Science Fiction (and Fantasy) on Television

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Thursday 27th February 2003

The rumour of an Elektra spin-off from Daredevil is now fact. No huge surprise there! The film will probably start from where Daredevil left off. Jennifer Garner must be quite happy as not only is this likely to be the first of an Elektra film franchise, her TV series Alias has just been signed for a third season as well. Daredevil fans don't worry as he will also be returning for a sequel.

Wednesday 26th February 2003

SciFi Wire reports on the Dueling witches. With news that Nora Ephron has signed to do the screenplay adaptation of old TV series Bewitched, starring Nicole Kidman, comes the other news that Danny DeVito has agreed to direct the remake of the 1942 comedy I Married a Witch and Tom Cruise may star. Cruise and Kidman were once (when still married) in talks to co-star. Coincidence? We think Cruise should concentrate on Mission Impossible 3. One thing is for sure - neither film is likely to have the remotest bearing on real witchcraft.

Tuesday 25th February 2003

Fans of Michael Moorcock's series of books on The Elric Saga will be interested to hear it has been optioned for a potential film trilogy. In the wake of LotR success, big screen spectacular fantasy epics are now fair game. Chris and Paul Weitz are set to produce and initial idea is that this will be a trilogy based on the six main novels of the epic series. Elric of Melniboné is not just a hero, he struggles with fate and his humanity. The series is intelligent and explores some great ideas. So we are not quite sure what to make of this comment by Chris, "We have loved this series since we were kids and can appreciate it even more as adults. It's a sophisticated, literate, philosophically dense fantasy -- a sort of 'Matrix' of the sword-and-sorcery genre." Watch this space.

Tuesday 25th February 2003

See the trailers for upcoming movie, Bulletproof Monk, starring Chow Yun-Fat with Seann William Scott and Jaime King. The "mysterious monk with no name" is the protector of the Scroll of the Ultimate (power). He needs to find and train a successor (Kar) and of course there is a hot-kicking Bad Girl (that's her name). And they have a big battle with the ultimate enemy. So, lots of fun fantasy and flying fighting.

Saturday 22nd February 2003

So, we finally have the announcement of who will take over from Richard Harris as headmaster of Hogwarts. It is Sir Michael Gambon who will now don the robes of Professor Albus Dumbledore. The secret has been kept well, but is now officially announced. We rate Michael Gambon very highly, so this is an intriguing, but definitely excellent choice. Equally interesting is the casting of the actual Prisoner of Azkaban. Another favourite of ours, it is Gary Oldman who will play Sirius Black. We expect another larger than life performance which will undoubtedly help make the third Harry Potter film just as popular as the first two! Peter Pettigrew will be played by another excellent actor, Timothy Spall. Obviously this news is everywhere, so pick your favourite news source. Principal photography starts Monday.

Saturday 22nd February 2003

Star Wars in cartoon format? Well that is what The Hollywood Reporter says. The Cartoon Network has made a deal with Lucasfilm Ltd. 20 3-minute animations to fill in the gaps between SW2 and SW3. Of course the official statements are about how wonderful it is and isn't it about time it was on TV, blah, blah. The more cynical might comment on how it looks more like a desperate attempt to fill in the huge number of plot holes and actually get the third film to make any sort of sense as a prelude to the original SW4.

Wednesday 19th February 2003

Still not much interesting news that doesn't have to do with comic book superheroes. Suppose I could mention the X-Men 2 trailer is on-line. Looks cool of course and associated news is that there may be more than one spin-off movie with individual characters. Spider-Man 2 has a villain in the shape of Alfred Molina who apparently has now confirmed he'll play Doctor Octopus. Daredevil is only just in cinemas (topping US Box Office, but not impressing UK audiences quite as much - only making it to second place on opening week!) - but talk moves to the DVD which will undoubtedly have that extra violence and those extra scenes that were cut for the theatrical release.

Tuesday 18th February 2003

I find Stephen Fry's latest comments interesting. Well I find most of his comments entertaining and delight in the prospect of him presenting the BAFTA's again. (The British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards are the British equivalent of the Oscars - with less hyperbole - this year being shown live on BBC America as well). But I'm not interested in awards - I am interested in Doctor Who. What? Doctor Who fans should already have listened to Stephen as The Doctor in audio stories. Fry's comment in next week's Radio Times caught my eye though - where he specifically asks not to be asked about potentially being in a new TV version... It is an old rumour, but oh please let it really happen!
Doctor Who has been named one of the Top 24 most influential television shows ever in Britain this week - so why aren't they still making it? - as Sylvester McCoy comments - he gets waylaid by many Docor Who fans all over the world - it is clearly still one of the BBC's most popular programmes ever.
Check out Doctor Who, Stephen Fry, BAFTA.

Tuesday 18th February 2003

In a week quiet of SF&F news apart from interminable chatter about comic book heroes, I thought I'd find something else to mention. Fans of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World TV series are being cheered this month by statements that Series 4 is "delayed" rather than "cancelled". With syndicated repeats still gathering significant viewing figures, we are hopeful that the funding for the fourth series will be put together and Series 4 will happen. Keep an eye on the official site. Other interesting sites to check today are The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Van Helsing.

Saturday 15th February 2003

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Judi Dench is in final negotiations to star as Elemental Ambassador Aereon opposite Vin Diesel in Universal Pictures' Chronicles of Riddick. Colm Feore will be the villain - a crusading warrior priest. Fugitive Riddick finds himself stuck in the middle between two powerful forces and Aereon helps him uncover his origins.

Saturday 15th February 2003

If you're interested in the X-Men 1.5 DVD, for example how the ".5" turned into "Special Edition", i.e. no new cut of the film, but 5 hours of extras, then you'll want to head over to DVD File to check out their in-depth interview of Rob Meyer Burnett, the producer of this DVD. Peter M. Bracke asks about a great deal more than just the one DVD though and so Mr Burnett also gives his views on the industry and about DVD production in general.

Friday 14th February 2003

John Carpenter's Snake Plissken Chronicles is an anime series of Snake's adventures. Coming Attractions scoops this story and tells us that Kurt Russell, who created the character on screen in Escape From New York, will do the voice of Snake. And although John Carpenter will produce, the director will be none other than Mamoru Oshii, who created one of the best anime films ever - Ghost in the Shell.

Friday 14th February 2003

Now this is looking good! It is an filmbook with associated animations called Robota: Reign of Machines, with linked video game and graphic novel. This project is the dream of Doug Chiang who worked for 13 years with George Lucas, notably as Director of Concept Design for Star Wars 1 and 2 (for which he was nominated for an Oscar). He won both the Oscar and the BAFTA awards for SFX on Death Becomes Her and another BAFTA for SFX on Forrest Gump. He is a terrific artist, particularly in SF. Working with him on the project is renowned SF author, Orson Scott Card who helped write the final text of the book. With such a pedigree, I am expecting something a little special from this. Check out the new teaser at Apple (even this has already won a prize) see Phobos Web for more info and visit Doug's site. Clone Wars this is not.

Thursday 13th February 2003

The Sci-Fi Channel (USA) has announced the leads in the new Battlestar Galactica 4 hour miniseries (based on the show that aired in the late 70's). Katee Sackhoff plays a female Starbuck and Jamie Bamber (right) will play Apollo. The series is being "reimagined" by Ronald D. Moore, who has worked on Roswell and ST:TNG.

Wednesday 12th February 2003

Rapped knuckles for Twentieth Century Fox after they tried advertising the Minority Report DVD by sending out mobile phone messages. The message started with the very menacing clip from the film where Tom Cruise asks, "Where's my Minority Report? [deep breath] Do I even have one?" Followed by a woman saying, "No." Only at the end is it made clear it is an advertisement for the DVD. Complaints ranged from those who felt it could cause distress as it was not clear at the beginning that it was an ad - to those who objected paying to retrieve it from their mail service. The studio commented that it was sent to those who had registered on their site to receive info and would be familiar with the film and Tom Cruise's voice and it was sent at a time they expected most with have their phones switched on. The Advertising Standards Authority were not convinced and reprimanded them.

Tuesday 11th February 2003

There is Sly news for the Spy Kids 3 movie according to Yahoo. Sylvester Stallone is to star as old nemesis "The Toymaker" in Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over. The film is largely inside a computer game where young Carmen (Alexa Vega) is trapped. With many possibilities, this could be interesting. We'd hate to see the extraordinary success of the first two films disappear. Most of the regulars have already signed up for this third outing.

Monday 10th February 2003

According to Production Weekly, filming on Starship Troopers 2 is due to start mid-May in L.A. - Phil tippett, who created creature visual effects in the first will take the director's chair. Ed Neumeier is again the scriptwriter. A group of troopers are isolated, fighting the nasties, but something else far worse is...

Monday 10th February 2003

Following on from that last report (7th Feb, below), it seems that Jude and Sadie are not getting over their personal difficulties as they have called in divorce lawyers. This isn't a gossip column, so I'll leave out the details. I suspect that unless somebody gets obstinate, this should not really have much of an impact on the new film, The World of Tomorrow.

Friday 7th February 2003

With her move to live in England, it seems that Angelina Jolie can't get enough of making films in Britain. Of course there is Tomb Raider 2 filmed and due out this Summer, then Beyond Borders goes around the world but is based in London. And now we hear Angelina is attached to a 1930's? adventure film, The World of Tomorrow, which has elements of Science Fiction. She appears alongside Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow. Jude and wife Sadie Frost are producers, so we hope their current personal difficulties don't affect this interesting project. The World of Tomorrow should start filming in London next month.

Thursday 6th February 2003

Sci Fi Wire tells us that Jackie Chan is having trouble coming up with 19th Century stunts for the latest remake of Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days, being filmed this year. We are confident that Jackie, the biggest box office actor in the world, will figure it all out and make this a most entertaining film.

Thursday 6th February 2003

Sci Fi Wire talks to John Harrison, writer and co-producer of Children of Dune - the next part of the Dune series, following the successful first effort. John says that the've created this second miniseries using both the second and third Dune books. Adapting books to the screen is always a difficult process, particularly with books that create a world so deeply. In this case, I suspect it was the correct decision as, quite frankly, the Dune books between the first and last do tend to drag a bit. I know - sacrilege! Too bad. Creating an interesting TV show from it will necessarily require some adaptation to make something worth watching.

Wednesday 5th February 2003

Joel Silver, "Mr Matrix Producer", threw a big party introducing everyone to anime series The Animatrix and the videogame, Enter the Matrix. CHUD has the low-down on it. Check out the official WhatIsTheAnimatrix website

Wednesday 5th February 2003

Nicole Kidman is considering playing Catwoman. An old rumour, but now seems more possible - the Hollywood Reporter says she has been offered the role and is waiting to see another draft of the script before deciding. As she is being offered many other roles as well, it is still not certain that she will do it, but we hope she does.

Tuesday 4th February 2003

Ben Affleck is talking about Daredevil, prior to its US Valentine's Day release. He comments particularly on the dark nature that they've instilled in the film - and the decision to let Daredevil kill one of the bad guys (the comic book Daredevil never did). It was a difficult decision for them, but they felt it necessary for establishing his change during the film to someone who fights for justice and knows the difference between good and evil. Now if only certain political leaders could figure that one out, we'd all be better off!

Saturday 1st February 2003

A stark reminder that regular, safe interstellar space travel is very much science fiction came with the explosion of the Columbia space shuttle. Our thoughts go out to the brave crew who risked all in the quest for the future.

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