Lucas Picks New Star Wars Title
he first Star Wars prequel finally has a name: Star Wars: Episode
1 -- The Phantom Menace.
The title was announced September 25 on the official Star Wars Web site.
As previously announced, the film will open in North America on May 21, 1999.
Third Crow Film Set To Fly
imension Films and Edward Pressman Film Corp. are teaming up for The Crow:
Salvation, the third installment in the popular Crow movie franchise, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Bharat Nalluri (Killing Time and Down Time) will direct the movie from a screenplay written by Millennium scribe Chip Johannessen, based on a story developed by Matt Greenberg.
The film will focus on a 20-year-old man who is sentenced to death for a crime
he didn't commit. The man returns to life as a supernatural hero called the
Crow in order to seek vengeance on those who wronged him.
Salvation replaces the now-defunct film The Crow 2037, which was to have been written and directed by White Zombie lead singer Rob Zombie. Salvation is
expected to begin shooting in February for a late 1999 release.
Superman Lives Back From The Dead
he on-again off-again Warner Bros. film Superman Lives is on once again, at
least according to a report by Variety columnist Michael Fleming.
Fleming says the movie, which was canceled due to an escalating budget and script woes, has been revived thanks to a new screenplay by Dan Gilroy.
Gilroy has apparently managed to keep the budget of Superman Lives down while playing up the characters, something that has given both Warner executives and would-be
Superman Nicolas Cage new faith in the project. Fleming reports that Cage is
eager to appear in the film, but there's no word if Tim Burton is still
interested in directing.
Mouse Director Heads To Mars
ore Verbinski, the former commercial director who helmed the DreamWorks flick
Mouse Hunt, will reportedly be going behind the cameras for Disney's upcoming
big-budget SF film Mission to Mars.
The movie is based on an idea by writer David Goyer and producer Tom Jacobson.
Mission focuses on two manned flights to Mars, the first a research and
exploration voyage where something goes drastically wrong. The second is a
rescue mission sent to pick up the survivors of the first and determine what went wrong.
Gulliver Goes 3-D
ainframe Entertainment, the company behind such computer-animated TV series as
ReBoot and War Planets, plans to produce a 3-D CGI version of Jonathan Swift's classic story Gulliver's Travels.
The movie will run in IMAX and IMAX 3-D theaters and will feature an
eight-story-high Gulliver in the imaginary Lilliputian world of the early 1700s.
Mainframe said it will adapt Gulliver's Travels "to reflect the values and attitudes of the 21st century." The film is scheduled for release in 2000.
Zeta-Jones Investigates Haunting
he Mask of Zorro co-star Catherine Zeta-Jones is in talks with DreamWorks to appear in the upcoming supernatural thriller The Haunting of Hill House, according to Variety.
Zeta-Jones would play the role of Theo in the film, which is based on the Shirley Jackson novel of the same name.
Liam Neeson and Lili Taylor are also attached to star in Hill House, which focuses on a research team sent to investigate whether ghosts inhabit a supposedly haunted house. The film is being directed by Jan De Bont and is tentatively scheduled for a Christmas 1999 release.
Jackson's Hill House novel was also the basis for the 1963 movie The Haunting, directed by Robert Wise.
Steiger Talking End Of Days
od Steiger, who earned both an Oscar and a Golden Globe award for acting, is in talks to star opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in the supernatural movie End of Days, according to Variety.
The film was scripted by Andrew Marlowe (Air Force One) and takes place around the turn of the millennium, when Satan pays a visit to New York.
End of Days will mark the feature film directorial debut for Marcus Nispel, who previously made a name for himself in the music video industry.
SF fans may remember Steiger from his appearance in Mars Attacks! as General Decker.
Deep Impact Earns $200 Million Abroad
he DreamWorks/Paramount film Deep Impact picked up $5.1 million in
China during the last month, pushing its overseas gross over the $200 million
mark, according to Variety.
The comet-strikes-Earth flick was especially popular with Japanese audiences, earning $44.6 million during its stay in the Land of the Rising Sun.
Deep Impact also performed well in Germany, the United Kingdom, Mexico,
Australia, Spain, and Italy, although it apparently didn't strike the fancy of
French moviegoers. As previously reported, the film earned a sizable $140
million during its North American run.
Universal Green Lights Frankenstein
niversal Pictures is moving ahead with plans to create a computer animated
feature film that picks up where the 1931 movie Frankenstein--starring Boris
Karloff--left off, according to published reports.
George Lucas's special effects company Industrial Light and Magic will handle the CGI work for the film, which is scheduled for a summer 2000 release.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, ILM visual effects supervisor Dave Carson
and writer Brent Maddock will direct the picture from a screenplay written by
Maddock and S.S. Wilson. The film reportedly focuses on Dr. Pretorious, an
eccentric scientist searching for the electrodes that were implanted in the neck
of Frankenstein's monster some 40 years ago.
Merlin Movie Set To Air
he Kaleidoscope Media Group announced that its two-hour TV pilot Merlin: The
Magic Begins will air in syndication between Oct. 19 and Nov. 15.
The show has so far been cleared in 59 markets, which represent approximately 62 percent of U.S. TV households, including both CBS and NBC owned-and-operated stations.
Merlin stars Jason Connery, the son of Sean Connery, and Deborah Moore, the
daughter of Roger Moore, in a story based on the King Arthur legend. In this
version of the Arthur tale, Merlin is a young man who must learn to control his
blossoming magical powers while fighting to protect the benevolent forest people
against the black magic of the evil Rengal.
Kaleidoscope plans to follow the Merlin movie with a syndicated one-hour TV
series that is expected to premiere in fall 1999.
Wolfmill Acquires Elfquest Rights
olfmill Entertainment, creator of the successful new animated series Pocket
Dragon Adventures, has acquired the media rights to Warp Graphics' long-running
comic book series Elfquest.
Wolfmill co-founder Craig Miller said his company plans to produce both an animated feature film and an animated TV series based on the comic, in a joint venture with Elfquest creators Richard and Wendy Pini.
The Pinis, a husband-and-wife team, published the first Elfquest comic book 20
years ago and are still producing new issues today. The series focuses on a
group of warrior elves called The Wolfriders--small in stature but huge in
courage--who face a variety of dangers as they attempt to fulfill their quest of
finding other tribes like their own and discovering the secret of their past.
Sci-Fi Sets September Record
he addition of the original Star Trek series combined with the strong
performance of Sliders and Welcome to Paradox has given the Sci-Fi Channel its highest September ratings ever.
The channel averaged a 0.8 prime-time rating for the month, a 33 percent increase over its average from a year ago. Those numbers mean that 397,000 households watched the channel during prime-time hours, an all-time monthly high.
Star Trek earned an average 1.0 rating during its first 30 days in the 7:30-9:00 p.m. ET time slot, doubling the channel's performance from September
1997. Meanwhile, the two-hour Monday night block of original programming that
includes both Sliders and Paradox garnered a 1.1 average rating, a 57 percent increase over that time period from the previous year.
Callisto Catches Chill
udson Leick, best known to SF fans for her role as Callisto on Xena: Warrior
Princess, has joined the semi-science-fictional movie Chill Factor, according to Variety.
The film stars Skeet Ulrich and Cuba Gooding Jr. as two men who must
keep a deadly substance chilled below 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
Hugh Johnson is directing Chill based on a script by Mike Cheda and Drew
Gitlin. Peter Firth and David Paymer have also agreed to appear in the movie.
Both Firth and Paymer can be seen in Disney's upcoming feature Mighty Joe Young.
Star Wars Toys On The Move
n a deal involving two major Star Wars toy licensees, Hasbro Inc. has agreed to
pay $220 million for Galoob Toys.
The acquisition includes the exclusive right to manufacture small-scale figures, playsets, vehicles and accessories based on the Star Wars franchise, which adds considerably to the Star Wars licenses that Hasbro already holds.
Last year both Hasbro and Galoob struck blockbuster deals with Lucasfilm worth a
reported $600 million in royalty payments and equity options, giving the two
companies a virtual lock on Star Wars toys from both the original movies and the
upcoming prequels.
Activision Signs Star Trek Exclusive
ame maker Activision has inked a deal with Viacom Consumer Products giving it
the exclusive worldwide publishing rights to entertainment titles based on the
Star Trek franchise.
The 10-year pact covers all existing Star Trek properties as well as any new television series or motion pictures, subject to the
expiration of ongoing agreements Viacom has with other companies.
"With this agreement we can extend the rich interstellar history and traditions
inherent in the Star Trek universe and bring many new and exciting products to
the marketplace," said Robert Kotick, the chairman and CEO of Activision.
Activision said its first Star Trek title will be based on the upcoming film
Star Trek: Insurrection, which is due to hit theaters on December 11.
Blizzard Announces StarCraft Toys
his holiday season, Blizzard Entertainment plans to release action figures
based on its best-selling SF computer game StarCraft, as well as figures from
its fantasy game Warcraft.
The figures will stand approximately 6-1/2 inches high and will sell in stores nationwide for $10-12.
The StarCraft figures will include the Protoss Zealot, the Terran Marine and the
Zerg Hydralisk. The Warcraft figures will include the Grunt and Footman.
Rocket USA Launches Mars Patrol
ocket USA, the company that revived the classic "Gang of Five Robots" toys last year, announced it will be introducing a new line of SF toys under the brand Mars Patrol.
The line will be spearheaded by the Mars Explorer, a battery operated flying saucer complete with an alien pilot, flashing lights, rotating antenna and bump-and-go action.
Mars Patrol will also include the MP-1 Rocket and its nemesis, the Raider X-1 Rocket, two friction-action toys that will be made entirely of tin. Rounding out the line will be the Space Rocket Express, a tin wind-up rocket set on its own track.
For more information, visit the Rocket USA Web site.
Briefly Noted
- X-Files creator Chris Carter signed a seven-figure deal to write two suspense novels for Bantam Books, according to Variety. The novels will reportedly be unrelated to Carter's TV projects at 20th Century Fox TV.
- The History Channel's upcoming special Legends of the Werewolves will feature five new drawings by SF artist Frank Kelly Freas. The special will air at 8 p.m. ET on October 26.
- Oscar-nominated actor David Paymer has signed on to play a military scientist who develops a dangerous substance in the upcoming film Chill Factor, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
- The debut of Showtime's new science fiction series Total Recall 2070 has been pushed back from November to sometime in 1999.
- Variety reports that Davis Entertainment bought a time-travel/romance script called In Time--which takes place both in 1912 and the present day--from writer David Simon.
- Universal and Imagine Films are reportedly interested in hiring the writing duo of Peter Seaman and Jeffrey Price to script the live-action feature film of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Seamen and Price have previously written scripts for films such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the upcoming The Wild, Wild West.
- UPN plans to air an animated series based on ABC's hit sitcom Sabrina the Teenage Witch, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The cartoon will debut in fall 1999.
- Vilmos Zsigmond, who earned an Oscar for his cinematography work on Close Encounters of the Third Kind, will be honored with the American Society of Cinematographers' lifetime achievement award.
- X-Files costar David Duchovny is in talks to star in the MGM film Return to Me, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
- The Fox Television Station Group picked up the weekend rights to reruns of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Fox will run Buffy on its 22 owned-and-operated stations, which reach about 40 percent of the country.
- Liam Neeson and independent film queen Lili Taylor are in talks to star in the upcoming remake of The Haunting of Hill House, according to published reports.
- MGM Home Entertainment will release The Secret of NIMH II: Timmy to the Rescue on both video and DVD in December, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
