List of Saturn Award Winners: Avatar Rules!

The 36th Saturn Awards (which honor movies and TV shows in the Sci-Fi and Fantasy genre primarily) were handed over last night.

It was Avatar who basically dominated the awards with ten wins, including Best Picture, Best Writer and Best Director (James Cameron), Best Actor (Sam Worthington), Best Actress (Zoe Saldana), Best supporting Actor (Stephen Lang) and Best Supporting Actress (Sigourney Weaver) - take that Oscars!

Star Trek was recompensed for Best-Makeup and writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman received the George Pal Memorial Ward.

On the TV side of Sci-Fi, Lost and Fringe were winners with a win for Best Television series for Lost and best actor for Josh Holloway. Fringe's Anna Torv picked up the award for Best Actress, and Leonard Nimoy received the award for Best Guest Actor for his role on Fringe!

Of the British BBC shows only Torchwood: Children of Earth received an award for Best Presentation on Television (whatever that means).

However, I still can't understand why Dexter and Breaking Bad were even included in the competition in the first place since neither shows are Sci-Fi. Oh well - seems the definition of Sci-Fi and Fantasy is a little loose with the Saturn Awards! Oh well.

Without further ado here is the full list of winners:

Best Science Fiction Film: Avatar
Best Fantasy Film: Watchmen
Best Horror Film: Drag Me To Hell
Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film: Inglourious Basterds
Best Actor: Sam Worthington (Avatar)
Best Actress: Zoe Saldana (Avatar)
Best Supporting Actor: Stephen Lang (Avatar)
Best Supporting Actress: Sigourney Weaver (Avatar)
Best Performance by a Younger Actor: Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones)
Best Director: James Cameron (Avatar)
Best Writer: James Cameron (Avatar)
Best Music: James Horner (Avatar)
Best Costume: Michael Wilkinson (Watchmen)
Best Make-Up: Barney Burman, Mindy Hall, Joel Harlow (Star Trek)
Best Production Design: Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg (Avatar)
Best Special Effects: Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, Andrew R. Jones (Avatar)
Best International Film: District 9
Best Animation Film: Monsters vs. Aliens

Best Television Series: Lost
Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series: Breaking Bad
Best Presentation on Television: Torchwood: Children of Earth
Best Actor on Television: Josh Holloway (Lost)
Best Actress on Television: Anna Torv (Fringe)
Best Supporting Actor on Television: Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad)
Best Supporting Actress on Televison: Julie Benz (Dexter)
Guest Starring Role on Television: Leonard Nimoy (Fringe)

Best DVD Release: Nothing But the Truth
Best DVD Television Release: Lost (The Complete Fifth Season)Best DVD Special Edition: Watchman: The Ultimate CutBest DVD Collection: Star Trek Original Motion Picture Collection

Best Local Stage Production: Fantasy/Musical: Mary Poppins (Ahmanson Theatre)
Best Local Stage Production: Play/Dramatic Musical: Parade (Mark Taper Forum)
Best Local Stage Production: Small Theatre: Fellowship: The Musical (Falcon Theatre)

The Visionary Award: James Cameron
The George Pal Memorial Award: Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman
The Producers Showcase Award: Lauren Shuler Donner
The Life Career Award: Irvin Kershner

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Sam Rockwell cast in ''Cowboys and Aliens''

Sam Rockwell has been cast in Dreamworks' Cowboys and Aliens, a sci-fi movie based on a graphic novel by Platinum Studios about cowboys and Indians uniting together to resist an alien invasion.

I wanted to share this bit of casting news because I love Sam Rockwell, and I particularly loved him in Moon (you must see that movie if you haven't yet because it's simply quite awesome) and Galaxy Quest. I'm also looking forward to seeing him in Iron Man 2 in the role of Justin Hammer.

Cowboys and Aliens will reunite Rockwell with his Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau. It's penned by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzamn, and Damon Lindelof. Steven Spielberg, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Scott Michael Rosenberg will produce.

Rockwell will play a bar owner named Doc who joins in the pursuit of the aliens. Once Favreau and the writers -- Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Damon Lindelof -- learned that Rockwell was interested in the movie, they reconceived and expanded the role, which initially called for a heavy-set man. [Heat Vision Blog]

Rockwell is joining an already impressive cast made up of Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, and Daniel Craig. It is set to start shooting in June, with a release date of july 29 2011.

Hugo Awards: Star Trek and Doctor Who Get Nominations

The Hugo Awards are awards for excellence in the field of science fiction and fantasy. They were first awarded in 1953, and have been awarded every year since 1955. [AussieCon4]

These awards are set to be presented in Melbourne, Australia, at Aussicon 4 - the 68th World Science Fiction Convention - on September 5, 2010.


Star Trek (written by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman - directed by J.J. Abrams) is nominated for Best Dramatic Presentation - Long Form, along with Avatar, District 9, Moon and Up.

This is another chance for these great Sci-Fi movies of 2009 to compete against one another.


Doctor Who has 3 nominations in the Best Dramatic Presentation - Short Form category with The Next Doctor (written by Russell T. Davies - Directed by Andy Goddard); Planet of the Dead (Written by Russell T. Davies & Gareth Roberts - Directed by James Strong); and the scary The Waters of Mars (written by Russell T. Davies & Phil Ford - Directed by Graeme Harper).

The venerable British Sci-Fi show is nominated alongside a Dollhouse episode (Epitaph One) and Flash Forward (No More Good Days).

The winners will be announced on September 5 2010. The members have until July 31 to submit their ballots.

Go here for all the categories and nominees.

Good luck to all.

Orci and Kurtzman Q&A on Star Trek and its Sequel

Trek Movie has posted excerpts from a Q & A with Star Trek writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman given at the WGA theater in Beverly Hills on Wednesday night. It's part of of a series of screenings for WGA nominees.

My favourite bit concerns their explanation of the Spock/Uhura kiss and romance

Orci: Well you know Oedipally you marry your mother [laughs], and his mother was human. Part of our take was that we were going to harmonize with canon. So in the original series, the first interracial kiss was between William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols, and we thought in this, what is the harmony of that? And the harmony is the first inter-species kiss. It is Uhura and Spock. Well, number one he is younger and not as in control of his emotions. And number two, he has just lost his mother, who he has apologized to for saying "I hope you don’t feel I am rejecting all that it human by perusing Kolinahr," the Vulcan purging of all emotions. So in losing her, showing his emotions to Uhura is a way of keeping her.

On the sequel Orci said:

We would never do a remake….it will be some time in the five year mission. But that is a question. Should we pick them up immediately the next day or should it be later, we are still discussing that.

Please go here to read the very interesting report.

Star Trek Script Start Date

After practically getting no news from JJ Abrams himself, co-writer Damon Lindeloff at least gave us something to hang on to.

According to Lindeloff he, Abrams, and co-writers Roberto Orci and Alex Krutzman should start writing the script to the Star Trek Sequel in April, when they have finished writing the Lost scripts.

This is at least some good news.

Source

Writers Orci and Kurtzman on the Star Trek Sequel

Star Trek writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman also sat for a lenghty Q&A at the same Paramount event wich revealed their plans to reboot Hawaii Five-0, Fringe and more importantly the Star Trek Sequel.

Here are some of the highlights from the session

In the Q&A, we learn that Nurse Christine Chapel was originally planned to appear in the first movie in the early drafts of the script.

Also, when asked if there was ''anything from Enterprise or Next Generation or Deep Space or elements, like the Borg, Cardassians, Bajorans, anything on the top of your list that you might want to throw in to the next movie?'' Roberto Orci answered:

I think we’d think about it, just because we do love The Next Generation…I think our instinct would be to first look at The Original Series, before we considered that. But, all that is on the table.

About the possibility that the next Star Trek would be more allegorical and more in tune with modern issues as well as how they would do that and yet keep the positive future envisioned by Gene Roddenberry, Orci answered:

The torture thing was just a for instance. Someone asked, “Modern day issues like torture?,” and we said, “Yeah, sure, modern day issues,” but, we’re not doing a story about Gitmo as I read on some site that it was going to be about Guantanamo Bay. But, now that we’ve established the characters, we can have a more philosophical allegory, where what’s happening in the future represents our world, like the best versions of it in the ’60’s did, representing women’s rights, racial equality, progressive issues.

Both writers also admitted they were still at the brainstorming stage and that they had not yet figured out a story. And again, the Khan question popped up for the millionth time and Kurtzman responded by saying:

Where we’re starting is, “Okay, where are our characters now? What are interesting complications that we can put in their lives? What feels like an organic emotional place for us to get to? How do we want to test them?” And then, you look at everything and start asking, “Who would be the best foe?”

Go here for the rest of the Q&A where they talk Fringe, Cowboys and Aliens and much, much more.

Star Trek Writer Roberto Orci Likes the Borg

At this moment. Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are hard at work penning the sequel to Star Trek.

There are a few things that recently came out from a chat on the Don Murphy Message Board and Trek Web reports that Orci and Kurtzman wont let Scotty become a joke on the next movie and that Roberto Orci is a great fan of the Borg!

This is exciting news but in no way guarantee the Borgs will be the next villains in the follow up movie, something I would love to see myself.

Source