McKellen To Miss X-Men Junkets
an McKellen, who plays Magneto in the upcoming X-Men film, said he won't be taking part in the film's press junkets, now tentatively set for July.
"While the rest of the X-Men do their stuff in Los Angeles ... I shall be involved with Lord of the Rings across the world," the actor wrote on his official Web site.
McKellen added, "But I am planning to be in New York City for the official opening on 12 July. There I shall be free to do some national press interviews before a brief hiatus in London, where I live. In the meantime I expect some lively media folk may discover and plunder Magneto's Lair and these X-Men E-posts. If so, remember you read it here first!"
McKellen also provided details of one scene in which Magneto demonstrates his powers. "Tucked away in the middle of the teaser trailer for X-Men is a splendid example of Magneto's mutant capabilities. With Toad and Sabretooth on either side, he stands, helmetted, ready for action. A warning challenge rings out, and the master of magnetism responds with violence. As he raises his arms in front of him, the police vehicles [that] threaten him are lifted clear of the ground. As he lowers them, so they fall."
McKellen added, "This sort of effect is not at all in the actor's control. Shooting in Hamilton, Ontario, last October, it involved slender cables suspending the cars from two gigantic, off-screen cranes. Ray Park [Toad], Tyler Mane [Sabretooth] and I were happy to be well out of range on the steps of the railroad station. For many an hour the effect was organized. It was in two parts: the raising and the dropping. All I had to do was arm movements in accord with the cranes."
McKellen Denies Rings Rumor
an McKellen denied rumors that the character of Arwen will undertake the Ring quest in Peter Jackson's film trilogy The Lord of the Rings.
In response to a question on his official Web site, the actor wrote, "To put an end to it: Arwen does NOT accompany the Fellowship in the movie."
McKellen plays the wizard Gandalf in the three films, which are based on J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy of novels of the same name. He said director Jackson follows the discussion about the movies on the Internet. "I don't know where Peter gets the time, but he seems to be au fait with the Tolkien sites and often refers to them in detail. I make occasional anonymous visits and am sometimes tempted to correct the wilder speculations in the correspondence columns. [But] having this outlet, I keep quiet. And so, it seems, does Peter."
X-Men Rumors Not True
ox has postponed the press junket for its upcoming X-Men film because director Bryan Singer is still working on the movie, a studio source told SCI FI Wire.
But the source denied rumors that the studio is canceling the junket, that the studio won't hold media screenings or that filmmakers are re-cutting the movie because of bad buzz from a test screening.
"Absolutely not true," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It's just a very complicated thing and [the studio]'s just not getting a final print until early July." The source added that Singer has been under pressure to complete the film by the July 14 release date, even though X-Men was originally scheduled for a Christmas release. But Singer will definitely deliver the film by early July.
Rumors have been circulating that an audience reacted negatively to a test screening. But the studio source said that Fox hasn't screened the film for anyone since a courtesy screening several months ago for Fox and Marvel executives. "They're racing the clock," the source said. X-Men is based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name, and is being positioned as the first film in a possible franchise.
Prinze Said No To X-Men
reddie Prinze Jr. told the Mr. Showbiz Web site that he turned down a role in Fox's upcoming X-Men movie.
"I didn't like the script," Prinze said about the feature-film version of the Marvel Comics series of the same name.
"I'm a big fan of the comic book, and I like the stories that have happened within Stan Lee's universe, and this was Fox's version," Prinze told the site. "This was cool, but I had something visually different in my head. But it [probably] wouldn't have worked out anyway; I would have gone in and not been what they wanted."
But Prinze confirmed that he's eager to tackle another movie based on a Marvel series: Spider-Man, now in development at Sony, with Sam Raimi directing. "I've met with Sam Raimi and had a conversation," Prinze said. "Peter Parker is the most human of all the characters Stan Lee has created. He's a kid with a normal kid's problems, only he's dealing with them as a superhero."
For his part, actor Heath Ledger told Mr. Showbiz that he's not interested in putting on Spidey's blue and red suit. "I won't be flying as Spider-Man," Ledger said. "I talked to Sam, and it's a great script and will be a great movie, but I don't want to bear the responsibility of being an action hero."
X-Men Villain Is Complex
-Men director Bryan Singer told the Comics Continuum Web site that the movie's villain, Magneto, isn't a run-of-the-mill bad guy.
"Villains often have a one-dimensional agenda--economic gain, world domination, etc.," Singer said. "In the case of Magneto, his intentions for mutant-kind are inherently good; however, they say the road to disaster can be paved with good intentions."
Singer added, "In his case, he takes his agenda--his view of mutant-kind's place in the world--too selfishly. That's what makes him a villain." But he's not necessarily evil. "His family was killed in the Holocaust, and he has a lot of resentment for mankind in general," Singer said. "He sees the coming of a future holocaust for his kind and does what he thinks is the right thing."
Singer is finishing up the feature-film adaptation of the Marvel Comics series of the same name. X-Men is due to hit theaters July 14.
Singer Races To Wrap X-Men
irector Bryan Singer is racing the clock to complete post-production on Fox's upcoming X-Men movie, which is due in theaters July 14, according to the Toronto Sun newspaper.
Citing an unnamed insider, the Sun reported that Singer is working 24 hours a day, seven days a week to complete the film, which is based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name.
"Bryan thought the shooting schedule in Toronto was tight," the insider told the newspaper. "The post-production is unbelievably tight."
Another source, whom the newspaper called "an X-Men associate," said, "It's going to be close. Too close for comfort."
The Invisible Man Sets Record
he SCI FI Channel's new series The Invisible Man attracted a record number
of viewers during its two-hour premiere on June 9.
The 8 p.m. ET airing of the pilot episode scored a 2.4 rating in the Nielsens--which means it was
seen in more than 1.5 million homes--tying a SCI FI record for the highest-rated original production of all time.
Although the second original episode of Sliders that aired on SCI FI earned a 2.4 rating in June of 1998, it was during a time when the channel was in fewer homes overall, so that rating translated to only about 1.2 million households. Meanwhile, the 10 p.m. ET encore of The Invisible Man pilot earned a 1.7 rating, which SCI FI described as "phenomenal."
The Invisible Man stars Vincent Ventresca as a small-time thief who avoids a third-strike life sentence when he volunteers for an experiment that gives him the power to turn invisible. The show joined SCI FI's Friday night "SCI FI Prime" lineup starting June 16 in the 8 p.m. timeslot.
Rosenberg To Rewrite Spidey
cott Rosenberg (Con Air, Gone in 60 Seconds) will rewrite the script for Sam Raimi's upcoming Spider-Man movie, Variety reported.
Rosenberg will rework the script by David Koepp (The Lost World: Jurassic Park), according to the trade paper.
Raimi will direct Spider-Man, which is based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name.
Metal Due In September?
eavy Metal: F.A.K.K.2, the 3-D video game based on the upcoming animated film Heavy Metal 2000, could debut as early as Sept. 19, according to the FGN Web site.
Heavy Metal 2000, premiering on the STARZ! pay cable network July 14, is the sequel to the classic 1981 animated feature film Heavy Metal.
The game, like the sequel, is based on the graphic novel The Melting Pot, created by Kevin Eastman, Simon Bisley and Eric Talbot. Ritual Entertainment will release the game for multiple platforms.
The game features the exploits of Julie Strain, a futuristic woman warrior who seeks revenge on a group of ruthless space pirates who ravaged her home planet. She assumes the designation F.A.K.K.2, for Federation Assigned Ketogenic Killzone.
Cameron Wants Ford For Aliens?
he IGN FilmForce Web site reported rumors that James Cameron wants to make the long-rumored film Aliens vs. Predator with Harrison Ford.
Quoting an unnamed marketing source at 20th Century Fox, the site reported that the studio would fast-track such a project for a 2001 release.
Cameron--who directed Aliens, the second installment in the Fox film franchise--reportedly approached Ford to star in the remake of Planet of the Apes. But that movie went into limbo before being resurrected in the hands of director Tim Burton, with Matt Damon mulling the starring role.
Episode II To Break Mold
isual effects wizard David Dozoretz told the Star Wars Homing Beacon newsletter that Star Wars: Episode II will break the traditional filmmaking mold.
Digital filmmaking will allow
director George Lucas and his crew to blur the lines between pre-production, production and post-production, said Dozoretz, whose formal title is pre-visualization and visual effects supervisor.
Dozoretz's department creates the "animatics," or moving storyboards, for the film. "We're closely related to what the art department does," Dozoretz said. "We get to be the first group of artists to implement those fabulous designers' work. We're constantly getting information from them about what designs look like. We occasionally throw info back up to them, where if they need to do a storyboard or concept painting, we'll help place things for them and compose the frame, because we have the ability to do that really quickly since we've got 3-D models."
Once shooting begins in Australia, Dozoretz's team will be able to use the digital footage immediately. "We will be able to incorporate dailies," he told the newsletter. While Lucas' crew gathers the necessary performances on-camera, "we'll be back here at Skywalker Ranch doing design work on other sequences in the film, specifically action sequences. There are a couple of really really big action sequences which are primarily going to be done with digital technology, and very little of that will be shot during principal photography."
In post-production, "One of the great things about Episode II is a lot of the design work that we do in the animatics phase will cross over into [special effects house Industrial Light and Magic], so there's no repetition of work," Dozoretz said.
Even editing, which traditionally waits until the end of principal photography, can begin early. Editor Ben Burtt is already cutting scenes together. "That's my job right now," he told the newsletter. "Cutting together these temporary shots, and doing shots with our own digital video camera--simple things, cutting them together to get a sense of how fast a sequence might flow, and how many shots are necessary to tell a story. And of course I'm able to think about sound at this point too. And I've got a list of things to record. I have ideas in mind for what they might sound like."
Lee To Appear In Episode II?
eteran British actor Christopher Lee, who plays Saruman in the upcoming Lord of the Rings film trilogy, has supposedly won a part in Star Wars: Episode II, according to the Ain't It Cool News Web site.
Citing unnamed sources, the site reported that Lee will appear in the next installment of George Lucas' space saga.
AICN provided no details of Lee's casting, nor did it say what role he will play. Lee first won fame for portraying Dracula in Hammer Films' 1970s series of vampire films, and has appeared in dozens of movies since.
Lucas is no stranger to working with former Hammer Films stars. David
Prowse, the man inside the Darth Vader suit, appeared as the Monster in
several Hammer Frankenstein films, while Lee's frequent co-star Peter
Cushing was especially memorable as Grand Moff Tarkin in the original Star Wars film.
Friedkin Appeals Exorcist Ban
irector William Friedkin told The Hollywood Reporter that he will appeal the ban on a new trailer touting the re-release of his 1973 film The Exorcist.
The Motion Picture Association of America banned the new trailer for the Oscar-winning horror classic, saying it was "too intense," the trade paper reported.
But, Friedkin told the paper, "rejecting it on the grounds that it was too intense is like rejecting it on the grounds that it's too funny. It makes no sense at all and seems to be contrary to the purpose of the ratings board, which is not to judge content, but simply to issue a rating based on certain material in the shots--nudity, excessive violence or language--and this trailer has none of that."
The MPAA approved a revised trailer. In the meantime, Friedkin has made the banned trailer available on the Ain't It Cool News Web site. Warner Bros. is re-releasing The Exorcist Sept. 22 in a restored version, with 11 minutes of previously unreleased footage.
5-25-77 To Feature Fisher?
arrie Fisher may appear in 5-25-77, an independent film about a young man's quest to see Star Wars, according to the IGN FilmForce Web site.
The film, from writer and director Patrick Read Johnson, is being produced by former Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz.
Fisher would play the mother of the movie's main character, Pat Johnson, who embarks on a quest to travel from his hometown of Wadsworth, Ill., to see Star Wars on its opening day. The title refers to the date the movie premiered.
The Web site also quotes an unnamed source as saying that the film could feature cameos by other Star Wars and genre actors.
Moore To Join Roswell?
he TrekWeb and Trek Today Web sites reported that former Star Trek: Deep Space Nine producer Ronald D. Moore will join the staff of The WB's teen alien TV series Roswell.
Roswell, co-executive produced by former Star Trek: The Next Generation star Jonathan Frakes, returns to The WB for its second season in the fall.
Moore is rumored to be taking over the show-running from current executive producer Jason Katims. But there's been no official announcement that Katims is leaving the show.
Devil's Punchbowl Film Due
ctor-producer Danny Trejo has formed the Starburst production company and will develop the supernatural comedy film Devil's Punchbowl as its first project, Variety reported.
Punchbowl, based on a script by Matt Flynn, tells the story of a small-town teacher whose wife and high school students mysteriously disappear in a high desert park, the trade paper reported.
Davis Entertainment will executive produce, and Flynn and Jericho Entertainment's Josh Silver and Joshua Kesselman will co-produce.
Anime, Manga Licenses Awarded
roducers of several popular anime and manga series announced licensing and merchandising agreements at the Licensing 2000 International convention in New York.
Bandai Entertainment Inc. will license its popular Gundam Wing series for toys and other merchandise. The merchandise, due later this year, will include clothing, trading cards, back-to-school supplies, hats, posters, wall scrolls, skateboards, scooters, kites and Valentine's Day card sets.
Bandai will also begin shipping action figure model kits based on the series in July. The figures will also be available as a tie-in offer with the Gundam Wing DVD release. In the United States, fans can see Gundam Wing on the cable television Cartoon Network.
D-Boy Inc., meanwhile, will license and produce action figures based on Kia Asamiya's Dark Angel manga series. The figures, to be released early next year, will include four characters from the original manga: Dark, Leed, Sen and Tan. The action figures are the first associated with the popular series.
Asamiya is known in the United States as the creator of Martian Successor Nadesico, Compiler, Silent Möbius and Steam Detectives.
Saban licensed its anime series Digimon to Taco Bell and the retailers Target, Toys "R" Us, Aahs! and Sears. The company also signed a deal to license Digimon Halloween costumes with Party City stores. Saban also signed licensing agreements with Jel-Sert Packaged Foods and an unnamed theater chain.
Fox To Release Digimon Movie
ox will release Digimon: The Movie, a feature film based on its Digimon animated TV series, on Oct. 6, Variety reported.
Digimon, seen on the Fox Kids Network, comes from Japan's Toei Animation and is aimed at children under 10.
The 80- to 90-minute Pokemon-like movie will combine two films previously released in Japan and tell the story of eight children who befriend an array of friendly "digital monsters," Variety reported. The film will incorporate story elements linking the first and second seasons of the TV show.
ADV Plans Bubblegum DVDs
DV Films said it would release DVD versions of Bubblegum Crisis:
Tokyo 2040 and Lost Universe on Sept. 12.
Each four-episode disc, with a suggested price of $29.98, will feature English and Japanese dialogue with English subtitles.
ADV Films also announced a new division to combat video piracy. The company asks fans who know of stores selling bootleg ADV videos to e-mail the division.
WB Online Adds DC Characters
arner Bros. plans to add short, animated "Webisodes" based on DC Comics characters to the Warner Bros. Online Web site, Variety reported.
The new Warner Bros. Originals channel will feature animated shorts based on intergalactic bounty hunter Lobo, as well as on the Gotham Girls from the Batman comic series, including Batgirl, Cat Woman, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, according to the trade paper.
The first Webisode, Lobo is a Four-Letter Word, is scheduled to go live June 15. The Vault, the first Gotham Girls installment, will bow in mid-July. Each short is expected to be three minutes long. DC Comics and Warner Bros. are both owned by Time Warner.
Who Invented 'Muggles'?
.K. Rowling, author of the popular Harry Potter children's novels, wasn't the first person to invent the word "muggles," according to the Associated Press.
Carol Kendall was, in her 1959 novel The Gammage Cup, which featured a character named Muggles, the wire service reported.
Rowling uses the word in her Potter novels to describe non-magical humans. Another author, Nancy K. Stouffer, has sued Rowling, claiming that Rowling lifted ideas for the Potter books from Stouffer's 1984 book, The Legend of Rah and Muggles, the AP reported. Stouffer uses the term "muggles" to refer to little people who care for two orphans.
But Kendall, who has published 10 books, said she came up with the name while living in London.
Maggie Smith To Act In Potter?
aggie Smith (Tea with Mussolini) is in talks to play Prof. Minerva McGonagall in Warner Bros.' feature film version of J.K. Rowling's best-seller Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Chris Columbus (Bicentennial Man) will direct the movie, which is now in pre-production.
If schedules work out, Smith would play McGonagall, the deputy headmistress at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where the young Harry Potter is a pupil. Smith's casting would be the first for the film, which is conducting an extensive search for a young British actor to play the title role. Filmmakers have received more than 40,000 submissions and met with more than 300 Potter aspirants, the trade paper reported.
Warner Bros. is also reportedly mulling the idea of making Potter's arch-nemesis, Voldemort, a computer-animated character.
Potter Toy-Making Gears Up
arry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the proposed feature film based on J.K. Rowling's best-selling children's book of the same name, is still in pre-production, but Warner Bros. is already gearing up the merchandising machine, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Merchandise themed to Potter will begin rolling out as early as August in Warner Bros. studio stores, department stores and online, the trade paper reported.
The film, which was expected to premiere in summer 2001, was pushed back to Nov. 16, 2001, because of a slow production start. Warner Bros. will unveil its marketing and merchandising plans for the film at the Licensing International annual trade show in New York this week.
Warner Bros. awarded Mattel the worldwide rights to two films based on the first two books of the series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The studio has since optioned the third and fourth books in the series, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Doomspell Tournament, which comes out in July, according to the Reporter.
SCIFI.COM Will Syndicate Content
SA Networks Interactive, the parent company of SCIFI.COM, announced a distribution agreement with the Internet syndication service iSyndicate.
Under the agreeement, iSyndicate will deliver SCIFI.COM content, including news headlines from SCI FI Wire, across iSyndicate's network.
iSyndicate distributes a variety of digital content--including text, graphics, audio and video from more than 850 brands--through its network of Web sites.
"Distribution of SCIFI.COM's content by iSyndicate to a broader, more global audience will maximize SCIFI.COM's brand awareness among science fiction fans and fans-to-be," said David McClain, USA Networks Interactive's senior manager, affiliate marketing, in a statement. "The demand for science fiction content on the Web has never been greater, and we are pleased to be teaming up with iSyndicate to bring SCIFI.COM to the masses."
Sony Not Rushing Godzilla 2
ony Pictures Entertainment Chairman John Calley told the Los Angeles Times that the studio is in no rush to make a sequel to 1998's disappointing movie Godzilla.
Instead, the studio will distribute Godzilla 2000, a Japanese-produced movie that will be dubbed into English and released Aug. 18.
Godzilla 2000 doesn't preclude Sony from making its own sequel, Calley told the Times. But, he added, it "is not a priority at this time. It's not a picture that people are rushing around the studio trying to get made." He added that it "would be made for much less money." The original film "cost too much, took a lot of time, a lot of marketing and a lot of technology development. It was a killer."
Godzilla director Dean Devlin told the Times that he and his partner Roland Emmerich are not interested in a scaled-down sequel. "They wanted to tailor it budget-wise, so it didn't make sense for us creatively," Devlin said.
Calley added that Sony plans sequels for Men in Black and Jumanji.
Fox Animation Banks On Titan
ary Goldman, co-director of Fox's upcoming SF animated feature film Titan A.E., told the Edmonton Sun newspaper that the movie's success is crucial to Fox's animation division.
"I think animation at Fox is very dependent on the success of this movie--that would be traditional animation, because Fox is very involved in all forms of animation," Goldman told the newspaper.
Fox Animation Studios has laid off about 250 of its 316-member Phoenix-based staff, Goldman said. Much is riding on the success of Titan A.E.
Fox has also seen some of its best animation talent siphoned off by Disney, DreamWorks, Pixar and George Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic, the newspaper reported. "The world of animation in the last 12 years has become almost the world of the NBA or the NFL," Goldman told the Sun. Titan A.E. is the second movie co-produced for Fox by Goldman and partner Don Bluth.
Genre License Rights Are Hot
oy makers and other licensees were eagerly buying up rights for several upcoming genre movies and television shows at the Licensing 2000 International convention in New York this week, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Among the most coveted licenses are those for merchandise linked to the films Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Spider-Man, The Lord of the Rings and Adam Sandler's supernatural comedy, Little Nicky.
Nickelodeon unveiled its Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius character, created by screenwriter-director Steve Oedekerk, at the show, with a pending "Jimmy" short film, feature and TV series, according to the trade paper. Universal Pictures was reportedly close to signing a major license for The Mummy Returns, the upcoming sequel to last year's The Mummy.
Sidewise Finalists Announced
rganizers announced the finalists for the 2000 Sidewise Awards for Alternate History, recognizing the best publications of the year.
The award takes its name from Murray Leinster's 1934 short story "Sidewise In Time," in which a strange storm causes portions of Earth to swap places with their analogs from other timelines.
The awards will be presented at Chicon, the 58th World Science Fiction Convention in Chicago, which takes place Aug. 31 to Sept. 4. A full list of finalists follows.
Long Form (60,000 words or a complete series)
•Resurrection Day by Brendan DuBois
Short Form (fewer than 60,000 words)
•"The Eighth Register" by Alain Bergeron
•"Secret History of the Ornithopter" by Jan Lars Jensen
•"Getting to Know the Dragon" by Robert Silverberg
•"A Hero of the Empire" by Robert Silverberg
Special Achievement Award
•Randall Garrett, for such works as Lord Darcy Investigates, Murder and Magic and Too Many Magicians
Indy Game Almost Done
ulian Eggebrecht, president of game maker Factor 5, told the Nintendorks Web site that the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine is in the final phases of development.
"Yes, Indy goes into debugging in July," Eggebrecht told the site.
Eggebrecht added, "It looks like Nintendo will probably be the publisher" of the game, which is based on characters from the Indiana Jones series of films. Eggebrecht said the release date could be "anywhere from July to November." He added that Indy's release date could be affected by delays in Nintendo's release of Banjo-Tooie.
Sotheby's To Auction Kubrick Letters
otheby's will auction rare collections of letters from late director Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey), the Reuters news service reported.
The unpublished correspondence goes on the block in London July 13 as part of a sale of English literature and historical documents.
The Kubrick writings include notes to Peter George, the Welsh-born author who gave him the idea for 1964's Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Reuters reported. In one letter, Kubrick tells George that his draft for the black comedy was "marvelous but for a couple of points" and a few "non-American things." The sale includes a series of Dr. Strangelove drafts, with revisions by both Kubrick and George.
SF&F Films Among AFI's Funniest
cience fiction films made it into the American Film Institute's list of the 100 funniest American films, as chosen by a panel of 1,800 industry representatives.
Stanley Kubrick's 1964 nuclear-war satire, Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, ranked highest among genre films, coming in at No. 3.
Among the other genre films in the list: Young Frankenstein (1974), Ghostbusters (1984), Groundhog Day (1993), Harvey (1950), Big (1988), Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), Topper (1937), Sleeper (1973), Beetlejuice (1988) and The Nutty Professor (1963).
Rocky Required '2 1/2-D' Animation
he Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle director Des McAnuff told Hollywood Reporter columnist Martin A. Grove that he wanted the animated title characters to fit into the real world.
The film, which mixes animation with live action, is based on Jay Ward's legendary animated television series Rocky and His Friends.
"The real challenge here was to figure out how to be faithful to the original animation and simultaneously make the characters of Rocky and Bullwinkle comfortable on a live-action landscape," McAnuff said.
McAnuff added, "Rocky and Bullwinkle are, in a sense, the quintessential comic duo. You have the straight little Boy Scout squirrel and the idiot savant moose. Their comedy comes from wordplay and situation. It's basically character-driven. It's not necessarily about a lot of squishing and stretching. While there is physical comedy, that's not their main thing. So, in a sense, we had a contradiction there because we wanted to be faithful to the original look of the characters."
Getting Rocky and Bullwinkle to interact with live actors meant using computer animation, McAnuff said. "We actually cooked up this term called '2 1/2-D.' We wanted the characters to appear painted and still be very faithful to that part of the original look. At the same time, we wanted them to have a little bit of depth of field and to have some gravity, so that if Rocky's sitting in a car beside the character Karen Sympathy [a rookie FBI agent played by Piper Perabo], he would look like he was really sitting in that seat and really leaning on the armrest and interacting with her." Rocky, which stars Rene Russo, Jason Alexander and Robert DeNiro, opens June 30.
Jurassic Cast Sought
urassic Park 3, the next installment in the Michael Crichton dinosaur film franchise, has issued casting instructions, according to the Dark Horizons Web site.
Filmmakers are seeking to cast several actors in key roles, the site reported.
According to character descriptions, Jurassic Park 3 needs a 12-year-old boy to play Miles, the lead character; a 40-ish actor to play Miles' father, Paul, a white-collar, Ivy League type man; a 30-something actress to play Paul's business associate and possible love interest; a 25-ish actor to play a graduate student or paleontologist; an "Andre Braugher" type to play a 40-ish military attaché; and a 30-something actress to play Simone, a naturalist. Filmmakers are reportedly targeting a July 2001 release date.
Jurassic DVDs Due In October
urassic Park and its sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, will be released on collector's-edition DVDs on Oct. 10, Universal Studios announced.
The DVDs will retail for $26.98 each.
Both DVD releases will feature a DVD-ROM link to a "live" Webcast and chat with the cast and crew from the production set of Jurassic Park III, the next feature film in the franchise.
The Lost World DVD will also feature a never-before-released documentary, The Making of 'The Lost World.'
Universal will package the two DVDs in a $119.98 limited-run gift set, which will also include the CD soundtracks and a certificate of authenticity, packaged in a collector's box. A gift set with only the two DVDs will sell for $53.98.
Joffe To Helm Animal
irector Roland Joffe and French producer Alain Goldman will make the SF thriller Animal, according to Variety.
The English-language production will tell a story of genetic engineering gone awry.
Roselyne Bosch wrote the screenplay. Animal is being budgeted at $15 million, Variety reported. Casting is under way, and shooting is planned for early next year.
D&D Rumors Denied
ased on information from director Corey Solomon, DND Movie.com Webmaster Don Whetsell is denying rumors that producer Joel Silver has left the production of Dungeons & Dragons, the feature film based on the Wizards of the Coast game of the same name.
Whetsell also denied that the movie was in financial trouble and won't be finished.
"First off, the entire film is bonded," Whetsell wrote. "No independent film gets made without being bonded or no one would risk the financing. ... There is not now, nor has there ever been, any chance that the film would not be completed."
"As for the visual FX, they are rolling right along, and at this point, Corey is mixing the last three reels of the film in Toronto," Whetsell added. "They only lack 100 shots of completing the FX and as you would guess ... these shots are the most complicated and difficult of the whole film. They are finishing out at a rate [of] 15-20 a week, so everything should be in the can by mid-July."
Whetsell also said that parts of the film screened at Cannes and were well received. "The reaction there was very positive. Even better, the film has already been pre-sold around the globe and in two weeks in France they will start showing a 25-second trailer before Gladiator and then later before M:I-2."
Gibson: Mad Max IV Coming
el Gibson told the IGN Movies Web site that a fourth Mad Max movie may be in the works.
"[Director] George [Miller] is working on something," he said.
Added Gibson, who is promoting his upcoming film, The Patriot, "George is like Einstein. I'm serious, he's like Albert Einstein. George Miller makes films like that. It's all mathematical. He has five sets of the same clothes. He's probably still got the white shirt, the blue pants, and the blue and white polka dot tie. Five sets so he doesn't have to make a decision about what to wear, but that it's clean every day. He will literally sit there and brood over a problem for years. Take his time. And be interested the whole time, like Einstein. I think he's probably been working away on the script for 20 years."
Gibson wouldn't say when Mad Max would return, saying only, "He'll be back."
King Proposes New E-Novel
uoyed by the successful sales of his online novella "Riding the Bullet," horror writer Stephen King is asking his fans whether he should publish his next novel in electronic form.
In a letter to fans posted on his official Web site, King proposed offering up The Plant in 5,000-word installments at $1 a pop.
King said subscribers would be on the honor system, and added that he'd do it if he thought eight or nine people in 10 would pay. "I was intrigued by the success of 'Riding the Bullet' (stunned would probably be a more accurate word) and since then have been anxious to try something similar," King wrote. "Bullet," which was available for $2.50 at some sites and free at others, was downloaded by more than 500,000 readers.
"If this idea interests you, will you e-mail the Web site and say so?" King asked. "By the same token, if it sounds like a bad idea, will you tell me that?" As of June 13, nearly 95 percent of people who answered King's online poll urged him to offer the book online. But only 72 percent said they thought people would comply with the honor system.
The Plant tells the story of a "vampire vine" that takes over the offices of a paperback publishing company, offering financial success in trade for human sacrifices, King said. King abandoned the novel in the early 1980s after writing about 25,000 words of it because "other projects intervened," the writer said.
Toy Biz Buys Rings Rights
oy Biz landed the worldwide licensing rights to the three Lord of the Rings films, based on J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy of novels of the same name, according to Variety.
Toy Biz already holds the rights to license toys for the upcoming Spider-Man movie, based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name.
Toy Biz has rights to produce Rings action figures, dolls, remote-control toys and LCD watches. The first Rings films, The Fellowship of the Ring, is slated to hit theaters around Christmas 2001.
ILM To Create Animated Movies
eorge Lucas' special effects house, Industrial Light & Magic, plans to expand into the animation business, creating computer-generated films and television shows, according to Variety.
ILM has a staff of 80 and created effects for the upcoming films The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Space Cowboys.
ILM had planned to step into the animation arena about three years ago with Frankenstein, a computer-generated co-venture with Universal, but that project fell through due to creative differences, Variety reported.
Hitchhiker Delayed Until 2002
ouglas Adams told Salon.com magazine that the long-delayed feature film version of his satirical SF novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy won't be coming out for at least a couple of years.
"It's now looking like it will be released in 2002," Adams told the magazine.
Adams added, "I can tell you nothing original or startling or new about this, except that it's Hollywood doing what it does best, which is take one step forward, two steps back. The director is Jay Roach, who did Austin Powers; the producer is Roger Birnbaum, who has had his fingers in all kinds of movies [including Rain Man, G.I. Jane and The Sixth Sense]."
As for who might appear in the film, Adams said, "There's a lot of talk about different actors, but nothing I can tell you about yet. It's not being cast quite yet, and it's just being budgeted. So we're basically waiting for the green light and another draft of the screenplay."
Tremors III In Development
tampede Entertainment plans to produce Tremors III, the next sequel to the 1990 feature film Tremors, which starred Kevin Bacon.
Tremors 2: Aftershocks went straight to video in 1995.
"After years of telling you over and over that Universal would not make a third Tremors, it's going to happen," Stampede reported on its official Web site. "All your begging, pleading (and buying those videos and DVDs) paid off. Tremors II was so successful, Universal has closed a deal with Stampede Entertainment to make a new installment."
Producers are developing a new story for the straight-to-video sequel. Release is set for mid-2001.
Crow Not Dead Yet?
he syndicated television series The Crow: Stairway to Heaven won't be back in the fall, but Cinescape Online reported that executive producer Edward R. Pressman hopes to resurrect the series at some point.
"We've been negotiating with Universal TV for many months and recently concluded an agreement to re-acquire the rights from them," Pressman told the site.
Pressman added, "It's highly likely that we'll be able to get [the show] going for the fall of [2001]."
Cinescape also reported that Dimension Films has delayed the release of The Crow: Salvation, the third installment in the Crow feature-film franchise. The film is reportedly completed.
Powerpuff Movie Planned
arner Bros. will produce a $25 million animated feature film based on the Cartoon Network series The Powerpuff Girls, according to Variety.
The show, which is running on the network every night at 8:30 this summer, is Cartoon's highest-rated original series, the trade paper reported.
The Powerpuff Girls movie is slated for release in the summer of 2002. The show's creator, Craig McCracken, will oversee the production.
Hugo-Winning D.C. Fan Mayhew Dies
oe Mayhew--a Hugo Award-winning fan artist, SF writer, avid SF fan and officer of the Washington Science Fiction Association--died Saturday, June 10, of a rare brain disease. He was 57.
Mayhew won the 1998 Hugo Award for best fan artist and was also nominated for work published in 1990, 1996 and 1999; his cartoons appeared in Asimov's, Analog, Pirate Writings and numerous fanzines.
Mayhew served as the Library of Congress' Recommending Officer for Science Fiction and developed the official government definition of science fiction, according to the WSFA. Mayhew also wrote SF stories that appeared in Tomorrow, Aberrations and Aboriginal SF, and reviewed science fiction books for The Washington Post, Absolute Magnitude and TV's Fast Forward.
Mayhew was also active in the WSFA, the oldest SF club in the greater Washington area. Mayhew chaired the 1987 Disclave convention and the canceled 1998 Disclave, served as secretary and editor of the WSFA Journal, and acted as the club's unofficial greeter and historian.
Blood To Tour Japan
lood: The Last Vampire, described as the first anime produced entirely on computers, will tour Japan this fall.
Mamoru Oshii provided the original concept for Blood, produced by veterans of the 1996 hit Ghost in the Shell.
Blood takes place at an American military base in Japan, and more than half of the dialogue is in English (Japanese viewers will see subtitles). The 50-minute film proved popular during limited screenings last April. A Playstation2 game based on the movie is due later this year.
Kanno To Compose Escaflowne Score
usician Yoko Kanno will write music for A Girl in Gaea, the feature film adaptation of the anime television series Vision of Escaflowne.
The film, scheduled for Japanese theatrical release on June 24, will feature Kanno's new opening theme, "Yubiwa" ("Ring"), performed by Maaya Sakamoto (who also provides the voice for the film's main protagonist).
Victor Entertainment will release a single of "Yubiwa" on June 21. The original soundtrack by Kanno and collaborator Hajime Mizoguchi will follow on July 26. The North American premiere of Gaea will take place at this year's AnimeExpo in Anaheim, Calif., which runs from June 30 to July 3. Rumors say that Fox broadcasting will acquire Vision of Escaflowne as a series.
Bradbury Addresses Caltech Grads
egendary SF author Ray Bradbury told graduates of the California Institute of Technology to avoid television news, tell whoever doesn't believe in them to go to hell and move into the future with those who do believe, according to a report on Space.com.
Bradbury (The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man) was the first SF author to speak at Caltech graduate ceremonies since 1928.
"I began to write when I was 12 years old, about going to the moon, about going to Mars, about moving out into the universe," Bradbury said. "Thank God I made that decision, against all the people who said, 'Don't do that.'"
Kirk Wong To Helm Mai
irk Wong (The Big Hit) will direct the feature-film adaptation of the Japanese manga (comic book) Mai, The Psychic Girl for Sony Pictures, Variety reported.
Mai tells the story of a girl with psychic powers.
Tim Burton was once attached to direct the film for the defunct studio Carolco; later, Francis Ford Coppola developed the property, Variety reported.
Gaylactic Finalists Announced
he Gaylactic Network--an organization for gay and lesbian SF fandom--announced finalists for the Gaylactic Network Spectrum Awards.
The awards honor works in science fiction, fantasy and horror that feature positive explorations of gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered characters, themes or issues, according to the network. The 2000 Gaylactic Network Spectrum Awards will be presented at the Gaylaxicon 2000 convention in Washington in October.
The network will present awards in three categories for works originally released in 1999: best novel, best short fiction and best other work. A People's Choice Award will go to the single work receiving the most nominations. Two special Hall of Fame Awards will honor works released prior to the creation of the awards in 1998. A full list of finalists follows.
Best Novel
•The Annunciate by Severna Park
•The Granite Shield by Fiona Patton
•The Gumshoe, The Witch and The Virtual Corpse by Keith Hartman
•The Quartered Sea by Tanya Huff
•Traitor's Moon by Lynn Flewelling
•The Wild Swans by Peg Kerr
Best Short Fiction
•"Chanoyu" by Esther Friesner
•"Dapple" by Eleanor Arnason
•"The Thorn Boy" by Storm Constantine
Best Other Work
•Being John Malkovich, film
•South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut, film
•Supergirl No. 39, "On Ice," comic book
Hall of Fame, Media
•Quantum Leap, "Running for Honor," television show
•The Rocky Horror Picture Show, film
•Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, "Rejoined," television show
Hall of Fame, Print
•How Are The Mighty Fallen by Thomas Burnett Swann
•Slow River by Nicola Griffith
•Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner
•Tale of the Five by Diane Duane
•"A World Well Lost" by Theodore Sturgeon
DuVall In Talks For Mars
lea DuVall (The Faculty) is in final talks to co-star in the SF action thriller film John Carpenter's Ghost of Mars, according to Variety.
DuVall would join co-stars Courtney Love and Ice Cube in the film.
Mars is set to begin shooting in early August in New Mexico, the trade paper reported. Jason Statham and Joanna Cassidy also star.
Mission: Imp Spoofs Cruise
ission: Imp, a spoof of Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible 2, will debut on the Entertaindom.com Web site on June 22, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The 10-minute film stars Verne Troyer (Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me) as Ethan Runt.
Entertaindom will promote the film with ads in People, Entertainment Weekly and Sports Illustrated magazines, as well as with a billboard on Hollywood's Sunset Blvd. Winchell's doughnut shops, meanwhile, will give away Mission Imp trading cards to customers who buy a dozen or more doughnut holes, the trade paper reported.
Cinescape Online, meanwhile, reported that a sequel to Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me is in the works, which would bring back star Michael Myers and Troyer.
Phoenix To Develop Tonight
odd Komarnicki (My Achilles Heart) will write and direct the supernatural thriller film Tonight at 11 for Phoenix Pictures, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Tonight tells the story of a man who sees his death foretold on the television news and tries to prevent the report from coming true, the trade paper reported.
In addition to the independent film My Achilles Heart, Komarnicki is also a novelist.
Lords Keeps Her Eye On The Future
netime porn queen Traci Lords, who will join the cast of The SCI FI Channel original series First Wave, declined to discuss her checkered past at a recent press event, according to the Toronto Sun newspaper.
Lords, who has appeared in TV's Profiler and Melrose Place, would tell the press only that she had survived her "past fame" and had moved on, according to the Sun.
Lords joins the First Wave cast next season. "I'll be absolutely honest about this," First Wave creator Chris Brancato told the newspaper. "In general, to cut through and get attention for your show, literally any notoriety is valuable, shy of being a serial killer."
M:I-2 Comes In No. 2
ission: Impossible 2 took the No. 2 slot in its second week of release, bringing in $17.1 million on the weekend of June 10, for a total of $157.9 million, according to the Hollywood trade papers.
Dinosaur came in fourth, with $8.8 million in its third weekend, for a total of $110.4 million.
Frequency remained in the top 10, coming in at No. 8 with $1.5 million, for a total of $40.2 million after more than a month.
Briefly Noted
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The Dark Horizons Web site reported that filmmakers will discuss and preview footage from the upcoming film Dungeons & Dragons for convention-goers at DragonCon in Atlanta, which runs from June 22 to July 2.
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The Canadian production company Minds Eye Films will join British special-effects house Mill Film to produce the SF feature Fuel, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The $5 million movie, from first-time screenwriter Greg Bower, is described as an SF thriller.
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Director Bobby Farrelly (There's Something About Mary) told Cinescape Online that Bill Murray will figure prominently in his upcoming film Osmosis Jones. "The film is set inside Bill Murray's body. Chris [Rock] is a white blood cell who must chase a virus inside Bill's system...Chris is just plain annoying in there."
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Buzz Lightyear, the character from Toy Story and Toy Story 2, gets his own straight-to-video movie, the 2-D animated Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins. The VHS and DVD videos come out Aug. 8 and include such bonus material as William Shatner's performance of the theme song, "To Infinity and Beyond," during the final credits.
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Hallmark Entertainment's Dinotopia miniseries will shoot in the United Kingdom's famed Pinewood Studios, Variety reported. The miniseries was reportedly in danger of being scrapped after it got bogged down over booking studio space at Prague's Barrandov studio.
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Gabriel Casseus (Bedazzled) is set to co-star in the upcoming supernatural movie Revelation, produced by Joel Silver, Richard Donner, Walter Hill, Robert Zemeckis and David Giler, Variety reported.
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New Line has opened an official Web site for its upcoming supernatural comedy Little Nicky, starring Adam Sandler. Users can download a teaser trailer for the film, which opens Nov. 17.
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Freddie Prinze Jr. told the Boston Herald newspaper that he's eager to try on Spider-Man's red-and-blue suit. The actor said he turned down a role in Fox's upcoming X-Men to leave him free to try out for the lead role in the film, which would be based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name.
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Disney executive Peter Schneider told the Wall Street Journal that the upcoming SF thriller Gemini has a budget of more than $100 million and is planned for a 2002 release, according to Cinescape Online.
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Fangoria magazine reported that production will begin this week in Pittsburgh on Children of the Dead, a feature film based on George Romero's Night of the Living Dead series of movies. Newcomer Tor Ramsey will direct from a script by Karen Lee Wolf, the magazine reported.
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Alien Oceans: The Voyage to Dharmok's Gate, an animated SF "full-dome" adventure film, opened in the Burke Baker Planetarium in Houston's Museum of Natural Science on June 16 at 10 a.m. George Takei (Star Trek) narrates the film, which takes viewers on a virtual tour of eight alien worlds.
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Heath Ledger told the IGN Movies Web site that he's not interested in playing the lead role in Sony's upcoming feature film Spider-Man, based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name. "Yeah, I guess [I've been approached]," Ledger said, adding, "I'm not a really big fan of putting on the tights or anything, though."
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The British casting company Casting Collective is seeking extras to appear in the feature film Tomb Raider, based on the Eidos video game series of the same name, according to the Empire Online Web site. The film seeks extras to appear as international diplomats in a scene to be filmed in the United Kingdom. Interested parties can e-mail Rosie at the Casting Collective.
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Universal Pictures announced it has signed Hasbro as the worldwide master licensee to make toys themed to next year's feature film Jurassic Park III, Variety reported.
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Canadian animation house Nelvana Ltd. has acquired the production, distribution and merchandising licensing rights for animated TV programming based on the classic Doctor Dolittle books by Hugh Lofting, Variety reported.
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Jeff Goldblum will star in the live-action/animated fantasy comedy movie Like Cats and Dogs, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The project is targeted for a summer 2001 release.
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Viacom, which merged with CBS last month, indicated it would shut down or sell off Star Trek: Voyager's home network, UPN, if the network doesn't meet performance criteria, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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A woman stalking Patrick Stewart necessitated a police escort for the actor after a performance of his New York play, The Ride Down Mt. Morgan, the New York Post reported. "There was a person who was creating problems for me several years ago, and after three years of no harassment, she just turned up Thursday night," Stewart told the Post.
