Sci-Fi Storm

Just found out about this site: Top 75 Spaceships in movies and TV. Of course, with any such list, there will be debates about order and omissions – but there are ships on here that you may not have though of and belong. I don’t know about the number 1 position, but I always thought there was something very elegant about the Eagle from Space: 1999 deserving of #2.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince broke the midnight opening record by a significant margin, taking in $22.2 million overnight. This beat the previous record of $18 million set by The Dark Knight last year. It is expected to make $100 million just this weekend and has a good chance to break the 5-day marks of Knight and Transformers 2.

Apparently the running for the lead role is down to three, with one of Bradley Cooper (Yes Man), Ryan Reynolds (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and Justin Timberlake set to take up the role of Hal Jordan in Warner Bros. upcoming Green Lantern tentpole film. Update: Variety now reports Ryan Reynolds is the choice.

Warner Bros. has released two new items for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince via the Apple iTunes Store: A podcast featuring the stars giving a brief introduction to an exclusive clip featuring Harry and Professor Dumbledore entering the cave; and a free iTunes/iPod Touch app where you can see official content, but also insert your own pictures into scenes like the Daily Prophet. I don’t see an easy way to link directly, so just search for Harry Potter in the podcast or app sections to find them.

Seriously, this is getting ridiculous. Dreamworks is looking to create a film based on the 3D View-Master toy – the one that used stereoscopic images on a round disk. Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are attached to produce. Now, I’ve had several of these as a kid, and my kids have them too…but really, a movie?

Kerrie Lopez from Atom writes in to let us know that Atom.com and Lucasfilm Ltd. have announced the 22 finalists for the 2009 Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge, a contest featuring the best Star Wars-related short digital videos created by fans. Users can view and vote for videos at StarWars.Atom.com from Wednesday, July 1 until Friday, July 10 to determine the Audience Choice Award, which will be presented in a lavish ceremony at Comic-Con San Diego July 24th. Past honorees include such popular hits as “Chad Vader” and “Star Wars Gangsta Rap.”

The bidding war is over, and Universal has won a big screen adaptation of the early video game Asteroids. Given the lack of any story to the game itself, it is pretty much a blank slate for newcomer writer Matthew Lopez (Race To Witch Mountain). Also interesting is that Universal is adapting board games “Battleship” and “Candyland”.

I guess it didn’t need all the promotion Michael Bay wanted…Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen took in a whopping $201.2 million in five days, second only to The Dark Knight, and even took in another $181.6 million globally.

Also from Issue #19 of Star Trek Magazine is an interview with Star Trek producers/screenwriters and frequent J.J. Abrams collaborators Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. Here is a brief excerpt.

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Issue #19 of Star Trek Magazine is on shelves now in the U.S. (July 9th in the U.K.) with plenty of interviews included. Read More for an excerpt of an interview with Eric Bana, who played the Romulan Nero.

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