Sci-Fi Storm

Slashdot is soliciting questions that will be forwarded to SF author Larry Niven for his answers. For those not familiar with Slashdot Interviews, you can post a question in the comments area, or, if you have moderator points, moderate up the questions you most want answered (you can’t do both so you can’t promote your own question). I’ll post again when the answers are posted.

Updated 3/10: The answers are now online.

tchansen writes “The second episode, “Program”, of The Animatrix is now available at The Animatrix Web Site for a free download. The first episode, “The Second Renaissance: Part One”, is also available.

The DVD of The Animatrix will be available for purchase on June 3, 2003. The second Matrix movie, “The Matrix Reloaded”, opens in theaters in the United States on May 15, 2003.”

Could The Hobbit get produced as a year-long television series? That’s what Gandalf is saying. Sir Ian McKellan has apparently broached the subject with director Peter Jackson, and is willing to reprise his role as the grey wizard in the prequel. Don’t get your hopes up though – there was no mention of Peter’s response.

Shame on me – in my cold medicine-induced haze this weekend, I forgot to mention that Saturday (2/22) marked the 10th anniversary of the debut of Babylon 5 with the airing of “The Gathering”, the two-hour pilot movie. Hard to believe that it was that long ago…

Trek Fans United writes “PRESS RELEASE

Feb. 18, 2003

Fans spearhead campaign to take back Star Trek

Star Trek fans disappointed with the newest series and lackluster feature films have launched a campaign to oust Rick Berman as head of the Paramount franchise. “

Read More for the whole release. I personally like Enterprise, but could it be possible that people are just tired of Trek?

(continue reading…)

Warner Bros. has finally announced that Michael Gambon (rumored on 12/31) will replace the late Richard Harris as Professor Dumbledore for the filming of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Also announced is Gary Oldman to play the “prisoner”, Sirius Black.

Check out the Sci-Fi TV Store for the latest: Buffy: The Vampire Slayer Season 4; Highlander: The Series and Xena: Warrior Princess now have slots; both Harry Potter films are in the Hot Movies section (I need to start a separate movie page); and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 3. Also note that what was originally billed by Amazon as Farscape: Season 3 Volume 3 is in fact a double-pack of Volume 1 and 2. I don’t believe anyone ordered through me, but just wanted to let you know…

The SCI FI Channel has just started airing a “digitally remastered” Battlestar Galactica today, and willdo so all week between 11am-4pm. Now I could be misremembering, but I don’t remember giant pyramid cities in the scene of the attack on Caprica. And frankly, Galactica could use a Lucas-esque re-rendering of all the space scenes…

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association have announced the nominees for this years Nebula Awards to be awarded this April in Philadelphia. Ursula K. Le Guin and Neil Gaiman are among the novel nominees, and Shrek and Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring are in for Scripts., along with episodes of The Dead Zone and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The kind folks at Warner Home Video sent me the official press release and cover art for the forthcoming The Animatrix DVD/Video, to be released June 3rd. The Animatrix is a series of nine short anime/CGI films based in the world of The Matrix, and two include the voices of Keanu Reeves (Neo) and Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity), and directed by a variety of the greats of Japanese anime, including Koji Morimoto (Akira), Shinchiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop) and others. Check out a preview at Official Web Site.