4:27 pm ET, 6-Feb-98
Wizards Revives Amazing Stories
The Seattle based gaming company Wizards of the Coast has announced plans to relaunch Amazing Stories, the world's original science fiction magazine, which was first published by Hugo Gernsback in 1926. Wizards, which acquired the rights to Amazing when it bought TSR Inc. last year, said the magazine will "showcase a variety of fiction and artwork from popular science fiction and media-based fantasy entertainment."
The new Amazing will also feature articles based on popular film and TV syndicated programs, as well as reviews, editorials, special features, and commentaries "on the latest bestselling science fiction books, films and electronic games." Wizards said the magazine will be on sale this summer in most book, hobby, game and science fiction specialty stores, with a suggested retail price of $4.99. It will be published quarterly.
Amazing Stories has gone through numerous incarnations since its inception 72 years ago, most recently as a digest publication from TSR that was abandoned in 1995. Kim Mohan, who helmed Amazing during its tenure at TSR, will initially serve as editor when Wizards relaunches the title.
2:15 pm ET, 6-Feb-98
Toy Story 2 Goes Direct To Theaters
Disney Animation and Pixar Studios announced that Toy Story 2--the sequel to Disney's 1995 blockbuster movie Toy Story--will be headed for the big screen and not direct to video, as had been previously announced, according to published reports. Variety quoted Disney Animation head Peter Schneider as saying, "We think the sequel has all the right ingredients to be another hit."
Toy Story 2 had originally been slated for an Oct. 1 video release, but now Disney plans to launch the film in theaters during the 1999 Christmas season. The film will reunite the star-studded cast of actors who supplied voices for Toy Story, including Tom Hanks and Tim Allen.
2:04 pm ET, 6-Feb-98
Sound Source Scores Lost CD-ROM Rights
Sound Source Interactive has struck a deal with New Line Cinema to create CD-ROM products based on both the Lost in Space 1960s TV series and New Line's upcoming Lost feature film. SSI said it will release three titles in 1998, starting with the limited edition Lost in Space Arcade Series Entertainment Utility, which will "capture all of the nostalgia and pop culture appeal of the show."
The company also plans to ship two children's titles based on the feature film, the Lost in Space Interactive Movie Book and the Lost in Space Learning Adventure. The latter will use characters and clips from the film to introduce users to the basics of science and astronomy.
1:35 pm ET, 6-Feb-98
3rd Rock, Buffy Specials Boost TV Ratings
Special broadcasts of 3rd Rock from the Sun and Buffy, The Vampire Slayer boosted SF TV ratings for the week of Jan. 19-25 despite the absence of NBC's popular shows The Profiler and The Pretender, which were pre-empted by figure skating. In a one-hour special that followed NBC's Superbowl broadcast on Sunday, Jan. 25, 3rd Rock scored a mind-boggling 19.7 rating. That figure was almost double the 10.1 rating 3rd Rock received earlier in the week when it aired during its regular timeslot at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, and it was easily enough to lead the Sci-Fi Wire Top 20 list of speculative fiction TV shows.
While the Superbowl was good news for 3rd Rock, it was bad news for The X-Files, which aired opposite NBC's "Super Sunday" lineup and managed only a 5.9 rating for the week. However, Files fans should take some consolation in the fact that The X-Files was the highest-rated show in its timeslot after the Superbowl's staggering 44.5 rating.
Meanwhile, Buffy gave the WB Network its highest single-program rating ever when it scored a 5.2 during its first night in its new Tuesday, 8 p.m., timeslot. The episode was the second half of a special two-parter that began the night before and marked Buffy's transition from Monday to Tuesday nights. The final Monday showing of Buffy garnered a less-impressive but still solid 4.4 rating. Below is our complete Top 20 list for the week ending Jan. 25, based on the Nielsen Galaxy report. The HH Rating is the average number of households tuned in to a particular show, expressed as a percentage of all television households.
| RANK |
NETWORK/
SYNDICATOR |
PROGRAM |
HH RATING |
| 1 |
NBC |
3rd Rock |
19.7 (special)
10.1 (regular) |
| 2 |
CBS |
Early Edition |
7.6 |
| 3 |
Universal TV |
Xena |
6.6 |
| 4 |
Universal TV |
Hercules |
6.0 |
| 5 |
Fox |
The X-Files |
5.9 |
| 6 |
Fox |
Millennium |
5.7 |
| 7 |
Warner |
Buffy |
5.2 (1/21)
4.4 (1/20) |
| 8 |
Paramount |
Star Trek: DS9 |
5.0 |
| 9 |
Paramount |
Star Trek: Voyager |
4.2 |
| 10 |
Tribune |
Earth: Final Conflict |
4.0 |
| 11 |
Buena Vista TV |
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids |
3.6 |
| 12 |
MGM |
The Outer Limits |
3.6 |
| 13 |
Universal TV |
Team Knight Rider |
2.8 |
| 14 |
Tribune |
Nightman |
2.7 |
| 15 |
Paramount |
Viper |
2.5 |
| 16 |
UPN |
The Sentinel |
2.3 |
| 17 |
Rysher |
Highlander |
2.1 |
| 18 |
20th TV |
Tales from the Crypt |
2.1 |
| 19 |
Eyemark |
Psi Factors |
1.9 |
| 20 |
All American TV |
The Adventures of Sinbad |
1.9 |
| Source: Nielsen Galaxy 1/19-1/25. Nielsen data subject to qualifications to be supplied upon request. |
11:08 pm ET, 5-Feb-98
Contact Too Much For Event Horizon
Although Event Horizon made a decent showing in the video rental market when it earned $2.19 million in its first week of release, that wasn't enough to topple Contact from the lead spot on the Sci-Fi Wire Top 10 SF video rental list. Now in its seventh week on store shelves, Contact led the Top 10 with earnings of $2.58 million for the period between Jan. 26-Feb. 1, about $400,000 better than Event Horizon managed.
Kull the Conqueror debuted at No. 7 on the Top 10, taking in a modest $.82 million in its first week, which was enough to put it ahead of the waning Lost World. Meanwhile, Spawn continued to pull in the money for New Line, earning another $1.14 million, which brought its cumulative total up to $12.20 million after just six weeks in release.
Below is the complete Sci-Fi Wire Top 10 SF video rental list for the week ending Feb. 1:
| RANK |
TITLE |
STUDIO |
WEEKS IN
RELEASE |
WEEKLY
EARNINGS
(Millions) |
TOTAL
EARNINGS
(Millions) |
| 1. |
Contact |
Warner |
7 |
$2.58 |
$26.15 |
| 2. |
Event Horizon |
Paramount |
1 |
$2.19 |
$2.20 |
| 3. |
Spawn |
New Line |
6 |
$1.14 |
$12.20 |
| 4. |
Men in Black |
Columbia TriStar |
9 |
$1.03 |
$30.05 |
| 5. |
Prophecy II |
Buena Vista |
2 |
$1.03 |
$1.82 |
| 6. |
The Fifth Element |
Columbia TriStar |
14 |
$.84 |
$24.64 |
| 7. |
Kull the Conqueror |
Universal |
1 |
$.82 |
$.82 |
| 8. |
The Lost World |
Universal |
13 |
$.49 |
$33.43 |
| 9. |
Batman & Robin |
Warner |
15 |
$.29 |
$20.44 |
| 10. |
Mars Attacks! |
Warner |
33 |
$.12 |
$17.83 |
Source: Video Software Dealers Association and VidTrac |
UPDATED 4:47 pm ET, 6-Feb-98
Clarke Denies Pedophile Allegations
Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke has vehemently denied a story in the sensationalist British newspaper The Sunday Mirror that claims Clarke is a pedophile. Earlier this week Clarke released a statement to the press that said, "the accusations are such nonsense that I have found it difficult to treat them with the contempt that they deserve." He added, "I categorically state that The Sunday Mirror's article is grossly defamatory and contains statements which in themselves and by innuendo are quite false, grossly inaccurate and extremely harmful."
The Mirror ran the offending report in its Feb.1 edition, a day before Prince Charles was to have visited Sri Lanka to bestow an honorary knighthood on Clarke. Clarke said he had subsequently asked that his investiture be pushed back "in order to avoid embarrassment to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales during his visit to Sri Lanka." The British born Clarke has made his home in Sri Lanka since 1956.
11:18 am ET, 4-Feb-98
Cox Joins Branagh, Graham In Love Triangle
Friends co-star Courteney Cox, who played the TV tabloid reporter in both Scream movies, has joined the cast of the upcoming SF film Alien Love Triangle, according to Variety. Cox will star with Kenneth Branagh and Heather Graham in one of the anthology film's three short segments.
Cox's character in the film is reportedly a male alien who appears to be an Earth woman and who is married to an Earth man, played by Branagh. The segment was written by John Hodge and will be directed by Danny Boyle.
10:55 am ET, 4-Feb-98
Hamill, Nimoy Speak For Sinbad
Legendary science fiction actors Mark Hamill and Leonard Nimoy have agreed to lend their voices to the animated feature film Sinbad: Beyond the Veil of Mists. The famous pair joins John Rhys Davies, Brendan Fraser and Jennifer Hale on the film, which focuses on the character Sinbad from the book Arabian Nights.
Nimoy will reportedly play the wizard Akron, while Davies will voice King Chandra and Hamill will take on the role of one of the king's guards. Nimoy also recently voiced a public service announcement for the Massachusetts chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
IN OTHER NEWS, Dreamworks has signed Oscar-winning actor Tommy Lee Jones to voice the character Chip Hazard in the upcoming SF film Small Soldiers, according to Variety. Chip is the leader of a troop of toy soldiers brought to life in a small suburban town. The film will be directed by Joe Dante and stars Kirstin Dunst, Phil Hartman, Jay Mohr and Gregory Smith.
2:35 pm ET, 3-Feb-98
Shrunk Gets Second Season
Buena Vista Television has ordered a second season of its syndicated comedy Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Although the series did not perform spectacularly during the November 1997 Nielsen sweeps, it did score high with younger television watchers, including children aged 6-11.
Shrunk is a spin-off TV series based on the popular Shrunk movies. It has been cleared in 73% of the country, including 19 of the top 20 markets.
2:18 pm ET, 3-Feb-98
Toy Island Lands RoboCop License
Toy Island Manufacturing received the master toy license for the syndicated animated television show Robocop: Alpha Commando, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The toy company will produce a variety of collectibles and die-cast vehicles for its RoboCop line, as well as a series of 5-inch and 12-inch figures.
RoboCop: Alpha Commando is produced by MGM and will be distributed by Summit Media. It has cleared 84% of the country, including the top 20 markets.
9:33 am ET, 3-Feb-98
Steel's Ghost Scares Up Movie Deal
Bestselling romance author Danielle Steel landed her first major motion picture deal recently when she sold the rights to her supernatural book The Ghost to Columbia Pictures, Variety reported. Steel called the sale "a light at the end of the tunnel" after being spurned by major film studios for years due to her involvement in TV; she has seen 22 of her 69 novels turned into television miniseries.
The Ghost is about an architect whose wife leaves him for another man. He moves into a chateau in Vermont, only to discover that it's haunted by the ghost of a woman. He eventually finds the woman's diaries, which help him to heal his emotional wounds and enable him to love again.
UPDATED 9:13 am ET, 3-Feb-98
Hollywood Hot For SF
Fueled by the success of SF projects ranging from Fox's hit series The X-Files to Columbia TriStar's blockbuster movie Men in Black, Hollywood talents have been signing on to speculative fiction projects in droves recently. Deals announced in the last few weeks range from a new anthology movie about alien love stories to a TV series about cops on rollerblades:
- The Tick creator Ben Edlund will write and direct a remake of the 1964 movie Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, according to Variety. The trade paper reported that Edlund is "expected to bring a suitably wry approach to the job."
- Samuel L. Jackson will star in and produce a film adaptation of Harlan Ellison's famous novella Mefisto in Onyx, about a serial killer who trades memories with a "mind jumper," according to The Hollywood Reporter. Greg Widen will write the screenplay.
- Clea DuVall has joined Johnny Depp in the cast of The Astronaut's Wife. The film is about a man (Depp) who acts strangely after returning from a space mission. Newcomer Rand Ravich will direct the film for New Line, working from his own script.
- Kristin Scott Thomas is considering the role of Lady Penelope in the Thunderbirds feature film, which will reportedly be directed by Peter Hewitt.
- Live Entertainment bought the worldwide rights to the independent SF film Pi, which made a big splash at the recent Sundance Film Festival. The flick was written and directed by freshman filmmaker Darren Aronofsky.
- Danny DeVito will direct and star in Barthe, a drama about an alien looking for his lost true love (who fled from him thinking he'd deceived her). DeVito will play a tabloid reporter.
- Heather Graham has agreed to co-star opposite Kenneth Branagh in a segment of the anthology movie Alien Love Triangle, which will be composed of three parts, much like New York Stories. The two will star in a Danny Boyle-directed story about a man who finds out that his wife is actually a male alien.
- James Spader is reportedly in talks to star in the upcoming SF flick Supernova, about a deep-space rescue ship that receives a distress call from a damaged freighter. The film is scheduled to begin shooting in April under the direction of Geoffrey Wright.
- 20th Century Fox is developing a film about the future of information warfare called WW3.com. Variety reported that the picture will blend the tension of a Cold War thriller with cyber-terrorists.
- Michael Keaton is in talks to star in the Warner project Frost, a drama-comedy about a boy whose dead father returns to life as a snowman. The film was originally titled Frosty the Snowman.
- Goran Visnjic, Nicole Kidman, Sandra Bullock, Dianne Wiest, Stockard Channing and Timothy Olyphant have all signed on to the Warner film Practical Magic. The film is about two sisters who manifest psychic abilities.
- Fox has ordered a two-hour pilot called Blade Squad, a futuristic drama about cops on rollerblades. It will air sometime in the fall.
- Fox has also ordered a pilot for the Wes Craven/Shaun Cassidy-created series Hollyweird, about two friends from Ohio who move to Los Angeles, where they try to solve bizarre crimes for a weekly cable show that runs in their home town. Casting is now underway.
11:04 am ET, 30-Jan-98
Tribune Developing New Serling Series
The Tribune Entertainment Group, which is currently enjoying success with its "lost" Gene Roddenberry series Earth: Final Conflict, has signed a deal with The Producers Entertainment Group to develop a Rod Serling television concept called Stops Along the Way, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Serling reportedly wrote Stops shortly before he died, but the project has been in limbo for the past 20 years.
Unlike Earth, Tribune is reportedly unwilling to trust Stops in the crowded syndication market and is looking to place the show with a network. Earth has performed surprisingly well for Tribune since its debut last year and currently ranks as the highest-rated new one-hour weekly syndicated action series. The show was developed by Roddenberry's widow, Majel Barrett Roddenberry, from a script her husband wrote but never found time to produce.
11:27 pm ET, 28-Jan-98
MGM To Animate Stargate, Outer Limits
MGM Animation is planning to produce animated versions of the popular SF television series Stargate SG-1 and The Outer Limits, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The new series will join the animated version of Robocop, called Robocop: Alpha Commando, which MGM will premiere in syndication this fall.
MGM's upcoming animation slate also includes a number of non-SF titles, and the company is reportedly considering adding its interactive SF game Tiny Tank to the list for a 1999 release. During the holiday season this year MGM plans to release the animated fantasy feature The Secret of Nimh II to video.
UPDATED 4:08 pm ET, 28-Jan-98
Software Film Boots Up
Phoenix Pictures will make a movie based on cyberpunk author Rudy Rucker's legendary novel Software, with the option to produce two more films based on the book's sequels, Wetware and Freeware. Software will be produced by Edward R. Pressman (The Island of Dr. Moreau), directed by Scott Billups and scripted by Larry Wilson (Beetlejuice).
Rucker said he originally sold the Software movie rights to New Line Cinema in 1990, but the rights were acquired by Phoenix last fall. Several scripts based on the book have been written, including one revision by author John Shirley, but Rucker said Wilson will be starting from scratch. Although Rucker won't be involved with writing the script, he said he may have a bit part in the film, and he hopes some special effects will be based on his work with cellular automata.
Software tells the story of Cobb Anderson, the man who built the sentient robots known as "boppers," and Sta-Hi Mooney, a young slacker who gets caught up in a nefarious plot by the boppers to destroy humanity. The book has been called "one of cyberpunk's most inventive works" by Rolling Stone.
12:45 pm ET, 28-Jan-98
Space Picks Up Lexx, Airs Lost Dr. Who
Canada's Space: The Imagination Station will produce 20 one-hour episodes of LEXX: The Dark Zone, a new SF series based on four two-hour television movies currently airing on Space (the movies aired in the United States on The Movie Channel under the title Tales from a Parallel Universe). The series "continues the darkly weird, edgy and sexy intergalactic voyage of the Lexx, a dragonfly-shaped bug about the size of Manhattan that has been genetically altered to be used both as a spaceship and as the most destructive weapon in two universes."
The series is being written and directed by Paul Donovan for a fall premiere on Space. In addition to its original cast of Zev (Eva Habermann), Kai (Michael McManus) and Stanley Tweedle (Brian Downey), Lexx will get two new characters in its hour-long format, a shape changer named Wist (Doreen Jacobi) and a machine inhabited by the mind of the evil but brilliant Mantrid.
IN OTHER NEWS, Space announced that it would air the four-part Doctor Who serial "Tomb of the Cybermen," which was thought lost years ago when the BBC purged its vaults. A Space press release said the episodes were rediscovered in Hong Kong in 1992, and they will air on the channel beginning February 3. The episodes star Patrick Troughton as the Doctor and are reportedly the first Who installments that were shot in color.
12:15 pm ET, 27-Jan-98
Gaiman Talks About B5 Episode
Neil Gaiman, the man most famous for his 75-issue run of DC's popular comic book series Sandman, recently revealed a few tidbits to the Zocalo newsletter about his upcoming Babylon 5 episode, "Day of the Dead." Gaiman told the Zocalo's Don Kinney that B5 creator J. Michael Straczynski had approached him about writing a script for the series five years ago, but it was only last June that he had time to tackle the project.
Although he would not give away major details about "Day of the Dead," which will air as episode 510, Gaiman did say it was "a story about religion, and religious belief, and about the past." He also said a scene that did not make the final cut was "Tracy Scoggins' magnificent 'Big Day for Babylon 5' speech, which no one will ever get to see." He added that Straczynski had written a couple of scenes for the middle of the episode and had "expanded the bit at the end slightly."
11:42 am ET, 27-Jan-98
MacLachlan To Star In Invisible Man
Kyle MacLachlan (Dune, Twin Peaks) will play the title role in a new one-hour drama series called The Invisible Man--based on the classic H.G. Wells story of the same name--according to Variety columnist Michael Fleming. The series will be set in modern day New York, where it will also be shot, and will feature MacLachlan as a man who was rendered invisible by a military experiment gone wrong.
Series producer and co-creator Dick Wolf assured Fleming that MacLachlan's character would not be invisible all the time, and that they'd "found a way where you can see him for much of the show." Donald Petrie, who just finished the remake of My Favorite Martian, will direct the pilot episode. The series is slated to air on Fox later this fall and may be paired with Chris Carter's dark drama Millennium.
