Hailing Frequencies, Issue #308

8.26.05 - 9.2.05

HELLO

And here's the three hundredth and eighth edition of "Hailing Frequencies."

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

Classes start for Tulane next week. Let the craziness begin!

AEON FLUX

Techno German composers Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek (One Hour Photo, Land of the Dead, The Cave) are taking the soundtrack for Aeon Flux in a, well, techno direction. A soundtrack CD has yet to be announced, but is generally expected, reports MusicFromTheMovies.com.

Aeon Flux premieres December 2, directed by Karyn Kusama and starring Charlize Theron, Frances McDormand, Marton Csokas, Jonny Lee Miller, and Sophie Okonedo.

BATMAN BEGINS DVD

Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan's surprisingly good retelling of Batman's genesis, is coming out October 18, 2005 for an SRP of $28.98 in both widescreen and full-frame formats and a Deluxe Ed for $30.97. Extras for the pricey one:

Detective Comics #27 - The very first Batman story.
The Man Who Falls - A classic story that influenced Batman Begins.
Batman: The Long Halloween – The chilling first chapter of the acclaimed epic that also influenced the film.
Genesis of the Bat: Batman incarnations from the mid-1980s to the present.
The Journey Begins: Creative concepts, story development and casting.
Shaping Mind and Body: Fighting style.
Gotham City Rises: Production design.
Cape and Cowl: The new Batsuit.
The Tumbler: The new Batmobile.
Path to Discovery: Filming in Iceland.
Saving Gotham City: The monorail chase sequence.
Tankman Begins: A spoof on Batman Begins.
Confidential files character/weaponry gallery.
Still gallery of design ideas developed to market the movie.
Batman Begins mobile game and DVD-Rom* weblinks.

BATTLESTAR GALATICA

Hmm. Not sure how cool this is actually going to turn out, but WizKids Inc. and Universal Studios Consumer Products Group are making a Battlestar Galactica collectable card game (CCG) to come out in early 2006. The game's strategy will mimic the twists and turns of the show, with cards for characters, ships, and situations from the show so far.

SCI FI Channel's Website has a fun behind-the-scenes video blog from executive producer David Eick. Spoiler warning!

BROTHERS GRIMM

Well, Brothers Grimm is opening among mixed critical reaction this weekend, but you can already buy eDario Marinelli's soundtrack from Milan Records, which is getting a pretty unanimous round of thumbs-up. Think "lavish" and "quirky." Benjami Wallfisch conducts.

BRUCE ALMIGHTY 2

Do we really need a sequel to this so-so Jim Carrey movie? Word is, Universal is hoping the next Steve Carell vehicle will be Evan Almighty, because, as you may recall. Carell played the news anchor in the first film. The tentative plot for the second one is to have Carell build an ark in preparation for a great flood. Wow. And I thought The Island was derivative.

They're trying to get Morgan Freeman to return as God. Steve Oedekerk did the script and Tom Shadyac has agreed to come back to direct. Production should start early next year, barring an act of...you know who.

CORPSE BRIDE

WB has a Website up for Tim Burton's stop-motion Corpse Bride, set for theatres September 23.

Warner Sunset Records/Warner Bros. Records will release The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to Tim Burton's Corpse Bride from Oscar-winning composer Danny Elfman on Sept. 20, three days before the stop-motion-animation film hits theaters.

DR WHO

Dr Who Hoo! Giles (Anthony Stewart Head to the non-Buffyphiles) will guest-star next season on the BBC's Doctor Who, while the Doctor (David Tennant) is battling the Krillitanes.

Even cooler for longtime Who fans, Sarah herself -- Elisabeth Sladen -- will make her first appearance as the character since 1983 on the same episode. And just to make it Old Home Week, the Doctor will also get his mechanical best friend K9, who hasn't been seen since 1981. (My prediction: K9 will call Sarah "Mistress.") K9 will even get the same actor, John Leeson, for his voice.

FIREFLY/SERENITY

Here's a new advertising bit. Three brief film clips have been posted online that seem to promote Joss Whedon's Firefly-film, Serenity. Clip #1 came up ten days ago on iFilm shows a choking man and glimpse of Summer Glau/River Tam. Clip #2 popped up a couple days ago and shows someone who looks like Whedon talking to Glau, and Clip #3 shows more of the same, along with some little clips from the film...maybe.

The soundtrack is by David Newman and will be released on CD by Varese Sarabande Records on September 27th. Check out a sneak listened here.

Serenity opens September 30th.

GAMING

Can you believe it's been ten years since Resident Evil came out? Well, Capcom is celebrating the anniversary with a remake of the original PlayStation version for the Nintendo DS.

Jeffrey Anderson of Turbine has announced that the company is be shutting down Asheron's Call 2, a massively multiplayer online sequel to the still-successful Asheron's Call.

HARRY POTTER

"As an aside regarding the Christian aspects of Harry Potter, my sister, a Presbyterian minister, wrote a short homily recently about 'Expecto Patronum.' It means, 'I expect a savior.' And you have to really BELIEVE to make it happen. Yup. No accident." - S

cool - J

LOST

Spoiler alert, highlight to read: TV Guide Online tells us that Cynthia Watros is joining Lost in its second season as Libby, a "mysterious" character and therapist who says she's from that elusive tail section of Oceanic Flight 815.

Anthony Spinner, a witer in LA, is suing ABC and Touchstone Television for breach of contract and fraud, claiming the show stole an idea from a script he wrote for ABC in 1977 about some plane-crash survivors in the jungle and entitled Lost.

You know, that island is full of secrets.

STAMPS

Cinescape reports a rumor that he US Post Office is going to come out with some comic book DC superhero stamps in 2006, with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Aquaman, Hawkman, Supergirl, and Plastic Man. Marvel Heroes will be done in 2007 stamps. Again, this isn't confirmed by the USPS.

Meanwhile, we definitely have Muppet Stamps!

NEWS BITS

• Sona Mobile and Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products are developing a Star Trek-style mobile phone. Not only will this device modeled on the Star Trek communicator. The special-edition Star Trek Communicator Phone will offer fans the ability to play a multiplayer online Trek game, stream real-time video and surf the Internet, as well as access ring tones, wallpapers, news, information and Trek fan activities, Sona said. The Star Trek Communicator Phone will come equipped with a custom Trek faceplate and other themed features. The phone will be available beginning Sept. 30.
• Hey, remember that odd little film from 1984 that was sort of Valley Girl meets Omega Man? Night of the Comet has made enough money as a cult semi-hit to convince producers to fund a sequel, starring Kelli Maroney with Thom Eberhardt producing.
• Variety reports that Natalie Portman and Dustin Hoffman will star in Zach Helm's Mandate Pictures' Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. (Did you get lost in those apostrophes?) Hoffman leaves a less-than-normal toy shop to Portman.
• ABC and TNT are jointly paying about $25 million for the rights to show War of the Worlds.
• Yes, it's coming from a coffin near you. Warner Brothers Theatre Ventures will spend December launching Lestat, a musical version of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, at San Francisco's Curran Theatre. If it doesn't flop, it's on to Broadway next spring.
• Ken Nolan just got $3,000,000 from Sony for The Grays, a 75-frackin'-page treatment of Whitley Strieber's unpublished novel about an alien race who control many worlds, including Earth. In other news, I sold a pair of earrings on eBay for 500 cents.

INSANE TREK TRIVIA

This Week's Question: On Bajor, what medical condition has the symptom of constant sneezing?

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: What dessert did Neelix whip up to make the American guests from 1937 feel at home?

Answer: Jell-O with fruit cocktail.

First winner
Rick

Second winner
Sue

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: What is the most original movie or TV show you've seen recently?

***

On the advice of a friend I got the DVD's for Firefly and sat down and watched a whole disc at each sitting. By the time I finished I was hooked. I like the characters. I love the ship. I liked the look and feel of the bad guys.

Now tell me why this series didn't make it?

I missed it because I was always working and never got around to setting the VCR for it. I already tape three or four shows a week to watch when I get time.

Then again I grew up with the great Westerns of American TV. I also watched Star Trek (original series) when it first aired.

I did hear that they started the series with the train robbery episode rather than the real pilot. That alone would have driven me nuts. I watched them in the correct order so maybe I did better by waiting.

Anyway...Firefly is first....then there was the movie, The Incredibles for second. And maybe Hitchiker's Guide for third....(however, if there is to be a sequel...I can only hope they amputate the second head of the President. That was SO, SO annoying when he snapped his head back...liked the two-headed President from the old TV series better).

Annie

***

Original? In this Decade of the Sequel? Does BSG2K count if it's technically a re-imagining of a '70s show?

evay

***

Next week's topic: On other so-called "sci-fi" and "fantasty" sites, I see all sorts of TV shows and movies and books that I don't personally consider sci-fi or fantasy, but horror or religious or thriller stuff. I mean...James Bond? What's that about? What makes it "sci-fi" or "fantasy" to you?

***

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 The 40 Year-old Virgin.....................$29,944,955
2 Red-Eye........................................$20,941,290
3 Four Brothers.................................$46,534,988
4 The Wedding Crashers....................$180,568,000
5 The Skeleton Key............................$32,819,460
6 March of the Penguins......................$50,546,244
7 Valiant............................................$7,707,000
8 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory....$194,392,018
9 The Dukes of Hazzard.......................$70,862,063
10 Sky High......................................$52,239,000

TOP SF/F NETWORK SHOWS, NGR, 8/1-7

1. Medium 4.1
2. Desperate Housewives 3.9
3. Lost 3.0
4. Smallville 1.5
5. Charmed 1.1

TOP SF/F SYNDICATED SHOWS, NGR, 8/1 -7

1. Stargate SG-1 1.6
2. The Twilight Zone 1.4
3. Andromeda 1.2
4. Mutant X 1.2
5. She Spies 1.1
6. The X-Files 1.1
7. Angel 1.0
8. Buffy 1.0
9. The Outer Limits 1.0
10. Sabrina 0.7

TOP SCI-FI/FANTASY BOOKS, Amazon - 8/19/05

1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
2. Eldest (Inheritance 2)
3. The Da Vinci Code
4. The Historian
5. Knife of Dreams (Wheel of Time 11)
6. Harry Potter paper box set
7. Angels and Demons
8. Chronicles of Narnia box set
9. The Time Traveler's Wife
10. A Breath of Snow and Ashes (Outlander 6)

TOP SCI-FI/FANTASY DVDS, Amazon - 8/19/05

1. Sin City
2. Lost season one
3. Star Wars: Episode III
4. Stargate SG-1 season eight
5. Kung Fu Hustle
6. Cinderella platinum edition
7. Alias season four
8. Smallville season four
9. Firefly complete series
10. Charmed season two

HAILING FREQUENCIES CLOSED

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