Paramount Orders More TREKKIES
Paramount has given a greenlight to TREKKIES 2, a follow up to the 1997 documentary. The original documentary's principals - director Roger Nygard, host/executive producer Denise Crosby and producer Mike Leahy - will return. The sequel will venture abroad to visit STAR TREK fans, as well as looking back at some of those fans that appeared in the original documentary. Two of the featured fan boys will be Spock of Germany and a man who turned his London flat into the bridge of the Enterprise.
Alanis all jazzed for new role
First she was a singer who acted, now she's an actress who sings.
Alanis Morissette is returning to the big screen, this time playing an actress in a movie based on the life of Broadway legend Cole Porter.
Just One of Those Things is shooting in London, England and is due out sometime late this year. It stars Kevin Kline as Porter and Ashley Judd as his wife and, building on the success of last year's Chicago, will present the composer's life as a Broadway musical.
According to an e-online report, Morissette will sing Porter's Let's Do It, Let's Fall In Love. Canadian jazz diva Diana Krall and her fiance Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow and Britpop singer Robbie Williams are all slated to perform songs in the film, which was written by Jay Cocks (Goodfellas) and directed by Irwin Winkler (Life as a House).
Morissette played God in Kevin Smith's Dogma and turned in a memorable guest appearance on Season 3 of Sex and the City. She told the Sun in a pre-Juno Awards interview she wanted to do more such roles and would be heading to London this summer to film her part with Kline.
"I'm playing an actress that he casts," she explained.
According to Morissette's website, alanis.com, she has planned a two-week European tour which will take her to sites in Austria, Germany and Italy in July.
In September she will head to Brazil.
Morissette has also started to work in earnest on a followup to her third album, Under Rug Swept. Her website features several photos, taken last month, of her working in-studio. Included in the online scrapbook are shots of Morissette snuggling with her Vancouver-born actor boyfriend of 18 months, Ryan Reynolds.
Reynolds, who accompanied Morissette back home this spring for a weekend of Juno Awards-related activities, has been getting a lot attention on his own lately.
The 26-year-old is in theatres now, starring with Michael Douglas in The In-Laws, and has wrapped production on a hi-tech thriller named Foolproof.
And Elle Canada magazine just named the star, who broke out with roles in National Lampoon's Van Wilder and ABC's Two Guys and a Girl, one of their Top 10 Canadian "Boys of Summer" in the June issue.
"We met a few years ago when Alanis came to a taping of my TV show," Rey-nolds told the magazine. "I love her more than anything on this great, green, spinning shit wheel!"
THE HULK Origin Changes
Marvel Studios head Avi Arad talks about why they're changing the origin in the upcoming THE HULK.
Marvel Studios honcho Avi Arad, executive producer of the upcoming comic-book adaptation Hulk, told SCI FI Wire that the film changes the character's origin story to bring it closer to reality. "We just take the science fiction and bring it closer to science," Arad said in an interview while promoting the film. "It's very much in the origin that Bruce Banner actually had contamination, so something triggered this. And what we wanted to do is take it to the next level of intelligence. It's not that he got his toe in the door and, 'Oh my God. I'm the Hulk.'"
Arad, who has overseen such page-to-screen projects as Spider-Man, X-Men and Daredevil, said that there have been several origin stories and incarnations of the Hulk during the comic series' long run. "There are many origins," he said. "When you publish for 40 years, there are a lot of stories. There's a gray Hulk, there's a green Hulk, there's a speaking Hulk, there's a singing Hulk." According to Arad, any one of these incarnations may appear in a potential Hulk sequel, which is currently being developed by screenwriter James Schamus.
The Hulk opens June 20.
FISHY STUFF
Wes Anderson reuniting with Royal Tenenbaums cast members, including Bill Murray, Angelica Huston and Owen Wilson, for his next feature The Life Aquatic about an oceanographer and his crew and their misadventures in deep-sea exploration, reports the Hollywood Reporter.
BASIC INSTINCT
Sharon Stone being eyed to play Hillary Clinton in an upcoming A&E TV movie, the Associated Press reports. The project, titled Hillary's Choice, is slated to air in 2004.
Wynette's "Man" Stands Up
Country music stands behind "Stand by Your Man."
The Hillary Clinton-mocked, Tammy Wynette-crooned ballad has been hailed as the all-time greatest cowpoke song in a survey conducted by Country Music Television.
In all, CMT polled singers, songwriters and other members of the Country Music Association to compile a list worthy of the American Film Institute, ranking the top 100 cheatin', cryin', Chevy-drivin' classics.
The big ol' picks were revealed Wednesday night during a concert at Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville featuring performances of the top 12 selections.
The special, hosted by LeAnn Rimes and Brad Paisley, is scheduled to air Sunday as part of a six-hour programming block, starting at 4 p.m. (ET/PT), dedicated to the hee-haw hundred.
Rounding out the ditty dozen: George Jones' don't-miss-the-last-verse "He Stopped Loving Her Today"; Patsy Cline's "Crazy" (written, and also performed, by Willie Nelson); Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire"; Hank Williams Sr.'s "Your Cheatin' Heart"; Garth Brooks' "Friends in Low Places"; Cline's "I Fall to Pieces"; Glen Campbell's "Galveston"; Charlie Rich's "Behind Closed Doors"; Waylon Jennings' and Willie Nelson's self-explanatory "Mommas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys"; Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky"; and George Strait's "Amarillo by Morning."
Of that group, only Jones and Campbell were on hand Wednesday to warble their hits.
No word on where the likes of Brooks and Strait were. Nelson, 70 and still strumming strong, likely was prepping to go "On the Road Again," another of his signature songs, albeit one strangely missing from the top 100.
Others needed no excuses to explain their absences. Cash is mourning the recent death of wife June Carter Cash, a country legend in her own right who cowrote "Ring of Fire." Wynette, Jones' former wife, died in 1998; Williams Sr. drank himself to death in 1953; Rich passed in 1995; Jennings, in 2002; bluegrass great Monroe, in 1996. Cline was killed in a plane crash in 1963.
Rimes, whose 1996 chart debut, "Blue," evoked Patsy Cline, did Patsy Cline on Wednesday, crooning "I Fall to Pieces." Other performers included American Idol's Kimberly Locke, who went "Crazy"; and Ray Charles, who unlocked "Behind Closed Doors."
Charles, typically associated with the blues, soul and gospel genres, made the CMT list on his own with "I Can't Stop Loving You" (49th place).
Another crossover act to make the cut: the Eagles, who charted with "Desperado" (46th).
Shania Twain's country-pop blend didn't go down as well with voters as record buyers. The best-selling diva placed but one song, "You're Still the One" (77th).
Overall, new acts took a back seat to the hitmakers of the 1960s and 1970s. The Dixie Chicks ("Wide Open Spaces," 22nd), Faith Hill ("Breathe," 38th) and Tim McGraw ("Please Remember Me," 84th) received just one nod each. Hill and McGraw, however, did rate as a team for their duet, "It's Your Love," ranked 67th.
Even a fictional act made the cut. The Soggy Bottom Boys, the bluegrass group fronted by George Clooney in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, landed at number 20 with "Man of Constant Sorrow."
Veterans such as Cash charted five times, Nelson four times (if you count "Crazy") and Cline three times. Wynette rated a second selection for her "Stand by Your Man" follow-up, "D-I-V-O-R-C-E."
Topics for potential arguments: Alan Jackson's September 11-inspired tune, "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)" making the list (28th) and Toby Keith's September 11-inspired "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)" not. Or, Jeannie C. Riley's "Harper Valley PTA" (34th place) and Johnny PayCheck's "Take This Job and Shove It" (93rd) rating mentions, and Billy Ray Cyrus' "Achy Breaky Heart" not.
And what of the Oak Ridge Boys' "Elvira"?
Oom poppa oom poppa--no.
Publisher Revs Up Promotion for Potter
NEW YORK - Think you've seen a lot of hype about "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"? Just wait until the book comes out.
Billboards. Baseball parks. A countdown in Times Square. Scholastic, Inc., the U.S. publisher of J.K. Rowling's mega-selling children's series, has planned a $3 million-$4 million marketing campaign, more than doubling its budget for the release of the last Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," in 2000.
"I can't think of anything that compares to the budget for the new Harry Potter book, except for the budget for the last Potter story," says Laurie Brown, a vice president for sales at Harcourt Trade Publishers who over the past 20 years has also worked for Random House and Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
Timed to the midnight June 21 release of "Order of the Phoenix," the show gets rolling on what could be called "Harry Potter Eve," Friday night June 20, with a countdown in Times Square. A billboard on Sunset Strip will announce the news in Los Angeles.
"You can never take anything for granted," says Michael Jacobs, a senior vice president at Scholastic. "There's a lot of noise in the world and you have to do everything you can to get attention, especially after a three-year wait."
Starting in July, billboard ads will appear in Atlanta, Chicago and several other cities. Scholastic will also take its campaign to baseball parks. The publisher has reached agreements with the Seattle Mariners, Baltimore Orioles and other teams for "Harry Potter" days, featuring costume contests and scoreboard promotions.
"Reaching out to kids is very important to us because they're our future season ticket holders and our future fans," says Marco Gentile, the Orioles' corporate promotions manager.
The publisher already has distributed 3 million bumper stickers, 400,000 buttons, 50,000 window displays and 24,000 stand-up posters with countdown clocks. Last weekend, logos could be found on badges throughout the Los Angeles Convention Center, where BookExpo America, the publishing industry's annual gathering, was held.
Scholastic has also sent more than 15,000 "event kits" to bookstores and other retail outlets, where parties are planned all over the country. The kits include stickers, buttons, a trivia quiz and suggestions for how to handle long lines of impatient fans:
"You can start a game of what Muggles call `Telephone.' Start the message with Dumbledore's line from `Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix': 'It is time for me to tell you what I should have told you five years ago, Harry.' Then people whisper the message from person to person. Let the person at the end of the line shout out what he thinks he heard."
Rowling's four previous Potter novels have worldwide sales of more than 190 million and Scholastic has commissioned a record 8.5 million first printing for "Order of the Phoenix." Within hours of the announcement in January that "Order of the Phoenix" was coming out, the book topped best seller lists at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com and has remained steady for months.
Hospitalized Vandross Releases New Album
NEW YORK - The album Luther Vandross considers the best of his career hits stores Tuesday — with no videos, television interviews or concerts to trumpet its arrival. With the 52-year-old singer yet to regain full consciousness after an April 16 stroke, there is virtually none of the normal promotional hoopla surrounding the release of "Dance With My Father."
Which raises an uncomfortable question — how do you promote the work of an incapacitated artist?
Record companies don't have such problems when the artist is dead. Last year, an Aaliyah disc released after her plane crashed sold more than a million copies. Selena's English-language debut, released after she was slain by her former fan club president, debuted at No. 1. And the estate of Tupac Shakur puts out albums so often, some doubt that he's really dead.
But it is rare — perhaps unprecedented — for an album to be released when an artist is still alive, yet very ill.
"It is safe to say that it is an unusual circumstance," said Billboard's Geoff Mayfield, who couldn't recall another such situation.
Vandross' label, J Records, has no plans to make videos without Vandross.
"We're just in effect releasing the music; the rest will take care of itself," said label founder Clive Davis, a legendary music mogul. "I think the music will tell its own story."
Davis could have delayed the disc's release, but he said that was never an option.
"I think (Vandross) was very much at a creative peak. He felt that it was the best album he had ever recorded," he said. "Everyone knows that he wanted his music to be out."
But which music? Also on Tuesday, Vandross' former label is releasing "The Essential Luther Vandross," featuring classic hits like "Here and Now" and "A House Is Not a Home."
The label denied that the project was rushed out after the stroke. Rather, greatest hits packages are usually timed to coincide with an artist's new project, said Tom Cording, a spokesman for Legacy Records, a division of Sony Music.
"Dance With My Father," is the R&B crooner's first disc since he released his self-titled comeback disc in 2001. That album, which sold over one million copies, re-established Vandross as a platinum-selling artist. Except for his 1998 disc, "I Know," all of Vandross' albums over his 20-year-plus career have sold at least one million copies.
Some of "Dance With My Father" marks a departure for Vandross, whose elegant, seductive ballads cater to an older audience. Rappers Busta Rhymes and Foxy Brown appear on the new disc, as does Beyonce Knowles.
Davis, who engineered Carlos Santana's Grammy-winning comeback "Supernatural" by pairing the veteran guitarist with younger artists, says there was no such agenda for "Dance With My Father" other than Vandross' plan to make the album "contemporary."
"He really had worked on his own on the album, and indeed had arranged for all the duets on his own," said Davis. "He was the one that reached out for each of the duet partners."
But it's the title track, Vandross' emotional tribute to father who died when Vandross was 7 years old, which has garnered the initial attention.
Jim Ryan, a program director at WLTW in New York City, first became aware of the song when Vandross wrote him a letter earlier this year.
Ryan said it read, in part: "I have written what I consider to be my career song. It's called 'Dance with my Father. I'm feeling great about it.'"
After Vandross' stroke, Ryan got permission from the record company to start playing the song. Fan reaction was immediate and strong — Ryan recalled some fans calling up in tears to request it, moved by it's touching nature.
"It's one of our five most-played songs," said Ryan. "I think it's really struck a chord with our listeners."
The song is rising up Billboard's R&B chart, although Mayfield said it doesn't appear to have garnered a boost from the publicity surrounding Vandross' illness.
"It had a decent debut and it's had steady growth since then," said Mayfield. "It did what you would expect."
But Mayfield said there may be a strong commercial response once the album arrives in stores.
"The consumer is different than the radio programmer," he said. "The consumer might very well have an emotional response to the fact that it might be his last album."
Vandross has been hospitalized at Weill-Cornell Medical Center since his stroke. He contracted pneumonia and needed a tracheotomy to help him breathe. It remains unclear whether he has suffered any long-term paralysis or nerve damage.
However, Vandross recognizes family and friends, has recently begun mouthing words, and has started mild physical therapy, according to family and friends.
"Luther is going to be just fine," his mother, Mary Vandross, said this week. "This is God's way of saying, 'You're tired.'"
Adam Sandler Weighed as Cruise Co-Star
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Adam Sandler, who stepped out of his usual comedic mold to star in Paul Thomas Anderson's "Punch-Drunk Love" last year, appears to be eyeing another left turn in his choice of characters.
On Wednesday night, Sandler was scheduled to meet with filmmaker Michael Mann to discuss the possibility of starring opposite Tom Cruise in the director's "Collateral" for DreamWorks.
If he joins the project, Sandler would play Max, the meek cab driver who picks up a passenger (Cruise) who takes him hostage.
Studdard, Aiken Singles to Go Head-To-Head
NEW YORK (Billboard) - Consumers will vote with their dollars next week when "American Idol" winner Ruben Studdard's debut single is released on the same day as that of runner-up Clay Aiken.
Both singles are due out next Tuesday (June 10), less than three weeks after the finale of the Fox reality show/talent contest's second season.
Studdard's J Records single will feature his version of Westlife's "Flying Without Wings" and his cover of the Carpenters' "Superstar."
RCA will issue Aiken's rendition of Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and the original song "This Is the Night," written by Aldo Nova, Gary Burr, and Chris Braide. The singers performed each of the songs during the "Idol" contest.
Both artists are expected to release their debut albums in September. RCA Music Group chairman and J Records founder Clive Davis will executive produce both.
Studdard will return home to Birmingham, Ala., on Sunday to make a video for "Flying Without Wings." The Eric White-directed clip may be shot in the city's Linn Park, with local fans invited to take part in the "welcome home" celebration. At deadline the site had not yet been confirmed, according to a label representative.
Studdard and Aiken will be seen promoting their singles Tuesday on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." The "American Idol" -themed episode of the syndicated show will also feature first season runner-up Justin Guarini, whose self-titled RCA album will be released that day.
A third "American Idol" season is planned. A banner on the show's Web site says only that it will return in 2004, but gives no exact dates for the competition or audition information.