More than meets the Eye

Voight Up For Transformers?

Jon Voight told SCI FI Wire that nothing is finalized, but it looks likely that he'll be joining the cast of director Michael Bay's upcoming big-budget Transformers: The Movie. "I'm playing this ... well, we haven't signed the papers yet," Voight said in an interview. "But it looks like I'm going to play the secretary of state."

Transformers: The Movie will star Shia LaBeouf (Constantine) as the unlikely hero, Sam, in a story based on the comic book, cartoon and Hasbro toy lines that were popular in the 1980s. The movie will center on the central saga of the Autobots vs. the Decepticons.

The film will mark Voight's second collaboration with Bay, following Pearl Harbor. The Oscar-winning actor, whose genre credits include the Manchurian Candidate update and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, said that Transformers will no doubt be one of the largest-scale movies he's ever worked on, and he said he was intrigued by the notion of working on such an F/X-heavy feature.

"Well, of course, this one is going to have a lot of special effects, a lot of computer graphics and stuff like that, so it seems," Voight said. "So the actors will be tested. Their patience will be tested with lots of different things. But it's going to be interesting, too. When you do something like that—when you do a lot of computer graphics in a movie, lots of technical stuff—it's quite intriguing. It's a lot of fun, you know? It brings you back to your childhood, and you want to see how things work." Production on Transformers: The Movie is set to begin soon, with an eye toward a July 4, 2007, release date.

Smith is no Legend

Smith Is Legend


Will Smith will star in I Am Legend, the long-gestating Warner Brothers adaptation of Richard Matheson's classic SF novel, to be directed by Constantine helmer Francis Lawrence, Variety reported. Smith has a pay-or-play deal to make Legend his next project, after he completes Tonight, He Comes at Sony.

Akiva Goldsman rewrote an original script by Mark Protosevich. An early 2007 start date is planned for the movie, which will be shot in New York.

The film moves the story from Los Angeles to a post-apocalyptic New York and will center on the last healthy man following the release of a virus that decimates the population. To survive, he must battle mutants that wreak havoc during the night.

Legend came closest to getting made back in 1997 with Ridley Scott directing Arnold Schwarzenegger. Warner applied the brakes because the budget hovered around $108 million, a figure considered high at the time. Michael Bay and Smith then aligned to have a go at the film in 2002, but the pairing didn't advance.

Matheson's book was the basis of previous movie adaptations, including the Vincent Price movie The Last Man on Earth and the Charlton Heston vehicle The Omega Man.
To paraphrase Heston "You maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God... damn you all to hell!" Will Smith Does not = Sci-Fi He has regained his Tool of the day mantle in my eyes.

Technorati Tags: willsmithsucks, scifi

yet another Trek Bomb in the waiting

Sci Fi Wire -- The News Service of the Sci Fi Channel
Abrams Talks Trek 11 Reports -i like Abrams work but not sure if this idea would fly.

It's about time

SCI FI Tech
Watch one show while TiVo'ing another… finally

Yesterday TiVo announced the launch of the Series2 DT DVR, TiVo's first standalone dual-tuner (that's what the "DT" stands for!) digital video recorder. Being able to record two channels at once is a nice convenience, especially for anyone living in a Daily Show/Charlie Rose household, not to mention being able to watch one thing — or more likely surf around the cable spectrum — while saving something else for later. But I'd like to know whether TiVo expects me to install a cable box under my TV in addition to my DT recorder, as there's no mention of the DT being CableCARD-compatible, which would eliminate the need for that extra box. Still, provided setup is simple, this definitely trumps my cable company's DVR offerings, at least until I can get an DVR that actually records high-definition programming. The TiVo Series2 DT DVR also features the TiVoToGo functionality, so you can transfer recordings to some portable video players, and connects to the Internet for networking and remote scheduling. It will go on sale May 1; the 80-hour TiVo DT will sell for $100 after rebate and service activation. TiVo service is $19.95 a month with a one-year commitment. — Matt Schneiderman

Galactica Season 3 plus spoilers

Now Playing Magazine: "Galactica Producer Talks Season Three"

I like the concept of more Cylon story time :)

Battlestar Spin-off Announced

Battlestar Spin-off Goes Frak in Time

Sci Fi Channel has announced its plans for Caprica, a Battlestar Galactica spin-off set 50 years prior to its original series. Battlestar's Ronald D. Moore and David Eick will executive-produce the new venture, and Remi Aubuchon (24) is penning the script, Variety reports. Sci Fi is also developing Chariots of the Gods, a miniseries based on Erich von Daniken's best-seller, and Destination Truth, a reality series investigating otherworldly mysteriesTV Guide Community: Entertainment News

Free Up FireFox Memory

Not sure if this will help others or not, but I saw a cool post on Life Hacker about how to Reduce Ram use in FireFox

In a Nutshell:

1. Open Firefox and go to the Address Bar. Type in about:config and then press Enter.


2. Right Click in the page and select New -> Boolean.


3. In the box that pops up enter config.trim_on_minimize. Press Enter.


4. Now select True and then press Enter.


5. Restart Firefox.

I think LH has a link to a utility that you can use to do all that for you, but come on... its just a few keystrokes.

I was able to drop from 50 Meg of Memory in use with a few tabs running java applets down to 2 meg and the applets didn't seem to mind.

I have seen complaints that this stops FF from performing other tasks, so YMMV.

-jrj