Report 15A. This is a digest of recent Sci-Fi- and genre-related news as of 12 December 2000.

News & Notes

Group News:

Loads of Scheduling News

With most series firmly settled into reruns, the various networks have started to publish their future schedules.  There are a few surprises, some new series and a lot of projections for future episodes.  We will take them one category at a time:

Existing Series:

Buffy/Angel – last year, WB injected one additional new episode just before Christmas.  As they had already aired 9 this season, we didn’t expect this to happen, but it is now clear that new eps of both will air December 19th.

The same applies to Roswell and Charmed that week, so those of you who have been waiting for Charmed 3:2 won’t have to wait quite as long as anticipated.

Dark Angel will air new episodes through Christmas, with just one rerun, but we are not yet sure whether this will provide enough episodes to make up tape 1:3.

Futurama continues to get the thin end of the stick.  Yet again, Futurama was pre-empted for sports overruns this weekend.  That makes only 2 eps of the first 5 scheduled have aired.  We have no idea when these missing eps will air, and according to the predicted schedule, the series goes into a set of season 2 reruns on December 17th.  We will watch to see if the missed Season 3 eps are aired instead.

7 Days will air one additional new episode before Christmas, enough to make tape 3:2.

X-Files – Apart from the Christmas and New Year weekends, it looks as if the show will air new episodes right through February sweeps.

Queen of Swords – the first set of reruns includes all the episodes that were screwed up the first time around.  We will be able to put things back in order by the time the show returns with new episodes. The same applies to Sheena.

The Immortal – Thanks to Dave Cross, one of our regular traders, it looks as if we will be able to pick up this series during its first rerun set.  More news once the episodes start to roll in.

Farscape – The Season 2 finale 4-episode set premieres immediately after the New Year.  Episodes 17-19 form another trilogy, entitled “Liars, Guns and Money” followed by a stand-alone season finale.

New Shows:

The following new shows will premiere in 2001:

Black Scorpion – January

Secret Adventure of Jules Verne – January

The Lone Gunmen – March – NB: It looks as if 13 episodes of this series have been ordered, including a reshoot of the pilot. These episodes will air in the X-Files slot instead of X-Files reruns, so there will be new shows for anyone taking both XF and TLG right through the season.

The Tick – March

Night Visions – March

Cancellations:

UPN has officially cancelled Freedom, with the 8th and final episode airing on December 29th. Reports are that the production company will complete the initial batch of 13 episodes so those may still end up airing on UPN to burn them off this summer.  UPN has been quiet about Level 9, though, which wasn't doing any better than Freedom in the ratings. No announcement has been made about what will replace Freedom, although speculation is that it may be two of their midseason half hour shows, the foamation comedy Gary & Mike and the sketch comedy "Off Limits".

We suspect that Level 9 will suffer the same fate, but so far, UPN have said nothing about this series, which is doing no better than Freedom.  We suspect that the main reason for the failure of these two series is the phenomenal success of the CBS Friday combination of The Fugitive and CSI.

According to various reports, but nothing officially announced, it appears that Cleopatra 2525 is pretty much dead, with an unknown number of one hour episodes that will start airing late January, early February.

FOX has yet to say anything about Freakylinks, having other programming scheduled on Fridays through the end of December.  Back when they pulled the show, they said it would be back in December.

With the cancellation of its low-rated lead-in “The Michael Richards Show”, producers of Third Rock from the Sun have been put on notice that if ratings do not improve, this will be the show’s last season.

Old Shows, New Seasons:

Farscape returns with Season 3 premiering in March.

First Wave Season 3 premieres in January, with an entirely new look, a new co-star in the shape (?) of Tracy Lords and an entirely new premise.  Cade Foster has stopped running, and with the help of an army of followers, it is now time to kick some alien butt.

La Femme Nikita (Short) Season 5 – 8 new episodes expected late season – probably April/May – starts filming January.

Stargate SG-1 Season 5 is expected around June.

 

TV News:

Thor News/Mutant X Clears 60% Of TV Market

Marvel executive Rick Ungar told Comics Continuum that Artisan Entertainment may make a decision in the near future on a proposed Thor television series. "Soon," Ungar said. "Something is happening there." The series would be based on the venerable Marvel Comics series of the same name.

Separately, Ungar announced that the upcoming Mutant X television series will not be based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name. Rather, it will have an original storyline, dealing with a secret government project to create new mutants who develop unexpected superpowers, and the efforts of the government to track them down.

"We anticipate getting in front of the cameras in April," Ungar said. "If you've done it really well, you hope to have eight to 10 scripts in your pocket before you go to shooting."

Tribune Entertainment Co. have signed up television stations representing 60 percent of the nation, Variety reported. The stations on board include Tribune Broadcasting's 22 major-market TV stations, the trade paper reported. The series, based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name, is slated to premiere in the fall of 2001.

EFC Renewed For Fifth Year

Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict, the syndicated SF show from the late Star Trek creator, has been given approval for a fifth season. "The fifth season of the show has a firm go," said Leah Krantzler, a spokeswoman for Tribune Entertainment Co., which produces the show in association with Alliance Atlantis.

The fifth season will begin in October 2001, Krantzler said. She had no word on storylines or cast changes for the next season.

In the series' fourth season, which began Oct. 2, Melinda Deines joined the cast as the cyber punk "J" Street, and former regulars Lisa Howard (Lili Marquette) and Richard Chevolleau (Augur) saw their roles reduced. Jayne Heitmeyer joined the cast in season three as Renee Palmer.

The fourth season also marked the year in which the series became the first episodic television production to make use of Sony's high-end 24-frame-per-second digital video camera, the same cameras used by George Lucas to shoot Star Wars: Episode II.

Adam West in 'Scorpion'

In an about face with his own past, Adam West will be appearing on the Sci-Fi channel's upcoming campy superhero TV series, Black Scorpion, in the role of a villain.

While talking to TV Guide, West spoke of his role as the villainous Breathtaker, a mad doctor-type intent on asphyxiating the city, saying, "It was good to play a supervillain for a change instead of a good guy. But it was a challenge for me to play someone that bizarre, with almost Shakespearean dimension."

When asked if the coming Black Scorpion was derivative of his own classic Batman TV series, West says, "Black Scorpion definitely is derivative. They're trying to do a kind of Batman thing with the distaff side."

Movie News: 

No Unbreakable Sequels Planned

Contradicting statements by star Bruce Willis, Unbreakable director M. Night Shyamalan told Empire that he's not interested in making a sequel to the supernatural film. Willis had told a chat on Yahoo! that Shyamalan always conceived of Unbreakable as the first of three movies.

But, Shyamalan told Empire, "I'm definitely not the kind of guy who wants to do sequels or be known for just one type of movie. I want each movie to be very, very original, the most original movie you can think of. It's kind of a conflict for me. If one day down the line I come up with an emotional story to tell that I'm feeling that [Unbreakable characters] David and Elijah could tell, then I'll use them to tell the story. But if I was going to do another movie with these two characters, then it would have to be a whole revisiting of the idea in a different way. But I have no plans for that right now. It's certainly not going to be the next movie."

Shyamalan added that his next movie will be lighter in tone than either Unbreakable or its predecessor, The Sixth Sense. "I just started writing it about a week ago," he said. "I've been traveling, promoting the film and writing in hotel rooms. I'm really enjoying this story."

D&D Sequels Already Planned

Courtney Solomon, producer and director of the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons movie, suggested that  he has worked out the stories for two potential sequels to the movie. "We read a thousand different things for Dungeons & Dragons ... as source material before we ever wrote the script," Solomon said during a press briefing. "When we wrote it out, it was a six-hour movie. ... So we made the first movie end, and we knew where the second and the third movies were going to go in a rough form. And so we have treatments for [parts] two and three."

Solomon added, "In the second one, the characters actually progress to a different level. ... Also ... I can show much more of the world in the second one--because obviously I'll have more money--that the D&D fans want to see. And I can even go harder-edged in the next one. But the first one has got to be an intro to a fantasy world."

The cast of Dungeons & Dragons--which includes Thora Birch, Jeremy Irons, Justin Whalin and Marlon Wayans--has signed on for two more sequels, Solomon said. And if the first film succeeds, Solomon looks forward to filming at least one sequence he cut out of the first movie. "There's a big dungeon sequence we were supposed to have in the movie. They made me cut it on set. That's my biggest disappointment. Because ... being a big D&D fan myself, it was such an elaborate, great sequence. ... So, guess what, if we get to a sequel, you're going to get that sequence, OK?"

Aronofsky To Reinvent Batman

Darren Aronofsky, director of the upcoming fifth Batman movie, told Empire to expect a new approach. "It's going to be very different from anything ... you've seen," Aronofsky said. "Toss out anything you can imagine about Batman. Everything. ... We're starting completely new."

Aronofsky said he and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns author Frank Miller are working on a script. "There's no start date or budget for either yet," Aronofsky said. "We haven't even started writing the screenplay."

Aronofsky added, "Well, I'm going to do a very extensive reading of the literature, but it's going to be very, very different. I liked Tim Burton's thing [1989's Batman]. I think all of the films will stand on their own. All I can say is that I want to do something which totally reinvents the franchise."

Ryan Stretches In Dracula

Jeri Ryan, who plays a comely vampire in Wes Craven's upcoming Dracula 2000, told the University of Nevada's Rebel Yell newspaper that she hopes the role helps distinguish her from Seven of Nine, the character she plays on Star Trek: Voyager. "[I'm] looking for projects that'll break me out of what I've done for the past four years," Ryan told the newspaper, according to her official Web site.

Ryan described Dracula 2000 as a way to "add a very cool, very unique twist to the origins of Dracula." Dracula 2000 opens in theaters on Dec. 22.

Kira thinks DS9 Movie Unlikely

Nana Visitor--Major Kira on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine--told the official Trek Web site that she's not holding her breath for a movie version of the canceled television series. "Do I think they're going to do a DS9 movie?" Visitor asked. "No, I don't think so. Maybe someone's going to dock at Deep Space Nine on their way to some battle or something like that, and I'd be there to hand them a raktajino, but that would be the extent."

But Visitor said it wouldn't be difficult for the cast to come together again, though most have moved on to other projects. "I think that it would make a great movie, because we were like a repertory company," Visitor said. "We were all actors. Almost all of us came from theater, and we could all hit, you know? I think that we could handle a movie very well."

Ellison Writing 'Glass' Film

SF author Harlan Ellison is collaborating with filmmaker David Twohy (Pitch Black) on a feature-film version of "Demon with a Glass Hand," Ellison's classic episode of the original The Outer Limits television show, according to the writer's official Ellison Web site. Dimension Films, a unit of Miramax, is developing the project, the site reported.

Ellison and Twohy are slated to deliver a script by June 1, 2001; Twohy would direct.

"Demon" tells the story of a man who awakes in a room with no memory and a glass hand that speaks to him. The original 1964 “Outer Limits” television script won the Writers' Guild of America Award for outstanding script.

Editor’s Note: I am always happy to hear that moviemakers are turning to classics of Science Fiction. Usually they make dreary little movies scripted by novice writers with no more idea of what Sci-Fi is really about than they have about raising Aardvarks.  However, I cannot help but think that there are some serious obstacles to overcome with this idea.

Anyone who is familiar with the story will recognize many of the basic elements of the first Terminator movie, and I don’t see how this can be done differently enough to that movie without diverting from the story itself, in which case, they may as well just write an original idea.  Mind you, if anyone can pull it off, that would be Harlan Ellison. As always, we shall see.

Proyas to Direct 'Berserkers'

Alex Proyas (The Crow, Dark City), is set to direct a film based on author Fred Saberhagen's science fiction series of Berserkers stories.

According to Variety columnist Michael Fleming, New Line Cinema acquired the rights to the concept as a vehicle for Proyas to direct. Proyas will also produce the film along with his partner Topher Dow. Jesse Alexander is currently at work writing the film's script.

Saberhagen's Berserkers books are generally about a mass of destructive machines created by an alien species that had been in battle with another. Unfortunately, their creations were too effective resulting in the berserkers destroying both sides. In the future, the machines, which can take on any form, have entered our galaxy... and humanity must find a way to destroy or stop that which has been unstoppable.

The Berserkers series ran over 10 books and 20 short stories.

 

Odds and Ends: Short items not worthy of an article in their own right.

X-Men star Famke Janssen looks less likely to play the female cyborg in Terminator 3, as earlier rumored. Janssen has signed to play Michael Douglas' wife in the non-genre film Don't Say a Word, whose production would overlap with that of T3.