Current Projects of Tim Russ

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More new projects!

Tim announced at SWECON that "East of Hope Street" will be released on DVD this September. Finally! The movie was shown at the convention as well and it is absolutely fantastic, highly emotional.
Also, the new "Bugsters!"-CD is almost out! Check out the cover and information at Tim's official webpage.

Airdates for FBI Files episodes

The airdates for Tim's latest directing jobs, two episodes of the "FBI Files", are as follows:
Aug. 10: FBI Files 97, (Blackburn), Discovery Channel, 8 p.m. & 11 p.m., Eastern & Pacific.
Aug. 31: FBI Files 98, (Vigoa et al.), Discovery Channel, 8 p.m. & 11 p.m., Eastern & Pacific.

2004 News

I asked Tim at the Creation Con in Seattle (Feb. 6-8) about current projects, and he told me that next up he is doing a commercial about "Eggleston", a local L.A. area foster home and after that he will be directing another episode of "FBI Files". For the next few weeks he has to concentrate on work behind the camera, since he is still recovering from surgery on his foot following an accident at basketball, so no acting for the moment. But he is also thinking about expanding a bit on his "Bugsters!"-project, but since that's only in the planning stages and nothing concrete yet, I can't tell you more about it just yet, but stay tuned.

More shorts

On Seatrek 2003 Tim also mentioned having directed two more shorts, in addition to "Roddenberry on Patrol", both will probably be shown at film festivals and are not currently available. He said they didn't have quite the same budget as "Roddenberry on Patrol", and he didn't have as much control over them as in the latter. One is called "Mind Games", and it is about two people with multiple personalities, one personality of the woman seducing one personality of the man, and when another one of her personalities is in charge, this one accuses him of rape. Supposedly this movie is based on a true story, which caused some troubles for the courts when the woman insisted on a lawsuit.
The other one is called "The Routine", and it is about a person that does the exact same things at the exact same time of the day every time, it repeats about three times, and when he quits his job, somebody else takes over and does the same things again, and in the end you find out it's a computer program.

"Roddenberry on Patrol": Tim recently directed a short movie (approximately 16-17 minutes), called "Roddenberry on Patrol". It shows in a humorous way, how Gene was inspired to write Star Trek while working as a police officer - or how it could have happened. Tim says it's a parody, but not in the sense of satyre, but as a hommage/tribute to the man. Several Trek actors appear in the movie, Tim explicitly mentioned Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig and himself. The film is now available on DVD, it premiered at a convention in El Paso in November 2003, I saw it at Seatrek 2003 in December, where they had to show it twice, so much did the audience love it! For more information check out my new "Roddenberry on Patrol"-page.

"Genesis Force" is out!

Tim's latest audio-book has been available for quite some time. It takes place pretty much at the same time as some of the "Genesis Wave"-books and features the same characters. It does bring a certain conclusion to some elements of the series and Tim does an excellent job. There are lots of characters, but he makes them all sound different.

"Elite Force II" is out!

"Elite Force II" was released on June 24, 2003. Believe it or not, there is a German version of the game which features the "original German voices" and you cannot switch to English and the original English voices! Therefore I had to order the game from the UK, since I obviously prefer the English version.

Like the previous "Elite Force"-game, this one, too, starts with a training level, in which Tuvok explains to you all the movements and various ways how to use your equipment. He told me that my performance was "satisfactory"!
"Elite Force II" is on 2 CDs, so there is hope it will be a much longer game than the first one. Other than Tuvok, voiced by Tim, this game features Jean-Luc Picard, voiced by Patrick Stewart and Reginald Barclay, voiced by Dwight Schultz. Alexander Enberg (Vorik) once again provides the voice of Hazard Team member Austin Chang and several Trek veterans provide additional voices. Among those are J.G. Hertzler (Martok on DS9, but also the Hirogen Tsunkatse champion on Voyager), Jeffrey Combs (Brunt and Weyoun on DS9, but also Penk in "Tsunkatse" on VOY and the recurring Andorian Shran on Enterprise), Lisa Locicero (Miral in "Endgame"), Martha Hackett (Seska), Robert O'Reilly (Gowron), Tony Todd (Kurn, older Jake Sisko on DS9 and Alpha Hirogen in "Prey") and Vaughn Armstrong (Telek R'Mor in "Eye of the Needle", now Admiral Forrest on Enterprise).
The game looks incredibly good, though a bit dark. I had to increase the brightness level a lot. Other than that, the visuals are stunning and the faces seem to be much closer to the original than in the previous installment. I am looking forward a lot to playing the entire game.

 Tim's recent directing jobs

Here is finally some detailed information on Tim's recent directing jobs - it comes directly from Tim himself, the information was mailed out through his fanclub-mailing list (see mailing lists). If you ask me, it's great news and I am very excited about it!

All the projects listed below were done for New Dominion Pictures. So far Tim does not know the episode titles yet, he just has episode numbers, but I'm sure we'll soon find out more.

• FBI Files, should air in the Spring of 2003, it's episode #1683 and is about a bank robber and kidnapper. (Discovery Channel)
• Critical Rescue, should air sometime late Spring 2003, it's episode # 2307 and involves the Oklahoma Tornado in 1999. (Discovery Channel)
• Psychic Investigators, which is a pilot presentation. It has not been sold yet. Let's keep our fingers crossed..

Isn't that cool? Can't wait to watch the stuff...

And that's not enough, at the convention in Italy (March 2003) he mentioned another upcoming directing job for April.

Other projects

The new CD, "Brave New World", is out already, more about it on my Music-page.

Tim also confirmed the new "Genesis Wave" audio book (more about it at the Simon&Schuster-site) at the Grand Slam convention. The title (according to Simon&Schuster) is "Genesis Force", not "Genesis Wave" this time, but Tim said it continues the "Genesis Wave" series. For a glimpse of the cover art and a short audio excerpt check out this site The audio book is planned for a release in July, it will be available on either tape or CD (this time there will be 4 CDs!).

Tim also continues to teach acting seminars at Saddleback College this spring. He has done a few of these already, he is teaching auditioning techniques and cold reading. This looks like it will develop into a regular event and in the Q & A for trektoday he also said he would like to do more teaching in the future.

If you want to get a phone call from Tim, check out this page for more information.

Tim is currently also working on several new projects. He is presenting them to various TV networks, cable, syndication and hopefully at least one of them will soon be bought by one of those. The concepts sound interesting. Tim is a bit cautious about giving away too much information on these projects, he says right now not even the titles are 100% certain and can change.

One of these projects has already been realized. I am talking about his audio book for children, called "Bugsters!". For more information on this one check out Tim's official Bugsters-page. You can also find additional information here. In his recent Q & A for trektoday.com (for the link check the Interviews-page) Tim also announced that he has been working on a second CD of "Bugsters!"-stories, that is currently being shopped to publishers for print. Hopefully it will be available soon!

Then there is something he refers to as "Robot/Untouchables". It is also known as "Metal War". This will be a combined life action/CGI project. Tim is working on it together with two other guys, one a writer, one a CGI-computer specialist. A full-length script is already available. If I understood him correctly (I asked him about this project during the Q & A at "Voyager: The Return" in Blackpool in July 2001) their names are Dave Fisher and Keith Damon (sp?). Tim is planning to work on this project as a producer/director and there is also a part in it which he would like to play himself. There is another part in it for which he has Ethan Phillips in mind. In the recent Q&A with trektoday.com he once again mentioned this project, so let's hope it will get realized soon! He also said he is working on a couple other projects together with various partners.

Another concept Tim has mentioned on occasion, is a Sci-Fi/Western-theme for TV. At this point I have no further information on this one.

Since Tim mentioned in his most recent chat that he is pursuing several film and television projects with various production companies we'll hopefully soon hear more about some of these!

In his most recent chat Tim also mentioned a new animated project called "Guppy's Garage". He also said that he is working with a CGI ocmpany called "Toolbox". They design webpages etc. for computers and similar items. I suspect that they are helping him with the "Bugsters"-webpage as well.

Tim is dedicating at least 90% of his time to these three projects right now, but he does take side-jobs when the occasion arises. In April 2002 he did a play, "E/R", at his former University, St. Edwards in Austin, Texas. And in fall 2001 he directed an episode of "The Heartbreak Caf?". An article about this directing job can be found here. Tim also recorded another audio book, "The Genesis Wave, Book Three" (by John Vornholt), which is available by now. Information on this audio book as well as an audio excerpt can be found here.

In 2002 he also guest-starred in the small role of a "Juror" in the episode "The Real Thing" on "Any Day Now" (original airdate Jan. 6, 2002).

Tim also says he has talked to the producers of "Enterprise" about directing an episode for that series next year and that he hopes this will work out in his schedule.