Sci-Fi Storm

I thought I heard that this had already been decided in Pluto’s favor, but tons of new articles abound about the upcoming decision of the IAU regarding what constitutes a planet – and therefore whether Pluto will lose status. Pluto has had questionable status for years when it was learned it was far smaller than believed – and the discovery several years ago of 2003 UB313 “Xena”, further out and slightly larger – is pressing the IAU to decide what really should be called a planet. Most likely Pluto will remain a “planet”, but be lumped into a different class of planet, such as “dwarf planet”. We probably won’t find out until the end of the month – a vote is scheduled on Aug. 24th.

TV Guide has a Q&A article with Lost creator/producer J.J. Abrams in which he talks a bit about his influences, the upcoming season of Lost, and the upcoming Star Trek movie.

According to The Hollywood Reporter (not on the web site), The Chronicles of Narnia producer Mark Steven Johnson said that filming of the second movie, Prince Caspian, will begin in January in Europe instead of New Zealand, where The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe was filmed (along with a lot of the recent epic films). Also, the third movie, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, will begin production a year after Prince Caspian is finished.