Mulgrew Offers Voyager Spoiler
ate Mulgrew--Capt. Kathryn Janeway of Star Trek: Voyager--offered SCI FI Wire a few spoilers about the series' upcoming two-hour finale.
The show will go out with a bang--and two Janeways, Mulgrew said in an interview. The finale will air May 23 on UPN.
"It's a tour de force, an absolute tour de force," Mulgrew said of the finale, which was written by Ken Biller, Brannon Braga and Rob Doherty. "It's Janeway vs. Janeway. Adm. Janeway meets Capt. Janeway. Adm. Janeway (Mulgrew) is 73 years old."
Mulgrew declined to give specifics, but she let slip in an earlier interview that Janeway and her crew will once again battle the Borg Queen. She had also intimated that the Queen will be played not by Susanna Thompson, who appeared as the character in the "Dark Frontier" and "Unimatrix Zero" two-parters, but rather by Alice Krige, who originated the character in Star Trek: First Contact.
The finale also promises to bring closure to the B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson) pregnancy storyline, may also feature a surprise romantic relationship and should answer a couple of long-burning questions: Will the crew make it home and does everyone survive?
"It has every element you would want to have in a finale," said Mulgrew, who plans to spend time with her sons and husband and return to live theater now that Voyager's trek is over. "I think the writers really knocked themselves out trying to come up with this story. It's touching and full of surprises. It suits the sci-fi angle. It suits the Voyager saga that we've been telling. It suits me. I'm very satisfied with the story, with Janeway's resolution and also with my work in it. I killed myself trying to make each moment as excellent as I could."
Seven Shows Up In Trek X?
he TrekToday Web site reported a rumor that Star Trek: Voyager character Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) will appear in the upcoming 10th Trek movie.
Citing an anonymous source, TrekToday reported that the Borg character will likely appear in only a couple of scenes.
Ryan's appearance would follow a tradition in Trek films: Voyager's Robert Picardo had a cameo as the Enterprise-E's emergency medical hologram in Star Trek: First Contact, and Ethan Phillips (Neelix) played a holodeck maitre d', the site reported.
Howard Joins Trek V Crew
ongtime Star Trek crew member Merri D. Howard will join the staff of the upcoming fifth Trek series, the official Trek Web site announced.
Howard will assume the role of supervising producer, a job she held on Voyager.
Howard has been with Trek since the second season of The Next Generation, when she joined the show as first assistant director, the site reported. She started on Voyager as a producer, then rose up the ranks to supervising producer. Her job will be to oversee production of entire episodes, from finished script to the end of shooting.
Rangers FX House Named
mmy-nominated Gajdecki Visual Effects (Total Recall 2070) will provide the computer graphics and other effects for The SCI FI Channel's upcoming original television movie Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers, SCI FI announced.
Production begins this month in Vancouver, B.C.
The Canadian-based effects house provides full effects supervision, including a library of stock effects, a motion-control camera package, a model shop and Silicon Graphics workstations for compositing and animation. Gajdecki received an Emmy nomination and a Gemini Award nomination for its work on Showtime's Stargate SG-1. The company also won Gemini Awards for the miniseries The Arrow and the television series TekWar.
A Fan Can Be In B5: Rangers
CIFI.COM will offer one Babylon 5 fan the chance to be immortalized by having a character named after him or her in The SCI FI Channel's upcoming original television movie Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers.
SCIFI.COM's B5: Be in the Movie Contest begins at 5 p.m. ET April 30.
To enter, fans must log on and register at SCIFI.COM. Registration for the contest ends at midnight May 11. The winner will be announced on May 14, the day that production on the movie begins in Vancouver, B.C.
Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers is a new, full-length movie from the original creative team behind B5. Douglas Netter and creator J. Michael Straczynski will executive produce the movie, which Straczynski wrote and Michael Vejar will direct. Rangers picks up the story of the Ranger fleet as it attempts to restore order to hundreds of civilizations devastated by the Shadow War. Rangers will serve as the pilot for a potential SCI FI Channel series.
WB Pulls Buffy Ad
n the wake of UPN's deal to take over Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The WB has apparently dropped many of its promotional efforts for the show, which is about to wrap its fifth season, Variety reported.
Among other things, The WB has scuttled a planned Buffy tribute ad in The Hollywood Reporter next week, commemorating the show's 100th episode, the fifth-season finale on May 22, the trade paper reported. UPN will run its own ad instead.
In addition, a promo spot following Tuesday's Buffy episode warned viewers that there were only three episodes left before "The WB series finale" of Buffy, suggesting that the show is actually ending. Buffy moves to UPN in the fall.
U.K. Buffy Spinoff Mulled
arti Noxon--co-executive producer of The WB's Buffy the Vampire Slayer--told SCI FI Wire that creator Joss Whedon is talking with the BBC about a spinoff series centered on the character of Giles.
"There is the possibility of a limited series with the BBC, starring Anthony Head," Noxon said in an interview. "It's not a done deal, but this is in discussion. There's an idea of taking the Giles character and doing a limited series in Britain next year, maybe just a limited run ... like a miniseries, perhaps, turning into a series."
The discussion is a reaction in part to Head's previously stated desire to remain closer to the United Kingdom and his family, Noxon confirmed. "It may not come to pass, but it's being discussed," she said. "It would be really awesome if it did happen, and I'm sure there'd be a way that people here would see it too. We'd hope."
In the meantime, Noxon said that she will take over much of the day-to-day production chores on Buffy next year, as Whedon spends more time developing a proposed Buffy animated series, comic books and other projects. "I'll be co-running Buffy with Joss," Noxon said. "Now, I'm sort of second in the chain of command. But next year, we're going to be more equals, although there is no equal to Joss [laughs]. But in title, we're going to be more equal."
Noxon added that writers have already begun planning the season's story arc. "I think 'oh grow up' is a great way to [describe] it," she said. "The season-long themes for everybody will be about sort of getting kicked into the adult world--in some cases, kicking and screaming as you go. But it's time for everybody to make some decisions and take on some more adult responsibilities. So that's going to be stuff that's going on thematically next year. Obviously with Joyce's death, Dawn and Buffy and all of the members of the Scooby Gang are going to be dealing with Buffy and Dawn, at least, having to live in a much more adult world. There's no buffer. Buffy has no buffer next year. So obviously that's really going to change the way she has to face the world, and the way that everybody else does, because it's a real reality check for all of them."
One of the surprises next year: a musical episode. "It is an all-singing, all-dancing Buffy, with music written completely for the show by Joss," Noxon said. "Because he doesn't have enough to do [laughs], what with seven or eight television shows on the air, or whatever he's got, and the comic books he writes and the movies, ... he decided he wanted to learn how to play the guitar and piano, and now he's composing incredible music."
Buffy Leaving WB With Bang
arti Noxon--co-executive producer of The WB's Buffy the Vampire Slayer--told SCI FI Wire that the current fifth season will culminate in a three-episode arc that will resolve the Dawn-Glory story arc.
"Because [the season finale will be] our 100th episode, the last three episodes of the season are huge and very action-packed, and some momentous things will occur, but that's all I can say," Noxon said in an interview.
As for next year's move to UPN, Noxon said that the show will continue as before--and denied suggestions that the series' higher licensing fees will mean more production money. Trade reports said that UPN will pay Buffy studio 20th Century Fox Television as much as $2.3 million per episode, well above the amount The WB paid.
"Some of that money will go to pay back Fox's [production] deficit," Noxon said. "So it's not like we'll be getting all that for our budgets. We probably would have seen larger budget cuts if we'd stayed at The WB. That was one of the reasons why budget was such an issue, and the licensing fee was such an issue. ... Any show that goes on the air as long as ours sees some budget cuts in the fifth or sixth year." She added, "We'll be looking at less money next year. ... God willing--hello UPN!--we will not be looking at major cuts, but we will be working with less next year, not more. So there will be ... probably a couple of shows where the villain is a tiny bug or ... a hand puppet. A couple of sock puppet villains next year will be fine [laughs]."
It's Sabrina Vs. Sabrina
BC has scheduled the made-for-TV movie Sabrina, Down Under for 8 p.m. May 25--directly opposite The WB's fantasy series Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, which moved from ABC to The WB last year, Variety reported.
The TV movie is based on the series, which previously aired in the same timeslot on ABC.
The WB, meanwhile, will preempt Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel during the summer with a Tuesday night movie, Variety reported. WB sources told the trade paper that no plans had been finalized, but the paper speculated that the WB would likely move the two shows to less desirable timeslots. Buffy moves to UPN in the fall; Angel is contracted to remain on The WB for now.
Hugo Stories Free Online
lectronic book retailer Fictionwise.com announced that it will release three 2001 Hugo-nominated short stories free on its Web site.
The stories will be offered free only for a limited time.
To obtain the free stories, visitors must register at the site. The stories are listed below.
•"Kaddish for the Last Survivor" by Michael A. Burstein
•"The Elephants on Neptune" by Mike Resnick
•"Redchapel" by Mike Resnick
Retro Hugo Nominees Named
he Millennium Philcon announced nominees for the "retro" Hugo Awards, honoring works published before the modern awards were instituted.
This year, awards will recognize works published in 1950.
Winners will be announced at the 59th World Science Fiction Convention (Philcon) in Philadelphia, Aug. 30-Sept. 3. A full list of nominees follows.
Novel
•The Dying Earth by Jack Vance
•Farmer in the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein
•First Lensman by Edward E. Smith
•Pebble in the Sky by Isaac Asimov
•The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Novella
•"... And Now You Don't" by Isaac Asimov
•"The Dreaming Jewels" by Theodore Sturgeon
•"The Last Enemy" by H. Beam Piper
•"The Man Who Sold the Moon" by Robert A. Heinlein
•"To the Stars" by L. Ron Hubbard
Novellette
•"Dear Devil" by Eric Frank Russell
•"Okie" by James Blish
•"Scanners Live in Vain" by Cordwainer Smith
•"The Helping Hand" by Poul Anderson
•"The Little Black Bag" by C.M. Kornbluth
Short Story
•"A Subway Named Mobius" by A.J. Deutsch
•"Born of Man and Woman" by Richard Matheson
•"Coming Attractions" by Fritz Leiber
•"The Gnurrs Come from the VoodVork Out" by Reginald Bretnor
•"To Serve Man" by Damon Knight
Dramatic Presentation
•Cinderella
•Destination Moon
•Harvey
•Rabbit of Seville
•Rocketship X-M
Professional Editor
•Anthony Boucher
•John W. Campbell Jr.
•Groff Conklin
•H.L. Gold
•J. Francis McComas
Professional Artist
•Hannes Bok
•Chesley Bonestell
•Edd Cartier
•Virgil Finlay
•Frank Kelly Freas
Fanzine
•Quandry
•Science Fiction Newsletter
•Skyhook
•Slant
•Spacewarp
•The Fanscient
Fan Writer
•Lee Hoffman
•Bob Silverberg
•Robert "Bob" Wilson Tucker
•James White
•Walt Willis
Fan Artist
•Jack Gaughan
•Lee Hoffman
•Ray Nelson
•Bill Rotsler
•James White
Cordwainer Smith Award Created
he Cordwainer Smith Foundation announced the establishment of the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award, an annual literary award for forgotten SF classics, named after the SF writer.
The award will honor a science fiction or fantasy writer whose work deserves renewed attention or rediscovery and whose work displays unusual originality and embodies the spirit of Cordwainer Smith's fiction, the foundation announced.
Jurors also have the option each year of awarding a Cordwainer Smith Discovery Award for contemporary writers who achieve high literary standards and create a sense of wonder, as Smith did.
Science Fiction Weekly columnist John Clute, Science Fiction Weekly editor Scott Edelman and SF authors Gardner Dozois and Robert Silverberg will be founding jurors for the award. No date has been set for the first awards.
Smith--the pseudonym for Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger--was a U.S. writer, political scientist and military adviser in Korea and Malaya who died in 1966, according to Clute's Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Smith's 1950 short story "Scanners Live in Vain" is among the nominees for this year's "retro" Hugo Awards.
Hammer Named President Of SCI FI
onnie Hammer has been promoted to president of the SCI FI Channel, a newly created position.
Stephen Chao, president of SCI FI's parent company, USA Cable, made the announcement on April 30.
"Under her tutelage, SCI FI has shown tremendous growth, and this promotion is testament to Bonnie's able leadership and a harbinger of continued success," Chao said in a statement.
Hammer--formerly executive vice president and general manager of The SCI FI Channel--will continue to be based out of SCI FI's New York office. As president she will oversee all facets of SCI FI's growing businesses, including programming, licensing and marketing, as well as SCIFI.COM.
Since Hammer took charge of SCI FI in 1998, the Channel has become one of the top 10 cable networks. SCI FI's overall programming budget has more than doubled, distribution of the channel has gone from 50 million to 70 million, ratings are up 29 percent, and viewership is up 65 percent. In the past two and a half years, the Channel has moved from making one or two original series to producing more original scripted series for cable than any other channel, basic or premium.
"This is an exciting opportunity," Hammer said in a statement. "We have a great team in place, poised to take SCI FI to the next stage in its ratings growth and distribution. We are aggressively developing original programming that will further define and sharpen our brand identity. Our goal is to make SCI FI the definitive home for both classic and cutting-edge science fiction."
Prior to joining USA in 1989, Hammer was a programming executive at Lifetime Television Network, where she launched the network's award-winning Signature Series of documentaries. The 1988 documentary Gangs: Not My Kid earned Hammer the Women in Film Festival's Lillian Gish Award, the Cine Golden Eagle and the National Association for Youth's Mentor Award.
Is Roswell UPN-Bound?
! Online's "Watch with Wanda" column has reported a rumor that UPN may pick up The WB's faltering teen alien series Roswell next year if the frog network cancels it after its second season ends this month.
Officially, The WB has said it hasn't made up its mind about the low-rated show, but reruns of Roswell are not currently on the network's summer schedule.
UPN has already agreed to pick up The WB's hit series Buffy the Vampire Slayer for two years, following the failure of producers to renew their contract with The WB. UPN also made a commitment to adopt the Buffy spinoff series Angel for two years if The WB dumps it as well.
Andromeda Finale Action-Packed
ast members of the syndicated SF series Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda told the Sci-Fi Talk Internet radio Web site that the May 14 season finale will be action-packed.
"You take a breath at the beginning of the episode, and then you let it out an hour later," Lisa Ryder (Beka Valentine) told the site, according to a transcript of the interviews on the SlipstreamNews fan site. "It's constant action. It's kind of terrifying."
The episode is called "... Its Hour Come Round At Last," an allusion to the William Butler Yeats poem The Second Coming. According to the official episode summary, Harper's repairs accidentally activate a long-dormant backup copy of Rommie's personality, which guides the ship through a reenactment of a deadly 300-year-old mission and uncovers a shocking secret that threatens all of known space and leaves the lives of the crew hanging in the balance.
"Saying it was 'very hairy' would be right along the right lines," Gordon Michael Woolvett (Seamus Harper) told Sci-Fi Talk. "That could be interpreted in so many different ways, but when you see the final episode you'll go 'ooh.'"
Kevin Sorbo (Dylan Hunt) compared the finale to the season's best episodes. "If people look at 'Angel Dark, Demon Bright' as one of their top two or three favorite episodes of the year, this will knock one of those top two or three off," he said. "It's unbelievable. It's huge. It's bigger than big."
Episode II Recycles Masks
akers of Star Wars: Episode II will rely in part on archived masks and prosthetic makeup from other movies in the series to fill in crowd scenes and supplement the prequel's expected computer animation, according to the official Star Wars Homing Beacon newsletter.
"I don't think the job would have been doable if all of the stuff from Episode I hadn't come down," action creature effects supervisor Jason Baird told the newsletter. "It was all in fantastic condition. That's what we've been using for most of those big days with all the background creatures."
Baird and his crew will use animatronic and masked aliens for large throngs of aliens and for returning alien characters. Crew members and their relatives may wear some of the masks. "Zac Jensen is actually one of the guards of construction in Australia," Baird said. "We thought he was going to fit the Saesee Tiin prosthetic makeup. Once we tried the pieces on him, we realized he didn't fit them that well. So we actually cast his brother Jesse as Saesee Tiin, because he actually fits the makeup really well." Zac instead was cast as a fearsome-looking alien Jedi new to the Star Wars saga.
LucasArts Unveils Galactic Game
ucasArts has announced Star Wars Galactic Battleground, a new game set in the Star Wars universe, in conjunction with the upcoming Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.
The game, for the PC platform, is slated for a winter 2001 release.
In Galactic Battleground, the gamer is in command of an army fighting real-time strategy clashes, the company announced. Gamers can assume the role of the Galactic Empire, Rebel Alliance, Trade Federation, Wookiees, Gungans or Royal Naboo in campaigns that will determine the outcome of the Galactic Civil War. Campaigns may be waged over land, sea and air with more than 300 different units and structures in single-player campaigns, skirmishes and multiplayer battles.
Dragon*Con Sneaks Episode II
teve Sansweet, director of fan relations for Lucasfilm Ltd., will unspool a sneak peek of Star Wars: Episode II at the upcoming Dragon*Con, taking place Aug. 31 to Sept. 3 in Atlanta.
Sansweet will also discuss how the prequel fits into the Star Wars saga.
The sneak peek will feature new footage to be shown only at Dragon*Con, organizers said. Episode II opens May 2002. Dragon*Con 2001 is an annual convention for fans of science fiction, fantasy and horror comics, art, games, animation, science, music, television and films.
Golden Duck Nominees Named
rganizers have announced finalists for the 2001 Golden Duck Awards, which are given annually to the best three children's SF books.
This year's awards will recognize books published in 2000.
The awards will be presented at the 59th World Science Fiction Convention, or Millennium Philcon, Sept. 1 in Philadelphia. A list of nominees follows.
Picture Books
(award goes to illustrator)
•Ellen's Terrible TV Troubles by John Mardon, illustrator, and Rachna Gilmore
•Two of a Kind by Mary Hogan, illustrator, and Judy Katschke
•Cosmo and the Robot by Brian Pinkney, illustrator and writer
•Ricky Ricotta's Giant Robot vs. the Mosquitoes From Mercury by Martin Ontiveros, illustrator, and Dav Pilkey
•Rex and Rex 2 by Kathleen Duey and Eugene Epstein, illustrators, and Robert Gould
Middle Grades
•Titan A.E. by Rebecca Moesta and Kevin Anderson
•I Was a 6th Grade Alien 5: Peanut Butter Lovers by Bruce Coville
•Akiko on the Planet Smoo by Mark Crilley
•Me, Minerva and the Flying Car by E.R. Emmer
•Power of UN by Nancy Etchemendy
•Time Bike by Jane Langton
Young Adult
•Jumping off the Planet by David Gerrold
•Turnabout by Margaret Peterson Haddix
•Star Drive: Two of Minds by William Keith
•Sterkarm Handshake by Susan Price
•Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
•The Jazz by Melissa Scott
Roach Preps Austin 3
ay Roach will next direct Austin Powers 3, the third installment in the Mike Myers' spy-spoof franchise, E! Online columnist Anderson Jones reported.
Roach told Jones that Myers' Spy Who Shagged Me co-star Heather Graham may appear in Austin Powers 3 and probably won't be dispatched at the beginning of that film in the same way Liz Hurley was at the start of the second.
"We did that on the second one, but I'm not sure we're going to do the same thing--that's always formative," Roach said.
Vosloo Ready For Mummy III
rnold Vosloo--who reprises the title role in The Mummy Returns--told About.com's action adventure page that he's ready to do another movie.
Vosloo's undead Imhotep character won't appear in the upcoming prequel, The Scorpion King, which is now in production.
But Vosloo said he'd do another Mummy film if director Stephen Sommers did as well. "I don't know what dollar amount [The Mummy Returns] has to make, but I assume domestically in the [United] States, if it makes $100-150 million, there'll definitely be a third one," Vosloo told the site. "I'll definitely come back if Steve Sommers is involved. He really is, with all respect to [star] Brendan [Fraser], Steve really is the star of this movie. He is The Mummy. He's just such a freak and carries the mantle."
Weisz Declines Mummy III
achel Weisz--who reprises her role as Evelyn in the upcoming sequel The Mummy Returns--told the New York Post that she's unwilling to return for another installment.
"Definitely not," Weisz told the newspaper. "Not for $200 million. I don't do this for money, and I'm not for sale."
Weisz added, "I've played the character, and I have nothing left to add to her. Two Mummy movies is enough."
In the sequel to 1999's hit The Mummy, Evelyn plays the librarian-adventurer wife of Brendan Fraser's Rick O'Connell, and finds herself contending not only with the titular resurrected Egyptian, but also his girlfriend and an ancient warrior known as the Scorpion King. "I did it because I thought it was a fantastic role for a woman, and it reminded me of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Romancing the Stone, which were movies I really loved as a kid. It was just really unpretentious, honest entertainment, and it was very aware of its own genre--it was self-consciously a B-movie. In a certain mood, it's the sort of thing I'd like to see myself." The Mummy Returns opens May 4.
Elvira To Make Her Last Stand
assandra Peterson--aka Elvira, Mistress of the Dark--told E! Online that her next movie, Elvira's Haunted Hills, will be her last.
"If it doesn't do well, I'll be living in my car," Peterson joked to columnist Anderson Jones.
Haunted Hills is a parody of Roger Corman horror movies, Peterson told Jones. "The sort of gothic creature feature that would have starred Vincent Price," she said. To save money, the movie shot in Romania. "It's cheap, cheap, cheap, incredibly cheap. And they have pretty good working conditions. What they lacked in equipment, they made up for in enthusiasm." Haunted Hills comes out around Halloween.
7 Days Returns To UPN
PN's time-travel series 7 Days returns from hiatus and moves to a new timeslot on Tuesdays at 8 p.m., starting May 8, Paramount announced.
"The Brink"--the first of four original episodes--returns hero Frank Parker (Jonathan LaPaglia) to the asylum at Hansen Island, where he must expose an inmate's web of terrorism.
In the following week's episode, "Sugar Mountain," Parker must backstep to retrieve a stolen top-secret molecular weapon, which he discovers is a telekinetic child.
Comic-Con Acquires WonderCon
omic-Con International, which operates the nation's largest comic book convention, will acquire WonderCon, a Northern California comic convention currently owned by partners Mike Friedrich and Joe Field, Comic-Con announced.
Friedrich and Field approached Comic-Con International to propose that the non-profit corporation acquire WonderCon. Terms were not disclosed.
"WonderCon is a fine event and we look forward to the acquisition," John Rogers, president of Comic-Con International, said in a statement. "Not only will it help to further our mission, it will fit in well with our existing events: Comic-Con, Alternative Press Expo, Pro-Con and Comic Book Expo."
Comic-Con International is a non-profit, educational corporation dedicated to creating awareness of and appreciation for comics and related popular art forms primarily through the presentation of conventions and events that celebrate the historic and ongoing contribution of comics to art and culture. Comic-Con takes place July 19-21 in San Diego.
Cook Designs For Penumbra
eteran game designer Monte Cook--one of the three co-designers of the third edition of Dungeons and Dragons--will write an adventure for high-level characters of Atlas Games' Penumbra line.
The adventure will be called Beyond the Veil and is tentatively scheduled for December release.
The Penumbra line is Atlas's series of adventures for D&D 3.0 and its D20 game system, published under the open gaming license issued by Wizards of the Coast. The license allows anyone to publish material for the D20 system without paying royalties to Wizards. Atlas is the longtime publisher of such games as Lunch Money and Ars Magica. Penumbra books are now Atlas' best-sellers.
Cook has been gaming since 1978, and started working professionally in the game industry in 1988, when he took a job at Iron Crown Enterprises. He went to work for TSR in 1994, moving to Wizards when it purchased TSR in the late '90s. Before working on D&D 3.0, he was best know for his work on Rolemaster for Iron Crown and on the Planescape line for Wizards.
Holm At Home With Rings
an Holm--the veteran character actor who plays Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson's upcoming Lord of the Rings film trilogy--told E! Online that he's no stranger to J.R.R. Tolkien.
Holm portrayed Bilbo's heroic nephew, Frodo, in a 1970s British radio adaptation of Tolkien's trilogy of books.
"It's always nice to come back to a book you know and love," Holm told E!. "Bilbo isn't heavily involved in [Lord of the Rings], apart from the handing over of the ring. There are a couple of flashbacks in the film that Peter [Jackson] suddenly realized he wanted. So it was interesting going from my own age forward into old age with extraordinary prosthetics and backward to when Bilbo was younger. The makeup people made some judicious little tucks under my chin. It's amazing what they can do; I was young again!"
Holm recently returned to New Zealand to shoot a few new scenes for the films. "I wasn't expecting to come back, because I did my post-synching in London," Holm said. "Then [writer] Fran [Walsh] said it would be an enormous bonus if I could do a couple of pickup shots, which we did. It's a pleasure to be back in New Zealand, which is unequivocally the most beautiful place on God's earth. I got a note from the production coordinator that said 'welcome home,' so this second trip really felt like coming home."
Rings Game Deal Signed
ivendi Universal Publishing and Tolkien Enterprises announced an exclusive deal to develop games based on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books.
VU Publishing's Sierra studio will develop and release several games over the next eight years, the companies announced.
The first game--based on the first Rings book, The Fellowship of the Ring--is being devloped by WXP Inc., for release in early 2002 for a next-generation console system.
The gaming deal coincides with the production of three movies based on the Rings trilogy, with the first, The Fellowship of the Ring, slated for release Dec. 19.
Rings Launching At Cannes
ew Line Cinema will launch its media campaign at the Cannes Film Festival for Peter Jackson's upcoming Lord of the Rings film trilogy, E! Online reported.
The launch will include the screening of footage from the movies at the festival this month.
The studio has rented a medieval castle just outside of Cannes for the showcase event and invitation-only party, and it has been furnished with props from the set, E! reported. Rings stars Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Cate Blanchett and Christopher Lee are slated to attend.
In the meantime, the stars have been flying back to New Zealand for dialogue looping, including Billy Boyd (Pippin), Dominic Monaghan (Merry), McKellen (Gandalf), Ian Holm (Bilbo) and Astin (Sam Gamgee), the site reported.
Scooby Sets Described
he Dark Horizons Web site provided a detailed report of the sets and action on the Australian location of the upcoming live-action Scooby-Doo movie.
The film, currently in production, stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., Matthew Lillard and Linda Cardinelli in the movie version of the long-running animated TV series.
The large-scale sets included a theme park, Spooky Island; a mountain summit area; and an underground cave that took around four months to build, the site reported. On another sound stage, filmmakers have constructed the inside of the Mystery Machine van--covered in red shag carpeting.
Gellar, meanwhile, told the site that she had to balance shooting Scooby with her starring role in The WB's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. For two month, Gellar alternated shooting for two weeks in Australia, then two weeks in Los Angeles on Buffy, the site reported.
Boyle To Helm 28 Days
anny Boyle (The Beach) is in line to direct the British apocalyptic SF movie 28 Days Later, Variety reported.
The U.K.'s DNA Films will finance the $15 million movie, set in post-apocalyptic London, the trade paper reported.
Novelist Alex Garland wrote the script, which tells the story of a group of survivors of a virus that wipes out the rest of the population. The movie is slated to begin shooting in August, regardless of a U.S. actors' strike.
MTV Brings In Clones
TV is close to a deal to order 13 episodes of the animated SF series Clone High, USA from Touchstone Television, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The comedy is set in a high school for the clones of famous dead people, from Abraham Lincoln and Cleopatra to Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley, the trade paper reported.
Bill Lawrence (Spin City) will executive produce the show with comedy writers Chris Miller and Phil Lord. Miller and Lord came up with the premise for Clone High and wrote the pilot script with Lawrence.
Xbox Enters The Matrix
hiny and Interplay's upcoming video game based on the hit SF movie The Matrix will be released exclusively for the Xbox gaming platform for the first six months, the IGN gaming Web site reported.
A regulatory filing revealed the arrangement between the gamemakers and Xbox developer Microsoft, which will loan Interplay $5 million.
The Matrix game will also feature online play only through the Xbox, and the Xbox version will contain more extra features than other versions, including fight choreography by the film's kung fu adviser, Woo-Ping Yuen, voices by the film's actors and more music tracks from the film's composer. The Xbox will also feature more vehicles, weapons and video, and Interplay will spend $500,000 to develop online features for the game exclusive to Xbox users, IGN reported.
The Matrix game is slated for release no more than three months after the Matrix II movie hits theaters in the summer of 2002.
Skinner Guests On Gunmen
ast members of Fox's The Lone Gunmen told SCI FI Wire that viewers can expect to see a different aspect of a familiar face when The X-Files' Mitch Pileggi makes a guest appearance this week.
Pileggi guest stars as FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner in the May 4 episode "The Lying Game."
Dean Haglund (Langly) said in an interview that the Gunmen have reason to believe that Skinner is on the wrong side of law. "We're shocked," he said with a laugh. Having Pileggi on set felt like a bit of déjà vu, Haglund added. "It was really fun to have him back [in Vancouver]. And a lot of the crew that's working on our show worked on The X-Files for the first five years, so it sort of felt like nothing changed, sort of like old home week. And he's funny--you wouldn't know it from The X-Files, but he's got quite the sense of humor, so he fit right in."
"The episode featuring Mitch is going to be pretty fun," Bruce Harwood (Byers) said. He added, "We have a quite a few more scenes with him directly, so you definitely see an interrelationship developing between us and him, as opposed to what you see on The X-Files."
As the Gunmen winds up its initial 12-episode run on Fox, Harwood said he's seen the series find its footing. "If a real evolution has occurred, it's been between the pilot and the rest of the series, just because the producers were trying to make the series lighter than the pilot was," he said. "They were trying to put a little more comedy in it. And I think there was some wavering in the first few episodes between just how much seriousness and how much comedy we were going to put in. By episode five or six, though, I think we settled into a fairly consistent mix."
X-Files' Doggett Changing
obert Patrick--FBI Agent John Doggett on The X-Files--told free-lance SF columnist Ian Spelling that his character is starting to open his mind to extreme possibilities.
"Doggett is starting to be honest with himself, and in 'Empedocles' the audience saw why he chose not to believe all the crazy stuff that he had seen," Patrick told Spelling. "It was for very personal reasons."
Patrick added, "He doesn't want to believe what Reyes and Mulder and Scully say, because if he believes it's all real--if he believes the visions he experienced were real--then it's something else he could have done to save Luke, to save his son. It's like he tells Reyes: If he doesn't believe it, then maybe he did everything he possibly could have done. 'Empedocles' was a huge turning point for this guy."
But Patrick said that Doggett faces an even greater turning point in the upcoming two-part season finale, "Essence" and "Existence," which airs May 13 and 20. "Adam Baldwin is back as my informant, Agent Crane [Kirk B.R. Woller] is back, Duffy Haskell [Jay Acovone] and Krycek [Nick Lea] are back, Skinner [Mitch Pileggi] and Reyes [Annabeth Gish] are around," Patrick said. "Really, the last two episodes are all about Scully having her baby. It's all of us, more or less, dealing with what's going on with that."
Freakylinks Returns To Fox
ox will broadcast the last four unaired original episodes of Freakylinks, starting June 1, a spokeswoman told SCI FI Wire.
The low-rated paranormal series was pulled from the air in January to make way for The Lone Gunmen.
Freakylinks will return to its Friday 9 p.m. timeslot after Gunmen finishes its initial 12-episode run. There appear to be no plans to bring Freakylinks back in the fall: The show's companion Web site has been taken down, and star Ethan Embry reportedly began shooting the feature film They in Vancouver, B.C., this month.
More than 1,000 fans of the show, meanwhile, have signed an online petition urging Fox to resurrect the series.
Green Arrow Film Working
feature film based on the DC Comics series Green Arrow is moving ahead, the Comics2Film Web site reported.
"We are getting it ready to start preparing a screenplay," producer Bill Todman Jr. (X-Men) told the site. "It's still very, very nascent a stage."
The producer is looking for a writer to develop it, the site reported. As for whether Green Arrow comic writer and filmmaker Kevin Smith (Dogma) is under consideration, Todman said, "There's always a possibility. I don't know yet."
Potter Books Hit Milestone
.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series of children's fantasy novels have sold 100 million copies worldwide, placing them among the best-selling books of all time, the Reuters news service reported.
The books have topped best-seller lists from Argentina to China and have been translated into 42 languages, from Albanian to Zulu, the news service reported.
"This is an unprecedented publishing achievement anywhere in the world--either for adult or children's books," Rowling's agent Christopher Little said in a statement. "To put this into perspective, imagine that every man, woman and child in the United Kingdom had two Harry Potter books."
Rowling submitted the manuscript for her first Harry Potter book in 1995. Since then, she has written three more Potter novels, and the first one is being adapted into a feature film, to be directed by Chris Columbus.
Arad Updates Marvel Films
arvel film executive Avi Arad updated the Comics Continuum Web site about several proposed movies based on Marvel Comics series.
They include Deathlok, based on a short-lived series about a futuristic cyborg.
"Deathlok is going to be one of the greatest movies we ever make, because the movie is so amazing," Arad told the site. "It's fantastic, really an amazing story." Other Marvel movies in the works:
•Werewolf by Night, at Dimension Films. Arad said the film "will be a totally Shakespearean story."
•The Hulk directed by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon helmer Ang Lee. "The television series never got into the psychological reason of Banner being who he is," Arad said. "If you look at the early books, Banner was an abused child. His father was a terrible man. You'll see, it will be a deeply psychological movie."
• Iron Fist, to star Ray Park; Sub-Mariner; and Man-Thing.
Is Stan Lee Media Alive?
ill Stan Lee Media rise from the dead?
Inside.com reported that Texas venture capital firm Interfase Capital announced that it will provide debtor-in-possession financing of the company as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization and will take a majority interest in the online animation site, founded by the Marvel Comics legend.
Stan Lee Media fired most of its staff in mid-December, had trading in its stock halted days later, and filed for bankruptcy in mid-February, Inside.com reported. There are no fewer than four separate class-action suits proceeding against the company, in addition to various other suits claiming unpaid bills, a stolen series idea and the like.
Interfase said it plans to "facilitate long-term business relationships between Stan Lee Media and other Interfase Capital portfolio companies."
Marvel Approves Four Helmer
arvel Comics movie executive Avi Arad told the Comics Continuum Web site that he approved of the hiring of Bring It On director Peyton Reed for the proposed Fantastic Four movie.
"He has just the right sensibilities," Arad told the site. "He has a great sense of comedy, and we are very excited about him."
Reed will helm the movie version of the venerable Marvel comics series of the same name. "The Fantastic Four is a dysfunctional family, a comedy," Arad said. "It's about famous heroes. They appear on talk shows. They are celebrities." By contrast, he said, "X-Men is about the dark secrets."
Clarke Talks Space Travel
uthor and space visionary Arthur C. Clarke said he was optimistic about manned exploration of other planets, the Associated Press reported.
Speaking from his home in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Clarke made the remarks to commemorate Space Day 2001 on May 3.
But Clarke admitted that his and director Stanley Kubrick's vision of manned space travel in their 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey was a little premature. "It's true that Stanley and I were too optimistic about the time scale, but sooner or later in the new century, manned exploration of the planets will happen," Clarke said in a statement.
Clarke added, "Many of our speculations in the movie have come true where information technologies were concerned, including the global Internet." Space Day is celebrated worldwide on the first Thursday in May and is dedicated to extraordinary achievements, benefits and opportunities in the exploration and use of space, the AP reported.
Bullock Mulls Wonder Woman
andra Bullock has expressed interest in playing the title role in producer Joel Silver's proposed feature-film version of DC Comics' Wonder Woman series, Variety reported.
"Sandy's interested, and we've met with her," Silver's producing partner, Leonard Goldberg, told the trade paper. "It all depends on the script and director, of course, but she hasn't done anything this physical in a long time, and she'd like to. We'd love to have her."
Todd Alcott (Antz, Astro Boy) is writing the script, the trade paper reported.
A.I. Footage Screened
he Ain't It Cool News Web site reported spoilers for the opening of Steven Spielberg's upcoming SF epic movie A.I., based on a screening at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Producer Kathleen Kennedy and star Haley Joel Osment discussed the movie at an MIT panel on artificial intelligence.
According to AICN's unnamed sources, the clip shows William Hurt's character speaking in a classroom, demonstrating a "mecha," or mechanical woman. He clicks a button in her mouth, and her face opens up to reveal a robotic skeleton. He pulls a module from her forehead and talks about building robots with the ability to love. Hurt's character adds that there is going to be a great market for such creations among parents who can't have kids.
In an apparent reference to a sly Internet game based on A.I., Kennedy also said that Jeanine Salla, a "sentient machine therapist," worked on the film's special effects. Salla's name appears in the credits on the film's trailer, but she appears to be a fictional person. Kennedy left some of Salla's business cards from the fictional "Bangalore World University"--the cards say the institution was founded in 2028.
Bromeliad Film Rights Sold
reamWorks has acquired the screen rights to British writer Terry Pratchett's Bromeliad trilogy of best-selling fantasy novels, Variety reported.
The books--Truckers, Diggers and Wings--will form the basis of a series of computer-generated movies to be spearheaded by Andrew Adamson (co-director of Shrek) and Joe Stillman (co-writer of Shrek).
The first film, Truckers, will tell the story of a group of "nomes" who are forced into the outside world when their department-store home gets demolished.
Pratchett chose DreamWorks in part because of his fondness for the studio's recent films, the trade paper reported. "I liked Chicken Run and Galaxy Quest, and you've got to be impressed when someone from the studio phones up from Hollywood one night and turns up for lunch in Wiltshire, England, the very next day," Pratchett told the paper.
Clooney Won't Reprise Bat Role
he Comics2Film Web site disputed a rumor that Batman & Robin star George Clooney might put the cape and cowl on again in the proposed Batman: Year One film.
The Ain't It Cool News Web site had passed on the rumor, based on a report from a Tulane University screening of Aronofsky's Pi, at which the director reportedly mentioned the actor.
But AICN subsequently retracted the report after other attendees at the screening disputed the source's news, Comics2Film reported.
Cameron Shoots For The Stars
ames Cameron (Dark Angel) told the New York Post that he wants to ride a Russian rocket to the international space station and become the first moviemaker to shoot in space.
"I think we need to keep the dream of exploration alive," Cameron told the newspaper.
Last year, Cameron began talks with Russian rocket-builders RKK Energia and "was pronounced fit and capable of going into cosmonaut training," he said. "They were going to train me for 18 months."
But negotiations stopped in January, and "we're in an indefinite holding pattern" until NASA and the Russian Space Agency develop training and other guidelines for non-professional space travelers, he said. "It has to be done with the blessing of the international partners," Cameron said.
As for the California man who paid the Russians to travel into orbit, Cameron said, "While I applaud Dennis Tito's dream of going into space, I think that to do it unilaterally as a forced issue is maybe not the best choice." Tito paid $20 million to the Russians for his trip, over NASA's objections.
Mage Film Option Renewed
att Wagner, writer of the Mage comic series, told the Comics Continuum Web site that Spyglass Entertainment has renewed its option for a live-action Mage film.
"That says something," Wagner told the site. "Right in the middle of the [impending writers' union] strike getting ready to happen, they re-up."
Wagner added, "The people involved at Spyglass, they've all been actively involved with the script. I know they feel proprietary about it now--and that's a good thing." John Rogers wrote the script, which is based on "The Hero Discovered" story arc of the comic series. "We had wave after wave of notes and revisions that we all felt every time made the script better, which was surprising to all of us," Wagner said. "The detour was minor. It was always like, 'This doesn't sound right. Let's work on this.' And a tiny switch would vastly improve it. And a lot of that was also trying to make best use of what we were shooting for budget-wise. Do we need [computer graphics] through this whole scene, or can we do part of this as costumes and prosthetics? I'm totally happy with it. And they're happy with it."
Blade 2 Injuries Disputed
avid Goyer, writer and executive producer of the upcoming Blade 2, denied to the Comics Continuum Web site rumors that Wesley Snipes suffered burns on the film's Prague set.
Earlier reports suggested that Snipes was treated for facial burns sustained when he was exposed to inappropriately bright lights.
But Goyer said the reports were inaccurate, the site reported. "Wesley is fine," Goyer told the site. "He wasn't involved. The whole incident has been widely exaggerated anyway."
Shrek Pokes Disney?
reamWorks' upcoming computer-animated movie Shrek is being called "Katzenberg's Revenge" because studio partner Jeffrey Katzenberg has inserted veiled references to his former employer, Walt Disney Co., the New York Daily News reported.
Disney chief Michael Eisner fired Katzenberg, who sued and won a $100 million settlement in a highly publicized court case.
The film, featuring the voices of Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz and Eddie Murphy, takes place partly in a clean, well-tended kingdom with turnstiles at the gate, a fairy-tale castle and theme park attractions, a clear reference to Disneyland, the newspaper reported. Shrek opens May 18.
Finding Timeline's Time
auren Shuler Donner, who is producing the feature-film version of Michael Crichton's time-travel novel Timeline, told The Hollywood Reporter that filmmakers had to improvise to recreate the book's medieval setting.
Timeline tells the story of a professor and his students who travel back to 14th-century France and find themselves in the middle of a war.
"So, 14th century--'Okay, we'd better scout in Europe. We'd better find a place,'" Shuler told Reporter columnist Martin Grove. "It's interesting, because Michael Crichton's book is based in the Dordogne area of France. We went there first to film and make it real, and there's electric wires everywhere. There's 21st-century civilization. We couldn't shoot there. So we had to go actually to a place in England on the border of Wales to recreate the castle and the village, where there is no evidence of today's life. England doubles for France."
Shuler described the story as "an adventure romance." "We have a professor that goes back in a time machine to the Middle Ages during the Hundred Year War, when France is fighting England to get back their land," she said. "He gets stuck back there, and his students have to go back and get him. And once they're there, they're in the middle of war, and they're in terrible danger. They're not sure they can get back, and we're rooting for them to try to get back into their present lives."
Evolution Juggles Laughs, Scares
van Reitman, director of the upcoming SF comedy movie Evolution, told the New York Daily News that the film will remind viewers of one of his earlier hits.
"Ever since Ghostbusters, I've been looking for a good story in which something amazing and large threatens the existence of our planet--something around which I could develop a character comedy. But it's hard to come by," the director told the newspaper.
In Evolution, David Duchovny, Orlando Jones and Julianne Moore combine forces to deal with a meteorite that contains organisms that evolve at an accelerated rate. "A level of evolution that took 200 million years on Earth just takes several hours," Reitman said. He added, "I like cross-genre movies, maybe because they're so hard to do. You have to get the tone right, because the humor often undercuts the truth or the fright or the science."
Many Looks Combine In Atlantis
on Hahn, producer of Disney's upcoming animated fantasy movie Atlantis: The Lost Empire, told the New York Daily News that the filmmakers based the film's look on a variety of sources.
"It's a tremendous amount of study and research," Hahn told the newspaper. "We did a fair amount of Internet research, not only about the myth of Atlantis, but also the academic and archeological views."
Hahn added, "We even looked into the conspiracy-theory, black-helicopter version of Atlantis. We studied the Carlsbad caverns and a tank museum in Baltimore that had vehicles from 1914."
Filmmakers also turned to cult comic-book artist Mike Mignola, creator of the graphic novel Hellboy and some Batman comics, the newspaper reported. "He came in, and our animators picked up on his style and used his visual ideas in their work, and that was inspirational," Hahn said. Atlantis: The Lost Empire, directed by Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale, opens June 8.
Spidey Shoot Returns To L.A.
roduction of Sam Raimi's upcoming Spider-Man movie wrapped shooting in New York and will return to Los Angeles for final special-effects photography, the Comics Continuum Web site reported.
"The movie is coming along great," said Marvel Comics movie executive Avi Arad, who is also an executive producer of Spider-Man. "I think it's the greatest origin story," he told the site.
The site also reported that the first trailer for the movie will likely be shown in July and might include a bit of a big fight between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin. There will likely also be a presentation at the Comic-Con International in San Diego.
And the site reported that Stan Lee has filmed a cameo for the movie in Los Angeles.
Xena Meeting Spidey?
he Coming Attractions Web site reported a rumor that Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess) would have a cameo in Sam Raimi's upcoming Spider-Man movie.
The site quoted a report from the New Zealand Woman's Day, a supermarket tabloid newspaper.
The paper ran a photograph of Lawless dressed as a punk in New York, where Spider-Man filmed recently. Lawless is married to Xena producer Rob Tapert, who is Raimi's longtime producing partner.
Lawless' Xena co-star Ted Raimi, who is Sam's brother, and Bruce Campbell, who frequently appears in Raimi and Tapert productions, will also have cameos in Spider-Man.
NBC Aims At Ground Zero
BC will air the original television movie Ground Zero, starring Katherine Heigl (The WB's Roswell) and Kerr Smith (The Forsaken), Variety reported.
Charlie's Angels producer Leonard Goldberg will produce.
Eric Laneuville will direct Ground Zero, which is slated to start production in Vancouver, B.C., this week, the trade paper reported. Heigl and Smith will play college students who build a nuclear bomb, which is then stolen by terrorists intent on blowing up San Francisco. Tom Vaughan wrote the script, which is based on James Mills' novel The Seventh Power.
Genre Vets Prep Unspeakable
elevision helmer Thomas Wright (Dark Angel) has been tapped to direct Dennis Hopper, Dina Meyer and Lance Henriksen in the supernatural thriller movie Unspeakable, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The independent film, budgeted at $2 million to $3 million, is slated to start shooting May 5 in Santa Fe, N.M.
Pavan Grover wrote the script, with Earl Mac Rauch and Wright collaborating on rewrites. Unspeakable tells the story of a female psychologist who must deal with a serial killer after he escapes the electric chair, raising the possibility that he is not human.
Meyer is best known among genre fans for her role in Starship Troopers; Henriksen starred in Fox's Millennium. Earl Mac Rauch wrote the script for 1984's The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.
UPN Euthanizes All Souls
PN has pulled the supernatural hospital drama All Souls from its schedule after only two airings, the Zap2it.com Web site reported.
A UPN spokesman told the site that UPN has not canceled the show, but has placed it on broadcast hiatus because of poor ratings.
It's doubtful that the Aaron-Spelling produced series will return to the air. The premiere of All Souls drew only 2.1 million viewers, ranking 105th for the week, the site reported. The second episode rated even lower, drawing just 1.5 million viewers. UPN ordered six episodes of the show, which starred Grayson McCouch.
Wizards Founder Disputes Story
izards of the Coast founder Peter Adkison disputed to SCI FI Wire a story by award-winning game designer John Tynes that characterized the game publishing company in a recent issue of Salon magazine.
The story, "Death to the Minotaur," likened Adkison to Kubla Khan and portrayed him as a man with a vision of a new kind of company, characterized Wizards as a place where people of all stripes could work together in peace and equality, and described its vision as making games and, by extension, gamers cool.
But Tynes also said that Wizards was seen as a place where gamers could "get laid." Adkison sold Wizards to toymaker Hasbro in 1999 and left the company a year later.
When asked what he thought of the Tynes story, Adkison said, "Not much. Thanks for asking." He added, "Basically the only thing I want to say in response is to correct a factual error. There was not the level of open sex going on at the office that John reports. At least not that I was involved with or even had knowledge of."
Forsaken Bites It In Debut
he offbeat vampire movie The Forsaken debuted at a disappointing No. 8 in the box-office rankings for the weekend of April 27, with $3 million in ticket sales, the Hollywood trade papers reported.
The Forsaken stars Final Destination's Kerr Smith and Roswell's Brendan Fehr.
The only other genre film in the top 10 was Robert Rodriguez's still-strong Spy Kids, which tied for the No. 3 spot, with about $5.7 million in earnings. Spy Kids has earned about $93.6 million after five weekends of release, the trade papers reported.
Briefly Noted
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Sebastian Spence, star of The SCI FI Channel original series First Wave, will guest star on Fox's SF series Dark Angel, Cinescape Online reported. Spence will appear in the episode "Hit A Sista Back" at 9 p.m. May 8.
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A Steven Spielberg fan Web site has posted the trailer for director Joe Johnston's upcoming Jurassic Park III movie. The trailer aired for the first time on national television during CBS's Survivor finale May 3.
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Paramount has teamed up with the National Basketball Association and NBC to promote its upcoming Tomb Raider movie, which opens June 15, Variety reported. The three have produced two 20-second commercials, which will run on various NBC primetime and late-night shows and on NBA telecasts, starting May 5.
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Stage actor Daniel London will join the cast of Steven Spielberg's upcoming SF movie Minority Report, which is currently shooting in London, Variety reported. The film, starring Tom Cruise, is based on the Philip K. Dick short story of the same name.
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The Dark Horizons Web site reported a rumor that director Darren Aronofsky's upcoming top-secret SF movie is titled Last Man, with Jared Leto set to star.
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To welcome the cast of its newly acquired Buffy the Vampire Slayer, UPN sent gift baskets valued at more than $50,000 to each of the eight regular cast members, with Cristal champagne, beluga caviar, gourmet foods and a $4,000 Cartier watch, TV Guide Online reported. Star Sarah Michelle Gellar received a Gucci necklace in place of the watch, and series creator Joss Whedon got a rare edition of Shakespeare's works, TV Guide reported.
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The Coming Attractions Web site has posted screen grabs of a "teaser trailer" for Sam Raimi's upcoming Spider-Man movie. The trailer was reportedly developed for in-house use and does not necessarily reflect any actual trailer to come.
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A 22-year-old Northern California man pleaded no contest to stalking Star Trek: Voyager star Jeri Ryan, E! Online reported. He was given five years' probation, ordered to remain at least 1,000 yards from her and her family and to seek mental-health counseling.
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Fans on the Friday the 13th message boards are organizing to urge New Line to release of the SF-themed Jason X movie sometime this year, rather than hold it for 2002.
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Jeremy Boly, producer of the upcoming live-action Resident Evil movie, told the Scottish Daily Mail newspaper that the movie is "as realistic as possible: the fear had to be real. It's the re-invention of the zombie movie, with big action," according to the Dark Horizons Web site. The movie is based on the Capcom video game series of the same name.
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Gauntlet Press is taking orders for a signed limited edition of Ray Bradbury's Dark Carnival collection of stories, featuring bonus material from the SF author's archives and a Bradbury painting on the cover.
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The official Evolution Web site has posted a new trailer for the upcoming SF comedy movie from Ivan Reitman. Evolution opens June 8.
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The official Star Wars Web site has posted a new "making of" video featurette about the design of ships in George Lucas' upcoming Star Wars: Episode II, with details about Obi-Wan Kenobi's personal fighter.
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William Shatner's campy 1965 SF movie Incubus--the only movie shot entirely in the invented language of Esperanto--is coming out on home video and DVD, EW.com reported. The site didn't report a release date.
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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Chase Masterson (Leeta) will host the Sexiest Geek Alive contest at the upcoming Broadband Year 2001 conference on June 21 in San Jose, Calif.
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Paramount Pictures announced the launch of the new Web site for its upcoming Tomb Raider movie. The Angelina Jolie film, based on the Eidos video game series of the same name, opens June 15.
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Disney plans to release its hit fantasy film Spy Kids on home video in September, even though the movie continues to rake in money at the box office, Variety reported.
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The Great Link fan Web site has posted what it says are major spoilers for the upcoming May 23 finale of Star Trek: Voyager, entitled "Endgame."
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The OneRing.net Web site posted an audio clip of Lord of the Rings star Liv Tyler (Arwen) speaking Elvish on a recent Late Night With Conan O'Brien show on NBC.
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Star Trek: Voyager stars Roxann Dawson (B'Elanna Torres) and Robert Beltran (Chakotay) received American Latino Media Arts Awards, or ALMAs, for outstanding achievement in a television series, the official Trek Web site reported.
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The martial-arts fantasy film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon swept eight of 16 categories at the Hong Kong Film Awards on April 29, taking home awards that included best picture and best director, the Reuters news service reported. Tiger also won for best cinematography, action choreography, sound design, supporting actress, original film score and original film song.
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Ken Hughes, who wrote and directed the classic British fantasy movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, died of complications from Alzheimer's disease, the Associated Press reported. He was 79. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was the 1968 film based on Ian Fleming's popular children's story about a flying car.
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