Hailing Frequencies Issue #298

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IGN FilmForce spoke with Bradley Cooper about whether he might appear in season five: "Well, I went back the third season for an episode…It was great. I got to go back, sleep with Sydney, kill Francie and become a rock star. (Laughs) It was like, ridiculous. (Laughs) You know, there is actually a storyline for me to come back next year for a couple of episodes, but I'm doing this show that's gonna be launched in the Fall called Kitchen Confidential on Fox, so I don't think I'm gonna be able to… I don't think I'm going to be available to do it, which is really upsetting, because I'd love to…"

Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox) told SCI FI Wire the famous Batman toys in the film "are perfectly normal, everyday-type stuff...[They're] prototypes, but it's how you put them to use that makes all the difference. 'What is this?' 'This is a combat suit. This is Kevlar, and it can stop a knife blow and can even stop a bullet if it's not shot straight at you....I got my gadgets on the airplane that make me get from point A to point B. I have my gadget on my hip that people can call me on, or I can e-mail. I have my gadget in my car. If I want to go someplace, and I don't know where I'm going, I can actually program my gadget to tell me where to go....Batman is a man...He's not some mutant. There are no super powers, except the inventiveness of his mind and his hard-won ability in hand-to-hand combat."

MyMovies talks with Hans Zimmer about his score, which he was at first reluctant to do: "I really want experiment with electronics for a bit, and I really don‘t want to push a big orchestra around the landscape for a while, and I don‘t know about the superhero thing too." Hear how successful he was in overcoming these troubles with about twenty minutes of the Batman Begins score, by Zimmer and James Newton Howard.

Director Christopher Nolan acknowledge his debt to Ridley Scott's Blade Runner for the latest look of Gotham, telling SCI FI Wire: "I didn't want to be forced into a position sitting there in a big meeting with the studio saying we're going to do an art deco Batman...We were actually able to figure out more organically what it should be and the things we wanted to get, because we were looking for the textures of today's world. Exaggerated in some ways. A heightened reality, yes. But fundamentally grounded in today's world."

When watching the film, please note that the new Batsuit is fully functional and has no nipples.

Yes, James Cameron is still going forward with his 3-D mania, and for his next project will do Battle Angel, a movie based on the Japanese manga. Right after or during, he'll be doing another 3-D movie, Project 880 (working title).

The BBC has ordered up two more seasons, with Billie Piper (Rose) in the second season, but perhaps not so much in the third. John Barrowman (Capt. Jack) will be back about mid-season, and Christopher "Dr. OuttaHere" Eccleseton will be replaced with David Tennant. Season two will start in early 2006 on UK TV.

If only they'd done it when it might have saved the show. SCI FI Channel will run all fourteen hours of the late, lamented Firefly to coincide with the film, including three episodes that never aired on mean old Fox. Starting July 22, 7 PM, the shows will run before new episodes of Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica. The channel will air the episodes in their intended order, beginning with Whedon's pilot, which was only before viewable on the DVD box set that I really need to finish reviewing.

The actors are signed to do sequels, BTW, if Serenity does well, so go see it, people!

Blackfilm.com has posted some publicity pix and a synopsis of the movie. And check out the trailer.

Sony Online Entertainment is getting ready to release EverQuest: Depths of Darkhollow, a new expansion pack for the hit PC multiplayer online RPG for an SRP of $29.99. The exact release date is still TBD, but Darkhollow will feature new lands, a new storyline and fierce new creatures, including Sporali, Clockwork Gnomes and Werewolves. Gamers will have the ability to play as a monster and experience the universe through the eyes of Norrath's most powerful creatures. Players will also be able to use Spirit Shrouds to assume the form of a lower-level creature to join inexperienced friends in battle.

Multiplayer online game City of Heroes is having an event where players can create a character based on the Oompa Loompas.

Oompa Loompa, dipity-doo.
We've got another riddle for you.
If you love to play videogames --
Killing and looting, these are your aims.
Assume our names and, nerd, we will sue
Like the Oompa Loompa dipity do!

Obviously realizing there's just no need to promote her new book all that much J.K. Rowling won't be doing a big book tour for Half-Blood Prince. She will do only two US media outlets for interviews, Time magazine and NBC's Today show (July 17 & 18) . She will also do interviews with only two Websites: www.mugglenet.com and www.the-leaky-cauldron.org. .

Amazon has announced that preorders of Half-Blood have reached a whopping 560,000.

Goblet of Fire's coming to theatres November 18, and Half-Blood Prince will be available July 16. German edition will be released on Oct. 1, 2005. Amazon.de is selling it at 22.50 Euros. Check out the trailer! Check out the deluxe cover version here.

Steven Spielberg refuses to discuss the premise of the fourth (and probably last) Indiana Jones movie. While being interviewed at the Tokyo debut for War of the Worlds, he would only tell the AP: "If I [gave away the plot], my really good friend and collaborator would have me on a silver platter. I gotta be careful because if I tell you that, he might take over directing Indy 4 himself. And I won't have a job." The AP also reported that Spielberg may begin shooting in 2006.

SoundtrackNet looks at Steve Jablonsky's score for The Island: "Conducted by Blake Neely, the score is mostly electronic, with string, brass, choir and solo instruments adding to the palette....An emotional and lush main title cue was the first item recorded, and as they progressed through the score, Neely explained - in his wry and humorous manner - to the session players what was happening on screen so that they would understand where the music was coming from."

Okay, if you're not watching Robot Chicken on Adult Swim, you are seriously missing out. It runs about 12 minutes, and there's not plot, or really a premise beyond the idea (sort of) that a robot chicken is being forced to watch TV. It's a bunch of little stop-motion skits with action figures, and often the voices are famous people/friends of creators Seth Green and Breckin Meyer. My fave bits so far are all the "mishaps" with Cylons on the original BSG and Mark Hamill explaining about the evil clone in the fortress that got smished on the ceiling: "We'll sometimes lob a baseball at him, but he's stuck up there pretty good."

Anyways, Meyer told SCI FI Wire: ""It's great to watch Seth be all serious and official while we're doing it...I mean, we go way back, so I don't take him seriously at all, especially when he gives me directions...When you're working with friends, it's a whole different thing...It's such a blast, and you're comfortable. You don't worry about what the director is going to think. With Seth, he directs all the recording sessions, and he'll say, 'Uh, that's pretty good. Can you do it again and you bring it down a little bit?' And I'm like, 'You can go f--k yourself!' We have fun. It's about kids that have watched way too many movies. Sneaking into way too many movies, that's what it's all about."

Lou requests the purchase of the complete collection of TOS DVDs, preferably all three seasons, but "I will buy only one if you have only one." Anyone out there?

Manny Coto 35%
J. Michael Straczynski 25%
Keep Rick Berman 5%
Ron Moore (2)
O ther (8) 14%
Me (meaning yourself), dangit 14%

George Lucas is hinting that Boba Fett may be a character in the upcoming Star Wars TV show.

Tony Amendola (Bra'tac) told SCI FI Wire: "Season nine, go figure...I'm completely shocked....it's almost become like Law and Order, which just keeps going."

Amendola will show up often in season nine: "Last season, primarily, our enemy had been destroyed...And now it's a question of how do you make the peace? And how do you make the peace when you've be warring with each other, as factions, for thousands of years and only came together to defeat a common enemy? Now that the enemy is gone, how do you maintain the peace? How do you create a governance? It's very timely."

Lane Smith, a "who's that guy" performer for many years, best known as Perry White on Lois and Clark, died at 69 from natural causes.

This Week's Question: What piece of Trek techonology relies on the Heisenberg Compensator?

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.

Sixth winner
Robin
(Though, actually, the answer provided here was: "That woman from the City on the Edge of Forever that ends up getting squished by the truck to save the future from the Nazis.")

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

Honorable Mentions...

"Our next caller is a millionaire playboy who likes to dress up as a bat." - Debra Smith

"Now that we've caught the "Luna-Ball," Sailor Mini-Moon doesn't have a chance!" - Serena

"Penguin, we're not going to tell you again. This is a no-smoking lair!" - sexualuniverse

"It's Freeze on the line, Penguin. He wants his snowmaker back." - sexualuniverse

"This is Penguin", "Riddler", "and the Joker." "We're not in right now. Please leave a message and we'll call you back." - sexualuniverse

"Riddle me this! Does this tiny mask really hide my identity?" - sexualuniverse

"We need more white gloves. Order a couple-dozen." - sexualuniverse

"Hi Catwoman. We're having a party over here and we were wondering if you, Poison Ivy and Queen of Diamonds could come over?" - sexualuniverse

"Aha! That bug we planted really paid off. I always wondered why Bats had Robin dress that way." - sexualuniverse

"Do you have Prince Albert in a can?" (hee hee hee! I love being a villain.) - sexualuniverse

"Okay, which one you guys put pee in my squirting flower?" - sexualuniverse

"Heaven may be missing an angel, but has gained three crafty devils!" (I am still upset at the death of Frank Gorshin.) - Lou

"I see dead villains..." - Lou

Next week's topic: The Stargates & Battletstar Galatica are coming back in July. What do you hope happens next season?

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.)

1 Batman Begins......................................$15,068,368
2 Mr. And Mrs. Smith................................$66,422,405
3 Madagascar........................................$134,137,273
4 Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith..............$336,736,523
5 Longest Yard, The...............................$122,650,240
6 Shark Boy & Lava Girl.............................$16,137,000
7 Cinderella Man......................................$37,517,445
8 Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.............$26,203,434
9 Monster-in-Law....................................$77,439,000
10 Honeymooners, The...............................$6,622,188

1. Lost 12
2. Medium 7.9
3. Alias 6.2
4. Desperate Housewives 4.9
5. Joan of Arcadia 2.7
6. Enterprise 1.0
7. Charmed 0.9

1. Stargate SG-1 1.6
2. Andromeda 1.2
3. She Spies 1.2
4. The X-Files 1.2
5. Mutant X 1.1
6. Twilight Zone 1.0
7. The Outer Limits 0.9
8. Angel 0.8
9. Buffy 0.8
10. Ripley's 0.8

1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
2. Eldest (Inheritance 2)
3. The Da Vinci Code
4. Black Rose (In the Garden)
5. Angels and Demons
6. Dance of Death
7. The Time Traveler's Wife
8. The Five People You Meet in Heaven
9. The Opal Deception (Artemis Fowl 4)
10. The Chronicles of Narnia

1. Star Wars trilogy
2. Phantom of the Opera
3. The 4400 season one
4. Team America: World Police
5. Firefly complete series S
6. The Incredibles
7. Star Wars: Episode I
8. Lost season one
9. Star Wars: Episode II
10. Lois & Clark season one