4.54 pm ET, 14-Nov-97
The Lost World Bites Into Vid Rentals
As expected, Jurassic Park: The Lost World tore up video rentals for the week ending Nov. 9, earning a cool $8.4 million in its first seven days of release. That was easily enough to knock The Fifth Element out of the number one spot on the Sci-Fi Wire top 10 SF video rental list, although Luc Besson's quirky SF action flick placed a solid second for the week.
To put things in perspective, The Fifth Element earned a comparatively meager $2.45 million during its first week, while the hottest recent video rental in any genre, Liar, Liar, earned $9.97 million. But even the mighty Lost World will likely fall prey to Columbia TriStar's mega-hit Men in Black, which is due to hit video stores on Nov. 25, just in time for the always-lucrative Thanksgiving Day weekend.
Below is the complete Sci-Fi Wire top 10 SF video rental list for the week ending Nov. 9:
| RANK |
TITLE |
STUDIO |
| 1. |
The Lost World |
Universal |
| 2. |
The Fifth Element |
Columbia TriStar |
| 3. |
Batman and Robin |
Warner |
| 4. |
Mars Attacks! |
Warner |
| 5. |
Star Trek: First Contact |
Paramount |
| 6. |
The Island of Dr. Moreau |
New Line |
| 7. |
Crossworlds |
Trimark |
| 8. |
The Return of the Jedi: Special Edition |
20th Century Fox |
| 9. |
The Arrival |
Live |
| 10. |
The Empire Strikes Back: Special Edition |
20th Century Fox |
Source: Video Software Dealers Association and VidTrac |
11.32 am ET, 14-Nov-97
Wing Commander Movie In The Works
Digital Anvil recently optioned the live-action feature film and television rights to Origin Systems' popular space-combat simulator game Wing Commander for an undisclosed amount. According to Origin, the film will be based on characters, storylines, themes and other creative elements from the four main Wing Commander titles, although no other details of the film were available.
Digital Anvil's current chairman and CEO, Chris Roberts, served as executive producer for the first four Wing Commander titles before going on to found Digital Anvil.
Wing Commander: Prophecy, the fifth title in the series, will be released by Origin this holiday season.
3:05 pm ET, 12-Nov-97
X-Files Leads Top 20 List
The strong season premiere of The X-Files on Sunday, Nov. 2, gave the series its second highest ratings ever and pushed it to the head of the Sci-Fi Wire weekly top 20 list of speculative fiction TV shows for the week ending Nov. 2. NBC also did well in the top 20 list, earning three of the top seven spots with the season premiere of its Saturday night "thrillogy," although it has since canceled the freshman thrillogy series Sleepwalkers.
Babylon 5 is ending its broadcast run in an unspectacular fashion, dropping from a 2.3 rating for the week ending Oct. 19 to a 2.1 rating for the week ending Nov. 2, and falling off the top 20 list altogether. However, the ratings dip was widely expected as Babylon 5 prepares to make its transition from the broadcast market to cable when it debuts on TNT in January 1998.
Below is our complete top 20 list for the week ending Nov. 2, based on the Nielsen Galaxy report. The HH Rating is the average number of households viewing a specific show expressed as a percentage of all television households.
| RANK |
NETWORK/
SYNDICATOR |
PROGRAM |
HH RATING |
| 1 |
Fox |
The X-Files |
16.1 |
| 2 |
NBC |
3rd Rock from the Sun |
10.3 |
| 3 |
CBS |
Early Edition |
8.3 |
| 4 |
NBC |
The Pretender |
7.6 |
| 5 |
NBC |
The Profiler |
6.8 |
| 6 |
Universal TV |
Xena |
6.0 |
| 7 |
NBC |
Sleepwalkers |
5.9 |
| 8 |
Fox |
Millennium |
5.7 |
| 9 |
Universal TV |
Hercules |
5.6 |
| 10 |
Fox |
The Visitor |
5.1 |
| 11 |
Paramount/Premier |
Star Trek: DS9 |
5.1 |
| 12 |
UPN |
Star Trek: Voyager |
4.6 |
| 13 |
Tribune |
Earth: Final Conflict |
4.2 |
| 14 |
WB |
Buffy |
3.7 |
| 15 |
UPN |
The Sentinel |
3.6 |
| 16 |
Buena Vista TV |
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids |
3.6 |
| 17 |
MGM |
The Outer Limits |
3.0 |
| 18 |
Tribune |
Nightman |
2.8 |
| 19 |
Rysher |
Highlander |
2.8 |
| 20 |
Universal TV |
Team Knight Rider |
2.5 |
| Source: Nielsen Galaxy 10/27-11/02 1997. Nielsen data subject to qualifications to be supplied upon request. |
1.27 pm ET, 12-Nov-97
Bantam To Publish Dune Prequels
Bantam Books announced it has acquired the North American rights to a trilogy of Dune prequels that will be written by Brian Herbert, the son of Dune author Frank Herbert, and best-selling writer Kevin J. Anderson. The trilogy is being written with the cooperation of the Herbert estate and will be based on notes and outlines the senior Herbert wrote before his death, as well as conversations he had with his son Brian.
The prequels will chronicle the events leading up to the original book and will primarily take place on the titled planet Dune, which is also known as Arrakis. The first book in the trilogy will be released in 1999.
Dune was published in 1965 and has gone on to become one of the genre's all-time classic works, with more than 15 million copies in print worldwide. It won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for best novel, it was adapted for the silver screen in 1984 by David Lynch, and the Sci-Fi Channel is currently producing a six-hour Dune miniseries that will air in 1998.
11.32 am ET, 12-Nov-97
Deals Struck For Forecast, Bad Dog
In two recent deals, Twentieth Century Fox and Dreamworks SKG purchased promising speculative fiction scripts, one from an up-and-coming writing duo and one from a veteran Hollywood scribe. Two weeks ago Fox bought a script called 5 Day Forecast--about a government weather control experiment gone awry--from the first-time writing team of Jonathan Fernandez and Thomas Hines for a "low six-figures upfront," Variety reported.
This week Dreamworks paid a reported $3 million for a "werewolf-comic-horror thriller" by veteran writer Dale Launer, who among others penned the screenplays for My Cousin Vinny and Ruthless People, according to Variety. The Launer deal was not the highest paying in Hollywood history, but it was one of the biggest in recent years.
6.47 pm ET, 11-Nov-97
Sci-Fi Channel Picks Up American Gothic
The Sci-Fi Channel picked up all 22 episodes of the former CBS series American Gothic, which originally aired during the 1995-96 season. Gothic will begin its run on the Sci-Fi Channel on Friday, Jan. 2, 1998, at 8 p.m. ET and will include four episodes that never aired in the United States.
American Gothic is a haunting one-hour drama that takes place in the picture-perfect community of Trinity, S.C., a town tormented and seduced by an ominous lawman, Sheriff Lucas Buck, who is played by Gary Cole. The series also stars Paige Turco, Jake Webber, Lucas Black and Brenda Bakke.
12.48 pm ET, 11-Nov-97
Sleepwalkers, The Visitor Pulled
After only two episodes, NBC has pulled the underperforming show Sleepwalkers from its Saturday line-up. Sleepwalkers debuted in the 9 p.m. timeslot on Nov. 1 as part of NBC's Saturday night "thrillogy," which included The Pretender at 8 p.m. and The Profiler at 10 p.m.
The Pretender will reportedly move to the 9 p.m. timeslot, while six episodes of a new show called Legacy have been ordered to fill the 8 p.m. slot, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Legacy, which was formerly called Van Helsing Chronicles, is a show about the descendant of the legendary Professor Van Helsing, the man who killed Dracula.
Meanwhile, Fox has reportedly declined to pick up the back nine of 22 Visitor episodes, so while the series is not officially canceled, only 13 installments will be produced for Fox. Fox has not said whether it will air all 13 episodes of the Dean Devlin/Roland Emmerich series, which had been steadily falling in the ratings.
12.02 pm ET, 10-Nov-97
2nd Godzilla Trailer Posted
The second trailer for the upcoming Dean Devlin/Roland Emmerich SF flick Godzilla was posted to the Web site www.godzilla.com last Thursday night and will remain online for two weeks. The trailer followed its Web debut with a theatrical release on Friday, when it began running ahead of TriStar Pictures' SF flick Starship Troopers.
The movie trailer is just a small part of the extensive Godzilla Web site, which features inside information on the movie, a G-Board where fans can discuss the upcoming film, and many other attractions. The film itself will open in theaters on May 20, 1998.
11.22 am ET, 10-Nov-97
Starship Troopers Lands $22 Million Opening
The much-anticipated Sony/Paul Verhoeven SF action film Starship Troopers--based on Robert A. Heinlein's book of the same name--earned $22 million in its opening weekend, skyrocketing to the top of the box office charts and giving TriStar its third biggest opening film ever. Troopers also had the fourth widest opening in film history, debuting in some 2,971 venues, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Although some industry analysts expected the film to do better in its first weekend, Jeff Blake, the president of Sony Pictures Releasing, told The Hollywood Reporter that, "we're thrilled with the opening." The only TriStar films that outperformed Troopers were Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Verhoeven's own Total Recall.
6:02 pm ET, 7-Nov-97
Publisher's Weekly Lists Best SF Books
Publisher's Weekly recently listed its best books for 1997, with several veteran authors making the cut as well as second-time novelist Patrick O'Leary. The lists were compiled by the Publisher's Weekly's forecast editors, who wrote in their introduction that, despite recent debates about the failing health of the book industry, "books continued to be published at the customary rate and numbers, and the editors of PW Forecasts had no dearth of candidates from which to select our best books of the year."
This year's PW selections for best SF books include:
11.22 am ET, 7-Nov-97
Butler's Kindred Headed To Film
Kindred, the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novel by famed SF author Octavia E. Butler, is headed for the silver screen courtesy of Def Pictures and Polygram Filmed Entertainment, according to Variety. The two film companies bought the adaptation of Butler's novel from Nicholas Brandt and Bridget Blake-Wilson, with Brandt attached to the project as director.
Kindred is a time travel novel about a modern black woman who is repeatedly drawn back to the 19th-century South by her white, slave-owning ancestor. Eventually the woman is faced with the choice of saving the man from death, knowing that if she does so he will eventually enslave a free-born black woman who will turn out to become her own great-grandmother.
According to Variety, the reclusive Butler, who was the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant, has rarely allowed her novels to be optioned for film. Actress Talia Shire held the rights to Kindred for eight years, but when she failed to renew them in 1996, they were snapped up by Brandt.
11.07 am ET, 7-Nov-97
1998 TAFF Race Begins
Voting has opened on the 1998 Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund race, which will send one European SF fan to the World Science Fiction Convention in Baltimore, Md., in 1998. Voting is open to anyone who has been active in SF fandom prior to September 1996 and who contributes $2 or 1 pound to the fund.
TAFF was created in 1953 for the purpose of providing funds to bring well-known and popular fans familiar to those on both sides of the ocean across the Atlantic. Since that time TAFF has regularly brought North American fans to European conventions and European fans to North American conventions.
This year's TAFF candidates include Chris Bell, Bridget "Bug" Hardcastle and Maureen Kincaid Speller. Visit the TAFF Web site for more information.
10:45 am ET, 7-Nov-97
United Artists Goes Supernova
Australian film director Geoffrey Wright will go behind the camera for the upcoming SF thriller from United Artists, Supernova, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film, about a space-faring hospital ship on a rescue mission, will mark Wright's U.S. debut.
Wright is best known for his 1992 movie Romper Stomper, about a group of skinheads that terrorize the Asian community in Melbourne. He also helmed such projects as Metal Skin and Lover Boy.
10:42 am ET, 6-Nov-97
Warner Orders Weekly Witchblade
Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution is planning a fall 1998 debut for a new weekly syndicated series called Witchblade, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The series is based on the comic book of the same name and focuses on a New York city police detective named Sara Pezzini who gains supernatural powers after she finds a gauntlet called the "witchblade."
The show is being produced by Oliver Stone's Illusion Entertainment, while Marc Silvestri, the founder and CEO of Wtichblade publisher Top Cow Comics, will executive produce. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show is being "hotly anticipated by stations."
9:54 am ET, 5-Nov-97
Miller May Direct Jack Frost
Troy Miller, who earned an Emmy for directing the 1993 CBS telefilm Best Defense, is reportedly in talks to make his feature film directorial debut on Jack Frost, according to published reports. Miller would replace director Sam Raimi, who left the project last month shortly after George Clooney opted out of the project.
Frost is about a jazz musician who neglects his daughter in life, but then gets a second chance when he dies and returns to Earth as the cagey master of winter weather, Jack Frost. The film will reportedly begin shooting in February 1998.
4:42 pm ET, 4-Nov-97
Saint Director Ready For Blast Off
Phillip Noyce, who last went behind the lens for the Val Kilmer project The Saint, will direct the upcoming SF high-tech thriller Blast Off, according to Variety. The script, which is being rewritten by The Peacemaker scribe Michael Schiffer, is about a crew member aboard an international space station who sabotages satellites that control everything from phones to missiles.
Along with The Saint, Noyce formerly directed Patriot Games, Sliver, and Clear and Present Danger, which grossed a combined $600 million at the box office, Variety reported.
11:34 pm ET, 3-Nov-97
1997 World Fantasy Awards Announced
The winners of the 1997 World Fantasy Awards were announced Sunday, Nov. 2, at the World Fantasy Convention in London, U.K. This year's winners include:
- Life Achievement Award
- Madeleine L'Engle
- Best Novel
- Godmother Night, by Rachel Pollack
- Best Novella
- A City in Winter, by Mark Helprin
- Best Short Fiction
- "Thirteen Phantasms," by James P. Blaylock
- Best Anthology
- Starlight 1, edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden
- Best Collection
- The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye, by Jonathan Lethem
- Best Artist
- Moebius (Jean Giraud)
- Special Award - Professional
- Michael J. Weldon, for The Psychotronic Video Guide to Film
- Special Award - Non-Professional
- Barbara and Christopher Roden, for Ash-Tree Press
- Special Convention Award
- Hugh B. Cave
The awards are given annually for the best works of fantasy published during the previous calendar year.
