31/03/08 - Knight Rider gets the go for Season 1

Knight Rider has been given a slot in NBC's 2008-09 season, according to a report in trade paper Variety, after the two-hour pilot that aired in February received strong ratings.

It is believed that the show will air on American screens on Friday nights starting in September.

 

 

28/03/08 - The X-Files movie trailer is out there

Movieweb has scored itself an impressive exclusive on the new X-Files movie, obtaining a copy of the first full trailer.

Director Chris Carter screened the trailer recently at Paleyfest in Hollywood and it will make its official debut attached to prints of Iron Man on 02 May, but someone at Paleyfest managed to capture the trailer.

The X-Files 2 will be released in US cinemas from 25 July and stars David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson and Amanda Peet.

 

 

27/03/08 - Jackman gets his claws into comics

Hugh Jackman, star of the X-Men movies, is to co-write a new comic book series with the creator of the Wolverine adventures.

The Australian actor, who plays Wolverine in the film franchise, will write Nowhere Man with Marc Guggenheim, who was also responsible for creating the Amazing Spider-Man comic.

Jackman is also hoping that the stories, to be produced by Virgin, will become popular enough to be turned into a film.

 

26/03/08 - McKellen is Hoping for Hobbit role

Sir Ian McKellen has been talking, on his official website, about his possible involvement in the upcoming The Hobbit and The Hobbit sequel movies.

Asked if he will appear in the movies, McKellen said: "Yes I will, if Peter Jackson and I have anything to do with it, he being the producer and me being, on the whole, a very lucky actor.

"Encouragingly, Peter and Fran Walsh have told me they couldn't imagine The Hobbit without their original Gandalf. Their confidence hasn't yet been confirmed by the director Guillermo del Toro but I am keeping my diary free for 2009!"

The Hobbit and The Hobbit sequel are set to film back-to-back with the first due for a 2010 release with the sequel following in 2011.

 

25/03/08 - Fanboys save Fanboys Director's cut

In response to protests from the Star Wars community, the Weinstein Co. now plans to release two versions of Fanboys on DVD.

The company plans to release the director's original version of the film and a recut version that reportedly eliminates a cancer storyline.

The decision to alter director Kyle Neman's original cut, which was screened to fans at Star Wars conventions, drew plans for boycotts of Weinstein Co. films.

In response, the company released the following statement: "In recent weeks, Star Wars fans nationwide have built a multi-tiered grassroots effort to voice their strong support for one of the earlier versions of the film, including a campaign which generated over 300,000 e-mails in support for the film. Based on the tremendous feedback and interest from the fans, today's announcement will ensure both versions will be equally available within the marketplace."

Fanboys revolves around a group of diehard Star Wars fans who, in 1999, drive cross-country to break into George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch and watch Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace before it's released to the public.

 

20/03/08 - They couldn't rebuild her!

In a recent interview with Sci Fi Wire, David Eick, the co-executive producer of NBC's The Bionic Woman, confirmed that the show has been cancelled.

"I just felt that the process was so frustrating, and the conditions under which we were making that show never really came to fruition in such a way that I felt like we could make the show well," said Eick.

"The actress [Michelle Ryan] we found was wonderful. Some of the writing was good. We just didn't ever bring it all together like we did with Battlestar Galactica. At a certain point, when it becomes that frustrating, I think you're better off to say, 'Let's try again another time,' and let it go."

 

19/03/08 - Sir Arthur C Clarke dies

Sir Arthur C Clarke, the British science fiction writer and inventor, has died in Sri Lanka at the age of 90 after a cardio-respiratory attack.

The author came to fame in 1968 when his short story The Sentinel was made into the film 2001: A Space Odyssey by director Stanley Kubrick.

Since 1995, the author had been largely confined to a wheelchair by post-polio syndrome.

 

18/03/08 - Hasn't this been Dune before?

Frank Herbert's 1965 sci-fi novel Dune is to once again be adapted for the large screen, according to trade paper Variety.

Herbert's novel is a futuristic tale set on the remote desert planet of Arrakis, which is the interstellar empire's sole source of the spice Melange, which causes immortality and facilitates space travel.

The book, which is the first in a series of novels, also spawned David Lynch's 1984 film, the Sci-Fi Channel's 2000 miniseries, and the follow up miniseries Children of Dune.

 

17/03/08 - Smallville cast keeps getting smaller

The future of Smallville looks uncertain as several of the main cast members have yet to secure contracts for the show's eighth season.

As we previously reported Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor) revealed that he may not return for another season, but now it is understood that Kristin Kreuk (Lana Lang) will not be returning for the entire season.

In a recent interview with TV Guide Al Gough, Smallville's executive producer, said: "Kristin will be back for a portion of the season - likely the first third - and Michael... quite frankly, those negotiations are just getting started. So there's no word one way or the other whether he'll be back next year or not."

It has also been revealed that while Allison Mack (Chloe Sullivan) has not officially re-signed, it is expected that she will appear for a minimum of 18 episodes.

 

14/03/08 - Farscape may live on on the Internet

In a recent interview with Sci Fi Wire, Farscape star Ben Browder revealed that he is looking forward to reprising the role of astronaut John Crichton in a proposed Internet based revival.

Executive producer Brian Henson and creator Rockne O'Bannon are talking about how to revive Farscape on the Web in a series of 10 webisodes.

Browder said that it's too early to figure out to what extent he would be involved: "They haven't come to me with any specifics yet, and I don't read anything into that."

 

13/03/08 - Final Potter book will be two movies

The movie of the seventh and final Harry Potter book is to be split into two parts, with the first film to be released in November 2010 and the second in May 2011.

The films will be titled Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I and Part II and will be directed by David Yates [Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince].

In a recent interview, the movie franchise's star, Daniel Radcliffe [pictured], said: "I think it's the only way you can do it without cutting out a huge portion of the book. There have been compartmentalized subplots in the other books that have made them easier to cut - although those cuts were still to the horror of some fans - but the seventh book doesn't really have any subplots. It's one driving, pounding story from the word go."

 

12/03/08 - Singer flies in to helm Superman

Bryan Singer [pictured left] has been confirmed as the director of Superman: The Man of Steel, the sequel to Superman Returns.

It also looks likely that the film will be written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (Transformers), after the pair of writers apparently had "several meetings" with Warner Brothers regarding the film.

Brandon Routh, who played the Man of Steel in Superman Returns, has already confirmed that he will be returning in the new movie.

 

11/03/08 - It's not a myth - there's life after SG-1

In a recent interview with Sci Fi Wire, Stargate SG-1's Ben Browder revealed that he's developing a new miniseries for the Sci Fi Channel called Going Homer. The show will bring to life characters from Greek and Roman mythology.

"I'm pretty excited to see the big three brought to life: that's Zeus, Poseidon and Hades," said Browder. "And then, obviously, there's Athena and Aphrodite and Aries. They're all very cool."

Browder is co-writing the miniseries with his former Farscape director Andrew Prowse.

The plot will follow a modern American 12-year-old boy, named Homer Ulysses Jones, who can see Greek and Roman gods walking among the populace.

 

10/03/08 - Indy poster offers movie plot clues

Paramount Pictures has released another Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull poster which hints at some of the movie's plot points.

The people over at the Movieweb website have been carefully examining the poster which seems to confirm that something alien is afoot. It's that the skull is not human.

Add to that the recent trailer, with its shot of a crate labeled "Roswell, New Mexico 1947," and you don't need to be a professor of archaeology to put the pieces together.

 

07/03/08 - Guess who's coming to your console

Games publisher Eidos has confirmed that it is in the process of designing a console game based on the BBC's Doctor Who TV show.

Full details of the game have not been revealed, but it is known that work has started on the title and an announcement of a the release date is forthcoming.

 

 

06/03/08 - First glance at the Watchmen

On his online blog director of the Watchmen movie, Zack Snyder, has unveiled five main cast members in costume.

The images include The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson), Ozymandias (Matthew Goode), Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) and Silk Spectre (Malin Akerman) [pictured left].

The movie is due to open in US cinemas on 06 March 2009. Click here to read the blog and see all of the images.

 

05/03/08 - Kirk's five year mission continues

IDW Publishing is to launch a new Star Trek comic book series that will pick up where the original '60s TV series ended, with a chronicle of the Starship Enterprise's untold fourth year.

Star Trek Year Four: The Enterprise Experiment will be co-written by D.C. Fontana, who started her career as assistant to Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and went on to write Star Trek's most celebrated episodes.

Joining Fontana for her first-ever foray into comic-book storytelling will be veteran Star Trek artist Gordon Purcell, whose work has appeared in more than 50 issues of Star Trek dating back to the 1980s.

The Enterprise Experiment examines the untold fourth year of the U.S.S. Enterprise's five-year mission and will include a sequel to Fontana's celebrated episode The Enterprise Incident, in which Kirk famously posed as a Romulan to capture a new state-of-the-art cloaking device.

The series will be available in US stores from April.

 

04/03/08 - Trailer shows what Iron Man is made of

The trailer for the Iron Man movie is now available to view online.

Based on the long-running Marvel comic book series, Iron Man tells the story of Tony Stark, the enigmatic heir to the Stark Enterprises fortune. A driven inventor and executive who seems to have it all, Tony is haunted by his dark side.

Though he commands his empire by day, by night he secretly becomes Iron Man, the living embodiment of decades of defence spending and innovation. Strapping on billions of dollars worth of state-of-the-art armour and weaponry each night to fight crime, terrorism and corporate espionage, Tony begins to crack under the strain of his fractured lifestyle and must ultimately confront the one enemy he can never beat - himself.

The movie stars Robert Downey, Jr., Jeff Bridges, Terrence Howard and Gwyneth Paltrow and will be released in American cinemas on 20 May.

 

 

03/03/08 - Tron sequel will be in 3D

According to a news report at sci-fi website Dark Horizons, Disney plans to release a 3D sequel to its classic sci-fi movie Tron in spring 2011.

The digital 3D movie will be directed by Joseph Kosinski. But there is no official word yet on what the story will be about.

Disney also revealed that Cars 2, National Treasure 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean 4 are also scheduled for release in the same year.

 

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