6.21.06
HELLO
And here's the three hundred and forty-first edition of "Hailing Frequencies."
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I hope all you fathers out there had a lovely Sunday.
BLOG: Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV Listings
AUTHORS
Laird Barron talks with the SCI FI Wire about his story, "The Imago Sequence," about a smalltime enforcer who follows some photographs into secrets not meant for the eyes of man.
Adam Stemple has an interview up with the SCI FI Wire about his latest novel, Troll Bridge.
BLOG: The New World Order, by Ben Jeapes
BLOG: Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers on DVD
The new season starts in October.
Hey, look! I've got a Doctor Who section now. :-)
BLOG: Who's Played Doctor Who?
The BBC has announced that they're releasing 1968's Cyber-epic The Invasion on DVD this November, including fully-animated recreations of two missing episodes, starring Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor in a battle with the Cybermen. Check out the teaser here.
This October, the BBC will release a single-disc DVD of the two-part Tom Baker serial from 1974, The Sontaran Experiment, in the UK.
Susie Liggat will replace producer Phil Collinson for season three.
The Sun is reporting the rumor that Freema Agyeman, currently starring in Crossroads, a British soap, just may play the new companion for David Tennant's Doctor in season three. Word is that Agyeman will show up at the end of the current season as "Adeola" and swap out with Rose during a battle with the Cybermen.
However, other sources say it will be Michelle Ryan.
ENCHANTED
James Marsden told SCI FI Wire that while his new movie Enchanted may blend animation, live action, and music, it's no Xanadu (1980). I mean, after all, he's much prettier than Olivia Newton-John. Well, actually what he said was: "In this film, you're either in the real world or the animated world. There's never, on screen, a live-action character acting with an animated character. So it's one or the other. It's just that these characters come from that animated fairy-tale, storybook-cottage land, and they're thrust into this new world—or new to them—which is present-day New York. But they're wearing the same costumes, and they're still trying to communicate through singing, but now they're real."
Enchanted deals with Princess Amy Adams stuck in New York City and pursued by Prince Marsden. Susan Sarandon, Patrick Dempsey and Idina Menzel also star, and the movie comes out November 2, 2007. So that's like, not any time soon.
LeakyCauldron has screencaps up of the new BBC commercial for the Queen's birthday party which features the Trio and Neville.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix comes out globally in both traditional theatres and IMAX July 13, 2007.
Variety reports that Laurence Shames is, in fact, the author of Hyperion Books' Bad Twin, the book "written" by Oceanic Flight 815 passenger Gary Troup.
The LA Times has an article on how Evangeline Lilly (Kate) became the new face of Michelle K footwear.
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN
Disneyland is revamping the Pirates of the Caribbean ride to reflect the movies, but claims that the ride won't change at a "fundamental" level. The ride (still 14.5 minutes long) will continue to have the guys chasing the wenches and the pirate who's asleep, and all that, but will add a waterfall display with Davey Jones, and animatronic characters from the film, including Depp's. The renovation will help hype the sequels.
Just in case anyone's forgotten that Johnny Depp can be a little peculiar, he's told Newsweek just how much he loves playing Captain Jack: "I'll be in a deep, dark depression saying good-bye to him...I'll keep the costume and just prance around the house, entertain the kids. Maybe Pirates 4, 5 and 6. If they had a good script, why not?"
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest comes out July 7th. The teaser trailer for the Transformers movie will be shown with it.
BLOG: Have You Hugged Your Robot Chicken Today?
William Shatner will be the next target for Comedy Central's roast, airing Sunday, August 20 at 10 PM. Says Elizabeth Porter, senior vice president, specials and talent for Comedy Central, "By the end of this year's Roast, Shatner may wish he was [sic] in a galaxy far, far away."
Shatner is also one of five honorees to earn induction into The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' Hall of Fame, along with Tom Brokaw, James Burrows, Leonard Goldberg and Regis Philbin.
Bryce Zabel's blog, For What It's Worth, details the version of a "rebooted" Star Trek that he and J. Michael Straczynski came up with for Paramount back in 2004. He figures that now Abrams has gotten creative control over Trek, his ideas are destined to go no where. It's a fun read. Sort of "one fan's dream." Here's the gist.
Anyway, the take that JMS and I came up with included using the original characters as the new film will do, apparently, but not as young officers at Starfleet Academy. We wanted to do what they do in the world of comics, create a separate universe ("Universe A") for all the past TV and film Trek continuity in order to free ourselves creatively so we could embrace the good stuff, banish the bad, and try some new things. In our re-boot ("Universe B"), we wanted to start over, use Kirk, Spock and McCoy and others in a powerful new origin story about what it was that bonded them in such strong friendship, and show them off as you'd never seen them before.
The Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada will get the proceeds from the Michael Shanks Online second annual auction, beginning June 21. This time, about seventy items are up for bid, from Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Andromeda, Highlander, Star Trek, Lost, Supernatural and Smallville. Last year, the site's auction raised $5,500, which is pretty cool, even in Canadian dollars.
Items on the block this time include: Shanks' college rugby boots; his costume coat from a University of British Columbia production of Love's Labour's Lost; his shooting scripts of SG-1 episodes, including the season ten premiere "Flesh and Blood," with his handwritten notes; the shooting script for the Andromeda episode "Star-Crossed," signed by Shanks and Lexa Doig; the script of the SG-1 episode "Watergate," signed by Shanks, Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping and Christopher Judge; and more. Items were donated by Shanks, Doig, the University of British Columbia, Stargate Props, Ann Wortham, Stargatefan.com and Creation Entertainment.
Stargate SG-1's season ten premieres July 14 with "Flesh and Blood."
The franchise's future plans include the CG-animated Star Wars TV series which should premiere in 2008, a live-action Star Wars series in preproduction, a new Star Wars videogame that will celebrate the first movie's 30th anniversary, the DVDs of the original versions of the first three movies, and a new Lego Star Wars videogame. That's in addition to puzzles, action figures, games, and all that other stuff.
Oh, and I'll go ahead and mention here that there are also plans for a summer 2007 release of a new "Indiana Jones" videogame from LucasArts and a summer 2008 release for Indy 4.
SUPERMAN
Warner Bros. Pictures has a 2.5 minute clip download for your iTunes free here.
ComingSoon.net's Superhero Hype! has now posted the entire score for Superman Returns, which will be here (the score) June 27. The movie launches June 28.
Kate Bosworth (Lois Lane) SCI FI Wire that she enjoys playing with Beyond the Sea costar Kevin Spacey, who's playing Lex Luthor: "we played love interests in Beyond the Sea. He was my husband. And in this one, he's my archenemy. That was so fun for us to play on and laugh about."
Warner Bros. has a video up showing how Rhythm & Hues took the Marlon Brando footage from the '80s to reprise the role of Jor-El in the new movie. Very cool.
Titan Books is releasing Superman Returns: The Complete Shooting Script July 3 in both the US and the UK. The script includes scenes that were shot but then cut from the final edit of the movie, some storyboards, and writers/director's notes.
Warner Bros. is going to give away two flat-screen TVs random winners in the first 300 people to take seats in the bleachers at the red-carpet premiere of Superman Returns on June 21 at the Mann Village Theater in Westwood. That's a cool theatre. I used to go there all the time. Nobody ever gave me a TV for it, though. sniff
BLOG: Week's Top Sci-Fi/Fantasy Books & DVDs
NEWS BITS
One of the following news items is false. Can you spot it? (For the answer, highlight below.)
Reveal the fake (highlight): And speaking about chicks, man, Halle Berry has dropped a few hints that her character from X-Men, Ororo Munroe/Storm, may be next in line to take center stage in a spin-off feature.
INSANE TREK
TRIVIA
This Week's Question: In The Simpsons' parody, what trouble does Scotty
encounter when they're faced with the Klingons?
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: Name the character who says this and the episode: "If
it should become necessary to fight, could you arrange to find some rocks to
throw at them?"
Answer: William Riker, "Contagion."
First winner
Susan
Second winner
Lou
Third winner
wow
Fourth winner
Patty
Fifth winner
Suprpntr
Sixth winner
Pianokeyboardorg
Seventh winner
Debbie D.
Eighth winner
David
"LETTERS TO THE EDITOR"
This week's topic: Are you anxiously awaiting Stargate SG-1's tenth season, or has the show lost you?
***
I'm only looking forward to those eps Jack is in! Otherwise I'm not.
***
Next week's topic: Does anyone have an opinion about the look of the new Superman?
***
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