Donner: X-Men Is Done
-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner said in an official chat that the movie's finished and ready for its New York debut, according to a transcript on the Comics Continuum Web site.
The premiere of X-Men, which is based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name, takes place July 12 on Ellis Island in New York; the film opens July 14. Filmmakers had been struggling against a tight schedule to finish the effects-heavy movie.
"There have only been a few screenings, and they were really well received," Donner said. "But we just literally finished the picture last weekend, and they didn't start printing until Sunday. So we didn't have a chance to really screen it, because we didn't want to miss any effects."
Donner added that Fox plans to turn X-Men into a franchise if it succeeds at the box office. And she promised that Gambit would appear. "Next movie, he'll be in the next movie," she said. "Write 20th Century Fox and express your desire for a sequel." Donner also said to expect director Bryan Singer's commentary on the DVD release of the film.
As for the controversial question about why the filmmakers changed the X-Men's trademark yellow-and-blue costumes, she said, "First of all, the costumes themselves have evolved and changed color through the years. We felt if we went with any of the colors, say the yellow and blue, that it would not be realistic that they would be walking around in the world wearing yellow and blue spandex, fighting. We chose black because it would cloak and hide them in the darkness. But they have their colors stitched on the black."
Singer, Mane Discuss X-Men
-Men director Bryan Singer told Cinescape Online that he was nervous tackling such a venerable franchise.
Singer spoke about the upcoming Fox movie, which is based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name, during production earlier this year.
"I live inside the movie," Singer said. "Every day I'm about [getting the job done]. So I know more about the X-Men movie than anybody else out there, but I can't step back from that. I don't think any filmmaker can. But there have been some successful movies based on comic books. It all depends on what you call successful. Is it a good film? Is it popular? Did it make a certain amount of money? Batman and Superman are real tentpoles because they really broke some ground, and it's difficult to compete with [them], especially Superman. I think it was double its budget. It was an epic for its time. And this is not Superman. It's not one guy. It's a whole different thing. So I'm just looking at it as a film."
But Singer, who won fame for directing the quirky character drama The Usual Suspects, said he was intrigued by the film's subject. "When I finally started to understand what [X-Men] was after my first encounters with the Marvel people ... I became really intrigued with it. The characters, the characters' relationships and the ideology of the universe are so sophisticated and interesting. It doesn't seem strange at all that it has survived and remained so popular for 38 years."
Professional wrestler Tyler Mane, meanwhile, told the Fandom Web site that his wrestling background wasn't much use to him as he played X-Men villain Sabretooth. His background "helped with the discipline and the training, but as you know, Sabretooth is not really a finesse guy; he is a slasher, hacker, mauler. So I had to take on that kind of persona. So there is a lot of slashing and swiping moves. ... But the conditioning is what helped me deal with it. I've done tae kwon do, soft- and hard-style karate, jiu jitsu, a bit of kung fu, judo, basically a meld of several different styles."
Mane admitted he enjoyed the work. "There were several memorable scenes, but I basically enjoyed all the fight scenes where I'm basically beating up every X-Man I can see. Slicing and dicing. We also were doing some wirework, and that was some pretty phenomenal stuff going on. I was in the harness a lot. Now I weigh 275 pounds, and so when it was my turn to get into the harness, they needed a couple of extra guys to pull on the wires. That was a fun, learning experience, getting up there flipping, spinning and flying through the air."
X-Men Gear On Sale
s Fox counts down to the July 14 premiere of X-Men, the studio has prepared a television special and OK'd a Home Shopping Network memorabilia sale and a new card game.
The movie is based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name.
Fox's cable network FX will air a half-hour Making of the 'X-Men' special at 10 p.m. ET/PT on July 16. The special will feature stars Patrick Stewart, Halle Berry and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos.
On July 10, the Home Shopping Network will sell X-Men comics autographed by co-creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, as well as movie items signed by stars Ian McKellen, Tyler Mane and others. The special airs on the cable network at 1 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET.
Wizards of the Coast, meanwhile, will publish a new trading card game featuring characters from the film and comic series. A two-player starter set went on sale July 3, with a suggested retail price of $14.99. It includes two 30-card decks, three dice, damage counters, a play mat, a premium card and an exclusive, full-size comic with a cover created by Art Adams. Players will be able to buy random 11-card booster packs in early September for $3.29 each.
Potter Casting Director Quits
asting director Susie Figgis has quit the movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone after failing to find a young actor for the title role acceptable to director Chris Columbus, according to the Empire Online Web site.
Figgis reportedly auditioned thousands of young British boys to fill the role of the 10-year-old wizard, but none passed muster.
Figgis told The Daily Mail newspaper, "I feel I have done my absolute best to find a child, and during our search we've met some great kids. Ultimately, it's the director's point of view and vision." Potter is based on J.K. Rowling's best-selling children's novel of the same name.
Though they have filled several supporting roles, filmmakers have yet to sign any child actors to play the key roles of Harry and his friends, Ron Weasley and Hermoine Granger, despite receiving tens of thousands of inquiries. Columbus will direct the Warner Bros. movie, based on a screenplay by Steve Kloves.
Harrison Staying True To Dune
ohn Harrison, writer and director of The SCI FI Channel's upcoming miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune, told SCIFI.COM that he remained faithful to Herbert's novel.
In response to a fan question on the official Dune Web site, Harrison said, "I took this assignment with the clear understanding that my version would be an adaptation true to Herbert's book, not my interpretation of it, and that I would change as little as possible in the narrative structure."
Harrison added, "In fact, the story plan I pitched to the network was to have each night mirror the interior 'books' of the novel. That is, Night One: 'Dune'; Night Two: 'Muad'dib'; Night Three: 'The Prophet.' And we've remained true to that structure. ... That said, however, there are concessions to film narrative that had to be made. A novel by definition can have a more abstract structure, more interior monologue, more psychological and descriptive musings that in film must be externalized. So, there will be obvious adaptations in this area. The story line is a bit more linear. Some events may be ordered slightly differently than the book. And there will be no voice-over thought processes."
Harrison said the miniseries will remain true to the spirit and the letter of Herbert's novel. "In fact, because I have six hours to tell the story, I've been able to explore Herbert's themes of religious mysticism and fanaticism, the cultural life in the seitches, the character conflicts, the moral struggles, to a much greater degree than a feature-length film could."
Dune fans can submit their own questions to Harrison at the official Dune Web site. Harrison will answer at least one question each week until the Dune miniseries airs in December.
More Episode II Roles Cast
our new Australian actors have won roles in Star Wars: Episode II, which began principal photography down under this week, according to the official Star Wars Web site.
The actors join other Oz and New Zealand thespians who will appear in the sequel.
Bonnie Piesse will play Beru, the woman who grows up to raise Luke Skywalker with Owen Lars. (Joel Edgerton will play the young Owen in Episode II.) Piesse is best known for her role on the Australian TV series High Flyers, and has guest-starred on Blue Heelers and Horace & Tina.
Alethea McGrath will play a Jedi academic in Episode II. She has appeared in several stage plays and played roles in the feature films Dead Letter Office, Epsilon, The Eye the Sky and Dallas Doll.
Matt Doran takes on the role of an unsavory troublemaker. Doran is best known for his role as Mouse in last year's The Matrix and as Coombs in The Thin Red Line. He has appeared on television as the lead character Damian on the Australian series Home and Away and has guest-starred on several other series. He has also acted in the feature films Lillian's Story, Praise, The Big Night Out, Victim and Neophytes and Neon Lights.
Susie Porter will play a waitress in Episode II. Her role as Deirdre in the film Two Hands won her the FCCA annual award for best supporting actress. She has appeared in the films Paradise Road and Welcome to Woop Woop and played the lead roles in Feeling Sexy and Better than Sex. Porter has the lead role in the upcoming film The Monkey's Mask, which co-stars Kelly McGillis, and she will also appear in Bootmen, with Adam Garcia.
It's Croft. Lara Croft.
imon West, director of the upcoming Angela Jolie movie Tomb Raider, told Empire Online that Jolie's character, adventurer Lara Croft, is more than simply a female James Bond.
"Everyone would want to be her, or have her as their girlfriend," West said. "But we're not constrained like Bond, because this is the first one."
West added, "That's what appealed to me. It was a totally open brief. We're also not constrained by reality. I've set certain rules up in the film that, when you're above ground, everything has to be pretty much plausible. We push it every now and again, as there is weird phenomena in the world. But when we go underground, into the tombs, we change the rules completely. The gloves are off, and almost anything can happen. You can't do that with Bond. There's a very surreal element to Tomb Raider."
West said Tomb Raider is only the first of three planned films. The first Tomb Raider, based on the Eidos video game series of the same name, would have a "New Age mysticism" to it, West said. "The next [movie] might be totally scientifically based," he added. "Everyone's signed on for three pictures. I have the choice to do them if I want. I don't have to, but I'm very protective of it, because I've created the world and the people in it. At the moment, it feels hard to let someone else come in and mess around with it, or screw it up completely. But that's before I've made it. Who knows? If you choose the right director, the sequel might even be better."
Voyager Ep Wraps
roduction of "Unimatrix Zero, Part II," the upcoming season premiere episode of Star Trek: Voyager, has wrapped, according to the official Star Trek Web site.
The episode, which resolves last season's cliffhanger, will open Voyager's seventh and last season.
Production began this week on the next episode, No. 248, entitled "Imperfection," on Paramount's Stage 9, directed by Trek veteran David Livingston. The second episode of season seven began with scenes in Engineering, Sickbay and the Cargo Bay, featuring Roxann Dawson (B'ElannaTorres), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine) and Robert Picardo (the Doctor).
Logan To Pen Trek X
ohn Logan (Bats) will be the primary screenwriter on the upcoming 10th Star Trek film, according to the official Star Trek Web site.
Logan worked on the screenplays for Any Given Sunday and Gladiator, as well as the original HBO movie RKO 281.
Star Trek X is tentatively scheduled for a Thanksgiving 2001 release. Star Trek executive producer Rick Berman told the official Star Trek Communicator magazine that the new movie will feature "a very action-oriented story that revolves around a remarkable villain. A higher percentage of this film will take place in outer space than in our previous films."
Meanwhile, the official Trek Web site announced that fans may download a video preview of the upcoming PC game Star Trek: Klingon Academy, a space combat simulation. The game is a prequel to the 1991 feature film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
SCI FI Stars Going To Comic-Con
tars and producers of The SCI FI Channel original series Farscape, The Invisible Man and Frank Herbert's Dune are tentatively scheduled to appear at the Comic-Con International in San Diego July 20 to 23.
Comic-Con is the largest annual gathering of fans of comics and other genre entertainment.
Farscape executive producers Rockne S. O'Bannon and David Kemper and actor Gigi Edgley will appear on a panel at 4 p.m. July 21.
John Harrison, writer and director of the SCI FI miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune, will appear with actor Ian McNeice and visual effects supervisor Ernest Farino in a panel at 12 p.m. July 22.
Invisible Man stars Vincent Ventresca, Eddie Jones, Paul Ben-Victor and Shannon Kenny will appear on a panel at 12 p.m. July 22.
The cast and crews will also greet fans at SCI FI's booth at the convention.
Robotech Coming To DVD
wo different companies will release their own DVD versions of SDF Macross (Robotech).
Animeigo will release a DVD of SDF Macross, the original uncut Japanese series that became Robotech in the United States. The Animeigo DVDs will hold all 36 uncut episodes in Japanese with English subtitles.
ADV Films, meanwhile, will release a DVD of Robotech as it was edited and dubbed for broadcast in the United States. ADV's Robotech collection will hold every U.S. episode produced, including the rare Codename: Robotech. The DVD will also feature audio commentary by the original voice actors, ADV spokesman Matt Greenfield said.
ADV To Release Spriggan
priggan, a feature film from the creators of Akira and Memories, will receive a full theatrical release in the United States this fall, ADV Films representative Matt Greenfield announced at Anime Expo in Anaheim, Calif.
"As soon as Spriggan gets its MPAA rating, you'll see the trailers all over the place," Greenfield said.
Greenfield could not say how widely the company would distribute the film. But he assured fans that it would be in a lot more theatres than Miramax's release last year of Princess Mononoke. Spriggan tells the story of a secret army assigned to guard ancient relics. Shortly after the premiere, ADV will issue Spriggan in an English-dubbed DVD.
ADV Films will also release Parasite Eve, a live-action movie based on the video game of the same name, in theaters in the fall.
No Lain Sequel In Works
ideki "Henry" Goto, Pioneer's vice president of animation, retracted an earlier statement that Pioneer planned to produce a sequel to Serial Experiments Lain.
No such sequel is in the works, Goto told SCI FI Wire.
Spidey Casting Near
es Bentley (American Beauty) and Tobey Maguire (The Cider House Rules) are on the short list to play the lead role in Sam Raimi's upcoming Spider-Man movie, set to start shooting in November, Variety reported.
Variety reported that Columbia Pictures favors Bentley, while director Raimi likes Maguire.
Spider-Man casting should wrap within six weeks, so that the film can stay on course for a potential fall 2001 release, the trade paper reported. Scott Rosenberg (Disturbing Behavior) is rewriting the script by David Koepp (Stir of Echoes). The movie is based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name.
Dern To Be In JP3?
ntertainment Weekly Online cites an unnamed source as saying that Laura Dern may make a cameo appearance in Jurassic Park III, the second sequel to 1993's Jurassic Park.
Dern starred in the first movie with Sam Neill, who has already signed on to reprise the role of Alan Grant for JP3.
Jurassic Park III begins shooting this summer in California and Hawaii, with a release target of July 2001, the site reported. Steven Spielberg, who directed the first two dinosaur epics, won't helm JP3. He'll most likely executive produce, with Joe Johnston (Jumanji) in the director's chair.
EW quotes another source saying that JP3 will tell the story of a group of people who find themselves marooned back on Jurassic Park island and are forced to fight their way out. Special-effects wizard Stan Winston is reportedly devising a new dinosaur menace, possibly an underwater monster, EW added.
Buffy Girl Cast?
roducers have cast the new character of Dawn in The WB's hit series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but won't say who will play the role, according to a report on the Fandom Web site.
The 10- to 15-year-old character will be Buffy's surrogate little sister, who has some kind of supernatural ability.
The site quoted an unnamed source as saying that the actress who will play Dawn will be recognizable to Buffy viewers from her roles in movies. Buffy begins shooting its fifth season this month.
Cameron Passes On T3
ames Cameron, who created The Terminator, won't be back to direct Terminator 3, according to a report by Entertainment Weekly Online.
Cameron's production company told EW that he preferred to develop a sequel to True Lies, the 1994 movie that starred Terminator lead Arnold Schwarzenegger.
EW reported that T3 would document the wars between humans and machines, and is slated for a 2002 release. Schwarzenegger has already said he will reprise the title role in the sequel.
D&D Goes Open Source
hen Wizards of the Coast releases the newest version of Dungeons & Dragons in August, it also plans to release the game's core rules for anyone to use or amend, according to the Associated Press.
The publisher hopes that other game developers will produce supplements or new D&D games using the rules.
In doing so, Wizards of the Coast joins the "open source" movement popularized by the makers of the Linux operating system, the AP reported. The idea is to get others to make games that will be compatible with D&D, increasing its popularity in general.
Under Wizards' "d20" open game license, created in consultation with the software community that helped create the open source license, companies can take Wizards' core rules and create any kind of game around them, the AP reported. Game publishers can also change the rules or make up new ones, which Wizards can then incorporate into D&D or other games.
Harrison Gave It Up For Rat
F author Harry Harrison told the SFX Web site that he agreed to relinquish creative control to the makers of a proposed feature film based on his Stainlees Steel Rat series of books.
Producer Bill McCutcheon optioned Harrison's books and "has complete artistic control," Harrison said. "That's one reason it took 16 years to sell. Studios want control always."
But Harrison added that he and McCutcheon agree on the direction the film should take, as do McCutcheon and proposed director Jan de Bont (Speed). "Bill and I see eye to eye on the screenplay, so I hope to help where I can," Harrison said.
Harrison added that the film will be based on the first book, The Stainless Steel Rat, which features the character of Slippery Jim DiGriz, a former interstellar criminal who now works for law enforcement. If it does well, more will follow, Harrison said. "If it goes well, there are nine more books out there!"
Vader Teaches Eomer
arl Urban, who plays Eomer in the upcoming Lord of the Rings movies, told fans at Dragon Con that he's taking sword lessons from Darth Vader, Cinescape Online reported.
That is, he's learning fight choreography from Bob Anderson, who performed Vader's lightsaber duels in The Empire Strikes Back.
"I'm a Rohan, and my fighting style is completely different from all the others," Urban said in Atlanta. "It's really quite amazing, because you have these battles that can just degenerate into full-on carnage, with characters just going at it, and then you have this sleek character who's like a dancer, weaving his way through the battle."
"My first day, a gentleman came up to me and said he was going to teach me sword fighting," Urban said. "He shows me a few moves, and we put together this fight. After he leaves, this other young stunt guy comes up to me and says, 'Do you know who that was? That was Bob Anderson.' I said, 'Yup.' He says, 'Darth Vader.' I said, 'Oh.' This is the guy who taught Errol Flynn how to fight, so that gives you some idea of the level of expertise they're drawing on."
Auction Aids Charity
charity auction of anime cels and sketches at the Anime Expo in Anaheim, Calif., brought in more than $68,000 for the City of Hope.
The Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation sponsored the fund-raiser, whose proceeds benefited the hospital's "Heroes for Hope" program for the research and treatment of childhood diseases.
A sketch of Madoka, a character from Kimagure Orange Road, fetched $16,000. KOR creator Takada Akemi made the original pencil-and-marker sketch, which went to electrical engineer Ken Kindsfater. Other sketches and cells--including images of Vash the Stampede from Trigun creator Yasuhiro Nightow and others by Akemi--brought in thousands of dollars. "I feel extremely bad that they're paying so much money, but since it's for a good cause, I feel very grateful," Akemi said.
Electra Gets Robotic
armen Electra (Scary Movie) has completed a pilot, Electra's Guy, in which she plays a crime-fighting robot, according to TV Guide Online.
Columbia TriStar TV Distribution produced the pilot.
"It is a little comedy, a lot of action, a lot of fight scenes and explosions and stuff," Electra told TV Guide. She plays a robot that is inherited by her late inventor's son. "She's not human, so she doesn't really know how to love, and she doesn't know all these different emotions, so throughout the TV show, I would get in touch with these different emotions and possibly fall in love or not fall in love."
New Viz Anime Coming To U.S.
iz Communication announced plans to release the Revolutionary Girl Utena manga and the Ayashi no Ceres anime and manga series in the U.S.
The announcement met with enthusiastic applause by fans at the Anime Expo in Anaheim, Calif.
Fans of the Revolutionary Girl Utena will be able to follow the manga version in Viz's Animerica Extra magazine. But despite recent rumors and announcements, further Utena episodes have not been picked up in the U.S. yet. "We're still in negotiations ... nothing has been signed yet," Central Park media marketing coordinator Mee-Lise Robinson told SCI FI Wire.
Viz representatives said that the company will release Ayashi no Ceres, the newest series by fan favorite Watase Yuu, who also created Fushigi Yuugi (Mystery Play). Ayashi no Ceres follows the life of the descendant of a spirit of vengeance and the family that is trying to capture the spirit.
Blanchett: Rings Get Real
ate Blanchett, who plays Galadriel in the upcoming film trilogy The Lord of the Rings, told E! Online that she feels responsible to fans of the J.R.R. Tolkien books on which the films are based.
"Because you're dealing with so many millions of people who are connected to these stories, you have a responsibility," she said. "But you also need to find a reason to turn it into a film."
Blanchett added, "If you're simply wanting to give every single detail in the books, then go and buy the tapes of someone reading them, or go and read them yourself. It has to be a filmic experience, which is liberating for an actor."
Blanchett said that director Peter Jackson wants to ground the films in reality. "Like any form of magic or war story, the books are incredibly dark. They're primal as well as fantastical, so I think it's important to have a director who has his feet planted in gore and fantasy. Yet when we're doing the scenes, [Jackson is] constantly saying it has to be real--even though we're playing elves--and grounded in realism, or else people won't buy it. They have to be emotionally and psychologically, as well as visually, invested in the story."
Meanwhile, Brad Dourif, who plays the evil Grima Wormtongue, told fans at Dragon Con in Atlanta that they shouldn't worry about the films' accuracy, according to Cinescape Online. "They had people on the shoot like Christopher Lee [Saruman], who knew Tolkien," Dourif told a packed audience. "He's been around a while. He loves the books; he's read them every single year, and he's correcting everybody. He runs down to all the people whose job it is to get it right, and he corrects them; he gives them lessons. I had to work with him, and I didn't want to be wrong. Not with Dracula."
But Dourif said there will be changes. "One of the areas in which it's been much looser has been in nailing down the characters," Dourif said. "I had meetings with the writers when I came on, and a lot of stuff got rewritten. They say, 'What do you think of this guy?' and the scenes get rewritten according to our conversations. It's character-driven in the book, but it doesn't work as well dramatically in the movie. It's a great effort, with a lot of leeway in that area."
Wohl Talks Up Witchblade
avid Wohl of Top Cow comics told the Comics Continuum Web site that he's confident that TNT's upcoming TV movie version of the Witchblade comics will become a regular series.
"No word about a [TV] series yet, but the buzz is good, and we're all crossing our fingers over here," Wohl said.
Wohl, who produced the Witchblade film, said he was impressed by a preview tape of the movie, which will air on TNT Aug. 27. "It had been so long in the making and had gone through so many rewrites, I really had no idea what to expect," he said. "And on top of that, I'm kind of pessimistic by nature, so I always assume the worst. But I was very happy with the way the film came out, as the co-creator of the comic, as well as just a regular movie watcher."
Wohl added, "I think it definitely keeps the essence of the comic intact for all Witchblade fans, and at the same time, it's accessible to the mainstream audience."
Exposure Film Festival Announced
he SCI FI Channel is sponsoring a film festival for new SF movies and a $1 million grant program to help fledgling SF filmmakers, the cable network announced.
The SCI FI Presents Exposure: Future of Film Festival, which takes place in New York Aug. 3 to 6, will be a multimedia showcase of cutting-edge SF films, shorts and original programming. Proceeds from ticket sales for the festival will benefit the Independent Feature Project.
The festival, keyed to SCI FI's series Exposure, will be based at the Chelsea Clearview Cinemas and the Altman Building. In addition to films, the festival will feature an interactive screening environment created by renowned designers Filmschool and BIG Room.
The festival will open with a special screening of USA Films' upcoming release Cherry Falls, Australian director Geoffrey Wright's take on the teen thriller genre. Other films will include Tim Burton's first film, Vincent; Alex Proyas' student short Strange Residues; William Shatner's Esperanto-language feature film, Incubus; the documentary The Gospel According to Phillip K. Dick; and Regent Entertainment's feature film The Specials.
The festival will culminate in the announcement of the Future of Filmmaking Award, the first award in a grant program under which SCI FI has committed to the production of 50 original SF short films. To apply for a grant, prospective filmmakers can submit a concept for their SF-related short film to the official Exposure Web site. Festival tickets and programs will be available at the box office at the Altman Building.
Buzz Comes To ABC
BC will air Disney/Pixar's Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, an animated Saturday-morning kids series based on the character from the Toy Story movies, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Buzz will follow the adventures of Lightyear and his Space Rangers as they battle the forces of evil.
Seinfeld's Patrick Warburton will provide the voice of Buzz and Wayne Knight will voice Evil Emperor Zurg. Buzz will premiere Oct. 14 at 10:30 a.m. and will also air Sunday mornings during the cartoon block Disney produces for UPN.
Lab Provides Spidey Ideas
et designers for Sony's upcoming Spider-Man movie recently visited the University of California's Berkeley Labs to crib designs, according to the labs' Berkeley Lab Currents magazine.
Designers talked with John H. Turner of the National Center for Electron Microscopy.
The plot of the movie has the titular hero jumping on a large electron microscope to retrieve spider DNA being manipulated by researchers at Cornell University, the magazine reported. Designers reportedly wanted to model the microscope on Berkeley's atomic resolution microscope at the NCEM.
Spider-Man, based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name, is in pre-production and is slated for a late 2001 release.
Locus Winners Announced
ocus magazine presented its 2000 Locus Awards July 2 at Westercon in Honolulu.
The winners, based on the results of the annual Locus Poll, received plaques, and publishers of winning works received certificates, the magazine announced.
Complete results of the poll will appear in the August issue of Locus. A list of winners follows.
Best Science Fiction Novel
•Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Best Fantasy Novel
•Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Best First Novel
•The Silk Code by Paul Levinson
Best Novella
•"Orphans of the Helix" by Dan Simmons
Best Novelette [tie]
•"Huddle" by Stephen Baxter
•"Border Guards" by Greg Egan
Best Short Story
•"macs" by Terry Bisson
Best Non-Fiction Book
•Sixty Years of Arkham House by S.T. Joshi
Best Art Book
•Science Fiction of the Twentieth Century by Frank M. Robinson
Best Collection
•The Martians by Kim Stanley Robinson
Best Anthology
•Far Horizons, Robert Silverberg, ed.
Best Artist
•Michael Whelan
Best Editor
•Gardner Dozois
Best Magazine
•Asimov's
Best Book Publisher
•Tor
More Xander On Buffy
uffy the Vampire Slayer producer Jane Espenson told Dragon Con in Atlanta that The WB hit show's next season will be the "Year of Xander," according to the Dark Horizons Web site.
She added that writers will create a "very interesting" storyline for Riley, Buffy's boyfriend of last season.
Espenson added that Buffy creator Joss Whedon is writing a comic book miniseries for later this year that places the characters about 10 years in the future.
Showtime Gets Burkittsville
rtisan Entertainment has produced The Burkittsville 7, a new mock documentary, for Showtime to promote the cable network's airing of The Blair Witch Project, Variety reported.
The half-hour show will also promote the film's upcoming sequel, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, which opens in the United States on Oct. 27.
Burkittsville will air back-to-back with Blair Witch on July 16 during a free preview of the pay cabler. The documentary will detail the back story of Blair Witch while hinting at the new content in the sequel.
The SCI FI Channel, meanwhile, is reportedly producing its own hour-long documentary as a tie-in to Blair Witch 2, as it did with Curse of the Blair Witch, the mock documentary that tied in with the release of the original film.
Titan's Damage Grows
fter falling out of the box-office top 10 only two weeks after its debut, Titan A.E. could force Twentieth Century Fox's parent company News Corp. to take a $120 million write-off, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The animated movie cost $75 million to make, but has so far taken in only $16.9 million.
As a result, Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst Jessica Reif Cohen estimated that News Corp. will take the write-down in its fiscal fourth quarter, the trade paper reported.
It's only the latest damage wrought by the Don Bluth/Gary Goldman SF epic. Titan A.E.'s dismal performance was cited as a factor in the resignation of Fox Filmed Entertainment chairman Bill Mechanic. The movie's failure was also the last straw for Fox Animation Studios in Phoenix, which Fox has shut down.
Big Shi Plans Afoot
illy Tucci, creator of the Shi comic series, told the Diamond Comics Previews magazine that the feature film based on his comic continues to develop.
"I have been out in Los Angeles a lot working on two major projects that I'm really excited about," Tucci told Previews, according to the Comics2Film Web site.
"One is Shi: The Motion Picture, in which Kevin Bernhardt (Art of War) and myself are finishing up the final polish," Tucci said. "Franchise Pictures plans to have the director and cast secured by the end of July and is set to start filming after Christmas, for a July 2001 release."
Tucci added, "The second is a new video and comic book series we affectionately call Shi.G.I. 2001. It'll be a collection of three 30-minute animated videos. I've already written the scripts and will direct the videos. I am also creating the [computer-generated] characters; it's incredible actually building and painting Shi in the computer. A monthly comic book series will launch with the videos in April 2001, so fans will be getting a tremendous amount of Shi next year!"
Diablo II Site Crashes
attle.net, the Web site home for Diablo II role playing, crashed temporarily last week after Diablo II debuted, according to the FGN Web site.
About 130,000 role-playing gamers inundated the site on the first day the much-anticipated sequel to 1997's Diablo hit the market, hoping to play the game online, according to FGN.
Blizzard, which publishes the game, reported as many as 2 million pre-orders for Diablo II. The first Diablo topped game sales charts, with more than 2 million sold.
Akira, Cardcaptors DVDs Due
he popular anime Akira and the children's animated series Cardcaptors will both appear on DVDs in the United States, Pioneer announced.
The Akira DVD will come out in 2001 and will feature multilingual tracks and as-yet undetermined special features.
Cardcaptors (also known as Card Captor Sakura), now airing on The WB, will appear on DVD in September in both edited broadcast form and unedited, subtitled form.
Pioneer also announced the release of the entire Fushigi Yuugi series, complete with the original video animation series, music videos and Omake specials.
Square To Ban Guides
quare Soft, publishers of the Final Fantasy game series, wants to discourage gamers from cheating by banning the publication of Final Fantasy IX walk-through guides, according to the FGN Web site.
Japan's Mainichi newspaper reported that Square will not authorize such guides for a while after it releases Final Fantasy IX, FGN said.
Square probably won't be able to prevent online and non-Japanese Web sites from publishing guides, FAQs and walk-throughs, FGN reported.
Petersen To Make Ring
irector Wolfgang Petersen (The Perfect Storm) will turn to television to make The Ring, a miniseries based on German mythology, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Petersen's Radiant Productions has signed a deal with Germany's Tandem Communications and German commercial network RTL to co-produce the English-language miniseries, according to the trade paper.
Petersen will executive produce. Bob Cochran (USA's La Femme Nikita) will write the script. The Ring will tell the classic story of Siegfried and Bruennhilde, who fight the evil Wotan and Loge for possession of a magical ring made of Rhine gold.
No director or actors have yet been attached to the series, set to go into production in the spring or fall of 2001. The project is being shopped to U.S. networks, the trade paper reported.
Scully, Meet Mr. Big?
! Online reported a rumor that producers of The X-Files are seeking Chris Noth (Mr. Big on HBO's Sex and the City) to play FBI Agent Scully's new partner.
Noth would take over from David Duchovny, who will appear in only half of next season's episodes. Gillian Anderson, who plays Scully, is contracted to appear in all of season eight.
Earlier rumors have suggested that Scully will get a new partner in season eight to help search for Duchovny's Fox Mulder, who was last seen in the company of aliens.
Meyer Sees Future
reckin Meyer (Road Trip) will star in The Near Future, an upcoming SF comedy pilot for HBO, Variety reported.
Bob Odenkirk (Mr. Show with Bob & David) executive produces, co-wrote and will direct the pilot.
Future takes place in Los Angeles in 2014 and tells the story of Luke (Meyer), a young man who is trying to escape an assassin sent after him by the U.S. Postal Service.
Dragon Con Previews D&D
he trailer for the feature film version of Dungeons & Dragons, the venerable role-playing game, debuted to an overflow crowd at Dragon Con in Atlanta, according to E! Online.
Producer-director Courtney Solomon, associate producer Ann Flagella and actors Lee Arenberg (Elwood the dwarf) and Justin Whalin (Ridley the thief) introduced the picture, the site reported.
Dungeons & Dragons: The Movie will be the first of a planned trilogy of films based on the Wizards of the Coast game series. The film will feature an 11-minute end sequence depicting 150 dragons battling above a city, the site reported.
The $35 million movie is slated for either a Thanksgiving or Memorial Day 2001 release. Filmmakers are still in post-production.
Don't Expect Chicken II
he makers of the hit animated film Chicken Run don't plan a sequel, according to the Reuters news service.
Arthur Sheriff, a spokesman for Aardman Animation, said co-founders Peter Lord and director Nick Park are pleased with the film's success, but want to move on.
"We are not going to consider a Chicken Run II," Sheriff told Reuters. "The studio's next movie will be an Aardman version of the Aesop fable 'The Tortoise and the Hare'--a 'Tortoise and the Hare' meets Spinal Tap," Sheriff said. Aardman also plans a feature version of Park's Oscar-winning Wallace & Gromit shorts.
Chicken Run has already earned nearly $50 million in North America in only its second week of release.
Jolie Warms To Croft
ngeline Jolie told the Popcorn U.K. Web site that she is enjoying the physical challenge of training for her role as Lara Croft in the upcoming feature film version of the Tomb Raider video game series.
"I'm learning to do so many things," Jolie told the site. "I just was doing bungee-ballet today, and they are getting me on a motorcycle again and knife-throwing, and I'm learning about all different weapons and kick-boxing."
Jolie added that she is bulking up to play the adventurer. "I never really do this, but it should be funny when I go home, because I am certainly looking different every day." She added that the downside is she's "starting to get really aggressive."
Haas To Star In Dead
ukas Haas (The Pearl) will star in Long Time Dead, a supernatural thriller movie from Universal and Working Title 2, Variety reported.
British director Marcus Adams will helm the feature, his first.
Dead tells the story of a young Londoner and his friends whose use of a Ouija board triggers a chain of mysterious deaths that may be caused by an otherworldly force, the trade paper reported.
Chicken Runs Well
hicken Run remained strong in its second weekend of release, taking in an estimated $21 million during the five days of the July 4 holiday weekend to rank No. 3 at the box office, according to the Hollywood trade papers.
Chicken Run's cumulative box-office earnings are nearly $50 million.
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle took the No. 5 box-office slot in its tepid premiere weekend, earning an estimated $11 million during five days, the trade papers reported.
Mission: Impossible 2, meanwhile, approached the $200 million mark, the first film released in 2000 to do so, according to The Hollywood Reporter. But Titan A.E. dropped out of the top 10 completely in only its third week of release.
Is Triangle Dead?
lien Love Triangle, a proposed trio of short films based on SF stories, has died, according to the Dark Horizons Web site.
Producers decided to turn one of the three films into a full-length feature. Director Gary Fleder's Impostor, based on a Philip K. Dick short story of the same name, will star Gary Sinise.
A second segment, directed by Danny Boyle (Trainspotting), will instead appear as an extra on an Impostor DVD, the site reported.
Christian: Earth II Possible
inescape Online reported that Battlefield Earth director Roger Christian believes a sequel is still possible, despite the movie's dismal box-office performance.
Christian told a panel at Dragon Con in Atlanta that he and producer/star John Travolta continue to discuss a sequel, which would cover the events in the second half of the L. Ron Hubbard novel on which the first film was based.
"The last night we were shooting, I looked at the crew," Christian said. "Usually at that time everybody just scurries off, but the crew stayed on the set for hours afterwards. I think universally, every one of them said they'd like to work together again. Sometimes these things sort of gel together under adversity, and that certainly happened this time."
Rings Board Game Due
heOneRing.net Web site reported a board game based on The Lord of the Rings will appear in early 2001.
Reiner Knizia will design the game, which will follow the spirit of J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy of novels, the site reported.
A German-language edition of the game will premiere at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October, published by Kosmos. The English-language edition will show up the following year.
The game will feature the artwork of Rings illustrator John Howe. The game will be cooperative and allow players to assume the role of hobbits on a journey to Mount Doom to destroy the ring.
Briefly Noted
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The Popcorn UK Web site reported that the first Lord of the Rings movie will open in the United Kingdom on Dec. 14, 2001--five days before its U.S. release date. The movies, based on the J.R.R. Tolkien novels of the same name, are still in production in New Zealand.
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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is already the biggest-selling book in the history of online book sales, Amazon.com reported to the Reuters news service. So far, nearly 400,000 copies of the fourth installment in J.K. Rowling's series of children's novels have been pre-ordered from the online retailer.
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Tom Cruise told the Big Breakfast British television program that he's set to star in Steven Spielberg's Minority Report, according to Cinescape Online. "I left my whole schedule open, so when Steven's ready we'll begin. At the moment I'm scheduled to go to New York to begin shooting in April of next year," with a summer 2002 release date.
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Shadow of the Vampire, E. Elias Merhige's feature film about the making of the silent classic film Nosferatu, won the Avignon Film Festival's competition devoted to American films on June 27, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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Hideki "Henry" Goto, Pioneer's vice president of animation, retracted an earlier statement that Pioneer planned to produce a sequel to Serial Experiments Lain. No such sequel is in the works, Goto told SCI FI Wire.
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Artisan Entertainment has bought Alexi Hawley's supernatural thriller script Chasing Shadows, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Shadows tells the story of a man with psychic gifts that he uses vigilante-style to stalk and kill serial killers, the trade paper reported.
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The Apple Mac version of the much-anticipated video game Diablo II has gone gold and should be hitting stores by the end of the month, FGN reported.
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Jennifer Lopez told the London Express newspaper that she expects flak for her upcoming edgy SF thriller movie The Cell, which features her variously in the guise of the Virgin Mary and a nude dominatrix. "We are going to get a lot of stick for this," Lopez said. "There were days when I'd think, 'Are we going to get away with this stuff?' It's very extreme."
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Fire gutted the Washington state diner that played a key role in the 1980s television series Twin Peaks, according to the Associated Press. The Mar-T Café, which stood in for the show's Double-R-Diner, sustained $250,000 in damage.
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George Lucas has donated prints of Star Wars: Episode I to Cuba so that the movie can screen in that country without violating the U.S. trade embargo, according to the Washington Post newspaper.
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Veteran James Bond actor Sean Connery was knighted by Britain's Queen Elizabeth for his work in movies, according to the Reuters news service.
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Steve Jackson Games will publish a role-playing source book based on author Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan character and novel series. The Vorkosigan series will be part of SJ Games' GURPS line of role-playing games, the company announced.
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TheOneRing.net reported a rumor that the first theatrical trailer for the upcoming Lord of the Rings films will appear in November, possibly attached to New Line's Adam Sandler comedy Little Nicky.
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The Dark Horizons Web site reported that model Estella Warren will play the female lead in Tim Burton's upcoming remake of Planet of the Apes, opposite Mark Wahlberg.
