Sci-Fi Storm

Chad Cloman writes “LucasFilm has announced that an animated Star Wars feature film, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, will be released in North American theaters on Friday, August 15, 2008. The theatrical release will be followed by a related television series on the Cartoon Network and TNT. Long live Star Wars! More Star Wars!” An interesting way to introduce the new series…make them pay for the premiere!

New line has already been sued over profits for the Lord of the Rings movies – now the Tolkein estate and publisher HarperCollins are after their piece of the pie, suing for their part of the gross profits. We know Hollywood has always had “creative” accounting practices – perhaps New Line was a little too creative?

AS soon as the writer’s strike is resolved, expect a script for the two planned Hobbit films to get fasttracked – with Guillermo del Toro set to direct and supervise the script along with executive producer Peter Jackson. Filming should begin in 2009, with the releases hopefully in 2010 and 2011.

A “viral” web site has gone online that allows you to see the construction of the Enterprise – sort of. There are 4 “camera” views, one of which is offline. The other three appear to have interference, but you can adjust the signal by the slider below the frame or the numerical adjustments next to it to get a “100.0%” signal which gives clearer images. Getting all at 100% doesn’t appear to unlock anything though. The views simply cycle, and show some welding going on. Nothing very specific yet. Update: More info: each time you load the page, a different camera is offline, so be sure to reload to see all 4 images.

The new CG monster film Dark Swarm, produced by Hogofilm, LLC, is about what’s left of life on Earth after a swarm of aliens consumes most everything. A small band of humans fight to survive, and fight back. Signed on for the cast are Christopher Judge (Teal?c, Stargate SG-1), Erica Cerra (Deputy Jo, Eureka and Maya, Battlestar Galactica), and Ed Wasser (Morden, Babylon 5). Read More for the full press release.

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Moviefone has an exclusive image of the Enterprise under construction for J.J. Abrams upcoming Star Trek movie. It’s interesting that the name is already painted on it, yet it doesn’t have the “ship hull grey” color – it looks like it is being left as the raw metallic color, ala the refitted Enterprise in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

The Lensman series of books from E.E. “Doc” Smith, one of if not the earliest “space opera” and influential to many others, including George Lucas and J. Michael Straczynski, may see the big screen. Imagine Entertainment, headed by Ron Howard, along with Universal pictures, is negotiating an option for the series of stories that span a million years and deals with the struggles between struggles between the Arisians and the Eddorians, with humanity caught between. They mostly focuses on a Lensman, a person who bears the Lens, which gives the owner telepathic powers. Ironically, one of the screenwriters currently working (well, aside from the strike) with Imagine? J. Michael Straczynski (The Changeling).

Now the effects of the writers strike are being felt. The upcoming Superman Returns has been pushed back to 2010, and the superhero-combine Justice League of America has yet to start, with a deadline of today if they want to greenlight production this Spring, and is likely to slip its schedule as they want a rewrite of the script.

The first (hopefully of more) Dungeon Siege movie, In The Name Of The King, opens this Friday. While you wait, you can see some extra clips from the film on YouTube: Long Fall, Up In Trees, and Ready for Battle. You can also check out the official web site.

MTV.com is reporting that the first teaser trailer for the upcoming J.J. Abrams Star Trek film will appear in theaters with the J.J. Abrams-produced and still mysterious Cloverfield. Cloverfield writer/director and friend of Abrams, Matt Reeves, says “I think people are going to be very excited.” Star Trek won’t be released until December.