Seven Of Nine To Get Tragic
eri Ryan--Seven of Nine on Star Trek: Voyager--told the Los Angeles UPN affiliate that her character may become a tragic figure in the show's seventh and last season, according to the official Trek Web site.
Her half-Borg character will be experimenting more this year, Ryan said while promoting her upcoming film Wes Craven Presents Dracula 2000.
Viewers can expect Seven to "do some kind of experiments with her humanity and her sexuality and trying to re-experience the emotions that she felt for the first time in 'Unimatrix Zero' at the beginning of the season," Ryan said. "And I think that Seven is going to be ... more of a tragic figure as we end the series, which I think is an interesting choice," Ryan said. When pressed for more details, she laughed. "Nope! That's all you get!"
As for when Voyager will return to Earth, Ryan said, "I don't know. They won't tell me how the season is ending either, so I don't know if we're getting back. I assume that we'll get back--that's my prediction--but that's with no inside information."
Excelsior Fans Won't Give Up
roponents of a new Star Trek television series based on the exploits of the U.S.S. Excelsior are outlining a new strategy to win the attention of executives at Paramount.
In addition to encouraging fans to vote for an Excelsior concept in a recent SCI FI Wire poll, the Excelsior Campaign is now arguing for a miniseries or television movie to prove their point, campaign organizer Russ Haslage said.
Paramount has remained skeptical of the Excelsior idea, arguing that Trek needs to move in a new direction. But Star Trek producers have remained coy about their plans for a fifth Trek television series, though rumors have circulated that it will likely concern the birth of the Federation.
Moore Clarifies Trek Talk
ormer Star Trek writer and producer Ronald D. Moore has clarified comments he made recently to the Space.com Web site about the upcoming fifth Trek television series, specifically saying that he had no inside knowledge about the show.
Space.com had quoted Moore as saying that he understood the next series would deal with the birth of the Federation.
But, Moore told the Optical Data Network Web site, "I'm a little mystified as to why anyone would think that I made some kind of announcement or something. I said very explicitly that I had no inside dope on the new series. I said I had not heard from anyone directly on the show, but that I'd heard the same basic rumors that everyone else had. Why Space.com chose to issue a blaring headline saying that I was 'confirming' [the] birth of the Federation [concept] is beyond me. If I wanted to say that I had definitive word, then I would've said so. I was doing a Roswell interview and got asked some Trek questions at the end. The whole section of the interview having to do with Trek took place after the Roswell questions and was much more off-the-cuff. To be clear: I don't know with any certainty what the new series is about. Period."
Moore is currently co-executive producer of The WB's teen alien series Roswell.
Yeoh Wooed For Matrix Films
ctor and martial artist Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) is being sought to appear in The Matrix 2 and 3, Variety reported.
The trade paper reported that Yeoh may play the role once rumored to belong to Jet Li.
Li reportedly opted not to appear in the two sequels to 1999's The Matrix because producers couldn't afford to pay him the salary to which he's grown accustomed, Variety reported. The trade paper's columnist Michael Fleming reported that Li asked for about $13 million for the two pictures, but sources said Li was offered $3 million to work for 11 months on the two sequels, which will be filmed back to back.
Reeves Training For Matrix 2
eanu Reeves told SCI FI Wire that he started training for The Matrix 2 and 3 a month ago, and that moviegoers should expect more ambitious things in the sequels to 1999's hit film.
"We're doing the kung fu training," Reeves said during a press briefing for his upcoming supernatural thriller film The Gift. "It's just harder, more sophisticated."
Reeves added, "Instead of one-on-one fights, there's multi-fights. And weapons: there's some more weapons. And the ambition of what Larry and Andy Wachowski--the directors--want to do and where they want to put the camera and the environments they want to shoot ... are insane."
Reeves will reprise the role of Neo in the sequels. He said he doesn't know when filming will start on the sequels, which are to be shot back-to-back in Australia, San Francisco and other locations. "The brothers have a tough gig ahead of them, which is very daunting," Reeves said. "But which is good, because it helps you do better work. ... I thought they made a great film [in The Matrix]. ... There was a great style to it. There were great ideas. There was a freshness to it; there's a nice vitality to the film, if you relate to the picture. ... So I'm glad to be there."
Rings Wrap Party Readied
etween 2,500 and 3,000 invited guests are expected to attend the "wrap party" marking the end of principal photography in New Zealand for Peter Jackson's upcoming film trilogy The Lord Of The Rings, according to the country's Evening Post newspaper.
Though details are top secret, the newspaper reported that the party--called "Escape from Middle Earth"--will take place Dec. 22 on the Wellington waterfront at a cost of at least $100,000.
A blooper reel, musical acts and fairground attractions were expected to be part of the night's entertainment. The invite-only party commemorates the end of 15 months of at-times arduous shooting all over New Zealand. The country's Dominion newspaper reported that tickets to the party were being scalped for more than $1,500 each.
The production will begin post-production in the coming year, aiming at the Dec. 19, 2001, release of the first Rings movie, The Fellowship of the Ring. The three films are based on J.R.R. Tolkien's novels of the same name.
New Rings Trailer Coming
s it begins its official one-year countdown to the first Lord of the Rings movie, New Line Cinema announced that the first theatrical trailer would be attached to prints of Thirteen Days, starting Jan. 12, 2001.
New Line will also formally relaunch its official Rings Web site on the same day and update it monthly.
Principal photography on the three Rings films is scheduled to wrap before Christmas. The first film, The Fellowship of the Ring, is slated to open Dec. 19, 2001. The films, directed by Peter Jackson, are based on the three novels of the same name by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Blanchett Tackles New Queen
ate Blanchett, who received an Oscar nomination for playing Elizabeth, told SCI FI Wire that it's a completely different thing playing the queen of the elves in the upcoming Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
"Oh, the queen of the elves was a very different queen [from] Elizabeth. You'll see," Blanchett said during a press briefing for her upcoming supernatural thriller, The Gift. Blanchett plays Galadriel in Peter Jackson's upcoming movies, which are based on J.R.R. Tolkien's three novels of the same name.
"It was uncharted territory for me," Blanchett said. "I've never done anything with blue screen before, or prosthetics, or anything like that. ... Filming The Lord of the Rings was like stepping into a video game for me. It was another world. ... I basically did it so I could have the [elf] ears. I loved the ears. And they were so sweet. They actually made little bronze castings of my ears for me to take. Which was great. I loved all of that stuff. ... And filmmaking is, no matter what genre you're working in, ... creating fantasy for an audience."
Blanchett, an Australian who has mastered American accents for her various films, said it was an entirely new challenge developing an elvish accent for Rings. "Elves do not exist," she said. "So how does an elf speak? And Tolkien wrote a language. He wrote elvish. And there are, to my astonishment, ... elvish experts, people who speak fluent elvish. And ... I actually speak elvish in the thing. It's beautiful. It's sort of like Welsh and a very sort of melange of various Celtic languages. That was fantastic too."
Genre Stars Get Golden Nods
im Carrey, star of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Mel Gibson, star of What Women Want, were among the nominees for the annual Golden Globe awards, announced Dec. 21 in Hollywood.
Carrey and Gibson were both nominated for best male performance in a comedic motion picture. The awards will be presented Jan. 21.
Dark Angel star Jessica Alba and Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar were both nominated for best performance by an actress in a dramatic television series.
Chicken Run was among the nominees for best musical or comedy film. Genre films and televison programs otherwise fared poorly in the nominations, which are chosen by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's 90 or so members. The association hands out 13 movie and 11 television awards.
Willem Dafoe got a nomination for best performance by an actor in a supporting role in a motion picture for Shadow of the Vampire. And Sting's song, My Funny Friend and Me, from the movie The Emperor's New Groove copped a nomination for best original song in a motion picture.
Grinch Tops 2000 Box Office
r. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas on Dec. 21 became the top-grossing movie of 2000, earning $216.4 million in 33 days of release, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Grinch surpassed previous No. 1, Mission: Impossible 2, which took about four months to gross $215.4 million.
The trade paper predicted that Grinch's final domestic box-office total could amount to about $250 million. Grinch has become the 25th highest-grossing film of all time in North America.
Contest Offers Evolution Role
reamWorks and its fan-run CountingDown.com Web site are sponsoring a sweepstakes for a walk-on role in the studio's upcoming SF movie Evolution.
Fans 18 years old and over can visit CountingDown.com and click on the Evolution button for contest information. The contest runs through Jan. 5.
The winner will get a walk-on role and a day on the set of Ivan Reitman's new film. The SF comedy, starring David Duchovny, is currently in production in California and Arizona, slated for a summer 2001 release.
Campbell Confirmed In Spidey
onfirming news first reported on SCI FI Wire, The Hollywood Reporter said that Bruce Campbell will play a cameo role in Sam Raimi's upcoming Spider-Man movie.
Campbell will play a ring announcer during a fight sequence in the film, which begins production next month.
Director Raimi had told SCI FI Wire that he would reteam with Campbell, Raimi's star from the Evil Dead trilogy of films.
Raimi Reveals Spidey Details
irector Sam Raimi told SCI FI Wire that casting is all but complete on his Spider-Man movie, including Cliff Robertson as Uncle Ben, Rosemary Harris as Aunt May and a surprise appearance by Bruce Campbell.
Speaking at a press briefing for his upcoming supernatural thriller The Gift, Raimi added that production will begin in three weeks on his feature-film version of the Marvel Comics series.
Veteran actors Robertson and Harris will join a cast that includes Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker, Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane and Willem Dafoe as the villainous Green Goblin. As for Campbell--who appeared in Raimi's three Evil Dead films--Raimi said, "I'm going to work again with Bruce in Spider-Man."
Raimi also confirmed rumors that the movie's script, credited to David Koepp (Jurassic Park), has been the subject of numerous rewrites. "I would say that the script is always in need of work," Raimi said. "I'm not happy with it yet. But I think it's a very good script now. What we need to do is make it more than great, though. That's the problem. The expectation is so high that a very good script that I would have shot, and happily, isn't good enough. So I would say it's true, but that's the relative terms that it's true in. But no, the studio ... [is now] happy. Now it's worse than that. Now I've got to get happy."
Raimi also revealed the film's theme and said he wouldn't resort to the flashy camera tricks of his early films, such as Darkman. Spider-Man is "the story of a young man who is irresponsible and is selfish and has petty goals. And it's a story of how he learns to be a responsible young man," he said. "So it can't be about the shots. It's got to be about the character. Now I also have a responsibility to make it as exciting as possible. That's my conflict. I think I have to move the camera in such a way and so fast and so much so that it's exciting, and you're flying and swinging with Spider-Man, but not so much that you think it's a cool shot. [I have to] somehow [tread] that line."
Raimi added, "It's frightening, because there are so many kids that ... Spider-Man means so much to. They don't look to Hercules anymore--the Greek god--to understand life or experience what it means to be a hero. They look to Spider-Man. So what you have is the childhood dream of every child--not just in the United States, but actually internationally--and you've to take good care with it. And I've got a great responsibility on my shoulders, because he is their hero. So what lessons in the movie does he learn that exemplify being a hero? As a father, I feel a great deal of responsibility in pulling off the character for that reason. These kids are going to look up to whomever Spider-Man is. So what shall he be?"
Dreamcast Spidey Game Coming
ctivision announced that it will launch a Spider-Man video game for Sega Dreamcast in the spring.
Activision has already introduced a game based on the Marvel Comics superhero for the PlayStation gaming platform.
Treyarch LLC will develop the Dreamcast version of the game, in which players will assume the role of the webslinger and battle enemies all over Manhattan.
Dafoe Likes Goblin's Duality
illem Dafoe, who will play the Green Goblin in Sam Raimi's upcoming Spider-Man movie, told Eon magazine that he was attracted by the character's conflicted nature.
"Some of the writing I like very much," Dafoe told the site. "I like very much the fact that it's a double character. It's a character with a dark alter ego. It attracted me. I mean, we all can relate to that."
But Dafoe declined to say more about the role. "I'm not being evasive," he said. "I don't know. It's a little too early for me. I'd be bullsh-tting you. One thing at a time."
The Gift Is Not Usual Raimi
am Raimi, director of the upcoming supernatural thriller movie The Gift, told SCI FI Wire that fans of his earlier Evil Dead movies should expect a different kind of ghost story.
"Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2--the early horror movies that I made--were about trying to show the supernatural as an outrageous, funny, bold, exciting and terrifying force," Raimi said during a press briefing. "In this movie, ... the point of view is so different, because the goal was to service the screenplay and the actors' performances and try to present the supernatural as something that was real."
The Gift, which opens for a limited run in Los Angeles Dec. 20 and nationally Jan. 19, stars Cate Blanchett as Annie Wilson, a small-town psychic who is enlisted to find the missing daughter of the town's richest man. In the process, she crosses paths with a wife abuser played by Keanu Reeves. "It was a different approach that the screenplay guided us all in, which is that this is a real woman and a real family, and the supernatural exists," Raimi said. "So we ... wanted to make it real. We wanted Cate to first establish that she was real and her family was real, so that the journey of the supernatural would be terrifying, not because of the extreme or exaggerated effects or camera movement, but rather because you care about this woman and her family. And when the slightest thing happens, however subtle, in the world of the supernatural, and it might threaten her, it has greater impact because you believe her. That was the difference in the approach of this picture. That's what guided the style of the film."
Raimi also had reservations about casting Reeves in the key role of abuser Donnie Barksdale. "When they said he was interested, I said, 'You must be crazy,'" Raimi recalled. "And then they said, 'He wants to meet you.' I said, 'Yeah, but I don't want to meet him, because I don't want to meet him and then say no. It'll only make it worse.' And they said, 'Let him meet you.' So I go into this meeting, thinking, 'Ah, I'm dreading this meeting.' So he came in, and I found out that I had been fooled, like everybody's fooled by movie actors. ... In this case, I just thought he was that kid from [Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure]. But he turned out to be this very intelligent young man, very dedicated to the craft of acting. ... And then he slipped into the part, in little bits and pieces, and suddenly I saw, in that moment, that Donnie Barksdale could be this sexual animal also. And that became a very new and exciting idea to me."
(Read Raimi's complete interview in an upcoming edition of Science Fiction Weekly.)
Crow IV Director Hired
usic video director Joseph Kahn will helm The Crow: Lazarus, the proposed fourth installment in the supernatural movie franchise, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
James Gibson will write the script for Lazarus, which will star rapper DMX as a musician who comes back from the grave to seek revenge on the biker gang that killed him, the trade paper reported.
Lazarus is scheduled to start shooting in the spring. The movie does not have a distributor; the third Crow movie, The Crow: Salvation, was released straight to video after an unsuccessful theatrical test run in Washington state. The Crow films are based on James O'Barr's comic series of the same name.
Oz Ditmar Awards Presented
he Australian National Science Fiction Awards (the Ditmars) were presented in Perth, Australia, on Dec. 16, according to the Eidolon.net SF Web site.
The awards were presented by the Ditmar 2000 subcommittee. Winners received framed certificates.
The awards are nicknamed for Martin James (Ditmar) Jenssen, a founding member of the Melbourne Science Fiction Club. A complete list of winners follows.
Best Novel
•Teranesia by Greg Egan
Best Short Fiction
•"Written in Blood" by Chris Lawson
Best Collected Work
•New Adventures in SciFi by Sean Williams
Best Artwork
•Birdy Rides the Manta-cycle by Shaun Tan
Best Fan Writer
•Robin Pen
Best Fan Artist
•Catriona Sparks
Best Fan Production
•Aussiecon 3 Opening Ceremony Video by Danny Heap
William Atheling Jr. Award for Criticism or Review (tie)
•Russell Blackford, Van Ikin and Sean McMullen for Strange Constellations: A History of Australian Science Fiction
•Tess Williams and Helen Merrick for Women of Other Worlds
Will Park Be Iron Fist?
he Comics Continuum Web site reported a rumor that Ray Park (X-Men) could play the lead role in a feature film based on the Marvel Comics series Iron Fist.
Citing unnamed sources, the Continuum reported that Park could agree to the role within a month.
Iron Fist is one of the characters involved in the Marvel-Artisan Entertainment development deal announced last May. Marvel executive Kevin Feige told the site that the movie could reach theaters in 2001. The 1970s comic series centers on a young man whose parents are murdered. He develops martial arts skills and later seeks to avenge his parents' deaths.
Shyamalan At Work On Next Film
irector M. Night Shyamalan (Unbreakable) told The Hollywood Reporter's columnist Martin A. Grove that he's already writing his next feature film.
"I just started writing a new movie," he told Grove. "I'm in the very early stages of that."
Shyamalan wouldn't say if the new movie would follow in the thriller footsteps of his previous films, which include The Sixth Sense. "I don't know if any of them are really thrillers, but if you have to put them in that place [you can]," he said. "Hopefully, they are their own thing--kind of supernatural, eerie, suspenseful, surprising movies."
As for a title, Shyamalan said, "I have one, but I haven't lived with it long enough to make sure [it's right]," he said. "For a long time, I had the title of Unbreakable as No Ordinary Man, like the comic book saying, 'Oh, he's no ordinary man.'"
No Arnold In Reign
ontradicting a widespread rumor, the ShowBiz Ireland Web site denied that Arnold Schwarzenegger would play a role in the upcoming SF epic movie Reign of Fire.
Citing a report in the Irish Mirror newspaper, ShowBiz Ireland quoted producers denying earlier rumors that the actor would appear in the film.
Reign of Fire stars Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey as warriors who battle fire-breathing dragons intent on conquering the Earth. The film is slated to begin filming in Ireland in March, the site reported.
Blade 2 Close To Start
arvel Studios' Kevin Feige told the Comics Continuum Web site that Blade 2: Bloodhunt is slated to begin production in Prague in late February.
Director Guillermo del Toro is currently casting the sequel to 1999's hit Blade, which is based on the Marvel series Blade the Vampire Hunter.
"Guillermo and his whole art department are in town right now," Feige told the site. "We hope to see everything and approve everything before they go. There's some beautiful stuff." Among the Marvel artists contributing to designs are Timothy Bradstreet and Mike Mignola.
Kane Keeps Chin Up On Angel
hristian Kane--who plays the nefarious lawyer Lindsay McDonald on The WB's Angel series--told EW.com that he's getting used to losing fights with the show's star, David Boreanaz.
"Even when Lindsay has temporarily set aside his evil ways to help [Boreanaz's] Angel, he STILL gets the crap beat out of him," Kane told the site. "Every episode! I'm always getting the s--- beat out of me. I've been choked, cut. You know, Angel cut my hand off. I got beat up by a blind woman; I got beat up by Darla [Julie Benz], who's dying of syphilis. One of these days, Lindsay's going to kick someone's ass. All the writers have to do is put pen to paper, and I'm ready to go."
Kane added, "My fantasy plot line is, Lindsay gets super powers. He ditches the lawyer suits, he ditches the rubber hand, and he's got ... he's got a METAL CLAW! And a leather jacket. And he's a badass. You get beat up a lot, stuff like that goes through your head."
In real life, Boreanaz and Kane are longtime friends. "I'd met Boreanaz when I was starting to do Fame L.A. and he was just starting on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. We went to the same gym. We always said, 'We're going to work together.' But you don't ever think you're going to work with your buddies. [In 1999,] I auditioned for Buffy, for the role that Marc Blucas has [as Buffy's boyfriend, Riley]. Later, they called me in for Angel. I went in, played one scene, and that was it."
Buffy's Riley A Goner?
hings don't look good for Riley Finn, the love interest on The WB's hit series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, according to TV Guide Online.
The Dec. 19 episode may resolve unsettled issues for Buffy's paramour, played by Marc Blucas.
Rumors have suggested that the end was near for Riley's character. Co-executive producer Marti Noxon, who makes her directorial debut with this episode, told TV Guide, "We have been hearing the rumors, and as you would suspect, I can't deny or confirm them. But we are definitely aware of [the gossip] and we are sort of having some fun with it."
Noxon added, "What I can tell you--being as vague as humanly possible--is that it's an extremely dark episode, and it's a fairly momentous one. Things are going to change." Noxon also wrote the episode.
Actor Went To School For Apes
ctor Glenn Shadix, who will play an ape in Tim Burton's upcoming Planet of the Apes movie, told the Tim Burton Collective fan Web site that he went to a special "ape school" for the role.
"Ape school is a trip," Shadix told the site. "We stretch and warm up, and then learn specific movements and posturing."
Shadix added, "I play an orangutan, and my posture and movement is different from that of a chimp or a gorilla. There is a lot of pre-production work with our makeup, which includes personalized ape dentures that require some getting used to, as well as some work with how to handle props in an appropriately ape-like manner, using our 'ape extremities.' We also spend time examining ape psychology in terms of how it affects behavior and movement."
Shadix, who is best known as Otho in Burton's Beetlejuice, added that he spends up to three hours a day in makeup. "I have found it very relaxing for the most part. I actually fell asleep in the makeup chair the first day that the full makeup was applied. It takes a little over three hours, with two makeup artists working. I have to say that the makeup designer Rick Baker and his team are the very best, and they make the experience as pleasant as is humanly possible."
Baker Still Going Ape
ick Baker, who is creating the special makeup for Tim Burton's upcoming Planet of the Apes movie, told EW.com that he's scrambling to keep up.
"Oh, boy, there's hundreds of apes to do," Baker told the site. "It's another enormous job with very little pre-production time."
Baker added, "I really can't talk about it too much, but it's a more realistic approach [to the apes] than in the original movie. But they are still humanized in that they are biped, and they can talk."
Baker's no stranger to monkey suits, having done makeup for films from Gorillas in the Mist to Mighty Joe Young. "I thought I was done making apes after 1988's Gorillas in the Mist," Baker said. "It was always my goal to do a gorilla that people wouldn't know from the real thing, so after that I said, 'Okay, I've accomplished that; it's time to move on.' But it's kind of like Christopher Lee saying he'll never play Dracula again. When I was approached about Mighty Joe Young, I had a real hard time turning that down. [The 1949 original] was always one of my favorite films. I did the Dino De Laurentiis version of King Kong in 1976 and was always disappointed, because I wasn't able to do it as realistically as I wanted, and I thought this would be a good way to make up for that. And after that, I thought, 'Okay, I'm DEFINITELY not gonna do any more.' And then Tim Burton called me. It was such a landmark makeup picture, and I just had the hardest time turning it down. I'm a big makeup geek and a big ape geek, and I just thought, 'I really have to do this.'"
'Thunder' Heads For Screen
ierce Brosnan could star in and Renny Harlin could direct a feature-film adaptation of Ray Bradbury's classic time-travel short story "A Sound of Thunder," according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The pair are in final talks to team up on the movie, the trade paper reported. The filmmakers hope to bring the project before cameras during the first quarter of 2001, before a possible actors' union strike.
Adapted by Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer, "Thunder" tells the story of a big-game hunter who goes on a time-traveling safari to hunt dinosaurs. When confronted by a tyrannosaurus, he loses his nerve, stumbles off a path and inadvertently changes history.
New Episode II Droids Coming
ohn Duncan, a concept model maker on Star Wars: Episode II, told the official Star Wars Web site that he's building a new generation of robots for the prequel.
"I made the original maquette [3-D model] of the battle droids for Episode I, and I'm working on the new battle droid for Episode II," Duncan told the site. "That's the one I can't wait to see on the screen. I just love robots--Lost in Space, Robbie the Robot, Metropolis, all those classics."
Duncan and his model-making colleague John Goodson told the site that the designs in Episode II will gradually shift the aesthetic from the smooth, streamlined designs of Episode I to the more plate-and-armor look of the classic Star Wars trilogy.
"You're definitely starting to see things that are going to integrate these first movies into the original three films," Goodson said. "There's definitely that theme that's starting to come in. There were a few things that looked like traditional Star Wars--the Federation battleship and the Republic cruiser in particular had that kind of plated look, with little chunks taken out of the edge of the plating and little chips for detail. But we're now seeing things that are starting to kind of cross that line."
Episode II Subtitle Uncovered?
he Ain't It Cool News Web site reported another rumor, attributed to actor Kenny Baker, that Star Wars: Episode II will be subtitled Rise of the Empire.
Baker, speaking to an AICN source during the taping of a British television show, supposedly made the comment and added that the prequel would be a romance.
For his part, Baker--who played R2-D2 in the previous Star Wars films--reportedly said he would travel to Australia in March to film additional scenes for Episode II.
X-Men 2 Team Almost Signed
-Men director Bryan Singer, executive producer Tom DeSanto and writer David Hayter will likely sign up for the anticipated sequel to this year's hit movie, the Comics Continuum reported.
Sources told the Continuum that negotiations are ongoing with the three and might be wrapped up by the end of the year.
"Everyone wants the same team together," Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige told the site. It's possible X-Men 2 might go before cameras for Fox before the end of 2001, with an eye to a Christmas 2002 release, the site reported. The first film's cast is already signed up for a sequel.
"We want to pick up where the last one ended," Feige said. "There were characters and set pieces that were in and out of the scripts of the first movie as it developed that were eventually left out for various reasons. Those will probably be the first things we want to get to."
Wuhrer To Star In Arac
ari Wuhrer (Sliders) will play the female lead opposite David Arquette in the giant-spider movie Arac Attack, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Warner Brothers and Village Roadshow Pictures are producing the comic SF film in conjunction with Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich's Centropolis Entertainment.
Wuhrer will play a local sheriff who must save the town from an attack of giant spiders after a toxic waste spill. Wuhrer is familiar to SF fans, having appeared in the films Anaconda and Thinner and the television series Swamp Thing.
Site Buys Galaxy Magazine
he SF Web site GalaxyOnline.com announced that it has bought Galaxy magazine, the venerable genre magazine founded in 1950.
Galaxy magazine ceased publication as a print periodical in the mid-1990s, but has maintained a Web site, which is part of the deal. Terms were not disclosed.
GalaxyOnline.com said it was mulling how best to relaunch the print edition of the magazine. "We certainly won't be introducing anything immediately," said GalaxyOnline.com president and chief executive Doug Conway in a statement.
Cell DVD Reveals Secrets
avid Prior, producer and designer of the DVD edition of The Cell, told SCI FI Wire that the DVD lets viewers in on the secrets behind the movie's unique visuals.
"The strength of The Cell is pretty apparently its visuals," Prior said in an interview. "I wanted to focus mainly on that: What went into the creation of them?"
Prior and partner Charles de Lauzirika added several behind-the-scenes features about the creation of the movie's visual effects, design and costumes, including the documentary Style as Substance. "There were a couple of really interesting things," Prior said. "I kind of know where digital effects come from ... but I'd never heard of anyone doing a digital makeup job before. In the final scene in the movie--when Jennifer Lopez is in the snow-globe area--they completely did a makeup job on her digitally, and I thought that was pretty amazing."
The DVD also includes audio commentary tracks, an isolated film score and deleted scenes, including sequences ultimately deemed too graphic for the theatrical release. "[Director] Tarsem said something, which I recognized immediately," Prior said. "You get so involved in something in the day-to-day production and can easily lose sight of how far you've gone ... and sometimes it's not until the end of the process, when you can watch other people's reactions to what you've done, that you realize, 'No, we've gone a little too far.' ... I don't think he was terribly upset by cutting some of that stuff." The DVD of The Cell goes on sale Dec. 19.
Warner Develops Dead Men
arner Brothers will develop Dead Men Walking, a supernatural horror movie based on a spec script by John Requa and Glenn Ficarra, Variety reported.
The movie will tell the story of an escape from a zombie-infested penitentiary, the trade paper reported.
Warner is also developing two other movies based on the writers' ideas, including an untitled live-action Looney Tunes project and a third, as-yet-undetermined movie. The pair wrote the script for the upcoming fantasy movie Cats and Dogs, due for release next year.
Stan Lee Projects In Doubt
he collapse of Stan Lee Media, the Web company of the former Marvel Comics writer, leaves in doubt several genre projects, according to the Inside.com Web site.
On Dec. 15, Stan Lee Media suspended operations and laid off the majority of its staff of about 120.
Stan Lee Media has a deal with producer Mark Canton to turn its 7th Portal animated Web series into a movie. The company, which also owns the rights to Conan the Barbarian, had announced a deal with Warner Brothers to produce a new Conan movie. It's unclear now whether those projects will move forward, Inside.com reported.
Jurassic 3 Has Troubles
illiam H. Macy, star of the upcoming Jurassic Park 3, told the New York Post that the production has been troubled.
"What you want to say is, 'Who launched a $100 million ship without a rudder? And who's getting fired for this?'" Macy told the newspaper. "But that's the way it goes with these movies. I think someone should be shot, but you know, I'm not in charge."
Macy plays the millionaire father of a boy who is stranded on a dinosaur-infested island. Despite the movie's problems, Macy said, "there will be a moment that will bring all of us to our knees, a Frank Capra moment where we're so childishly delighted in the magic that just happened."
Rodriguez Mulls Evil Role
ichelle Rodriguez (Girlfight) is in talks to star in Resident Evil, the feature film based on the Capcom video game series of the same name, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Rodriguez would play Rain and would join Milla Jovovich, who will play Alice the Zombie Killer.
Paul Anderson will write and direct Evil, which centers on a special military unit that fights an out-of-control supercomputer and hundreds of scientists who have been transformed into flesh-eating zombies.
Women Takes The No. 1 Slot
el Gibson's fantasy movie What Women Want topped the box-office rankings in its premiere, taking in an estimated $34.4 million on the weekend of Dec. 15, according to the Hollywood trade papers.
Women knocked Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas out of the No. 1 slot, where it has resided for the last four weekends. Grinch came in third, with an estimated box-office take of $13 million and a total so far of $213 million.
The Emperor's New Groove debuted in the No. 4 slot, with a modest take of about $10 million. Unbreakable ranked seventh, with about $3.9 million for the weekend and a total of about $83.2 million after four weeks of release.
Dungeons & Dragons was fading fast, coming in ninth and taking in only $2.2 million in its second weekend of release, for a total of less than $10 million.
Connery Says No To Bond Films
ean Connery told Cinescape Online columnist Cindy Pearlman that he won't appear as the bad guy in any future James Bond movies.
"It's absolutely not true," the actor said of rumors that he will play the villain in the next Bond film.
"They couldn't afford me," he added. "I saw The World Is Not Enough. I thought Pierce Brosnan was very good. And it amazes me that after Pierce, they'll still be doing Bond films in another 10 years."
Taking Scooby-Doo Beyond TV
ames Gunn, who is writing the screenplay for the upcoming live-action Scooby-Doo movie, told the Daily Radar Web site that he wants to go beyond the animated television series for the film.
"The problem with most cartoons-to-movies is that they attempt to be exact replicas of the cartoons--people speaking like cartoons, etc.," Gunn said. "I never wanted to simply watch a couple hundred episodes of Scooby-Doo cartoons, and then vomit them out in a different order, longer and with real people.
"Instead, I wanted to say, 'Let's take it as fact that there's this dog that can talk and this group of mystery-solving teenagers who have, in the past, come up against numerous men in masks posing as supernatural entities, and let's take it as a fact that all the other traditions of Scooby-Doo really happened as well,'" Gunn added. "If that were all real, what would these people be like? What would be their strengths and weaknesses? What problems would they have between them? What are they like between mysteries? What don't we see on the show? In essence, if they are real, who are they? That was a starting point for me, while simultaneously putting Mystery Inc. in a bigger, more threatening situation than they've ever been in before. The ride, thus far, has been a blast."
Gunn added, "Scooby-Doo is the primal goof and coward in all of us. He is awkward, he is scared sh-tless, he's a glutton ... and yet he's still a hero. If he can be a hero, then there's quite a bit of hope for the rest of us, isn't there?"
Briefly Noted
- The Hollywood Reporter confirmed news reported earlier on SCI FI Wire that Cliff Robertson, Rosemary Harris and J.K. Simmons will join the cast of Sam Raimi's upcoming Spider-Man movie. Robertson will play Uncle Ben, Harris will play Aunt May and Simmons will play J. Jonah Jameson, the trade paper reported.
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Keanu Reeves told SCI FI Wire that he would love to do another installment of his Bill & Ted movies--but not for a long time. "I always told [co-star] Alex Winter that we should do it when we're 40," Reeves said during a press briefing to promote his upcoming movie The Gift. "So when I turn 40, I'm going to approach it."
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Billy Tucci, writer of the Shi comic-book series, told the Comics2Film Web site that he has renewed his development agreement with Franchise Pictures for a feature-film version of the genre comic.
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The International Horror Guild has rescheduled its seventh annual awards ceremony, which will now take place during Dragon*Con, Aug. 31-Sept. 3 in Atlanta. The awards were previously slated to be given during the World Horror Convention 2000, May 25-May 28 in Seattle.
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Promotional Lord of the Rings 2001 calendars have been popping up on eBay a day after they were sent out to the press, drawing bids as high as $70, Variety reported.
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Sarah Michelle Gellar, star of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, told Seventeen magazine that she hasn't committed to the role of Daphne in the upcoming live-action Scooby-Doo movie, though her real-life paramour Freddie Prinze Jr. has. "When doing a film such as Harvard Man, with that high of content and level, I doubt any actor would then stoop to do a Disney genre-type movie. Freddie has signed on to it, but I haven't even looked over the script," Gellar said.
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Jeremy Irons (Dungeons & Dragons) and Guy Pearce are rumored to have joined the cast of The Time Machine, the upcoming feature film based on H.G. Wells' classic SF novel of the same name, according to the Ain't It Cool News Web site.
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A new juried award called the Sunburst Award will recognize Canadian English-language literature of the fantastic, according to a report on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Web site. The first award, to be presented in fall 2001, will honor works published in 2000.
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Artisan Entertainment could release the DVD edition of The SCI FI Channel's original miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune as early as March 20, 2001, according to the DVD Review.com Web site. The DVD will reportedly feature behind-the-scenes footage, interviews with cast and crew and a making-of featurette.
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Joss Whedon, creator of The WB's hit series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, will write the introduction to the upcoming trade collection of Warren Ellis' Planetary comic series, the SFX Network reported. Whedon is a well-known fan of comics.
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