Bakula Discusses Enterprise
cott Bakula revealed details of his upcoming UPN Star Trek series, Enterprise, to fans at an Orlando convention earlier this month, the TrekToday Web site reported.
"It's basically these people are getting on a ship and going out to explore for the first time," Bakula said in taped remarks delivered at the Orlando Leap convention, the site reported.
Bakula added, "It's very much like The Right Stuff or any of those kind of movies, where it's much more humanly based in terms of emotion and seeing this universe for this first time, which I think is really exciting."
Bakula also confirmed that the series takes place in the not-too-distant future. "It's only 150 years from now, in 2151," he said. "That's just around the corner." As for his character, Capt. Jonathan Archer, he said, "It's a really great part. I was really excited when I got the script, because it's the first starship, and I'm the first captain, and it's right from the beginning. Even if you don't know Star Trek, and you haven't followed the other series, this is basically the first one, so you don't need to come to it with lots of lore in terms of what Star Trek is or was."
Cromwell In Enterprise?
he Ain't It Cool News Web site reported a rumor that James Cromwell may reprise the role of Zefram Cochrane in UPN's upcoming Star Trek series, Enterprise.
Cromwell played the character, the inventor of warp drive, in the 1996 Next Generation film Star Trek: First Contact.
In the Enterprise pilot episode, Cromwell's character delivers a stirring speech to send the crew on its way, AICN reported.
Xena Creator Defends End
ob Tapert--co-creator and executive producer of Xena: Warrior Princess--defended to E! Online the series' finale last week, in which the titular heroine (played by Tapert's wife, Lucy Lawless) met her demise.
Fans have criticized the finale, in which Xena was shot with arrows and eventually decapitated to save the inhabitants of a Japanese village.
Tapert told E! that the reaction was "exactly what we thought it would be." He added, "We certainly have taken the heat. I have a friend who sends me e-mails, and I've gotten some faxes from people and letters. And people have had a very mixed reaction. But the finale was really based on where the series started, and it seemed to complete her journey looking for redemption."
Tapert, who wrote the finale with co-executive producer R.J. Stewart, added, "I thought Xena dying in the midst of battle worked for me. People would say it was too ignominious to have her dragged around like a slab of beef, but I think it was what fueled Gabrielle to take the steps to be motivated. I really thought Xena's death was appropriate. You don't really want to upset people, but we knew it would be emotional for the right reasons."
As for the future of the Xena franchise after six years of syndicated television, Tapert said, "This is about the fifth time that Xena has died in the series, so I'm not worried about the franchise ending."
Edinburgh Fest Fetes SF
rian Aldiss--author of the short story on which Steven Spielberg's upcoming film A.I. Artificial Intelligence is partly based--will be among the SF authors feted at the 2001 Edinburgh International Book Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The festival takes place Aug. 11-27 and will feature more than 430 authors from 20 countries in about 500 events for adults and children, organizers said.
A Science Fiction 2001 program will feature SF authors such as Doris Lessing, Iain M. Banks, Ken MacLeod, Paul McAuley, Stephen Baxter and Rob Grant, creator of Red Dwarf. The festival will also honor John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids, first published 50 years ago, and Terry Pratchett, author of the Bromeliad trilogy, which Spielberg's DreamWorks studio is developing as a series of computer-animated feature films.
A.I.'s Not For Kids
athleen Kennedy, producer of Steven Spielberg's upcoming SF epic film A.I. Artificial Intelligence, told SCI FI Wire that the movie is not intended for young children, despite child star Haley Joel Osment.
"This is where I wish more parents paid attention to ratings," Kennedy said during press interviews to promote the film. "I think that it is a perfectly defined PG-13 movie, and I think the kids that are anywhere from 8 to 13, it's questionable."
The film, based in part on a story idea by late director Stanley Kubrick, contains some graphic violence against humanoid machines and a few emotionally wrenching scenes involving children. "I do realize--and I think Steven does too, and it's a difficult quandary--that because it's him, and because there's a child in the movie, there's a tendency to think, 'Oh, gee, this may be for younger children.' And it's not," Kennedy said. "And the only thing you can hope for is that parents take part of the responsibility and see the movie first and then decide for themselves whether it's appropriate for their kids."
Kennedy added, "Both Steven and I have kids. We've talked about this incessantly. It's the difficulty you face as a filmmaker, because you can't make movies that you know are going to appeal to young adults and adults, and then feel that you have to make choices that are OK for 6-year-olds. It's a really tough dilemma. And then you're also faced with the dilemma that if you put a child in a movie, does that immediately then have to be a children's film? Because there are fantastic adult movies made through the eyes of children. And Steven's done a remarkable job of making those kinds of movies. So you're right, it's a dilemma, and we may end up getting some flak for it. I don't know what more we could have done. We've been extremely careful about how we've constructed the advertising and the campaign so as to not in any way try to target young children in what we're trying to do. But we show Haley, so some people are going to jump to that conclusion." A.I. opens June 29.
Creators Discuss A.I. Game
reators are speaking for the first time about the elaborate Internet game connected to the upcoming release of Steven Spielberg's SF epic film A.I. Artificial Intelligence, USA Today reported.
The game was launched March 8; SCI FI Wire reported on the game, code-named "The Beast," in April.
"We had this concept of an invasive game, [blurring] the line between fiction and reality," Elan Lee, co-producer and game designer for Microsoft, told USA Today. Lee said he was amazed at how many people became involved and how they started working together to solve the puzzles. "It was spectacular," Lee said. "We're really creating something new." As many as 50 people worked on creating the game at a time, though fewer than 10--including Spielberg--understood its full magnitude, the newspaper reported.
The game encompasses about 1,000 pages in some 50 sites. After a slow start, Ain't It Cool News posted an item about the game on April 11, and traffic increased to about 25 million hits that day, Lee told the newspaper. The game was originally slated to end with the release of the movie on June 29, but now it will end later this summer, USA Today reported.
Osments Cameo In Minority
.I. Artificial Intelligence star Haley Joel Osment and his father, Eugene Osment, will appear in Steven Spielberg's other SF film, Minority Report, the Zap2it Web site reported.
Osment and his father will play a scene together in Minority Report, which Spielberg is directing based on the Philip K. Dick short story of the same name.
"It's another futuristic film," Eugene Osment told the site. "I have a scene with [star] Tom [Cruise], and that's great." The younger Osment credits his father with helping him in his role as a robot in A.I., which opens June 29. "It was his idea to not blink so much," Haley said. "It wasn't as hard to do as you'd think; as long as you don't think about it, you can do it."
Crosby Up For More X-Files
enise Crosby may very well turn up again as Dr. Mary Speake when The X-Files returns for its ninth season this fall, the actress told SCI FI Wire.
During an interview, Crosby--who's best known for her stint as Tasha Yar/Cmdr. Sela on Star Trek: The Next Generation--said she would be thrilled, as she's eager to learn more about the character that's been seen so far in the episodes "Empedocles" and "Essence."
"Chris Carter doesn't reveal very much," said the actress, who was directed in "Essence" by veteran X-Files producer and director Kim Manners. (Manners put her through her paces more than a decade ago in the Next Generation episode "When the Bough Breaks.") "When I was coming onto the show, I don't think they'd even quite had it worked out who the baby was, what it was, how it was going to be born," Crosby said. "Chris was writing it in secret and wasn't very available. I just know that I was Scully's [Gillian Anderson] doctor, and I was taking care of her. Speake is an obstetrician."
Crosby--who's also contemplating a sequel to the documentary Trekkies, which she co-produced and hosted--considers Dr. Speake a character with tremendous potential. "She could align herself with Scully and protect the baby," Crosby said. "But for all I know, she could be an alien who tries to bring in the second coming. So I don't know what will happen. The show is so out there. But I'm sure Chris will think of something."
Actors Talk Like Cats & Dogs
lizabeth Perkins, co-star of the upcoming fantasy film Cats and Dogs, told SCI FI Wire that her role as a human mother working with real animals had one unusual requirement.
"You have to carry dog food in your pocket," she said at the film's premiere. "That's not fun." Perkins plays one of the human owners of the hero dog, Lou, voiced by Tobey Maguire, and she had to work with real dogs on the set.
Perkins was one of several actors who appeared at the premiere of the movie, which blends computer animation, puppetry and live action to tell the story of the secret war between canines and felines. Charlton Heston voices The Mastiff, a high-ranking officer in the dog commando squad. "I've done [voice acting] before," Heston told SCI FI Wire. "It's easy and very lucrative." Heston said he had not seen the final film, but speculated on the war between animal species, "They're different sorts of animals, and they are both carnivores, so of course they would be at odds."
The film's composer, John Debny, described the process of creating music for the war between cats and dogs. "We looked at the different characters, and the idea I came up with was that the dogs are really cool, and so they're sort of like the James Bond characters," he said in an interview. "And the cats obviously are the bad guys, so I got to create sort of an operatic over-the-top thing for them. So it was a lot of fun." Debny added that he had to walk a fine line between allusion and plagiarism. "I always try to be very conscious of doing it in the spirit of [a famous theme], but not playing the same notes. For example, Mission: Impossible is in 5:4 [meter], and mine's in 6:4, so it's different. Also, the pattern of the notes is different, so you just have to be careful." Cats and Dogs opens July 4.
Roswell Spoilers Rumored
eb rumors are circulating about spoilers for the upcoming third season of the teen alien TV series Roswell, which moves to UPN from The WB in the fall.
Both E! Online columnist Watch with Wanda and the Ain't It Cool News Web site reported the spoiler that Isabel, played by Katherine Heigl, will find a new beau over the summer.
The new guy is named Jesse, and he's a lawyer in Isabel's father's firm. Things don't go well, though, as Jesse is not what he seems. Wanda reported that soap star Tyler Christopher and Sopranos co-star Jason Cerbone may be in line for the part. AICN reported that Roswell producer Jonathan Frakes may direct the UPN premiere episode.
Potter Wraps Shooting
hris Columbus, director of the upcoming feature-film adaptation of J.K. Rowling's best-selling Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, told USA Today that he has completed principal photography.
The director will now begin post-production on the effects-heavy film, much of which will concern the film's Quidditch sequence. "It's so complex and took us over 3 1/2 months to shoot," Columbus told the paper.
Columbus added that Rowling herself was involved in adapting the script to the screen and ultimately gave her seal of approval to the cinematic version of Harry. "She told me she felt as if I'd cast her long-lost son," Columbus said of star Daniel Radcliffe, 11. Potter opens Nov. 16.
Episode II Readies Sound Mix
tar Wars: Episode II producer Rick McCallum told the official Star Wars Web site that he's planning ahead for the all-important audio mixing process.
"We won't do main looping until October or November, maybe a little more in January," McCallum told the site, referring to the process in which actors re-record their dialogue in the controlled conditions of a recording booth.
McCallum oversaw preliminary looping from Australia last month, the site reported. "We did it live through Skywalker Sound, so [director] George [Lucas] could be there and direct the actors," McCallum said. McCallum added, "The plan now is that we're going to start scoring in January in London, so that's all coming together."
In the meantime, computer animators continue to create the film's elaborate visual effects. "We've got our main group--especially in animation--really going now, and they're kicking butt," McCallum said.
As for director Lucas, "during the month of July, he's going to come in every day and continue to cut in the footage that [Industrial Light & Magic] delivers," McCallum said. "But he's going to stay home in the mornings and start writing Episode III. I'm not expecting to get a script in September, but he's going to start his research and start the process."
Phantom Editor Apologizes
ne of the fans who produced a re-edited video version of Star Wars: Episode I has apologized to director George Lucas for his distribution of the unauthorized "Phantom Edit," Zap2it reported.
The edit corrects what the fan saw as shortcomings in the original film.
The tape has been widely distributed. But Lucasfilm issued a statement recently warning about the distribution of its copyrighted material. In response, the so-called "Phantom Editor" sent an e-mail to Zap2it saying "My re-edit of George Lucas' The Phantom Menace was simply an innocent exercise and editing challenge that has now escalated into a worldwide topic. ... Although I definitely appreciate all the unexpected attention and support the 'Phantom Edit' has received, I also respect and understand the discontentment of Lucasfilm Ltd. ... I sincerely apologize to George Lucas, Lucasfilm Ltd. and the loyal Star Wars fans around the world for my well-intentioned editing demonstration that escalated out of my control. To anyone who is involved in the illegal sale or distribution of the Phantom Edit, I make this plea: Please stop. Let's all respect the public wishes of Lucasfilm Ltd."
Heston Reveals Apes Role
harlton Heston told SCI FI Wire a little more about his cameo role in Tim Burton's upcoming reimagining of Heston's 1968 SF film Planet of the Apes.
Heston played the central human character in the original movie, but in Burton's film "I play an alpha ape," he said in an interview. "Of course, I always play those parts: kings and cardinals and presidents and geniuses, and that's what I play in the sequel to Apes."
Though he had a role in the film, Heston has not seen the final product. But his experience gave him high hopes for the remake. "I haven't seen the new version," Heston said. "The first version was extraordinary and sort of was the first of the space operas. This was before Star Wars or Lost in Space or any of those films. It was a remarkable film, and I have every expectation for this movie too."
When asked if he had any advice for Mark Wahlberg, who plays the human this time around, Heston said, "I haven't seen him. I haven't met him, actually." Burton's Planet of the Apes opens July 27.
Willow Appearing On DVD
ucasfilm and Fox will release a special-edition DVD of Ron Howard's 1988 fantasy adventure film Willow on Nov. 27, according to the DVD News Web site.
Val Kilmer starred in the film as a swashbuckling warrior, and Warwick Davis played the title character.
The THX-certified DVD will feature a widescreen transfer of the movie with a new 5.1-channel Dolby digital audio track, the site reported. It will also feature a commentary track, a new documentary about the film's special effects, a making-of documentary, a second effects featurette, trailers, images and more.
Fox Orders Galactica Telefilm
ox has ordered a two-hour Battlestar Galactica movie from Studios USA, based on the 1970s series, which will stand as a pilot for a proposed Galactica series for the 2002-03 season that will run jointly on Fox and The SCI FI Channel, Sarah Timberman, president of Studios USA Programming, announced.
As previously reported, X-Men director Bryan Singer will helm and will also executive produce with Tom DeSanto, Dan Angel and Billy Brown. "We're tremendously excited to be bringing the originality and immense talent of Bryan Singer, Tom DeSanto, Dan Angel and Billy Brown to bear on reinventing what was clearly such a pop culture phenomenon," Timberman said in a statement.
The next-generation Galactica will be set after the seventh-millennium time frame of the original series, which ran on ABC from 1978-80. "Our goal is to take the Galactica franchise and move it forward in both style and character, while bringing the scope and sensibility of epic science-fiction filmmaking to the small screen," Singer said in a statement.
Studios USA is a division of USA Networks, which also owns SCIFI.COM and The SCI FI Channel.
Galactica May Revive Roles
an Angel and Billy Brown--who will produce and run The SCI FI Channel's upcoming Battlestar Galactica series--told SCI FI Wire that the proposed series will feature some characters from the classic 1970s Galactica TV series.
"Some of the characters will be revived," Brown said in an interview, but declined to say which ones. Added Angel, "All that is in discussion stage right now, but absolutely, the intention is to keep in the spirit of what was there before and to preserve--as Billy said--what was there."
Angel and Brown will run the series, which is being developed with X-Men producer Tom DeSanto and director Bryan Singer. "Hopefully, what we're trying to aim for is, there will be new characters, there will be some of the old characters," Brown said. "But since it's not totally written and totally signed off on--and also because there's such a huge fan base--we don't want to get out false rumors and have people, like, go crazy. But I think one thing we can say is that we're very much aware of the old fans. ... We want to honor the old show. We don't want to violate anything. It's like, if you watch the show, you're not going to go, 'Oh, well, they totally contradicted what was in the old show.' There won't be any contradictions, but there will be a taking it further and taking it further in time."
Brown added that he and Angel were working on the script for a two-hour pilot for the series, which will advance the original storyline. "It does take place in a not-so-distant future from the end of the old show," Brown said. "It's going to be a sprawling, family saga that is set amongst the travails and adventures of the human colony."
Producers Have Night Visions
an Angel and Billy Brown--producers of Fox's upcoming genre anthology series Night Visions--told SCI FI Wire that they were influenced by previous series and movies.
"Being fans of The Twilight Zone and kind of classic horror films--a la Rosemary's Baby, The Omen, Repulsion--we've always loved the kind of metaphysical horror film, psychological horror, and also the kinds of twists and turns that a show like Twilight Zone used to have," Brown said in an interview. "We really felt like there hadn't been anything like that on TV in a long time."
Night Visions will be a 13-episode, one-hour series comprising two half-hour stories each week, the producers said. Angel and Brown--previously known for Showtime's John Carpenter Presents: Body Bags and Fox's Goosebumps series--enlisted top-notch talent for the various episodes, including actors Bridget Fonda, Bill Pullman, Thora Birch, Randy Quaid and Jack Palance and directors Tobe Hooper (Poltergeist) and Joe Dante (Small Soldiers). "They were very excited about doing anthology," Angel said. "They were very excited about the scripts and the stories. And there were even times when they didn't initially say yes until they read the script, then they changed their minds."
The initial stories focus on an air crash investigator (Aidan Quinn) who has mysterious visions, a radio shock jock (Lou Diamond Phillips) terrorized by an unknown caller and a medical student who autopsies a voodoo priest. Subsequent episodes will mix supernatural horror, science fiction and psychological suspense, the producers said. "Even though the content ranges from metaphysical to psychological to shows that are horror to ones that are more fantasy, they were always character-based, even if there was a supernatural element," Brown said. "It was either a metaphor or sprang from the inner needs of the character, and that was really something that we very much like and tried to do and feel that it makes for more compelling viewing. It gives the actor a really good role."
Angel added, "The myth out there in the television world and the network world is that anthology doesn't work. And to be honest with you, we've loved anthology. We were very successful with Goosebumps for kids. All the anthologies we grew up on and loved, from Night Gallery to Twilight Zone to the syndicated anthologies, like Tales from the Darkside and The Hitchhiker, for the most part, they've been very successful. ... So when you're dealing with a genre anthology, I think the good news is we were able to convince Fox that this could work. I think the audience is ready for this." Night Visions premieres with a special two-hour episode on July 12 and will air Thursdays at 9 p.m.
Stargate Begins Landmark Season
rad Wright, executive producer of Showtime's Stargate SG-1, told SCI FI Wire that the fifth season, which starts June 29, marks several milestones for the SF series.
Among other things, the 12th episode of the season is the series' 100th episode, Wright said in an interview.
"We were very excited about that," Wright said. "It's the second series I've helped take to 100 episodes. I did Outer Limits as well. And it's amazing how quickly that time goes by." The 100th episode, "Wormhole Extreme," airing in September, is a departure for the series. "Rather than do a heavy, expensive big episode like we normally would do, we did a show that was in fact something of a parody of ourselves, kind of a Galaxy Quest version of Stargate SG-1," he said. The episode continues a story from last season, "allowing one of the characters that we've already introduced ... to end up doing a parody television series of Stargate called Wormhole Extreme. ... It's very funny. It is a balls-out comedy, as opposed to many of the episodes that we do."
The fifth season will also continue Earth's battle with the villainous Goa'uld. In January, the series will air a two-part episode--"Summit" and "Last Stand"--that will be the first time all the System Lords come together, Wright said. "It's a really large action story," he said.
The season premiere, "Enemies," will resolve the cliffhanger from last season, "Exodus." "I think it's one of our best episodes ever," Wright said."At the end of last season, we found ourselves on a ship in another galaxy 120 years away from home, even at top speed, and with our archenemy Apophis. Another one of our enemies, who has almost wiped us out in the past, ends up inadvertently coming to our aid, and of course, they almost wipe us out too, but we manage to escape them."
Stargate SG-1 is about to begin production in Vancouver on its 14th episode out of 22 for the fifth season, Wright said. He added that he's awaiting word on a possible sixth season. Stargate SG-1 airs on Showtime at 10 p.m. Fridays.
Matrix 3 Subtitled?
he Northern California Movies Web site reported that the upcoming third Matrix film has been subtitled Revolutions.
Production on it and the second Matrix film, Reloaded, have finished up in San Francisco and, after a brief visit to Washington, will head to Australia to complete filming, the site reported.
People magazine, meanwhile, reported that filmmakers flew skin care guru Vera Kantor of Beverly Hills' Verabella Skin Therapy Salon to the Northern California location to treat star Carrie-Anne Moss' skin. Kantor converted a wardrobe fitting room and gave Moss her signature $150 caviar facial, the magazine reported.
Matrix Sequels Aim For R
oel Silver, producer of the upcoming Matrix sequels, told reporters that filmmakers won't tone down the movies' violence to appease Warner Brothers, the Empire Online Web site reported.
"There's greater freedom in an R-rated picture for doing the kind of movies we like to do," Silver said at a press briefing in London. "These pictures are not for children."
Silver added, "The Matrix sequels are both R-rated, and that's just the way that worked out. ... I'm proud that we do not make these pictures for children. These films are R-rated for a reason."
Blade 2 Will Be Scarier
lade 2 director Guillermo del Toro told Screen International magazine that the sequel to the 1998 hit will be a lot creepier than the first film, according to a report on the Empire Online Web site.
"I was attracted to the idea of making vampires scary again," del Toro told the magazine. "They have become almost gothic romance heroes, a la Anne Rice."
Del Toro added, "I wanted to find the animal component again: something that just wants to drink your blood and kill you. The style I like is a more contemplative and atmospheric approach. But in Blade 2, I am doing action and horror, so it's a good combination. I'm making the camera much freer." Blade 2, starring Wesley Snipes, is currently in production.
Brits Order Tomb Raider Cuts
ritish censors have ordered scenes of head butts and throat chops cut from the U.K. version of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider to let it be seen by younger viewers, the BBC reported.
The British Board of Film Classification demanded that producers cut violent scenes or settle for a 15 certificate, which would exclude viewers under the age of 15. The cuts mean those over the ages of 12 can now see the film, the BBC reported.
Tomb Raider, starring Angelina Jolie and based on the Eidos video-game series of the same name, opens in the United Kingdom on July 6.
New Bond Villain Cast?
igel Havers may be in line to play the villain in the upcoming 20th James Bond film, the Dark Horizons Web site reported.
Citing the British Daily Express tabloid, the site reported that Havers will play the nemesis of Pierce Brosnan's superspy.
Meanwhile, the site also quoted Bond production company Eon denying an earlier rumor that Scottish actor Gerard Butler was in line to take over the Bond role in subsequent films, when Brosnan is expected to hang up his Walther PPK.
Firm Options Experiment
lum Israel Prods. has optioned the film rights to The Experiment, an SF novel from New York Times culture editor John Darnton, Variety reported.
The book tells the story of a New York journalist who meets a man who seems to be his identical twin and learns that as a child he was part of an experiment in cloning, the trade paper reported.
Darnton, a 35-year veteran of the Times, oversees the Arts and Leisure and Weekend sections and writes commercial best-sellers as well. Blum is shopping the project to writers and directors.
Darnton's first novel, Neanderthal, was optioned by Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks, but the rights have since reverted to Darnton, Variety reported.
Firestarter: Rekindled Wraps
rincipal photography has wrapped in Salt Lake City on The SCI FI Channel's upcoming original miniseries Firestarter: Rekindled, the network announced.
Firestarter: Rekindled--based on Stephen King's original novel--is slated to air in December as a four-hour miniseries.
Firestarter: Rekindled picks up the story of Charlene "Charlie" McGee 20 years after the events in the 1984 feature film Firestarter, which starred Drew Barrymore. Charlie, now played by Marguerite Moreau (Queen of the Damned), is tired of running from the government that created her. But as she searches for answers to her psychic firestarting ability, she runs afoul of Rainbird (Malcolm McDowell), a sociopathic government agent who wants to control Charlie's powers.
Danny Nucci and Dennis Hopper also star. Philip Eisner (Event Horizon) wrote the miniseries, which is directed by Robert Iscove.
Showtime To Make Odyssey
hristopher Gorham and Peter Weller will star in a Showtime original SF television movie Odyssey 5, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Executive producer Manny Coto wrote the film, about a space shuttle crew that witnesses the end of the world from Earth orbit.
The crew then discovers a way to go back in time five years and tries to save the world. The film, produced for Showtime by Columbia TriStar Television Distribution, is being directed by David Carson, who directed an installment of the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, the trade paper reported. Sebastian Roch, Tamara Craig Thomas and Leslie Silva also star.
Final Fantasy X Ready
inal Fantasy X--the latest installment in the hit Square video game series--has been completed and is ready for Japanese mass production for the PlayStation 2 gaming platform, CoreMagazine.com reported.
Square corporate director Shinji Hashimoto made the announcement at a party for the PlayStation 2 in Tokyo, the site reported. The game is slated for a July 19 release in Japan and a 2002 release in the United States, to allow time to add English-language dialogue.
Series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi--who also directed the upcoming computer-animated movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within--spoke to the party on tape, saying that more than 300 people developed Final Fantasy X. He added that developers were faced with the challenge of adding spoken dialogue to the games, the site reported.
Yeoh Confirms Tiger 2 In Works
ichelle Yeoh confirmed for SCI FI Wire that a prequel to the Oscar-winning martial arts/fantasy film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is in the works.
Director "Ang Lee is off to work on The Incredible Hulk, and I have started my own production company, and we're in the blitz of pre-production on a movie called The Touch," the actress said in an interview. "At the moment, everybody seems to be over their heads with work, but I've heard that Ang has found a couple of writers, and they're working on another Crouching Tiger film. Until he actually comes out and tells us, though, we're sort of in the dark."
In Tiger, Yeoh played Yu Shu Lien, the soft-spoken, wall-climbing, high-flying, sword-wielding unrequited love of Chow Yun-Fat's character, Li Mu Bai. What would Yeoh like to see in the next saga? "The character was so serious and contained, and the prequel would be about the younger couple, about the younger version of Chow and myself," said Yeoh, one of Asia's biggest stars. "So I'd like to see my character with a sense of humor and love and lightheartedness."
Blanchett Mulls Aronofsky Film
ate Blanchett is in talks to join Brad Pitt in the untitled SF movie to be directed by Pi helmer Darren Aronofsky, Variety reported.
Blanchett will also appear later this year as elf queen Galadriel in the first of Peter Jackson's three upcoming Lord of the Rings films.
Shrouded in secrecy, Aronofsky's project is considered a priority for Warner Brothers, Variety reported. Blanchett earlier starred in Sam Raimi's supernatural thriller film The Gift.
Owen In Line For Prisoner Role?
ow Magazine reported a rumor that British actor Clive Owen is up for the lead role in Simon West's proposed feature-film version of the cult 1960s SF series The Prisoner, according to a report on the Dark Horizons Web site.
Director West (Lara Croft: Tomb Raider) earlier told SCI FI Wire that he was awaiting the final draft of a screenplay for the film and that he hoped to show the Chris McQuarrie script to series creator and star Patrick McGoohan to gain his endorsement.
Owen would likely assume McGoohan's role as a British intelligence agent, known only as No. 6, who finds himself detained by unknown forces in a picturesque seaside town simply called The Village. Owen is currently on view in The Hire, a series of short films on the BMWfilms.com Web site.
Benigni's Pinocchio Starts
talian actor and director Roberto Benigni began shooting Pinocchio--the country's most expensive film ever--amid tight security on June 25, Variety reported.
Shooting is taking place in the southern Italian village of Pignone, near Terni, the trade paper reported.
The $45 million fairy-tale film will be released by Miramax at the end of 2002. Benigni plays the title role, and his wife, Nicoletta Braschi, plays the Blue Fairy.
Top Talent Voices Thornberrys
upert Everett, Marisa Tomei, Lynn Redgrave, Brenda Blethyn and Alfre Woodard have joined the voice cast of The Wild Thornberrys, a Paramount animated movie based on the Nickelodeon series of the same name, Variety reported.
The series tells the story of 12-year-old Eliza Thornberry, a girl who can talk to animals, and her globetrotting family.
Everett will voice the villainous Sloan Blackburn, and Tomei will voice Bree Blackburn, both of whom befriend Eliza for their own benefit, the trade paper reported. Redgrave will voice Thornberry's mother, Cordelia; Blethyn will lend her voice as Mrs. Fairgood, the head mistress of Eliza's boarding school; and Woodard will voice Akela, the mother cheetah whom Eliza meets in the Serengeti.
Packed Terminator DVD Coming
GM will release a DVD edition of James Cameron's landmark SF movie The Terminator in October, the DVD News Web site reported.
The U.S. DVD release of the 1984 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie had been delayed because of contractual obligations, the site reported. The film has been released in Europe as a two-disc set.
MGM Home Entertainment will reportedly release the movie in the United States on a double-sided DVD-14 disc. The film has been remastered and cleaned up, and it will be released in widescreen format, with a newly created 5.1-channel Dolby digital audio track. The disc will contain a newly re-edited documentary, a retrospective featurette, deleted scenes, a collection of trailers and a DVD-ROM version of the film's shooting script. The DVD will also feature an image gallery and new interviews with and an audio commentary track from Cameron.
Aykroyd: Ghostbusters 3 Is Dead
an Aykroyd told Cinescape Online that he's given up the ghost on a third installment of Ivan Reitman's Ghostbusters series of films.
"You know, in life, one has to be able to let go of things, and I've been able to let go of that, and it's been a tremendous liberation for me," Aykroyd told the site. "For years I was consumed with trying to get that movie made, and I wrote a script--which is the best devil script or hell script that has come out of Hollywood. I mean, I know that. ... It's really good."
Aykroyd added, "Now I can call Ivan [Reitman] and Harold [Ramis] and Billy [Murray] and say, 'Let's work on something else.' But no, it will never happen." The reason? "It's a rights issue, actually," he said. "Essentially, it's not something that Billy wants to do again, and for some reason, he feels that it's really a vehicle that should remain with the two first movies, and he has one-fifth of the rights, and so he's locking off his rights and saying, 'I think we should just leave that period of our time alone, and I don't think we should revisit that.' And he's got the power to do that, and so we'll move on and do something else. It's tremendously liberating. You know, sometimes in life, your goals and dreams, they have to change by nature of just the way life is and circumstance."
Lee Narrates New Spidey Game
tan Lee, co-creator of the Marvel Comics series Spider-Man, will narrate Activision's upcoming Spider-Man 2, Enter: Electro video game, the sequel to last year's Spidey game, the company announced.
The new title will be available this summer for the PlayStation game console.
Lee will joined voice actors Rino Romano, the voice behind the Spider-Man character in the animated television series Spider-Man Unlimited. Spider-Man 2, Enter: Electro allows players to assume the role of the legendary superhero as he attempts to thwart the powerful Electro and stop his doomsday device.
Jurassic III Mixes Old And New
urassic Park III producer Kathleen Kennedy told SCI FI Wire that the upcoming third installment in the dinosaur franchise will honor the previous two movies without repeating them.
"I think the biggest challenge with any movie like this is that you can't ever top the novelty of the first movie, because people now know dinosaurs, and they've now seen documentaries on how every single one of them are made," Kennedy said in an interview.
Kennedy added, "Part of it is respecting and honoring what worked before, and that adage of "don't fix what isn't broken." And then you want to create a new story with new characters that gives people a reason to go back and experience dinosaurs again."
Jurassic Park III brings back Sam Neill in his Jurassic I role of Dr. Alan Grant, and adds William H. Macy and Téa Leoni as a married couple in search of their son. The film also adds a new nemesis: a 24,000-pound spinosaurus.
On a recent visit to Universal Studio's backlot, SCI FI Wire got a glimpse at the creature behind the closed doors of Stage 12, protected beneath a blue tarp. An 11-person crew operated the gigantic animatronic puppet, which was created by master puppeteer Stan Winston, who previously designed the 18,000-pound tyrannosaurus rex seen in the previous films. The spinosaur measures 13 feet from nose to tail, has a side tooth that's as large as a human head and a small arm the size of a 5-foot-tall human. The massive creation was designed to move along a hydraulic track built into the surface of the soundstage.
Kennedy was reluctant to discuss the details of the dinosaurs that will appear in Jurassic III. "The one thing I'm concerned about is that there's an overemphasis on wanting to dissect the logistics on how we create these dinosaurs," she said. "It also was this way on the other two [films]. And this always distresses me, because it strips away the magic that people are going to the movies for." Even so, she conceded, the realism that the first Jurassic Park brought home--and the strides that film made in special-effects wizardry--are core components of what keeps people coming back for the further adventures. Jurassic Park III, directed by Joe Johnston, opens July 20.
Leoni Impressed By Dinos
urassic Park III star Téa Leoni told SCI FI Wire that she didn't have to think long about director Joe Johnston's offer of a lead role. "I love having enormous co-stars," she said in an interview.
"I was once a co-star to a comet," she added, referring to her 1998 SF film, Deep Impact. And after hearing who her human co-stars would be--Sam Neill and William H. Macy--she recalled, "I thought, 'OK, I want to do this film.'"
Leoni added that she was pleased to find out that she would not be overshadowed by her reptilian co-stars. "I would say that the script took me by surprise when I read it," she said. "I was fully prepared to be second fiddle again to a very large co-star. When I read the script, I was very impressed that I did care about these people, and I didn't want to see one go--and I was surprised at who didn't make it through the rest of the film. I mean, if we don't care about these people, if we don't care about the story, if it's lame, then this [story] isn't going to be nearly as impressive."
Working with the dinosaurs proved more intimidating than Leoni anticipated. "The dinosaurs are a whole new bag," she said. "I was prepared that I would be working a lot with a blue screen, and the truth is, we didn't work with a blue screen nearly as often as I would have thought. For the most part, we were face to face with some of the most terrifying puppets [imaginable]. The raptors stand about our height on back legs. We had probably about six of them, and they each had such different looks. You could see the difference between the males and females, not just in their physical design, but their behavior. I have to say, I can't remember the last time I've been so impressed by an effect and had it help me so much in my work." Jurassic Park III opens July 20.
Cast Changed On Ghosts
ohn Carpenter told Cinescape Online that he originally wanted a different actor to play the prisoner-turned-hero "Desolation" Williams in his upcoming SF movie John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars.
British actor Jason Statham was Carpenter's original choice for the role, but Screen Gems had its eye on rapper Ice Cube.
"I was a little unsure at first," Carpenter said. "[But] when [Ice Cube] came in, we started talking about the character, and he had some great ideas. He's a very interesting and smart man--very focused on what he's doing. I'm very happy to have had him involved." Carpenter eventually rewrote the script for Cube and beefed up the role of Mars cop Jericho Butler for Statham.
It was the second major casting change for the film: When original star Courtney Love injured her ankle and dropped out of production weeks before shooting, Carpenter cast Species star Natasha Henstridge in the leading role of Mars cop Melanie Ballard, Cinescape reported.
Carpenter also explained the premise of his film. The planet's original denizens were
"a barbaric tribal society," he said. "Their race developed no high technology. What they developed was of the supernatural, and this trap is their sentinel--something left behind to make sure their world is never claimed by others." Ghosts of Mars opens Aug. 17.
Red World Getting Rewrite
ara Croft: Tomb Raider writers Patrick Massett and John Zinman have been hired to rewrite the SF thriller film Red World for Jerry Bruckheimer Films and Walt Disney Co., Variety reported.
Set in present-day Los Angeles and in the future, the visual-effects-driven movie tells the story of a man who travels back through time to stop the ruling class of his world from colonizing the past, the trade paper reported.
Newcomers Travis Wright and John Glenn wrote the first draft, which Bruckheimer's production company acquired last summer, the trade paper reported.
Dolittle Does OK
r. Dolittle 2, the Eddie Murphy sequel, debuted in second place in the June 22 weekend box-office rankings, with an estimated $26.7 million in ticket sales, the Hollywood trade papers reported.
The premiere was roughly in line with studio expectations, though off a bit from the original Dr. Dolittle's June 1998 opening of $29 million, Variety reported.
In its second weekend, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider dropped 58 percent, with about $20.2 million in ticket sales, for third place. The Angelina Jolie film, based on the Eidos video-game series Tomb Raider, has accumulated about $84.2 million to date.
Disney's animated Atlantis: The Lost Empire sank 35 percent in its second weekend, with an estimated $13.2 million in box office, for fourth place. Atlantis has take in about $44.3 million so far.
Genre films rounding out the top 10 included No. 5 Shrek, with about $11 million for the weekend and $215.8 million total; No 9. Evolution, with about $3.6 million for the weekend and $32.6 million overall; and No. 10 The Animal, with about $3 million for the weekend and $51.3 million total, the trade papers reported.
Briefly Noted
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The TrekWeb site has posted an image of what it says is the official logo of UPN's upcoming Star Trek series, Enterprise. The logo resembles the uniform patch that is seen on the shoulders of the ship's crew.
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Beth Broderick--who plays Aunt Zelda to Melissa Joan Hart's Sabrina, the Teenage Witch--told TV Guide Online that she and co-star Caroline Rhea will likely leave the show when their six-year contracts expire next year. "The first four years of Sabrina were very tough on Caroline and [me]," Broderick told the site. "The hours were quite insane, and we hadn't realized that it would be marketed as such a kids' show. For us, it was a little frustrating. We thought our characters were pretty one-dimensional."
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Electronics manufacturer JVC partnered with New Line Cinema to cross-promote JVC consumer video products with the theatrical and home video release of New Line's upcoming Lord of the Rings film trilogy. The three-year deal, with an estimated value of more than $40 million in advertising and promotions, kicks off in September with the unveiling of a Times Square billboard.
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TNT will air a six-hour marathon of its new Witchblade television series from 4-10 p.m. ET on July 8, the Comics Continuum Web site reported.
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Marvel Comics' Bill Jemas told the Comics Continuum Web site that the company will be publishing an adaptation of Sam Raimi's upcoming Spider-Man movie. No writer has been announced for the adaptation yet.
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The Coming Attractions Web site reported a rumor that Pi director Darren Aronofsky's proposed SF film has been tentatively titled Last Man.
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Gamepro magazine reported that the soundtrack to the upcoming computer-animated film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within will include a preview of the next video game in the Final Fantasy, on which the film is based, FGN reported. The soundtrack will reportedly contain a preview of Final Fantasy X, the latest installment in the Square video game series.
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Composer Robert Berry and Magna Carta will release A Soundtrack for The Wheel of Time, an authorized musical "accompaniment" to Robert Jordan's best-selling series of fantasy novels The Wheel of Time, on July 10.
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Screen Gems has created two series of trading cards connected to its upcoming SF horror film John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars, which opens Aug. 17. Series No. 1 is available now, and series No. 2 will premiere at the Comic-Con in San Diego July 21.
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A new trailer will debut June 28 on the official Web site of the upcoming feature-film version of J.K. Rowling's best-selling children's novel Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Warner Brothers announced. AOL members can see it a day early, on June 27.
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The Dark Horizons Web site has posted a synopsis of what it says is the pilot episode of UPN's upcoming new Star Trek series, Enterprise. The two-hour episode is called "Broken Bow."
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George Lucas told Film & Video magazine that Star Wars: Episode III will feature essentially the same cast as Episode II, Cinescape Online reported.
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The Dark Horizons Web site reported that Scottish actor Gerard Butler has confirmed that he has talked with producers about assuming the role of James Bond once Pierce Brosnan gives up the superspy's mantle.
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The Dark Horizons Web site reported that the upcoming supernatural thriller film Soul Survivors has been pushed back to Sept. 28 from Aug. 24.
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The Coming Attractions Web site reported that trailers for Nicole Kidman's upcoming supernatural thriller movie The Others is appearing in front of Kidman's current musical Moulin Rouge.
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Japanese audiences jumped at the chance to see a preview of Steven Spielberg's SF epic movie A.I. Artificial Intelligence on June 23, Variety reported. A.I. rang up $2.6 million in ticket sales, an all-time record for paid previews in Japan, the trade paper reported. A.I. opens in North America June 29.
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Filmmakers have opened an official Web site for the upcoming new feature-film version of H.G. Wells' classic SF novel The Time Machine.
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