Lucas May Direct All 3 Prequels
eorge Lucas has let slip that he will probably be directing all three of the upcoming Star Wars movie prequels, rather than just the first film as he originally announced.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lucas dropped the news during his keynote speech at the annual Screen Producers' Association of Australia conference.
Lucas, who hasn't gone behind the camera since he directed Star Wars, had planned to bring in outside directors for Episode II and Episode III of his new trilogy. Earlier this month Lucas announced that both of those films will be shot in Australia and not in the United Kingdom, where Episode I was filmed.
IN OTHER NEWS, Lucas said a script for the fourth Indiana Jones movie has been completed.
Nintendo Nabs Episode I Games
intendo of America announced it beat out console-game rival Sony Corp. for the rights to two new games based on the upcoming Star Wars prequel movie Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
LucasArts will be developing and publishing the two titles for the Nintendo 64 game system, while Nintendo will develop the same titles for its Game Boy Color handheld platform.
No details about the games were available other than that, "like the film, the games will introduce a new cast of characters, new settings and a new story line." Nintendo will market the games and will hold exclusive worldwide distribution rights to the titles for five years.
The deal also included the rights to Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, a Nintendo 64 game that puts players in the role of Luke Skywalker as he pilots more than a dozen different vehicles from the Star Wars universe. The game is due out Dec. 7 at a suggested retail price of $59.95.
New Sci-Fi Series In Development
SA Networks announced it has finalized development deals for three new original Sci-Fi Channel series.
USA's president of programming and marketing, Steven Chao, said "I am beyond pleased with the caliber of writers and producers that we have working with us for this new development season for USA Network and the Sci-Fi Channel."
Matt Greenberg, whose credits include Halloween H20, Mimic and The Prophecy II, will be writing a series called The Invisible Man. Based loosely on the novel of the same name by H.G. Wells, the show will focus on a small-time thief who undergoes a surgical treatment that enables him to become temporarily invisible.
Spike Jonze, who recently wrapped up principal photography on the film Being John Malkovich, will executive produce and direct a pilot called Metropolis. The series follows two beat cops in the fictitious town of Metropolis who investigate absurd paranormal calls, documented in the video verité style of Cops.
Finally, Michael Lansbury will executive produce Force of Nature, a "retelling of the werewolf myth from a woman's point of view." The project will be directed by Barbara Koppel and written by Stu Werbin.
Meanwhile, the Sci-Fi Channel's sister station, USA Network, has two genre-related series of its own in development. The first is called GvsE and centers around a dead man who is drafted by the forces of good to prevent humans from becoming foot soldiers for evil. The second series is Love Police--written by American Gothic creator Shaun Cassidy--which is about a love goddess and a Philadelphia cop who team up to solve sex crimes.
Sci-Fi Sets 2nd Ratings Record
he continuing success of the original Star Trek series and Sliders has given the Sci-Fi Channel its second straight month of record-setting prime-time ratings.
The channel averaged a 0.9 prime rating in the Nielsens for October, a 28-percent increase over its average from a year ago and an all-time high for the Halloween month.
The highest-rated telecast was the Oct. 24, 9 p.m. ET, showing of the film Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight, which earned a 2.1 rating during its basic cable premiere. Sliders was the highest-rated series for the month, averaging a 1.1 rating.
Two months ago the Sci-Fi Channel set an all-time September high when it averaged a 0.8 rating in prime.
SFWA Okays Dramatic Nebula
uring a September referendum, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America voted to reinstate the Nebula Award for Best Script.
SFWA president Robert J. Sawyer said a committee headed by SFWA vice president Paul Levinson is being assembled to determine how the new award will be administered.
"All that's been determined for sure at this point is that we, as a group, do overwhelmingly want to go back to giving a dramatic Nebula," Sawyer told Sci-Fi Wire. SFWA has previously given out two Nebulas for Best Dramatic Presentation, one in 1973 that went to the movie Soylent Green as well as the novel it was based on, Harry Harrison's Make Room! Make Room!, and one in 1974 that went to Sleeper.
In 1975 a Nebula Award for Best Dramatic Writing was given to Young Frankenstein. In 1976 SFWA members voted not to give out an award in the Dramatic category, and the category was subsequently dissolved.
The new Nebula will be awarded to "a professionally produced audio, radio, television, motion picture or theatrical script." The vote passed 450 to 227.
Vinge Turns In Fire Prequel
F author Vernor Vinge has turned in the final revisions for A Deepness in the Sky, the follow-up novel to his Hugo Award-winning book A Fire Upon the Deep.
Deepness is the second volume in the Zones of Thought series and is due out in hardcover from Tor Books in February 1999.
"A Deepness in the Sky is a prequel to A Fire Upon the Deep," Vinge told Sci-Fi Wire. "It relates some of the Pham Nuwen's final adventures in the Slow Zone."
Vinge said he's looking forward to the publication of Deepness, and that he has a contract with Tor for one more Thought novel.
Grant Creates Dark Tower Gift Set
mall press publisher Donald M. Grant announced he will be producing a limited-edition gift set of the first three books in Stephen King's Dark Tower series.
Grant is publishing a new hardcover edition of The Drawing of the Three and a third printing of the hardcover version of The Gunslinger that will be packaged with the first hardcover edition of The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands.
The set will include a foil-stamped slipcase bound in black leatherette, while artist Phil Case has created 10 new oil paintings for the new version of The Drawing of the Three. The package will retail for $110.
World Fantasy Awards Announced
he winners of the 1998 World Fantasy Awards were announced Sunday, Nov. 1, at the World Fantasy Convention in Monterey, Calif.
This year's winners include:
- Life Achievement (tie)
- Edward L. Ferman
- Andre Norton
- Best Novel
- The Physiognomy by Jeffrey Ford (Avon)
- Best Novella
- "Streetcar Dreams" by Richard Bowes (F&SF, April 1997)
- Best Short Fiction
- "Dust Motes" by P. D. Cacek (Gothic Ghosts, Tor)
- Best Anthology
- Bending the Landscape: Fantasy edited by Nicola Griffith and Stephen Pagel (White Wolf Borealis)
- Best Collection
- The Throne of Bones by Brian McNaughton (Terminal Fright)
- Best Artist
- Alan Lee
- Special Award, Professional
- The Encyclopedia of Fantasy edited by John Clute and John Grant (Orbit; St. Martin's)
- Special Award, Non-professional
- Fedogan & Bremer, for book publishing
The awards are given annually for the best works of fantasy published during the previous calendar year. This year's judges were Peter Crowther, David Truesdale, L. E. Modesitt, Jr., Janeen Webb, and Peter Schneider.
Batman Creator Dead At 83
ob Kane, the man who created the character Batman for DC Comics back in 1939, died Tuesday, Nov. 3 at his home in Los Angeles, Calif.
According to published reports, the 83-year-old Kane collapsed unexpectedly and was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he died from unspecified causes.
Kane had the distinction of watching his creation leap from the pages of comic books to both the small screen of TV and the big screen of theaters, as well as numerous spinoffs ranging from video games to animated cartoons. Throughout it all Kane said he was astonished at what an endearing and enduring character Batman had become.
Dimension To Sell Total Recall 2070
imension Films has picked up the home video rights to Showtime's upcoming series Total Recall 2070, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The series, based on Arnold Schwarzenegger's 1990 blockbuster movie Total Recall, stars Ally McBeal's Michael Easton and is scheduled to debut with a two-hour pilot in March 1999.
2070 is being produced by Alliance Television in association with TEAM Communications and PolyGram Television. Earlier this year Dimension acquired the sequel, prequel and remake rights to the Total Recall film franchise and promptly hired Recall writers Ronald Shusett and Gary Goldman to script a sequel.
Total Recall was based on the Philip K. Dick Story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale."
Sony To Play Final Fantasy
ony Pictures Entertainment has picked up the theatrical distribution rights to the upcoming computer-animated film Final Fantasy: The Movie.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film will be produced by Square USA, a subsidiary of Square Co. Ltd., for a 2001 release.
Final Fantasy is based on Square's best-selling game franchise of the same name, a science fantasy adventure that has so far spawned seven sequels. The film is being written by Apollo 13 scribe Al Reinert and will use what Square is calling "photo-real" human characters.
Sony will distribute the film in all areas except Japan and Asia.
ABC Sinks Fantasy Island
BC is taking Fantasy Island off the air for the last few weeks of November while the show gets a new set of writers and producers.
According to published reports, ABC executives have been unhappy with the direction Island has been taking, not to mention its less-than-fantastic ratings.
Variety reports that ABC is looking for better guest stars to appear in the series, as well as more involvement from the show's executive producer, Barry Sonnenfeld. Fantasy Island is a remake of the 1970s hit TV series of the same name.
Briefly Noted
- The USA Network cyber-series The Net will move to the Saturday, 10 p.m. ET/PT, time slot beginning Nov. 14. The Net currently airs Saturdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
- Despite poor reviews, John Carpenter's latest film Vampires earned $9.2 million during its debut over the Halloween weekend.
- Harold Ramis, who is best known to SF fans for co-writing and co-starring in Ghostbusters, has agreed to direct Galaxy Quest for DreamWorks. The film is a comedy set in outer space.
- Eric Mabius (Welcome to the Dollhouse) is in final talks to star in The Crow: Salvation, the third film in the Crow franchise, according to Variety.
- TNT announced it has acquired the broadcast network window rights to the genre films Pleasantville, Soldier and City of Angels.
