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News for: September 13, 2001 - October 9, 2001
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Cameron to produce Ringworld? |
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The Master, Tuesday, October 9, 2001 |
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Coming Attractions is reporting a rumor that Titanic director James Cameron might have penned a deal to make Larry Niven's classic sci-fi novel Ringworld into a live-action movie. According to the report, Niven OK'd a deal between Cameron and Robert Mandel, the owner of the film rights to the series. |
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source: Coming Attractions |
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Capicorn One remake in the works |
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The Master, Tuesday, October 9, 2001 |
Carlton American and Fox TV Pictures announced at MIPCOM, the international TV market in Cannes, that they will remake the Science Fiction movie Capricorn One for television, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The 1978 movie told the story of a faked manned mission to Mars, echoing conspiracy theories that the moon landings never happened and were faked by the US government.
Carlton America president and chief executive officer Stephen Davis, Carlton executive vice president Gary Goldberger are also remaking The Boys From Brazil, which is a SF thriller about the cloning of Hitler. |
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source: Hollywood Reporter |
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B5 Rangers site goes live |
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The Master, Tuesday, October 9, 2001 |
Sci Fi Channel has launched an official site for the upcoming Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers movie. The original television movie tells the story of the Ranger fleet as it attempts to restore order to hundreds of civilizations devastated by the Shadow War. The movie will air in 2002 and serve as a possible pilot for a new Sci Fi Channel series.
The Rangers web site is currently featuring a sweepstakes to win a Rangers poster signed by the cast members, B5 creator J. Michael Straczynski and executive producer Doug Netter. The sweepstakes ends October 16. |
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source: Scifi.com |
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Emmys cancelled...again |
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The Master, Monday, October 8, 2001 |
In the wake of strikes on Afghanistan by the United States and United Kingdom, Sunday's primetime Emmy awards broadcast was cancelled.
CBS President Leslie Moonves, Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Chairman and CEO Bryce Zabel and show executive producer Don Mischer, explained their decision to not hold the ceremony Sunday night to reporters. They said the ceremony was being "preempted", stopping short of saying whether the broadcast is postponed or actually cancelled by indicating that they are leaving the door open to holding the Emmys at another time.
A key factor in the decision appears to have been the boycotting of the event by certain celebrities because of the military actions. "Certain high profile shows and casts did not want to participate tonight," said Moonves. Additionally, executives expressed concern over the appropriateness of holding a celebration event while the military strikes were occuring.
Zabel told Zap2It.com that security concerns ran a distant second to considerations of propriety. "The level of security was equivalent to that of a presidential visit," he says. "We felt very confident."
The Emmys had already been delayed by three weeks...it was originally scheduled to air just days after the September 11 terrorist attacks. During the delay, CBS had restructured the show so that it could be co-broadcast from New York City. This was to both show support for New York, and to accomodate east coast based actors so they would not need to come to Los Angeles. Indeed, in an unprecented show of co-operation, NBC's New York studios were to host the event for the CBS broadcast, with the primary beneficiaries being cable actors such as those that appear on HBO's "The Sopranos".
Questions also have been raised by the show's cancellation that have yet to be answered. No one has yet announced if the broadcast would be rescheduled. If it is truly cancelled (as were the Latin Grammy awards), will CBS be given the right to broadcast next year's award show, which rotates between the four major networks? In there is no ceremony, how will the winners would be announced and how will they receive their awards? |
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Next Generation Marathon a winner for TNN |
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The Master, Monday, October 8, 2001 |
Last week's marathon showing of Star Trek: The Next Generation on TNN earned the cable network its best Tuesday and Wednesday ratings ever according to a report in Variety. Diane Robina, executive vice president and general manager of sister network TNT, told the trade paper that the marathon has met the goal of building momentum for the series, which will be shown twice a day at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. Monday through Friday.
According to the report, more than two-thirds of the audience fell into the coveted marketing target of adults 18-49. |
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source: Variety |
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UPN's SciFi slate brings ratings |
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The Master, Thursday, October 4, 2001 |
UPN jumped from sixth to fourth Tuesday night on the strength of its Buffy, the Vampire Slayer season premiere, the first show on its new network. They scored a 6.2 rating/9 share, much stonger than Buffy had been performing for most of last season on The WB. Zap2It reports that viewership continued to build through the show's two hour premiere, which saw Buffy return from the dead.
Last week's premiere of Enterprise was even bigger, rocketing the netlet to the number two spot for the night. 12.5 million viewers tuned in to see the latest Star Trek crew begin its voyage, giving UPN a huge (for UPN) 9.1 rating/13 share. By contrast, the repeat of Voyager's final episode the week before only earned a 2.7 rating/5 share. Enterprise's second episode continued to perform strong, although it was down from the premiere, gaining a 7.2 rating/11 share in its 8 p.m. timeslot.
However, all the news is not so rosy for UPN. The second season premiere of Special Unit 2 didn't fare nearly as well, only averaging a 4 rating/6 share despite saturation promotion for show for the last two weeks. Being on against The West Wing's special terrorism episode couldn't have helped. The West Wing snapped up viewers with a 13.2 rating/20 share, easily taking the number one spot for the night. |
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source: Zap2It |
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Afflect to play Daredevil |
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The Master, Thursday, October 4, 2001 |
Ben Affleck is taking over the lead in the big screen adapation of Marvel Comics' Daredevil. The role was first offered to Vin Diesel, but he opted to do Riddick, a sequel to the hit Sci-Fi thriller Pitch Black.
In the Marvel series, Daredevil is the crime-fighting alter ego of blind lawyer and martial artist Matt Murdock. After an accident with a radioactive isotope, he develops the radar-like sight that helps him bring villains to justice.
When Affleck was erroneously mentioned a few years ago as the next Batman, and his then-girlfriend, Gwyneth Paltrow, was supposedly set to play Catwoman, Affleck denied the rumor, adding "Gwyneth is much more the [Marvel Comics' superhero] Elektra type."
The $50 million film is tentatively scheduled to shoot next year in Vancouver, with Mark Steven Johnson (Simon Birch) at the helm.
Affleck recently starred in Surviving Christmas for Columbia and The Sum of All Fears for Paramount, in which he assumed the Jack Ryan role from Harrison Ford. He will reportedly earn a low eight-figure salary for Daredevil. |
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source: Mr. Showbiz |
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Forgotten Realms coming to TV |
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The Master, Thursday, October 4, 2001 |
Fireworks Television is developing a live-action television series based on the Forgotten Realms novels, which are based on the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, Wizards of the Coast announced.
Forgotten Realms comprises more than 150 novels, published by Wizard's parent company Hasbro, many of which made the New York Times best-seller list. In addition, over 100 gaming books could be adapted for the series, the company said.
Forgotten Realms is set in a magical, medieval world in which wizards, sorcerers, druids and other heroes wield their various magic skills in adventures that take them from deserts, forests and mountains to bustling cities and new continents.
A movie version also based on the role playing series, Dungeons and Dragons, bombed at the box office and was panned by critics.
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source: SciFi.com |
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Petitions online to change Enterprise theme song |
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The Master, Tuesday, October 2, 2001 |
At least two online petitions have been started to change the soft rock "Faith of the Heart" opening theme song for the new series, Enterprise.
Although the open credit visuals have received praise, many fans have expressed disappointment with the accompanying theme song. Enterprise is the first Star Trek series to use a vocal track instead of a dramatic instrumental score. The petitions plea for Trek producers to return to the traditional instrumental format.
The first petition is a more traditional plea for change based on what's "best for the Star Trek franchise", and has garnered 2183 signatures as of this writing.
The second petition is more strongly worded and has collected 1015 signatures thus far.
(Thanks to ZimNova for the tip!)
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Farscape renewed for two more seasons |
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The Master, Monday, October 1, 2001 |
The Sci Fi Channel announced that it has renewed Farscape for two additional seasons of 22 episodes each, ensuring that the show will have a total run of at least five years. The series is currently slated to finish its third season in January 2002, with season four debuting later that year.
"We are excited to renew our commitment to this smart, sexy, intelligent and fun series that rewrites the book on sci-fi entertainment," Sci Fi president Bonnie Hammer said. "Farscape is not only the most ambitious original series on basic cable, we think it's one of the best-written shows on television, period. It's no wonder that it's the top-rated series on Sci Fi for three years running."
Sci Fi indicates that Farscape has nearly doubled its audience since its March 1999 launch. Hammer credited the show with attracting not only new viewers, but also more female viewers. Sci Fi reports that nearly three-quarters of the new viewers have been women.
"Farscape has truly extended the boundaries of science fiction programming, reaching out to a new generation of fans across all age groups, male and female alike," said Juliet Blake, president of Jim Henson Television-U.S. "I know the exceptional cast, crew, Jim Henson's Creature Shop, and our partners at Hallmark and Sci Fi are thrilled to bring fourth and fifth seasons to our loyal fans and to new audiences worldwide."
In its bid to build viewership, Sci Fi Channel has periodically run several episode blocks of Farscape reruns, usually following one key storyline event. Most recently, they began showing Farscape repeats, starting with the first episode, four nights a week giving newer fans an opportunity to catch up with the series from the beginning. |
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source: Scifi Wire |
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Shanks leaving Stargate |
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The Master, Monday, October 1, 2001 |
Michael Shanks, archaeologist Daniel Jackson on Stargate SG-1, will be leaving the Showtime series at the end of the current fifth season, according to a report on Sci Fi Wire.
Sci Fi Wire's source confirmed that Shanks may make a few guest appearances, but that a new regular civilian character will join star Richard Dean Anderson and the rest of the cast next year. No reason was given for Shanks' departure.
The Sci Fi Channel is picking up Stargate SG-1 from Showtime for a sixth season and will produce 22 new episodes, starting in June 2002.
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source: Scifi Wire |
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Diesel signs for Riddick |
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The Master, Thursday, September 27, 2001 |
As expected, Vin Diesel has signed a contract to reprise his Pitch Black role in the prequel, The Chronicles of Riddick. Variety reports that the actor will garner $11 million for the role.
X-Men writer David Hayter wrote the script for the new film. Scott Kroopf, Ted Field and Tom Engelman of Radar Pictures will produce, and Diesel and his One Race Productions partner George Zakk are likely to have producing jobs as well, the trade paper reported. No director has been announced.
The movie is slated to begin shooting in spring 2002 for an expected summer 2003 release.
To take the Riddick role, Diesel reportedly passed on an opportunity to play the title role in Daredevil, the Mark Steven Johnson-directed adaptation of the Marvel comic about a blind lawyer who becomes a superhero.
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source: Variety |
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Chat with Enterprise's Linda Park |
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The Master, Wednesday, September 26, 2001 |
Scifi.com is hosting a chat tonight with Linda Park, Ensign Hoshi Sato on Enterprise. Her character is the ship's translator, "a woman with an extraordinary gift for languages". Most recently, Korean-born Park was seen in Jurassic Park III.
Scifi indicates this will be approximately a 40 min chat prior to the premiere episode of Enterprise, starting at 7pm EST. Scifi.com chats support IRC clients, and Java chat access is available through their website.
Connect to chat: http://www.scifi.com/chat/
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source: Scifi.com |
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Aldiss disses American audiances over AI box office |
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The Master, Tuesday, September 25, 2001 |
Sci Fi Wire reports that Brian Aldiss told the web site of the British Guardian newspaper that A.I. Artificial Intelligence film was probably too highbrow for U.S. audiences. The 76-year-old author, who wrote the 1969 short story "Supertoys Last All Summer Long!" on which A.I. was based, was trying to account for the film's failure to find an American audience.
"Perhaps audiences tired of David's winsomeness," Aldiss said. "Perhaps--my money is on this one--it is just too intelligent for adolescents, to judge by the initial runaway box-office success of the moronic new Planet of the Apes."
A.I. grossed $29 million on its opening weekend in North America, compared with Planet of the Apes' $68.5 million. "Of course there is no love affair, no archetypal boy meeting archetypal girl," Aldiss added. "The very missing item that excludes science fiction from wider popularity." |
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source: Scifi Wire |
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Robby won't get makeover for Forbidden Planet |
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The Master, Tuesday, September 25, 2001 |
Dreamworks is in preproduction for a big budget remake of the 1956 classic SF film Forbidden Planet. According to a report on Dark Horizons, Robby The Robot will not get an updated look like we saw with Lost in Space robot in the 1998 feature film.
A source told the site that the new Robby will be made to look exactly the same as the original escept for small changes to the internal mechanics visible in the head, which will be slightly updated and include CG flashing lights. This is reportedly to overcome the lag time that caused the robot's vocals and the head mechanics/lights to appear to be out of sync at times due to limitations of 1950's effects techniques. |
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source: Dark Horizons |
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Genre movies to reshoot NY scenes |
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The Master, Tuesday, September 25, 2001 |
Spider-Man, Men in Black 2 and Stuart Little 2 will return to New York City to reshoot certain scenes, according to a report on Dark Horizons. All three films are set in New York, and need new footage to reflect changes since the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
New York City is not yet issuing film permits for Manhattan (outer borough filming is permitted if NYPD support isn't required), which raises the question of when the reshoots will take place.
In the case of, Men in Black 2, the World Trade Center used the World Trade Center for its climax location. They reportedly will substitute the Chrysler Building, but the extent of on location shooting required to do so is not clear.
A Spider-Man teaser trailer featuring the World Trade Center towers has already been pulled from theatres, but the studio claims the scene was never actually part of the final picture. Reshoots for the movie may be limited to scenes where the infamous towers can be seen in the background. |
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source: Dark Horizons |
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Trek X finally gets a go |
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The Master, Monday, September 24, 2001 |
Paramount Pictures has finally given the green light to Star Trek: Nemesis, the 10th movie in the hugely popular franchise, according to Variety.
Stuart Baird (U.S. Marshals) will direct,
John Logan (co-writer of Gladiator) wrote the screenplay, and Rick Berman will produce. Variety reports that the film is scheduled to begin shooting November 28, with Paramount looking for a fall or holiday 2003 release.
Digital Domain, currently working on effects for The Time Machine remake and which did some shots for The Fellowship of the Ring, will oversee the visual effects.
As expected, the new film will feature the crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation, including Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Brent Spiner, who has been very vocal about this being his last Trek outing, as Data. |
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source: Variety |
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Angel gets wide |
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The Master, Sunday, September 23, 2001 |
The WB announced that its vampire series Angel, which starts its third season tonight, will air in widescreen format this season. "The format lends itself to the production quality and action sequences of Angel," executive producer David Greenwalt said in a statement. "Still, viewers who do not have the capacity to view shows in this format will not miss anything and will be able to enjoy the show as they have in the past."
The season premiere marks two significant events. First, the series will acknowledge Buffy's death, with Angel grieving for his lost love. This is expected to be the last time the show directly references the characters from the now-on-UPN series that spawned it. Second, Amy Acker joins the cast as a regular. Acker's "Fred" was rescued from an alternate dimension by Angel last season.
Perhaps as much of interest to genre fans as Angel's new season, the new theatrical length trailer for the upcoming Lord of the Rings will debut during one of the commercial breaks. The Fellowship of the Ring opens December 19. |
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source: Scifi Wire |
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War of the Worlds on hold |
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The Master, Sunday, September 16, 2001 |
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In yet more movie fallout from the terrorist attacks on the United States, Pendragon Pictures has announced that it has suspend production of its version of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds. The movie is an update of Wells' classic invasion from Mars story, set in modern times. Producers said that they would assess the project's potential in a couple of weeks. |
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Entertainment industry reacts to NY and DC tragedies |
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The Master, Thursday, September 13, 2001 |
The entertainment industry is reacting to the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington DC, including major changes in movie and television schedules.
Two important award shows were amoung the first to announce cancellations. The Latin Grammys, scheduled for Tuesday night, were first postponed, and have now been completely canceled. The Primetime Emmy Awards, scheduled for this Sunday, have been postponed indefinitely. David Angell, co-creator of Frasier, was killed on one of the flights hijacked by the terrorists. He was reportedly returned to Los Angeles to attend the Emmy Awards.
All professional sports have been canceled through this weekend, including Baseball, Golf, Football, and Nascar.
Studios and television networks are now scambling to adapt thier schedules. Among the changes:
-- A Spider Man teaser has been pulled from theatres. It featured a giant web strung between the two WTC towers (reportedly just a theatre teaser gimmick and not an actual scene in the movie). The movie posters, which featured an image of the towers, are being recalled so that they can be replaced with alternative posters. The Sci Fi channel is reporting that Sony intends to digitally remove any images of the towers in the movie, which is now in post production. The release date remains May 3, 2002.
-- Electronic Arts has suspended its new Internet conspiracy game Majestic. "Given the recent national tragedy, we feel that some of the fictional elements in the game may not be appropriate at this time," an EA spokeman said.
-- Release of the romantic comedy Sidewalks of New York has been pushed back at least two months from its September 21 release date. Paramount said it felt it would be inappropriate to release a light comedy set in Manhattan at this time.
-- Sony has temporarily shut down production of its upcoming sequel Men in Black 2. According to Variety, Sony and Amblin have announced they will change the ending of the film because the World Trade Center was involved in the climax. Sources told the trade paper that the ending sequence had already been shot during filming in New York this summer, but the studio indicates that the scene hadn't been done yet. Men in Black 2 is scheduled for release on July 3, 2002. It is not known if the release date will be affected by production of a new ending.
- NBC has delayed all fall premieres, many of which were supposed to begin Monday, for at least a week regardless of their content. CBS indicates that it will proceed with its schedule, but has not decided whether that will include all of its shows. ABC has not yet stated their intentions, but are reportedly mulling a week delay similar to NBC. UPN announced that its comedies will premiere on schedule, but that all promotion events and planned parties are canceled. The WB and UPN, which do not have national news arms and were showing feeds from CNN on Tuesday, are the only networks who have returned to regular programming schedules.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger's next movie, "Collateral Damage" was supposed to open October 5. It has been shelved indefinitely because the plot involves a terrorist bombing a Los Angeles skyscraper. They have taken down the website, and are in the process of pulling all posters, ads, and trailers for the film, all of which had been placed in heavy distribution to push the film hoped to mark Arnold's action movie "comeback". A new release date has not yet been announced.
-- CBS's realty show Big Brother was not only preempted on Tuesday, but its news blackout was lifted to inform the three remaining contestants of Tuesday's disaster. Producers informed Monica, who is from Brooklyn, that her family was fine, though one cousin was hurt and hospitalized. Big Brother's conclusion may have to be extended several days from its scheduled September 20 end date to accomodate the broadcast interruption.
-- Tim Allen's "Big Trouble" comedy was pulled from its September 21 release because it has a scene with a nuclear bomb on a plane. It will now open sometime in early 2002.
-- ABC has replaced the terrorist themed "The Peacemaker" with "Hope Floats" for Saturday.
-- Fox has replaced The X-Files Movie (which includes an Oklahoma style bombing) with Nine Months on Friday (assuming the resume regular broadcast by then). Independence Day, which Fox felt would be particularly disturbing to viewers due to the destruction of the White House and Empire State Building, has been replaced with Mrs. Doubtfire for Sunday. Early word indicated There's Something About Mary would replace ID4, but Fox has since indicated that they wanted to show "family fare". Monday's original movie, The Rats, which features rats taking over Manhattan, will be replaced by The Nutty Professor.
-- Networks have three new CIA/Terrorism themed series scheduled for this fall. The first episode of Fox's 24 involves a terrorist blowing up a passenger plane. The show's unique premise is that each episode is one hour of a 24 hour day, so changing the order of episodes or removing one is not possible. As of today, it is still set for its October 30 premiere, at which time Fox says it will determine if it should go ahead. Nevertheless, promotion efforts for the show have been discontinued. The premiere of CBS's The Agency features a terrorist plot to blow up Harrods in London, and includes a reference to Osama bin Laden. CBS has announce that they will substitute another episode for the premiere, and canceled the Washington premiere party. CBS has not indicated if they will air the pulled episode later in the season. ABC's show, Alias, reportedly does not feature a similarly violent plot for its premiere and is expected to air as scheduled.
-- A five-hour Law & Order miniseries dealing with a terrorist act in New York is now up in the air and may be scrapped. Taping had not yet begun on the planned miniseries. |
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 I knew that would happen! |
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