Sci-Fi Storm

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen, with an unusual midnight opening on a Wednesday morning, took it $16 million in midnight showings, the biggest for opening on a Wednesday, and near the midnight haul of Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge Of The Sith. Updated 6/25: It concluded its first full day at a hefty $60.6 million, second only to The Dark Knight ($67.2M with a Friday opening), and may be on schedule for surpassing the goal of $150M through Sunday.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Friday Night Lights star Taylor Kitsch will star as the title character in Disney’s John Carter Of Mars production, which should finally get started in 2010. It will be the first live action production from director Andrew Stanton, whose Pixar efforts Wall-E and Finding Nemo won Oscars.

Yet another sign that Hollywood cannot come up with any original ideas: Columbia has attached Kurt Wimmer (Ultraviolet) to write a new Total Recall, which was based on the Philip K. Dick story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale”. There aren’t any details other than it is a “contemporized adaptation.” Note to Hollywood: There are plenty of really good stories still out there. Instead of seeing who can make the best (or worst) interpretation of a story already done, how about actually trying something new?

Rumors were sort of true – yes, director Carl Rinsch (who only appears to have done some shorts) will helm a new movie in the Alien franchise for Fox – but it is a prequel, not a remake, according to Tony Scott. Not much more detail than that, other than they hope to start filming by the end of the year.

Tucked away in a BBC article about David Tennant appearing in two episodes of Elisabeth Sladen’s Who spinoff The Sarah Jane Adventures (the third series should air in September) is a blurb from a spokeswoman confirming that “a script is in development” for a feature film treatment. No details beyond that, including who the Doctor will be. Tennant has three more specials yet to be seen, with the next, “Waters Of Mars”, airing in November, After which he will be replaced by Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer may return to the big screen – but without Joss Whedon, or any of the characters from the TV series. Directory of the original movie Fran Rubel Kuzui and her Kuzui Enterprises label fully retained ownership to the concept, purchased from Whedon with his original script (which she reworked into the movie). This isn’t an unusual situation, where relative newcomers sell the rights to their creations to get them made. Joss was later able to create the TV series in his original vision, with Kuzai retaining executive producer credit. This time the plan is to reboot the franchise again, with no connections to the TV series.

Despite its promising $13.3m take from Thursday, Terminator Salvation failed to reach the $70m total mark for the weekend (reaching only $67.2m), beaten to the punch by family film Night At The Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian, which did reach $70m.

The 1986 movie SpaceCamp is one of those fun little movies. Hardly a masterpiece of factual information, hard science, or acting, it was simply a fun kid adventure movie, like 1985s The Goonies. And it has a young Joachim Phoenix (credited as “Leaf” while he was mimicking his siblings more nature-related names), and a robot named Max…what more could you want? Unfortunately it was doomed before release…

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The venerable British series UFO created by Gerry Anderson (Thunderbirds, Space: 1999) appears to be getting the big screen treatment. ITV Global will team with the Robert Evans Co. to produce the update – no word on whether Gerry Anderson is involved. Whereas the original was set in 1980, the new version will be set in 2020 (following the roughly 10 years into the future of the original). UFO follows the super-secret Supreme Headquarters Alien Defense Organization (SHADO), based underneath a film studio as well as a moonbase, which defends against mysterious aliens that try to get past their defenses to Earth to abduct humans. Will they bring back the metallic miniskirts and purple wigs too?

The Onion, the tongue-in-cheek news network, “reported” about the new Trek film, and…well, its hilarious.