Sci-Fi Storm

James Cameron isn’t sitting around waiting to see if Avatar floats or not…he’s planning, if not decided on, his next moves. On his list is a “very different” version of the classic Fantastic Voyage, although he would not direct that one. And then it is a decision possibly between a sequel to Avatar (which has always been planned, but still depends on success) or with his other long-dwelling franchise project, Battle Angel.

Peter Jackson cleared up a question on how The Hobbit will be represented as two films – that both movies are completely based on the book and split at a middle point that he and his writing team of Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens along with director Guillermo del Toro figured would work. This should ens speculation that the second movie might be an all-new filler story between The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings.

Author Harlan Ellison – well known partly for his prolific writing, partly for his litigiousness, and partly for his vocality – and writer of one of the best known Star Trek episodes “City On The Edge Of Forever”, has said on his web site (you have to go back to a post on November 21st, but word is only getting out now) that he’d be open to working with “the inordinately-talented J.J. Abrams” on more Star Trek. It probably would never happen, but it could be interesting. Whether Paramount would let him anywhere near the project is another matter, since he sued Paramount earlier this year over revenues from derivative works from his original script.

Disney looks to be aiming the remake pen at another one of its properties – this time, The Black Hole, with the Tron: Legacy team of Joseph Kosinski and Sean Bailey and Clash Of The Titans scribe Travis Beacham involved. Although the original isn’t considered a classic (and is often derided) it did gain a cult following.

While doing the painstaking work of fixing all the self-referential links on the site, I checked on the upcoming UFO feature film, to find out that Fringe star Joshua Jackson will take on the role of Paul Foster, who if memory serves is a pilot more or less forced to join SHADO.

TheOneRing.net is reporting that filming may not start on The Hobbit until mid-2010, based on  a German interview Peter Jackson gave to moviereporter.net. No green light has been given for production yet, but they are still working on the scripts. Update 12/1: Peter Jackson clarified the schedule for SCI FI Wire.

JMS recently gave a group interview regarding the upcoming Warner Bros. remake of Forbidden Planet, giving some hints of what is to come. Among those things mentioned – more backstory about how we get to the point of the original movie (such as the landing of the Bellerophon), and perhaps leaving some space for the possibility of some form of sequel – possibly as a franchise. And if you’re worried about it being transformed from a cerebral (both in plot and story) film to an action flick, “There’s a little more action, but it’s still a strong character piece…You need to have that dynamic still in place to respect the original and the source material. So there’s a fair amount of talking, but there’s some really cool action pieces in it as well,” according to JMS.

Disney has apparently scuttled its planned remake of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea with the removal of McG as director. The movie is still in the studio’s plans, but has been put on the back burner for now. No explanations have been forthcoming so far…

Caught this via SCI FI Wire – Wikipedia has put up a list of the top 50 grossing films of the decade – and the interesting results is that at least for a very broad definition of Science Fiction and Fantasy, 48 of the top 50 fit, with the obvious exceptions being Mamma Mia! and Meet The Fockers.

Joss Whedon, in a tongue-in-cheek (we hope…) post on his blog, is making an offer for the up for auction rights to the Terminator franchise. He’s only offering $10,000, but he’s already working on ideas…although I still think a musical Terminator could work…