ADV Acquires Queen Emeraldas
.D.V. Films announced it has acquired Queen Emeraldas, the new SF animated adventure from Star Blazers creator Leiji Matsumoto.
A.D.V. plans to release the two 30-minute installments of Queen--which recently made its video debut in Japan--as a single title on both DVD and VHS.
The series focuses on Queen Emeraldas, a privateer in the far future who plies the Sea of Stars while fighting those who would destroy freedom. A.D.V. will begin selling Queen in summer 1999 in both a subtitled and an English-dubbed version.
UPN Wants More Seven Days
PN has ordered more episodes of the one-hour SF drama Seven Days, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The series stars Jonathan LaPaglia as a government agent who can be sent back in time one week thanks to a bit of alien technology picked up in Roswell, N.M.
"As we expected, Jonathan LaPaglia has shown clear signs of becoming a breakout male action star on Seven Days, and creator Chris Crowe has delivered a dynamic hour of television each week," The Hollywood Reporter quoted UPN president Tom Nunan as saying.
Armageddon Smashes Rental Market
or the second week in a row, Armageddon laid waste to the competition in the video rental market, taking in $10.51 million between Nov. 16-22, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
That was $2.45 million more than the Bruce Willis disaster flick earned during its first week on store shelves, and the second highest seven-day take in 1998, trailing only Air Force One's $12.16 million haul back in February.
DreamWorks' tiny hit Small Soldiers held on to the No. 2 video spot during its second week in release after its computer-animated warriors captured $4.23 million in sales. Two other hot SF rentals, Deep Impact and Godzilla, finished the week with $3.56 million and $3.12 million worth of rentals respectively.
Universal II Fills Out Roster
ichael Jai White, Heidi Schanz and the female body builder known as Kiana have joined the cast of Columbia Pictures' upcoming film Universal Soldier II, which stars Jean-Claude Van Damme.
The film is a sequel to the 1992 box-office hit Universal Soldier and continues the story of Luc Deveraux (Van Damme), an enhanced warrior who now serves as a technical expert to the government project that created him.
White will play S.E.T.H., a supercomputer that controls the souped-up soldiers and that drastically malfunctions, forcing Deveraux to take action. Schanz will play Erin, a reporter who's chasing down the story, while Kiana will play Maggie, Deveraux's fearless and well-muscled partner.
Universal Soldier II is scheduled for an August 1999 release.
Bruce Willis Stars In Apocalypse
ruce Willis, the star of SF action films like The Fifth Element and Armageddon, brings his talents to the videogame arena with the launch of Activision's new PlayStation title Apocalypse.
The game features a motion-scanned version of Willis as Trey Kincaid, a heavily armed nano-physicist who must defeat the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse before they destroy the world.
Apocalypse is a 3-D shooter that allows players to run, jump, hang, roll and blast their way through 11 levels as they face up to 20 enemies at one time. The story is backed by 10 minutes of high-resolution video that features Willis, along with "co-stars" such as rock artist POE and radio personality Joe Frank.
Apocalypse is available in stores nationwide for a suggested retail price of $49.95.
Sony Takes Up Demonkeeping
ony Pictures bought the rights to the film adaptation of Chris Moore's supernatural novel Practical Demonkeeping, according to Variety.
Idle Hands writers Terri Hughes and Ron Milbauer have been hired to work on the project, which had been languishing at Disney.
Practical Demonkeeping is about a former seminary student named Travis O'Hearn who has been given everlasting youth by his demon side-kick Catch. However, Catch's appetite for human flesh proves too much for O'Hearn, who decides he must find a way to send the demon back to hell.
Underwood Will Direct Pluto Nash
on Underwood, the director behind such movies as Tremors and the upcoming remake of Mighty Joe Young, has signed on to helm the SF comedy Pluto Nash, according to Variety.
The film stars Eddie Murphy as a nightclub owner in the year 2087 who leads a fight to free a lunar settlement.
Underwood's best known film was the 1991 hit City Slickers. Mighty Joe Young, which stars Bill Paxton and Charlize Therone, is due to hit theaters on Dec. 25.
Briefly Noted
- TNT's Babylon 5 spinoff series Crusade has been pushed back to a June 2, 1999, debut, according to creator J. Michael Straczynski. The show was originally scheduled to premiere in January 1999.
- SF writer Arthur C. Clarke will make a presentation via satellite link from his home in Sri Lanka during a February 1999 conference on digital broadcast satellites being held in Los Angeles, Calif. Clarke previously earned a Nobel Prize nomination for developing the basic theory of communications satellites.
- Disney's new animated film A Bug's Life earned $291,121 during the Nov. 21 weekend, when it debuted in a single theater in Los Angeles, Calif. The film opens nationwide on Wednesday, Nov. 25.
