Sci-Fi Storm

Could Harlan Ellison finally be warming up to the idea of a big screen movie of one of his stories? It appears so, but it wasn’t easy, even for J. Michael Straczynski, who successfully optioned the story for a film based on Ellison’s Hugo and Nebula Award-winning story [asin=1887424350]Repent, Harlequin! Said The Ticktock Man[/asin].

Even though they’ve worked together before (Ellison was an advisor on Babylon 5), Ellison wasn’t just going to let JMS have it – in fact, he required JMS to write the entire screenplay first, and then based on that, granted the option. JMS can now shop the screenplay for producers and directors, and plans to hit up Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro first.

Ellison and Hollywood have generally not gotten along. Known for being very litigious over anything that even resembled one of his stories, he most recently had filed suit but later dropped against the movie In Time for similarities to Repent Harlequin!. He settled out of court against the makers of The Terminator for similarities to his Outer Limits episodes “Soldier” and “Demon With A Glass Hand”. He fought with Gene Roddenberry over rewrites to his Star Trek script “City on the Edge of Forever”, and had his name taken off the series The Starlost which he create after the producers kept changing things, opting for his pseudonym “Cordwainer Bird”, which he attaches to anything he does that he feels is not quality, even his own stories. So it will be interesting to finally see a big production made from one of his top stories.

Can a shark storm strike twice? Syfy and The Asylum today announced that Kelly Osbourne, Judd Hirsch, Andy Dick, Judah Friedlander, Vivica A. Fox and Mark McGrath will join the eagerly anticipated Original Movie Sharknado 2: The Second One.

Osbourne will portray a flight attendant and Dick will play a New York City police officer.

Friedlander will play the character of Brian, while Hirsch – who starred in the iconic New York-based TV series Taxi – will be a cab driver named Ben.

Fox will join the cast as Skye, an old high school friend of Fin (Ian Ziering), and Mark McGrath – lead singer of the rock band Sugar Ray and Killer Karaoke host – will play Fin’s brother-in-law.

Anthony C. Ferrante returns to direct a screenplay by Thunder Levin, who also wrote Sharknado.

In Sharknado 2: The Second One, a freak weather system turns its deadly fury on New York City, unleashing a Sharknado on the population and its most cherished, iconic sites – and only Fin (Ziering) and April (Tara Reid) can save the Big Apple.

Leonard Nimoy has COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), a severe disease that limits lung function and is often linked to smoking.

Nimoy tweeted last week that he had the disease, even after quitting smoking 30 years ago. “Not soon enough. I have COPD. Grandpa says, quit now!! LLAP”

Today he gave an update in a couple of tweets: “Smokers, please understand. If you quit after you’re diagnosed with lung damage it’s too late. Grandpa says learn my lesson. Quit now…I’m doing OK. Just can’t walk distances. Love my life,family, friends and followers. LLAP”

“LLAP” is his typical signoff on his tweets, short for his signature Vulcan saying, “Live Long and Prosper”.

In theaters March 21st, 2014…

Among the plethora of ads aired during the Super Bowl last night included trailers for three blockbusters – The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Transformers: Age of Extinction and Captain America: The Winter Soldier…if you didn’t see them, or want to see them again, in no particular order:
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And you thought Ben Affleck as Batman seemed odd at first…but Jesse Eisenberg, best know for playing the geek who turned “The Facebook” into the web page no one seems to do without, has signed on to play megalomaniac and Superman’s arch enemy Lex Luthor in the upcoming Batman vs. Superman flick. But perhaps a younger Luthor isn’t so surprising – Eisenberg and Henry Cavill are both 30, and Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) is 28. Affleck is actually the senior member of the comic superheroes/villains at 41, with Amy Adams (Lois Lane) at a very lovely 39. So it appears the whole DC Universe is being skewed younger.

Following that shift, Alfred, the butler/background mentor for Bruce Wayne/Batman, makes a similar shift with Jeremy Irons at 65 taking over the role last played by Michael Caine, who is 15 years his senior, and the late Michael Gough (the only real constant in the original Batman films in the 90s) was 73 when he first played the role. However, Alan Napier, who played Alfred in the original 1960s camp series, was only 63 when he took the role.

Universal Orlando Resort is finally telling the world some the details about the expansion everyone knew was going – the expansion of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Some of the details we basically knew, but others are a surprise – and the expansion is so big, they haven’t even revealed all the details yet, so there will be more surprises yet to come.

In advance of their “A Celebration of Harry Potter” event which starts tomorrow and goes through the weekend, Universal spilled the beans on details about the expansion, which brings the Harry Potter experience over to its other park, Universal Studios Florida, and connects the two via a ride on the Hogwarts Express. They even kicked it off with a webcast, featuring some of the stars of the movies: James Phelps (Fred Weasley), Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom), and Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood):

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Lawsuits seem to never end in Hollywood, but these might be on life support…

In the never-ending battle between the estate of Joe Shuster and Warner Bros. over rights to the character of Superman, it may have finally reached a conclusion (barring an escalation to the Supreme Court) after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied petitions by the estate for a rehearing and a rehearing en banc (by the whole court instead of a panel of judges), which essentially marks the end of the road for appeals, and a top court challenge seems unlikely.

While Avatar hasn’t been around nearly as long as Superman, it seems to make up for the long line of people suing James Cameron claiming it lifted their ideas, although one by one they get tossed aside (here is the most recent one we reported on.) Now another one gets tossed aside. Bryant Moore’s $2.5 billion lawsuit against Cameron, 20th Century Fox and Lightstorm Entertainment was dismissed in summary judgement yesterday. The court said that while “certain limited commonalities” existed between Avatar and Moore’s screenplays he says were submitted to Cameron’s Lightstorm in 1993 and 1994, Cameron provided “a comprehensive declaration that specifically addresses Moore’s allegations and points to past projects and other sources of inspiration from which he drew in writing Avatar.”

Check out the latest trailer for Disney’s Maleficent, which re-tells the Sleeping Beauty story from the point of view of the evil witch…this trailer blends some of the original movie’s animation with the re-spun live action scenes as well.
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The Oscar nominations are out, and there were some sure things (like Gravity) and surprising snubs (Saving Mr. Banks only getting Original Score and Tom Hanks completely shut out). And of course, other than Gravity (which had Oscar star power to start), it is perhaps not surprising to not see genre movies get much appreciation – even with the expanded 10 film Best Picture slate, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug missed the cut.

Here is a roundup of the nominations of genre-related films and their nominations (forgive me if I miss some):

The Croods
Best animated feature film

Despicable Me 2
Best animated feature film
Original song – “Happy”

Frozen
Best animated feature film
Original song – “Let It Go”

Gravity
Sandra Bullock – Performance by an actress in a leading role
Cinematography
Directing
Film editing
Original score
Best picture
Production design
Sound editing
Sound mixing
Visual effects

Her
Original score
Original song – “The Moon Song”
Best picture
Production design
Original screenplay

The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug
Sound editing
Sound mixing
Visual effects

Iron Man 3
Visual effects

The Lone Ranger
Makeup and hairstyling
Visual effects

Star Trek Into Darkness
Visual effects