Sci-Fi Storm

IGN FilmForce has six new or touched up images from the upcoming Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director’s Edition DVD. Mostly fill-ins from previously left-out effects, but there is some new stuff as well. Also, there is a before and after shot of the planet Vulcan from the beginning of the movie.

USA Today is reporting the release dates for two films: Matrix 2 is set for December 25th, 2002, and Star Wars Episode 2 is set for May 22nd, 2002.

Just a couple of updates.

Yesterday, thanks to the storm being called the “Blizard of ’01”, the server lost power several times, once for an extended period. Fortunately there was no data loss, but if you couldn’t connect, you now know why.

Second, expect updates to happen on a sporadic basis (like they haven’t already)…a severe illness in the family is absorbing most of my time and energy, and leaving little for all my side projects. I will update as I can. You can help by submitting stories so I don’t have to go net-hunting for them myself, but please make sure you include a link or reference to the source of the info…

Christian writes “Over at TrekToday.com, we’ve posted a news article on the next Star Trek series, based on a casting sheet for the next show. The breakdown sheet confirms many of the rumours that have appeared on the internet over the past years. Series V will indeed be set on a Starship Enterprise, under the command of human Captain Jackson Archer. The backdrop of the series will be the 22nd Century, at a time when starship travel was a relatively new endeavour, humans and Vulcans still had much to learn about each other, and the universe really was still filled with strange new worlds, new life and new civilisations.”

First, the bad news. Actor David Prowse, the man inside Darth Vader, has been stricken with a mysterious affliction which has left him partially paralyzed, according to
SFX Network. Apparently it started in his arm, and has spread to his back overnight. Doctors appear to be baffled.

In better news, George Lucas has revealed Christopher Lee’s character name for Episode II – in the introduction to a book about the actor. Read More for the name…

Update 3/9:SFX Network reports that Prowse appears to be recovering from the still-unknown illness…

(continue reading…)

Saw this on various web sites: Ensemble Studios, who developed Age of Empires for the PC, will adapt that game’s engine for a real-time strategy game based in the Star Wars universe called Star Wars Battleground. They are shooting for a fall release. I also assume they are taking about the AoE2 engine, which was most cool. One of the coolest aspects of AoE2 was the random game generator that you could play over and over again. With the amount of time I wasted on that game, my wife certainly isn’t going to be happy to hear about this one…