Networks add more SF to fall lineup
ulder and Scully may never get together in the Biblical sense, but they've already spawned another generation of offspring: call them the Grandchildren of The X-Files. They are the slew of SF-themed shows in the 1997 television schedules unveiled by the major broadcast networks in the last two weeks. A partial rundown:
NBC brings back two-thirds of its so-called Saturday night "thrillogy:" Profiler and The Pretender. The truly awful Dark Skies is history. In its place: Sleepwalkers, directed by David Nutter (The X-Files, Millennium) and starring Nowhere Man's Bruce Greenwood, which follows the exploits of researchers who can tap into and take part in people's dreams and nightmares.
ABC, meanwhile, is fielding a TV version of the hit Jean-Claude Van Damme thriller Timecop. Described as an "action-packed, light-hearted, futuristic adventure," the show stars T.W. King in the Van Damme role as a cop in the year 2007 who travels back in time to apprehend criminals out to alter the time-space continuum.
Fox replaces the lamented Sliders with The Visitor, from Independence Day creators Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin. The show stars John Corbett (Northern Exposure) as Adam MacArthur, a World War II era pilot who disappears over the Bermuda Triangle only to reappear seemingly unchanged decades later, but with mysterious powers and a mission to unmask an alien invasion conspiracy. Also on Fox, Millennium returns for a sophomore year. Not on the fall schedule: the anticipated new series from Jim Wong and Glen Morgan (Space: Above And Beyond) titled The Notorious, a noirish paranormal gangster series.
Struggling netlet UPN, trying to leverage the modest success of its returning Star Trek: Voyager, will expand its schedule to a fourth night with a two-hour SF block starting early next year. The UPN Thursday Night Sci-Fi Movie will showcase original SF and fantasy productions and the broadcast premieres of theatrical movies. The cult fave The Burning Zone is absent from UPN's fall schedule.
The equally struggling WB Network has renewed its one breakout hit, the horror-fantasy-teen angst series Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Meanwhile, an animated version of this summer's feature film Men In Black debuts.
In syndication, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine returns. Fans of Babylon 5, meanwhile, were still waiting for word on whether the SF novel-for-TV would be picked up for its fifth and climactic season. According to the official B5 newsletter Jumpgate, the decision on a new season did not arrive until mid-June last year, "and the same should be expected for this year."
-- Patrick Lee, U.S. Correspondent
Norton, Clarke, Wells and Asimov to be inducted into SF Hall of Fame
F authors Andre Norton and Arthur C. Clarke will be named to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame for 1997, while Isaac Asimov and H. G. Wells will be inducted posthumously, according to an announcement at ConQuesT 28 last month.
The inductions will take place at the Campbell Conference Banquet, which will be held July 11 at the University of Kansas in Kansas City, Mo.
In nominating her for induction, Hall of Fame organizers noted that Norton wrote most of her books for children and young adults. But they added that her themes and complexity appeal to a larger adult market, and in 1984 she became the only woman to be honored with the Nebula Grand Master Award.
Similarly, officials praised Clarke, who has also won the Nebula Grand Master Award and several Hugo awards. His most famous work, 2001, is based on his earlier short story, The Sentinel.
Herbert George Wells, who died in 1946, was one of the founding fathers of science fiction. His best known work is The Time Machine, though he published more than 60 books.
Isaac Asimov was one of the most influential writers of science fiction's "Golden Age." He published 400 science fiction books, mysteries and tomes on everything from science to the Bible.
The public is invited to attend the induction banquet. Those interested can make reservations by calling Professor James Gunn at 1-913-864-3380. The banquet cost is $25.
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame was founded in 1996 by the Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society and the J. Wayne and Elsie M. Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas.
-- P.L.
Lost World devours box office records
roving itself as rapacious as its featured T-Rexes, The Lost World: Jurassic Park savaged box office records over the Memorial Day weekend, pulling in more than $90 million in four days -- enough money to recoup its production costs and trample the competition, according to press reports.
The sequel's box office performance rendered several previous records extinct, including best opening-weekend gross and best single-day gross. It also appeared headed toward the quickest $100-million take: Lost World was to have reached the century mark in just five days, beating last year's Independence Day by two days.
The earth-shaking revenues helped the stock price of Universal Studios' parent Seagram Co. Ltd. jump by $1.10 per share on Monday, May 26, Daily Variety reported. Director Steven Spielberg has gone on record as saying he doesn't expect The Lost World to equal Jurassic Park's worldwide earnings, but that won't stop him from making a bundle off the movie himself. Rumor has it that Spielberg will make more from the movie than Universal will, thanks to some nifty contract work. In fact, his earnings could approach the $500 million mark.
-- P.L.
Portrait of Darth Vader as a young child
ight-year-old actor Jake Lloyd (Unhook the Stars, Jingle All the Way) has landed the coveted role of Anakin Skywalker, the young Darth Vader, in the first Star Wars prequel, sources told The Hollywood Reporter. The trade paper reported that Lloyd joins a cast that includes Liam Neeson, Natalie Portman and Ewan McGregor.
Lucasfilm, which will produce the new Star Wars movie, would not confirm any of these castings and insisted the company is merely in talks with the actors' representatives. -- P.L.
Las Vegas: The Final Frontier
oing where no Star Trek franchise has ever gone before, Viacom/Paramount will open its much-hyped $70-million themed amusement center Star Trek: The Experience in August in the Las Vegas Hilton.
But Wired magazine's Mark Frauenfelder reports that Trekkers are showing less than stellar interest in the attraction. "I don't see a lot of talk about ST: The Experience in the [Trek] newsgroups," Leland Wong, an engineer who describes himself as a fan of both Las Vegas and Star Trek, told Frauenfelder. "More discussions appear about it in the alt.vacation.las-vegas newsgroup."
Still, the joint venture between Paramount Parks and the Hilton is reportedly designed for anyone vaguely familiar with the TV series and movies, giving them the opportunity to meander through exact full-scale replicas of the show's sets and take a ride on a virtual reality attraction.
Bring lots of money: there won't be any dabo tables, but there will be a video game center, a Starfleet lounge, a Starfleet Surplus Shop, a museum, a restaurant, a "Spacequest Casino" and food-vending machines that look like food replicators.
-- P.L.
Trekkers draw a line in the sand
rekkers have decided to take on the Evil Empire -- uh, Paramount Pictures and its parent company Viacom -- in response to increasingly Borg-like tactics by studio copyright lawyers to shut down fan Web sites.
The ardent fans of Star Trek have banded together to form the Online Freedom Federation, which says its purpose is to reach "an acceptable compromise [with Paramount] that would allow for free use of Star Trek materials on the Web," according to Chairman Luca Sambucci.
"We feel that the Star Trek Web masters should have access to certain copyrighted materials and in return, wherever the copyrighted material is shown, they will explicitly acknowledge that the material is copyright of Paramount and Viacom," Sambucci adds.
Among other things, OFF has drafted an Open Response to Paramount and Viacom, is compiling a list of signatures and has posted a Web site discussing the issue. Paramount has issued no response saying whether it would discuss the issue with OFF.
-- P.L.
Unflattering tell-all book on William Shatner makes NY rounds
illiam Shatner, Star Trek's redoubtable Capt. James T. Kirk, is being painted as a megalomanic crippled by self-doubt in the manuscript of an unauthorized biography now making the rounds of publishers, according to a story in the New York Post.
Among the unflattering allegations supposedly being made in the tome, which is being pitched by former Shatner friends and associates:
- Shatner allegedly attacked his fiancee Noreen Kidd and put her in a "T.J. Hooker-ish" chokehold as he wrestled her to the ground.
- Before a 1994 appearance on The Tonight Show, Shatner purportedly exploded when someone complimented his appearance.
Keep in mind, however, that these allegations have not been substantiated, nor has the manuscript found a publisher. Yet.
-- P.L.
Briefly Noted
- Burger King launched a promotional tie-in with The Lost World: Jurassic Park that includes the sale of "Dino-Tenders," pieces of fried chicken in the shape of dinosaurs.
- The remake of Godzilla, from ID4's Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, began principal photography in Manhattan last month. The film stars Matthew Broderick and Jean Reno.
- Universal and DreamWorks are developing a film based on the comic book Cowboys & Aliens about a space ship that crashes in the Old West, Variety reports. Both the cowboys and Indians get hold of alien technology and begin using it on each other. Finally, they're forced to work together to battle the aliens who come to retrieve the ship.
- The upcoming Star Trek novel Vulcan's Forge has earned a starred review from Publisher's Weekly, reportedly the first such review ever given to a novel tied in to a television program. The hardcover novel hits bookstores this month.
- Lankhmar-The Fritz Leiber home page has moved to http://www.lankhmar.demon.co.uk. The site has also been updated to include color cover art and more than a dozen new reviews.
- The June issue of PC Plus magazine will include a free copy of the half-hour SF movie Offline, created by Christian Darkin. Darkin said "everything except the shooting" was done on a desktop PC.
- Last month Galoob Toys reportedly auctioned off a rare, solid gold model of a Star Destroyer from its Star Wars collection. The minimum bid was $3,000, and proceeds were slated for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. No word on what the winning bid was.
