Actors in SAG who are in favor of moving forward with contract talks with the organization representing studio and network producers (AMPTP) have moved one step closer to gaining control over the board of the actor’s union. After recent elections to seat new board members those under the banner of the Unite for Strength platform, which urges more talks and better communications between SAG and the AMPTP now have the majority, owning 6 of the 11 seats on the SAG national board. Both sides now see this as the beginning of a better environment for negotiation.
The NASA space shuttle that would be launched to rescue a stranded Hubble Space Telescope servicing crew in case of an emergency was rolled out to a spare launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center on Friday. Endeavour, which is scheduled for an International Space Station construction mission in November, will be readied as a backup throughout next month’s Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission by its sister ship Atlantis.
While it may appear that the economy in the United States, and the world overall, is slipping, you would never know it from the entertainment industry. Cable and DVD sales are up as customers are still willing to spend those shrinking earnings on viewing entertainment as a means of escaping the tightening times.
“I think people look to television as something they can depend on,” said Chase Carey, Chief Executive of DIRECTV Group Inc, the largest satellite TV provider. “They cut out restaurants, they cut out theaters, but television is something they can hang on to in tough times.”
Monday, September 22 begins the official start of the Fall TV schedule. NBC’s “Heroes” opens with a two-hour episode on Monday at 9 p.m. EDT. CBS begins with “The Mentalist” premiering 9 p.m. EDT on Tuesday. NBC unveils its charged-up “Knight Rider” mustang beginning Wednesday at 8 p.m. EDT.
Recently it was originally reported by AMC’s SciFi Scanner and then by Slice of SciFi and others that J.J. Abrams stated that they had wanted Bill Shatner in the next Star Trek film right from the beginning but couldn’t find a way to bring back the famous elder Captain Kirk after his death in film number seven titled “Generations.” They had considered a cameo of some sort but the storyline of the new film begins years after the supposed death of Kirk in that seventh movie, so not being able to justify a break in the revered Trek canon, Shatner was left out of the new one. Well, as one who is always willing to go where angels fear to tread, Bill, in a recent video interview countered Abrams’ remarks with the following:
“J.J., nobody every came to me and said ‘we have a cameo.'” Shatner said “Maybe you wrote it, but it never presented itself to me. But the truth is I wouldn’t have wanted to do a cameo, because that you would have clipped that out. It doesn’t fit. You said in your statement you were having trouble fitting it in anyway. But nobody every asked me and I am just sorry that I am not in your wonderful movie and I would have loved to have been in it.”
“If you make another one maybe you can think of ways of bringing Captain Kirk back to life. I brought him back to life in one of my books, very easily.[…]”
The resurrection Shatner is speaking of takes place in his “Ashes of Eden,” “The Return” and “Preserver” tales then followed-up with his Captain’s Trilogy novels. In the first set of stories the Borg uncover the makeshift grave of rocks that Picard had buried Kirk under in the film. The novels have Kirk brought back to life by the Borg and then quickly rescued by the team of Ambassasdor Spock, Captain Picard, an ancient Admiral McCoy with all his bionic-parts, and Scotty (who, if remembered, had survived in a transporter loop into the 24th Century). Once Kirk is brought back into the Starfleet fold he is again joined by the surviving members of his old crew for a new round of exciting adventures that get furture explored in the first Captain’s series titled “Captain’s Peril.”
One of the fastest-growing film companies in Europe is Barcelona Spain’s Escandalo Films. Begun only 9 years ago, it is looking to become more competitive in the Euro-market by developing at least two to three films a year beginning in 2009. Escandalo will be unveiling two new SF features over the next several months, Kike Maillo’s “Eva” and Marcal Fores’ “Animals,” according to Variety Europe. “Eva” (in late 2008)will be a modestly-priced ($5 million USD) produced film about a robot coming-of-age, while “Animals” (2009) will be a fantasy-laced coming-of-ager, sort of a “’Donnie Darko’ meets Gus Van Sant,” according to Escandalo producer Aintza Serra.
DreamWorks has finally closed the deal with India-based Reliance to leave Paramount Pictures and create a stand-alone production company.
Arkle says
The Return and Avenger were actually pretty good books, but the rest of the Shatnerverse (as my former colleagues in the Nitpickers Guild calls them) books run the gamut from lame to mediocre.