4.26.06
HELLO
And here's the three hundred and thirty-sixth edition of "Hailing Frequencies."
If you want to be notified when this newsletter is updated, email me to be put on my "notification" list.
New Orleans has been a little dry -- for New Orleans -- lately, so with some pleasure I awoke this morning to the sound of rain.
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
Rotten Tomatoes has an interview up with the delightful Katee Sackhoff, which is primarily about her role in White Noise II. But they talk Galactica too, in a rather sneaky way:
RT: How did your character in "Battlestar Galactica" prepare you for the role for this?
KS: The characters are very different. You know, Starbuck is extremely capable, and she's very quick with the tongue and even faster with the fist, so she's a very tough person. Sherry, my character in "White Noise," she's just as capable, just in different ways. She's kind of the damsel in distress, which is very interesting for me.
There's a scene where I get in a struggle with a gentleman, and it was really hard for me because I'm so used to playing Starbuck who would give him a dropkick to the face. So it was really hard for me to be the victim and scream like I didn't know what to do and be like, "Oh my God, a knife!" You know, that was pretty hard.
So it's been very different for me. The director's been amazingly approachable and he's helped me so much because I'm so used to playing that tough character that it's nice to have someone sit there and go "Cut. Katee, don't look like you're gonna beat Nathan up. You're supposed to be kissing him right now." So little things like that have helped.
hee hee
BLOG: Top SF/F Movies, Shows, Books & DVDs
BLOG: Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV Listings
BLOG: Bill Murray Musts for Your Sci-Fi/Fantasy Collection
BLOG: Celebrity Baby Names of the 24th Century UPDATED
DA VINCI CODE
Talk about trying to meet expectations. Dan Brown's got a follow-up novel to The Da Vinci Code, but it won't be ready by the original deadline. We should now expect it towards the end of 2007. There's no title for the book yet, but Brown has indicated that the Masons will be part of the fun. Hey, as long as it's not a novelization of National Treasure!
FINAL FANTASY
Check
out this four-minute clip from Final
Fantasy VII: Advent Children now available on DVD and for PSP, from Sony
Pictures Home Entertainment
High
ASX
Low
ASX
High
RAM
Low
RAM
The world faces a new crisis, as a mysterious plague spreads through the land.
Once again, Cloud must come forward to help. Directed by Tetsuya Nomura and
Takeshi Nozue, produced by Yoshinori Kitase and Shinji Hashmoto.
BLOG: Firebird Trilogy, by Kathy Tyers
HARRY POTTER
Jim
McManus will play Aberforth Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Order of the
Phoenix.
Word is, Nicholas Hooper will score Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The score won't be written, however, until after the film is shot for its release July 13th, 2007. So there's no being certain yet.
LOST
Michelle
Rodriguez, who plays Ana-Lucia, chose prison over community service. Why? Probably
because she'd rather read in her cell for five days and pay a fine of $500 than
spend 240 hours in the public eye, sweeping floors or giving speeches or whatever,
while people ask for autographs and ask her how she feels about getting caught
driving drunk. I, for one, don't blame her. Rodriguez, who's all of 27, and
Cynthia Watros (Libby) were both driving a little erratically in their cars
December 1, got pulled over, and charged with drunken driving. Watros had her
license suspended for 90 days, was fined $312, and will have an an alcohol assessment
and fourteen hours of counseling. Neither actress anticipates that their sentences
will interfere with Lost production.
ABC will launch Lost on the Net as a global interactive gam May 3rd in the U.S., May 2 in the United Kingdom, and May 6th in Australia. There's nothing to win, but players will follow the stories of others on the island and get clues about the TV show.
BLOG: MOVIES TO WATCH FOR
NARNIA
Entertainment Weekly reports that the follow-up Chronicles of Narnia films, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and The Silver Chair, will be presented a a trilogy centering around Prince/King Caspian. Producer Mark Johnson says Prince Caspian is proving hard to adapt, and Walden Media executive Cary Granat says postproduction will mean the movie probably won't hit screens until Christmas 2008. The order of the last of the seven films is being complicated by concerns over the actors' ages, but as long as the movies make money, they're all sure to come out in time.
NIELSENS
Upcoming 2006-07 Nielsen local survey dates (and times when you know your favorite sci-fi and fantasy shows won't be running reruns) are:
Oct Sweep: September
28 - October 25
Nov Sweep: November 2 - 29
Feb Sweep: February 1 - 28*
May Sweep: April 26 - May 23
July Sweep: July 5 - August 1
*New Orleans is included in the measurements as of Feb 2007
STAR BLAZERS
Benderspink and Josh C. Kline are going to make an English-speaking, live-action movie version of an early anime favorite, Star Blazers (AKA Space Battleship Yamato), which has already been treated to three TV series and five animated movies in Japan. We got to see it on American TV back in the 80s. The extremely complex plot and deep character development (and I don't just mean "for a cartoon") all center around an Earth of the 22nd century which has been almost destroyed by surface radiation following an alien attack. Now, the crew of an experimental starship are trying to find an alien ally to help them fight back. (Sound familiar to a certain B5 premise?)
BLOG: Star Trek XI A Go! Update
STAR WARS
Check out the official Star Wars Display Cabinet, you nerd.
STARGATE
Darren Sumner has an interview up with executive producer Brad Wright at GateWorld about keeping the show on for ten years, maybe more. Good bits:
"That's the reason Star Trek: The Next Generation went off the air -- not because nobody would want to watch it, but because Patrick Stewart was becoming a big star and needed to move on," Wright said. "And now, of course, he doesn't even do television any more. That's what happens to a really successful franchise. And because seven years is the maximum, generally, the business model goes out to, and that's generally as far as the actor deals have been made."
"I do know that on our show for the last couple of years we've had to renegotiate ever year, and that is very difficult from our perspective," Wright said. "We don't know: a) whether we're doing to get a network pick-up; b) how much money we're going to get to make the show. And all of those things are contingent on the cast deals that we make. Which comes first, right? So it's been difficult the last couple of years."
The Stargates return July 14th.
GateWorld
also has a ton of spoilers up for the next season.
SUPERMAN RETURNS
FilmForce has an article about Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor.
TOMB RAIDER II
FilmForce reports that Angelina Jolie has changed her mind and wants to do a third Tomb Raider. Sit-ups, girl!
BLOG: Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Season One, Volume One, on DVD
X-MEN
FilmForce has an article up on the X-Men's new sweet ride with a cool pic:
"Fans won't be disappointed with the X-Jet," Bruno tells IGN FilmForce. "We have various versions of it for filming purposes. There's some large set pieces, and then there's half set pieces, and [the visual effects team] will fill it in digitally. So, sometimes it's half real and half digital." The "real" X-Jet is predominantly comprised of the same set that was built for the first two movies. "They pulled it out of storage and put together portions of the original jet for specific scenes."
Check out the Website. Has pictures, character profiles, screenshots, downloads, and the trailers.
NEWS BITS
One of the following news items is false. Can you spot it? (For the answer, highlight below.)
Reveal the fake (highlight): The BBC's newest Doctor Who is doing so well in the ratings that the network is considering accepting money for product placement. The would be a first for the BBC.
INSANE TREK
TRIVIA
This Week's Question: Mic Fleetwood had a cameo on a Star Trek series.
Whom did he play?
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: From whence came the name "Klingon"?
Answer: Lieutenant Wilbur Clingan, a friend of Mr. R.
First winner
Patty
Second winner
Rissa
"LETTERS TO THE EDITOR"
This week's topic: Is Lost keeping its quality going?
***
Who can tell? I don't remember when they had a new episode.
BTCHONWHLS
***
[On the Star Trek XI article:]
I agree with you 100%. It's the wrong idea at the wrong time. The main thing which hobbled ENT (besides the gross incompetence of the Bs) was that they were going into a period of time which was already sort of established in a franchise which is already known for being the most nitpicked in all of entertainment. It's fun for fanfic, but not for a movie.
Hiring Abrams just means that Paramount wants to continue trying to sell Trek to a wide, mainstream audience, rather than the small, devoted niche fandom. They already have our butts guaranteed in the seats. They're aiming for the masses.
So they get a hot producer who has a proven track record of mainstream hits with lots of explosions, use the characters which everyone is familiar with, go back to the spot in the universe timeline where they can insert new (or, gods help us, 'trendy') actors rather than the old/fat/dead originals, and hope to rake in buckets of money.
Unless the plot is frakking well spectacular, it will fail.
I believe that the best hope for Trek, given the current media climate and the people in charge, is to give it a rest for 10 or 15 years -- yes, I realize that means not continuing ENT. Bring it back when the entire dynamic of TV watching and TV producing has changed. Bring it back when the à la carte model is more firmly entrenched and proven to be a comfortable profit-turner, so that Paramount is not afraid to take a chance on making two or four seasons to download or release straight to DVD or create as 10-ep or 20-ep cable seasons, and to give the audience a chance to build. Get Trek away from the people who insist on playing it safe. Give it 10 years so that more people like RDMoore and Whedon and Coto are higher up on the food chain.
I hope whatever Trek does, it does well. But I have no hopes for this, any more than I did for NEM. There are a limited number of Moores and Whedons to go around, and Moore fought with Paraborg constantly on DS9. BSG2K is as brilliant as it is because SCI-FI knows enough to back off. Firefly was destroyed because Fox didn't know what the hell to do with it.
There isn't a single rumor about this movie yet that I'm happy about.
evay
***
["What's your theory on why sci-fi/fantasy stuff gets overlooked by the Oscars (and all the other popular awards shows)?" ]
You have to remember it's not just sci fi/fantasy that gets ignored - comedy also tends to be overlooked, and even though anyone who's ever acted knows it's harder to do good comedy than drama, a comedian who gets cast in a drama is considered doing a 'breakthrough' role. Award shows, and the people behind them, tend to think of it as "Art" (capital A intended) that is for the cultural elite rather than for the masses.
SCI fi/fantasy has only recently been started being treated as something other than proverbial 'junk food' in the literary field, let alone TV and/or movies. It's (pardon the bad relation) like "Monty Python" - you either love it or hate it; very few people have middle of the road thoughts about it. You either love science fiction/fantasy and see how you can't judge the whole genre on "Santa Claus Fights the Martians" (or, for that matter, on the other end of things, "2001" and such), or you group it all together and it's not for the people who are trying to make this an "Art".
Next week's topic: Anybody else got opinions on the new Trek film proposal?
***
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.)
HAILING FREQUENCIES CLOSED
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Julia Houston
Sci-Fi/Fantasy Guide @ About.com
scifi@about.com