Jolie Fleshes Out Lara Croft
ngelina Jolie, who plays the title role in the upcoming action-adventure film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, told SCI FI Wire that she had a hard time adapting to the physical demands of her well-known character.
"It was all just really uncoordinated," Jolie said in an interview. "It's a very impractical outfit for certain physical things."
Lara Croft is a familiar icon to fans of the hit Eidos video game series Tomb Raider, on which the film is based. But Jolie was up for the challenge of faithfully recreating the character--one step at a time. "I would do gymnastics for a long time, and then that was fine," she said. "And then gymnastics with the boots. That got heavier. And then the braid came on. I had to go to a doctor because the braid kept hitting me in the eye at some point every time I flipped around."
To prepare for the film, Jolie spent 2-1/2 months doing martial arts, kickboxing and weightlifting before the start of production. She continued training throughout the eight months of shooting. One of the biggest hardships was eating nothing but Power Bars for months on end while filming in London. "I called my husband and said, 'I want a cheeseburger and some pancakes.'"
But there were certain other well-known attributes of the character that Jolie couldn't assume with training. She candidly admits to wearing "proper padding" to completely fill out Croft's role, so to speak. "She's one cup size bigger than me. I'm a 36C. She's a 36D. In the game, she's a double D, so we took it down," Jolie said. "I mean, personally I wouldn't want those breasts."
Tomb To Webcast Premiere
he premiere of Paramount's Lara Croft: Tomb Raider will broadcast live on the film's official Web site, starting at 9:30 p.m. ET on June 11, the studio announced.
Paramount and WindowsMedia are sponsoring the Webcast.
The Webcast will feature three hours of red-carpet interviews with the film's stars, party coverage, behind-the-scenes clips, an online contest and more. Viewers can also take part in a trivia contest to win a copy of the official soundtrack, video games from Eidos Interactive and other merchandise.
Viewers will also be able to watch the music video for U2's Elevation, the title track off the movie's soundtrack. Tomb Raider, starring Angelina Jolie and based on the video game series of the same name, opens June 15.
Analog Serializes Neanderthal
nalog Science Fiction and Fact magazine will serialize the first of Robert J. Sawyer's upcoming Neanderthal Parallax trilogy of novels, the author told SCI FI Wire.
The first book, Infinite Faculties, will appear in full text in four monthly installments, starting with the January 2002 edition.
Tor will publish Infinite Faculties in June 2002, followed by Noble Reason in February 2003 and Quintessence of Dust in October 2003, Sawyer said.
The Neanderthal Parallax tells the story of a gateway opening between
our universe and a parallel one in which Neanderthals survived to the
present day, but we did not, Sawyer said. The Neanderthals in the parallel world have developed a technologically sophisticated culture, but have made very
different use of Earth and its resources over the 40,000 years since the
timeline split.
McKellen's Gandalf Not Ragged
an McKellen, who plays Gandalf the Grey in Peter Jackson's upcoming Lord of the Rings film trilogy, told fans on his official Web site that viewers should not be fooled by his ragged appearance in recent trailers.
"Gandalf the Grey is a wanderer and survives a number of long journeys by foot and horseback," McKellen wrote.
"He is rarely sitting out of harm's way in his pony-trap," McKellen added. "So of course he gets dusty and dirty, without benefit of wayside washrooms. Haggard perhaps to look at, but that doesn't stop his being gentle or paternal when appropriate."
McKellen also said he doesn't compare his potential Rings fame with that endured by Alec Guinness after Star Wars. "Sir Alec didn't like the sparse dialogue in Star Wars," McKellen wrote. "By contrast, Gandalf gets some of Tolkien's best writing. As for the iconic status of the role, I can always escape into my customary anonymity by not wearing a pointy hat in public." The first Rings film, The Fellowship of the Ring, opens Dec. 19.
Episode II Leak Ires Lucas
eorge Lucas spoke out for the first time about leaked footage from his upcoming Star Wars: Episode II, which appeared on the Internet briefly, the Popcorn U.K. Web site reported.
Such leaks are "taking a big bite out of the film industry," Lucas told the site at the MTV Movie Awards. He added that if people continue to steal footage and place it on the Internet, "you're going to see less and less big films" being made.
The clip--depicting Episode II stars Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor practicing their lightsaber fighting on a blue-screen set--appeared on the Force.net Web site, but came down after Lucasfilm complained, Popcorn reported.
As for the film itself, Lucas said, "We're just starting the animation now, so we're about halfway through."
C-3PO Does More In Episode II
nthony Daniels, who reprises the role of C-3PO in the upcoming Star Wars: Episode II, told the MovieHole Web site that he'll have more to do this time around.
"Threepio is more involved in II," Daniels told the site.
Daniels--who has played the android in all four Star Wars films--added, "I actually control the puppetry of the character in the next one. I control his walking. I work out every morning at the gym, because I'm holding this big albatross. I'm the puppetmaster--scary, very scary. It's essentially the same costume as first time. It's the old ones, painted. Justin Dicks, an Aussie guy, did it. It's a new look--I look like a walking scrap heap, because I'm made of old scrap. It looks the best, though."
Comic-Con To Sneak Episode II
ucasfilm will unveil its first glimpse of George Lucas' upcoming Star Wars: Episode II at Comic-Con International, which runs July 19-22 in San Diego.
On July 21 and 22, the convention will present "Star Wars: Connections," a panel that will discuss how Episode II fits into the Star Wars saga.
Episode II will also be sneaked at Dragon*Con, Aug. 31-Sept. 3 in Atlanta.
Phantom Edit On Way To Lucas
tar Wars fans who are responsible for at least one version of the so-called Phantom Edit of Star Wars: Episode I have overnighted a videocassette of their re-edit to George Lucas himself, one of the editors told SCI FI Wire.
The fans were responding to a story on the Zap2it.com Web site suggesting that Lucas was interested in seeing the re-edit for himself.
The editor, who wished to remain anonymous, told SCI FI Wire that he is one of three former film students--two in New York and one in Los Angeles--who took it upon themselves to re-edit the video version of Episode I to correct what they perceived as weaknesses in the film. The film students' re-edit of the film was made more than a year ago and has been circulating around Hollywood and New York. Another re-edit is also circulating, the editor said in an interview.
"We completely re-contextualized Jar Jar Binks' character, and altered dialogue and subtitled it," the editor said in an interview. "We gave him dialogue more akin to a Jedi character; he sounds more intelligent. We also beefed up Anakin's character." The editor said he hasn't seen the other re-edit, by a fan who calls himself "The Phantom Editor."
"I'd seen [Episode I] three times in the theater," the editor said. "Like most people, we had complaints about the character of Jar Jar Binks. He's a little more childish than seemed to be befitting of a Star Wars film. ... It was an experiment. It was never meant for distribution, but for our friends and ourselves. ... It took us a week to do the thing. ... We're not in competition with anyone else. We just put this out some time ago."
Lucas Already Shot Episode III Scene
hile shooting Star Wars: Episode II in Tunisia last year, George Lucas slipped in one shot for Episode III, which isn't due out for another five years, the official Star Wars Web site reported.
In a "Making of" video featurette, Lucas admitted that he completed one Episode III shot, presumably for a scene set on Anakin Skywalker's home planet of Tatooine.
"It means that now I don't have to come back here," Lucas said in the video. "It's a long way to come and bring a crew of 60 people just to shoot one shot--and then rebuild the set and all the other stuff we have to do--in three years." Lucas and his crew returned to Tunisia in part to shoot Episode II scenes set on the Skywalker homestead--a set that was rebuilt to duplicate the look of the one in the original Star Wars film. Episode II is slated for release in 2002.
Lucas Wants To See Phantom Edit
eorge Lucas told the Zap2it Web site that he hasn't seen the rumored Phantom Edit of his Star Wars: Episode I movie--but wants to.
The edit, by a critical fan, supposedly cuts out about 20 minutes of the movie, removing redundant scenes and dialogue and diminishing Jar Jar Binks' role, the site reported. The tape has been floating around Hollywood for a while.
Lucas said he wasn't worried about the edit. "The Internet is a new medium; it's all about doing things like that," Lucas told the site. "I haven't seen it. I would like to."
Jeanne Cole, a spokesperson for Lucasfilm, told Zap2it that no one at the company had seen the edit. "Lucasfilm aggressively pursues anyone involved with the unauthorized sale of our copyrighted materials," she said. But she added that the company doesn't pursue fans "as long as nobody crosses that line--either in bad taste or in profiting from the use of our characters." At least one fan has created a Web site dedicated to the edit, Zap2it reported.
BAFTA/LA To Honor Lucas
he British Academy of Film and Television Arts/Los Angeles will honor director George Lucas with the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film at the 11th annual Britannia Awards, Variety reported.
The ceremony is slated for Nov. 10 in Los Angeles.
"We are delighted to be honoring George Lucas, who has chosen to make so many of his films in the U.K.," BAFTA/L.A. chair Gary Dartnall told the trade paper. "He has contributed immensely to our industry as an innovative filmmaker, changing the way movies are made, seen and heard."
Lucas has directed and produced nine films on location in the United Kingdom, including the Indiana Jones trilogy and four Star Wars films, the trade paper reported. Lucas has previously earned 17 BAFTA nominations and six awards.
Buffy To Downplay Giles
nthony Stewart Head--Giles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer--confirmed for SCI FI Wire that his Watcher character will no longer be a regular on the series when it moves to UPN in the fall.
Rather, Giles will be more of a recurring character, Head said in an interview.
"There will be a couple of shakeups" in addition to dealing with the season-ending demise of Buffy, Head said. "I'm going to spend a bit more time in England next year, so Giles will be spending a bit more time in England next year. That will be a change. I'll be more of a recurring character next season. I'm spending more time in England next year, because I want to be ... with my family more, not because I have any problem with the show. You never tire of Buffy. It's just such fun."
It remains to be seen whether the much-talked-about Giles spinoff will come to pass. Set and filmed in England, the proposed series would star Head. But the veteran actor is wasting little time finding new work back home. "I'm doing a BBC series called Manchild. It's about four men in their 40s dealing with life, sex and midlife crises. It's like a male equivalent of Sex and the City. I am one of the four men, and the others are Nigel Havers, Don Warrington [Red Dwarf] and Ray Sturges."
Buffy Gets TCA Nods
he Television Critics Association nominated Buffy the Vampire Slayer for best drama series and star Sarah Michelle Gellar as best actor, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The TCA Awards, which are determined by the votes of more than 220 critics and reporters in the U.S. and Canada, will be handed out July 21 during the annual summer press tour in Pasadena, Calif., the trade paper reported.
Buffy, which just wrapped its fifth season, moves from its longtime home on The WB to UPN next season.
Bakula Gets Trek Advice
tar Trek: The Next Generation stars Jonathan Frakes (Riker) and Brent Spiner (Data) visited the set of UPN's upcoming fifth Trek series, Enterprise, and offered advice to the new captain, Scott Bakula (Jonathan Archer), the official Trek Web site reported.
Bakula received advice on the tricky vocabulary he would be facing and on the world of Star Trek in general, the site reported.
Frakes and Spiner also admired the new uniforms, ones that the site described as having more of a contemporary look, rather than one from an imagined future several hundred years from now. Among other things, the new uniforms are looser, are made with natural fibers, lack foot stirrups and have zippers and pockets, the site reported. A source previously told SCI FI Wire that at least some of the crew's uniforms resemble navy blue jumpsuits with colored yoke and shoulder piping and shoulder patches with the Enterprise logo.
In other Enterprise news:
•The Project Quantum Leap Web site reported that UPN will premiere the series in August, not October, as some UPN stations have said. The site added that the cast and crew of the pilot episode, "Broken Bow," will take a couple of weeks off after completing the pilot to allow for fine tuning. Shooting is expected to resume in late June.
•The Lcarscom.net Web site quoted John Eaves, Enterprise's senior illustrator, on the design of the show's new starship. "The look of the show, I think, is Star Trek, but it's not," he told the site. He added, "We had done [some retro design] with [Zefram] Cochrane's ship [in the feature film Star Trek: First Contact], and we went kind of high style. You still had the buttons and the toggle switches, but the gauges and scanners were retro'ed up ... to go above that, and yet not repeat the '60s look of the way things were." The new ship will be smaller than the one in the original series.
Duchovny Closes X-Files
avid Duchovny told SCI FI Wire that he won't return in the ninth season of The X-Files, even in a small way.
Speaking to press while promoting his upcoming film, Evolution, Duchovny said he wouldn't do cameos, as he had in the last season.
"I don't think that's fair to me or the fans and I'll tell you why," Duchovny said. "I think that the consciousness of the show is this quest of Mulder's, and the core of the show is Mulder and Scully. When I came back at the end of this year, by necessity and by my choice of not being on the show full-time, other ideas, other stories, had to come center stage. When I came back, I felt somewhat peripheral. Not me, but Mulder's story was somewhat one of three or four stories now that were going on. It didn't feel like the same show to me, and I think to bring back Mulder peripherally is not fair to the character that I feel a lot of affinity for. I feel like the fans respect Mulder as the center consciousness of the show, and to have him come back, like Superman's dad or whatever, just feels cheap to me." Duchovny said he would still be interested in another X-Files feature film.
As for questions left unanswered at the end of the last season, Duchovny said he did not know who fathered Scully's child, nor how the season finale's ending kiss would resolve next season. "I will be interested to see, like anyone who is a fan of the show, how it gets resolved, because they will have to resolve me while I'm not there. I hope they don't say, 'Oh, I'm glad Mulder's gone. What an ass--. He had a baby with me, kissed me and now he left.'"
Wolverine May Remember
ugh Jackman--Wolverine in the X-Men movie--told the Dark Horizons Web site that his character will remember more about his mysterious past in the upcoming sequel.
"I'm pretty sure there's going to be resolution to his memory lapse," Jackman told the site. "So where he was heading on the bike at the end of the first one, you're going to find out what happens there."
Jackman will reteam with his co-stars for X-Men 2. "Everyone's back," he said. X-Men director Bryan Singer is again helming, "and I think there's going to be a few more characters introduced," he added. "The script is almost ready, but not quite. I ask for it all the time, and it's not quite ready."
Jackman also said he's recently completed work on a time-travel movie in which he co-stars with Meg Ryan. "It's called Kate & Leopold," he said. "It was brilliant, a terrific part. It was great working with Meg. She was a very gifted comedienne and a very talented woman who became a good friend. In fact, I was working on the night of my fifth wedding anniversary, and so Meg took my wife out to dinner," he recalled with a laugh. "My leading lady took my wife out for my wedding anniversary. Kind of odd."
Jackman Talks X-Men 2 Start
ugh Jackman--Wolverine in X-Men--told SCI FI Wire that the highly anticipated sequel to his 2000 hit movie will start next year.
"January [or] February we start shooting," Jackman said at the premiere for his new film, Swordfish, in Los Angeles.
X-Men director Bryan Singer, meanwhile, told the Comics Continuum Web site that he's hard at work on X-Men 2. "I'm working very diligently on the sequel to X-Men," Singer told the site. "I'm doing some science fiction programming stuff for television. I'm shepherding some small projects that interest me on a [producer] capacity, and I'm just looking at other things that interest me." Singer and X-Men producer Tom DeSanto are developing The SCI FI Channel's update of Battlestar Galactica.
Singer added, "I try to focus on one picture at a time and not attach myself to dozens of things and then see whichever thing is ready and jump on it. I really try to focus on a few things and whatever it is I'm really involved in at the time. Right now, I'm sort of at the development stages of a few different things, X-Men 2 obviously. A lot of characters will be back, and there will be a couple of new characters, but beyond that I couldn't really tell you anything--anything you can't read on the Internet in two weeks, anyway."
Daltrey Guests On Witchblade
oger Daltrey, lead singer of The Who, will guest-star on the fifth episode of TNT's upcoming supernatural series Witchblade, the Comics Continuum Web site reported.
Daltrey will play Father Del Toro in the episode "Legion," about a Catholic priest who is brutally murdered by one of his students.
As a ghost, the priest reveals that he was murdered to conceal a controversial bargain that suggests the Nazis and the Vatican were allies during World War II, and that the Witchblade was used to seal the deal, the site reported. "Legion" is scheduled to air on July 10.
Witchblade Auction Benefits Charity
o promote TNT's upcoming Witchblade TV series, comic publisher Top Cow, TNT and eBay are teaming up to auction memorabilia to raise money for the American Cancer Society, Top Cow announced.
The auction goes live on eBay June 11; Witchblade premieres at 9 p.m. on June 12.
Auction items include star Yancy Butler's leather jacket from the Witchblade television movie, signed by the entire cast; signed episode scripts; original artwork from the Witchblade comic book; and many other one-of-a-kind souvenirs. All proceeds will be donated to the American Cancer Society.
West Readies Prisoner Film
irector Simon West (Tomb Raider) told SCI FI Wire that he is awaiting the final draft of a screenplay for a proposed feature-film version of the cult 1960s SF series The Prisoner.
Speaking to press while promoting his latest film, West said he hopes to show the Chris McQuarrie script to series creator and star Patrick McGoohan to gain his endorsement for the project.
The Prisoner is the story of a British intelligence agent, known only as No. 6, who finds himself detained by unknown sinister forces in a picturesque seaside town simply called The Village. Since it left the air in 1967 after only 17 episodes, the surreal series has remained in the public consciousness, spawning conventions and fan organizations such as The Prisoner Appreciation Society.
Several attempts have been made to adapt The Prisoner to the screen over the last 30 years, but none has made it past the early development stages until now. West hopes to start filming at Pinewood Studios in London--where much of Tomb Raider was shot--toward the end of this year.
Knight Viewers Sue Sony
wo moviegoers who bought tickets to the medieval film A Knight's Tale have sued Sony Pictures, alleging that the studio engaged in deceptive advertising by inventing a movie critic in ads for the movie, the Inside.com Web site reported.
Sony has suspended two marketing executives responsible for concocting a film critic and using fictitious favorable quotes in ads for Knight, The Animal, Hollow Man and another Sony film. Newsweek first uncovered the fake critic.
La Jolla, Calif., lawyer Norman Blumenthal is representing plaintiffs Omar Rezec and Ann Belknap in a class-action suit seeking disgorgement of all profits from the movies, Inside.com reported.
Meanwhile, Connecticut State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has announced that his office is investigating the use of the fake critic, David Manning, who supposedly worked for the real weekly Connecticut newspaper the Ridgefield Press, Inside.com reported.
Landis Up For Bond 20?
he Popcorn U.K. Web site reported a rumor that director John Landis (The Twilight Zone) is a contender to helm the upcoming 20th film in the James Bond franchise.
The site based the report on an anonymous source connected to the production.
The unnamed film is still in the early stages of development, the site reported. A spokesman for Eon Productions, the company behind the franchise, told Popcorn that no one has been hired yet to sit in the director's chair. Pierce Brosnan is expected to make his last appearance as Bond in the movie.
Universal Eyes Sub-Mariner
niversal Pictures is in talks to buy the feature-film rights to the classic Marvel Comics series The Sub-Mariner, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Marvel Studios president Avi Arad will produce with former studio production president Kevin Misher, the trade paper reported. Writers will be brought on shortly.
First appearing in 1939, Sub-Mariner is considered to be one of the first comic books and Marvel's first superhero, the trade paper reported. The comic centers on Prince Namor, a half-amphibian from Atlantis.
Warner Buys Ridley's Darkness
arner Brothers has bought screen rights to John Ridley's upcoming SF novel Those Who Walk in Darkness, with Joel Silver (The Matrix) aboard to produce, Variety reported.
Ridley will adapt his novel for the screen.
Darkness, which will be published next year by Warner Books, ran as an animated series on the Urban Entertainment Web site. Darkness tells the story of cop hunting down superhuman mutants.
Miramax Developing Johnny
iramax has bought the movie rights to Johnny on the Spot, a fantasy film pitched by writer Daniel Bernstein based on Edward Sorel's children's book of the same name, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Jonathan Treisman will produce.
The story focuses on a boy who discovers that his television broadcasts future events, prompting him to assume a superhero identity in order to stop crimes before they happen, the trade paper reported.
Austin III To Shoot Soon
irector Jay Roach told the Popcorn U.K. Web site that production will begin soon on the third installment in the Austin Powers spy spoof franchise.
"We're going to shoot it in the fall, for summer 2002," Roach told the site.
Roach declined to discuss details of the sequel, saying only, "I don't know much, actually." Star Mike Myers is working on a script. "There's some really funny new stuff," Roach added.
Roach also denied that the original James Bond, Sean Connery, would make a cameo in the film. "That was a rumor," he said. "We didn't advertise that." But, he added, "we'd love to have him."
Shrek Opens Wider
reamWorks' hit computer animated film Shrek, which is already playing in 3,661 theaters, will expand to a record 3,715 engagements on June 8, Variety reported.
"It continues to play very, very well in both small and big towns, so it's just a matter of playing in all the theaters that want the movie," the studio's distribution chief, Jim Tharp, told the trade paper. "It's not about going after the record. That was never what we had in mind."
The expansion is notable because Shrek is in its fourth week of release. Voiced by Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz, Shrek has grossed more than $153 million domestically, Variety reported.
Shrek II Is In The Works
reamWorks' computer-animated Shrek is still a winner at the box office, and now the studio said it plans to develop a sequel, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio will write the sequel, the trade paper reported.
In addition to having the biggest opening for any animated film in the studio's history, Shrek was also the first animated feature film in 18 years to screen in competition at the recent Cannes Film Festival, the trade paper reported.
The sequel will reportedly stay true to the characters in the first movie, but Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and John Lithgow have not yet been approached to reprise their voice roles, according to the Reporter. No final decisions have been made as to when the sequel will head into production or when it will hit theaters. It took five years to make the first movie.
Shrek Still In The Green
hrek remained No. 2 in the box-office rankings in its third weekend of release, earning an estimated $28.4 million for the first weekend in June, the Hollywood trade papers reported.
To date, the computer-animated fairy tale has grossed about $148.6 million after only 17 days in theaters, the papers reported.
Rob Schneider's comedy The Animal came in at No. 3 in its debut, with an estimated $19.8 million in ticket sales. The film cost $22 million to make, the trades reported.
The Mummy Returns came in sixth, with about $7.5 million, and A Knight's Tale came in seventh, with about $3.4 million.
Foreign Seiun Finalists Named
rganizers have announced the finalists among foreign works for the Seiun Awards, nicknamed the Japanese Hugo Awards, according to a report on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America news site.
The winners will be announced at the Japan SF Convention 2001, Aug. 18-19 in Chiba, Japan.
The award will be re-presented during the Hugo Award ceremony at this year's World Science Fiction Convention, the Millennium Philcon, Aug. 30-Sept. 3 in Philadelphia. The foreign finalists follow.
Foreign Novel
•The Positronic Man by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg
•Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card
•Simulacron-3 by Daniel F. Galouye
•The Light of Other Days by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter
•All Tomorrow's Parties by William Gibson
•Frameshift by Robert J. Sawyer
•Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear
•Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
•The Moon and the Sun by Vonda N. McIntyre
Foreign Short Story
•"Oceanic" by Greg Egan
•"The Hundred Light-Year Diary" by Greg Egan
•"The Saliva Tree" by Brian W. Aldiss
•"The Sharks of Pentreath" by Michael G. Coney
•"Orphans of the Helix" by Dan Simmons
•"The Little Magic Shop" by Bruce Sterling
•"An Explanation for the Disappearance of the Moon" by John Sladek
•"A Separate War" by Joe Haldeman
•"... For a Single Yesterday" by George R. R. Martin
New Narnia Push Coming
n the wake of the success of the Harry Potter series of children's novels, the estate of author C.S. Lewis is gearing up for a new effort to market his classic Chronicles of Narnia books, the New York Times reported.
The seven Narnia books tell the story of Aslan, a lion who rules a fantasy kingdom, and the English schoolchildren who visit his world.
The Lewis estate and its publishers have struck deals to license plush Narnia toys, and HarperCollins said it plans to commission new Narnia novels by unidentified authors--an idea that outrages some fans, the newspaper reported.
The Times also reported that an internal HarperCollins memo suggested that an effort should be made to downplay the novels' Christian imagery and theology--a suggestion that HarperCollins executives subsequently rejected, the Times reported.
So far, the publisher has repackaged nine Narnia books, posted two Web sites (for Lewis and Narnia), created an essay contest and asked contemporary authors to write new forewords, the Times reported. By the fall of 2003 the publisher expects to publish simpler picture books for younger children and a new Narnia novel, the newspaper reported.
Zeta Goes Online
arner Brothers Online has launched Zeta Quest 3-D, an online video game based on the studio's Kids' WB series The Zeta Project.
The show airs Saturday mornings and tells the story of Zeta, a renegade robot on the lam with his friend Ro, a runaway orphan, the studio said.
Zeta Quest 3-D incorporates digital images, sounds, Flash-based components and Web scripting into a 3-D walk-through environment that allows players to inhabit the futuristic world of the series.
Evernight Due On RealArcade
R1 Entertainment, a subsidiary of PCCW Japan, said that Evernight, its massively multiplayer online strategy game, will be available through RealNetworks' RealArcade gaming service, FGN reported.
PCCW Japan has hit the news recently by being linked with acquisitions for Activision and most recently, Interplay, the gaming site reported.
Evernight is a turn-based strategy game set in a fantastic world of armies, monsters and supernatural warfare, FGN reported.
Reitman Serious About Evolution
van Reitman, who directed the upcoming SF comedy Evolution, told SCI FI Wire that he saw the comedic potential in what started out as a serious alien thriller.
"It was a straight-ahead kind of science fiction thriller, but it had this wonderful central premise, which is that, instead of a standard invasion of Earth in spaceships with alien creatures in them, you had a meteor that falls to Earth, containing these little single-celled organisms that evolve so quickly that they become a menacing group of creatures that are a real threat to this Earth," Reitman said in an interview.
Reitman added, "I knew then that this is kind of a very original threat. And I said, let's keep all that. Let's sort of pay homage to the science fiction part of it. But at the same time, in the situations and in the characters, let's create a more comedic approach."
The Ghostbusters director added that he wouldn't have been able to do the things he does in Evolution just a few years ago. "I don't think that it would have been possible to tell the Evolution story 15 years ago, when I did Ghostbusters," he said. "I don't think I could have done it even five years ago, because the computing power wasn't there and the software wasn't there. The sheer number of different creatures, and what we expect them to do, and the complexity of the animation in a film like this really requires the most up-to-date technology that we have. Phil Tippett, who was the [visual effects supervisor], is probably the best at this in the world. He's the guy who put the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, among other things. And the design of the creatures, the way they differentiate from each other both in scale and in character and in weight, are part of the challenges that ... could only lately be fulfilled." Evolution, starring David Duchovny and Julianne Moore, opens June 8.
Moore Falls For Evolution
ulianne Moore, who plays Allison Reed in Ivan Reitman's upcoming SF comedy Evolution, told SCI FI Wire that her character's pratfalls were her idea.
"Yeah, it was," Moore said in an interview. "I had a meeting with Ivan. ... And I was reading the part, and I said, 'I don't think she's funny.' And he's like, 'You're right, she's not.' I said, 'Maybe we can figure out something. We could maybe do some physical comedy or something.' ... And he said, 'Great.'"
Moore's character--a CDC epidemiologist who joins college professors David Duchovny and Orlando Jones to battle an alien threat--has a tendency to fall down a lot. But Moore said that didn't mean she ended up black and blue. "It wasn't that bad," she said. "I mean, when you're falling on purpose, you kind of know where you're falling and you know what's going on. Or maybe I had kneepads on or something like that. And I know how to do it without tearing up my joints. So I did OK. I had cuts and bruises on my shins from, like, being around the car. Getting in and out of the jeep, actually, you always bang yourself up."
Moore--better known for her dramatic roles--said the broad comedy was a refreshing change of pace. "It's nice to be able to do something where I don't have to cry, and it's nice to do something that's ... physical," she said.
As for co-starring with Duchovny, who is well known to SF fans, she joked, "David is just a surly drunk. I don't know if you know that or not. He's awful. He's never on time. He's always rude. And he likes to take his clothes off. So maybe I'm trying to do my close-up, and David takes his clothes off. I'm like, 'David, I can't concentrate, and you're too drunk to be at work.' And he refuses to put his clothes back on. It's awful. I bet all the SCI FI fans didn't know that. ... It's about time somebody spoke about it, because it's been going on for years." Then she smiled slyly.
SCI FI Adapting Left Hand
he SCI FI Channel announced a development deal with Jaffe/Braunstein to develop an original miniseries based on Ursula Le Guin's groundbreaking SF novel The Left Hand of Darkness.
Alan Jacobs will produce the four-hour miniseries.
Earlier, SCI FI announced a deal with Lawrence Bender Productions to develop Le Guin's Earthsea trilogy of novels into a six-hour original miniseries. Both projects are slated for 2003.
The Left Hand of Darkness, first published in 1969, tells the story of a human ambassador sent to persuade the inhabitants of an arctic planet to join a multiplanet alliance. The ambassador encounters a society with an ancient culture, whose members possess the ability to become male or female. Left Hand won both Hugo and Nebula awards.
Stuart Again In I-Man
itanic actress Gloria Stuart--who had a role in the classic 1933 SF film The Invisible Man--has a homecoming of sorts when she shoots a guest-starring role on The SCI FI Channel's own Invisible Man original series, the network announced.
Stuart--who starred opposite Claude Rains in the original film--will appear as the grandmother of the modern-day invisible man, Darien Fawkes, played by Vincent Ventresca.
Stuart begins shooting her episode, "Father Figure," on June 8. The episode is scheduled to air at 8 p.m. Aug. 24. In the episode, Fawkes and his partner, Hobbes (Paul Ben-Victor), embark on a mission to track down a covert government assassin-turned-traitor, whom Fawkes recognizes as his long-lost father.
Atlantis Mixed 2-D and CGI
on Hahn, producer of Disney's upcoming animated film Atlantis: The Lost Empire, told SCI FI Wire that filmmakers made judicious use of computer animation in the otherwise traditionally animated movie--especially in a scene involving a submarine and its underwater nemesis.
In one of the key action scenes, the sub Ulysses encounters an undersea monster called the Leviathan, the guardian of Atlantis.
"We start with drawings of the submarine, blueprint drawings virtually and designs," Hahn said during press interviews to promote the movie. "Then we start building it in the computer and rendering it to make sure there's no leaks in it, and the model itself is holding up fairly well. Then our art director sets [out] selecting colors for it. In this, [it's] kind of a rusty look of the submarine. At the same time, our animators are at work populating the bridge of the submarine with characters."
Lead characters, such as Milo Thatch (voiced by Michael J. Fox), were hand-drawn, while miscellaneous crew members were inserted by computer. As the sub moves through the ocean, hand-drawn bubbles appear in the foreground, with digital bubbles in the background. For the multi-limbed, insect-like Leviathan, Hahn said, "Think about it as a giant marionette puppet. You grab onto a part of it, like a leg, and pull it. Pull that leg or pull a group of legs and the computer will remember that action so you can go on to the fins, the tail, the spine, whatever. The combined animation of all those are remembered by the computer." Atlantis opens June 8 in New York and Los Angeles and June 15 everywhere.
Atlantis Has A New Look
irk Wise, co-director of Disney's upcoming animated epic Atlantis: The Lost Empire, told SCI FI Wire that filmmakers strove to differentiate the look of this movie from previous stories of the lost continent.
Wise said during a press preview that the film's design reflected "an architectural vocabulary for the city of Atlantis itself."
"To us, the cliché version of Atlantis is the Greek columns under water, like a pet-shop aquarium," Wise said. "We wanted to avoid that, and that took us to some different architectural traditions. There are some Atlantis theories out there that pinpoint Indonesia as being the location of the original Atlantis, so that was an interesting direction for us to go, as we were inspired by Southeast Asian motifs. We wanted to create a style that would be the mother architectural style of all these other great pyramid-building civilizations that sprung up around the world."
Wise added, "The basic design philosophy of Atlantis kind of boils down to squares invade circles. The explorers are represented by the squares. It's very sharp edged, very metallic, very industrial, everything's made out of sheet metal and rivets. The Atlanteans, who are represented by the circles, their technology is more primitive. The shapes in their architecture are more graceful, more organic." Atlantis: The Lost Empire opens June 8 in New York and Los Angeles and June 15 everywhere.
New Charmed Stars Mulled
ose McGowan or Denise Richards may replace Shannen Doherty in The WB's witch series Charmed, the New York Post reported.
Jennifer Love Hewitt had also been under consideration, but not any more.
Insiders told the Post that Charmed producers think either McGowan (Monkeybone) or Richards (The World Is Not Enough) would be a suitable replacement for Doherty, who left after reported problems with Charmed co-star Alyssa Milano.
Spidey Trailer Coming?
he Spider-Man Hype! Web site reported a rumor that the teaser trailer for Sam Raimi's upcoming Spider-Man movie will be attached to prints of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, which opens July 13.
Citing an anonymous source, the site also reported that the teaser poster for the film should hit movie theaters either a week before or a week after that.
The site also reported that action figures would hit stores in February 2002 and other merchandise will be available starting in the second week of March that year. The DVD version of the film is slated for a Thanksgiving or Christmas 2002 release. Spider-Man opens in the spring of 2002.
Spidey's Campbell Puffs Up
ruce Campbell, who has a cameo in pal Sam Raimi's upcoming Spider-Man movie, facetiously told the Empire Online Web site that he has "the second most important role in the film."
"I play the ring announcer who introduces Spider-Man and 'The Amazing Spider-Man,'" Campbell told the site, joking that "if I don't pick up an Oscar for best supporting actor for this role, then there's something seriously wrong."
About co-star Tobey Maguire, Campbell added, "I can't think of anyone better. He's really brought the character to life, and I honestly believe you'll be blown away when you finally get to see Spider-Man on the big screen."
Evil Dead Game Wraps Saga
ruce Campbell--best known as Ash in Sam Raimi's Evil Dead trilogy of films--told the Empire Online Web site that he reprised the role one last time in Evil Dead: Hail to The King, the upcoming video-game conclusion to the saga.
Campbell voiced and provided motion capture for the game, the actor told the site.
"They stick all these weird sensors all over your body and get you to perform several tasks, such as walking, jumping and, of course, fighting," Campbell said. "I thought they were going to electrocute me at one point. It takes quite some time to get it right, and you feel a bit of an idiot with everyone watching you. It was fun, though."
Evil Dead: Hail to the King is available for the PC, Playstation and Dreamcast gaming platforms.
Hitchhiker Film Not Dead
irector Jay Roach told the Popcorn U.K. Web site that he's still determined to bring Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to the big screen, despite Adam's recent untimely death.
Adams' death at the age of 49 was "a bit of a tragedy for the project," Roach told the site.
At the time of his death, Adams had completed a screenplay for the proposed feature-film version of his satiric SF novel. The movie is now "a little bit up in the air, because we were all looking forward to doing it with Douglas," Roach said. But Roach added that he still hopes to bring the novel to the big screen. "It remains one of the great humorous sci-fi things of all time, so we're still fighting for it."
Adams' Last Work Due In Fall
he Salmon of Doubt, the unfinished new novel by late SF author Douglas Adams, will be published in the fall, along with Adams' screenplay for the proposed feature-film version of his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the U.K. Independent newspaper reported.
The new book will also feature the text of Adams' recent British radio program, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Future, and a selection of e-mail essays, the newspaper reported.
Adams was working on Salmon when he died unexpectedly while working out in his California home, the paper reported. Salmon would have been his first book since Mostly Harmless, which came out nine years ago. Adams' publisher, Pan, was checking Adams' personal computer to piece together sections of the new novel, the Independent reported.
Ruffalo Talking Signs
ark Ruffalo is in talks to co-star with Mel Gibson in M. Night Shyamalan's upcoming supernatural thriller Signs for the Walt Disney Co., Variety reported.
Gibson began negotiating several weeks ago, the trade paper reported.
Signs tells the story of the sudden appearance of crop circles on a family farm in Pennsylvania.
Universal Developing Moi
niversal Pictures and Mostow/Lieberman Productions will develop Moi, a fantasy comedy film based on a pitch by writer Lon Diamond, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The movie tells the story of a self-absorbed surgeon who wishes everyone would be more like him--then finds his life turned upside down when his wish comes true.
Diamond is a writer on Fox's upcoming summer series The Tick, the trade paper reported.
Fantasy Star Gets Famous
een People and Cosmo Girl magazines have asked for the beauty regimen of Dr. Aki Ross, the star of the upcoming Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within movie, Inside.com reported.
The problem: Ross is a computer-animated creation, not a real person, though she is voiced by real-life actress Ming-Na.
"No one's claiming we did photo-real, but we have done it closer than anybody's done," producer Chris Lee told the site. "She's building a virtual life," said Lee, who added that the film's director wants to do another movie with Ross playing a totally different character.
It's not the only time people have mistaken Ross for a real woman. "One art director said, 'I recognize her. She's Australian,'" Lee said with a laugh. And Maxim magazine wanted to feature Ross on the cover of its Hot 100 special issue, Inside.com reported. Maxim even touched her up, and Lee's artists agreed to give Ross French nails. But, he added, "we refused to increase the size of her breasts."
Woodburn: No Place Like Gnome
anny Woodburn--who plays the gnome, Carl, in UPN's Special Unit 2--told SCI FI Wire that he didn't know until the very last moment that the genre series would be back in the fall.
"I had no idea whether or not we'd get a pick-up," Woodburn said in an interview. "It had been a long time since we'd shot the pilot, then re-shot the pilot, then did our six episodes. I did a movie [Death to Smoochy] in between the time we finished the first six and the day we got word we were picked up, which was the day before UPN announced its fall schedule in May."
Asked what he'd like to see for his character when the show returns to the airwaves, the actor--whose credits includes Conan: The Adventurer and The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas--said that he'd like to see Carl do more. "Carl does a lot, but you see him on the phone a lot or hear about things
he's done, but they're actually done out of sight," Woodburn said. "I want to see more of these things on camera, because I think it'll help fill in a lot of the details about the character."
Woodburn added, "I'd like to see him interact more with the other 'links.' It'll be cool to see who Carl's contacts really are. It'll be cool to see him conduct another armed robbery. I've heard that [series creator] Evan Katz wants to have Carl do more Mission: Impossible-type of stuff. He loves those little bits of me coming through air vents and breaking into places. I think fans will dig seeing more of that stuff." Special Unit 2 will air at 9 p.m. on Wednesdays.
Forecast Mixed For Genre Shows
N Media, an advertising company, forecast mixed success for upcoming new genre shows in the fall television season, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
TN Media's Primetime Fall Preview report is based on a combination of the strength of the program and the timeslot it landed, the trade paper reported.
Among the report's forecast winners: The WB's Smallville and UPN's fifth Star Trek series, Enterprise. Among the losers: Fox's The Tick and CBS' Wolf Lake.
Shea Confirmed For Mutant X
s expected, John Shea (Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman) has won the lead role in the upcoming Tribune Entertainment Co. syndicated series Mutant X, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The new weekly action series is produced by Fireworks Entertainment in association with Marvel Studios and Tribune, the trade paper reported.
The series is cleared in TV markets representing more than 93 percent of the country, including the Tribune Broadcasting stations, for a fall launch, the trade paper reported.
MTV Honors Genre Films
enre films Mission: Impossible 2 and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon took home awards at the MTV Movie Awards, which were presented June 2, the Hollywood trade papers reported.
Tom Cruise won the award for best male performer in M:I 2, and director John Woo won the award for best action sequence for the film's motorcycle chase.
Zhang Ziyi won the award for best fight for her battle in Tiger. Jim Carrey, meanwhile, took home the award for best villain for his starring role in Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The 2001 MTV Movie Awards will air on MTV at 9 p.m. ET on June 7.
Vampire Dream Due In Print
ampire Dreams, Suzy McKee Charnas' play and the Nebula-Award-winning third chapter of her Vampire Tapestry, is coming out in book form from Broadway Play Publishing, the company announced.
The play was performed in California in 1990 and 1997 to good reviews; the book will expand the story.
Charnas will post an essay on the writing and staging of the play on her official Web site.
Briefly Noted
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Disney has posted a new trailer for its upcoming computer-animated fantasy movie Monsters, Inc. The movie opens Nov. 2.
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The TrekToday Web site reported a rumor that former 7 Days staff writer Stephen Beck will join the writing staff of UPN's upcoming fifth Star Trek series, Enterprise. The site based the report on a tip from the alt.tv.sevendays newsgroup.
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The WB will rerun Buffy the Vampire Slayer twice a week during the summer: on Sundays at 7 p.m., starting June 24, and on Wednesdays at 9 p.m., according to The Hollywood Reporter. The double-run strategy is a ploy to depreciate the value of the series' reruns before the show moves over to UPN in the fall, the trade paper reported.
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Mel Brooks told TV Guide Online that he's considering a stage remake of his 1974 big-screen spoof, Young Frankenstein. "[I'm] toying with the notion," Brooks told the site at the Tony Awards, where his The Producers won a record 12 trophies.
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The Coming Attractions Web site reported that Vin Diesel is confirmed to play the lead role in the proposed feature-film version of Mike Mignola's Hellboy comic series.
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The SCI FI Channel has promoted Thomas P. Vitale to senior vice president, acquisitions, scheduling and program planning. Most recently, Vitale was vice president of acquisitions and scheduling, a position he had held since early 2000. In his new position, Vitale will add program planning to his responsibilities, while continuing to oversee the network's aggressive buying and scheduling efforts.
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The Comics Continuum Web site quoted Marvel Studios executive Kevin Feige saying that a recently posted synopsis of the upcoming X-Men 2 movie is bogus. The description appears on the Coming Attractions Web site.
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Zentertainment reported that PAX TV has ordered a drama series based on Tim F. LaHaye's Left Behind Christian apocalyptic novels.
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The Zap2it Web site has posted an interview with the anonymous fan who re-edited George Lucas' Star Wars: Episode I and who calls himself "The Phantom Editor."
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As it did on the set of Steven Spielberg's A.I., the Countingdown Web site has posted a Bagel Cam in the craft services truck on the set of Spielberg's currently shooting Minority Report film. The camera--mounted above the food table that serves the crew--will be live through June 8.
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Producer Joel Silver confirmed to E! that he has approached Sandra Bullock about the lead role in his proposed Wonder Woman movie, according to a report on the Comics Continuum Web site. "When I came to her and said, 'What do you think about doing this?' she said, 'Let's do it.' So that may happen," Silver reportedly said.
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The Coming Attractions Web site reported a rumor that Third Eye Blind bass player Arion Salazar will have a cameo in the upcoming sequel to The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded. Salazar plays a member of a fictional band in the film, the site reported.
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Max Brooks, son of Anne Bancroft and Mel Brooks, sold his first script, a fantasy film called More Than Meets the Eye, to Dimension Films, Variety reported. The film is a fantasy about kids who become their favorite action-figure toys.
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Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson and his wife and writing partner, Frances Walsh, were each awarded honorary doctorates by Massey University in New Zealand for their outstanding contribution to New Zealand film, E! Online reported. Jackson, a New Zealand native, shot the film trilogy in his home country.
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Canadian actor Tom McManus will play the villainous Marcus Eckhardt in the upcoming syndicated SF television series Mutant X, the Toronto Sun reported. John Shea will play the leader of a group of genetically enhanced mutants who are running from McManus' character, the head of the Genetic Security Agency. The show begins production in Toronto this week.
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Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige told the Comics Continuum Web site that development of the sequel to 2000's hit film X-Men continues. "There is not a script yet," Feige told the site. "There is a story, and we are just bringing it into the script stage. ... I think fans are going to be happy."
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Burger King will tie in with New Line Cinema's Dec. 19 release of the first Lord of the Rings movie, The Fellowship of the Ring, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The tie-in will include in-store and online promotions. The burger chain has the option to partner on the film's two sequels, planned for next year and 2003, the trade paper reported.
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