Straczynski's Crusade Fails
abylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski reports that the Sci-Fi Channel will not be picking up the B5 spin-off series Crusade, as had previously been speculated.
"At the end of the day, they just couldn't make the dollars work, though they tried their damnedest and are only to be thanked," Straczynski said in an online posting.
Straczynski added that TNT plans to air the 13 episodes of Crusade that have been produced, and that the show may yet have a future. "Warner Bros. has told us to fold and hold all the sets, rather than scrap them, because they believe strongly in the show and feel that, when the ratings come in, we may well be able to pick up a second season," he said.
MST3K Comes To An End
est Brains Inc. has announced that it will cease production of its long-running SF comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000 at the end of the show's 10th season.
"Ten years is a great run for any series," said Best Brains president and MST3K executive producer Jim Mallon. "We've had a tremendous ride and it's time for Mike Nelson and the 'Bots to come down to Earth."
Best Brains made the decision to discontinue the series after the Sci-Fi Channel said it would not be ordering new episodes. The Sci-Fi Channel issued the following statement about the show's demise:
The Sci-Fi Channel is proud to have been the network that brought the Peabody Award-winning Mystery Science Theater 3000 to its milestone 10th season. This trailblazing, innovative series has had a remarkable run, and has even made its way into the pop culture lexicon--many directors now fear that their films might receive "MST treatment." A 10-year run is an amazing feat for any series, and now The Sci-Fi Channel feels that the time has come to bring the Satellite of Love back to Earth. Therefore, The Sci-Fi Channel and Best Brains will conclude the series at the end of its 10th season. We wish the team at Best Brains the best!
MST3K features a marooned astronaut (Mike Nelson) and two robot companions who are forced to watch and comment on terrible movies. MST3K was started by Mallon and comedian Joel Hodgson--who later left the series to pursue other projects--on Minneapolis UHF station KTMA back in 1988.
MST3K made its way to cable TV in 1989, landing on Comedy Central before moving to the Sci-Fi Channel in 1997. Best Brains shot more than 200 episodes of the show, which earned a Peabody Award, two Emmy nominations and more than a dozen Cable Ace Award nominations.
The final season of MST3K, which begins on April 11 and concludes on August 8, will feature a reunion show with Hodgson and another former MST3K star, Frank Conniff.
Lost Who Episode May Not Air
he BBC probably won't air the recently recovered Doctor Who episode "The Lion" due to its politically incorrect portrayal of Syrian warriors, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
A BBC spokesperson reportedly said that "The Lion" features actors who were blacked up for their roles, and "even at the time (1965), the show was not distributed to Arabic-speaking countries."
"The Lion" is the first installment of a Who story called The Crusade, which starred William Hartnell as the Doctor and featured actor Julian Glover as King Richard the Lionheart. In the episode, the Doctor travels back to Syria during the Crusades, where he must rescue his assistant from the clutches of the Muslim leader Saladin.
The discovery of "The Lion" is considered the greatest Who find since all four episodes of the story The Tomb of the Cybermen turned up in Hong Kong in 1991. The BBC is still considering releasing the episode to video later this year.
Second Star Wars Trailer Coming
ucasFilm announced that a second Star Wars: Episode I trailer will hit theaters sometime in March, though the studio isn't saying much beyond that.
All that is known of the trailer so far is that it will be two and a half minutes long and that it will focus on the film's "larger plot."
This is a change from the first trailer, which centered around young Anakin Skywalker as portrayed by Jake Lloyd. Unconfirmed reports on TheForce.net say the new trailer will feature extensive footage of the new villain known as Darth Maul.
Alliance Plans SF Film/TV Tie-In
lliance Atlantis Communications is planning to release a new SF movie called The Project at the same time it launches a big-budget TV series based on the film.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, The Project grew out of a concept by comic book writer Mark Silvestri about a team of young superagents gifted with genetically engineered abilities.
Silvestri is writing the feature film and the TV pilot, although it's not clear if both ventures will include the same cast or merely different actors in identical roles. Silvestri told the Reporter that the characters are "young people who find they can utilize 100 percent of their brain capacity as a result of secret government experiments."
Both the TV and film versions of The Project are being readied for a 2000 release.
Richard Gere May Fly With Mothman
ichard Gere is finalizing a deal to star in Lakeshore Entertainment's upcoming SF film The Mothman Prophecies, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
In separate talks, One True Thing director Carl Franklin is reportedly close to reaching an agreement that would see him helm the flick.
Mothman is based on a real-life incident that took place in Point Pleasant, W.Va., during the 1960s. For several weeks following a reported UFO sighting, the townspeople of Point Pleasant allegedly witnessed bizarre phenomena such as psychic visions and the appearance of strange winged creatures.
SFWA Announces '98 Nebula Noms
he Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Inc. has announced the final nominees for the 1998 Nebula Awards, according to Locus Online.
The nominees and categories are:
Novel
- The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells
- Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman
- How Few Remain by Harry Turtledove
- The Last Hawk by Catherine Asaro
- Moonfall by Jack McDevitt
- To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
Novella
- "Aurora in Four Voices" by Catherine Asaro
- The Boss in the Wall, A Treatise on the House Devil by Avram Davidson & Grania Davis
- "Ecopoiesis" by Geoffrey A. Landis
- "Izzy and the Father of Terror" by Eliot Fintushel
- "Jumping Off the Planet" by David Gerrold
- "Reading the Bones" by Sheila Finch
Novelette
- "Echea" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
- "Lethe" by Walter Jon Williams
- "Lost Girls" by Jane Yolen
- "The Mercy Gate" by Mark J. McGarry
- "Time Gypsy" by Ellen Klages
- "The Truest Chill" by Gregory Feeley
Short Story
- "Fortune and Misfortune" by Lisa Goldstein
- "Standing Room Only" by Karen Joy Fowler
- "Tall One" by K.D. Wentworth
- "Thirteen Ways to Water" by Bruce Holland Rogers
- "When the Bow Breaks" by Steven Brust
- "Winter Fire" by Geoffrey A. Landis
The Nebulas are voted on annually by the active members of SFWA. The winners will be announced at the Nebula Awards Ceremony, which is being held in Pittsburgh, Pa., on Saturday, May 1.
SF Author Earns NASA Fellowship
cientist and science fiction writer Geoffrey A. Landis has been awarded a
fellowship from the NASA Institute of Advanced Concepts to study
interstellar flight.
His study will analyze the possibility of using
dielectric films to increase the performance of laser-pushed lightsails, a
concept first proposed by Dr. Robert Forward--also a science fiction
writer--in 1984.
In this concept, a large space-based laser, powered by
solar energy generated near the orbit of Mercury, is focused on a thin,
reflective sail. The pressure of the laser light pushes the sail to
near-relativistic velocities. The baseline mission being studied is an
unmanned fly-by mission of the nearby star Alpha Centauri.
Landis is also a two-time nominee for this year's Nebula Award for best
science fiction of the year.
Chris Roberts Turns Freelancer
hris Roberts, the space-combat guru who created the popular Wing Commander PC game series, is developing a new space simulation title for Microsoft, according to Gamespot.
The new game is called Freelancer, and it takes place 1,000 years in the future, when four great houses have created interstellar empires and humans have all but forgotten Earth.
Freelancer promises to be a mixture of Wing Commander-style space combat and political maneuvering, with a sense of scale never before seen in the genre. Roberts told Gamespot he had three main goals for the game: to provide a dynamic world, to create a radically new game interface, and to seamlessly integrate gameplay with the movie-style cut scenes that advance the plot.
One of the more intriguing aspects of Freelancer is that it's designed to eliminate a lot of the tedious maneuvering involved with most space-combat simulations, allowing players to focus on blasting their enemies. Roberts said he hopes the game--due to be released in 2000--will advance the space-combat genre to the next level of sophistication.
MGM No Longer In Spider-Man Web
state court judge has ruled that any rights MGM has to a movie based on Marvel's Spider-Man comic book expired in 1996, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The decision comes on the heels of an earlier summary judgment against MGM that dismissed other claims the studio was making for a Spider-Man movie, effectively eliminating MGM from the ongoing battle over the webbed wonder.
Marvel--which says it owns all the rights to produce and distribute a Spidey film--must still contend with separate claims by Viacom Inc. and Columbia/TriStar. Viacom says that it owns the right to distribute a Spider-Man movie, while Columbia claims that it holds the video rights.
Assuming the case is eventually settled, rumor has it that Titanic director James Cameron is still interested in helming the flick.
Briefly Noted
- Sonic Images said it will release the soundtrack for Fox's upcoming SF flick Wing Commander on March 9. The soundtrack was composed by David Arnold and Kevin Kiner, who have previously worked on numerous SF movies and TV shows.
- David Cronenberg's upcoming SF flick eXistenZ was recently awarded a special jury prize for outstanding artistic achievement at the Berlin International Film Festival.
- Brian De Palma has finalized a deal to direct Disney's upcoming SF flick Mission to Mars, which will star Gary Sinise and Don Cheadle.
