Sci-Fi Storm

Zap2It.com is reporting that a full-length trailer for the much-awaited Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is air Monday night, September 24th on the WB with the season premiere of Angel at 9pm.

Update 9/22: Coming Attractions is saying that New Line Cinema has confirmed this…

Coming Attractions is reporting that a number of movies have been affected by Tuesday’s tragedy. Production on the War of the Worlds remake has been suspended, while Schwarzenegger’s next film, Collateral Damage, scheduled to be released October 5th, will be indefinitely delayed and all advertising removed. All advertising and trialers for Spider-Man has likewise been pulled, having prominantly featured the WTC. And Men in Black 2 was to have shot scenes still in and around Battery Park.

Update: Countingdown is reporting that MiB2 was to have featured the WTC prominently – they are hurrying to rewrite some important scenes.

According to Variety, New Line is going ahead with the third Austin Powers movie, subtitled Goldmember. Mike Myers will be returning to all three of his previous roles (Powers, Dr. Evil, and Fat Bastard) as well as the new title character villain. Others are under negotiations.

We’ve already seen what happened with Planet of the Apes. We’ve heard rumors about Willie Wonka. Now Dreamworks has snatched remake rights from New Line for Forbidden Planet. When are they going to learn?

I haven’t seen Highlander: Endgame yet (it hasn’t crossed my TiVo that I noticed), but given that it only grossed $13 million, does ANYONE think a 5th movie (entitled Highlander: The Source and set to star Adrian Paul as Duncan MacLeod) is a good idea? The only upbeat news is Russell Mulcahy, the director of the original, is supposed to direct. Then again, he also directed the comical Highlander II: The Quickening.

The Popcorn.co.uk site is reporting that Tom Cruise may spoof his Mission Impossible character in Austin Powers 3, and that Mike Myers may be looking to have former James Bond actor Sean Connery play Power’s father…

According to an interview in the British newspaper Independent (and captured through Sci Fi Wire), Burton would rather “…jump out a window, I swear to God,” than make a sequel to the monkey-money Planet of the Apes. Seems he isn’t keen on the studio managment system…

In a story at Cinescape Online, JMS stated that he’s turned in the fourth draft of the Rising Stars screenplay, adapted from the first 8 issues of his comic book series. MGM in a press conference stated that it is on the slate for 2002.

Oh, and the trade version of the first 8 issues is available at Amazon.com.

The Phantom Menace was an OK title, but I didn’t much care for how it was simply touted as “Episode I”. Well, given the title of the next one, Attack of the Clones, maybe I’ll just call it “Episode II”. “The Clone Wars” would have been nicer…

Update: Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi) seems to agree…