Heinlein News Archives

Starship Troopers -- The Animated Series

     Sony is developing a computer graphics animated TV series based on the universe created by Heinlein in his novel, Starship Troopers. Consisting of forty episodes, the series is due to start sometime around fall, 1999, and will tell the story of the Bug War, from the first ambushes to the final battle. It promises to be more faithful to the book than the Verhoeven's movie was, including even the famous powered armor and the side war with the Skinnies. One may hope that it is also more faithful to the ideas and ideals expressed by Heinlein in his story. --Carlos Angelo
(February 19th, 1999)

Revolt in 2100 and Methuselah's Children are back

    Baen is finally reissuing two Heinlein books that were out of print for the last few years: Revolt in 2100 and Methuselah's Children, two of the major books in Heinlein's Future History, are being issued as a single thick volume (almost 500 pages) called 2 X Heinlein, which is already being sold by Amazon.com. Check it out here. --Carlos Angelo
(January 30th, 1999)

Starship Troopers a Hot Seller with Amazon

    Amazon Books considers Starship Troopers to be one of the twenty bestselling books of 1998 in the area of SF and fantasy. Also making that list are two books considered derivative of Heinlein's 1959 classic: The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman, and Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card. --Carlos Angelo
(January 20th, 1999)

Heinlein Remembered in The Faculty

    The makers of this season's alien invasion movie, The Faculty, have been reading Robert Heinlein. The Christmas movie, about mind-controlling aliens who take over a town by way of its school staff, contains several references to the late science fiction author, including one in which a girl reads a copy of the Hugo-winning Double Star. In another scene, a character gives Heinlein's The Puppet Masters credit for having been the first example of the alien invasion/paranoia subgenre. Given that, moviegoers eager for yet another alien mind control thriller ultimately have Heinlein to thank for The Faculty. --Lizbeth Ager
(December 29th, 1998)

Seven Heinlein Novels Among 100 Best of Century

    Over three months, the Random House publishing group carried out what was probably the biggest literary poll ever among internet users, gathering a total of 217,520 votes, resulting in a list of the 100 best novels published in the English language in the twentieth century.
    Seven books by Heinlein were classified among those top 100 novels. Surprisingly, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress ranked ahead of the cult novel Stranger in a Strange Land, in 15th and 16th place, respectively. The other Heinlein novels among them were Starship Troopers (63rd), The Door into Summer (73rd), The Puppet Masters (84th), Double Star (87th) and Citizen of the Galaxy (88th). --Carlos Angelo.
(December 12th, 1998)

Tom Corbett--Space Cadet on Video

    Fifteen years before Star Trek and Lost in Space, there was the first generation of SF TV series, now almost forgotten, since they were broadcast live, not taped. Of all of them, Tom Corbett--Space Cadet, inspired by Robert Heinlein's novel Space Cadet, was the most prominent representative. In the mid-50's videotaping technology was not available but some people saved TV episodes for posterity by "kinescope," by filming a television screen.
    Now old fans and new have the chance to watch some kinescoped episodes of the series, since Englewood Entertainment is issuing it for the first time in VHS format. It is a collection of six episodes of the series, forming a whole story titled the "The Mercurian Invasion." Check it out here. --Carlos Angelo
(November 25th 1998)

Stranger in a Strange Land--The Movie

    The respected Hollywood Gossips & Rumors Cybersleaze column reports that stars Tom Hanks and Sean Connery have been cast in a 160-million-dollar movie version of the most cultified of Heinlein's books, Stranger in a Strange Land.
    According to Coming Attractions, a screenplay for the movie was developed in 1995 by Dan Waters, screenwriter of Batman Returns. --Carlos Angelo
(October 11th 1998)

Heinlein Wins his 5th Prometheus

    For the fifth time, the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award goes to Robert Heinlein, now for his book Time Enough for Love. The award, sponsored by the Libertarian Futurist Society, is intended to honor classic libertarian fiction and delivered yearly during the SF WorldCon.
    This is the third time in a row that the award goes to a Heinlein novel: last year he received it for Methuselah's Children and in 1996 for Red Planet. Heinlein also received the Prometheus for Stranger in a Strange Land in 1987 and for The Moon is a Harsh Mistress in 1983, the first year in which that award was given. --Carlos Angelo
(October 4th 1998)