Movie company buys film magazines, plans changes to up profile. (Media & Technology).

Film production firm Mindfire Entertainment has acquired two bimonthly movie fan magazines, Cinefantastique and Femme Fatales, for an undisclosed price and moved their operations from Chicago to Culver City.

Mark Altman, Mindfire's president and chief operating officer, will serve as the magazine's editorial director. David Williams, a former executive features editor at the Hollywood Reporter, has been named editor-in-chief of both publications.

Frederick S. Clarke founded Cinefantastique, also known as "CFQ," in 1970 while working as a laboratory supply salesman. The publication is devoted to science fiction and horror films, focusing on the technical aspects of the business, such as how special effects and movie gadgets are designed.

Clarke died in 2000, and his wife, Celeste Casey Clarke, took over day-to-day operations. She said she agreed to contact Altman, a longtime contributor, if and when she decided to step down.

"It was a wonderful two years but I'm delighted to hand it over to someone' she said. "Mark Altman knows the genre and he has a tremendous spirit. He's a big film geek. I think you need that for this."

Altman, who was unavailable for comment, is a former editor-in-chief of fanzine Sci-Fi Universe and wrote and produced "Free Enterprise," a 1998 film about two science fiction geeks looking for love.

Cinefantastique, which Williams said had an unaudited circulation of 60,000, made headlines in 1983 when it published the plot to "Return of the Jedi," the third "Star Wars" film, before its release. That prompted writer/producer George Lucas to shun the magazine, according to a Los Angeles Times article.

"CFQ was a major player in that realm 15 years ago, but with the Internet there is no way that a magazine can break that kind of news," Williams said. "We'll focus on taking raw information on adding to it and creating a more complete picture."

Femmes Fatales, which Clarke founded as Cinefantastique's sister publication in 1992, traditionally has featured racy spreads of science fiction and B-movie actresses. Williams said he would like to boost the profile of the magazine, which he said has an unaudited circulation of 70,000, by courting higher-level actresses and improving the photographic quality. Williams described the new Femme Fatales as a science fiction version of Maxim -- the men's magazine published by Dennis Publications.

"There are obviously a lot of Maxim imitators today," Williams said. "But I think we have a unique take in that we focus on actresses in science fiction and horror."

The two magazines have six full-time employees and 15 or so regular freelancers. The first issue of Cinefantastique under Mindfire ownership will come out in January.