X-Files Creator Signs Fox Deal
he X-Files creator Chris Carter signed a five-year, $25-$30 million production deal with 20th Century Fox TV, according to Variety.
The pact calls for Carter to develop a number of new projects, including an SF drama based on the comic book Harsh Realms.
Fox wants Carter to create one new series for next fall, and possibly two, though Carter told Variety he may simply not have the time to work on two projects. Carter will remain as executive producer of The X-Files for at least two more seasons and on Millennium for at least one.
Meanwhile, published reports indicate that Carter is getting ready to start work on a second X-Files feature film, which will likely hit theaters in 2000. Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny have reportedly already agreed to star in the film.
Universal Revs Mad Max 4
niversal Pictures has picked up the rights to the Mad Max SF film series and plans to release the fourth Max movie in the summer of 2001 or 2002, according to Variety.
George Miller, who had a hand in writing and directing the first three Max films, has signed on to produce and direct the new flick, and although he has developed a story for the picture, he won't necessarily write this one himself.
Variety also reported that Mel Gibson has not been contacted about appearing in the fourth Max film, despite having starred in the first three. One reason might be his going rate of $20 million per film, a far cry from the $15,000 he received for starring in the original Mad Max.
Miller plans to shoot Max 4 in Australia, the same locale used for the previous films, Mad Max, The Road Warrior and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.
Coppola Pitches SF Series
cclaimed filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola is seeking U.S. distribution for his new SF TV show First Wave, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The series debuted in Canada on Sept. 9 and is set to air in Europe soon, but Coppola has yet to sign a deal with a U.S. market, although he's reportedly had at least one firm syndication offer.
The Vidatron Entertainment Group, which owns the North American distribution rights to First Wave, will begin actively shopping the series around in the coming weeks. With nine episodes already shot, it's conceivable that First Wave could premiere in the U.S. this fall as a midseason replacement.
First Wave focuses on a group of alien scouts who have come to Earth to see if our planet should be taken over. The aliens are disguised as nearly perfect humans, which they think is the norm because most of their information about us has come from TV broadcasts.
Lucas May Take Star Wars Down Under
eorge Lucas and his company Lucasfilm may shoot the second Stars Wars prequel movie in Australia, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Lucas has made several trips Down Under to scout out potential filming locations, and the trade paper speculated he may base production of the film out of Fox's new $120 million studio in Sydney.
The switch in venues would be a major change for Lucas, who worked out of Leavesden Studios in London, England, on the first four Star Wars movies. Other films that have shot in Sydney include the upcoming Keanu Reeves SF thriller The Matrix, and Dark City, while Jim Henson Productions plans to shoot the new Sci-Fi Channel series Farscape there.
Smith Teams With Morgan And Wong
ctor Will Smith is teaming up with the writing duo of Glen Morgan and James Wong for the SF action movie The Mark, according to Variety.
Universal Pictures originally bought the script from comic book writer Rob Liefield for about $2 million, but it's not clear whether Morgan and Wong will be working from Liefield's screenplay or starting fresh.
The film will feature Smith as a regular guy in 2001 New York who finds a talisman that gives him special powers. He subsequently becomes caught up in a struggle for the domination of Earth.
Smith is best known to SF fans for his starring roles in Independence Day and Men in Black. Morgan and Wong are also well known SF veterans, having worked on such shows as The X-Files, Millennium and Space: Above & Beyond.
No director has been set for The Mark, which will likely begin shooting in late 1999.
Roddy McDowall Terminally Ill
lanet of the Apes star Roddy McDowall is terminally ill with cancer, according to Variety.
Daily Variety gossip columnist Army Archerd learned of McDowall's illness when he called to give the actor his well wishes on McDowall's 70th birthday.
It's thought that McDowall's illness came on suddenly, as the actor was recently seen in the American Movie Classics special Behind the Planet of the Apes. McDowall previously appeared in four of the five Apes movies as well as in the TV series, playing the various roles of Cornelius, Galen and Caesar.
McDowall was also an acclaimed actor outside the SF genre, having earned a Tony Award for his work on the play The Fighting Cock and an Emmy Award for his part in the TV movie Not Without Honor.
SF Strikes Out At The Emmys
cience fiction shows fared poorly at the 50th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, which were presented during a ceremony held Sept. 13 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, Calif.
Despite nominations for such shows as 3rd Rock from the Sun and The X-Files, the closest SF came to an Emmy of its own was an Outstanding Miniseries award for Tom Hanks' HBO drama From the Earth to the Moon.
SF shows did win a total of 11 honors in the Creative Arts portion of the Emmys--awarded separately from the Primetime Emmys--which were announced Aug. 29 during a presentation in the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. Merlin headed the list of SF winners with four awards, followed by The X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and From the Earth to the Moon with two wins each and Spawn (the cartoon series) with one.
The Emmys are awarded annually by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. For more information on the Emmys, visit the ATAS site at http://www.emmys.org.
X-Files Movie Coming To Video
he X-Files: Fight the Future will be released to home video on Oct. 13, including exclusive interviews with Chris Carter and Gillian Anderson, according to Fox Home Entertainment.
The video will be available in pan-and-scan format for a suggested retail price of $22.98 and in widescreen format for $24.98.
Fox also plans to release a collector's gift set for Fight the Future that includes both video formats, a numbered script printed on non-reproducible red paper, individual frames from the 35mm film print and reprints of the three theatrical posters. The gift set will also feature the video The Making of The X-Files and a special Making of The X-Files book from HarperCollins.
The giftset will be available on Nov. 2 for a suggested price of $79.98.
Sci-Fi Europe Announces New Series
eginning this month, the Sci-Fi Channel Europe will be adding three new series to its lineup of original programming.
The first show to debut will be Lexx: Tales from the Dark Zone, which has been described as "Monty Python meets Alien."
Lexx will kick off its Sci-Fi Europe run with a series of made-for-TV movies that will air in one-hour installments. Those will be followed by 22 episodes of the new Lexx TV series, which stars Xenia Seeberg in the lead role of Xev, a beautiful but deadly woman.
In November the channel will begin running Highlander: The Raven, a spin-off show centered around the immortal woman Amanda, who was a regularly recurring character on the Highlander TV series. In December, Sci-Fi Europe will begin running Mercy Point, a new SF drama that has been described as "ER in space."
Sci-Fi Europe also plans to unveil a "major new look" to complement its programming additions.
Prometheus & Bob Headed To Film
ickelodeon Movies plans to develop the stop-motion SF series Prometheus & Bob into a feature film, according to Variety.
Beavis & Butthead Do America screenwriter Joe Stillman is working on the script, while a director is being sought.
Prometheus & Bob has run on Nickelodeon since 1996 as part of the comedy show Kablam! The series focuses on an extraterrestrial who comes to Earth in order to find intelligent life and who instead meets up with a prehistoric caveman.
Eddie Murphy Flies To Pluto
ddie Murphy will star in the upcoming SF comedy Pluto Nash, according to Variety.
The film is based on a script written by Mystery Men scribe Neil Cuthbert that tells the story of a lunar colonist who takes on a mega-corporation based on Earth.
Murphy will play the title character, who heads up to a lunar settlement in order to escape his checkered past, only to find that a corporation is attempting to take control of the moon's new residents. No director has been announced for the project.
Universal Buys Grinch For Carrey
niversal paid close to $5 million for the film rights to the Dr. Seuss classic children's story "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," according to Variety.
The studio plans to produce a live-action version of The Grinch and has already lined up Jim Carrey to star in the picture, with Ron Howard attached as director.
Universal beat out three other parties bidding on the rights to The Grinch, including a pitch from Fox that would potentially have seen Jack Nicholson in the title role. The rights were put up for auction earlier this month by Audrey Geisel, the widow of Dr. Seuss himself, Theodor Geisel.
Fox Peers Into Frightful Corners
ox has asked screenwriter Alan Spencer to write a script for a TV series about a New Orleans bed-and-breakfast owned by a family that has supernatural powers, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The project is based on an earlier teleplay that Spencer wrote called The Fear Collector, which was purchased by Granada Entertainment.
Granada will develop the new project--tentatively being called Frightful Corners--with Spencer. The show will center around the family's 16-year-old son, who may be able to break the curse that grips the household.
Gooding Eyes Chill Factor
cademy Award winner Cuba Gooding Jr. is reportedly in talks to co-star in the semi-science-fictional movie Chill Factor, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Gooding would play one of two men who are forced to keep a dangerous material chilled below 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
Earlier this month Skeet Ulrich was signed to play the other starring role in the film, which will begin shooting in October. Hugh Johnson is directing the project based on a script by Mike Cheda and Drew Gitlin.
Rob Lowe Joins Austin 2
ob Lowe is in final negotiations to join the cast of Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, according to Variety.
The film is a sequel to the 1997 hit SF comedy Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, which starred Michael Myers as a British secret agent who was frozen in the 1960s and thawed out in 1997.
The first Austin, directed by Jay Roach, earned $54 million in the United States and did brisk business in the home video market. The sequel will once again be directed by Roach and star Myers, while Lost in Space's Heather Graham is set to co-star.
Interplay Announces Real-Time Star Trek
nterplay Productions announced that in 1999 it will release the first real-time strategy PC game set in the Star Trek universe.
The game will be called Star Trek: New Worlds and will pit players against either the computer or other online opponents in a battle to colonize and defend a new frontier planet.
Gamers will be able to play as either the Federation, the Klingon Imperial Task Force or the Romulan Star Empire as they colonize, mine resources, defend, attack and research. New Worlds will feature never-before-seen vehicles from the Star Trek universe, such as the Federation Phaser Tank, the Klingon Disruptor Battery and the Romulan Cloaking Tank.
Unlike most real-time strategy games, New Worlds will allow players to develop a crew that will become more experienced as its members complete various missions. The game will also include "a terrifying new alien race from Alpha Quadrant's past."
Lucas Lets Gamers Fly The Falcon
ucasArts Entertainment will give players a chance to fly Han Solo's legendary spaceship The Millennium Falcon in combat when it releases Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance early next year.
The PC game, the fourth in LucasArts' space combat series based on the Star Wars movies, will put players in the midst of the Rebel Alliance's struggle for survival after its defeat at the hands of the Galactic Empire during the Battle of Hoth.
In addition to the Falcon, gamers will be able to fly a variety of ships from the Star Wars universe, such as the X-wing, the A-wing, the B-wing, the Y-wing and the Z-95. X-Wing Alliance will feature more than 50 single-player missions and five multi-player scenarios, including the assault on the second Death Star that took place during the Battle of Endor.
Stine's Beast Coming To Imax
est-selling author R.L. Stine's novel The Beast is being turned into an Imax film courtesy of Imax and Parachute Entertainment, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
No release date has been set for the 3-D flick, and Imax said it's looking for a writer and director to join the project.
The Beast tells the story of two boys trapped in a haunted amusement park who ride a roller coaster called "The Beast" back in time to the 1930s. Once there they decide they must change the past in order to prevent a fire that destroys the park.
Briefly Noted
- The Web zine HMS Beagle is looking for science fiction stories up to 1,500 words in length that relate to biology or medicine. Payment is $300-$350 per story.
- Michael Easton of Ally McBeal fame will star in the Showtime original SF movie Total Recall 2070, according to Ultimate TV.
- Buena Vista Home Video will release Armageddon to video on Nov. 13 at a sell-through price of $22.99, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
- Donnie Wahlberg has signed on to play a small part in the upcoming Bruce Willis supernatural film The Sixth Sense, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
- Star Trek actor Patrick Stewart is in final negotiations to star in the Arthur Miller play "Ride Down Mt. Morgan," according to Variety.
- Armageddon earned $2.6 million during its debut weekend in Italy, making it the highest-grossing English-langauge film ever to open in that country.
- Akira Kurosawa, the legendary Japanese film director whose work directly influenced American movie classics such as George Lucas's Star Wars, died Sunday, Sept. 6, at his home in Tokyo. He was 88.
