Sci-Fi Storm

In two separate reports, George Lucas called Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, “I describe it as a ‘Titanic’ in space. It’s a real tearjerker, and it will be received in a way that none of us can expect.” In the second report, Lucas isn’t done changing his movies – he plans to re-release A New Hope in 3D in time for the 30th anniversary of the original film, and the rest in one-year increments.

Can a film made for only $25,000 be good? Well, check out this trailer at iFilm. This film seems to have a high production quality (CGI is a little on the weak side) for a “cheap basement” film. It will be interesting to see what kind of distribution Jason Tomaric can gain for it. The official site can be found here.

Andre Norton, best known for the massive Witch World series of novels and the first woman to receive SFWA’s Grand Master award in 1977, passed away Thursday from congestive heart failure at her home near Nashville at the age of 93.

A year and a day after I first posted about the possibility, Lord of the Rings: The Musical has been announced to open in Toronto in Match 2006, and then head to London after six months. Writing the music is Bollywood composer A.R. Rahman, who created “Bombay Dreams”. Producers also said that they are planning to go back to the books and not simply duplicate Peter Jackson’s films. Perhaps that means we’ll finally see Tom Bombadil? After all, he sings…

With the rights issue still unresolved, Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson said when asked when he could begin work on the prequel The Hobbit, “Three or four years would be accurate, I would say.” With MGM (who hold distribution rights) being sold to Sony, Sony and New Line (with the filming rights) would have to duke it out for a deal before anything could be done.

If you didn’t watch (or at least TiVo) The O.C. to see the trailer for Star Wars Espiode III: Revenge of the Sith, you can now view it online (Quicktime only), thanks to Moviefone and AOL. There is also some behind the scenes footage available.

Due to the more mature theming of the upcoming Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, it could be the only movie in the franchise to be rated PG-13. George Lucas says he expects the rating, because it “is much more dark…more emotional. It’s much more of a tragedy,” with Anakin Skywalker decending into Lucas’ version of hell – complete with lava.

BBC News is reporting that an episode of the upcoming revival of Doctor Who has been leaked out on the Internet. The episode titled “Rose” (the name of the Doctor’s new campanion, played by former pop star Billie Piper) hit the Internet three weeks before the show makes its debut on BBC1. It is unsure if this is the final version, or how it got out. Still no word about the show in the States.

Could Spike TV, the home of Star Trek repeats and wrestling, rescue Enterprise? That’s what the Boston Herald is reporting. With the recent success of fans pledging money to fund a new season, and Spike TV already aware of the Trek fanbase, but the article seems to be based on a comment from Spike TV spokeswoman Debra Fazio, who said, “It would definitely be something we would look at, and we know how devoted the show’s fans are.” Not exactly an affirming statement. Update: As expected, Spike TV backed off the statements, saying they were “misconstrued”…

UnderGround Online has an exclusive film trailer for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy available. This one gives us the Guide entry for “Movie Trailers”.