They’ve produced two promotion videos for the competition, which you can see below. Quite clever, really.

Basically, the contest allows one person to experience the life of billionaire Tony Stark. The winner and a guest will be flown to LA first class and greeted by their own chauffer driven Audi. They will stay in 5 star accommodations for 3 nights at the famous Beverly Hills Hotel. The winner and their guest will be given a private VIP helicopter tour around all of LA’s most prestigious land marks followed by dinner at one of LA’s best restaurants. Finally they will spend a day relaxing at a spa and be whisked off to Rodeo Drive on a $1,000 shopping spree.

Honestly, what can you lose?

If you want to enter, you can do so either through MTV or VH1.

Also, we’re going to be giving away an IRON MAN t-shirt and poster to celebrate the movie’s successful launch.

Coming into the fourth and final season of Battlestar Galactica, I had high hopes.  The sublime season finale, and standard of the season which preceded it offered a great deal of excitement and promise for the final year.  However, five weeks in, and I can’t help but feel a little disappointed.

If this were any year other than the closing season, the negative aspects of the last few weeks could probably be over-looked.  After all, it’s not that the show is bad; far from it.  Galactica remains, behind ‘Dexter’, one of my favourite shows on television.  The acting is still top-notch, as is the style of production and the intensity of performance on the screen.  So where’s it gone wrong?

The writing.  Once again, it’s not that the writing is particularly bad, the plots just don’t seem to be moving fast enough.  This is the final season, surely we should be having some development?  For the moment, we’re forced to watch Starbuck floating around space in the Demetrius with her crew looking worried; Baltar talking pseudo-religious clap-trap with a group of attractive young women, and Chief Tyrol deliver Rambo-esque glaring and cut his hair post- Cally murder.  And it’s been this way for a couple of weeks.  What’s happened in the time since Cally’s death… um… Leoban showed up, and made Starbuck even more crazy-looking.  Wow.  Even one of the greatest aspects of the new season, the Cylon council meetings on the baseship (and particularly the performances from Dean Stockwell), didn’t even make an appearance last week. 

I know I’ll probably get crucified for negativity towards the Holy Grail of Science Fiction, and perhaps I am being harsh; I felt particularly disappointed with last weeks episode, ‘The Road Less Travelled’.  I don’t intend to turn people against the show (as if my journalism carries that much influence).  I’m simply expressing frustration, and trying to make it sound justified. 

I’m sure I’m not alone in believing that this final season has the potential to be one of the finest pieces of television ever written, and indeed some of the writing so far has been superb.  Of note, some of the Tigh/Helen/Six interactions in 4.04 ‘Escape Velocity’ were particularly enjoyable, and any scene with Adama and Roslin  usually ends up being magnificent.  On the whole, however, I just can’t help but feel that the show is trotting instead of sprinting towards the finish line; wasting time and valuable character opportunities along the way.  Surely characters like Anders and Gaeta deserve more coming in to the final episodes than to be exchanging concerned glances for forty-five minutes each week.

I will continue to watch, and I will no doubt continue to enjoy the episodes for the most part.  However, I sincerely hope that soon the show will pick up the pace, and deliver the stunning conclusion of which I know Ronald D. Moore and his gifted team of writers are capable.

Let us hope the words of the Cylon Hybrid are not true in this case, that “all of this has happened before, and will happen again“.  So many sci-fi shows go out with a whimper, and I’m hoping Battlestar is not one of them. 

The latest installment of the best-selling DOOM franchise comes on the heels of DOOM 3, considered by many to be somewhat of a disappointment. Many praised the stunning visuals and early portions of the game, but felt later segments became repetitive and mindless; simply not fun.

Regardless, the franchise is one of the most recognizable and important in gaming history, having been named “one of the ten most influential games of the decade” by PC Gamer and “the #1 game of all time” by GameSpy.

id Software is also hiring for development of the title, so if you happen to fulfil requirements listed on their website, why not give it a shot?

“DOOM is part of the id Software DNA and demands the greatest talent and brightest minds in the industry to bring the next installment of our flagship franchise to Earth,” said Todd Hollenshead, CEO, id Software. “It’s critical for id Software to have the best creative minds in-house to develop games that meet the standards synonymous with our titles.”

General Updates: We’ve had a lot of new content posted lately, coupled with a few minor design updates. Hopefully these design updates will help refine use of the site, making it more useful for you, our readers. The new content is something we hope to continue to add with increasing regularity.

Competition Updates: Our winners for Stargate Ark of Truth and Sands of Oblivion should now have been notified of their success, so please check your e-mail and respond as soon as possible.

Staff Update: If you’re interested in sci-fi, and have a talent for writing, please e-mail us about joining our writing staff. You’ll be accepted by a friendly bunch of people, and have the chance to get your writing published here on Sci-Fi Heaven.

According to reports, he will portray the character of Joseph Adama, the father of William Adama (played by Edward James Olmos in Battlestar Galactica).

A description of Joseph Adama has surfaced, with details of him being a “deeply passionate man with a strong sense of justice” as well as being “someone you wouldn’t want as your enemy”.

Morales had previously joined the cast of Jericho for the Second Season, playing Army Major Beck, placed in control of the Jericho town in the aftermath of a civil war with neighbouring town of New Bern. For more on the Jericho cancellation, please see our article.

This Saturday, Raindance are welcoming veteran cameraman Kelvin Pike BSC to the Kodak Masterclass at BAFTA. His work includes 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, THE SHINING, STAR WARS: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, DR. STRANGELOVE and HEAVEN’S GATE.

Kelvin will speak about his filmmaking career and show examples of his work giving an exclusive behind the scenes look at what it was like working on some of the most iconic films of the 20th Century.

And yes don’t worry, we’ve made sure to save some time for all your questions about Kubrick and Lucas.

When? Saturday, May 10th from 2-4pm
Where? BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly London W1J 9LN
Price? £10

To book a place ring 020 7287 3833 or go to www.raindance.co.uk and look under ‘upcoming events’. Be quick - space is very limited so tickets are in short supply!

Many of you have no doubt seen the very successful Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager on YouTube. If not, here you go:

What you may not know about, is where the movie came from. It was the winner of the ‘George Lucas Selects Award ‘07′, part of the Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge.

The challenge is back this year, open to anyone, and also revamped.

Here’s what we’ve been informed:

AtomFilms has teamed up again with Lucasarts for the annual fan film challenge. Star Wars fans should submit their fan movie, parody or official Star Wars mashup by the MAY 27 deadline for a shot at intergalactic infamy! Not only will the winners be announced at the San Diego Comic Con in July – including one winning film hand-selected by George Lucas himself – but top clips will earn air time on Spike TV! Plus, this is the first year that fans can enter mashups in the contest — the simple mashup tool at http://starwars.com lets fans use real Star Wars footage to create their entries, so now you don’t need a camera to make a film!

We think Sci-Fi Heaven readers will be interested in checking out the new site so they can get cracking on their fan films. The deadline for entry is MAY 27, and voting will run on AtomFilms.com from JUNE 26 until JULY 10. Please encourage your fans to check out the site and get those cameras rolling! And if they’re looking for inspiration, they can find this year’s finalists at http://www.atomfilms.com/films/star_wars_fan_films.jsp as well as previous winners.

There you go! It couldn’t be more simple. Official rules and guidelines can be found at the comphrensive guide site.

Enjoy!

If you’re slightly confused about whats’ going on with Clone Wars, don’t be. You’re not alone.

In an effort to help explain, this poster is for the upcoming theatrical movie.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars is an upcoming CGI animated film set to be released on August 15, 2008 in theaters in the US. It’s basically a film introduction to the upcoming CGI television series, confusingly of the same name.

As for the TV series, it’s also called Star Wars: The Clone Wars. It’s an CGI cartoon series created by Lucasfilm Animation and Lucasfilm Animation Singapore and set to debut on Cartoon Network in late 2008, and according to George Lucas, there will be “at least 100 episodes”. It is set in the fictional Star Wars galaxy, during the same time period as the 2003 Star Wars: Clone Wars series. Hang on - the what?

Star Wars: Clone Wars (notice the lack of ‘the’, that clears everything up!) was ANOTHER CGI cartoon series set in the Star Wars galaxy. It was produced by Cartoon Network, aired in 25 chapters from 2003 to 2005, and is no longer in production.

All good.

So, to summarise, there was a CGI cartoon series called Star Wars: Clone Wars. It ended. Now, a new movie being launched called Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and it’s going to lead into a new CGI cartoon called… Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Someone shoot Lucas’ naming department.

Not only this, but apparently warehouse supplies have been sold. Where does one turn in such a situation?

You guessed it. eBay.

Figures, with a retail price of $9.99 have been seen selling on the auction site at $55 each.

Heath Ledger, star of Brokeback Mountain and the upcoming Batman movie, The Dark Knight, was found dead on January 22 this year from an accidental prescription drug overdose at age 28.

Gateworld was the first to post details of the cover, and ran with the following image.

Shortly afterwards, TVShowsonDVD.com found another piece of cover art, apparently also official.

Can’t help but prefer the first one guys, just looks more professional and finished. Time will tell which eventually will be used.

Also, if you’re interested, about a fortnight ago there was yet another small preview of the covert artwork released, again completely different, for the DVD.