Osment Dug Deep For A.I.
aley Joel Osment, who stars in Steven Spielberg's upcoming A.I. Artificial Intelligence, told SCI FI Wire that he had to use his imagination to play a robot boy designed to love.
"Most of it was just from my own imagination, sort of drawing on things that were in the script to create the character and ... getting all the nuances and the developments in the role from what was happening on the set and what was happening during every scene. ... A lot of it had to be drawn from what was happening right there," the 13-year-old actor said during press interviews to promote the film.
Osment added, "Before we shot, we had to develop the physicality and the mentality and his reactions: ... How he perceived the world around him and how he thought and how he moved. All that was developed long before we started shooting. And we had a lot of meetings with Steven ... getting all that down before we could put it all together and use it to create a character to react to the things that were being thrown at him in the film. Because when he comes into this film, he is just a clean slate. He just has his ... basic blueprint and just goes and develops through all these things that happen to him."
Osment plays David, the robot boy, in almost every scene of the two-and-a-half-hour movie, tracing a complex emotional arc. "Just the development was hard, because he has to become more and more human, and he never makes it completely to becoming completely human, but he gets pretty close, and that development was hard," Osment said.
Osment also had to play opposite computer-generated and puppet robots, including Teddy, a toy bear that walks and talks. "All of [creature and makeup effects supervisor] Stan Winston's guys were pretty cool," he said. "But Teddy was probably top of the list. Reading the script, I ... didn't know how they were going to pull this off, but Teddy on the set [was] just amazing, almost like acting across from a real actor, because of how good he was at being Teddy. The finished result, just seeing the film, was amazing. He looks exactly what the script describes him as being." A.I., which also stars Frances O'Connor and Jude Law, opens June 29.
A.I. Haunted By Kubrick
athleen Kennedy, producer of Steven Spielberg's upcoming A.I. Artificial Intelligence, told SCI FI Wire that the influence of late director Stanley Kubrick was always felt on the set of the SF epic movie.
Kubrick worked for years on the story for A.I., which is based in part on a short story by SF author Brian Aldiss, and collaborated closely with Spielberg before dying in 1999.
But Kubrick's vision and ideas have made it into the finished film, Kennedy said during press interviews to promote the film. "I really attribute that to Steven's incredible knowledge of movies," she said. "I mean, he has a photographic memory in terms of the way different techniques apply to different filmmakers. So he was extremely well schooled and familiar with what Stanley's style was. And I think that certain shot designs that we would set up were very much influenced by what Steven felt how Stanley might approach that shot. ... There's a great shot that's so obvious to me, which is when [star] Frances [O'Connor] turns and sees the kids go into the pool. The one that whips around. That's classic Kubrick."
Entire sequences in the film also reflect Kubrick's original vision and storyboards, Kennedy said. "The whole entrance into Rouge City and really the whole sensibility of Rouge City came out of designs that Stanley had already done," she said. "Very, very elaborate drawings and whatnot. He also did a lot of the underwater and what we called the excavation site at the end. We took many of these concepts further than where it had gone, and we built three-dimensional models, which had never been done with any of the things Stanley was working on. But many of them originated with his vision." A.I., starring Haley Joel Osment, opens June 29.
O'Connor Talks A.I. Secrecy
rances O'Connor, the Australian actress who co-stars in Steven Spielberg's upcoming SF film A.I. Artificial Intelligence, told SCI FI Wire that the project was shrouded in such secrecy that she saw a complete script only once.
"I got all my story," she said in press interviews to promote the movie. "I read the whole story once at [Spielberg's production company] Amblin. But I wasn't allowed to take it away with me. And about a month before we started shooting, I got my part of the script to work on. So it was kind of hard to get it. ... I kept having to say, 'Can I please have my script to look at?'"
O'Connor, who portrays the mother of a robot child played by Haley Joel Osment, said the on-set secrecy was part of Spielberg's homage to Stanley Kubrick, the late director on whose story the film is based. Kubrick was notoriously press-shy and usually kept a tight rein on his film productions. "Because Kubrick died so recently, I think [Spielberg] felt a great kind of responsibility himself to doing the whole process in the way Kubrick would have done it," O'Connor said. "It was kind of surreal, because no one I knew had read it, so they didn't really know what I was doing, so they couldn't really offer me an opinion on it. So it was kind of like being a bit blind during the whole process and not talking about it up until now." Still, she said, "It kind of concentrates the energy, because you feel like you're doing something secretive." A.I. opens June 29.
SF&F Writers Back America Claim
he Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America announced that it has joined several other literary groups supporting Captain America creator Joseph H. Simon's effort to reclaim his copyright from Marvel Comics.
The SFWA joined the Authors Guild Inc., the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the National Writers Union, Novelists Inc., the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and the Text and Academic Authors Association in an amicus curiae brief supporting Simon's claim.
In 1939, Simon created Captain America, and he now wants to buy back the rights to his creation. Marvel seeks to retain the remaining 39 years of its 95-year copyright to the property, despite the U.S. Congress' directive that authors be allowed to terminate a grant of copyright after many years, no matter what they might earlier have agreed to sign away, the SFWA reported.
Two months after Simon notified Marvel in 1999 of his intent to reclaim the copyright, Marvel sued Simon, claiming that he has no rights at all to the character. The case is headed to trial this summer in U.S. District Court in New York.
Jackson Confirms Episode II Plot
amuel L. Jackson, who reprises the role of Jedi knight Mace Windu in the upcoming Star Wars: Episode II, told the Popcorn U.K. Web site that the story will indeed focus on the developing love between Anakin (Hayden Christensen) and Amidala (Natalie Portman) against the backdrop of the Clone Wars.
"There's a lot of intrigue, there's a lot of back-fighting and back-biting," Jackson told the site.
Jackson also said that Episode II will feature a lot more action and a busier plot, though he added that what ends up on screen remains to be determined by director George Lucas in post-production.
Episode I DVD Due Oct. 16
tar Wars: Episode I will become the first Star Wars movie released in the popular DVD format when it comes out Oct. 16, Lucasfilm and Fox announced.
The two-disc DVD release will feature more than six hours of additional material, including exclusive documentaries and never-before-seen footage. It will be priced at $29.98 in the United States and $41.98 in Canada.
The DVD will feature a digitally mastered edition of the movie, with THX for superior sound and picture quality, the companies announced. Special features will include the first-ever running commentary by Lucas, a deleted-scenes documentary with seven new sequences completed just for the DVD, and an hour-long documentary culled from more than 600 hours of behind-the-scenes footage.
The DVD will also include an interactive featurette, with a glimpse into the process of creating scenes from storyboards to animatics to final film composites; original theatrical trailers and TV spots; a gallery of never-before-seen cast and crew photos; the 12-part Web documentary series; and five featurettes that offer an insider's look at the movie's storyline, design, costumes, visual effects and fight scenes.
Lucas Halts Bombad Racing
ucas Learning Ltd. said it would cease production of its Star Wars Super Bombad Racing video game for the PC and Mac.
The company said it wanted to shift focus away from consumer entertainment products to direct-to-school educational products.
Since its inception in 1996, Lucas Learning has created eight CD-ROM titles based on Star Wars. The company will continue to market its existing titles, but will no longer produce new titles for the consumer marketplace.
Rings Tie-In Book Hits 350,000
oughton Mifflin has gone back to press for an additional 100,000 copies of the single-volume The Lord of the Rings Movie Tie-in Edition less than three weeks after the book's official publication date.
The company said in a press release that the in-print total for the book has reached 350,000 even though the movie version of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is not due out for another six months, on Dec. 19.
The Lord of the Rings Movie Tie-in Edition contains all three Rings books written by J.R.R. Tolkien, including The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King. In 1954 Houghton Mifflin first published The Fellowship of the Ring in the United States, followed by the second book in 1955 and the third in 1956.
Queen Names Lee A CBE
eteran character actor Christopher Lee, who will appear as the villainous Saruman in the upcoming Lord of the Rings film trilogy, was named a Commader of the British Empire in the queen's Birthday Honors List on June 16, the Reuters news service reported.
The award is one of Great Britain's highest civilian honors and recognizes valuable services to the state.
Lee is best known for playing Dracula in a series of Hammer horror films and will appear in Peter Jackson's upcoming film trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien's Rings books.
Rings Game Progresses
atrick Moynihan, a game developer at The Whole Experience, told the FGN Web site that work is progressing on the Xbox video game based on Peter Jackson's upcoming feature-film version of J.R.R. Tolkien's first Lord of the Rings book, The Fellowship of the Ring.
"Everything from the grassy knolls of Hobbiton to the darkest depths of Moria just oozes atmosphere," Moynihan told the site.
Moynihan added, "The characters are coming along nicely too--in fact we just finished testing our facial-animation technology, and Frodo has sprung eerily to life. In addition to lip sync, he can express a full range of emotions and reactions to his environment, and the realism is almost scary." The Ring movie premieres Dec. 19.
Spidey FX Posed Challenges
an Bryce, producer of Sam Raimi's upcoming Spider-Man movie, told the Comics Continuum Web site that the sophistication of the film's visual effects created challenges.
"I've worked on some big films, but this one's right up there in terms of complexity and difficulty," Bryce told the site. "Nowadays the technology on every movie changes on how we approach certain problems, especially with the issue of visual effects. So we're ever reinventing the wheel, in essence, on how we do this."
Bryce added, "In this one particularly, it's been that way in the special effects mode because the environments that Spider-Man and Green Goblin exist in are almost impossible for us to shoot. ... So we have to create the environments in many cases, instead of going out and shooting film plates, which you can't do 70 stories in the air in New York. They don't allow it. It's very dangerous and difficult, and you can't light that high. So those images have to be created from scratch, which was a very challenging proposition from the beginning. But we have a great crew with some great minds, and I believe we've figured it out in what will be some very entertaining sequences."
Browder Writes First Farscape
en Browder, star of The SCI FI Channel's original series Farscape, told SCI FI Wire that he's on pins and needles awaiting the June 22 airing of the episode "Green-Eyed Monster"--the first episode written by the star himself.
"As an actor on a television show, you can always hide behind the script department if an episode fails to work. ... 'Hey, we tried but it just didn't work,'" Browder said in an interview. "As a writer, you could blame the actors for not understanding the deep intent behind the words. I'm so screwed. Acting and writing together leave no room for escape. If this thing sucks, it's my fault. If it works, thanks and credit belong to the director, Tony Tilse; the cast ... ; the crew, insert a hundred names; and the writers, who steered me through the arduous process of writing the script."
In the episode, Talyn is swallowed by a gigantic space monster (a Budong) and the crew must find a way to escape. "It's an old story--Jonah and the whale," Browder said. "Underneath the escape is another old story, 'the monster which doth mock the meat it feeds upon.' (I admit it, I'm a Shakespeare junkie.) And that's the story that really captured my imagination."
Series creators Rockne O'Bannon and David Kemper first approached Browder about writing an episode of Farscape two years ago, but it wasn't until the end of the second season that Browder's name was placed on the list of writers, he said. "Somehow, [Kemper] convinced the network and production company that it would be a 'good idea to let Ben write an episode,'" Browder said. "I suspect David made some promises and called in some favors that we really don't want to know the details of."
Browder worked out the basic storyline with the series' other writers. "We finished breaking the story at the end of our first week of shooting, Friday night, 12:30 a.m., to be exact. ... In the following weeks, I wrote on weekends, nights, between scenes on set, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. I visited the other writers, seeking advice. I ran scenes past my fellow actors to see if they were happy with their dialogue. I talked with Tony (the director) to see if he liked the direction the story was going. I drove my wife to distraction with the phrase, 'Honey, can you read this? Does this work?'" The shooting script was finished after four outlines, three full drafts, a complete rewrite of the third and fourth acts--and a title change, from "Das Budong." Farscape airs Fridays at 9 p.m. and 12 a.m. ET/PT.
Producer Reveals X-Men 2 Hints
-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner told the C.H.U.D. Web site that the upcoming sequel will feature the Sentinels and new mutants from the Marvel Comics series on which the films are based.
The scripts for the sequel are "going great," Shuler Donner told the site. "In fact, I like the story very much, and I almost like it better than the first."
As for new X-Men, Shuler Donner said to expect at least Beast. "We love Beast," she said. "I'd like to see him." She added, "We're going to fight for a Danger Room sequence. We felt robbed last time."
The sequel will reunite the original cast, including Ian McKellen as Magneto, and director Bryan Singer. "We'll probably end up shooting in March," Shuler Donner said. "That'll give us enough time to prep it, and then we'll have enough time to get it out by the end of the year."
Game Creator Adapted Fantasy
hristopher Lee, producer of the upcoming computer-animated SF movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, told SCI FI Wire that the film marks the first time the creator of a video-game franchise has translated his vision directly to the big screen.
The movie is directed and co-written by Hironobu Sakaguchi, who created the Square Final Fantasy game franchise on which the film is based.
"One of the fascinating things about this movie--and one of the things that sets it apart from other video-game-based pictures--is that this is the first time that a game has been translated to the screen by the creator of the game, in the medium of the game," said Lee, a one-time Columbia Pictures production executive who eventually joined the movie as a producer after first seeing the project cross his desk some four years ago.
The hyper-realistic animated film shares only the games' life philosophy, Lee added. "I don't think it's different from the games any more than the games are different from one another," he said. "Final Fantasy isn't a character. Final Fantasy is a world, and it's very much sort of a sensibility. The overall spirituality of the whole Gaia theory--that everything on Earth has a spirit, and when we pass, we go back to that spirit and renew that spirit--all of that very much binds the story. I think all great science fiction movies--and I do think this is a science fiction movie and an adventure movie as well--have terrific foundations and underpinnings, and they often rely on popular myths to provide that."
The movie's animated humans interact with often realistic environments--which aids in making the animated humans more believable, Lee said. "I wouldn't know how to accomplish that in live action and make it look as seamless as it does in the feature," he said. "Working in this particular medium allows Sakaguchi's imagination to really deliver what he delivers in the game." Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, featuring the voices of Ming-Na and Alec Baldwin, opens July 13.
Daltrey Sings Witchblade Praise
oger Daltrey, lead singer of the legendary rock group The Who and a veteran
genre actor, told SCI FI Wire that he enjoyed his upcoming guest stint on TNT's original series Witchblade.
Daltrey will play Father Del Toro, "a priest with a twist in his tail," Daltrey said in an interview, referring to the fact that the character harbors a dark secret.
The episode involves the Vatican's alleged alliance with the Nazis during World War II, said Daltrey, whose genre credits include Tales from the Crypt, Sliders, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and a recurring role on Highlander. "I can't say much because I don't want to give it all away, but it was good fun," he said. "It was good to play a priest with charm."
Besides Witchblade, Daltrey is busy with other genre projects, including the film thriller .com for Murder with Nastassja Kinski and a segment of VH-1's music-based horror anthology series Strange Frequency. He added that he'd love to return to Witchblade if the series returns for a second season.
"The character could be reprised," Daltrey said. "He doesn't get killed off.
I'd be interested in doing it again. I enjoyed the job. They're great
people to work with, and [star] Yancy Butler was fantastic. Toronto [where
Witchblade films] in the winter is not much fun. I love Toronto. It's a
great place, but they can have their winters. Apart from that, I'd do it
again."
Witchblade Is A Maxi Mini
he cast of TNT's Witchblade told the Comics Continuum Web site that creators envision the show as a long miniseries.
"The reason they're calling it a miniseries is they want everybody to know that there is a definite beginning, middle and end," Anthony Cistaro (Kenneth Irons) told the site. "You're watching an 11-hour movie. You've got that two-hour pilot and 11 hours of new material, 13 hours all together. It stands from beginning to middle to end."
But that doesn't mean TNT won't order more episodes if ratings hold up. "That's up to the viewers," said Yancy Butler (Sara Pezzini). "Hopefully, our numbers will be that good. I hope it will be picked up. I plan on it."
Added Cistaro, "Let's be practical. If it gets the ratings, they're not going to end it." Witchblade, based on the Top Cow comic series of the same name, airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m.
Bradbury Adapts Illustrated Man
he SCI FI Channel announced that it will produce a two-hour television film based on SF author Ray Bradbury's book The Illustrated Man.
Bradbury's classic short-story collection, first published in 1951, centers on a carnival man whose body is covered with tattoos that depict the stories of people with whom he comes in contact. The Illustrated Man was previously adapted as a 1969 feature film, directed by Jack Smight and starring Rod Steiger.
Bradbury has adapted and updated his own book for the screen; John Dayton and Stephanie Germain will executive produce. "I'm very happy that my muse has given me a lot of new ideas to go along with the old ones," Bradbury said in a statement. "It's exciting to be working with [SCI FI President] Bonnie Hammer again, and I'm looking forward to seeing The Illustrated Man being done right on The SCI FI Channel." Bradbury previously worked with Hammer in the 1980s on the Ray Bradbury Theatre series when Hammer was vice president of current programming at USA Networks.
The Illustrated Man is only the latest in a series of literary adaptations and original productions undertaken by SCI FI. Others include Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars; A Tale of Two Cities; Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers; Clive Barker's Saint Sinner; the four-hour miniseries Firestarter: Rekindled, which is currently in production; Taken, a 20-hour miniseries from DreamWorks Television and Steven Spielberg; and Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea trilogy of books and The Left Hand of Darkness.
Bradbury Stays Busy
egendary SF author Ray Bradbury told Variety that he's busier at age 81 than he can recall being in ages.
In addition to The SCI FI Channel's upcoming adaptation of his short-story collection The Illustrated Man, Bradbury is working on a new feature-film version of his novel Farenheit 451 with director Frank Darabont for producer Mel Gibson; a new movie adaptation of The Martian Chronicles, also with Darabont directing; an $80 million movie based on his short story Sound of Thunder, starring Pierce Brosnan; and the script for a movie based on his novella Frost & Fire, the trade paper reported.
For SCI FI's two-hour Illustrated Man television movie, Bradbury told Variety, "For the first time in many years, I wrote the script by hand, with pen and pad, a total of 160 pages." Bradbury will use the book's framework of a traveling man with tattoos that tell stories and will incorporate two of his more famous tales: "The Veldt," which is from the book, and "On the Orient North," a story from a collection titled The Toynbee Convector, Variety reported.
As for the 1969 Rod Steiger feature film based on The Illustrated Man, Bradbury said, "I hated it. The movie was adapted by a real-estate agent from New Jersey."
Whedon's Fray Sells Out
ray, the Dark Horse comic written by Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon, sold out within two weeks of its debut this month, the publisher reported.
Dark Horse will print another 10,000 copies of the first issue of the eight-issue series to meet consumer demand.
Reprints of Fray No. 1 will feature a new book logo and will be available the week of July 4, along with the second issue of the series, Dark Horse said. Fray is set in the far future of the Buffyverse and centers on a new Slayer, Melaka Fray.
Confirmed: Head Mulling Who Role
ig Finish Productions, the British company responsible for producing licensed Doctor Who audio stories, confirmed that it has approached Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Anthony Stewart Head to take on a recurring role in a trilogy of stories.
SCI FI Wire first reported that Head was under consideration for a role in Doctor Who audio plays.
On its official Web site, the company said, "There is an element of truth in this, although we fear some wires may have got crossed along the way. BFP have indeed spoken briefly to Mr. Head's British representatives about him doing a play or three for us, but certainly not as the Master. In fact, we're hoping to ask him to join us in all three Excelis plays--due to be released early in 2002--to play a brand new villain created specifically for him. But it's a long way off yet, although it is gratifying to know that, going by [a story in] SFX [magazine], Mr. Head hasn't said an outright no."
Head is reportedly returning to the United Kingdom to spend more time with his family and will reduce his appearances in Buffy, which moves to UPN from The WB in the fall. Buffy creator Joss Whedon is also reportedly negotiating with the BBC about a spinoff series to be produced in the United Kingdom and centered on Head's character, Rupert Giles.
Babe Not Dead
ontrary to a report in the New York Post, the pig that portrayed the title character in 1995's hit movie Babe is not destined for the slaughterhouse, E! Online reported.
The Post had said that Grunty, a 6-year-old pig and resident of England, was marked for death due to exposure to foot-and-mouth disease, and that Grunty was one of the animal actors that played Babe.
Not so, E! reported. Grunty is apparently black, not pink, as were the numerous pigs and piglets that played Babe. Grunty has also never been to Australia, where the movie was filmed.
In any case, Grunty was spared at the last minute by a British High Court judge, who deemed the sow's home farm uncontaminated by nearby outbreaks of the livestock epidemic that has sent over 4 million pigs, sheep and cows to an early grave, E! reported.
Enterprising U.K. Fan Lives Large
British Star Trek fan spent $11,300 to convert his one-bedroom apartment into a replica of the interior of the U.S.S. Enterprise from The Next Generation series, the Reuters news service reported.
Tony Alleyne, 48, of Hinckley in central England modified his living quarters to include a command console and windows that look like portholes, the wire service reported.
Alleyne based the remodel on magazines and information from NASA.
Mulgrew Savors Post-Trek Life
tar Trek: Voyager star Kate Mulgrew told SCI FI Wire that there's life after Star Trek and that she's enjoying it.
"I am, immensely," Mulgrew said in an interview. "I must say that I'm probably busier now than I was when I was doing the show, and I don't have the regimented schedule we had on Voyager."
Since wrapping seven years of Trek in April, Mulgrew has been catching up
with her family, spending time with her sons, stepdaughters and husband, Ohio
politician Tim Hagan. Her next project will be a one-woman stage show entitled Tea at Five, which stars Mulgrew as Katharine Hepburn and tracks the
acting legend's career from the age of 33 to 76. Mulgrew said that the
show will open in Hartford, Conn., in February 2002, to be followed,
hopefully, by a run in New York.
Though she may be boldly going elsewhere, Mulgrew knows Voyager will be
around forever in repeats. And that's fine with her. "I'm proud of Voyager," she said. "I think Star Trek series often garner more
respect upon reflection. So I think that if viewers watch the reruns, they'll
experience entirely different feelings than they did in the moment. In the
moment, it's very competitive. People are more demanding. They're more
relaxed upon reflection. But I was proud of Voyager, in the moment. I never counted the [ratings] numbers. That would have been very counterproductive. All I can say is that I gave Voyager everything I have, and I'm deeply proud of it."
Gene Pool Film Coming
elkon International Pictures and sister company Helkon SK have teamed with Tri-Pictures and Eagle Pictures to buy the movie rights to the comic book Gene Pool, by Len Wein and Marv Wolfman, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The four companies will develop the comic property into a live-action, English-language feature film of the same name, with Wein and Wolfman handling scripting duties on the adaptation, the trade paper reported.
Gene Pool tells the story of a team of reluctant superheroes who are thrown together when they find themselves hunted. The comic book has never been published, but is expected to be shortly, the trade paper reported.
Wein wrote the comic book Return of the Swamp Thing; Wolfman was a writer on the TV series The Transformers and wrote the feature Elfquest, which is also based on a comic book.
Neill: JP III Better Than II
am Neill, who reprises the role of Alan Grant in the upcoming sequel Jurassic Park III, told SCI FI Wire that he believes the third installment in the dinosaur franchise will surpass the last one, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, which he passed up.
"Ironically, the faster and more action there is in the film, the slower they are to make," Neill said in an interview from his home in New Zealand. "In order to keep morale up, [the producers] would show us cut footage--which was breathtaking."
Neill--a genre favorite in films like the first Jurassic Park and Bicentennial Man--said the new dinosaurs are better than before. "The animatronic creatures that we were working with were extraordinary--not just realistic, but the things you can do with them was incredible," he said. "If a 44-foot high creature ... is looming over you bigtime, it's not difficult to feel fear, if that's what's required in the script. ... There was a remarkable day when one dinosaur mortally wounded another dinosaur. That was more terrifying than you could imagine."
Like his co-star, Téa Leoni, Neill is a good sport about playing opposite the dinosaurs. And he doesn't feel that the dinosaurs and effects take over the film, just as he disagrees with similar criticisms that swirled around the first film some eight years back. "That was certainly one of the criticisms in the first film," he said. "I think that's a pretty good [movie]. I would take issue with this--there was a couple of criticisms in the New York Times vs. the New Yorker, that said it was the first time in cinema history where the special effects were more real than the actors. But that was rather cruel and unnecessary."
When asked about his favorite scene, Neill immediately pointed to a brief reunion between himself and fellow Jurassic Park cast member Laura Dern. "I have some scenes with Laura Dern, who I hadn't worked with for ... years," he said. "It was very nice being back with her again." Jurassic Park III opens July 20.
Jurassic III Pleases Producers
otwithstanding rumors of a troubled production, Jurassic Park III pleased producer Kathleen Kennedy, she told SCI FI Wire.
"Yeah, I'm very happy," Kennedy said during press briefings for her other big summer film, A.I., which she also produced. "It's been such a wild ride in this, because these two movies couldn't be more different. So to go back and forth between the two has been pretty interesting and challenging."
Kennedy said director Joe Johnston also lived up to executive producer Steven Spielberg's exepctations for JP III--the third installment in the dinosaur franchise, which Spielberg didn't want to direct himself. "I think Steven really felt that he'd kind of done that, with doing two movies in a row. ... It's really ironic to have [Johnston] come into this, because Joe goes way back with us at [Industrial Light and Magic]. He started out as a visual effects supervisor [on Raiders of the Lost Ark] and then decided he wanted to direct and went back to USC and got his degree, and then he started making movies. So to have him come full circle in this has been great. And he kept begging Steven to do the second one, [The Lost World: Jurassic Park,] so when Steven did the second one, he promised Joe he could do the third. He's done a great job."
When asked if she and Spielberg were serious about doing a fourth Jurassic film, Kennedy paled. "You have no idea how tired that makes me feel to think about it," she said with a laugh. "I'm not very serious [about it] right now."
'Eberts' Guests On Chronicle
ichael McCafferty (fan favorite Eberts on The SCI FI Channel's original series The Invisible Man ) will guest star on a future episode of SCI FI's upcoming original series The Chronicle.
In the episode "Take Me Back," Grace (Rena Sofer) and Tucker (Chad Willett) come to the aid of an alien-abduction victim, and Grace is forced to confront the repressed nightmares of her own abductions, as well as her alien abductor.
McCafferty will play one of Grace's alien abductors. The Chronicle will air on Saturdays at 9 p.m., starting July 14.
Cage In Talks For Ghost Rider
icolas Cage is in early talks to star in Ghost Rider, a live-action movie based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name, Variety reported.
The $75 million film is expected to be the most expensive film in the history of Dimension Films, the trade paper reported.
Steve Norrington (Blade) will direct Ghost Rider, which tells the story of a motorcycle stuntman named Johnny Blaze, who sells his soul to a dark force to save the life of his girlfriend, Variety reported.
Marvel's Avi Arad will produce with Crystal Sky's Steven Paul and Jon Voight. David Goyer (Blade) has written the script and will likely be executive producer, the trade paper reported.
Woo Revives Ninja Turtles
irector John Woo and producer Terence Chang's Digital Rim Entertainment have signed a deal with Mirage Studios to develop and produce a new, computer-animated feature film based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, Variety reported.
The plan is to return the franchise to its darker, edgier comic-book roots, Turtles co-creator and Mirage Licensing owner Peter Laird told the trade paper.
Digital Rim has already produced a new animated Turtles TV pilot, which inspired the company to pursue the film rights, the trade paper reported. The pilot is currently being shopped at the networks. The third and last Turtles film was released in 1993.
Minority Shoots In Virginia
om Cruise and Steven Spielberg's upcoming SF thriller movie Minority Report is shooting in and around the Virginia hamlet of Gloucester, setting the small town abuzz, according to a report in the Hampton Roads, Va., Daily Press.
The film, based on the Philip K. Dick short story of the same name, has shot in a local park and a private residence in Ware Neck, Va., the newspaper reported.
Set secrecy is reportedly so tight that parks and recreation officials have not been allowed entrance into Beaverdam Park, and local residents have been told that the park was closed for "renovations." Cruise and Spielberg are reportedly commuting by helicopter from another location.
Minority Report Is 'Wild Ride'
onnie Curtis, producer of Steven Spielberg's upcoming SF movie Minority Report, told SCI FI Wire that the Tom Cruise film will be a "wild ride" akin to Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark.
"It's an action film that's a real ride, but it's a wonderful story as well," Curtis said during press briefings for Spielberg's upcoming A.I. The film has "a lot of humor."
Curtis added, "It is this future where murder no longer exists. This team of people, led by Anderton [the Cruise character], goes out and arrests murderers before they commit murder. The question of whether or not they actually would have done it if they had been given the choice comes into play. [The story] really twists and turns. ... Steven talked about it not as science fiction, but as a future reality." She described Cruise's character as "a man on the run from a system he believed in."
Minority Report is based on a short story of the same name by renowned SF author Philip K. Dick. Like A.I., which was based in part on a short story by SF author Brian Aldiss, Spielberg is using Dick's story only as a springboard for a new story, Curtis said. "I would say the journey Steven went on in A.I. prepared him for how he wanted Minority Report to look," she said. Spielberg is currently shooting Minority Report. A.I. opens June 29.
Goyer May Helm Strange
avid Goyer told the Comics2Film Web site that he is in talks to direct the feature film based on Marvel Comic's Doctor Strange series.
"I've been talking to Dimension regarding helming Doctor Strange," Goyer told the site.
Goyer added that a decision depends on how his next film performs. "This is largely contingent on seeing how Murder Mysteries goes," he said, adding that he'll be writing the script for that movie this fall. Murder Mysteries is based on a short story by Neil Gaiman, the site reported.
Evil Will Honor Game
aul Anderson, director of the upcoming Resident Evil movie, told Shivers magazine that he wanted the film to reflect the Capcom video-games series on which it's based.
"I'm a huge fan of the game, and as a die-hard fan, I wanted a movie version that is respectful of it, builds on its premise and delivers on its promise," Anderson told the magazine.
Anderson added, "To be scary you have to be unpredictable, and that's why I felt completely free to reinvent the story and use my own set of fresh characters. There was no point in using the Jill Valentine character from the first Resident Evil game, as the fans would know she wasn't going to be killed because she pops up in the later games. The suspense dynamic of who is going to live, who is going to die and what people's allegiances are was only going to work with new characters."
Anderson's film is set in the Hive, an underground genetic research facility, where a deadly viral outbreak has occurred just hours earlier. Alice (Milla Jovovich) and Rain (Michelle Rodriguez) lead a crack team of commandos to isolate the virus that has wiped out the entire research staff and brought them back as ravenous zombies, the magazine reported.
"This film is the explanatory prequel all the game players have always wanted to see, using the scary mechanisms and devices that have become part of the Resident Evil cyber-culture," Anderson said. "I felt the Ground Zero idea was the correct approach for both people who had never heard of the game and were unfamiliar with it and for the avid players who will adore all the references included in the action-packed scenario just for them." Resident Evil is slated for a 2002 release.
Screenblast Signs Green
ony is preparing Screenblast, an interactive online entertainment project that will feature the talents of former Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Seth Green and others, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Green and Matthew Senreich are executive producing Sweet J Presents, a series of 12 stop-action animation shorts that are each four to five minutes long; Green will also write and provide voice characterizations.
Screenblast is designed to be a home for amateur and aspiring content creators, the trade paper reported. The site will launch in the fall.
Radius Debuts Online
2films.com will debut the full-length SF action film Radius, featuring Days of Our Lives' Paul Logan, in six weeks.
The 93-minute film tells the story of a pilot who crash-lands during an assignment to blow up an enemy vortex; Logan plays the leader of the enemy.
"I'm not a nice person," Logan told SCI FI Wire in an interview. "I'm sent by our side of the war to go stop the bomb from going off, and I end up killing a lot of people. It was filmed in Death Valley, so it was about 128 degrees when we filmed it, and I was wearing a black leather suit. I lost about 10 pounds of water weight."
The film enlists the talents of Armageddon visual-effects cinematographer Philipp Timme and Matrix sound designer Dane A. Davis, under the guidance of first-time feature director Helmut Kobler, a video-game director for Cyclone studios.
Logan said Radius offers a social commentary with all the battles. "This is basically saying that there's no real winner in war," he said. "[If] either side wins, there's always losses, always casualties, and if you can avoid that at all costs, that's the way to go."
Schulze Sharpens Blade 2
att Schulze, who plays a vampire named Chupa in the upcoming Blade 2, told SCI FI Wire that the sequel to 1999's hit Blade features villains that are even worse than bloodsuckers.
"I'm the leader of this Vietnam kind of crew that gets hired," he said in an interview. "Five people--me, Ron Perlman and a couple other actors--go in to kill these reapers. A reaper is this half-ghost, devil type creature that has the ability to fly. You have to see it. The story is that they've captured Prague. I'm fighting with Blade because I don't like his leadership, so I'm a rebel in that sense, but I'm actually a good guy in the whole element of the picture."
Chupa gets in on a lot of action scenes, including a martial-arts battle with 20 reapers and a scene where Schulze said Chupa beats Kris Kristofferson's character, Whistler, to death. That makes two deaths for Whistler in as many Blade movies.
Though there is wirework in the film, Schulze did all of his fighting on the ground--either hand to hand or with guns. In one of the gun battles, Schulze said, "There's one scene that I have where I kill 150 people, and the whole place blows up, and it's $100,000 a shot, so it's just amazing." Blade 2 is tentatively set for a February 2002 release.
T3 Subtitle Revealed?
he upcoming third installment in the Terminator film franchise may be subtitled Rise of the Machines, the Calgary Sun reported.
The Canadian newspaper also reiterated a rumor that Pitch Black star Vin Diesel is being touted as Arnold Schwarzenegger's T3 co-star, as previously reported on SCI FI Wire and the Popcorn U.K. Web site.
John Brancato and Michael Ferris are reportedly rewriting Tedi Sarafian's original script, which is rumored to have pitted Schwarzenegger's cyborg against a female nemesis.
New Writers Take On T3
ohn Brancato (NBC's The Others) and Michael Ferris have signed on to rewrite the script for the upcoming sequel Terminator 3 for director Jonathan Mostow, Variety reported.
Tedi Sarafian's original script reportedly pitted Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-800 cyborg against an indestructible female who is rumored to be able to change shapes and disappear altogether.
There's no word on how Brancato and Ferris will alter the storyline, the trade paper reported. The pair previously wrote the scripts for The Game and The Net.
Cameron Eyes SF Imax Film
ames Cameron's production company, Lightstorm Entertainment, is developing an SF movie for the large-screen Imax theater format focusing on a manned space trip to Mars, Variety reported.
The as-yet-untitled dramatic feature film has been in development for two years, the trade paper reported. Cameron would produce and co-write the script, but probably won't direct the film.
Cameron is reportedly awaiting a green light for the project, based on whether footage shot on 24-frame-per-second high-definition video can be converted to Imax's projection format, Lightstorm president Rae Sanchini told the trade paper. Lightstorm envisions a 30-45-minute movie.
McQuarrie Boards Chimera
scar-winning screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) has come aboard to develop and possibly direct the supernatural movie Chimera for Joel Silver and Robert Zemeckis' Dark Castle Entertainment, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
There is no start date for the project.
Mark Hanlon wrote the original script for Chimera, the trade paper reported. McQuarrie will supervise the latest draft of the script, which is being rewritten by Hanlon. Warner Brothers is the studio behind the movie.
The movie tells the story of a group of boat salvagers who find a lost 1953 passenger ship floating aimlessly in a remote region of the Bering Sea. After claiming the ship and attempting to tow it to land, mysterious things begin to happen aboard the derelict vessel, the trade paper reported.
Mad Max 4 Rumors Quashed
elinda Johns, assistant to Mad Max director George Miller, denied to the Australian film magazine Encore a rumor that Miller is ready to begin production on a fourth installment in the post-apocalyptic film franchise, the Dark Horizons Web site reported.
The Melbourne Herald Sun newspaper reported that Miller had begun pre-production on Mad Max 4 and that Heath Ledger might star.
But, Johns told Encore, "George is still writing the story, so nothing is for certain yet, but when it happens, it will happen quickly." The script is likely to be completed by year's end, with an eye to a production start by early or mid-2002.
Scribe To Update Heaven
om Sierchio will write the screenplay for the proposed fantasy film Made in Heaven, a remake of a 1987 Alan Rudolph movie of the same name, Variety reported.
Castle Rock Entertainment will develop the film, to be produced by Steve Bing and Adam Rifkin's Shangri La Entertainment, with William Goldman serving as a consultant on the film, the trade paper reported.
Made in Heaven tells the story of two souls who meet in heaven and fall in love, then find themselves separated when they end up on Earth with new identities. Timothy Hutton and Kelly McGillis starred in the original movie.
Leeshock Leaving Earth?
obert Leeshock, star of Earth: Final Conflict, is expected to tell his official fan club that he is leaving the syndicated series and won't be back in season five, the Sy Fy Portal reported.
Leeshock's character, Liam Kincaid, was caught in an explosion at the end of this season.
Leeshock joined the cast at the beginning of season two, replacing Kevin Kilner, whose character, William Boone, died in the first-season finale. Philip Segal, vice president of scripted programming at Tribune Entertainment, recently told fans in an online chat that Kilner would return in the fifth season in what is expected to be a limited capacity.
Leeshock is rumored to have auditioned unsuccessfully for the lead role in UPN's upcoming Star Trek series, Enterprise, a role that eventually went to Scott Bakula.
Welch Helms Parasyte
scar-nominated Men in Black production designer Bo Welch will direct Parasyte, an SF comedy film based on a Japanese comic series, Variety reported.
Welch makes his directorial debut on the movie and will work with writer Matt Drake, the trade paper reported.
The film tells the story of extraterrestrials who invade Earth in the form of seeds that land on living creatures and transform them into aliens. Welch currently is at work on the production design of Men in Black 2.
Dawson Starts MIB 2
osario Dawson has begun work on Men in Black 2, playing Will Smith's love interest, the Calgary Sun reported.
"We're going to shoot the beginning and end of the film first, in case there is an actors' strike, so the effects people have something to work with," Dawson told the newspaper.
Dawson also said that Men in Black co-star Linda Fiorentino "might be back" and that Tommy Lee Jones "is definitely back. He wasn't at the read-through, but someone read his lines."
Dawson also plays Eddie Murphy's love interest in the upcoming SF comedy Pluto Nash. "The film is set on the moon, and I play a singer from Earth," she said "Eddie was great to work with. He'd do all these cartoon character voices for me. He watches Saturday morning cartoons with his children, so he has them all down pat. I was surprised at how serious a person he is, but when he does want to be funny, watch out, because he's hilarious."
Warner Lights Up Inferno
arner Brothers will develop The Inferno, a supernatural film based on a script by Cary Solomon and Chuck Konzelman, Variety reported.
Spike Seldin of Top Cow comics and Susan Levin of Silver Pictures will produce, the trade paper reported.
The film tells the story of 12 men who descend through the gates of hell to bring back a sacred key, the trade paper reported. Top Cow will eventually publish a series of comics based on the film.
Tomb Raids No. 1 Slot
ara Croft raided the No. 1 slot in the weekend box-office rankings, with her Tomb Raider movie taking in about $48.2 million in its June 15 weekend debut, the Hollywood trade papers reported.
Tomb Raider, based on the Eidos video-game series of the same name, had the third best June opening in history and the fourth best of 2001.
Disney's animated adventure film Atlantis: The Lost Empire took the No. 2 slot in its first weekend of wide release, with an estimated $20.4 million in ticket sales, the trade papers reported.
Computer-animated Shrek slipped one place to No. 3, with about $12.9 million for the weekend and a five-week total of $197.2 million. The DreamWorks movie is expected to pass the $200 million mark on June 19 or 20.
But another DreamWorks film, Evolution, slipped to No. 6 in its second weekend of release, taking in only $6.5 million for the weekend, for a total of only $25.4 million after 10 days of release.
Rounding out the top 10 were The Animal at No. 7, with about $5.7 million for the weekend and a total of $45.4 million after three weeks, and The Mummy Returns at
No. 10, with about $2.4 million for the weeekend and a total of $193.2 million after seven weeks of release.
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TNT is in final talks to acquire the television rights to Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and six other Paramount movies, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The films include the genre titles Down to Earth and The Gift, the trade paper reported.
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Blizzard Entertainment announced that its Diablo II: Lord of Destruction video game expansion set has gone gold. The expansion set, with initial orders of 2 million copies, will be available at retail outlets worldwide in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Korean, Japanese and Chinese language versions, on June 29.
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The computer-animated fairy tale Shrek has become the first 2001 movie to surpass the $200 million mark at the box office, Variety reported. Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio have come on board to write the sequel.
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The Ain't It Cool News Web site has posted an image of the new teaser poster for Sam Raimi's upcoming Spider-Man film, which is based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name.
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IGN FilmForce reported that the second teaser trailer for the upcoming feature-film version of J.K. Rowling's best-selling children's novel Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone will arrive in theaters attached to Warner Brothers' A.I. Artificial Intelligence, which opens June 29. AOL will post the trailer online on June 27.
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UPN has replaced its high-tech Star Trek: Voyager billboard in West Los Angeles with a new low-tech one promoting its upcoming fifth Trek series, Enterprise, the official Trek Web site reported.
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The Time Machine co-star Samantha Mumba told the Irish TV3 News program that she has completed shooting her scenes in the upcoming SF movie, which is based on H.G. Wells' classic SF novel of the same name, the Dark Horizons Web site reported. Mumba reportedly plays Mara, a woman who lives 800,000 years in the future and dwells on a cliff. Pop star Mumba will also sing the title song for the film's soundtrack.
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Warner Bros. Animation executive Rich Fogel told the Comics Continuum Web site that it will preview its upcoming Cartoon Network animated series Justice League at the Comic-Con International convention in San Diego. The convention takes place July 19-21; the date and time of the Justice League panel has not been released yet.
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Roswell fan site The Crashdown reported a rumor that Melinda Metz--author of the Roswell High series of young adult novels on which the show is based--and her writing partner Laura Burns have been hired as staff writers on the series, which moves to UPN in the fall.
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The Gateway Science Fiction Media Convention is working with the American Red Cross to sponsor a blood drive from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on July 6 in St. Louis. Donors will receive free T-shirts, hats, posters or other prizes while supplies last.
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The Cinescape Online Web site, which had been offline for a couple of weeks, appears to have found a new home on the Internet. The revamped site appeared over the weekend of June 15.
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The Coming Attractions Web site has posted what it says are photographs from the current production of The Matrix Reloaded.
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The TrekToday Web site has posted what it says are spoilers for the pilot episode, "Broken Bow," of UPN's upcoming Star Trek series, Enterprise.
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