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News for: November 5, 2001 - January 15, 2002
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Tapping talks about SG-1 |
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The Master, Tuesday, January 15, 2002 |
Amanda Tapping (Maj. Samantha Carter on Stargate SG-1), told SciFi Wire that she's eager to begin shooting the show's sixth season when production starts up next month. The show will move to the SCI FI Channel, beginning in June, from its current home on Showtime.
"I have no idea what's going to happen in season six," Tapping said in a telephone interview from her home in Vancouver, B.C. "It's always frustrating." One thing is certain: series regular Michael Shanks (Daniel Jackson) will leave the show at the end of season five. "I kind of saw it coming," Tapping said. "But nonetheless, when it happened--when it actually came down to it--it was very sad. ... It's going to be very strange. I mean, the dynamic is so solidly in place, and now it's changing. I know that for Michael and Christopher [Judge (Teal'c)] and me on the last day, we just hung out together all day, and we couldn't stop crying. We could barely get through a scene without bawling our eyes out. I really have no idea what season six is going to be like without him."
As for Shanks' character, Tapping revealed what may become of him. "There is a possibility that he could come and visit every now and again," she said. "He's ascended basically to a higher plane of existence, but I'm sure that that's not aired yet, so I'm not sure if I can actually say that. ... Any scenes where there's crying involved, it was real."
Will Shanks be replaced? "Certainly the door's been open for another character to come in, but I'm not sure whether or not they're going to use this character or not, and I keep trying to find out, and I keep getting 'We don't know yet, we haven't decided yet,'" Tapping said. "So, it's very frustrating going back into season six with no idea who's going to be on SG-1, or whether it's just going to be the three of us and guest stars, or whether we're going to have a permanent member. We have no idea."
For her part, Tapping said she is continually finding new ways to keep her character fresh. "It would be so easy to lapse into autopilot," she said. "I actually issued myself a challenge at the beginning of season five, because I knew the character had developed so much over the four years, and I didn't know what was going to happen to her in season five. And so I sort of issued myself a challenge of finding a new way into the character. Which meant everything from the way she walks to rediscovering her whole physicality to rediscovering her love of certain things and what makes her tick. ... It helped me to reinvent her in my own mind, which made it interesting then to play her."
(Thanks to Dark Knight for the tip!)
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source: Scifi.com |
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More Andorians on Enterprise |
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The Master, Tuesday, January 15, 2002 |
Jolene Blalock (T'Pol), told SciFi Wire that the Andorians will return later this season--and she couldn't be happier about it. "My favorite aliens are Andorians," Blalock said during UPN's press tour in Pasadena, Calif. "Those little antennas!"
Blalock also said she's thrilled she'll be working again with guest star and Star Trek veteran Jeffrey Combs, who played Shran in the previous "Andorian Incident" episode. "Jeffrey Combs. I love him!" Blalock said. "He's walking around in that little thong with his little antennas, and he's loving it! And he's all blue. [laughs] ... We loved him. I saw his number up on the makeup trailer, so I'm sure he'll be coming back."
Blalock said the show is currently shooting its 19th episode of the season. "I remember [co-star] Scott [Bakula] and I were filming a scene in one of the new episodes that are going to be airing," she said. "And we call it the Love Shack scene, because we're tied up back-to-back. We've got to work our way stomach-to-stomach. And the gag is, we fall down. And obviously we can't move. The entire crew, once we fell down during rehearsal, put on 'Love Shack' from B-52s. And everybody's gathering around, going, 'Love Shack!' [claps hands] And we can't move, because we're tied together. We're going, 'That's really nice, you know?'" Enterprise airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. |
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source: Scifi.com |
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UPN orders more Roswell |
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The Master, Tuesday, January 15, 2002 |
UPN has picked up seven more episodes of the current season, making a full year 20 episode run for the show. The season finale will count as two episodes and will be aired in a two-hour block, not as a cliffhanger.
The show, which has faced stiff competition from The WB's Smallville this year, has been in danger of disappearing altogether, as it has for most of its life. As for whether UPN will pick up the series for a fourth season, Katims said, "For next year, we're essentially where we always are around this time of year, which is we don't know. This is where we were the first season and the second season, which is we're kind of at this point not sure about whether the show is going to come back."
Katims also offered spoilers for upcoming episodes in the rest of season three. "[Episodes] 13 and 14 are also a two-part episode," he said. "I think the first half of the season has been sort of dedicated to reestablishing the character stories of the show, ... headlined by Isabel's marriage. ... And then what we're doing starting in February is ... Liz starts to believe that there's some residual effects that have come about after Max has healed her. And she doesn't know what's happening to her, and at some point she thinks she may be dying. ... [She has] certain almost hallucinatory experiences and finally realizes that she needs to get away, and that's really for her own well-being. And she leaves, and she goes to Vermont. Through February, we're ... doing episodes that are ... raising the story stakes, playing around with both that premise with Liz and some other sci-fi premises, to bring us [to] ... a few episodes that remind me of the last few episodes of the first season, where there was definitely a lot of strong human emotion that came out of it, but there were very high stakes, kind of wild episodes. ... Big things happen. Jesse winds up discovering the truth about Isabel. Things like that." Roswell airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. PT/ET.
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source: Scifi.com |
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Lord of the Rings sets new December record |
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The Master, Friday, December 28, 2001 |
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring set a new three-day best December opening weekend record, earning $45.45 million.
The movie's $18.21 million opening day was the third best Wednesday opening ever, and in its first five days it grossed over $73 million. The record Christmas day opening of Ali ($10.2 million), wasn't able to deliver a knock blow to number one Lord of the Rings. Rings won Christmas day and added $11.5 million to its total, reaching $94 million in just 7 days of release. |
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source: Zap2It |
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Lord of the Rings, and other Globe nominees |
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The Master, Friday, December 21, 2001 |
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring received four Golden Globe nominations on Dec. 20, including best drama film, leading the genre entertainment projects that received nods from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. A.I. Artificial Intelligence received three nominations, and the upcoming time-travel romantic comedy movie Kate & Leopold got two.
The Golden Globes will be handed out in January 2002. A list of genre nominations from Scifi.com:
Best Motion Picture, Drama
•The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
•Shrek
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama
•Nicole Kidman, The Others
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
•Hugh Jackman, Kate & Leopold
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
•Jude Law, A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Best Director, Motion Picture
•Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
•Steven Spielberg, A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Best Original Score, Motion Picture
•Howard Shore, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
•John Williams, A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Best Original Song, Motion Picture
•"May It Be," The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
•"Until ...," Kate & Leopold
Best Performance by an Actress in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television
•Julianna Margulies, The Mists of Avalon |
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source: Scifi.com |
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WB to show Angel twice a week |
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The Master, Thursday, December 20, 2001 |
The WB will air its vampire series Angel twice weekly, starting Jan. 10, 2002. Repeats of Angel will air on Thursdays at 8 p.m. PT/ET, with first-run episodes continuing to airing Mondays at 9 p.m.
The double runs will reportedly continue through February, when the network may consider permanently moving Angel to Thursdays. |
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source: Scifi.com |
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Lord of the Rings: Biggest One-Day December Box Office |
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The Master, Thursday, December 20, 2001 |
The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring snatched the biggest one-day box office ever for December, according to a report on Zap2It. The fantasy film opened Wednesday with $18.2 million, which marks the third-biggest Wednesday opening for any film after Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, which grossed $28.5 million its first day on May 19, 1999, and Jurassic Park III, which notched $19 million on July 18, according to Exhibitor Relations.
"For a movie with a three-hour running time opening in the middle of the week, this has to be considered a great success for New Line," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations.
Director Peter Jackson's $270 million plus adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic fantasy trilogy marks New Line Cinema's most ambitious effort yet. The studio spent $50 million to market the $93 million first installment The Fellowship of the Ring, unleashing it at 3,359 theaters and more than 5,700 screens, the widest release it has ever mounted. |
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source: Zap2It |
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Interview with Ray Bradbury |
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The Master, Wednesday, December 5, 2001 |
In an interview with SciFi.com, author Ray Bradbury said that he's never had so many film projects in the works as he has now at the age of 81. In addition to a film version of his short story "A Sound of Thunder," Bradbury is linked to movies based on his classic SF books Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles, as well as an original miniseries for the Sci Fi Channel based on The Illustrated Man.
"It's quite amazing," Bradbury said in an interview. "And two new books of poetry will be published during the next two months. Huge collections, all the collected poems of mine will be published in about two weeks. And then another book of poetry from Ireland, which is kind of wonderful. And I'm also putting together another book of essays, because my last book of essays, Yestermorrow, came out eight or nine years ago. So it's time to collect all of my various ideas that have been published in magazines and put them out. And then with all these films pending, it's an incredible year, when you consider I'm 81 years old. If you wait around long enough, maybe something will happen."
Frank Darabont (The Green Mile) will write and direct new movie versions of The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury said. "We're doing the Martian Chronicles over," he said. "It was done as a series 20 years ago by NBC. It wasn't bad, but it was boring. Really boring. And they had a lot of good people, but it was a disappointment. So now, Frank Darabont is going to write and direct a new version. And he's a very fine writer and director: Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. And also, his second project is Fahrenheit 451, which he's taking over from Mel Gibson. Mel Gibson was supposed to direct it five years ago, but he's let five years go by, and written 10 screenplays on Fahrenheit. Can you imagine that? If you know the novel, you need to have 10 screenplays? How about one?" |
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source: Scifi.com |
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Scorpion King to resume production |
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The Master, Wednesday, December 5, 2001 |
Principal photography on The Scorpion King is scheduled to resume in mid-January. Filming was interrupted to accommodate star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's wrestling schedule and in anticipation of an actors' union strike that never happened. The Scorpion King is a prequel to the two Mummy movies, and most of it was shot several months ago. Key battle scenes were left to finish next month.
Universal is anticipating an April 2002 release. |
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source: Scifi.com |
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Big paycheck for Arnold? |
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The Master, Wednesday, December 5, 2001 |
Arnold Schwarzenegger may make a astounding $30 million to star in the upcoming sequel Terminator 3 according to a report in Variety. The movie is scheduled to begin production in April.
The new movie takes place 10 years after Terminator 2: Judgment Day, with John Conner and Schwarzenegger's T-800 battling a female Terminatrix whose powers and morphing abilities go beyond anything seen before.
Sources associated with the project denied the $30 million salary, but other sources told the columnist that Schwarzenegger's sequel pay will slightly exceed the $25 million he made for Batman and Robin.
Several studios are bidding for the rights to distribute the film, including Paramount, Disney, Universal and DreamWorks. |
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source: Variety |
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Star Wars site drops fan hosting |
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The Master, Thursday, November 29, 2001 |
The official Star Wars web site has announced that it will stop hosting the fan.starwars.com site, a free hosting service for thousands of sites, on Dec. 20. Lucas Online and Homestead created the site in March 2000.
"Due to shifts in the overall online and hosting marketplace, we are sorry to announce that this service will end on Dec. 20," reads the announcement. "Fans wishing to relocate their fan.starwars.com sites to another hosting service may do so, provided you continue to comply with the terms of service." |
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source: Star Wars Official |
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Changes for Andromeda |
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The Master, Monday, November 26, 2001 |
Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda co-creator Robert Hewitt Wolfe announced he no longer serves as executive producer on the show, according to a report on SlipstreamNews. "You're probably wondering what the hell happened," Wolfe wrote at the Slipstream BBS. "Short answer: Television happened."
Wolfe left the show in late September, during the production of the twelth episode of the season, 'Ouroboros'. Wolfe said the reason for his departure was a creative conflict over the direction Andromeda was taking. Wolfe envisioned a complex arc-based storyline, but production companies Tribune Entertainment and Fireworks and series star Kevin Sorbo felt the show should be episodic and action oriented.
"Basically, they want the show to be more action driven, more Dylan-centric, and more episodic," Wolfe explained. "They also want more aliens, more space battles, and less internal conflict among the principal characters. Also, they want a lot less continuity so as not to confuse the casual or new viewer with too much backstory. And finally, they wanted to rework the visual signature of several of the characters, most especially Trance and Rommie, but also Dylan (less uniforms, more civvies)."
Andromeda was lauched with a commitment for two full seasons, and despite declines as high as 21% in viewership so far this season over last, it was recently renewed through its fourth season.
A variety of changes have already been made to the show, such as greatly improved costuming for several of the alien species. These changes have been welcomed by fans, many of whom were critical of "cheese factor" predominant in the early episodes. However, most recently, Trance Gemini (played by Laura Bertram) lost her signature tail and a flurry of petitions from fans to get Tribune to restore the tail soon followed.
The more action-oriented episodes will begin airing in February 2002 according to the report.
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source: SlipstreamNews |
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Sci Fi Channel buys rights to Forsaken |
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The Master, Monday, November 26, 2001 |
The Sci Fi Channel has bought the rights to air the recent vampire film The Forsaken, a spokeswoman confirmed. Sci Fi will share the rights with a broadcast network to air the film on television for the first time, but Columbia Pictures hasn't signed the other network yet.
Sci Fi also acquired rights to several other genre films, including The Fifth Element, Flatliners, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Starman, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, The Seventh Sign and The Bride.
The Forsaken, starring Final Destination's Kerr Smith and Brendan Fehr (Roswell), grossed less than $7 million domestically when it was released in April.
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source: Scifi.com |
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B5: Invoking Darkness now available |
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The Master, Monday, November 26, 2001 |
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News submitted by: Jeanne Cavelos |
Babylon 5: Invoking Darkness (Del Rey), is the third volume of the best-selling Passing of the Techno-Mages trilogy by World Fantasy Award winner Jeanne Cavelos.
The techno-mages are a mysterious order of humans and aliens implanted with extremely advanced technology that allows them to perform acts that seem magical. In Book 2, the dark secret of the techno-mages was revealed: their implants are provided by an ancient, evil race--the Shadows. By programming the implants to further their agenda, the Shadows have made the mages into agents of chaos and destruction.
Now the Shadows have engulfed the galaxy in war. As billions die and the flames of destruction rage unchecked, the Shadows seem poised for absolute victory. The mages, determined not to aid the Shadows, have withdrawn to a hiding place. Among them is Galen, who burns for revenge against the treacherous mage Elizar, who joined the Shadows and killed Galen's love. At last Galen wins permission to leave the hiding place and kill Elizar and two other enemies. Though the galaxy is being torn apart by bloody conflict, he is not to interfere in the Shadows' war; he is not to use his great spell of destruction against the mages' creators.
As Galen re-enters a war-torn galaxy, he must hold tightly to control. As much as he wants to strike against the Shadows, who infected him with the seeds of chaos and destruction, he knows that giving into those urges will only further the Shadows' ends. But once the Shadows learn of his presence, they have their own plans for Galen. In a desperate, apocalyptic battle, there's no telling who will be the victor. Or if there will be any survivors at all.
Jeanne Cavelos will be making a number of appearances in the coming weeks, including:
Dec 8: Signing at Pandemonium Books and Games, Cambridge, MA, 4-6 pm
Dec 11: Discussion and signing at Barnes and Noble, Nashua, NH, 7 pm
Jan 9: Discussion and signing at the Toadstool Bookshop,
Milford, NH, 7 pm
Please visit Jeanne's Official Web site for more appearance dates. |
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Harry Potter breaks records |
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The Master, Monday, November 19, 2001 |
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone shattered box-office records, raking in around $93.5 million in the first three days of release, according to an announcement by Warner Brothers. This stomps on previous record holder The Lost World: Jurassic Park, which took in $72.1 million in its first three days of release in 1997.
"This is truly historic for Warner Brothers Pictures," said Alan Horn, the studio's president and chief operating officer, in a statement. "Everyone involved in the making, marketing and distribution of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone took great care and effort to protect the integrity of the characters and the story so beautifully rendered by J.K. Rowling, and we couldn't be more proud to have debuted this picture to such an overwhelmingly positive response."
The film adaptation cost an estimated $125 million to make, and prior to the opening industry analysts estimated the film might bring in around $75 to $80 million for its opening weekend. The movie was clearly helped by its hugely wide release, and probably could have passed the $100 million mark if it was not for its 2 1/2 hour length, which limits the number of times it can be shown each day. Boding well for an extended blockbuster run is word of mouth from the key target audiance, kids, that indicates many are eager to see the film multiple times.
Other records set by the movie include the largest single-day box-office opening (about $31.3 million), besting Star Wars: Episode I ($28.5 million), and the largest three-day opening of the year, previously held by Planet of the Apes ($68.5 million). |
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X-File premiere draws weak ratings |
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The Master, Friday, November 16, 2001 |
The ninth-season premiere of The X-Files proved to be a weak draw, only managing 10.6 million viewers (6.5 rating/10 share), a steep decline from last season's average of 13.2 million.
The series now focuses on agents Reyes (Annabeth Gish) and Doggett (Robert Patrick). Scully (Gillian Anderson) remains at home with her newborn son. The premiere episode introduced both Gish and Cary Elwes as regular cast members, and featured Lucy Lawless as a guest star.
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source: Zap2It |
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Galactica remake on hold |
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The Master, Wednesday, November 14, 2001 |
The remake of Battlestar Galactica has been put on indefinite hold due to the departure of director Bryan Singer (X-Men). A pilot was being readied by Studios USA for Fox and The Sci-Fi Channel. Singer and his X-Men producer Tom DeSanto were working with producers Dan Angel and Billy Brown, who were writing and would run the proposed new series.
Reportedly, Fox's feature-film division wanted Singer's attention focused on the upcoming X-Men 2 sequel. The potential scheduling conflict prompted Singer to drop out of the Galactica, and the Fox network withdrew from the project. |
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source: Scifi.com |
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ABC drops The Talisman |
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The Master, Wednesday, November 7, 2001 |
ABC has dropped the Mick Garris-directed miniseries adaptation of Stephen King and Peter Straub's fantasy novel The Talisman, according to a report on Creature Corner.
Garris, who helped adapt King's The Stand and The Shining for TV, told the site that he will try to find another home for the miniseries. "This does not mean that there will be no Talisman [adaptation]," Garris said. "There are other potential homes, and a theatrical version is not out of the question." The Talisman tells the story of Jack Sawyer, a young boy who is forced into a journey across another dimension to save his mother. |
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source: Creature Corner |
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New X-Files movie |
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The Master, Wednesday, November 7, 2001 |
Twentieth Century Fox is negotiating with The X-Files creator Chris Carter and executive producer Frank Spotnitz to write and produce a second movie based on the series according to a report in Variety.
Carter and Spotnitz wrote and produced the 1998 X-Files film, and Rob Bowman directed. Carter and Spotnitz are reportedly expected to begin writing the screenplay within the next few months, and could begin shooting in late 2002 for a Christmas 2003 release. No potential directors were named.
According to the report, the sequel is envisioned as a stand-alone vehicle for Mulder and Scully, presumably to be played by original series stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. Both have indicated a willingness to return for the new movie even though Duchovny is no longer on the show and Anderson has expressed her desire to leave at the end of this season.
The X-Files begins its ninth season on November 11, with Lucy Lawless making a much anticipated guest star appearance. |
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source: Variety |
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Invisible Man vanishing? |
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The Master, Monday, November 5, 2001 |
Posted on the Sci Fi Channel's ScifiWire: The SCI FI Channel's original series The Invisible Man will air its season finale during the first quarter of 2002, bringing the two-year-old show to a close, a spokesperson told SCI FI Wire. I-Man is currently airing reruns through the end of the year.
New episodes of The Invisible Man will return in January 2002. The series stars Vincent Ventresca and Paul Ben-Victor.
Fans of the series are confused by the wording of this announcement, which leaves it unclear whether the series is being cancelled or merely refers to when the end of season two will be shown. Unconfirmed reports in posts on the Sci Fi discussion boards indicate that the show will not see another season.
The Invisible Man airs as part of Sci Fi Channels "Friday Prime" lineup, with the episodes again running in sydication shortly after their Sci Fi Channel premiere. |
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source: Scifi.com |
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 I knew that would happen! |
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