Farscape To End
he SCI FI Channel confirmed that it will not pick up its original series Farscape for a fifth season.
"There are no bigger fans of Farscape than we here at SCI FI Channel," the network said in a statement. "It was one of SCI FI's first original series and quickly became a critical and fan favorite. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts to reach a broader audience, Farscape has been unable to grow beyond its core fan base. That, coupled with the extreme and growing cost of production, has led to the difficult decision to end the series at the conclusion of season four."
The remaining new episodes of Farscape's fourth season will return in January 2003. ADV Films will release "Into the Lion's Den (Part 1)" on DVD and VHS as part of the upcoming Farscape: Season 3 home video release, scheduled for 2003. Previous seasons of Farscape episodes are currently available on DVD and VHS from ADV Films; the newest release, Farscape: Season 2 Volume 2.2, was released last month.
Farscape was created by Rockne S. O'Bannon and produced by The Jim Henson Company, in association with Hallmark Entertainment. The series featured Ben Browder, Claudia Black, Anthony Simcoe, Gigi Edgley, Wayne Pygram and Raelee Hill. David Kemper, Juliet Blake, Robert Halmi Jr., Brian Henson and Richard Manning executive produced the show. O'Bannon served as executive consultant.
No Two Towers On Web?
ave enterprising thieves posted a rough cut of Peter Jackson's upcoming Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on the Internet months before its December theatrical release?
That was the rumor propagated by the infamous Drudge Report over the weekend.
The gossip site said that full copies of the film were available for download on the Internet via file-swapping software. The site also quoted an unnamed AOL Time Warner executive expressing doubts. "I have [a] serious question about this," the executive told the site. "I am not sure we even have a finished product yet. ... I don't know what this is, but if it is the movie, or any portion of the movie, we will impose strict criminal penalties against anyone and everyone that downloads it."
But the Coming Attractions Web site on Sept. 3 reported that the rumor may in fact be false. Internet users e-mailed the site saying that a number of files are labeled The Two Towers through KaZaA, but that the files appear to be looped film trailers, other bootleg movies or pornography. None of the correspondents said they had found the alleged rough cut.
Bloom Boards Pirates
rlando Bloom (Legolas in the Lord of the Rings films) will join Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush in the supernatural adventure film Pirates of the Caribbean, to be directed by Gore Verbinski for Disney, Variety reported.
Jerry Bruckheimer is producing the film, which is based on the Disneyland ride of the same name.
Bloom will play the role of Will Turner, who teams up with the swashbucking Capt. Jack Sparrow (Depp) to rescue the governor's daughter when she is kidnapped by pirates who are battling an evil curse, the trade paper reported.
Producer Talks Potter Changes
avid Heyman, producer of the upcoming sequel film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, told SCI FI Wire that director Chris Columbus will continue to be a key player in the franchise, even though he won't be helming the third installment.
Columbus—who directed the first film, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, as well as Chamber—will pass the baton to Alfonso Cuarón (A Little Princess).
"Chris will be involved, or is remaining involved, in a production capacity," Heyman said in an interview. "We're working together on this next film [Harry Potter and the
Prisoner of Azkaban]," based on the third of author J.K. Rowling's Potter novels.
Heyman added, "He, just as I am, is really excited about Alfonso Cuarón coming in. Alfonso has already met with the kids, with the three leading actors [Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint], and has gotten along incredibly well with them. But Chris is here for support and for guidance and for us all to benefit from his great wealth of experience, having directed the first two. The third film will grow out of what has already been created. The third book is slightly more mature, so I think the approach will be slightly more mature. The film will be a little darker, more mature and more adult, just as the book is. Also, Alfonso Cuarón is a different filmmaker from Chris, and I think the film will necessarily reflect that, because film is a director's medium." Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets opens Nov. 15. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is currently in preproduction.
Radcliffe Outgrowing Potter?
s Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe getting too big for his robes?
That's what the British tabloid newspaper the Daily Mail is reporting, according to the Counting Down Web site.
The newspaper ran a photograph of 13-year-old Radcliffe, who reportedly stands 5 feet 3 inches tall, easily towering over his mother, Marcia Gresham. The paper added that Radcliffe appears to have grown at least six inches in the last year.
The sequel movie Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was reportedly rushed into production to avoid a growth spurt on the part of Radcliffe and his co-stars, Rupert Grint (Ron) and Emma Watson (Hermione). Chamber, based on the second of author J.K. Rowling's Potter books, opens Nov. 15.
Bakula Previews Enterprise
cott Bakula, who stars as Capt. Jonathan Archer in UPN's Enterprise, shared a few secrets from upcoming second-season episodes with the TrekWeb fan site.
In episode three of the season, "Minefield," Bakula found himself doing several scenes against a green screen to accommodate computer effects that will simulate the exterior of the starship. Bakula's comments may contain spoilers.
"You walk in, and the floor's green, the wall's green, the ceiling's green, and all you do is just walk to one place and turn around and say a line, and you're in wherever they want you to be," Bakula told the site. "We're literally on the hull of the ship. It's a great episode in [extra-vehicular activity] suits and in a minefield, and they've never done that before." Bakula added, "Dominic [Keating, who plays Lt. Reed,] and I end up out in space, and we shot it all against a green screen, and it'll be terrific. We're going to be out there on the hull, and behind us you'll see the nacelles and just things that they haven't visually done before. There's a moment when a ship materializes behind Dominic when he's on the hull, which I think is going to be stunning stuff."
In the fifth episode, the crew encounters some familiar nemeses. "We just finished an episode where we land to pick up some deuterium and find out that the people on the planet are being basically held prisoner by Klingons who take whatever they like, whenever they like," Bakula said. The episode involved shooting in the California desert, which doubled for an alien mining colony. "[It's] the biggest set they've ever made," Bakula said. "We just finished shooting. When you see the set that they've built out in the desert ... . We were out for five days last week, and people were like, 'Oh, I can't wait to get back into the studio!' We never go out for that long of a period of time. And you look around and say, 'We're so spoiled!' We're not out 'til nine o'clock on Saturday morning, finishing Friday's work. I think I got home at 2 a.m. last Friday, which is an unusually late night for us."
As for the rumored appearance of Romulans in the season, Bakula said, "Have I met a Romulan? No, but I've come across them. But their names are bandied about in a couple of episodes, and we do encounter them. But we don't see them." Enterprise returns on Sept. 18.
Vegas Adds Enterprise Items
he History of the Future Museum at the Star Trek: The Experience theme attraction at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel has been updated to include items relating to UPN's newest series, Enterprise, the official Web site reported.
The museum features props, costumes, pictures and memorabilia from all incarnations of Star Trek.
Visitors can now view Capt. Archer's (Scott Bakula) uniform, an early version of a phase pistol/phase rifle from the pilot episode "Broken Bow," a small version of an Enterprise work station and manual, an Enterprise-era Klingon hand disruptor, Suliban and Andorian heads and a Suliban hand weapon. There are also exact replicas of the four Enterprise ship drawings from Archer's ready room.
In addition to items from Enterprise, the museum is adding exhibit items from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager and the feature film Star Trek: Insurrection.
Frakes Warps Into Thunderbirds
onathan Frakes told SCI FI Wire that he didn't know anything about Thunderbirds before signing on to direct a big-screen live-action version of Gerry Anderson's cult SF marionette TV series.
"I know a lot about it now," Frakes said in an interview. "It's about a family international rescue team that functions under the radar of the public."
Frakes added, "This family, the Tracy family, is called in to save falling bridges and burning buildings that firemen can't save. It's one of those situations where someone calls a hotline, and this family comes to the rescue. There's also a wonderful international spy named Lady Penelope, who drives a six-wheel pink Rolls Royce. The original show was done with marionettes, and it was pretty wacko."
Frakes—who previously directed the Star Trek movies First Contact and Insurrection, as well as Clockstoppers—will jet this weekend to England in order to hire a crew and audition actors. "What I understand from being over in England already is that Thunderbirds is as popular with the English as Star Trek is with Americans," he said. "It's a huge favorite there, with the toys and the Tracy family action figures. All of those things are still huge sellers at Christmas every year. As I understand it, England, Australia and Japan have a passionate audience. Anyway, our version of Thunderbirds will be entirely live-action, with a Spy Kids meets James Bond kind of vibe." Production will begin in February 2003, with filming slated to take place in South
Africa and London. Universal will release Thunderbirds in 2004. Universal Pictures is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
League To Shoot Again?
he IGN FilmForce Web site reported a rumor that production will resume Sept. 8 in flood-ravaged Prague on the upcoming SF fantasy film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Citing an anonymous source, the site reported that filming was barely halfway completed when catastrophic flooding halted production on the adaptation of Alan Moore's graphic novel.
Sequences filmed in Malta were finished weeks ago, the site added. Barring any further delays, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen will open June 6, 2003.
Punisher Casting Disputed
he IGN FilmForce Web site is disputing an online rumor that Australian actor Adam Garcia is in the running for the title role in the upcoming new Punisher movie, based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name.
Producer Gale Anne Hurd told the Zap2it Web site that Artisan Entertainment will begin shooting its big-screen remake of The Punisher next year and added that filmmakers are "going to start the casting process in the next two weeks."
An anonymous source close to the production told IGN FilmForce that a number of candidates are under consideration, but no one has been selected yet. Hurd's husband, Jonathan Hensleigh (Die Hard With a Vengeance), will write and direct The Punisher, the site reported.
TNT Cuts Witchblade
NT has canceled Witchblade, though the supernatural series concluded its second season with healthy ratings, Variety reported.
The series went on temporary hiatus earlier this year, when star Yancy Butler underwent alcohol rehab.
The cancellation came even though the series drew at least a 2.0 cable rating during both its first and second seasons, the trade paper reported. Steve Koonin, TNT's executive vice president and general manager, told Variety that the cancellation was "a very tough decision. Our criteria for this show was really fourfold," he said: that it be advertiser- and cable operator-friendly, that it differentiate the network from its competitors, that it build ratings and that it lay groundwork for the network to be in the summer series business. "Witchblade did all of that great for two years," Koonin said. "We just felt to stretch it to a third year could hurt some of those areas."
Did MIT Steal SF Comic Image?
ay and Ben Lai, Canadian brothers and creators of the SF comic Radix, are considering suing the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for stealing an image from the comic that was used as part of a proposal that helped MIT win a $50 million grant from the Pentagon, the Boston Globe reported.
MIT told the newspaper that it was unintentional that the illustration of a "soldier of the future" resembles the comic's depiction of its superhero, Valerie Fiores.
The grant money will establish the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies at MIT, where scientists plan to develop military uniforms. Ann Hammersla, an attorney for the school, told the newspaper that a professional artist provided the illustration, a last-minute addition to the grant application that was later sent out as part of the university's official news release.
Ned Thomas, an MIT professor and the director of the new institute, told the Web site CNET.com that his daughter drew the soldier based on his description, the Globe reported. MIT has removed the image from its Web site and has no plans to use it again.
Gold Circle Gets Broken
ndependent producer/distributor Gold Circle Films (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) will fully finance and produce Broken, a supernatural thriller film from first-time feature writer/director Sean Ellis, Variety reported.
The movie centers on a woman who comes out of a coffee shop in a bustling city street and thinks she sees herself driving past in a car.
Broken is expected to shoot this fall in Montreal, with filmmakers next going out to cast, the trade paper reported. Ellis, who trained as a still photographer, began his career in the U.K. as a fashion photographer for hip music, fashion and lifestyle magazine The Face, then became a music video and commercial director, the trade paper reported.
Densham Previews Zone
en Densham, one of the executive producers of UPN's upcoming Twilight Zone anthology series, gave SCI FI Wire a few hints about the first season's episodes.
"I'm doing a story, for instance, about a man ... who dreams up a dream girl and makes love to her, and then wakes up in the morning, and she walks out of the bathroom. ... [In another story,] the character of Death [played by Jason Alexander] decides he no longer wants to take life, and it depresses him. He actually tries to end his own life, and ends up in the E.R. with a doctor who's trying to figure out if he's really Death, or if he's just this crazy guy, and all the consequences of that." Still another story focuses on a family with a rebellious daughter, who move into a mysterious gated community where all of the teenage children seem to have embraced conformity.
Like the original Twilight Zone, the updated series will deal with stories that "are very close to parable, very close to folk tales, very close to [Edgar Allan] Poe, very close to studies of human nature and psychology," Densham said in an interview. "A lot of the great [classic] Twilight Zones ... were just good science fiction. We're also able to work in the field of the noir ghost story or the story about the supernatural. And so this is a broader fabric, and I think a much more provocative and exciting storytelling medium."
Densham (The Outer Limits) and executive producer Ira Steven Behr (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) have assembled a staff of new writers to come up with hour-long episodes that will feature two self-contained half-hour stories, each introduced by actor/director Forest Whitaker. "We're starting with a very simple mandate," Behr said in an interview. "We want to take what was created by Rod Serling and try and continue in the style and quality that he initiated, but for this day and age and sensibility. None of us thinks we're Rod. We think that we collectively may be able to have learned what he started, and see it as a kind of background, if you will. ... We're approaching it very, very respectfully and saying,'OK, can we challenge ourselves to create stories that people will treasure in 30 or 40 years' time in the same way?'"
But the producers acknowledge that the world of today's Twilight Zone is vastly different from the late 1950s of the original series. "When you think where Rod was at, the entire world has been through, in my opinion, the biggest revolution in mankind's history," Densham said. "We now have the Internet. ... We've now got AIDS. We have been through the sexual revolution and out the other side and going back through it again. Men have walked on the moon. Everybody has a portable computer, cell phones. ... It's extraordinary compared to where Rod was at, and yet his world was extraordinary at that time, too. So we're hoping that we bring sensibilities to people who are experiencing all those things and grip them with stories that need to be told now." UPN will debut the new Twilight Zone in its regular 9 p.m. Wednesday timeslot on Sept. 18, following the second-season premiere of Enterprise.
Episode III Gears Up
reliminary work has begun on Star Wars: Episode III, the final film in George Lucas' epic space saga, the official Web site reported.
Director Lucas is currently writing the script, and producer Rick McCallum is mobilizing the creative team for the three years of work ahead, the site reported.
Concept designers Erik Tiemens and Ryan Church and pre-visualization supervisor Dan Gregoire, along with other artists, have been doing exploratory sketches. The design team will be joined in the coming weeks by production designer Gavin Bocquet, concept artist Iain McCaig, costume designer Trisha Biggar and others. "We won't be in full mode until the script is closer to completion next year," McCallum said.
McCallum plans to travel to Australia to finalize agreements with Fox Studios in Sydney, where principal photography for Episode III is to take place next summer, the site reported. From there, he will head to London to meet with the U.K. crew and stop by Elstree Studios. This winter, crews will begin location scouting. "For Episode II we visited Spain, Italy and Tunisia," McCallum said. "In the next few months we'll nail down what we need for Episode III, and then try to find it. I just got back from Croatia and Bosnia on a holiday. I found some really great spots, but I doubt they are right for this film. Incredible stuff that I'll file in my brain for some future project maybe. We'll start scouting for Ep III in the early part of November."
Domain Talks Tomorrow F/X
igital Domain is in talks to create the visual effects for Roland Emmerich's upcoming weather disaster film The Day After Tomorrow, Variety reported.
The Fox movie is slated for the summer of 2003 and concerns the catastrophic effects of global warming, the trade paper reported.
The movie will contain more than 300 computer-effects shots depicting weather elements, atmospheric conditions, water and blizzards, the trade paper reported.
Milano Gets Finny In Charmed
lyssa Milano, who plays Phoebe on The WB's Charmed, told TV Guide Online that she'll swim with the fishes in the show's two-hour season premiere Sept. 22: Milano will appear as a mermaid.
"I have on pasties and a fin," Milano told the site with a laugh.
Milano added, "I went for a wardrobe fitting, and I was like, 'Where's the seashell top?' They were like, 'It doesn't look good, so we're just going to add scales and paint them on your boobies.'" As for why Phoebe winds up scaly? "Why does anything ever happen on Charmed?" she said. "It's in order to find a sea hag. ... Obviously."
This season, Charmed moves to a new timeslot, Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT. "Actually, I think it's going to be good for us," Milano said. "Sunday night is having a bit of a rebirth, with The Practice, Six Feet Under and Alias. It's becoming a good night for television."
Fans Choose SCI FI's X-Files
he SCI FI Channel will begin airing repeats of The X-Files on Oct. 1 and will air episodes from 7 p.m.-11 p.m. ET/PT Tuesdays and Wednesdays. SCI FI will start with the top eight episodes as chosen by viewers at SCIFI.COM.
Viewer polling will run through Sept. 30.
SCI FI will also present one themed X-Files week each month, highlighting an aspect of the series. October's theme week is "Freaks." On Oct. 8 and 9, SCI FI will air eight episodes that feature the weirdest creatures encountered by FBI Agents Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Mulder (David Duchovny). Subsequent themes will include "Anyone Hungry," "Writer's Block" (featuring episodes written by Anderson, Duchovny, Stephen King, William Gibson, etc.) and "Love Is in the Air."
Divinity Set To Ship
he GameSpot Web site reported that CDV will ship an English-language version of the German fantasy PC game Divine Divinity later this month.
The German game shipped this summer.
In the game, players assume the role of one of six different heroes on an epic quest through a large medieval fantasy world. Divine Divinity is scheduled to ship in the middle of September.
Sorbo To Helm Andromeda Eps
evin Sorbo, star of the syndicated SF TV series Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, told Prevue Magazine that he'll direct episodes in the upcoming third season.
"I'm slated to do two," Sorbo told the site. "We'll see when it comes. I don't know. I enjoyed doing it on Hercules [The Legendary Journeys], but it takes up so much more time. It's actually a commitment for about a month, because you have two weeks of prep time, and then you shoot for those two weeks."
Sorbo added that viewers can expect improved visual effects in the new season. "The biggest step that we made—and I think it is going to make the show look so much better this year—is that we have moved our visual-effects department right on site," he said. "I believe the visual effects have gotten better with each episode. We cut the middleman out, so that in effect will give us a bigger budget, even without adding to our budget, because we're not paying anybody in the middle, or paying all these other people that work at these effects studios. Now we're doing everything on site, and we're able to see right away what the creature is going to look like or what the ship is going to look like. Everyone can say, 'Why don't we do this or that?' And it just makes the show more interesting. It is so much cheaper to do the visual effects now and still have them look very, very good."
Burton Helming Musical Batman
im Burton, who directed the first two Batman movies, will helm a Broadway musical theater adaptation of the 1989 Batman movie, the New York Post reported.
Warner Brothers is producing the multimillion-dollar musical, with book written by David Ives and music by Jim Steinman, the newspaper reported.
Burton has never staged a musical before, though he enjoys the theater and has told friends that he'd like to start a puppet theater one day, the Post reported.
Burton will begin working on the musical full-time next year. The plan is to open out of town in 2004 and arrive on Broadway in 2005. In addition to Batman and Robin, the musical will feature the characters the Joker and Catwoman, the newspaper reported.
Superman 5 Details Emerge?
he Superman: Last Son of Krypton fan Web site reported more rumors about J.J. Abrams' script for a proposed fifth Superman movie.
The site said it spoke with Abrams' agent, whom it did not identify.
The agent reportedly told the site, "The script is far less than 200 pages—about 130. It is going before Batman vs. Superman, and Wolfgang Petersen [who was reported to be directing the Batman vs. Superman movie] is doing another movie [Troy] first. That's all I can tell you, other than it's one of the best screenplays I've ever read and is epic, action-packed and extremely humanistic. Fans will not be disappointed."
Apes Helmer Thompson Dead
ritish director J. Lee Thompson, whose more than 50 films included two 1970s-era Planet of the Apes sequels, died Aug. 30 of congestive heart failure in Sooke, B.C., his publicist, Robert Rooney, told the Associated Press.
He was 88.
Thompson helmed Conquest of the Planet of the Apes in 1972 and Battle for the Planet of the Apes in 1973. Thompson moved to the United States after the Academy Award-nominated The Guns of Navarone in 1961, starring Gregory Peck and Anthony Quinn, the AP reported. He also directed several Charles Bronson films, including St. Ives, 10 to Midnight, Messenger of Death, White Buffalo and Kinjite. In 1998 Thompson worked as a boom microphone operator for the teen horror film, Bride of Chucky, the AP reported.
Thompson is survived by his wife of 40 years, Penny; a daughter; and a granddaughter, the wire service reported.
Gellar, Prinze Say 'I Doo'
cooby-Doo co-stars Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. wed Sept. 1 at an undisclosed location in Mexico, their spokeswoman, Leslie Sloane, told the Associated Press.
Gellar, who also stars in UPN's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, had announced the couple's engagement at her 24th birthday party in April 2001.
A group of friends and family attended the ceremony, which was kept a closely guarded secret from the public, the wire service reported. Prinze and Gellar met on the set of the 1997 teen slasher flick I Know What You Did Last Summer.
Universal Develops Bedlam
niversal Pictures has optioned Irwin Shaw's SF short story Whispers in Bedlam and hired Stephen Falk to write a screenplay adaptation, Variety reported.
Tom Jacobson will produce the film, a comedy about a football player who undergoes experimental surgery that endows him with super hearing, the trade paper reported.
Universal Pictures is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Glasgow Hosting WorldCon
he Scottish city of Glasgow will host the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention, Aug. 4-8, 2005.
The announcement came at the 60th WorldCon in San Jose, Calif., over the Labor Day weekend.
Glasgow ran unopposed for the hosting honor. The convention will be called Interaction.
Ignotus Nominees Named
he Spanish Association of Fantasy and Science Fiction (Asociación Española
de Fantasía y Ciencia Ficción) announced the finalists for the 2002 Ignotus Prize.
Winners will be announced at the Spanish SF Convention 2001, which takes place Oct. 31-Nov. 3 in Barcelona, Spain. A full list of nominees follows.
Spanish Novel
•Demonios en el cielo by Gabriel Bermúdez
•Vacío imperfecto by Juan A. Fernández
•Ciclo de sueños by Juan A. Fernández
•Asedro by E. Gallego and G. Sánchez
•El despertar by José Antonio Suárez
Spanish Novella
•"Contra el tiempo" by J.M. Aguilera and R. Marín
•"Salir de fase" by José Antonio Cotrina
•"Signos de guerra" by Vladimir Hernández
•"Buscador de sombras" by Javier Negrete
•"Del cielo profundo y abismo" by José Luis Zárate
Spanish Short Story
•"El hombrecito de la maceta" by Alejandro Carneiro
•"Fortaleza de invicta castidad" by E. Gallego and G. Sánchez
•"Bajando" by Ramón Muñoz
•"Los desprendidos" by Félix J. Palma
Spanish Non-Fiction Book
•Luchadores del espacio by José Carlos Canalda
•Cine fantástico y terror japonés, Semana cine Fantástico de Donostia
•La novela popular en España II, Robel
•Las 100 mejores novela CF s.XX, La Factoría de Ideas
Essay
•"El erotismo en novelas de a duro" by José Carlos Canalda
•"La versión cinematográfica de Dune" by Miguel Ángel Fernández
•"Usos de la locura en Cervantes y Dick" by Kenneth Krabbenhof
•"El universo Birthright" by Ramón Peña
•"Como estrellas en el cielo" by Cristobal Pérez-Castejón
Illustration
•Cover of Demonios en el cielo by Koldo Campo
•Cover of Vacío imperfecto by Koldo Campo
•Cover of El beso de Milena by Koveck
•Cover of Muero por dentro by Koveck
•Cover of Gigamesh 29 by David Teixidor
Spanish Audio-Visual Work
•Los otros
•Intacto
•Los 4 fantásticos
•Los inhumanos
•El espinazo del diablo
Spanish Poem
•Soledad en el espacio by José Angel Fuentes
Spanish Magazine
•Artifex 2ª Epoca
•Gigamesh
•Pulp Magazine
•Solaris
•Valis
Foreign Novel
•La radio de Darwin by Greg Bear
•El beso de Milena by Paul McAuley
•Las máquinas de dios by Jack McDevitt
•La estación de la calle Perdido by China Mieville
•Stalker, pícnic junto al camino by A. and B. Strugatsky
Foreign Short Story
•"La mina de gravedad" by Stephen Baxter
•"El asesino infinito" by Greg Egan
•"El niño muerto en tu ventana" by Bruce Holland
•"Flores de invernadero" by Mike Resnick
•"Las 43 dinastías de Antares" by Mike Resnick
Web Site
•BEM
•Bibliópolis
•Sitio de CF
•Stardust
Hugo Splits TV And Film Award
he World Science Fiction Society ratified a motion to split the Hugo Award category for best dramatic presentation in two, to accommodate both films and television series, the Locus Online Web site reported.
The two new categories will be best long-form dramatic presentation, for works longer than 90 minutes, principally movies, and best short-form presentation, for works under 90 minutes, principally TV episodes.
The two categories will be in effect for next year's Hugo Awards, to be administered by Torcon III in Toronto. Previous rules allowed only single episodes of TV series to be nominated in the best dramatic presentation category, which many voters felt unfairly restricted the chances for TV shows to compete for the award, Locus reported.
Hugo Winners Named
he Hugo Awards for best science-fiction works in 2001 were presented Sept. 1 at the 60th World Science Fiction Convention, or ConJose, in San Jose, Calif.
Named for magazine editor Hugo Gernsback, the annual awards are determined by nominations from and a popular vote of the membership of the convention.
The John W. Campbell Award, sponsored by Dell Magazines, is not a Hugo Award, but appears on the same ballot as the Hugo Awards and is administered in the same way as the Hugo Awards. A full list of winners follows.
Best Novel
•American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Best Novella
•"Fast Times at Fairmont High" by Vernor Vinge
Best Novelette
•"Hell Is the Absence of God" by Ted Chiang
Best Short Story
•"The Dog Said Bow-Wow" by Michael Swanwick
Best Related Book
•The Art of Chesley Bonestell by Ron Miller and Frederick C. Durant III, with Melvin H. Schuetz
Best Dramatic Presentation
•The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Best Professional Editor
•Ellen Datlow, SCI FICTION
Best Pro Artist
•Michael Whelan
Best Semiprozine
•Locus, Charles N. Brown, ed.
Best Fanzine
•Ansible, Dave Langford, ed.
Best Fan Writer
•Dave Langford
Best Fan Artist
•Teddy Harvia
Best Web Site
•Locus Online, Mark R. Kelly, ed.
John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer of 2000 or 2001
•Jo Walton
Chesley Art Awards Given Out
he Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists announced the winners of the 17th annual Chesley Awards, which were presented at the 60th World Science Fiction Convention, or ConJose, in San Jose, Calif., over the weekend.
The awards, named after astronomical artist Chesley Bonestell, recognize artworks first published or displayed in 2001. A full list of winners follows.
Best Monochrome Unpublished
•Tom Kidd for The Faeries of Spellcaster
Best Color Unpublished
•Anne Sudworth for The Snow Tree
Best Three-Dimensional
•Johnna Klukas for Hall of the Mountain King
Best Art Director
•Paul Barnett for Paper Tiger Books
Best Interior Illustration
•Tom Kidd for The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
Best Cover Illustration, Magazine
•James C. Christensen for The Leading Edge, No. 41, April '01
Best Gaming-Related Illustration
•Donato Giancola for Shivan Dragon
Best Product Illustration
•Kinuko Y. Craft for Das Valkyrie
Best Cover, Paperback
•Donato Giancola for The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Best Cover, Hardback
•Donato Giancola for Ashling by Isobelle Carmody
Award for Artistic Achievement
•Donato Giancola
More SF Awards Handed Out
inners were announced over the Labor Day weekend for several SF awards at the 60th World Science Fiction Convention, or ConJose, in San Jose, Calif.
The awards included the Prometheus Awards, for works of libertarian SF; the Sidewise Awards, for works of alternate history; and the Golden Duck Awards, for works of children's and young adult SF. A full list of winners follows.
Prometheus Awards
Novel
•Psychohistorical Crisis by Donald Kingsbury
Hall of Fame
•The Prisoner, Patrick McGoohan, writer and producer
Sidewise Awards
Long Form
•The Children's War by J.N. Stroyar
Short Form
•"The Human Front" by Ken MacLeod
Golden Duck Awards
Picture Book Award
(award to the illustrator)
•Baloney by Jon Scieszka, illustrated by Lane Smith
Eleanor Cameron Award for Middle Grades
•Beatnik Rutabagas From Beyond the Stars by Quentin Dodd
Hal Clement Award for Young Adults
•This Side of Paradise by Steven Layne
Briefly Noted
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The WB has posted a new teaser trailer for the upcoming season premiere of Smallville, which returns Sept. 24.
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The Dark Horizons Web site reported a rumor that a fifth Highlander movie, The Source, may be in the works. Davis/Panzer productions, which owns the franchise, reportedly posted on various fan bulletin boards that the sequel is set to begin filming in early 2003.
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Entertainment Tonight aired the new trailer for the upcoming 20th James Bond movie, Die Another Day, on Sept. 5, and the trailer hit the Web at 7:30 p.m. ET Sept. 6. Die Another Day opens Nov. 22.
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The first full-season DVD set for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is slated to hit stores in February 2003, the C.H.U.D. Web site reported.
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The Comics Continuum reported that rocker Rob Zombie and rapper Eve will voice villains in MTV's upcoming computer-animated Spider-Man TV series. Zombie will voice Dr. Curt Connors and his alter ego, the Lizard; Eve will play a character similar to the Black Cat.
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David Mamet just completed directing Diary of a Young London Physician, based on his own adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic SF novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for Warner Brothers and Franchise, Variety reported. Jude Law and Penelope Cruz star.
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Fans of The Lord of the Rings are petitioning ToyBiz to produce a Balrog action figure.
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The Comics Continuum Web site has posted new images from the upcoming season of the syndicated SF series Mutant X.
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Star Trek: The Next Generation star LeVar Burton (Geordi LaForge) will speak at the 50th William Allen White children's book award banquet, Oct. 5 at Emporia State University in Kansas.
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The Zap2it Web site reported that Melinda Sward has taken a recurring role on The WB's time-travel sitcom Do Over, playing a popular girl on whom the main character, Joel (Penn Badgley), has a crush. Do Over premieres at 8:30 p.m. Sept. 19.
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The Superhero Hype Web site is backing away from its earlier rumor that Stellan Skarsgård has been approached for the role of Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2. The Swedish actor told the site that there's "no truth to the rumor yet."
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Michigan composer Dan Kolton has filed a copyright claim for music featured in the television series Xena: Warrior Princess, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Young Hercules, the Associated Press reported. Kolton claims he worked as a ghostwriter for composer Joe LoDuca between 1995 and '99, receiving payment but no credit for the music he composed.
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The IGN FilmForce Web site has posted the first images from the set of the upcoming SF movie The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which is currently in production in Europe.
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In response to an outpouring of support from Star Trek: The Next Generation fans, Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher) will appear at Creation Entertainment's upcoming 15th-anniversary convention in Pasadena, Calif., at the end of the month, Wheaton said on his official Web site. Wheaton earlier confirmed that he has been edited out of the upcoming 10th Trek movie, Nemesis, which opens Dec. 13.
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