Sci-Fi Saturday: Robocop, Transformers, X-Files, Watchmen, BSG, Heroes, Fringe + more

This week in our movie news roundup we find out what kind of Robocop we will get, when you can see the Transformers 2 trailer, who will be in Sin City 2 and we also have a whiff of more X-Files, along with the crop of new previews, including the Watchmen footage from Comic-Con. In the world of TV we find out how they will fix Heroes, what Flash Forward is all about and you can watch a BSG webisode and more.

MOVIE NEWS

Aronofsky Aiming for Hardcore Robocop + Talks The Fountain "Redux"
Director Darren Aronofsky, who is attached to direct a remake of "Robocop", told a group of reporters that he is aiming to make a hardcore interpretation of the film, which he hopes will hit theaters in 2010: "If we do it, it [can] definitely be rated R," Aronofsky said. "I mean, [it won’t] necessarily, but we have that freedom.".  The film is still in the early stages, with Aronofsky and writer David Self developing the screenplay: "We have a long way to go," he said. "So until there’s a screenplay, there’s nothing to really talk about. Until we’re going, it just doesn’t exist for me. It’s just like we’re trying to get something good, and we’ll see what happens."  Meanwhile, Aronofsky also spoke a bit about a new cut of "The Fountain" that he has just completed, which he calls a "redux" rather than a recut:

"It’s something more for fans," Aronofsky said. "I worked on the film for six years, and it went through a lot of versions. There was one version that was much closer to one of the scripts that we had, and we chose between which way we would go with it. They both are interesting, so I always was curious for myself to see what that alternative version would be."

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Trailer Will Be Released in February
The trailer for "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" (June 26, 2009) will be released in February, that according to director Michael Bay who made the announcement on his website.

Hey everyone. Back from Egypt and Jordan – we had a wonderful shoot over there. I will miss the crew they were an amazing bunch of people and a lot of fun. I’m stuck in the edit room up to my eye balls – also finished producing Friday the 13th and The Unborn – coming out the after the new year. Our Trailer for Transformer you have been asking about – First there will be a teaser poster soon after the new year, and the teaser trailer will be out either in the theaters early Feb. or on the Superbowl. Cannot decide yet. I’m going to release some set stills on this site in a few weeks. I’ll keep you informed. Going back to do more selects now from my portable avid that I take home from work. It’s late, see you.

Dawson Returning for Sin City 2 – Rourke Unsure
Last week it was reported that Frank Miller had finished his script for "Sin City 2" and was planning to re-unite with Robert Rodriquez to direct the film by as early as April 2009, and now IESB has confirmed the start date with Rosario Dawson, who says that she is returning to reprise her role as Gail.  But Mickey Rourke, who played Marv in the first film, told ComingSoon.net that he’s not sure if he wants to reprise his role in the sequel:

“No, I’m not interested in that right now. That’s not a reality right now. It’s pissing in the wind,” Rourke admitted. “There’s different factions going different directions there. I don’t know. That’s three hours of make up and I’m claustrophobic, so I’m going to have to work something out.”

More X-Files?
Despite the weak box office performance of "The X-Files: I Want to Believe"–just $21 million domestically, although it did perform better overseas en route to a worldwide gross of $68.1 million–star David Duchovny still wants to revisit the role of Fox Mulder and believes the series could live on in a spinoff TV show.  Watch an interview with the actor embedded below.

Twilight Franchise switches directors
Last week Summit Entertainment announced that "Twilight" director Catherine Hardwicke would not be directing the sequel "New Moon".  The joint press release revealed that the decision was made due to timing issues, but Nikki Finke of Deadline Hollywood Daily reported that Summit found Hardwicke "difficult" and "irrational" during the making of the film:

“Summit didn’t like her. They’re saying the DP [director of photography] Elliot Davis is the one responsible for the film’s sumptuous visual look, that the editor Nancy Richardson had to save the film in post-production, and Summit thought Hardwicke’s [CAA] agent Beth Swofford was alternately ineffectual and hysterical.”

In a follow-up post, Finke reported that Summit was pursuing Chris Weitz ("The Golden Compass") to direct "New Moon" and today, the studio confirmed that Weitz would be directing the sequel. Weitz announced the news in a letter to fans that you can read here.

Cast Set for Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender
The cast of M. Night Shyamalan’s live action adaptation of the popular Nickelodeon series ‘Avatar’, "The Last Airbender" (July 2, 2010) , has been set.  From Entertainment Weekly:

After an open casting call in Texas, Shyamalan discovered karate star Noah Ringer and offered him the part of Airbender’s 12-year old hero, Aang, an Avatar with superpowers who must stop the Fire Nation from destroying the world. Twilight’s Jackson Rathbone has been asked to play Aang’s pal Sokka, while Nicola Peltz (Deck the Halls) will star as his sister Katara. Genial singer Jesse McCartney, meanwhile, is negotiating to play against type in the role of the Fire Nation’s evil prince Zuko.

Land of the Lost Plot Synopsis
Here’s the first official plot synopsis for the Will Ferrell-starring remake of "Land of the Lost":

Will Ferrell stars as has-been scientist Dr. Rick Marshall, sucked into one and spat back through time. Way back. Now, Marshall has no weapons, few skills and questionable smarts to survive in an alternate universe full of marauding dinosaurs and fantastic creatures from beyond our world—a place of spectacular sights and super-scaled comedy known as the Land of the Lost.

Sucked alongside him for the adventure are crack-smart research assistant Holly (Anna Friel) and a redneck survivalist (Danny McBride) named Will. Chased by T. rex and stalked by painfully slow reptiles known as Sleestaks, Marshall, Will and Holly must rely on their only ally—a primate called Chaka (Jorma Taccone)—to navigate out of the hybrid dimension. Escape from this routine expedition gone awry and they’re heroes. Get stuck, and they’ll be permanent refugees in the Land of the Lost.

NEW IMAGES

Dragonball Evolution (more here and here)

Friday the 13th

Kick-Ass

Knowing (more here)

The Unborn (more here)

Wonder Woman (more here and here)

NEW VIDEOS

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (click the image to watch seven new clips)

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Dragonball Evolution [HD Version]

Knowing [HD Version]

Monsters vs. Aliens

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

Push

The Unborn (more here and here)

Watchmen (Plus, click here to watch Comic-Con Footage)

MOVIE BITES

  • In its first day of release, "The Dark Knight" disc sold 3 million copies on DVD and Blu-ray in the United States, Canada and UK.  That figure includes a record 600,000 copies sold on Blu-ray, the most-ever for the format in a single day of release.  The previous record for Blu-ray was "Iron Man" which sold 260,000 copies in its first day and 500,000 in its first week. The Blu-ray edition of "The Dark Knight" is on track to sell 1 million copies by week’s end. [Video Business]
  • In other ‘Dark Knight’ related news, the Academy’s Music Branch Executive Committee has reversed its decision to disqualify the score to the film. After reviewing information submitted by the affected parties, the committee concluded that two composers, Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, were responsible for the score. It was previously disqualified because five names were listed as composers on the cue sheet. [Variety]
  • Marvel is using "Rasputin" as the production title for "Iron Man 2". [Production Weekly via /Film]
  • "Jurassic Park IV" is probably not going to happen: “No… I don’t know. You know, when Crichton passed away, I sorta felt maybe that’s it. Maybe that’s a sign that we don’t mess with it," producer Kathleen Kennedy said. [ComingSoon.net]
  • "Green Hornet" star Seth Rogen hopes to have something available to show fans at next summer’s Comic-Con: "Comic-Con is my favorite event of the year," Rogen said. "…I would love nothing more than to be able to show something at Comic-Con." [SCI FI Wire]
  • A reboot of "A Nightmare on Elm Street", from Michael Bay’s production company Platinum Dunes, has been green lit by Warner Bros.  The film will likely start shooting in spring 2009. [ShockTillYouDrop.com]
  • Screenwriter Eric Roth is writing a Sci-Fi film for Warner Bros.: "I’m going to do a big space…I don’t want to say odyssey…that’s been done, but a space movie for Warner Brothers".  Roth explains the film as "somewhere between the intelligence of ‘2001’ and the mythology of ‘Star Wars’". [Collider]
  • Joby Harold is in negotiations to write the adaptation of the comic book "Atlantis Rising" for DreamWorks. “As a writer, Joby has an amazingly strong understanding of how to take genre seriously, which is prerequisite No. 1 for us when it comes to these kinds of movies,” executive producer Alex Kurtzman (co-writer of Star Trek) said. [THR]
  • According to producer Don Murphy, John Stevenson ("Kung Fu Panda") has been hired to direct a big screen adaptation of Grant Morrison’s comic book miniseries "We3".  Murphy adds that the film will be both R-rated and live-action. [ShockTillYouDrop.com]
  • Universal Pictures has delayed "The Wolfman" from April 3, 2009 to November 6, 2009. [Fangoria]
  • Anne Hathaway, who plays the White Queen in Tim Burton’s "Alice in Wonderland", says that her character is entirely live-action: "I am actually an actor not affected by CGI in it," Hathaway said in a group interview on Dec. 5 in Beverly Hills, Calif., where she was promoting Bride Wars. "I believe I’m one of the very few." [SCI FI Wire]
  • Former 20th Century Fox executive Jeff Katz chatted with MTV about the characters Deadpool and Gambit in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" and the potential of spin-off films for the two characters.
  • Hugh Jackman ("X-Men Origins: Wolverine") will host the "81st Academy Awards" ceremony.  Awards will be presented on Sunday, February 22, 2009 at the Kodak Theatre and will be broadcast live on ABC. [Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]
  • As is most always the case, sci-fi films dominate the list of movies in contention for an Oscar for special effects, although two notable films are not in consideration: "Speed Racer" and "Wanted".  The Academy’s visual effects branch will narrow the list of fifteen films in contention to seven and then three when the awards are announced on the morning of January 22nd.  The other films in contention are, in alphabetical order: "Austrilia", "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian", "Cloverfield", "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", "The Dark Knight", "The Day the Earth Stood Still", "Hancock", "Hellboy II: The Golden Army", "The Incredible Hulk", "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", "Iron Man", "Journey to the Center of the Earth", "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor", "Quantum of Solace" and  "The Spiderwick Chronicles". [Variety]
  • 20th Century Fox’s "The Day the Earth Stood Still" was transmitted into deep space via the Deep Space Communications Network at Cape Canaveral, Florida to coincide with the film’s release this weekend.  A Fox spokesman called it the first "galactic motion-picture release". The transmission was directed toward Alpha Centuari, which it will reach by 2012. [SCI FI Wire]
  • David Goyer ("The Dark Knight") plans to turn in a script to Universal Pictures for "The Invisible Man" next week.  Goyer hopes to begin shooting the film toward the end of next year. [SCI FI Wire]
  • Sigourney Weaver told MTV that she has been in contact with Ridley Scott about a new film in the "Alien" franchise, but perhaps only with her character, not the alien: “What we’re interested in is taking the character of Ripley and seeing what other science fiction story we can tell about someone who has lived several lives.”

CASTING BITES

  • Sonya Walger and Christine Woods have joined the cast of ABC’s sci-fi drama pilot "Flash Forward".  Walger will play Olivia, wife of FBI agent Mark Banford (Joseph Fiennes), while Woods will play Janis, a computer-savy FBI agent who helps to uncover a pivotal clue in the mystery. [THR]
  • John Glover ("Smallville") has been cast to play Sylar’s dad in NBC’s "Heroes": “When Sylar meets his father, he’s going to see a path ahead of him that he doesn’t want to take,” says a source. “He has a lot more in common with his father than he realized.” [Entertainment Weekly]

TV NEWS

David Goyer Talks Flash Forward
David Goyer, creator of ABC’s Sci-Fi drama "Flash Forward" talked with SCI FI Wire about the show that is loosely based on the Robert J. Sawyer novel of the same name.  "Flash Forward" follows a group of characters around the world who, after blacking out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds, see a future five months from now and have to deal with the consequences of glimpsing into that future.  Here are some highlights:

"The basic idea, without giving too much away–because not unlike Lost, … it is a serialized show, and there are a lot of sort of twists and turns–but in the pilot there is an event that happens, and everyone on the planet, 6 billion people, all black out at exactly the same time"

"…And so initially there’s a tremendous amount of cataclysm–people that are driving cars and flying planes, things like that. But what you learn in the pilot is it’s not just that they blacked out. The consciousness of the human race actually jumped forward five months for those two minutes. So if five months from now, the two of us were going to be having this conversation, you and I would both remember those two minutes of the conversation. It’s a consistent future."

Goyer says that like ABC’s "Lost", the show will be heavily serialized and that plans have been "worked out" on "how the first season ends and how the whole show ends":

"The first season will go just one day beyond the five months. So we’ll see by the end of the season sort of did everyone’s kind of glimpse of the future really happen or not, or did some people, in trying to avert their future, cause it to happen? And then we’ll go one day beyond it, and then there’s a big giant cliffhanger that happens which I can’t say, at the end of the first season, which changes everything."

Goyer added that he and his producing partners–including his Threshold partner Brannon Braga and his wife and producing partner Jessika Borsiczky Goyer–have loosely plotted out about six years’ worth of Flash Forward. "Hopefully we’ll get there," Goyer said.

Goyer, who is producing the series with Brannon Braga and wife Jessika Borsiczky Goyer, says he’s not concerned about it being heavily serialized, believing that as long as "the writing [continues] to be good" "people will tune in".  Filming on the one-hour pilot, directed by Goyer, will begin in Los Angeles starting in February.  Click here to read the entire interview.

Bryan Fuller On What Went Wrong With Heroes and What’s Upcoming
Bryan Fuller talked with Entertainment Weekly about his return to NBC’s struggling series "Heroes".  Fuller will be returning as a consultant (his work starts with episode 19).  In addition to talking about what they have planned for the new volume "Fugitives", which kicks off on February 2nd, Fuller also freely discussed the problems that have plagued the show during seasons two and three:

It became too dense and fell into certain sci-fi trappings. For instance, in the “Villains” arc, when you talk about formulas and catalysts, it takes the face off the drama. And I think the goal for everybody is to put a face back on the drama. You have to save something with a face; otherwise you don’t understand what you’re caring about. I thought the “Villains” arc started out very interestingly, and then became sort of muddy and dense and I couldn’t get my hooks into the characters to understand their motivations.

I also started to feel confused about what people’s abilities were. One of the great things about the first season is that the metaphor for their abilities was very clear. Those metaphors seem to have gotten complicated in the past two seasons. I share that concern with everybody on the writing staff. It’s not like I’m coming in and saying, “This is what you need to do to fix it!” Everybody knows what needs to be fixed and everybody is sort of rowing in that direction.

Here’s a bit of what Fuller had to say about the new volume:

"It really is a fresh start. All of the characters are back in their real lives. You see Peter as a paramedic. Claire is looking for colleges. We get away from the world of formulas and quasi-magic."

"Yes. Episodes 14, 15 and 16 are amazing. The whole “Fugitives” arc starts out very strongly, and then it gets a little dense in the middle in terms of the mythology. So I came in right at the point where everybody was realizing, “Oh, we’re getting too dense here and we need to put faces on stories because there is no face to a formula; there is no face to saving the world.” So it’s turning this big ship back into a character stream, and everyone on the writing staff shares that desire. We need to get back into a character place, because that’s where this story started: Very clean, superhero metaphors to everyday life. That’s the path that we’re taking. But it is a big ship so it’s going to take a little while to turn it."

You can read the rest of the interview here.

Knight Rider Isn’t Canceled Yet
While the decision by NBC to cut four episodes from the the production order of "Knight Rider" could be looked at as a bad sign in regards to the future of the show, showrunner Gary Scott Thompson doesn’t see it that way and insists that the move doesn’t mean the show has been canceled:

The show is not cancelled. We’re doing a reboot and, uh, a lot of folks don’t know this, but NBC cut costs by cutting episodes, which they did on a bunch of shows. They also just laid off 750 people yesterday in their production offices and their other offices. So this is a cost-cutting measure, it is not a cancellation measure.

But that’s not to say fans shouldn’t send in letters:

So… Writing letters, though! Write a lot of letters to NBC telling them that you want Knight Rider back.

Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy Web-Series here now
The first episode of the new 10-part "Battlestar Galactica" web-series "The Face of the Enemy" premiered Friday afternoon.  The series will air over the course of 29 days, leading up to the on-air return of the series on January 16th. 

"The Face of the Enemy" follows the action and suspense inside a stranded Raptor carrying a group of passengers, including Lt. Felix Gaeta (Alessandro Juliani) and a Number 8 Cylon (Grace Park). When passengers suddenly start dying in alarming ways, fear, panic and chaos erupt within the confines of the small ship as suspicion grows that there is a killer among them. Michael Hogan (Col. Tigh) and Brad Dryborough (Lt. Hoshi) also star.

Here’s the full schedule: Dec. 12: Chapter 1; Dec. 15: Chapter 2; Dec. 17: Chapter 3; Dec. 22: Chapter 4; Dec. 24: Chapter 5; Dec. 29: Chapter 6; Dec. 31: Chapter 7; Jan. 5: Chapter 8; Jan. 7: Chapter 9; and Jan. 12: Chapter 10.

Watch the first episode of the series below.

TV IMAGES

Battlestar Galactica

Doctor Who (more here and here)

Kyle XY (more here)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

TV VIDEOS

Battlestar Galactica (more here and here)

Chuck (another here)

Doctor Who

Heroes (more here and here)

Fringe

Knight Rider (another here)


On set interview with Justin Bruening from knight rider online on Vimeo.

Lost

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

TV BITES

  • The latest "Battlestar Galactica" clue has been posted at the You Will Know the Truth website.  It’s another video.  Click here to watch it.  The next clue will be revealed on Tuesday, December 16th.
  • There likely won’t be any exclusive web content to go along with new episodes of Joss Whedon’s sci-fi drama "Dollhouse".  According to Fox’s publicity department, the focus will be on "[j]ust the actual show for the first season".  The series was originally expected to be accompanied by 3-minute webisodes each week. [Pie Spoilers]
  • Showtime has green lit a new series from "Jericho" consulting producer John McNamara and "Supernatural" supervising producer/writer Sera Gamble titled "Syns".  The show centers on a world in which humanlike synthetic organisms, known as Syns, are used for various purposes. [THR]
  • "The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice", the third film in the TNT franchise, drew 5.44 million viewers.  Among the key demos, the film captured 2.19 million adults 18-49 and 2.84 million adults 25-54. [TNT]
  • Rodney McKay (David Hewlett) says goodbye to "Stargate Atlantis" in a new interview with io9.
  • Fox’s half-hour Star Trek-inspired comedy "Boldly Going Nowhere", about the day-to-day happenings on an intergalactic spaceship helmed by a rogue captain, appears close to a series pickup after network screenings this week…
  • …While the two-hour back-door pilot "Virtuality" from writers Ronald Moore and Michael Taylor might stay in consideration for May and be reworked as a more mainstream drama. [THR]
  • Jared Harris, who played Mr. Jones in Fox’s "Fringe", told a group of reporters that he’s keeping himself available in the event he’s asked to return to the series: "I’m free to go…I’m not under contract. I can go off and do other stuff. But I really love the show. It appeals to my [sensibility]. I’m a collector of conspiracy theories, and I love that whole thing, so I just love the whole paranoid world of it." [SCI FI Wire]
  • Steve Coogan is developing a British version of "Quantum Leap".  The series is titled "Brave Young Men" and is described as a "light hearted" version of the 1990s time traveling series that starred Scott Bakula. [The Sun]

MISC NEWS

Golden Globe Nominations
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has announced the 2009 Golden Globe Nominees for Film and TV.  "The 66th Annual Golden Globe Awards" that will be broadcast on NBC Sunday, January 11, 2009 at 8pm ET.  Here are the genre nominations (click here to read all the nominations):

FILM (7)

  • "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" – Best Motion Picture – Drama
  • Brad Pitt – "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" – Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama
  • Heath Ledger – "The Dark Knight" – Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
  • David Fincher – "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" – Best Director – Motion Picture
  • Eric Roth – "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" – Best Screenplay – Motion Picture
  • Alexandre Desplat – "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" – Best Original Score – Motion Picture
  • "Down to Earth" – "Wall_E" – Best Original Song – Motion Picture

TELEVISION (2)

  • "True Blood" (HBO) – Best Television Series – Drama
  • Anna Paquin – "True Blood" – Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama

MISC VIDEOS

Robocop

Robot Chicken

Twilight: The Puppet Saga

SCI-FI RATINGS

Top 10 SF&F Broadcast Shows  

HH Rating

1)
Ghost Whisperer

7.1

2) Eleventh Hour

6.9

3) Fringe

5.6

4) Life on Mars

5.1

5) Heroes

4.5

6) Chuck

4.0

7) Knight Rider

3.3

8) Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

3.2

9) Pushing Daisies

3.0

10) Smallville 2.6

11/17/2008 to
11/23/2008
– Source: Nielsen Galaxy Report via SCI FI Wire

Top 10 SF&F Syndicated Shows  

HH Rating

1) Legend of the Seeker

2.1

2) Lost

1.0

3) Star Trek

0.7

4) The Dead Zone

0.5

5) Stargate Atlantis

0.5

11/17/2008 to
11/23/2008
– Source: Nielsen Galaxy Report via SCI FI Wire

Top 10 SCI FI CHANNEL Shows  

HH Rating

1) Ghost Hunters

2.2

2) Lost City Raiders

1.7

3)
Sanctuary

1.4

4)
100 Million B.C.

1.3

5)
Stargate Atlantis

1.2


6) Estate of Panic

1.2


7) ECW

1.2

8) 10.5 Apocalypse, Part Two

1.0

9) Tornado Terror

1.0

10) Monster Ark

0.9

11/17/2008 to
11/23/2008
– Source: Nielsen Galaxy Report via SCI FI Wire

 

 

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You folks do a great job each week letting us know what’s in the works for fantasy, sci-fi and horror. Keep up the great work!

believe it or not, it is not ‘folks’ it is just Russ (Rosario)

2 – Then even more amazing! Kudos to him, but then kudos to all of you at this site for giving us a lot of great information and reading in anticipation of this new Trek film and all things Trek.

I gotta say the trailer for the “Unborn” gave me the chills, but that poster of Odette’s ass is kind of silly. Sexploitation … check!

“As is most always the case, sci-fi films dominate the list of movies in contention for an Oscar for special effects, although two notable films are not in consideration: “Speed Racer” and “Wanted”

The words “Oscar” and that awful rape-of-my-childhood-known-as-the-Warshawski-Brothers’ “Speed Racer” should never, ever be connected. I loved the original source material, the recent movie was a violation and an abomination.

“20th Century Fox’s “The Day the Earth Stood Still” was transmitted into deep space via the Deep Space Communications Network at Cape Canaveral, Florida to coincide with the film’s release this weekend.”

…And considering how totally B*A*D this film was, I suspect that by 2016 at the earliest we can expect an armada from Alpha Centauri to come exterminate us for having deliberately broadcast that mess to outer space.

ya know, hearing that theres going to be a british version of quantum leap…it got me to thinkin…what if the reason captain archer seemed so damn inept is because it was really sam beckett quantum leaped into archer’s body? though the leaping thing had a guideline of only within sam’s lifetime, there were exceptions such as if the person he leaped into was someone in his family line, such as the civil war episode…(hint, hint…)

but it also got me thinking…who (aside from orci and kurtzman) would everyone want a new star trek series to be made by? also which network (no, scifi channel doesnt count) would you want it to be on?

I liked TDTESS. The trailer for Wolverine looked great. Boldly Going Nowhere sounds interesting. Maybe it’ll be similar to Galaxy Quest.

Robot Chicken Rules! Seth Rules (both of them). I like how they got the guy who plays the voice of Brian to do Seth MacFarlane. (Yes it was a joke. Now let me see how many people are dumb enough to correct me.)

6. OM: ‘I suspect that by 2016 at the earliest we can expect an armada from Alpha Centauri to come exterminate us for having deliberately broadcast that mess to outer space.’

Nah! It’s just some kind of extradition deal: we all know Keanu’s an alien from outer space hiding on Earth, try to pretend he’s human! ;)

I have to 2nd Brett’s praises. Kudos to Russ and Anthony for Sci-fi Sat as I look forward to these every week! It’s fun having my friends ask me, “How did you find out all this stuff???” or “Is this what you do with your time?” So apologies to Russ for basking in the glory of his hard work!

6 – damnit i was gonna say that!

saw it last night – yes…bad…and what was even worse was the fact that there was no trek trailer…no wolverine trailer..and no T4 trailer…just films for early next year …so that put me in a bad mood to start with!! i thought it would be a given that the trailers for the big SF films of next summer would be attached to TDTESS (have yet to see the trek trailer on the big screen)

Thanks for the update. Am torn between staying spoiler free for BSG or not. May have to have an interwebs blackout soon.

I hope David Duchovny is right and the X-Files continues.

Most fans lost faith in the series when Fox dragged the series on for several more seasons than in should have lasted. It’s mythology became so complicated/convoluted that I doubt Chris Carter even knew what was going in the end.

That said, the X-Files is one of the greatest programs ever made and the last film “I Want to Believe” is somewhat underrated.

I admit that “IWTB” was a poor way to re-introduce the franchise. Nobody wanted to see a melancholy little film about a pedofile priest in the middle of the summer. Also, this film was put in almost direction competition with “The Dark Knight” it never stood a chance.

I think the X-Files deserves one last opportunity.

Yeah, heard The Day The Earth Stood Still was pretty abysmal. It’s floating at around 20% on Rotten Tomatoes, and I’ve discovered that they have a pretty solid system on there. Think I’ll wait till video for that one.

And in a world where Pushing Daisies and Eli Stone get canned, and Chuck and Terminator are on the cusp, please, please for the love of god, give us some justice and toss Knight Rider into the crapper. IT IS AWFUL.

#12

I’d imagine everyone knew a sinking ship when they saw one. Why bother advertising on something you know will bomb? The fact that it was released in December was probably a good hint as well.

– X- files is one of the greatest sci-fi shows ever made and it deserves another chance..
It’s great to hear again news about ‘SIN CITY’ and ‘ROBOCOP’….

I just saw the poster for TDTESS at one of our local theaters and was surprised to see that John Cleese is in it. I hadn’t heard that. Sadly, from the comments here about the film, it sounds like even he couldn’t save it. Alas.

Note to Hollywood: Stop giving us remakes and tap some of the great novels that haven’t yet been made into films, if you can’t come up with any good ideas on your own. Film-lovers are starting to get pretty pissed off with your lack of creativity, and this is what you are going to have to do — and soon — to save your ass.

Saw TDTESS and it had the Trek trailer and Wolverine, can’t wait for both. The character of Gambit looked pretty good.

I don’t understand what the point was of remaking the movie when the original was soo much better. They would have been better off just keeping the same story and just updating the FX and characters.

All of the different sci-fi stories and comics that could be turned into movies and they have to go back and remake movies. Why remake Robocop? If anything do a continuation with a new officer as Robocop.

If anything needs a remake it’s Star Wars episodes one thru three!

#10 Dom – I suspect that’s the deal – they come take Keanu Reeves off our hands in exchange for us shutting down our transmitter. LOL

So excited for BSG! Robot Chicken is hysterical in a funny way. LASTLY the more I see about Knowing the more my ears perk up and I am intrigued. May have to go see it in the theatre. Which is saying a lot because we are in a recession and I need to have funds allocated to seeing the new Star Trek movie at least 10 times this next year!

19 – “Note to Hollywood: Stop giving us remakes and tap some of the great novels that haven’t yet been made into films, if you can’t come up with any good ideas on your own. Film-lovers are starting to get pretty pissed off with your lack of creativity, and this is what you are going to have to do — and soon — to save your ass.”

Response from Indy writer/director:
If you want a good movie there are plenty that come out every year. You are just looking in the wrong place. Hollywood is an empire built upon low intelligence level story lines. Popcorn flicks you may have heard. Now Hollywood admittedly has some good movies but the ratio is not that high and never will be. If you are looking for a real depth and passion filled movie with a tremendous re-view value you shouldn’t even be considering anything with K. Reeves… I shudder to think. Please remember when watching movies like those that if you go in with high expectations you are going to be let down 98% of the time. Accept them for what they are shallow popcorn romps with high budget special effects to draw in the masses and you will have a great time. P.S. BOLT is phenomenal and should win everything it can.

Don’t know if anyone on this thread is watching “Heroes,” but if so, does anyone agree with me and my son that the show is misnamed? Where’s the heroism? Convoluted, repetitive, momentum-less plotting aside, the characters themselves are hard to root for. Either they’re out-and-out villains, or murky, ambivalent characters with shadowy motivations, or — and these can be listed on one hand — folks who want to use their powers for good, but are really dopey and clueless.

It’s really hard to relate to any of these people.

Scott B. out.

22 – Thanks for the heads-up, and I’m fully aware that many Indies are where the true advances in cinema are being made and that the films that are usually worth watching are being made outside of Tinseltown — and usually outside the USA. That’s WHY my note was to HOLLYWOOD! ;) Happy viewing to you, Aaron R.! Have a good weekend.

22 – “Bolt” is a new animated feature, is it not?

Oh, and I forgot to say, good luck with all you film-making efforts!

Er … that is, “youR film-making efforts.” :)

The X Files broke my heart. My brain says it deserves one last shot at redeeming itself, but my heart says…. let it go. And not speak of it again. I would, however, be open to anything featuring a nicely groomed and not overly sleazy David Duchovny in a suit.

And the ‘Star Trek-inspired Fox sitcom’ makes me excited against my better judgement.

Playing my broken record again, (yes I have a few of them) but why are we remaking Robocop again? They got it right the first time. Or am I just that unprogressive in my thinking?

The Thor news I keep hearing continually pleases me. Can’t say that about every movie in development out there.

The people behind “Heroes” don’t get it – the problem with “Heroes” is that we’re supposed to accept that people with these awesome powers consistantly do NOTHING week after week. Whenever it seemed like something was actually going to HAPPEN, whenever it seemed like the characters were going to grow or progress or develop, things always went back to exactly how they were four episodes ago.

And now they’re saying that they’re going back to how it was when the series first started – are they serious?!? That’s even worse!!

I tried to stick with that show; I watched it for two seasons. When nothing happened after two seasons, I quit and watched “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” instead. At least that actually has a PLOT and a STORY, and characters who develop.

It’s interesting that when you watch the various behind-the-scenes clips of The Watchmen, they crew is always talking about the details related to the graphic novel, the time periods and the fact that many people come to the project with having read the original source. They are purposely staying close to the source. Not just the spirit or core of it. Much different than the direction of the Star Trek team where you hear “we changed this and that to try to reach a new audience…”.

woo, Gaeta! I knew it! ^_^

#30. (The much more real) McCoy–

Exactly. If you can make “Watchmen” look like “Watchmen,” you can make “Star Trek” look like “Star Trek.”

I wonder which will be more successful?

Watchmen won’t work. It’s too comic book looking. After Dark Knight people won’t stand for that any more.

I have high hopes we might yet see more X-Files. I think in a few years’ time the second film will be looked upon more kindly. Critics had their knives out well before its release – film critics hate any movie that’s based on a TV show! – and it was released at completely the wrong time of year. It should have come out in early November before Quantum of Solace!

I thought it was a great little thriller, perhaps more reminiscent of the underrated Millennium at times than the X-Files TV show. And I loved the development of Mulder’s and Scully’s characters. I know people have slagged of David Duchovny’s performance, saying all he did was make quips and get beaten up, but given that Scully’s immortal, there’s not a lot that can threaten her, is there?

Actually, I’d love to see a new X-Files miniseries, if they could figure it out! Make M&S private supernatural investigators financed by various shadowy, anonymous concerns: something I think they should have done well before the end of the TV show!

Having bought the complete series set so I can rewatch the lot, I’m currently nearing the end of season four and watching it alongside Millennium season one. I have to say, it stands up to time very well, although I’m much more of a fan of the standalone stories this time around than the mytharc tales! I never got to watch Millennium properly before. Watching season one in order, I’ve just watched the terrifying Lamentation/Powers, Principalities . . . two parter. Lance Henrikson’s Frank Black should definitely get a shot at a movie or straight-to-DVD film!

23 Scott — Er, yes, I watch Heroes, but my opinion is nowhere near yours…. To me it shows heroes as closer to what real people are like — conflicted.

28 Andy Patterson — I agree, Robocop is priceless as is. ED209 drilling the exec, the guy in the bathroom pissing his pants, …. The only way Robocop could be redone is if it’s made *more* heartless and brutally ironic, but how is Aronofsky going to pull that off better than Verhoven? I mean, I like Pi and The Fountain a lot, but I don’t think he can pull off the right tone of snarling cynicism.

Re: #35 – Wow. We must come from two different perspectives in life. I do NOT accept that there wouldn’t be people who would try to use their powers to do the right thing (besides the hapless Hiro and Peter and, I guess, Parkman). I do think # 29, the Purolator, and I agree that the show has become rather repetitive and pointless, though, whether or not one thinks that powers would corrupt the people wielding them.

Re: #30 & 32. I agree.

Re: #33 – The Watchmen’s schtik is poking holes in the “traditional” superhero genre. The silly costumes is part of the whole turning-the-genre-on-its-ear … which relates to my gripe about “Heroes” not really being about heroes….

The world is suddenly a very sad place to me. I need to go lie down.

Scott B. out.

Why would they want to remake Robocop?

Something like King Kong or The Day The Earth Stood Still I could understand – the originals were in black & white and had entry level special effects (if you could even call them “special effects”), but Robocop was made in 1987 for crissakes.

Was the original not violent, gory, or satirical enough?

The gap between the original and the remake seems to be getting smaller and smaller. It looks like soon every new movie will be a remake of stuff that’s just hitting the new releases in rentals.

Why not make something NEW?!

Yeah, nobody crazier than Verhoven. I miss his touch in Hollywood.

Earth to Alpha Centauri: “We’re sorry. Our bad.”

I’d watch more X-Files. I didn’t read any reviews of the latest movie, so I don’t know what the critics’ beefs might have been, but it delivered everything I wanted in an X-Files story.

After seeing him in the new DTESS its confirmed what ive been thinking for some time – Keanu Reeves would make a great Vulcan – they should get him for the trek sequel to play some Vulcan like Stonn or whoever…not impossible – his screen wife in Dracula is playing Amanda and Bana is a big name so im sure other big names wouldn’t say no to future movies so long as this one is a big financial and critical hit…especially if they are a Sci Fi/Trek fan – which I think Reeves is (well he must be a Sci Fi fan)

even looks abit like a Vulcan (straight jet black hair, sharp features, large nose, cold eyes etc)…and has always come across like hes not altogether ‘with’ this curious human emotions thing…in fact his performance as Klattau is sort of a culmination of his screen persona

Great ides #41 – if they need a big name to anchor STXII, I think they’ve found their man!

Thanks for your efforts here again Russ.

I was so looking forward to ‘Sin City 2’….but if Mickey Rourke declines to return as his Marv character, they might as well not bother….

And sorry Sigourney and Ridley, but I’d rather see a Ridley-directed ‘Alien’ sequel….WITHOUT the Ripley character, rather than anything else….

41 & 42 – Whoa. Please, no Keanu in Star Trek. That would be bogus, dudes.

i thought the recent x files movie suffered a bit from “star trek insurrection syndrome”, in that it made a half decent extended length episode but not a feature film. the earlier poster was spot on in their comments about a badly timed summer release also up against dark knight

maybe the near future for x files should be a short series of tv movies – while that may be viewed as a step backwards after theatres, maybe the x files is more at home on the small screen?

i’d certainly continue to watch

also, i agree they don’t need to remake robocop – apart from anything else it’s not really that old of a film

I’ve said it before. I’ll say it again. Dragonball looks so horrible. Not that I’m surprised, of course.

I can’t wait for Sin City 2, but I really hope Mickey decides to return. I don’t think anyone else can play him.

Michael Bay writes almost as bad as he directs. Good thing he’s not the one writing Transformers 2.

Why are they still letting M. Night Shyamalan direct movies? I would think after four straight critical flops they would learn, “Hey, maybe this guy’s not as talented as we thought…” Actually, I wouldn’t think that; I gotta remember, it’s all about money. I feel sorry for fans of The Last Airbender, though.

Plea to Hollywood: please stop with the slasher movie remakes. You’re just embarrassing yourselves even more than before… which I didn’t believe was possible. Well, ok, maybe I did.

If Knight Rider’s not canceled now, it will be soon. We can hope, anyway.

A Steve Coogan version of Quantum Leap? Oh, boy… (sorry, couldn’t resist) Sound interesting, though.

John Glover playing Sylar’s dad? Nice! So we have a Trek alum (Glover played Verad in DS9’s “Invasive Procedures”) playing the son of another Trek alum (Zachary “Sylar” Quinto is the new Spock, duh). I love it when things like that happen. :)

Interesting little tidbit here: A new character on “Heroes” is a former “The 4400” star!!! How ’bout that? I just thought that was awesome, seeing Kyle (from 4400) back on the small screen. ^^

Even better, Michael Dorn is the new President on Heroes!

45: Thing is, we know the alien invasion never succeeds, because there’s an episode called Synchrony about a time traveller. He talks about having wrecked history, but there’s no mention about aliens.

Which means any X-Files film needs to steer clear of alien invasion stories, really. I’d love to get back to the smaller-scale alien/conspiracy stories such as Conduit or stick to ‘monster-of-the-year’ stuff! It’d be great if the Morgan and Wong team could do the next film, actually!