Sci-Fi Undertakes New Look
he Sci-Fi Channel has enlisted the services of World Wrestling Federation star The Undertaker to promote three original series that will debut on the channel on March 19.
The Undertaker will be on hand when the shows--Poltergeist: The Legacy, Farscape and First Wave--make their premiere on Sci-Fi's sister station, USA Network, on March 14, and again on March 19 when the new series move to their regular Friday night slots on Sci-Fi.
March 19 will also mark the start of Sci-Fi 2.0, a Sci-Fi initiative that will herald a new on-air look for the station as well as promote the channel's expanded lineup. The new Friday night programming block will begin at 7 p.m. ET with Poltergeist, followed by Farscape at 8 p.m. ET and First Wave at 10 p.m. ET.
The Undertaker will also host five nights of blockbuster movies on Sci-Fi, running from March 15-19.
Strange World Bumps NYPD Blue
BC is pulling its highly rated police drama NYPD Blue off the air for four weeks in March in order to try out the freshman SF series Strange World.
Strange World tells the story of former Army scientist Paul Turner, who is temporarily cured of a degenerative disease by a mysterious Asian woman.
However, Turner never knows when his illness will return, or when the woman will show up to give him another dose of the cure. In the meantime, the Army asks Turner to join its Medical Research Institute so he can use his expertise to fight against those who would abuse science.
Turner's first instinct is to decline the offer--after all, he picked up his disease from exposure to chemical weapons during the Gulf War--but when his Asian Nightingale urges him to accept the offer, he has no choice. X-Files alumnus Howard Gordon, who wrote more than 20 episodes of that hit series, is the creator and executive producer of Strange World.
Futurama Gets Wired
he February issue of Wired magazine will be printed with four alternate covers, each serving as a panel in a comic strip that, when put together, will provide a sneak peek of Fox's upcoming animated SF series Futurama.
The issue itself will run under the dateline February 3000--the year in which Futurama takes place--and will include an in-depth look at the series and its creator, Matt Groening.
Among Groening's revelations to the magazine is news that Futurama features "a pizza delivery boy named Fry who, on New Year's Eve 1999, gets inadvertently frozen in a cryogenics lab and wakes up 1,000 years later." Groening also lets on that the world of Futurama is populated by 20th-century talking heads kept in jars, narcotic soft drinks, beer-drinking robots and a corrupt mega-corporation run by a despotic mom.
The Futurama issue of Wired hit newsstands on Jan. 21, while the show will debut on Fox in the spring.
NBC Looks For UFOs
n Feb. 17, NBC plans to air the two-hour special Confirmation: The Hard Evidence of Aliens Among Us?, which is based on the book of the same name written by self-styled UFO abductee Whitley Strieber.
The show will examine evidence that the Earth has been visited by extraterrestrials, highlighted by "the first time that an alleged alien implant has ever been removed on-camera."
Confirmation will also feature eyewitness accounts, footage that reportedly shows UFOs and other E.T. phenomena, and interviews with Strieber and other abduction experts. NBC promises that all evidence will be "subjected to tough scientific analysis" and that it will air "controversial visually recorded information that attests to the possibilities that we have been visited by alien spacecraft and aliens."
Rohner, Brooks Join GvsE
layton Rohner and Richard Brooks have signed on to star in GvsE, USA Network's upcoming supernatural series about the ongoing war between good and evil.
Brooks is best known for his stint as Assistant District Attorney Paul Robinette on Law & Order, while Rohner's credits include the feature films The Relic, Bat 21 and Just One of the Guys.
"GvsE will take a humorous look at what has always been portrayed on television as a dark and serious genre," said Stephen Chao, the president of programming and marketing for USA Networks. "We are confident that we have found a talented cast that can accurately and effectively pull this off."
Rohner will play Chandler Smythe, who dies an untimely death and finds himself in an afterlife where his job is to bring back--or strike down--those who have made a deal with Satan's minions. Brooks will star as Henry, a cynical, wisecracking veteran of The Corp who teams up with Chandler in their ongoing bounty hunt for the almighty.
Ever Wonder Who's Watching?
he Sci-Fi Channel increased its prime-time ratings by 50 percent in the fourth quarter of 1998, giving it the largest Q4 boost of any basic cable network tracked by the Nielsens.
The channel also released the results of a network environment study conducted by Bruskin-Goldring Inc., which revealed that Sci-Fi attracts watchers who are more involved with its programming than other comparable networks.
According to Bruskin-Goldring, Sci-Fi also has one of the highest concentrations of viewers per viewing household in the key demographic of ages 18-49, placing it in the top three among the 38 basic cable networks tracked by Nielsen. The channel also has the same concentration of female 18-49 viewers as The Lifetime Channel, a concentration of males 18-49 comparable to ESPN, and a higher concentration of adults 18-49 than any of the six broadcast networks.
Who Called Hubbard A Hack?
he Hollywood Reporter--a trade paper that covers the entertainment industry--says it came under fire from the Church of Scientology for allegedly calling SF writer L. Ron Hubbard a "sci-fi hack and self-made messiah."
The accusation stemmed from a story the Reporter ran on John Travolta, the famous actor and well-known Scientologist who is backing a film adaptation of Hubbard's book Battlefield Earth.
The Reporter says its article described Battlefield as "based on the novel by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard" and mentioned nothing about messiahs or hacks. The paper says the confusion started when Canada's National Post picked up the story from the wire and added its own description of Hubbard: "the sci-fi hack and self-made messiah who founded the Church of Scientology, of which Travolta is an adherent."
According to the Reporter, Post editor Kirk LaPointe said the change was made by one of his editors, although he wasn't sure how.
Frequency Set At New Line
oby Emmerich's time-travel screenplay Frequency has been given the green light at New Line, according to Variety.
Fallen director Gregory Hoblit will be helming the picture, which will star Dennis Quaid and Jim Caviezel.
Frequency is about a modern-day homicide detective who discovers that he can communicate with his dead father. The father is a famous firefighter who is stuck in time during the fall of 1969, just weeks before his death.
New Line Lands Dark City Director
ew Line has signed Mystery Clock Cinema, the company founded by Dark City director Alex Proyas and his partner Andrew Mason, to a two-year, first-look deal, according to Variety.
"We loved Dark City and we love Alex's creative vision," the trade publication quoted New Line's vice president of production, Brian Witten, as saying.
New Line financed Dark City, a noirish SF film that was lauded by many critics but that earned just $14 million during its run in U.S. theaters. Proyas' only other feature film credit is the Dimension flick The Crow, which grossed $50 million in the U.S. and nearly $100 million worldwide.
Eos Announces Online Con
von Eos, the SF&F imprint of Avon Books, plans to hold its second online convention on Saturday, Jan. 30, from 1-5 p.m. ET.
EOS CON 2 will feature lectures, panels and a reading group discussion--all accompanied by Q&A sessions--as well as a chat room where fans can meet and talk informally.
The panel topics will range from "Imagining Future Societies" to "Science Fiction and Fantasy on the Internet," while authors Raymond E. Feist, Gregory Benford and Dennis Danvers will hold their own chats. Eos has lined up more than a dozen of its writers for the event, including Feist, Benford, Danvers, Paul J. McAuley, Maureen F. McHugh and others.
Briefly Noted
- Blizzard Entertainment's SF real-time strategy game StarCraft was the No. 1 selling PC game of 1998, according to PC Data. Blizzard said it sold more than 1.5 million copies of the game worldwide.
- Mel Gibson has once again delayed his plans to direct a film adaptation of Ray Bradbury's famous SF book Fahrenheit 451, according to Variety columnist Michael Flemming.
- The hit SF film The Truman Show received five nominations for the 11th annual Chicago Film Critics Awards, including best picture, best director, best actor, best screenplay and best original music score.
