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Hailing Frequencies #371
8.2.07
HELLO
And here's the three hundred and seventy-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.
My cat is prowling around my desk, despite the several attempts I have made to set her up a nice place near me to take a nap. She seems so offended that I am not laying on the sofa, next to her usual napping spots. I have tried to explain that I am working, and that my ability to feed her relies on my success at bringing in income, but she seems unconvinced.
Sigh.
Speaking of income, I need some advice. You see all these links I have up to Amazon? I think they're good just for themselves, so I'd use them regardless...however, if someone clicks on one of these Amazon links and then buys something at Amazon, I make money. Is this already obvious? Or should I have an announcement/disclaimer/something on the site about it, do you think? I hate tacky, but I do love money.
ABC's 2007-2008 season premiere dates:
Monday
Dancing with the Stars (90-minute premiere) at 8p (9/24)
The Bachelor (90-minute premiere) at 930p (9/24)
Samantha Who? at 930p (10/15)
Tuesday
Cavemen at 8p (10/2)
Carpoolers at 830p (10/2)
Dancing with the Stars Results Show at 9p (10/2)
Cashmere Mafia (special preview) at 10p (11/27)
Cashmere Mafia (regular time period premiere) at 9p (12/4)
Wednesday
Pushing Daisies at 8p (10/3)
Private Practice at 9p (9/26)
Dirty Sexy Money at 10p (9/26)
Thursday
Ugly Betty at 8p (9/27)
Grey's Anatomy at 9p (9/27)
Big Shots at 10p (9/27)
Friday
20/20 (new time period premiere) at 8p (10/12)
Women's Murder Club at 9p (10/12)
Men in Trees at 10p (10/12)
Sunday
America's Funniest Home Videos at 7p (10/7)
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (2-hour premiere) at 7p (9/30)
Desperate Housewives at 9p (9/30)
Brothers & Sisters at 10p (9/30)
AND SPEAKING OF SCHEDULES...
SCI FI Friday is changing its lineup in the fall (starting Sep. 28):
7 Bionic Woman (off-network rerun)
8 Doctor Who
9 Flash Gordon
10 Stargate Atlantis (repeats at 12)
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
Nanavision reports that Nana Visitor will work again with her DS9 cohort Ron Moore by appearing in a a yet-unknown role in the final season of Battlestar Galactica.
Lucy Lawless will return (boxed or not!) as D'Anna in Battlestar Galactica's fourth and final season in at least two episodes. Coooool.
Battlestar Galactica's fourth season will also see more of the original Apollo, Richard Hatch, in his recurring am-I-really-that-bad-a-guy? role.
BEANSTALK
Avalon Family Films' new live-action Beanstalk has signed up Katey Sagal as Jack's mom, Wallace Shawn as the guy who sells Jack those beans, Gilbert Gottfried as a goose that lays golden eggs (which isn't in Jack in the Beanstalk, actually, but whatever), Christopher Lloyd as the headmaster of Jack's school, Chevy Chase as the keeper of a labyrinth, and Daniel Roebuck as the mayor. The Hollywood Reporter passes on the rumor that James Earl Jones might fe-fi-fo as the Giant. Gary J. Tunnicliffe directs from a script by Flip Kobler and Cindy Marcus.
CLOVERFIELD
Check out the teaser poster for J.J. Abrams' Cloverfield (courtesy IGN). "Cloverfield" is actually not the name of this "secret project." Rumors say it may really be called Overnight. (I like "Cloverfield" better, myself.)
HARRY POTTER
No kidding, this is what the July 30th list of best selling books on Amazon.com looked like:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Potter hardcover box set
Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Eclipse
Harry Potter paper box set
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has a tentative opening date of November 21, 2008.
IRON MAN
EW has an interview up with Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow, stars of next year's big superhero movie. Here's an interesting "welcome to the nerd world" bit with the guy:
As a character actor, did you ever imagine yourself in a role like this?
I'm a guy, so I'm pretty prone to narcissistic fantasy. And I could always relate to these things. I remember talking to Keanu [Reeves] when he got back from doing the first Matrix, and he told me just what a mind-blowing experience it was. And this is a guy who's not known as the quintessential butch guy. But he became that character, and that franchise took off. I started thinking at a certain point, ''Maybe this is not in the cards for me, and I'll stick to being more of a character actor.'' But Tony Stark is a character. So I think the line is a lot less blurry than it used to be.It's interesting that Comic-Con has sort of turned into the courtship of alpha geeks.
It really is. It's also cool because this is a true democracy. This is run by the people who really drive this whole industry. I guess the disappointing thing is, it would be nice if I could just stroll out there...or, like, stuff my bag full of stuff from other [studios]. And I'm not saying I couldn't. It's just that I'm here to work. It's like the Cannes film festival: ''Did you have a nice time in the south of France?'' ''I don't know. I was in a hotel room for three days.''People always talk about how hard it is to make a film like this. But did you ever just go, ''Holy cow, this is fun!''
There's a scene where we're out in the high desert and these massive 60-mile-an-hour winds are blowing. And sand is everywhere, and I'm in this Mark I suit. And everyone's wearing dust masks. I'm just in this contraption, and I looked around and said, ''We have to get this right now.'' It was so ridiculously funny — it'd be impossible that you'd survive. So what do you do? For some reason or another I just started cracking up.
And another with the gal:
Do you think it's now expected of an actor to hit Comic-Con the same way he or she would Sundance or Toronto or Cannes?
It's interesting that it's so important to the movie industry, because it's like this demographic [is the one] that's still going to movies on opening weekend. Normally you do a movie, and you kind of forget about it by the time it comes out. Because life goes on. But this was amazing to, like, feel the enthusiasm. We just finished about a month ago!
Backing all this up (and blowing it up), BTW, is Wil Wheaton, who notes in his blog: "Oh man, I thought, is this what Comic-Con is going to be like? A bunch of industry douchebags who think we're just a big focus group of nerds?"
LOST
Lost - The Complete Third Season
is coming December 11 on DVD and Blu-ray disc as a 23-episode,
seven-disc set, including an interview with star Matthew Fox, a
featurette on "The Others," a behind-the-scenes documentary, and some
deleted scenes.
MISC...
- Warner Bros. has set its release of Zack Snyder's Watchmen for March 6, 2009.
- Check out the trailer for Horton Hears a Who.
- Universal has acquired the pitch The Lost Adventures of Stone Perlmutter Jr. and gotten Peter Huyck and Alex Gregory to script it for Jack Black as a sort of bumbling Indiana Jones.
- Nicolas Lopez will write/direct a comedy thriller about a young woman sent back in time to prevent World War III.
- Is this tattoo cool, or the sign of an ultimate level of nerdom? You be the judge.
- Variety reports that Disney Pictures scooped up the movie rights to Pet Robots, a graphic novel (so to be published) by Scott Christian Sava. Basically, it's a futuristic comedy about robots with unlikely owners.
- Cinema Blend passes on the rumor that Orlando Bloom might be in Angels and Demons (sequel to Da Vinci Code).
- Australia's Film Finance Corporation has approved financing for a new children-targeted fantasy shows, Elephant Princess, from Jonathan M Shiff Productions, about Phoebe, who discovers she is princess of a mystical kingdom. A counselor and a magical elephant help her master her new powers.
- AFFC is also financing a kiddie version of Dr. Who featuring his robot dog, K9. K9 evidently has the dog-bot doing prison guard duty. From Stewart & Wall Entertainment Pty Ltd, with sales and distribution partners Network Ten (Australia), Jetix and Park Entertainment.
- SCI FI Wire has a cute interview up with Ali Larter (Heroes) about how hot the exterior scenes were to film for Resident Evil: Extinction.
- Ain'tItCoolNews says Joss Whedon still intends to do a "Ripper" movie about Rupert Giles for the BBC in 2008
- MySpace and Dark Horse Comics have put up a free online anthology series at MySpace to show off some of the best-known artists in fantasy & sci fi, including, in this first edition, Fabio Moon, Josh Whedon, Gabriel Ba and Gerard Way. Mondo cool.
- And speaking of Dark Horse, they've acquired the comic book rights to Indiana Jones. The graphic novel series should launch next April, and the first of two Indiana Jones Omnibuses should bow February 2008.
- Last weekend, Disney showed some clips at Comic-Con in San Diego from The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, which it plans to release May 2008, with the third pic in the series, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, going into production by February 2008 for a May 2009 release.
- Also at the con, Seth Rogen, who's co-writing/starring in The Green Hornet feature film, says that despite his rep for comedy, this will be a serious action film.
- The cast for Zack Snyder and Warner Bros.' Watchmen is now official: Malin Akerman as Laurie Juspeczyk, Billy Crudup as Jon Osterman, Matthew Goode as Adrian Veidt, Jackie Earle as Walter Kovacs, Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Edward Blake, and Patrick Wilson as Dan Dreiberg. The movie's got a March 6, 2009, released date.
- Disney's Broadway musical of Beauty and the Beast has closed after a thirteen-year run.
- Not sci-fi, but interesting: The Wii's helping Nintendo, which posted a net income of $667 million from April-June on total sales of $2.83 billion. Nintendo reported it sold 3.43 million Wiis worldwide during the quarter, bringing total units sold since launch to 9.27 million.
- That's a lot of Wii.
- In related news, the Wachowskis will release a Wii video game for their version of Speed Racer.
- Ridley Scott talks with SCI FI Wire about yet another redo of his biggest film, Blade Runner (1982). Basically, the unicorn's in, the happy ending and voice-overs are out, and he reshot a couple scenes to "fix" them.
- Check out the new trailer of The Dark Knight, featuring the Joker.
MOONLIGHT
The Hollywood Reporter says David Greenwalt quit as exec. prod. of CBS' Moonlight, for "health concerns." He's been replaced by Chip Johannessen.
Moonlight premieres September 28, 9 PM. 
REAL SCIENCE
A bit of the future is here now, with a new product called Episkin:
The brainchild of researchers at French cosmetics company L'Orèal, Episkin is grown from cells harvested from the top layer of pieces of skin.
The pieces used so far have been removed from donors during cosmetic surgery to cut away excess folds after weight loss.
Once cultured in a dish, the thin and rubbery skin can be adapted to resemble older skin by exposing it to high concentrations of ultraviolet light.
Adding skin pigment cells called melanocytes also results in skin that can tan. And by using donor cells from women of different ethnicities, the team created a spectrum-of skin colours which can measure the efficiency of sunblock for different skin tones.
Tests have shown that Episkin is at least as good as rabbit skin at predicting whether products will irritate human skin.
RANDOM DIALOG QUIZ
Can you name the movie? "John Big-Boo-TAY! John Big-Boo-TAY!"
Highlight to read the answer: The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai
SHREKS
Shrek the Third has grossed $320+ million domestic, almost $700 global, so plans are for DreamWorks Animation and Paramount to release Shrek IV May 10, 2010, according to Variety
SMALLVILLE
Dean Cain's going to have some casting fun by playing Dr. Curtis Knox, a murdering bad guy, on the fourth episode of the show's seventh season, which kicks off Sept. 27.
STAR TREK
EW has an interview up with "the two Spocks" that's...okay. Here's a typical bit:
With this casting, Leonard, you're officially ceding this role to a new actor. How do you feel about this?
NIMOY: Strange. It is strange...but very comforting. I feel like the character is being put in very, very good hands.
CBS' David Grant says they're considering remastering the f/x for TNG as an excuse to for release of an HD DVD box set.
TrekToday's got a retro review up for "Home Soil." ("Giant ugly bags of mostly water.)
X-FILES
Okay, so remember when The David said there was a script for a second X-Files movie? Well, not so much. EW talks with Chris Carter, who says:
This time it's for real, you'd say?
Yes. I should say we're working to make it happen. It's for real that we're working, but there are no guarantees that it will get made. I mean, it still has to go through a lot of different things, including a budgeting process.Are there any other factors that are going to be very important in determining whether it comes through aside from just budgeting?
I think people's schedules, the budgeting, and finishing it before time gets tight — late next spring when everyone thinks there's going to be a strike.
WONDER WOMAN
Hey, remember when Joss Whedon was gonna do Wonder Woman? EW talked with him at Comic Con and got some scoopies:
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You mentioned during your panel that it's been a rough couple of years. Are you speaking, in particular, of your aborted Wonder Woman movie?
JOSS WHEDON: I in no way want this to be a slam on Warner Bros., but the fact of the matter is, it was a waste of my time. We never [wanted] to make the same movie; none of us knew that. And it was a waste of their time because I had a lot of trouble writing — not just writing that, but writing at all. Part of it had to do with having just finished Serenity. I ran into James Gunn, who'd just done his first film, Slither. And he was like, ''The director in me killed the writer in me.'' And we fell on each other. It was like finding a support group. After you direct and edit something, you just realize everything is negotiable. The line that you died for, you pull without hesitation because [the script] seems a little long. He was like, ''Every time I sit down to write I think, Is this even going to make it in?'' And you can't write like that.
TOP US MOVIES TODAY FROM THE NUMBERS
1 The Simpsons Movie....................$90,815,727
2 Hairspray......................................$64,802,000
3 I Now Pronounce...Larry..............$76,757,845
4 Harry Potter...Phoenix.................$247,191,583
5 No Reservations..............................$14,701,81 (career killer?)
6 The Transformers........................$287,614,487
7 Ratatouille....................................$182,061,530
8 Live Free or Die Hard..................$126,754,033
9 I Know Who Killed Me...................$4,376,630
10 Who's Your Caddy?......................$3,267,712
Weekend Box Office Estimates: July 27-29, 2007
The Simpsons Movie (Fox) $71.9 million - opening weekend
I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (Universal) $19.1 million - 2 wk total $71.6m
Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix (Warner Bros.) $17.1 million - 3 wk total $241.8m
Hairspray 2007 (New Line) $15.6 million - 2 wk total $59.3m
No Reservations (Warner Bros.) $11.8 million - opening weekend
Transformers (Paramount/DreamWorks) $11.5 million - 4 wk total $284.6m
Ratatouille (Buena Vista) $7.2 million - 5 wk total $179.7m
Live Free or Die Hard (Fox) $5.4 million - 5 wk total $125.1m
I Know Who Killed Me (Sony) $3.4 million - opening weekend
Who's Your Caddy (MGM/Weinstein) $2.9 million - opening weekend
Source: Box Office Mojo
TOP BOOKS SCI-FI/FANTASY @ Amazon, 8.2.07
1. Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling
2. Harry Potter Paperback Box Set (Books 1-6)
3. Eclipse (Twilight, Book 3)
4. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1)
5. Harry Potter Hardcover Box Set (Books 1-6)
6. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
7. Spook Country
8. His Dark Materials Trilogy
, by Philip Pullman
9. Sandworms of Dune
10. The
Children of Hurin: Deluxe Edition
,
Christopher Tolkien (from his dad's notes)
TOP DVDs SCI-FI/FANTASY @ Amazon, 8.2.07
1. 300
2. Babylon 5 - The Lost Tales
3. Blade Runner (Five-Disc Ultimate Collector's Edition)
4. The Secret (Extended Edition)
5. Stargate SG-1 - Season 10
6. Heroes - Season 1
7. Pathfinder (Unrated Edition)
8. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Two-Disc Special Edition) (Harry Potter 3)
9. Stargate Atlantis - The Complete Third Season
10. The Last Mimzy (Widescreen Infinifilm Edition)
TOP SCI FI NETWORK SHOWS
Ghost Whisperer 3.6
Jericho 2.5
Smallville 1.2
Supernatural 1.1
INSANE TREK TRIVIA
This Week's Question: From what literary source did Q first quote something at Picard?
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: Who tried to get a war going between the Federation and the Tzenkethi?
Answer: The Dominion.
First winner
Sue
(Have fun at the con!)
Second winner
Debra
Third winner
Doug
Fourth winner
Michael
Fifth winner
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:
"I would not be just a nuffin'
My head all full of stuffin'
My heart all full of pain
I would dance and be merry
Life would be a ding-a-derry
If I only had a brain.
DOH!!!!" - Sue"
Honorable mentions...
"Duh?!? Where's the "D" for donuts?" - ozzygreybeard
"Yup, that was pretty much me in algebra class." - BTCHONWHLS
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR"
Last week's topic: Okay, it's official now that the next Star Trek movie is definitely going to be about the early adventures of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, with new actors. Opinions, please?
***
A short rant on the new Star Trek:
I must admit, my interest was tweaked when I first heard of it, tho misgivings abound. C'mon, Matt Damon is the penultimate Jason Bourne, a fine actor, tho superfluous in the "Oceans" films. But James Tiberius Kirk, a young Kirk at that, he is not!
From TOS, to TNG DS9,Voyager, Enterprise, I have been there since the beginning. The only nit I had to pick with Enterprise, the ship looked more like TNG, than the original in TOS.
The more I have thought about creating beginning and the young Kirk, Spock & McCoy, I have become disenchanted with the concept. From TOS, time has flowed forward, as it should. We all have our own
conceptual beginnings, somewhere, in our mind's eye, we already know what they look like, and how they climbed the years to the original Enterprise. A single
writer/director concepts of those legendary characters, can not possibly match the mind's eye of millions of Trekkies
Will I go see it? Of course I will, out of compelling curiosity. Will I have an open mind? Yes, I have always had an open mind, going to sequels, series, and the like. Some work, some don't.
How will I feel about the attempt to alter my own visions of our heroes? It won't work. Mine are better.
Aren't yours?
***
I do hate it when the powers that be ignore established star trek history. Spock, Mc Coy and Kirk were not friends at the academy. Spock was much older than Kirk, and in star trek history Spock was the first Vulcan to go to the academy and serve on a mixed crew.
***
I'm conflicted! Up until recently, I was dead set against this new film. What is the point? Most series that have been re-made only had a single incarnation to begin with from 20-30 years ago. Take BSG - there was only the original series so there was plenty of scope to re-make it with modern sfx and really build on the concept. Star Trek is not like this. There have been (counts on fingers!) 5 series and currently 10 films set in the same universe. There is a massive amount of material covering all aspects of it. Why on earth would you go a effectively remake part of that universe - it's a dangerous thing to do in terms of continuity, something Star Trek has always struggled with. Its a bit like someone trying to remake the original Star Wars trilogy - you just wouldn't do it.
I'm mellowing a little though on several counts. One, its Star Trek and part of me would rather see something new rather than nothing at all. Two, I've never been the biggest fan of the original series - there are some episodes that I really like but a lot of it could really be improved on (I await the barrage of abuse from die-hard TOS fans!). Three, it is detailing a period of the characters history that has been fairly poorly defined so as long as they are careful when tying in any established events in the Star Trek chronology, it should at least be something we haven't really seen before. Fourth, I'm becoming intrigued by the casting rumours. I've seen that Zachary Quinto from Heroes has been cast as the young Spock (not that I know who he is yet - they've only just shown the first 2 episodes on terrestrial tv in the UK so I'm playing catchup), but other rumours such as Gary Sinise as McCoy could really work. Given the release date, production will have to get moving soon so hopefully, full confirmation on the cast won't be far off!
I'm not quite on board with it yet - the blood vessels in my head still try to burst whenever it is mentioned - but I'm more optimistic than I was.
***
I was initially very leery about this. However, one thing has recently changed my mind. I saw the Transformers movie. It was very good, and the same two guys who wrote that, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, are writing the new Star Trek movie. They wrote a script that even Michael Bay couldn't mess up, which is an amazing feat. The casting choice for Spock is a good one, too. We'll see how this movie turns out, but I'm upgrading this movie to "cautiously optimistic."
***
I thought that the early demise of Enterprise taught the Star Trek honchos that with today's technology it is hard to
make a show/movie with technology that looks better then the original Star Trek of the 60's when the time period is
100 yrs before Kirk's crew. For the people who are really into tech the comparison detracts from the show. How come
Archer's "stuff" looked better then Kirk's "stuff"?
So what do they do make a movie that takes place after Archer but before "adult" Kirk!
We kept going back to Trek movies to see the original gang because we loved/hated them and now they
taking young actors and by giving them the names of Kirk, Spock, etc we are suppose to run to the movie as if we were seeing
old friends again.
When they started making TNG movies they were well received ( maybe not all of the movies) because we also had a bond with these
stars after many years on TV and wanted to see them again.
Finally, at the conventions I attend I have spoken to fellow Star Trek fans, and we want to see a DS9 movie since so much was left unfinished
or a Voyager movie and use the stars we already have feelings for and let us see how the lives have changed since they got back home.
MOTHERPANN
***
Oh those long years ago when I first heard that they were going to create Next Gen because it was felt that the original series cast were too old I offended a lot of other Trekies by saying that they should just recast the parts. Other iconic characters such as Sherlock Holmes have been played by more than one actor with success why not Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.
My worries about this project have nothing to do with casting. I'm worried that the retcon of Enterprise will continue and I'm a huge canon Nazi. One of the reasons that I grew to dislike Enterprise was the way they played fast and loose with the established history.
***
Next week's topic: How do you feel about things like Comic Con becoming major media outlets for sci-fi & fantasy movies? Are conventions really just focus groups?
***
Send me something if you've got something to say. It can be about anything that's on your mind!
HAILING FREQUENCIES CLOSED
