Report 13A. This is a digest of recent Sci-Fi- and genre-related news as of 28 November 2000.
News & Notes
Group News:
If You Are Reading This – We’re Back
If you haven’t had anything from us for a few days, you are probably unaware that we suffered a serious hardware crash over the Thanksgiving Weekend. For some reason, about half our hard disc just disappeared off the face of the Earth. This included our Tape Division Address Books, so we have been slowly piecing them together again, hence the deafening silence until now.
The ironic thing is that after the last two problems we had, we took extra precautions, but not only did they not protect us, we have absolutely no idea what happened. The previous two problems were easy to identify. One was a virus; the other was the lightning strike in late 98. Let’s face it, when your computer does a fair imitation of "Voyager to the Bottom of the Sea", spraying sparks everywhere and leaping across the room, to end up with the processor in the fireplace and the hard drive in the sink, it’s not difficult to come to the conclusion that it is broken.
This time however, we are baffled. What is even more unfortunate is that the software we needed to recover from our backups was on the segment of disc that is now inaccessible, so we are doing it by hand from our hard copies.
Please bear with us during this slow-down. Shipment of tapes will not be affected by this problem, only communication by e-mail. The main software has been restored, so our taping schedules, database and contact details are unaffected.
There are some items however, that we will not be able to recover. At the time of the crash, we had about 100 e-mails in our inbox, and about another 100 in various pending files, awaiting our response. These are gone, and we need your help to put things back the way they should be.
The majority of these e-mails are simply routine acknowledgments, so they are low priority, but if you sent us any e-mail message that contained any important information between Wednesday 22nd and Sunday 26th November, please send it again. We know that there were several follow-up e-mails from Bidpay payments, containing lists of episodes, and also a couple with details of Western Union payments.
If you have already responded to our first warning message, thank you and there is no need to do so again.
Finally, if anyone has received our introductory messages during the last couple of weeks, we would be most grateful if you could let us have copies, as we are currently unable to access them, and it would save us having to reproduce them from scratch.
Repeated Newsletter Items
Please forgive us if we repeat ourselves. I do not have previous newsletters to refer to until the system is fully restored, nor can I access our archives. As a result, this week’s items will be drawn straight from outside sources and I may end up including items we had a couple of weeks ago.
Scully Cut Short by Election News
Last Night’s X-Files episodes "Roadrunner" was interrupted by the news that Florida had finally certified the results of the Presidential Election. Only a couple of minutes are missing, but we will be sending the episode out as it is rather than wait for a rerun or get everything out of step. For the purists, the full episode will be available once we have it from reruns later in the season.
Other shows affected this week were Futurama (pre-empted), The Simpsons (cut short by 8 minutes), Boston Public, (cut short by about 30 seconds) and Ally McBeal (opening sequence missing). If he achieves nothing else during his term, whoever finally becomes President will go down as the most TV-disruptive in history.
No Part B
For obvious reasons, we will be far too busy putting everything back to normal and typing in 800 e-mail addresses to do part B this week. As a result, here is a short summary of what we will be mailing out over the next 7-10 days.
Voyager 7:2, X-Files 8:1, Xena 6:2, Andromeda 1:2, Beastmaster 2:2, Freedom 1:1, Level 9 1:1.
We will also be mailing the remainder of last week’s tapes – Buffy 5:2, Angel 2:2.
A Word on Non-Genre Series
Whenever we agree to tape and send out episodes of any non-genre series, we always try to make it clear that these shows are not our main focus. We have had several e-mails in the last week demanding to know such things as “Where are my ER episodes?” or “When will I get the first tape of Friends?”
Please understand that tapes of Non-Genre series will always have to take a back seat when we are busy with major nodes of SF and genre shows. For example, this week we are producing tapes from 5 major nodes and 4 minor ones all within a week.
Remember that we do these additional shows on a grace and favor basis, and if it becomes a bind, we will stop doing them.
A little patience will eventually pay off, especially as we are now approaching a long period of reruns, during which time we will be able to catch up on everything.
TV News:
Fontana Preps Fantasy Series
Television producer Tom Fontana (Homicide: Life on the Street) will develop a new fantasy drama for Fox Broadcasting Co. through Artists Television Group, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Sources told the trade paper that Fontana is close to a deal for a reality-bending show described as being in the spirit of Lost Horizon and Fantasy Island.
Three people, each with a big secret, are transported to a strange environment and forced to figure out a new set of rules for survival. Fontana will write the pilot script.
Fontana was attached as an executive producer on the Fox SF pilot Killer App last year, but the network set out to find a new project for him when Killer App wasn't picked up, Variety reported.
Editor’s Note: This sounds very familiar. I remember reading a book back in the 60s that had the same basic premise, but for the life of me I can’t remember the title. I think it was by Richard Matheson but I could be wrong. If anyone has any ideas, I would be grateful for a pointer in the right direction.
The Tick Follows in Footsteps of Lone Gunmen and Night Visions
Production of the live-action version of The Tick, a midseason replacement series for Fox, has begun. "We've shot the first two and are editing them," producer Flody Suarez told journalists. The first season will consist of a pilot and eight episodes.
Patrick Warburton stars as the titular hero, David Burke plays Arthur, and Nestor Carbonell and Liz Vassey also appear. The show is based on Ben Edlund's satiric comic book and animated television series, about a bumbling arachnid superhero and his pals. Edlund acts as a writer and producer on the show. "Ben is writing all the scripts with Larry Charles of Seinfeld," Suarez said. Galaxy Quest director Dean Parisot will direct an episode.
The official Tick website is now up and running although there is not yet much to see. Have a look at:
http://www.ticktv.com/
Both Night Visions and The Lone Gunmen are already filming and are expecting to premiere during February sweeps if they are ready, or in March at the latest.
More 'Night Visions' Info
Dan Angel, one of the producers of the upcoming Fox horror anthology series Night Visions, told Cinescape Magazine that the show has another big guest star lined up: classic character actor Jack Palance (Shane, City Slickers). Angel says that Palance will shoot an episode of the series in the next few weeks. Though he stayed tight-lipped about plot details, Angel did reveal that Palance will play "an old farmer who is not loved by the community." Entitled "Bitter Harvest," the half-hour segment was written by Julie Siege.
"It's a great character for him," Angel elaborated. "He's very enthusiastic about the role. It's just a treat to have an Academy Award-winning actor of his caliber on the show."
Other Night Visions guest stars include Aidan Quinn, Bill Pullman and Michael Rapaport. Though the premiere date for the mid-season replacement hasn't been announced by Fox, Angel said he expects to hear from the network in the near future.
'Eraser' TV Show
ABC and Warner Bros. Television have teamed up to develop a TV project based on Arnold Schwarzenegger's action film Eraser. According to Variety, Arnold and Anne Kopelson are executive producing the pilot project, which will tell the story of a federal marshal who works for the Witness Protection Program. His job involves getting witnesses out of sight and into their new cover lives. The trade reports that whether or not the series goes ahead will depend on who can be cast in the various roles.
'Voyager' Finale?
Kate Mulgrew and executive producer Ken Biller are talking, again, about the impending finale of Star Trek: Voyager.
While talking to Fandom journalist Anna L. Kaplan, Mulgrew revealed that she still has no idea how the series will end. Regarding the numerous rumors, she says, "I've heard what you've heard. 'Somebody is going to die.' 'Somebody is going to sacrifice themself.' 'The Captain is going to face a huge dilemma.' I've heard any number of things. 'We are going to get home, and then things are going to ensue.' I really don't know. You know what I have come to learn in all the interviews I've done in the last seven years? No journalist believes me when I say that. It's like whistling in the dark. I have no idea what they are going to do."
She adds, "I think journalists think I have a power that I do not have. I think they think that this is a far more collaborative effort than in fact it is. The writers write the story, and I shoot it. That's the way it goes…the studio gets involved; the producers get involved; the company gets involved. Then we are told to do what we've been hired to do, which is to interpret it. I am very happy to do that. I won't be told until the bitter end. I just won't be. They literally do not share this with us. I think they themselves at this point do not know."
Mulgrew continues, touching on the various rumored scenarios, saying, "Do we get the ship home safely? Does that open up endless opportunities for other poignant stories? Does somebody sacrifice himself or herself? I really don't know. There is always the outside chance that we may shoot it two or three ways. The studio is very involved in this, and if they are not in full concert with the producers, we may have to shoot it a couple of ways, which I always think is fun, anyway. I have done it with other shows, and really done it in wildly opposite directions, which forces you to look at it quite sternly from the creative point of view. It's very wrong for an actor to get their heart set, I think, on any particular story ending, because they will inevitably, invariably be disappointed. I think it is the actor's job to fully commit to whatever that ending is in its final written form."
Without saying anything solid, Biller weighs in with his take, saying, "How do we not disappoint the audience? How do we let the audience feel like the characters they have followed all these years have succeeded? And yet, how to we still manage to surprise them, so that what they see is not predictable and exactly what they expect?"
McNeill: 'Trek' Series 5
Robert Duncan McNeill wants to clear the air regarding his potential participation in the upcoming fifth Star Trek TV series. While talking to the Brit Star Trek Monthly magazine, McNeill wanted to dispel some recent rumors about the series, saying, "Someone mentioned to me that I'm listed on the Internet as directing the new [Star Trek] series. I don't know who gives that information. I'm happy to hear someone thinks I'm going to be a staff director on the next series, but there's nothing official that way.
"Sure, I'll direct some! The Internet is wonderful that way - it's all rumors and speculation. I certainly have talked to people here at the studio about directing on the next series, but first they have to get the series green light and in the works. Until they really got the series more firmly on track, I don't think they will be lining up any directors."
Regarding what the next series will be about, the actor-director says, "I think that there are a few different scenarios [for the fifth Star Trek series], but it looks like it'll start filming within a year of the time we wrap. They may take a little time off so they're not overlapping things as they have in the past; they've found that to be kind of difficult. So they'd like to complete everything through the post-production and finish all the episodes, then get to work on the next series. I think that's the plan at this point."
Movie News:
Johnston To Be Wonder Woman?
It has be4en suggested that Kristen Johnston--Sally on NBC's SF sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun--is set to play the title role in producer Joel Silver's upcoming Wonder Woman movie. If true, the 6-foot-tall Johnston would beat out several other prominent women rumored to be in line for the role, including actresses Sandra Bullock and Catherine Zeta Jones and pop star Mariah Carey.
Johnston's best-known feature role was Wilma in The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas. She also played Ivana Humpalot in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.
Wonder Woman is the feature-film version of the DC Comics series of the same name, which was also turned into a 1970s television series starring Lynda Carter.
Blade 2 To Shoot In Prague
Blade 2 will begin pre-production in Prague after Thanksgiving and start filming in the Czech capital at the end of February, Variety reported. The production will shoot at Milk & Honey's Prague Studios.
Blade 2, which has also been called Blade: Bloodhunt, is the sequel to the 1998 Wesley Snipes vehicle Blade, based on the Marvel Comics series Blade the Vampire Hunter. Snipes and Blade co-star Kris Kristofferson return; Guillermo del Toro will direct.
Spiner Reluctant To Play Data
Brent Spiner, who is in talks to reprise the role of Lt. Cmdr. Data in the upcoming 10th Star Trek film, told the Indianapolis Star newspaper that he'd be reluctant to put on the yellow makeup for another weekly series. "Play Data again? I doubt it," he said. "I've done countless hours already. Besides, I'm too old. Enough is enough."
Even so, Paramount has gotten Spiner, 51, to consider playing the role in one more movie. "I haven't signed anything, but we've been in serious talks," Spiner told the Star. "It's not a matter of 'if,' but 'when.'"
'Who' Movie Rumors
The long talked about Doctor Who movie project that can never seem to actually get up and rolling is the subject of still more rumors.
According to the London Sunday Times, The BBC is currently planning to do a series of Doctor Who films.
Once again, it's being rumored that the BBC plans on creating the film in the U.K. rather than let Hollywood have at it. Word has it that there are plans afoot to build a £250M studio complex that would allow the Who projects to be filmed domestically.
Regarding what we can expect to see happen, the Times reports: "The Daleks will lead the assault on the international box office as the BBC devises a movie version of Doctor Who, the science-fiction series first screened in 1963 in black and white. Sequels are already being prepared."
As always, when it comes to Who movie news, you might want to take this latest word with a big grain of salt.
An Unbreakable Trilogy Coming?
Bruce Willis, star of M. Night Shyamalan's new supernatural movie Unbreakable, told a Yahoo! chat that the director always envisioned the film as the first of three movies. "Unbreakable is the first part of a trilogy of films," Willis told fans. "I can't tell you about the others, ... but we're supposed to do two more. You'll understand how it lends itself to a continuing story."
In Unbreakable, Willis plays a stadium security guard who miraculously survives a calamitous train wreck. Willis co-stars with Samuel L. Jackson and reteams with Shyamalan, his director in The Sixth Sense. Unbreakable opened Nov. 22.
Willis was enthusiastic about Shyamalan's technique. "Night set out to do something amazing, and achieved it," Willis said. "There are always one or two shots that are done in one take, either hand-held or what have you ... very complicated and complex. And so there's generally only one or two of them in films. There are over 30 scenes in this movie that are done in one take. It's astounding."
Odds and Ends: Short items not worthy of an article in their own right.
· A rumor is going around that Universal Studios has given the green light to a feature-film version of the Marvel Comics series The Incredible Hulk. The film is slated for production before impending writers' and actors' strikes next spring, with an eye to a summer 2002 release. Michael France, Michael Tolkin and X-Men writer David Hayter have worked on the script.
· More than 250 fans of the defunct series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine have signed an online petition seeking a DS9 feature film. "With the ending of the original series and The Next Generation film series, it seems only logical that Deep Space Nine--left rich in unfinished storylines and possibilities--should be the next film frontier for the Star Trek franchise," the petition reads.
· Dougray Scott, who played the villain in Mission: Impossible 2, told British journalists that he declined to take over the role of James Bond from Pierce Brosnan, according to the SFX Network Web site. Scott admitted he felt he couldn't live up to fellow Scot Sean Connery.
· Paramount Domestic Television has sold the cable television rights to its three 1980s and '90s Star Trek series to TNN: The National Network, which is owned by Paramount's parent company, Viacom, TNN announced. The deal includes the reruns of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager, as well as five Star Trek feature films starring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.
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:
If You Are Reading This – We’re Back
If you haven’t had anything from us for a few days, you are probably unaware that we suffered a serious hardware crash over the Thanksgiving Weekend. For some reason, about half our hard disc just disappeared off the face of the Earth. This included our Tape Division Address Books, so we have been slowly piecing them together again, hence the deafening silence until now.
The ironic thing is that after the last two problems we had, we took extra precautions, but not only did they not protect us, we have absolutely no idea what happened. The previous two problems were easy to identify. One was a virus; the other was the lightning strike in late 98. Let’s face it, when your computer does a fair imitation of "Voyager to the Bottom of the Sea", spraying sparks everywhere and leaping across the room, to end up with the processor in the fireplace and the hard drive in the sink, it’s not difficult to come to the conclusion that it is broken.
This time however, we are baffled. What is even more unfortunate is that the software we needed to recover from our backups was on the segment of disc that is now inaccessible, so we are doing it by hand from our hard copies.
Please bear with us during this slow-down. Shipment of tapes will not be affected by this problem, only communication by e-mail. The main software has been restored, so our taping schedules, database and contact details are unaffected.
There are some items however, that we will not be able to recover. At the time of the crash, we had about 100 e-mails in our inbox, and about another 100 in various pending files, awaiting our response. These are gone, and we need your help to put things back the way they should be.
The majority of these e-mails are simply routine acknowledgments, so they are low priority, but if you sent us any e-mail message that contained any important information between Wednesday 22nd and Sunday 26th November, please send it again. We know that there were several follow-up e-mails from Bidpay payments, containing lists of episodes, and also a couple with details of Western Union payments.
If you have already responded to our first warning message, thank you and there is no need to do so again.
Finally, if anyone has received our introductory messages during the last couple of weeks, we would be most grateful if you could let us have copies, as we are currently unable to access them, and it would save us having to reproduce them from scratch.
Repeated Newsletter Items
Please forgive us if we repeat ourselves. I do not have previous newsletters to refer to until the system is fully restored, nor can I access our archives. As a result, this week’s items will be drawn straight from outside sources and I may end up including items we had a couple of weeks ago.
Scully Cut Short by Election News
Last Night’s X-Files episodes "Roadrunner" was interrupted by the news that Florida had finally certified the results of the Presidential Election. Only a couple of minutes are missing, but we will be sending the episode out as it is rather than wait for a rerun or get everything out of step. For the purists, the full episode will be available once we have it from reruns later in the season.
Other shows affected this week were Futurama (pre-empted), The Simpsons (cut short by 8 minutes), Boston Public, (cut short by about 30 seconds) and Ally McBeal (opening sequence missing). If he achieves nothing else during his term, whoever finally becomes President will go down as the most TV-disruptive in history.
No Part B
For obvious reasons, we will be far too busy putting everything back to normal and typing in 800 e-mail addresses to do part B this week. As a result, here is a short summary of what we will be mailing out over the next 7-10 days.
Voyager 7:2, X-Files 8:1, Xena 6:2, Andromeda 1:2, Beastmaster 2:2, Freedom 1:1, Level 9 1:1.
We will also be mailing the remainder of last week’s tapes – Buffy 5:2, Angel 2:2.
A Word on Non-Genre Series
Whenever we agree to tape and send out episodes of any non-genre series, we always try to make it clear that these shows are not our main focus. We have had several e-mails in the last week demanding to know such things as “Where are my ER episodes?” or “When will I get the first tape of Friends?”
Please understand that tapes of Non-Genre series will always have to take a back seat when we are busy with major nodes of SF and genre shows. For example, this week we are producing tapes from 5 major nodes and 4 minor ones all within a week.
Remember that we do these additional shows on a grace and favor basis, and if it becomes a bind, we will stop doing them.
A little patience will eventually pay off, especially as we are now approaching a long period of reruns, during which time we will be able to catch up on everything.
TV News:
Fontana Preps Fantasy Series
Television producer Tom Fontana (Homicide: Life on the Street) will develop a new fantasy drama for Fox Broadcasting Co. through Artists Television Group, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Sources told the trade paper that Fontana is close to a deal for a reality-bending show described as being in the spirit of Lost Horizon and Fantasy Island.
Three people, each with a big secret, are transported to a strange environment and forced to figure out a new set of rules for survival. Fontana will write the pilot script.
Fontana was attached as an executive producer on the Fox SF pilot Killer App last year, but the network set out to find a new project for him when Killer App wasn't picked up, Variety reported.
Editor’s Note: This sounds very familiar. I remember reading a book back in the 60s that had the same basic premise, but for the life of me I can’t remember the title. I think it was by Richard Matheson but I could be wrong. If anyone has any ideas, I would be grateful for a pointer in the right direction.
The Tick Follows in Footsteps of Lone Gunmen and Night Visions
Production of the live-action version of The Tick, a midseason replacement series for Fox, has begun. "We've shot the first two and are editing them," producer Flody Suarez told journalists. The first season will consist of a pilot and eight episodes.
Patrick Warburton stars as the titular hero, David Burke plays Arthur, and Nestor Carbonell and Liz Vassey also appear. The show is based on Ben Edlund's satiric comic book and animated television series, about a bumbling arachnid superhero and his pals. Edlund acts as a writer and producer on the show. "Ben is writing all the scripts with Larry Charles of Seinfeld," Suarez said. Galaxy Quest director Dean Parisot will direct an episode.
The official Tick website is now up and running although there is not yet much to see. Have a look at:
http://www.ticktv.com/
Both Night Visions and The Lone Gunmen are already filming and are expecting to premiere during February sweeps if they are ready, or in March at the latest.
More 'Night Visions' Info
Dan Angel, one of the producers of the upcoming Fox horror anthology series Night Visions, told Cinescape Magazine that the show has another big guest star lined up: classic character actor Jack Palance (Shane, City Slickers). Angel says that Palance will shoot an episode of the series in the next few weeks. Though he stayed tight-lipped about plot details, Angel did reveal that Palance will play "an old farmer who is not loved by the community." Entitled "Bitter Harvest," the half-hour segment was written by Julie Siege.
"It's a great character for him," Angel elaborated. "He's very enthusiastic about the role. It's just a treat to have an Academy Award-winning actor of his caliber on the show."
Other Night Visions guest stars include Aidan Quinn, Bill Pullman and Michael Rapaport. Though the premiere date for the mid-season replacement hasn't been announced by Fox, Angel said he expects to hear from the network in the near future.
'Eraser' TV Show
ABC and Warner Bros. Television have teamed up to develop a TV project based on Arnold Schwarzenegger's action film Eraser. According to Variety, Arnold and Anne Kopelson are executive producing the pilot project, which will tell the story of a federal marshal who works for the Witness Protection Program. His job involves getting witnesses out of sight and into their new cover lives. The trade reports that whether or not the series goes ahead will depend on who can be cast in the various roles.
'Voyager' Finale?
Kate Mulgrew and executive producer Ken Biller are talking, again, about the impending finale of Star Trek: Voyager.
While talking to Fandom journalist Anna L. Kaplan, Mulgrew revealed that she still has no idea how the series will end. Regarding the numerous rumors, she says, "I've heard what you've heard. 'Somebody is going to die.' 'Somebody is going to sacrifice themself.' 'The Captain is going to face a huge dilemma.' I've heard any number of things. 'We are going to get home, and then things are going to ensue.' I really don't know. You know what I have come to learn in all the interviews I've done in the last seven years? No journalist believes me when I say that. It's like whistling in the dark. I have no idea what they are going to do."
She adds, "I think journalists think I have a power that I do not have. I think they think that this is a far more collaborative effort than in fact it is. The writers write the story, and I shoot it. That's the way it goes…the studio gets involved; the producers get involved; the company gets involved. Then we are told to do what we've been hired to do, which is to interpret it. I am very happy to do that. I won't be told until the bitter end. I just won't be. They literally do not share this with us. I think they themselves at this point do not know."
Mulgrew continues, touching on the various rumored scenarios, saying, "Do we get the ship home safely? Does that open up endless opportunities for other poignant stories? Does somebody sacrifice himself or herself? I really don't know. There is always the outside chance that we may shoot it two or three ways. The studio is very involved in this, and if they are not in full concert with the producers, we may have to shoot it a couple of ways, which I always think is fun, anyway. I have done it with other shows, and really done it in wildly opposite directions, which forces you to look at it quite sternly from the creative point of view. It's very wrong for an actor to get their heart set, I think, on any particular story ending, because they will inevitably, invariably be disappointed. I think it is the actor's job to fully commit to whatever that ending is in its final written form."
Without saying anything solid, Biller weighs in with his take, saying, "How do we not disappoint the audience? How do we let the audience feel like the characters they have followed all these years have succeeded? And yet, how to we still manage to surprise them, so that what they see is not predictable and exactly what they expect?"
McNeill: 'Trek' Series 5
Robert Duncan McNeill wants to clear the air regarding his potential participation in the upcoming fifth Star Trek TV series. While talking to the Brit Star Trek Monthly magazine, McNeill wanted to dispel some recent rumors about the series, saying, "Someone mentioned to me that I'm listed on the Internet as directing the new [Star Trek] series. I don't know who gives that information. I'm happy to hear someone thinks I'm going to be a staff director on the next series, but there's nothing official that way.
"Sure, I'll direct some! The Internet is wonderful that way - it's all rumors and speculation. I certainly have talked to people here at the studio about directing on the next series, but first they have to get the series green light and in the works. Until they really got the series more firmly on track, I don't think they will be lining up any directors."
Regarding what the next series will be about, the actor-director says, "I think that there are a few different scenarios [for the fifth Star Trek series], but it looks like it'll start filming within a year of the time we wrap. They may take a little time off so they're not overlapping things as they have in the past; they've found that to be kind of difficult. So they'd like to complete everything through the post-production and finish all the episodes, then get to work on the next series. I think that's the plan at this point."
Movie News:
Johnston To Be Wonder Woman?
It has be4en suggested that Kristen Johnston--Sally on NBC's SF sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun--is set to play the title role in producer Joel Silver's upcoming Wonder Woman movie. If true, the 6-foot-tall Johnston would beat out several other prominent women rumored to be in line for the role, including actresses Sandra Bullock and Catherine Zeta Jones and pop star Mariah Carey.
Johnston's best-known feature role was Wilma in The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas. She also played Ivana Humpalot in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.
Wonder Woman is the feature-film version of the DC Comics series of the same name, which was also turned into a 1970s television series starring Lynda Carter.
Blade 2 To Shoot In Prague
Blade 2 will begin pre-production in Prague after Thanksgiving and start filming in the Czech capital at the end of February, Variety reported. The production will shoot at Milk & Honey's Prague Studios.
Blade 2, which has also been called Blade: Bloodhunt, is the sequel to the 1998 Wesley Snipes vehicle Blade, based on the Marvel Comics series Blade the Vampire Hunter. Snipes and Blade co-star Kris Kristofferson return; Guillermo del Toro will direct.
Spiner Reluctant To Play Data
Brent Spiner, who is in talks to reprise the role of Lt. Cmdr. Data in the upcoming 10th Star Trek film, told the Indianapolis Star newspaper that he'd be reluctant to put on the yellow makeup for another weekly series. "Play Data again? I doubt it," he said. "I've done countless hours already. Besides, I'm too old. Enough is enough."
Even so, Paramount has gotten Spiner, 51, to consider playing the role in one more movie. "I haven't signed anything, but we've been in serious talks," Spiner told the Star. "It's not a matter of 'if,' but 'when.'"
'Who' Movie Rumors
The long talked about Doctor Who movie project that can never seem to actually get up and rolling is the subject of still more rumors.
According to the London Sunday Times, The BBC is currently planning to do a series of Doctor Who films.
Once again, it's being rumored that the BBC plans on creating the film in the U.K. rather than let Hollywood have at it. Word has it that there are plans afoot to build a £250M studio complex that would allow the Who projects to be filmed domestically.
Regarding what we can expect to see happen, the Times reports: "The Daleks will lead the assault on the international box office as the BBC devises a movie version of Doctor Who, the science-fiction series first screened in 1963 in black and white. Sequels are already being prepared."
As always, when it comes to Who movie news, you might want to take this latest word with a big grain of salt.
An Unbreakable Trilogy Coming?
Bruce Willis, star of M. Night Shyamalan's new supernatural movie Unbreakable, told a Yahoo! chat that the director always envisioned the film as the first of three movies. "Unbreakable is the first part of a trilogy of films," Willis told fans. "I can't tell you about the others, ... but we're supposed to do two more. You'll understand how it lends itself to a continuing story."
In Unbreakable, Willis plays a stadium security guard who miraculously survives a calamitous train wreck. Willis co-stars with Samuel L. Jackson and reteams with Shyamalan, his director in The Sixth Sense. Unbreakable opened Nov. 22.
Willis was enthusiastic about Shyamalan's technique. "Night set out to do something amazing, and achieved it," Willis said. "There are always one or two shots that are done in one take, either hand-held or what have you ... very complicated and complex. And so there's generally only one or two of them in films. There are over 30 scenes in this movie that are done in one take. It's astounding."
Odds and Ends: Short items not worthy of an article in their own right.
· A rumor is going around that Universal Studios has given the green light to a feature-film version of the Marvel Comics series The Incredible Hulk. The film is slated for production before impending writers' and actors' strikes next spring, with an eye to a summer 2002 release. Michael France, Michael Tolkin and X-Men writer David Hayter have worked on the script.
· More than 250 fans of the defunct series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine have signed an online petition seeking a DS9 feature film. "With the ending of the original series and The Next Generation film series, it seems only logical that Deep Space Nine--left rich in unfinished storylines and possibilities--should be the next film frontier for the Star Trek franchise," the petition reads.
· Dougray Scott, who played the villain in Mission: Impossible 2, told British journalists that he declined to take over the role of James Bond from Pierce Brosnan, according to the SFX Network Web site. Scott admitted he felt he couldn't live up to fellow Scot Sean Connery.
· Paramount Domestic Television has sold the cable television rights to its three 1980s and '90s Star Trek series to TNN: The National Network, which is owned by Paramount's parent company, Viacom, TNN announced. The deal includes the reruns of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager, as well as five Star Trek feature films starring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.
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 2:44 AM
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