SCI FI REIMAGINES TWO HOLLYWOOD CLASSICS WITH TWO HOLLYWOOD GREATS

Ridley Scott Revisits 'The Andromeda Strain'

Frank Darabont to Executive Produce 'The Thing'

NEW YORK -- September 7, 2004 -- SCI FI has partnered with two of Hollywood's best and brightest to put a fresh spin on two genre classics. Three-time Academy Award nominee Ridley Scott teams with Tony Scott (Emmy? winners for The Gathering Storm) to revisit the Michael Crichton best-seller, The Andromeda Strain, while fellow three-time Academy Award nominee Frank Darabont (The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption) joins SCI FI for a re-invention of the sci-fi thriller, The Thing.

The Andromeda Strain
In the chilling debut novel from Michael Crichton, an extraterrestrial virus infects an entire town, killing its inhabitants within seconds. SCI FI's four-hour reimagining of this classic tale will be written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Robert Schenkkan (The Quiet American). Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, David W. Zucker and Tom Thayer will serve as executive producers. The miniseries will be produced by Scott Free Productions and Thayer's Traveler's Rest Films, in association with NBC Universal Television Studio.

The Thing
It's everywhere. It's anything. And it can't be stopped. Frank Darabont takes on one of the seminal sci-fi films of our time. David Leslie Johnson will write the screenplay for this terrifying thriller in which a parasitic entity of unknown origin threatens the very survival of humanity. David Foster (producer of the original John Carpenter's The Thing, River Wild, Mask of Zorro) and Darabont serve as executive producers. The four-hour miniseries will be produced by NBC Universal Television Studio.

Scott and Darabont are the latest additions to a growing list of Hollywood elite who have partnered with SCI FI for epic television events. The Channel also has projects in the works with Steven Spielberg (Nine Lives), Martin Scorsese (The Twelve), Bryan Singer (The Triangle), Dean Devlin (The Triangle), Gale Anne Hurd (Red Mars) and Nicolas Cage (Dresden Files).

SCI FI Channel is a television network where "what if" is what's on. SCI FI fuels the imagination of viewers with original series and events, blockbuster movies and classic science fiction and fantasy programming, as well as a dynamic Web site (www.scifi.com) and magazine. Launched in 1992, and currently in 83 million homes, SCI FI Channel is a network of NBC Universal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies.