Sleepy Hollow Tops Saturn Noms
leepy Hollow led this year's Saturn Award hopefuls with 11 nominations,
while Stars Wars: Episode I and Galaxy Quest tied for second with 10 nods
each.
The awards are presented by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films and recognize excellence in genre films and television.
In television, The WB's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff Angel and The SCI FI Channel's Farscape took the most nominations. Buffy stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon and James Marsters and Angel stars David Boreanaz and Charisma Carpenter each received nominations.
The academy is a non-profit organization founded in 1972 to honor genre film and television. Awards will be presented in June in Los Angeles. A full list of nominees follows.
Best Science Fiction Film
•The 13th Floor
•eXistenZ
•Galaxy Quest
•The Matrix
•Pitch Black
•Star Wars: Episode I
Best Fantasy Film
•Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
•Being John Malkovich
•The Mummy
•Stuart Little
•Tarzan
•Toy Story 2
Best Horror Film
•The Blair Witch Project
•Ravenous
•The Sixth Sense
•Sleepy Hollow
•Stigmata
•Teaching Mrs. Tingle
Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film
•Arlington Road
•The Green Mile
•October Sky
•Payback
•The Talented Mr. Ripley
•The World Is Not Enough
Best Actor
•Tim Allen, Galaxy Quest
•Johnny Depp, Sleepy Hollow
•Brendan Fraser, The Mummy
•Liam Neeson, Star Wars: Episode I
•Keanu Reeves, The Matrix
•Bruce Willis, The Sixth Sense
Best Actress
•Heather Graham, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
•Catherine Keener, Being John Malkovich
•Carrie-Anne Moss, The Matrix
•Christina Ricci, Sleepy Hollow
•Sigourney Weaver, Galaxy Quest
•Rachel Weisz, The Mummy
Best Supporting Actor
•Michael Clarke Duncan, The Green Mile
•Laurence Fishburne, The Matrix
•Jude Law, The Talented Mr. Ripley
•Ewan McGregor, Star Wars: Episode I
•Alan Rickman, Galaxy Quest
•Christopher Walken, Sleepy Hollow
Best Supporting Actress
•Pernilla August, Star Wars: Episode I
•Patricia Clarkson, The Green Mile
•Joan Cusack, Arlington Road
•Gina Davis, Stuart Little
•Miranda Richardson, Sleepy Hollow
•Sissy Spacek, Blast From the Past
Best Performance by a Younger Actor
•Emily Bergl, The Rage: Carrie 2
•Jake Lloyd, Star Wars: Episode I
•Justin Long, Galaxy Quest
•Haley Joel Osment, The Sixth Sense
•Natalie Portman, Star Wars: Episode I
•Devon Sawa, Idle Hands
Best Direction
•Tim Burton, Sleepy Hollow
•Frank Darabont, The Green Mile
•George Lucas, Star Wars: Episode I
•Dean Parisot, Galaxy Quest
•Stephen Sommers, The Mummy
•Andy and Larry Wachowski, The Matrix
Best Writing
•Charlie Kaufman, Being John Malkovich
•Ehren Kruger, Arlington Road
•M. Night Shyamalan, The Sixth Sense
•Stephen Sommers, The Mummy
•Andy and Larry Wachowski, The Matrix
•Andrew Kevin Walker, Sleepy Hollow
Best Music
•Danny Elfman, Sleepy Hollow
•Jerry Goldsmith, The Mummy
•David Newman, Galaxy Quest
•Randy Newman, Toy Story 2
•Thomas Newman, The Green Mile
•Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn, Ravenous
Best Costume
•Colleen Atwood, Sleepy Hollow
•Kym Barrett, The Matrix
•Trisha Biggar, Star Wars: Episode I
•John Bloomfield, The Mummy
•Marilyn Vance, Mystery Men
•Albert Wolsky, Galaxy Quest
Best Makeup
•Stan Winston, Hallie D'Amore, Ve Neill, Galaxy Quest
•Nicky Gooley, Bob McCarron, Wendy Sainsbury, The Matrix
•Nick Dudman, Aileen Seaton, The Mummy
•Fae Hammond, Ravenous
•Kevin Yagher, Peter Owen, Sleepy Hollow
•Paul Engelen, Sue Love, Nick Dudman, Star Wars: Episode I
Best Special Effects
•Stan Winston, Bill George, Kim Bromley, Robert Stadd, Galaxy Quest
•John Gaeta, Janek Sirrs, Steve Courtley, Jon Thum, The Matrix
•John Berton, Daniel Jenette, Ben Snow, Chris Corbould, The Mummy
•Jim Mitchell, Joss Williams, Kevin Yagher, Mark S. Miller, Sleepy Hollow
•Rob Coleman, John Knoll, Dennis Muren, Scott Squires, Star Wars: Episode I
•John Dykstra, Henry Anderson, Jerome Chen, Eric Allard, Stuart Little
Best Genre Home Video Release
•Dance With the Devil
•Free Enterprise
•From Dusk 'Til Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter
•The Iron Giant
•The Stendahl Syndrome
•Trekkies
Best Network Television Series
•Angel, The WB
•Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The WB
•Now and Again, CBS
•Roswell, The WB
•Seven Days, UPN
•The X-Files, Fox
Best Syndicated Television Series
•Peter Benchley's Amazon
•Farscape
•GvsE
•The Outer Limits
•Stargate SG-1
•Star Trek: Deep Space 9
Best Single Television Presentation
•Animal Farm, TNT
•A Christmas Carol, TNT
•Journey to the Center of the Earth, USA
•Leprechauns, NBC
•Stephen King's Storm of the Century, ABC
•The Time Shifters, TBS
Best Actor on Television
•Richard Dean Anderson, Stargate SG-1
•Jason Behr, Roswell
•David Boreanaz, Angel
•Ben Browder, Farscape
•Eric Close, Now and Again
•Patrick Stewart, A Christmas Carol
Best Actress on Television
•Gillian Anderson, The X-Files
•Claudia Black, Farscape
•Margaret Colin, Now and Again
•Shannen Doherty, Charmed
•Sarah Michelle Gellar, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
•Kate Mulgrew, Star Trek: Voyager
Best Supporting Actor on Television
•Nicholas Brendon, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
•Colm Feore, Storm of the Century
•Dennis Haysbert, Now and Again
•Jeremy London, Journey to the Center of the Earth
•James Marsters, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
•Robert Picardo, Star Trek: Voyager
Best Supporting Actress on Television
•Charisma Carpenter, Angel
•Virginia Hey, Farscape
•Heather Matarazzo, Now and Again
•Jeri Ryan, Star Trek: Voyager
•Amanda Tapping, Stargate SG-1
•Justina Vail, Seven Days
Special Saturn Award Winners
•Dick Van Dyke, Life Career Award
•George Harris, Life Career Award
•Douglas Z. Wick, The George Pal Memorial Award
•Richard Donner, President's Award
•Jeffrey Walker, Service Award
Blair 2 Starts Filming
ilmmakers have quietly returned to the Maryland woods to begin production on The Blair Witch Project 2, the much-anticipated sequel to 1999's surprise hit The Blair Witch Project, according to a Maryland newspaper.
A crew of nearly 300 actors, photographers, directors, cameramen and lighting technicians shot in Seneca Creek State Park last week, according to The Gazette newspaper in Damascus, Md.
Blair Redux Productions also set up a base camp in nearby Germantown and were filming scenes around Montgomery County, close to the location of the original film. After encountering hostile reactions recently from the residents of Burkittsville--the "Blair" of the original movie--filmmakers have been keeping a low profile about the production and a tight lid on details of the plot. Blair 2 is slated for a fall release.
Forbidden Planet To Be Remade
ew Line Cinema has secured the rights to the classic 1956 SF movie Forbidden Planet and will fast-track a big-budget remake, according to Variety.
Forbidden Planet, loosely based on Shakespeare's play The Tempest, starred Leslie Nielsen, Walter Pidgeon and Anne Francis, and it introduced Robbie the Robot.
New Line bought the rights from Lindsay Dunlap and Ember Entertainment Group, the trade paper reported. Michael De Luca, the studio's president of production; Richard Saperstein, senior executive vice president; and Bryan Hickel, creative executive, will shepherd the movie's development. Plans are to update the story with state-of-the-art special effects.
Shatner Not Doing New Trek
esurrect Capt. Kirk? Not happening. Despite rumors that Paramount would love to have William Shatner step back onto the bridge of the starship Enterprise, Shatner's manager, Larry Thompson, told SCI FI Wire that it's not true.
"Would Bill Shatner be interested in doing another Star Trek? I'm sure he would," Thompson said.
"But Paramount has not indicated that this would be in their plans," Thompson added. The rumor surfaced on the Deco Drive Online Web site.
Shatner's character died in 1994's Star Trek: Generations. But the actor has been busy with other projects, including acting as pitch man for Priceline.com. On Friday, March 17, the Reuters news service reported that Shatner is selling 35,000 of his 125,000 shares in the Web company.
WB Orders Day One Pilot
he WB has ordered a pilot for Day One, a proposed one-hour SF television drama series about train passengers catapulted into a futuristic world, according to Variety.
Brad Johnson (Always) stars as James Bishop, who leads the group to rebuild the new world, according to the trade paper.
Day One is reportedly one of the most expensive pilots in The WB's history. Other cast members include Susan Ward, Corinne Bohrer, Paul Wasilewski, Carlos Ponce and Karl Geary.
Matheson To Get Horror Award
egendary SF author and screenwriter Richard Matheson will receive the Living Legend Award from the International Horror Guild.
The IHG Awards will be presented May 12 at the World Horror Convention in Denver.
Matheson is best known for writing 14 of the original episodes of television's The Twilight Zone in the 1950s. He later wrote for Star Trek, Rod Serling's Night Gallery and Kolchak: The Night Stalker.
His stories and novels have also been the basis of several classic SF and horror films. Those include The Incredible Shrinking Man and Somewhere in Time, for which he also wrote the screenplays. He wrote the script for Steven Spielberg's first film, Duel, and the television miniseries The Martian Chronicles, based on Ray Bradbury's classic SF novel of the same name. His novel I Am Legend was twice adapted as a film, The Last Man on Earth and The Omega Man.
Previous recipients of the IHG Living Legend Award include Ray Bradbury, Hugh B. Cave, Edward W. Bryant, Clive Barker and Harlan Ellison.
Horror Award Nominees Announced
he International Horror Guild has announced nominees for its 1999 awards, recognizing achievement in the field.
The IHG Awards will be presented May 12 at the World Horror Convention in Denver. A full list of nominees follows.
Novel
•Jonathan Aycliffe, The Talisman
•Richard Bowes, Minions of the Moon
•Kim Newman, Seven Stars
•Stewart O'Nan, A Prayer for the Dying
•Peter Straub, Mr. X
First Novel
•Michael Cisco, The Divinity Student
•Fred Durbin, Dragonfly
•Paul Griner, Collectors
•China Miéville, King Rat
•J. G. Passarella, Wither
Long Fiction
•Andy Duncan, "The Executioner's Guild"
•Graham Joyce, "Leningrad Nights"
•Tim Lebbon, "White"
•Kim Newman, "Andy Warhol's Dracula"
•Lucius Shepard, "Crocodile Rock"
Short Fiction
•Richard Calder, "Impakto"
•Gemma Files, "The Emperor's Old Bones"
•Kim Newman, "Americanski Dead at the Moscow Morgue"
•Michael Marshall Smith, "What You Make It"
•Steve Rasnic Tem, "Halloween Street"
Collection
•David Case, Brotherly Love & Other Tales of Faith and Knowledge
•Douglas Clegg, The Nightmare Chronicles
•Jean Ray, My Private Spectres
•Jay Russell, Waltzes and Whispers
•Michael Marshall Smith, What You Make It
Anthology
•Richard Chizmar and William Schafer, eds., Subterranean Gallery
•Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, eds., The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror Fiction, 12th Annual
•Don Hutchison, ed., Northern Frights 5
•Stephen Jones, ed., The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, Vol. 10
•Stephen Jones, ed., White of the Moon: New Tales of Madness and Dread
Nonfiction
•Neil Barron, ed., Fantasy and Horror: A Critical and Historical Guide to Literature, Illustration, Film, TV, Radio, and the Internet
•Richard Davenport-Hines, Gothic: Four Hundred Years of Excess, Horror, Evil and Ruin
•Chris Jarocha-Ernst, A Cthulhu Mythos: Bibliography & Concordance
•S.T. Joshi, Sixty Years of Arkham House
•Victoria Price, Vincent Price: A Daughter's Biography
Graphic Story
•Axel Alonso and Joan Hilty, eds., Flinch #1-7
•Brian Michael Bendis and Marc Andreyko, Torso #1-4
•Roman Dirge, Lenore #5-6
•Joe R. Lansdale and Sam Glanzman, Red Range
•David Quinn and Tim Vigil, Faust: The Book of M #1-3
Artist
•Charles Burns
•Sue Coe
•Chad Savage
•Douglas Walters
•Kent Williams
Film
•The Blair Witch Project
•The Sixth Sense
•Sleepy Hollow
•Stir of Echoes
•The Talented Mr. Ripley
Publication
•All Hallows
•DarkEcho
•Enigmatic Tales
•Ghosts & Scholars
•Grue
Television Show
•The Storm of the Century
•Buffy the Vampire Slayer
•The X-Files
King Story Hits Big On Web
emand for Stephen King's Internet-only novella has exceeded expectations, creating Web gridlock, according to the Reuters news service.
The ghost story "Riding the Bullet" went on sale this week in electronic form only--a first for the best-selling author--and quickly overloaded the server set up to handle the sales.
"This was easily 15 times the kind of volume we were thinking," said Keith Loris, president and chief executive of SoftLock.com, which is fulfilling order requests for the story. The company's server overloaded at the high volume of customers, the news service reported.
King's publisher, Simon & Schuster, said a half-million readers have requested the story since it went on sale for $2.50. The publishers were taking steps to deal with the unexpectedly high demand for the story, which is available for download to PCs, electronic book devices and personal digital assistants. Amazon.com is offering to give the story away for free--but said it was unavailable as of Friday, March 17, due to "incredible demand."
Why Director Passed On Potter
irector Wolfgang Petersen (Air Force One) told Cinescape magazine that he bowed out of helming Warner Bros.' upcoming film Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone because there wasn't enough time to make the effects-laden movie.
"If [they] really want to do Harry Potter for next summer, [they] should start yesterday," Petersen told the magazine.
Petersen said the movie had "an enormous amount of visual effects" and that the studio was aiming at a July 4, 2001, release date. Petersen, Rob Reiner and Steven Spielberg, among others, have passed on the movie, which is based on J.K. Rowling's popular children's novel of the same name.
Warner Bros, meanwhile, has reserved a piece of cyberspace for an official Harry Potter Web site. There's nothing there now, but stay tuned.
Lucas Angers Web Fans
ans are livid at what they see as Lucasfilm's attempts to commandeer content of Star Wars fan Web sites, according to the CNET News.com Web site.
The company has let fans use the StarWars.com domain to host their pages, but with a catch: any Star-Wars-related content on such pages automatically belongs to Lucasfilm, CNET reported.
The service, which launched earlier this month and is powered by Homestead.com, allows fans to post Star Wars images and other content. But a provision in the contract gives Lucasfilm sole control of any designs people post on their sites, including original material derived from Star Wars.
That has raised the ire of fans who see the contract as a grab for intellectual property rights. It's not the first time Lucasfilm has angered fans. The company previously sent letters to fans seeking to prevent the unauthorized use of Star Wars: Episode I content on fan Web sites, CNET reported. For its part, Lucasfilm defends its contract language as standard practice.
Actor Won't Go To Mir
ussia won't let an actor travel to space station Mir to film a movie as earlier planned, according to the Associated Press.
Vladimir Steklov was set to fly to Mir in April to play a renegade cosmonaut in a feature film, one of Russia's plans to exploit Mir for private money.
But the Russian Aerospace Agency pulled the plug on the idea, saying that Steklov failed to fulfill terms of his contract, but giving no details. Two cosmonauts will still fly to Mir on April 4, and may take a movie camera with them to film footage for the movie The Last Journey anyway, the news service reported.
Jolie Discusses Lara Croft
scar nominee Angelina Jolie said she's "extremely excited" to be playing archaeologist-adventurer Lara Croft in the upcoming feature film Tomb Raider, based on the Eidos video game series of the same name.
"I hope everybody in England will allow me to do it, because I know she's one of your girls," the actress told the Popcorn UK Web site. Jolie was nominated for an Oscar for best supporting actress for her role in 1999's Girl, Interrupted.
Jolie added, "She's everything I think I'd like to be and everything I'd like to date [laughs]. She's bold and funny and loyal. ... And it's physically such a demanding thing." Jolie said that she'll be traveling to England to train for the role. Tomb Raider begins production this spring.
A.I. Is Spielberg's Next Job
t's official: Steven Spielberg's next job will be writing and directing A.I., the SF film based on an idea by Stanley Kubrick.
The announcement was made Tuesday, March 14, by Warner Bros. and DreamWorks Pictures, which will share production of the film.
"Stanley had a vision for this project that was evolving over 18 years," Spielberg said in a statement. "I am intent on bringing to the screen as much of that vision as possible, along with elements of my own." Spielberg, who recently underwent surgery to remove a kidney, will begin work on the movie July 10, with an eye to a summer 2001 release date, the statement said.
Spielberg, who this week won the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Directors Guild of America, has been mulling which project to take on next. Until recently, bets were on his directing Tom Cruise in Minority Report. But Cruise told Entertainment Tonight earlier this week that he and Spielberg wouldn't begin work on Minority Report until April or May of 2001.
Minority Report, based on a short story of the same name by legendary SF author Philip K. Dick, deals with cops who travel back in time to apprehend criminals before they can perpetrate their crimes. Spielberg had earlier turned down the chance to direct a film based on J.K. Rowling's popular Harry Potter series of children's books.
A.I., loosely based on Brian Aldiss' 1969 short story "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long," is set in a future where the polar icecaps have melted and robots possess artificial intelligence, or A.I. Spielberg has been reportedly completing a script based on Kubrick's treatment. Kubrick spent years developing the material and intended to direct himself, before his death last year.
Osment, Law May Star In A.I.
scar nominees Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense) and Jude Law (The Talented Mr. Ripley) are in talks to star in A.I., the SF thriller to be directed by Steven Spielberg based on a treatment by the late Stanley Kubrick, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Law reportedly turned down a Paramount film, Four Feathers, which was scheduled to go into production around the time A.I. is set to begin.
Osment is nominated for a best-supporting-actor Oscar for his performance in Sense. Law is also nominated for best supporting actor for his role in Ripley.
Spielberg said earlier this week that A.I., whose title stands for "artificial intelligence," would be his next project. Spielberg is writing and directing the film based on a treatment by Kubrick, which in turn is loosely based on the Brian Aldiss short story "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long." A.I. is scheduled to begin shooting July 10, aiming at a summer 2001 release.
Bigger X-Men Trailer Due
xpect a more complete trailer for Fox's upcoming X-Men film later this spring, producer Ralph Winter told the Marvel Comics official Web site.
"We'll have a fuller, more fleshed-out, more storytelling trailer in late April or mid-May, somewhere around in there, when we feel we've got something really exciting," Winter said. "The final trailer will play a couple of weeks from the movie [release date of July 14]. We're not done putting stuff out there; there's more stuff coming."
Director Bryan Singer and his team are back in Los Angeles after having wrapped photography in Toronto a couple of weeks ago. They will incorporate nearly 400 special effects and add music by composer Michael Kamen to the movie, based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name.
"It's been fun. It's been difficult. It's a lengthy process," Winter told the site. "We've got a big task trying to [make] this comic story and these comic heroes come to life on the screen and make it look real in front of the real world. It's hard to do. But we're happy, and I think it will be a good result and people will want to see it."
Singer added, "There's a lot of pressure. It's been very difficult. The movie was intended to come out December of 2000. Fox moved it to July, and that put pressure on from the moment that decision was made."
X-Men Details Revealed
ew details about the plot of Fox's upcoming X-Men movie are being reported in this week's edition of Newsweek magazine.
The film is designed to be realistic, despite its origins as a Marvel Comics series of the same name.
The film is set a year or two in the future and centers on the character of Wolverine as he encounters the X-Men for the first time. Led by Prof. Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), the X-Men fight for the future of humankind while a rabid right-wing U.S. senator played by Bruce Davison pushes discriminatory legislation against mutants, the magazine reported. The movie's villain is Magneto (Ian McKellen), who argues that mutants can never coexist with humans.
"This movie is the first skirmish in the potential war between humans and mutants," director Bryan Singer told Newsweek. "It's not your average genre picture. I'm not saying it's a character-based drama, but it's not an action movie. It's a movie with action in it."
Bowman To Helm Generation Ship
ob Bowman (The X-Files feature film) is in final talks to direct Generation Ship, an SF film based on Harlan Ellison and Edward Bryant's novel Phoenix Without Ashes, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The movie is slated to go into production at the end of the year, the trade paper reported.
The film tells the story of an ark-like starship carrying the remnants of several Earth biospheres through the cosmos. The inhabitants, who have descended from the original crew over 5,000 years, are unaware they are aboard a ship until one of them discovers they are about to crash into a star.
The novel was based on Ellison's 1970s Canadian television series The Starlost. David Goyer (Blade) wrote the script for Generation Ship; he and Bowman will collaborate on a rewrite.
Spence Back In First Wave
ebastian Spence will return to play Cade Foster for the third season of The SCI FI Channel series First Wave, the cable network announced.
The series commences production on its third season March 27.
Foster is a master thief who was the subject of tests by alien invaders. He escaped and now works to undermine the aliens' efforts to colonize Earth. First Wave, executive produced by Francis Ford Coppola and Larry Sugar and created by Chris Brancato, airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET.
SCIFI.COM To Publish SF Stories
CIFI.COM, the Web site of The SCI FI Channel, plans to begin publishing original and classic SF stories, the company announced.
The venture will be shepherded by Ellen Datlow, a World Fantasy Award-winning editor who oversaw the science fiction content at Omni magazine for 16 years and is credited with discovering SF author William Gibson.
The new venture is planned as a springboard to the cross-medium production of science fiction in film, in print and on television. In addition to appearing online, selected stories from the site will also be spun off into a series of yearly print anthologies. SCIFI.COM intends to adapt at least one short story each year for film, and certain works may be adapted for SCIFI.COM's growing lineup of online original programs. The new area will also serve as a premiere programming resource for development executives at The SCI FI Channel.
Datlow is the co-editor of the reprint anthology series The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. Her own anthology credits include Blood is Not Enough, Little Deaths and Twists of the Tale.
SCI FI Orders More Lexx
he SCI-FI Channel has ordered 13 episodes of a second season of its hit SF series Lexx from Canada's Salter Street Films and Germany's TiMe Film und TV Produktion, SCI FI announced.
SCI FI had originally ordered 20 episodes of the show, about a ragtag crew of space wanderers aboard an insectoid starship.
Part of SCI FI's Friday lineup, Lexx has become the highest-rated original series on the cable network since its Jan. 7 premiere. Filmed in Nova Scotia and Germany, the series stars Brian Downey as Stanley Tweedle, captain of the starship Lexx; Xenia Seeberg as love slave Xev; and Michael McManus as Kai, a 2,000-year-old assassin. The series is a spin-off from a series of movies that aired in the United States under the title Tales from a Parallel Universe.
Rice To Promo SCI FI
ovelist Anne Rice (Interview with the Vampire) stars in a fang-in-cheek television promotion for The SCI FI Channel starting March 17.
The promo is part of the cable network's "I Am SCI FI" campaign.
The promo starts with a tour winding through a dark cave. A group approaches a large cocoon hanging from the ceiling. It opens to reveal Rice, hanging upside down. She spreads her wings with a toothy smile and releases a flock of bats.
Other SCI FI promos feature musician Moby, Virgin Records owner Richard Branson, tennis pros Serena and Venus Williams, rap artist Busta Rhymes and martial arts master Jet Li.
Fans Are Hot About Roswell
ans of The WB's freshman teen alien series Roswell are mounting a unique campaign to save the show from cancellation: mailing miniature bottles of Tabasco sauce to WB executives.
The spicy condiment is featured prominently in the show, and Tabasco maker McIlhenny Co. has co-sponsored fan gatherings in the past.
A WB spokeswoman said the network has received more than 100 of the tiny bottles, with more coming in daily. Fans also plan to purchase an ad in the trade paper Variety on April 6. (Fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer last year purchased a full-page ad in the paper to protest The WB's decision to delay the airing of two controversial episodes.)
Roswellians have created a Web site to organize the "Roswell Is Hot" campaign to persuade The WB to pick up the show for a second season. Fans mounted the effort after The WB renewed Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, but not Roswell. Fans are also worried about the network's plans to move the show to a Monday 9 p.m. time slot on April 10 from its current Wednesday 9 p.m. slot.
The effort has apparently caught the attention of the show's creators. Star Jason Behr has written fans saying, "Thank you for all of your e-mails, letters and (apparently) bottles of Tabasco sauce! To paraphrase Mark Twain--rumors of our demise have been greatly exaggerated! We all welcome the change from Wednesday to Monday night, and we look forward to your continued support in our new time slot."
Berry Drops Pluto Nash
alle Berry won't appear in Pluto Nash, an SF comedy starring Eddie Murphy, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Berry, who is facing legal problems from an automobile accident in Los Angeles, pulled out only a few weeks before production was scheduled to start, the trade paper reported.
Berry's representatives told the paper that her decision had nothing to do with the accident, in which Berry is accused of leaving the scene of a crash. Berry has been sued by the driver of the other vehicle.
Rosario Dawson (Light It Up) is in final talks to take over the female lead in the story about good vs. evil in the future. The movie is to be directed by Ron Underwood (Mighty Joe Young).
McKellen Talks Rings Scenes
an McKellen, who is playing the wizard Gandalf in Peter Jackson's film trilogy The Lord of the Rings, said his favorite scene so far is one of the earliest.
In response to questions from fans on his official Web site, the actor said, "I was most looking forward to [filming] Gandalf's arrival in Hobbiton for the long-expected party--food, fireworks and a pipeful of Longbottom Leaf."
The scene is "a wonderful chance to show Gandalf's crucial fascination with the Hobbit world," McKellen said from the New Zealand set. But he added that he's also looking forward to other scenes. "The face-off with the Balrog should be exciting, although I expect it will involve camera trickery more than physicality from me," he said.
As for the transformation of Gandalf the Grey to Gandalf the White during the course of the story, he added, "There will be changes to costume and general appearance and awareness that Gandalf the White is younger-looking than his earlier incarnation. Otherwise we shall both have to wait and see. With 10 months' filming ahead, I am absorbed still with Gandalf the Grey." The films are based on J.R.R. Tolkien's classic novels of the same name.
Tyler Praises Rings Production
iv Tyler, who plays Arwen in Peter Jackson's film trilogy The Lord of the Rings, praised the quality of the movies now in production in New Zealand.
"I'm particularly impressed with the acting," Tyler told The Dominion, a newspaper in Wellington, according to TheOneRing.net Web site.
She added, "A lot of times when you think of a genre of film that's going to be quite large and have a lot of special effects, the acting can suffer because of that. But everyone's doing such a brilliant job. Peter Jackson is an amazing director--you almost feel like he's acting in the scenes with you. He's very present in there." Tyler is part of the large company of performers working on the New Line films, which are based on J.R.R. Tolkien's classic novels of the same name.
Mage Creator Likes Script
att Wagner, creator of the Mage series of comic books, told the Comics2Film Web site that he is very pleased with John Rogers' initial screenplay for the upcoming Mage feature film.
"One of the things I love about it is, it's not crazy faithful," Wagner said. "It knows it has to adapt and so it changes things. For instance, there's a whole other character in this that isn't in [the] 'Hero Discovered' [story arc] at all."
Wagner added that Rogers "explains the magic real well. He takes stuff that I had written when I was 20 years old and writes from a 30-year-old standpoint, so it's a little more eloquent. It's great."
And the script remains faithful to the comics, Wagner added. "[Rogers] manages to lift huge sections straight from the book that will ring very familiar and true to almost everybody. And yet he still brings his own sense of humor to it. [Rogers provides] each of the main four characters with a real distinct voice and a real distinct relationship with each of the other characters in the group."
Rogers is at work on a second draft of the screenplay for Spyglass Entertainment and Critical Mass Entertainment, which are developing the film.
Del Toro To Helm Blade 2
imic director Guillermo del Toro will helm Blade 2: Blood Hunt, the sequel to the hit 1998 vampire movie Blade, based on the Marvel Comics series Blade: Vampire Hunter, according to Variety.
Wesley Snipes will reprise his starring role as the half-human, half-vampire hero, and Kris Kristofferson will make an appearance, though his character died in the first movie.
David Goyer, who wrote the script for the first film, will write the sequel. Stephen Norrington directed the original film for New Line Cinema. Blade 2 is set to start production in the fall, with an eye to a summer 2001 release, the trade paper reported.
Farscape Gets Online Commentary
inking television and Internet ever closer, The SCI FI Channel will offer simulcast audio commentary on the Internet during rebroadcasts of its hit series Farscape, starting March 17.
Farscape commences its second season at 8 p.m. ET with the hour-long episode "Mind the Baby."
During rebroadcasts of the episode at 11 p.m. March 17 and 2 p.m. March 18, series executive producer David Kemper and creator Rockne S. O'Bannon will offer their commentary in streaming audio from SCI FI's Web site, SCIFI.COM. Kemper and O'Bannon will share teasers about upcoming episodes, surprise character developments, plot twists and special effects secrets. The audio commentary will be available through the Real Broadcast Network online at SCIFI.COM.
Buffy Game Due In Fall
video game based on The WB's hit TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer is in the works and slated for a fall release, according to an announcement by Fox Interactive, which will produce the game.
The game will be designed for the Sega Dreamcast and PlayStation platforms and for the PC.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer will be a third-person action adventure game in which players assume the role of Buffy Summers, a high school cheerleader by day and demon fighter by night.
The game will feature characters from the TV series, including Angel, Xander, Cordelia, Willow, Oz and Giles.
Hanks To Conduct Polar Express
he fantasy children's book The Polar Express will become a movie with Tom Hanks producing and starring, according to Variety.
Hanks will play the conductor of a train called the Polar Express, which takes a boy to visit Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. The film is slated for a Christmas 2001 release.
The book was written by Chris Van Allsburg, who also wrote the book on which the film Jumanji was based. Another Van Allsburg book, the witch tale The Widow's Broom, is in development at Paramount and Nickelodeon Pictures with a script by Van Allsburg himself.
Duchovny Offered $1 Million To Stay
avid Duchovny, whose contract to play FBI Agent Fox Mulder on Fox's The X-Files runs out at the end of the current season, is being offered as much as $1 million an episode to return for an eighth season, according to Vancouver Sun columnist Malcolm Parry.
If Duchovny says no, it's possible the show will go on with Gillian Anderson (FBI Agent Dana Scully), whose contract has one more year on it, and a new actor in the Mulder role, according to Parry's column, as quoted on the Fandom X-Files Web site.
The columnist goes on to suggest the show would return to shoot in Vancouver. The show moved to Los Angeles last year to accommodate the desire of Duchovny to be near his L.A.-based wife, Tea Leoni. Fox executives have made clear they want to figure out a way to keep the hit show going beyond this season.
Fox, meanwhile, is preparing to shoot a spinoff series based on The Lone Gunmen characters from The X-Files. That show is slated to be shot in Vancouver, perhaps as early as July, Parry reported.
Carter Blasts Fox
he X-Files creator Chris Carter again lambasted the Fox television network for pulling his virtual reality series Harsh Realm after just three airings.
"We never got the support or promotion we needed," Carter told TV Guide.
He added, "The show was launched at the wrong time with no thought or energy [from the network] behind it creatively or financially."
For its part, Fox told TV Guide, "We regret that we were not able to help Harsh Realm build the audience it deserves, but we are pleased that the series has found a home on FX." The FX cable network will air all nine Harsh Realm episodes, including the six that never aired, starting on March 24.
Love Going To Mars?
ock-star-turned-actress Courtney Love is reportedly under consideration as the leader of an interplanetary expedition in John Carpenter's Ghost of Mars, an SF film in development at Screen Gems.
Variety columnist Michael Fleming reports that Love would play the "butt-kicking leader of an expedition to Mars," with Whoopi Goldberg possibly playing her science officer.
The story concerns a mission to Mars to hunt down a colonist accused of several murders. But the astronauts discover that the colonist has been framed by the ghosts of long-dead Martians.
Fleming also reported that Carpenter wants Jason Statham (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) for the male lead.
Witchblade To Wrap Filming
itchblade, a TNT television movie based on the Top Cow comic series of the same name, is scheduled to finish shooting in Toronto next week, according to the Comics Continuum Web site.
The site reported that the film, a pilot for a possible series, is slated for an October air date.
The movie has an "amazing cast ... amazing director and crew," producer Brad Foxhoven told the site. "All of them [are] very supportive and friendly to us. Though there are some elements of the comic book that had to be tweaked for the sake of continuity and television viewership, the show will stay true to the original concept and initial story arc. And did I mention it looks amazing?"
The film stars Yancy Butler as NYPD detective Sara Pezzini. Ralph Hemecker is directing from a script by J.D. Zeik.
Indy DVDs Coming?
ucasfilm and Paramount are rumored to be developing DVD versions of the Indiana Jones trilogy.
The SFX Web site reported that the DVDs are being readied for a May or June release, despite official denials to the contrary.
The site also reported that Image Entertainment has canceled plans to produce THX/AC3 Laserdisc versions of the films, and that digitized versions of the movies have been prepared.
Tennant To Helm Afterlife
ndy Tennant will direct Afterlife, an SF thriller based on a script by Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), according to Variety.
Tennant (Anna and the King) will also rewrite the screenplay that Whedon sold to Sony Pictures Entertainment in 1994, before his Toy Story became a huge hit.
Afterlife tells the story of a terminally ill scientist who seeks to avoid death by transplanting his brain into another body--that of an escaped serial killer. He later seeks to reunite with his wife while avoiding temptations to murder.
Dick Award Judges Named
he five judges have been announced for the 2000 Philip K. Dick Award competition for distinguished science fiction published in paperback in the United States, the award sponsors announced.
The Philip K. Dick Award is sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and the Norwescon SF convention.
The judges are Don D'Ammassa, Alis A. Rasmussen, Tanya Huff, Len Hatfield and Steve Swiniarski. Nominees will be announced in January 2001. The award will be presented at a ceremony at Norwescon 24 in Seattle in April 2001.
The 1999 awards will be announced at Norwescon on April 21. The 1998 award was given to 253: The Print Remix by Geoff Ryman, and a special citation was awarded to Lost Pages by Paul Di Filippo.
Robocop Web Site Online
n official Web site has opened for the upcoming television miniseries Robocop: Prime Directives.
The site features trailers, background information, news, images and a discussion area about the production, as well as comments from producer and director Julian Grant.
A rough cut has been assembled for Dark Justice, the first of the four Prime Directive films, Grant reported. "[I] am already assembl[ing] and working on tweaking the picture for review by Fireworks [Entertainment, which is producing the series,] and (believe it or not) the writers," Grant said. He added, "The CGI house, Stargate SPFX, are working diligently on the over 800 shots assigned to them! The laser rifles, taser prods and blood FX are phenomenal, and I almost wept when I saw the electric staff punch a big hole through a bad guy."
The Prime Directives films premiere in the fall either on home video, pay cable or in broadcast syndication.
Roswell Star Behr Mulls Movies
ason Behr, star of The WB's hit teen alien series Roswell, said he is weighing his options carefully for a movie project when the show goes on hiatus for the summer, according to the Associated Press.
"You don't have to take the first thing to be successful," Behr told the news service.
He added, "There are a lot of people who want you to keep doing the same thing, like that saying, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.' I want to be involved in telling a good story. ... If I fail because of that, I failed my way. If I succeed, it's going to be that much more rewarding."
In addition to winning viewers as the smoldering Max Evans on Roswell, Behr's gaining notice for his role in the independent film Rites of Passage, which also stars Dean Stockwell. Behr received a best acting nomination in this year's Santa Monica Film Festival, and the film won best of show.
But growing fame isn't going to his head, Behr said. "For people to tell you nice things or compliment you is rewarding, but if you allow yourself to buy into the notion you are now a star, then you stop being an actor," he said.
Conqueror's Child Wins Tiptree Award
uzy McKee Charnas' novel The Conqueror's Child has won the 1999 Tiptree Award, given to SF&F books that explore and expand the roles of women and men, the James Tiptree Jr. Literary Award Council announced.
Child is the fourth book in a series about the slave Alldera and the Riding Women in a future dystopia in which men brutally dominate women.
The award is named for Alice B. Sheldon, who wrote under the pseudonym James Tiptree Jr. to overcome prejudices against female genre writers. Her SF stories won many awards, and her pseudonym was chosen for the award to illustrate the difficulty women have in gaining recognition and credibility for their art. The award was created in February 1991 by SF authors Karen Joy Fowler and Pat Murphy.
Smith Considering MiB2?
ill Smith was overheard saying that he'll be reading a script for Men in Black 2, a proposed sequel to his 1997 hit film Men in Black, according to the Dark Horizons Web site.
Smith made his comments to a British radio interviewer last week during the ShoWest convention in Las Vegas.
As to whether Smith will reprise his leading role in the film, he reportedly said, "If it is hot I will do it; if it's not, then I won't."
WhirlGirl Meets Moron On Web
HO.com's Web-based animated feature WhirlGirl joins SCIFI.COM's Barbarian Moron in four crossover episodes appearing on a special combined site, SHO.SCIFI.com, beginning May 8, the two Web sites announced.
In the crossover series, the 21st-century super heroine WhirlGirl falls through an interdimensional vortex and encounters Barbarian Moron, a post-apocalyptic hero who is light in the brain department.
WhirlGirl appears on SHO.com, the Web site of Showtime Networks. Moron appears on SCIFI.COM, the site of The SCI FI Channel.
SF Author Sladek Dead
ohn T. Sladek, one of the most prominent writers of SF's New Wave movement, died Friday, March 10, of respiratory failure at his home in Edina, Minn., longtime friend and collaborator Thomas M. Disch told SCI FI Wire.
Sladek was 62.
U.S.-born Sladek moved to Great Britain in 1966 and became one of a group of writers involved in the movement. "He was one of the major figures in the New Wave that was centered around [Michael Moorcock's] New Worlds magazine," Disch said. "He was the most eminent satirist of that group." Sladek first published SF was "The Happy Breed" in Dangerous Visions (1967), and other short work appeared in New Worlds, Asimov's, Twilight Zone, and F&SF in the 1970s and 1980s. Sladek's stories were collected in The Steam-Driven Boy and Other Strangers, Alien Accounts, Keep the Giraffe Burning and The Lunatics of Terra, as well as the 1981 anthology The Best of John Sladek.
Sladek's novels included The Reproductive System, The Mueller-Fokker Effect and Roderick (1980) and Roderick At Random (1983), which told the life story of a sentient robot. Tik-Tok (1984) won a British Science Fiction Association Award. In addition to SF, Sladek wrote two gothics in collaboration with Disch, under the pseudonym Cassandra Knye. Sladek also wrote nonfiction, including The New Apocrypha: A Guide to the Stranger Sciences and Occult Beliefs, which examined cults and pseudo-sciences, including the Church of Scientology. In the mid-1980s, Sladek returned to his home state of Minnesota, where he worked for a computer company and continued to write.
The cause of death was a genetically linked progressive lung disease; Sladek had been a
candidate for a lung transplant. He is survived by his wife, Sandy, and his daughter, Dorothea Sladek, from a previous marriage.
StarCars Will Be U.S. Anime
tarCars, an SF film described as "American anime," is coming from South Korea-based Ameko Entertainment Co. and U.S.-based Hyper Image, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The apocalyptic story about a deadly auto race in the future will be directed by Rob Smiley, Hyper Image's president, the trade paper reported.
StarCars will be written by Smiley and Kevin O'Donnell, with production to start early next year. The film will combine traditional animation with computer-generated images and is aimed at video-gamers.
God Scores High Ratings
espite refusals by nine NBC affiliates to air it, God, the Devil and Bob won its time slot with high television ratings during a preview on Thursday, March 9, according to Variety.
The animated satirical comedy drew 14.42 million viewers, scoring especially well among teens and young adults, the trade paper reported.
Nine affiliates in religiously conservative regions of the country such as Idaho and Utah declined to air the show, which pits God against the Devil in a humorous contest for the future of humankind.
Mars Tops Box Office
ission to Mars landed in the No. 1 spot in the North American box office rankings during its debut, earning $23.1 million during the weekend of March 11 despite being blasted by critics.
Mars' revenues were more than the total of the next four films combined, according to the Hollywood trade papers.
The Ninth Gate, Roman Polanski's supernatural thriller starring Johnny Depp, debuted in the No. 2 slot with $6.7 million. That film also garnered lukewarm reviews. Pitch Black remained strong, coming in ninth with $3.1 million for the weekend and a total of $34.2 million after 24 days in release.
Briefly Noted
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The X-Files supervising producer John Shiban told Cinescape magazine that the show's staff is still waiting to find out if there is going to be an eighth season to the Fox hit. But time's running out for the show's writers to cook up a series finale if the answer's no, he said. "It's getting very scary. ... There is a plan for [the conclusion of the series]. We always felt it would take at least two episodes to do it--if not more. We really want to do it right."
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Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange returned to British movie theaters Friday, March 17, for the first time since the late director pulled the film more than 25 years ago. Kubrick withdrew the movie from the United Kingdom in 1972, amid protests about the film's violence.
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British network ITV has ordered 26 episodes of an animated half-hour children's show Butt-Ugly Martians, about three Martians who come to destroy the Earth, but decide to stay after sampling earthly delights, Variety reported. The 3-D computer-animated show doesn't have a U.S. distributor yet.
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The Sixth Sense will come out on DVD March 28, with 75 minutes of new footage, including three deleted scenes and an extended ending. The DVD will also include explanations by Oscar-nominated writer and director M. Night Shyamalan as to why the scenes didn't make it into the release version of the movie.
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Director David Fincher (Fight Club) may be considering helming a feature film version of Arthur C. Clarke's classic SF novel Rendezvous with Rama, according to the Dark Horizons Web site.
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LucasArts said it will partner with Verant Interactive and Sony Online Entertainment to create the first Star Wars online role-playing game. With a release date in 2001, the game will feature combat, specialized missions and quests.
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Ethan Embry (Disturbing Behavior) will star in Fearsum, an upcoming Fox television series about a Web site focused on paranormal phenomena, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Embry plays the site's host, who finds out that his twin brother is not dead after all. The series has received a 13-episode commitment.
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Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi will create a new animated series for the Fox Kids Network's 2000-2001 schedule.
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Julie Benz, who has appeared regularly in The WB's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Roswell, will star in the one-hour pilot Good Guys, Bad Guys for NBC.
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Heavy Metal F.A.K.K. 2, the long-awaited sequel to the 1981 animated cult movie Heavy Metal, will finally surface, on the Encore cable network July 10, according to the Comics2Film Web site. Creator Kevin Eastman told the site that the movie will be promoted as Heavy Metal 2000, though the title retains the designation F.A.K.K. 2, which refers to a planetary environment in the film that is lethal to life forms.
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OnStar, a subsidiary of General Motors, will air a second live-action television commercial featuring the DC Comics character Batman. One commercial has already aired touting the company's mobile communications service, and a third is planned, according to the Comics Continuum Web site.
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Brad Silberling (City of Angels), Chris Columbus (Bicentennial Man), Alan Parker (Angela's Ashes) and Terry Gilliam (12 Monkeys) are on the short list to direct the film adaptation of J.K. Rowling's hit children's novel Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, according to Variety. Steven Spielberg turned the project down in favor of A.I.
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Seventeen NBC affiliates are now boycotting the animated fantasy series God, the Devil and Bob, representing 4.23 percent of the nation, according to Variety. The latest stations to preempt the show are in Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Texas and Missouri.
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New Zealand actor Marton Csokas will play Celeborn, Galadriel's husband, in the feature film trilogy The Lord of the Rings, according to TheOneRing.net Web site. Csokas has appeared in episodes of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess.
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Anjelica Huston (Ever After) hasn't been confirmed to star in The Mists of Avalon, the TNT cable network's telefilm based on Marion Zimmer Bradley's novel of the same name, a spokeswoman for TNT told SCI FI Wire. But sources say Huston is being considered for a role in the distaff retelling of the Arthurian legends.
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Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon has completed the first script for the Dark Horse comic book series Fray, he told Buffy fans on the show's Web bulletin board. The eight-issue series won't debut for several months, Whedon said. Dark Horse also publishes Buffy and Angel comics.
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Samuel L. Jackson will reprise his role of Jedi knight Mace Windu in Star Wars: Episode II, the actor told the Calgary Sun newspaper. "I haven't seen a script yet, so I don't know if I'll be going to Tunisia, Italy or Australia, but George [Lucas] has assured me I'm going," Jackson told the paper.
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Horrormeister Clive Barker (Hellraiser) makes a rare appearance on camera in an upcoming episode of NBC's supernatural thriller series The Others, according to his official Web site. The episode tentatively airs March 25.
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Ethan Hawke, who was to play Faramir in New Line's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, is no longer part of the production, according to a report on TheOneRing.net Web site. The site offers no explanation for the change.
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Star Trek: Voyager's Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine) broke her foot Thursday, March 9, and is hobbling around on crutches, according to the E! Online Web site. The actress suffered a hairline fracture after tripping on a step. The injury reportedly won't affect Voyager's production schedule.
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Steven Spielberg received the Directors Guild of America's highest honor Sunday, March 12, in ceremonies in Los Angeles. Spielberg accepted the lifetime achievement award to a standing ovation that lasted several minutes.
