43A 26 June 2001 inclu Final Fantasy, Xena finale

 

Eastlant Sci-Fi Group - 2000-2001 Season Progress Report 43A.

This is a digest of recent Sci-Fi- and genre-related news as of 26th June 2001.

News & Notes

Editorial – Not Just the End of An Era

Well, it’s all over bar the shouting.  The finale of Xena: Warrior Princess aired on Sunday, amid howls of protest from fans of the series. Although I haven’t pursued the newsgroups much lately, I am reliably informed that there is a good deal of heated discussion about the way the series was brought to an end, but I won’t say any more on that, for fear of spoiling the end for those who haven’t seen it yet.

Whenever a much-loved series comes to an end, there is always a lot of debate as to why it ended, what could have been done in future seasons, etc, and this is especially relevant when a series is ended without apparent reason. Lucy Lawless has been appearing on a number of chat shows over the last couple of weeks and is still expressing surprise that the series ended, and claims not to understand why. This is highly suspicious, as she is married to one of the show’s producers, and only reinforces my supposition that Lucy quite literally priced the series out of existence with exorbitant demands for fees for future seasons.

One thing that strengthens this idea even more is that whenever I make any sort of negative statement about a series or its stars, I am usually bombarded with e-mails from dedicated fans who disagree with me, but so far, no one has come up with a scrap of evidence, or even a suggestion, to support any other theory.

However, from our view point there is a subtle but important extra factor that doesn’t affect the rest of Fandom.  Of all the TV series that we send out, Xena is the one that has the largest number of “One Series” fans, that is, people who take only Xena and nothing else.  Of the 60+ copies of each Xena tape that I send out, probably 40 are to fans that want nothing else.

Now that the series is done, I expect most of them to move on to other things, with their time as Xena fans as just another period in their lives. So this is probably the last we will hear from them. As a result, I don’t give a damn about Lucy and her reasoning.  What is far more important to me is that I am about to lose around 40 friends, and that is a shame.

For the Xena fans who intend to carry on their Fandom, there is plenty you can do. Take a leaf out of the Trek fans from the 70s. Their show was gone, with no apparent chance of resurrection, but they didn’t give up.  The convention scene flourished, especially as most of the actors couldn’t get any other regular work at the time, and they managed to keep their Fandom alive and kicking for almost 20 years until the time was right for it to be resurrected.

Now is the time to rally all good men and true (or in this case, mostly women) to the cause and to start campaigning for Xena: The Next Generation.

Good luck, and don’t be strangers now.

Group News:

The Great “Missing Part B” Mystery – Aliens Ate My Homework

Well, actually they didn’t, but my excuse is almost as good.

We were descended on by a large contingent of my wife’s family last Thursday, intent on getting in some Disney time (we live just 5 minutes from Disney World).  As a result, I got little or nothing done until this Wednesday, as I was concentrating on preventing the insertion of various sandwiches into VCRs, etc, by small hands, and also trying to retain my sanity while half a dozen New York Italian Women danced around the kitchen, all talking at once, while half the men watched ESPN on one satellite system while the other half searched for the Playboy Channel (to which I do not subscribe – honest) on the other.

I just forgot all about Part B, but there shall be a Part B this week – promise.

This Part A is also a little thin on the ground, as I haven’t had much time for research – my computer has been destroying alien invaders for most of the last 5 days.

Finally, if you are waiting to hear that your letter has arrived, or for an answer to an e-mail, it will take me a couple days to catch up on the backlog, so please hang on and I will get to it all.

You Don’t Miss Much Do You?

Those of you who have been with us for more than one season will know that we usually offer to do some LP tapes during the summer. This year is no different, but I usually wait until the season finale rush is completely over. Most of that is done now, apart from the Xena tapes – those will be done over the next week or so.

(Incidentally, if you are waiting to hear that tapes are in the mail, they are just about all done and will be mailed out as fast as I can get the packed and carted off to the Post Office.)

However, I have already had about 30 e-mails asking about LP tapes, so to save everyone who wants them having to send a message to ask about it, let me put a date on it so you can start putting your requests together:

Let’s get the 4th of July holiday out of the way, and say that I will start doing LP tapes from the week of July 9th.

For those of you who aren’t clear on what LP involves – at this speed we can get 8 episodes onto a tape, giving you a chance to see a series that maybe you wouldn’t otherwise have bothered with, or to catch up on some old missing episodes.

There are however, a few restrictions:

1.     Please keep requests down to reasonable levels. I currently have only two fully operational converters (back to 3 in about a month or so – but down to two again periodically as I send the other two off for cleaning and tuning, etc).  This means please don’t ask for twenty LP tapes at a time as some people did last year.  Keep it down to requests for a max of 4 or 5 at a time – there may be an opportunity to go round a second or even a third time for more, if we can keep up with demand;

2.     Don’t wait until the last minute to send in your requests, as I will constantly monitor the number of tapes needing to be done, and will call halt to LP well before the new season starts so that I can be clear before the first new shows come in;

3.     Please, no mix and match at LP.  I simply cannot do one episode from here, one from there, etc.  LP tapes must be straight runs of consecutive episodes, although as my masters are mostly in blocks of 4, I can do 2 nodes on one tape, and these can come from any series, so I could do, for example, Buffy Season 5 episodes 1 – 4 and Angel Season 2 episodes 1 – 4 on the same tape.

4.     I am not prepared to do LP for series that are still generating new episodes – Farscape, SG-1, Witchblade, etc.  Consider their season to be still underway;

5.     If you want non-genre shows at LP, get your requests in VERY early, as I will start recycling around the end of July, except for the most popular series, West Wing, Ally McBeal, etc.  I will put a recycling forecast in Part B each week as the summer progresses.

Apart from that, away we go.

Enough from me now.  On with the news.

TV News:

Confirmed: Head Mulling Who Role

Big Finish Productions, the British company responsible for producing licensed Doctor Who audio stories, confirmed that it has approached Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Anthony Stewart Head to take on a recurring role in a trilogy of stories.

The company said, "There is an element of truth in this, although we fear some wires may have got crossed along the way. BFP have indeed spoken briefly to Mr. Head's British representatives about him doing a play or three for us, but certainly not as the Master. In fact, we're hoping to ask him to join us in all three Excelis plays--due to be released early in 2002--to play a brand new villain created specifically for him. But it's a long way off yet, although it is gratifying to know that, going by [a story in] SFX [magazine], Mr. Head hasn't said an outright no."

Stop Press: The Dr. Who project Anthony Stewart Head is in talks to take a recurring role in now appears to be a trilogy of audio plays and not a TV Show, although I can’t confirm that as et.

Leeshock Leaving Earth?

Robert Leeshock, star of Earth: Final Conflict, is expected to tell his official fan club that he is leaving the syndicated series and won't be back in season five. Leeshock's character, Liam Kincaid, was caught in an explosion at the end of this season.

Leeshock joined the cast at the beginning of season two, replacing Kevin Kilner, whose character, William Boone, died in the first-season finale. Philip Segal, vice president of scripted programming at Tribune Entertainment, recently told fans in an online chat that Kilner would return in the fifth season in what is expected to be a limited capacity.

Leeshock is rumored to have auditioned unsuccessfully for the lead role in UPN's upcoming Star Trek series, Enterprise, a role that eventually went to Scott Bakula.

Bradbury Adapts Illustrated Man

The Sci-Fi Channel announced that it will produce a two-hour television film based on SF author Ray Bradbury's book The Illustrated Man. Bradbury's classic short-story collection, first published in 1951, centers on a carnival man whose body is covered with tattoos that depict the stories of people with whom he comes in contact.

Bradbury has adapted and updated his own book for the screen; John Dayton and Stephanie Germain will executive produce. "I'm very happy that my muse has given me a lot of new ideas to go along with the old ones," Bradbury said in a statement. "It's exciting to be working with Bonnie Hammer again, and I'm looking forward to seeing The Illustrated Man being done right on The Sci-Fi Channel." The Illustrated Man was previously adapted as a 1969 feature film, directed by Jack Smight and starring Rod Steiger.

The Illustrated Man is only the latest in a series of literary adaptations and original productions undertaken by Sci-Fi. Others include Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars; A Tale of Two Cities; Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers; Clive Barker's Saint Sinner; the four-hour miniseries Firestarter: Rekindled, which is currently in production; Taken, a 20-hour miniseries from DreamWorks Television and Steven Spielberg; and Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea trilogy of books and The Left Hand of Darkness.

In a later interview for Variety, Bradbury said that for the two-hour Illustrated Man television movie, "For the first time in many years, I wrote the script by hand, with pen and pad, a total of 160 pages." Bradbury will incorporate two of his more famous tales: "The Veldt," which is from the book, and "On the Orient North," a story from a collection titled The Toynbee Convector, Variety reported.

Editor’s Note:  They are going to have to pull out all the stops to beat the sinister and chilling Rod Steiger version.

Daltrey Sings Witchblade Praises

Roger Daltrey, lead singer of the legendary rock group The Who and veteran genre actor told a group of journalists that he enjoyed his upcoming guest stint on TNT's original series Witchblade. Daltrey will play Father Del Toro, "a priest with a twist in his tail," Daltrey said in an interview, referring to the fact that the character harbors a dark secret.

The episode involves the Vatican's alleged alliance with the Nazis during World War II, said Daltrey, whose genre credits include Tales from the Crypt, Sliders, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and a recurring role on Highlander. "I can't say much because I don't want to give it all away, but it was good fun," he said. "It was good to play a priest with charm."

Besides Witchblade, Daltrey is busy with other genre projects, including the film thriller .com for Murder with Nastassja Kinski and a segment of VH-1's music-based horror anthology series Strange Frequency. He added that he'd love to return to Witchblade if the series returns for a second season.

"The character could be reprised," Daltrey said. "He doesn't get killed off. I'd be interested in doing it again. I enjoyed the job. They're great people to work with, and [star] Yancy Butler was fantastic. Toronto [where Witchblade films] in the winter is not much fun. I love Toronto. It's a great place, but they can have their winters. Apart from that, I'd do it again."

Xena Fans Flock to Witchblade

Viewing figures for TNT’s new female-action series Witchblade is producing excellent viewing figures for the cable channel. Last year’s premiere of the TNT live-action television movie earned a strong 4.5 rating, drawing 3.1 million households to make it the top movie of the week in the desirable 18-49 year old age group, and the first episode fell only just short of those results.

Film Zone called it one of the best comic adaptation television movies in recent memory. Comics2Film praised its serious-minded approach to the Top Cow comic storyline, while Zealot’s reviewer only hoped the comic was as good as the TV adaptation.

While it’s still too soon to predict how the weekly series will fare, early reviews have been favorable and many long-time comic fans seem satisfied with the adaptation...even if the main character does wear considerably more clothing onscreen than in

It also appears that many fans of other female-oriented shows such as Xena are flocking to the series. Some of the major Xena sites have incorporated links and even episode guides for the new series, so maybe there is hope yet for all the Xena fans who are expressing their disappointment not only with the end of the series, but with the way it was brought to an end.

 

Movie News:

T3 Subtitle Revealed?

The upcoming third installment in the Terminator film franchise may be subtitled “Rise of the Machines”, the Calgary Sun reported. The Canadian newspaper also reiterated a rumor that Pitch Black star Vin Diesel is being touted as Arnold Schwarzenegger's T3 co-star, as previously reported. John Brancato and Michael Ferris are reportedly rewriting Tedi Sarafian's original script, which is rumored to have pitted Schwarzenegger's cyborg against a female nemesis.

Cameron Plans SF Imax Film

James Cameron's production company, Lightstorm Entertainment, is developing an SF movie for the large-screen Imax theater format focusing on a manned space trip to Mars, Variety reported. The as-yet-untitled dramatic feature film has been in development for two years, the trade paper reported. Cameron would produce and co-write the script, but probably won't direct the film.

Cameron is reportedly awaiting a green light for the project, based on whether footage shot on 24-frame-per-second high-definition video can be converted to Imax's projection format, Lightstorm president Rae Sanchini told the trade paper. Lightstorm envisions a 30-45-minute movie.

Gene Pool Film Coming

Helkon International Pictures and sister company Helkon SK have teamed with Tri-Pictures and Eagle Pictures to buy the movie rights to the comic book Gene Pool, by Len Wein and Marv Wolfman, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The four companies will develop the comic property into a live-action, English-language feature film of the same name, with Wein and Wolfman handling scripting duties on the adaptation, the trade paper reported.

Gene Pool tells the story of a team of reluctant superheroes who are thrown together when they find themselves hunted. The comic book has never been published, but is expected to be shortly, the trade paper reported.

Wein wrote the comic book Return of the Swamp Thing; Wolfman was a writer on the TV series The Transformers and wrote the feature Elfquest, which is also based on a comic book.

More Bradbury Movies to Come

Legendary SF author Ray Bradbury told Variety that he's busier at age 81 than he can recall. For TV he is working on, and also on several new feature films; a new feature-film version of Fahrenheit 451 with director Frank Darabont with Mel Gibson as producer; a new movie adaptation of The Martian Chronicles, also with Darabont directing; an $80 million movie based on his short story Sound of Thunder, starring Pierce Brosnan; and the script for a movie based on his novella Frost & Fire, the trade paper reported.

Game Creator Adapted Fantasy

Christopher Lee, producer of the upcoming computer-animated SF movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, said that the film marks the first time the creator of a video-game franchise has translated his vision directly to the big screen. The movie is directed and co-written by Hironobu Sakaguchi, who created the Square Final Fantasy game franchise on which the film is based.

"One of the fascinating things about this movie--and one of the things that sets it apart from other video-game-based pictures--is that this is the first time that a game has been translated to the screen by the creator of the game, in the medium of the game," said Lee, a one-time Columbia Pictures production executive who eventually joined the movie as a producer after first seeing the project cross his desk some four years ago.

The hyper-realistic animated film shares only the games' life philosophy, Lee added. "I don't think it's different from the games any more than the games are different from one another," he said. "Final Fantasy isn't a character. Final Fantasy is a world, and it's very much sort of a sensibility. The overall spirituality of the whole Gaia theory--that everything on Earth has a spirit, and when we pass, we go back to that spirit and renew that spirit--all of that very much binds the story. I think all great science fiction movies--and I do think this is a science fiction movie and an adventure movie as well--have terrific foundations and underpinnings, and they often rely on popular myths to provide that."

The movie's animated humans interact with often-realistic environments--which aids in making the animated humans more believable, Lee said. "I wouldn't know how to accomplish that in live action and make it look as seamless as it does in the feature," he said. "Working in this particular medium allows Sakaguchi's imagination to really deliver what he delivers in the game." Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, featuring the voices of Ming-Na and Alec Baldwin, opens July 13.

Editor’s Note: I usually ignore animated movies, but a couple of days ago I was at the movies here, and I saw the long trailer for this.  The animation is like nothing I have ever seen – it is absolutely spectacular. The characters look virtually real, and the backgrounds are so rich that it really does look like a live-action movie for much of the time.

The thought that springs immediately to mind is that with animation of this quality, they are only one step away from animating totally realistic movies – anyone for Star Wars 3 starring Humphrey Bogart and Marylin Monroe?

While I am on forthcoming movies – we also saw trailers for Jurassic Park III – looks OK, but really nothing original – and Lord of the Rings – I am not the one to comment on this, as I have been waiting for this movie for 40 years, so I am bound to be biased – nevertheless, I saw nothing to disappoint me, and I am a total Tolkien devotee.  What I saw was breathtaking, and it appears to stick to the book very closely.  Roll on December.