Hailing Frequencies, Issue #291

4.15.05 - 4.22.05

HELLO

And here's the two hundred and ninetieth edition of "Hailing Frequencies."

If you want to be notified when this newsletter is updated, email me to be put on my "notification" list.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA

Sy Fy Portal is asking BSG fans to help pay for an advertisement in the May 31 edition of The Hollywood Reporter asking people to nominate the show and cast for Emmies. Good luck, guys!

DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES

Variety says our good friend from Star Trek First Contact, Alfre Woodard, is joining the cast of Desperate Housewives as a deeply religious woman who moves into the neighborhood her son.

GAMING

Valve Software is currently developing the first expansion to Half-Life 2, entitled Half-life 2: Aftermath.

Paramount's got a game on the way based on Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds. Players will be people running away from the aliens and collect stuff and go through mazes.

Larry and Andy Wachowsk told IGN.com "that they will be playing [Matrix Online] anonymously, so players may actually encounter their avatars without realizing it. 'For us, it sounds a lot more fun if people don't know it's us,' they said. 'But if you're looking, you might try asking the goth chick what vis-a-vis really means.'"

Microsoft will unveil its next generation of Xbox video game console in a May 12th special on MTV.

HARRY POTTER

Electronic Arts and Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment will release a video game in November based on GofF. The game will be available for console, handheld and PC platforms. The game will use the new vibration-enabled system that lets players to feel the controller shake when they cast a spell. Players can be Harry, Ron and/or Hermione (Emma Watson) and run around casting spells. Batterius morticus!

May 7th, 7 PM will bear witness to clips from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire movie during ABC's airing of Chamber of Secrets.

Goblet of Fire's coming to theatres November 18, and Half-Blood Prince will be available June 16.

HEINLEIN

The Heinlein Society's Robert A. Heinlein Award for 2005 goes to Larry Niven and Dr. Jerry Pournelle for outstanding published work in hard science fiction or technical writings inspiring the human exploration of space. The awards will be presented September 4 in Seattle, WA at the 2005 North America Science Fiction Convention.

JETSONS

Cinescape tells us that the live-action/CGI version of The Jetsons is "still in the works." Sam Harper has finished a draft of the script, Adam Shankman directing and Denise Di Novi producing. Steve Martin is rumored for the role of George Jetson.

LIBRARIAN: THE QUEST FOR THE SPEAR II

No, I'm not kidding.

One of the absolute worst made-for-cable movies ever made in the history of worsts, The Librarian: Quest for the Spear, will have a sequel. Noah Wyle, who can't wait to get away from ER (as if, dude) will be back as unlikely Flynn Carsen, a librarian with 22 academic degrees charged with protecting a treasure trove of magical artifacts hidden beneath the Metropolitan. Title suggestion: People Will Watch Anything.

LOST

Writer/supervising producer Javier Grillo-Marxuach told SCI FI Wire:

"We were going to do a two-hour finale [over two weeks], and then ABC asked if we could do 90 minutes [the second week] so they could schedule it against American Idol. Carlton [Cuse] and Damon [Lindelof, who co-created the show with J.J. Abrams,] did an amazing job on the finale script, and their first draft came in a little long anyway. [ABC] looked at it and decided to do a two-hour. So 'Exodus Part 1' will air on May 18th, and the epic saga that is 'Exodus Part 2' will air May 25th. The final two hours is so full of incident and character and shocks and scares and drama, all the things that people love about Lost, that it would have been silly to cut things out. So we've got a 25-hour first season!"

You know, that island is full of secrets.

Ian Somerhalder who's "dead" Boone now, will be in Wes Craven's The Breed, aimed for a 2006 release. Movie deals with some guys stuck on a (different) island with smart, evil dogs.

PROJECTS THAT MAKE YOU GO WHAA?

New Line will make a movie from Steve Alten's novel Meg, and a Carcharodon megalodon, an 80-foot-long ancestor of the great white shark that plagues -- you guessed it! -- a town on the California coast. Gee. Is there just something slightly familiar about that?

STAR TREK

UPN/Paramount continues to deny they ever considered taking any money from Trek United, a fan group that sticks by its claim it's in secret talks with UPN/Paramount. However, Trektoday says: "The TrekUnited fan campaign several weeks ago teamed up with a Canadian group of film production companies who have proposed a plan to Paramount to keep Star Trek: Enterprise going for a fifth season." Read more here.

TrekNation has a sizable interview up with Scott Bakula about the ENT DVD and the end of the show. Here's a fave bit:

Favourite episode? Certainly from this first season, the pilot was probably my favourite. It was two hours and you get to tell a story better in two hours. I also loved the finale of season one; that was phenomenal. I got that script and called them and said: "You're never going to get me out of this one guys. I don't know what you were thinking, we're in trouble." Which either means it's a great finale or we're screwed for next year. But they figured it out. You know I liked "Fight or Flight" which was were we found these dead bodies which was our first experience and that was a great. An episode I wasn't in very much but was wonderful was "Shuttlepod One". There's some good ones. "Desert Crossing" as a blast to make. And certainly meeting up with the Andorians, that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship!

TrekWeb has coverage of ENT's wrap part, with nine video interviews: Brannon Braga, Rick Berman, Scott Bakula, John Billingsley, John Logan, Dominic Keating, Anthony Montgomery, Jeffrey Combs, and Eugene Roddenberry, Jr.

Work is on for Fusion Creative Design's DS9 game, Convergence, which takes place on SRIII, the site of crashed U.S.S. Ulysses,a few months after events in "The Fallen."

Check out one of my favorite Trek behind-the-scenes stories.

Trekbbs.com has scans of the TV Guide pictures on the ENT finale.

If you're interested in protesting the cancellation of ENT, try SaveEnterprise.com and/or The Enterprise Project. TrekUnited.com is trying to get fans themselves to pay for a fifth season. You can also write your own plea to Bonnie Hammer, Sci Fi Channel, and David Stapf, Paramount.

Ms. Bonnie Hammer
President and General Manager
Sci Fi Channel
1230 Avenue Of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Mr. David Stapf
President
Paramount Television
5555 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038-3112

STAR WARS

Moviefone.net has the latest video installment for Revenge of the Sith, a 7.5-minute clip oif Ewan MacGregor on playing Obi-wan Kenobi

The Official Site brings word unto the land that Lucasfilm, LEGO and Cartoon Network will make Star Wars: Revenge of the Brick, premiering May 8 on Cartoon Network at 7 PM.

Wanna see Anakin all burned up? (spoiler)

Spoiler (highlight to read): Here's the opening "crawl" for Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith:

War! The Republic is crumbling under attacks by the ruthless Sith Lord, Count Dooku. There are heroes on both sides. Evil is everywhere. In a stunning move, the fiendish droid leader, General Grievous, has swept into the Republic capital and kidnapped Chancellor Palpatine, leader of the Galactic Senate. As the Separatist Droid Army attempts to flee the besieged capital with their valuable hostage, two Jedi Knights lead a desperate mission to rescue the captive Chancellor....

Episode III explodes into theaters worldwide on May 19. Watch the trailer here and the behind-the-scenes featurette here.

X-MEN

Simon Kinberg offered these spoilers to Now Playing about X-Men III (highlight to read): "[Director] Bryan Singer left the groundwork in place to pursue the Dark Phoenix saga," Kinberg told the site. "And Famke Janssen will be back in the movie...You will see new characters and beloved X-Men characters in the third film, and they will play major roles—at least one of them will play a major role."

STARGATE

Last week's poll:

Whom should I ask to interview next on STARGATE ATLANTIS?

Torri Higinson 21%
David Hewlett 42%
Rainbow Francks 15%
Rachel Luttrell 9%
Paul McGillion 12%

Mr. Hewlett it is.

NEWS BITS

• Stephen Sommers (The Mummy, Van Helsing) will write, producer, and direct a remake When Worlds Collide (1951) for Paramount.
• Sean Astin will voice a character in the CGI movie Cat Tale.
• Francis Ford Coppola doesn't want to make Megalopolis anymore, worried that it's "too ambitious," which probably means he couldn't get funding or he's just ogtten bored with the whole thing.
• Olivier Martinez will star in a werewolf movie, Blood and Chocolate.
• April 13, NBC got its highest ratings in the 9 PM slot in six months with supernatural series Revelations.
• Miracles, the canceled ABC series with Skeet Ulrich as a paranormal investigator for the Catholic church, comes out on DVD with seven unaired episodes April 19.
• Check out the official Aeon Flux site.
• Do you like flames? Well, check out Ghost Rider's sweet ride!
• Sci Fi has several new projects in the works, including Barbarian Chronicles, a half-hour animated spoof of The Lord of the Rings.
  

NOT SCI-FI, BUT HAHAHA

Paul Reubens is going to be in Reno 911! next season as vigilante.

INSANE TREK TRIVIA

This Week's Question: Longtime starship-loving fans were outraged when the picture of the NX Enterprise came out, because it looks almost exactly like what other class ship?

Send your answer to scifi@about.com. All correctly answering trivia maniacs will have their names mentioned in the next letter. The first winner gets to make a request, anything they like -- within reason -- for the next "Hailing Frequencies" Issue. Please let me know if you don't want me to post your email address if you win.

Last Week's Question: At Sandrine's, one of Tom's pool-playing holo-characters lays out his pick-up technique for Torres, who calls him (and Tom) a pig. What's the technique?

Answer: "Treat a lady like a tramp, and a tramp like a lady."

First winner
Sue

Second winner
Bill

sexualuniverse offers the following suggestions:

Ballon animals made from glow-in-the-dark condoms?
(Klingon targ, Denebian slime devil, etc.)
Vulcan aphrodisiacs?
"Didn't we share an escape pod once before?" line
Trained Tribble tricks?
Gold-pressed latinum?
"My holodeck or yours?"
"You remind me of an Orion slave girl I once knew..."
"Tomorrow I join Star Fleet. Tonight's my last night on Earth, so..."
"Wanna play strip-Kal-Toh?"

CAPTION CONTEST

Send in your best caption for the picture below. The best (as in, my favorite) entry will appear in next week's issue.

[Insert caption here.]

"LETTERS TO THE EDITOR"

This week's topic: Do you think the attitude towards sci-fi and fantasy as "lesser" genres is going away, or holding strong?

***

I don't know about that....IMHO though...the actors have not. Still only getting nominated for sci-fi awards only when they deserve emmies. ( you can tell I'm referring to tv, <G>).

Sally

***

[on another topic, I'm so glad to find another Caveman fan!]

There have been few things committed to film that are funnier than a dinosaur looking cross-eyed at a pumpkin stuck on the end of it's nose/horn. And one of those funnier things would be a "drunk" T-Rex stumbling around and falling off a cliff. Amazingly, both in the same movie! An indescribably hilarious movie.

Jason

***

Next week's topic: I might be able to snag an interview with Connor Trinneer. Any questions to suggest?

***

Send me something if you've got something to say.  It can be about anything that's on your mind! (Please let me know if you don't want your email address to accompany your name in either contest or for the LTE.)

TOP MOVIES FROM THE NUMBERS

1 Sahara............................$22,119,000
2 Sin City...........................$54,465,000
3 Fever Pitch......................$14,504,000
4 Guess Who.......................$52,269,000
5 Beauty Shop.....................$27,154,000
6 Miss Congeniality 2.............$38,405,000
7 Robots...........................$111,874,000
8 Upside of Anger.................$12,906,000
9 State Property 2....................$216,000
10 Pacifier, The..................$101,123,000

TOP SF/F NETWORK SHOWS, NGR, 3/21- 3/27/05

1. Desperate Housewives 14.4
2. Medium 7.8
3. Lost 5.6
4. Alias 4.5
5. Smallville 1.9
6. Charmed 1.4
7. Enterprise 1.3

TOP SF/F SYNDICATED SHOWS, NGR, 3/14/05 - 3/20/05

Stargate SG-1 1.8
Andromeda 1.5
The X-Files 1.5
Mutant X 1.4
She Spies 1.4
The Twilight Zone 1.4
Buffy 1.2
The Outer Limits 1.2
Angel 1.1
Ripley's 0.8

TOP SCI-FI/FANTASY BOOKS, Amazon - 4/7/05

1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
2. The Da Vinci Code
3. Eldest (Inheritance 2)
4. Angels and Demons
5. Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith
6. The Hard Goodbye (Sin City 1)
7.A Dame to Kill for (Sin City 2)
8. Opal Deception (Artemis Fowl 4)
9. The Time Traveler's Wife
10.We Few

TOP SCI-FI/FANTASY DVDS, Amazon - 4/14/05

1. The Incredibles
2. Phantom of the Opera
3. Finding Neverland
4. Star Wars: Clone Wars, Vol. 1
5. Lemony Snicket
6. Return of the King platinum edition
7. Star Wars trilogy
8. Lost season one
9. Blade: Trinity
10. House of Flying Daggers

HAILING FREQUENCIES CLOSED

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Julia Houston
Sci-Fi/Fantasy Guide @ About.com
scifi@about.com