SCI FI To Air New Babylon 5
abylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski is working on a two-hour telefilm called Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers that will premiere on SCI FI later this year.
The film will take up the story of the legendary Ranger fleet as it attempts to restore order to hundreds of civilizations devastated by the Shadow War.
This new chapter of the Babylon 5 story finds the mysterious Ranger force--a combination of humans and alien Minbari trained in space warfare as well as the unique alien philosophy of the Rangers and just about every conceivable form of martial arts--faced with deadly challenges in its attempt to create peace out of the war's destruction.
Babylon 5 cast members may appear in the movie, which will also serve as the pilot for a potential SCI FI Channel series. Douglas Netter is executive producing the series along with Straczynski.
Arthur C. Clarke At Oscars
ir Arthur C. Clarke presented the nominees for and winner of the Oscar for best screenplay at the 2001 Academy Awards ceremony on March 25.
Clarke--who shared a 1969 Oscar nomination with Stanley Kubrick for their SF classic movie 2001: A Space Odyssey--is a permanent resident of Sri Lanka.
Clarke's presentation was filmed earlier this month in the capital of Colombo. But that doesn't mean Clarke was privy to the winner. "I quite enjoyed recording my presentation," Clarke told the Web site prior to the event. "But even I don't know who the winner will be. I had to record five video clips presenting each nominee as the winner. I hope they'll play the right one that night."
The 2001 nominees for best screenplay were Chocolat; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; O Brother Where Art Thou; Traffic; and Wonder Boys.
Animator Hanna Dead At 90
nimator William Hanna--who with partner Joseph Barbera created Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear and the Flintstones--died March 22 at his home in North Hollywood, Calif., a spokesman for Warner Brothers told the Reuters wire service.
He was 90.
Hanna, the co-chairman and co-founder of Hanna-Barbera Studios, produced as many as 11 half-hour shows on television a week at the peak of his career. Hannah and his partner produced 3,000 half-hour shows featuring such characters as Scooby-Doo, the Jetsons, Atom Ant, Jonny Quest, Quick Draw McGraw, Top Cat, Magilla Gorilla, Pixie and Dixie and Josie and the Pussycats, Reuters reported.
Hanna and Barbera met at MGM in 1937, where they created the Tom and Jerry cartoon series. They formed their own animation company, Hanna-Barbera, in 1957 after they were told that the animation division at MGM was being shut down.
Voyager End Commences
roduction of the two-hour series finale of Star Trek: Voyager began this week and will continue for about two and a half weeks, followed by additional photography, the official Trek Web site reported.
Veteran director Allan Kroeker is helming the finale.
Voyager is scheduled to wrap for good on April 9, the site reported. In the meantime, the official site has been updated with a new section devoted to the show's end.
Ryan Conflicted About Voyage's End
eri Ryan--Seven of Nine on Star Trek: Voyager--told Entertainment Tonight that she won't miss some things about her role once the series wraps its seven-year run.
"I won't miss the corset," Ryan told the show. "I won't miss having the rubber glued to my face every day. But I'll miss these people. ... You really do become like a family, because you see them more than you see your family. ... And I'll miss this character. She's been a real joy to play, a real gift for an actor."
Ryan and the rest of the cast are winding down production for the show, which ends with a two-hour finale entitled "Endgame," airing May 23 on UPN. "We've had a couple of days that were a little bittersweet, a couple scenes specifically," Ryan told ET. "But for the most part, it's still very lighthearted and very fun and goofy and uncontrolled chaos. But I suspect that toward the end, because I think we have 14 days left to shoot, ... I think as it starts to become more real to all of us, it's going to start becoming a little sad."
Fans Petition For DS9 Film
ore than 5,400 fans of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine have signed an online petition urging Paramount to base a movie on the defunct series.
"With the ending of the original series and Next Generation film series, it seems only logical that Deep Space Nine--left rich in unfinished storylines and possibilities--should be the next film frontier for the Star Trek franchise," the petition said. "This petition is created in the hopes of not only supporting such an endeavor, but also proving, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that what the Trek fans want, the studios are wise enough to support."
One fan told SCI FI Wire that actor J.G. Hertzler (Gen. Martok) has handed out pamphlets with the petition Web address at recent Trek conventions.
Strikes Could Derail Trek V
he upcoming fifth Star Trek series and the 10th Star Trek movie are both in preproduction, but could be shut down by impending writers' and actors' union strikes this spring and summer, the official Trek Web site confirmed.
The writers' contract expires May 2; the actors' pact expires June 30.
Should the strikes be averted, the next Star Trek series could premiere as early as this fall, the site reported. It's unclear how the strikes would affect the timing of the series. The site did not discuss the timing of the upcoming 10th feature film, for which Gladiator writer John Logan has drafted a script.
Armin Shimerman (Quark on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) co-chairs the Screen Actors Guild's wages and working conditions committee.
Bakula Mulling Trek V Role?
he TrekToday Web site reported a rumor that Scott Bakula (Quantum Leap) is under consideration for the lead role in the upcoming fifth Star Trek series.
Citing a Paramount casting sheet, the site reported that Bakula is in talks to play the role of Jackson Archer, captain of a starship named Enterprise in the top-secret show.
Bakula's character reportedly holds a grudge against Vulcans, whom he blames for impeding the progress of humanity. Earlier rumors suggest that the series is set either in the 22nd century or in the 25th century, close to the 23rd-century time frame of the original Trek series.
Bakula is best known as Sam Beckett in the beloved SF series Quantum Leap. He is also no stranger to other genre entertainment, having appeared in the Invaders miniseries and the Clive Barker supernatural horror film Lord of Illusions.
Exposure Unspools Top Five
he SCI FI Channel's original short-film showcase series Exposure will present the top five highest-rated films from its first season--as voted on by viewers to its official Web site--on April 1 at 11 p.m. ET.
Terry Farrell (Dax on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) will host the show. Farrell also voices Six of Nine, one of the animated characters in Tripping the Rift, a Star Wars spoof included in the countdown.
The Exposure "Best of Season One" episode will also offer a preview of season two, with the network premiere of 405, a desktop digital film that depicts what could happen when Los Angeles' most crowded freeway becomes an emergency runway. On April 8 at 11 p.m. ET, season two begins with "Visions of the Future," featuring all-new short films.
The "Best of Season One" countdown follows.
•No. 5, George Lucas in Love
•No. 4, All is Full of Love
•No. 3, Tripping the Rift
•No. 2, Antebios
•No. 1, More
Buffy Creator Mad At WB
uffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon told the New York Daily News that remarks by The WB's chief executive angered him to the point that he's ready to move the show to another network.
The WB's Jamie Kellner told Entertainment Weekly that the show wasn't the network's top ratings earner and that it appealed mainly to teens.
That drew the ire of Whedon. "It makes me angry to see this show belittled," Whedon told the Daily News. "For Jamie Kellner to call it a teen show and dismiss his own product angers me. It doesn't breed love."
Feelings have been running high between The WB and Fox, which produces Buffy. A deadline has passed for contract renewal negotiations between The WB and Fox, leaving Fox free to shop the series to another net.
"If we end up somewhere other than on The WB, we'll be the exact same show, and producers at 20th Century Fox have supported us on everything," Whedon said. "I think the fans will find it." Whedon added, "I keep thinking it will be best for everyone if the show stays where it is, but ultimately, I don't know if that will happen."
UPN Ups Stakes For Buffy
PN has made an offer for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, whose producer has failed to reach agreement on a contract renewal with its current network, The WB, Variety reported.
The WB and 20th Century Fox Television, which produces Buffy, failed to come to terms on a new contract, leaving Fox free to shop the series to others, including its own Fox broadcast network.
An insider told Variety that UPN had made "a significant offer" for Buffy. But the trade paper reported that UPN is considered a long shot to acquire the show, and The WB remains in talks with Fox.
At issue is the amount of money the network is willing to pay Fox for each episode. Variety reported that The WB may have increased its early offer of $1.6 million per episode. Among other networks vying for the show, NBC has also put an offer on the table, but ABC has dropped out, sources told The Hollywood Reporter.
Scott Thomas Haunts All Souls
erena Scott Thomas, one of the stars of UPN's upcoming midseason series All Souls, told SCI FI Wire that the paranormal series isn't a typical medical drama.
Scott Thomas plays Dr. Nicole De Brae, the chief of staff of a mysterious Boston hospital with a colorful past.
"This is a hospital drama, but with supernatural elements, which is intriguing," Scott Thomas said in an interview. "Sometimes [in medicine], the supernatural does seem to enter, ... and usually in a good way, ... so there's a great potential for interesting debate, I think, in the premise of this."
The series--from producer Aaron Spelling and creators Stuart Gillard and Stephen Tolkin--tells the story of the medical staff in a massive hospital in which good and evil forces manifest in mysterious ways. "The premise is a hospital, a building that was built in 1850 or something," Scott Thomas said. "It's built on, I believe, an old burial site, where there is a merging of lines of energy, ... and the result of this merging is that there is a kind of vortex, whatever that is--a place where this energy merges--where the potential for evil is as great as, if not greater than, the potential for good. People who find themselves there find themselves pulled one way or another."
Scott Thomas' character remains an enigma, at least at first. "I loved my character," she said. "She's smart, strong, intelligent, successful. ... It's quite rare for a woman character. I really liked the way that the writers wrote Nicole De Brae. I like that she keeps herself to herself, and doesn't give everything away. She's very self-contained, but she's not a bitch. A lot of the time, when a woman is strong, she's written or portrayed as a bitch, and [De Brae]'s not, and I like that. ... I like that she constantly questions herself, but she's still a strong woman."
UPN has ordered six episodes of the hour-long All Souls, which will air Tuesdays at 9 p.m., starting April 17.
X-Men 2 Producer Not Certain
om DeSanto, who produced the X-Men movie, told SCI FI Wire it's possible he won't be involved in the upcoming sequel.
"We're still negotiating on that, so I'm not signed yet," DeSanto said in an interview. "So I don't know. I know that they're working away, but as yet, I'm not involved. But I'm hoping to be."
DeSanto added, "I know that Fox is working away on some things, but as of yet, my baby, whom I raised, is going off to college without me. ... It's tough, but it's part of the business."
DeSanto had discussed sequel ideas with X-Men director Bryan Singer, who has reportedly signed on to helm the sequel. "I'd spoken to Bryan a while ago about where we wanted to take it for three films and possible storylines and actually set things up in the first one for the next two. But I'm not sure if those are going to pay off now."
Jackman Ready For Wolverine
ugh Jackman told Cinescape Online that he is looking forward to playing Wolverine again in the upcoming X-Men 2.
"The entire original cast will be back, along with director Bryan Singer," Jackman told Cinescape columnist Cindy Pearlman. "I'm thrilled to come back and do it. It was great fun, and the fans embraced it."
With regard to any romance between Jackman's Logan and Famke Janssen's Jean Grey character, Jackman said, "I think old Wolfie gets a few romantic possibilities in the sequel. He doesn't want to narrow it down to one X-Woman. He's a little afraid of commitment."
Mary Straddles Real And Unreal
live Barker told SCI FI Wire that the idea for his upcoming supernatural thriller movie Bloody Mary resulted from a true story about the urban legends told in homeless shelters.
Disney's Touchstone Pictures unit is developing the movie, based in part on a nonfiction article by journalist Lynda Edwards, called "Myths Over Miami," about a vengeful spirit who snatches the
souls of children and lives in the plane between reality and illusion.
"This began with our reading a piece about urban legends," Barker said in an interview. "I've always been fascinated by urban legends. Candyman was one of the first urban-legend movies, and what's very interesting is, when people write about urban legends, they very often write about Candyman as if it were a real urban legend, though it's a complete invention, which is kind of fun. The interesting thing about Bloody Mary was, to us, here is a series of stories that were told--and this was a real article in the Miami [New] Times--about kids who told stories about Bloody Mary to one another, and they were often orphaned or abused children, and they ... had this incredibly elaborate mythology worked out about how Bloody Mary and her demons entered and exited the world, how they caused trouble and so on. It just seemed like a natural subject for a movie."
Barker will produce the film. "We bought the article, and we now have the piece being written [by Silvio Horta]," he said. "That will be a movie, which--if the writers' and actors' strikes don't happen--hopefully we'll have before the cameras this year. I have a few directors in the back of my head, and a few dream directors. ... I want someone who has a real visual sense, who can tread this wonderful line between the fantastic and the realistic, which the kids draw. Used refrigerators being the doorways between this world and hell, that kind of amazing imagination is something we want our director to be able to exploit in the movie. ... We need a real visualist, ... a great storyteller, and also we want someone to ... create some amazing images."
Soderbergh Pens New Solaris
ouble Oscar nominee Steven Soderbergh told Film Threat magazine that he's writing an update of the classic 1972 Russian SF movie Solaris for producer James Cameron.
The original movie, by director Andrei Tarkovsky, is based on Stanislaw Lem's 1961 novel of the same name.
The novel and film detail the encounter with an alien intelligence by a psychologist who travels to a planet after three scientists mysteriously perish. "I'm writing it," Soderbergh told Film Threat. "What's interesting about it is it's not a hardware science fiction movie; it's a psychological drama that happens to be set in space, and that's what's interesting to me about it. I'm interested in science fiction, but only in the conceptual side of it."
Soderbergh--who is nominated for directing Oscars this year for Erin Brockovich and Traffic--added, "There are hardly any real science fiction movies made today. They're all about the hardware or selling action figures. ... My whole pitch to James Cameron's company--because they owned the rights, and it was something I was interested in for a while-- ... I said, 'If we do our jobs right, it's a combination of 2001 [A Space Odyssey] and Last Tango in Paris.' They said, 'Oh, that sounds good.' ... I'm excited by it. It's the first thing that I've wanted to write in a long time. I had been writing Son of Schizopolis, and I put that aside to work on this."
Episode II Designs Hinted At
tar Wars: Episode II artist Jay Shuster told the official Web site that he is designing an early version of a machine that appears later in the film series.
"The first thing on Episode II, [design director Doug Chiang] said, 'Start working on this,'" Shuster told the site.
Though Shuster won't say what the machine is, he described it as a a weapon of sorts that helps decide a critical battle, the first generation of a tool seen later in the series. "It follows the formula for a lot of the prequel trilogy," Shuster said. "Take something preconceived in the existing trilogy and degenerate it."
Shuster is also reportedly working on architectural designs for Episode II. "Episode I was so action-packed, we rarely had the opportunity to stop and look around at the amazing environments and sets," he said. "In Episode II, we get a chance to peer into and get involved with the lives of their characters and their personal dwellings and spaces. I've always loved architecture. As a kid, it was one of my first aspirations in the realm of design."
"I enjoyed working on Padme's bachelorette pad on Coruscant," Shuster added. "There are Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired forms throughout. There are majestic spaces and sweeping archways. You'll see a lot of sky, filtered sunlight and the dense cityscape beyond. The designs also tell us about Padme's lifestyle. We interpret who the character is through the space they live in and the various articles with which they surround themselves."
The Star Wars Homing Beacon newsletter, meanwhile, reported that artists Hans Jenssen and Richard Chasemore got a glimpse of Episode II vehicles in preparation for their Cross-Section book of the film's vehicles.
"We watch the animatics of scenes that directly affect where a missile might be fired from on a ship, or where something might blow up from, for example," Chasemore told the newsletter. "In one scene, some shots tear through the floor of a vessel and bring it down. We need to look at it and see if there's some crucial piece of equipment that was taken out."
"The designs have definitely moved on," Chasemore said. "They're advanced, compared to Episode I, and they're sort of backwardly compatible with the first films."
Added Jenssen, "Some of the ships are looking very much like those in [Episode IV:] A New Hope. There are also some totally alien technologies to look forward to." One vehicle in Episode II is equipped for air and ground military campaigns. "I was the lucky one that got it," Jenssen said. "It's the coolest-looking ship. It's just covered in guns. Everywhere you look, there's a gun. It's just awesomely be-weaponed."
Episode II Will Shoot Again
tar Wars: Episode II will resume production March 24 to April 8 at Ealing Studios in England to film new scenes, the official Star Wars Web site reported.
The new scenes are intended to fill out the rough cut of the movie that director George Lucas has assembled in the months since principal photography ended last fall.
Producer Rick McCallum and his production crew have been reassembling sets, constructing new ones and preparing the studios for the shoot, the site reported. "The England shoots will be mostly in front of blue screen," McCallum said. "Though we've been really busy since we wrapped in September, it's always exciting to get back in front of the cameras."
Hayden Christensen, Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor, Christopher Lee and Samuel L. Jackson will return to play the roles they started. Oliver Ford Davies will also return as Naboo's governor, Sio Bibble, the site reported.
Special Unit 2 Mixes Genres
lexondra Lee--star of UPN's upcoming SF comedy series Special Unit 2--told free-lance SF columnist Ian Spelling that the show combines elements of several types of shows.
Lee plays Kate Benson in the series, about a squad of monster-hunting Chicago cops.
"It's a whole bunch of genres in one, but it's a completely different show from anything I've ever seen on television," Lee told Spelling. "It's definitely got an action side to it, like a Buffy the Vampire Slayer or an Angel, but there's a real funny side to it, like Men in Black, though our humor is a bit more dark and twisted."
Lee added, "There are so many different elements. You've got the buddy-movie thing going for it as well. Essentially, it's about an underground police unit that fights monsters--werewolves who are stockbrokers by day, kung-fu mummies and spiderwomen--in Chicago. So you can go pretty much anywhere with that." UPN has ordered six hour-long episodes of Special Unit 2, which premieres April 11.
Snipes At Best In Blade 2
avid Goyer--writer of the sequel to his 1998 vampire movie, Blade--told the Comics Continuum that Blade 2 star Wesley Snipes is at his best in the new movie, currently shooting in Prague.
Guillermo del Toro is directing Blade 2 for New Line Cinema.
"Wesley is definitely at the top of his game," Goyer told the site after returning from Prague. "He's never been in better shape, and he is totally committed to the film. We're shooting for about 90 days, and the shoot will take place completely in Prague. The film is actually set in Eastern Europe."
The sequel teams Blade up with a group of vampires called the Bloodpack to fight an even greater threat, the Reapers, the site reported. "This movie takes us even deeper into the vampire subculture," Goyer said. "It also pushes the boundaries in terms of what the vampires are capable of. This film has more action, more humor--but it also has a whole level of suspense and tragedy that was missing from the first film."
The sequel reunites Snipes with Blade co-star Kris Kristofferson and adds new cast members Ron Perlman, Luke Goss, Leonor Varela, Matt Schulze, Danny John-Jules, Norman Reedus, Donny Yen and Daz Crawford. Goyer added that the filmmakers have dropped the subtitle for the sequel. "We were calling it Bloodhunt, but no one liked that name."
Galactica Gears Up
om DeSanto--who is developing The SCI FI Channel's update of Battlestar Galactica with his X-Men partner Bryan Singer--told SCI FI Wire the project is moving forward.
"We open offices on [March 19], which is a good sign," DeSanto said in an interview. "Right now, we have outlines and a bible we're working on, characters and all that stuff."
DeSanto added, "We've got a bunch of ideas for the pilot. The basic storyline is all done, and where we're taking it for the first season, hopefully. ... [The timeline] will be a bit ahead. I won't say how many years, but it will be a little bit ahead." DeSanto declined to say whether the show would bring back characters from the original 1970s series. "That I can't discuss," he said. But he added that the title starship will be back, as will the old series' cyborg enemies. "I promise. ... I will leave the show if there is not a Battlestar Galactica on the show. Cylons will be back. But this time they won't be clunky. But they'll still be cool."
DeSanto--who executive-produced the hit X-Men movie, which Singer directed--said that reviving the show fulfills a long-standing dream. "It was a project, like X-Men, which was something from a kid that I wanted to do," he said. "Fortunately, X-Men was a hit, so now it affords the opportunity to go and pull Galactica out of mothballs. ... It's something I'd been working on, probably, since I was, like, 20 years old, just sketching Vipers. And I'd always write storylines and figure things out. ... All of those things that I had done behind a cash register when I was working retail--sketching new designs for Vipers--I can use them now."
DeSanto added that he's willing to sit down and talk with original series star Richard Hatch, who has been pursuing his own efforts to resurrect the show and who recently penned an open letter to Singer and DeSanto. "I'm looking forward to sitting down and talking with Richard, because I think he's got such passion," DeSanto said. "Anyone who's really carried the banner for the show that he's done, I think he's really done an amazing job with the novels and the comics and all that stuff."
Spidey Shot Details Revealed
ources have revealed details of the Times Square festival scene in Sam Raimi's upcoming Spider-Man film, currently shooting in the Los Angeles area.
The scenes will wrap later this month; the film is slated for a 2002 release.
The outdoor set, on the grounds of an abandoned aerospace plant in the suburb of Downey, includes the first two stories of a hotel façade, facing a mock-up of New York's famed square, sources told SCI FI Wire. A colorful festival stage, with the words "World Unity Festival" above it, stands at one end of the square, and bleachers on the other. In between are tables laden with food and drink and booths with various ethnic themes. The scenes feature Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin character, clad in iridescent dark-green armor and his trademark mask, and Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man, in the familiar blue-and-red costume. The characters are also played by stunt doubles.
In the scenes, the Green Goblin makes his first appearance, flying low over a crowd attending the festival. To the crowd's shock, the Goblin throws bombs at the hotel façade, causing debris to rain down, smashing a police car and panicking everyone, sources said. Spider-Man then appears and knocks the Goblin off his flying wing. He falls hundreds of feet into a large tent. As the crowd flees chaotically, Spider-Man leaps over several tables and rescues a small child, before dashing off to engage the Goblin, who has flung police and spectators about like dolls. The scenes were shot with stunt doubles cabled to various rigs and cranes, which hang overhead, sources said.
Activision Wins Spidey License
ctivision announced that it acquired the rights to publish video games based on Sam Raimi's upcoming Spider-Man movie, which is based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name.
Spider-Man is slated for release in May 2002.
Activision said it will work with director Raimi, Columbia Pictures and Spider-Man Merchandising to create games that reflect the film's storyline, characters and environments. Activision will develop and publish an unlimited number of games for all platforms based on the Spider-Man film and comic franchise, the company added.
Trinity Takes Matrix 2 Journey
arrie-Anne Moss--who reprises the role of Trinity in the upcoming two sequels to The Matrix--told the Associated Press that her character takes a new journey.
"The scripts are just fantastic, and the journey of my character and for everybody--it's different," she told the wire service. "It's just great. So it'll be just interesting to see. It'll be cool. I look forward to it."
Production on the two sequels is set to begin in the next few weeks in Australia. Of Trinity, Moss said, "I look at her heart and her soul, and I just believe in her and believe in the warrior that she is and believe in the cause that she's fighting for, which is for people to be awake. The Matrix movies are incredibly deep for me and very much about things I believe in in my life."
Streep In The Minority
eryl Streep will play a small role in Steven Spielberg's upcoming Minority Report, which started production March 22, Variety reported.
Production of the SF movie--based on a Philip K. Dick short story of the same name--had been awaiting the completion of Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky and the release of star Tom Cruise, the trade paper reported.
Jon Cohen wrote and Scott Frank rewrote the script, which tells the story of a policeman in the future who is pursued by an assassin for a crime he hasn't committed yet. No release date has been set.
Thor Hammered By Nets
arvel Studios' Rick Ungar told the Comics Continuum Web site that no network picked up the proposed live-action Thor television series for next season.
"Thor, right now, is nowhere at this moment," Ungar told the site. "The script did not get picked up for a pilot. So we're looking at what we want to do with it. That's the way things work. They all can't go."
UPN had considered the series, which is part of Marvel's deal with Artisan Entertainment, but passed.
Meanwhile, Ungar said Marvel is still developing other TV projects, including its live-action Mutant X; Daughters of the Dragon, based on characters in the Iron Fist comc series; Nick Fury; and Bloodstone.
Hewitt Understands Devil
ennifer Love Hewitt--who plays Satan in the upcoming film The Devil and Daniel Webster--told TV Guide Online that she found the secret of being the dark one.
"The devil in this is very interesting," Hewitt told the site. "She's evil and she's sweet. ... She's a woman, basically--a woman on PMS."
Hewitt co-stars with Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin, who also directed the remake of the 1941 classic movie, which in turn was based on Stephen Vincent Benet's short story of the same name. Of Baldwin--who underwent a public split with his wife, Kim Basinger, during production--Hewitt said, "He's my hero. He was really a trouper through everything, and he was so strong and great and put all of his [personal problems] aside the second he was with all of us. He is the best director I have ever worked with, and Anthony Hopkins said the same thing, which is a testament to how great he is."
Kruger Is Talking Time
andemonium is in talks to develop Time Is Money, an SF movie from writer Ehren Kruger, based on a short story by Lee Felk, Variety reported.
The story, published in the December 1975 issue of Playboy, is set in a future society in which all disease has been eradicated, overpopulation has taken over and people work to earn more time to live, the trade paper reported.
Blade Runner screenwriter David Peoples wrote an early draft of a script for Time Is Money eight years ago, Variety reported.
Timberlake Mulls O.Z. Role
Sync band member Justin Timberlake is in talks to join the cast of The O.Z., a new television version of the classic fantasy movie The Wizard of Oz, Variety reported.
The new, hip-hop version of the story, which is based on L. Frank Baum's classic children's book of the same name, is slated to air on Fox.
Timberlake is mulling the role of the Scarecrow. John Leguizamo is in talks to play a wicked warlock, and Little Richard is considering a role as the Wizard, Variety reported.
Production on the musical won't begin until after the impending actors' union strike this summer, the trade paper reported. Brandy--who had been expected to star as Dorothy--has dropped out of the telefilm. Fox has approached singer Mya about the role.
The One Looks At Many
ames Wong, director of the upcoming SF thriller movie The One, and his writing and producing partner Glen Morgan told SCI FI Wire that the movie is based on a kernel of real scientific theory: that multiple universes may exist.
The One, currently shooting in the Los Angeles area, tells the story of a sheriff's deputy (Jet Li) who discovers that he is being pursued by an evil, superpowerful version of himself from a parallel universe.
"It's like anything we've ever done," Morgan said in an interview on the set. "It's take the theory, which really deserves a serious movie, and kind of screw it up enough where scientists would really be mad, but my dad would go, 'That's a cool idea.'"
The film visits several universes, which differ in their level of advancement. Though the same characters exist in each universe, they differ from one another in several ways, Wong said. "Same, but different. I think the audience, when they watch this movie, will really get it: get the concept of these different worlds by [seeing] similar things happen, but they don't happen the same way, and things veer off from there."
Li plays both Yulaw, an evil character, and Gabe, the good sheriff's deputy. Inevitably, the martial-arts expert finds himself in a fight with his doppelganger. "Obviously, people are going to look at this and say, 'Oh yeah, this is going to be Matrix-like,' in that there's martial-arts elements and science fiction combined," Wong said. "But I think the story's very different. And the attitude. We're trying to do a movie that--even though it's fantastic--all the action and everything is grounded, I believe, in what a super Olympian could accompish."
Morgan added, "Our sense has always been, if you're going to have Jet Li fight himself, it takes place here, in our world, in whatever city--and this movie's set in Los Angeles. We don't go to a fantastic world. We go to different universes for a bit, but it's designed to ... bring things here." The One is scheduled to open later this year.
Barker Unveils Saint Sinner
live Barker--who will work with The SCI FI Channel to develop a two-hour telefilm based on his Saint Sinner comic series--told SCI FI Wire that he used the comic as a starting point.
Saint Sinner tells the story of a 19th-century monk who unwittingly unleashes two female demons and must pursue them through time to present-day Los Angeles to stop them from wreaking havoc. The project is slated to premiere on SCI FI in 2002.
Barker said he first wrote the comic for Marvel, but that it didn't last very long. "I loved the title," Barker said. "I thought, 'One of these days, I'm going to use that title again.'" When he heard that SCI FI executive Steve La Rue was looking for new projects for SCI FI to produce, Barker sent him the first 25 pages of Saint Sinner. "He instantly responded to the material, and got a writer on to it, ... Doris Egan [Dark Angel]," he said. Egan is now writing the script.
Barker added, "What I think is fun about it, is it's metaphysical, it's horror, it's a little science fiction .. all mingled together: a very powerful combination, I think. ... I want to be a bit of a tease about it. It's about a pursuit through time, initially, by a monk of a very strange and potentially heretical order, of two female entities whose origins and nature I don't want to go into, but who end up in our culture. And they end up doing great harm here. So the first story, at least, is a sort of time travel story involving monks ... and female demons."
Firestarter Miniseries OK'd
he SCI FI Channel announced development of Firestarter: The Next Chapter, a four-hour miniseries based on the Stephen King novel Firestarter and the 1984 movie version of the book, which starred Drew Barrymore.
The miniseries picks up the story 20 years after the events in the movie, SCI FI announced.
In the new miniseries, Charlie has stayed on the run from the government that created her and killed her parents. With her enemies using their own arsenal of human weapons, Charlie must find the answers to her own dangerous abilities before they find her.
Firestarter: The Next Chapter is green-lighted and expected to go into production soon. Tom Thayer will executive produce and Robert Iscove will direct.
SCI FI Taken With Spielberg
he SCI FI Channel announced that it will produce Taken, a 20-hour original dramatic miniseries from Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks Television.
The previously announced project has moved from development to preproduction, SCI FI said.
The miniseries will weave together more than 50 years of alien abduction accounts into the story of three families' experiences. The miniseries is slated to begin production later this year. Les Bohem will executive produce and write Taken.
Bear Raising Darwin's Children
uthor Greg Bear is at work on an upcoming novel called Darwin's Children that will pick up the story where his critically acclaimed book Darwin's Radio left off.
"Darwin's Children takes up some eight years after the coda of Darwin's Radio and focuses on Stella Nova Rafelson, who will enter adolescence in a world deeply affected by the so-called Virus children," Bear said.
Rafelson is one of a new breed of biologically evolved children who are growing up in a United States that Bear said "has entered a state of amended constitutional law, a vaguely disguised and quasi-legal martial [law], and not without reason--biology and evolution are far more complex and disturbing than anyone could possibly have imagined!"
Bear said he hopes to finish the novel by the end of the year, adding that he has no plans for further Darwin books after that. "But it's possible that a third volume will be needed to take the story into Stella's adulthood, and
follow her own children." Bear sold Darwin's Children to Del Rey as part of a three-book deal. But he was mum about the other novels, "whose subjects and names I prefer to keep under my hat for now."
Bear said readers can expect to see Darwin's Children on store shelves in late 2002. Meanwhile, his next book due out is another Del Rey title, called Vitals, which will be published in February 2002. "It involves a quest for immortality and bacterial mind control and is the most paranoid conspiracy novel ever written, in my humble opinion," Bear said.
Dimension Preps Duke Nukem
imension Films will develop a movie based on the Duke Nukem 3-D Realms video game series, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Threshold Entertainment chairman and chief executive Larry Kasanoff will produce the project, which is slated to begin shooting this year.
There is no script yet, but an early storyline follows Duke as he travels into deep space to intercept an alien ship on a collision course with Earth, the trade paper reported.
Threshold produced two Mortal Kombat movies, which were based on the video game series of the same name.
Queen Meets Potter Author
ueen Elizabeth told Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling that the best-selling children's novels are popular with her granddaughter, the Reuters news service reported.
The queen's granddaughter is Princess Eugenie, daughter of Prince Andrew and his former wife, Sarah Ferguson; she celebrated her 11th birthday March 16, the wire service reported.
"I am told that children have started to read them," the queen reportedly told Rowling. "They are certainly popular with one of my grandchildren."
The queen met Rowling in her British publisher's London offices on a theme day with the British publishing industry.
Cleese Loses Head For Potter
ohn Cleese, who will play the ghost Nearly Headless Nick in the upcoming Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone movie, told the Popcorn U.K. Web site that he still hasn't shot his part.
"I've been on set, [but] I haven't actually shot yet," Cleese told the site. "I've done about two and a half days of being fitted with harness and wigs and costumes."
Cleese added, "I'm not kidding. I had a full head cast, and I've had head scans and body scans," suggesting that Cleese's part will be greatly enhanced by visual effects. Cleese described the role as "a tiny, tiny part in the first couple of movies," apparently referring to the current film and planned sequels. "There's a big party in the third movie, so then his part gets bigger. If I'm still alive, that is."
Putting The Kid In Spy Kids
obert Rodriguez, director of the upcoming fantasy film Spy Kids, told SCI FI Wire that he set out to reinvent the spy genre as viewed through the eyes of a child.
"I wanted people to think that maybe I really didn't make it, but my son did," Rodriguez said in an interview while promoting the Dimension release. "[That] my 5-year-old son designed it and drew it, and I really wanted to have the innocent childlike feeling."
The movie, which stars Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, 12-year-old Alexa Vega and 8-year-old Daryl Sabara, features weird creatures called Fooglies and robots made from thumbs. "That was from an early drawing, like a Salvador-Dali drawing," Rodriguez said. "My first published artwork that won an award was 'Thumb Thumbs' kicking an eyeball around, like a soccer ball. They're dressed in those soccer outfits. And people always loved that drawing, and I kept it. So it's nice, ... 20 year later, to see them running around on screen and getting laughs."
Rodriguez added that the family-oriented movie shouldn't surprise fans of his more adult fare, such as Desperado and From Dusk Till Dawn. "The last thing I wrote and directed was Four Rooms, an episode that had Antonio and two little kids in it," Rodriguez said. "That's where I got the idea for this. That was in '94. So I've been working on this since then as my next project. ... The only reason that I even did Mariachi as an action film was because I was doing it for the Spanish video market, and that's what they wanted was an action film. So I did that for them, and Columbia wanted me to do a remake, which became Desperado. But all the companies were always aware that what I wanted to do [was family films]. ... I showed them my comic strip. I showed them my family comedies. ... I was going to eventually do something like this. I just needed more effects experience. Because there are over 500 effects shots in the movie. I decided I didn't want an effects supervisor. ... I wanted to come up with ways to do all the effects myself."
Spy Kids opens March 30. (Look for Rodriguez's full interview in an upcoming edition of Science Fiction Weekly.)
Monster Is Creature 4
teven Culp and Clea DuVall will star in HBO/Cinemax's How to Make a Monster for writer-director George Huang, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Production is slated to begin this week.
Tyler Mane (X-Men), Jason Marsden and Karim Prince (Freakylinks) also star in the movie, the fourth installment of HBO's Creature Features series, which is based on Samuel Z. Arkoff's 1950s SF movies.
Monster tells the story of a man (Culp) who hires three computer programmers to create a computer game, Evilution, which centers on an evil monster. The men compete to create the scariest monster, hoping to win $1 million, but in loading evil into the computer, they inadvertently create live monsters.
Lycos Claims Site Wipe Was Error
ycos told the Associated Press that it would restore fan sites mistakenly wiped out on its Tripod Web hosting service over the weekend.
More than 100 fans sites for everything from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to The X-Files disappeared from Tripod, spurring protests from fans.
But Lycos spokeswoman Dorianne Almann told the AP that--while the company regularly shuts down sites for prohibited member conduct--a number of sites that did not violate its member agreement were also mistakenly shut down and would be restored within 24 to 48 hours.
Almann added that sites operated through Lycos' Angelfire site may also have been affected. She said she did not know how many sites were affected.
McFarlane Talks Spawn 2
pawn creator Todd McFarlane said the upcoming Spawn 2 feature film will differ considerably from the 1997 movie version of the comic series, according to the official Spawn.com Web site.
Columbia Pictures is developing the movie; McFarlane and Steve Niles are writing the script.
The new movie will be R-rated and much darker in tone, McFarlane said. "Columbia essentially bought into the franchise, based on the first film and the Spawn name. However, they're fully behind the fact that I envision this to be a very different movie."
McFarlane added, "Spawn is sort of an elemental force of nature. Plus, you've got cops, serial killers and, of course, Spawn." The lead characters in the film will be Sam and Twitch, the two New York City police detectives who began life in the first issue of the Spawn comic book. "Sam and Twitch as the lead characters will be much like [Richard] Dreyfuss and [Roy] Scheider were in Jaws. Although the movie was called Jaws and featured a shark, the story was really about those two guys hunting Jaws," McFarlane said. "Ours is similar: It's called Spawn, but it's really about people chasing shadows. It's a story about the people in Spawn's world, and you'll find that Spawn had an influence on these people's lives. It's not an action movie in the truest sense; it's more of a psychological thriller."
Aurora Nominees Announced
he Canadian SF and Fantasy Association announced the final nominees for the 2001 Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy (Aurora) Awards.
The Auroras recognize excellence in Canadian SF and fantasy.
Auroras will be presented at Canvention 21, held in conjunction with V-Con 26,
May 4-6 in Burnaby, British Columbia. A full list of nominees follows. In each category, judges may also select no award.
Best Long-Form Work in English
•Changing Vision by Julie E. Czerneda
•Hunted by James Alan Gardner
•The Snow Queen by Eileen Kernaghan
•Calculating God by Robert J. Sawyer
•The Playback War by Lisa Smedman
Best Long-Form Work in French
•L'Ange écarlate by Natasha Beaulieu
•Un voyage de Sagesse by Guy Sirois
•Demain, les étoiles by Jean-Louis Trudel
•La Maison au bord de la mer by Ilisabeth Vonarburg
Best Short-Form Work in English
•"Down on the Farm" by Julie E. Czerneda
•"Squat" by Donna McMahon
•"The Shoulders of Giants" by Robert J. Sawyer
•"Surrendering the Blade" by Marcie Tentchoff
•"Coming of Age" by Edo van Belkom
Best Short-Form Work in French
•"La Danse des esprits" by Douglas Smith
•"La première cicatrice" by Jean-Louis Trudel
•"Oneiros" by Élisabeth Vonarburg
Best Work in English (Other)
•Northern Horror, Edo van Belkom, ed. [anthology]
•On Spec, Jena Snyder, general ed. [magazine]
•Science Fiction: The Play by David Widdicombe [play]
•Edo van Belkom editing Be Afraid! anthology
•Writing Horror by Edo van Belkom [how to book]
Best Work in French (Other)
•Solaris, Joël Champetier, ed.
•"Le cinéma au pays des rêves" by Mario Tessier
•Élisabeth Vonarburg, critiques
Artistic Achievement
•James Beveridge
•Glenn Grant
•Mike Jackson
•Adrian Kleinbergen
•Jean-Pierre Normand
•Robert Pasternak
•Ronn Sutton
Fan Achievement (Fanzine)
•BCSFAzine, John C.H. Wong, ed.
•Made in Canada Newsletter, Don Bassie, ed.
•The Neutral Zone Journal, Lisa McGovern, ed.
•Opuntia, Dale Speirs, ed.
•Voyageur, Karen Bennett, ed.
Fan Achievement (Organizational)
•R. Graeme Cameron (BCSFA president and V-Con 25 chair)
•Larry Hancock (Toronto in 2003 Worldcon bid)
•Peter Johnson (U.S.S. Hudson Bay/IDIC)
•Lloyd Penney (Torcon 3 committee)
•Yvonne Penney (Torcon 3 committee)
Fan Achievement (Other)
•Made in Canada by Don Bassie [Web site]
•Donna McMahon, book reviews
•Lloyd Penney, fan writing
•Pioneers of Mars by Lloyd Landa and Karen Linsley [music]
•Garth Spencer, fan writing
Morgan And Wong Draft Visitation
he Final Destination team of James Wong and Glen Morgan told SCI FI Wire that they have turned in their script for After the Visitation, an SF film based on the obscure 1970s Russian novella "Roadside Picnic."
The duo--who are also responsible for the TV series Space: Above and Beyond and episodes of The X-Files and Millennium--are awaiting word on whether the movie will go forward, they said in an interview.
"Our story is set in Kansas," Wong said. "The idea is, aliens come for three and a half hours, and they leave. ... There's a 20-mile zone where ... they hover over, [and] inside that area, everything's changed. Everything looks the same, but the physics change, and weird things are there, and there's dangerous things that people don't understand what they are. Twenty years later, ... they've left stuff that people don't know what they do--they don't know it is or how it works--and it's become ... collectible. But the zone itself is off limits to everyone. ... There's these stalkers who go in to get things to collect."
Wong added, "It's a very emotional story about a father and a daughter, and it's really wonderful. It's adventure. It's action. There's a lot of emotion. ... There's special effects." If green-lighted, Visitation will be produced by Morgan, Neal Moritz and Tom Sternberg and directed by Wong.
Wong is currently directing the SF epic movie The One, based on a Morgan and Wong script and starring Jet Li. The movie, currently shooting in the Los Angeles area, tells the story of a sheriff's deputy (Li) who must battle an evil version of himself across multiple dimensions.
Roach Denies Hitchhiker Rumor
irector Jay Roach (the Austin Powers movies) denied to the SFX Network Web site recent rumors that he had dropped out of plans to film Douglas Adams' satirical SF novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
The IGN FilmForce Web site last week reported a rumor that Roach had left the movie in a dispute over the film's budget.
"It's not true, unless there is an elaborate conspiracy I'm not aware of," Roach told SFX. "I'm currently working with Douglas on new strategies and approaches for how to get the movie made. It's a tricky balance between faithfulness to his original, wonderfully out-there material and the studio's need to justify the budget."
Roach added, "The budget was never set at $120 million, or even estimated at that--closer to $80 million. That kind of false information hurts the movie's chances of getting made. There have been so many hollow rumors about this project, you'd think people would stop believing them and spreading them."
Expect Badder Dinos In JP III
isual effects maven Stan Winston, who created life-size dinosaurs for the upcoming Jurassic Park III film, told Cinescape Online that the sequel will feature a more fearsome nemesis.
"We've got to out-do the T-rex," Winston told the site. "So the spinosaur is bigger and meaner and badder."
The velociraptors will return. In addition, Winston said, "You're going to see pteranodons in this, which are entirely another level of technical difficulty, because we are dealing with a combination of animatronics, men in suits [and] wings that are beyond what we've done in the other movies."
Wild Life Wins Tiptree
ild Life by Molly Gloss won the 2000 James Tiptree Jr. Award, which recognizes SF or fantasy that explores the roles of women and men.
The award is named for SF author Alice B. Sheldon, who wrote under the
pseudonym James Tiptree Jr. Sheldon helped break down the barrier between women's and men's writing, the award's official Web site said.
Gloss' novel is the fictional diary of a woman in the early 20th century who joins the search for a young girl in the Oregon woods, only to encounter a band of giant semihuman creatures after getting lost in the deep forest.
The WB Conjures Plum
ritish television personality Kelly Brook will star in The WB supernatural comedy pilot The (Mis)adventures of Fiona Plum from Studios USA, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Brook will play Plum, a spoiled British witch banished to Seattle to work as a nanny for an American family.
Plum is one of two similarly themed pilots The WB has ordered as potential companions for its Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. The other is Sabrina spinoff Witchright Hall, the trade paper reported.
Brook is known in the United Kingdom as a host of the popular morning program The Big Breakfast. Studios USA is owned by USA Networks, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Purdy To Direct Joshua
on Purdy will direct the supernatural drama film Joshua for Crusader Entertainment, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The film is slated to start shooting May 1.
Joshua--based on the first novel in a series by Joseph F. Girzone and adapted by Brad Mirman--tells the story of a possible second coming of Christ to a small U.S. town, the trade paper reported. There are currently about 10 novels in the series.
Crusader is also developing A Sound of Thunder, to be directed by Renny Harlin and starring Pierce Brosnan in a tale based on Ray Bradbury's time-travel short story of the same name.
Witchy Ara/Froom Developing
ichael Ovitz's Artists Production Group and France's Studio Canal will develop Ara/Froom, a supernatural thriller movie based on Herman Raucher's novel Maynard's House, Variety reported.
Raucher also wrote the script, about a Vietnam veteran who takes up residence in a house possessed by the spirit of a witch murdered 200 years earlier.
Raucher was nominated for a 1972 Academy Award for his screenplay for The Summer of '42.
Rings Gets New FX Boss
im Rygiel will replace visual-effects supervisor Mark Stetson on Peter Jackson's upcoming Lord of the Rings film trilogy, TheOneRing.net reported.
Rygiel's credits include The Last Starfighter, 2010, Ghost, Alien 3 and Starship Troopers.
Stetson left Rings just before the start of post-production.
Briefly Noted
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Fandom's Smilin' Jack Ruby Web site posted the first trailer for the upcoming SF horror movie John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars, which opens Aug. 24.
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Disney will develop The Mystic, a supernatural movie based on a pitch by Scott Derrickson and Paul Harris Boardman (Hellraiser V: Inferno), according to The Hollywood Reporter. The movie tells the story of a cop who investigates a backwoods cult to solve a murder.
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The unlikely duo of Jackie Chan and Rowan Atkinson (Black Adder) are under consideration to star in Highbinders, a supernatural superhero movie, Variety reported. Reggie Hudlin is a possible director of the movie, about a Chinese immigration officer who is killed and returns from the dead with superpowers.
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Phil LaMarr, star of The Kids WB's Static Shock, told the Comics Continuum Web site that he will voice the Green Lantern in Cartoon Network's upcoming Justice League animated series.
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Norma Macmillan--the voice of television's Casper the Friendly Ghost and Gumby--died of a heart attack March 16, the Associated Press reported. She was 79.
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Reign of Fire, the upcoming SF movie about dragons, may move production from Ireland to North Africa because of the threat of foot and mouth disease, the ShowBiz Ireland Web site reported.
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A state appeals court has reversed filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola's $80 million legal victory over Warner Brothers in connection with a proposed Pinocchio movie, according to the Reuters news service. The California Court of Appeal for the Second District overturned a 1998 jury's verdict awarding Coppola damages in his suit against the studio, which alleged that the director was blocked from making the fantasy movie with another studio.
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UPN president and chief executive Dean Valentine confirmed that the network is deep in negotiations with Paramount and expects to have something to say about a new Star Trek series shortly, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He called the new show extraordinary: "It is going to blow people away."
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More than 1,000 fans of The WB's series Charmed have signed an online petition to keep Julian McMahon's character, Cole, on the series as a regular.
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George Takei will speak to fans at the upcoming Grand Slam Star Trek Convention in Pasadena, Calif., on March 30, to thank them for their work and to offer encouragement to fans who are still pressing for a television movie or show based on the exploits of Takei's Hikaru Sulu character and the U.S.S. Excelsior.
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Freeware, a dystopian SF short film directed by Alex Orrelle, won the Sundance Institute's first online film festival, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The movie won the audience award from viewers of the festival, which ran from Jan. 18 to Feb. 28.
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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ranked No. 6 in the box-office top 10 for the weekend of March 16, with an estimated $4.1 million in ticket sales, according to the Hollywood trade papers. Total revenue for the martial-arts fantasy just surpassed the $100 million mark. Down to Earth ranked seventh, with an estimated $4 million, for a total of about $56.8 million.
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E! Online reported that Eddie Murphy's SF comedy movie Pluto Nash will be held until 2002. The film was originally slated to open in April.
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Chicago publisher Sourcebooks has published The Complete War of the Worlds: Mars' Invasion of Earth from H.G. Wells to Orson Welles, edited by Brian Holmsten and Alex Lubertozzi, with a foreword by Ray Bradbury and an afterword by Ben Bova. The book contains the entire text of Wells' War of the Worlds, as well as Welles' infamous 1938 radio broadcast and personal accounts of people who lived through it. The book comes with an audio CD containing the entire radio broadcast.
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Anthony Michael Hall (Edward Scissorhands) will play psychic Johnny Smith in The Dead Zone, the UPN pilot based on Stephen King's novel of the same name, Zentertainment reported. Christopher Walken played the same role in the 1983 movie version of the book.
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