Star Wars To Debut On May 19
he release date for Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace has been moved from May 21 to May 19, according to the official Star Wars Web site.
Star Wars creator George Lucas made the change in order to give fans a chance to see the film before the weekend, so families going to see the movie on Saturday and Sunday will face less of a crowd.
Lucasfilm also released the new Episode I trailer on the Web, along with the latest Phantom Menace poster. The new poster was designed by long-time Star Wars artist Drew Struzan and is stylistically similar to the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition posters.
Lucasfilm Sues Little, Brown & Co.
ucasfilm Ltd. said it has filed a suit against Little, Brown & Co., a subsidiary of Time Warner, alleging that Brown's book The Unauthorized Star Wars Compendium infringes on Lucasfilm's Stars Wars trademark.
Lucasfilm also said the book infringes on its "copyrights in the Star Wars film trilogy and various Star Wars books that are part of the extensive Star Wars literary publishing program."
According to Lucasfilm's lawyer, Bert Fields, the suit is part of a worldwide campaign to protect the Star Wars rights in connection with the release of Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace. "George Lucas created a fantastic universe of characters and events that have delighted millions of people throughout the world for over 20 years," said Fields.
"Those characters and events, as well as the name Star Wars, are Lucasfilm's valuable property, and they have gone to great lengths to ensure the integrity, quality and authenticity of all of the books, toys and other products that are part of the Star Wars licensing program," he added. "We can't sit back and let others tarnish, abuse or confuse the public about this property and the valuable efforts of their many licensees."
Variety quoted publisher Sarah Crichton as saying that Time Warner's legal counsel "has studied guidelines handed down by the courts for publishing books of this nature, and we were careful to abide by those guidelines."
Larson Making Battlestar Movie
len Larson, the TV producer who created Battlestar Galactica back in the 1970s, plans to bring his famous science fiction TV series to the silver screen, according to Variety.
Larson and producer Todd Moyer have started work on a $40 million Galactica film that will begin shooting this fall in Luxembourg.
The Battlestar flick is being penned by Wing Commander writer Mike Finch and reportedly picks up where the series left off, with Commander Cain searching for the lost Battlestar Galactica. Cain's journey brings him to Earth, which was settled by humans who arrived here during prehistoric times on the first Battlestar, the Atlantis.
The special effects for Galactica will be handled by Moyer's company No Prisoners 3DFX, which includes several of the artists who worked on Wing Commander. No studio is attached to the project yet.
Kubrick's 2001 To Get Rerelease
tanley Kubrick's epic science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey will be rereleased to theaters on New Year's Eve 2000, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Kubrick, who died March 7 at the age of 70, had been planning for the 2000 showing all along and had even spent time in 1982 refurbishing the film.
While the new release of 2001 will include features such as a digitally remastered soundtrack, it won't contain the 20 minutes of footage that were cut from the movie shortly after its debut in 1968. Kubrick himself ordered the changes made after seeing the lackluster response of audiences to the first version of 2001, and the final film is reportedly the one he was happiest with.
Clarke Credits Kubrick For His Success
F author Arthur C. Clarke issued a statement on March 9 saying that much of his success is due to filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, who recently died at the age of 70.
"My professional career owes more to Stanley than to anyone else in the world," Clarke said.
Clarke and Kubrick worked together on the screenplay for the legendary film 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was based on Clarke's short story "The Sentinel" and which Clarke later turned into a best-selling novel. "Our four years of collaboration on 2001: A Space Odyssey were stimulating--and occasionally exasperating--but great fun," Clarke said.
Clarke added that he hoped Kubrick would receive a special Oscar for a lifetime achievement, something Clarke predicted would happen on Kubrick's 80th birthday.
ABC's Strange World Bombs
BC's new science fiction series Strange World scored the lowest Nielsen ratings ever for original programming in the network's Tuesday, 10 p.m., time slot, according to Variety.
The March 9 episode of Strange World earned just a 4.8 household rating, which was 56 percent lower than this season's average for NYPD Blue, the ABC show that usually airs at that time.
Worse still, Strange World only held 69 percent of the audience from its lead-in series Sports Night, with most of the lost viewers defecting to CBS and NBC. The freshman show also performed poorly in the adults 18-49 demographic, finishing 58 percent below NYPD Blue's season average and 40 percent below Sports Night.
Bulgarian Ph.D. Developing SF Series
ulgarian film writer and Ph.D Borislav Belovarski said he has been engaged by Look Film Partners in New Zealand and the Editude Post studio in Singapore to develop a new SF TV series called Timeship.
The series will be broken into three parts--for a total of 36 episodes--based on Belovarski's novel trilogy The Very Dead Artisans of Happiness, which was written in 1980 and confiscated in 1985 by what was then Communist Bulgaria.
Belovarski said the story is about a union between NASA, the USSR Space Agency and 12 other nations to build an international space station called the Ark. When the Ark is sabotaged, it leads to a Third World War that the United Nations learns was actually provoked by aliens bent on making humanity "non-dangerous" to the universe.
Silent Death Comes To GameStorm
ron Crown Enterprise's classic SF board game Silent Death has made the transition to the Internet and can now be played online at Kesmai Corp.'s GameStorm Web site.
The multi-player space-combat title takes place 9,000 years in the future, at a time when decline and civil war have weakened the human empire and fighting has broken out between the major political houses.
Players battle one another in ship-to-ship combat, earning points for each kill they make, which can then be spent to improve their weapons, engines, hull and shields. "The world created in the tabletop classic Silent Death translates perfectly onto the online medium, and gamers will be thrilled with the new features we've added," said Kesmai CEO Chris Holden.
Vidatron Says First Wave Could Be A Hit
idatron Entertainment, the company that produces and distributes Francis Ford Coppola's SF series First Wave, said that--based on the show's worldwide ratings--it could turn out to be a major hit.
According to a Vidatron press release, First Wave is the number one drama on Canada's Space: The Imagination Station, even beating out Chris Carter's ultra-popular SF show The X-Files.
First Wave also leads the X-Files in Portugal, and on Sky One in the United Kingdom it outperforms Sliders 2-1 in the key demographic of 25-34-year-olds. Vidatron said First Wave is popular in both South Africa and Denmark, and nearly 4 million Romanians tune into the series each week.
First Wave will begin airing on the Sci-Fi Channel on March 19, and Sci-Fi has already committed to 66 episodes of the show. The series, which is executive produced by Coppola, tells the story of the one man who can save Earth from a hostile takeover by aliens.
Saturn Nominees Announced
he Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films has announced the nominees for the 25th annual Saturn Awards, which honor "the best in genre film and television entertainment."
The awards will be presented during a ceremony that will be held in early June. This year's nominees are:
- Best Science Fiction Film
- Armageddon
- Dark City
- Deep Impact
- Lost In Space
- Star Trek: Insurrection
- The X-Files: Fight the Future
- Best Fantasy Film
- Babe: Pig in the City
- A Bug's Life
- City of Angels
- Godzilla
- Pleasantville
- The Truman Show
- Best Horror Film
- Apt Pupil
- Blade
- Bride of Chucky
- The Faculty
- Halloween: H20
- John Carpenter's Vampires
- Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film
- The Mask of Zorro
- The Negotiator
- The Prince of Egypt
- Ronin
- Saving Private Ryan
- A Simple Plan
- Best Actor
- Jim Carrey (The Truman Show)
- David Duchovny (Fight the Future)
- Anthony Hopkins (Meet Joe Black)
- Edward Norton (American History X)
- Bruce Willis (Armageddon)
- James Woods (Vampires)
- Best Actress
- Gillian Anderson (Fight the Future)
- Drew Barrymore (Ever After)
- Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween: H20)
- Meg Ryan (City of Angels)
- Jennifer Tilly (Bride of Chucky)
- Catherine Zeta-Jones (The Mask of Zorro)
- Best Supporting Actor
- Ben Affleck (Armageddon)
- Dennis Franz (City of Angels)
- Ed Harris (The Truman Show)
- Ian McKellen (Apt Pupil)
- Gary Oldman (Lost in Space)
- Billy Bob Thornton (A Simple Plan)
- Best Supporting Actress
- Joan Allen (Pleasantville)
- Claire Forlani (Meet Joe Black)
- Anne Heche (Psycho)
- Anjelica Huston (Ever After)
- Charlize Theron (Mighty Joe Young)
- Sheryl Lee (John Carpenter's Vampires)
- Best Performance By A Young Actor
- Josh Hartnett (The Faculty)
- Katie Holmes (Disturbing Behavior)
- Jack Johnson (Lost In Space)
- Tobey Maguire (Pleasantville)
- Brad Renfro (Apt Pupil)
- Alicia Witt (Urban Legend)
- Best Direction
- Michael Bay (Armageddon)
- Rob Bowman (Fight the Future)
- Roland Emmerich (Godzilla)
- Alex Proyas (Dark City)
- Bryan Singer (Apt Pupil)
- Peter Weir (The Truman Show)
- Best Writing
- Brandon Boyce (Apt Pupil)
- Don Mancini (Bride of Chucky)
- Andrew Niccol (The Truman Show)
- Alex Proyas, Lem Dobbs, David S. Goyer (Dark City)
- Gary Ross (Pleasantville)
- Joseph Stefano (Psycho)
- Best Music
- John Carpenter (John Carpenter's Vampires)
- George S. Clinton (Wild Things)
- George Fenton (Ever After)
- Thomas Newman (Meet Joe Black)
- Trevor Rabin (Armageddon)
- Hans Zimmer (The Prince of Egypt)
- Best Costume
- Jenny Beavan (Ever After)
- Vin Burham, Robert Bell, Gilly Hebden (Lost In Space)
- Michael Kaplan, Magali Guidasci (Armageddon)
- Liz Keogh (Dark City)
- Judianna Makovsky (Pleasantville)
- Graciela Mazon (The Mask of Zorro)
- Best Make-Up
- Greg Cannom, Peter M. Germain (Blade)
- Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr., Michael Mills, Greg Nelson (Fight the Future)
- Robert Kurtzman, Greg Nicotero, Howard Berger (John Carpenter's Vampires)
- Bob McCarron, Lesley Vanderwalt, Lynn Wheeler (Dark City)
- Peter Robb-King (Lost in Space)
- Michael Westmore (Star Trek: Insurrection)
- Best Special Effects
- Rick Baker, Hoyt Yeatman, Alan Hall, Jim Mitchell (Mighty Joe Young)
- Agnus Bickerton (Lost In Space)
- Volker Engel, Patrick Tatopolous, Karen Goulekas, Clay Pinney (Godzilla)
- Roger Guyett, Stefan Fangmeier, Neil Corbould (Saving Private Ryan)
- Andrew Mason, Mara Bryan, Peter Doyle, Tom Davies (Dark City)
- Pat McClung, Richard Hoover, John Frazier (Armageddon)
- Best Genre Home Video Release
- Cube
- From Dusk Til Dawn: Texas Blood Money
- Gattaca
- Legionnaire
- The Night Flier
- The Ugly
- Best Series on Network TV
- Buffy The Vampire Slayer
- Charmed
- Seven Days
- The Simpsons
- Star Trek: Voyager
- The X-Files
- Best Series on Syndicated/Cable Television
- Babylon 5
- The Outer Limits
- Psi Factor
- Sliders
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- Stargate SG-1
- Best Actor in a TV Series
- Richard Dean Anderson (Stargate SG-1)
- Nicholas Brendon (Buffy)
- Bruce Boxleitner (Babylon 5)
- David Duchovny (X-Files)
- Lance Henriksen (Millennium)
- Jonathan LaPaglia (Seven Days)
- Best Actress in a TV Series
- Gillian Anderson (X-Files)
- Claudia Christian (Babylon 5)
- Shannen Doherty (Charmed)
- Sarah Michelle Geller (Buffy)
- Kate Mulgrew (Voyager)
- Jeri Ryan (Voyager)
The academy is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1972 by Dr. Donald A. Reed "to honor, promote and recognize the many talented individuals working in the genre filmmaking field." To be eligible for a Saturn Award, a film must have been screened for the general academy membership in California.
Briefly Noted
- Spelling Television has received another full-season order from the WB Network for Charmed.
- Raven Software is working on a Star Trek: Voyager PC game that will combine both first-person action and team-oriented combat, according to Gamespot News.
- Warner Bros. is in talks to pick up the theatrical rights to Mewtwo Strikes Back, an animated film based on the popular Japanese children's series Pocket Monsters.
- Alan Rickman is reportedly in talks to star opposite Tim Allen in DreamWorks' upcoming SF comedy Galaxy Quest.
- TNT has acquired the off-network rights to NBC's one-hour drama The Pretender. The highly rated series will make its debut on TNT in the fall of 2000.
- Production on Paramount's upcoming film Mission Impossible 2, which stars Tom Cruise under the direction of John Woo, has been delayed for several weeks. Rumor has it that script and budgetary concerns are behind the change in plans.
