Report 29A.

This is a digest of recent Sci-Fi- and genre-related news as of 20 March 2001.

News & Notes

Group News:

System Changes

After the publication of this week’s Part A, we will be installing some new hardware and software into the system, and there may be a period of silence for a day or so while we recover from the customary Microsoft Curse.  If we suffer the usual problems when updating Microsoft software, we will no doubt find that everything has moved and our address books are now en route to Afghanistan, so it will probably be a day or so before we can find everything again.

The Bill Gates Glee Club keep telling us that software updates should always retain the original setup, but we all know that this is as much a myth as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and that thieving bitch who only gives you a 25 cent rebate on a tooth that cost over a hundred bucks to extract.

Crusade Episode Order

Any US fans who intend to watch Crusade when it is aired on the Sci-Fi Channel in April should be aware of the odd order in which the series is to be aired.  It may be the case that this airing order is by Straczynski's request.  If you haven’t seen the series before, the first 3 episodes to be aired are those made before TNT stuck their 2 cents worth in and made JMS change the uniforms and several other aspects of the show, so don’t be surprised when the cast suddenly change uniforms, and then later go through a debate about changing back to the old uniforms.

The series is to be aired in the following order (using the original TNT airing as episode numbers, not production order): 9,11,10,2,12,3,13,5,4,6,7,1,8.   How they are going to explain the Captain being invited to take command of the Excalibur in the 12 episode aired, I don’t know, but maybe they intend to re-edit the shows in an attempt to make some sense out of it.

For those of you who haven’t seen Crusade, the one to watch for is episode 12 “Visitors From Down the Street”.  This is one of the best pieces of homage to a rival series I have ever seen.

TV News:

The Trek Rumor Mill Heats Up

The latest rumors from trektoday.com have indicated that Scott Bakula (Quantum Leap) was up for the Captain role on the new Trek series.  They also reported that several web domains have been registered in the last year by Paramount with the name Enterprise in them, giving credence to the supposed title of the series "Enterprise".  Also, TV Guide reported on the recent Trek V casting call sheet as something they had gotten their hands on, not referencing any online sources.

On a slightly more reliable basis, the Official Trek website reported the following:

“The upcoming fifth Star Trek series and the 10th Star Trek movie are both in preproduction, but could be shut down by impending writers' and actors' union strikes this spring and summer.  The writers' contract expires May 2; the actors' pact expires June 30.

Should the strikes be averted, the next Star Trek series could premiere as early as this fall. It's unclear how the strikes would affect the timing of the series. The site did not discuss the timing of the upcoming 10th feature film, for which Gladiator writer John Logan has drafted a script.

Armin Shimerman (Quark on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) co-chairs the Screen Actors Guild's wages and working conditions committee.”

Berman Confirms Trek V Bits

Rick Berman--who is creating the fifth Star Trek television show with partner Brannon Braga--told free-lance SF columnist Ian Spelling that the show will differ from more recent Trek series. "It's closer in tone to [The Next Generation] or the original series than either [Deep Space Nine] or Voyager," Berman told Spelling. "It takes place in a different time than any other Star Trek series to date. We'll have seven regular characters, five of them human, two of them not. We'll also have a kick-ass spaceship. I wish I could tell you more, but I can't."

Spelling reported that sets for the top-secret show have been built and that it's already well into preproduction. The plan is to shoot a two-hour premiere and perhaps one other episode before impending writers' and actors' strikes this spring, with an eye to a fall debut on UPN.

"What Brannon and I will be doing on Series V is trying to bring in as many new voices as we can, in terms of directors, new writers and new elements of design, whether it's costumes or makeup or sets or music," Berman said. "We are trying to put together a younger, less-experienced-in-Star-Trek team of people, to give this show a completely new feel and look. We want this to be not your father's Star Trek, so to speak."

Time Enough To Wrap Voyager

In the same interview, Rick Berman said that May 23's two-hour Voyager finale will be enough time to wrap up the seven-year history of Voyager. "On [Deep Space Nine], we had so many strings to tie up, because we had so many secondary characters and a war to resolve, we needed a number of serialized episodes leading up to the finale in order to address everything," Berman told Spelling. "That's not quite the case with Voyager."

Berman added, "There will be some surprises as we head up to the end, in the last couple of hours before the two-hour final show. But those last two hours are where most of the excitement and resolution is going to occur. It's going to be terrific."

As for the upcoming 10th Trek movie, Berman told the columnist that screenwriter John Logan (The Time Machine) has submitted a second draft, based on a story by Logan, Berman and actor Brent Spiner (Data). Production will begin several months after the resolution of the expected actors' and writers' strikes this year.

"All I can tell you now about the plot is that it will deal with a supreme and, hopefully, memorable villain," Berman said. "There's some cloning involved, and there are also a lot of Romulans involved. But I will say no more."

Gunmen Will Cross Over

The Lone Gunmen executive producers Frank Spotnitz and Vince Gilligan told an official Fox Web site chat that the new series will indeed feature some crossovers with its predecessor, The X-Files. "There will be crossovers in terms of characters and some storylines that involved the Lone Gunmen when they were on The X-Files," Spotnitz said. "So you'll see some comic characters from The X-Files crossing over, as well as some serious ones getting a chance to show how funny they can be."

Gilligan added, "Case in point. Mitch Pileggi, our own favorite assistant director of the FBI, Walter Skinner. He'll be joining The Lone Gunmen in an upcoming case."

"It's top secret," Spotnitz said. "But you get to see Skinner like you've never seen him before."

In addition, X-Files creator Chris Carter will write an episode, Spotnitz said. "Chris Carter loves the show and has been as involved as he can be while doing two TV series at once. He wrote the fourth episode, 'Three Men and a Smoking Diaper,' which should go a long way toward destroying his reputation for quality television," Spotnitz joked.

Weaveworld Near Production

Horrormeister Clive Barker told Sci-Fi journalists that production should begin soon on his upcoming six-hour Showtime miniseries Weaveworld, under the direction of Russell Mulcahy (Queer as Folk). "It's looking extremely good, finally," Barker said in an interview. "We're looking at probably shooting it in Australia. Russell Mulcahy will shoot the first two hours and, I hope, the entire thing. I've known him since his Highlander days. He's just a great guy."

Barker added that the series hasn't been cast yet, and that he foresees a two-year production period to incorporate the story's elaborate special effects. "Because it's a big book, preproduction will be enormous," Barker said. "There are special effects up the gazoo--physical effects, [computer-animated] effects, a whole world to create. I think it will be a marvelous project, and I'm very pleased Russell's going to do it."

Weaveworld is based on Barker's novel of the same name, about a mysterious world woven into a magical rug; Peter M. Lenkov (the La Femme Nikita TV series) adapted the book for the screen. The world is populated by the Seerkind, a people who possess raptures, the power to make magic, and who have woven themselves into the world to protect themselves from an unspeakable horror known as the Scourge.

The WB Conjures Plum

British television personality Kelly Brook will star in The WB supernatural comedy pilot The (Mis)adventures of Fiona Plum from Studios USA, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Brook will play Plum, a spoiled British witch banished to Seattle to work as a nanny for an American family.

Plum is one of two similarly themed pilots The WB has ordered as potential companions for its Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. The other is Sabrina spin-off Witchright Hall, the trade paper reported.

Brook is known in the United Kingdom as a host of the popular morning program The Big Breakfast.

B5 TV Movie?

Rumors from the Starfury 2001 Convention happening in the UK this weekend.

B5 TV Movie for the Sci-Fi Channel

Working Title: Rangers

Budget around $3.8

Filming starts in about 6-8 weeks in Vancouver

None of the original cast signed for it (at this time).

More when we know it.

Smallville Details

According to Fandom's Superman site the casting for the Smallville series has been completed.

The cast will be:

Clark Kent - Tom Welling

Lana Lang - Kristin Kreuk

Lex Luthor - Michael Rosenbaum

Jonathan Kent - John Schneider

Martha Kent - Cynthia Ettinger ("Silence of the Lambs", "Lois & Clark")

Peter Ross - Sam Jones III  ("Zig Zag")

Chloe Sullivan - Allison Mack ("Opposite Sex")

Peter Ross is one of Clark's friends, and comes from the comics. Chloe Sullivan is "a friend of Clark’s and Pete’s. She used to live in Metropolis and dreams of getting out of Smallville to get back to the big city. A nosy little reporter, her father, Gabe, runs LUTHOR CORP's local fertilizer plant that Lionel Luthor (Lex's father) bought from the Ross family when it was a cream corn factory years ago."  The site also reports that the town of Merritt, British Columbia, will be doubling for Smallville, Kansas.

Whedon Pissed at WB

Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon is sounding a bit angry about recent comments made by the WB's Jamie Kellner to Entertainment Weekly regarding the negotiations-tossed show.

While talking to the NY Daily News, Whedon gave his take on the situation, saying, "It makes me angry to see this show belittled. For Jamie Kellner to call it a teen show and dismiss his own product angers me. It doesn't breed love."

And if the show should move to another network, Whedon says, "If we end up somewhere other than on The WB, we'll be the exact same show, and producers at 20th Century Fox have supported us on everything. I think the fans will find it."

Still, Whedon seems to want the show to stay on the WB, as he adds, "I keep thinking it will be best for everyone if the show stays where it is, but ultimately, I don't know if that will happen."

Movie News: 

Dawson Mulls MIB 2

Rosario Dawson is in talks to star in Barry Sonnenfeld's upcoming sequel Men in Black 2, according to The Hollywood Reporter. MIB 2 is slated for a June production start, the trade paper reported.

Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones will reprise their Men in Black roles in the sequel. Barry Fanaro wrote the most recent draft of the screenplay. Dawson would play Rita, love interest to Smith's character.

Dawson will also appear in Eddie Murphy's SF comedy movie Pluto Nash.

Damned Lestat Speaks

Stuart Townsend--who takes on the role of Lestat in the upcoming feature-film version of Anne Rice's novel Queen of the Damned--told the press that he's not worried about comparisons with Tom Cruise, who played the same character in 1994's Interview With a Vampire, according to ShowBiz Ireland. "The only similarity is that both movies are based on Anne Rice books--the look and feel are totally different," Townsend said.

Townsend added, "Playing a vampire is like getting dressed up for a Halloween costume ball--it's a little glam, a little camp and very removed from who I am."

In other news, the movie’s release date been pushed back to 2002. The movie had been scheduled to open in October.

Spidey Makers Hear The Fans

Ian Bryce--producer of Sam Raimi's upcoming Spider-Man movie--said the filmmakers are listening to fans of the Marvel Comics series on which the film is based. "We get a lot of Internet attention, so it's nice to know the fans are out there waiting".

Fans are "vested in some of the creative components in the script," Bryce said. "It makes you pay attention. You can't take shortcuts." He added that fans will be "excited" by the world director Raimi is creating. "I don't think they're going to be disappointed at all. He's creating the right world for Spider-Man."

As for the famous Spidey suit, Bryce said, "it's a body-enhancing costume. [Star Tobey Maguire] worked out for a good deal of months before we did the picture, so he's actually in great shape himself. So the costume does nothing but make it look better.

Alien 5 Rumors Are False

Sigourney Weaver again denied rumors that she's being paid $25 million to appear in a fifth Alien movie. "The amount was thrilling," Weaver told TV Guide. "I'm supporting my husband's [Manhattan] theater, so he was thrilled that he was going to be able to sign up for another five-year lease," she joked.

Weaver added with a laugh, "I would have to kill a few people to get that salary." But she said there are no plans for a fifth Alien movie. "As far as I know, there is no truth to any of it. My agents both called me and said, 'This is in the paper,' and I said, 'You've got to be kidding me!'"

Weaver isn't averse to reprising the role of alien-hunter Ellen Ripley. "I think if we ever did another Alien, I would prefer that it be on a much smaller, sort of character-driven level," she said. "If I were more enterprising and less lazy, maybe I would come up with something that would be good. I don't feel it is quite finished."

She said that a script for a fifth movie does exist. "I have never read it, and I have never asked to read it," she said. "I think [20th Century Fox's] plan is to make it Alien vs. Predator, and I would just as soon not be in that, although I am sure I could whip them both."

Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon, meanwhile, denied a rumor that he had written the fifth script. Whedon, who was credited for the script for Alien Resurrection, told the site, "There is not one shred of truth to it. I have no idea where [the rumor] came from. I'll tell you, there was a time when I would have been interested in that, but I am not interested in making somebody else's franchise anymore. Any movie I make will be created by me."

Witchy Ara/Froom Developing

Michael Ovitz's Artists Production Group and France's Studio Canal will develop Ara/Froom, a supernatural thriller movie based on Herman Raucher's novel Maynard's House, Variety reported. Raucher also wrote the script, about a Vietnam veteran who takes up residence in a house possessed by the spirit of a witch murdered 200 years earlier.

Raucher was nominated for a 1972 Academy Award for his screenplay for The Summer of '42.

Morgan And Wong Draft Visitation

The Final Destination team of James Wong and Glen Morgan told Sci-Fi Weekly that they have turned in their script for After the Visitation, an SF film based on the obscure 1970s Russian novella "Roadside Picnic." The duo--who are also responsible for the TV series Space: Above and Beyond and episodes of The X-Files and Millennium--are awaiting word on whether the movie will go forward, they said in an interview.

"Our story is set in Kansas," Wong said. "The idea is, aliens come for three and a half hours, and they leave. ... There's a 20-mile zone where ... they hover over, [and] inside that area, everything's changed. Everything looks the same, but the physics change, and weird things are there, and there's dangerous things that people don't understand what they are. Twenty years later, ... they've left stuff that people don't know what they do--they don't know it is or how it works--and it's become ... collectible. But the zone itself is off limits to everyone. ... There's these stalkers who go in to get things to collect."

Wong added, "It's a very emotional story about a father and a daughter, and it's really wonderful. It's adventure. It's action. There's a lot of emotion. ... There's special effects." If green-lighted, Visitation will be produced by Morgan, Neal Moritz and Tom Sternberg and directed by Wong.

Wong is currently directing the SF epic movie The One, based on a Morgan and Wong script and starring Jet Li. The movie, currently shooting in the Los Angeles area, tells the story of a sheriff's deputy (Li) who must battle an evil version of himself across multiple dimensions.

Roach Denies Hitchhiker Rumor

Director Jay Roach (the Austin Powers movies) denied recent rumors that he had dropped out of plans to film Douglas Adams' satirical SF novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. IGN FilmForce last week reported a rumor that Roach had left the movie in a dispute over the film's budget.

"It's not true, unless there is an elaborate conspiracy I'm not aware of," Roach said. "I'm currently working with Douglas on new strategies and approaches for how to get the movie made. It's a tricky balance between faithfulness to his original, wonderfully out-there material and the studio's need to justify the budget."

Roach added, "The budget was never set at $120 million, or even estimated at that--closer to $80 million. That kind of false information hurts the movie's chances of getting made. There have been so many hollow rumors about this project, you'd think people would stop believing them and spreading them."

Expect Badder Dinos In JP III

Visual effects maven Stan Winston, who created life-size dinosaurs for the upcoming Jurassic Park III film, told Cinescape that the sequel will feature a more fearsome nemesis. "We've got to out-do the T-rex," Winston told the magazine. "So the spinosaur is bigger and meaner and badder."

The velociraptors will return. In addition, Winston said, "You're going to see pteranodons in this, which are entirely another level of technical difficulty, because we are dealing with a combination of animatronics, men in suits [and] wings that are beyond what we've done in the other movies."

Purdy To Direct Joshua

Jon Purdy will direct the supernatural drama film Joshua for Crusader Entertainment, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film is slated to start shooting May 1.

Joshua--based on the first novel in a series by Joseph F. Girzone and adapted by Brad Mirman--tells the story of a possible second coming of Christ to a small U.S. town, the trade paper reported. There are currently about 10 novels in the series.

Crusader is also developing A Sound of Thunder, to be directed by Renny Harlin and starring Pierce Brosnan in a tale based on Ray Bradbury's time-travel short story of the same name.

'Duke Nukem' Lives

The long in development Duke Nukem: The Movie is alive again with word that Dimension Films has acquired the project with an eye towards releasing the eventual film.

Way back in 1999, the official word on the project was that Threshold Entertainment's Larry Kasanoff (Mortal Kombat) would be producing the film, and such is still the case.

The film, which, as yet, has no director, scribe or stars attached, will have the rough and tumble title character as Earth's best defense against all form of alien threat which involves taking on the dangerous mission of traveling into deep space to intercept an alien ship on a collision course for Earth.

Current plans are to shoot the film in the vein of The Mummy and Men in Black, with an eye towards a PG-13 rating. There's no word on when the project might ramp up production or if Dimension is eyeing a release date for the film.

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

Anthony Michael Hall (Edward Scissorhands) will play psychic Johnny Smith in The Dead Zone, the UPN pilot based on Stephen King's novel of the same name. Christopher Walken played the same role in the 1983 movie version of the book.

Nana Visitor will be a guest star in the last six or so episodes of Dark Angel this season, playing Madame X, Lydecker's boss.  Still no firm news on renewal.

We cannot confirm a rumor that 7 Days has been canceled after this season.  All we know is that with 7 Days being replaced by Special Unit 2 starting April 11th, UPN has scheduled new episodes for at least the next two weeks.  However, it seems unlikely, as this is one of UPN’s highest rated shows.  Of course, if Special Unit 2 was to take off, this could well become the case.  More when we know it.

The NBC Pilot "Spy Girl" has supposedly lined up Jennie Garth to play the lead female spy (sounds like the earlier info on Peta Wilson was bogus).

The CBS Pilot Wolf Lake has cast Lou Diamond Phillips and Mary Elizabeth Winstead for the lead roles.  No word on which, if either, will be a werewolf.

 

 

Part B Follows Shortly.

Best wishes,