Category: News

Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, who has been a part of every incarnation of her husband Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek, has signed on to reprise her role as the computer voice in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek according to Variety.

As an actress, Majel Barrett was cast as Number One in the original television pilot but NBC had issues with a female as the second-in-command.  She was recast as Nurse Christine Chapel for the three seasons of the series and animated show that followed. She did a variety of voices for the show including the computer.

She reprised the computer voice for Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager.  Her voice work was also heard in the feature films and she appeared as Chapel in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek: IV: The Voyage Home.

Barrett-Roddenberry also played Lwaxana Troi in TNG and DS9.

Not long before the buzz started on Watchmen, another graphic novel was also on just about everyone’s Must Read list, and it still is. Jeff Kinney’s Diary Of A Wimpy Kid is one of the cool comic creator success stories soon to be a major motion picture. In an exclusive interview, Jeff tells how it all got started and where The Kid really comes from,  plus:

• Batman Black & White on iTunes
• New Battlestar Webisodes
• Can you guess the #1 Most Awesome Sci Fi Themed Music Video? We bet you can’t!

All that and more – but only when you Press the Button!

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via or RSS!

Tomoko Ninomiya’s Nodame Cantabile manga is moving to the big screen according to Variety. The story of a pianist and an apprentice conductor who have a torrid romance has already been a television series and the leads, Juri Ueno and Hiroshi Tamaki, will reprise their parts for two feature films according to Variety. Their television director Hideki Takeuchi will join them on the features.

Shooting on the first feature is scheduled to begin in May, taking the couple around Europe for five months. Toho and NTV anticipate releasing the first in December 2009 and the second feature the following spring.

The best-selling manga led to the television series in October 2006 and has been a growing success in Janapan.

NTV has produced a successful series of films based on Death Note and is shooting a trilogy,  20th Century Boys, based on Naoki Urasawa’s manga about “a convenience store clerk who discovers that the disastrous prophecies he wrote as a boy are coming true. The first part, released at the end of August, has earned $42 million.”

Deadline Hollywood reports that the Blu-ray edition of The Dark Knight sold 600,000 copies on Tuesday, its first day of release.

“By contrast, Marvel/Paramount’s Iron Man sold 250,000 Blu-ray discs when it premiered on September 30th and ended up selling 400,000 Blu-ray units in its first week,” Nikki Finke wrote.

The film had already been named the #1 movie downloaded via Apple’s iStore.

“The Dark Knight was not only 2008’s best DVD sales day, but is also likely to be 2008’s bestseller of the year by next week with a projected number of 7 million units,” she continued.

The film is poised to break the $1 billion at the global box office and continues to set records.  With a rerelease announced for January 23, the film will continue to generate huge profits.

With Awards season just beginning, the new is likely to continue.  Already today, Heath Ledger earned a posthumous Golden Globe nomination for his work as the Joker.
 

Evan Rachel Wood, one of the most respected young actresses today, will make her Broadway debut as Mary Jane Watson in Julie Taymor’s Spider-Man musical.  In an exclusive report at IESB, Wood confirmed she will portray the model with rehearsals beginning in June 2009.

Ironically, Evan lost out to Kirsten Dunst, who plays MJ in the movies, for the child lead in Interview with the Vampire.

She also said the producers are at work on actor Jim Sturgess to take on the lead.  Wood said they are, "still trying to convince him." Both displayed their singing skills in Taymor’s Across the Universe, which was released last year.

The musical will also feature  Norman Osborn/Green Goblin and Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson. Playbill in 2007 also listed the following parts:

The character breakdowns provide some insight to plot points as the character Arachne ("female, 20-35 years old, any ethnicity") is described as "a beautiful, boastful young woman turned into a spider for her hubris and lack of respect for the gods. She subsequently appears to Peter Parker and the audience as in turn a powerful spider-woman who comes from another time to inspire Peter; an otherworldly lover; a bride; a terrifying (and sexy) dark goddess of vengeance; a dance partner in a charged and violent spiders dance of death; and, finally, a lonely, fragile young woman." Casting is seeking a "strong Celtic, Balkan style, e.g., Sinead O’Connor," noting, "outside the box ideas are welcomed. Could be someone from the music industry."

Also, a "Geek Chorus" consisting of "three teenage boys and one girl" are described to "meet to ritualistically retell the greatest Spider-Man stories.

Bono and The Edge of U2 are providing the music and lyrics for the musical which is likely to debut in 2010. The book is from Taymor and Glen Berger (Underneath The Lintel) which had a reading in New York in July 2007.

Matthias "Teese" Gohl (Frida) will serve as musical supervisor.

On a related note, Alicia Silverstone, the former Batgirl, returns to the stage in the world premiere of Donald Margulies’ Time Stands Still. According to Variety, the cast also includes Anna Gunn (Deadwood), David Harbour (Quantum of Solace) and Robin Thomas (Damages).

The Golden Globe nominations were announced this morning with three films each nabbing five nominations.  No clear winner was in the pack with many of the films and performances yet to be sampled by audiences as the features slowly roll out to theaters across the country. As expected, though, Heath Ledger’s Joker, did get a nod.

The Globes tend to recognize more mainstream fare but are also seen as a predictor for the Academy Award nominations, which will be revealed in February. The Globes will be aired on January 11 on NBC.

FILM

BEST FEATURE – DRAMA

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
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Slumdog Millionaire

BEST FEATURE – COMEDY

Burn After Reading
Happy-Go-Lucky
In Bruges
Mamma Mia!
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (more…)

The Sci Fi Channel announced a schedule for its 10 Battlestar Galactica webisodes, kicking off Friday and running regularly through January 12.  The final half season will begin airing on January 16.

The Webisodes are titled "The Face of the Enemy," and were written by Jane Espenson and Seamus Kevin Fahey, They star Alessandro Juliani (Lt. Felix Gaeta) and Grace Park (various No. 8 Cylons).

The Webisodes will run three or four minutes long, go live at Noon EST on each of the following dates.

•    Friday, December 12:  Chapter 1
•    Monday, December 15: Chapter 2
•    Wednesday, December 17: Chapter 3
•    Monday, December 22: Chapter 4
•    Wednesday, December 24: Chapter 5
•    Monday, December 29: Chapter 6
•    Wednesday, December 31: Chapter 7
•    Monday, January 5: Chapter 8
•    Wednesday, January 7: Chapter 9
•    Monday, January 12: Chapter 10

"’The Face of the Enemy’ follows the gripping action and suspense inside a stranded Raptor carrying a group of passengers including Lieutenant Felix Gaeta (Alessandro Juliani) and a Number 8 Cylon (Grace Park). When passengers suddenly start dying one by one in alarming ways, fear, panic and chaos erupt within the confines of the small ship, as they come to realize there is a killer among them. Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh) and Brad Dryborough (Lieutenant Hoshi) also star."

Entertainment Weekly has announced the cast for M. Night Shyamalan’s live-action adaptation of The Last Airbender.

The youthful cast includes Karate star Noah Ringer will play Aang, the Avatar (the spirit of the planet manifested in human form), the last surviving Airbender and a monk of the Air Nomads, a race of people with the unique ability to manipulate the air around them. He is assigned with the task of keeping the Four Nations at peace.

Jackson Rathbone (Twilight) will play Aang’s friend Sokka, a warrior of the South Pole’s Southern Water Tribe, a race of people who can control and manipulate water.

Nicola Peltz (Deck the Halls) will play Sokka’s fourteen-year-old sister Katara, the last remaining Waterbender of her entire Tribe.

Pop/R&B singer Jesse McCartney will play the Fire Nation’s evil prince Zuko. Exiled from the Fire Nation by his father, Zuko is sent to capture the Avatar in order to restore his honor and right to the throne.

The Last Airbender, based on Nickelodeon’s Avatar anime, will be released July 2, 2010.

Remember Adventures in Babysitting, the Chris Columbus teen comedy with Elisabeth Shue? Comic fans were most amused that one of her charges, Sara (Maia Brewton), wore Thor’s helmet throughout the film and Vincent D’Onofrio’s creepy character was nicknamed Thor.

The movie did well enough to spawn a short-lived television series and finally word is out that a sequel is being made.  The star will be Miley Cyrus, according to The Chicago Sun -Times, and the movie is slated for 2010. The Hannah Montana star will appear opposite fellow Disney headline Raven Symone with Tiffany Paulsen (Nancy Drew) at work on the script.

Chris Weitz (The Golden Compass) appears to be the leading candidate to replace Catherine Hardwicke on New Moon, the sequel to Twilight.

Deadline Hollywood reveals, “my source says Summit Entertainment liked the look of [Compass] even if it didn’t heat up the domestic box office (but did better overseas). I don’t have official confirmation yet that this Twilight sequel offer has gone out to Weitz. But my insider says another reason it came down is because Weitz and Summit’s president of production Eric Feig are longtime pals.

“But let’s also not forget Weitz’s behavior on Golden Compass. On December 15, 2004, Weitz announced his resignation as director of the trilogy, citing the enormous technical challenges of the epic and later admitting he was worried about dissing by the book’s fans. After another helmer came on and then walked off, Weitz returned to direct saying he’d done ‘a lot of growing in the interim’.”

The current plan seems to call for New Moon and Eclipse to be shot back-to-back which would certainly tax most directors but makes financial sense for the small studio.Summit, today, announced a November 20, 2009 release date which puts the project on a faster-than-anticipated schedule.