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Hailing Frequencies #357
3.29.07

HELLO

And here's the three hundred and fifty-seventh edition of "Hailing Frequencies."

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

OMG. Battlestar Galactica totally rocked the casaba this week. But, seriously, 2008?!

NEW AT THE SITE THIS WEEK

I've updated the site structure a bit, so you can use those links on the left-hand side to explore the island, if you like.

I've got some recommending Books in the Reading Cave.

Question: Should I have a "hatch," with stuff about other things in my life -- New Orleans, knitting, etc. Or is that totally boring and Julia-centric?

AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE

Screw Boston. There's more than one promotional gimmick to be found with this side-order of fries. Cartoon Network's lineup for Sunday night lists Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters. Is this really the movie, which isn't set to come out until April 13th? Or will it be a Terrence and Philip special? You'll have to tune in to find out.

Okay, this one's pretty good. There's an article at SCI FI Wire about how Matt Maiellaro and Dave Willis just pretended they had a deal to make an Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie, hyping it at cons, long before they actually had a deal: "Matt said 'OK, before we go on, I want you to say that we are making a movie. Talk about it and how great it's going to be.' And then he said, 'If we keep talking about it, we are going to have to write it, [and] they will have to let us do it.' So I said, 'All right.'" Look for super-sized Frylock and the rest April 13.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA

EW has interviews up with Mary McDonnell, Edward James Olmos, and Ronald Moore about the season finale. I recommend reading the whole thing, but here are some highlights:

Do you think Starbuck is the fifth Cylon?
McDonnell: I really don't know. I think she just has an extraordinary destiny, and her struggle to come to terms with that is what I find interesting about the whole story. Not whether or not she is a Cylon, but her struggle. We have this stunningly beautiful, very macho hotshot pilot who actually has a phenomenal internal spirituality that she resists. I'd rather talk about her the whole time, because I think she's just a really great character for young women to look [up to]. You do not divide yourselves, women, into male and female. Get it together. And men, as well! Stop living this divided, dual consciousness and bring your masculine and feminine [sides] together, because it can be extraordinary. That's how I see her.

So what did you think of the finale?
Olmos: Yeah, it's pretty intense. You start to realize that you really don't know very much about everybody. I'm very happy, though, about the way that Colonel Tigh handles his realization [that he's a Cylon]. I think he would rather kill himself than do anything against a human. He doesn't realize that he has no choice. Once you're a Cylon, you're a Cylon, period. [Laughs] Except that Boomer's character has been able to cross over.

Okay, Ron, what was with including Bob Dylan's ''All Along The Watchtower'' in the finale?
Moore: I had always had this idea of using that particular song in the show as a marker that there were other things going on here. There was this idea developed early in the series, that one of the Colonial scriptures says, ''All of this has happened before and all of it will happen again,'' that certain elements and situations and even people repeat in a cycle of destruction and rebirth and exodus and chase, etc. One of the ideas I wanted to play was, okay, if you found a song that we, the audience, recognize, you realize that you have a connection to this world too, and suddenly other pieces start to fit. Well, why do they wear suits and ties? Why do they look so much like us? What is the connection between them and us? It would put in stark relief the idea that there is a connection between the people on Galatica and our experience on Earth.

So the Pegasus movie will air in the fall then?
Yeah. I don't think they've given a date, but sometime in the fall.

What's the status of that Caprica spin-off?
It's on the shelf over at Sci Fi. I don't think they're picking it up right now. They've talked about doing a similar backdoor situation like they did with Galactica, where maybe they do a two-hour [movie] that's also a direct-to-DVD thing that serves as a backdoor pilot. But, personally, the longer they don't pick it up, I think the less are the odds that they will.

DR WHO

The current Doctor Who series has been renewed for a fourth season by the BBC. :-)

THE DRESDEN FILES

Terrence Mann talks with SCI FI Wire about an upcoming episode, "What About Bob?" airing April 1 9 PM:

"As you know, Bob is an apparition. He only exists in ghost form. But in this particular episode some things happen that allow him to transform. And you'll have to watch to see what he transforms into...I liken it to playing Shakespeare or any sort of great, fantastical character...I played a cat in Cats. I played Beast in Beauty and the Beast and Javert in Les Miserables. And all of those characters are sort of fantastical in nature. So I feel right at home doing the Bob thing."

THE GOONIES

...on Broadway? EW reports that a sequel to the popular children's adventure movie isn't likely, but

The film's director, Richard Donner (16 Blocks), says there is an active attempt to mount a musical adaptation of the original, which was written by Chris Columbus from Steven Spielberg's story. ''Steven and I have discussed it, and it's something that I'm fairly passionate about right now,'' Donner tells us.

HARRY POTTER

Check out the official book cover for Scholastic's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, all 784 pages, flies to shelves July 21.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix opens July 13. The soundtrack to the film will be available July 1.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has a tentative opening date of November 21, 2008.

Knitters! Check it out!

INDY IV

Ray Winstone will be the new sidekick for Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones IV.

LOOKS LIKE SCI-FI BUT ISN'T

- thanks to Pianokeyboardorg for this one

LOST

Lost took a real ratings hit with that hiatus this year, so the word is that next season ABC will the series start late, perhaps in January, then run it without reruns or preemption, like 24 is being aired this season.

Check out the interview with Naveen Andrews at SCI FI Wire.

MISC...

• The 4400 has its fourth season debuts June 17 at 9 PM
• The Dead Zone starts its sixth season June 17 at 10 PM
• Psych returns July 13 at 10 PM
• IGN has a review of the soundtrack for Meet the Robinsons.
• Spurred by the success of such contests as "Get Inside the Gate," SCI FI wants a "lucky viewer" to play a "Die-On" role for an upcoming SCI FI original actioner, to air in the Saturday 9 PM slot. Go here to enter before May 26.
• Emile Hirsch takes a break from starring in the Wachowski brothers' Speed Racer for an interview on YouTube.com.
• Greg Kinnear and Ricky Gervais will play in Ghost Town, written by David Koepp, a romantic comedy version of "I see dead people." Cameras should roll this October.
• Batman Legos are coming.
• Medium is really doing well, with the rerun this week picking up a 4.0/7.
• IGN has a review up of The Last Mimzy.

PIRATES

Check out the new Disney Website for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, which opens May 25.

RANDOM DIALOG QUIZ

Can you name the TV show? "Now, get your fat ass out of my office."

Highlight to read the answer: Battlestar Galactica

SPIDER-MAN

Check out Spidy 3 images and videos at IGN.

Spider-Man 3 will be released in IMAX and regular theatres worldwide May 4.

STAR TREK

Michelle Erica Green has a retro-review up for "Lonely Among Us" at TrekNation.

Hey, remember Robert Beltran? The Voyager actor who wouldn't stop bashing the show? Well, he's landed a paying gig with a guest spot on tonight episode of NBC's Medium, playing a priest.

STAR WARS

Well, I told you there'd be Star Wars USPS stamps, but I didn't know they were going to have a vote about which characters to use. Go by the Website to vote on which of the mockups you'd like to stick-and-lick most. Fifteen SW stamps will be issued to commemorate the franchise's 30th anniversary on May 26.

STARGATES

Well, the rumors are starting to turn into real news that a third Stargate series is being developed, though at present there's no greenlight. Gateworld has an article quoting Robert C. Cooper at Creation's Official Stargate SG-1 / Stargate Atlantis Convention in Vancouver, British Columbia: "[the third series] is very active in development. MGM is currently putting financing together. The goal is to have it out in the marketplace in early 2008, which means that we have to start writing very soon. The holdup has really been the movies -- Brad and I are busy. When we are done with [the Stargate SG-1 DVD movies] Continuum and Ark of Truth we're going to turn our attention to that pretty seriously." Cooper also says the series will be in the same time frame as the other Stargates, but not a spin-off, like Atlantis.

And speaking of those Stargate movies, Ben Browder over at SCI FI Wire says he'll be in both of them. "I leave tomorrow [March 22] to go to the Arctic to shoot a sequence on the ice, several hundred miles offshore, with 6 feet of ice below me and polar bears around me."

YouTube announced the winners of its first Video Awards, determined by user vote.
Most Creative - OK Go
Most Inspirational - Free Hugs
Best Series - Ask a Ninja
Best Comedy - Smosh
Best Music - Terranaomi
Best Commentary - The Winekone
Most Adorable Video - Kiwi!

X-FILES

Look, I loved the show, but do we really care if they make another X-Files movie at this point? Iesb.net says that David Duchovny says a deal may be close, and EW reports that Gillian Anderson's manager Connie Freiberg says, ''there's no obstacles other than the delivery of a great script.''

Hey, just need a good script? That all? I think you can pick those up at Wallgreen's, right?

TOP MOVIES TODAY FROM THE NUMBERS

1 300.........................................$165,231,713
2 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.......$26,977,860
3 Shooter....................................$16,991,851
4 Wild Hogs............................... $125,119,095
5 Premonition..............................$32,951,502
6 The Last Mimzy......................... $11,230,000
7 The Hills Have Eyes II..................$10,929,119
8 Reign Over Me.............................$8,591,795
9 Dead Silence..............................$13,702,905
10 I Think I Love My Wife...............$10,480,651

Weekend Box Office Estimates: March 23-25, 2007
TMNT (Warner Bros.) $25.5 million - opening weekend
300 (Warner Bros.) $20.5 million - 3 wk total $162.4m
Shooter (Paramount) $14.5 million - opening weekend
Wild Hogs (Buena Vista) $14.4 million - 4 wk total $123.8m
THe Last Mimzy (New Line) $10.2 million - opening weekend
Premonition (Sony) $10.1 million - 2 wk total $32.2m
The Hills Have Eyes 2 (Fox Atomic) $10.0 million - opening weekend
Reign Over Me (Sony) $8.0 million - opening weekend
Pride (Lionsgate Films) $4.0 million - opening weekend
Dead Silence (Universal) $3.5 million - 2 wk total $13.2m
Source: Box Office Mojo

TOP BOOKS SCI-FI/FANTASY @ Amazon, 3.29.07

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling
2. White Night: A Novel of The Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher
3. The Children of Hurin: Deluxe Edition, Christopher Tolkien (from his dad's notes)
4. For a Few Demons More, by Kim Harrison
5. Storm Front (The Dresden Files, Book 1), by Jim Butcher (my review)
6. Fool Moon (The Dresden Files, Book 2), by Jim Butcher
7. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
8. Blood Bound (Mercy Thompson Series, Book 2), by Patricia Briggs
9. The Harlequin (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 15), by Laurell K. Hamilton
10. Into a Dark Realm: Book Two of the Darkwar Saga (The Darkwar Saga), by Raymond E. Feist

TOP DVDs SCI-FI/FANTASY @ Amazon, 3.29.07

1. Children of Men (Widescreen Edition) (read my review)
2. Peter Pan (Two-Disc Platinum Edition)
3. Eragon (Two-Disc Special Edition)
4. Pan's Labyrinth (Two-Disc Special Edition)
5. Stargate Atlantis - The Complete Second Season (read my review)
6. Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
7. The Little Mermaid (Two-Disc Special Edition)
8. The Complete Matrix Trilogy [HD DVD] (pre-order)
9. Lost - The Complete Second Season
10. Firefly - The Complete Series

TOP SCI FI NETWORK SHOWS - Nielsen Galaxy Report, 2/26 - 3/4/07

Heroes 8.5
Lost 7.6
Ghost Whisperer 5.8
Jericho 5.4
Medium 5.2
Smallville 1.8
Supernatural 1.4

TOP SCI FI SYNDICATED SHOWS - Nielsen Galaxy Report, 3/5/07 - 3/11/07

Alias 1.7
Smallville 1.4
Stargate Atlantis 1.2
Stargate SG-1 1.2
Star Trek 1.2
Farscape 0.7
The Outer Limits 0.6

INSANE TREK TRIVIA

This Week's Question: What race has all "been the dog"?

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: Mr. Holm only speaks once. What does he say, and in what episode?

Answer: "Thanks for the drinks." TNG's "Haven."

First winner
Pianokeyboardorg

Second winner
Athena28

Third winner
Neil

Fourth winner
Lou

Fifth winner
Dan

Sixth winner
Bob

Seventh winner
Michael

Eighth winner
Vedek_n

Ninth winner
David

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.]

Last week's topic: Next week's topic: Profiles in History is having an auction on April 5, 11 AM PT, with items to include Christopher Reeve's costume from the first Superman movie, a Batsuit worn by Val Kilmer in Batman Forever,a Wicked Witch of the West "Winkie" guard costume from The Wizard of Oz, Yvonne Blake's costume designs for Reeve and Marlon Brando, Leonard Nimoy's Spock tunic from the first season of Star Trek, an H.R. Giger Alien creature suit, Arnold Schwarzenegger's costume from Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Hugh Jackman's Wolverine claws from X2, Samuel L. Jackson's stunt-fighting lightsaber from Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones, and the Staff of Ra headpiece from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

If you could have any single piece of movie/TV memorabilia, what would it be, and why?

***

I would love to have the original Robbie the robot from Forbidden Planet. He is both cool and retro. (By the way, ever notice how the relationship of the captain and the doctor in that movie closely resembles the relationship of another famous space captain and ship's doctor?).

And if I could have an entire set it would have to be the secondary TARDIS control room shown in season 14 of the classic Dr. Who series.

Chris

***

John Sheppard, and I'm sure I don't need to say why.

BTCHONWHLS

***

[on another topic]

Loved Kurt Russell's take on the remake [of Escape to New York], I think it is stupid and one of the great iconic movies of all time. There are certain movies that are patently stupid to try to remake. A few years ago, SciFi Channel remade Dune. My first thought was great, with all the advances in special effects...well, it totally sucked! They even eliminated an entire character! I watched the extended edition on cable last night, for maybe the tenth time, proving there simply are some movies that remaking them is really, really stupid and a total waste of time and money! So, what's next? Remake a TV move of Heidi, and have the network cut off an end to an NFL game just for old times sake?

Stephen

***

Next week's topic: Determinism vs. free will as referenced on Lost. Discuss.

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