If you're anxiously awaiting the release of the new Indiana Jones movie next week (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), you can get a temporary fix this weekend on the SciFi Channel. The first three Indy movies are being shown on May 17/18, along with a documentary about the real crystals skulls that figure as a major plot point in the movie.

The documentary Mystery of the Crystal Skulls features NBC newsman Lester Holt, who looks at the various extant skulls, and traces the footsteps of one of the more famous "finders" of a skull, the British explorer Frederick Mithcell-Hedges, who probably was one of several early 20th century adventurers to inspire the Indiana Jones character.

In promoting the special, this article on SciFi Wire gives a quick overview of the skulls themselves, saying:
"Some people believe the skulls, which are carved from quartz crystal, to be ancient Mayan doom prophecies or relics from the Lost City of Atlantis. Others believe that they contain the knowledge of an advanced civilization from outer space."

If you want to get a quick look at a number of the crystal skulls currently known, Slice of SciFi has a nice picture comparing them.

For those of you who are a bit more skeptical of the "paranormal nature" of the skulls, more information can be found on Wikipedia, here.

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Peter Jackson and Guillermo Del Toro will host a live chat about the upcoming The Hobbit movie on Saturday, May 24. Join the expected "Unexpected Party" at the official Weta site.

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Breaking News from Slice of SciFi:

According to a report on Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood blog, all may not be lost for Moonlight.

Earlier this week, it was reported that the CW has decided to outsource its Sunday night programming block to the Media Rights Capital group. And one of the shows under consideration to fill one of the two available hours is Moonlight.

Initially, Warner Brothers Television told Moonlight to strike the sets for the series, but news of the potential interest by Media Rights led to WBTV leaving the sets up until Friday according to the report.

Given the solid ratings for Moonlight and its passionate, loyal audience the move could mean that Moonlight would become the highest rated show on the CW.

At this stage, nothing has been confirmed. We’ll keep our ears open for any details and report on them as they develop.

(originally posted on Slice of SciFi by Michael Hinkerson on May 14, 2008)

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Freshman vampire drama Moonlight has not been renewed for a second season, according to Hollywood insider magazine Variety. It seemed to be going well -- high in confidence among the cast and crew, and a solid core fo viewers, but ultimately a combination of slipping ratings, creative upheaval, and budgetary issues have doomed the show.

The final episode -- "Sonata" will air Friday, May 16, at 8pm ET/PT.

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After several weeks of speculation, ABC has confirmed that it has ordered an American adaptation of the popular BBC science fiction series Life on Mars. It will be executive-produced by David E. Kelley, who owns the rights to the show and will feature Irish actor Jason O'Mara (from Resident Evil: Extinction) as a modern-day cop who is transported back to the 1970s. (At this point, it's unclear whether or not Kelley will be actively involved in running the show.)

Life on Mars is scheduled to premiere in the fall in the Thursday 10pm EST/PST slot, immediately following Grey's Anatomy.

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Following a banner debut year in the US, Orbit announced that it will dramatically expand its offerings in both the US and the UK over the next three years. In the US, Orbit is going to expand its imprint by 50%, reaching approximately 70-80 titles per year by 2011, and in the UK, plans include a 30% increase over the same time period. Orbit is aleady the biggest SF/F imprint in the UK, and had a record year there as well.

This news follows the recent announcement that Orbit was hiring a new editor in the US, in addition to their current team -- not to mention several new appointments in their UK offices.

Tim Holman, Orbit Publisher, said:
"The support that we’ve received for our launch season in the US - and the success that we’ve achieved internationally - has given us great confidence in our publishing strategy. There is a clear and significant opportunity for any SFF publisher looking to expand the core readership, and we intend Orbit to be at the forefront of the effort to attract more readers to SF and Fantasy. We will continue to publish a wide range of authors from across the spectrum of both genres with a common purpose: to reach the widest possible readership for each. I’m thrilled that we have this opportunity to increase the size of both lists over the coming years."

The full Orbit news release can be found here.

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A trailer is now available for the new CG movie "The Cone Wars" put out by Lucas Films, here at StarWars.com.

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In the "news to warm the SF fan's heart" category, the Washington Post has a story about how it looks as if the first commercial spaceport in the world is likely to become a reality in New Mexico. Reports are that the Spaceport, along with its primary tenant Virgin Galactic will probably be able to make it's planned 2010 opening.

A number of other states have commercial spaceport plans or proposals in the works and several nations -- including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Dubai, and Sweden -- are also pushing for this goal, but it's likely that the New Mexico spaceport (located outside of Truth or Consequences, NM, in the high desert) will be the world's first.

Go here for the full story.

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Ebook versions of books by John Kessel, Kelly Link, and Maureen F. McHugh are offered as free downloads (via Creative Commons license) from Small Beer Press.

Find out more.

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William Shatner will sign his new autobiography, Up Till Now, at bookstores in New York City and Los Angeles this coming week.

Find out more on Slice of SciFi.

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According to his LJ blog (posted by lasirenadolce), Jay Lake is now out of surgery to remove a section of cancerous colon that was recently discovered. He went under this morning and is now -- after five hours of surgery -- in the recovery room.

The blog entry can be found here.

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Author John Scalzi has taken up the mantle of blogging about science fiction movies for the cable channel AMC and talks about it on his blog The Whatever. In his inaugural post, he talks about Guillermo del Toro and his upcoming directorship of The Hobbit and why this is a good thing...

John Scalzi is the John W. Campbell award winning author of Old Man's War, The Android's Dream and other novels, including the most recent, Zoe's Tale, due out in August.

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Gordon Van Gelder, editor of Fantasy & Science Fiction, is giving away free copies of the July 2008 F&SF to anyone who will blog about the issue.

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Stephen Euin Cobb of the podcast The Future and You interviews author Katherine Kurtz in this week's episode:
"In this interview Katherine Kurtz talks about: her writing methods and style; which of her books were the most difficult to write and which ones were the most fun, and shares anecdotes from her travels, her life and her work."

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Agent Lucienne Diver, formerly of the Spectrum Literary Agency posted this yesterday on her blog:

"I'm positively thrilled to announce that I am joining The Knight Agency and that my authors will be making the move with me. If you've never visited their website, you can learn more about the company at www.knightagency.net --and you can also see why this team of fabulous agents appealed to me so much. They are dynamic, energetic, and are very forward thinking (they're buying me a Kindle as we speak!)

"It was a terribly difficult decision because as much as I adore the folks at The Knight Agency -- their enthusiasm, professionalism and warmth -- it's not easy to leave behind fifteen years at Spectrum, which still has so much of my love and respect. But, in many ways, it was time to leave home and I'm looking forward to all of the opportunities that joining a larger and very vibrant agency will provide."

In a news release, the Knight Agency had this to say about the move:
"The Knight Agency is thrilled to announce that veteran literary agent Lucienne Diver has joined our team. She brings with her a dynamic, bestselling client list as well as fifteen years of experience at New York City's Spectrum Literary Agency, one of the oldest and most respected firms in the publishing industry. Deidre Knight and the rest of TKA welcome Lucienne as a kindred spirit with her dynamic and vibrant personality and her love of books of all kinds."

Diver represents a number of authors, including Rachel Caine, Keith R.A. DeCandido, David B. Coe, and P.N. Elrod.

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Evidently, rumors from the recent London Book Fair indicate that Random House CEO Peter Olson will soon be out of a job, replaced because of issues with Random House's bottom line (sales fell by 5.6% in 2007 and operating profit went down 4.9%). (See the NY Times article for full details).

So why does the replacement of the CEO for Random House affect science fiction, you ask? Two reasons:
- Random House (owned by Bertelsmann in Germany), includes a number of genre publishers such as Ballantine, Bantam Dell, Del Rey, Doubleday, and others. Any major shakeup at Random House could very well affect any or all of these, especially if the change is related to profitability issues.
- Bertellsman also owns a number of book clubs, which have not been performing well, such as BMG and Bookspan, the latter of which runs book clubs such as the History Book Club, and the Science Fiction Book Club. Bertelsmann has put the clubs up for sale, and while they have drawn interest in some quarters, nothing firm has come up yet. A shakeup at RH might have an impact here as well, and it might well not be one for the better for SF fans and authors.

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With the near instant success of its Iron Man movie, which opened this past week to the tune of $100 million, Marvel has announced a sequel to Iron Man will be made, to be released in mid-2010. Also for release that summer will be a film version of Thor. Greenlighted for 2011 will be two Avengers projects: The First Avenger: Captain America (set for release in May 2011), and The Avengers (July 2011).

Iron Man 2 is set to open April 30, 2010, and Thor is due May 6, 2010.

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The Million Writers Award Notable Stories of 2007 from storySouth is now available, providing a list of storySouth's choices for best online short stories published during 2007. This isn't a genre list (most of the stories are decidedly not science fiction) -- but nevertheless, it does contain a number of science fiction/fantasy/horror stories, including ones from:

Aberrant Dreams (1 story)
Abyss & Apex (1 story)
Jim Baen's Universe (4 stories)
Chiarosuro (2 stories)
Clarkesworld (4 stories)
Fantasy (2 stories)
Helix (2 stories)
Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show (3 stories)
Strange Horizons (3 stories)
Subterranean (5 stories)
and
Weird Tales (1 story).

Authors represented include Elizabeth Bear, Tony Pi, Terry Bramlett, L.E. Modesiit, Jr., Ken Scholes, Jeff VanderMeer, Cat Rambo, and others.

The top ten stories of the year will be release during the final week of May.

Additionally, Jim Baen's Universe was selected as the best online publisher of novella-length fiction.

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Well-known (and eminently bankable) thriller writer James Patterson comes out with a young adult science fiction this July called The Dangerous Days of Daniel X.

According to Variety, The Dangerous Days of Daniel X "chronicles the adventures of a conflicted yet extraordinary teen who yearns to discover secrets about himself and his family as he battles alien outlaws who threaten life on Earth."

New Regency films has already acquired the film rights for not only this book, but for the series of which it is just the beginning. The studio has a serious (and successful) interest in such properties -- they most recently co-financed (with 20th Century Fox), the film Jumper, based on the Steven Gould SF novel of the same name.

James Patterson is perhaps best known for his thrillers Along Came a Spider and Kiss the Girls (both adapted into film), but has also previously written other successful young adult fiction.

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Nuru Rimington-Mkali, a 21-year-old London native and SF fan, has won the Filmaka contest, a competition for budding filmmakers. Rimington-Mkali, who started shooting Super-8 at age 7, will start his next project with a $1 million to $5 million budget, a distribution deal from Filmaka, and representation by the William Morris Agency.

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