News, gossip & other tidbits...

•  Science Fiction titles continue to go strong during this summer’s blockbuster movie line-up. Batman Forever, Species and Judge Dredd have all attracted strong crowds during the first and second weekends upon their release. Pocahontas (a Disney animation) and the non-fictional space mission drama Appolo 13 were also solid box-office hits this summer movie season. Dare we count the Power Rangers among the SciFi titles? 

Top Ten Movies for mid-July 1995

 1. Apollo 13
 2. Under Siege 2: Dark Territory
 3. Nine Months
 4. Species
 5. Pocahontas
 6. The Indian In The Cupboard
 7. First Knight
 8. Batman Forever
 9. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
10. Judge Dredd

•  Expect a lot of changes for the upcoming Fall TV schedule. Several SF titles from last year didn’t survive into this Fall line-up, including: Sliders, M.A.N.T.I.S., and Earth 2. VR5 will be history, unless it can obtain some backing from foreign investors.

ST Voyager, ST Deep Space Nine, Babylon 5,  and The X-Files are going into the next season with strong support and a growing fan following. Likewise, SeaQuest and Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman are both expected to do better this Fall with less air-time competition surrounding them. Alien Nation will return to the Fox Network with three new 2-hour telefilms. Producer Aaron Spelling (of 90210 fame) may enter mid-season with a new vampire saga: Kindred: The Embraced. Finally, rumors abound that the Fox Network has approached X-Files executive producer Chris Carter to create a spin-off series. 

•  The Dark Lord of the Sith makes a brief cameo appearance in the Paramount movie The Indian in the Cupboard [Now showing]. Appearing as an animated miniature “toy”, Lord Vader is once again armed with a trusty light saber. We don’t want to give the scene away for those who haven’t seen the movie yet, but it’s safe to say that he’s not pitted against the Energizer Bunny. The Dark Lord’s appearance comes as no surprise since the same Lucas-inspired Industrial Light & Magic that provided movie magic for the Star Wars trilogy had a big hand in the special FX used in The Indian in the Cupboard.

•  The Big News on the Star Trek front? Michael Dorn, who played Lt. Cmdr. Worf on Star Trek: The Next Generation, will join the cast of Deep Space Nine next season. He will be introduced during the two-hour season premiere of DS9 scheduled for October. Dorn played the popular Klingon officer aboard the Enterprise, and also appeared in the 1994 feature film “Star Trek Generations.” Dorn’s presence as a new and recognizable member on DS9 is expected to boost the show’s popularity and ratings. 

•  Gathering of the believers: The Official X-Files Convention will be held this summer on August 26, 1995 at the Pasadena Center in the city of Pasadena, California. Guest appearances to include Mitch Pileggi (Asst. FBI Director Skinner), Doug Hutchison (Tooms), and Steven Williams (Mr. X). For convention information, contact:

Creation, 411 N. Central Avenue #300, Glendale, CA 91203 

•  VR for the masses? Not quite... but Apple’s recent public release of the QuickTime VR Player means that the magic of QTVR “movies” are now available for the download. A few months ago, the ground-breaking Star Trek Interactive Tour CD-ROM was the first commercial software used to demonstrate this technology. The QuickTime VR Software Developer’s Kit is also available for those who wish to author their own QTVR-format movies or integrate QTVR into their own multimedia software. The VR Player 1.0 application itself is now available on eWorld as well as Apple Computer’s QuickTime VR World Wide Web site at the URL http://qtvr.quicktime.apple.com 

Already, several homebrew “movies” are available at several Web sites. This new QuickTime format requires the QuickTime 2.0 extension. 

•  Waterworld: They said it would happen — the polar ice caps have melted! Imagine a future without dry land. A future where the earth, covered in water, has evolved into a gritty, nautical society held together by determination and ingenuity. The people of this once-flourishing planet cling to life on floating cities, their existence constantly threatened by Smokers — bands of marauding pirates who roam the featureless surface of Waterworld. This very expensive movie will star Kevin Costner, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Dennis Hopper, Tina Marjorino. Directed by Kevin Reynolds. This movie may become the most expensive one yet. [Now showing]

•  Sandra Bullock stars in yet another  movie about cyberspace titled The Net [Now showing]. This time, the online world serves as background to a commercial-espionage conspiracy... leading to action and chase scenes involving Bullock. Suffice to say, “The Net” comes closer to modern cyberspace than that other ‘Net film that starred Keanu Reeves. Since Bullocks’ character, Angela Bennett, conjures up web pages at near instantaneous speed, one can only wonder if the heroine is using the future Super-Megafast-ISDN connection standard. 

It’s also worth noting that both the real-life Bullock as well as her movie character have an affinity for Macintosh computers. Perhaps it can be best summed up by quoting a review segment by movie critic Roger Ebert (of the Chicago Sun-Times) - 

“The computer stuff will interest anyone who is into such things. It’s a revealing detail that she uses Macs - which for me means she loves computers instead of merely working with them.” 

•  Lucas will direct!  In a recent media interview, George Lucas has confirmed plans to direct at least one of the movies in the new Star Wars trilogy. In the interview, Lucas said that the new trilogy — prequels to the original Star Wars trilogy — will be shot back to back “like a TV series.” The use of state-of-the-art digital effects is expected to keep cost of the films down. Lucas is aiming for a 1998 release for the first film. 

•  Freddy vs. Jason?  These two monsters — the murderous stars of the movies Nightmare on Elm Street  and Friday the 13th  — may have a chance to go against each other according to an announcement by New Line Cinema. Plans are still tentative, but the movie may possibly appear sometime in 1996. Hmmm...

I lost betting on Rhodan in Godzilla vs. Rhodan  and I don’t remember picking the winner in Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman . So, I’ll play it safe this time with Freddy vs. Jason . My money goes on... ummm... the ugly guy. Yeah, that’s it!  [mfc] 

MSD Observer information provided with the help of:  Edward Avila and Roger Ogawa. The new Mac Star Digest Observer graphic was created by Matthew Burns.