The Hollywood Universe – 12/18/07

1) Producer Thomas Schuehly has acquired remake rights to Fritz Lang’s classic 1927 SF movie Metropolis. One of the most expensive filmes of its time, Metropolis is set in 2026 in a large city-state filled with skyscrapers and art-deco architecture, and depicts the class war between the wealthy planners and thinkers who live high up in luxury, and the workers, who live underground and serve the privileged. The German film is said to have influenced such SF movies as Frankenstein, Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner, Gattaca and The Matrix.  

2) Star Trek News, Part 1: Star Trek: The Tour, from Creation, is a 50,000 square foot travelling interactive exhibit, featuring actual Star Trek sets, props, and models from all five Trek series and ten Trek films, and offering motion-simulator rides. The tour will visit 40 cities around the U.S., starting in Long Beach, California on January 18^th, 2008. Autographed collectibles and show memorabilia will be available for purchase and there may be some celebrity appearances at some locations. Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s son, Eugene, provides the narration for the exhibits, and William Shatner, the original Captain James T. Kirk, is serving as the official ambassador of the tour. Information and tickets are available at startrek.com and http://www.StarTrekTheTour.com.

3) 20^th Century Fox Studios has announced that they are releasing James Cameron’s newest film, the much buzzed-about 3-D spectacular Avatar, on December 18, 2009, the same date that Cameron’s blockbuster movie Titanic debuted in theaters, ten years ago.

Fox has also decided to put Night at the Museum 2: Escape from the Smithsonian in Avatar’s previous release date, May 22^nd, 2009, instead of bringing it out for the holidays, like the first one. Ice Age 3, another Fox property, will be moved out of its usual March berth and debut in the summer. Like most animated films recently, it will be in 3D.

4) Summit Entertainment is releasing the teen-vampire thriller Twilight, based on the YA fantasy novel by Stephanie Meyer. The film is set to star Kristen Stewart as a teenager who falls for a vampire, played by Robert Pattinson (best known as Cedric Diggory in the Harry Potter movies.) 

5) Sci-fi television show Battlestar Galactica is getting a touch of Star Trek when Nana Vistor, famous as Bajoran commander Major Kira Nerys of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, joins the cast for guest appearances in the fourth season of the series (tentatively scheduled for 2008, depending on the writers’ strike.) Vistor will be playing the recurring role of Emily, a fellow cancer sufferer who befriends the President during chemotherapy sessions.

6) Lost is no longer lost as U.S. television network ABC brings back the sci-fi series for a fourth season at the end of January, Thursday, 9 p.m. Eight episodes of the show will air on consecutive Thursdays, with the second half of the season dependent on the resolution of the writers’ strike. A trailer for the season is now available on the Internet.  

7) The Hobbit is no longer lost, either. New Line Cinema and MGM have announced that Lord of the Rings impresario Peter Jackson and the studios have worked out their legal differences and that Jackson will executive produce the two live action movies of Tolkein’s children’s novel, the first scheduled for a 2010 release. Jackson’s camp says that he will not direct the films, due to a full slate, meaning that his helming the movie would mean an unreasonable further delay for fans. Jackson is currently producing and directing the film adaptation of the bestselling fantasy novel The Lovely Bones, and the movie of comics icon Tintin. Development on The Hobbit will still be delayed, however, by the writers’ strike.  

8) While Heroes is on hiatus, fans can read a tie-in novel by author Aury Wallington called Heroes: Saving Charlie, to be released at the end of December, 2007. The novel chronicles the efforts by time and space jumping superhero Hiro Nakamura, played on the show by Masi Oka, to save Charlie, the waitress he falls for, from being killed by the psychotic power-absorbing villain Sylar.

9) Star Trek News, Part 2: CBS Interactive has laid off the staff of the official Star Trek site, StarTrek.com. Fans are being encouraged to continue to use the forums, though eventually the site will be shut down. Presumably a new website will be set up for the up-coming Star Trek movie, but no news of what fans can expect as yet.