“The wars aren’t over for “Star Wars” creator George Lucas. Lucas said Wednesday he’s making an animated TV series of “Clone Wars” that could air next year, although he hasn’t sold the show to a network yet. The series is set during the time when the Republic is fighting a civil war against separatists led by Count Dooku.
The mythic period hasn’t been dealt with too much in the popular “Star Wars” movies, so “it’s a fun place to go,” Lucas said. “It basically has all the main characters” such as Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, Lucas said, but the stars who played them in the movies won’t voice them for the TV show.”
“The discovery could not have come at a better time. ABC had dropped to fourth in the ratings after NBC, CBS and Fox, and had not posted a profit for seven years. There was just one stumbling block. Braun’s bosses were unconvinced. While he, swept along on a tidal wave of enthusiasm, commissioned JJ Abrams, the award-winning scriptwriter of the hit series Alias, to write an initial episode and lavished £7 million on what was to become the most expensive television pilot in history, his bosses at Walt Disney, which owns ABC, looked on in horror.
“A crazy project that’s never going to work” was how Michael Eisner, the chairman and chief executive of Disney, described it. “This is a waste of time,” said Bob Iger, his deputy. They could not have been more wrong.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 4, 2006 in Star Trek
I always rather liked Enterprise, and I wouldn’t mind seeing another season of the show, or at least a special or two. I think Enterprise suffered from “Voyager fatigue” it seemed like they just wanted to run the franchise into the ground. I think once people see the series solo that it may gain some fans:
“The folks over at Trek United have never given up on the idea of a season five for Star Trek: Enterprise and now that the show has been picked up for syndication on The SCI FI Channel, the organizers of the Save Enterprise campaign are focussing their attention there for a possible fifth season. In a surprise announcement, one of the leaders of the campaign who goes by the screen name AussieTrek released this call to all members of the Trek United website and to anyone interested in helping with the 5th Season Campaign:
This week, the fans of Star Trek are encouraged to participate in the preparation of the postcard campaign to Sci Fi Channel. The organizers are hoping to persuade the Sci Fi Channel (the new home of syndicated Star Trek: Enterprise reruns), to negotiate with CBS Corporation for the continued production of new episodes of Enterprise. We are asking everyone to choose their favorite ‘slogans’ for use on the postcards to kick off the mailing phase of the resurgent campaign.”
For nearly 40 years Neil Armstrong has been accused of fluffing his lines during his first steps on the Moon. On tapes of the Moon landings, he appears to drop the “a” from the famous quote: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” But new analysis of the tapes has proved Mr Armstrong right after all. Computer programmer Peter Shann Ford used audio analysis software to show that the missing “a” was blotted out by transmission static.
…but reading about this reminds me that it’s been a long time since we’ve been on the moon. As a child I would have expected to see a Mars landing by 2006.
“When I learned that it is possible to read every X-Men comic ever made*, I had a bright idea. I was going to read each comic starting from the very beginning. It was going to be epic, it was going to be awesome, it was going to be the nerdiest thing I could possibly do. And then I read Uncanny X-Men #1. And that sh*t was bad.”
A good bit is about the artwork below:
“3) Overt sexism. Don’t give me the “it was a different era” bullcrap. The treatment of Jean was absolutely ridiculous! Take a look at this panel, shortly after she was introduced to the rest of the team.”
“A group of students from the University of Cambridge who plan on launching a rocket into space for less than £1,000 have taken the first steps towards achieving their ambitious goal. Carl Morland, Henry Hallam and Robert Fryers, all from the Department of Engineering have successfully sent a bundle of equipment to the edge of space using a helium balloon.
The tiny payload, no bigger than a lunchbox, flew to nearly four times the height of Everest before descending by parachute, taking photographs throughout the flight, including dramatic images showing the curvature of the earth.
In the long term, their project – dubbed ‘Project Nova’ – aims to pave the way for the launch of small payloads for commercial research organisations into space. The method would be very cheap, costing a matter of several hundred pounds, instead of the six-figure sums currently required.”
“SpaceShipTwo is a suborbital spaceplane currently under development by The Spaceship Company, a joint venture between Scaled Composites and Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group of the UK, as part of the Tier 1b program. The Virgin Galactic spaceline plans to operate a fleet of five of these craft in passenger-carrying private spaceflight service starting in 2008. The first spacecraft to be completed will be named VSS (Virgin Space Ship) Enterprise in honor of the Starship Enterprise, and have the FAA registration number N400K (refers to the target altitude of 400,000 feet, approx. 76 miles, or 121.92 kilometers).”
“It’s happening again. You shouldn’t be surprised. You know how successful they’ve been – how deeply ingrained they’ve become. You knew it was only a matter of time before they, the Pokemon, mounted yet another invasion. Now it’s happening again, and you’d do well to prepare yourself.
The fourth generation in the Pokemon series debuts in Japan this week, with the release of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl on the Nintendo DS. The new adventures follow the long-established Pokemon RPG formula, adding new monsters to catch and new ways to interact with other players – like Nintendo Wi-Fi support. The games are expected to sell millions in Japan, as well as here in the States – but American gamers will have to wait. Diamond and Pearl won’t be coming to other markets until next year.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 29, 2006 in Videogames
On September 29th, 1996 (ten years ago) the Nintendo 64 was released in North America, this video follows a bunch of gamer fanboys playing with the new system:
“This highly detailed Life size Swimming Warrior Alien is hand sculpted by a fully qualified prop artist and this rare prop itself took almost three months to complete involving intotal five person efforts for the production of this one Alien prop. This Life size Swimming Alien Warrior comes in 10 parts/sections : head, upper torso, lower torso, back tubes, mid & lower tail, left arm, right arm, right and left legs. This life size prop is well-thought plan designed for easy installations and also safer shipping & handling for both parties.”
“Russell T. Davies, executive producer of the BBC’s hit SF drama Doctor Who, told SCI FI Wire that the show’s upcoming third season will again introduce a famous character from British history, in this case the author of Hamlet and King Lear. “William Shakespeare [played by Dean Lennox Kelly] is going to be in one of the episodes,” Davies revealed in an interview in London.”
“ROGER MOORE’s son is set to reprise his father’s role in hit 1960s TV series THE SAINT. The former JAMES BOND star told producers GEOFFREY MOORE would be a perfect replacement for PIERCE BROSNAN as 007, but they decided to cast gritty British actor DANIEL CRAIG instead. And 40-year-old Geoffrey is now in the running to play SIMON TEMPLAR, and is “much more talented than me”, according to his dad. Roger says, “The rights have been optioned by various companies and are now with Geoffrey and his business partner. Watch this space”.”
“Radiation encountered on extended trips to the Moon or Mars could harm astronauts’ brains, experiments on rats suggest. The space farers could face problems with spatial learning, memory and stress.
Astronauts aboard the space shuttle and the International Space Station are largely protected from space radiation by the Earth’s magnetic field. But the crew of a mission to Mars could spend three years outside this protective bubble. So NASA recently awarded funding for 12 projects that will investigate how long-term radiation exposure in interplanetary space could potentially cause health problems in astronauts.”
“Take your blasting skills to the extreme with this two-in-one blaster! This blaster is more than three feet long and can launch foam arrows up to 35 feet away! Aim with accuracy and precision using the targeting scope. Two quick-reload clips hold a total of 12 STREAMLINE DARTS. There’s even a fold-down bi-pod to help you steady your aim for important shots. Looking for a quick shot at close range? The blaster has removable parts to give you one-handed freedom with a single-shot blaster! In either mode, load up, aim, press the trigger and watch the darts go the distance!”
