THE ZOCALO TODAY

Hey there. Just thought I'd drop you a few notes so that you wouldn't
miss things like the FIREFLY marathon on SciFi tomorrow. It would be
wonderful if the networks (cable or regular) would bring back some of
the old favorites while we're waiting for new episodes of appear. With
the writer's strike ended, we still won't see new episodes of our
favorite shows for a while. It is a perfect opportunity to bring back
some fresh material – even if it is reruns – for people to enjoy –
perhaps for the first time. NBC is doing this with Dexter, Monk and
some others. I hope the other networks will take the hint! SciFi –
bring back BABYLON 5!

Look below and you'll find a number of contests for the amateur video
maker. STAR WARS has begun it's fan video competition, Warner Bros.
has opened up an animation site that is a lot of fun. I hope you'll
drop over to both of these sites and see what they have to offer.

The latest discussion topic has to do with favorite science fiction
films. SciFi Wire is pulling together their favorites and are asking
readers to send in their most favorite films. Check out the topic and
let us know your favorites – and least favorite – that are either on
the AFI list or not.

JMS RADIO INTERVIEW
Scott Hinze and Sean Jackson, co-hosts of Fanboy Radio conducted an
interview with J. Michael Straczynski on Sunday night. Here is the
link Sean provided for the archived file
http://fanboyradio.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=304861. They discussed
Babylon 5, JMS' scripts and proces, Spider-Man, Thor, The Twelve, The
Changeling, Silver Surfer, NBC's HEROES and more.

Having listened to the interview, I have to say that it is terrific.
Sean and Scott go back and forth between TV shows, comic books, other
stories with JMS and it is wonderful listening.

CONVENTION ALERT: JMS AT WONDERCON
From JMS News:
On Friday and Saturday (Feb. 22-14) I'm signing from 2-3, and I have a
writing seminar/ talk on Friday at 4, and my spotlight is at 4 on
Saturday. More things may be added along the way but those are the key
events.

Information about WONDERCON is below:

February 22-24, 2008
WONDERCON
Place: Moscone Center South
City: San Francisco, CA
B5 Guest: J. Michael Straczynski
For more information, go to http://www.comic-con.org/wc/index.php.

DISCUSSION TOPIC:
In today's news section, there is a piece about picking the BEST
SCIENCE FICTION FILM. The list of 50 compiled by the American Film
Institute is pretty good, but I think there are some surprises there
-- at least for me. Of the 50 mentioned, which do you think don't
belong and which ones have not been included?

Send in your thoughts and comments to sgbruckner@.... I will post
them on the Discussion Page for everyone to share and enjoy. There are
some good ones so far. Add yours! If you see an old topic you want to
respond to, go right ahead. We enjoy hearing from you.

NEW E-MAIL NEWSLETTER
I have been toying with the idea of starting up a new Babylon 5
newsletter – one that would only go out via e-mail. It would not be
just a collection of items from the website, but also include some
fresh items written by readers and fans of Babylon 5. Items could be
book reviews, movie reviews, a discussion piece you want to submit to
others, etc.

If you are interested in contributing, send me a note and let's talk.
I know I don't have a lot of free time either, so a monthly
publication would be ambitious, but possible if enough people help
out. Drop me a note at sgbruckner@... if you are interested in
contributing.

A few folks have already responded but I thought I'd send out another
note to see if anyone missed the first one. I'll be contacting
interested parties soon to see if we can pull something together.
Thanks to those who have responded so far.

BABYLON PODCAST
WELCOME TO SHOW #99
Mike got rid of Netflix and now is using only his Apple TV. He's
actually listened to Babylon Podcast through his new system, and he
likes it.

Oh, and if you're inside Second Life, FarPoint Media's castle is at
http://slurl.com/secondlife/beraudes/203/151/49.
If you go to Starship Sofa, check out the episode containing "Going
Through Changes" by Pat Murphy. Summer read the story, and people have
been enjoying the reading.

[Jeffrey, delirious with fever, prepares for the Brawl In The Hall.
Later he will have no memory of proposing to Bruce Boxleitner] Deep
Geeking: This week, the geeking goes for "Interludes and
Examinations", and Jeffrey sticks around to give us some behind the
scenes info on The Day the Vorlon Died.

Oh, and remember when Jeffrey said he was ill the day they filmed the
smackdown in the hall with Bruce Boxleitner? He found the pictures!

Claudia Christian Charity Sale

For Fans in the US …
Claudia is offering some of her personal items for sale! These items
will only be available for shipping to the United States. Proceeds
will go to Charity. Here are the details.
http://www.claudiachristian.net/home.htm

Hi folks,
I have decided to keep all charitable contributions in the USA this
year as we need it more then ever. Between all of the great funds in
New Orleans to help people rebuild, local Children's Hospitals and
homes for battered women, I believe we can pump up the coffers a bit
by getting rid of some personal belongings…call it recycling for a
better cause! I hope everyone has a beautiful year and by then end of
it, I hope to be able to make a nice donation to some of my favorite
charities thanks to each and everyone of you.
Much love,
Claudia

To catch up on all the wonderful podcasts, go to www.babylonpodcast.com.

NEWS AROUND THE WORLD OF SCIENCE FICTION:

FIREFLY MARATHON ON MONDAY
Thank you SciFi for giving us something to watch this President's Day
holiday. A FIREFLY marathon will begin at 8:00am EST and run until
7:00pm EST. Episode titles are below in the "What's On The Tube" section.

STAR WARS FAN FILMS
AtomFilms and Lucasfilm Ltd. are once again calling for submissions
for the Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge. If you want to be in the
competition, vying for the coveted George Lucas Select award, then get
your cameras or animation rolling, and complete and enter your parody,
mash-up or fan fiction by May 27, 2008.

Top fan movies will be selected by AtomFilms and Lucasfilm --
including George Lucas as one of the judges! Awards will be announced
at San Diego Comic Con on July 24th and one of the award winning
movies will air on SpikeTV.

What will your fan movie be about? You can cover any topic you want,
but if you're searching for inspiration, well, it is an election year.
Use the Star Wars Universe to express your political angst! Is
Huckabee the next Darth? Does McCain display Wookiee tendencies?
Hillary as Padmé? Give it your best shot and show us some awesome.
Also, mash-ups produced at Official StarWars.com MashUps site are
eligible this year for Fan Movie awards. For the first time ever you
can use actual Star Wars footage to mash up with your own and create
an all new cinematic beast.

As if shiny awards and internet fame weren't enough -- SpikeTV will
air the most deserving fan movies!

For more information on how to get started and details about the
challenge, check out the official site.

This is always a great competition. I can't wait to see what STAR WARS
fans will come up with.

CABLE FAVORITES COMING TO NETWORK TV
Two networks -- CBS and NBC -- have decided to give primetime exposure
to programs that first made their mark on cable. CBS begins airing the
first season of Showtime's "Dexter" this week. NBC, meanwhile, plans
to run the most recent seasons of USA Network's successful "Monk" and
"Psych" in April.

Variety reports that in recent weeks, several networks have held
serious talks to bring other cable shows to primetime, including AMC's
Golden Globe-winning "Mad Men." The end of the strike has cooled those
conversations. But some industry observers believe the economics of
using cable series on network TV means more shows could end up making
the jump from cable to broadcast.

"Not only is this a new business model, it's a better business model,"
argues NBC scheduling and strategy chief Vince Manze. "Shows have been
going the other way, to cable, for a long time. Now you're going to
see it going both ways."

While nets have put cable shows on their air before, they've often
done so reluctantly, with little fanfare, or during slow viewership
periods such as summertime (think ABC's summer repeats of "Kyle XY" or
NBC's random showings of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy").
Still, the shows are technically repeats, which means the broadcast
networks can license them for a fraction of the cost of firstrun fare.
And while neither net will discuss financial specifics, it helps that
NBC and CBS are both dealing with sister networks -- something that no
doubt makes the cost of importing shows even more attractive.

BEST SCIENCE FICTION FILMS
The American Film Institute has come up with a list of 50 SF films
that it deems among the best ever; it will pick 10 as the best SF
movies of all time for a TV special that will air on CBS in June.
SCI FI Wire is building their own list of the best SF movies of all
time. Pick from their list and send it to SCI FI Wire before March 1
with "Top 10" in the subject line. Editors will post SCI FI Wire's
Readers' Choice list of the top 10 that week.

If your favorite movie isn't in the list below, feel free to add it to
your choice and SCI FI Wire will run a separate list of the top 10
most underappreciated SF movies of all time.

The AFI defines "science fiction" as a genre that marries a scientific
or technological premise with imaginative speculation. It has selected
the following 50 movies as contenders for the best, in alphabetical
order (in the case of movies that have been made more than once, we've
designated by date which version the AFI has selected): A.I.
Artificial Intelligence, Alien, Altered States, The Andromeda Strain,
Back to the Future, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, Blade Runner,
Children of Men, A Clockwork Orange, Close Encounters of the Third
Kind, Cocoon, Contact, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Destination
Moon, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Escape From New York, Eternal
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Fantastic Voyage, The Fly (1986),
Forbidden Planet, Frankenstein (1931), The Incredible Shrinking Man,
Independence Day, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), The Invisible
Man (1933), It Came From Outer Space, Jurassic Park, Mad Max Beyond
Thunderdome, The Matrix, Men in Black, Minority Report, Planet of the
Apes (1968), Repo Man, RoboCop, Rollerball (1975), Silent Running,
Soylent Green, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, Star Wars: Episode IV--A
New Hope, Starman, The Stepford Wives (1975), Terminator 2: Judgment
Day, Them!, The Thing From Another World, The Time Machine (1960),
Total Recall, Tron, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The War of the Worlds
(1953), Westworld.

THE CW SCHEDULE AHEAD FOR NEW EPISODES
The CW announced that SMALLVILLE will return with five new episodes
starting April 17, SUPERNATURAL comes back April 24 with four new
episodes, and REAPER is back April 22 with five new segments.
GHOST WHISPERER
CBS announced the renewal of its supernatural series GHOST WHISPERER
for a new season, beginning in the fall.

NBC RENEWALS
NBC has announced renewal of its freshman SF spy drama CHUCK and its
hit series HEROES for the 2008-'09 season. The two shows and NBC's
LIFE will have major relaunch campaigns next year now that the
writers' strike has ended. Meanwhile, NBC will continue to air new
episodes of MEDIUM on Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT as it gears up for new
episodes of several sitcoms and dramas in April.
In addition, these dates have been set to premiere returning series:
"My Name Is Earl" (one-hour episode) -- April 3
"30 Rock," "The Office," "Scrubs," "ER" -- April 10
"Law & Order: SVU" -- April 15
"Law & Order" -- April 23

CBS PREMIERE DATES
Now that the writer's strike has ended, CBS announced the premiere
dates and episode orders of its returning series:
"How I Met Your Mother," March 17, 9 episodes
"The Big Bang Theory," March 17, 9 episodes
"Two And A Half Men," March 17, 9 episodes
"CSI: Miami," March 24, 8 episodes
"Cold Case," March 30, 5 episodes
"Criminal Minds," April 2, 7 episodes
"CSI: NY," April 2, 7 episodes
"CSI," April 3, 6 episodes
"Without a Trace," April 3, 6 episodes
"Ghost Whisperer," April 4, 6 episodes
"Numb3rs," April 4, 6 episodes
"NCIS," April 8, 7 episodes
"Moonlight," April 11, 4 episodes
"Rules Of Engagement," April 14, 6 episodes
"Shark," TBA, 4 episodes
*"The Unit," "Cane" and "Shark" are on previously announced hiatus to
accommodate the mid-season launches of Big Brother, Jericho and Dexter.
**The drama series "Swingtown," which hasn't been scheduled yet, will
also resume production.

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH 3D
The first trailer for New Line's JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH 3D
has popped up online courtesy of Cineplex. The new update of the Jules
Verne classic stars Brendan Fraser, Josh Hutcherson and Anita Briem in
the title roles. Eric Brevig handled the directing, based on a
screenplay by D.V. DeVincentis. Check out the trailer at
<http://video.cineplex.com/?fr_story=590745146d482e8be177a0c6c4e6f69a07efc27b&rf\
=bm>.


Plot Summary:
An exciting adventure based on the classic Jules Verne novel "Journey
to the Center of the Earth," "Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D"
stars Brendan Fraser ("Crash," "The Mummy") as a science professor
whose untraditional hypotheses have made him the laughing stock of the
academic community. But on an expedition in Iceland, he and his nephew
stumble upon a major discovery that launches them on a thrilling
journey deep beneath the Earth's surface, where they travel through
never-before-seen worlds and encounter a variety of unusual creatures.
"Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D" is directed by Academy
Award-winning visual effects veteran Eric Brevig ("Total Recall,"
"Pearl Harbor") from a screenplay by Michael Weiss and Jennifer
Flackett & Mark Levin. The film is a co-venture between New Line
Cinema and Walden Media.
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH 3D will hit theaters July 11, 2008.

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN
THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN has a new official poster.
It's a lot like the last one, except this time Caspian means business.
And so, by the way, does the little mouse down in the poster's bottom
right corner. His name is Reepicheep, and you'd better not laugh
because he's out for blood. He's also almost without a doubt the most
popular character in the Narnia universe, so it's good to see him
showing up all over the movie's advertising materials. First the
movie's logo, and now the dashing new poster. The movie is set to
launch on May 16.

Starring: Ben Barnes (Prince Caspian), Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes,
William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Liam Neeson (voice of Aslan), Peter
Dinklage (Trumpkin the Dwarf), Vincent Grass (Doctor Cornelius) Alicia
Borrachero (Prunaprismia, wife of Miraz), Sergio Castellitto (Miraz).

WALL-E
If you enjoyed movies like SHORT CIRCUIT, Disney has a movie for you
coming on June 27. WALL*E (short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter
Earth-Class) discovers a new purpose in life (besides collecting
knick-knacks) when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE. EVE comes
to realize that WALL*E has inadvertently stumbled upon the key to the
planet's future, and races back to space to report her findings to the
humans (who have been eagerly awaiting word that it is safe to return
home). Meanwhile, WALL*E chases EVE across the galaxy and sets an
adventure into motion. Joining WALL*E on his journey across the
universe is a cast of characters including a pet cockroach and a
heroic team of malfunctioning misfit robots. For more info, go to
http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/walle/.

INDIANA JONES TRAILER
You have just GOT to go over to
<http://www.indianajones.com/site/index.html> to see the new teaser
trailer for INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL. The
trailer aired on ABC's Good Morning America and will be screened in
theaters starting on Valentine's Day. Meanwhile, Variety reported that
USA Network has acquired the rights to the sequel and the three
previous installments, which would give the cable network the first
run of the first three Indy movies in May as a marathon promotional
vehicle for the new film. INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL
SKULL --starring Harrison Ford, Shia LaBeouf and Cate Blanchett--opens
May 22.

This has to be one of THE most anticipated movies of 2008, at least in
my book anyway.

Ain't It Cool News has pointed out tweaks to the U.S. version of the
teaser trailer for INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL
to remove guns from one scene. At the :40 second point in the U.S.
version of the trailer, which was released last week, Indy (Harrison
Ford) and his sidekick, played by Ray Winstone, are surrounded by
uniformed men, some with guns.

But in an international version of the trailer (on the site of the
U.K. tabloid The Sun), there are more men and more guns.

Fans of director Steven Spielberg recall that he removed guns from
some shots in a digitally remastered version of E.T. the
Extra-Terrestrial a few years back. But AICN speculates the tweaks to
the U.S. Indy trailer may have come at the behest of the Motion
Picture Association of America to make the trailer more suitable for
families.

30 DAYS OF NIGHT
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Australian actress Melissa George
(30 Days of Night) is in final negotiations to star in the
supernatural thriller Triangle for director Christopher Smith
(Severance). The story revolves around the passengers of a yachting
trip in the Atlantic Ocean who, when struck by mysterious weather
conditions, jump to another ship only to experience greater havoc on
the open seas. George will play a woman with a mental disorder who
relives the harrowing experience through each of her three
personalities. The movie is set to begin shooting in April in
Australia. George also appears in the HBO series In Treatment.

PLANET 51
Variety reports that Jessica Biel will join Dwayne Johnson, Justin
Long and Seann William Scott as the lead voices in PLANET 51, New Line
Cinema's first 3-D animated feature film. The studio has set a July
24, 2009, release date for the film. Johnson (Get Smart) will voice
astronaut Chuck Baker. Thinking he's the first to set foot on the
surface of Planet 51, he finds it is inhabited by green people who
live in an innocent world right out of the 1950s, complete with the
paranoia that they will be overrun by alien invaders. Joe Stillman
(Shrek and Shrek 2) penned the script, and the film is produced by
Madrid-based Ilion Animation Studios. Jorge Blanco (co-creator of the
video-game series Commandos) is directing, and Javier Abad and Marcos
Martinez will co-direct. The film will be completed by March 2009.

DIARY OF THE DEAD
DIARY OF THE DEAD opens today in theaters. In a recent interview,
Geoge A. Romero said that DIARY OF THE DEAD pokes fun at the
mainstream media, comments on the Internet blogging phenomenon and
also sends up horror movie cliches. But it wasn't all fun and games.
DIARY OF THE DEAD is shot from the point of view of a group of student
filmmakers who set out to document the takeover of the Earth by the
walking dead. Its style is similar to that of The Blair Witch Project
and Cloverfield in that it makes use of subjective first-person
hand-held camera shooting. "Oh, man, I just had a ball doing this,"
Romero said. "However, everyone says, 'Hey, it must be so free and
easy to just turn the camera on and shoot,' and that's not the case.
It required, in a way, a lot more discipline than anything I have ever
done." Romero cited as an example one eight-page shot that involved
all of the central characters. "They walk into the heroine's house,"
the director said. "They walk through the living room, through the
dining room into the garage, around the car, back around the car, back
into the kitchen. ... The choreography was unbelievable. The stunt
guys had to duck under the lens. This guy with the light had to duck
under the lens when the camera went past him." Setting up such scenes
involved a lot of planning, Romero said. "That shot, it was the only
shot we did that day," he said. "We spent six hours setting it up,
lighting it, figuring out how to be able to shoot it, and then the
rest of the day was just pulling it off and shooting it."

GHOULISHLY YOURS, WILLIAM M. GAINES
John Landis has just signed on to direct GHOULISHLY YOURS, WILLIAM M.
GAINES, a film about the life of the publisher of EC Comics and Mad
magazine. According to Variety, Landis will develop the biopic with
the film's screenwriter Joel Eisenberg. GHOULISHLY YOURS, WILLIAM M.
GAINES centers on an anti-establishment group of artists and writers,
led by a reluctant Gaines and partner Al Feldstein, as they produce
their comic books. Gaines became a First Amendment figurehead due to
his unapologetic testimony before a Senate subcommittee investigating
juvenile delinquency. Landis has not announced when he plans to start
production on GHOULISHLY YOURS, WILLIAM M. GAINES.

STAR TREK MOVED TO 2009
The Hollywood Reporter writes that on February 13, Paramount pushed
its highly anticipated STAR TREK movie to May 8, 2009, from an
original Christmas 2008 release, to take advantage of the summer
box-office season. "Star Trek is moving to summer because its has so
much box-office potential," Paramount spokesman Michael Vollman told
the trade paper. "It does not need any script tweaks. They're
two-thirds of the way through shooting, and we would have delivered a
great movie at Christmas." TREK is one of several films the studio
shuffled to new dates now that the writers' strike has ended. TREK's
shift is reportedly unrelated to script or cast considerations.
Replacing TREK on Paramount's holiday 2008 schedule is the Brad
Pitt-Cate Blanchett fantasy film THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON,
which moves to Dec. 19 from Nov. 26. CASE 39, meanwhile, moves to
April 10, 2009, from Aug. 22 of this year. And NOWHERELAND, an Eddie
Murphy fantasy comedy previously set for Sept. 26, now will bow June
12, 2009.

LOST SCHEDULE CHANGE?
According to the TV Guide, ABC's post-strike schedule may move LOST to
another new timeslot: Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT, right after GREY'S
ANATOMY, beginning in late April. The magazine added, based on
anonymous sources, that ABC is strongly considering keeping the lineup
intact in the fall and beyond. LOST is currently airing the eight
episodes that were completed before the writers' strike began last
fall. Now that the strike is ended, five new episodes are expected to
be produced and will air in the spring. LOST currently airs Thursdays
at 9 p.m.

SAMURAI GIRL
Variety reports that ABC Family has picked up SAMURAI GIRL, a six-hour
miniseries from X-FILES executive producer Frank Spotnitz. The cable
network will air SAMURAI GIRL as a three-part programming event over
the course of a weekend this August. SAMURAI GIRL is based on the
young-adult novels about a Japanese teen who discovers that her
adopted father is really the head of the Yakuza, the Japanese mafia.
She winds up training as a samurai to combat her father's empire. The
project will start shooting this spring in Vancouver, Canada. Jamie
Chung (Dragonball) stars as Heaven; the cast also includes Brendan
Fehr, Saige Thompson, Kyle Labine, Anthony Brandon Wong, Steven Brand
and Kenneth Choi. Spotnitz, Bob Levy and Leslie Morgenstein
executive-produced the pilot, which was penned by Luke McMullen.

BUILD YOUR OWN CARTOON
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has a great little contest going. You
can build your own cartoon and post it for everyone to share. Go to
http://animationmashup.warnerbros.com/ and follow the directions.
Let's see what kind of cartoon you can build.

Well, I guess that is about it for now. I am hoping that now the
writer's strike has ended, JMS will give us an update on some of his
projects soon. If he does, I'll get that out to you as quickly as I can.

Have a great weekend (or what is left of it). Be sure to visit the
website at http://www.isnnews.net to see more stories, trailer links
and pictures from movies along with new DVDs and reviews.

Take care.
Sandy

Sandra Bruckner
Editor/Publisher
ISN News: The Zocalo Today
http://www.isnnews.net