News of the Week

ID4 blows away the competition, spurs "sci-fi" revival

ndependence Day performed as expected during its nationwide opening, taking in $50 million over its first weekend and a whopping $100 million over its first week. The furor over the movie has spurred a revival of sorts as publishers scramble to plaster the words "sci-fi" in their headlines and keep readers up to date on the latest hype.

ID4 was featured on the covers of notable publications such as Time, Newsweek and Entertainment Weekly, as well as on the front page of USA Today. As Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum puts it, "in some life-supporting galaxy far, far away, there's probably a copy of Blort Weekly with a picture of Will Smith on the cover."

While most publications plied the tried-and-true methods of offering "behind-the-scenes" coverage or a candid look at the possibility that UFOs really do exist, USA Today managed to ferret out an important piece of information: the U.S. government has no contingency plan to handle an alien invasion.

Scientist John Pike, director of space policy at the Federation of American scientists, summed up the problem for USA Today: "Are we dealing with deathstars or battlestars? Do they have cloaking devices? Do they want to eat us? Are they pod people? The number of scenarios you'd have to plan for is close to infinite."

Baxter, McDaid take top honors in the Campbell and Sturgeon awards

tephen Baxter and John McDaid walked away with the top honors during this year's presentation of the John W. Campbell and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Awards, presented July 12 at the Campbell Conference in Lawrence, Kan. Baxter won the coveted Campbell Award for best science fiction novel of the year for his novel The Time Ships, a sequel to the classic H.G. Wells story The Time Machine.

"I was influenced by both Wells's and Campbell's positions on mankind while writing the book," Baxter said during his acceptance. "I don't know if Wells and/or Campbell would have liked Time Ships, but I'd like to think they'd like this award as much as I do. Thank you very much."

McDaid won the Sturgeon award for his short story "Jigoku no Mokoshiroku," which appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction in the mid-December 1995 issue. The Sturgeon Award is given annually to the best short science fiction story of the year.

"I want to thank all of you, and I'd like to give special thanks to all the science fiction writers who wrote the stories I read when I was growing up, who warped my mind," McDaid said during his acceptance. "I know I'll never be able to pay them back, but I'll do my best to pay forward. I'm deeply honored. Thank you."

During the conference, the newly created Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame also inducted its first four nominees. For more details, see our full coverage of the Campbell Conference.

Takei commemorates WWII internment

eorge Takei, best known by fans as the actor who played Mr. Sulu in Star Trek, recently undertook yet another epic journey. This time it was to the World War II internment camp where he spent three years with his family and thousands of other Japanese Americans who were deemed security risks by the U.S. government.

Takei, now 59, was one of 275 Japanese Americans who undertook a four-day pilgrimage from San Francisco to the Tule Lake Relocation and Segregation Center near the Oregon state border.

Disney signs ID4 team for Gargoyles, acquires rights to Star Blazers

he writing/directing/producing team behind Independence Day continues to add science fiction and fantasy projects to its forthcoming lineup. Already scheduled to produce Godzilla and Fantastic Voyage, Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich have added Gargoyles to their list of upcoming projects.

Gargoyles will be a live-action feature based on the popular Disney cartoon of the same name. Devlin, who is scripting the project, said the movie deals with a gargoyle who wakes after a 100-year slumber to find himself in New York.

In other Disney news, Variety reported that Walt Disney Studios has acquired the rights to the popular Japanese cartoon series Star Blazers for a live-action feature film. The series, an epic space saga about the crew of a World War II battleship outfitted for space combat bent on defeating an alien menace that threatens the Earth, aired in Japan in the 1970s and the United States in the 1980s.

DC comics releases first title in new SF line

The July 3 release of Cyberella #1 marked the debut of DC Comics' new science fiction comic book imprint, Helix. DC said the new line will feature "critically acclaimed" science fiction writers from both the comics and prose side.

"At Helix, we're creating the themes, the plots, the look of SF for the next millennium -- and we're doing it with a crew of writers and artists who own their own properties and care enough to put all their best work onto every page," DC Senior Editor Stuart Moore added.

In addition to the techno-satire Cyberella, the Helix line will feature two other on-going series, Gemini Blood and Vermillion. The imprint will also be launched with two miniseries, Bloody Mary and Black Lamb. Most notable among DC's science fiction author lineup is Vermillion writer Lucius Shepherd, a winner of the Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy Awards.

BattleTech game slated to hit store shelves in November

ASA Corp. and Wizards of the Coast, Inc., announced plans to release a trading card game based on FASA's popular BattleTech universe. The game takes place in the 31st century and pits players against one another in a battle of 30-foot-tall walking robots, known as BattleMechs.

The game is scheduled to be released in November and comes in 60-card starter decks and 15-card booster packs. Richard Garfield, the person who created Wizard's incredibly popular Magic: The Gathering collectible card game, will lead the design team behind BattleTech.

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