Sci-Fi Storm

Dark Horizons has a brief blurb that director Brian Singer (X-Men) has been associated with Warner Bros. big-budget remake of Logan’s Run. Previously various web sites attached Skip Woods (Swordfish) to the project. Author William F. Nolan’s official web site says the movie is in pre-production. Also on Dark Horizons – the Red Dwarf movie has pushed back filming to May 2004.

Timelord writes “http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_ra dio/3140786.stm“ I was about to post on this myself, as it’s on CNN as well. The only details at this point is that it is being written by Russell T. Davies, is being produced by BBC Wales, and CNN says it will be out in 2005, but no US distributor is named.

UPN has officially renamed Enterprise to Star Trek: Enterprise, starting with tonight’s (9/24) episode. In a memo to affliates sent yesterday, Diane Kuri, UPN’s Director of Communications and Operations and Affiliate Relations, said that “by formally changing the show’s title, we will be able to further capitalize on and form a stronger connection to the famous and highly successful Star Trek franchise.”

For all our British readers, all, um…well, probably none of you: Variety has reported that new network Toonami will air Star Wars: Clone Wars, the Lucasfilm and Cartoon Network produced series of animated shorts, starting November 10th. The show airs on the Cartoon Network in the states starting November 7th.

It appears that Lorraine Heggessey, the current controller at BBC1, wants to bring Doctor Who back. The roadblock right now according to her is a “complicated” rights issue (perhaps Fox still has a stake in it?), although the article goes on to say that the only known issue is that some of the writers, like the late Terry Nation, owned rights to certain characters, like Nation’s Daleks, which I’m sure would be a must.

UPN has put up a trailer for the upcoming Enterprise season premiere on the official web site.

BaronMoritani writes “Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune’s Chani, Barbara Kodetova interviewed at the Landsraad Dune site.

In her second interview with the Landsraad Dune site, Ms. Kodetova discusses her feelings reuniting with her Dune cast, her current and future projects, and her family.

Read more here:

http://groups.msn.com/TheLandsraad/barakodetova.ms nw“

Don’t expect to see The Terminator on broadcast TV for a while – or True Lies, or any of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s other movies, at least in California. Arnie’s advisors told the press that Federal “equal time” rules apply, and if a station airs one of his movies, ALL of his opponents can claim equal time for free, and that’s a lot of time – nearly 250 registered candidates. The law definitely applies to broadcast stations, and it is known that cable channels are exempt, but there is a apparently grey area with cable providers like Time Warner and Comcast carrying an Arnie movie on their system from one of the cable channels. Ironically this happened before – in 1973, when Star Trek alum George Takei ran for LA City Council. A local station aired a rerun of Star Trek, and it cost them an entire evening of programming to give equal time to 14 candidates.
Update 8/19: Sure enough, the SCI FI Channel announced it is postponing 3 previously-scheduled Schwarzenegger films until after the recall election.

I really should have posted this last week, but I’ve been working odd hours and such and have had very little time. Back on July 24th, JMS posted to rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated on UseNet after a report in the Pulse about his talk at ComicCon said that he didn’t intend to return to Jeremiah if it is renewed for a third season. Apparently it is not the network this time, like with TNT and Crusade, but the studio (MGM) being intrusive. I don’t know how intrusive MGM has been with Stargate SG-1 – things seem to work well there. My concern is whether Joe may be burning too many bridges…first TNT, then Top Cow, now MGM…

BBC News is reporting that actor Paul Darrow, who played Avon in the original Blake’s 7 series, has obtained the rights to the series from the widow of creator Terry Nation (also famous for creating the Daleks). A new mini-series is planned with Darrow probably the only original actor returning, and is to take place 25 years after the series. A budget is set for $5-6M (a fortune compared to what the series probably got) and is aimed for Spring 2005. I hope somehow they bring back the Liberator. A ship where the crew doesn’t even know its capabilities and its aggravating computer are what made the series for me…