Sci-Fi Storm

Nick Pollotta writes “Good evening,
This is just a short note to let folks know that the contracts have finally been signed, and we’re good to go with “That Darn Squid God!”.
Synopsis: In 1880 London, two gentleman explorers from the International British Museum for Stolen Antiquities, race around the world, and against the clock, to try and stop the return of a prehistoric demon grimly determined to, well, eat the entire Human Race.
This brand new Fantasy/Humor novel, written by myself and James Clay, will be coming out August 2003 from Wildside Press in both hardback (with a lovely dustjacket), and in trade paperback.
A couple of sample chapters are posted on my web page.
Best wishes,
Nick Pollotta, SFWA

www.NickPollotta.com
“Without humor, there is no civilization.”” Hmm, Squid God, eating the human race – sounds like Cthulhu to me. :^) Nick has several highly rated SF&F/Humor books out.

UPN announced that its rendition of The Twilight Zone will not return, according to Variety. At the same time, it was announced that UPN has ordered new series Jake 2.0, a one hour drama about a National Security Agency agent who’s implanted with computer chips.

Not a lot Mars-shattering going on – most everything right now is focused on X2 making lots of money and Matrix Reloaded due out Thursday. In the mean time, Stargate SG-1‘s Michael Shanks will make another guest appearance this week on girlfriend Lexa Doig’s show Andromeda, along with fellow SG-1 member and Andromeda guest alum Christopher Judge. Apparently Shanks and Doig get to mix it up a little. “My girlfriend and I got to beat the crap out of each other, and what better way to spend time with your significant other when you’re just back from a long shoot somewhere?” Note: this episode may have already aired in your area.

Well, I finally got to spend some time with my Babylon 5 Second Season – The Coming of Shadows DVD set, and since I’d like more reviews on the site I guess I need to do some of my own. Read More for the complete review. And if you haven’t picked up your copy of either season, you can now order both!!!

(continue reading…)

There has been a lot of speculation and random quotes thrown around regarding the possibility for another sequel to the X-Men franchise (or course there will be…) Notable of late is Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) who would love to be in another (but would probably command a high price), director Bryan Singer, who feels “great affection” for the franchise and would “want to be involved” but it “depends on the circumstances”, and Halle Berry (Storm), who probably won’t be involved but it could depend “on the evolution of her character” according to Singer. Rebecca Romijn-Stamos (Mystique), Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler) and Daniel Cudmore (Colossus) are apparently already locked in.

Some advance copies of the highly-anticipated and closely-guarded Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix may not have bee guarded well enough – as a couple of copies – apparently stolen from the printer – were found in a field near the printers by a father, who promptly turned them in to The Sun newspaper who will turn them in to the publisher and will not print details of the plot.

There is a nice article about Babylon 5 from UPI. It relates how the show is a contender for the best SF show in the last 30 years, and even relates some real-world analogies to the events and situations in the show.

In honor of Douglas Adams, the BBC has taken the episode of Doctor Who he wrote but was never fully produced due to a strike, “Shada”, modified it a bit to use Paul McGann as the Doctor and Lalla Ward as (now Madame President of Gallifrey) Romana, and produced a Flash animation of the episode. It is being released episodically, with the first episode available now and then over the next 5 weeks on Fridays. It also works with RealPlayer.

In Stargate SG-1‘s Seventh season, we’ll get to see a side of Major Samantha Carter that’s been itching to get out, according to actress Amanda Tapping. An episode entitled “Space Race” will involve Carter in a race on a space ship. “She’s like a little kid, because everything is all about this race, and she really gets off on it.” She made sure not to overplay it. “I said, ‘It’s not too much, because you can’t just suddenly bring in this whole new side of the character.'”