McIntyre, Oltion, Kress, Yolen Win Nebulas
onda N. McIntyre, Jerry Oltion, Nancy Kress and Jane Yolen were the winners of the 1997 Nebula Awards, which were announced Saturday, May 2, at a ceremony in Sante Fe, N.M. The awards are voted on annually by members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America who honor their peers in the categories of Best Novel, Best Novelette, Best Novella and Best Short Story.
This year the SFWA also gave out two special awards, naming Poul Anderson a Grand Master and honoring Robin Wayne Bailey with the Service to SFWA Award. This year's winners and categories are:
- BEST NOVEL
- The Moon and the Sun, by Vonda N. McIntyre
- BEST NOVELLA
- "Abandon in Place," by Jerry Oltion
- BEST NOVELETTE
- "The Flowers of Aulit Prison," by Nancy Kress
- BEST SHORT STORY
- "Sister Emily's Lightship," by Jane Yolen
- GRAND MASTER
- Poul Anderson
- SERVICE TO SFWA
- Robin Wayne Bailey
Ex Omni Team Starts New Zine
our staff members from the defunct publication Omni Online are starting a new science fiction Web zine called Event Horizon. Ellen Datlow, who served as Omni's fiction editor for 18 years and who will play the same role at Event Horizon, said they hope to debut the zine in August in time for the World Science Fiction Convention.
Event Horizon will be published monthly and will feature a fiction story and a non-fiction column, with the stories alternating between original pieces and reprints. Datlow said the fiction will include SF, fantasy and horror, with the debut story coming from the "queen of cyberpunk" Pat Cadigan.
Event Horizon will also host weekly online author chats and may include a forum where readers can exchange comments. Former Omni staff members Pam Weintraub, Rob Killheffer and Kathleen Stein are also involved with the project, while Lucius Shepard and Jack Womack have signed on as columnists. For more information, visit the Event Horizon Web site.
Court Okays New Clockwork Rating
hanks to a recent ruling by an Italian court, anyone in Italy who is 14 or older can watch a reissue of Stanley Kubrick's 1971 classic SF film A Clockwork Orange, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film, which will be shown in about 100 theaters in Italy, was initially rated "no one under 18 permitted" due to its violent content.
But Clockwork distributor Warner Bros. had been fighting to get the rating changed for the past year so the film could be seen by a wider audience. The revised "no one under 14 permitted" rating also clears the way for Clockwork to be shown on Italian TV.
Clockwork--which earned a Hugo Award in 1972 for Best Dramatic Presentation--is based on the Anthony Burgess novel of the same name and stars Malcolm McDowell. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Science Fiction has called the film "almost too savage to be seen twice."
Smith Committed To K-Pax
ctor Will Smith (Independence Day, Men in Black) has signed a deal to appear in Universal Picture's upcoming film K-Pax, based on Gene Brewer's 1995 novel of the same name. The story revolves around a mysterious man named "prot" who claims to have come from another planet where the inhabitants are known as the K-Pax.
Prot is admitted to a mental hospital and diagnosed with a multiple personality disorder, but his ability to cure other patients and his incredible knowledge of astronomy seem to support his wild tales of intergalactic travel. The film is being produced by Lawrence Gordon and Susan Pollock.
ID4 Team Joins Smith On The Mark
ean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, the team behind Independence Day and the upcoming film Godzilla, have joined ID4 actor Will Smith on the Universal movie The Mark, according to published reports. Smith will star in and produce the film, while Devlin and Emmerich will also pick up producer credits in return for helping out with special effects.
Comic book writer Rob Liefeld is scripting the movie, which is about a man who gains superhuman powers after receiving a supernatural mark on his hand. Universal plans to shoot the film later this year or in early 1999.
Merlin Is Magic For NBC
BC's two-part miniseries Merlin dominated the networks during its Sunday/Monday run, earning a 21.2 average rating in the Nielsens and reaching more than 55 million viewers. Merlin, Part 1 fared particularly well Sunday night, garnering a 22.8 rating, easily edging out competition such as Fox's The X-Files (8.3 rating) and ABC's broadcast debut of Apollo 13 (9.2 rating).
Those impressive numbers made Merlin the most-watched miniseries since CBS's 1993 airing of Queen, which had a 23.9 average rating. In the 18-49 demographic, Merlin became NBC's highest rated miniseries of all time, an honor formerly held by 1984's V -- The Final Battle.
Alex Schomburg, Famous SF Illustrator, Dies
lex Schomburg, an illustrator and comic book artist whose first assignment was for Hugo Gernsback in 1925, died April 7 at the Maryville Nursing Home in Beaverton, Ore., at the age of 92. Schomburg's 65-year career included work for most of the major SF magazines--including Amazing Stories, Analog and Asimov's Science Fiction--and numerous book publishers.
Schomburg was also a noted comic book artist who helped develop titles such as Captain America and Sub Mariner for Timely Comics, which later became Marvel Comics. One of Schomburg's many claims to fame is the fact that he drew the cover for the first issue of Marvel Comics.
Schomburg was predeceased by his wife Helen Scott Schomburg, who died in 1985, and his daughter Diana Beaudry Thiessen, who died in 1988. He is survived by his son, Richard of Hillsboro, Ore., and five grandchildren.
Warner Delays Superman Lives
uperman may be more powerful than a locomotive in the comic book world, but in Hollywood circles the Man of Steel has the same problem ordinary humans do: money. Warner Bros. executives have put the latest Superman movie--titled Superman Lives--on hold due to concerns about the film's $115 million budget, and they're also a bit skittish about the script, according to published reports.
This is the latest in a growing list of problems for Superman Lives, which got off to a rocky start after Warner rejected a screenplay by writer/director Kevin Smith. When Tim Burton was brought on board to direct, he scrapped Smith's story in favor of his own, but apparently Warner is none too happy with his version either. Both Burton and Nicolas Cage, who is slated to star in the film should the cameras start rolling, remain committed to the project, but the addition of Kevin Spacey as villain Brainiac and Chris Rock as Jimmy Olsen may now be in jeopardy.
If Burton can work out the problems with the script and the budget, the film could finally begin shooting this fall. But Warner, which just axed the Ridley Scott/Arnold Schwarzenegger big-budget film I Am Legend, may simply decide to kill the project altogether.
Analog, Asimov's Present Reader Awards
imothy Zahn, Allen Steele, and Mike Resnick were among the winners of the Analog and Asimov's annual reader awards, which were presented Saturday, May 2, during a breakfast at the Nebula Awards weekend in Sante Fe, N.M. The reader awards, which include a certificate and a cash prize of $100, are chosen annually by readers of the two publications. This year's winners are:
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
AnLab Winners
- BEST NOVELLA:
- "Starsong," by Timothy Zahn (July/Aug. 1997)
- BEST NOVELETTE:
- "Trial by Ordeal," by Grey Rollins (Nov. 1997)
- BEST SHORT STORY:
- "Already in Heaven," by Brian Plante (July/Aug. 1997)
- BEST FACT ARTICLE:
- "Cosmological Darwinism," by Richard Meisner (Nov. 1997)
- BEST COVER:
- January 1997 Hubble Space Telescope Photograph by J. Hester, P. Scowen, Arizona State University and NASA.
Asimov's Science Fiction
12th Annual Readers' Award Winners
- BEST NOVELLA:
- "...Where Angels Fear to Tread," by Allen Steele (Oct./Nov. 1997)
- BEST NOVELETTE:
- "We Will Drink a Fish Together..." by Bill Johnson (May 1997)
- BEST SHORT STORY:
- "The 43 Antarean Dynasties," by Mike Resnick (Dec. 1997)
- BEST POEM:
- "why goldfish shouldn't use power tools," by Laurel Winter (Dec. 1997)
- BEST COVER ARTIST:
- Chris Moore
- BEST INTERIOR ARTIST:
- Darryl Elliott
1997 Sidewise Nominees Announced
ichael Swanwick, Harry Turtledove and Roland J. Green are among the finalists for the 1997 Sidewise Awards for Alternate History. The winners will be announced at Bucconeer, the 56th World Science Fiction Convention, which will be held from Aug. 5-9 in Baltimore, Md. The 1997 nominees, which were released on April 29, are:
- LONG FORM: (60,000 words or longer, or complete series)
- Time on My Hands, by Peter Delacorte (Dell 1997; Gollancz 1998)
- Jack Faust, by Michael Swanwick (Avon 1997; Millennium 1997)
- How Few Remain, by Harry Turtledove (Del Rey 1997, Hodder & Stoughton 1998)
- SHORT FORM: (shorter than 60,000 words)
- "For the Strength of the Hills," by Lee Allred (Writers of the Future XIII, Bridge 1997)
- "Teddy Bear's Picnic," by Eugene Byrne & Kim Newman (Interzone 122-123; Back in the U.S.S.A., Mark V. Zeising 1997)
- "The King of Poland's Foot Cavalry," by Roland J. Green (Tyrants, Tor 1997)
- "The Undiscovered," by William Sanders (Asimov's March 1997)
- SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
- For Want of a Nail, by Robert Sobel (MacMillan 1973; Greenhill 1997)
The Sidewise Awards, named for Murray Leinster's short story "Sideways in Time," are presented annually "to recognize excellence in alternate history." The awards were founded in 1995, and past winners have included Stephen Baxter, P.J. McAuley and Walter Jon Williams. The 1998 judges are currently accepting nominations for the 1998 awards.
MST3K Model Due In June
n June the Janus Co. will release the first licensed model kit based on the Sci-Fi Channel series Mystery Science Theater 3000. The limited-edition, hand-cast model will include the characters Mike Nelson, Tom Servo, Gypsy and Crow T. Robot, who will be featured on the bridge of their spacecraft, the Satellite of Love.
The Mike Nelson figure was sculpted by Jeff Yagher, while the base and the "bots" will be created by designer and robot miniaturist Tom Seiler. The price for the kit has not yet been determined. For more information, contact the Janus Company at janusco@flash.net.
Play Chron X For Cash
enetic Anomalies Inc. announced that in May it will hold the first cash tournament for its online SF strategy card game Chron X, with a total purse of $600. Anyone with Internet access can play in the tournament, which will include qualifying rounds on May 6, 16 and 23, and a final round on May 30.
The winner of the event, which has been dubbed the May '98 Chron X Professional Tournament, will take home a $500 cash prize. The first runner-up will earn $50, while the second and third runner-ups will take home $25 apiece. For more information, visit the Genetic Anomalies Web site.
No-Name SF Film Adds Neuwirth, Hayek
irector Robert Rodriguez's upcoming SF flick for Dimension Films, which still has no title, has added Bebe Neuwirth and Salma Hayek to its ensemble cast. Although little is known about the no-name film, so far Elijah Wood, Robert Patrick, Clea Duvall, Shawn Hatosy and Josh Hartnett have signed on to the project, which is being scripted by Scream scribe Kevin Williamson.
Neuwirth, who is best known for her role as "Lilith" in the sitcoms Cheers and Frasier, is said to have a relatively large part in the film. Hayek, who has previously worked with Rodriguez on Desperado and From Dusk Till Dawn, will be making a cameo appearance.
