SFSurplus-2008-08-19 #065 [42:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Thank you for listening to our audiocast. This is show number 65 on the feed August 19th 2005.

Welcome. In the Council of Great Relevance, we’re going to run down the State of the Star Wars franchise and discuss where it’s going. Also, Today is the day we talk about J.C. Hutchins’ 7th Son: Descent. We’ve been telling you to get ready and we will talk plot and have spoilers later in the show. In the news: The Watchmen Lawsuit, Classic Who on iTunes, Good news for Stephanie Meyer fans, plus, we’ll tell you who’s tops at the box office. We’re all excited here aboard Surplus One with less than one week until the release of Mur Lafferty’s Playing For Keeps. In case you’ve been caught in a time vortex, or haven’t had your morning Frackbert’s yet, Mur’s superhero novel comes out on August 25th and we’re encouraging everyone to go to Amazon that day to purchase it.

SciFi Surplus is presented by GoToMeeting. For a free trial, visit GoToMeeting.com/techpodcasts.

I’m Casey and joining me on the show today is

Producer Randy

Sugar Mama BriAnna

Now that the introductions are out of the way, Let’s get our geek on!

A Federal Judge is refusing to dismiss a lawsuit against the makers of the highly anticipated Watchmen movie. 20th Century Fox contends that they own the rights to make any film that involves the comic writen by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. The suit was filed against Warner Brothers in February and contends that they have had Watchmen rights since 1994. Warner Brothers isn’t worried though saying that this was just a procedural hearing. Watchmen is scheduled for a March 6, 2009 release date.

Classic Doctor Who stories are now available on iTunes. The BBC is allowing 14 tales, each made up of multiple episodes, to be sold digitally. Many of the episodes from the 60s, 70s, and 80s are not available on DVD. Some of the stories available are Planet of the Spiders, The Ark in Space, the Time Monster, and The Three Doctors.

There is a shuffle taking place for the “Holiday 2008″ theatrical release dates. Now that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has vacated its position for a summer 2009 slot, several films are looking to fill the void. “Twighlight,” the film based on Stephanie Meyer’s teen vampire romance will be moved up 3 weeks and open on November 21st. This could be a huge opportunity for Twilight to be exposed to the masses who are feeling the void that Harry Potter has left behind.

The Dark Knight dropped to second place at the box-office after staying at number one 4 weeks in a row. It’s total take so far is 471.5 million dollars. The comedy Tropic Thunder took the number one spot with The Clone Wars debuting in 3rd. Titanic took in over $600 Million, so we should start a drive to boost Dark Knight. Instead of “Can’t Stop the Serenity” it should be called “Please Sink the Titanic!”

The Council of Great Relevance

Over the past weekend, the latest film from the Star Wars franchise hit theaters in the U.S. The Clone Wars brought in an estimated $15.5 Million in it’s opening weekend. With this latest movie, this got us wondering where the Star Wars franchise is going and what projects are on the way.

First on the list is the current project, The Clone Wars movie which leads into the animated television series that is coming out soon. Another production that Star Wars fans are excited about is the planned live-action Star Wars Television series.

There have been a host of Star Wars video games as of late and most of them are original titles not based on the movies themselves. Some upcoming titles are Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Star Wars: The Old Republic (MMO), and appearances by Yoda and Darth Vader in Soul Caliber IV.

As fans of Sci-Fi Surplus know, the crew of Surplus One are fans of all kinds of new media. There are many non-canon and biographical works related to the Star Wars Universe. Ernie Cline’s Fanboys is coming out in theatres on September 19th. There is also a documentary on the 501st Legion called Heart of an Empire, and we also discuss TD-0013’s podcast A Different Point of View.

The Sloppy Third Part

We talk about J.C. Hutchins’ 7th Son: Descent, the first books in his action-packed clone trilogy, and we get ready for next month’s podiobook Quarter Share by Nathan Lowell

There a new project called Gemini Division. BriAnna fills us in on the story and actors. This web-only series can be found at geminidivision.com

Thanks to Bob our writer. Thanks again to our producer Randy and to our Sugar Mama, BriAnna. Please take time to visit SciFiSurplus.com for the show notes. For everyone here, I’m Casey and we’ll talk to you next time!