Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 4, 2006 in Star Trek
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Star Trek, Christies is auctioning off over 1,000 items of memorabilia from CBS Television Studios. The auction will happen in New York 5-7 October but the items can be viewed in London from today until 8 August. Highlights include models of the Starship Enterprise, costumes worn by Captain Kirk, Spock and Uhura and a replica of Kirk’s chair (estimate $8,000 to $12,000). There is also stuff from later series – you can bid for Deanna Troi’s mini-dress(estimate $1,500 to $2,500), Captain Picard’s Starfleet uniform or even your own Borg alcove:
A new James Bond novel is being written – 40 years after the superspy’s last outing. The estate of the late 007 author Ian Fleming has commissioned a “well-known and highly respected” writer for the task. The writer’s identity is being kept a closely-guarded secret until publication.
The 15th Bond adventure will be published in May 2008 to mark the cententary of Fleming’s birth. Corinne Turner of Ian Fleming Publications Ltd said: “We are delighted to have secured this particular author who we have had in mind for some time now. “He is the perfect writer for this project and we are greatly looking forward to his take on James Bond, in what we are convinced will be a stunning novel.”
There hasn’t ben a new Bond novel since 1966 when Octopussy and the Living Daylights and were published after Ian Fleming passed away.
I guess the main question is if the new book will be set in the swinging sixties? James Bond and the Cold War go together like Sherlock Holmes and the Victorian era, it would be sad to get away from that.
Sci Fi Channel has picked up the four seasons of Star Trek: Enterprise to premiere on the cable network early this fall. Enterprise, starring Scott Bakula as “Captain Jonathan Archer,” originally aired on UPN from 2001 to 2005, and its 98 produced episodes have been in syndication ever since.
The new venue for Enterprise is part of a package deal between Sci Fi Channel and CBS Paramount Domestic Television that includes multiple made-for-television movies and other series, including Threshold co-starring Brent Spiner (“Data”) and produced by Enterprise co-creator Brannon Braga. Threshold was CBS’ entry in the competitive sci-fi/thriller field last fall, but was pulled from the network after eight episodes. Twelve episodes were shot — all of which have aired overseas — so the Sci Fi deal will give U.S. audiences a chance to see the whole series on TV. (Of course, serious fans can pick up the DVD starting August 22.)
Rumored for many months, there is now confirmation that a new Doctor Who spinoff series starring Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith, from the Tom Baker era) will be put into production:
Sarah Jane Investigates The BBC’s in-house newsletter Ariel today released information suggesting the identity of the second Doctor Who spinoff series that has bee rumored for the past several months, one that will bring back Elisabeth Sladen, who appeared last season in the episode “School Reunion”. Says the item, “CBBC is developing a spin-off series from Doctor Who based on the adventures of investigative journalist Sarah Jane, played by Elizabeth Sladen, and to be written by Russell T Davies. Sladen, who originally played the Doctor’s assistant in 1973, returned for the last series where she was seen vying with young Rose Tyler for the Doctor’s affections.”
What’s cool about this is that so far we’ve only discovered about 200 planets outside our solar system, so my guess is the number of discoveries will only continue to grow over the next century – and maybe just one of those planets will be like Earth:
In recent years, with improving technology, researchers have found a handful of systems that could harbor life-bearing planets, in theory at least. A nearby star called 55 Cancri is one of the leading candidates.
The 55 Cancri system involves three gas giant planets and another world that could be icy or rocky and is about the size of Neptune. The setup is 41 light-years from Earth and about 4.7 billion years old, comparable to our Sun.
Astronomers have said since 2002, when a planet was found at about the same orbital distance from 55 Cancri as Jupiter is from the Sun, that the star had the potential to harbor an Earth-sized world.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 31, 2006 in Comic Books
I hope Hollywood doesn’t screw this one up – I’d love to see Clint Eastwood play Batman if this is true:
THE DARK KNIGHT: Title and Ledger As Joker Confirmed
http://www.filmrot.com/articles/news/007194.php
After months of specualtion we got our first hint of who would play Joker in the Batman sequel at Comic-Con. At first many of us, including yours truly, hemed and hawed at the rumor. I wanted it to be mere speculation, but the more I thought about it the more I liked the idea. Well, love it or hate it, it’s official. SciFi Wire has just learned that the title to the next Chris Nolan Batman film is The Dark Knight and Heath Ledger will in fact play the Joker. We can put these rumors to bed now and kiss them good-night. Will this be a wise career move on Ledger’s part, or will this turn into so many gay movie puns? Let the rejoicing/bitchfest begin!
Having sex in the weightlessness of outer space is the stuff of urban legends and romantic fantasy — but experts say that there would be definite downsides as well. Spacesickness, for instance. And the difficulty of choreographing intimacy. And the potential for sweat and other bodily fluids to, um, get in the way.
“The fantasy might be vastly superior to the reality,” NASA physician Jim Logan said here Sunday at the Space Frontier Foundation’s NewSpace 2006 conference. Nevertheless, Logan and others say the study of sex and other biological basics in outer space will be crucial to humanity’s long-term push into the final frontier.
…by the way there’s been a book and website published on topic:
It’s been 23 years since Dirk the Daring first vowed to rescue Princess Daphne from the clutches of a nasty dragon, Singe. As the world’s first laserdisc arcade game, “Dragon’s Lair” looked more like a Saturday morning cartoon than a video game, created by former Disney animator Don Bluth (“An American Tail,” “The Land Before Time”) with lead game designer and programmer, Rick Dyer.
Millions of gamers dumped quarter after quarter to control the brave but dopey knight, and many home-based versions have surfaced over the years for computers, video game systems and even DVD players. But this week, publisher Digital Leisure begins selling a new PC version, the first with high-definition video. To create “Dragon’s Lair HD,” the company says a sophisticated film transfer technology was employed to preserve the original Cel animation. Plus, for the first time, the game’s audio was remastered in 5.1 surround sound. The result is a gorgeous but short-lived and pricey adventure that will likely appeal only to those with a sentimental soft spot for the 1983 arcade game.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 29, 2006 in Comic Books
Once again proving that there are very few new ideas in all of Hollywood, I just spotted several posters for a new Teenage Ninja Turtles movies that will come out in 2007:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 29, 2006 in Animation
Thank you Steve Jobs! According to a Reuters/Hollywood Reporter article Walt Disney Studios will be getting back in the business of traditional animation! It seems that their new project will be titled “Frog Princess” and will put a female spin on the classic fairy tale, according to sources. The project will be John Musker and Ron Clements, who left Disney after Treasure Planet bombed at the end of 2002. However the duo have a good track record having worked on The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Hercules. With any luck The Frog Princess should be out in 2008.
With the Toy Story 3 grabbing all of the headlines this Disney themed digital frame caught my eye. With a 3.5″ inch display (320 by 240 pixels) these frames are more novelty items than serious display things at this point in time, however I can see a day in the not to far future when that changes. Above is the alien from Toy Story and below is Stitch and a Pooh bear: Read more…
Thank you Steve Jobs! According to a 