X-Files Faces Big Changes
he X-Files executive producer Frank Spotnitz told The Hollywood Reporter that he wasn't so sure an eighth season of the Fox series was a great idea.
"I make no secret of the fact that I wasn't sure it was a good idea to come back for another year," Spotnitz told the trade paper. "It was a huge gamble to replace a character like [David Duchovny's Fox Mulder]. It's not an ensemble show like NYPD Blue or ER, where there are so many fine actors to carry the series. Mulder was one of two central characters in this show. But having been drafted to do this, I just was determined to make a success of it."
The long-lived show starts its new season Nov. 5, with a drastically reduced presence by Duchovny and an entirely new character, FBI Agent John Doggett, played by Robert Patrick. To help The X-Files manage the change, series creator Chris Carter has stepped in to write or rewrite six of the show's 10 episodes so far and has directed one of his own scripts, the trade paper reported.
"It's strange not to have David around every day, but I have to say his absence has really framed the season, which is [about] the search for Mulder," Carter told The Hollywood Reporter. "By adding a new character to the show, we have a new way to tell X-Files stories. Scully [played by Gillian Anderson] now has seen too much to deny, and she becomes a kind of reluctant believer, sort of taking Mulder's place, and Robert Patrick comes in as a knee-jerk skeptic. All of a sudden, Scully's the provocateur."
Duchovny Back For More X-Files?
avid Duchovny, who dramatically curtails his presence in the upcoming eighth season of Fox's The X-Files, told TV Guide Online that he likes his part-time role so much he'd consider coming back next year.
The current arrangement "is working exactly the way I wanted it to," Duchovny told the magazine. "I get to do a movie while I'm doing the show. ... If I could work out something like that, I wouldn't rule it out."
Duchovny will play Agent Fox Mulder in the last six episodes of the eighth season. "I've been home at 6 o'clock the last four months in a row," said Duchovny, who lives in Malibu with his wife, actress Téa Leoni, and their 1-year-old daughter, Madelaine West Duchovny. "I was never home at dinnertime before."
In the meantime, Duchovny is currently filming director Ivan Reitman's Evolution, an SF comedy in which he plays a college professor who has to save the world from an alien organism. "It's a really funny script," Duchovny told TV Guide, comparing the movie more to Men in Black than The X-Files.
As for his replacement, Robert Patrick, Duchovny said, "He's really excited to be here, and I think it's good to have someone come in and smack everybody and say, 'Wake up! This is a great job!' I wasn't going to be that guy."
Braidwood Pleased With Gunmen
om Braidwood--Frohike of The X-Files' Lone Gunmen--told the Canadian National Post newspaper that the Fox spinoff series The Lone Gunmen begins production in Vancouver this week.
The new midseason show will center on the three quirky characters made famous in The X-Files, played by Braidwood, Dean Haglund and Bruce Harwood.
"We've taken a huge step up in having a series built around us," Braidwood told the newspaper. "We always joked about it, the three of us that played the parts, but I don't think any of us in our wildest imaginations thought they'd do a series about it."
Braidwood was an assistant director on The X-Files when he was cast in the role of the combative, Scully-obsessed Melvin Frohike. Braidwood said to expect The Lone Gunmen to maintain ties to The X-Files. "Some of the same characters will show up," he said. "But it will be more government conspiracy and less supernatural, science fiction. You will get to see more of what the Gunmen do in their lives."
The new show will add a new female hacker character and a fourth male who Braidwood said "will be the hunk." He added, "I guess we weren't handsome enough."
Voyager Aims High In Last Year
tar Trek: Voyager's new executive producer Kenneth Biller told the Palm Beach Post newspaper that he's aiming high for the show's last season.
"We have to satisfy the audience's expectations about what's going to happen, but we must still find a way to surprise them," Biller told the newspaper. "There's always pressure. But there's a little more pressure, because we're working really hard to make this the best season."
Kate Mulgrew, who plays Capt. Kathryn Janeway, makes no secret of how she'd like the show to end. "I would like to see me get the ship home, but it shouldn't be easy and they should have some tragic consequences," Mulgrew told the Post. "There should be loss as well as reclamation. I wouldn't mind if my character died. It would be appropriate, unprecedented and bold."
Will it happen? "Kate has been telling everyone for months she wants her character to die," Biller said. "She seems to be lobbying for it. Kate is very passionate about her character, and she's free to make suggestions. And Kate making that suggestion certainly wasn't the first time anyone has thought of that."
Will Janeway and Chakotay (Robert Beltran) ever hit the sheets? "Oh, it's too late for Janeway and Chakotay," Mulgrew said, sighing. "People would be terribly disappointed. They wouldn't even have time to get into bed. And you know, it takes a whole season to get into bed on Voyager."
NBC Bids For New Trek Series
BC--home of the original Star Trek series in the 1960s--expressed interest in the next incarnation of the long-lived and prosperous franchise now under development, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The network is understood to have made an informal offer for the show, the trade paper reported.
An NBC spokesperson said that the network has told Paramount that "if a Star Trek series becomes available, NBC would definitely be interested in it," the trade paper reported. No talks have taken place yet. Fox was known to have inquired about the availability of the new Star Trek series some months ago. It remains unclear whether Paramount is shopping the project or intends to take it directly to UPN. The future of UPN itself is up in the air, following the merger of UPN's parent, Viacom, and CBS.
The latest television version of the franchise, Star Trek: Voyager, ends its seven-year run on UPN this season. The premise of the next series--being developed for Paramount by Voyager executive producers Brannon Braga and Rick Berman--is a closely held secret.
New Trek E-books Online
ewMedia Publishing announced that it will publish the Star Trek S.E.C.--Starship Corps of Engineers series of eBooks.
Three titles will be available for download for $5 each.
The Belly of the Beast tells the story of an investigation of an alien starship led by the U.S.S. Enterprise's Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge with Capt. Gold and the crew of the S.C.E. ship U.S.S. da Vinci. Fatal Error tells the story of a thriving civilization completely run, maintained and administered by a giant sentient computer on the planet Eerlik. Hard Crash tells the story of an alien starship of unknown origin, which crashes into a planet inhabited by a large civilization.
Trek Actress Sues Dating Site
hase Masterson, who had a recurring role in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, has sued the Web dating service Matchmaker.com after an imposter placed her profile on the site without her permission, according to Inside.com.
Masterson sued Matchmaker and its parent company, Lycos, in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging that even after she told Matchmaker about the bogus profile, it refused to take it offline because she was not the person who originally posted it.
The online profile described the actress as looking for "a one-night stand" who is "hard and dominant in more ways than one," the site reported. Masterson got in touch with police and kept away from her home for months, the suit alleged. The bogus profile came to light when a third party alerted her to its presence and showed her how to access it--a third party who turned out to be the imposter himself, Inside.com reported. Matchmaker.com and Lycos did not comment to Inside.com.
Andromeda Finding Its Way
evin Sorbo, star of the hit syndicated TV series Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, told the Fandom Web site that the show is still finding its way.
"I still think we're going through teething pains," Sorbo told the site. "Season two will be great. I think all of us actors on the show are still trying to find our feet. We've come a long way."
Producers have completed 17 of the first 22 episodes of the series, which is shot in Vancouver, Canada. "I think shows have gotten better," Sorbo said. "I think there's a couple here that didn't turn out as expected. It's interesting when you're reading scripts and you say, 'This is going to be awesome!' but when you shoot it and look at it, you go, 'Oh my God!' Of the 17 [filmed] we have three right now that I'm not crazy about. I think we can save one of them. All the shows coming up for the November sweeps are going to be unbelievable. I'm happy with about 70 percent. That's pretty good odds. On [Hercules: The Legendary Journeys], I'd be happy with about 50 percent or 40 percent."
Sorbo also acts as a producer of the show, which has earned healthy ratings in syndication since it premiered last month. "Right now we're still trying to figure out where the characters are going," Sorbo said. "The writing is excellent. I think we need to get back to some of the basics of what Capt. Hunt is trying to do. What he's trying to re-establish with the Commonwealth. I think we need to go out there and explore strange new worlds and not stay on the ship so much. The writers are trying to lighten the view on who's Capt. Hunt. Who's Trance? Who's Harper? Give them backstories. That will come in time. I really believe this series will go five or seven years."
Roddenberry Preps Web Show
ajel Barrett Roddenberry--executive producer of Earth: Final Conflict and Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda--told the Space.com Web site that she'll partner with comic-book creator Stan Lee to produce an animated series for the Internet.
Like her other two projects, the Web series will be based on an idea from the late Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's archives.
The series, called Starship, will tell the story of a young human scientist and his alien partner who pilot the ship ECO-1 to deal with intergalactic ecological disasters, Space.com reported. "[It's] wonderful, because Stan and I actually think alike an awful lot," Roddenberry told the site. "Everything we say, everything I say in the speeches that I've given and so on, he said, 'That's amazing, because that's exactly what I said on my last speech somewhere.' He said when we do these things in proximity to each other, we'll have to get together."
Sirtis Empathetic About Trek X
arina Sirtis--Counselor Troi of Star Trek: The Next Generation--told the official Star Trek magazine that she's eager to re-up for the 10th Trek film, according to the Voyager View Web site.
"At this point, it's not like I have hundreds and hundreds of choices," Sirtis told the magazine. "I avoided sci-fi as long as I could. I'd rather be working than not working, so if it's sci-fi, then I'll do it!"
Sirtis added, "I just can't wait" for Trek X. "I'm really excited about the whole thing. ... If we're talking galactic and battles, it's bound to be more the boys. I know that sounds a little sexist--that girls can be involved in battles, too--but the genre does tend to suit males better. And you've just got to be realistic. Patrick [Stewart] is the star of the show, and then it's Brent [Spiner], and they pay those guys the most money. They're not going to pay them and have them sitting in their trailers. For me, it's not about how big my part is; it's about meeting up with all my buddies again."
Episode II Spoilers Revealed
ew Zealand actor Temuera Morrison revealed several spoilers about George Lucas' upcoming Star Wars: Episode II in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald.
"I play a bounty hunter," Morrison told the newspaper. "Remember in Return of the Jedi there was a guy called Boba Fett? Well, in this film Boba Fett is about 12 years old, and I play his father. With a clone army."
Morrison added that he plays a few scenes with Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor). He also revealed his favorite line from the film: "I'm just a simple man trying to make my way in the universe."
Episode II Post-Production Moves
tar Wars: Episode II producer Rick McCallum told the official Star Wars Web site that post-production on the prequel has moved to director George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch in Northern California.
"Where we're at right now is serious post-production mode," McCallum told the site. "George arrives early every morning. He's working with [editor] Ben Burtt. Jamie Forester and I are working, along with Matthew Wood and Skywalker Sound, to make plans for the new post-production sound environment that we're going to create for Episode II."
Early next year, filmmakers will complete any additional shooting that is required. "We are starting to outline the plan of our additional shooting in March," McCallum said. "We're also working out the moves with [Industrial Light & Magic] and setting up the schedule of how we're going to proceed. There is an awesome amount of work that we have to do, which we expect to go full-bore in January and deal with for at least 15-16 months."
McCallum added, "What we're trying desperately to do is to keep George totally linked in to getting a first assembly of the film as soon as possible so that we can begin to lay off a lot of the scenes." With a rough cut, individual shots can make their way to ILM for effects work, the site reported. One scene, involving Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), is largely complete and has already been delivered to ILM.
Digital artists, meanwhile, have begun crafting wireframe models for the various computer-generated characters. " John Knoll and Rob Coleman are busy getting their crews started for some of the scenes they're going to be attacking," McCallum said "At this point we've gone from the theoretical down to the practical. We have to actually start making miniatures soon. It's looking really good. Everything's moving."
Jackman, Ryan In Time Comedy
-Men's Hugh Jackman will co-star with Meg Ryan in the time-travel romantic comedy film Kate & Leopold, Variety reported.
The Miramax Films project tells the story of a late-19th-century duke who falls in love with a modern-day New York woman and must traverse time to be with her, the trade paper reported.
James Mangold rewrote the script from an original draft by Steven Rogers (Hope Floats) and will direct.
Futurama Will Take Chances
avid X. Cohen, executive producer of Fox's animated SF series Futurama, told Science Fiction Weekly that the show is taking more chances as it starts its third season Nov. 5.
"I think we basically loosened up steadily as the show has gone along, and we've allowed ourselves to try a few crazier things," Cohen said.
Cohen added, "For example, the episode with Bender becoming a were-car--I think the first season, at least, we would have been too worried about the scientific possibilities of it. And I think the more we worked and the more we thought about it, we realized that much crazier things than that happened on Star Trek every week. So we've just allowed ourselves a wider range of things to happen."
Futurama features the adventures of 20th-century delivery boy Fry, who was frozen and awakened in the 31st century. His companions include the one-eyed alien Leela and Bender the Robot.
"The second big benefit of having been on for a little while now is that we don't have to spend that much time anymore saying what the characters are like," Cohen said. "We can actually have them doing things where we can make jokes about their personalities, which are now established, or we can just expand what we know about them--as opposed to spending time saying Leela is an orphan, which at least regular viewers know by now. We can just sort of hint at it or remind people of [these details] in the course of [the characters'] actions, instead of doing a lot of exposition. It's helped us pack more into the story, because we don't have to spend as much time explaining stuff."
Among the guest voices who will appear in the Futurama universe are pop star Beck and Charlie's Angels star Lucy Liu, EW Online reported.
Moss Begins Training For Matrix 2
arrie-Anne Moss, who will reprise the role of Trinity in the upcoming The Matrix 2 and 3, told SCI FI Wire that she will join the rest of the cast this week to start training for the sequels to 1999's hit SF movie The Matrix.
"I'm training now, and we'll start training with everybody in the middle of [this] week, and we'll train for six months, and then we'll shoot," Moss said in an interview. The months of training will include "kung fu and whatever other action things they need us to learn, and training to get in shape, get some muscles, and get my Trinity body back," she said.
As for the closely guarded story line of the two sequels, Moss said, "I can't tell you anything about them, but I'll tell you they're going to be really special." Asked about rumors that her character will be kidnapped and have to be rescued by Neo (Keanu Reeves), Moss remained coy. "Oh really?" she said. "I don't remember reading that. I'll have to go back and read it again. [It's a] rumor!"
Moss said Matrix 2 will begin shooting in March in Australia and San Francisco. As for the effect of impending writers' and actors' strikes in the spring of 2001, Moss said, "I'm kind of trusting that the production will take care of all of that stuff. Yeah, it's a bit of a worry. It's a worry for everybody. But it's also an important thing that has to be figured out."
Gellar Nixes Buffy Movie
arah Michelle Gellar--star of The WB's hit series Buffy the Vampire Slayer--has said she doesn't want to appear in a feature-film version of the TV series, co-star Alyson Hannigan told the Buzzbox Web site.
Hannigan, who plays Willow on Buffy, made the remarks during a promotional tour of Australia.
Hannigan said not to expect a Buffy movie anytime soon. "I don't think so," Hannigan told the site. "[Buffy creator] Joss [Whedon] really wants to do it, but Sarah was pretty adamant she would never want to do it. I can't imagine it happening."
Gellar, Prinze Up For Scooby
oving from one Scooby Gang to another, Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar might join her real-life paramour Freddie Prinze Jr. in Warner Brothers' upcoming live-action Scooby-Doo movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Gellar and Prinze are reportedly in talks to play Daphne and Fred in the feature-film version of the animated television series.
Raja Gosnell (Big Momma's House) will direct the movie, the trade paper reported. Earlier rumors have suggested that Sleepy Hollow star Christina Ricci is up for the part of Velma. Gellar's I Know What You Did Last Summer co-star Jennifer Love Hewitt was rumored at one point to be up for the role of Daphne.
Rings Near Filming's End
aving recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of filming, Peter Jackson's upcoming The Lord of the Rings film trilogy is on schedule and expects to wrap principal photography just before Christmas, according to E! Online.
Cast and crew took Oct. 11 off to celebrate the one-year anniversary, and Rings producer Barrie Osborne and director Jackson threw a lavish party for all on location in Queenstown, New Zealand.
Hugo Weaving has already left the location after wrapping his scenes as Elrond, E! reported. Liv Tyler (Arwen) returns from break in December to wrap her scenes. Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf) has taken a five-week break, showing up at some of Wellington's trendy nightclubs.
For his part, McKellen said on his official Web site that he's ready to wrap. "I asked Peter Jackson the other day whether I would finish as was long since planned: He was confident that we would finish on schedule," McKellen posted. "I asked, because I am beginning to need an end in sight. It's the same with a long job in the theatre. Judi Dench and I used to cross the days off on the dressing-room mirror at the Fortune Theatre--matinee days we did it twice. I'm feeling nothing like that. Indeed, my enthusiasm for the New Zealand I've seen beyond the movie's locations has been an added reward for a year's work away from home."
Rings recently completed filming of one of the films' biggest set pieces yet: the Battle of Pelennor, which involved 230 orcs, 250 Rohan warriors and 50 or so stunt players in the remote South Island mountain village of Twizel, E! Online reported.
Kiwi Teen Posts Rings Video
New Zealand teen-age boy has posted a video with scenes from the making of Peter Jackson's upcoming film trilogy The Lord of the Rings, the Kiwi newspaper The Evening Post reported.
Jonny Grindlay, 14, created the four-minute film using videotape footage of sets and photographs, the paper reported.
The video from the sets of the highly secretive production shows filming locations for the multimillion-dollar project from around New Zealand, where the movies are currently in production. In some scenes, viewers can make out actors or extras in costume, practicing with swords, the paper reported.
Lord of the Rings is based on J.R.R. Tolkien's classic novels of the same name.
Dune 'Thopters Were Hard
ohn Harrison, writer and director of The SCI FI Channel's upcoming miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune, told SCIFI.COM that he struggled to get the book's trademark ornithopter airships just right.
"Creating the ornithopters has been one of my most difficult tasks during Dune," Harrison said in response to a fan question.
Harrison added, "Unfortunately, those of you who know the book well understand that Frank Herbert's descriptions tended more toward the poetic than the practical, and our challenge was to devise something that would seem aerodynamic and represent what he suggested at the same time. As I surveyed all the artists who have taken a shot over the years designing what they thought a 'thopter should look like, I realized there was no consensus to draw upon. But I would say, on the whole, we've succeeded."
Harrison's six-hour Dune miniseries, starring William Hurt, Giancarlo Giannini and Alec Newman, will air on SCI FI Dec. 3-5 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Dark Angel Has Some Light
ames Cameron, co-creator of Fox's SF series Dark Angel, told the Associated Press that his show isn't all about depressing subjects. "The show tends to be hopeful," Cameron told the wire service.
"It asks, 'What if you took the most prosperous nation in the world and put it back in a depression? What would people be like?' And the answer is, 'They'd get by. They'd work with each other, learn to adapt.'"
Cameron (the Oscar-winning director of Titanic) co-created and produces Dark Angel with television veteran Charles "Chick" Eglee (Murder One), who had little experience with science fiction. "I said, 'Chick, that's a plus,'" Cameron said. "I've found historically that some of the best science fiction is written by people who don't write science fiction, because they come to it with a fresh eye and don't make any assumptions."
Dark Angel has yet to match its Oct. 3 debut ratings, when it drew about 17 million viewers. But the show is doing well on Fox. "I don't feel that much pressure," Cameron said. "I do my best with everything I do. [A series] is a very different thing than a movie, where you just fire it off like a missile, and it either hits or it doesn't, and it's all over by midday Saturday. With this, we're not going to know where it's at for a long time."
Freakylinks In Peril?
ox's fledgling paranormal series Freakylinks may not be long for this world: The network will pre-empt the show to test a new reality show on Nov. 10 and 17, Variety reported.
If the reality show, Million Dollar Mysteries, does well during the all-important sweeps period, it could replace the low-rated Freakylinks, the trade paper reported. Freakylinks airs at 9 p.m. on Fridays.
Freakylinks was originally scheduled to take off Nov. 24, the night after Thanksgiving. It is currently scheduled to return Dec. 1. If Fox replaces the show on Friday nights, remaining episodes of Freakylinks would be given a new timeslot, Variety reported.
Blair 2 Not No. 1
espite widespread expectations that it would top box-office rankings, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 premiered at No. 2 on the weekend of Oct. 27, scaring up an estimated $13.1 million in earnings, the Hollywood trade papers reported.
That was at the low end of expectations for the sequel to 1999's surprise hit The Blair Witch Project.
Still, considering Blair Witch 2 cost only about $12 million to make, Artisan Entertainment is likely to come out of the woods financially on the project. But the critically lambasted sequel compared poorly with its predecessor, which grossed $29 million in its first weekend of release and went on to make $141 million in North America, though it cost only about $30,000 to make.
Meanwhile, The Little Vampire, starring Jonathan Lipnicki, opened at No. 6, with an estimated $5.5 million in box-office revenues. Bedazzled came in at No. 4, with an estimated $7.7 million in earnings for the weekend and a total take of $24 million after 10 days of release.
Kilmer Denies Red Planet Feud
al Kilmer, star of the upcoming SF movie Red Planet, denied to SCI FI Wire widespread rumors of on-set fights between him and co-star Tom Sizemore. "There weren't [any]," Kilmore said in an interview.
"He was going through personal things at the time, with a divorce, and that was tough for him. [But] we were friends and are friends. And it's unfortunate when those [reports] happen, because it's insulting to the whole film. But you just move on. [It] actually made us stronger."
Kilmer and Sizemore play astronauts who are part of the first manned mission to Mars, led by a commander played by Carrie-Anne Moss. The cast--which also includes Benjamin Bratt, Terence Stamp and Simon Baker--spent months shooting in the deserts of Australia and Jordan, which approximated the terrain of the red planet.
Reports earlier this year suggested that Kilmer and Sizemore feuded during the grueling shoot, which required the cast to wear heavy spacesuits in intense desert heat. The New York Daily News quoted Sizemore as saying that Kilmer was "impossible" to work with. But both actors subsequently denied a rift and rumors that, among other things, Sizemore took out a restraining order against Kilmer.
Kilmer said during an interview that the shoot was indeed arduous. "Very," he said. He added, "Several days, the cast and crews were in danger, mortal danger. Lightning storms, rainstorms. Lightning's probably the worst, and windstorms at the same time. [It was a] very dramatic experience."
Kilmer added, "[The] incredible locations we went to ... all add to the feeling of the uniqueness of space. [There are] very powerful images in this story that we captured live, and then enhanced even more with the special photography, so you really have the feeling of being far away from Earth. ... The realism in the film--with all of the props and the designs of the sets and costumes--was very important to the creators. The very premise of the story is based on our best estimates of what will happen in a few years. And some of those details made it tough to be in, but were worth it. It's easy to go to work when your life's on the line in the story, and it feels like it is in your costume." Red Planet opens Nov. 10.
Tippett To Helm Ringworld
scar-winning special effects maven Phil Tippett (Star Wars) will make his feature-film directorial debut by helming Ringworld, based on Larry Niven's best-selling SF novel of the same name, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Tippett will also produce the movie with Robert Mandell through Tippett Studios, the trade paper reported.
"We are going to pull out all the stops, using [computer-generated imagery] to create a roller-coaster ride of thrills, adventure and fun," Tippett told The Hollywood Reporter. "We are going to take moviegoers to a place never before seen or imagined." Tippett received seven Oscar nominations for his visual effects work and won Oscars for his work on Star Wars and Jurassic Park.
Ringworld tells the story of a 1-million-mile-wide band surrounding the sun, with a habitable inner-surface area 300 times the size of Earth.
Frequency Change Considered
regory Hoblit, director of this year's time-warp movie Frequency, told SCI FI Wire that he thought up a better ending of the movie while editing it, but couldn't afford to shoot it.
So don't expect to see the alternative ending on the DVD of the film, which was released on Halloween.
"There were a couple of things I wish I could shoot again, or a different ending, which I finally figured out too late," Hoblit said in an interview. "I never quite figured out the perfect ending."
The movie tells the parallel stories of a son in 1999 and his father in 1969, who are able to communicate across time via a ham radio that has been altered by sunspot activity. In the final version of the movie, events occurring in 1969 are felt immediately in 1999. But Hoblit would have preferred a more subtle ending, in which the actions occurring in 1969 result in a complete change of the 1999 time line that is not apparent to the characters in that timeframe. "It would have been a much more sophisticated and interesting ending than what we have, although what we have was sort of startlingly successful in all the previews," Hoblit said.
Romijn-Stamos Joins Simone
-Men's Rebecca Romijn-Stamos will join the cast of New Line Cinema's Simone opposite Al Pacino, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The movie tells the story of a producer (Pacino) who makes a film with a computer-generated star who goes on to become a major sensation, the trade paper reported.
Romijn-Stamos will play a cameo role as a young woman who is mistaken for the actress. Andrew Niccol is directing.
Bon Jovi Bites Off Muertos
on Bon Jovi will play the lead in John Carpenter's Vampires: Los Muertos, the sequel to Carpenter's 1998 bloodsucker movie, Vampires, Variety reported.
Production will begin early next year in Mexico, the trade paper reported.
Carpenter recently wrapped principal photography on his SF horror film John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars, which stars Natasha Henstridge, Ice Cube and Jason Statham. It will be released next summer.
Aronofsky Preps Genre Films
arren Aronofsky, who's in line to direct the proposed Batman: Year One movie, told SCIFI.COM that things are still up in the air.
"Nothing's green-lit," said the director of Pi. "We've been talking to Warner Brothers for a long time. It looks like me and [comic writer] Frank Miller [who wrote the comic on which the movie is based] are going to write a [script] draft, and then we'll see what happens."
Aronofsky confirmed that he's got several other genre films in the works. "I'm also writing an original science fiction film that I've been working on for about 10 months with my roommate from college, a guy named Ari Handle. It's an original science fiction film that we've been writing, and we're going to set it up soon. We're going to push everything forward, and see what happens first."
Other projects include a feature film based on Miller's futuristic samurai comic Ronin and Proteus, a submarine-meets-sea-monster movie. "Proteus is actually happening," Aronofsky said. "I'm not going to direct it. I'm going to produce it with Eric Watson, my producing partner. We'll be producing it in partnership with Dimension Films. And David Twohy, the guy who wrote and directed Pitch Black, is going to direct it. I think that's going through soon; it should be a lot of fun."
Gatecrasher Begins Production
immy Palmiotti, co-creator of the Gatecrasher comic book series, told the Comics Continuum that production should begin soon on Mainframe Entertainment's animated television series based on the comic.
The series will likely air on the Fox Kids network and will be based on the Black Bull comic series by Palmiotti, Mark Waid and Amanda Conner.
"Amanda finished her trip to fine-tune it two weeks ago, and they are minutes from closing a deal with a network," Palmiotti told the site. "She was there for four days art-directing the character designs, as well as doing some set design and working with the crew there."
Gatecrasher will be 2-D animation with 3-D elements and backdrops, Palmiotti said. Greg Johnson (X-Men: Evolution) will story-edit the series, the site reported. "I met with him and his first script is in," Palmiotti said. "It's very loyal to the comic." Gatecrasher tells the story of Alec Wagner, a half-alien college student who is a member of the Split-Second Squad, a secret army that protects Earth from aliens who attack through interdimensional gates.
Silence Animates Web
ark Horse comics has launched Silence, a Web-based animated series from Jeff Russell Allman, the company announced.
Silence is described as an eerie fairy tale in which a young girl is killed because of her extraordinary power to dream, and an "elemental" takes it upon himself to avenge her death with the dream-eating dragons who murdered her.
Portland Taiko provides the musical soundtrack for the series, which debuted Nov. 1.
Roberts Mulls Pitt's Replay
ulia Roberts is in talks to join Brad Pitt in Replay, a fantasy movie from Warner Brothers, Village Roadshow Pictures and Revolution Studios, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Pitt would play a 43-year-old man who dies of a heart attack, only to awake as himself in college, where he has a second chance to correct his life's mistakes, the trade paper reported. Roberts will play his lost love.
Pitt's character will die again on the same date and replay his life a la Groundhog Day. The movie is based on a novel of the same name by Ken Grimwood. Richard LaGravenese is under consideration to direct. Steve Rodgers wrote the most recent draft of the screenplay.
Roach Touts Hitchhiker
irector Jay Roach (Meet the Parents) told the Inside.com Web site that he still hopes to make a movie out of Douglas Adams' satiric SF novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
"It's a project that Douglas Adams and I have been trying to do for a long time," Roach told the site.
Roach added, "Douglas is doing the adaptation himself. It was at Disney, and they've agreed to let us try to set it up somewhere else, but it's a tricky sell. It has a huge following ... and has worked in every medium it's been in so far, including as a radio show, a novel and as a low-budget TV show, which was very popular in England. Studios have been reluctant to take the next jump into film, partly because it's expensive and partly because it's an unusual, unconventional approach to this kind of movie. It's a science fiction comedy, but it's almost Monty Python in space. It has a very smart, sharp, satirical tone, and that's sometimes viewed as non-commercial. But my feeling is that it's the freshness and uniqueness that actually make it commercial, as opposed to the other way around."
King Miniseries Shoots In Seattle
BC's upcoming Stephen King miniseries Rose Red is shooting in Thornewood Castle, a Gothic Tudor house near Tacoma, Wash., the Seattle Times reported.
The six-hour miniseries is aiming at an early 2002 broadcast.
Filmmakers have transformed Thornewood, normally a bed and breakfast, into a haunted mansion, complete with ivy for exterior shots. The miniseries' elaborate interiors, meanwhile, have been erected in a huge building at the Sand Point Naval Air Station on the shore of Lake Washington in nearby Seattle.
To take advantage of the Washington locations, King has moved his story--originally set in Los Angeles--to Seattle. Several Seattle locations will be featured in the miniseries, including a section of Main Street and a house on Capitol Hill that's destroyed by paranormal forces. The production began shooting in September and wraps in mid-December, the newspaper reported.
Court Voids Spawn Judgment
Missouri state judge has thrown out a $24.5 million jury award against Spawn creator Todd McFarlane in a suit by former hockey player Tony Twist, McFarlane announced in a statement.
Twist sued McFarlane, arguing that the comic-book creator used his name without authorization.
In throwing out the July jury award, Missouri Circuit Court Judge Robert H. Dierker said that the case lacked "credible evidence that McFarlane at any time intended to injure Twist's marketability, to capitalize on the market recognition of the name Tony Twist, or in fact derived any ... benefit whatsoever." Dierker added that when McFarlane first used the name Tony Twist, the plaintiff had no market recognition and "was earning precisely zero income from endorsements."
McFarlane said in a statement, "Mr. Twist, with his contingency lawyer, spent nothing on this case, while I'm out a half-million dollars and two years of my life defending my name, because I knew I was right. Sometimes doing the right thing is the most difficult. I find it amusing that the corporate entities named as defendants in this case took the path of least resistance before the fight was finished." McFarlane added that he plans to pursue repayment of some costs from Twist.
Fandom Acquires Cinescape
andom announced that it has completed the acquisition of Cinescape, the Chicago-based publisher of the genre magazine and Web site of the same name, the companies announced.
Cinescape magazine is a bimonthly publication; Cinescape Online becomes part of the Fandom network. Terms were not disclosed.
Santa Monica, Calif.,-based Fandom Inc. is a media company that operates a network of genre Web sites. Founded in July 1999, the company's investors include Redpoint Ventures, RRE Ventures, Wasserstein Adelson Ventures and Entertainment Media Ventures.
Ling Stars In SCIFI.COM's Chian
nternational star Bai Ling will voice the title character in SCIFI.COM's upcoming 14-episode, stop-motion Flash animated series Chi-Chian, which debuts Nov. 21.
Goth musician and animator Voltaire created the series, about a Japanese Goth warrior in 31st-century New York.
A preview trailer of Chi-Chian is now available on SCIFI.COM. New episodes will roll out every Tuesday following the premiere.
Chi-Chian begins in the year 3000, after the island of Manhattan is sold to a Japanese company to be used as a testing ground for organic technology in the wake of a war between New York and New Jersey. Out-of-control experiments jump-start the evolution of an insect race intent on dominating the world. Chi-Chian sets out to wrest Manhattan back from the insect menace.
Psychic Geller Sues Pokemon
ri Geller, the self-styled psychic spoon-bender and writer, has sued Nintendo, alleging that the company stole his name and trademark psychic powers and used them in an evil, occult Pokemon character.
Geller's lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles federal court, demands that the Kyoto, Japan-based company cease using Geller's name and pay substantial general and punitive damages.
At issue is the character "Un Geller," which is called "Kadabra" in the United States. Geller's lawyers argue that the character makes unauthorized use of Geller's identity, his name and his signature image of a bent spoon. In addition, Geller's lawyers argue that the character bears a five-pointed star on its forehead--which they liken to the six-pointed yellow stars worn by Jews in Nazi Germany--and carries lighting bolts on its chest--which Geller's lawyers interpret as being similar to the lighting bolt symbol of the Nazi SS during World War II. Geller, a former Israeli paratrooper, resides in England.
"Nintendo turned me into an evil, occult Pokemon character," Geller said in a statement. "Nintendo stole my identity by using my name and my signature image of a bent spoon. I'm filing this lawsuit against Nintendo, not only to protect my name, but also to tell the world before the start of the holiday season that I have nothing whatsoever to do with these violent characters that have a negative impact on children." Nintendo did not respond to SCI FI Wire's request for comment.
Tomb Raider Live Coming
aramount will present a live Webcast from the set of Simon West's upcoming Tomb Raider movie at 2:30 p.m. EST on Nov. 9 at the film's official Web site.
The Angelina Jolie film, based on the Eidos video game series of the same name, is currently shooting at Pinewood Studios in London, Paramount said. The event will be rebroadcast in its entirety at 10 p.m. EST.
Tomb Raider Live will offer browsers a firsthand look at the production. The interactive event, broadcast in Real Video 8 format, will feature a tour of the film's sets, an interview with director West and an opportunity for viewers to ask questions of key production staff. Visitors will also get a chance to win a copy of the upcoming Tomb Raider: Chronicles console game from Eidos. Land Rover will co-sponsor the Webcast.
Lions Gate Acquires SF/Horror Films
ions Gate Entertainment has acquired all North American rights to a slate of SF and horror films from Spain's Filmax Group: Arachnid, Dagon, Faust and Beyond Re-Animator, Variety reported.
Dimension Films picked up two other Filmax films, Darkness and the Spanish-language movie The Nameless. Filmax, meanwhile, is developing Captain Thunder, a medieval comic-book fantasy epic.
Arachnid tells the story of an invasion by alien spiders. Faust is a retelling of the classic tale, set in a futuristic world. Beyond Re-Animator is the latest installment in the SF horror series that is based on H.P. Lovecraft's stories.
Rock Re-Cut Down To Earth?
hris Rock, star of the upcoming fantasy film Down to Earth, supposedly re-edited the movie after being unhappy with the initial cut from directors Paul and Chris Weitz, syndicated columnist Jeffrey Wells reported.
Down to Earth, a remake of Heaven Can Wait, has been delayed from its summer release to sometime in February 2001, Wells reported.
Wells cited an unnamed industry source who confirmed that Rock was given the chance to re-cut the movie, in part because Paramount was unhappy with the initial cut. "It tested only okay," the source told Wells. "Chris was very vocal about wanting to take a crack at the film, and the general feeling was 'Why not? What's the worst that could happen?' So the editor [Priscilla Friendly] and her assistant were flown with the film to New York about three weeks ago. Chris spent a week re-cutting the film, and everyone (including the Weitzes) was pleased with the results."
The source added, "Now there are serious discussions going on about sending the editing crew back to New York for another few days to let Chris 'polish' his cut. He can't come to L.A. because his HBO talk show is in production."
Paul's Breed Begins Filming
he original television movie A Breed Apart, starring Highlander: Endgame's Adrian Paul, has begun filming in Budapest, Hungary, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Motion Picture Corporation of American and Columbia TriStar Home Video are producing the vampire movie, which is slated to premiere on the STARZ! premium television channel in the third quarter of 2001, the trade paper reported.
Breed tells the modern-day story of a world in which thousands of vampires secretly co-exist with humans. Michael Oblowitz is directing the movie based on a first-time screenplay by Christos Gage and Ruth Fletcher.
It's still unclear whether Breed will also go to video or have a limited theatrical release, the trade paper reported.
ABC Will Launch Lloyd
BC ordered 21 episodes of Disney's Lloyd in Space, an animated SF children's series, Variety reported.
The show will become part of the Disney's One Saturday Morning programming block, the trade paper reported.
Lloyd will tell the story of a space-station-bound alien teen-ager who must endure the often confusing transition into adulthood. It will premiere in early 2001, Variety reported.
Courtland Mead (NYPD Blue) will voice the title character. Diedrich Bader (The Drew Carey Show) will have a recurring role, and Ben Stein and John O'Hurley will be among the guest stars.
SCIFI.COM Airs Wild Brain's Dum
CIFI.COM struck a deal with animation house Wild Brain Inc. to run Space is Dum, a satirical Flash-animated space serial.
Space is Dum premiered Oct. 31, and new episodes will be posted on Fridays.
Jim Matison created the series, which tells the story of Dude, a representative of Rechtel Fine Caffeinated Bevco, who is sent into outer space to scout for new franchise locations. He encounters Larry, a freeloading, party-loving space eel who disrupts his plans.
Will The Fly Take Wing?
he Comcs2Film Web site reported that Robert Zemeckis' production house ImageMovers is developing a feature film based on the Archie Comics character The Fly.
Citing an unnamed representative of Zemeckis' company, the site reported that the project is in the early stages of development.
Writers Chris and Paul Weitz (Antz) have reportedly completed a first draft of the script. The movie would tell the story of a man who discovers he is descended from a race of fly-like aliens and must save the Earth from spider-like aliens. The character was created in the late 1950s by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby for Archie Comics, the site reported.
Timeline On Fast Track
aramount has put Timeline--a time-travel movie based on Michael Crichton's best-selling novel of the same name--on a fast track, though it has yet to green-light the project, Variety reported.
Michael Ovitz, the onetime superagent, is shepherding the film.
George Nolfi has turned in a draft of the script to the studio. Richard Donner (Lethal Weapon) will produce and direct. Timeline tells the story of three archaeology students who travel back to 14th-century France to rescue their professor.
Apes To Start Shooting
im Burton's upcoming remake of the 1968 SF classic film Planet of the Apes will go before the cameras Nov. 6 in rural Ridgecrest, Calif., Variety reported.
Fox, meanwhile, has bumped the film's release date to July 27, 2001, from July 4, the trade paper reported.
Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth and Helena Bonham Carter will star in the film, which has been described as a "re-imagining" of the original Charlton Heston film.
Heston Will Play An Ape
harlton Heston, who starred in the original Planet of the Apes, will make a cameo appearance in Tim Burton's remake of the movie--as an ape, Variety reported.
In the 1968 Apes, Heston played an American astronaut who finds himself stranded on a planet inhabited by talking apes.
This time around, Heston will play an unspecified simian role. The movie, starring Mark Wahlberg in the Heston role, will begin filming next week.
Final Fantasy IX Ads Gear Up
quare Electronic Arts announced a massive marketing campaign for the Nov. 14 release of its upcoming video game Final Fantasy IX.
On Nov. 13, the company will launch a five-week national television ad campaign targeting MTV, Comedy Central, Fox, UPN, ESPN/ESPN 2 and E!
The marketing effort will also involve movie theaters. Character artwork for the game, the latest installment in the popular game series, will adorn popcorn containers and lobby signs at 244 movie complexes, the site reported. Pre-show trivia slides will also be projected on the screens of nearly 2,000 movie theaters from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31.
Consumers, meanwhile, will be able to choose from an array of game-related merchandise, including stickers, patches, keychains, magnets, wall calendars, lunch boxes, action figures and clothing.
Hanks On Board Polar Express
om Hanks will star and Rob Reiner will direct the feature-film version of Chris Van Allsburg's children's fantasy book The Polar Express, Variety reported.
Writer Malia Scotch Marmo (Hook) will adapt the book for Castle Rock Entertainment and Hanks' Playtone production company.
Van Allsburg's book tells the story of a boy who believes in Santa Claus, and whose faith is rewarded one Christmas Eve when he's awakened by a steam train that takes him and other children to the North Pole to meet Santa.
Hanks will play the train's conductor. The film would mark the first time Reiner has directed Hanks. Polar Express won't begin production until after next spring's impending actors' and writers' strikes. Van Allsburg's Jumanji was previously turned into a movie.
Hanks Likes Roswell's SF Bent
olin Hanks, co-star of The WB's teen alien series Roswell, told the New York Daily News that he likes the show's increasingly SF flavor.
"We push the science fiction now, which is great, because it opens up so many doors," Hanks told the newspaper.
Hanks added, "We know more about [the aliens'] history and their purpose. We're seven episodes deep [into production]. We've been exploring all sorts of storylines about other aliens out to get us and trying to keep it a secret."
Hanks plays Alex Whitman, one of the human high-school students who befriends and aids the alien teens played by Jason Behr, Katherine Heigl and Brendan Fehr. Despite his Hollywood pedigree--he's the son of movie star Tom Hanks--Colin doesn't like to stand out. "I'm completely fine with that," he said. "I'm just happy to be working. I'm just a 22-year-old actor in L.A. who works consistently. That's what really comforts me, that I'm working and I have money to put food on the table."
6th Day Premieres In Tokyo
rnold Schwarzenegger's upcoming cloning thriller movie The 6th Day premiered Oct. 28 at the 2000 Tokyo International Film Festival, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
"[The last time I was here], I said, 'I'll be back,' and here I am," Schwarzenegger reportedly told the audience.
The star's arrival in Tokyo also kicked off a promotional blitz there that includes a traveling bus featuring props from the film, the trade paper reported. The film, which Roger Spottiswoode directed, opens in the United States Nov. 17.
In 6th Day, Schwarzenegger plays a pilot who finds himself unwillingly cloned and joins forces with his duplicate to save his family and take on a corporation involved in illegal cloning.
Disney Scares Up Ghost
he Walt Disney Co. will develop Ghost Patrol, a supernatural comedy movie based on a pitch by writers Jonathan Bernstein, Mark Blackwell and Jim Greer, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Disney hopes to begin production before impending writers' and actors' strikes in the spring, with an eye to a Halloween 2001 release, the trade paper reported.
The film is described as being in the vein of Ghostbusters. The studio won't green-light the project until it sees a finished script, the trade paper reported.
Battle Angel Sequel Planned
ukito Kishiro, the author and artist of the popular manga and anime Battle Angel Alita (Gunnm in Japan), announced that he will publish a sequel to the series in the monthly Japanese manga magazine Ultra Jump.
Kishiro made his announcement on his official Web site.
Kishiro said the new series is tentatively titled Gunnm: Last Order and will feature Alita (Gally in the Japanese version) with a new costume. He will post character designs from the new series on his site in the near future.
Battle Angel Alita featured a young female cyborg who is revived in a junkyard city in the shadows. Tragedy and violence follow her as she becomes a hunter-warrior in search of her past, aided by the mysterious cyber-doctor Ido.
Two Rices To Team On Witching?
ampire Chronicles author Anne Rice is considering teaming with her son, novelist Christopher Rice, to adapt Anne's book The Witching Hour for the big screen, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Witching tells the story of two characters with special powers whose lives become intertwined as they unlock mysteries of witchcraft dating back four centuries, the trade paper reported.
Anne Rice said she's still deciding whether she wants to tackle the project with Christopher, who's reportedly keen on the idea. She made the comments while discussing her novel Merrick at the 92nd Street Y in New York.
Wilkinson Joins Black Knight
ritish actor Tom Wilkinson has been cast opposite Martin Lawrence in the upcoming fantasy comedy Black Knight for director Gil Younger, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The project begins shooting in November.
Wilkinson will play Sir Nolte, the principal nemesis to Lawrence's character, a down-and-out theme-restaurant employee who is transported to medieval times.
World Fantasy Awards Presented
he 2000 World Fantasy Awards were presented at the World Fantasy Convention held in Corpus Christi, Texas, Oct. 29, according to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Web site.
The awards recognize works published in 1999. A full list of winners follows.
Best Novel
•Thraxas by Martin Scott
Best Novella (Tie)
•"The Transformation of Martin Lake" by Jeff VanderMeer
•"Sky Eyes" by Laurel Winter
Best Short Fiction
•"The Chop Girl" by Ian R. MacLeod
Best Anthology
•Silver Birch Blood Moon, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, eds.
(Datlow edits SCIFI.COM's SCI FICTION site.)
Best Collection (Tie)
•Moonlight and Vines by Charles de Lint
•Reave the Just and Other Tales by Stephen R. Donaldson
Best Artist
•Jason Van Hollander
Special Award, Professional
•Gordon Van Gelder for editing
Special Award, Non-Professional
•The British Fantasy Society
Axis Film, Game Due
tudioCanal has struck a deal with Japanese video game maker Namco to co-develop and distribute a game based on the French company's upcoming animated movie Axis, Variety reported.
The deal was brokered by Gaga, the movie's Japanese distributor, in which Namco is a shareholder, the trade paper reported.
Namco will release a game for the PlayStation2 gaming platform early in 2002, coinciding with the $27 million film's theatrical opening. Axis is an SF fantasy set in an extraterrestrial world of vast trees in which several different communities live. It started production four months ago.
Carpenter Goes West In Mars
ohn Carpenter, director of the upcoming SF horror movie Ghosts of Mars, told Cinescape Online to expect a lot of action.
"This is a giant action movie," Carpenter told Cinescape. "This is the Alamo of humanity."
The movie will tell the story of a mission to rescue Martian colonists beset by unknown forces. Ghosts will have a decidedly Western flavor, complete with mining towns, jailbreaks, train rides and renegade marshals, Cinescape reported. "Think Howard Hawks, and you'll know where my heart is on this movie," Carpenter said.
Ghosts is being produced for a lean $30 million. Carpenter emerged from self-imposed retirement in 1999 to co-write the script with Larry Sulkis. "We wrote the original screenplay story in a very linear way. But it wasn't working like that, so we flipped all of the time around," Carpenter said. "We used flashbacks. And now I'm making my first experimental film."
Indy Coming To Blockbuster
ucasArts Entertainment said that it will sell the Nintendo 64 version of its video game Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine exclusively through Blockbuster's retail stores and Web site.
The N64 version of the game will be available for rental or sale in December, the company announced. Blockbuster will employ its "Guaranteed To Be There" program at participating store locations for Indy's Nintendo 64 debut.
Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine joins the archaeologist in a global race to thwart the Soviets' frantic search for clues to the mysterious Infernal Machine.
Briefly Noted
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Marla Sokoloff (The Practice) and Luke Perry will guest star on Fox's upcoming paranormal anthology series, Night Visions, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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The Dark Horizons Web site reversed itself and said that Wes Craven Presents Dracula 2000 will indeed have a theatrical release, not a straight-to-video release, and will show up in theaters on Dec. 22
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Mark Dunn's short story "Think Tank" won Ireland's first-ever James White Award for science fiction, named in honor of the beloved author. Dunn won $254 and will see his story published in Interzone, Europe's leading English-language SF magazine
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Director Jay Roach told the Inside.com Web site that the next Austin Powers film will be a prequel to the first one, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. "As far as the next Austin Powers film goes, both [star] Mike Myers and I are looking forward to it, and we're almost certain it's going to be a prequel," Roach said. "We're both determined not to do it until we have a great script, but it's very high on our priority list
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The Comics Continuum Web site reported that The WB will air crossover episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel on Nov. 14, with a storyline that focuses on the history of Darla, Spike, Angel and guest vampire Drusilla (Juliet Landau
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Fox ordered a full season of its fledgling SF drama Dark Angel from co-creators James Cameron and Charles Eglee, Variety reported. Dark Angel has earned good ratings since its debut five weeks ago.
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Alfre Woodard has been cast as Jeff Bridges' psychiatrist boss in the upcoming SF movie K-Pax, Variety reported. The movie stars Kevin Spacey as a hospital patient who claims to be from a distant planet called K-Pax.
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Extras on the production of Peter Jackson's upcoming film trilogy The Lord of the Rings disputed New Zealand press accounts that they are unhappy or exploited, according to E! Online. Extras say they're having the time of their lives, are well fed and compensated, only sleep in tents to be close to their horses and are the envy of their friends, the site reported.
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The Oct. 27 premiere of the UPN SF series Freedom and Level 9 gave the network its best-ever Friday ratings for regular programming among adults 18-34 and all-male demographics, as well as its best regular-programming total-viewer average in eight months, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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Child actor Robert Baily Jr. will play a cancer patient in the Universal supernatural thriller movie Dragonfly, Variety reported.
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Sean Biggerstaff will play the role of quidditch team captain Oliver Wood in Chris Columbus' upcoming feature-film version of J.K. Rowling's children's novel Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the British Daily Record reported.
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LucasArts will re-package three of its Star Wars combat flight simulation games for the holiday season as the Star Wars: X-Wing Trilogy. The games include X-Wing, TIE Fighter and X-Wing Alliance. The package will be released in November.
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FX's original supernatural made-for-TV movie The Sight drew a record number of household viewers Oct. 29 by topping all previous performances for original programming on the cable network, Variety reported. Sight--the pilot for a potential series starring Andrew McCarthy--earned a 2.4 household rating in cable homes, which translates to 1.3 million homes.
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The Dark Horizons Web site reported rumors that Sam Raimi's upcoming Spider-Man movie begins production Jan. 8, 2001, and that the climactic battle takes place in New York's Times Square.
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Star Trek: The Next Generation recurring guest star John de Lancie will appear on the syndicated SF series Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, according to the show's official Web site. In the upcoming episode, "The Pearls That Were His Eyes," currently shooting in Vancouver, Canada, de Lancie plays an interstellar trader and old family friend of Andromeda's second-in-command, Beka Valentine (Lisa Ryder).
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Shiri Appleby, star of The WB's teen alien series Roswell, stars in the straight-to-video supernatural teen comedy Deal of a Lifetime, co-starring Ron Glass and Kevin Pollack.
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Sir Ian McKellen, who plays Gandalf in the upcoming film trilogy The Lord of the Rings, has posted images from the New Zealand production on his official Web site.
