34A 24 April 2001 inclu BUFFY debacle
Eastlant Sci-Fi Group - 2000-2001 Season Progress Report 34A.
This is a digest of recent Sci-Fi- and genre-related news as of 24th April 2001.
News & Notes
Editorial
The Great Buffy Debacle
Or
We Couldn’t Have Gotten it More Wrong
Well, don’t we feel like fools?
Over the last few weeks, we have reported several pieces of news on the Buffy and Angel finale situation, from supposedly reliable sources, and now it seems that everything we reported was either a mistake or intentionally false.
If we have any excuse, perhaps it’s simply that being the 100th episode, we were easily persuaded that something special was planned. Instead, it now seems that the centennial episode will pass largely unobserved.
The episode is not a feature length special; there are to be no special guest appearances by former cast members – not even the Angel cast are to take part in it apparently; the Angel season has not been cut short by one episode to make room for this special.
Thanks to fellow fan organizer April Herms for giving us the heads up that this stuff was suspect.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, we laughed off any idea that UPN would be able to snap up Buffy, and we were wrong again. In news confirmed by sources such as Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, it has been confirmed that UPN has purchased the rights to air the next 44 new episodes from season 6 onwards, for $102 million, and also taken out an option to pick up Angel for at least 2 seasons if WB cancels the show.
So what can we expect for Buffy from UPN?
You can stand by for guest appearances by “the WCW wrestler of the week”; for episodes to be time-shifted for reruns of Moesha; for bad editing; to have streaming messages running across the bottom of the screen for half the show, begging you to watch a 2nd rate XFL football team lose their tenth game in a row at 3.00am Sunday morning, and to be generally treated like morons.
As TV stations go, UPN are about on a par with Mad Al Yankovic. Shows such as “Selected Readings from the Local Phonebook” and “An hour with Jimmy’s Aquarium” would be a positive step up for this 2-bit, 2nd rate network.
However, looking on the bright side, we can at least look forward to a better picture, without those annoying lines waving across the screen, as UPN’s frequency is way outside the band of interference from our local radio station.
Basically, I am now filling in, trying to put off the moment when I have to admit total defeat and offer a groveling apology to anyone who took what we reported at face value, especially to the 30 or 40 subscribers who use our newsletter as a basis for their own club or web-based newsletters.
We will try to do better in future.
Group News:
Feel-Good Messages and Mass-Mailings
I feel very mean writing this, but we have now reached the point where we can’t avoid it.
A lot of people use e-mail to distribute various homilies, feel-good stories and pages of jokes. The simplest way to do this is to just select everyone in your address book and send a copy of the latest religious story, or motivational tale of human perseverance, to everyone you know.
That’s all well and good under normal circumstances, but this practice is now becoming so prevalent that we are getting anything upwards of 100 of these messages every week. Apart from the download time, sorting these out from our taping messages takes a lot of patience and attention, neither of which we have in infinite supply.
Also, these are the most common carriers of viruses, and we have several alerts every week from these messages. So far, we have been lucky, and every virus we have seen has been a known one, but the first time we receive one that the AV software people haven’t caught onto, we could end up with problems yet again.
To those of you who are in the habit of sending out such mass mailings, we thank you for thinking of us, but in future, please exclude us from such mailings.
Nero Wolfe
This really belongs in Part B, but as we swamped Part B last week with new season pilot news, this is a trade off.
We have had a request to tape the new incarnation of the former William Conrad series of detective stories. As we have quite a few contacts who ask us to keep an eye out for things like new Columbo episodes, and other detective and mystery specials (such as the two Gene Wilder TV Movies last year – “Murder in a Small Town” and “The Lady in Question”), we thought it worth mentioning that Nero Wolfe episodes will be available for a while.
The series is made up of a number of 90 minute TV movies, and will air for several weeks at a time, two or three times during the year. We will hang onto these for some months, until all requests for them are cleared, but they will not be added to the library.
If you are interested, let us know early so that we know to hang onto them.
Convention Reports
Although we may no longer be organizing conventions, we are still interested to see how others are doing. As a result, we invite any of our contacts overseas to send us a brief report of any local conventions they are either planning or have attended.
Whenever we receive any such, we will publish a monthly addendum to the newsletter. This way, you might come across some Fandom activity near to you that you weren’t aware of.
The first such of these addenda will be published towards the end of this week, with a report on Swancon, in Western Australia, by Catherine Jemma De Croy.
TV News:
Here are a few items of Buffy News related to the Editorial Above (Fingers Crossed)
Gellar Amazed At 100 Buffys
Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar told E! that "it's overwhelming" to realize the series is closing in on its 100th episode, the fifth-season finale airing in May. "I don't think it really hit me until we all cut into that cake," Gellar told the site during a break in filming the episode. "I mean, I've been here since five this morning. I've been working. It's one more episode; it's the next one to go; it's the next good script we do. And all of a sudden, it hit me: five years, 100 hours of television. It's really incredible."
Gellar--who is currently in Australia shooting a live-action Scooby-Doo movie with her real-life fiancé, Freddie Prinze Jr.--added, "I'm on this show because of the character--this wonderful character. Women in any industry, we all know we're still fighting an uphill battle. And television characters seem to be much more prominent for women. But as a young girl, it's even harder, because most of the time, you're either 'the girlfriend of' or 'the daughter of' or 'the new wife of.' With Buffy, she just is. She's this amazing character who's funny and witty and sad and sharp and all those things, and no other job would ever offer me the range I've gotten here over the years. So that keeps it fresh."
Buffy Fate Mapped Out
Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon told E! that he's had a pretty good idea for years where his show is headed.
"We leave a lot of big gaping holes--for inspiration to hopefully show up at some point--but we map out seasons very specifically, particularly for Buffy," Whedon told the site. "We try to figure out where she'll be. We actually knew what was going to happen at the end of this season in the middle of the third season. And we pretty much know everything that's going to happen in season six already."
But Whedon remained coy about the series' future. "I can only tell you this much: Every season has an arc, a sort of unifying theme. Last year it was the liberation of college and how it fractures you as a group and as a person. This year was about family and identity and Buffy being a slayer. And next year I refer to as 'Oh, Grow Up.' It's about realizing that we're young adults, and now we're making choices like our parents did, and we're just as bad at it as they were."
As for the end of season five, "obviously, we're bringing the whole Glory-Dawn-Ben-key-Buffy-sister-slayer what-does-it-mean thing to a head. And we're going to have a big-ass apocalyptic battle, because that's what we do. And there's going to be some death."
WB Posts Buffy Statement
The WB--which is losing Buffy the Vampire Slayer to UPN--has posted a statement on its official Web site calling the move "inauspicious." "[Buffy studio] 20th [Century Fox] Television has made an inauspicious decision for the television industry by taking one of their own programs off of a non-affiliated network and placing it on a network in which they have a large vested interest, through their acquisition of Chris-Craft and public comments that Fox [Broadcasting] and UPN are discussing ways to merge," the statement said.
The WB added, "While we are parting with a franchise we developed internally before bringing in 20th as a partner, The WB will continue to develop successful, innovative programming that delivers a high concentration of young adults and teens. We wish [Buffy star] Sarah [Michelle Gellar], [series creator] Joss [Whedon] and [executive producer] David Greenwalt well."
Roswell Fans Lobby WB
Fans of The WB's teen alien series Roswell have taken their campaign to renew the show to the network's official message boards. The network previously announced that it would make a decision in May on whether to renew the series for a third season.
Meanwhile, The WB reported that Roswell earned good ratings when it returned to the air with a new episode on April 16, after a six-week hiatus. The show equaled or surpassed its previous best ratings since November and scored dramatic year-to-year time-period ratings increases in various demographics, the network reported.
Beltran Gripes Again
In spite of the series having wrapped production, Robert Beltran has been griping again about his role of Chakotay on Star Trek: Voyager.
While talking to Ian Spelling's syndicated Inside Trek & Sci-Fi column, Beltran spoke of his dissatisfaction with his role on the series, saying, "Chakotay has not changed enough for my taste. Although they come up with a scene here or there that's tolerable, I think the character has not progressed since season four. In fact, he may even have regressed a little."
When asked what he would have liked to see happen with the character, Beltran answers, "I would have explored his past, his spirituality, the inner conflicts he might have, and most definitely his relationship, not just with the captain, but with everybody else on the ship. I would have liked more revealing scenes with the other cast members, which were sorely lacking with Chakotay."
He adds, "When you're given these throwaway scenes with not much thought put into who's saying it and its importance to the whole story - and I'm talking mostly about seasons five and six here - it just makes me feel like the writers don't care. Therefore the producers don't care, therefore the show isn't that important, therefore why am I busting my a-- trying to make this stupid scene worth anything?
"I just felt let down, ignored and insulted. I think they did a grave disservice to what I thought could have been an interesting character."
JMS On 'B5: Rangers'
J. Michael Straczynski, creator of Babylon 5, has been posting the latest word on the coming B5 TV movie and pilot for the Sci-Fi cable channel called Legend of the Rangers.
In a recent message to a moderated B5 newsgroup, JMS posted the following progress report:
"Sets are being built even as I write this. Designs have been worked out that take the B5 look to a new level, including a ship unlike anything we've ever done before, very ambitious, very different appearance.
"Most of the cast has been set, there are only two roles left to be cast and those should be locked down in a couple of days. It's starting to pick up considerable speed and momentum. SFC and WB are *extremely* pleased with the script.
"There are some comments here and there about the B5 actor who will appear in the TV movie, and the director, but I can't comment pending a press release from SFC, which should be out shortly.
"I think people are going to be pleased and surprised by the look and feel of the show...it has an energy that feels a lot like S3 of B5...by turns funny, intense, weird, with action and some very nice character stuff.
"It's gonna be very cool...."
Regarding the tidbits that JMS couldn't say, SFC confirms previous rumors that production of the pilot will start in Vancouver on May 14. In addition, B5 cast member Andreas Katsulas will reprise his role of G'Kar in the pilot, which will be helmed by Michael Vejar with a script by JMS.
Justice To Look Familiar
Animation producer Bruce Timm (Batman Beyond) told Comics Continuum that his upcoming Justice League series will have a familiar look. "It's very much in the same style and genre as Superman and Batman," Timm said. "The major difference is that we're going for a more realistic look in the backgrounds."
Timm added, "The events that take place in the show are so much larger than life than what happens in Batman. Batman, it was a fairly mundane adventure just in the fact that it was a non-superpowered human fighting non-superpowered villains for the most part, so we were able to stylize the backgrounds more to give the show more visual interest. Whereas with this show--we've got a goddess and a guy from Krypton and a guy from Mars and a space cop all teamed up together. So there's a lot of visual pow right there already. We felt the fact that these characters are already so larger than life, we should try to make the setting of the Earth look a little more realistic, so it will feel a little more believable, if that makes sense. So we're going for a little bit more of a--it's not really photographic or photo-realistic--but it's a little bit more of a realistic background." Cartoon Network has ordered 26 half-hour episodes of Justice League, which debuts in November.
Movie News:
Fantasy Approaches Reality
Chris Lee, producer of the upcoming SF movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, said that the groundbreaking film's computer animation will get as close as possible to reality. In an interview at a recent sneak peek of the movie, Lee stopped short of saying that the animation is completely photorealistic, but added that it is "about as close as the technology will let us get today."
Lee said that a production team consisting of dozens of graphic artists and programmers came together in Honolulu under director Hironobu Sakaguchi, who also created the game on which the film is based. With the help of state-of-the art Silicon Graphics Imagery machines, computer graphics software and specially developed in-house tools, the designers painstakingly created the characters' hair, skin, eyes and facial expressions to simulate live actors. Motion capture technology was also used to recreate realistic three-dimensional movement.
Lee added that the movie--based on the Square video game series of the same name--will merge game elements with those of traditional cinema. "I think what we have here is sort of a convergence of gaming and film and a new aesthetic," Lee said. "This is sort of the next evolutionary step for science fiction, I think. And only a gaming company would have gone to the next level."
The film--set in the year 2065--centers around a beautiful young scientist named Dr. Aki Ross (voiced by Ming-Na) who struggles to save the Earth after a meteor crash brings alien invaders to the planet. Alec Baldwin, Steve Buscemi, Peri Gilpin, Ving Rhames, Donald Sutherland and James Woods provide other voices. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within opens July 13.
Aronofsky Declines Batman
Pi director Darren Aronofsky told an audience in New York that he won't be directing Batman: Year One as his next film. Speaking April 18 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Aronofsky said he would instead begin an unnamed SF movie to star Brad Pitt, the site reported.
As for the much-talked-about Batman project, Aronofsky said, "Don't believe the hype: It's a sequel." Aronofsky was carrying a copy of Batman: Tales of the Bat with him.
Artists Laud Matrix 2 and 3
Steve Skroce and Geof Darrow--comics artists working on the two Matrix movie sequels--told Comics Continuum that the next two movies could outdo the first. "I've seen some footage and it's fantastic," Skroce, who is doing storyboards, told the site. "The little they've shot so far, over the last month or so, is so sweet. I would be very surprised if any of the Matrix fans aren't satisfied with the new ones."
Darrow, who is doing design work, added, "It's an incredibly coherent piece of work. It's going to be an amazing story. I'm pretty lucky to be working on it, this goofy comic book guy from Iowa."
Skroce said that the production--again directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski--seems to be unwinding slowly. "They said it would be five-six months, and I'm going on eight. When I get done in June, it will be more like 12-13 months. They don't want anything to be hacked out. It's gotta be right before it's done quickly. I'll keep doing sketches until the shot is exactly the way [the Wachowskis] want. The movie really does come out of their brains. I'm the translator; that's how I would describe it. We go through an immense amount of detail doing the boards correctly."
Lucas Touts Digital Movies
George Lucas--who shot his upcoming Star Wars: Episode II entirely with high-tech digital cameras--said he'll never go back to film, the official Star Wars Web site reported. Speaking to the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas over the weekend, Lucas said, "I'm completely sold on digital. I can't imagine ever going back."
Lucas added, "It's as profound a change as going from silent to talkies and going from black and white to color. I've always been pushing the envelope of the medium, because I want to get the best possible image in the best possible way in telling my stories. I've always found myself bumping up against this celluloid ceiling of technology that says, 'You can't go here; you can't go there; you can't do that.'"
Lucas said the new technology removes those limitations. "The [new] possibilities center around malleability in terms of what you can do with the image, how you can change the image and work with it. That's the biggest issue the filmmaker will be faced with. The equipment is easier to use, and that allows you to get more angles and do more things than you'd normally be able to do. And once you've captured the image, the digital technology allows you to do an unlimited amount of changes and work in different ways that were not possible with the photochemical process."
Lucas added, "I think Episode II looks better than Episode I in terms of the technical quality of the image. James Cameron, Francis Ford Coppola and a lot of other directors have come through here to see what we're doing. They're very enthusiastic about digital and are amazed at what we've been able to accomplish. We had no problems whatsoever with the camera or the medium or anything. We shot in the desert. We shot in the rain. We shot in all kinds of conditions. The picture looks absolutely gorgeous."
Rock Rolls On Scorpion Prequel
Pro-wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson--who plays the Scorpion King in the upcoming sequel The Mummy Returns--is already working on a third film in the franchise, based on his character. A prequel, The Scorpion King, is already underway, though The Mummy Returns doesn't even reach theaters until May 4.
The prequel will tell the backstory of The Rock's character, an assassin turned into an evil and fearsome 15-foot-tall man-creature, Johnson said. "The Scorpion King is a complete action-adventure," Johnson said in an interview during a break from production on the film, which is being directed by Chuck Russell (The Blob, The Mask). Johnson co-stars with Kelly Hu (Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan), Michael Clarke Duncan (Planet of the Apes), Peter Facinelli (Supernova) and Grant Heslov.
"It's comedy," Johnson said. "It's reality-based. It will have a lot of special effects, but certainly not to the extent of The Mummy Returns. When I say reality-based, I mean the fight scenes are reality-based. That was so key to me. I just wanted to make sure that the character of the Scorpion King--that this warrior who ultimately turns into the Scorpion King--was somebody that people could relate to, [who] kicks ass and at the same time shows his fragility and his vulnerability."
Johnson added, "People can relate to that. The guy gets knocked down from time to time, but he keeps fighting and fighting until he can't fight anymore. That, to me, is very admirable. I saw that in a lot of Arnold Schwarzenegger films, and I appreciated it. And you are certainly going to see that in The Scorpion King."
JP III The Best One Yet?
Sam Neill--who reprises the role of Dr. Alan Grant in the upcoming sequel Jurassic Park III--told Entertainment Weekly magazine that he was amazed at how far special effects have evolved since 1993's original Jurassic Park. "I didn't realize how things had progressed--the creatures are so much more sophisticated," Neill told the magazine. "I think I can safely say this will be the best Jurassic Park."
It didn't always seem so, the magazine reported. "We had to go back to Hawaii in January. It wasn't planned," director Joe Johnston told the magazine. "We didn't have an ending that we liked the first time we were there."
Added co-star Téa Leoni, "We just had the ending missing? Joe is being graceful. We started in Hawaii with no ending, the middle a little up in the air, and the beginning, uh, pretty solid." She added with a laugh, "If the thing bombs, I'm going to blame it on the dinosaurs. I've got plausible deniability, man." Jurassic Park III opens July 18.
Gemini To Be Revamped
Disney has hired Armageddon writer Jonathan Hensleigh to reconceive its SF project Gemini Man, which was once connected with Mel Gibson, Variety reported. Darren Lemke came up with the idea and wrote a draft of the script of the story, set 20 years in the future, of an older man who is hunted by his younger self, the trade paper reported.
"I am preserving the kernel of the concept," Hensleigh told Variety. He said he won't rely on previous drafts of the script. "The basis of my story is that I am contemporizing it--it's happening right now."
Disney has been developing Gemini Man for two and a half years. The studio's Secret Lab visual-effects house tested computer effects to transform an actor into a younger version of himself. Though Disney was courting Gibson for the lead role, no actor is yet attached, the trade paper reported.
Jones Not In 'MIB2'?
Rumor has it that Tommy Lee Jones will not be returning to reprise his Men In Black role for the coming sequel.
According to the New York Post, Jones is rumored to asked for a figure in the $40M range to do the sequel...which would seemingly bump him for consideration for the film.
This would seem to be contrary to previous reports that the salaries had been figured out for the film. In addition, way back on October 13th of last year, Jones spoke to Variety regarding the project and was quoted as saying, "The business aspects are all in place. The team will be exactly the same as in the first episode. Now we're just trying to find a time when Barry [Sonnenfeld], Will [Smith] and myself are all free."
It would be unfortunate to do the film without Jones, but on the other hand, it would also make sense that he not come back given his character's happiness at being reunited with the focus of his affection at the first film's end. Is it true? Time will soon tell given that the project gets under way this summer.
Odds and Ends: Short items not worthy of an article in their own right.
· Variety reported that Paramount Network Television is set to announce this week that UPN will get the next series in the Star Trek franchise, which the trade paper confirmed is tentatively titled Enterprise and which will debut in the fall. This is the first industry publication to mention this, so it is beginning to look as if an official announcement is imminent.
· Star Trek: Deep Space Nine illustrator Doug Drexler will join the upcoming fifth Star Trek series as a junior illustrator, the official Trek Web site reported. Drexler will working in the art department to develop the visual look of the new show, including computer displays, logos and alien languages.
· There's a story going around this week that suggests that WWF wrestler Chyna is in the running to take on the role in the forever in development Wonder Woman movie. According to the not always reliable World Entertainment News Network, Chyna, whose real name is Joanie Laurer, is now set to take on the role of comicdom's Amazon super heroine. Previous reports had tagged Sandra Bullock a likely candidate for the part.
Part B Follows Shortly.
Best wishes,
David Gerhard, Chairman
Bob Jenner, Information Officer
Alexandra Benedict, Entertainment Industry Liaison Officer
Eastlant Sci-Fi Group
Fans Working for Fandom, Not for Profit.
Eastlant Sci-Fi Group - 2000-2001 Season Progress Report 34A.
This is a digest of recent Sci-Fi- and genre-related news as of 24th April 2001.
News & Notes
Editorial
The Great Buffy Debacle
Or
We Couldn’t Have Gotten it More Wrong
Well, don’t we feel like fools?
Over the last few weeks, we have reported several pieces of news on the Buffy and Angel finale situation, from supposedly reliable sources, and now it seems that everything we reported was either a mistake or intentionally false.
If we have any excuse, perhaps it’s simply that being the 100th episode, we were easily persuaded that something special was planned. Instead, it now seems that the centennial episode will pass largely unobserved.
The episode is not a feature length special; there are to be no special guest appearances by former cast members – not even the Angel cast are to take part in it apparently; the Angel season has not been cut short by one episode to make room for this special.
Thanks to fellow fan organizer April Herms for giving us the heads up that this stuff was suspect.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, we laughed off any idea that UPN would be able to snap up Buffy, and we were wrong again. In news confirmed by sources such as Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, it has been confirmed that UPN has purchased the rights to air the next 44 new episodes from season 6 onwards, for $102 million, and also taken out an option to pick up Angel for at least 2 seasons if WB cancels the show.
So what can we expect for Buffy from UPN?
You can stand by for guest appearances by “the WCW wrestler of the week”; for episodes to be time-shifted for reruns of Moesha; for bad editing; to have streaming messages running across the bottom of the screen for half the show, begging you to watch a 2nd rate XFL football team lose their tenth game in a row at 3.00am Sunday morning, and to be generally treated like morons.
As TV stations go, UPN are about on a par with Mad Al Yankovic. Shows such as “Selected Readings from the Local Phonebook” and “An hour with Jimmy’s Aquarium” would be a positive step up for this 2-bit, 2nd rate network.
However, looking on the bright side, we can at least look forward to a better picture, without those annoying lines waving across the screen, as UPN’s frequency is way outside the band of interference from our local radio station.
Basically, I am now filling in, trying to put off the moment when I have to admit total defeat and offer a groveling apology to anyone who took what we reported at face value, especially to the 30 or 40 subscribers who use our newsletter as a basis for their own club or web-based newsletters.
We will try to do better in future.
Group News:
Feel-Good Messages and Mass-Mailings
I feel very mean writing this, but we have now reached the point where we can’t avoid it.
A lot of people use e-mail to distribute various homilies, feel-good stories and pages of jokes. The simplest way to do this is to just select everyone in your address book and send a copy of the latest religious story, or motivational tale of human perseverance, to everyone you know.
That’s all well and good under normal circumstances, but this practice is now becoming so prevalent that we are getting anything upwards of 100 of these messages every week. Apart from the download time, sorting these out from our taping messages takes a lot of patience and attention, neither of which we have in infinite supply.
Also, these are the most common carriers of viruses, and we have several alerts every week from these messages. So far, we have been lucky, and every virus we have seen has been a known one, but the first time we receive one that the AV software people haven’t caught onto, we could end up with problems yet again.
To those of you who are in the habit of sending out such mass mailings, we thank you for thinking of us, but in future, please exclude us from such mailings.
Nero Wolfe
This really belongs in Part B, but as we swamped Part B last week with new season pilot news, this is a trade off.
We have had a request to tape the new incarnation of the former William Conrad series of detective stories. As we have quite a few contacts who ask us to keep an eye out for things like new Columbo episodes, and other detective and mystery specials (such as the two Gene Wilder TV Movies last year – “Murder in a Small Town” and “The Lady in Question”), we thought it worth mentioning that Nero Wolfe episodes will be available for a while.
The series is made up of a number of 90 minute TV movies, and will air for several weeks at a time, two or three times during the year. We will hang onto these for some months, until all requests for them are cleared, but they will not be added to the library.
If you are interested, let us know early so that we know to hang onto them.
Convention Reports
Although we may no longer be organizing conventions, we are still interested to see how others are doing. As a result, we invite any of our contacts overseas to send us a brief report of any local conventions they are either planning or have attended.
Whenever we receive any such, we will publish a monthly addendum to the newsletter. This way, you might come across some Fandom activity near to you that you weren’t aware of.
The first such of these addenda will be published towards the end of this week, with a report on Swancon, in Western Australia, by Catherine Jemma De Croy.
TV News:
Here are a few items of Buffy News related to the Editorial Above (Fingers Crossed)
Gellar Amazed At 100 Buffys
Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar told E! that "it's overwhelming" to realize the series is closing in on its 100th episode, the fifth-season finale airing in May. "I don't think it really hit me until we all cut into that cake," Gellar told the site during a break in filming the episode. "I mean, I've been here since five this morning. I've been working. It's one more episode; it's the next one to go; it's the next good script we do. And all of a sudden, it hit me: five years, 100 hours of television. It's really incredible."
Gellar--who is currently in Australia shooting a live-action Scooby-Doo movie with her real-life fiancé, Freddie Prinze Jr.--added, "I'm on this show because of the character--this wonderful character. Women in any industry, we all know we're still fighting an uphill battle. And television characters seem to be much more prominent for women. But as a young girl, it's even harder, because most of the time, you're either 'the girlfriend of' or 'the daughter of' or 'the new wife of.' With Buffy, she just is. She's this amazing character who's funny and witty and sad and sharp and all those things, and no other job would ever offer me the range I've gotten here over the years. So that keeps it fresh."
Buffy Fate Mapped Out
Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon told E! that he's had a pretty good idea for years where his show is headed.
"We leave a lot of big gaping holes--for inspiration to hopefully show up at some point--but we map out seasons very specifically, particularly for Buffy," Whedon told the site. "We try to figure out where she'll be. We actually knew what was going to happen at the end of this season in the middle of the third season. And we pretty much know everything that's going to happen in season six already."
But Whedon remained coy about the series' future. "I can only tell you this much: Every season has an arc, a sort of unifying theme. Last year it was the liberation of college and how it fractures you as a group and as a person. This year was about family and identity and Buffy being a slayer. And next year I refer to as 'Oh, Grow Up.' It's about realizing that we're young adults, and now we're making choices like our parents did, and we're just as bad at it as they were."
As for the end of season five, "obviously, we're bringing the whole Glory-Dawn-Ben-key-Buffy-sister-slayer what-does-it-mean thing to a head. And we're going to have a big-ass apocalyptic battle, because that's what we do. And there's going to be some death."
WB Posts Buffy Statement
The WB--which is losing Buffy the Vampire Slayer to UPN--has posted a statement on its official Web site calling the move "inauspicious." "[Buffy studio] 20th [Century Fox] Television has made an inauspicious decision for the television industry by taking one of their own programs off of a non-affiliated network and placing it on a network in which they have a large vested interest, through their acquisition of Chris-Craft and public comments that Fox [Broadcasting] and UPN are discussing ways to merge," the statement said.
The WB added, "While we are parting with a franchise we developed internally before bringing in 20th as a partner, The WB will continue to develop successful, innovative programming that delivers a high concentration of young adults and teens. We wish [Buffy star] Sarah [Michelle Gellar], [series creator] Joss [Whedon] and [executive producer] David Greenwalt well."
Roswell Fans Lobby WB
Fans of The WB's teen alien series Roswell have taken their campaign to renew the show to the network's official message boards. The network previously announced that it would make a decision in May on whether to renew the series for a third season.
Meanwhile, The WB reported that Roswell earned good ratings when it returned to the air with a new episode on April 16, after a six-week hiatus. The show equaled or surpassed its previous best ratings since November and scored dramatic year-to-year time-period ratings increases in various demographics, the network reported.
Beltran Gripes Again
In spite of the series having wrapped production, Robert Beltran has been griping again about his role of Chakotay on Star Trek: Voyager.
While talking to Ian Spelling's syndicated Inside Trek & Sci-Fi column, Beltran spoke of his dissatisfaction with his role on the series, saying, "Chakotay has not changed enough for my taste. Although they come up with a scene here or there that's tolerable, I think the character has not progressed since season four. In fact, he may even have regressed a little."
When asked what he would have liked to see happen with the character, Beltran answers, "I would have explored his past, his spirituality, the inner conflicts he might have, and most definitely his relationship, not just with the captain, but with everybody else on the ship. I would have liked more revealing scenes with the other cast members, which were sorely lacking with Chakotay."
He adds, "When you're given these throwaway scenes with not much thought put into who's saying it and its importance to the whole story - and I'm talking mostly about seasons five and six here - it just makes me feel like the writers don't care. Therefore the producers don't care, therefore the show isn't that important, therefore why am I busting my a-- trying to make this stupid scene worth anything?
"I just felt let down, ignored and insulted. I think they did a grave disservice to what I thought could have been an interesting character."
JMS On 'B5: Rangers'
J. Michael Straczynski, creator of Babylon 5, has been posting the latest word on the coming B5 TV movie and pilot for the Sci-Fi cable channel called Legend of the Rangers.
In a recent message to a moderated B5 newsgroup, JMS posted the following progress report:
"Sets are being built even as I write this. Designs have been worked out that take the B5 look to a new level, including a ship unlike anything we've ever done before, very ambitious, very different appearance.
"Most of the cast has been set, there are only two roles left to be cast and those should be locked down in a couple of days. It's starting to pick up considerable speed and momentum. SFC and WB are *extremely* pleased with the script.
"There are some comments here and there about the B5 actor who will appear in the TV movie, and the director, but I can't comment pending a press release from SFC, which should be out shortly.
"I think people are going to be pleased and surprised by the look and feel of the show...it has an energy that feels a lot like S3 of B5...by turns funny, intense, weird, with action and some very nice character stuff.
"It's gonna be very cool...."
Regarding the tidbits that JMS couldn't say, SFC confirms previous rumors that production of the pilot will start in Vancouver on May 14. In addition, B5 cast member Andreas Katsulas will reprise his role of G'Kar in the pilot, which will be helmed by Michael Vejar with a script by JMS.
Justice To Look Familiar
Animation producer Bruce Timm (Batman Beyond) told Comics Continuum that his upcoming Justice League series will have a familiar look. "It's very much in the same style and genre as Superman and Batman," Timm said. "The major difference is that we're going for a more realistic look in the backgrounds."
Timm added, "The events that take place in the show are so much larger than life than what happens in Batman. Batman, it was a fairly mundane adventure just in the fact that it was a non-superpowered human fighting non-superpowered villains for the most part, so we were able to stylize the backgrounds more to give the show more visual interest. Whereas with this show--we've got a goddess and a guy from Krypton and a guy from Mars and a space cop all teamed up together. So there's a lot of visual pow right there already. We felt the fact that these characters are already so larger than life, we should try to make the setting of the Earth look a little more realistic, so it will feel a little more believable, if that makes sense. So we're going for a little bit more of a--it's not really photographic or photo-realistic--but it's a little bit more of a realistic background." Cartoon Network has ordered 26 half-hour episodes of Justice League, which debuts in November.
Movie News:
Fantasy Approaches Reality
Chris Lee, producer of the upcoming SF movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, said that the groundbreaking film's computer animation will get as close as possible to reality. In an interview at a recent sneak peek of the movie, Lee stopped short of saying that the animation is completely photorealistic, but added that it is "about as close as the technology will let us get today."
Lee said that a production team consisting of dozens of graphic artists and programmers came together in Honolulu under director Hironobu Sakaguchi, who also created the game on which the film is based. With the help of state-of-the art Silicon Graphics Imagery machines, computer graphics software and specially developed in-house tools, the designers painstakingly created the characters' hair, skin, eyes and facial expressions to simulate live actors. Motion capture technology was also used to recreate realistic three-dimensional movement.
Lee added that the movie--based on the Square video game series of the same name--will merge game elements with those of traditional cinema. "I think what we have here is sort of a convergence of gaming and film and a new aesthetic," Lee said. "This is sort of the next evolutionary step for science fiction, I think. And only a gaming company would have gone to the next level."
The film--set in the year 2065--centers around a beautiful young scientist named Dr. Aki Ross (voiced by Ming-Na) who struggles to save the Earth after a meteor crash brings alien invaders to the planet. Alec Baldwin, Steve Buscemi, Peri Gilpin, Ving Rhames, Donald Sutherland and James Woods provide other voices. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within opens July 13.
Aronofsky Declines Batman
Pi director Darren Aronofsky told an audience in New York that he won't be directing Batman: Year One as his next film. Speaking April 18 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Aronofsky said he would instead begin an unnamed SF movie to star Brad Pitt, the site reported.
As for the much-talked-about Batman project, Aronofsky said, "Don't believe the hype: It's a sequel." Aronofsky was carrying a copy of Batman: Tales of the Bat with him.
Artists Laud Matrix 2 and 3
Steve Skroce and Geof Darrow--comics artists working on the two Matrix movie sequels--told Comics Continuum that the next two movies could outdo the first. "I've seen some footage and it's fantastic," Skroce, who is doing storyboards, told the site. "The little they've shot so far, over the last month or so, is so sweet. I would be very surprised if any of the Matrix fans aren't satisfied with the new ones."
Darrow, who is doing design work, added, "It's an incredibly coherent piece of work. It's going to be an amazing story. I'm pretty lucky to be working on it, this goofy comic book guy from Iowa."
Skroce said that the production--again directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski--seems to be unwinding slowly. "They said it would be five-six months, and I'm going on eight. When I get done in June, it will be more like 12-13 months. They don't want anything to be hacked out. It's gotta be right before it's done quickly. I'll keep doing sketches until the shot is exactly the way [the Wachowskis] want. The movie really does come out of their brains. I'm the translator; that's how I would describe it. We go through an immense amount of detail doing the boards correctly."
Lucas Touts Digital Movies
George Lucas--who shot his upcoming Star Wars: Episode II entirely with high-tech digital cameras--said he'll never go back to film, the official Star Wars Web site reported. Speaking to the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas over the weekend, Lucas said, "I'm completely sold on digital. I can't imagine ever going back."
Lucas added, "It's as profound a change as going from silent to talkies and going from black and white to color. I've always been pushing the envelope of the medium, because I want to get the best possible image in the best possible way in telling my stories. I've always found myself bumping up against this celluloid ceiling of technology that says, 'You can't go here; you can't go there; you can't do that.'"
Lucas said the new technology removes those limitations. "The [new] possibilities center around malleability in terms of what you can do with the image, how you can change the image and work with it. That's the biggest issue the filmmaker will be faced with. The equipment is easier to use, and that allows you to get more angles and do more things than you'd normally be able to do. And once you've captured the image, the digital technology allows you to do an unlimited amount of changes and work in different ways that were not possible with the photochemical process."
Lucas added, "I think Episode II looks better than Episode I in terms of the technical quality of the image. James Cameron, Francis Ford Coppola and a lot of other directors have come through here to see what we're doing. They're very enthusiastic about digital and are amazed at what we've been able to accomplish. We had no problems whatsoever with the camera or the medium or anything. We shot in the desert. We shot in the rain. We shot in all kinds of conditions. The picture looks absolutely gorgeous."
Rock Rolls On Scorpion Prequel
Pro-wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson--who plays the Scorpion King in the upcoming sequel The Mummy Returns--is already working on a third film in the franchise, based on his character. A prequel, The Scorpion King, is already underway, though The Mummy Returns doesn't even reach theaters until May 4.
The prequel will tell the backstory of The Rock's character, an assassin turned into an evil and fearsome 15-foot-tall man-creature, Johnson said. "The Scorpion King is a complete action-adventure," Johnson said in an interview during a break from production on the film, which is being directed by Chuck Russell (The Blob, The Mask). Johnson co-stars with Kelly Hu (Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan), Michael Clarke Duncan (Planet of the Apes), Peter Facinelli (Supernova) and Grant Heslov.
"It's comedy," Johnson said. "It's reality-based. It will have a lot of special effects, but certainly not to the extent of The Mummy Returns. When I say reality-based, I mean the fight scenes are reality-based. That was so key to me. I just wanted to make sure that the character of the Scorpion King--that this warrior who ultimately turns into the Scorpion King--was somebody that people could relate to, [who] kicks ass and at the same time shows his fragility and his vulnerability."
Johnson added, "People can relate to that. The guy gets knocked down from time to time, but he keeps fighting and fighting until he can't fight anymore. That, to me, is very admirable. I saw that in a lot of Arnold Schwarzenegger films, and I appreciated it. And you are certainly going to see that in The Scorpion King."
JP III The Best One Yet?
Sam Neill--who reprises the role of Dr. Alan Grant in the upcoming sequel Jurassic Park III--told Entertainment Weekly magazine that he was amazed at how far special effects have evolved since 1993's original Jurassic Park. "I didn't realize how things had progressed--the creatures are so much more sophisticated," Neill told the magazine. "I think I can safely say this will be the best Jurassic Park."
It didn't always seem so, the magazine reported. "We had to go back to Hawaii in January. It wasn't planned," director Joe Johnston told the magazine. "We didn't have an ending that we liked the first time we were there."
Added co-star Téa Leoni, "We just had the ending missing? Joe is being graceful. We started in Hawaii with no ending, the middle a little up in the air, and the beginning, uh, pretty solid." She added with a laugh, "If the thing bombs, I'm going to blame it on the dinosaurs. I've got plausible deniability, man." Jurassic Park III opens July 18.
Gemini To Be Revamped
Disney has hired Armageddon writer Jonathan Hensleigh to reconceive its SF project Gemini Man, which was once connected with Mel Gibson, Variety reported. Darren Lemke came up with the idea and wrote a draft of the script of the story, set 20 years in the future, of an older man who is hunted by his younger self, the trade paper reported.
"I am preserving the kernel of the concept," Hensleigh told Variety. He said he won't rely on previous drafts of the script. "The basis of my story is that I am contemporizing it--it's happening right now."
Disney has been developing Gemini Man for two and a half years. The studio's Secret Lab visual-effects house tested computer effects to transform an actor into a younger version of himself. Though Disney was courting Gibson for the lead role, no actor is yet attached, the trade paper reported.
Jones Not In 'MIB2'?
Rumor has it that Tommy Lee Jones will not be returning to reprise his Men In Black role for the coming sequel.
According to the New York Post, Jones is rumored to asked for a figure in the $40M range to do the sequel...which would seemingly bump him for consideration for the film.
This would seem to be contrary to previous reports that the salaries had been figured out for the film. In addition, way back on October 13th of last year, Jones spoke to Variety regarding the project and was quoted as saying, "The business aspects are all in place. The team will be exactly the same as in the first episode. Now we're just trying to find a time when Barry [Sonnenfeld], Will [Smith] and myself are all free."
It would be unfortunate to do the film without Jones, but on the other hand, it would also make sense that he not come back given his character's happiness at being reunited with the focus of his affection at the first film's end. Is it true? Time will soon tell given that the project gets under way this summer.
Odds and Ends: Short items not worthy of an article in their own right.
· Variety reported that Paramount Network Television is set to announce this week that UPN will get the next series in the Star Trek franchise, which the trade paper confirmed is tentatively titled Enterprise and which will debut in the fall. This is the first industry publication to mention this, so it is beginning to look as if an official announcement is imminent.
· Star Trek: Deep Space Nine illustrator Doug Drexler will join the upcoming fifth Star Trek series as a junior illustrator, the official Trek Web site reported. Drexler will working in the art department to develop the visual look of the new show, including computer displays, logos and alien languages.
· There's a story going around this week that suggests that WWF wrestler Chyna is in the running to take on the role in the forever in development Wonder Woman movie. According to the not always reliable World Entertainment News Network, Chyna, whose real name is Joanie Laurer, is now set to take on the role of comicdom's Amazon super heroine. Previous reports had tagged Sandra Bullock a likely candidate for the part.
Part B Follows Shortly.
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