SF Earns 11 Oscar Nods
F films fared moderately well in this year's Oscar nominations, with Armageddon leading the pack in quantity while The Truman Show dominated in quality.
Armageddon picked up nods for Best Original Song, Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing and Best Visual Effects, categories that generally don't share much of the spotlight on Oscar night.
The Truman Show, meanwhile, was nominated in the high-profile categories of Best Directing and Best Screenplay-Original, while Truman co-star Ed Harris was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Drama. Pleasantville also earned three nominations, for Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design and Best Original Dramatic Score.
Rounding out this year's SF nominees were What Dreams May Come for Best Art Direction and Best Visual Effects, Mighty Joe Young for Best Visual Effects and A Bug's Life for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score.
SF Films Get Razzed
s usual, science fiction films were in the forefront of the nominees for the Razzie Awards, which are given annually by the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation to "dis-honor" the worst movie achievements.
The Avengers led the pack with nine nominations, followed by Armageddon with seven, Godzilla with five and Lost in Space and Meet Joe Black with one apiece.
The Avengers picked up nods for Worst Picture, Worst Actor (Ralph Fiennes), Worst Actress (Uma Thurman), Worst Screen "Couple" (Fiennes and Thurman), Worst Supporting Actor (Sean Connery), Worst Director (Jeremiah Chechik), Worst Re-Make or Sequel, Worst Screenplay and Worst "Original" Song. Armageddon was dis-honored for Worst Picture, Worst Actor (Bruce Willis), Worst Screen "Couple" (Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler), Worst Supporting Actress (Tyler), Worst Director (Michael Bay), Worst Screenplay and Worst "Original" Song.
Godzilla got off lightly by comparison, earning nominations for Worst Picture, Worst Supporting Actress (Maria Pitillo), Worst Director (Roland Emmerich), Worst Re-Make or Sequel and Worst Screenplay. Rounding out the nominees were Meet Joe Black and Lost in Space, which each picked up a dis-honor for Worst Re-Make or Sequel.
As is traditional, the winners of the Razzies will be announced 24 hours prior to the Oscars, which this year means March 20.
Spielberg May Operate Time Machine
teven Spielberg may direct a modern-day screen adaptation of the famous H.G. Wells SF novel The Time Machine, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The picture is being produced by Warner Bros. and Spielberg's company DreamWorks and will be scripted by John Logan (I Am Legend).
Little else is known about the film at this point, although it's tentatively scheduled for release in the summer of 2000. Spielberg is also working on the Tom Cruise film Minority Report, which is based on the Philip K. Dick novel of the same name.
Tim Allen May Make Galaxy Quest
ome Improvement headliner Tim Allen is in talks to play the starring role in Dreamworks' upcoming SF picture Galaxy Quest, according to Variety.
Allen would reportedly make the picture after his long-running ABC comedy series draws to a close later this year.
Variety also reports that Dreamworks is close to signing a new director for the film following the departure of helmer Harold Ramis. Galaxy Quest tells the story of a former TV actor who must assume his on-air role as a space captain for real in order to save Earth from aliens.
Fox Ready To Play Wing Commander
wentieth Century Fox has decided to give its upcoming SF flick Wing Commander a full-scale theatrical release when the film opens on March 12, according to Variety.
Fox had been planning a limited release for the picture before sending it to the home video market, but after screening the PG-13 movie executives apparently decided it might play well to a wider audience.
Wing Commander is based on the best-selling computer game series of the same name and stars Freddie Prinze Jr., Matthew Lillard and Saffron Burrows. The film is being directed by Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts from a screenplay he wrote with Kevin Droney and Mike Finch.
Meanwhile, Digital Anvil, the entertainment company founded by Roberts, announced that it will sell a line of merchandise based on the movie. Digital said its Wing Commander line will include action figures, masks and costumes, T-shirts, hats, posters, books, a collector's magazine and even bicycles.
Sweetpea To Film D&D
weetpea Entertainment and Silver Pictures plan to produce a live-action feature film of the popular role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The movie will be directed by Sweetpea president and chairman Courtney Solomon and will carry a budget of about $28 million.
The film tells the story of an evil wizard who attempts to overthrow a young empress because she feels that aristocrats and commoners should have equal rights. The empress is aided in her fight by a thief and a sorceress who are trying to find an ancient artifact that can save the kingdom.
D&D will reportedly include an ending sequence that features 75 dragons on screen simultaneously. Shooting is slated to begin in May.
Sony Lands Star Wars Soundtrack
hen the soundtrack for Star Wars - Episode 1: The Phantom Menace lands in stores later this year, it will be carrying the Sony Classical music label, according to Variety.
Sony, which recently scored major hits with two Titanic albums, has already announced plans to release a radio single from the new Star Wars soundtrack, which features John Williams conducting the London Symphony Orchestra.
Williams is a familiar name to Star Wars fans for his work on the original Star Wars score, which earned him two Grammy Awards and an Oscar.
Star Wars Toys Get Microchips
asbro Inc. said its four-inch action figures based on the upcoming film Star Wars - Episode 1 will feature microchips that will allow the toys to speak and even recreate scenes from the movie.
The chips are about the size of a dog-tag and will include holographic images of the characters they represent, which Hasbro says makes them the equivalent of "a digital trading card for the next Millennium."
To play with the toys, children simply stand the action figures on top of their chips and then they scan the chips with a special reader. The figures will then "speak" key sequences of dialogue and even respond to one another, and the reader will also contain built-in blaster and light saber sounds.
SFWA To Honor William Tenn
he Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Inc. announced that Philip Klass--who writes under the pen name William Tenn--has been selected as SFWA's 1999 Author Emeritus.
The Emeritus program was begun in 1995 as a way for SFWA to recognize and appreciate senior writers in the genre who have made significant contributions to SF&F but who are no longer active or whose work may no longer be as widely known as it once was.
Klass published his first story in 1946 in the pages of Astounding Science Fiction and went on to write many more fantastic tales in the '40s and '50s. His best known work is probably the 1954 story "Down Among the Dead Men," about the use of reanimated corpses as front-line troops in a savage interstellar war.
Klass will be honored at the 1999 Nebula Awards Ceremony, which will be held in Pittsburgh, Pa., on May 1.
Raphael Carter Wins Tiptree Award
aphael Carter has earned this year's James Tiptree Jr. Award for his short story "Congenital Agenesis of Gender Ideation," which was published in the anthology Starlight 2 from Tor Books.
The Tiptree is an annual juried literary prize for science fiction or fantasy that explores and expands the roles of women and men.
The Tiptree will be presented at the International Conference on the Fantastic, which will be held March 17-20 at the Fort Lauderdale Airport Hilton in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. This year's Tiptree jury included Ray Davis, Candas Jane Dorsey, Sylvia Kelso, Kate Schaefer and Lisa Tuttle.
Clarke Nominees Announced
he short list for the 1999 Arthur C. Clarke Award--given to the best SF novel whose first U.K. edition was published in 1998--has been announced, according the fanzine Ansible.
This year's list includes:
- The Cassini Division by Ken MacLeod (Orbit)
- Cavalcade by Alison Sinclair (Millennium)
- Dreaming in Smoke by Tricia Sullivan (Orbit)
- Earth Made of Glass by John Barnes (Orion)
- The Extremes by Christopher Priest (Simon & Schuster)
- Time On My Hands by Peter Delacorte (Gollancz)
The award, first given in 1987, was founded by famed British SF novelist Arthur C. Clarke. Each winner receives an inscribed plaque and a check for £1,000.
Briefly Noted
- Babylon 5 actor Andreas Katsulas (G'Kar) will make a guest appearance in an upcoming episode of Millennium called "Forcing the End," which will air at the end of February.
- Columbia Pictures has pushed back the theatrical release of its SF thriller The Thirteenth Floor from April 9 to May 28.
- Babylon 5 actress Julie Catlin Brown (Na'Toth) will be featured in the Feb. 17 episode of Beverly Hills 90210.
- 20th Century Fox's SF film Wing Commander, which is based on the best-selling computer game series of the same name, will debut in theaters on March 12.
- Swingers costars Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau are in talks to star in Paramount's SF comedy Guam Goes to the Moon, according to Variety.
- Electronic Arts announced that its much anticipated SF game Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri has begun shipping to retail outlets.
- Activision said it plans to release its 1998 remake of the classic coin-op game Asteroids for the Game Boy Color handheld gaming system.
