“The BIG news has finally hit. A Ringer Spy who was recently in the New York offices of New Line Cinema has reported that they clearly saw ‘The Hobbit’ on the film schedule for 2007. Here’s what the spy had to say: “Please leave my email anonymous as I have some very exciting news to report. I was in New Line’s NY offices to discuss upcoming projects when I clearly saw something very intriguing on a year planner. ‘The Hobbit’ was clearly marked on what looked like July 2007. I couldn’t exactly take a moment to investigate the calendar with my audience in the room, but it definitely said ‘The Hobbit’. Lets hope this is a PJ project”!”
“The “Terminator” franchise is rising again, this time as a Fox TV series. Andy Vajna and Mario Kassar’s C2 Pictures, which produced the most recent “Terminator” feature, has pacted with Warner Bros. TV and scribe Josh Friedman (“War of the Worlds”) for the tentatively titled “The Sarah Connor Chronicles.” Skein will focus on robo-warrior Sarah Connor and her savior son John Connor.”
At long last the digital film making revolution is allowing indy film makers to go after subject matter like space opera on a low budget! A digital film company based in Scotland has just released a new film called “The Planet”. What’s cool is that this film looks pretty neat, but was done on on small budget of £8000 (that $16,000 American with the exchange rate). The film which took two years to make follows a group of shipwrecked mercenaries and their struggle for survival on an alien world.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 1, 2006 in Television
It seems that there will be new episodes of Babylon 5 on the way:
New Babylon 5 coming
“As many of you may already know, a few days ago as I write this, I canceled all of my convention appearances through February of next year due to the press of work, both in terms of finishing up work on my script for Ron Howard, and in order to free up room to begin the process of writing, producing, and directing the first in what we hope will be a series of new Babylon 5 anthology episodes for DVD.
The other result of this is that we are going to push back volume nine just far enough to make room for me to get these projects up and on the rails. It will not be much of a delay, it will be a September release, but the Babylon 5 scripts team and I wanted to make sure everyone knew about the delay, and that it is only a delay.
The good thing is that the delay is caused primarily by the creation of new Babylon 5 episodes, to be produced with the original cast, which is a cause for celebration on every level imaginable. We hope to follow up this with another announcement with the September publication date for volume nine as quickly as possible, so stay tuned, for as they say in the television business…there is more to come.”
It’s great news to see that NASA might get back to the moon, not quite as cool as going to Mars but I’ll gladly settle to see some real manned space exploration in the next few years. I grew up on Long Island so i would have liked to see Northrop Grumman get the project, but maybe just maybe this is the start of a new day for NASA:
“Lockheed Martin on Thursday won NASA’s multibillion-dollar nod to build the Orion crew exploration vehicle, a spaceship with a look and a mission that echoes the space agency’s giant leap to the moon in the 1960s.
The announcement kicks off an effort to produce spacecraft that would replace NASA’s fleet of space shuttles, due for retirement in 2010. NASA’s timetable calls for the cone-shaped Orion ships to bring cargo or up to six crew members to the international space station by 2014, and carry up to four astronauts to the moon and back by 2020.
For 13 months, two high-profile aerospace teams — one led by Lockheed Martin, the other led by Northrop Grumman and The Boeing Co. — have worked on paper proposals to fit NASA’s specifications. Now it’s up to Lockheed Martin to turn the concept into a reality.”
One of the best under rated TV series of all time is the original Outer Limits, it always is viewed as a runner up to the Twilight Zone, but there were a number of episodes that were A+ and stand up as true science fiction classics. Joseph Stefano who produced the show has sadly just passed away:
“Joseph Stefano, producer of the classic televison series, “The Outer Limits” and script writer for the the film based on Robert Bloch’s novel, “Psycho,” has passed away at the age of 84.
In 1959, Mr. Stefano got a contract writing at 20 Century Fox and his work caught the attention of Alfred Hitchcock who had him adapt the book “Psycho” to the screen. Mr. Stefano created the whole back story of Marion Crane stealing the $40,000 from her boss and being murdered in the now immortal, shower scene.
Of course, there was the classic, “The Outer Limits” television series which was some of the best television ever created. A pilot Mr. Stefano created, “The Unknown,” was a spin-off of the series but, sadly, it never interested the networks. Instead, it was incorporated as an episode to the “Outer Limits” entitled, “The Forms Of Things Unknown” with David McCallum and Barbara Rush.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 31, 2006 in Star Trek
It looks like Leoard Nimoy holds the approval rights on the casting of a new Spock. If Paramount was smart they’d make the approval process a reality TV show!
Leonard Nimoy Holds Approval Rights for Casting of New Spock
“All I know is what I’ve been reading, probably the same as you, that (J.J. Abrams) has been engaged and expressed interest in a Star Trek movie, and the idea expressed so far is that it would be a prequel that would deal with the time and place where Spock and Kirk first met in their academy days. “Who might be his choice of actor in the role of young Spock? “I haven’t gone there yet, I think it’s premature,” said Nimoy. “Although I do, by contract, have the right to approve the casting.”
It may be safe to assume that William Shatner has similar influence over Kirk’s new face. When asked about Abrams’ film, Shatner replied, “I have no idea. All I know is I’ve received an okay from Paramount to go ahead with a series of books that I’m writing on the young Captain Kirk and the young Mr. Spock. I started work on that just recently. And that will be my idea of what the story should be”.”
“Since Hong Kong Twins member Gillian Chung was secretly photographed half nude while changing her bra in a backstage room during her recent concert in Malaysia in Genting Highlands last week, the whole Hong Kong entertainment world has gone berserk. Celebrities rallied together and protested the paparazzi’s immoral behaviour on the street. Hundreds of Hong Kong stars together with some Chinese artists lined up in front of a backdrop that said ‘Privacy and Dignity, Hong Kong People’s Business”, condemning the culprit’s nasty deeds, calling for a boycott on the tabloid magazine ‘Easyfinder (一本便利） that published those indecent photos.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 31, 2006 in Star Trek
Rumor has it that Paramount is looking to add new special effects to the old Star Trek series. I hope these rumors aren’t true – the special effects from the original Star Trek series were pretty decent for their day. Like Dr. Who the show isn’t about the special effects, but the writing and sometimes over acting. In fact I’ve been watching old Twilight Zone episodes on the Sci Fi channel, and those hold up great and they make old Dr. Who episodes look high budget.
“Rumors sped at light speed on the Internet Tuesday that Paramount is working on an enhanced version of the original 79 Star Trek episodes that it plans to sell as a syndication package to broadcast stations. According to the reports, state-of-the-art visual effects will replace those in the series, new music will be added, and the show will be offered in high definition. Presumably, the new series will also be packaged for sale on high-definition DVD after the syndication package airs.”
I mean look at this shot from the old show, it’s not that bad:
Peluca is a short film by director Jared Hess, made for under $500, and was shot in two days. It was later discovered at the Sundance Film Festival and allowed Jared to create Napoleon Dynamite:
Jared Hess is now in talks to direct Captain America, which if it becomes reality will be released in 2009.
Alright I admit it, I’m not the biggest fan in the world of the new Galactica series. I watched the show when it was first on the air, and my final memories of the series was that bad spin off Galactica 1980 which was bad, really really bad! In fact it was so bad that one episode featured a baseball game ala the Bad News Bears. So no matter how cool the new show is, I always be haunted by memories of that damn space dog robot and the phrase “Starbucking!”
But anyway on the bright side if you are a fan of the show and not haunted by visions of that brat Boxey (God I hated that brat!) then you’ll love this very cool website which is a wiki on Battlestar Galactica:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 23, 2006 in Japanese TV
Song Hye Kyo is a Korean actress whose nickname is “woodpecker” because she talks so fast. Her first big break came when Song co-starred in the KBS drama Autumn Fairy Tale in 2000 with Song Seung-hun and Won Bin. The show quickly became popular as a tragic love story.
Here is an ultra cute ad she recently did for McDonalds in Korea which is pushing ice cream:
