SCI FI Buys Crusade Rights
he SCI FI Channel has acquired the rights to air reruns of Crusade, TNT's spinoff series of J. Michael Straczynski's Babylon 5, a spokesman for The SCI FI Channel told SCI FI Wire.
SCI FI will begin airing all 13 produced episodes of the show in April.
Crusade, which began its original run on TNT in June 1999, tells the story of the Ranger ship Excalibur and its search for the cure to a plague that threatens humanity. It starred Gary Cole as Capt. Matthew Gideon.
Although SCI FI airs reruns of Babylon 5 in letterboxed format, the initial run of Crusade will be shown full-screen. If Crusade does well in the ratings, the channel may begin airing Crusade in widescreen format later this year, the SCI FI spokesman said.
There are no plans to make new episodes of the show.
Trek Series Set For Fall
iacom, parent of UPN and Paramount, told a group of investment analysts that it would indeed premiere a new Star Trek series in the fall, according to a report by On24 media reporter Rick Ellis.
Ellis said that Viacom executives were vague about the premise of the series, which would be the fifth Trek show since the original Star Trek aired on NBC in 1966.
Rumors have suggested that the new series, being developed by Star Trek: Voyager executive producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, will center on the early days of the Federation, in the days before the original series. Berman has denied those rumors. Voyager is winding up its seven-year run this season.
It's likely that the new Trek series could face delays, like all fall television shows, if writers' and actors' unions go on strike this spring.
Is Trek V A Prequel?
he SFX Network Web site reported a rumor that the next Star Trek series will indeed deal with the early days of the Federation, before the events of the original Star Trek, despite protestations to the contrary by producer Rick Berman.
The site based its report on unnamed sources who say the concept forms the title of the show on payroll documents within Paramount.
The site also reported that pre-production work is being carried out for the new show.
Trek V Ready To Roll?
he SFX Network Web site reported a rumor that the fifth Star Trek series may be ready to launch pre-production as soon as Feb. 19.
Citing an unnamed source, the site reported that payroll for staff on the new series kicks off on that day.
The site also reported that producers are seeking space for the show on Paramount's Los Angeles lot, which is fully subscribed with other productions. Star Trek: Voyager, meanwhile, has just four episodes left to film before it heads into the sunset.
Mulgrew To Take A Break
ate Mulgrew--Capt. Kathryn Janeway of Star Trek: Voyager--told the Cinescape Online Web site that she'll take a break from TV once the show wraps.
Mulgrew said she wants to spend time with her husband, Ohio politician Tim Hagan, whom she wed April 19, 1999.
"I would like to allow my husband some time to readdress his own life," Mulgrew told Cinescape magazine contributors Gregory L. Norris and Laura A. Van Vleet. "He's made such a huge sacrifice in the last couple of years to accommodate our marriage and this crazy schedule of mine. When this is finished, it will be my turn to shine the light on him. And I
intend to do so."
As for the coming finale, Mulgrew said, "If I know myself as well as I think I do, I'll be an emotional basket case. I imagine it will be a real tough day, because I'm sure I'll have to be containing myself in ways that are going to be very hard for me. [Janeway] is a character I love--love, own and trust. It's a real marriage now, and on that day, I'll be saying goodbye to Janeway as I say goodbye to everybody else, so it's going to be a double whammy. I'm an emotional creature to begin with."
UCR Sponsors Star Trek Studies
he University of California campus in Riverside, Calif., will pay full fellowships and provide jobs to two German graduate students who want to write a three-volume doctoral thesis on the religious content and structure of Star Trek, according to the Riverside Press-Enterprise newspaper.
UCR has promised Sabine Thuerwaechter and Bernhard Janzen full payment of their annual $15,300 graduate student fees as they pursue their doctorates in comparative literature, the paper reported.
Janzen, 38, is a Roman Catholic friar from Muenster who already holds a Ph.D. in theology. Thuerwaechter, 37, is an archaeologist and an expert on Middle Eastern cultures and the ancient writing of cuneiform. The pair found a sympathetic mentor in the person of UCR professor George Slusser, curator of the university's J. Lloyd Eaton Collection, the world's largest catalogued library of science fiction, fantasy and horror, the newspaper reported.
The graduate students are especially interested in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which features an emissary who is a mediator for a persecuted group's salvation, and Star Trek: Voyager, which Thuerwaechter said echoes the ancient Greek epic the Odyssey.
Student Scientists Tour Voyager
obert Picardo, who plays The Doctor on Star Trek: Voyager, guided an international group of science students around the set of the Paramount television series, the official Trek Web site reported.
Picardo--who serves on the advisory council of the Planetary Society--gave the tour to nine students who won a week of activities as part of the society's "Red Rover Goes to Mars" project. Picardo also acts as spokesman for the project, the Web site reported.
The Planetary Society's "Red Rover Goes to Mars" project selected the winners in an essay competition, in which students from 44 countries participated. The winners--four girls and five boys, ages 10-15--hail from Brazil, Hungary, India, Poland, Taiwan and the United States.
The students will also get a chance to help program the Mars orbital camera onboard the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft--the first time students have ever been allowed to participate in an active planetary mission.
Harris Has No Fun On Potter
ichard Harris, who plays Dumbledore in the upcoming Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone movie, told the Empire Online Web site that he's not enjoying the production.
"I'm actually not," he told the site. "I'm in it, so is Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman and Robbie Coltrane, but we're there sort of as special appearances. We come along, and we do it, and we get off, and we go home."
But the irascible Harris praised Potter star Daniel Radcliffe. "The kid is just fantastic," he said. "For never having acted before, you know, he could give me acting lessons."
Hurt Has Potter Cameo
ohn Hurt revealed to the British Daily Telegraph that he has a small role in the upcoming Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, according to a report on the Empire Online Web site.
"I do have a part in the film," Hurt told the Telegraph. "I play Morgana. We are sworn to secrecy, so it's very difficult to talk about it, but I have a small part, a cameo, you could say."
Morgana is reportedly an animated character on a Chocolate Frog card. The film, based on J.K. Rowling's best-seller of the same name, is currently in production.
Potter Witch Eyes Sequels
ulie Walters--the British actress who appears in the upcoming Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone--told the Popcorn U.K. Web site that she expects a larger role in the sequels.
"I've only got, like, half an inch of lines on Harry, but in the other three [proposed] films, there's a lot more," Walters told the site.
Walters' witch character, Mrs. Weasley, "becomes his kind of surrogate mother in the other films," Walters added. She calls Potter star Daniel Radcliffe "gorg [gorgeous]. They chose very carefully and very well with the children. If you're with them for months on end, they've got to be fairly special." Potter, based on the first of J.K. Rowling's best-selling Potter children's novels, opens in November.
New Potter Site Unveiled
arner Brothers announced that it will debut the updated official Web site on Feb. 16 for its upcoming feature-film version of J.K. Rowling's best-selling Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
The new site will offer interactive features, games, bulletin boards and news updates on the production of the movie, the studio announced.
Perhaps stung by criticism of its handling of fan Web sites, the studio is also inviting fan-managed Harry Potter sites to link through the official Harrypotter.com hub, in exchange for official images and icons.
The new Web site will welcome visitors with an animated short of the Hogwarts Express
train, which whisks Harry and his classmates from Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross station to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Once inside the site, fans can apply to be "students" at Hogwarts, take turns answering riddles from the "Sorting Hat," and visit Diagon Alley and "The Owl Post," where fans can send customized e-postcards. The Daily Prophet will offer information about the film.
British Potter Site Debuts
he official British Web site for the upcoming Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone movie will open on Feb. 16, according to Empire Online.
Fans will be welcomed into the site by the Golden Snitch, which leads to a Flash animation sequence of Hogwart's Express in action, Empire reported.
The official Potter site will also allow visitors to find out which house the Sorting Hat assigns them, visit the shops in Diagon Alley or check out cast information via The Daily Prophet.
Millennium Film Possible
rank Spotnitz, head of Millennium creator Chris Carter's Ten Thirteen Productions, told Fandom's Smilin' Jack Ruby that it's not impossible to expect a feature-film version of the canceled TV series.
"You know, I don't know," Spotnitz told the site. "I know it's something that Chris would like to do and [Millennium star] Lance Henriksen would like to do, so it's really, like, if your audience is there to support the idea. I wouldn't say it's impossible."
Spotnitz added that it's possible Henriksen's Frank Black character could show up on the X-Files spinoff series, The Lone Gunmen. "I wouldn't say that's impossible either," he said. "Anything is possible. ... What's funny about Millennium is that it was kind of hard-core in a way. It's just a certain audience. It's like we couldn't get beyond a certain size. I don't know why."
Gunmen Will Reveal Secrets
rank Spotnitz, a producer of The X-Files and its spinoff, The Lone Gunmen, told Fandom's Smilin' Jack Ruby that fans will learn a lot more about Gunmen's three protagonists in the new show.
"It's been teased, but really the most you've learned about them were in the two [X-Files] episodes that featured them--'Unusual Suspects' and 'Three of a Kind.' But you really get a much better sense of who they are, what matters to them, where they came from, what their lives are like and the types of stories they write for their newspaper."
Spotnitz added, "The mythology unfolds very slowly, because we felt, like, after eight years of The X-Files, that people don't want to get hit immediately with a whole other complicated thing. It's kind of hinted at in the first 12 episodes, and then, in the final episode of the season, you really get a sense of what it is."
Spotnitz said Fox wasn't sold at first on the ability of the series' three lead actors--Tom Braidwood, Dean Haglund and Bruce Harwood--to pull in an audience. "I know a lot of people--studio and network people--are, like, 'Can these guys carry a show?' And they're not traditional-looking leading men, and we just did a lot of thinking about it, a lot of thinking about it. Who are these guys really? Fleshing them out. What do they stand for? And they stand for, as they say, tongue in cheek, ... truth, justice and the American way--like Superman. They stand for old-fashioned American values. So old-fashioned that they're kind of hip, because no one talks about them anymore. What we've done is, they're geeks, but we've surrounded them with people who are even geekier. They look kind of cool in comparison to the geeks they work with. I think they carry it really nicely. We're at the end of the run now. We start shooting episode 10 of the first 13, so we've got a pretty good sense of how it's working. I think we pull it off." The Lone Gunmen premieres March 4.
Lone Gunmen Aims At March
he Lone Gunmen--Fox's midseason spinoff of The X-Files--will debut March 4, displacing its forebear in the Sunday 9 p.m. time slot, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The show will then move into its regular Friday 9 p.m. slot starting March 16, replacing the departed Freakylinks. New episodes of The X-Files will return to the Fox schedule April 1, the trade paper reported.
The Lone Gunmen stars Tom Braidwood, Dean Haglund and Bruce Harwood as a trio of bumbling conspiracy theorists and computer hackers who investigate offbeat mysteries.
Gunmen Fills In Blanks
ean Haglund and Tom Braidwood--two-thirds of The Lone Gunmen--talked with the Coming Attractions Web site about their upcoming mid-season show on Fox, a spinoff of The X-Files.
Haglund plays Langly, and Braidwood plays Frohike. Bruce Harwood plays Byers.
The new show "follows the course of our day-to-day lives," Braidwood told the site. "What we do, how we publish the newspaper [The Lone Gunman], where we get our stories, what they're about, how we investigate them. This is aside from what we do for Mulder and Scully when we get called upon to help them out."
Haglund said the series will fill in the blanks about the Gunmen's lives. "When we were interviewed for The X-Files, people would ask why we're called Lone Gunmen," he said. "Well, we put out a newspaper called The Lone Gunman, though there's never been an episode where we've done any paste-up, wrote any stories or investigated any of these stories. So now you see us doing this stuff: investigating the stories and going on these wild adventures."
The new series will feature two new characters: Zuleikha Robinson as computer hacker Yves Adele Harlow and Stephen Snedden, who plays a character named "Jimmy" Bond.
Braidwood said that the show will differ from the X-Files. "It's not X-Files at all," he said. "It's an entirely different animal. It's a comedy." Added Haglund, "It's comedy-action. It's like the funny episodes of The X-Files."
Gish Not Gunning For Scully
nnabeth Gish--the new FBI agent on The X-Files--told syndicated SF columnist Ian Spelling that her upcoming four-episode arc won't be a prelude to replacing Agent Scully if the show goes into a ninth year.
"It has nothing to do with replacing Gillian" Anderson, whose contract expires at the end of the current season, Gish told Spelling. "[X-Files creator] Chris [Carter] even made a statement about that. It's just adding another color to the palette."
Starting with the Feb. 25 episode, Gish will play Monica Reyes, a New Orleans agent who specializes in religious crimes and who shares history with Agent John Doggett, played by Robert Patrick. "Reyes has a bent for spirituality," Gish said. "In the context of a science-oriented show like The X-Files, I get to bring in spirit dialogue. It's wonderful for me, because it's a nice intersection of a professional interest and a personal interest. I like to meditate. I'm very curious about religions."
Episode II To Screen Digitally
tar Wars: Episode II producer Rick McCallum told the official Star Wars Web site that the movie will be delivered digitally to more theaters than was Episode I.
In a test of digital theatrical projection last year, Episode I was distributed on a disc to four theaters.
"We were pleased with the results, and clearly the audiences were as well," McCallum told the site. "We're hopeful that we can increase the number of digital showings for Episode II, because there are so many advantages. The main advantage is the quality of the presentation and the fact that, unlike physical film, the 100th showing will look every bit as good as the first showing. There are also other benefits, which include the cost of distribution and the cost of manufacturing thousands of reels of film. There's a huge, positive environmental impact along with that as well."
McCallum added, "Whether the movie crosses over high-speed data lines, arrives via satellite, on physical disc media, or some combination of the three, I think that's still up in the air. It will be interesting to see how it plays out, while considering both cost and security factors."
Episode II was shot entirely with digital cameras, which McCallum has said speeded up editing and post-production. Episode II is slated for release in May 2002.
Hamill Lights Up Smith Film
tar Wars' Mark Hamill will engage in a lightsaber battle with the title characters in Kevin Smith's upcoming film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, the Empire Online Web site reported.
Quoting stunt coordinator Gary Jensen, the site reported that Hamill's fight will spoof Star Wars and other SF films, including E.T.
"We're doing a big lightsaber fight," Jensen said. "It's kind of fun. Jay and Silent Bob versus Mark Hamill. It's very funny."
Starfighter Game Previewed
ucasArts has teamed up with PlayStation @ Metreon in San Francisco to premiere Star Wars Starfighter, a video game for the PlayStation 2 platform, on Feb. 17, according to the official Star Wars Web site.
Attendees will get a chance to be among the first to play Starfighter and to meet the development team.
The all-day event kicks off at 10 a.m. at the Metreon at the corner of Fourth and Mission Streets in San Francisco. The first 1,000 players will also get a free T-shirt.
Rings Thief Now Sells Swag
former security guard who stole $213,000 worth of costumes and props from the set of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy is now selling his own memorabilia from the production of the film trilogy, the New Zealand Sunday Star-Times newspaper reported.
Blue McLennan, who admitted stealing from the film site in the Wellington area, lost his job and was sentenced to 200 hours of community service last year.
McLennan is now advertising books autographed by the movie's stars, framed paintings, T-shirts and personalized automobile license plates, the newspaper reported. McLennan reportedly acquired the items legally on his own.
Pern Pilot Preps For March
onald D. Moore--who recently received the go-ahead from The WB for a series based on the Dragonriders of Pern novel series--told SCI FI Wire that he hopes to remain faithful to Anne McCaffrey's books, with some concessions to TV.
"The show will be an interpretation of Anne's books, my take on Anne's world," Moore said in an interview. "It's how I see it successfully moving into television."
Moore added, "I have a great deal of respect for what she's done and the world she's created. I want to make the transition successfully into the filmed environment, which does require some interpretation and moving pieces around. But by no means do I want to reinvent the world or throw things aside."
Moore said The WB has green-lighted a pilot episode based on a script by Moore, who also produces Roswell. He is now in pre-production on the pilot, which he hopes to shoot around the end of March or the beginning of April. Filmmakers still haven't selected a cast, crew or filming location. The series will be live-action, with computer-animated dragons. "We're going to be pushing the envelope on what we can do on TV, and deliver creatures that haven't been seen before and in a way that hasn't been seen before," he said. The series' fall start could be delayed by impending writers' and actors' strikes this spring, Moore added.
The pilot--based on McCaffrey's first Pern novel, Dragonflight--introduces the central character of Lessa, the daughter of a noble family of Ruatha Hold. Her family is killed, and she journeys with F'Lar, F'Nor and Kylara to Bendan Weyr to reclaim her title and eventually return as a dragonrider, Moore said. "Lessa is the character who stuck with me the most when I read the first books," he said.
Moore's series is not related to a previous Dragonriders series that was in development at Alliance Atlantis Entertainment and Zyntopo Teo. But that show's champion, Eric Weymueller, will act as an executive producer on Moore's show.
Moore said that fans of the Pern books should reserve judgment on the upcoming TV show. "I just want to get people in the mindset that, look, we want to bring this property to television, but we want to give you what you love about the books. ... Anything you hate about [the TV show], you can lay at my doorstep. ... I'm not trying to outdo Anne at her own game, or improve the books, because I don't think they need improvement. ... It's a translation into a different medium. ... It requires looking at it through different eyes. ... You have to make choices: which characters to include, which not to, which standing sets you have, where's the home of the show, who do we follow each week, what span of time."
Moore added, "I'm very excited. It's a unique property. ... When we pitched it, I had the pleasurable experience of pitching something they've never heard before. There's this really interesting sort of science-fiction take that she found, this thing that looks like fantasy on its surface, but is really science fiction underneath, with really strong and interesting characters. ... The response to the pilot script is very gratifying. ... People walk away saying, 'Can you really do it?' And we said, 'Yes.' ... It's really an exciting time. It's been really fun. We're trying something new and really different. I guarantee there's not going to be another dragon show on the air. It's not like we're doing another cop show. ... This is going to be the only one, so it will be kind of cool, and will get a lot of attention, and I think we have a real shot at making it a success."
Farrell Mulls Minority Report
olin Farrell is in final talks to replace Matt Damon as Tom Cruise's co-star in Minority Report, Steven Spielberg's adaptation of the Philip K. Dick SF short story of the same name, Variety reported.
Fox and DreamWorks will co-produce.
Damon bowed out of Minority Report because of delays due to Spielberg's recent health problems, his decision to first film A.I. and the need for frequent rewrites on the SF script, the trade paper reported.
Farrell would join Minority Report immediately after completing production on Hart's War. The plan is to wrap production on Minority Report in June, ahead of the strike deadline set by the actors' union. Cruise will play a cop who finds himself being pursued by Farrell's character for a murder he hasn't yet committed.
Witchblade Starts Filming
NT will begin production of its original series Witchblade in Toronto on Feb. 20, the Comics Continuum reported.
The network has ordered 11 episodes of the show, based on the Top Cow series of the same name; the show premieres in June.
Toronto will stand in for New York, the setting of the story of NYPD detective Sara Pezzini (Yancy Butler) and her supernatural gauntlet. A Witchblade television movie aired on TNT last summer, winning impressive ratings.
Singer Closes In On X-Men 2
-Men director Bryan Singer may be a step closer to joining the production of the sequel, now that his current film, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, has been halted only five weeks before filming was to commence, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Mind stalled after London-based Renaissance Films failed to come up with the financing, sources told the trade paper.
Singer was going to begin production on X-Men 2 once shooting for Mind wrapped. If the project falls apart completely, Singer will focus on scripting the X-Men sequel for a January 2002 start, with an eye to a holiday 2002 release, the trade paper reported.
3rd Rock Winding Up?
he cast of NBC's alien sitcom, 3rd Rock from the Sun, have been told the show won't return in the fall, sources told The Hollywood Reporter.
But an NBC spokeswoman told the trade paper that no final decision has been made on the series' future.
French Stewart, who plays Harry, has already signed up for another sitcom, Blind Men. If 3rd Rock does return, Stewart will appear in both shows, the trade paper reported. Stewart is also appearing in the Jonathan Frakes-helmed SF movie Clockstoppers, which is currently in production.
3rd Rock has already filmed a finale, in which the aliens return to their home planet.
Reign Details Leaked?
lot details of Rob Bowman's upcoming SF film Reign of Fire have leaked out to the Coming Attractions Web site.
The site--relying on an anonymous source who quotes star Matthew McConaughey--said the film begins in a world devastated by fire-breathing dragons.
In the movie, survivors engage in guerrilla warfare against the dragons, using guns, swords and tanks, the site reported. The dragons eat ashes and people and breathe an intense fire.
Reign also stars Christian Bale and Izabella Scorupco.
Selick Drafting Coraline Film
irector Henry Selick (Monkeybone) told SCI FI Wire that he's writing a fantasy feature-film adaptation of Neil Gaiman's children's novel Coraline, which he will also direct.
"I'm going to try to get the first draft done before the [upcoming writers' union] strike, so we can at least go out and do design work and get actors," Selick said in an interview.
Coraline tells the story of a young girl who lives in a London duplex with her parents. She unlocks a forbidden door in her flat, which opens into a disturbing parallel world. "She finds a mirror image of her own life, except in that world, her formerly distinterested parents fawn over her," Selick said. "But it turns out to be ultimately a terrible trap, and she has to not only escape from the trap, but also rescue her parents and other children who have become trapped in there. It's a beautiful, elegant story. My main job is not to mess it up and keep it as close to the original, because it's so beautifully written."
Selick said the film will be live action, with some animation. Selick is working with former Fox chief Bill Mechanic's Pandemonium production company.
Real Patient Informed Monkeybone
enry Selick--director of the upcoming fantasy film Monkeybone--told SCI FI Wire that he talked with a real coma patient before he helmed the movie, about a cartoonist who falls into a coma and encounters his own creations.
"I interviewed a coma victim who was in a coma for a year," Selick said in an interview. "She felt very much that her spirit was alive and stuck between life and death, that her feet were nailed to the ground. It was very convincing. I think that there's very much going on when people are in a coma."
In Monkeybone, Brendan Fraser plays a cartoonist on the verge of great success who has a serious accident that leaves him in a coma. In his mind, he enters a limbo world called Downtown, where other coma spirits reside. One of his cartoon creations, a monkey, becomes his nemesis and his ally as Fraser struggles to regain control of his body before doctors pull the plug.
The movie mixes stop-motion animation, computer animation and live action to create Downtown and its denizens. The look may remind viewers of Selick's earlier films, The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach, he said. "The world we go to, Downtown, is not Halloweentown [from Nightmare], but it is a run-down carnival with perpetual night-time. Instead of all animated creatures, there are a lot of people in costumes, but with extreme designs. But there is a similarity in the look of the ... films, [as will] probably anything I do that's set in an imaginary world . ... But there are nightmares [in Monkeybone] that we see that are very different. They're funny and goofy and very creepy. They're shot in black and white, simply conceived, but they have a lot of power. They're very different from what you may have seen in my work previously."
Monkeybone is based on the graphic novel Dark Town, written by Kaja Blackley and illustrated by Vanessa Chong. The film has altered the comic's storyline and added a great deal of humor, Selick said. "I think I've always been interested in other worlds that coexist ... and the original comic had a really fantastic style and look to it, by Vanessa Chong, the illustrator," Selick said. "And it was also very clean and simple. It's become more complex, and her work doesn't really remain. But graphically, it was pure. ... I also felt that the story premise--you look at someone in a coma, you don't think of their spirit having a consciousness and probably think you're doing them a favor by pulling the plug. ... But the story is that the spirit is very much alive and desperately trying to get back into the body." Monkeybone opens Feb. 23.
UPN Orders Dead Zone Pilot
PN has green-lighted a pilot for a television series based on Stephen King's novel The Dead Zone, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The approval is contingent on casting for the drama, the trade paper reported.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine co-creator Michael Piller will executive produce Dead Zone with his son, Shawn Piller. Lion's Gate Television will produce the show, according to the trade paper. David Cronenberg directed a 1983 feature-film version of the story, which starred Christopher Walken as a man who awakes from a coma to discover he has the power of clairvoyance.
Lost Empire Myth Still Relevant
homas Gibson--who stars in NBC' s upcoming fantasy miniseries The Lost Empire--told the Associated Press that the story, based on an ancient Chinese legend, is relevant today as well.
Gibson plays Nick Orton, an American scholar and businessman, in the Hallmark Entertainment miniseries, which is scheduled to air March 11 and March 12.
"The overarching theme is the triumph of the spirit of the individual against an oppressive, authoritarian government, which makes it a valid modern story, too," Gibson told the wire service. Gibson's character is transformed into an action hero by his love for the beautiful Kwan Ying, who turns out to be the goddess of mercy and is played by Bai Ling, the AP reported.
Gibson admitted that he didn't know much about Chinese culture or the legend of the Monkey King, on which the miniseries is based. "I still wouldn't consider myself any kind of expert, but I know a little bit more now than I did before," he said. He found the research and travel involved put "one's own life and one's own culture into a more global context, which I think is an extremely important perspective to try to give yourself." The miniseries filmed in Malaysia and Singapore and on sound stages in Prague in the Czech Republic. Playwright David Henry Hwang, author of the play M. Butterfly, adapted the legend to the screen.
Ling Suffered For Empire
ai Ling--who appears in NBC's upcoming fantasy miniseries The Lost Empire--told syndicated columnists Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith that she's lucky she made it through the production without permanent injury.
"There were so many accidents," Ling told Beck and Smith.
Ling was bumped by a car that was only supposed to look like it hit her during filming at the Singapore location. "I said, 'Next time you want to use me as a stunt double, tell me first!'"
Ling added that she had to endure a large headdress for her role as the Goddess of Mercy. "It was painful, but I thought it was OK at first," she said. "After a while, I said, 'Wow, I have a headache.' They gave me aspirin, Tylenol--but it got much worse. Normally I can endure a lot of pain, but this was making me dizzy. ... [But] they said it would take 45 minutes to take the headdress off and two and a half hours to put it back on, so we would lose the shooting day. So I kept it on, and the whole day I was in hell." Thomas Gibson co-stars in the miniseries, which airs March 11 and 12.
SFWA Honors Sheckley
he Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America selected SF author Robert Sheckley to be this year's author emeritus, SFWA President Paul Levinson announced on the association's official Web site.
Sheckley dominated the 1950s' science-fiction short form, with more than 100 stories in that decade, including "The Academy," "The Accountant," "The Altar" and "A Ticket to Tranai."
Sheckley's stories appeared in the period's leading pulps, including If, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and Galaxy, as well as in mainstream magazines, such as Esquire and Playboy, Levinson reported.
The SFWA's author emeritus program recognizes senior writers who have made significant contributions to the field. Previous recipients include Emil Petaja, Wilson "Bob" Tucker, Judith Merril, Nelson Slade Bond, Philip Klass (William Tenn) and Daniel Keyes. Robin Bailey, who as then south-central regional director of SFWA suggested the program, is editing an SFWA author emeritus anthology. Sheckley and his wife will join SFWA members at its Nebula Awards banquet in Los Angeles on April 28, Levinson reported.
Bond's Car Auctioned In London
he 1965 Aston Martin DB5 driven by Pierce Brosnan's James Bond in Goldeneye sold at auction in London Feb. 14 for $230,000, Empire Online reported.
Christie's auction house sold the vehicle as part of an auction of other Bond memorabilia, including the white bikini that Ursula Andress wore in 1962's Dr. No, which went for $60,000.
Max Reid of Sheffield, England, bought the car as a Valentine's Day present for his wife, the site reported.
Katzenberg Eyes Fry's Hedge
ichael Fry, co-creator of the Over the Hedge comic strip, told the Comics2Film Web site that DreamWorks honcho Jeffrey Katzenberg has picked up the strip's concept for development as a computer-animated feature film.
Pacific Data Images (Antz) would reportedly develop the film. Hedge centers on a talking raccoon and turtle who live near suburbia.
"Jim Cox [FernGully: The Last Rainforest] is still producing, but now with his wife, Penney Finkelman Cox [Antz], on board as well," Fry told the site. "We're in a race against the [impending writers' union] strike to get a writer putting a script together, based on an original story by myself, [Hedge co-creator] T. Lewis and Jim Cox."
Oddworld Site Opens
icrosoft has opened an official Web site for the upcoming fantasy game Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee, the third installment in the popular Oddworld video game series.
The site features Flash animation to offer visitors an early look at the game and the Oddworld universe, according to the FGN Web site. The site also features a diary by senior game designer Paul O'Connor.
The game will follow the 3-D adventures of Abe and Munch, a pair of lab rats that have taken one chemical too many and developed special psychic powers. Munch's Oddysee will premiere exclusively for the Xbox gaming platform for the 2001 holiday season.
Jensen In Talks For X-Men 2
-Men stunt coordinator Gary Jensen is in talks to return for the upcoming sequel, X-Men 2, Jensen told the Empire Online Web site.
But producers are awaiting a final script and confirmation from X-Men director Bryan Singer that he will helm the sequel, Jensen added.
"We're waiting to get a good script going at the moment," Jensen told the site. "I can imagine there'll be more fantasy, but also trying to make it look more real. I know that if Bryan does it again, he'll want to do it very realistically."
Jensen added, "My one daughter wanted to see Beast. He's my favorite character, but all the characters are so great in their own little way. I would like to bring them all into it, but I don't know how you could make a movie that long. I know that when work starts on X-Men 2, there'll be plenty of preparation, because we're going to try to surpass what was done before. It'll be tough, but I'm looking forward to it. In the film business, there's nothing you can't do. It just takes time and money."
Allen Starring In StarChild
im Allen will team up with Mel Gibson to produce the SF comedy movie StarChild, in which Allen will also star, Variety reported.
Paramount Pictures is developing the film.
Like Allen's previous Galaxy Quest, StarChild is described as a comedic send-up of SF films. It tells the story of a socially challenged CIA agent who helps a friendly alien get back home, saving him from the aftermath of an interplanetary war, Variety reported.
The picture doesn't have a firm start date yet, but is expected to go into production after the possible writer and actor strikes this summer, the trade paper reported.
Meyer Joins Kate And Leopold
reckin Meyer (Road Trip) is in final talks to star opposite Meg Ryan in Miramax Films' time-travel movie Kate and Leopold, Variety reported.
Meyer will play the brother of Ryan's character.
Kate tells the story of a late 19th-century duke who travels to modern-day New York and falls in love with Ryan's 21st-century woman. James Mangold will direct Kate, based on his rewrite of Steven Rogers' script, the trade paper reported.
New Pathfinder Goes SF
ony and Phoenix Pictures will remake the Norwegian suspense movie Pathfinder as an SF movie, Variety reported.
The film, directed by Nils Gaup, was nominated for an Oscar in 1987.
Gaup will also direct the remake. The new version will update the 10th-century Lapland story, which is based on a Norse legend, and set it in a post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland. The new film will tell the story of a young man whose family is slaughtered by a band of marauders and who orchestrates revenge with an intricate ruse, Variety reported.
The movie won't begin production until after strike deadlines pass for impending writers' and actors' strikes this spring, the trade paper reported.
Lloyd To Voice Cyberchase
hristopher Lloyd (Back to the Future) will voice the villain in PBS' upcoming animated SF children's series Cyberchase, the network announced.
PBS will co-produce the show with Thirteen/WNET of New York.
Lloyd will play Hacker in the series, about three Earth kids who are summoned into cyberspace to foil the villain in his quest to take over the world. The show, which premieres in 2002, will have a companion Web site. It is aiming at children aged 8-11.
Verne Star Relishes Input
hris Demetral, star of The SCI FI Channel's original series The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne, told a recent SCIFI.COM chat that the actors have a high degree of input into each episode's script.
"We made a point every week to sit down and discuss every episode with the producers," Demetral said.
Demetral added, "Sometimes the scripts didn't sound like our character, like Jules ... not being intelligent enough to figure out something he explained a few episodes before. The writers were very easy to work with. I think we made an impact on every episode."
Demetral said he looks forward to his character's maturation. "My character arc has always been one developed over several seasons," he told fans. "I didn't want him to be an action hero right away. He's a writer, not James Bond. I'd like to see Jules write more and incorporate his stories in episodes. I know that Nemo and his daughter, Laura, will play an important part, and I think we'll have an episode on why Jules never wrote of Rebecca."
The actor also said he feels a great responsibility to the real Verne. "There's a lot of pressure," he said. "Verne was a great genius of his era. He predicted skyscrapers, fax machines [and] high-speed trains. I wish I could have sat down with him. Every day, I reminded myself that he was intelligent, charismatic and genuine."
Magic Time In Works
riter and producer Marc Scott Zicree (Sliders, Babylon 5) told SCI FI Wire that he is working with the Evergreen production company to develop a television series based on the upcoming Magic Time series of fantasy novels he developed with his wife, Elaine.
Former B5 producer John Copeland is on board to produce Magic Time, Zicree said in an interview.
HarperCollins will publish Magic Time, by Zicree and novelist Barbara Hambly, in December as the first of three planned novels, Zicree said. The books tell the story of a world in which machines have stopped running and magic has re-emerged as a force in the universe. Some of Earth's inhabitants remain human, but others have morphed into strange creatures or monsters, Zicree added. The second book will come out in December 2002 and the third a year after that.
"The three books tell a larger story, and they stand alone as a single adventure," Zicree said. "They follow a group of characters who travel from Manhattan across the country to see what caused the change. The hero is a lawyer who had been raising his orphaned 12-year-old sister, who is now no longer human. So he's searching for his sister and trying to save her."
Separately, Zicree told SCI FI Wire that he and Evergreen are also developing Core, an SF TV series co-created with writer Michael Reaves, author of the Star Wars novel Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter.
Rock Gets Down To Earth
hris Rock--co-writer, producer and star of the upcoming fantasy movie Down to Earth--told SCI FI Wire that he was new to the film on which it's based, Warren Beatty's 1978 Heaven Can Wait.
"I know this sounds crazy," Rock said on a press tour to promote the film. "I saw Heaven Can Wait for the first time less than two years ago. And I had no idea [of its] legacy, what the movie meant to people. I had no idea Warren Beatty was this huge star."
Once he met with Beatty and screened the film, however, Rock said he immediately saw the possibilities for updating the story, about a man who dies prematurely and is given a second chance at life--in another man's body. "I thought we could make a story that everybody could relate to," Rock said. "There's a reason that I didn't see it the first time--because it didn't reach up and [grab me]. ... I thought we could make a movie that dealt with class, that dealt with looks, you know what I mean? ... Looks, race. And race is just looks at the end of the day. It's just looks to the third power. It's nothing but looks. ... It's an all-encompassing thing. The statement is 'judge people by who they are inside.' And our bodies are just cars that drive us around. There's a soul, and it's in the eyes, it really is in the eyes."
In Down to Earth, Rock plays Lance Barton, a struggling stand-up comedian who dies and is resurrected in the body of a 60-ish rich white man. "When I told Warren I was doing it, he told me he originally wrote [Heaven Can Wait] for Muhammad Ali, and that it's a better movie with a black guy," Rock said. Down To Earth opens Feb. 16.
Tiger Gets 10 Oscar Nods
rouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon copped 10 nominations for the 73rd Annual Academy Awards, which were announced Feb. 13 in Los Angeles.
The fantastical martial-arts story had the most Oscar nods of any foreign-language film ever. Crouching Tiger earned nominations for best picture and best foreign-language film, and director Ang Lee took a nomination for best director.
Aside from that, however, genre films got short shrift with the academy. Willem Dafoe, co-star of Shadow of the Vampire, was nominated for best supporting actor. Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas received nominations for best art direction, costume design and makeup. The Emperor's New Groove got a nomination for best song.
SF&F films that received one technical nomination included The Cell (makeup), Hollow Man (visual effects) and Space Cowboys (sound editing). The Oscars will be handed out March 25 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles in a live broadcast on ABC.
Razzies Love Genre Films
ohn Travolta's Battlefield Earth got the dubious distinction of receiving the most nominations for "Razzie" awards, given by the self-styled Golden Rasberry Foundation for the worst movies of the year, the Associated Press reported.
Earth received eight nominations, for worst picture, director, screenplay, actor, screen couple and three supporting actors.
Other genre films ranked high on the list of nominees, including Little Nicky and Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, with five nominations each, the AP reported. The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas was also nominated for worst picture.
The foundation has 503 voting members consisting of critics, filmgoers and people who work in the entertainment business, the AP reported. Winners will be announced March 24 during a news conference on the eve of the Academy Awards. Among the other nominees:
Worst Actor
•Arnold Schwarzenegger (The 6th Day)
Worst Actress
•Kim Basinger (Bless the Child)
Worst Director
•Joe Berlinger (Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2)
•Steven Brill (Little Nicky)
•Brian DePalma (Mission to Mars)
MGM Mulls Grimm Tale
GM is in final talks with screenwriter Ehren Kruger (Spy Kids) to develop the fantasy movie The Brothers Grimm, based on the real-life fairy-tale authors, Variety reported.
The movie would tell a fictional story about the brothers Jacob and Willem Grimm.
In the film, the Grimm brothers are forced to investigate a haunted forest, where girls have been disappearing. Much of the drama is spun from classical mythology and fables, the trade paper reported.
Toy Fair Screens Apes Clip
ox executives and star Mark Wahlberg unveiled footage Feb. 11 from director Tim Burton's upcoming Planet of the Apes movie to attendees at New York's international toy fair, Variety reported.
Wahlberg was joined by Fox co-chairman Tom Rothman and licensing president Steve Roth for the opening night of the toy fair, at which movie-related merchandise will also be shown.
Variety described the first images from the film as raw and visceral, full of dazzling effects and vividly realized apes. Before the screning, 10 apes from the movie's set glowered and roamed among the fair-goers, the trade paper reported. Apes opens July 27.
No Mummy III For Weisz
achel Weisz--who reprises her role as a spunky Egyptologist in the upcoming The Mummy Returns--told the Calgary Sun that she's not interested in a third installment of the franchise.
"I loved doing The Mummy Returns, because it was like a wonderful family reunion," Weisz said of the sequel to 1999's hit The Mummy.
Weisz added, "And my character has really evolved, so it was also quite challenging. But twice is definitely enough." Weisz will co-star with Brendan Fraser and pro wrestler The Rock in the sequel, which opens May 4. The Rock is also reportedly set to star in a proposed third movie, The Scorpion King.
SCI FI Buys Earth Rights
he SCI FI Channel paid a bargain $2 million for the rights to air John Travolta's much-maligned SF epic film Battlefield Earth, Variety reported.
SCI FI was the only bidder for the TV rights for the movie.
SCI FI locked in a three-year license for Earth, starting in December 2002. Earth opened last year with $11.5 million in ticket sales amid almost universal critical disdain. The movie topped out at about $21.4 million in domestic box office after only six weeks. But the movie has ranked in the top 20 of video rentals since its release on VHS and DVD this year.
Greenwood Dives Below
ruce Greenwood (Thirteen Days) will play the lead role in Below, the World-War-II SF thriller movie from director David Twohy (Pitch Black), Variety reported.
Greenwood will play the captain of a haunted submarine sent to rescue three survivors from a British hospital ship sunk by Nazis.
Matt Davis (Tigerland) and Olivia Williams (The Sixth Sense) co-star in the Dimension movie. Twohy directs from a script by Darren Aronofsky and Lucas Sussman.
BBC, A&E Find Lost World
&E Network and the BBC will develop a three-hour original television film, starring Bob Hoskins, based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Production is set to begin this month in New Zealand and London. Peter Falk will make a cameo appearance as the Rev. Theo Kerr.
The movie is tentatively scheduled to run on the BBC around Christmas this year and on A&E in the second half of 2002, the trade paper reported. The production will combine animatronics with computer graphics similar to those used in A&E's recent documentary Walking with Dinosaurs. Stuart Orme will direct from Tony Mulholland's screen adaption.
The BBC/A&E co-production will be only the latest in a string of adaptations of Conan Doyle's book, including the current syndicated television series of the same name.
Briefly Noted
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Horror novelist Stephen King, who was viewing Hannibal when a baby started screaming, marched up to the theater manager and asked why an infant had been allowed to see the R-rated movie, the New York Post's Page Six reported. Moments later, the manager escorted the baby and its parents out.
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Peter Falk has traveled to New Zealand to star in the latest version of The Lost World, a television film for the BBC/A&E, based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's book, Variety reported. Bob Hoskins and James Fox co-star.
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Great Britain's BSkyB network has bought the pay TV rights to the four Stars Wars movies in a deal worth £12 million ($17.5 million), Variety reported. BSkyB will begin broadcasting the films on four successive Saturdays beginning March 17 on the premium movie channel Sky Premier.
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William Shatner married Elizabeth Martin in a private ceremony in Indiana on Feb. 13, the day before Valentine's Day, according to a report in the Indianapolis Star News.
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Ben Edlund--creator of the Tick comic series and animated television show--will make a cameo appearance in the premiere episode of Fox's upcoming live-action television series of the same name. The show debuts this spring.
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The WB has approved a remake of the 1970s Saturday morning series Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, Variety reported. The remake will update Dyna Girl as a young college student going to Las Vegas, where she finds Electra Woman.
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Jessica Alba--who plays genetic superwoman Max on Fox's Dark Angel--proved no match for a recalcitrant dressing-room door before the Feb. 12 taping of Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, according to The New York Post's Page Six column. The show's crew had to take a power saw to the door to liberate Alba, who was a guest on the show.
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Contrary to earlier reports, the Spider-Man Hype Web site reported that Ted Raimi won't be playing Dr. Curt Connors in his brother Sam Raimi's upcoming Spider-Man movie. Rather, Ted Raimi will reportedly play an unnamed reporter for the Daily Bugle.
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Composer John Debney said on his official Web site that he will score Dimension Films' upcoming SF adventure movie Spy Kids.
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The WB is moving ahead with a pilot for a "foamation" series, Slacker Cats, from Will Vinton Studios, Variety reported. Cats will tell the story of a community of hip felines. British writers Kevin Cecil and Andrew Riley created and are writing the pilot.
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A spokesman for UPN told SCI FI Wire that its freshman SF series Level 9 has been placed on indefinite hiatus, but would not confirm that the show has been canceled.
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Warner Bros. has reportedly bumped the release date for its upcoming vampire movie Queen of the Damned to at least January 2002 from fall 2001. The film is based on the Anne Rice novel of the same name.
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Willem Dafoe got word of his Oscar nomination for Shadow of the Vampire while working on the set of Spider-Man, in which he plays the villainous Green Goblin, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "Anytime you get singled out like that, it's a little surreal," he told the trade paper.
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Horror writer Stephen King sued his insurance company for $10 million, claiming it failed to provide full coverage for injuries he suffered when a van hit him in western Maine two years ago, the Associated Press reported.
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Midnight Productions has signed a deal with the CountingDown.com Web site to distribute Surreal World--Tatooine: Episode 1.5, a series of six weekly four-minute short films that parody Star Wars. Anthony C. Ferrante wrote and directed the shorts.
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Director Brian Gibson will develop Beached, a fantasy comedy film for Fox 2000, about a child who is swept overboard and mysteriously raised by whales, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The child grows into a huge adult who washes up on shore 20 years later and must make a life on land.
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Michael J. Fox is near a deal to voice the title character in Stuart Little 2, the sequel to Fox's 1999 film, about a talking mouse adopted by a family, Variety reported.
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The TrekWeb fan site reported a rumor that UPN will cancel its previously announced retrospective special commemorating Star Trek: Voyager's run. Citing an unnamed source, TrekWeb reported that the network was worried about the cost of assembling the special, which was scheduled to air on the Tuesday night before the final episode of Voyager in May.
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Haxan Films, the creator of The Blair Witch Project, has settled its lawsuit against Artisan Entertainment for an amount in the $25-30 million range, Variety reported. The suit concerned the amount of money Haxan was due from Artisan for the release of the first Blair Witch movie.
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