Sci-Fi Storm

The upcoming theatrical re-release of 1979’s Alien will include a never-before-seen scene, which will apparently show the ultimate fate of the Nostromo crewmembers. According to Ridley Scott, the scene was originally removed to improve the pacing of the movie, but “now, looking at it, I thought, ‘Well, actually, it doesn’t.'”.

In case you haven’t seen the extended versions of Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers (and why not? Well, OK, The Two Towers isn’t out yet) or if you enjoy sitting through a four-hour film, New Line is releasing the extended edition to theaters in the two weeks prior to the December 17th premiere of The Return of the King, one each week.

Well, at least this is more believable than the Marilyn Manson rumor. Johnny Depp (recently in Pirates of the Carribean) has apparently met with director Tim Burton about starring as Willy Wonka in Burton’s version of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

It’s finally going to happen. Production on the Red Dwarf feature film will finally in October, according to the report on Dark Horizons. Overall I felt Series 8 lacked something that made the show good – hopefully the film can bring it back, whatever it is. But can a film based on a show sprung from an established series with a cult following get the mainstream dollar in the States?

Obi-Wan will have a new astro-mech droid in his starfighter in Star Wars: Episode III, and you can pick the color! Registered Hyperspace users at the official web site can pick from 4 different color schemes for the new droid.

Update: Figures. The poll closed on Sunday.

Not exactly earth-shattering news, but Joss Whedon has confirmed that he is working on a Firefly feature script, and is close to a deal on the production, contingent on the script and the original cast returning. He also confirmed that the future DVD release will include the three unaired episodes as well as the gag reel and more extras.

According to SCI FI Wire, James Cameron told BBCi (I couldn’t find the original page) that “To an extent, yes,” that they are looking at making Alien 5, in a vein similar to Aliens with a bunch of great characters – and Ripley would be back. The interesting twist – adding Arnold Schwarzenegger to the cast – possibly as the Terminator.

After being thrown into turmoil with the death of Douglas Adams almost two years ago, movement is seen in the big screen adaptation. Hammer & Tongs, the British commercial and video-directing and producing team will take the helm, on behalf of Roger Birnbaum and Disney, with Spyglass funding it and Karey Kirkpatrick, who has already done some work on the original Adams-penned script, will take over further writing. Adams will get an Executive Producer credit.

I usually like to watch something more than once before I go as far as assigning scores to Nitpicks and such, so here is a no-score review of the new Disney/Pixar film Finding Nemo. In brief – I don’t care how young or old you are, go see it.

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Zap2It is reporting that the plotlines have been revealed for the next two films in the Alien series. Number 5 has the aliens attacking Earth (in “drop ships” supposedly shown in the first movie – IIRC that was some other alien’s ship). Number six has the aliens attacking other planets with Ripley turning to the “dark side” (huh?) to save civilization.