Live Wire

Star Wars: Episode IThe Phantom Menace,the first of the six space-adventure films that George Lucas and Industrial Light & Magic are converting for 3-D presentation,will be released in theatres next year on February 10. Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox announced on Thursday. In a statement,the studios said the 3-D conversion is being done with utmost respect for the source material,and with a keen eye for both technological considerations and artistic intentions.

Oprah Winfreys two-month-old channel,OWN is attracting fewer viewers than the obscure channel it replaced,Discovery Health. At any given time this month,there have been about 135,000 people watching OWN,according to the Nielsen Company,and only about 45,000 of those people are women ages 25 to 54,the demographic that the channel is focusing on. Winfrey and her partner,Discovery Communications,have preached patience,especially because she will have a minimal presence on the channel until after The Oprah Winfrey Show ends its remarkable run in September. The final months of her talk show are drawing more than seven million viewers a day,some of her biggest ratings in many years. And shes priming that audience to move over to OWN on a regular basis.

Diane Lane is only the second member of the cast to be announced for a new Superman movie that the director Zack Snyder is preparing for next year. Warner Brothers Pictures said Lane,whose more recent movies include Unfaithful and Secretariat,would play the mother of the films title characternot the Kryptonian mother of Kal-El,who arrives on earth from a dying alien planet,but Martha Kent,an adoptive parent who raises him in his guise as Clark Kent. Snyder,said,we are thrilled to have her because she can convey the wisdom and the wonder of a woman whose son has powers beyond her imagination.