" has a tentative air date of Feb. 27. And not to be left out: William B. Davis (Cigarette Smoking Man) is scheduled to write episode No. 15, to be directed by Rob Bowman; the as-yet-untitled episode has a tentative air date of March 19.
A.E. Van Vogt Dead At 87
.E. van Vogt, the prolific writer of SF stories and novels who helped shape the Golden Age of Science Fiction, died Jan. 26 of complications of pneumonia in Los Angeles. He was 87.
Van Vogt, a native of Canada who lived in the United States, had suffered from Alzheimer's disease for the last several years, his agent, Dan Hooker, told SCI FI Wire.
"During the Golden Age ... of Science Fiction, which was the late '30s through the early '50s, A.E. van Vogt was one of the four or five pillars of the universe," friend and SF writer Harlan Ellison told SCI FI Wire. "The entire genre rested on his and a few others' shoulders." Van Vogt, who went by the nickname "Van," was best known for his first novel, Slan; the Weapons Shops stories; and the Null-A sequence of books, which included The World of Null-A.
One of the first genre writers to craft dreamlike, complex narratives with sophisticated themes, van Vogt was recognized in 1996 with the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He was an inaugural inductee into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame and received a retro-Hugo from the World Science Fiction Convention.
Born in 1912 in Manitoba, Canada, Alfred Elton van Vogt first came to prominence with his stories in John W. Campbell Jr.'s Astounding Science-Fiction magazine, where Golden Age SF first appeared. The first of these stories, "Black Destroyer," was published in 1939.
Also in 1939, van Vogt married E. Mayne Hull, and they wrote several stories together in the 1940s. They moved to the United States in 1944. Hull died in 1975. The last 50 years of van Vogt's life were spent in Los Angeles.
Van Vogt is survived by his wife, Lydia.
Dinotopia To Tell Epic Story
inotopia, an ABC miniseries based on James Gurney's children's book series of the same name, will feature talking, flying and fighting dinosaurs.
The details of the miniseries from Hallmark Entertainment and producer Robert Halmi Sr. came to light during the National Association of Professional Television Executives' annual meeting in New Orleans, according to Cinescape.
The epic places the fate of a dinosaur-populated fantasy world in the hands of two brothers who find their way there by mistake while searching for their lost father. The mist-enshrouded island is ruled by talking dinosaurs who have created a peace-loving society with humans.
As the brothers learn more about the secrets of this dinosaur world, they also fall in love with a beautiful but mysterious woman. The brothers follow clues to find their father in the dinosaur underworld, run afoul of vicious pteranodons, encounter a society of outlaws and discover a secret that may save Dinotopia.
Craven Casts Roles For Clone Thriller
irector Wes Craven (Scream 3) goes into production this summer on the feature film The Fountain Society, an SF thriller about cloning.
Craven is currently casting roles for two young actors and one woman in her 60s or 70s, the director told columnists Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith.
The Fountain Society tells the story of a weapons scientist who becomes involved in a government cloning project while seeking a cure for his cancer. It is based on Craven's novel of the same name, released last year by Simon & Schuster.
NPR Plans SF Radio Drama Series
F writer Harlan Ellison will host Beyond 2000, a series of radio dramas based on classic SF stories and novels, which premieres on National Public Radio in April, Ellison told SCI FI Wire.
"This will be the most ambitious attempt at doing [SF] radio drama since the 1950s, when Dimension X and X Minus One were on," Ellison said.
The series will feature dramatizations of stories by Isaac Asimov, Fredric Brown, Ellison, Robert A. Heinlein, Ursula K. Le Guin, Robert Silverberg, Theodore Sturgeon, A.E. van Vogt, Jules Verne, Kurt Vonnegut, H.G. Wells, Connie Willis, Roger Zelazny and others. The programs will showcase performances by actors Rene Auberjonois, Richard Dreyfuss, Samantha Eggar, Robert Foxworth, William Sanderson, Robin Williams and others.
The 26 one-hour programs are produced in cooperation with the Hollywood Theater of the Ear and were financed in part with a $200,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Ellison said. Ellison helped select and adapt some of the stories. The programs will eventually be released as six cassette tapes by Dove Audio.
Sixth Day Shoots In Vancouver
he Sixth Day, a clone thriller movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, will wrap production in Vancouver in the early spring, according to producer Mike Medavoy.
The film, directed by Roger Spottiswoode (Under Fire), has been shooting since the middle of November, Medavoy told The Hollywood Reporter.
The $85-million movie deals with the morality of cloning, Medavoy said. "It's somewhat character-based--the story of a (man) who comes home one day and finds he's been cloned. He was cloned by mistake, and it's against the law to clone human beings. It's called The Sixth Day because it's the sixth-day law: It's on the sixth day that God created man."
The film, written by Marianne Wibberly and Cormac Wibberly, also stars Tony Goldwyn and Robert Duvall. It was produced by Jon Davison, Schwarzenegger and Medavoy and executive produced by David Coatsworth and Dan Petrie Jr. It is slated for a fall release.
Twists Coming For Buffy Boy Blucas
arc Blucas, the new love interest on The WB's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, said that viewers can expect the unexpected as the hit show finishes up its fourth season.
"The show hangs its hat on taking you one way, then completely reversing it," Blucas told IGN Sci-Fi.
Blucas, who plays college student and part-time commando Riley Finn, said that things aren't what they seem with regard to The Initiative, the supersecret paramilitary group that fights vampires. "The Initiative seems all hunky dory," he said. "[But] chances are, there's going to be a twist there. And you could put the same on me. I could be construed as Captain Positive, but there has to be another layer there."
Blucas added that he's always looking over his shoulder, given the longevity of Buffy's past boyfriends. "It's kind of the set joke right now. I often get from several people, 'Hey, did you get the new pages with the scene where you die?' I've just come to accept it and say, 'Hey, just make it an honorable death.'"
Thunderbirds Go For Gameboy
hunderbirds, the cult 1960s SF marionette show for kids, will become a game for Gameboy in the fall.
British computer game maker SCi Entertainment said it would release the title to coincide with the re-broadcast of digitally remastered episodes of the show on BBC television in the United Kingdom.
A version of a Thunderbirds game will also be developed for the Playstation II platform, the company said. SCi acquired worldwide game rights to the 32-part children's series in December.
Matrix Toys Aren't For Kids
ids aren't supposed to play with the toys based on the 1999 SF thriller The Matrix.
That's because the action figures created for the R-rated movie carry labels saying they are "recommended for mature collectors," according to Entertainment Weekly.
Warner Bros. and N2Toys are marketing six action figures, complete with weapons, tied to the release of The Matrix home video. ''There's been so much controversy over Hollywood and violence, we thought it wouldn't hurt us to be sensitive,'' Ron Hayes, president of N2Toys, told the magazine.
Meanwhile, the Dark Horizons Web site reports a rumor that comic book writer Grant Morrison is considering legal action against the brothers who created The Matrix, Andy and Larry Wachowski. Morrison has complained in the past that the movie resembles his comic book, The Invisibles, about a group of rebels fighting a force that secretly rules society.
McFarlane Doesn't Ape Planet
pawn creator and entrepreneur Todd McFarlane says his proposed new ape-themed SF television series for UPN isn't a Planet of the Apes knock-off.
"The whole show is really about the process of evolution," McFarlane told Mania magazine.
"What it is, is sort of a cool, sci-fi drama that happens to have a tip of the hat to my love of Darwin, evolution and Planet of the Apes," McFarlane said. "It doesn't have a real name yet. We're calling it Gorilla World at the moment, but that's not what it finally will be called. It will probably have some science fiction name like Sector 12 or something like that, because it's really not about the apes. The show is about man, apes and monsters, and there's going to be lots of monsters."
McFarlane said he's also planning changes to the animated Spawn television series. He has taken the rights for the show back from HBO and plans a series of 90-minute movies instead of six 30-minute episodes.
McFarlane has also submitted a script to New Line Cinema for a follow-up to 1997's live-action Spawn feature film. "We're hopefully going to have a meeting with New Line later this month," he said.
ADV Releases Monster Rancher Videos
onster Rancher, the animated children's television series, is heading for home video.
ADV Films announced it will release monthly videotapes of the series--based on a video game franchise of the same name--with three episodes per tape.
Monster Rancher is the story of an 11-year old boy who finds himself magically transported into a land of monsters. The series has aired on the Fox Kid's Network, Fox Family, Kids' WB! and The SCI FI Channel.
Indy Writer Boam Dead At 53
effrey Boam, who wrote the screenplays for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Lost Boysand The Phantom, died Jan. 26 of heart failure. He was 53.
Boam also wrote a script for a proposed fourth installment of the Indiana Jones series. That script is currently on hold with Boam's friend George Lucas and Indy director Steven Spielberg, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Boam worked with producers and directors such as Richard Donner, Joel Silver, Stephen King and Joe Dante. His other writing credits include Innerspace and The Dead Zone. He also directed an episode of the HBO series Tales From the Crypt.
Boam is survived by his wife, Paula, and their three children.
Burton's Stain Boy To Hit Web
irector Tim Burton (Batman) will develop Web-based animated shorts for Shockwave.com in exchange for an ownership stake in the company.
Burton will create a series of shorts based on his character Stain Boy, who has appeared in Burton's book of poems and drawings The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Stain Boy is described as a superhero whose only talent is the ability to leave a nasty stain. Burton will create 26 original two- to five-minute animated episodes. The first is set to debut in the spring. Eventually, Stain Boy could be developed into a feature film or a television series.
Actors Saw Red On Planet Set
om Sizemore says his Red Planet co-star Val Kilmer wasn't the easiest guy to get along with.
"Let's put it this way," Sizemore told New York Daily News columnist Mitchell Fink. "I'm never going to another planet with him, I can tell you that."
Sizemore added, "Val Kilmer has a lot of problems, and I would never want to hurt him, but the man is impossible to work with." Fink reports that the two actors were practically at each other's throats during the filming of the upcoming movie, about the first manned trip to Mars. They reportedly even considered taking out restraining orders against each other during filming.
For his part, Kilmer downplayed the problems. "A lot of it was just junk," he told the Daily News. "Tom has no facades as an actor. It's all just right there. But hey, it was a difficult movie. We were in Jordan."
Raimi Close To Deal For Spider-Man
onfirming reports in SCI FI Wire, The Hollywood Reporter says that Sam Raimi (A Simple Plan) is in final talks to direct Columbia Picture's upcoming feature film version of Marvel Comics' Spider-Man.
Raimi would begin the movie after wrapping The Gift, the Keanu Reeves supernatural thriller Raimi will start shooting in Georgia Feb. 3. Raimi had reportedly been concerned about scheduling conflicts between the two films.
No one has been cast for Spider-Man, though speculation is running rampant as to who will wear the red mask. David Koepp (Jurassic Park) is writing the script. The studio is eyeing a summer 2001 release date.
For Chiana, Bad Is Good
ook for Chiana, the streetwise alien of The SCI FI Channel series Farscape, to become more of a stand-up woman during the show's second season.
Chiana actress Gigi Edgley told fans during a recent SCIFI.COM chat that as the series progresses, her mercurial character will grow closer to the other crew members on the living starship Moya.
"I think as she becomes closer, she slowly gets a chance to gain some morals. I'd like to see Chiana become more naturalistic within the alien form. And I'd like to keep the trickster within her, but also show a bit of Gigi's vulnerability through it," Edgley said.
But Edgley added she likes being the show's bad girl. "[It's] fantastic, because I've never played a part like this before. I've always been cast as the sweet and virginal-type girl next door. So Chiana is a real challenge for me. Especially when you meet your daily lover (or current lover for that day) three minutes before the actual scene starts, and you're running on about four hours of sleep."
Edgley, who said she spends three and a half hours every day getting into her alien makeup, is enjoying her first venture into SF. "This time I get to play a person who lives on a different planet. And as I was driving to work today, I looked at the full moon that was still high in the sky and counted my blessings for being able to explore some of those planets on this planet. Let alone the creatures and different life forms that live [on] them."
As to whether or not Chiana and shipmate Aeryn Sun will butt heads over
John Crichton, Edgley said, "We're trying to stay out of that situation, but
you can never tell with these writers. They like confrontation. I'll be
interested myself to see how it all works out."
Pi Director To Helm Batman?
irector Darren Aronofsky (Pi) is rumored to be talking with Warner Bros. about helming the next Batman movie, according to the Ain't It Cool News Web site.
The film, which doesn't have a screenwriter yet, would either be a live version of the Batman Beyond animated television series or a version of Batman Year One, the story of a young Bruce Wayne.
Aronofsky is currently attached to Proteus, a film about a U.S. World War II submarine crew that encounters a monster while fighting Germans.
Genre TV Shows Pitched To TV Execs
etails are emerging about upcoming syndicated genre television series being touted at the National Association of Television Production Executives meeting in New Orleans.
Cinescape reports news about Andromeda, Matthew Blackheart, The Immortal and Dreamweaver.
As reported earlier, Andromeda--the latest production from Majel Barrett Roddenberry--features Kevin Sorbo as Capt. Dylan Jericho of the galaxy-wide Systems Commonwealth. After being left for dead in a black hole following an abortive battle, Jericho is discovered 300 years later. With a sentient ship, Jericho assembles a ragtag crew to help reunite the shattered Commonwealth.
Matthew Blackheart is the new name of the show formerly pitched as Matthew Blackheart: Monster Smasher. It's about a World War II hero who is manufactured to fight monsters created by the evil Dr. Mortas. Blackheart gets frozen, then thawed out in the present day to discover that the monsters are still around, but now appear human and run New York.
The Immortal stars Lorenzo Lamas as 15th-century European explorer Rafael, whose quest for revenge against a demon spans the centuries. The unsold Dreamweaver focuses on a world in which the spirits of murder victims inhabit other people's dreams in an effort to reach the afterlife.
Harsh Realm Comic Creators Sued
hris Carter has sued Harsh Realm comic book creators James D. Hudnall and Andrew Paquette, seeking to keep them from speaking publicly about any link between their comic and Carter's television show of the same name.
Carter's action is a counterclaim against the 1999 suit filed by the comic creators against Carter and Twentieth Century Fox's television production studio, Paquette said.
Hudnall and Paquette had sued to gain an onscreen "based on the comic book by" credit for the Harsh Realm television series, which aired on Fox's broadcast network before being canceled after three episodes. Fox and Carter have rejected a proposed settlement of that suit, claiming that Carter's show is not based on the comic, despite earlier press statements to the contrary.
The FX cable network, which is also owned by Fox, plans to air all eight completed episodes of Harsh Realm starting in March.
Spielberg: Minority Report Is Next
teven Spielberg has confirmed speculation that his next directing project will be the SF film Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise and based on the Philip K. Dick story of the same name.
"Right now, Minority Report is next," Spielberg told the New York Daily News.
"Tom Cruise spent three hours at my house today talking with me about the movie," Spielberg said. "Of course, with movies, you never know what can happen to bring about a delay."
Spielberg said he remains interested in directing a feature film version of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter young adult novel series. "If a delay were to happen in this case, then I would do Harry Potter next. But right now, it's Minority Report, then Harry."
Cruise told the Daily News, "This is a dream to be able to work with Steven. I can't wait to get on the set with him just to see how he does it. He is such a visionary."
Lucas Visits Buffy And Angel
tar Wars creator George Lucas and his daughter Katie recently paid a visit to the Los Angeles sets of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its companion WB series, Angel, sources told SCI FI Wire.
Lucas reportedly took time off from writing the script for Star Wars: Episode II to make the trip last week because 11-year-old Katie is a fan of the supernatural television shows.
Lucas called Buffy star Sarah Michelle Gellar to let her know that Katie loves the shows and to ask if they could stop by. He and Katie were then given the royal treatment: during a set tour, Katie chatted with the stars, including Alyson Hannigan (Willow), while dad got to peek into the camera and meet the shows' crew members.
Apparently, the admiration was mutual: Buffy and Angel creator Joss Whedon is said to be a big fan of the Star Wars oeuvre.
New Godzilla Coming To Theaters
odzilla 2000: Millennium, a Japanese-produced installment of the longstanding Godzilla film franchise, will receive U.S. distribution this summer by Sony Pictures.
The movie has been breaking box-office records in Japan, according to the Hollywood trade papers.
Millennium, which will be dubbed in English for the U.S., has the giant Toho Terror fighting an alien nemesis that has awakened from a 6,000-year slumber under the ocean. In addition to the theatrical release, Sony will distribute Millennium in video and on television.
Meanwhile, producers Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich are still developing a U.S.-made sequel to their 1998 Godzilla feature film.
Nutter Will Direct Cameron's Angel
ark Angel, James Cameron's proposed SF television series for the Fox network, is closer to reality.
Producer David Nutter (Roswell) has signed on to direct a two-hour pilot, and six actors have been cast in lead roles, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The series, co-created by Charles Eglee, stars Jessica Alba (Never Been Kissed) as Max, a genetically enhanced 18-year-old girl who has escaped from a lab project in the post-apocalyptic Pacific Northwest. Max befriends an underground cyber-journalist played by Michael Weatherly and a feisty lesbian character played by Valerie Rae Miller.
Other characters will be played by Alimi Ballard, Richard Gunn, J.C. McKenzie and Jennifer Blanc.
Swank, Kinnear To Star In Gift
olden Globe winner Hilary Swank (Boys Don't Cry) and Greg Kinnear (Mystery Men) are close to signing on to star in the movie The Gift, the supernatural thriller directed by Sam Raimi (A Simple Plan).
Kinnear would replace Ron Eldard in the lead role, according to Variety.
The Gift, about a physically abused woman (Swank) with psychic abilities, already features a stellar cast that includes Cate Blanchett, Keanu Reeves, Giovanni Ribisi, Katie Holmes, Michael Jeter, Gary Cole, J.K. Simmons and Chelcie Ross. Reeves will play Swank's psycho husband; Kinnear would play a school principal who consults Swank after the disappearance of his fiancee (Holmes). The Gift begins shooting in Savannah, Ga., on Feb. 3.
Kinnear will soon appear in What Planet Are You From, an SF comedy directed by Mike Nichols and starring Garry Shandling as an alien looking to impregnate an Earth woman.
Milo Gets Distributor
worldwide distributor has acquired the rights to Delivering Milo, a fantasy film starring Bridget Fonda.
Lakeshore International bought the rights to the movie, directed by Nick Castle, according to Variety.
Delivering Milo, which also stars Albert Finney and Campbell Scott, tells the story of a child who refuses to be born until an angel (Finney) shows him the wonders of New York. The film is now in post-production and will screen at the American Film Market in Los Angeles later this month.
Potter Nearly Wins Whitbread Prize
arry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the third book in J.K. Rowling's popular young adult fantasy novel series, missed winning Great Britain's prestigious Whitbread prize by one vote.
Nobel laureaute Seamus Heaney's translation of the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf won, but the near-miss by Potter kicked off a controversy about the prize, according to the Reuters news service.
The row concerns the possible lowering of the prize's standards, particularly with the appointment of model Jerry Hall as a judge. Author Anthony Holden, who is also a judge, said it would have been a ''national humiliation'' if Potter had won.
But supporters of Rowling's best-selling works accused critics of literary snobbery. Potter won the Whitbread's children's book award, which comes with a prize of 10,000 pounds ($16,460).
New Robocop Coming To Video
oboCop: Prime Directives will be marketed as a series of straight-to-video movies, then revert to pay-per-view cable before being considered as a syndicated TV series.
The films will pick up where Paul Verhoeven's original 1987 Robocop film left off, ignoring two feature film sequels and 1993's syndicated TV series, according to the Toronto Sun.
Shepherded by director and producer Julian Grant, Prime Directives will appear as four two-hour movies starring Page Fletcher (The Hitchhiker) in the title role and Maurice Dean Wint (Cube) as his robot nemesis, RoboCable.
The films are intended as the first step toward a new syndicated television series to replace Robocop: The Series, which was canceled in 1994. Prime Directives is a Canadian production of
Fireworks Entertainment (La Femme Nikita).
Dark Shadows To Become A Musical
he 1960s cult horror soap opera Dark Shadows may be headed to the theatrical stage as a musical.
Dan Curtis, who produced the show, will direct and co-author the book with lyricist Rupert Holmes; Bob Cobert, who wrote the scores for the show, will compose the music, according to Variety.
Curtis said the musical will bring Victoria Winters to a great house, where the vampire, Barnabas Collins, will recognize her as his lost love of 200 years ago. The Hartford Stage Company has expressed interest in giving the Dark Shadows musical its world premiere.
Dark Shadows premiered on television in 1966 and ran for five seasons, or 1,250 episodes. It continues to appear on cable television.
SF&F Shows Picked Up For Fall
F&F syndicated television programs are being bought by stations or renewed for another year in advance of the annual meeting of the National Association of Television Program Executives in New Orleans this week.
Tribune and New Line were all able to renew their programs for another year and add new shows to their schedules, according to Variety.
Tribune said Earth: Final Conflict, Beastmaster and Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda will all be on the air next fall. Earth has been renewed in 78 percent of the country, and Andromeda has been cleared on stations representing 86 percent. Andromeda, starring Kevin Sorbo (Hercules: The Legendary Journeys), is now set to premiere in 49 of the country's top 50 markets. Beastmaster has been renewed in 79 percent of the country.
New Line's Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World was picked up by stations in New York; Orlando, Fla.; Seattle; Roanoke, Va.; and Huntsville, Ala. Matthew Blackheart: Monster Smasher, a tongue-in-cheek retro SF hour, was picked up by stations in Chicago and Denver and the WB's station group representing more than 100 markets.
Genre Films Screen At Sundance
F&F films were among the independent movies screened at the Sundance Film Festival currently taking place in Park City, Utah.
But none have generated the buzz so far that surrounded last year's The Blair Witch Project.
This Guy Is Falling, co-directed by Michael Horowitz and Gareth Smith, wonders what would happen if gravity on Earth suddenly turned off. Nursery Tale, directed by Jieho Lee, is a short film about a timid man who is approached by the devil and offered the chance to be with any woman he chooses on a certain day.
Los Gringos is a short film directed by Rob Letterman that uses computer animation to tell the story of a samurai warrior and a cowboy displaced into the modern world. Waking The Dead, directed by Keith Gordon, tells a tale of politics and the supernatural.
Show Me the Aliens, screening at one of Sundance's alternative venues, is a comedy described as Spinal Tap meets E.T.
Fantasy Films Get Best Director Nods
irectors of fantasy films were among the nominees for the prestigious Directors Guild of America awards.
M. Night Shyamalan got his first nomination for The Sixth Sense, as did Spike Jonze for Being John Malkovich, according to Variety.
Frank Darabont, who was nominated in 1994 for The Shawshank Redemption, got a nomination this year for The Green Mile, another prison film based on a novel by Stephen King.
The nominations are based on voting by the guild's 11,000 members. The prize will be announced at the guild's 52nd annual awards dinner in Los Angeles on March 11.
Murphy Mulls Shrinking Man
ddie Murphy is considering starring in a remake of the 1957 SF classic The Incredible Shrinking Man.
Fred Wolf (Dirty Work) is writing a script for Imagine Entertainment and Universal Pictures.
The original film starred Grant Williams as a man who finds himself shrinking for no apparent reason and who is forced to contend with the consequences.
Murphy is now shooting the sequel to his 1996 hit The Nutty Professor. In Nutty II: The Klumps, Murphy reprises the multiple roles he played in the first movie.
Robinson Writing Alternative History
im Stanley Robinson, best known for his Mars Trilogy SF novels, said he is at work on a new novel, an alternative history.
"My alternative history is just of the 'what if?' variety that changes some incident in our past, and follows out some of the results of that change," the writer told fans during a chat last week on TheOneRing.net Web site.
Robinson also said he was delighted about the recent announcement that NASA and the Mars Society have chosen the colors of its proposed Mars flag based on the titles of Robinson's books Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars.
"I love it!" he said. "It was a great surprise, one of the greatest I've ever gotten over the Internet for sure, because I had not heard anything about this flag until I saw the press release over the 'net, put out by the Mars Society. It was really very nice of them to acknowledge my trilogy as the inspiration for their flag, and it has gotten a lot of great publicity. Now I want a copy of the flag."
Farenheit 451 Movie Is Shelved
arenhneit 451, a proposed movie directed by Mel Gibson based on the Ray Bradbury novel of the same name, has reportedly been shelved.
The film has been a pet project of Gibson's for years, according to the Dark Horizons Web site.
Now, Gibson told USA Today, "The window of opportunity for that one has passed me by." Gibson is already committed to other projects, including his next job, directing Lady Gold.
Judge To Direct Messiah
eavis and Butt-head creator Mike Judge has signed on to direct Messiah Complex, a fantasy comedy about a virginal college student who believes he was cloned from the Shroud of Turin.
Josh Sternin and Jeff Ventimilia wrote the screenplay, which was picked up by Columbia Pictures, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Sternin and Ventimilia are executive producers of the Fox comedy series That '70s Show. Judge directed the feature films Office Space and Beavis & Butt-head Do America.
Fantasy Films Coming To TNT, TBS
he TNT cable network will develop a Greek mythology TV movie starring Peter Gallagher, while sister network TBS has ordered production of a pair of fantasy movies.
A movie with the working title Summer of the Gods is coming from TNT and Hallmark Entertainment, dramatizing classic stories from Greek mythology, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
TBS, meanwhile, has ordered The Triangle, a TV film about a group of friends trapped in the Bermuda Triangle. TBS is also developing Evil Never Dies, a TV movie that is a modern-day variation on the Frankenstein story.
Little Still Big
tuart Little remained a box-office giant for the sixth week in a row, ranking No. 4 over the weekend with earnings of $6.5 million.
That brought the mouse movie's total gross to about $117.2 million, according to the Hollywood trade papers.
The Green Mile came in fifth with receipts of about $5.5 million for the weekend, bringing its total grosses to $109.7 million. Galaxy Quest was No. 6 in its fifth week of release with an estimated weekend take of $4.8 million and a total of $54.6 million.
Toy Story 2 dropped out of the top 10 with a take of $3 million and a total of $231 million, making it the 20th highest grossing U.S. film ever. But in only its second week of release, Supernova also dropped out of the top 10, to No. 13, with estimated weekend ticket sales of $2.4 million and a total of only $10.1 million.
Briefly Noted
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Star Wars fans can reserve their copy of the Episode I video from participating retailers or at 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment's Web site.
The video, to be released April 4, comes in a regular version or a wide-screen collector's edition that features a 12-minute behind-the-scenes documentary, a 48-page booklet and a strip of 35-mm film snipped from one of the Star Wars release prints. Customers who pre-order also receive a poster.
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Sheena, a syndicated series based on the comic book of the same
name, has been bought by TV stations representing 92 percent of the
nation's markets, according to Cinescape. Queen of
Swords, a syndicated series along the lines of Xena: Warrior
Princess, has been bought by stations in 55 percent of the country.
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The proposed Batman television series Bruce Wayne has been put on hold until a new feature film in the franchise is developed, according to The Hollywood Reporter. A pilot for the series has already been written by Tim McCanlies (The Iron Giant).
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Hong Kong action hero Donnie Yen, who plays the villain in the upcoming fourth Highlander movie, revealed a major plot spoiler to SFX Magazine. Yen, speaking from the Bucharest, Romania, set of the film, said he will wield the sword that undoes series hero Connor Macleod (Christopher Lambert).
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Dwight Schultz (Barclay) and Marina Sirtis (Troi) will make another appearance as guest stars on Star Trek: Voyager, according to the TrekWeb fan site. They will show up in the episode "I, Zimmerman," which centers on the doctor played by Robert Picardo.
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Universal Pictures set a June 30 release date for its live action/animated movie The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, based on the 1960s television series of the same name. Rocky stars Jason Alexander as Boris Badenov, Rene Russo as Natasha Fatale and Robert De Niro as Fearless Leader.
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Tak Fujimoto of The Sixth Sense and Emmanuel Lubezki of Sleepy Hollow were among the cinematographers chosen as nominees by the American Society of Cinematographers for this year's outstanding achievement award. The winner will be announced Feb. 20 in Los Angeles.
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ABC will pay about $30 million in a package deal for the exclusive broadcast rights to the feature films The Green Mile and Any Given Sunday. The movies will become available to ABC in time for the May 2002 sweeps.
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A four-month-old Indianapolis boy suffocated in his crib on a Burger King Pokemon ball of the same type that the hamburger chain recalled after a similar death last month. The toy--a hollow plastic ball that opens like a clam shell--had been left in the boy's crib by his step-grandmother, who knew nothing of the recall.
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Keanu Reeves confirmed earlier reports that he has signed on to reprise his role as Neo in the two upcoming sequels to 1999's hit film The Matrix. Speaking to Empire Online, Reeves said, "I just loved the ambition and creativity of the original. So when I was asked if I wanted to do the sequels there was only one answer. I can't wait! When I saw what [Matrix creators the Wachowski brothers] had planned for the rest of the trilogy, I just knew it was going to become something great."
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John Carpenter is trying to sell a TV pitch based on his movies Escape From New York and Escape From L.A., according to IGN. Quoting anonymous sources, IGN reports that the show would be a one-hour syndicated series that would explore the militaristic future world of the films.
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SF icon Arnold Schwarzenegger is declining to renew his contract as an owner of the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain. The chain, founded by Schwarzenegger with Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg, recently emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.
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Anthony Simcoe (D'Argo on The SCI FI Channel's Farscape) appears sans makeup in a guest role on the syndicated show Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World this week. Check local listings.
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Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Bicentennial Man and Blast From the Past are among the films being considered for the 1999 Academy Award for best makeup. Ten-minute clip reels from each film will be screened for the makeup award nominating committee on Feb. 12, which will then nominate up to three films to be announced Feb. 15.
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Emmy-nominated actor Keith Hamilton Cobb (All My Children) joins the cast of the syndicated SF television series Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda. Kevin Sorbo (Hercules: The Legendary Journeys) stars in the show, which begins shooting in April.
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Actor/rapper Ice Cube is developing and may star in a feature film version of the Acclaim video game Shadow Man, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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Majel Barrett Roddenberry told Mania magazine that she thinks it's time for Star Trek to take a break after Voyager. "I hear that after the wrestling episode, the network may be doing a truck show. ... They're going to squeeze every last dime out of this franchise before they lose the viewers, and I get royalties, so I'm grateful to [executive producer] Rick Berman. I think it would serve Star Trek's best interest if it took a break and went off for a few years, but not the network's."
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Tom Cruise told reporters at the Golden Globe Awards Sunday that he is committed to making the SF film Minority Report with director Steven Spielberg. "Listen, we're going to make that movie, but it takes time," the actor said.
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Tim Guinee (Strange World) will play a supporting role in Dimension Films' SF thriller Impostor, starring Gary Sinise and Madeleine Stowe.
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Toy Story 2 took the award for best comedy or musical film at the 57th annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony on Sunday, Jan. 23. The award was made based on a vote by members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
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Star Trek: The Next Generation star Jonathan Frakes guest stars on a special live episode of 3rd Rock From the Sun Tuesday, Jan. 25, at 8:30 p.m. He also plays himself on an episode of Roswell on Feb. 2 at 9 p.m. Frakes is a co-executive producer of the alien-themed teen show.
