Sci-Fi Storm

The man who turned a conniving lizard-like alien into a heroic character, Andreas Katsulas, died yesterday of lung cancer at the age of 59. Katsulas played the Narn Regime ambassador G’Kar on Babylon 5, as well as various guest roles on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Enterprise, along with film roles such as the one-armed man in The Fugitive. Update: JMS had some good words for Andreas – Read More to read. Update 2/17: There is an excellent tribute video from Z-Team, the ones who did trhe B5 music videos among other things…

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Actor Phil Brown, who played Uncle Owen Lars in the first Star Wars film, passed away last Thursday. Brown also made appearances in Superman, The Martian Chronicles, and even appeared in Richard Hatch’s short film he used to try and revive Battlestar Galactica. Phil was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and acted in New York and Hollywood, but left in “exile” to London in the early 50s due to investigations of the “House Un-American Activities Committee” (a.k.a. the “Red Scare” that ran through Hollywood) and resumed acting there, where he landed his Star Wars role. He returned to the U.S. in the 90’s. He was 89.

Lynne Gryphon writes “A SCI FI Fan girl from downunder Sydney Australia has started a FREE to air video podcast. Including Science Fiction News highlights from around the globe.

Vist her at www.myspace.com/lynnegryphon“

Some fans like the original. Some prefer the extended version shown on TV. In either case, you can now get both on a single, double-sided DVD with Dune: Extended Edition. Read More for details of this release.

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As Hollywood wrestles with how to release films, DVD releases of even blockbuster films get quicker. Buena Vista Home Entertainment (Disney’s home video division) has announced that the DVD release of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe will hit the streets on April 5th. there will be a one-disc and a “special edition” two-disc version, which will have 10 hours of additional material on the second disc.

It’s official. Disney will pay $7.4 billion to buy Pixar, making Steve Jobs a board member and its largest individual shareholder. Given that every Pixar-produced movie has been a blockbuster, with Finding Nemo hitting $865 million worldwide, this seems to make sense…but was it too much? The combined gross of he first 6 Pixar movies was only $3.2 billion…

Wiley Saichek writes “Suzy McKee Charnas has posted an exchange with a reader/writer about her series, The Holdfast Chronicles, gender issues and writing on her website at http://www.suzymckeecharnas.com/Esy_Conversation.html. A link to the exchange can also be found on the New on the Website and Holdfast Chronicles sections of SuzyMcKeeCharnas.com.”

George Takei, who played Sulu on the original Star Trek, will reprise his role – this time in an episode of the fan-created Star Trek: New Voyages. George has always been very supportive of the fans. Also on board with New Voyages is SF writer David Gerrold – who wrote the original episode “The Trouble with Tribbles”.

The BBC has announced books with stories featuring the 10th Doctor Who will be release both in the US and UK. I’ve listed them in the Doctor Who section of Sci-Fi TV Store – note that Amazon’s release dates don’t match the article, but Amazon’s release dates on books don’t seem to be terribly accurate.

This is all over the net, but there are a lot of reports that Disney is negotiating to buy Pixar, giving a major role to Pixar (and Apple) CEO Steve Jobs, who would become Disney’s largest individual shareholder. I’ve also read in print this isn’t likely to happen, but a new deal between the two to continue producing the megahits they have so far is more likely, now that Bob Iger has replaced Michael Eisner at Disney.