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Hailing
Frequencies #351
2.15.07
HELLO
And here's the three hundred and fifty-first edition of "Hailing Frequencies."
If you want to be notified when this newsletter is updated, email me to be put on my "notification" list.
Check out my new home! It's not as impressive as working for the New York Times (sigh), but it's still pretty cool!
NEW AT THE SITE THIS WEEK
Uh, the site.
Things Trek Characters Would Say if They Met God
Harry
Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Picture Gallery
- 22 high-res
publicity shots from the Warner Bros. movie.
AFTERWORLD
The new age of media has begun, and Sony Pictures Television International is going to utilize every media outlet available with the Afterworld, an animated drama about a future Earth where technology just doesn't work anymore. The deal is SPTI's first acquisition to encompass international television, Internet, digital sell-through, gaming and mobile rights for a single property. Dedicated Web content will live on Afterworld.tv, as will archived back episodes, daily journal entries, community blogs, interactive content applications and online games.
AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE
You know, just when I think people can't get any sillier...
A few weeks ago, Cartoon Network decided it would be fun to promote the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie (which I totally can't wait to see) with some little signs showing characters from the cartoon flipping people off. They look like this:
Yet despite the fact that these are rather obviously NOT TERRORIST BOMBS, and that they were put in nine other cities that had no problem with them, Boston decided to go totally ape*^$! insane over it, calling out the hazmat and anti-terrorism units. Which is all bad enough.
And then Ted Tuner got fined $2,000,000 for the stunt. Which is again kinda lame, but, hey, it did cost the city money.
Now, Cartoon Networkl station manager Jim Samples has resigned over the whole thing in hope "that my decision allows us to put this chapter behind us."
People, please.
AVATAR
You know, James Cameron has just started filming this thing, and I'm getting tired of hearing about it.
Anyway, he's cast Sigourney Weaver, Wes Studi, Peter Mensah, Joel David Moore, C.C.H. Pounder, Lola Herrera and Laz Alonso in his "ground-breaking" 3D movie. The film's about an ex-marine forced to exploit the citizens of another planet.
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
SCI FI Channel has ordered up a 13-episode fourth season of Battlestar Galactica. Turns out, that move to 10 PM upped viewership by about 8%, so that was a good idea. Production in Vancouver rolls this summer, and the fourth season should debut in January 2008. Read more.
Look this fall for the Battlestar Galactica video game from Sierra Online for Xbox Live Arcade and the PC. From Auran Games, the game will have single- and multiplayer modes for battle as both human and Cylon warriors.
DOCTOR WHO
The Doctor will visit the Bash Street Kids and hang out with Jamie Oliver, Rowan Atkinson and Dennis The Menace in a special charity edition of the Beano. The plot involves the Daleks forcing the kids to study, which means they truly are evil. Read more about it here.
Ex-Doctor Christopher Eccleston, who's chewing the scenery over on Heroes, has signed to play bad-guy Rider in 20th Century Fox and Walden Media's adaptation of Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising. The film will also star Amelia Warner, Emma Lockhart, and Gregory Smith and will go before cameras Feb. 26 in Romania.
Ex-companion Billie Piper has been cast to star in BBC's Channel 4 adaptation of Belle de Jour.
HARRY POTTER
Here's a fun poster from Scholastic.com on the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (pdf format).
It's not coming out until June, but the top two best-selling books at Amazon are Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Deluxe Edition. And even here at the X-ile, I still won't get any of that money.
HEROES
NBC's Heroes rated an impressive 8.7/13 Monday night with "Run!"
LOST
ABC.com is really adding to the online stuff you can watch for Lost, including 60 backstory clips on Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Locke. The series took a slight ratings dip with its return last Wednesday, but still did much better than that other junk ABC had in its place.
SPEED RACER
Looks like the ink's dry on the contract, so production should begin this May on the Wachowski Brothers' (The Matrix) live-action Speed Racer.
STAR TREK
JJ Abrams says there's no truth to rumors that he's no longer going to be directing the next Star Trek movie. Other rumors say the budget's been bumped up.
TrekNation has a retro-review of "All Our Yesterdays."
STAR WARS
Have you gotten your Star Wars mimobot® Series 1 Designer USB Flash Drive? Or are you chicken?
TRANSFORMERS
Variety reports that Michael Bay previewed almost a half-hour of Transformers at New York's Toy Fair yesterday and got the thumbs-up from fans.
WHO WANTS TO BE A SUPERHERO?
The casting call has gone out for another round of people willing to whatever it takes on SCI FI Channel's Who Wants To Be A Superhero? from Stan Lee, Nash Entertainment, and POW! Entertainment, Inc. Open auditions will be Friday and Saturday (Feb 16 & 17) at the Universal Studio's Citywalk in Los Angeles from 1-3 PM. You need to be over 18 years old and have your own costume. More details here.
MISC...Variety
reports that NBC has dubbed Michelle
Ryan the new Jamie Sommers for The Bionic Woman remake...Moviehole.net
says writer Terry Rossio says that there will be a fourth Pirates of
the Caribbean movie...NBC is currently casting Area 52, a comedy
about a group of government workers babysitting an alien. Matthew
Lillard will play the lead, an Air Force officer in charge...Check
out the teaser trailer
for the Underdog movie...L.E. Modesitt talks with SCI
FI Wire about his novel, The Elysium Commission...
SOUNDS LIKE SCI-FI BUT ISN'T NEWS
During CNN's initial coverage of the death of Anna Nicole Smith, the network went 90 minutes without a station break.
TOP MOVIES FROM THE NUMBERS
1 Norbit
(Paramount Pictures) $37,301,800
2 Hannibal Rising (Weinstein Co.) $14,613,396
3 Because I Said So (Universal) $26,880,545
4 The Messengers (Sony Pictures) $25,429,300
5 Smokin' Aces (Universal) $31,800,081
6 Pan's Labyrinth (PictureHouse) $27,149,000
7 Night at the Museum (20th Century Fox) $232,713,817
8 Dreamgirls (Dreamworks SKG) $97,466,286
9 The Queen (Miramax) $49,333,000
10 Epic Movie (20th Century Fox) $35,994,964
TOP BOOKS SCI-FI/FANTASY @ Amazon, 2/15/07
1. Eldest
(Inheritance, Book 2)
2. The
Dream-Hunter, by Sherrilyn Kenyon
3. The
Time Traveler's Wife
4. 300
5. Deep
Storm: A Novel
6. Blood
Bound (Mercy Thompson Series, Book 2)
7. Next
8. Life
of Pi
9. Returning
to Earth: A Novel
10. 1984,
by George Orwell
TOP DVDs SCI-FI/FANTASY @ Amazon, 2/15/07
1. Charmed
- The Complete Seventh Season
2. Lost
- The Complete Second Season
3. Pirates
of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest
4. The
Science of Sleep
5. The
Little Mermaid (Two-Disc Special Edition)
6. Firefly
- The Complete Series
7. Pirates
of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
8. Lost
- The Complete First Season
9. Beauty
and the Beast (Disney Special Platinum Edition)
10. Pirates
of the Caribbean - The Curse of the Black Pearl (Two-Disc Collector's
Edition)
TOP SCI-FI/FANTASY SYNDICATED SHOWS - Nielsen Galaxy Report, 1/22/07 - 1/28/07
Alias 1.7
Smallville 1.5
Star Trek 1.4
Stargate Atlantis 1.3
Stargate SG-1 1.2
Farscape 0.7
The Outer Limits 0.5
INSANE TREK TRIVIA
This Week's Question is from evay: What Borg-oriented mistake did Hugh make in his first appearance on TNG?
Send your answer to julia.houston@gmail.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's the significance of a cake with pineapple filling?
Answer: It was Malcolm's birthday cake in "Silent Enemy" -- Hoshi had to go to great lengths to figure out Malcolm "I'm the Tactical Officer; I'll Never Talk Even If You Threaten Me With A Gazelle Speech" Reed's favorite food, which turned out to be pineapple.
First winner
evay
Second winner
Lou
Third winner
Will
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 WINNER:
"Meet the cast of the next Apprentice!" - Alex
Honorable Mentions:
"Okay, that camera man looks pretty suspicious. You three on my right, attack him from behind. You three on my left, get him from the front. I will stand here looking dapper in my trench coat." - Sue
"Stick it, Trebek!" -- BTCHONWHLS
"Let's hear it, everybody! Y-M-C-A!" - PiP
"I wish I had a kryptonite cross, because then you could keep both Dracula AND Superman away." - Pip
"LETTERS TO THE EDITOR"
Last week's topic: Is Lucas right? Should he and other filmmakers retroactively "fix" their movies, or should they leave them in their "historical" state?
***
No replies, but it's not too late!
***
Next week's topic: Which is better, Heroes or Lost?
Send me something if you've got something to say. It can be about anything that's on your mind!
HAILING FREQUENCIES CLOSED
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Julia Houston
