Sci-Fi Storm

With the human race facing extinction when all women become infertile, a bureaucrat becomes the unlikely champion of survival. Thus is the setting of Children of Men, a movie based on the novel by P.D. James. The official website is now open, along with a fan team site with news, challenges, and rewards. Directed and co-written by Alfonso Cuaron (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), it stars Clive Owen (Sin City), Julianne Moore (Hannibal), Chiwetel Ejiofor (Serenity), Charlie Hunnam (Hooligans) and Oscar winner Michael Caine (Batman Begins).

The teaser trailer for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is now available online – you just have to go to the Happy Feet website to see it. My first impression? What’s with the mutton chops?

As promised, watch the new trailer below, or download high-definition versions from here.

Roger Corman (of many genre films) and John Davison (Starship Troopers) will work together to produce Space 3001, an SF action movie to be produced in Ireland on a budget of $20m US (with Irish subsidies). No info on the plot available. This is not the old Mike Judge production that at one point was called 3001: That actually saw a very limited release a couple of months ago as Idiocracy.

A new trailer for next year’s Spider-Man 3 will debut on the net on Thursday at 10PM ET. You’ll be able to watch the trailer right here on Sci-Fi Storm, or download high-definition versions from here.

Katee Sackhoff, whom you should all recognize by now as Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica, has joined Nathan Fillion (Firefly) on the production of White Noise 2, but won’t be playing a rough-and-tumble tomboy – she’ll be the damsel in distress, and that’s the role she wanted. We reviewed White Noise last year. I’m not sure how much of a sequel this is, but the cast is getting interesting. Off topic – the sidebar poll on SCI FI Wire on who should play Kirk in the next Trek movie has Ben Browder with a 20-point lead, although he is perhaps too old.

So, its been a slow news week, so I start looking up random things on the Internet. Today’s adventure was about the Irwin Allen SF TV movie City Beneath the Sea (also known as One Hour to Doomsday in the UK, where I also saw it as a kid). It was shown periodically through the 70s (I didn’t realize it was made as early as it was (1970). I remember that it could even be though of as a direct sequel to Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea – it had the flying sub, and even Richard Baseheart (as the U.S. President). The science was patently ridiculous, but that didn’t stop me as a kid from being glued to the TV whenever it was on. It was a TV pilot, but didn’t make it. Read More for a plot synopsis from my own memory. This is on my “I’d buy the DVD if there was one” list.

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According to a press release, production on the Halo movie has halted. Halo was being produced by Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh in conjunction with Microsoft, and they had previously stated that they were continuing production despite Fox and Universal backing out earlier. Note that the linked article mentions “Jackson and Microsoft’s WingNut Films”, but I believe WingNut is strictly Jackson’s studio. WingNut Interactive is a joint effort for producing a new Halo game.

20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures, which had originally ponied up the cash to turn Microsoft’s Halo game franchise into a big budget movie with executive producers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, have reportedly backed out, leaving the film in doubt. Clashes on compensation to the game developers and the producers were reportedly at issue, along with a skyrocketing budget. They are currently looking for another studio and financing.

Some good news…MGM has confirmed initial talks with Peter Jackson’s “representatives” with regards to the production of The Hobbit after a massive petition was sent to the studio.