Ming-Na Animates Final Fantasy
ing-Na--who gives voice to the computer-generated heroine in the upcoming Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within film--told SCI FI Wire that she loved the chance to play an SF heroine, without risking injury. "It was great," she said in an interview.
"I thought that my voice really fit the character, and for me, I was so excited that I'm part of this history-making film. And being a science fiction fan, this is my way of living out my fantasy of being a female heroine ... without getting hurt. It's kind of nice."
Ming-Na's voice inhabits Dr. Aki Ross, a "hyper-realistic" computer-animated heroine in the film, which is based on the Square Final Fantasy video game series. The actress said the movie taps into philosophical themes. "This is in the future, and the phantoms are these aliens who have come to the Earth and are destroying it, to the point where all the remaining cities ... [are] covered in this protective shield ... where the remaining humans are living," she said. "And Aki Ross ... is trying to figure out a way to combat the aliens and either understand them or get rid of them. And in the process, she learns that it's really about saving our Earth. It's about saving the Gaia, which is the energy source of the Earth and the spirit of the Earth. So it has a lot of, like, Eastern philosophy incorporated in the film."
Ming-Na added, "It's really complicated, yet so simple at the same time. To break it down, whatever energy source that we derive from to give us energy, ... this is coming from the Earth, in essence. And we have to give back to the Earth. We have to replenish it and, in a way, recycle, whether it's through our demise, or whether it's just through nurturing. Because otherwise we are going to end up living in these small, shielded environments, to protect ourselves from the elements." Final Fantasy opens July 11.
Rings FX News Updated
n a follow-up to an earlier story, the OneRing.net Web site reported more details about the special-effects worked farmed out for the first of Peter Jackson's three upcoming Lord of the Rings films.
New Zealand effects house WETA Digital reportedly subcontracted some work to other FX shops.
Citing an anonymous source, the site reported that only nine of the film's estimated 500 FX shots have been farmed out: six to Los Angeles-based Digital Domain and three to Australia's Animal Logic. The reason: WETA was originally signed to produce all 337 FX shots for the first movie, The Fellowship of the Ring. But as the film was shot and cut, 150 more shots were added to the WETA slate, and WETA found itself at maximum capacity, the site reported.
Rings FX Farmed Out?
ETA Digital, the New Zealand special-effects house, will farm out some of the FX work on Peter Jackson's upcoming Lord of the Rings film trilogy, according to a report on TheOneRing.net fan Web site.
Citing an anonymous source, the site reported that WETA will subcontract work to Los Angeles-based Digital Domain (The Fifth Element), Australia's Animal Logic (The Matrix) and New Zealand's Oktobor, the site reported.
The site reported that the move was necessary for the first film, The Fellowship of the Ring, to meet its Dec. 19 release date. The change is the latest under the new visual effects supervisor, Jim Rygiel, who took over when former supervisor Mark Stetson abruptly left the production in the spring.
Gollum Actor Unrecognizable
ndy Serkis--who voices the computer-animated Gollum in Peter Jackson's upcoming Lord of the Rings film trilogy--told The Highbury and Islington Express that audiences won't recognize much of him in the part, according to a report on the Empire Online Web site.
"[Gollum's] an amazing role," Serkis told the British newspaper. "The way we've done it is to use a combination of animation and motion capture ... so I get to do the voice and physicality of the part."
Serkis said that he will return to New Zealand soon for post-production work on the second and third Rings films, which will have a larger role for Gollum as a "ring junkie, complete with withdrawal symptoms." He added, "When you are playing such an extreme character, you have to root it in something the audience can identify with." The first Rings film, The Fellowship of the Ring, opens Dec. 19.
Rings Rough Cut Done
iv Tyler, who plays Arwen in Peter Jackson's upcoming Lord of the Rings film trilogy, will rejoin Elijah Wood (Frodo) and Sean Astin (Sam) to re-record dialogue for the first film this month, E! Online reported.
Jackson has completed a rough cut of the first film, The Fellowship of the Ring, the site reported.
Composer Howard Shore, meanwhile, is working on the film's score, a project he said has "the complexity and difficulty of writing an opera," E! Online reported. Shore's work will incorporate the languages of the epic, including Dwarvish, Elvish and Black Speech, and the work is expected to have a strong Celtic theme. Irish folk musicians the Barleyshakes were in New Zealand last month for a recording session, E! Online reported. Rumors are also flying that Irish singer Enya is on board. Fellowship opens Dec. 19.
TV Guide Spotlights Enterprise
ick Berman, co-creator and executive producer of UPN's upcoming Enterprise, will speak for the first time in depth about the fifth Star Trek series in the July 14 issue of TV Guide, the magazine announced.
The issue, which goes on sale July 9, will be dedicated to the upcoming series and will feature a pull-out poster of the new starship on one side and images of all 34 past Star Trek TV Guide covers on the other.
Berman will discuss details about the ship's number and warp drive, information about the new crew and the birth of the Starfleet technology. "The terrific thing about this for longtime fans is that they'll get to see the development of all the technological gadgetry and capabilities that have
become part of the Trek mythos," Berman said. "They'll see them in their infant, trial-and-error stages, before they end up being what we know them to be."
Trek Sale Helps Charities
im Russ--Tuvok on Star Trek: Voyager--is sponsoring an auction of series memorabilia, including a pair of his Vulcan ears, to benefit several charities.
The auction began June 30 on Russ' official Web site and will continue for six to seven weeks.
The Summer Charity Auction, organized with Russ' Fan Association, will feature autographed photos and items from the Voyager cast, signed call sheets from the series finale, "Endgame," autographed original scripts, action figures, Activision games, books, T-shirts and other items. Bidding for the most expensive item, Tuvok's ears, starts at $1,500. Proceeds will benefit the Zenith Youth Homes, Wildlife Waystation, El Modena Family Shelter and Holy Family Services.
Dawson's Book Benefits Charity
enebrea's Hope, the second book in a trilogy by Star Trek: Voyager star Roxann Dawson and Daniel Graham, will debut at Slanted Fedora's Trek convention in Washington to benefit charity, the TrekWeb site reported.
The book is part of Dawson and Graham's Tenebrea trilogy, which centers on Andrea Flores, who joins a special operations unit in an intergalactic war to avenge the death of her family.
A hardcover limited collector's edition goes on sale during the convention, which runs Aug. 3-5, with all proceeds benefiting the Camp Heartland and Half the Sky Foundation charities. The authors will sign copies at the convention on Aug. 5; additional signed copies can be ordered.
New Trek Novel Makes History
ohn Ordover, executive editor of Pocket Books' Star Trek novelizations, told the SyFy Portal Web site that the current Star Trek: The Eugenics Wars, The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh mixed real history with Trek history.
"For quite a long time, we had been wanting to do the Eugenics Wars somehow, but that involved making a serious judgment call," Ordover told the site. "Did the Star Trek future diverge from ours in the 1990s, or was there some way to work the Eugenics Wars into existing world history? We decided on the latter. The Eugenics Wars happened in real-world history. Now we had to find a way to make that work."
Novelist Greg Cox returns to events in the original series episode "Space Seed," which first aired in 1967 and alluded to a war that took place in the 1990s. According to the backstory established in "Space Seed," Khan was exiled from Earth in 1996.
Cox built on his previous Star Trek novel, Assignment: Eternity, which reprised the original series characters of Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln. "At the end of the book, Kirk is wondering whether they should let Seven and Roberta just run around through time playing with the fate of one society or another; Spock replies that his research shows that they have no choice, because Seven and Roberta were instrumental in the overthrow of Khan Noonien Singh," Ordover said. Eugenics Wars is in bookstores now.
Episode II Reshoot Was Hard
wan McGregor--Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: Episode II--told Empire Online that he hated going back to shoot blue-screen pickup shots after completing Moulin Rouge this year.
"It was hard to go [from Moulin Rouge] onto something that's created after the event," McGregor told the site.
McGregor added, "But it was a much better script in this one. I did some pickups a couple of weeks ago, and that was a laugh. But I've not seen anything yet--it takes two years or something after we finish shooting to make it happen." Episode II is in post-production.
Star Wars Takes Time
ick McCallum, producer of the upcoming Star Wars: Episode II, told the official Star Wars Web site that it takes a long time to make such an effects-intensive film.
"Episode I actually took us five years, including one serious year of massive conceptual art design, which affected not only Episode I, but also Episode II and even III, to a certain degree," McCallum told the site. "This one took three years--one year less than the real preproduction time we had on Episode I."
McCallum added, "For Episode III, we're trying to start the script now and move back to about four years of total time, because in reality that's how much time we need. They're very complicated to make. It takes 18 months just to do the effects, and it takes six months to prepare for those effects, so that's two years right there. It takes us, basically, seven months to prepare and four months to shoot. ... That's another year. And then it takes us a year to conceptualize and have everything together to make the necessary commitments for locations. We don't just shoot in the studio. We stop in five different countries. We have to get permissions, schedule, just mammoth things." Episode II is currently in post-production, with an eye to a 2002 release.
Many Hands Helped Minority
everal writers had a hand in adapting Philip K. Dick's short story Minority Report for Steven Spielberg's upcoming feature-film version, starring Tom Cruise, E! Online columnist Anderson Jones reported.
The writers included Scott Frank (Get Shorty), who received most of the credit, as well as John August (Go) and Frank Darabont (The Green Mile), Jones reported. Spielberg himself also contributed.
"It's not just explosions and car chases," producer Bonnie Curtis told Jones. "It's a smart story with a lot of humor, but it's also a cerebral thriller. So, yes, we are having fun, but your brain will go on a journey, too."
In the movie, Cruise plays a future cop who finds himself pursued for a crime he has not committed yet. Spielberg segued directly into the film upon completing A.I. Artificial Intelligence. "Minority Report is going fantastic," Curtis said. "He's having more fun than I've seen him have in forever."
A.I. Tops Box Office
teven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence topped the box-office rankings in its debut on the weekend of June 29, taking in an estimated $30.1 million, the Hollywood trade papers reported.
The film, based in part on a Brian Aldiss short story and a treatment by the late Stanley Kubrick, received generally favorable reviews.
Eddie Murphy's Dr. Dolittle 2 fell to No. 3 in its second weekend of release, taking in an estimated $15.4 million, for a 10-day total of about $51 million. Analysts predict the film will reach about $100 million.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider dropped one place to No. 4 in its third weekend of release, with $9.8 million, for a 17-day total of about $101.2 million, the trade papers reported.
Genre films rounding out the top 10 included No. 6 Atlantis: The Lost Empire, with about $7.8 million for the weekend, and No. 7 Shrek, with about $7.1 million.
The Real Teddy Speaks
ack Angel--the veteran voice-over actor who talks for Teddy the supertoy in Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence--told TV Guide Online that he was surprised the director picked his growly voice for the stuffed bear.
"I asked every person on the [A.I.] set if they were casting the part of Teddy, would they have chosen that voice, and everyone said no," Angel told the site. "Steven said, 'That's right!' He marches to a different drummer."
Even though he recorded his lines in a separate studio, Angel--who has voiced characters in Toy Story 2, A Bug's Life and the upcoming Monsters, Inc.--spent a lot of time on the A.I. set. "Steven wanted me there every day, because he said Teddy was such an important character that he wanted to be able to change things as we went along," he said. "I really had a ringside seat. I could go stand next to Steven no matter where he was; we had a really nice relationship."
Angel discovered that Spielberg argued with his late A.I. collaborator Stanley Kubrick over the character's name, TV Guide reported. "Spielberg didn't want it to be Teddy, and Kubrick said, 'Well, what else would you call it?,'" Angel said. "And he said, 'Well, I wouldn't call him Teddy.' But Kubrick said it's got to be Teddy. So it was."
A.I. Teddy Due In Stores
iger Electronics--makers of the Furby toy--will bring out a version of Teddy, the talking "supertoy" from Steven Spielberg's SF film A.I. Artificial Intelligence, TV Guide Online reported.
The toymaker hopes to have Teddy dolls on store shelves by late July.
Four versions of Teddy will range in size from 4 to 15 inches and carry a price of $4.99 to $29.99, the site reported. The larger dolls will utter such phrases as "I am robot, but I am also Teddy," "You have a trusting hand, my friend" and "What's new, super friend?" The bigger models won't be out until fall, TV Guide reported. Jack Angel, who voiced Teddy in the film, will also provide the voice for the dolls.
A.I. Game Debuting
icrosoft will premiere A.I. Puzzler, a video game for the PC based on Steven Spielberg's SF film A.I. Artificial Intelligence, in the fall, the company announced.
The game will retail for a suggested price of $29.95.
A.I. Puzzler will take players through the film's narrative, featuring David and his family, Gigolo Joe, the Flesh Fair and more, the company said. Players will encounter 130 puzzles based on the film. A.I. Puzzler was designed by Alexey Pajitnov, creator of Tetris and Pandora's Box. A demo of the game is on the film's official Web site.
Kubrick's Orange Airs In U.K.
Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick's 1971 SF movie, aired on British television July 4 for the first time since its release, the Reuters news service reported.
Sky Box Office, a subscription channel, will run the movie nearly every day until September, the wire service reported.
The violent movie, which is based on Anthony Burgess' novel of the same name, has not been shown in Great Britain since Kubrick withdrew it voluntarily in the wake of protests over its content. The film tells the story of a gang leader, played by Malcolm McDowell, who engages in "ultra-violence" while listening to Beethoven, Reuters reported.
New Indy IV Details Reported
ew details are emerging about the development of a fourth Indiana Jones film, the New York Post's Page Six column reported.
Paramount Pictures confirmed to the paper that it's "given the green light to look at scripts." But the column added that at least three scripts have been written, with rumors that the story concerns Indy's search for the lost city of Atlantis or his quest to find a long-lost brother. Both Lucas and Spielberg reportedly want writing control.
"Paramount had meetings last week about the movie," an anonymous source told the Post. "They want the original credits--George Lucas producing, Steven Spielberg directing and Harrison Ford to star. ... Harrison wants at least $25 million, plus some of the back end, and George and Steven have said they will work for a lesser fee than usual, but want a big portion of the movie's proceeds. The entire movie is going to cost them $150 million, and Paramount can't figure out how it's going to make any money with all three of the big names demanding money off the back end."
The Paramount spokesman told the Post, "There is no budget yet, because there is no script. Harrison Ford will most likely get $25 million because that is what he is getting for some of his other movies." The Post added that Sean Connery has recently expressed his interest in returning once again as Indy's father.
Mulder To Fly As Superman?
he Coming Attractions Web site reported several rumors about the proposed new Superman film, to be called either Superman Reborn or Superman Destruction.
Paul Attanasio is reportedly in talks to write the script for the film.
The site reported that David Duchovny is under consideration to put on the blue suit, and director Tim Burton may become involved if his upcoming Planet of the Apes movie hits this summer.
Batman producers Benjamin Melniker and Michael E. Uslan are rumored to join longtime X-Files director David Nutter and Dan Hill as executive producers, the site reported. Warners Brothers wants to see how well Sony's Spider-Man film does next year before putting the project on a fast track for a Christmas 2003 release, the site added.
Anderson To Quit X-Files
illian Anderson--Scully on The X-Files--told the London Sunday Times that the show's upcoming ninth season will be her last.
Anderson told the newspaper that she wants to spend more time with her 6-year-old daughter, Piper.
After the X-Files wraps next year, Anderson said she wants to appear on stage in London's West End next summer, "The stuff I am going to do is as far from Scully as humanly possible," she said. As for whether she will be typecast as the brainy FBI agent, she added, "I hope I will be able to act my way out of that. Sometimes I am struck dumb by the narrow thinking with casting directors. Some actors won't audition, but I have to. Having been Scully for such a long time, I have to prove myself in other roles."
Raider To Change For DVD
imon West, director of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, told the Empire Online Web site that the DVD version of the film could differ dramatically from the theatrical release.
Among other things, the DVD may restore deleted scenes that featured British humor that was deemed too much for an American audience, West told the site.
"I think so," West said. "I've done the DVD version already, and there's extra stuff in that, but not a director's cut. Who knows? Often, like a year or two later, they ask you to do a director's cut. It wouldn't be a three-hour thing, but it might be tonally different in some areas. People are horrified that [the DVD version] is not quite the same as it was in the theater, but I actually quite like the idea of having two or three different versions of the film." Tomb Raider, starring Angelina Jolie and based on the Eidos video-game series of the same name, is currently in theaters.
Lee Says Unit 2 Is Special
lexondra Lee, who plays cop Kate Benson on UPN's SF series Special Unit 2, told the Zap2it Web site that she's pleased that UPN picked up the midseason show for the fall.
"We got lucky, because, boy, there were not a lot of shows that got picked up this year," Lee told the site. UPN renewed the series, about a squad of monster-hunting Chicago cops, after a six-episode run this year. It will air at 9 p.m. on Wednesdays, right after UPN's highly anticipated new Star Trek series, Enterprise.
"I've always considered our show to be a little bit Buffy, a little bit of X-Files and, of course, Men in Black," Lee said. "People like to lump us in the sci-fi category, and after seeing the show, it's not like that at all. It's more like fairy-tale monsters, fantasy, like fairies and werewolves, but there's a twist to everything. It's not just a gnome, it's a shoplifting gnome. It's not just a werewolf, it's a stockbroker werewolf. It's not just a spider, it's a superwoman spider. We have a twisted, dark sense of humor on our show."
Though the show's first episodes were shot in Los Angeles, the production is moving for its second year. "The end of July, we start shooting," Lee said. "We're all moving up to Vancouver, Canada. We were so spoiled. They're hardly doing any series in L.A. anymore, and we did our six right in downtown Los Angeles. ... But they're moving us up to Vancouver, just like they do everybody. It's just so nice to know that I've got such a wonderful group of people to work with because I'm going to a foreign territory now. It's intimidating."
Dark Matter In Paper
arner Aspect is publishing Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora, by Sheree R. Thomas, in a trade paperback edition, the publisher announced.
The book is the first anthology of SF fiction from African-American writers and was a New York Times notable book of the year.
The collection includes works by W.E.B. Du Bois, Samuel R. Delany, Octavia E. Butler, Amiri Baraka and Ishmael Reed, as well as by new writers.
Cats & Dogs Tops July 4
ats & Dogs topped the July 4 box-office rankings, pulling in about $9 million in ticket sales, the Hollywood trade papers reported.
A.I. Artificial Intelligence ranked No. 2, taking in about $5.2 million for the day, raising its six-day take to about $42.7 million.
Dr. Dolittle 2 took in about $2.9 million for fourth place.
Cats Required Flexibility
awrence Guterman, director of the fantasy film Cats & Dogs, told SCI FI Wire that working with live animals required a little flexibility--and occasionally resulted in changes to the script.
The movie--about the secret, high-tech war between felines and canines--mixed live action with computer animation and puppetry.
"There were definitely cases where a [live] animal might give us an extra tail-chasing moment, or an extra leaping up and down, and we did in certain cases accommodate that and write lines for that moment, and it would go to the vendors and have them deliver a new line that wasn't in the script," Guterman said during press interviews to promote the film.
In one key sequence--in which martial-arts-trained cats attack the hero dog, Lou--Guterman had to scrap the original plan entirely. "We photographed that, and then put it together with storyboards composited over the background photographed plates, and it wasn't exciting enough, so I worked with the artists to reconstruct the scene, sort of from scratch, to get more energy into it, more cuts into it, more fragmented action to make it more exciting," he said. "And we just took the background plates and used them in ways that they weren't intended ... and laid the animation in over that."
The goal of the film, which was originally conceived as an animated movie, was "to create the sense that we were shooting a movie, a comedic spy thriller, that just happened to have cats and dogs instead of people, instead of a movie photographed, maybe, like an old '50s Disney movie, where a beaver is building a dam and the camera's half a mile away with a 500-millimeter lens," Guterman said. "Here, it was, like, get the camera right in there. Work closely. Photograph it. [With the] shot design, it felt like we were doing choreographed shots that we would do with people, just down low with wide lenses close to the animals." Cats & Dogs is in theaters now.
Cats & Dogs Was Darker
ean Hayes--who voices the cat villain, Mr. Tinkles, in the upcoming fantasy film Cats & Dogs--told SCI FI Wire that the movie had a much darker ending than the one that eventually ended up in the film.
It's not giving anything away to say that the villain gets his comeuppance in the end, but director Lawrence Guterman had a darker idea of what it would look like, Hayes said.
"It originally ended where [Mr. Tinkles] goes ... into an asylum for animals or ... like a ... kennel or something," Hayes said during press interviews. "So this woman was typing, like, very [Tim] Burton-esque, and Sophie brings Mr. Tinkles up to the counter, and she's like, 'I'm here, Mr. Tinkles has been a bad kitty. He needs to be put away' or something. And [the typist] just turns, and she's smiling, and she's nodding and she's nodding, very odd, and her head just pops open and all these cats come out of the body. And that's how it ended, meaning the cats are going to take over the world. And they shot the whole thing, and it was the coolest thing I've ever seen. I was like, 'That's so freaky and like cool!' Which [also] left it wide open for the sequel. I would have loved that ending, but it freaked kids out."
Hayes voices the main villain, a Persian cat modeled on the one stroked by James Bond's archnemesis Blofeld. The actor--best known as Jack in the NBC sitcom Will & Grace--won the role by accident. "I [originally] read for the Calico Cat [a role now played by Jon Lovitz]. And then Larry said, 'Pick up the part of Mr. Tinkles, look at that.' And so I looked it over, while he was standing there, just reading it. And he said, 'Try it with a German accent.' So, I tried it with a German accent, and it came out like Chinese, Japanese, something. Then I did a French accent, and that didn't work. So they just came up with this crazy ... It just seemed very, I don't know, authoritative. Refined American, British, whatever. ... I would say that Mr. Tinkles is a very frustrated Shakespearean actor who never got in a theater and so decided to take over the world. ... They were having a table read. I cut my vacation short in Florida to come up to read for Mr. Tinkles at the table read, and I just let loose, and it was great." Cats & Dogs, which tells the fantastical story of the secret, high-tech war between canines and felines, opens July 4.
Spidey's Dunst Endured A Lot
irsten Dunst, who plays Mary Jane Watson in Sam Raimi's upcoming Spider-Man movie, told Variety that she chose the role to increase her recognition at home and abroad.
"It was a good movie to be a part of," she told the trade paper. "It's not like a cheesy superhero movie at all."
To play Mary Jane, Dunst said she endured being hung by wires, thrown around and drenched in torrential downpours, Variety reported. She got more beat up than Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man, Dunst said--by far, she added emphatically. Spider-Man opens in 2002.
Vampire Hunter D Sequel Due
rban Vision Entertainment announced that it will release Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, a new movie based on 1985's Vampire Hunter D video.
The film, slated for a fall theatrical release, features a completely new storyline and new characters, based primarily on the third D novel by Hideyuki Kikuchi, the company said.
Bloodlust has been animated by Madhouse Studios and directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Ninja Scroll and Wicked City). A trailer for the film will premiere at the Anime Expo 2001 in Long Beach, Calif., on July 6.
Queen Not Damned To Video
spokeswoman for Warner Brothers denied to SCI FI Wire a rumor that its upcoming vampire movie Queen of the Damned is headed straight to video.
The Ain't It Cool News Web site reported the rumor that Queen of the Damned would bypass movie theaters.
"It's an absolute lie, no truth to it whatsoever," the spokeswoman said in response. Queen of the Damned, starring pop star Aaliyah and based on the Anne Rice novel of the same name, is still slated for a theatrical release in 2002.
Owen Not Up For Prisoner
irector Simon West (Lara Croft: Tomb Raider) told the Empire Online Web site that he hasn't offered Clive Owen the lead role in his feature-film update of the cult 1960s TV series The Prisoner.
"It's just that," he told the site. "Internet rumors." Owen was supposedly up for the role of No. 6, the role played by series creator Patrick McGoohan.
West added, "We're just at script stage at the moment. I'm always developing two or more things at once. This was actually supposed to be done before Tomb Raider, but the script wasn't ready." He added, "From being a fan as a kid, out of nostalgia, I would want to put as much of the key stuff from the series in there, like his car or the location. I'd even like to get Patrick McGoohan in there, if he's at all interested. I don't know whether he's over it, but I want to wait until I've got a finished script I'm happy with before approaching him."
West added that he plans to return to the original location of the series, the picturesque North Wales village of Portmeirion. "I would definitely want to shoot part of it there, but this film is going to be on a much bigger scale," West told the site. "And also just go to a whole level. Portmeirion wouldn't be big enough stylistically to be the whole film."
Genre Films Jockey For Fall
he movie studios are already staking out fall dates for their upcoming genre film releases, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The most anticipated releases of the coming season include Warner Brothers' Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on Nov. 16 and New Line's The Fellowship of the Ring, the first Lord of the Rings film, on Dec. 19.
Hearts in Atlantis, Warner Brothers' supernatural movie based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, opens Sept. 28; K-Pax, Universal's film starring Kevin Spacey as a mental patient who claims to be an alien, debuts Oct. 5; and 13 Ghosts, Warner Brothers' remake of the classic William Castle creature feature, materializes Oct. 26.
On Nov. 2, Disney and Pixar unveil the computer-animated Monsters, Inc.
and Sony will premiere the Jet Li SF thriller film The One. Around Christmas time, DreamWorks will unwrap its update of H.G. Wells' classic SF novel The Time Machine.
Cinescape Back Online
he new management of Cinescape Online posted an explanation of the changes to the Web site, which went dark for a short time after the bankruptcy of its corporate owner, Fandom.
Mania Entertainment bought the site and its print magazine, Cinescape, and brought in former Eon magazine and Mothership editor Anthony C. Ferrante to run both.
Online, former Cinescape Insider editor Frank Kurtz will again act as news editor, Ferrante wrote. As for the magazine, after a one-issue hiatus, a new issue will come out in the fall, he said.
Rollerball Rolls Into 2002
ohn McTiernan's remake of the 1975 cult SF film Rollerball will be pushed back to a first-quarter 2002 release from its original Aug. 17 premiere date, Variety reported.
New MGM president Bob Levin told the trade paper, "I want the time to set this up right. In marketing terms, I want to do things with the film that are different than what has been done to date."
MGM was still scrambling to complete a trailer; so far, audiences have only seen a teaser, the trade paper reported. A remake of director Norman Jewison's 1975 movie, Rollerball stars Chris Klein, LL Cool J and Jean Reno.
Buffy Toon Work Starts
eph Loeb, who is executive producing the upcoming Buffy the Vampire Slayer animated series with creator Joss Whedon, told the Comics Continuum Web site that work has begun on the show's first six scripts.
The animated Buffy is aiming at a fall premiere on Fox Kids.
"Jane Espenson and Steve DeKnight are the first [writers] from the Buffy staff to contribute scripts (as well as Joss, of course), and they just hit them so far out of the park, we may not write any more and just let them have the show," Loeb told site. "They are funny, bright, intelligent, true to the mythos and are going to make great animation--the scripts, not Jane and Steve."
Loeb said the show is at the budgeting phase with Fox Kids, which will determine the animation studio and more, the site reported. "Joss and I are still very confident this will be an awesome series and a worthy match for the live-action show."
RoboCop Due For PS2
irgin Interactive recently announced it will release a PlayStation 2 game based on the 1987 SF movie RoboCop, the FGN Web site reported.
The new title will be based on the original RoboCop movie, but it will feature new situations and characters that have not appeared in the three feature films in the franchise, the site reported.
A spokesman for the title told FGN, "We're now focusing on the PS2 version, wanting to get the best out of it, before we start to think about other platforms. A Game Boy Color version will be released in September, a Game Boy Advance version in [the fourth quarter of 2002], and we're thinking of other platforms. This is definitely a franchise, and not just a one-shot." The PS2 version is due this fall, the site reported.
The first of four new Robocop: Prime Directives made-for-television movies, meanwhile, will air on The SCI FI Channel starting at 9 p.m. ET on July 16.
Brosnan Will Still Be Bond
he producers of the James Bond films denied rumors that Pierce Brosnan will be replaced as the superspy, the Reuters news service reported.
In particular, the producers--Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli--denied through a spokesman that Scottish actor Gerard Butler would step into 007's shoes, as has been rumored, the wire service reported.
"Pierce Brosnan will play James Bond in the forthcoming production and for the foreseeable future," the spokesman told Reuters. It has been widely reported that the next Bond film, the 20th in the long-running franchise, would be Brosnan's last.
Brosnan is due to start filming the next Bond film at London's Pinewood Studios in January.
Glitter Protest Aimed At Earth
ans of the syndicated SF TV show Earth: Final Conflict have mounted a letter-writing campaign to protest cast and storyline changes, the Sy Fy Portal Web site reported.
Fans are enclosing the letters to Tribune Entertainment in envelopes filled with blue glitter.
The campaign--inspired by the successful Tabasco-mailing effort by Roswell fans that resulted in that show's second-season renewal--protests Earth's fourth-season finale, which augurs major changes in the coming season, among other things.
Briefly Noted
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The Ain't It Cool News Web site has posted what it says are extensive, major spoilers for the upcoming sixth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which moves to UPN in the fall.
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The Comics Continuum Web site reported that the trailer for Sam Raimi's upcoming Spider-Man film will likely appear on the movie's official Web site before it shows up in theaters on July 11, attached to prints of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.
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People magazine reported that Star Trek: The Next Generation star LeVar Burton donated a kidney in late May to his ailing mother, Erma, according to The Trekker Newsletter. Both Burton and his mother are doing well.
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Warner Bros. will premiere its live-action and animated SF film Osmosis Jones to kick off the eighth World Animation Celebration Aug. 7 in Los Angeles, Variety reported.
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Unbreakable, M. Night Shyamalan's supernatural thriller film, was the nation's top-renting video and DVD last week, generating more than $17.2 million, or 18.1 percent of its $95 million estimated domestic box-office take, according to Video Store magazine research and The Hollywood Reporter.
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The first trailer for Sam Raimi's upcoming Spider-Man movie will come attached to prints of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, which hits theaters on July 11, the Comics Continuum Web site reported.
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Paramount Parks has will create an adventure theme-park ride based on its current fantasy movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, the FGN Web site reported. The ride will open in 2002 at Paramount's Kings Island near Cincinnati.
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Future Pastimes, publisher and developer of the Cosmic Encounter Online game, is previewing a new Flash interface. Cosmic Encounter Online is the Web-based version of the multiplayer board game Cosmic Encounter, which is published by Hasbro/Avalon Hill.
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TNT's original series Witchblade has seen its ratings drop since its premiere two weeks ago, the Inside.com Web site reported. Witchblade premiered with ratings of 2.7, but slipped to a 2.2 last week and 2.0 this week, the site reported. Episode three tied for fourth in its hour among major basic-cable channels, after a time-period win in week one and second-place finish in week two.
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Hayden Christensen discusses his casting as Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode II in a video on the official Star Wars Web site.
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New Line Cinema's Lord of the Rings Web site generated more than 350 million hits worldwide since re-launching on Jan. 12, Rolf Mittweg, president of distribution and marketing for the studio, announced.
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The Comics Continuum Web site disputed an earlier report that Nicolas Cage has signed to play the lead role in the upcoming Ghost Rider movie, which is based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name. "Nope, still not official," David Goyer, who wrote the script, told the site. "They have been in talks for a couple of weeks."
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TRW Inc., Boeing and Warner Bros. are using the upcoming sequel The Matrix Reloaded to test a new digital film distribution system called Picture PipeLine, the Washington Post reported.
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Richard Donner's upcoming SF movie Timeline, based on the Michael Crichton time-travel novel of the same name, is slated to begin shooting in March 2002 and will star Scottish actor Gerard Butler (Dracula 2000), E! Online reported.
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Jon Voight confirmed to the Empire Online Web site a previous report that Nicolas Cage has signed up for the lead role in the proposed Ghost Rider film, based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name. Voight, who is one of the film's producers, said, "It's very exciting. We've got the script, and Nic Cage is going to do it. It's going to be quite terrific."
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SF author Bruce Sterling will guest-edit the summer 2001 issue of Whole Earth Magazine, with contributions from cyberpunk authors William Gibson and Neal Stephenson, among others, Locus Online reported.
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Supernatural thriller movie Soul Survivors has been bumped to a Sept. 28 premiere from its original Aug. 24 date, E! Online reported.
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The British newspaper The Guardian reported a rumor that Hugh Grant will star in the next Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, playing Gilderoy Lockhart, a show-off teacher at Hogwarts wizard's school.
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