Roddenberry's Starship Lifts Off
ajel Barrett Roddenberry and Mainframe Entertainment have announced plans to develop a computer-animated series based on Starship, a concept created by Star Trek founder Gene Roddenberry.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Barrett Roddenberry--Gene Roddenberry's widow--pitched the idea to Mainframe from a treatment she wrote with John Semper.
Barrett Roddenberry will serve as one of several executive producers for the series, which focuses on a gigantic starship built to explore the far reaches of the galaxy. She has previously turned another of her late husband's ideas, Earth: The Final Conflict, into a successful syndicated TV show.
Mainframe Entertainment currently produces two animated SF series, ReBoot and War Planets, along with a variety of other projects.
Straczynski Working On Rising Stars
abylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski is hoping that his upcoming SF comic book series Rising Stars can do for comics what B5 has done for TV.
Straczynski said he wants to create a writer-driven title similar in style and impact to the work of artists such as Alan Moore and Frank Miller.
"When I first proposed B5, I told people that I wanted to make a show that would make a difference in how the genre was perceived, to do something a bit extraordinary, something special," Straczynski told Sci-Fi Wire. "A lot of people laughed and said that was rather grandiose...but we did it. My intent--and only time will tell if I succeed--is to try and do the same thing with this book."
Rising Stars will follow the lives of 113 people from the small town of Pederson, Ill., who are imbued with special powers when they are exposed in utero to energy from an unknown extraterrestrial force. "Each character will have his own arc, and we'll see the changes in these characters as they go from birth through adulthood, to the ends of their lives," Straczynski said.
Rising Stars is being published by Top Cow Productions, which plans to release the first issue of the 24-book series in April 1999.
Startide Rising Optioned For Film
avid Brin's Hugo and Nebula award-winning novel Startide Rising and the three sequels that together make up The New Uplift Series have been optioned for a feature film by producer Mace Neufield.
Daily Variety reports that Neufield paid $100,000 for the option against $800,000 if a film is made, though Brin could earn as much as $1.1 million from the deal if a Startide movie hits the screen.
Brin will also serve as a consultant on the project and will receive an executive producer credit for any potential film. While Neufield also picked up the option on the Uplift novels Brightness Reef, Infinity's Shore and Heaven's Reach, he is reportedly primarily interested in making Startide the cornerstone of a high-tech film franchise.
Startide Rising was published in 1983 and tells the story of a starship crewed by a mix of humans and intelligent "uplifted" dolphins who discover an ancient relic in deep space. It is the middle novel in the original Uplift series, which began with the book Sundiver and ended with The Uplift War.
Cherryh Working On New Trilogy
ugo Award-winning author C.J. Cherryh is at work on a new science fiction trilogy for DAW Books.
The new novels will be set in Cherryh's Foreigner universe, where humanity has "invaded" an alien world and radically altered the local culture.
"This set of novels is the joint atevi-human space program, complicated by changes in the two cultures that have taken place over several centuries," Cherryh told Sci-Fi Wire. The first of the new books will be titled Precursor and is slated for a summer 1999 release.
The original Foreigner trilogy included the novels Foreigner, Invader and Inheritor.
New Line To Air Lost Homage
ew Line Television is bringing back the cast of the classic SF TV series Lost in Space for a one-hour syndicated special called Lost in Space Forever.
Emmy Award-winning actor John Larroquette will host the show, which will include interviews, previously unseen clips and bloopers, and recreated sets based on the original blueprints from the series.
New Line said Lost Forever has been cleared in 90 percent of the country and will run in syndication between Nov. 16 - Dec. 13. Lost in Space originally aired on CBS from 1965-68 and starred Guy Williams, June Lockhart, Angela Cartwright, Marta Kristen, Mark Goddard, Jonathan Harris and Bill Mumy.
Micronauts Coming To TV
group of five companies has agreed on a deal to create a computer-animated cartoon based on the Micronauts action figure toyline that was popular in the 1970s and 1980s.
The players include the production companies Kaleidoscope Media Group, Abrams/Gentile Entertainment, Annex and Gribouille, and the European toy manufacturer Giochi Preziosi.
Plans call for an initial order of 26 half-hour episodes that will be ready for delivery in fall 1999. Marvel Comics, which published a Micronauts comic book in the 1970s, plans to create a new comic series based on the TV show.
Brimstone Burned By Low Ratings
ox's new supernatural series Brimstone debuted on Friday, Oct. 23, to less-than-hot Nielsen numbers, earning just a 3.8 household rating in preliminary national results.
That was well below Fox's other Friday night speculative fiction show, Millennium, which garnered a 5.1 rating on the same evening.
The bad news for Brimstone is that Fox hasn't been particularly happy with Millennium's ratings, so executives may not give Brimstone much longer to prove itself. The good news is that Brimstone is due for some heavier promotion in the coming weeks, and critics seem impressed with the show so far.
Brimstone stars former thirtysomething actor Peter Horton as a dead cop who's brought back to Earth by the devil in order to capture 113 souls that have escaped from hell.
Beastmaster Series Set To Roar
ork is underway on a one-hour syndicated action series based on the sword-and-sorcery heavy Beastmaster film franchise, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Alliance Atlantis Communications and the Tribune Entertainment Co. are co-producing the show, which has been dubbed Beastmaster: The Legend Continues.
Sylvio Tabet, who produced the original Beastmaster film in 1982 and who served as producer/director for the 1991 sequel Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time, will be involved with the project, which is slated for a fall 1999 debut. The Beastmaster franchise revolves around the barbarian Dar, a so-called beastmaster who can communicate with animals via telepathy.
Pleasantville Tops Box Office
he 1950s TV spoof Pleasantville led the box office for the weekend of Oct. 23, earning $8.85 million during its first three days of release.
The fantasy/comedy flick, about two teens who wind up in a '50s-era TV show, has been getting good reviews from critics as well as moviegoers.
Meanwhile, Practical Magic finished a close second for the weekend, taking in $8.79 million as it entered its second week in theaters. The SF action flick Soldier did not fare nearly as well, earning a lackluster $6.3 million during its debut to take the No. 5 spot at the box office.
Soldier, which stars Kurt Russell, has received poor reviews from critics, who admire the special effects but complain that the movie lacks a good script.
Van Damme Re-Ups For Universal Sequel
ction star Jean-Claude Van Damme is getting ready to start work on Universal Soldier II, a sequel to his 1992 hit SF film Universal Soldier.
Variety reports that Van Damme will be reprising his role as an experimental warrior created by the government, but this time out his mission is to improve the universal soldier training program.
However, when the computer that controls the super soldiers malfunctions, Van Damme will have to square off against his brothers-in-arms in order to save the day. The film is set to begin shooting on Nov. 10 for an August 1999 release.
Dunst Flies With The Crow
een actress Kirsten Dunst, who cut her on-screen teeth alongside Tom Cruise in Interview with the Vampire, has agreed to star in The Crow: Salvation.
Variety reports that Dunst will take on the role of Erin Randall in the film, the third installment in the ongoing Crow franchise.
Salvation focuses on Alex Corvis, a man sentenced to death for a crime he didn't commit, namely the murder of Randall's sister. He later returns to life as a supernatural figure known as The Crow in order to seek vengeance, aided by Erin.
As previously reported, the film is being directed by Bharat Nalluri from a script penned by Millennium writer Chip Johannessen. In addition to her role in Interview, Dunst has appeared in Little Women, Wag the Dog and Small Soldiers.
Sci-Fi Tunes In Audio Titles
he Sci-Fi Channel plans to release two major audio titles in the coming weeks, including a four-CD set of classic SF movie and TV themes, and an audio anthology featuring dramas from the channel's Seeing Ear Theatre Web site.
TVT Records is publishing the themed CD set--called Sci-Fi Channel Presents Sci-Fi's Greatest Hits--which includes The Uninvited, Final Frontiers, Defenders of Justice and The Dark Side.
The Seeing Ear Theatre collection is being published by Newstar Media and includes audio adaptations of several Hugo Award-winning short stories, such as James Patrick Kelly's "Think Like a Dinosaur" and Allen Steele's "The Death of Captain Future." It will be followed by a second SET anthology volume in March 1999, while in February 1999 Newstar will be releasing a SET adaptation of the Clive Barker story "The History of the Devil."
IN OTHER NEWS, the Sci-Fi Channel recently released both a wall calendar and a page-a-day calendar for 1999, while videotapes of the Alien Voices productions First Men in the Moon and The Lost World are due out in January 1999 from Rhino Home Video.
Vulcan Fury Game Put 'On Hiatus'
nterplay has placed its much-anticipated upcoming Star Trek game The Secret of Vulcan Fury on hiatus, according to a report on the GameSpot Web site.
Vulcan Fury was being developed by Interplay's adventure division, Tribal Dreams, but that division was recently disbanded due to Interplay's financial woes.
As originally planned, Vulcan Fury would have featured the cast of the first Star Trek series in a story line that focused on the shrouded past of the Vulcan and Romulan races. Gamespot reports that Interplay holds the license for the game through the year 2003, so the title may yet be developed.
Interplay still plans to release Star Trek: Klingon Academy, Star Trek: New Worlds and Star Trek: Starfleet Command as scheduled.
Soldier Set To Invade PCs
outhPeak Interactive announced that it will publish a PC game based on the upcoming Warner Bros. SF flick Soldier.
The game is being developed by Gigawatt Studios as a real-time 3-D action title that will put players in the role of a genetically engineered soldier in the distant future.
The game will feature six levels that include missions ranging from rescuing hostages to freeing settlers. The PC version of Soldier is slated for a summer 1999 release, while a PlayStation version will follow in the fall.
The film Soldier stars Kurt Russell and opened in theaters nationwide on Oct. 23.
Allegro Options Demons & Devils
F author Joe Clifford Faust reports that Allegro Films has taken out a one-year option on his books Ferman's Devils and Boddekker's Demons.
The novels center around a 21st-century advertising copywriter named Boddekker who cuts a deal with four street thugs known as Ferman's Devils.
While the deal puts Boddeker on the fast track to success at the Pembroke Hall PR agency, it soon turns sour as the Devils break both records and bones on their way to commercial fame. Faust told Sci-Fi Wire that Allegro is interested in creating a made-for-cable movie based on the two novels.
Canada's Aurora Winners Announced
he Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association has announced the winners of the 1998 Prix Aurora Awards, which honor Canadian SF authors, artists and fans.
The awards were presented at the Con*Cept convention, which was held in Montreal, Canada, from Oct. 2-4. The winners and categories are:
- Long-Form Work in English
- Black Wine by Candas Jane Dorsey (Tor Books, January 1997)
- Long-Form Work in French
- L'Odyssée du Pénélope by Jean-Pierre Guillet (Héritage, 1997)
- Short-Form Work in English
- "Three Hearings on the Existence of Snakes in the Human Blood Stream" by James Alan Gardner (Asimov's, February 1997)
- Short-Form Work in French
- "Une lettre de ma mère" by Yves Meynard (Solaris 121)
- Other Work in English
- Northern Frights 4 edited by Don Hutchison (Mosaic Press)
- Other Work in French
- Solaris, Hugues Morin (Les Compagnons à temps perdu)
- Artistic Achievement
- Jean-Pierre Normand
- Fan Achievement (Fanzine)
- Warp Factor edited by Chris Chartier (Warp 9)
- Fan Achievement (Organizational)
- Peter Halasz (The National SF & Fantasy Society/La Societé Nationale de la S-F et du Fantastique)
- Fan Achievement (Other)
- Larry Stewart (entertainer/personnalité amuseur)
The Aurora Awards are chosen annually by members of Canvention, Canada's national science fiction convention, which was hosted by Con*Cept this year. Next year Canvention will be hosted by inCONsequential II, which will be held in Fredericton, Canada, from Oct. 15-17.
Stiles Earns Rotsler Award
he Southern California Institute for Fan Interests, otherwise known as SCIFI Inc., announced that Steve Stiles has won the 1998 Rotsler Memorial Fanzine Artist Award.
The award will be presented to Stiles at the Loscon 25 convention, which will be held at the Burbank Airport Hilton in Burbank, Calif., during the Thanksgiving weekend.
The Rotsler Award was created in 1997 to honor both the lifetime work of outstanding "fanartists" and the memory of esteemed fanartist William Rotsler. Stiles was selected as the first Rotsler recipient "in recognition of his lifelong generosity and the unique talent reflected in his work."
This year's Rotsler judges were Mike Glyer, Richard Lynch and Geri Sullivan. The Rotsler Award includes a $300 cash prize and a plaque.
Briefly Noted
- Director Bryan Singer has reportedly approached Patrick Stewart about playing the role of Professor Xavier in the upcoming X-Men film.
- Christopher Crowe, the creator and executive producer of UPN's SF series Seven Days, has released a self-titled CD featuring his own poetry accompanied by a soundtrack written by composer Joel Goldsmith.
- Oscar-winning actors Ben Kingsley and Mercedes Ruehl have agreed to star in the family Halloween film Spooky House, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
- Viz Video reports that the PBS station KTEH-54 in San Jose, Calif., will be airing all eight volumes of the SF anime series Key: The Metal Idol starting on Nov. 15.
- Activision's 3-D remake of the hit 1980s arcade game Asteroids is scheduled to land in stores on Nov. 10.
- Peter Hyams (The Relic, 2010) has replaced Marcus Nispel as the director of the upcoming Arnold Schwarzenegger movie End of Days, according to published reports.
- Universal Pictures has optioned the film rights to Jeff Rovin's book Fatalis, which is about saber-toothed tigers that invade Los Angeles, according to Variety.
- Sarah Wynter (Species II) has been cast opposite Winona Ryder in the upcoming supernatural flick Lost Souls.
