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TV Log
Hailing Frequencies #374
8.30.07
HELLO
And here's the three hundred and seventy-fourth edition of "Hailing Frequencies."
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AVATAR
ComingSoon has an interview up with Joel David Moore, who is co-starring with Sigourney Weaver, Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Wes Studi, Michelle Rodriguez, CCH Pounder, Laz Alonso, Peter Mensah, and Stephen Lang and James Cameron's next big thing, Avatar. Good bit:
The interesting part about this system Cameron is using is that no one is allowed to talk about it. Normally, people aren't supposed to talk about their character or the plot of a movie; but this is the first time I've heard where actors and actresses aren't able to discuss what cameras are being used. "It's more of the overall technology being used; Jim knows what he's doing, but we can't talk about the way he's doing it because it's his creation. He's created this style of motion capture."
Avatar hits theatres May 22, 2009, barring an Apocalypse.
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL
Unfortunately, they're really going to remake The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). In fact, it's become a hot property now that Keanu Reeves has joined up (presumably as Klatu, so he can again rise up like Jesus from the dead). Scott Derrickson will direct from a screenplay by David Scarpa, rolling cameras this fall or early 2008.
EUREKA
The second season premiere of Eureka on July 10th averaged a 2.03 HH rating, and the show is in the ranking as SCI FI’s top series in 2007 to date. IMO, the show's doing better this season, with more compelling crises as fewer wince-worthy moments. The cast spends little time now whispering about "The Artifact" like it's some shard of God, or something, and there are several character-driven plot arcs. There's also mercifully less of Max Headroom: Great White Hunter.
HARRY POTTER
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has a tentative opening date of November 21, 2008.
HEROES
Heroes fans, go here now!!
NBC's rerun of Heroes Monday night got a 1.9/3.
EW has a review up of Heroes's Season One DVD, which it gives an A-. Here's a bit:
There's not as much joy in rewatching a show that thrived on unraveling twisted plots and discovering hidden connections. At best, you'll check out the first episode again, if only to see how deftly the seeds were planted. But for real kicks, unlock the Fortress of Bonus Features and watch the unaired 73-minute version of the pilot.
INDIANA JONES
George Lucas' live-action The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones Volume One DVD will be available October 23, 20007, from Lucasfilm Ltd., CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment. It's the first of a 12-disc set that includes seven feature-length episodes and 38 documentaries, an historical overview, an interactive game and timeline.
While working on the score for Indy 4, John Williams has mentioned he'd like to do the score for the final Harry Potter movie.
MISC...
- And the remake news today is for...The Illustrated Man! (ding ding ding) Warner Bros. is getting Zack Snyder (300) to direct a new version of the 1969 movie based on Ray Bradbury's short-story collection from 1951.
- And speaking of remakes, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has signed on to play a cab driver in Witch Mountain.
- Financial "wows" come from The Hollywood Reporter, which estimated that the summer's total box office has topped previous records at $4.11 billion, led by Spider-Man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, to say nothing of Harry Potter and quite a few sleeper hits, like Knocked Up.
- Intrepid Pictures bought Marshall Uzzle and Perry Fair's The Fourth Horseman and are getting F. Paul Benz and Steve Tomlin to rework the script.
- From remakes to sequels, IGN reports that Night at the Museum 2 is already in motion from 20th Century Fox, which has hired Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon to do the sequel, with Ben Stiller back as Larry Daley.
- Variety reports that comic book Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future will get the film treatment from Virgin Comics chairman Richard Branson. The new version of comic book itself, form Garth Ennis, will launch this November.
- Thursday night's rerun for CW's Smallville got a 1.5/3, and Supernatural a 1.5/3.
- CBS' rerun of Ghost Whisperer spooked up a 3.2/7.
RANDOM DIALOG QUIZ
Can you name the movie? "I'm sorry, kids, but you're just too dang loud."
Highlight to read the answer: Back to the Future
SOUNDS LOOKS LIKE SCI-FI BUT ISN'T
This Kiwa hirsuta resembles a furry lobster. The eyeless shellfish, about 5.9 inches long, was discovered in March 2005, near the hydrothermal vents of the Pacific Antarctic Ridge, south of Easter Island. - from Pianokeyboardorg
SOUTH PARK
Comedy Central has extended South Park's contract for another three years through 2011. Trey Parker and Matt Stone are taking the partnership a step further with South Park Digital Studios, which will make new animated projects and will probably end up convincing me to buy another set of those South Park wind-up toys.
- Hey! Let's here it from you guys out there! What's your fave South Park episode?
STAR TREK
Video interviews with William Shatner reveal (big shocker) he's sad about not being in the new Trek movie, but he's written his own Spock-and-Kirk-as-Treenagers book, so there.
TrekMovie.com reports the unconfirmed news that Zoe Saldana is in the running to play Lt. Uhura in the J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movie.
Meanwhile, I've heard from several sources that the plot of the film is going to rip-off be exactly like DS9's "More Trials and Tribble-ations," though without the tribbles. Romulans will try to go back in time to kill Kirk, and Spock (Old) will have to try to prevent it without screwing up the timeline too badly.
TrekNation has a retro-review of TNG's Arsenal of Freedom.
STAR WARS
Look, I'm a huge supported of NASA, really. And I understand they're desperate for good PR, but...really. To celebrate Star Wars' 30th anniversary, this October, the original prop of Luke Skywalker's lightsaber will be sent into space aboard the Discovery. Lucasfilm, the Space Center Houston, and Southwest Airlines are getting together to have an actor in a Chewbacca suit hand the prop to representatives from NASA's Space Center Houston during a ceremony at Oakland International Airport. Upon landing in Houston, the lightsaber will be escorted by costumed stormtroopers, alongside R2-D2 and other Star Wars characters, to a caravan of Hummers with a police escort. It will be transported for safekeeping to NASA's Space Center Houston, where it will be secured inside the vault once used to store samples from the moon until it is ready for its trip into space. Good thing they couldn't get their hands on Alec Guinness' ashes, I guess.
STARGATES
TVGuide has an interview with "hunky brainiac" Michael Shanks about all his projects. Here's my fave bit:
TVGuide.com: Can you give fans some hope? Will there be more Stargate movies?
Shanks: The impression we got from Charlie Cohen, who's the head of MGM Television, was that he wanted more right away. We definitely got the feeling that this was not the end of the road, which is a very positive thing for those of us who enjoy that environment so much and enjoy the company so much.
SWEENEY TODD
PageSix.com says Warner Bros. is telling Tim Burton to aim for a cihldren-friendly version of the Broadway musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, staring Johnny Depp. "[WB] became a tad squeamish when they viewed grisly footage of blood splashing across the set as Depp slits the throats of his customers." WB, which evidently likes the film enough to believe it could rock the box office, wants to get as audience-friendly a rating as possible, despite the fact, that, well, it's about the Demon Barber of Fleet Street who likes to chop people up and make pies out of them.
X-MEN/MAGNETO
Magneto writer/director David S. Goyer is in preproduction, according to Wizard Universe. "We're scouting and budgeting now....it mostly takes place in Europe and Argentina. We're doing budgets, and we're sort of halfway crewed up, and so that'll be the big question: whether we can bring it in for a price.
X-FILES
David Duchovny told Access Hollywood that while he's read the script for The X-Files 2, "I'm sworn to secrecy." My guess? It's going to be creeeeepy!
TOP US MOVIES TODAY FROM THE NUMBERS
1. Superbad..................................$73,219,691
2. The Bourne Ultimatum.............$187,443,760
3.
Rush Hour 3............................$110,462,000
4. Mr. Bean's Holiday....................$11,637,800
5. War...........................................$11,583,312
6. The Nanny Diaries........................$8,921,427
7. Stardust.....................................$27,207,620
8. The Simpsons Movie................$174,216,753
9. Hairspray..................................$108,077,000
10. The Invasion.............................$12,094,878
Weekend Box Office Estimates: August 24-26, 2007
Superbad (Sony) $18.0 million - 2 wk total $68.6m
The Bourne Ultimatum (Universal) $12.4 million - 4 wk total $185.1m
Rush Hour 3 (New Line) $12.3 million - 3 wk total $109.0m
Mr. Bean's Holiday (Universal) $10.1 million - opening weekend
WAR (Lionsgate) $10.0 million - opening weekend
The Nanny Diaries (MGM/W) $7.8 million - opening weekend
The Simpsons Movie (Fox) $4.4 million - 5 wk total $173.4m
Stardust (Paramount) $3.95 million - 3 wk total $26.5m
Hairspray 2007 (New Line) $3.5 million - 6 wk total $107.4m
The Invasion (Warner Bros.) $3.1 million - 2 wk total $11.5m
Source: Box Office Mojo
TOP BOOKS SCI-FI/FANTASY @ Amazon, 8.30.07
1. Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling
2. Eclipse (Twilight, Book 3)
3. The Wheel of Darkness
4. New Moon (Twilight, Book 2)
5. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
6. Dark Possession (The Carpathians (Dark) Series, Book 15)
7. The Elves of Cintra (The Genesis of Shannara, Book 2)
8. His Dark Materials Trilogy
, by Philip Pullman
9. Inferno (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, Book 6)
10. Spook Country
TOP DVDs SCI-FI/FANTASY @ Amazon, 8.24.07
1. Heroes - Season 1
2. 300
3. Charmed - The Final Season (Season 8)
4. The Secret (Extended Edition)
5. Smallville - The Complete Sixth Season
6. Lost - The Complete Third Season
7. Supernatural - The Complete Second Season
8. Batman Begins [HD DVD]
9. Serenity (Collector's Edition)
10. Shrek the Third (Widescreen Edition)
INSANE TREK TRIVIA
This Week's Question: When Shatner made the rounds talking about what it was like to direct Star Trek V, he talked about how he forgot to put a really cool prop into a scene. What was the prop?
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: According to the "Illogical" song, Mr. Spock acknowledges that cars have many excellent qualities, but -- what?
Answer: ...you never can find a parking space.
First (and only) winner
Doug
For his request, he's asked for a bio, so click here to learn about the wonder of me.
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:
"Does this dress make me look fat? .... Be careful how you answer!" - Doug
Honorable mentions...
"The latest Victoria Secret's lounging outfit really brings out the beast in you!" - Motherpann@yahoo.com
"What do you MEAN this dress makes my butt look big?!" - Ranuel
"One of the contestants for America's Next Vampire Top Model." - Kathryn
"Bartender, I'll take a Bloody Mary, with a double shot of Type O." - Debra
"Yes, I eat Jenny Craig. She's delicious." - BTCHONWHLS
"Good evening. Seating is now available in the OO Negative section. Fang cleaning is optional." - ozzygreybeard
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR"
Last week's topic: Sometimes it's hard to figure out what I should and shouldn't report on. Despite what other sites seem to think, I don't judge James Bond to be sci-fi or fantasy. On the other hand, Lost's producer like to claim it's not sci-fi, but no one's buying it. A lot of things for children are technically fantasy, but I'm not going to report on the latest shopping spree by the Bratz.
How about you? Do you think something out there is sci-fi/fantasy but doesn't get treated like it? Or that some things that are treated as sci-fi/fantasy shouldn't be?
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For me I don't like the horror on the sci fi channel, I want to watch sci fi shows on space themes. Shows of the world in the future would be ok too.
Why not have a horror channel for all the blood and guts movies, the giant bug/snake/snake/croc, twilight zone type shows, wrestling ;-) then there are volcanoes, hurricane, and tornado movies, and lets not forget witchcraft, vampires, ghosts, etc that's fiction (or fact) not science fiction.
Out of boredom one day I wrote out an idea for a sci fi TV station called the "Space Station" and figured out there were enough space themed TV shows from the past to the current time and enough movies to fill the station's programming for a long time. Maybe I should pitch my idea to Ted Turner (LOL)
Not that I am against theses shows, all the above mentioned (except wrestling and slasher movies)are watched by me and there is a place for all but I think the Sci Fi channel should look into more shows that fit the Sci Fi theme.
I know some of you might say that all of the above is science fiction, and I might be nit picking but I really feel that a lot of what is on is not TRUE Sci Fi.
Motherpann@yahoo.com
***
One would think, with the resources available, the SciFi Channel would do better. Cancellation of The Dresden Files, a major error. Painkiller Jane, was bad from the start. I gave up half way through Episode #3, in fairness, I revisited this in Episode #4, and gave it up halfway through. From writing, production and acting, it was too much a mess. Too bad, we are left with the fact that it could have been way better, but nobody tried.
Flash Gordon took bad TV to new heights (or lows as the case may be). Who the hell is this character we are presented with as "Ming The Merciless"? Where is the "Mongo" we all loved to hiss at as the world of "Ming"? The "Flash Gordon" of the serials and films from the 30's, 40's and 50's, are cherished visions of our hero and the greatest villain in the universe (at the time -- the Borg was years away). Cheering our hero, hissing and booing at Ming was a staple of our childhood, in theaters and early days of TV. We cheered and hissed and booed with the same fervor in our living rooms as we did in the theaters.
Even the cult classic film Flash Gordon (with a future James Bond no less), Ming was gloriously the evil "Ming The Merciless" He certainly ranks up there with the best of the 'Mings' The new 'Ming' just looks like a bad boss of some telephone call center, with indigestion. Too bad. You would think the SciFi Channel would learn from past mistakes, such as the Dune remake, which was so bad, from dropping a main character to very poor special effects, to actors wondering just what the hell they were doing in this turkey, except collecting a paycheck. So goes "Jane" a character few of ever knew about, and "Flash", which we all loved and adored, in to the tar pits of TV history. Will there ever be another "Flash"? I would think so, considering the decades of the original, a strong and richly imagined character and premise of good vs evil. One can only hope future creators of "Flash", stay far away from this current mess.
One more rant on remakes: Escape From New York? You DO NOT remake Snake, Kurt made this character what he was ,and this iconic character newly created, would never, ever be the real "Snake!"
ozzygreybeard
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Next week's topic: Who's the best sci-fi villain of all time?
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Send me something if you've got something to say. It can be about anything that's on your mind!
HAILING FREQUENCIES CLOSED
