Report 10A. This is a digest of recent Sci-Fi- and genre-related news as of 7 November 2000.
News & Notes
Group News:
Beware "Election Windows"
Fans of Shows that air on Tuesday nights (principally Buffy and Angel) should be prepared for this week's shows to be occasionally shrunk into half-screen windows while results of the Presidential Election are streamed across the screen. The later the show airs, the more likely the interruptions, as the polls do not close until 7.00pm, so the first results are unlikely much before 9.00pm.
In addition, most of the networks are showing all-night election coverage, so there will be no episodes of JAG, Dark Angel, Frasier or 3rd Rock this week.
We apologize in advance for this, but I am sure you will appreciate that this is out of our hands. Thank God it's only once every four years.
Not Much Luck With Syndie Shows
If you remember how pissed I was last year when Fox pre-empted the season premiere of EFC for football, and then started the season the following week at episode 2, will probably want to keep your heads down after reading this article.
This season, the networks seem to be going out of their way to shaft the syndicated shows. So far, we have had the following experiences:
Episode 4 of Sheena was time-shifted without notice, for no apparent reason. We missed it, so that one will have to be picked up in reruns (coming in just a few weeks), and tape 1 will consist of episode 1-3 & 5.
Queen of Swords - Episode 4 was cut short after 23 minutes for "breaking local news". The station and I have differing opinions on what is important. If that wasn't enough, the technicians at UPN must have had their heads well and truly analy implanted for episode 5, which aired with no soundtrack. The sound returned for the ads of course, but no doubt they were too busy chugging beers to actually monitor what was going out over the airwaves.
Again, we will have to pick these two up in reruns and Tape 1 will have to consist of episodes 1,2,3 & 6.
Andromeda - this time they really excelled themselves, but we were ready for them and they didn't catch us out. Fox aired the first half of the pilot and then skipped the second half and went on to episode 3. Now that takes stupidity of unbelievable proportions. At the end of episode 1, a bunch of mercenaries have boarded the ship to take it over, and the following week, they have all disappeared apart from one, who is now the first officer.
However, despite Fox's mind-numbing incompetence, we managed to get hold of the second half of the pilot (off-air not a copy) from another station that is airing the episodes a week behind the network, so nothing was lost.
If it goes on like this, the season is going to look like a patchwork quilt by the time we get through November sweeps.
Apologies to those who are waiting for Queen of Swords 1:1. You have been delayed two weeks by incompetent imbeciles and that even lower form of life - The Single-Brain-Celled TV Executive.
TV News:
WB uncovers more Roswell Episodes
The WB believes in aliens. The network has ordered nine additional episodes of its sophomore sci-fi drama Roswell, giving the show a full season run of 22 episodes.
Roswell garnered solid reviews last season and decent ratings but still barely managed to get renewed for a second year. The WB ultimately ordered 13 episodes, spurred in part by a strong fan-based campaign to save the show and a decision to emphasize more of the show's sci-fi elements.
So far this fall, Roswell has given the WB its best 9 p.m. Monday Nielsen numbers since Buffy the Vampire Slayer moved out of the slot in January 1998. Among adults 18-49, Roswell has been averaging a 2.0/2.5 -- an 82% increase over the network's slot average last season. Not surprisingly, Roswell creator-executive producer Jason Katims said he is ``extremely excited'' about the full-season order.
"This is just a great feeling, a great boost of confidence for all of us at the show," Katims told Daily Variety. "We've just gotten a lot of great support from the WB and (producer) 20th Century Fox."
Braidwood Pleased With Gunmen
Tom Braidwood--Frohike of The X-Files' Lone Gunmen--told the Canadian National Post newspaper that the Fox spin-off series The Lone Gunmen begins production in Vancouver this week. The new midseason show will center on the three quirky characters made famous in The X-Files, played by Braidwood, Dean Haglund and Bruce Harwood.
"We've taken a huge step up in having a series built around us," Braidwood told the newspaper. "We always joked about it, the three of us that played the parts, but I don't think any of us in our wildest imaginations thought they'd do a series about it."
Braidwood was an assistant director on The X-Files when he was cast in the role of the combative, Scully-obsessed Melvin Frohike. Braidwood said to expect The Lone Gunmen to maintain ties to The X-Files. "Some of the same characters will show up," he said. "But it will be more government conspiracy and less supernatural, science fiction. You will get to see more of what the Gunmen do in their lives."
The new show will add a new female hacker character and a fourth male who Braidwood said "will be the hunk." He added, "I guess we weren't handsome enough."
ABC Will Launch Lloyd
ABC ordered 21 episodes of Disney's Lloyd in Space, an animated SF children's series, Variety reported. The show will become part of the Disney's One Saturday Morning programming block, the trade paper reported.
Lloyd will tell the story of a space-station-bound alien teen-ager who must endure the often-confusing transition into adulthood. It will premiere in early 2001, Variety reported.
Courtland Mead (NYPD Blue) will voice the title character. Diedrich Bader (The Drew Carey Show) will have a recurring role, and Ben Stein and John O'Hurley will be among the guest stars.
Trek Actress Sues Dating Site
Chase Masterson, who had a recurring role in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, has sued the Web dating service Matchmaker.com after an imposter placed her profile on the site without her permission, according to Inside.com. Masterson sued Matchmaker and its parent company, Lycos, in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging that even after she told Matchmaker about the bogus profile, it refused to take it off-line because she was not the person who originally posted it.
The online profile described the actress as looking for "a one-night stand" who is "hard and dominant in more ways than one," the site reported. Masterson got in touch with police and kept away from her home for months, the suit alleged. The bogus profile came to light when a third party alerted her to its presence and showed her how to access it--a third party who turned out to be the imposter himself. Matchmaker.com and Lycos did not comment.
Freedom and L9 Could Save UPN
The Oct. 27 premiere of the UPN SF series Freedom and Level 9 gave the network its best-ever Friday ratings for regular programming among adults 18-34 and all-male demographics, as well as its best regular-programming total-viewer average in eight months, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The ailing Network has been waiting for improved viewing figures before approaching parent company Viacom for further backing. The recent expansion onto Friday night was originally seen as foolhardy by some TV pundits, but it seems to have paid off. UPN now has a good run through weekday prime time. It attracts good audiences Wednesday with 7 Days and Voyager, the network virtually owns the male demographic on Thursday night with Smackdown and now a good showing on Friday as well may bring UPN out of the doldrums.
The main consequence of this is that the new Trek series expected for 2001-2002 will probably go to UPN after all and not be auctioned off in syndication. This may not seem important, but as Voyager has been one of UPN's mainstays for several years, so at least it might be treated with a little respect. In syndication, it can expect to be shuffled or pre-empted for every dog and cat show that comes along.
However, the following item came to our attention, although it is worthy of note that The Hollywood Reporter published the day before UPN announced its viewing figures.
NBC Bids For New Trek Series
NBC--home of the original Star Trek series in the 1960s--expressed interest in the next incarnation of the long-lived and prosperous franchise now under development, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The network is understood to have made an informal offer for the show, the trade paper reported.
An NBC spokesperson said that the network has told Paramount that "if a Star Trek series becomes available, NBC would definitely be interested in it," the trade paper reported. No talks have taken place yet. Fox was known to have inquired about the availability of the new Star Trek series some months ago. It remains unclear whether Paramount is shopping the project or intends to take it directly to UPN. The future of UPN itself is up in the air, following the merger of UPN's parent, Viacom, and CBS.
The latest television version of the franchise, Star Trek: Voyager ends its seven-year run on UPN this season. The premise of the next series--being developed for Paramount by Voyager executive producers Brannon Braga and Rick Berman--is a closely held secret.
X-Files Faces Big Changes
The X-Files executive producer Frank Spotnitz told The Hollywood Reporter that he wasn't so sure an eighth season of the Fox series was a great idea. "I make no secret of the fact that I wasn't sure it was a good idea to come back for another year," Spotnitz told the trade paper. "It was a huge gamble to replace a character like David Duchovny's Fox Mulder. It's not an ensemble show like NYPD Blue or ER, where there are so many fine actors to carry the series. Mulder was one of two central characters in this show. But having been drafted to do this, I just was determined to make a success of it."
The long-lived show started its new season Nov. 5, with a drastically reduced presence by Duchovny and an entirely new character, FBI Agent John Doggett, played by Robert Patrick. To help The X-Files manage the change, series creator Chris Carter has stepped in to write or rewrite six of the show's 10 episodes so far and has directed one of his own scripts, the trade paper reported.
"It's strange not to have David around every day, but I have to say his absence has really framed the season, which is about the search for Mulder," Carter told The Hollywood Reporter. "By adding a new character to the show, we have a new way to tell X-Files stories. Scully [played by Gillian Anderson] now has seen too much to deny, and she becomes a kind of reluctant believer, sort of taking Mulder's place, and Robert Patrick comes in as a knee-jerk skeptic. All of a sudden, Scully's the provocateur."
Editor's Note: Those of you who have been reading this newsletter for some time will know that I rarely comment on episodes. However, given the article above, I thought I should say that the season premiere "Within" was absolutely superb. In my opinion, this was the most intelligent and mature episode of X-Files for several seasons, and if this is a sample of what's to come, let's hope that the "big changes" promised above refer to what HAS changed and not to what IS TO change.
More Roddenberry Shows?
Majel Barrett Roddenberry says that Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda and Starship, the latter of which is being developed by Stan Lee Media, are not likely to be the final shows with the late Gene Roddenberry's name on them.
Majel revealed, "We’ve got another one which we haven’t got a name for, and we’re going to be more on the order of Planet Earth or Genesis II. So, you’ve got the two of them. We'll probably not even end up calling them that, because we’ve taken some of those names and used them already. We’re not paying any attention to names. We’ve got the projects with the names that matter. So we just keep on going until we fit a whole bunch of things together, and whatever fits and whoever we get for it and so on, everything will be geared toward the people doing it."
When asked if there's a chance of there being a TV series based on Gene Roddenberry's fondly remembered The Questor Tapes pilot, she answers, "Yes, I’m hoping for that too, there’s another one that’s ready to go."
'Anonymous Rex' TV Series
Sci Fi and Alliance Atlantis have picked up the rights to Eric Garcia's Anonymous Rex to develop as a TV series, according to Variety columnist Michael Fleming. Garcia's story is set on an Earth where dinosaurs never died out, instead choosing to go into hiding as they moved upwards through evolution. Now, in the present, they keep the truth of their existence hidden by disguising themselves as humans in full body rubber suits. One of them, a velociraptor named Vincent, works as a private eye. In Garcia's book, when a human who has learned the dinosaur secret is murdered, Vincent investigates the case.
The project has been placed on the fast track. Garcia will write the pilot episode as well as co-executive producer the series. Plans are for the dinosaurs to air in fall 2001.
Movie News:
Paul's Breed Begins Filming
The original television movie A Breed Apart, starring Highlander: Endgame's Adrian Paul, has begun filming in Budapest, Hungary, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Motion Picture Corporation of American and Columbia TriStar Home Video are producing the vampire movie, which is slated to premiere on the STARZ! Premium television channel in the third quarter of 2001, the trade paper reported.
Breed tells the modern-day story of a world in which thousands of vampires secretly co-exist with humans. Michael Oblowitz is directing the movie based on a first-time screenplay by Christos Gage and Ruth Fletcher.
It's still unclear whether Breed will also go to video or have a limited theatrical release, the trade paper reported.
Rock To Re-Cut Down To Earth?
Chris Rock, star of the upcoming fantasy film Down to Earth, supposedly re-edited the movie after being unhappy with the initial cut from directors Paul and Chris Weitz, syndicated columnist Jeffrey Wells reported. Down to Earth, a remake of Heaven Can Wait, has been delayed from its summer release to sometime in February 2001, Wells reported.
Wells cited an unnamed industry source who confirmed that Rock was given the chance to re-cut the movie, in part because Paramount was unhappy with the initial cut. "It tested only okay," the source told Wells. "Chris was very vocal about wanting to take a crack at the film, and the general feeling was 'Why not? What's the worst that could happen?' So the editor [Priscilla Friendly] and her assistant were flown with the film to New York about three weeks ago. Chris spent a week re-cutting the film, and everyone (including the Weitzes) was pleased with the results."
The source added, "Now there are serious discussions going on about sending the editing crew back to New York for another few days to let Chris 'polish' his cut. He can't come to L.A. because his HBO talk show is in production."
Tomb Raider Live Coming
Paramount will present a live Webcast from the set of Simon West's upcoming Tomb Raider movie at 2:30 p.m. EST on Nov. 9 at the film's official Web site.
http://www.tombraidermovie.com/
The Angelina Jolie film, based on the Eidos video game series of the same name, is currently shooting at Pinewood Studios in London, Paramount said. The event will be rebroadcast in its entirety at 10 p.m. EST.
Tomb Raider Live will offer browsers a firsthand look at the production. The interactive event, broadcast in Real Video 8 format, will feature a tour of the film's sets, an interview with director West and an opportunity for viewers to ask questions of key production staff. Visitors will also get a chance to win a copy of the upcoming Tomb Raider: Chronicles console game from Eidos. Land Rover will co-sponsor the Webcast.
Rings Near Filming's End
Having recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of filming, Peter Jackson's upcoming The Lord of the Rings film trilogy is on schedule and expects to wrap principal photography just before Christmas, according to E! Cast and crew took Oct. 11 off to celebrate the one-year anniversary and Rings producer Barrie Osborne and director Jackson threw a lavish party for all on location in Queenstown, New Zealand.
Hugo Weaving has already left the location after wrapping his scenes as Elrond, E! reported. Liv Tyler (Arwen) returns from break in December to wrap her scenes. Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf) has taken a five-week break, showing up at some of Wellington's trendy nightclubs.
For his part, McKellen said on his official Web site that he's ready to wrap. "I asked Peter Jackson the other day whether I would finish as was long since planned: He was confident that we would finish on schedule," McKellen posted. "I asked, because I am beginning to need an end in sight. It's the same with a long job in the theater. Judi Dench and I used to cross the days off on the dressing-room mirror at the Fortune Theater--matinee days we did it twice. I'm feeling nothing like that. Indeed, my enthusiasm for the New Zealand I've seen beyond the movie's locations has been an added reward for a year's work away from home."
Rings recently completed filming of one of the films' biggest set pieces yet: the Battle of Pelennor, which involved 230 orcs, 250 Rohan warriors and 50 or so stunt players in the remote South Island mountain village of Twizel, E! reported.
Buffy Meets Scooby Doo?
Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar may actually sign up to be a part of the real Scooby Doo gang.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Gellar and her real life boyfriend Freddie Prinze Jr. have been approached and are in talks to take on the roles of Daphne and Freddie, respectively.
Previously, rumors had been flying that Jennifer Love Hewitt was in the running for the Daphne role, which may have been, but nothing came of that. In addition, as previously reported, though not as yet officially confirmed, Christina Ricci is said to be a strong contender for the role of Velma. Rumors still continue that suggest that Mike Myers may be up for the role of Shaggy, though it would seem to be questionable casting with the rest of the cast being closer in age to the cartoon originals.
'Ringworld' Movie
A live-action version of Larry Niven's Ringworld is coming to the big screen with FX wizard Phil Tippett (Star Wars, Jurassic Park) directing. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Tippett will also produce the film with Robert Mandell for Tippett Studios.
Niven's first book of the series tells the story of two aliens and two humans who stumble across a "Ringworld" in space. They soon begin to explore what is an ancient extra-terrestrial artifact which has a million mile-wide band surrounding the sun and a habitable inner-surface area 300 times the size of Earth.
While talking to the trade about the project, Tippett says, "We are going to pull out all the stops, using CGI to create a roller-coaster ride of thrills, adventure and fun. We are going to take moviegoers to a place never before seen or imagined."
And now the Arnold Schwarzenegger Section
Doc Savage On Track
Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that a script has been completed for Doc Savage, a proposed film based on the series of novels and comics created by pulp writer Lester Dent. Schwarzenegger would play the millionaire adventurer.
"Doc Savage is a movie that is written," Schwarzenegger said in an interview. "It's all done. It's just a matter of me having time to film the movie. Because these are all huge projects, and you can only do them one at a time. But it will be done, I would say, probably next year."
Doc Savage is spearheaded by directors Frank Darabont (The Green Mile) and Chuck Russell (who directed Schwarzenegger in 1996's Eraser) and has been in development since 1999.
Why Arnold Switched On T3
Arnold Schwarzenegger also said that he changed his mind about appearing in the upcoming Terminator 3 movie when he saw a script. Schwarzenegger had previously the entertainment press that he wouldn't appear in the next installment of James Cameron's SF franchise if Cameron wasn't directing himself, and Cameron has bowed out of the sequel.
"I think it was that the script was really good, and Jim Cameron just said, 'Look, you can do it,'" Schwarzenegger said in an interview. Cameron said I'm prepping True Lies 2, I have to move on, and all that stuff. I think it was because of that that I changed my mind, Schwarzenegger said. Schwarzenegger will appear with Terminator 2 co-star Edward Furlong.
For his part, Robert Patrick, who played the T-1000 cyborg in T2, told Eon magazine that he hasn't been asked about T3 yet--"I'm not aware of it." Patrick, who just began his first season as a regular on Fox's The X-Files, might find it difficult to shoot T3 around his TV schedule.
Linda Hamilton, meanwhile, confirmed that she won't be back in T3. "I was asked," she said. "I turned it down. I felt it was more courageous not to do it. I spent nine years trying to get the image of my Terminator character out of people's minds. I'm tired of being ever-earnest and stricken."
Arnold Is A Regular Guy In 6th Day
Arnold Schwarzenegger, star of the upcoming cloning movie The 6th Day, told Science Fiction Weekly that he welcomed the chance to play an ordinary guy. "I think that what was appealing to me about this film was that I had a chance to play a totally regular guy, the way I am at home with my family," Schwarzenegger said in an interview.
Schwarzenegger plays Adam Gibson, a pilot in the near future who arrives home one day to find that he has been replaced by a duplicate. Unlike Schwarzenegger's other roles, Gibson is an ordinary man in an extraordinary situation, he said. "If there's a problem, [he doesn't] just come in like a steamroller and say, 'I'm the action hero, and I can take care of the job.' ... You have emotional struggle, you have physical struggles, you have confrontations that are very difficult to overcome. And I'm going through all those traumas in this film. And it works really well that I am an ordinary guy, a pilot, a family man. So when ... someone is ... cloning me and taking my family from me ... it's a real struggle to fight back. And it becomes kind of like The Fugitive ... in some ways, even though it's a futuristic setting."
Schwarzenegger added that he's eager to broaden the kinds of roles he plays. "I always enjoyed movies where you see a little more about the person," he said. "I think maybe more so now than maybe 15 years ago, because we change. ... Fifteen years ago, I was looking forward to 'How big is the explosion?' and the action and 'How many people do you wipe out?' Then I was 35. And now, I'm over 50, so you think differently, and there's other kinds of elements of the story and the character and all this becomes very much more important. And I think it has to do with just growing up, I guess."
New 'Conan' Movie
John Milius will return to direct another Conan feature film for Warner Bros...and it won't be the long rumored King Conan movie project.
According to the trades, Warner Bros. has picked up the rights to Robert E. Howard's barbarian hero with plans to bring back John Milius to write and direct. Milius directed the 1982 film which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger. He also co-wrote that film's script with Oliver Stone.
In addition, Matrix directors/writers Larry and Andy Wachowski will work with Milius is developing the project with an eye towards directing second unit on the eventual film. They will also produce the project along with Jon Jashni, Irving Azoff and Richard Alexander. Stan Lee, whose Stan Lee Media recently picked up the rights to the character, will take executive producers credits on the film.
Arnold Schwarzenegger may also appear in the film, though it's not likely to be in the role of Conan. Variety reports that Dwayne Johnson (WWF's The Rock) had been approached regarding the coming film's title role, but his obligations to Universal's Scorpion King prevented any further talk.
Word has it that several story ideas and concepts are being tossed around right now, though the new film may just end up carrying on from where the short lived Universal series left off rather than remaking the first movie.
According to Variety, Stan Lee Media had a number of suitors looking to pick up the Conan movie rights besides Warner Bros., including Fox, Columbia, Revolution, Dimension, Beacon and Universal. Meanwhile, the Hollywood Reporter notes that Warner Bros.' deal with Stan Lee Media also includes an option for sequel rights, which must be exercised within an established time frame.
Odds and Ends: Short items not worthy of an article in their own right.
Charlton Heston, who starred in the original Planet of the Apes, will make a cameo appearance in Tim Burton's remake of the movie--as an ape, Variety reported. In the 1968 Apes, Heston played an American astronaut who finds himself stranded on a planet inhabited by talking apes. This time around, Heston will play an unspecified simian role. The movie, starring Mark Wahlberg in the Heston role, will begin filming next week.
The Oct. 27 premiere of the UPN SF series Freedom and Level 9 gave the network its best-ever Friday ratings for regular programming among adults 18-34 and all-male demographics, as well as its best regular-programming total-viewer average in eight months, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
X-Men's Hugh Jackman will co-star with Meg Ryan in the time-travel romantic comedy film Kate & Leopold, Variety reported. The Miramax Films project tells the story of a late-19th-century duke who falls in love with a modern-day New York woman and must traverse time to be with her, the trade paper reported. James Mangold rewrote the script from an original draft by Steven Rogers (Hope Floats) and will direct.
While talking to SFX, Alex Proyas revealed the current status of the Riverworld project, saying, "A guy called Stuart Hazeldine, who is a British writer I’ve been working with recently, is about to start writing the pilot, and we're hoping that we’ll be shooting this next year sometime in Australia. I’ll be doing the pilot episode and occasionally stepping in to do an episode now and again."
Fox has ordered a full season of its fledgling SF drama Dark Angel from co-creators James Cameron and Charles Eglee, Variety reported. Dark Angel has earned good ratings since its debut five weeks ago.
The Comics Continuum Web site reported that The WB will air crossover episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel on Nov. 14, with a storyline that focuses on the history of Darla, Spike, Angel and guest vampire Drusilla (Juliet Landau).
Don't hold your breath waiting for the Barbarella feature, starring Drew Barrymore. According to columnists Marilyn Beck, Stacy Jenel Smith and Stephanie DuBois, any talk of the project kicking in soon is premature. They also report that the eventual film's story will see Barbarella investigating why her tiny home planet is the receiver of such good fortune which leads her into leading a revolution. The film will be based on two Barbarella graphic novels.
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.
News & Notes
Group News:
Beware "Election Windows"
Fans of Shows that air on Tuesday nights (principally Buffy and Angel) should be prepared for this week's shows to be occasionally shrunk into half-screen windows while results of the Presidential Election are streamed across the screen. The later the show airs, the more likely the interruptions, as the polls do not close until 7.00pm, so the first results are unlikely much before 9.00pm.
In addition, most of the networks are showing all-night election coverage, so there will be no episodes of JAG, Dark Angel, Frasier or 3rd Rock this week.
We apologize in advance for this, but I am sure you will appreciate that this is out of our hands. Thank God it's only once every four years.
Not Much Luck With Syndie Shows
If you remember how pissed I was last year when Fox pre-empted the season premiere of EFC for football, and then started the season the following week at episode 2, will probably want to keep your heads down after reading this article.
This season, the networks seem to be going out of their way to shaft the syndicated shows. So far, we have had the following experiences:
Episode 4 of Sheena was time-shifted without notice, for no apparent reason. We missed it, so that one will have to be picked up in reruns (coming in just a few weeks), and tape 1 will consist of episode 1-3 & 5.
Queen of Swords - Episode 4 was cut short after 23 minutes for "breaking local news". The station and I have differing opinions on what is important. If that wasn't enough, the technicians at UPN must have had their heads well and truly analy implanted for episode 5, which aired with no soundtrack. The sound returned for the ads of course, but no doubt they were too busy chugging beers to actually monitor what was going out over the airwaves.
Again, we will have to pick these two up in reruns and Tape 1 will have to consist of episodes 1,2,3 & 6.
Andromeda - this time they really excelled themselves, but we were ready for them and they didn't catch us out. Fox aired the first half of the pilot and then skipped the second half and went on to episode 3. Now that takes stupidity of unbelievable proportions. At the end of episode 1, a bunch of mercenaries have boarded the ship to take it over, and the following week, they have all disappeared apart from one, who is now the first officer.
However, despite Fox's mind-numbing incompetence, we managed to get hold of the second half of the pilot (off-air not a copy) from another station that is airing the episodes a week behind the network, so nothing was lost.
If it goes on like this, the season is going to look like a patchwork quilt by the time we get through November sweeps.
Apologies to those who are waiting for Queen of Swords 1:1. You have been delayed two weeks by incompetent imbeciles and that even lower form of life - The Single-Brain-Celled TV Executive.
TV News:
WB uncovers more Roswell Episodes
The WB believes in aliens. The network has ordered nine additional episodes of its sophomore sci-fi drama Roswell, giving the show a full season run of 22 episodes.
Roswell garnered solid reviews last season and decent ratings but still barely managed to get renewed for a second year. The WB ultimately ordered 13 episodes, spurred in part by a strong fan-based campaign to save the show and a decision to emphasize more of the show's sci-fi elements.
So far this fall, Roswell has given the WB its best 9 p.m. Monday Nielsen numbers since Buffy the Vampire Slayer moved out of the slot in January 1998. Among adults 18-49, Roswell has been averaging a 2.0/2.5 -- an 82% increase over the network's slot average last season. Not surprisingly, Roswell creator-executive producer Jason Katims said he is ``extremely excited'' about the full-season order.
"This is just a great feeling, a great boost of confidence for all of us at the show," Katims told Daily Variety. "We've just gotten a lot of great support from the WB and (producer) 20th Century Fox."
Braidwood Pleased With Gunmen
Tom Braidwood--Frohike of The X-Files' Lone Gunmen--told the Canadian National Post newspaper that the Fox spin-off series The Lone Gunmen begins production in Vancouver this week. The new midseason show will center on the three quirky characters made famous in The X-Files, played by Braidwood, Dean Haglund and Bruce Harwood.
"We've taken a huge step up in having a series built around us," Braidwood told the newspaper. "We always joked about it, the three of us that played the parts, but I don't think any of us in our wildest imaginations thought they'd do a series about it."
Braidwood was an assistant director on The X-Files when he was cast in the role of the combative, Scully-obsessed Melvin Frohike. Braidwood said to expect The Lone Gunmen to maintain ties to The X-Files. "Some of the same characters will show up," he said. "But it will be more government conspiracy and less supernatural, science fiction. You will get to see more of what the Gunmen do in their lives."
The new show will add a new female hacker character and a fourth male who Braidwood said "will be the hunk." He added, "I guess we weren't handsome enough."
ABC Will Launch Lloyd
ABC ordered 21 episodes of Disney's Lloyd in Space, an animated SF children's series, Variety reported. The show will become part of the Disney's One Saturday Morning programming block, the trade paper reported.
Lloyd will tell the story of a space-station-bound alien teen-ager who must endure the often-confusing transition into adulthood. It will premiere in early 2001, Variety reported.
Courtland Mead (NYPD Blue) will voice the title character. Diedrich Bader (The Drew Carey Show) will have a recurring role, and Ben Stein and John O'Hurley will be among the guest stars.
Trek Actress Sues Dating Site
Chase Masterson, who had a recurring role in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, has sued the Web dating service Matchmaker.com after an imposter placed her profile on the site without her permission, according to Inside.com. Masterson sued Matchmaker and its parent company, Lycos, in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging that even after she told Matchmaker about the bogus profile, it refused to take it off-line because she was not the person who originally posted it.
The online profile described the actress as looking for "a one-night stand" who is "hard and dominant in more ways than one," the site reported. Masterson got in touch with police and kept away from her home for months, the suit alleged. The bogus profile came to light when a third party alerted her to its presence and showed her how to access it--a third party who turned out to be the imposter himself. Matchmaker.com and Lycos did not comment.
Freedom and L9 Could Save UPN
The Oct. 27 premiere of the UPN SF series Freedom and Level 9 gave the network its best-ever Friday ratings for regular programming among adults 18-34 and all-male demographics, as well as its best regular-programming total-viewer average in eight months, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The ailing Network has been waiting for improved viewing figures before approaching parent company Viacom for further backing. The recent expansion onto Friday night was originally seen as foolhardy by some TV pundits, but it seems to have paid off. UPN now has a good run through weekday prime time. It attracts good audiences Wednesday with 7 Days and Voyager, the network virtually owns the male demographic on Thursday night with Smackdown and now a good showing on Friday as well may bring UPN out of the doldrums.
The main consequence of this is that the new Trek series expected for 2001-2002 will probably go to UPN after all and not be auctioned off in syndication. This may not seem important, but as Voyager has been one of UPN's mainstays for several years, so at least it might be treated with a little respect. In syndication, it can expect to be shuffled or pre-empted for every dog and cat show that comes along.
However, the following item came to our attention, although it is worthy of note that The Hollywood Reporter published the day before UPN announced its viewing figures.
NBC Bids For New Trek Series
NBC--home of the original Star Trek series in the 1960s--expressed interest in the next incarnation of the long-lived and prosperous franchise now under development, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The network is understood to have made an informal offer for the show, the trade paper reported.
An NBC spokesperson said that the network has told Paramount that "if a Star Trek series becomes available, NBC would definitely be interested in it," the trade paper reported. No talks have taken place yet. Fox was known to have inquired about the availability of the new Star Trek series some months ago. It remains unclear whether Paramount is shopping the project or intends to take it directly to UPN. The future of UPN itself is up in the air, following the merger of UPN's parent, Viacom, and CBS.
The latest television version of the franchise, Star Trek: Voyager ends its seven-year run on UPN this season. The premise of the next series--being developed for Paramount by Voyager executive producers Brannon Braga and Rick Berman--is a closely held secret.
X-Files Faces Big Changes
The X-Files executive producer Frank Spotnitz told The Hollywood Reporter that he wasn't so sure an eighth season of the Fox series was a great idea. "I make no secret of the fact that I wasn't sure it was a good idea to come back for another year," Spotnitz told the trade paper. "It was a huge gamble to replace a character like David Duchovny's Fox Mulder. It's not an ensemble show like NYPD Blue or ER, where there are so many fine actors to carry the series. Mulder was one of two central characters in this show. But having been drafted to do this, I just was determined to make a success of it."
The long-lived show started its new season Nov. 5, with a drastically reduced presence by Duchovny and an entirely new character, FBI Agent John Doggett, played by Robert Patrick. To help The X-Files manage the change, series creator Chris Carter has stepped in to write or rewrite six of the show's 10 episodes so far and has directed one of his own scripts, the trade paper reported.
"It's strange not to have David around every day, but I have to say his absence has really framed the season, which is about the search for Mulder," Carter told The Hollywood Reporter. "By adding a new character to the show, we have a new way to tell X-Files stories. Scully [played by Gillian Anderson] now has seen too much to deny, and she becomes a kind of reluctant believer, sort of taking Mulder's place, and Robert Patrick comes in as a knee-jerk skeptic. All of a sudden, Scully's the provocateur."
Editor's Note: Those of you who have been reading this newsletter for some time will know that I rarely comment on episodes. However, given the article above, I thought I should say that the season premiere "Within" was absolutely superb. In my opinion, this was the most intelligent and mature episode of X-Files for several seasons, and if this is a sample of what's to come, let's hope that the "big changes" promised above refer to what HAS changed and not to what IS TO change.
More Roddenberry Shows?
Majel Barrett Roddenberry says that Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda and Starship, the latter of which is being developed by Stan Lee Media, are not likely to be the final shows with the late Gene Roddenberry's name on them.
Majel revealed, "We’ve got another one which we haven’t got a name for, and we’re going to be more on the order of Planet Earth or Genesis II. So, you’ve got the two of them. We'll probably not even end up calling them that, because we’ve taken some of those names and used them already. We’re not paying any attention to names. We’ve got the projects with the names that matter. So we just keep on going until we fit a whole bunch of things together, and whatever fits and whoever we get for it and so on, everything will be geared toward the people doing it."
When asked if there's a chance of there being a TV series based on Gene Roddenberry's fondly remembered The Questor Tapes pilot, she answers, "Yes, I’m hoping for that too, there’s another one that’s ready to go."
'Anonymous Rex' TV Series
Sci Fi and Alliance Atlantis have picked up the rights to Eric Garcia's Anonymous Rex to develop as a TV series, according to Variety columnist Michael Fleming. Garcia's story is set on an Earth where dinosaurs never died out, instead choosing to go into hiding as they moved upwards through evolution. Now, in the present, they keep the truth of their existence hidden by disguising themselves as humans in full body rubber suits. One of them, a velociraptor named Vincent, works as a private eye. In Garcia's book, when a human who has learned the dinosaur secret is murdered, Vincent investigates the case.
The project has been placed on the fast track. Garcia will write the pilot episode as well as co-executive producer the series. Plans are for the dinosaurs to air in fall 2001.
Movie News:
Paul's Breed Begins Filming
The original television movie A Breed Apart, starring Highlander: Endgame's Adrian Paul, has begun filming in Budapest, Hungary, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Motion Picture Corporation of American and Columbia TriStar Home Video are producing the vampire movie, which is slated to premiere on the STARZ! Premium television channel in the third quarter of 2001, the trade paper reported.
Breed tells the modern-day story of a world in which thousands of vampires secretly co-exist with humans. Michael Oblowitz is directing the movie based on a first-time screenplay by Christos Gage and Ruth Fletcher.
It's still unclear whether Breed will also go to video or have a limited theatrical release, the trade paper reported.
Rock To Re-Cut Down To Earth?
Chris Rock, star of the upcoming fantasy film Down to Earth, supposedly re-edited the movie after being unhappy with the initial cut from directors Paul and Chris Weitz, syndicated columnist Jeffrey Wells reported. Down to Earth, a remake of Heaven Can Wait, has been delayed from its summer release to sometime in February 2001, Wells reported.
Wells cited an unnamed industry source who confirmed that Rock was given the chance to re-cut the movie, in part because Paramount was unhappy with the initial cut. "It tested only okay," the source told Wells. "Chris was very vocal about wanting to take a crack at the film, and the general feeling was 'Why not? What's the worst that could happen?' So the editor [Priscilla Friendly] and her assistant were flown with the film to New York about three weeks ago. Chris spent a week re-cutting the film, and everyone (including the Weitzes) was pleased with the results."
The source added, "Now there are serious discussions going on about sending the editing crew back to New York for another few days to let Chris 'polish' his cut. He can't come to L.A. because his HBO talk show is in production."
Tomb Raider Live Coming
Paramount will present a live Webcast from the set of Simon West's upcoming Tomb Raider movie at 2:30 p.m. EST on Nov. 9 at the film's official Web site.
http://www.tombraidermovie.com/
The Angelina Jolie film, based on the Eidos video game series of the same name, is currently shooting at Pinewood Studios in London, Paramount said. The event will be rebroadcast in its entirety at 10 p.m. EST.
Tomb Raider Live will offer browsers a firsthand look at the production. The interactive event, broadcast in Real Video 8 format, will feature a tour of the film's sets, an interview with director West and an opportunity for viewers to ask questions of key production staff. Visitors will also get a chance to win a copy of the upcoming Tomb Raider: Chronicles console game from Eidos. Land Rover will co-sponsor the Webcast.
Rings Near Filming's End
Having recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of filming, Peter Jackson's upcoming The Lord of the Rings film trilogy is on schedule and expects to wrap principal photography just before Christmas, according to E! Cast and crew took Oct. 11 off to celebrate the one-year anniversary and Rings producer Barrie Osborne and director Jackson threw a lavish party for all on location in Queenstown, New Zealand.
Hugo Weaving has already left the location after wrapping his scenes as Elrond, E! reported. Liv Tyler (Arwen) returns from break in December to wrap her scenes. Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf) has taken a five-week break, showing up at some of Wellington's trendy nightclubs.
For his part, McKellen said on his official Web site that he's ready to wrap. "I asked Peter Jackson the other day whether I would finish as was long since planned: He was confident that we would finish on schedule," McKellen posted. "I asked, because I am beginning to need an end in sight. It's the same with a long job in the theater. Judi Dench and I used to cross the days off on the dressing-room mirror at the Fortune Theater--matinee days we did it twice. I'm feeling nothing like that. Indeed, my enthusiasm for the New Zealand I've seen beyond the movie's locations has been an added reward for a year's work away from home."
Rings recently completed filming of one of the films' biggest set pieces yet: the Battle of Pelennor, which involved 230 orcs, 250 Rohan warriors and 50 or so stunt players in the remote South Island mountain village of Twizel, E! reported.
Buffy Meets Scooby Doo?
Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar may actually sign up to be a part of the real Scooby Doo gang.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Gellar and her real life boyfriend Freddie Prinze Jr. have been approached and are in talks to take on the roles of Daphne and Freddie, respectively.
Previously, rumors had been flying that Jennifer Love Hewitt was in the running for the Daphne role, which may have been, but nothing came of that. In addition, as previously reported, though not as yet officially confirmed, Christina Ricci is said to be a strong contender for the role of Velma. Rumors still continue that suggest that Mike Myers may be up for the role of Shaggy, though it would seem to be questionable casting with the rest of the cast being closer in age to the cartoon originals.
'Ringworld' Movie
A live-action version of Larry Niven's Ringworld is coming to the big screen with FX wizard Phil Tippett (Star Wars, Jurassic Park) directing. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Tippett will also produce the film with Robert Mandell for Tippett Studios.
Niven's first book of the series tells the story of two aliens and two humans who stumble across a "Ringworld" in space. They soon begin to explore what is an ancient extra-terrestrial artifact which has a million mile-wide band surrounding the sun and a habitable inner-surface area 300 times the size of Earth.
While talking to the trade about the project, Tippett says, "We are going to pull out all the stops, using CGI to create a roller-coaster ride of thrills, adventure and fun. We are going to take moviegoers to a place never before seen or imagined."
And now the Arnold Schwarzenegger Section
Doc Savage On Track
Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that a script has been completed for Doc Savage, a proposed film based on the series of novels and comics created by pulp writer Lester Dent. Schwarzenegger would play the millionaire adventurer.
"Doc Savage is a movie that is written," Schwarzenegger said in an interview. "It's all done. It's just a matter of me having time to film the movie. Because these are all huge projects, and you can only do them one at a time. But it will be done, I would say, probably next year."
Doc Savage is spearheaded by directors Frank Darabont (The Green Mile) and Chuck Russell (who directed Schwarzenegger in 1996's Eraser) and has been in development since 1999.
Why Arnold Switched On T3
Arnold Schwarzenegger also said that he changed his mind about appearing in the upcoming Terminator 3 movie when he saw a script. Schwarzenegger had previously the entertainment press that he wouldn't appear in the next installment of James Cameron's SF franchise if Cameron wasn't directing himself, and Cameron has bowed out of the sequel.
"I think it was that the script was really good, and Jim Cameron just said, 'Look, you can do it,'" Schwarzenegger said in an interview. Cameron said I'm prepping True Lies 2, I have to move on, and all that stuff. I think it was because of that that I changed my mind, Schwarzenegger said. Schwarzenegger will appear with Terminator 2 co-star Edward Furlong.
For his part, Robert Patrick, who played the T-1000 cyborg in T2, told Eon magazine that he hasn't been asked about T3 yet--"I'm not aware of it." Patrick, who just began his first season as a regular on Fox's The X-Files, might find it difficult to shoot T3 around his TV schedule.
Linda Hamilton, meanwhile, confirmed that she won't be back in T3. "I was asked," she said. "I turned it down. I felt it was more courageous not to do it. I spent nine years trying to get the image of my Terminator character out of people's minds. I'm tired of being ever-earnest and stricken."
Arnold Is A Regular Guy In 6th Day
Arnold Schwarzenegger, star of the upcoming cloning movie The 6th Day, told Science Fiction Weekly that he welcomed the chance to play an ordinary guy. "I think that what was appealing to me about this film was that I had a chance to play a totally regular guy, the way I am at home with my family," Schwarzenegger said in an interview.
Schwarzenegger plays Adam Gibson, a pilot in the near future who arrives home one day to find that he has been replaced by a duplicate. Unlike Schwarzenegger's other roles, Gibson is an ordinary man in an extraordinary situation, he said. "If there's a problem, [he doesn't] just come in like a steamroller and say, 'I'm the action hero, and I can take care of the job.' ... You have emotional struggle, you have physical struggles, you have confrontations that are very difficult to overcome. And I'm going through all those traumas in this film. And it works really well that I am an ordinary guy, a pilot, a family man. So when ... someone is ... cloning me and taking my family from me ... it's a real struggle to fight back. And it becomes kind of like The Fugitive ... in some ways, even though it's a futuristic setting."
Schwarzenegger added that he's eager to broaden the kinds of roles he plays. "I always enjoyed movies where you see a little more about the person," he said. "I think maybe more so now than maybe 15 years ago, because we change. ... Fifteen years ago, I was looking forward to 'How big is the explosion?' and the action and 'How many people do you wipe out?' Then I was 35. And now, I'm over 50, so you think differently, and there's other kinds of elements of the story and the character and all this becomes very much more important. And I think it has to do with just growing up, I guess."
New 'Conan' Movie
John Milius will return to direct another Conan feature film for Warner Bros...and it won't be the long rumored King Conan movie project.
According to the trades, Warner Bros. has picked up the rights to Robert E. Howard's barbarian hero with plans to bring back John Milius to write and direct. Milius directed the 1982 film which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger. He also co-wrote that film's script with Oliver Stone.
In addition, Matrix directors/writers Larry and Andy Wachowski will work with Milius is developing the project with an eye towards directing second unit on the eventual film. They will also produce the project along with Jon Jashni, Irving Azoff and Richard Alexander. Stan Lee, whose Stan Lee Media recently picked up the rights to the character, will take executive producers credits on the film.
Arnold Schwarzenegger may also appear in the film, though it's not likely to be in the role of Conan. Variety reports that Dwayne Johnson (WWF's The Rock) had been approached regarding the coming film's title role, but his obligations to Universal's Scorpion King prevented any further talk.
Word has it that several story ideas and concepts are being tossed around right now, though the new film may just end up carrying on from where the short lived Universal series left off rather than remaking the first movie.
According to Variety, Stan Lee Media had a number of suitors looking to pick up the Conan movie rights besides Warner Bros., including Fox, Columbia, Revolution, Dimension, Beacon and Universal. Meanwhile, the Hollywood Reporter notes that Warner Bros.' deal with Stan Lee Media also includes an option for sequel rights, which must be exercised within an established time frame.
Odds and Ends: Short items not worthy of an article in their own right.
Charlton Heston, who starred in the original Planet of the Apes, will make a cameo appearance in Tim Burton's remake of the movie--as an ape, Variety reported. In the 1968 Apes, Heston played an American astronaut who finds himself stranded on a planet inhabited by talking apes. This time around, Heston will play an unspecified simian role. The movie, starring Mark Wahlberg in the Heston role, will begin filming next week.
The Oct. 27 premiere of the UPN SF series Freedom and Level 9 gave the network its best-ever Friday ratings for regular programming among adults 18-34 and all-male demographics, as well as its best regular-programming total-viewer average in eight months, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
X-Men's Hugh Jackman will co-star with Meg Ryan in the time-travel romantic comedy film Kate & Leopold, Variety reported. The Miramax Films project tells the story of a late-19th-century duke who falls in love with a modern-day New York woman and must traverse time to be with her, the trade paper reported. James Mangold rewrote the script from an original draft by Steven Rogers (Hope Floats) and will direct.
While talking to SFX, Alex Proyas revealed the current status of the Riverworld project, saying, "A guy called Stuart Hazeldine, who is a British writer I’ve been working with recently, is about to start writing the pilot, and we're hoping that we’ll be shooting this next year sometime in Australia. I’ll be doing the pilot episode and occasionally stepping in to do an episode now and again."
Fox has ordered a full season of its fledgling SF drama Dark Angel from co-creators James Cameron and Charles Eglee, Variety reported. Dark Angel has earned good ratings since its debut five weeks ago.
The Comics Continuum Web site reported that The WB will air crossover episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel on Nov. 14, with a storyline that focuses on the history of Darla, Spike, Angel and guest vampire Drusilla (Juliet Landau).
Don't hold your breath waiting for the Barbarella feature, starring Drew Barrymore. According to columnists Marilyn Beck, Stacy Jenel Smith and Stephanie DuBois, any talk of the project kicking in soon is premature. They also report that the eventual film's story will see Barbarella investigating why her tiny home planet is the receiver of such good fortune which leads her into leading a revolution. The film will be based on two Barbarella graphic novels.
Part B Follows Shortly
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Bob Jenner, Information Officer
Alexandra Benedict, Entertainment Industry Liaison Officer
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