37A 15 May 2001 inclu Douglas Adams obituary
Eastlant Sci-Fi Group - 2000-2001 Season Progress Report 37A.
This is a digest of recent Sci-Fi- and genre-related news as of 15th May 2001.
News & Notes
Editorial
Life, The Universe and Everything are a little smaller and less interesting today
It is with deep sadness that we have to report the death on Friday of last week of TV scriptwriter and Sci-Fi Author Douglas Adams, from a massive heart attack.
Originally a scriptwriter for Dr. Who, Adams found fame as the author of the irreverent SF comedy “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. This was initially written as a 6-part BBC radio serial, but it later spawned a second series, a novel, 4 sequels, and a TV series.
Douglas Adams also wrote what is in my opinion the cleverest book I have ever read “The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul”, the second of the three Dirk Gently novels (Note - #3 – “The Salmon of Doubt” – has not actually been published to my knowledge but maybe now he is gone it might be).
Adams was also the moving force behind the Starship Titanic Video Game.
Although we never had him as a convention guest, I have attended several events at which he was present, and I have to say that the man was as sharp as his writing. His sense of humor was surgical and totally irreverent.
I owe a great deal to Douglas. When my allegiance to Science Fiction was at its lowest ebb, I heard the first Hitchhiker radio serial, and it put me back on track. If it hadn’t been for that, I might now have been a mundane – watching football and gardening instead of being involved in something as engaging as all this. I am not in the least ashamed to admit that I shed a tear over this loss.
A number of tributes have already been posted on the web to this great writer and I do not intend to attempt to compete with such figures as Stephan Fry and Neil Gaiman, who was collaborating with him on a movie of the Guide. (Hopefully, this will still happen.)
However, I do have a small personal experience to relate. I was in a small group of fans sitting with Doug at a convention when the conversation turned to life after death. One of the group asked him if he thought there was anything after this life, and he answered “No idea, but I can’t wait to find out”.
Well, Doug – Now you know!
Note to the headwaiter at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe– Table for one please!
Group News:
The Pilots are Behaving
Although the strike is only partially over, mail seems to be moving reasonably well at the moment. As a result, we mailed out around 100 tapes on Saturday. You should have had notification if yours are among them. We still have a lot of acknowledgments to come from last week’s mailing, so we can only assume that these are the ones delayed.
It’s Filler Time
With the season finales starting to appear, now is the time to start thinking about what you would like as filler on your last tapes. Here are a few guidelines to help you out if you can’t decide: -
You need do nothing if:
1. You are taking an even number of series, say for example Voyager and Andromeda, or Buffy and Angel, then we will automatically put the last two eps of each onto a tape together (unless we hear from you that you want don’t want it this way);
2. Your chosen series has either 20 or 24 episodes – i.e. complete nodes at the end of the season;
3. You have already informed us of your preferences.
You DO need to inform us if:
1. You are taking just one or an odd number of series, leaving a couple of odd episodes hanging;
2. You are taking an even number of series and you have specific preferences as to which ones should go together – however be aware that we will use a modicum of common sense – Buffy and Angel together, etc;
3. You have any special instructions.
Items of note:
Unless we have anything to discuss or dispute, we won’t answer e-mails with your filler instructions, as we are likely to be swamped with them over the next week or so. However, if you do require a response, just make me aware of this and I will respond.
X-Files Season 8 runs just 21 episodes. This means that XF 8:6 needs three episodes as filler. The Lone Gunmen would seem to be a sensible choice, but bear in mind that Season 1 of TLG ran for just 12 episodes, so that makes up 3 exact nodes. If you intend to take these anyway, try to think of something else for XF 8:6 or you will be left with exactly the same problem for TLG 1:3.
Dark Angel and Roswell also have only 21 episodes listed so far and may have the same problem.
The Sopranos seasons run only 13 episodes, so tape 3:5 will have only 1 episode, leaving approximately 2 hours of space to fill – not quite enough for 3 standard episodes.
The last few Xena episodes have been intentionally delayed until mid June, so Xena fans may need to think carefully when considering any of these as fillers or you could end up waiting a full month for episodes of a series that is already over.
Please pay particular attention to next week’s Part B, for series where we have missed an episode or two, and which do not fit the normal scheme of things. Don’t just depend on the episode number of the finale.
NOTE: These finale tapes take a lot of attention and extra time, so even though your series may be over next week, it may be a couple of weeks before we get to the end of the finale tapes. These are all custom made, and except where a few coincide by chance, we have to make them individually. This slows down production and introduces an unavoidable delay.
I am as keen to get this season over as you are to get the tapes, so I won’t be dawdling. Please be patient.
TV News:
It's Official: Trek V to be Called 'Enterprise' – Bakula Confirmed
Paramount confirmed the rumored casting of Scott Bakula as Capt. Jonathan Archer in its upcoming fifth Star Trek series, now officially called Enterprise. The May 10 announcement described Bakula's character as "a physical and intensely curious captain with a bold personality" who has a strong sense of duty but is also a bit of a renegade.
The announcement is the first official confirmation of the highly anticipated show's name and casting, which have been the subject of weeks of rumors. "Obviously, I love the genre and am a long-time fan of Star Trek," Bakula said in a statement. "I am also thrilled to be working on a TV series again with Kerry McCluggage and Garry Hart, a relationship that dates back to 1988 with Quantum Leap." Bakula is best known to SF fans for his five seasons as Sam Beckett on Quantum Leap, for which he earned a Golden Globe and four Emmy nominations, Paramount announced.
"We couldn't be happier," Enterprise co-creator and executive producer Rick Berman said in a statement. "Scott personifies the charm and intelligence that the role calls for."
Other Enterprise cast members include Jolene Blalock, John Billingsley, Linda Park, Anthony Montgomery, Dominic Keating and Connor Trinneer, the Hollywood trade papers reported.
Still, regardless of this official announcement of a name and a star, Variety reports that a deal hasn't been signed yet that plants the new series on the UPN TV network. The trade does add that it is likely to happen, with the network's fall schedule being formally announced Thursday of next week.
Angel Finale To Be 'Epic'
Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon told Entertainment Weekly that the second-season finale of spin-off series Angel will be "huge and epic, which we've really got to stop doing, because we can't afford it." The Angel finale will air on The WB on May 22.
Whedon added, "The characters are going to go into another dimension and get a different view of how they've been living over the last season, and there'll be princesses and monsters and all sorts of insanity. It's a lighter, more fun arc than with Buffy. And we'll have somebody showing up who will become a regular next season."
Angel executive producer David Greenwalt said that the new character is named Fred, played by Amy Acker, and is "a smart girl, who's unfortunately been lost in another dimension for five years and is a little crazy." Her character was introduced in the May 1 episode, "Belonging."
As for how the move of Buffy to UPN will affect Angel, Whedon said it might rule out future crossover episodes. "I would hope not, but you never know," he said. "It's hard enough to do them when the shows are on the same network. Angel needed to find its sea legs, and I think it has. What the characters are going through this coming season doesn't really involve the Buffy characters, so it is its own show."
Regarding Buffy, Whedon revealed what he could about the program's coming 100th episode, saying, "We're wrapping up Glory's story and resolving Buffy's feelings about being a slayer and whether or not she's really Dawn's sister -- and all the questions about family and sacrifice. The stakes are huge. It's epic, it's enormous, and still very, very personal. Death is an issue. There's going to be a brutal fight, and not everyone is going to get out alive. Someone may be leaving the show, and that's all I'm going to say about it."
Stargate SG-1 To Get Big
Richard Dean Anderson, star and executive producer of Showtime's Stargate SG-1 series, told Science Fiction Weekly that viewers can expect bigger special effects and more character stories. "We're entering year five of first-run stuff for Showtime, and as far as the episodes that we should anticipate, ... we've continually gotten a slightly larger budget every year, so we're able to put more on the screen, as the saying goes. That means that we can start utilizing the incredible talents of our special-effects people, so we'll be hopefully seeing a lot more of that."
Anderson, who plays Col. Jack O'Neill, added, "As the year progresses and unfolds, [producers] Brad and Robert, that is Wright and Cooper, will be piecing together hopefully some more character-driven stuff. Let me just throw that out there. But I can't give away any plot lines; that'd be ludicrous. Nobody'd tune in. As far as the future for the Showtime episodes that have already aired, we are sold into syndication, so we'll be appearing primarily on the Fox syndicated networks and then eventually The Sci-Fi Channel. So, we'll be around for a while."
Witchblade Resumes Story
Yancy Butler, who plays Sara Pezzini in TNT's upcoming Witchblade TV series, told Comics Continuum that the show picks up where the original television movie left off. "Sara is dealing with the loss of her partner," Butler said. "She's dealing internally with that, and with having this blade on her wrist. She still doesn't know how to use it."
Pezzini is a New York police detective who has fallen into possession of a supernatural gauntlet, the Witchblade. "I think she's starting to accept it," Butler said. "Sometimes it's just a real pain in the wrist, as we say, but she is starting to accept it. I think more because it's used in her favor, and she thinks that she knows how to use it, without giving too much away. She's starting to summon it, if you will. And it's working for her. So I think there is a bit more acceptance."
But Pezzini is a real person, not a superhuman, Butler said. "The thing that I think made the pilot such a success and will make the series even more of one is my character's vulnerability and strength," she said. "The show is set in a real homicide office of the police department. The situations are in fact very realistic. It's great, because it makes it that much more potent when we're really solving a crime every week."
Editor’s Note: As so many likely takers for this series took the pilot when it first appeared,. We will offer this series in two versions – one with the pilot as the first half of node 1 and the other starting with just the episodes. This will mean a little extra work, editing two separate sets of masters, but as the series is starting during the summer, when everything else is I reruns, it shouldn’t be a problem.
Dark Angel Stars To Wed
Dark Angel star Jessica Alba is sporting an engagement ring from her co-star, Michael Weatherly, her spokeswoman told the Chicago Sun-Times. Alba, 20, reportedly bought the ring with Weatherly, 32.
Sun-Times columnist Bill Zwecker reported that the couple has set no wedding date, but hopes to marry soon. Spokesmen for Dark Angel have previously denied a romantic relationship between the co-stars. Dark Angel airs its first-season finale May 22 on Fox.
Anderson On 'X-Files'
It may surprise you to read that if The X-Files goes into a ninth season, Gillian Anderson won't necessarily be cheering about it.
While talking to the New York Times and promoting the program's two-part season finale, Anderson revealed that if she could, she would most likely move on from the program. She notes, "For a lot of people, if you don't like your job, you can quit your job. I don't necessarily have that option."
She explains her momentary lack of enthusiasm for the show by adding, "eight years is a long time."
On a more positive note, though, Anderson admits that she's been pleasantly surprised that the show has somehow managed to remain fresh in eight years.
Regarding the upcoming finale, all Anderson will reveal is: "There are a lot of twists and turns that the audience has been journeying through with us. And here, at the end, it's kind of interesting to see what happens with Scully and this full belly of hers."
Star Talks BBC Buffy Spin-off
Details of the proposed BBC spin-off series based on The WB's Buffy the Vampire Slayer are starting to emerge. Buffy star Anthony Stewart Head told convention-goers in the United Kingdom that the proposed series would be based on his character Giles and would be titled either Ripper or Watcher.
Head reportedly added that the series would deal with ghost stories and inner demons, and that Buffy creator Joss Whedon had already written the first episode. Head, who has expressed a desire to spend more time in England with his family, also reportedly said that Whedon is a fan of British television and that he and Whedon had held talks with the BBC about the spin-off series.
Buffy co-executive producer Marti Noxon earlier said that the series was still in talking stages, but was envisioned as a limited-run show that might eventually air in the United States as well.
Editor’s Note: If this series does appear in the UK first, we will of course get it from one of our UK traders.
UPN Exec Talks about Next Season’s Shows
UPN big shot Tom Nunan is talking about the coming season, including the fifth Star Trek TV series, even if he can't officially announce what it is yet.
While talking to journalists about the network’s past problems, he touched on Trek. He said, "We're more focused than we've ever been before. That is illustrated by our not producing a gargantuan number of pilots and by our approach this coming midseason (with the premieres of dramas Special Unit 2 and All Souls). You can't disconnect the two. Too often, networks just make pilots because they've got the budget to make them. We're being a lot more careful than we have been in seasons past. My primary goal is to be able to announce the next Star Trek series next season. It's such a force for us on our schedule, so much a part of our identity. Not to be able to announce it would be disappointing."
Given that Star Trek is a Paramount-owned franchise, Nunan was asked what the hold up was for an official announcement. He answers, "We are talking."
Meanwhile in related news, network programmers were given a presentation of what lies ahead on UPN. Regarding the all but announced fifth Trek series, Tom Nunan is reported to have told the assemblage, "If we have the next Star Trek and Buffy going in, the wind is really going to be at our back."
It was also reported that the series to come is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday nights at 8 PM (Eastern) followed by Stephen King's The Dead Zone. This confirms what we reported in last week’s Part B.
Editor’s Note: It is ironic that they should mention Special Unit 2 and All Souls in the same sentence. These two shows represent the scope of the problems at UPN. Each of these shows was supported by a different group within UPN’s power base, and the reaction to the shows illustrates how split the creative forces at the network are.
All Souls was heavily slated as the show of the future. It is believed that 8 episodes were made, but the show lasted only 3 episodes before being pulled from the schedule, as it gained almost no audience at all.
SU2 on the other hand, had less support from the executive, had only an initial 6-episode commitment, but was done very well. The show is a lot of fun, and assuming they have the sense to renew it next year for a full season, promises to be very entertaining. The show, a cross between Buffy and Men in Black, with The Man from Uncle thrown in for good measure, revolves around an elite police squad whose job is to track down “links”, the various offshoots from the evolutionary tree that exist in secret and prey upon unsuspecting humanity. What makes this show better than average is the tongue-in-cheek humor and the attitude of the characters.
UPN should look more towards this sort of show, and stop trying to be a blend of NBC and BET and then they might actually make it in the US TV market.
And in a similar vein,
'Galactica' On UPN?
The rumor mill regarding UPN is suggesting that the network may be interested in picking up Bryan Singer and Tom DeSanto's fast developing Battlestar Galactica TV series.
According to Electronic Media, the network is said to be strongly contemplating taking on the series, which would serve, along with Buffy (and possibly Roswell as discussed above) and Star Trek to make UPN a strong contender for the avid sci-fi fan's viewing time, over even the Sci-Fi cable network.
What is interesting to note here is that Viacom's Sumner Redstone has previously declared his intentions of doing his own science fiction oriented cable network. Starting that plan with the UPN network, though, would seem to be doubtful. Nevertheless, over the last couple of years, the top two shows on UPN have been genre shows (Voyager, 7 Days), so maybe they have finally woken up to the wishes of their audience.
Also doubtful – these are TV Execs after all – it’s probably a lucky accident.
Nicely Done – Chris Carter Keeps Gunmen Surprise Under His Hat
The Lone Gunmen creator Chris Carter managed to keep secret the surprise appearance of David Duchovny, star of the show's predecessor, The X-Files, in Gunmen's May 11 season finale. All he had been prepared to say was that would "definitely" feature a big surprise.
As for the future of the ratings-challenged Gunmen, Carter said, "Actually, the ratings are respectable. For Friday night at 9, they are good ratings for Fox. Everything is relative in the ratings game, because Friday night is a very small night. So we're actually heartened by what we have done in the ratings, but a show like this takes some time to find an audience. But I know that there is a vocal audience out there, because they weigh in every day and every week on the Internet. ... Of course you want to always perform better than expectations. Right now I think we're performing to expectations. So I think if we can start to build on what we've done--certainly through the sweeps period--then the chances for the show coming back will be great."
BBC Buffy Spin-off "Grown Up"
Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon told the Los Angeles Times that the proposed British series based on Buffy character Giles will be more of a "grown-up, quiet show about a cool, grown-up, non-teen-age man quietly solving ghost stories." Whedon is in talks with the BBC for six episodes of the show, which would star Anthony Stewart Head.
Whedon added that the Giles show "would be very different in tone: slower, more like the series already on TV there. But not too British." It's not clear whether Buffy cast members might make guest appearances on the proposed show.
Whedon told the Times that he is looking for a U.K. partner to oversee production. Whedon would hammer out storylines and draft scripts with the current Buffy writing staff, perhaps shooting an initial episode in L.A. before production shifts to England.
B5: Rangers Cast Announced
The Sci-Fi Channel announced casting for its upcoming original television movie Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers. Dylan Neal, Alex Zahara (Dark Angel), Myriam Sirois (Babylon 5), Dean Marshall, Warren T. Takeuchi, Jennie Rebecca Hogan, David Storch, Enid-Raye Adams and Gus Lynch will join Mackenzie Gray and Andreas Katsulas (G'Kar) in the movie.
Legend of the Rangers begins production May 14 in Vancouver and Toronto, Sci-Fi announced. Rangers, from the creators of B5, is the pilot for a possible series.
WB Sets Fall Schedule
The WB will drop its teen alien series Roswell, but will keep Angel and add Smallville, the Hollywood trade papers reported. The WB is expected to announce its fall schedule on Tuesday to advertisers in New York. The network will also renew Charmed and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch; no decision has been made on the animated series The Oblongs.
Notably absent from The WB's schedule is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which will move to UPN in the fall, the result of an acrimonious contract renewal dispute with The WB.
The WB will shift Buffy spin-off Angel into Roswell's former timeslot, Mondays at 9 p.m., following 7th Heaven. UPN is reportedly considering picking up Roswell, though a deal is not yet in place, Variety reported. Roswell will air its second-season finale May 21.
The new live-action Smallville, about Superman's teen-age years, moves into Angel's old timeslot, Tuesdays at 9 p.m.
The WB is expected to pick up Charmed through the 2003-2004 season and air it on Thursdays at 9 p.m. But Charmed star Shannen Doherty won't be returning to the witch series--the star is leaving the Aaron-Spelling-produced show after three seasons, according to The Hollywood Reporter. No reason was given for the departure of Doherty, who was fired in 1994 from Spelling's Beverly Hills 90210. But the trade paper reported that there had recently been some tension on the Charmed set involving Doherty. Earlier this month, Doherty pleaded no contest to charges of drunken driving stemming from an arrest in December.
Editor’s Note: We will be delaying this week’s Part B until Thursday or possibly even Friday, in order to include a lot of detail on the new season schedules. Most of these will be announced today, but it will take us a day or two to put them all together and to confirm all the information before publishing it.
For those taking the text-only newsletter, and who therefore can’t read Part B, we will start putting out a plain text version from this week. Please note however that as we don’t have time to do the considerable amount of formatting that this takes, it will be fairly raw and not very attractive, with everything bunched together, no paragraphs etc.
Movie News:
War Of The Worlds Remake in Progress
Newly formed Pendragon Pictures announced that it will begin production of an independent-movie version of H.G. Wells' SF novel War of the Worlds in September. Pendragon chief executive Timothy Hines will direct the film, the company announced.
Susan Goforth will adapt the novel and star in the film, which will also feature a cast of television actors and unknowns. The $42 million production will be shot with the same digital system George Lucas used for his upcoming Star Wars: Episode II, the company announced.
The film is being financed with venture capital. Hines previously made films for Troma Films' 50th Street Films art division. Hines also directed Bug Wars, a low-budget SF movie about two female survivors of a doomsday war against giant alien spiders, which was made for video.
Editor’s Note: I am usually the first to applaud when someone announces a new SF movie project, but I am a little wary of this. There is nothing to suggest that they won’t do an excellent job of this movie, but this is the textbook example of being “ill advised”. In the 100 years that movies have been produced, there have been a few films that could be tagged as milestones, either because they were virtually perfect, or because they represent some significant leap forward or change of direction for the movie industry.
In mainstream cinema, such films include Gone With the Wind, Casablanca and even modern epics like Titanic. In genre, the milestones are more easily defined. (Not in any particular order – just plucked out of thin air) Things to Come, Metropolis, The Day the Earth Stood Still, This Island Earth, Forbidden Planet, 2001, Planet of the Apes, E.T., Star Wars, Alien, and many others, but without a doubt the list should definitely include the 1953 Gene Barry War of the Worlds.
I think everyone would acknowledge that a contemporary remake of this movie will probably be spectacular, with state-of-the-art special effects and any amount of CGI, but the question comes down to “Should they remake this film?”
In my opinion, they should leave well alone. If this remake trend continues, what could be next? The New Sound of Music, starring Ice-T and Brandy? Tom Cruise’s Casablanca? Or Metropolis, with special guest appearance by C3PO?
Your opinions on remakes would be welcome, and would make a good section for next month’s open newsletter.
Joshua Coming To Screen
Tony Goldwyn (The 6th Day) will star in the title role of the independent supernatural movie Joshua, to be directed by Jon Purdy for Crusader Entertainment, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film is slated to begin shooting at the end of the month in Chicago before moving to Rome.
Based on the first novel in a series by Joseph F. Girzone and adapted by Brad Mirman, Joshua tells the story of the possible second coming of Jesus Christ to a small U.S. town, the trade paper reported. Goldwyn will play a Christ-like stranger who disrupts the town with radical preachings about unity, love and reconciliation among all religions of the world.
The $8 million-$10 million film, produced by Howard Baldwin and his wife and producing partner, Karen, is envisioned as the first in a series. Domestic distribution has not been set, the trade paper reported.
ER Doc Stars In Doctor Sleep
Goran Visnjic (ER) will star in the supernatural thriller movie Doctor Sleep, Variety reported. The $10 million British film starts shooting May 13 in London.
The Croatian-born actor will play a hypnotherapist with telepathic powers who gets caught up in the pursuit of a ritualistic killer, Variety reported. Shirley Henderson, Paddy Considine, Miranda Otto and Corin Redgrave co-star. Nick Willing will direct from his adaptation of Madison Smartt Bell's novel of the same name. Sleep marks Visnjic's first starring role in a feature film.
'Ramses' Lives Again
Though it's been long spoken of, it seems that Lightstorm Entertainment's movie version of Anne Rice's book The Mummy or Ramses the Damned is up and moving in a positive direction.
Maybe it took Universal's The Mummy Returns' success to re-energize this movie, but according to Variety, the long in development project has finally found a writer for the script. Word has it that writer Karen Essex, who wrote the novel Kleopatra, will do her first feature film script for the potential flick.
Lightstorm will produce the film with 29th Century Fox, the latter of which will also distribute. There's no word on whether or not James Cameron might actually get back into the director's chair with the film, which is currently eyeing 2002 for a start of production on the movie.
The book tells the story of the pharaoh Ramses revived in the modern world. An archaeologist’s daughter teaches him about the world today. Unfortunately, Ramses is enraged by the way his culture is depicted and how its ancient wonders have been prostituted for tourism. The young lady brings Ramses to a museum, where he recognizes an unidentified mummy as his old love, Cleopatra. The ancient ruler revives his queen with an immortality elixir, but she does not return to her former beauty -- instead she awakens as a rotting corpse.
MIB 2 Bets Against Strike
Columbia Pictures has scheduled production of its upcoming sequel Men in Black 2 past the June 30 deadline for actors and studios to reach agreement on a new union contract, in effect gambling that a strike won't happen. The film is slated to begin shooting June 4 and to finish by Oct. 9 in Los Angeles and New York. "If the strike happens, they stop working," a Columbia source said. "But they're definitely forging ahead with production."
Virtually every other movie currently in production plans to wrap up by June 30. Even the two Matrix sequels are taking a break on June 30 before relocating to Australia to resume filming in the fall.
Matrix II Title Revealed
The second installment of the Matrix film series will be called The Matrix Reloaded and will hit theaters in 2002, EW reported. Writer-directors Larry and Andy Wachowski began principal photography March 26 in Oakland, Calif., with much of the original cast intact, including Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss and Hugo Weaving, the site reported. The cast will add Jada Pinkett Smith and singer Aaliyah, both of whom have reportedly signed on for the as yet untitled third Matrix film as well, EW reported.
Reloaded will continue shooting in Oakland through June, before taking a summer hiatus, during which the Wachowskis will concentrate on editing and special effects. The cast and crew will then reassemble in September at Fox Studios in Sydney to complete filming. Joel Silver will again produce.
Goyer’s Murder Mystery
David Goyer (writer of Blade II) will write and direct the supernatural thriller Murder Mysteries for Dimension Films, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Dimension is already developing Ghost Rider, based on the Marvel Comics series, which Goyer is writing, the trade paper reported.
Murder, based on a short story of the same name by comic writer Neil Gaiman, is a film noir set in heaven during the last days of Earth's creation and follows the angel of vengeance as he sets out to solve the first murder ever committed.
Wells Out Of Time
With only 18 days of principal photography left, director Simon Wells has abruptly dropped out of The Time Machine, to be replaced by Gore Verbinski (The Mexican), according to The Hollywood Reporter. Wells--who was making his live-action directorial debut with the movie version of his grandfather H.G. Wells' classic SF novel--was diagnosed with "extreme exhaustion" and was ordered by doctors to rest for a minimum of two weeks, the trade paper reported.
Verbinski will finish filming and hand the movie back to Wells, who plans to oversee all post-production, the paper reported. Wells directed several animated features, including DreamWorks' The Prince of Egypt. Time Machine, starring Guy Pearce, Mark Addy, Philip Rosco and Jeremy Irons, has been shooting in New York and Los Angeles since February.
Trek X Is Character Driven
John Logan, screenwriter for the upcoming 10th Star Trek movie, told Star Trek: The Magazine that the film will focus in part on the character of Deanna Troi, according to a transcript of the story on the Voyager's Delights fan Web site. "The movie will focus on Picard and Data, [and] I think the other characters--particularly Deanna--have more to do than they have in the other movies," Logan told the magazine.
Logan added that he's looking forward to an adventure with the Romulans. "I was delighted with the chance to get to play with the Romulans, and I don't think they've quite been explored enough," he said. "In the original [Gene] Roddenberry universe, the Klingons represented Soviet Russia, and the Romulans represented the Communist Chinese. For me the Communist Chinese is a really interesting world that was never fully explored, certainly in the movies, and not even as much as I would have liked in the series, except for individual episodes. I've always found that sort of Byzantine structure of Chinese Communism very interesting and very provocative and lethal in a way I never found the Klingons. There is so much duplicity and mendacity and cleverness in the way the Romulans move through their world with very strategic chess moves. And also they are an old and ancient race, like the Vulcans, so they have gravitas to them, which I find very interesting." Logan has completed a second draft of the movie, the magazine reported.
It's Hammer Time Again
As reported earlier in the year, legendary British horror studio Hammer Films will return to film production in a partnership with FirstSight Films, Variety reported. FirstSight and Hammer--home of the U.K.'s Dracula and Frankenstein franchises--will develop and produce six horror movies budgeted at $10 million-$20 million, the trade paper reported.
Hammer was acquired last year by a group of investors intent on reviving the most venerable brand in British horror. They hope to shoot two films a year, starting in 2002. Some may be drawn from Hammer's gallery of traditional horror characters, but most will be original stories, Variety reported.
Spaceless Resurrected?
Coming Attractions reported a rumor that Fox has resurrected the proposed animated SF movie Spaceless, but will produce it as a live-action film instead. Spaceless was dropped after Fox's Titan A.E. tanked at the box office, resulting in the closure of Fox's animation studio.
Coming Attractions, citing an anonymous source, reported that the studio has revived the project and attached director Gore Verbinski (The Mexican). Jeff Vintar will be doing a rewrite of his original script, the site reported. The movie tells the story of a man floating in space, who records the story of how he ended up in this predicament.
Odds and Ends: Short items not worthy of an article in their own right.
· There is a rumor going round that a “Back to the Future 4” is in the works. A report in the Australian Herald Sun suggests that producers are seeking a “strong replacement” for Michael J Fox, who has more or less withdrawn from acting as a result of the onset of symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. We aren’t sure about this, but even if it is true, don’t hold your breath. It could be 2 to 3 years before it reaches the screen, and an even more important question is, “Why bother?” The first trilogy is pretty near perfect – see comments above on War of the Worlds.
· Virginia Hey, who played Zhaan on Farscape, has been cast in the pilot for the proposed SF series Area 23, currently under development by Mindshow Entertainment. Hey plays a character named Nina Draconni, a "perceptor" and member of a top-secret government team of people with psychic powers. Mindshow is currently seeking investors for the pilot movie of Area 23. Hey left Farscape because the blue make-up for the character was giving her skin problems that couldn’t be overcome.
· J-14, a teen magazine, reported that director Darren Aronofsky wants Freddie Prinze Jr. to don the cape and cowl in his proposed Batman: Year One movie. Prinze would reportedly play a young Bruce Wayne.
· Comics2Film reported that Marvel and Fox may be seeking a new writer to work on Sam Hamm's script for a proposed Fantastic Four movie. Director Peyton Reed (Bring It On) recently signed on to helm the feature.
· The Spielberg-DreamWorks fan Web site reported a rumor that Universal will launch its upcoming sequel Jurassic Park III on more than 3,400 screens, 200 more than last week's The Mummy Returns. Jurassic III opens July 20.
· The Ain't It Cool News Web site reported a rumor of a major spoiler for The WB's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off series, Angel. The site reported that the vampire Spike, played by James Marsters, survives this season's Buffy finale and moves to Los Angeles, where he'll appear in next season's Angel. Be aware however that this site has fallen into disrepute over the last few months. They have been responsible for a lot of the spurious rumors that have been going around, and many newsletter providers have stopped referring to them.
· Mel Gibson is considering an offer from Disney to star in The Sixth Sense director M. Night Shyamalan's next supernatural thriller, Signs, which begins shooting in the fall, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The top-secret plot of the film is thought to concern the appearance of crop circles on a family farm in Pennsylvania, the trade paper reported. Disney picked up the project last month in a multimillion-dollar pre-emptive bid, according to the Reporter.
· Universal Pictures has hired Kenneth Lonergan (You Can Count on Me) to adapt Jack Finney's 1970 time-travel novel Time and Again for the big screen, Variety reported. Robert Redford has been developing the project since at least 1994 and remains attached to direct and produce, the trade paper reported. Time and Again tells the story of a man who travels back to New York City in 1882 as part of a mysterious government experiment, only to fall in love while he is there.
· The BBC has finally confirmed that it is involved in developing a feature film based on their Doctor Who TV series. Buried within a story in Variety regarding BBC Films' co-financing deal with Cobalt Media Group, is a tiny bit of info on the film. The trade reports that the Beeb is currently developing the Who project with Mutual, which has no connection to the Cobalt deal. No further details have been given.
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 37A.
This is a digest of recent Sci-Fi- and genre-related news as of 15th May 2001.
News & Notes
Editorial
Life, The Universe and Everything are a little smaller and less interesting today
It is with deep sadness that we have to report the death on Friday of last week of TV scriptwriter and Sci-Fi Author Douglas Adams, from a massive heart attack.
Originally a scriptwriter for Dr. Who, Adams found fame as the author of the irreverent SF comedy “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. This was initially written as a 6-part BBC radio serial, but it later spawned a second series, a novel, 4 sequels, and a TV series.
Douglas Adams also wrote what is in my opinion the cleverest book I have ever read “The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul”, the second of the three Dirk Gently novels (Note - #3 – “The Salmon of Doubt” – has not actually been published to my knowledge but maybe now he is gone it might be).
Adams was also the moving force behind the Starship Titanic Video Game.
Although we never had him as a convention guest, I have attended several events at which he was present, and I have to say that the man was as sharp as his writing. His sense of humor was surgical and totally irreverent.
I owe a great deal to Douglas. When my allegiance to Science Fiction was at its lowest ebb, I heard the first Hitchhiker radio serial, and it put me back on track. If it hadn’t been for that, I might now have been a mundane – watching football and gardening instead of being involved in something as engaging as all this. I am not in the least ashamed to admit that I shed a tear over this loss.
A number of tributes have already been posted on the web to this great writer and I do not intend to attempt to compete with such figures as Stephan Fry and Neil Gaiman, who was collaborating with him on a movie of the Guide. (Hopefully, this will still happen.)
However, I do have a small personal experience to relate. I was in a small group of fans sitting with Doug at a convention when the conversation turned to life after death. One of the group asked him if he thought there was anything after this life, and he answered “No idea, but I can’t wait to find out”.
Well, Doug – Now you know!
Note to the headwaiter at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe– Table for one please!
Group News:
The Pilots are Behaving
Although the strike is only partially over, mail seems to be moving reasonably well at the moment. As a result, we mailed out around 100 tapes on Saturday. You should have had notification if yours are among them. We still have a lot of acknowledgments to come from last week’s mailing, so we can only assume that these are the ones delayed.
It’s Filler Time
With the season finales starting to appear, now is the time to start thinking about what you would like as filler on your last tapes. Here are a few guidelines to help you out if you can’t decide: -
You need do nothing if:
1. You are taking an even number of series, say for example Voyager and Andromeda, or Buffy and Angel, then we will automatically put the last two eps of each onto a tape together (unless we hear from you that you want don’t want it this way);
2. Your chosen series has either 20 or 24 episodes – i.e. complete nodes at the end of the season;
3. You have already informed us of your preferences.
You DO need to inform us if:
1. You are taking just one or an odd number of series, leaving a couple of odd episodes hanging;
2. You are taking an even number of series and you have specific preferences as to which ones should go together – however be aware that we will use a modicum of common sense – Buffy and Angel together, etc;
3. You have any special instructions.
Items of note:
Unless we have anything to discuss or dispute, we won’t answer e-mails with your filler instructions, as we are likely to be swamped with them over the next week or so. However, if you do require a response, just make me aware of this and I will respond.
X-Files Season 8 runs just 21 episodes. This means that XF 8:6 needs three episodes as filler. The Lone Gunmen would seem to be a sensible choice, but bear in mind that Season 1 of TLG ran for just 12 episodes, so that makes up 3 exact nodes. If you intend to take these anyway, try to think of something else for XF 8:6 or you will be left with exactly the same problem for TLG 1:3.
Dark Angel and Roswell also have only 21 episodes listed so far and may have the same problem.
The Sopranos seasons run only 13 episodes, so tape 3:5 will have only 1 episode, leaving approximately 2 hours of space to fill – not quite enough for 3 standard episodes.
The last few Xena episodes have been intentionally delayed until mid June, so Xena fans may need to think carefully when considering any of these as fillers or you could end up waiting a full month for episodes of a series that is already over.
Please pay particular attention to next week’s Part B, for series where we have missed an episode or two, and which do not fit the normal scheme of things. Don’t just depend on the episode number of the finale.
NOTE: These finale tapes take a lot of attention and extra time, so even though your series may be over next week, it may be a couple of weeks before we get to the end of the finale tapes. These are all custom made, and except where a few coincide by chance, we have to make them individually. This slows down production and introduces an unavoidable delay.
I am as keen to get this season over as you are to get the tapes, so I won’t be dawdling. Please be patient.
TV News:
It's Official: Trek V to be Called 'Enterprise' – Bakula Confirmed
Paramount confirmed the rumored casting of Scott Bakula as Capt. Jonathan Archer in its upcoming fifth Star Trek series, now officially called Enterprise. The May 10 announcement described Bakula's character as "a physical and intensely curious captain with a bold personality" who has a strong sense of duty but is also a bit of a renegade.
The announcement is the first official confirmation of the highly anticipated show's name and casting, which have been the subject of weeks of rumors. "Obviously, I love the genre and am a long-time fan of Star Trek," Bakula said in a statement. "I am also thrilled to be working on a TV series again with Kerry McCluggage and Garry Hart, a relationship that dates back to 1988 with Quantum Leap." Bakula is best known to SF fans for his five seasons as Sam Beckett on Quantum Leap, for which he earned a Golden Globe and four Emmy nominations, Paramount announced.
"We couldn't be happier," Enterprise co-creator and executive producer Rick Berman said in a statement. "Scott personifies the charm and intelligence that the role calls for."
Other Enterprise cast members include Jolene Blalock, John Billingsley, Linda Park, Anthony Montgomery, Dominic Keating and Connor Trinneer, the Hollywood trade papers reported.
Still, regardless of this official announcement of a name and a star, Variety reports that a deal hasn't been signed yet that plants the new series on the UPN TV network. The trade does add that it is likely to happen, with the network's fall schedule being formally announced Thursday of next week.
Angel Finale To Be 'Epic'
Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon told Entertainment Weekly that the second-season finale of spin-off series Angel will be "huge and epic, which we've really got to stop doing, because we can't afford it." The Angel finale will air on The WB on May 22.
Whedon added, "The characters are going to go into another dimension and get a different view of how they've been living over the last season, and there'll be princesses and monsters and all sorts of insanity. It's a lighter, more fun arc than with Buffy. And we'll have somebody showing up who will become a regular next season."
Angel executive producer David Greenwalt said that the new character is named Fred, played by Amy Acker, and is "a smart girl, who's unfortunately been lost in another dimension for five years and is a little crazy." Her character was introduced in the May 1 episode, "Belonging."
As for how the move of Buffy to UPN will affect Angel, Whedon said it might rule out future crossover episodes. "I would hope not, but you never know," he said. "It's hard enough to do them when the shows are on the same network. Angel needed to find its sea legs, and I think it has. What the characters are going through this coming season doesn't really involve the Buffy characters, so it is its own show."
Regarding Buffy, Whedon revealed what he could about the program's coming 100th episode, saying, "We're wrapping up Glory's story and resolving Buffy's feelings about being a slayer and whether or not she's really Dawn's sister -- and all the questions about family and sacrifice. The stakes are huge. It's epic, it's enormous, and still very, very personal. Death is an issue. There's going to be a brutal fight, and not everyone is going to get out alive. Someone may be leaving the show, and that's all I'm going to say about it."
Stargate SG-1 To Get Big
Richard Dean Anderson, star and executive producer of Showtime's Stargate SG-1 series, told Science Fiction Weekly that viewers can expect bigger special effects and more character stories. "We're entering year five of first-run stuff for Showtime, and as far as the episodes that we should anticipate, ... we've continually gotten a slightly larger budget every year, so we're able to put more on the screen, as the saying goes. That means that we can start utilizing the incredible talents of our special-effects people, so we'll be hopefully seeing a lot more of that."
Anderson, who plays Col. Jack O'Neill, added, "As the year progresses and unfolds, [producers] Brad and Robert, that is Wright and Cooper, will be piecing together hopefully some more character-driven stuff. Let me just throw that out there. But I can't give away any plot lines; that'd be ludicrous. Nobody'd tune in. As far as the future for the Showtime episodes that have already aired, we are sold into syndication, so we'll be appearing primarily on the Fox syndicated networks and then eventually The Sci-Fi Channel. So, we'll be around for a while."
Witchblade Resumes Story
Yancy Butler, who plays Sara Pezzini in TNT's upcoming Witchblade TV series, told Comics Continuum that the show picks up where the original television movie left off. "Sara is dealing with the loss of her partner," Butler said. "She's dealing internally with that, and with having this blade on her wrist. She still doesn't know how to use it."
Pezzini is a New York police detective who has fallen into possession of a supernatural gauntlet, the Witchblade. "I think she's starting to accept it," Butler said. "Sometimes it's just a real pain in the wrist, as we say, but she is starting to accept it. I think more because it's used in her favor, and she thinks that she knows how to use it, without giving too much away. She's starting to summon it, if you will. And it's working for her. So I think there is a bit more acceptance."
But Pezzini is a real person, not a superhuman, Butler said. "The thing that I think made the pilot such a success and will make the series even more of one is my character's vulnerability and strength," she said. "The show is set in a real homicide office of the police department. The situations are in fact very realistic. It's great, because it makes it that much more potent when we're really solving a crime every week."
Editor’s Note: As so many likely takers for this series took the pilot when it first appeared,. We will offer this series in two versions – one with the pilot as the first half of node 1 and the other starting with just the episodes. This will mean a little extra work, editing two separate sets of masters, but as the series is starting during the summer, when everything else is I reruns, it shouldn’t be a problem.
Dark Angel Stars To Wed
Dark Angel star Jessica Alba is sporting an engagement ring from her co-star, Michael Weatherly, her spokeswoman told the Chicago Sun-Times. Alba, 20, reportedly bought the ring with Weatherly, 32.
Sun-Times columnist Bill Zwecker reported that the couple has set no wedding date, but hopes to marry soon. Spokesmen for Dark Angel have previously denied a romantic relationship between the co-stars. Dark Angel airs its first-season finale May 22 on Fox.
Anderson On 'X-Files'
It may surprise you to read that if The X-Files goes into a ninth season, Gillian Anderson won't necessarily be cheering about it.
While talking to the New York Times and promoting the program's two-part season finale, Anderson revealed that if she could, she would most likely move on from the program. She notes, "For a lot of people, if you don't like your job, you can quit your job. I don't necessarily have that option."
She explains her momentary lack of enthusiasm for the show by adding, "eight years is a long time."
On a more positive note, though, Anderson admits that she's been pleasantly surprised that the show has somehow managed to remain fresh in eight years.
Regarding the upcoming finale, all Anderson will reveal is: "There are a lot of twists and turns that the audience has been journeying through with us. And here, at the end, it's kind of interesting to see what happens with Scully and this full belly of hers."
Star Talks BBC Buffy Spin-off
Details of the proposed BBC spin-off series based on The WB's Buffy the Vampire Slayer are starting to emerge. Buffy star Anthony Stewart Head told convention-goers in the United Kingdom that the proposed series would be based on his character Giles and would be titled either Ripper or Watcher.
Head reportedly added that the series would deal with ghost stories and inner demons, and that Buffy creator Joss Whedon had already written the first episode. Head, who has expressed a desire to spend more time in England with his family, also reportedly said that Whedon is a fan of British television and that he and Whedon had held talks with the BBC about the spin-off series.
Buffy co-executive producer Marti Noxon earlier said that the series was still in talking stages, but was envisioned as a limited-run show that might eventually air in the United States as well.
Editor’s Note: If this series does appear in the UK first, we will of course get it from one of our UK traders.
UPN Exec Talks about Next Season’s Shows
UPN big shot Tom Nunan is talking about the coming season, including the fifth Star Trek TV series, even if he can't officially announce what it is yet.
While talking to journalists about the network’s past problems, he touched on Trek. He said, "We're more focused than we've ever been before. That is illustrated by our not producing a gargantuan number of pilots and by our approach this coming midseason (with the premieres of dramas Special Unit 2 and All Souls). You can't disconnect the two. Too often, networks just make pilots because they've got the budget to make them. We're being a lot more careful than we have been in seasons past. My primary goal is to be able to announce the next Star Trek series next season. It's such a force for us on our schedule, so much a part of our identity. Not to be able to announce it would be disappointing."
Given that Star Trek is a Paramount-owned franchise, Nunan was asked what the hold up was for an official announcement. He answers, "We are talking."
Meanwhile in related news, network programmers were given a presentation of what lies ahead on UPN. Regarding the all but announced fifth Trek series, Tom Nunan is reported to have told the assemblage, "If we have the next Star Trek and Buffy going in, the wind is really going to be at our back."
It was also reported that the series to come is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday nights at 8 PM (Eastern) followed by Stephen King's The Dead Zone. This confirms what we reported in last week’s Part B.
Editor’s Note: It is ironic that they should mention Special Unit 2 and All Souls in the same sentence. These two shows represent the scope of the problems at UPN. Each of these shows was supported by a different group within UPN’s power base, and the reaction to the shows illustrates how split the creative forces at the network are.
All Souls was heavily slated as the show of the future. It is believed that 8 episodes were made, but the show lasted only 3 episodes before being pulled from the schedule, as it gained almost no audience at all.
SU2 on the other hand, had less support from the executive, had only an initial 6-episode commitment, but was done very well. The show is a lot of fun, and assuming they have the sense to renew it next year for a full season, promises to be very entertaining. The show, a cross between Buffy and Men in Black, with The Man from Uncle thrown in for good measure, revolves around an elite police squad whose job is to track down “links”, the various offshoots from the evolutionary tree that exist in secret and prey upon unsuspecting humanity. What makes this show better than average is the tongue-in-cheek humor and the attitude of the characters.
UPN should look more towards this sort of show, and stop trying to be a blend of NBC and BET and then they might actually make it in the US TV market.
And in a similar vein,
'Galactica' On UPN?
The rumor mill regarding UPN is suggesting that the network may be interested in picking up Bryan Singer and Tom DeSanto's fast developing Battlestar Galactica TV series.
According to Electronic Media, the network is said to be strongly contemplating taking on the series, which would serve, along with Buffy (and possibly Roswell as discussed above) and Star Trek to make UPN a strong contender for the avid sci-fi fan's viewing time, over even the Sci-Fi cable network.
What is interesting to note here is that Viacom's Sumner Redstone has previously declared his intentions of doing his own science fiction oriented cable network. Starting that plan with the UPN network, though, would seem to be doubtful. Nevertheless, over the last couple of years, the top two shows on UPN have been genre shows (Voyager, 7 Days), so maybe they have finally woken up to the wishes of their audience.
Also doubtful – these are TV Execs after all – it’s probably a lucky accident.
Nicely Done – Chris Carter Keeps Gunmen Surprise Under His Hat
The Lone Gunmen creator Chris Carter managed to keep secret the surprise appearance of David Duchovny, star of the show's predecessor, The X-Files, in Gunmen's May 11 season finale. All he had been prepared to say was that would "definitely" feature a big surprise.
As for the future of the ratings-challenged Gunmen, Carter said, "Actually, the ratings are respectable. For Friday night at 9, they are good ratings for Fox. Everything is relative in the ratings game, because Friday night is a very small night. So we're actually heartened by what we have done in the ratings, but a show like this takes some time to find an audience. But I know that there is a vocal audience out there, because they weigh in every day and every week on the Internet. ... Of course you want to always perform better than expectations. Right now I think we're performing to expectations. So I think if we can start to build on what we've done--certainly through the sweeps period--then the chances for the show coming back will be great."
BBC Buffy Spin-off "Grown Up"
Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon told the Los Angeles Times that the proposed British series based on Buffy character Giles will be more of a "grown-up, quiet show about a cool, grown-up, non-teen-age man quietly solving ghost stories." Whedon is in talks with the BBC for six episodes of the show, which would star Anthony Stewart Head.
Whedon added that the Giles show "would be very different in tone: slower, more like the series already on TV there. But not too British." It's not clear whether Buffy cast members might make guest appearances on the proposed show.
Whedon told the Times that he is looking for a U.K. partner to oversee production. Whedon would hammer out storylines and draft scripts with the current Buffy writing staff, perhaps shooting an initial episode in L.A. before production shifts to England.
B5: Rangers Cast Announced
The Sci-Fi Channel announced casting for its upcoming original television movie Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers. Dylan Neal, Alex Zahara (Dark Angel), Myriam Sirois (Babylon 5), Dean Marshall, Warren T. Takeuchi, Jennie Rebecca Hogan, David Storch, Enid-Raye Adams and Gus Lynch will join Mackenzie Gray and Andreas Katsulas (G'Kar) in the movie.
Legend of the Rangers begins production May 14 in Vancouver and Toronto, Sci-Fi announced. Rangers, from the creators of B5, is the pilot for a possible series.
WB Sets Fall Schedule
The WB will drop its teen alien series Roswell, but will keep Angel and add Smallville, the Hollywood trade papers reported. The WB is expected to announce its fall schedule on Tuesday to advertisers in New York. The network will also renew Charmed and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch; no decision has been made on the animated series The Oblongs.
Notably absent from The WB's schedule is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which will move to UPN in the fall, the result of an acrimonious contract renewal dispute with The WB.
The WB will shift Buffy spin-off Angel into Roswell's former timeslot, Mondays at 9 p.m., following 7th Heaven. UPN is reportedly considering picking up Roswell, though a deal is not yet in place, Variety reported. Roswell will air its second-season finale May 21.
The new live-action Smallville, about Superman's teen-age years, moves into Angel's old timeslot, Tuesdays at 9 p.m.
The WB is expected to pick up Charmed through the 2003-2004 season and air it on Thursdays at 9 p.m. But Charmed star Shannen Doherty won't be returning to the witch series--the star is leaving the Aaron-Spelling-produced show after three seasons, according to The Hollywood Reporter. No reason was given for the departure of Doherty, who was fired in 1994 from Spelling's Beverly Hills 90210. But the trade paper reported that there had recently been some tension on the Charmed set involving Doherty. Earlier this month, Doherty pleaded no contest to charges of drunken driving stemming from an arrest in December.
Editor’s Note: We will be delaying this week’s Part B until Thursday or possibly even Friday, in order to include a lot of detail on the new season schedules. Most of these will be announced today, but it will take us a day or two to put them all together and to confirm all the information before publishing it.
For those taking the text-only newsletter, and who therefore can’t read Part B, we will start putting out a plain text version from this week. Please note however that as we don’t have time to do the considerable amount of formatting that this takes, it will be fairly raw and not very attractive, with everything bunched together, no paragraphs etc.
Movie News:
War Of The Worlds Remake in Progress
Newly formed Pendragon Pictures announced that it will begin production of an independent-movie version of H.G. Wells' SF novel War of the Worlds in September. Pendragon chief executive Timothy Hines will direct the film, the company announced.
Susan Goforth will adapt the novel and star in the film, which will also feature a cast of television actors and unknowns. The $42 million production will be shot with the same digital system George Lucas used for his upcoming Star Wars: Episode II, the company announced.
The film is being financed with venture capital. Hines previously made films for Troma Films' 50th Street Films art division. Hines also directed Bug Wars, a low-budget SF movie about two female survivors of a doomsday war against giant alien spiders, which was made for video.
Editor’s Note: I am usually the first to applaud when someone announces a new SF movie project, but I am a little wary of this. There is nothing to suggest that they won’t do an excellent job of this movie, but this is the textbook example of being “ill advised”. In the 100 years that movies have been produced, there have been a few films that could be tagged as milestones, either because they were virtually perfect, or because they represent some significant leap forward or change of direction for the movie industry.
In mainstream cinema, such films include Gone With the Wind, Casablanca and even modern epics like Titanic. In genre, the milestones are more easily defined. (Not in any particular order – just plucked out of thin air) Things to Come, Metropolis, The Day the Earth Stood Still, This Island Earth, Forbidden Planet, 2001, Planet of the Apes, E.T., Star Wars, Alien, and many others, but without a doubt the list should definitely include the 1953 Gene Barry War of the Worlds.
I think everyone would acknowledge that a contemporary remake of this movie will probably be spectacular, with state-of-the-art special effects and any amount of CGI, but the question comes down to “Should they remake this film?”
In my opinion, they should leave well alone. If this remake trend continues, what could be next? The New Sound of Music, starring Ice-T and Brandy? Tom Cruise’s Casablanca? Or Metropolis, with special guest appearance by C3PO?
Your opinions on remakes would be welcome, and would make a good section for next month’s open newsletter.
Joshua Coming To Screen
Tony Goldwyn (The 6th Day) will star in the title role of the independent supernatural movie Joshua, to be directed by Jon Purdy for Crusader Entertainment, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film is slated to begin shooting at the end of the month in Chicago before moving to Rome.
Based on the first novel in a series by Joseph F. Girzone and adapted by Brad Mirman, Joshua tells the story of the possible second coming of Jesus Christ to a small U.S. town, the trade paper reported. Goldwyn will play a Christ-like stranger who disrupts the town with radical preachings about unity, love and reconciliation among all religions of the world.
The $8 million-$10 million film, produced by Howard Baldwin and his wife and producing partner, Karen, is envisioned as the first in a series. Domestic distribution has not been set, the trade paper reported.
ER Doc Stars In Doctor Sleep
Goran Visnjic (ER) will star in the supernatural thriller movie Doctor Sleep, Variety reported. The $10 million British film starts shooting May 13 in London.
The Croatian-born actor will play a hypnotherapist with telepathic powers who gets caught up in the pursuit of a ritualistic killer, Variety reported. Shirley Henderson, Paddy Considine, Miranda Otto and Corin Redgrave co-star. Nick Willing will direct from his adaptation of Madison Smartt Bell's novel of the same name. Sleep marks Visnjic's first starring role in a feature film.
'Ramses' Lives Again
Though it's been long spoken of, it seems that Lightstorm Entertainment's movie version of Anne Rice's book The Mummy or Ramses the Damned is up and moving in a positive direction.
Maybe it took Universal's The Mummy Returns' success to re-energize this movie, but according to Variety, the long in development project has finally found a writer for the script. Word has it that writer Karen Essex, who wrote the novel Kleopatra, will do her first feature film script for the potential flick.
Lightstorm will produce the film with 29th Century Fox, the latter of which will also distribute. There's no word on whether or not James Cameron might actually get back into the director's chair with the film, which is currently eyeing 2002 for a start of production on the movie.
The book tells the story of the pharaoh Ramses revived in the modern world. An archaeologist’s daughter teaches him about the world today. Unfortunately, Ramses is enraged by the way his culture is depicted and how its ancient wonders have been prostituted for tourism. The young lady brings Ramses to a museum, where he recognizes an unidentified mummy as his old love, Cleopatra. The ancient ruler revives his queen with an immortality elixir, but she does not return to her former beauty -- instead she awakens as a rotting corpse.
MIB 2 Bets Against Strike
Columbia Pictures has scheduled production of its upcoming sequel Men in Black 2 past the June 30 deadline for actors and studios to reach agreement on a new union contract, in effect gambling that a strike won't happen. The film is slated to begin shooting June 4 and to finish by Oct. 9 in Los Angeles and New York. "If the strike happens, they stop working," a Columbia source said. "But they're definitely forging ahead with production."
Virtually every other movie currently in production plans to wrap up by June 30. Even the two Matrix sequels are taking a break on June 30 before relocating to Australia to resume filming in the fall.
Matrix II Title Revealed
The second installment of the Matrix film series will be called The Matrix Reloaded and will hit theaters in 2002, EW reported. Writer-directors Larry and Andy Wachowski began principal photography March 26 in Oakland, Calif., with much of the original cast intact, including Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss and Hugo Weaving, the site reported. The cast will add Jada Pinkett Smith and singer Aaliyah, both of whom have reportedly signed on for the as yet untitled third Matrix film as well, EW reported.
Reloaded will continue shooting in Oakland through June, before taking a summer hiatus, during which the Wachowskis will concentrate on editing and special effects. The cast and crew will then reassemble in September at Fox Studios in Sydney to complete filming. Joel Silver will again produce.
Goyer’s Murder Mystery
David Goyer (writer of Blade II) will write and direct the supernatural thriller Murder Mysteries for Dimension Films, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Dimension is already developing Ghost Rider, based on the Marvel Comics series, which Goyer is writing, the trade paper reported.
Murder, based on a short story of the same name by comic writer Neil Gaiman, is a film noir set in heaven during the last days of Earth's creation and follows the angel of vengeance as he sets out to solve the first murder ever committed.
Wells Out Of Time
With only 18 days of principal photography left, director Simon Wells has abruptly dropped out of The Time Machine, to be replaced by Gore Verbinski (The Mexican), according to The Hollywood Reporter. Wells--who was making his live-action directorial debut with the movie version of his grandfather H.G. Wells' classic SF novel--was diagnosed with "extreme exhaustion" and was ordered by doctors to rest for a minimum of two weeks, the trade paper reported.
Verbinski will finish filming and hand the movie back to Wells, who plans to oversee all post-production, the paper reported. Wells directed several animated features, including DreamWorks' The Prince of Egypt. Time Machine, starring Guy Pearce, Mark Addy, Philip Rosco and Jeremy Irons, has been shooting in New York and Los Angeles since February.
Trek X Is Character Driven
John Logan, screenwriter for the upcoming 10th Star Trek movie, told Star Trek: The Magazine that the film will focus in part on the character of Deanna Troi, according to a transcript of the story on the Voyager's Delights fan Web site. "The movie will focus on Picard and Data, [and] I think the other characters--particularly Deanna--have more to do than they have in the other movies," Logan told the magazine.
Logan added that he's looking forward to an adventure with the Romulans. "I was delighted with the chance to get to play with the Romulans, and I don't think they've quite been explored enough," he said. "In the original [Gene] Roddenberry universe, the Klingons represented Soviet Russia, and the Romulans represented the Communist Chinese. For me the Communist Chinese is a really interesting world that was never fully explored, certainly in the movies, and not even as much as I would have liked in the series, except for individual episodes. I've always found that sort of Byzantine structure of Chinese Communism very interesting and very provocative and lethal in a way I never found the Klingons. There is so much duplicity and mendacity and cleverness in the way the Romulans move through their world with very strategic chess moves. And also they are an old and ancient race, like the Vulcans, so they have gravitas to them, which I find very interesting." Logan has completed a second draft of the movie, the magazine reported.
It's Hammer Time Again
As reported earlier in the year, legendary British horror studio Hammer Films will return to film production in a partnership with FirstSight Films, Variety reported. FirstSight and Hammer--home of the U.K.'s Dracula and Frankenstein franchises--will develop and produce six horror movies budgeted at $10 million-$20 million, the trade paper reported.
Hammer was acquired last year by a group of investors intent on reviving the most venerable brand in British horror. They hope to shoot two films a year, starting in 2002. Some may be drawn from Hammer's gallery of traditional horror characters, but most will be original stories, Variety reported.
Spaceless Resurrected?
Coming Attractions reported a rumor that Fox has resurrected the proposed animated SF movie Spaceless, but will produce it as a live-action film instead. Spaceless was dropped after Fox's Titan A.E. tanked at the box office, resulting in the closure of Fox's animation studio.
Coming Attractions, citing an anonymous source, reported that the studio has revived the project and attached director Gore Verbinski (The Mexican). Jeff Vintar will be doing a rewrite of his original script, the site reported. The movie tells the story of a man floating in space, who records the story of how he ended up in this predicament.
Odds and Ends: Short items not worthy of an article in their own right.
· There is a rumor going round that a “Back to the Future 4” is in the works. A report in the Australian Herald Sun suggests that producers are seeking a “strong replacement” for Michael J Fox, who has more or less withdrawn from acting as a result of the onset of symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. We aren’t sure about this, but even if it is true, don’t hold your breath. It could be 2 to 3 years before it reaches the screen, and an even more important question is, “Why bother?” The first trilogy is pretty near perfect – see comments above on War of the Worlds.
· Virginia Hey, who played Zhaan on Farscape, has been cast in the pilot for the proposed SF series Area 23, currently under development by Mindshow Entertainment. Hey plays a character named Nina Draconni, a "perceptor" and member of a top-secret government team of people with psychic powers. Mindshow is currently seeking investors for the pilot movie of Area 23. Hey left Farscape because the blue make-up for the character was giving her skin problems that couldn’t be overcome.
· J-14, a teen magazine, reported that director Darren Aronofsky wants Freddie Prinze Jr. to don the cape and cowl in his proposed Batman: Year One movie. Prinze would reportedly play a young Bruce Wayne.
· Comics2Film reported that Marvel and Fox may be seeking a new writer to work on Sam Hamm's script for a proposed Fantastic Four movie. Director Peyton Reed (Bring It On) recently signed on to helm the feature.
· The Spielberg-DreamWorks fan Web site reported a rumor that Universal will launch its upcoming sequel Jurassic Park III on more than 3,400 screens, 200 more than last week's The Mummy Returns. Jurassic III opens July 20.
· The Ain't It Cool News Web site reported a rumor of a major spoiler for The WB's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off series, Angel. The site reported that the vampire Spike, played by James Marsters, survives this season's Buffy finale and moves to Los Angeles, where he'll appear in next season's Angel. Be aware however that this site has fallen into disrepute over the last few months. They have been responsible for a lot of the spurious rumors that have been going around, and many newsletter providers have stopped referring to them.
· Mel Gibson is considering an offer from Disney to star in The Sixth Sense director M. Night Shyamalan's next supernatural thriller, Signs, which begins shooting in the fall, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The top-secret plot of the film is thought to concern the appearance of crop circles on a family farm in Pennsylvania, the trade paper reported. Disney picked up the project last month in a multimillion-dollar pre-emptive bid, according to the Reporter.
· Universal Pictures has hired Kenneth Lonergan (You Can Count on Me) to adapt Jack Finney's 1970 time-travel novel Time and Again for the big screen, Variety reported. Robert Redford has been developing the project since at least 1994 and remains attached to direct and produce, the trade paper reported. Time and Again tells the story of a man who travels back to New York City in 1882 as part of a mysterious government experiment, only to fall in love while he is there.
· The BBC has finally confirmed that it is involved in developing a feature film based on their Doctor Who TV series. Buried within a story in Variety regarding BBC Films' co-financing deal with Cobalt Media Group, is a tiny bit of info on the film. The trade reports that the Beeb is currently developing the Who project with Mutual, which has no connection to the Cobalt deal. No further details have been given.
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.
posted by Catherine Jemma at 7:57 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home