Fox High On Dark Angel
ox executives said that they have high confidence in James Cameron's SF television series Dark Angel, despite the pilot's high cost, according to the [Inside] Web site.
"There's no question that that pilot was an expensive pilot, and Jim is a pretty ambitious creator," Fox Broadcasting Co.'s new entertainment president Gail Berman told television critics at their annual fall preview in Pasadena, Calif., the site reported. Fox declined to say how much the pilot cost.
Berman added, "I think that my coming into this position is--and hopefully will be--an acknowledgement to the creative community that we'd like to hang in there with shows as much as we possibly can and give them an opportunity to grow and build."
Fox Television Entertainment Group chairman Sandy Grushow echoed Berman's sentiments. "I also think, in fairness to Jim, he has been an incredible partner," Grushow told the critics. "He's been incredibly responsible. He brought the pilot in on time and on budget. And there were more expensive shows that were made this past season. I was told that The Fugitive has an hour cost of $6 million. I can't verify that. But so we felt very good about our investment. We knew that by doing it, why we did it as a two-hour [pilot], was that there's an enormous amount of foreign money in the marketplace. ... It's actually pretty unfair to characterize him or his show as somehow being a sign that we're prepared to let people be profligate. I think Jim deserves more credit than that." The two-hour premiere of Dark Angel will air Oct. 3.
McKellen On X-Men 2
an McKellen, who plays Magneto in Fox's hit movie X-Men, told fans that filmmakers will meet soon to discuss an expected sequel.
In response to a question on his official Web site, McKellen said, "After a well-earned rest, the producers will regroup with Fox next week to plan the X-Men sequel. Patrick [Stewart] and I are contracted to take part."
McKellen also confessed to pilfering a souvenir from the X-Men set, a tradition he observes on each of his films. "In the last scene of X-Men, Magneto wears a pair of clogs made of plastic. I'm keeping them safe in case they are needed for the sequel, and as they are washable, no one will guess that I've worn them a lot in the meantime."
X-Men No. 1 At Movies
-Men clawed its way to the top of the box-office rankings in its debut, pulling in an estimated $54.5 million from North American theaters during the weekend of July 14, according to the Hollywood trade papers--the sixth-highest three-day opening ever for a motion picture.
The movie, based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name, had the biggest July opening ever and the second-biggest three-day non-holiday weekend since Star Wars: Episode I, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Disney's The Kid dropped to No. 5 in the rankings with an estimated $10.5 million, a modest 17 percent drop from its opening. The movie has made $30 million after 10 days of release.
Chicken Run came in No. 6 with an estimated $7.8 million, a 22 percent decline from the previous weekend. The poultry comedy has earned $76.9 million since its June 21 release.
Patrick Is Scully's New Partner
obert Patrick (Terminator 2: Judgment Day) will replace David Duchovny in Fox's The X-Files, playing the new partner of Gillian Anderson's FBI Agent Dana Scully, the Hollywood trade papers reported.
Duchovny will appear in only half of next season's episodes, and Patrick will be worked into the storyline to replace him, Variety reported.
Series creator Chris Carter announced Patrick's hiring late on July 20, hours before he was scheduled to meet television critics during their annual summer preview tour in Pasadena, Calif., according to The Hollywood Reporter. The announcement came after Patrick freed himself from a commitment to Paramount Network Television's pilot L.A. Sheriff's Homicide on July 19, the trade paper reported.
Variety reported that Patrick is slated to begin filming episodes on July 24. He is one of four actors who reportedly tried out for the X-Files job last week, and he apparently beat out Lou Diamond Phillips, Hart Bochner and Bruce Campbell. Patrick is best known as the liquid metal T-1000 cyborg from the second Terminator movie.
Carter: Patrick Is Man's Man
hris Carter described Robert Patrick's new character on The X-Files as a blue-collar man's man and knee-jerk skeptic, according to the iFUSE Web site.
"Everything is changed," Carter said to television critics at their annual fall TV preview in Pasadena, Calif.
Carter added, "Agent Scully [Gillian Anderson] has always been the skeptic. Over seven years, of course, [she] has seen enough to lower her skepticism, and now that Agent Mulder [David Duchovny] has been abducted, the only way to find him is to accept what Skinner [Mitch Pileggi] is saying. So the two of them become reluctant believers, and that's the way we make room for this new character. His name is John Doggett, and he comes in on the manhunt for the search for Agent Mulder. ... He believes, coming in, that everything can be solved if you just employ very good cop/police technique."
Carter said Doggett is a former New York police detective and U.S. Marine. "Robert Patrick just embodied this character. Everything from the timbre of his voice to his presence to his intensity. I saw him and Scully as worthy adversaries and worthy partners. ... He would be able to stand up to her both as an actor and a character. Mulder was the consummate outsider. We wanted someone who was blue-collar, a former cop, a man's man, and Robert Patrick came in and blew us away." The season premiere of The X-Files is Nov. 5.
Emmys Not Kind To SF&F Shows
cience fiction and fantasy shows found themselves nearly shut out of non-technical nominations in the annual prime-time Emmy Award nominations announced July 20 in Los Angeles.
The exceptions included ABC's Arabian Nights, which received a nomination as best miniseries; The WB's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, whose episode "Hush" received a best writing nomination for creator Joss Whedon; and NBC's 3rd Rock From the Sun, whose star John Lithgow got a nomination for best lead actor.
Star Trek: Voyager grabbed the most nominations among genre TV series, with seven nods in technical areas, including best costumes, hairstyling, makeup, music, sound editing, sound mixing and special visual effects.
The X-Files received six nominations, including best makeup, music, sound editing, sound mixing and two nods for special visual effects.
Including best lead actor, 3rd Rock picked up four nominations. Buffy had three total nominations, including best cinematography and hairstyling.
Among specials and miniseries, Arabian Nights got five nominations. The Discovery Channel's non-fiction Walking With Dinosaurs received six technical nominations. ABC's Geppetto got four.
Whedon Happy About Emmy Nod
oss Whedon, creator of The WB's hit series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, told Variety he was pleased with his best-writing Emmy nomination, for the innovative episode "Hush."
"It doesn't suck," Whedon said. "I was expecting nothing. I've had a steady diet of nothing. So I didn't expect a change."
"Hush" featured villains who stole voices, leaving about 70 percent of the episode without dialogue. The lack of dialogue made it one of the hardest to do, Whedon said. "Part of it was I wanted everybody desperately to shut up. Really, I wanted to make things harder on myself. It's easy to fall back on funny jokes and witty lines. And it would be more of a challenge as a director."
Matrix Sequels On Hold
hings are on hold for the production of The Matrix 2 and 3 until scripts are completed, producer Andrew Mason told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.
"There's some preliminary planning going on," Mason told the paper. "But without the scripts, no one can really lock anything in. So everybody's lining up every option and holding their breath."
The sequels to 1999's smash hit The Matrix were supposed to begin filming back to back this year in Sydney, with stars Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss and Laurence Fishburne returning. But filmmakers are also reportedly scouting locations in Canada and the United Kingdom if they can't secure studio space in Australia. Mason told the newspaper that the films probably won't begin shooting until the middle of next year because of the lengthy pre-production necessary for the effects-heavy movies.
Anne Rice Visits Contentville
he Contentville Web site now offers readers free previews of the first two chapters of Anne Rice's Merrick, the next novel in The Vampire Chronicles series.
The site has also posted an exclusive interview with the author.
Merrick tells the story of Merrick Mayfair, a mixed-race sorceress and vampire.
Dune Teaser Coming
new trailer with never-before-seen footage from The SCI FI Channel's upcoming miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune will air starting July 31 on SCI FI.
The 60-second trailer will appear during each of the three nights of SCI FI's original vampire miniseries, Ultraviolet, which begins at 8 p.m. July 31.
The six-hour miniseries Dune, based on Herbert's classic SF novel of the same name, will premiere in widescreen format Dec. 3 on SCI FI.
The six-hour miniseries Ultraviolet will tell the story of a vampire infestation with a contemporary edge. It stars Jack Davenport, Susannah Harker, Idris Elba and Philip Quast as members of a state-sanctioned vampire-fighting squad. Written and directed by Joe Ahearne, the miniseries will air over three consecutive nights as part of SCI FI's All Original Summer programming strategy.
Love Leaves Carpenter's Mars
ock star and actress Courtney Love won't appear in the supernatural SF movie John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars, Variety reported.
The trade paper cited an injury to Love's ankle, but the Ain't It Cool News Web site suggested that on-set tension may have been the reason.
Love would have played a police lieutenant who, with Ice Cube (Three Kings) and Jason Staham (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels), investigates the disappearance of Martian colonists. Carpenter and Larry Sulkis wrote the script, Variety reported.
Liam Waite, meanwhile, joins the cast of the film, which begins production Aug. 8, the trade paper reported.
AICN reported that Pam Grier has also joined the cast in a major supporting role, and that offers have gone out for a new lead actress.
A.I. Set For July 4, 2001
arner Bros. has tentatively scheduled Steven Spielberg's upcoming SF epic A.I. for release during the July 4, 2001, weekend, Variety reported.
The movie, based on a treatment by the late Stanley Kubrick, had originally been slated for a third-quarter 2001 premiere.
Variety reported that special effects work has already begun, and principal photography will start this fall. The movie will star Jude Law and Haley Joel Osment in a futuristic tale based in part on the Brian Aldiss short story "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long."
Next summer will also see the releases of The Mummy Returns, the sequel to 1999's The Mummy, and Tomb Raider, the Angelina Jolie movie based on the Eidos video game series of the same name.
Raimi Reveals Spidey Villains
irector Sam Raimi confirmed in a taped message at the International Comic-Con in San Diego that the villains in his upcoming Spider-Man movie will be the Green Goblin and Dr. Octopus, according to the Comics Continuum Web site.
"They do battle amongst the rooftops of Manhattan, and the Goblin uses his devices from his Goblin glider, his own personal winged transport, to his infamous pumpkin bombs, stun bombs, blast bombs, and he also uses his bag of razor bats--you don't want to know what those things do," Raimi said, according to the Continuum's transcript.
Raimi added, "Doc Ock is a brilliant scientist, and he has developed these snake-like arms. And they are expanding arms that can work with great dexterity and fluidity, which I think is going to be quite interesting with visual effects, which are going to have to be created digitally. And we have a great designer in Sony Imageworks to help pull that off."
Otherwise, Raimi said he's still in the process of casting the title role of the movie, which is based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name. "We don't have anyone yet cast for Spider-Man, but we're talking to all of Hollywood's hottest young men," Raimi said. "I'm not at liberty to say their names, but almost every young great actor has come to me and said that they must play Spider-Man because he is the hero of their youth."
Raimi promised that his Spider-Man will excite fans of the comic series. "I've been a fan of Spider-Man since I was a kid. What is so exciting about Spider-Man is that Peter Parker, his alias, the human being that Spider-Man is, lives in our world, in the real world. And he has problems that we identify with. He's misunderstood. Unlike Batman and Superman, where you have the whole crowds actually cheering for him, Spider-Man does good, but he's misunderstood, and people boo Spider-Man. ... What I'd like Spider-Man to be is not be a muscleman that is Superman or Batman, those stiff characters, but rather this very, lithe, thin graceful dancer of a superhero who performs his ballets 80 stories up, above the city."
Speedman Up For Spidey?
am Raimi, director of Sony's upcoming Spider-Man movie, may be leaning toward Felicity's Scott Speedman to fill the title role, according to E! Online.
Other reports have suggested that Raimi favored Tobey Maguire (The Cider House Rules), while Sony's Columbia Pictures unit liked American Beauty's Wes Bentley.
E! Online said to expect a decision soon. Spider-Man is based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name.
Roth Faces Apes Or Wizards
im Roth finds himself in the position of choosing whether to star in The Visitor, Tim Burton's remake of Planet of the Apes, or Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Variety columnist Michael Fleming reported.
Both films go into production about the same time.
Makers of Potter, which is based on J.K. Rowling's best-selling childrens' novel of the same name, want Roth to play Harry's nemesis, Professor Snape of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Makers of The Visitor, meanwhile, want Roth to play the chief ape who torments Mark Wahlberg's character.
X-Men Spurs Comic Movies
ong-stalled film projects based on comic book series are getting new life in the wake of Fox's X-Men movie success, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
X-Men, based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name, earned a whopping $54.5 million on its opening weekend.
"Everything is now moving on such a fast track," Marvel Studios chief Avi Arad told the trade paper. "Obviously, we are talking about the [X-Men] sequel and [Fox's] Fantastic Four and [New Regency's] Daredevil and [Artisan's] Ghost Rider. All of these things have been in the works for a long time."
Other comic-themed films on a fast track include Columbia Pictures' Spider-Man, to be directed by Sam Raimi; Black Panther, being developed by Wesley Snipes; Blade 2, the sequel to Snipes' 1998 hit Blade; and Satan's Six, a project being developed at Universal by Tracy Kirby, granddaughter of late X-Men co-creator Jack Kirby, and Dark Horse Comics' Mike Richardson.
Singer Not Signed For X-Men 2
-Men executive producer Tom DeSanto told the New York Post that he and director Bryan Singer have yet to sign on for the expected sequel to Fox's hit movie.
DeSanto also received a story credit for the film, which is based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name.
"Hopefully Fox and Bryan and myself will work together again," DeSanto said. "We planted the seeds for the next two [sequels] in this movie, and we'd love to do another." Most of the cast has signed on for at least one more movie. DeSanto oversees Singer's production company, Bad Hat Harry, and was responsible for bringing the director to the X-Men project in 1996, the Post reported.
Macy Joins Jurassic 3
illiam H. Macy (Mystery Men) will join the cast of Universal Pictures' Jurassic Park 3, directed by Joe Johnston, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Macy will play the role of a wealthy businessman, the trade paper reported.
Macy joins Sam Neill, who will reprise his Jurassic Park role of Dr. Alan Grant, and Alessandro Nivola, who will play a graduate student. The 18-week shoot of JP3 is set to start later this summer in Los Angeles and Hawaii.
Meanwhile, Variety reported that Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor (Election) will polish the JP3 script. Filmmakers are tightly guarding details of the movie's plot points, acknowledging only that Peter Buchman did some previous script work, the trade paper reported.
Gadget 2 Heads For Video
A sequel to Disney's Inspector Gadget movie is being developed as a direct-to-video project, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Alex Zamm and William Robertson will rewrite the script by Ron Anderson. David Kellogg will direct.
Matthew Broderick, who starred in the original 1999 movie, probably won't appear in the sequel, the trade paper reported. Gadget grossed $97.4 million domestically and brought in about $6.5 million in video sales.
The sequel will feature G-2, a female version of Gadget who competes with him for the respect of the police department.
Zemeckis Awaits Macabre Script
ob Zemeckis (What Lies Beneath) told SCI FI Wire that he's awaiting a suitable screenplay before he commits to directing a remake of William Castle's 1958 Macabre.
Zemeckis would direct the film under his and partner Joel Silver's Dark Castle production banner, which was set up to produce modestly budgeted remakes of classic horror films.
"If we ever get a screenplay that's up to caliber, [I'll do it,] absolutely," Zemeckis said. But, he added, "Whenever you say, 'When the screenplay gets right,' that could be whenever."
But Zemeckis ruled out a desire to direct any more installments of his popular Back to the Future film franchise. "Probably not," he said. "[Co-stars] Michael J. [Fox] and [Christopher] Lloyd are getting pretty old, for one. And secondly, sometimes ... certain genres or series of films ... should just be over. ... Let 'em go."
Bean Challenged By Rings
ean Bean, who plays Boromir in the upcoming film trilogy The Lord of the Rings, told the London Sunday Times that filming the three movies back to back is a challenge.
"It is totally unbelievable," he said. "I am dipping from one script to another, all printed in different colors, because all the films are being done at the same time."
Bean added, "The whole thing was cast very late, and I think it was touch and go right up to starting. It is a bigger investment than Titanic, and a lot of careers are sitting on this right to the end."
Bean is currently in New Zealand, working with writer-director Peter Jackson to film the epic movies, which are based on J.R.R. Tolkien's classic novels of the same name. "To me, it is a grown-up fairy tale that is dark and sinister," Bean said. "But it is an incredible fantasy that is quite wonderful and leaves you full of hope."
As for Rings's perfectionist director, Bean said, "Peter Jackson has been waiting to go on this for years, so what do you expect? He is demanding and incredibly talented. He has had the models, the graphics, the costumes in his head for years and can finally see the reality of it. He is creating something that has never been seen before."
Scott To Helm T3?
idley Scott is rumored to be in line to direct Terminator 3, the third installment in the popular Arnold Schwarzenegger film franchise, according to Hollywood columnist Jeffrey Wells.
Writing on Reel.com, Wells reported that Scott recently told an interviewer that he expected to direct T3 after completing Hannibal, which is now in production.
Wells also cited a different, unnamed source with ties to T3 producers Andy Vajna and Mario Kassar as confirming the account. Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Scott's production company told Wells, "Nothing is set or final or anything. ... It's all kind of up in the air and too early for anything to be firm."
Scott made the T3 comments during the filming of a documentary on the making of Scott's 1982 SF classic Blade Runner, Wells reported. Scott would take over the franchise from creator James Cameron, who directed the first two Terminator movies. (Scott would in effect be returning a favor: Cameron directed Aliens, the sequel to Scott's 1979 SF classic Alien.) Schwarzenegger has already committed to reprising the role of a killer cyborg in T3.
Disney To Develop Red World
isney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Armageddon) will develop Red World, a time-travel movie based on a script by first-time writers Travis Adam Wright and John Glenn (not the astronaut), according to the Hollywood trade papers.
The two writers are recent graduates of the UCLA screenwriting program.
Red World tells the story of 1402, a man who travels from the future to prevent an invasion of present-day Los Angeles.
U.K. Actor Wins Tomb Role
ritish actor Daniel Craig (Elizabeth) will play the male lead opposite Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider, the feature film based on the Eidos video game series of the same name, Variety reported.
Simon West is directing the movie, which is currently in production in London.
Craig is best known for his role in the British television series Our Friends in the North. He will play Theo Rooker, the love interest to Jolie's Lara Croft.
Meanwhile, Tomb Raider has won financing from Mark Gordon and Gary Levinsohn's Mutual Film Co., which will co-produce the movie with Paramount, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Under the agreement, Lawrence Gordon and Lloyd Levin will produce the film, and Paramount will handle domestic and worldwide rights, except for Germany and Japan, which Mutual will handle, the trade paper reported.
Yank To Play Potter?
! Online reported a rumor that Chris Columbus, director of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, may be considering 10-year-old American actor Liam Aiken (Stepmom) for the title role.
Such casting would go against the wishes of J.K. Rowling, author of the children's novel of the same name, who expressed a desire that a British actor play the boy wizard.
E! reported that Columbus has narrowed the field of Potter contenders to about a dozen actors. Thousands of aspirants have reportedly expressed an interest in playing Potter, the hero of the best-selling series of novels.
Legato Signs On Potter
isual effects wizard Rob Legato (Titanic) takes on the role of visual effects supervisor for Sony's upcoming Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Legato also completed the effects for DreamWorks' and Sony Pictures Imageworks' upcoming supernatural thriller film What Lies Beneath.
Legato has reportedly traveled to the United Kingdom to set up shop for Potter, which is based on J.K. Rowling's best-selling children's novel of the same name. The film, directed by Chris Columbus, will feature several effects sequences, including a computer-animated villain, Voldemort, and a game of flying broomsticks, the trade paper reported.
New Trek Game Online
he Interplay Web site has posted Web-only episodes of Star Trek: New Worlds, an interactive Flash-animated game series based in the Star Trek: The Original Series universe.
Three episodes are live, and new episodes will be posted weekly in two parts (on Tuesday and Friday) for nine weeks.
Star Trek: New Worlds follows Federation, Klingon and Romulan ships and crew as they encounter the Tabula Rasa, an area of space filled with strange new worlds.
B5 Fans To Fight AIDS
ans of Babylon 5 and Crusade will gather this fall at a convention and charity event to support AIDS research and prevention.
The Crusade for a Cure: A Call to Arms Against AIDS will take place Sept. 15 to 17 in Costa Mesa, Calif., to benefit Search for a Cure, a non-profit organization that pressures U.S. pharmaceutical companies to make AIDS treatments available to African nations.
The event is sponsored by the Ulysses Foundation, a non-profit Babylon 5 fan organization.
New Episode II Actors Hired
ore actors have won roles in George Lucas' Star Wars: Episode II, according to the official Star Wars Web site.
The movie is currently shooting in Australia. A list of the new thespians follows.
•Temuera Morrison, the Maori actor best known for his starring role in the New Zealand film Once Were Warriors, will play a bounty hunter. (Rumors say that the role will be that of Boba Fett's father.) "I have admired Temuera since first seeing him in Once Were Warriors," casting director Robin Gurland told the Star Wars Web site. "When George was creating this role, I spoke to him about Tem, and he also thought Temuera would be a wonderful addition to the cast." Morrison has appeared in such films as Barb Wire, The Island of Dr. Moreau, Speed 2, Six Days Seven Nights and Hangman's Daughter.
•Ayesha Dharker will play a "regal leader." The Indian actress played the lead role in The Terrorist, for which she won a nomination for best actress from the National Film Awards of India and the Cairo Film Festival award for best artistic contribution by an actress.
She also played the lead in Manika and appeared with Patrick Swayze in the U.S. film City of Joy.
•Marton Csokas will play a "planetary leader." Along with more than 10 years in theatrical performances, Csokas has appeared in television's The Three Stooges, The Farm and The SCI FI Channel original series Farscape. He has also acted in the films Rain, Broken English and Jack Brown Genius. Csokas will be seen as Celeborn in New Line's upcoming The Lord of the Rings films.
•Anthony Phelan will play a "global director." Along with dozens of theatrical productions, the Australian actor played the role of Ken Smith on Oz TV's Home & Away and appeared in the movies Babe: Pig in the City, Heaven's Burning and Great Falls.
•Ronald Falk will play a "local proprietor." A radio veteran for 20 years with ABC's The Science Show, the Australian won the 1988 Sydney Theatre Critic's Award for best supporting performance in Rough Crossing, the Victorian Green Room Award for best supporting actor for Newman Noggs and a 1999 Norman Kessell Awards nomination for outstanding performance by an actor in Burnt Piano.
•Rena Owen will appear in an undisclosed role. A writer, director and producer, Owen has appeared in the films What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?, I'll Make You Happy and When Love Comes Along. Her performance as Rix in Dance to My Song earned her multiple Australian film award nominations for best supporting actress. She also won multiple film festival awards in Portugal, France, Canada and the United States for her role of Beth Heke in Once Were Warriors.
•Ian Watkin will play a "food server." The New Zealand actor has appeared in theater, New Zealand television and feature films since 1970. His film credits include Braindead, Death Warmed Up, The Lost Tribe, Carry Me Back and Wild Man.
•Five-year-old Phoebe Yiamkiati will play a Jedi hopeful in her motion picture debut. She has appeared in television and print advertising.
Terence Stamps On Episode II
erence Stamp, who played Chancellor Valorum in Star Wars: Episode I, told the British television program GMTV that he won't be back in Episode II, according to the U.K. Teletext Web site.
"Actors prefer to work with actors," Stamp said.
Stamp added, "When I arrived on set for Episode 1, [director] George Lucas said, 'I've given Natalie [Portman] the day off.' So he pointed to a piece of paper on a post and said, 'Pretend that's her.' They couldn't afford me again."
Old Friends Back In Episode II
everal characters from Star Wars: Episode I will reappear in Episode II, according to the official Star Wars Homing Beacon electronic newsletter.
Episode II has begun production in Australia.
Frank Oz will reprise the role of Yoda, and Andy Secombe will voice the character of Watto, the slave-owning flying alien on Tatooine. Pernilla August will reappear as Shmi Skywalker, mother of Anakin Skywalker. And Silas Carson will again put on a mask to play Jedi Council member Ki-Adi-Mundi.
Spacey May Star In K-Pax
evin Spacey is in talks to star in the feature film version of Gene Brewer's 1955 SF novel K-Pax for Universal, the [Inside] Web site reported.
Citing sources "close to the film and the actor," the site said that Spacey was near a deal to appear in the movie, which has been in development for years.
Iain Softley (Wings of the Dove) looks likely to direct the movie, about a hospital patient (Spacey) who claims to be from the Utopian planet K-Pax. Will Smith had previously been attached to star, [Inside] reported.
Artisan Sues Polanski
rtisan Entertainment sued director Roman Polanski, claiming that he improperly pocketed more than $1 million from his supernatural horror movie The Ninth Gate, Variety reported.
The lawsuit, filed July 11 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, alleged that Polanski and his production company, R.P. Productions, kept refunds of France's value-added tax instead of turning them over to International Film Guarantors, Artisan's completion bond company, Variety reported.
Because the movie was filmed in France and ultimately exported, a VAT refund was available on the production's expenses. As of August 1999, R.P. Productions had received $619,000 in VAT refunds and was due to receive an additional $577,000, the trade paper reported. Polanski's agent, Jeff Berg at International Creative Management, did not return a call from Variety seeking comment on the suit.
Frakes: Expect Roswell Twists
onathan Frakes, executive producer of The WB's teen alien series Roswell, told SCIFI.COM's Science Fiction Weekly that the second season will bring surprises.
"In the beginning of this coming season, all of the aliens in the show, certainly, are going to have to lead their lives in a different way; their lives have been changed forever," Frakes said. "Which is exciting and challenging, and I think is going to make for some great stories."
At the end of the show's first season, the teen alien characters--played by Jason Behr, Katherine Heigl, Brendan Fehr and Emilie DeRavin--discovered their true mission on Earth. "There is going to be a great [revelation] of something that I'm not supposed to divulge in the first episode, which will help," Frakes said. "And I think, at the end of the last episode, we certainly let them know that our aliens are not the only aliens out there, which is also an appeal--and fuel for a lot of the season next year."
Frakes added, "They have begun to find out where they came from, and they've begun to understand who the character Nacedo is. And in the beginning of the second season, there will be an event that will alter the way our aliens lead their lives. So it's no longer going to be just between humans. We now have human-alien relationships, alien-alien relationships, and the fact that there are other races of aliens here on Earth with us, so it's a pretty cool sci-fi concept, I think. There's a new producer on board this season as well, someone who's quite familiar to genre fans--[former Star Trek producer] Ron Moore."
Pfeiffer Faced Fears For Beneath
ichelle Pfeiffer, star of Fox/DreamWorks' upcoming supernatural thriller film What Lies Beneath, told SCI FI Wire that she had to overcome natural fears to play the physical role.
Pfeiffer stars opposite Harrison Ford as Claire Spencer, a woman whose seemingly perfect life starts to come apart when she sees a presence haunting her home.
"I see her as a woman who ... has ... given up a lot to raise her daughter and to create an idyllic life with her husband and, ... she believes, for herself," Pfeiffer said. "[She] is desperately trying to keep the façade going, and it begins to unravel. And everything that she thought was real is not. And she sort of goes through kind of a real metamorphosis."
Among other things, director Bob Zemeckis required Pfeiffer to sit in a bathtub for hours at a time and to perform underwater. "It was pretty uncomfortable," Pfeiffer said. "I don't like the water. I'm actually a bit phobic of the water. ... It's a claustrophobia kind of thing. And I had to take some scuba diving lessons to get over my fear of being under. ... I had to breathe with a tank to get into position and stay there until they would roll, and they would take that away from me, and then I'd have to do my action ... and yeah, it was kind of scary. And ... I was in the bathtub for a long time too, which was really unpleasant."
The bathtub scene is certain to draw comparisons with the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. "It's pretty creepy," Pfeiffer said. "It ... was really unpleasant to do, I have to be honest [laughs]. It was one of the more unpleasant things I've had to do in my career." What Lies Beneath opened nationwide July 21.
NBC Moves 3rd Rock Again
BC will move its hit SF comedy 3rd Rock From the Sun to Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. in the fall from its current 8 p.m. Tuesday slot, Variety reported.
It's only the latest time change for the show since it premiered in 1996.
3rd Rock will follow the new Michael Richards Show. 3rd Rock has aired regularly in about 15 different time slots since it debuted, the trade paper reported.
Endeavour Finalists Announced
inalists for the Endeavour Award, honoring SF&F writers from the Pacific Northwest, have been announced.
The award and a $1,000 honorarium will be presented Nov. 17 at OryCon in Portland, Ore. The finalists are:
•Calculus of Angels by J. Gregory Keyes
•Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear
•The Mad Ship by Robin Hobb
•A Red Heart of Memories by Nina Kikiri Hoffman
•The Terrorists of Irustan by Louise Marley
Sterling: Time For Zeitgeist
orld-renowned SF author Bruce Sterling told SCI FI Wire that his latest novel, Zeitgeist, is finished and should be on store shelves by November.
Sterling called the book "a fantasy techno-thriller based on the misadventures of an anti-hero named Leggy Starlitz."
Starlitz has appeared in several of Sterling's short stories over the years, including "Hollywood Kremlin," "Are You For 86?" and "The Littlest Jackal." "Now Leggy has his own book, in which he uses an all-girl pop group to confront a state-supported terrorist with supernatural powers," Sterling said. "It reads like Tom Clancy on PCP."
Although Sterling's non-fiction book The Hacker Crackdown can be read for free on the Internet, the author said he has no current plans to publish Zeitgeist electronically. But Sterling invited fans "to cruise by my Web site and get on a mailing list."
Eisner To Helm Phantasma
irector Breck Eisner (SCI FI's The Invisible Man) will make his feature film directorial debut on USA Films' action thriller El Phantasma, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Citing unnamed sources, the trade paper said that onetime commercial director Eisner would direct a screenplay by Craig Fernandez.
El Phantasma tells the story of masked wrestlers dealing with Aztec magic. The film is scheduled to go into production in November. USA Films is owned by USA Networks, which also owns The SCI FI Channel and SCIFI.COM.
Eisner also is developing Sound of Thunder, based on the Ray Bradbury time-travel short story of the same name, for producer Howard Baldwin and billionaire industrialist Philip Anschutz's recently formed Crusader Entertainment, the trade paper reported.
Miller Returns To Knight
omic writer Frank Miller (Batman: The Dark Knight Returns) told the Comics Continuum that he's working on a sequel, The Dark Knight Strikes Again!
The project has been scheduled for a 2001 release from DC Comics.
"Batman and Superman remain enduring American myths," Miller said. "But many folks don't realize how rich DC's pantheon of heroes is. These characters have a magic to them and speak to fantasies shared by young and old. Anybody who knows me would tell you I can't stop talking about it. It's an absolute joy to bring fresh eyes and long-held affection to these guys and gals in tights."
In The Dark Knight Strikes Again!, Miller will offer a new, original take on Batman, who has finally put the death of his parents behind him, the Continuum reported. Batman will set out to save America with the help of the Flash, Wonder Girl, Catgirl and Batgirl. Miller will again be collaborating with colorist Lynn Varley.
FantAsia Previews Vampire Hunter
ampire Hunter D, the feature-film remake of 1985's original video anime of the same name, screened to preview audiences at the Toronto FantAsia Film Festival July 14 and 17, the Anime News Network reported.
Festival-goers saw an incomplete English-language cut of the horror anime movie.
Vampire Hunter D will premiere in theaters in the United States and Japan, but no release date has been set.
The original Vampire Hunter D anime, meanwhile, will come out in a special edition DVD on Oct. 3. The bilingual DVD will include a feature on the making of the original Vampire Hunter D, along with the theatrical trailer for the remake and a preview of the new Vampire Hunter D Sony PlayStation game, which comes out Oct. 17.
Ford: Eager For Indy IV
arrison Ford told SCI FI Wire that he's eager to reprise the role of Indiana Jones in a fourth installment of the popular film franchise.
"I'm looking forward to the opportunity to make another film," Ford said while promoting his upcoming supernatural thriller, What Lies Beneath.
Ford added, "There are some efforts underway to come up with a story. When we all three--[George] Lucas and [Steven] Spielberg and I--all ... have a film that we all have confidence in, we'll do it."
Ford also confirmed that he has met and talked with The Sixth Sense director M. Night Shyamalan, who is reportedly one of several writers drafting a script for Indy IV. Asked whether Shyamalan was the primary writer, Ford replied, "Can't really tell you that at the moment." As for whether the next film will feature Sean Connery, who played Indiana's father, Prof. Henry Jones, in 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Ford said, "Actually, I don't know. I hope so."
Separately, Ford denied rumors that he has been approached about a role in Gemini, a proposed SF thriller from Touchstone. The Hollywood trade papers have reported that either Ford or Mel Gibson was under consideration for the starring role of a hit man whose younger clone is sent to kill him. "I don't know about the project," Ford said. "A cloning movie. Well, I haven't done a cloning movie yet. I've never heard of it."
Bowman Catches Fire
ob Bowman (The X-Files movie) will direct Reign of Fire, a post-apocalyptic action movie, Variety reported.
Disney-based Spyglass Entertainment will finance the project, set to begin production in February or March.
Reign tells the story of a team of British and American warriors who battle a brood of dragons. Bowman has also directed several episodes of The X-Files television series.
Voyager Closure In Store
tar Trek: Voyager's new executive producer Ken Biller told Cinescape Online that fans should expect closure in the seventh and final season.
"We are definitely working hard to wrap up some series-long arcs for several of our characters," Biller told Cinescape's Gregory L. Norris and Laura A. Van Vleet.
Biller added, "You'll see Capt. Janeway's ongoing and single-minded quest to get her crew home. I'm not going to tell you whether or not she is going to accomplish that just yet, but it's something that has been her single purpose from the beginning, and it will get exacerbated this season to the point that she is really feeling the pressure. She'll have to decide just how far she is willing to go to succeed."
Biller also promised to resolve the Tom Paris-B'Elanna Torres romance. "We now have a few different storylines that will resolve their relationship in a way that is surprising and in tune with Star Trek, without being soap opera-ish. Part of the arc involves Voyager encountering a generational Klingon ship that has been traveling from the Alpha Quadrant toward the Delta Quadrant for many years. The offspring of the original Klingons who went off on this journey are people who don't understand that their fight with the Federation ended decades ago."
Diablo II Sales Break Records
iablo II, the video game sequel to 1997's hit Diablo, has become the fastest-selling computer game ever, Blizzard Entertainment announced.
Since it shipped June 28, Diablo II has sold more than 1 million copies worldwide, the publisher said.
The PC game shipped with an initial retail order of 2 million copies and already has reorders in excess of more than 600,000 copies, Blizzard reported. A Macintosh version of the game debuts this week.
Diablo II is topping PC sales charts in North America, Europe and Asia. In the United States, the game earned a record 39 percent of the entire dollar amount spent on games in its first week of sales, PC Data reported.
Fonda To Appear In Visions
ox's upcoming anthology television series Night Visions has enlisted Bridget Fonda and Brian Dennehy to star in episodes, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Fonda will appear in the second episode of the series, which is described as being similar to The Twilight Zone. Fonda will play a woman who discovers evidence that someone is secretly living in her house.
Dennehy will star in one episode and direct another. Aidan Quinn will star in the pilot. In addition, feature-film director Joe Dante (Small Soldiers) has committed to direct two episodes. Keith Gordon (The Chocolate War) will also direct two episodes. Dan Angel and Billy Brown created and will executive produce the series.
Aurora Winners Announced
he Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association handed out its 20th annual Aurora Awards on July 16, honoring the best Canadian SF&F published in 1999.
The awards were presented at TT2000, the Canadian National Science Fiction Convention, in Toronto. A full list of winners follows.
Best Long-Form Work in English
•Flashforward by Robert J. Sawyer
Best Long-Form Work in French
•Samiva de Frée by Francine Pelletier
Best Short-Form Work in English
•"Stream of Consciousness" by Robert J. Sawyer
Best Short-Form Work in French
•"Souvenirs du Saudade Express" by Éric Gauthier
Best Work in English (Other)
•Northern Frights 5 by Don Hutchison, ed.
Best Work in French (Other)
•Solaris by Joel Champetier, ed.
Artistic Achievement
•Larry Stewart
Fan Achievement (Fanzine)
•Voyageur by Karen Bennett, ed.
Fan Achievement (Organizational)
•Bernard Reischl
Fan Achievement (Other)
•Made in Canada Web site by Don Bassie
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Ignotus Winners Announced
he Asociacion Española de Fantasia y Ciencia Ficcion (Spanish Fantasy and Science Fiction Association) announced winners of its annual Ignotus Awards.
The national award honors the work of Spanish authors.
Winners were announced earlier this month at Hispacon in Gijón, Spain. A full list of winners follows.
Best Novel
•El abismo te devuelve la mirada by Rodolfo Martínez
Best Novella
•"Este relámpago, esta locura" by Rodolfo Martínez
Best Short Story
•"En las fraguas marcianas" by León Arsenal
Best Long Form Essay
•"El lenguaje de los elfos" by Luis González
Best Short Form Essay
•"¡Pasajeros a bordo para el Escatón!" by Stephen Baxter
Best Illustration
•Cover of Las estrellas mi destino by Trazo
Best Audiovisual Production
•El archivo de Nessus Web site by Pedro Jorge
Best Poetry
•Poemario Phaedra by Juan José Aroz
Best Magazine
•Gigamesh
Best Foreign Novel
•To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
Best Foreign Short Story (tie)
•"Chance" by Connie Willis
•"Nonstop to Portales" by Connie Willis
Briefly Noted
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Fox may schedule the mid-season spinoff series The Lone Gunmen in the Sunday 9 p.m. slot now occupied by the show's forebear, The X-Files, according to Variety. No word on what will become of The X-Files.
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TimeQuest Enterprises will sponsor a Babylon 5 cruise and convention aboard the ship Majesty of the Seas, Dec. 1 to Dec. 4. Guests will include B5 stars Claudia Christian and Tracy Scoggins.
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MR Kinowelt Merchandising has acquired the German-language merchandising rights to New Line's upcoming The Lord of the Rings trilogy of films.
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New trailers have gone up on the Web for the upcoming movies Highlander: Endgame and Final Fantasy. The official Star Wars Web site, meanwhile, has posted another production still from Star Wars: Episode II, now shooting in Australia.
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Buffy the Vampire Slayer writer Marti Noxon is rewriting the script for the proposed feature-film version of Batton Lash's comic series Supernatural Law, according to the Comics Continuum Web site. Universal is developing the movie and seeking a director, Lash told the site.
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Capt. Scarlet creator Gerry Anderson told the BBC that he's experimenting with a computer-animated version of the venerable British marionette TV series. "It was quite uncanny because we ended up with Capt. Scarlet, Capt. Black and Capt. Blue on screen, and they looked
just like people. Absolutely the same as they were on the puppet shows, but this new technique turns them into people. They walk, hop, skip, jump and fight."
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Harrison Ford, 58, told New York Daily News columnist Mitchell Fink that he's not too old to do his own stunts in the upcoming fourth Indiana Jones movie. "I can't tell you whether all the special effects will be used or not. But if you're asking me if computer animation is going to be used because I'm too old and creaky to do the action, then absolutely no. I'm still up for it," Ford said.
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The Coming Attractions Web site has posted preliminary images from the trailer for Arnold Schwarzenegger's upcoming cloning movie The 6th Day. The trailer will begin appearing in theaters this week.
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Gabriel Byrne told TV Guide that he's still talking with filmmakers about a role in the upcoming Star Wars: Episode II. "We're discussing it. I think they're still writing the script," he said.
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PlanetHollywood.com reported a rumor that Liz Hurley (Bedazzled) will co-star in The Incredible Hulk, a proposed feature film based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name. The site also reported that Hurley's Bedazzled co-star Brendan Fraser would appear in the movie.
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CBS will pay about $23 million for the rights to air Mission: Impossible 2, Variety reported. The network will have the right to run the movie five times over four years, starting in late 2002.
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Columbia Pictures announced that it will promote its upcoming SF thriller movie Hollow Man in part with the first-ever Internet press junket. The live, interactive "ijunket" will take place July 29, with hundreds of entertainment-oriented Web sites able to take part in live interviews with Hollow Man director Paul Verhoeven and star Kevin Bacon.
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About 450 fans of The WB's teen alien series Roswell will gather Aug. 5 in Los Angeles from as far away as Singapore and New Zealand to celebrate their favorite show and raise money for World Vision's hunger programs. Organizers hope to raise as much as $10,000 through various charity events associated with the fan party.
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The Dark Horizons Web site reported news circulating around Australia that Heath Ledger was in line to star in a fourth Mad Max film. Ledger was rumored to play the grown-up version of the Feral Kid who appeared in the second movie, The Road Warrior. Ledger currently co-stars with Mad Max star Mel Gibson in The Patriot.
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Warner Bros. has posted teaser trailers for its upcoming Mars movie Red Planet on the film's official Web site. The movie opens in November.
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First William Shatner, now Star Trek veteran Leonard Nimoy will promote an Internet company. Nimoy will pitch for Netword, which offers Internet users a service to ease navigation.
