Fox Sets Episode 1 Release Date
wentieth Century Fox has officially set May 21, 1999, as the release date for Star Wars: Episode 1, the first of the three Star Wars prequel movies.
Unlike Sony's decision to place Godzilla in as many venues as possible, Fox said it's concentrating on the quality of theaters rather than the quantity.
"I'm not trying to break any records," Star Wars creator George Lucas said. "I'm interested in quality presentation, and a positive group experience for everyone who comes to see this film. It's about sight and sound and the movie itself."
NASA Joins TNT's Crusade
abylonian Productions, producers of Babylon 5 and the upcoming B5 spinoff series Crusade, has entered into a strategic alliance with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The deal calls for JPL, through its Technology Affiliates Program, to provide Crusade producers with the newest technology and to assist them in portraying science and astronomy as accurately as possible.
"Viewers will see distant worlds never before attempted on any other TV series; worlds around twin stars, bizarre and strange environments, and alien life forms based on the best available scientific research from JPL," said J. Michael Straczynski, the creator and executive producer of both B5 and Crusade. "We want to bring the sense of wonder back into this kind of storytelling, and put the science back into science fiction."
"It's exciting for us to be able to share knowledge from the space program in order to help ensure the realism and accuracy of popular science fiction programming," said Joan Horvath, a business alliance manager with the Technology Affiliates Program.
Sci-Fi Renews Sliders
he Sci-Fi Channel has renewed Sliders for a fifth season, ordering 18 new episodes of the series that will air in 1999.
Sliders has been the highest-rated show on the Sci-Fi Channel since it debuted on the network on June 8, earning an average 1.8 household rating in the Nielsens.
"Sliders' outstanding performance on the channel has brought record-breaking ratings," said Stephen Chao, the president of programming and marketing for USA Networks. "Its renewal reflects the commitment we have to expanding our roster of exciting original programming."
Sliders stars Jerry O'Connell, his real-life brother Charlie O'Connell, Cleavant Derricks and Kari Wuhrer. The series previously ran on Fox, from March 1995 through May 1997.
Star Trek: Voyager Reaches 100
he 100th episode of Star Trek: Voyager was filmed this week, marking the third time a Star Trek series has reached the century plateau.
Previously both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine have hit triple digits, although the original Star Trek series only ran 79 episodes, not including an unaired pilot.
LeVar Burton, best known to Trek fans for his role as Chief Engineer Geordi LaForge on The Next Generation, is directing episode No. 100 of Voyager, which will air in the fall. Burton has previously served behind the camera on The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager.
Armageddon Destroys Record
rmageddon became Buena Vista's top-grossing live-action film of all time during the weekend of Aug. 14, when ticket sales of more than $4 million pushed the film's overall take to $180 million.
That broke the record formerly held by Buena Vista's 1990 film Pretty Woman, which earned $178 million.
Armageddon is currently the highest-grossing film of 1998 and has also emerged as king of the summer box office.
Eliza Dushku Joins Buffy Cast
liza Dushku has joined the cast of Buffy The Vampire Slayer as Faith, the latest resident of Sunnydale, according to published reports.
Dushku has previously appeared in the motion pictures True Lies, Bye Bye, Love and This Boy's Life, as well as the CBS telefilm Journey.
In Buffy, Faith will fight on the side of righteousness, helping Buffy and her crew of steadfast vampire hunters battle the forces of evil. Buffy, one of the WB Network's highest rated shows, will begin its third season on Sept. 29.
Fox Delays Brimstone Debut
ox has pushed back the debut of its supernatural crime drama Brimstone from Oct. 6 to Oct. 27 in order to make room for the Major League Baseball playoffs, according to Variety.
The network plans to fill Brimstone's preempted Tuesday, 9 p.m., timeslot with Guinness World Records: Primetime on those nights when baseball doesn't claim the spot.
Brimstone stars Peter Horton as a dead police detective who has been sent to hell but who can go to heaven if he captures 113 evil souls for the devil.
Cassidy Leaves Hollyweird
haun Cassidy has quit his role as executive producer of the troubled Fox TV series Hollyweird, according to published reports.
Cassidy, the creative force behind series such as American Gothic and Roar, apparently became fed up with Fox's demands that the show be rewritten and recast, as reported on earlier in Sci-Fi Wire.
"Having spent much of the last year trying to fix something I never viewed as broken in the first place, I am withdrawing from the process of deconstructing Hollyweird," Cassidy said in a prepared statement. He went on to praise the actors and directors of the show, as well as his co-executive producer, Wes Craven.
Fox responded to Cassidy's departure with a statement that read, "One can't help but respect Shaun Cassidy's passion for Hollyweird. It's unfortunate his insight will no longer help to amplify and build upon an already ambitious series concept."
Meanwhile, Variety reports that Hollyweird has been removed from Fox's fall schedule and that the show may be canceled altogether. As originally planned, Hollyweird was about three Midwest teens who brought their local access cable show about unsolved murders and bizarre night life to Hollywood.
Columbia Options Murder In Space
olumbia Pictures picked up an option on First Murder in Space, an SF thriller that's reportedly on the fast track to becoming an event movie, according to Variety.
Speed 2 screenwriter Randall McCormick and Volcano producer Neal Moritz are collaborating on the project, which may start filming in early 1999.
The plot of First Murder focuses on a bounty hunter who travels into space in order to bring back a suspected killer. Things become complicated when a variety of competing law enforcement agencies claim jurisdiction over the case.
Crow Stuntman Killed
tuntman Marc Akerstream, 44, was killed during an accident on the set of the syndicated TV series The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The TV crew was filming an explosion sequence in Minaty Bay, British Columbia, when a piece of debris was reportedly thrown up in the air by the blast, striking Akerstream in the head.
Akerstream was then air lifted to Vancouver General Hospital, where he later died from his injuries. This is the second unusual death connected with the Crow franchise, which is based on the comic book of the same name by James O'Barr.
While filming the first Crow movie, which hit theaters in 1994, actor Brandon Lee was killed in a freak accident involving a prop gun. Brandon Lee was the son of martial arts legend Bruce Lee.
'Boldly Go' Approved By Oxford
he classic Star Trek phrase "to boldly go where no man has gone before" is grammatically correct despite being a split infinitive, at least according to the New Oxford Dictionary of English.
Reuters reports the latest edition of the dictionary, released last week by the Oxford University Press, gives "to boldly go" the okay, stating that "in standard English the principle of allowing split infinitives is broadly accepted as both normal and useful."
The New Oxford Dictionary of English was written from scratch by 30 editors who spent six years on the project, creating "the first real dictionary of English as a world language."
Anastasia Directors Join Planet Ice
on Bluth and Gary Goldman, the directors of Fox's film Anastasia, will likely take over the directorial duties on Fox's animated SF feature Planet Ice, according to Variety.
The pair will replace Art Vitello, who left the project after Fox said it was interested in creating the film digitally rather than using traditional cel animation.
Apparently the digital effects didn't work out quite as expected, and the final version of the film will use cel animation to render characters, while the space scenes will be created digitally. Matt Damon, Bill Pullman, Drew Barrymore, Nathan Lane, Hank Azaria, Janeane Garofalo, Lena Olin and Jim Breuer have signed on to voice Planet Ice, which is due for a 1999 release.
Osment Gains Sixth Sense
aley Joel Osment has agreed to play the part of Cole, a young boy who seems to have paranormal powers, in the Disney film Sixth Sense, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Osment will star opposite Bruce Willis, who plays the psychotherapist treating Cole.
Osment, who has already been in several films, was a regular on The Jeff Foxworthy Show and also had recurring roles on Murphy Brown and Chicago Hope. His most noteworthy performance was in the Academy Award-winning film Forrest Gump, where he starred opposite Tom Hanks as the son of the title character.
Command & Conquer Going Hollywood?
estwood Studios is shopping around a movie based on its popular real-time strategy SF game series Command & Conquer, according to Variety.
The film will reportedly be set in a post-apocalyptic future where two global factions battle it out for control of the Earth, although Westwood has not yet developed a script.
With the third C&C title due out this fall--Command & Conquer Tiberian Sun, which features James Earl Jones and Michael Biehn--it seems to be a good time to pitch the franchise. Command & Conquer debuted in 1995 and has since sold more than 1 million copies across a variety of platforms that include PCs, Macintoshes, Sony Playstations and Sega Saturns.
Origin Gives Away Wing Commander
rigin plans to release the next version of its popular space combat simulation game Wing Commander in a series of free episodic installments available on the Internet.
The new game, dubbed Wing Commander: Secret Ops, will pick up the franchise's running plot where 1997's Wing Commander: Prophecy left off.
Each "episode" of Secret Ops will be preceded by interactive stories that will be posted to the Secret Ops Web site. The complete game will include 56 new missions, updated weapons, large-scale battles and "cameo" appearances by past Wing Commander ships.
The first installment of Secret Ops will be posted to www.secretops.com on Aug. 27.
Activision Updates Space Invaders
ontinuing its trend of cashing in on classic coin-operated games, Activision Inc. has picked up the rights to Taito's 1978 arcade hit Space Invaders.
Space Invaders joins an Activision lineup that already includes the critically acclaimed title Battlezone and that will soon see the release of a modern-day version of Asteroids.
"Space Invaders and Asteroids pioneered the arcade industry," said Robert Kotick, Activision's chairman and CEO. "Having licensed both of these titles, Activision will now bring two of the most successful arcade games ever to multiple platforms."
Activision bought the right to publish Space Invaders for the PC, PlayStation, Nintendo 64 and Nintendo Gameboy systems. Kotick said Activision will be updating the game with "cutting-edge technology and explosive graphics" while maintaining Invaders' trademark addictive gameplay.
Wargames Ships With Virus
GM Interactive reports that CD-ROMs containing its new SF PC game Wargames are infected with the Win32/Marburg.a virus.
MGM says the virus does not affect the game files themselves, only the electronic registration program included on the CD.
While the game is safe to play, MGM is asking customers who purchased Wargames not to use the electronic registration software that came with it. The company plans to post anti-virus software on its Web site shortly and promises to send players who already registered electronically a new game disk and Symantec Norton Anti-Virus disinfectant software.
Wargames owners with questions or who would like to receive a replacement disk can contact MGM by calling 1-800-320-7988 or 1-310-449-8775, or by sending e-mail to isupport@mgm.com. Wargames is based on the 1983 movie War Games, starring Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy.
Xena Coming To PlayStation
89 Studios plans to release Xena: Warrior Princess, a 3-D game based on the popular syndicated TV series of the same name, for the Sony PlayStation in March 1999.
In the game, players will take on the role of Xena as she embarks on a quest to stop a plot by the Minotaur King and Amazon Queen to kidnap Xena's friend Gabrielle and deliver her for sacrifice to an evil sorceress.
The game will feature characters and locations from the TV show, an ensemble of newly created villains and new worlds to explore. Some of the familiar sights gamers will see as they undertake their adventure are Valarian's Castle, Hades' Underworld and the Temple of the Pinnacles. They will also have a variety of weapons at their disposal, including Xena's trademark Chakram.
1999 TAFF Race Begins
alloting is officially open on the 1999 North America to Europe Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund Race.
The winning candidate will travel to Reconvene, the 50th Annual British National Science Fiction Convention, which will be held in Liverpool, England, from April 2-5, 1999.
The candidates in the race are Velma "Vijay" Bowen, who has been a fan for the past 17 years, and Sarah S. Prince, who says she has been involved in fandom since 1976. The voting deadline is midnight, Dec. 5, and ballots can be obtained by visiting the TAFF Web site.
Voting is open to individuals who have been active in fandom since April 1997 or earlier, and ballots must be accompanied by a donation of at least $3 or £2. 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.
World Fantasy Nominees Announced
he nominees for the 1998 World Fantasy Awards were announced the week of Aug. 10.
The awards will be presented at the 1998 World Fantasy Convention, which will be held from Oct. 31 - Nov. 2 in Monterey, Calif. This year's nominees and categories are:
- Novel
- Trader by Charles de Lint
- The Physiognomy by Jeffrey Ford
- American Goliath by Harvey Jacobs
- The Gift by Patrick O'Leary
- The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte
- Novella
- "Streetcar Dreams" by Richard Bowes
- "The Dripping of Sundered Wineskins" by Brian Hodge
- "The Fall of the Kings" by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman
- "Coppola's Dracula" by Kim Newman
- "The Zombies of Madison County" by Douglas E. Winter
- Short Fiction
- "Dust Motes" by P.D. Cacek
- "Fortune and Misfortune" by Lisa Goldstein
- "Get a Grip" by Paul Park
- "The Inner Inner City" by Robert Charles Wilson
- "Audience" by Jack Womack
- Anthology
- Modern Classics of Fantasy edited by Gardner Dozois
- Bending The Landscape: Fantasy edited by Nicola Griffith and Stephen Pagel
- Northern Frights 4 edited by Don Hutchison
- Dark Terrors 3 edited by Stephen Jones and David Sutton
- Millennium (Also as Revelations) edited by Douglas E. Winter
- Collection
- Giant Bones by Peter S. Beagle
- Driving Blind by Ray Bradbury
- Fractal Paisleys by Paul Di Filippo
- The Throne of Bones by Brian McNaughton
- A Geography of Unknown Lands by Michael Swanwick
- Artist
- Rick Berry
- Jim Burns
- Alan Lee
- Don Maitz
- Dave McKean
- Professional
- Ellen Datlow For editing and anthologies
- Gardner Dozois For editing and anthologies
- The Encyclopedia of Fantasy edited by John Clute and John Grant
- Stephen Jones For editing and anthologies
- Gordon Van Gelder For editing books and for editing The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
- Non-Professional
- Richard Chizmar For Cemetery Dance Magazine and CD Publications
- Fedogan and Bremer For book publishing
- Chris Logan Edwards For Tiger Eyes Press
- Barry Hoffman For Gauntlet Magazine and Gauntlet book publishing
- Jeff VanderMeer For The Ministry of Whimsy Press
Three nominees in each category were chosen by a panel of five judges, while the remaining two nominees were selected by members of the 1997 and 1998 World Fantasy Conventions. This year's nominees for the Lifetime Achievement Award will be announced at a later date.
Sidewise Awards Announced
he Sidewise Awards for Alternate History were announced during a short ceremony held Aug. 7 at the World Science Fiction Convention in Baltimore, Md.
The awards are given annually to the best alternate history publications that received their first English-language or American publication during the previous calendar year. This year's winners are:
- Special Achievement
- For Want of a Nail...;If Burgoyne Had Won at Saratoga by Robert J. Sobel
- Long Form
- How Few Remain by Harry Turtledove
- Short Form
- "The Undiscovered" by William Sanders
The Sidewise Awards are named after the 1934 short story "Sidewise in Time," written by Murray Leinster. This year's award ceremony was attended by Leinster's granddaughter, Beth Richardson, who spoke briefly about her grandfather.
MacLeod, Heinlein Win Prometheus Awards
he Libertarian Futurist Society presented its annual Prometheus Awards, honoring libertarian SF, during a short ceremony held Aug. 6 at the World Science Fiction Convention in Baltimore, Md.
Ken MacLeod earned the Prometheus for his novel The Stone Canal, while Robert A. Heinlein received the Hall of Fame Award for his novel Time Enough for Love.
Both MacLeod and Heinlein are past winners of the Prometheus, MacLeod having won in 1996 for his novel The Star Fraction and Heinlein having been honored with the Hall of Fame Award in 1997, 1996, 1987 and 1983. The prize for both awards is "a gold coin representing free trade and free minds."
Briefly Noted
- Persis Khambatta, the actress who played the bald navigator Ilia in Star Trek -- The Motion Picture, died Aug. 18 of a heart attack. She was 49.
- Star Trek: First Contact is among the first five movie titles that Paramount plans to release on DVD later this year.
- The sixth season of Fox's hit show The X-Files will premiere Sunday, Nov. 8, at 9 p.m.
- Fox plans to air Steven Spielberg's The Lost World: Jurassic Park on Sunday, Nov. 1. The event will mark the broadcast TV debut of the blockbuster film.
- UPN will kickoff its new Thursday night movie series with the SF flick I Married a Monster, which premieres Oct. 8 at 8 p.m.
- Oscar-nominated actress Lena Olin and Claire Forlani are the latest cast additions to Universal's offbeat superhero movie Mystery Men.
- Blizzard Entertainment reports that it has sold 1 million copies of its popular SF real-time strategy game StarCraft.
- Screenwriters Cormac and Marianne Wibberley sold an SF script about cloning, called The Sixth Day, to Phoenix Pictures, according to Variety.
- USA Network has ordered nine additional episodes of the cyber-thriller TV series The Net, which is based on the 1995 movie of the same name.
- Recent Hugo nominee Paul Levinson reports that he has turned in his first science fiction novel, The Silk Code, to Tor Books. The book is tentatively due out in September 1999.
- Paramount will release Deep Impact to video on Oct. 20.
- Darren Aronofsky's SF mystery thriller Pi earned $47,707 during its first weekend in theaters, leading all limited-release films at the box office.
- Peter Segal is reportedly in negotiations to direct the sequel to Eddie Murphy's hit SF comedy film The Nutty Professor.
