1.6.06 - 1.13.06

HELLO

And here's the three hundred and twenty-fourth edition of "Hailing Frequencies."

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

SCI FI Friday's back! Whee!

DOOM

In an attempt to boost the so-so response the movie got in theatres, the DVD is being released in an "unrated" (ooooh) version February 7, from Universal Studios Home Entertainment. There will be behind-the-scenes stuff, and a featurette, "Game On!," that looks at the weapons, creatures and strategies of a first-person-shooter game, too.

FUTURAMA

Fox just loves to cancel shows before they find their audience, and now Futurama is the latest to have a possible afterlife. Futurama came into being on Fox in August 2003, but located its fans on DVD and on the Cartoon Network. I myself just recently caught the episode with the heads of the Star Trek TOS cast on Adult Swim, and I'm still laughing. If Fox brings back the show, Billy West (Fry), Katey Sagal (Leela) and John DiMaggio (Bender) will all need contracts and Matt Groening will probably want someone to wash his car and call him "master."

GAMING

EverQuest Prophecy of Ro, the new and 11th expansion for Sony Online Entertainment's massively multiplayer online RPG, will be available for purchase/download February. SRP $29.99. The expansion gives players spheres of influence, which can be used to foil enemies or assist allies. For the first time in EverQuest, players will be able to destroy objects like doors and towers. Wow.

The GameSpot Web site reported that Square Enix will give Xbox 360 owners a sneak peek at its upcoming Final Fantasy XI massively multiplayer online role-playing game during a beta testing period. After applying, gamers will need to get their hands on the February issue of The Official Xbox Magazine and its demo disc, which includes the beta versions of the original game and both the Rise of the Zilart and Chains of Promathia expansion packs. The beta period will be free of charge to players, and the game can be logged onto using either a premium gold or fee-free silver Xbox Live account, the site reported. When the game goes live in May, Xbox 360 players will be able to join PlayStation 2 and PC players online. The game was originally released in mid-2002 for the PlayStation 2 in Japan.

HARRY POTTER

Warner Home Video is releasing Goblet of Fire on HD DVD April 11, 2006.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is in preproduction and should go before cameras February 2006.

LORD OF THE RINGS

Exclusive and never-shown-before blooper reels will play at the The One Ring Celebration at the Pasadena Center in Pasadena, CA from Friday, January 20th through Sunday, January, 22nd. Get more info here.

NARNIA

The C of N: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe won the top slot in the New Year's weekend box office by earning almost $33 million, for a grand two-week North American total now of over $200 million.

The line between fake and real news blurred again when some "real" news sites (including Forbes.com) reported that "the independent state of Narnia" walked out of the recent World Trade Organization's talks in Hong Kong, because it was tired of being picked on by America and Europe. The story quotes Narnia spokeswoman Susan Aslan, just to rub it in.

NEW & DEVELOPING SCI-FI/FANTASY MOVIE PROJECTS

Title: The Secret Drawer Society
Origin: Original
Scriptwriter: Sharon Scott
Producers: Daniel Alter and Howard Sun
Studio: None yet.
Premise: Two sisters read letters at an inn and are threatened by ghosts.
Production date: Unknown

Title: Wind Chill
Origin: Original (sorta)
Starring: Ashton Holmes and Emily Blunt
Director: Greg Jacobs
Scriptwriters: Joe Gangemi and Steven Katz.
Producers: George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh for Section Eight & Blue Print Pictures
Studio: Revolution Studios'
Premise: Two college students have their car break down on a deserted road and are threatened by ghosts
Production date: Unknown

Title:The Missing Link
Origin: (Original!)
Scriptwriters: Ron Friedman and Steve Bencich (Chicken Little)
Producers: Beau Flynn and Tripp Vinson of ContraFilm & Bryan Brucks
Studio: Walt Disney Pictures
Premise: Spy adventure, family & monkey-style
Production date: Unknown

Title: The Butterfly Effect 2
Origin: Sequel
Director: John Leonetti
Starring: Erica Durance
Studio: New Line
Premise: More fun with time
Production date: later this month

Title: Night at the Museum
Origin: Original (!)
Director: Shawn Levy
Starring: Ben Stiller & Carla Gugino
Studio: 20th Cen Fox
Premise: CGI comedy about bumbling museum security guard who makes animals and insects on display to come to life.
Production: February 2006

STAR TREK

Scifiheaven.net has a rumor up that Tom Hanks might star in an 11th Star Trek movie, Star Trek: The Beginning, written by Erik Jendresen (Band of Brothers). In other news, there's word some hot alien babes are going to come down and get it on with the crowd at the next Trek Con in Winnipeg.

Newsday's Worst of 2005 has this to say from Monty Phan about the ending of ENT

If you didn't already think it was long past time for "Star Trek" to take a rest, the mishmash "Enterprise" series-ender proved how creatively bereft the storied "franchise" had become. It wasn't even really about the Scott Bakula drama on UPN, whose four seasons it supposedly wrapped up, focusing instead on some weird time trip involving "Next Generation" characters. Hard to respect a show (or saga) that no longer respects itself.

TrekToday has a retro review of "Who Mourns for Adonais?" and another for "The Changeling."

NEWS BITS

One of the following news items is false.  Can you spot it? (For the answer, highlight below.)

• Charles Stross talks with SCI FI Wire about five new novels.
• Cynthia Watros (Lost) is going to plead guilty to DUI on January 12, but costar Michelle Rodriguez may opt to go to trial on March 30, says the AP
• The DVD of Joss Whedon's Serenity debuted in third place in total sales for the week ended Dec. 25, according to preliminary figures reported by Variety. However, word is that Josh will be doing no more Firefly. :-(
• Production has wrapped on a Murphy-less Doctor Dolittle 3, a straight-to-video sequel.
• Vincent Schiavelli (Ghost, TNG, Batman Returns) died December 26 at his home in Sicily of lung cancer. He was 57.
• Universal Studios, Dreamworks, CA, Inc., et al., have filed a class-action lawsuit against Paramount Studios, claiming that "Star Trek" has become a "generic" sci-fi name. If they win, Paramount will lose its copyright on "Star Trek," but only as a title.
• Check out the online game to promote Underworld: Evolution (the sequel), premiering January 20, which is my parents' anniversary, BTW.
• The Producers Guild of America nominated Chicken Little, Madagascar, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Robots and Tim Burton's Corpse Bride for best animated film of the year, according to Variety.
• Excessif.com has a teaser trailer for Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth.
• Disney and Pixar may be merging, or just renewing their old distribution agreement. Stay tuned.

Reveal the fake (highlight): Universal Studios, Dreamworks, CA, Inc., et al., have filed a class-action lawsuit against Paramount Studios, claiming that "Star Trek" has become a "generic" sci-fi name. If they win, Paramount will lose its copyright on "Star Trek," but only as a title.

INSANE TREK TRIVIA

This Week's Question: Who gets to say one of Trek's lamest lines, "Happiness at least, sir"?

Send your answer to scifi@about.com. All correctly answering trivia maniacs will have their names mentioned in the next newsletter. 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: Who once scolded Picard for drinking Earl Grey late at night?

Answer: Neela Darren.

First winner
Paul

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.]

This week's topic: New Year's resolutions you'd like to share?

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A few years ago I made a new years resolution I have never broken. Don't make New Years Resolutions. If I don't make em I can't break em.

Happy New Year
Kathryn

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Next week's topic: Does the overall quality of dramatic sci-fi seem to be getting better, worse, or holding the same, in your experience?

***

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 US MOVIES FROM THE NUMBERS

1 The Chronicles of Narnia.................$230,181,967
2 King Kong....................................$178,440,965
3 Fun With Dick And Jane...................$67,684,663
4 Cheaper by the Dozen 2...................$57,164,920 (Remember when Steve Martin used to be funny?)
5 Memoirs of a Geisha........................$32,693,139
6 Rumor Has It..................................$28,644,182
7 The Family Stone............................$47,847,338
8 Brokeback Mountain........................$16,173,000
9 The Ringer.....................................$22,953,649
10 Munich.......................................$17,109,025

TOP SF/F NETWORK SHOWS, NGR, 11.21 - 27

1. Lost 12.3
2. Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer 8.6 (whee!)
3. Medium 8.3
4. Invasion 6.4
5. Surface 6.1
6. Ghost Whisperer 6.0
7. Santa Claus is Coming to Town 4.7
8. Medium 2.8
9. Happy Elf 3.5

TOP SF/F SYNDICATED SHOWS, NGR, 12.12 - 12.18

1. Alias 2.2
2. Smallville 1.8
3. Stargate SG-1 1.6
4. Star Trek: Enterprise 1.5
5. Stargate Atlantis 1.4
6. Farscape 1.1
7. The Twilight Zone 1.0
8. The Outer Limits .8
9. Sabrina .7

TOP SCI-FI/FANTASY BOOKS, Amazon - 12.30.05

1. Narnia box set
2. The Da Vinci Code
3. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
4. The Chronicles of Narnia
5. Unleash the Night
6. Wicked
7. Cell
8. The Historian
9. Harry Potter paper box set
10. Ptolemy's Gate (Bartimaeus 3)

TOP SCI-FI/FANTASY DVDS, Amazon - 12.16

1. Star Wars: Episode III
2. Serenity
2. Madagascar
4. Lost season one
5. Firefly complete series
6. Mr. and Mrs. Smith
7. Fantastic Four
8. Cinderella platinum edition
9. Sin City
10. Star Wars: Clone Wars, volume two

HAILING FREQUENCIES CLOSED

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