Episode II Previewed At Comic-Con
ucasfilm previewed behind-the-scenes footage of its upcoming Star Wars: Episode II at the International Comic-Con in San Diego, including several never-before-seen sequences.
"Episode II is filled with as much action, adventure and passion as you could hope for," Lucasfilm spokesman Steve Sansweet told convention-goers about the sequel, which he said would be darker and more adult than Episode I.
In a special video segment entitled Star Wars: Connections, director George Lucas confirmed that the film would deal in part with the beginning of the Clone Wars. The preview also featured glimpses of Jango Fett (Temuera Morrison), the bounty-hunter father of a prepubescent Boba Fett; views of Samuel L. Jackson wielding a lightsaber as Jedi knight Mace Windu; a grown Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) and Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman) fighting side-by-side with other lightsaber-wielding Jedi; and Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) walking into a nightclub on Coruscant. In remarks to the convention, Sansweet also confirmed that Christopher Lee will play a mysterious character called Count Dooku, that Obi-Wan and Jango duel in the rain on a landing platform and that part of the film will take place on the Lars homestead on Tatooine, with a young Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. Jar Jar Binks will appear in Episode II, but only briefly, he added.
Separately, Sansweet offered details of the upcoming DVD release of Episode I, which will include six hours of additional material, including seven deleted scenes that have been completely produced for the disc--based on animated storyboards, or animatics--by Industrial Light and Magic. The DVD will also feature animatics, five documentaries, the 12-part Web making-of-featurette and other features. The Episode I DVD comes out Oct. 16.
Rhysling SF Poetry Winners Named
oe Haldeman and Bruce Boston took top honors in the 2001 Rhysling Awards of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, according to a report on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Web site.
The Rhysling Award honors the best science fiction, fantasy, or horror poem of the previous calendar year. A full list of winners follows.
Short Poem
•First Place: "My Wife Returns as She Would Have It" by Bruce Boston
•Second place (tie): "Of Dance Steps and Distances" by G.O. Clark and "Refections in a Fading Mir" by Ann K. Schwader
•Third place: "Persephone Wakening" by Tracina Jackson-Adams
Long Poem
•First Place: "January Fires" by Joe Haldeman
•Second place (tie): "Valley of Years" by David C. Kopaska-Merkel and "Maya" by James Dorr
•Third place (tie): "Lesions of Genetic Sin" by Bruce Boston and "Event Horizons" by Gene Van Troyer
Buffy Toon OK'd
oss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, told convention-goers over the weekend that a proposed animated Buffy TV series has been approved.
Speaking at the International Comic-Con in San Diego, Whedon said, "As of yesterday [July 20], the animated series if finally a go."
Whedon added that several Buffy writers, including Steven S. DeKnight and Jane Espenson, will also pen scripts for the animated show; Jeph Loeb will produce. "We're about to start drawing," Whedon said.
The series for Fox will take the storyline back to Sunnydale High School and tell stories that were not told in the original live-action show. The half-hour show could go on the air in February 2002 or fall of next year.
New Day Dawns On Buffy
uffy may be dead, but her little sister Dawn is alive and kicking, Michelle Trachtenberg told SCI FI Wire about her Buffy the Vampire Slayer character.
In the show's upcoming sixth season--its first on UPN--"I would like to see Dawn again go through a whole rainbow of emotions, just like she did last season, except even more intense, and even, you know, more happier," Trachtenberg said in an interview. "Just a whole rainbow of emotions."
But the 15-year-old actress remained coy about her character's new season. "She's gone through a lot of changes," she said. "I never really like to suggest things that you can expect of my character, mostly because I really don't know, and secondly, because that way you're not surprised. ... It's kind of like, whatever you'd like to see Dawn do, think about it, and maybe she'll surprise you." Buffy debuts on UPN on Oct. 9.
Noxon: Buffy DVDs Due
arti Noxon, executive producer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, told SCI FI Wire that DVD editions of the show's first three seasons are well in the works and may come out soon. "They're going to be great," Noxon said in an interview.
"They're all remastered. And they have running commentary from a bunch of different people, the writer of that episode, comments on it, as well as [creator] Joss [Whedon]. It's a real fan thing."
Noxon didn't know how soon the long-awaited DVDs will hit stores in the United States. "Soon," she said. "I know that they've already done seasons one, two and three. They've already interviewed us for those. And we've done on-camera interviews and all kinds of stuff. It's a big thing. It should be out shortly. That's going to be great for the fans. What's weird is it's taking so long to come out." Buffy moves to UPN in the fall.
Bogus Buffy Spoilers Planted
on't believe everything you read on the Web about upcoming Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes: Producers told SCI FI Wire that they've been planting bogus spoilers for a while now.
"That's the fun part," Buffy executive producer Martin Noxon said in an interview. "Because we got sort of savvy, ... and also we're trying to track down where the genuine leaks were, so there's stuff out there that's pure hokum."
Noxon said that portions of Buffy scripts that have appeared on the Ain't It Cool News Web site are pages sent to casting directors, which end up in the hands of actors auditioning for roles on the show. But other spoilers are fabricated--including one last year that James Marsters' character, Spike, would be killed off and that Marsters himself would be working on a feature film for Sixth Sense director M. Night Shyamalan.
Still, Buffy creator Joss Whedon expressed exasperation at the genuine leaks. "There's some accuracy there; luckily, not total accuracy, because that would be annoying," Whedon said in an interview. "But we have a lot of leaks. We've had horrible leaks on Angel, and I resent it, but there's nothing I can do about it at this point. It doesn't affect what we're going to do. ... And enough of them are wrong that there's a safety factor. ... I feel so strongly ... about the concept of surprise being so important. ... This desire for insider knowledge is so overwhelming with people, and I'm not sure why." Buffy premieres on UPN on Oct. 9.
Buffy Now Says UPN's Great
arah Michelle Gellar, star of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, said she was pleased about the move of her series to UPN from The WB and qualified earlier statements that she would quit if the show ever left its berth on the frog netlet.
Speaking to reporters at UPN's fall preview for the Television Critics Association in Pasadena, Calif., Gellar said, "You have to understand that for five years we had a home. We had a place where we were supported, where we were able to make the show creatively the way we wanted to make it, and so the thought of making a move was scary."
Gellar added, "Unfortunately, The WB didn't want to make the show the way we wanted to do it. They didn't want to give us, or give [creator] Joss [Whedon], what we needed to make the show the way it has to be made. And [UPN president] Dean [Valentine] has been incredibly supportive. He's been a fan of the show since before we were on the air, when he was at Disney and tried to get it over to ABC.
"I'm nervous," Gellar added. "I'm excited. UPN has been wonderful. ... And I think they've given us a new excitement about the show. It's like getting to start fresh. It's like getting to show all of these new people the show that we make that we're so incredibly proud of and proud to make and be a part of, and it's exciting." Buffy premieres on UPN on Oct. 9.
Whedon Tips Buffy Spoilers
oss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, told SCI FI Wire that he will revive the titular character--who died at the end of last season--in the show's two-hour premiere on UPN Oct. 9. "When you bring somebody back to life, ... you have a lot of disbelief," Whedon said at UPN's fall preview meeting in Pasadena, Calif.
"You have to always make the characters feel the way the audience does. You have to make it difficult. You have to earn it. You have to just get in there and make it very visceral. ... It's not going to be simple. It's not going to be breezy. It's not going to be a cheat. We did this knowing that we were going to have to bring her back, and ... we're going to have to do it legitimately and with integrity." Whedon added that the show won't rely on a Dallas-like gimmick to bring Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) back to life. "No," Whedon said. "Dallas was lame."
The premiere will contain a brief recap of the show for viewers new to the series since its move from The WB. Whedon added that the show will likely not have any crossovers with its sister series, Angel, which remains on The WB. "We had a couple of notions that were a little embryonic, but it was never crucial," Whedon said. "And I very much wanted the shows to stand on their own."
Among other changes in the upcoming season: Willow (Alyson Hannigan) will assume more of a leadership role in the Scooby Gang, as well as returning more to her computer-geek roots; Willow and Tara's (Amber Benson) relationship may undergo changes; and Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) will appear only as a recurring character. Anya (Emma Caulfield) will take over the Magic Shop in the wake of Giles' return to England, and there will be no new Slayer called as a result of Buffy's death--the line now goes through Faith, who was the last Slayer called, Whedon said. (In response to a question about spoilers on the Ain't It Cool News Web site, Whedon said some were accurate and others were not, but didn't detail which were which).
Whedon also said he was aware of The WB's decision to shut down the official Buffy.com Web site and its fan message board, The Bronze. "I haven't been in town, so I said to them early on, 'Get that thing ready.' ... So I'm hoping that it will be soon," Whedon said in an interview. "But I don't have any information on how that is working. But it's a big priority. My hope is now, or, worst case scenario, it must be up before the season starts." Adam Ware, chief operating officer of UPN, told SCI FI Wire that the network is working with Buffy the Vampire Slayer production studio Fox to revive the site and was talking with the same company that created the original site.
The WB Nixes Buffy/Angel Link
ordan Levin, president of entertainment at The WB, confirmed that there will be no more crossover episodes between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel now that the former show is on the rival UPN Network.
Addressing the Television Critics Association, Levin said, "I think it's important right now if Angel's going to work long-term that Angel really establish itself as a world that obviously comes from the same mythology, but operates with its own set of principles, guidelines, characters and really establishes itself independently from Buffy."
Despite scathing comments made by Buffy and Angel creator Joss Whedon in the press, Levin said his decision is not related to any personal ill will. "We still have very good relations with Joss. Obviously, there's a lot of emotion involved in business decisions, and it was difficult for everyone. I think when the dust settled, everyone realized it was just a business decision, extremely complicated with a lot of different agendas and we're treating him respectfully as we always have and pushed pretty hard for Emmy nominations and still think he's an incredibly talented producer."
Levin concluded that crossovers would simply be impractical. "We are talking about having some characters from Buffy come over, but what we feel we need to do is have them settle into one of the worlds or the other world. It's a really tough thing to do those crossovers from a production standpoint. To pull one of the players off of one show really juggles that schedule and they become light in that show. Again, I think it's really important for Angel to stand on its own legs."
Spoilers Hinted For Angel
he newest cast member on The WB's Angel told SCI FI Wire that she's not sure what her character will do in the series' upcoming third season, but the other stars had strong ideas about the changes their characters will face.
Amy Acker becomes a series regular as Fred, the librarian whom the heroes rescued from a demon dimension at the end of last season. "I know I go back [with them], and that's about it so far," Acker said in an interview at The WB's fall preview event for the Television Critics Association. "I think I'm going to be part of the whole team, but they are keeping it a secret to me, too."
Series creator Joss Whedon, meanwhile, told SCI FI Wire in an interview that it's possible some familiar faces may reappear. When asked if the vampire duo Darla and Drusilla would return, Whedon said, "I hope so. It's always a question of availability with our recurring characters. They all have such busy careers."
As for the titular vampire, played by David Boreanaz, Whedon said, "He is not going to be the miserable person that he was last year. He's going to be an entirely different miserable person this year. And he's going to have an entirely different reason. He'll definitely be more connected to the world."
For his part, Boreanaz was excited about the third season's opportunities for his performance. "I think the past season was a real growth period for him in distinguishing a lot of his past," Boreanaz said of his character. "How we're going to start up this year is going to pull things together, and we're going to bring a new character in. With his character, there are new challenges ahead with his family strife. That's really all I can say."
J. August Richards had some news about his character, Gunn. "I've learned that my character is going to go through a metamorphosis early on in the year," Richards said. "It could mean physical, emotional or biological. From all of the writers, that's what I've heard. I don't know anything specific, and even if I did, I couldn't tell. I'd be in big trouble."
Alexis Denisof, who plays Wesley, insinuated that his character will continue to be more physically active in the team's weekly adventures. "Last year was definitely a year where his confidence was tested in various ways, and he had to step up, and he discovered that he did OK," Denisof said. "He got them through and led the team pretty well in some certain situations and also was a good team player, and I think this year he's going to find many more strengths. This will be a year of two things. There will be some personal, emotional challenges, but then, on the work front, he's going to get stronger and stronger as a part of the agency and as a leader in the agency. And I think he'll get more and more complicated." Angel moves to Monday nights this fall.
Fray TV Show Possible?
oss Whedon, creator of Dark Horse's Fray comic series, told SCI FI Wire that he's open to adapting the story to other media--once he finishes the series itself.
A television show based on Fray "would be very expensive, on account of all the flying cars and whatnot," Whedon said in an interview. "But I kept the option open to develop it for other media."
Whedon added, "I don't like to think like that when I'm working on a thing. It's just the comic book. And it's eight issues. And beyond that, there are definitely possibilities, but I'm not really thinking about that. I'm trying to concentrate on the eight issues that I don't seem to be able to finish."
Fray is set in the same universe as Whedon's TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but takes place in the future and focuses on a new Slayer character, Melaka Fray. "I'm actually halfway through," Whedon said. "I've written four of them. And I'm really behind, agh. They seem to have been well-received--I mean, they seem to be selling OK, and nobody's come to me and gone, 'Derivative and boring!' I look at them, of course, and say, 'Derivative and boring! They're going to hate me! I gotta hide!' But I'm having so much fun, and Karl [Moline] and Andy [Owens] are such wonderful artists, that I'm excited by it." The third issue of Fray hits stores on Aug. 1.
Bakula May Helm Enterprise Eps
cott Bakula, who plays Capt. Jonathan Archer in UPN's upcoming Star Trek series, Enterprise, told SCI FI Wire that he's interested in writing and directing future episodes once the show gets off the ground.
"Possibly," Bakula said in an interview. Series co-creator "Rick [Berman] is wonderful that way. Not all executive producers in this town are. My last ... [Quantum Leap executive producer Donald P.] Bellisario was that way. But Rick has been very forthcoming."
Bakula added, "He knows that I direct. But I really want to get my feet firmly on the ground here and devote all my attention to this first season and getting a solid start. I really want the show to be great and not worry about anything else right now." Enterprise premieres on UPN on Sept. 26.
Wire Tours Enterprise Set
he interior of the titular starship in UPN's upcoming Star Trek series Enterprise owes as much to submarine design as it does to spaceships, SCI FI Wire observed during a tour of the show's Paramount sets.
The tour--part of UPN's fall preview to the Television Critics Association--allowed reporters for the first time to view sets for the ship's bridge, corridors, engine room and armory in Paramount's Stage 18. The 22nd-century ship's interior is meant to predate the starship of the original Trek series and evoke vessels familiar to 21st-century viewers.
The bridge is narrower and deeper than previous starship incarnations, with steel pipe railings, corrugated steel floors and tan metal walls covered with instrument display panels and contemporary-looking track lighting overhead. The captain's chair resembles the driver's seat of a Porsche, with computer-screen readouts in the arms. Work stations feature flat-panel "plasma screen" computer displays and readouts, keypads, knobs and levers. The helm features an actual steering wheel and joystick control; the science station features a viewport similar to that used by Spock on the original series. At the rear of the bridge is the "situation room"--a flat computer-screen table with black leather bucket-seat chairs, where strategic meetings are held.
Corridors of the ship have pipes running overhead and light panels in the walls at floor level; doors open mechanically and are set into step-over hatches, as in a modern warship or submarine. The floors are textured metal, not carpet; the overall feel is that of a large naval vessel of the future.
The engine room, surrounded at mid-level by catwalks, houses the warp engine, a horizontal cylinder with pulsing lights that suggests a huge turbine. The armory resembles the torpedo room in a submarine; ranks of huge metal projectiles, or missiles, line the walls and sit in two cradles. To launch the missiles, which are the predecessors of photon torpedoes, crewmen must open a hatch and slide the missile into a launch tube. Enterprise launches Sept. 26.
Bakula Describes Enterprise Hero
cott Bakula, who will star as Capt. Jonathan Archer in UPN's upcoming Star Trek series, Enterprise, told SCI FI Wire that his character will be closer to Kirk than Picard.
"My guy grew up in the system," Bakula said in an interview at UPN's fall preview for the Television Critics Association in Pasadena, Calif. "His dad was an engineer in the project and worked on developing the warp five engine. So he's kind of a brat of the space program."
Bakula added about his 22nd-century character, "He's a little bit brash. He's a little bit in people's faces. He doesn't like being told what to do per se. He's a great captain, I think. But he's going to make some mistakes. He's very human. He's more similar to Kirk than to Picard. ... It's been a blast. I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd be standing toe to toe with a Klingon screaming in my face and spitting all over me."
Co-creators Rick Berman and Brannon Braga said the show was an attempt to recapture the wonder of exploring space for the first time. "We see this as being the Chuck Yeager of the space program, going back to stories about humanity going where no man has gone before," Berman told SCI FI Wire. He added that he is drafting more of the scripts personally than he has in recent Trek series. "I've been much more involved in the writing now," Berman said. "Brannon and I wrote the pilot, and we've written the first and third hour episodes, and we're finding ourselves having a great time working together. Very much so." Berman also confirmed a rumor that James Cromwell, who played warp drive inventor Zefram Cochrane in Star Trek: First Contact, would make a cameo appearance in the pilot episode, and that Trek actors LeVar Burton, Roxann Dawson and Robert Duncan McNeill will direct episodes.
Berman and Braga also offered a few more details about the technology of Enterprise: crew members will use "phase pistols" instead of phasers; the ship will have armored hull plating, not shields; and there will be transporters for beaming cargo that have only recently been approved for human transport as well. Berman also confirmed that the show will push the limits of sexuality, though Braga insisted the series will remain family-friendly.
Meanwhile, John Billingsley shed light on his mysterious character, the alien Dr. Phlox. Billingsley told SCI FI Wire that his alien is new to the Trek universe and is from an as-yet-unnamed species. "I've got three prosthetic pieces: I've got a forehead, ears and a chin, and all of that is painted over in a kind of burnt sienna and a mottled brown. So it's a sort of a striated and mottled complexion I have. And I have giant blue eyes. And my hair is pretty much my own, with one little piece that sort of augments it. ... My own sense of it is that [he's from] a planet of hyper-intellectual philosophers who have become so wedded to their intellects that they've sort of decided to in effect become monastic and retreat from the universe. And I'm one of the few who actually considers it valuable to go out and dig around. I'm as much an anthropologist as I am a physician. ... I was part of the Vulcan Interspecies Medical Exchange Program. ... I am on Earth. The Vulcans have presumably sent me there to watch over things a bit on the medical side. When the crisis erupts that precipitates the action in the first episode, I'm pressed into service as the ship's physician." Enterprise premieres Sept. 26.
Apes Behind Schedule?
he Inside.com Web site reported that Tim Burton's remake of Planet of the Apes may be three or four days behind schedule.
Fox is reportedly struggling to get the film completed in time for a July 27 release and postponed for two days an exhibitor screening originally set for July 17.
The press junket for the movie, meanwhile, has been pushed to July 20, just a week before the film opens, the site reported. "We were in the lab all weekend long," Fox vice chairman Bob Harper told Inside.com. "We've never done a film on this tight a schedule." Harper said the film is behind schedule mainly because of the post-production special-effects work that is still underway. But as recently as two weeks ago, filmmakers were reportedly reshooting live-action scenes, including an opening rocket-crash sequence, sources familiar with the situation told Inside.com. In addition, studio executives also are said to have requested significant changes in composer Danny Elfman's score to make the music more heroic-sounding, a source told the site.
Carter Back For X-Files
he X-Files creator Chris Carter will remain with his signature show for one more season, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Carter signed a new deal with 20th Century Fox TV to produce a ninth season of the paranormal show.
Carter will serve as show runner alongside his seasoned team of executive producers, Frank Spotnitz, Vince Gilligan and John Shiban, the trade paper reported. Carter is said to have wrestled with the decision on whether to commit to running the show or to segue into a consultant role. But after lengthy negotiations, 20th and Carter finalized a new one-season deal late last week, the trade paper reported.
A remaining question is whether star Gillian Anderson will remain with the show. She has said publicly that she intends to leave the show when her contract expires at the end of next season, but Fox insiders told the Reporter there will be an effort to make the coming season a kind of new beginning for the series to allow it to carry on with new stars Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish and other actors should Anderson depart.
UPN Unveils Fall Dates
PN announced the fall premiere dates for genre shows, including Enterprise, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Roswell and Special Unit 2.
Enterprise, the network's upcoming Star Trek series, will debut with a two-hour episode at 8 p.m. ET/PT Sept. 26 and will air regularly on Wednesdays at 8 p.m.
Special Unit 2 starts its second season with a one-hour episode at 9 p.m. Oct. 3 and will air Wednesdays at 9 p.m.
Buffy makes its UPN debut with a two-hour episode at 8 p.m. Oct. 9 and moves into its regular 8 p.m. Tuesday timeslot on Oct. 16.
Roswell makes its own UPN debut with a regular episode at 9 p.m. Oct. 16 and will air Tuesdays at 9 p.m.
Fox Unveils Fall Dates
he Fox network announced the fall premiere dates for its genre shows, including Dark Angel, The Tick, The X-Files and Futurama.
Dark Angel starts its second season in a new timeslot, at 8 p.m. Fridays, beginning Sept. 21. The show moves from Tuesdays at 9 p.m.
The Tick premieres at 8:30 p.m. Nov. 1 and will air on Thursdays.
The X-Files kicks off its ninth season at 9 p.m. Nov. 4.
Futurama makes its season premiere at 7 p.m. on Dec. 9.
Wells Taking Time Farther
imon Wells, director of an upcoming new film version of H.G. Wells' classic SF novel The Time Machine, told SCI FI Wire that the movie pushes the limits of visual-effects technology to bring viewers a new--yet familiar--experience of time travel.
"A lot of it is essentially giving the audience things that they sort of have seen, but doing them better and taking it further," Wells said in an interview at the International Comic-Con in San Diego.
Wells added, "Partly, [we're] doing the time-travel stuff that has been done before, the stop-motion stuff, but doing it way, way better than it's been done before. But then, we up the ante. Because we actually see geological time scales take place. Where George Pal [in his 1960s Time Machine film], for instance, very carefully [had his time traveler hide] in a big mountain for most it, we actually witness those changes taking place." Wells said that the movie will show viewers the changes that take place as the hero, played by Guy Pearce, journeys 800,000 years into the future from his 19th-century lab in London.
The movie will also feature a sophisticated new machine, a brass, glass and wood device modeled in part on an hourglass and partly on Pal's machine--the chair actually mirrors the one in the old design. The new machine--which Wells said cost $1 million to build--was on view at Comic-Con. "Quite apart from the fact that the design of it is extraordinary, there is an immense amount of visual-effects work that goes on top of this machine," Wells said. "Actually, a lot of the stuff with the machine, we remove the blades, and the [spinning] blades are actually computer-generated. And the amazing thing is, you can't tell which are real and which are the generated blades. The technology is that good now."
Wells--H.G.'s great-grandson--also alters the narrative to speak to a 21st-century audience. "It's an issue of trying to find a personal story that's worth telling," Wells said. "A story ... that used the time-travel aspect that would in some way reflect a personal growth or a discovery within a character. So what we came up with was this aspect of an event in your past that you can't change, even if you had a time machine to go back and do it, you still can't change. In this case, it's actually what made Alexander make the time machine in the first place. So there's the granny-strangling paradox: You can't go back in time and strangle you grandmother, because then you wouldn't be born. You can't go and change the event which caused you to make the machine that allows you to go back. ... We came up with ... the idea that the time traveler is, in an emotional sense, stuck in one place in time, even though physically he's able to move to anywhere in time that he wants. ... Maturity comes from accepting your past and being informed by it and making your decisions to go into the future based on your experiences in the past. This is essentially what our character discovers. He starts out as a very unworldly character who has considerable difficulties relating to the world around him, and we see that emotional growth in him through the story." The Time Machine, now in post-production, opens in November.
Machine Looks Back And Ahead
im Wilcox, who conceptualized the digital design of the upcoming SF film The Time Machine, told SCI FI Wire that he based his design for the titular device in part on the machine in George Pal's 1960s version of the movie.
"We wanted to give a tip of the hat to the original, as it was such an icon," Wilcox said in an interview at the International Comic-Con in San Diego.
Wilcox added, "It's definitely not the same, [but] fans will appreciate a wink to the original." Included in the design is a replica of the original barber chair in Pal's version, crafted to fit the specifications of the new movie. The overall design also owes a debt to Pal in having large, spinning parts and a crystal control device, as well as a numerical panel that ticks off the years.
But beyond that, Wilcox's design is "a new look at how things are done." The new machine is crafted to look like a high-tech Victorian creation of brass, wood and crystal. When not travelling through time, the machine has an hourglass shape with its compound-curved crystal prisms (actually made of plexiglass). While traveling, the machine transforms into a sphere specially designed to hurtle a passenger safely through the time-space continuum. According to Wilcox, the time counter was based on English mathematician Charles Babbage's 1890s-era "difference engine"--a kind of rudimentary computer composed of interlocking gears.
The time machine was first designed on a computer, from which a scale model was crafted before the full-sized prop was created. Construction on the machine began in July 2000, and, with only a few weeks off, Wilcox and his crew worked straight through until filming began in February 2001. Wilcox added that the prop has many functional moving parts, and because of its complexity, only a single machine was built for the production. In all, the machine weighs 4,500 pounds and cost approximately $1 million. The Time Machine is set for a November release.
Is Time Machine In Trouble?
rlando Jones told SCI FI Wire that given director Simon Wells' departure from The Time Machine, he's not sure that Dreamworks can complete
the troubled picture in time for its intended Christmas Day release.
"I don't know how they're going to get that film out," Jones said.
"I was pretty sure that Simon was going to burn out," Jones said. "It's his first live-action film. He was shooting all day and editing all night because The Time Machine is [due] out in December."
Wells is the grandson of The Time Machine author
H.G. Wells and previously directed the animated features Casper 2 and The Prince
of Egypt. Gore Verbinski (Mouse Hunt) took over the project after an exhausted Wells dropped out, but Jones--who shares the screen in The Time Machine with Guy Pearce, Jeremy Irons and Mark Addy--said he did not work with the new director.
Roswell's Isabel Transforms
atherine Heigl, who plays teen alien Isabel Evans on Roswell, told SCI FI Wire that her character will sport a new do and a new attitude in the show's upcoming third season, when it moves to UPN from The WB.
Heigl cut her familiar long, blonde hair and dyed it brown--a change she made for an audition over the summer.
"I actually did it for a role that fell through ... [that] called for a more sophisticated look," Heigl said in an interview. She added that she had been lobbying The WB to let her shear her locks for a while, but that the network--possibly nervous after Felicity star Keri Russell's famous hair change--wouldn't have it. When word came of the move to UPN, she said, "I just went for it. I've been wanting to cut my hair forever! I just think it looks better. I'm a better brunette than blonde, I think."
Apart from her looks, Heigl said she's looking forward to the new season because of the changes planned for Isabel. Among other things, producers will give Isabel a new love interest that may lead to marriage. "It's been a tough couple of years, because I think there hasn't been a lot of development for her," Heigl said. "It's been sort of confusing what to do with her, because there wasn't that love interest, there wasn't that connection. It was hard to find where she fit in, because they had created her as this vulnerable, yet aloof, character, and it was hard to find her place. But hopefully, this season will be it." Heigl also looks forward to moving Isabel away from the perfect daughter, sister and friend. "I think we're stepping away from that a little bit. I think she rebels a little bit. And she says, 'I'm living my life my way. You can't tell me what to do, no matter what you think. And I appreciate your love and support, but back off.' ... This season is going to be a lot of fun for me. I'm really excited about it. The opportunity to develop a different side of Isabel, a more flirty and fun-loving and joyous side. She's been so afraid and so vulnerable and just not really truly living her life for all this time. And I think this season is the opportunity for her to branch out, to find her roots." Roswell debuts on UPN on Oct. 16.
Changes Come To Roswell
ason Katims, executive producer of the teen alien series Roswell, told reporters that the show will drop some of the harder science-fiction elements and return more to character stories in its upcoming third season, with major changes coming for everyone.
"The stories are getting a little bit out of high school," he said during UPN's fall preview for the Television Critics Association.
Katims added, "Isabel gets into a serious relationship and falls into a precipitous marriage. Max goes on a quest to find his child, and Liz goes along with him, and that quest will take him out of Roswell and onto the road. ... Michael basically wants to build a life for himself and winds up getting a job. ... Maria's character begins to pursue her musical career, and that becomes a real thing." He added, "One of the things I'm really interested in playing, starting with the beginning of the year, is the family drama that is here in the show and that we've never really explored. In the first episode, Max and Liz get arrested. ... And suddenly they're in real trouble, and their parents are called in. ... It's not so funny anymore, and it's not like they can go away for two days and say, 'We went camping,' and everything is OK with them. By the end of the episode, Liz is forbidden by her parents ever to see Max."
In an interview following the press tour, Katims told SCI FI Wire, "I felt where we went kind of astray a little bit [last year] was these four-episode arcs, where there was so much mythology, and so many pieces of storylines out there, that it just got too complicated. I think we're on a much better track here. This is really what I've been wanting to do with the show, bring it back to building the season based on character arcs, and we have a character arc for every character in the show."
As part of that, Katims said the show has hired writer Melinda Metz, author of the popular Roswell High series of books on which the show is based, and her writing partner, Laura Burns. "What I expect them to bring is, they obviously have a long history with these characters, with this world. They have a great imagination, and I don't expect them to bring storylines from those books. What I expect them to bring is their imagination and who they are as writers, and I'm very excited about the possibilities here." Roswell premieres on UPN on Oct. 16.
Roswell Returns To Earth
hiri Appleby, star of the teen alien series Roswell, told SCI FI Wire that she's looking forward to a return to the central romance between alien Max and human Liz in the upcoming third season, when the show moves to UPN from The WB.
In an interview, Appleby added that she agreed that the series' harder science-fiction edge last season may have alienated some of the show's core fans.
"I think one of the great aspects about the show was the love and the feelings and the fact that these characters felt so deeply over this science fiction aspect," Appleby said during UPN's fall preview for reporters in Pasadena, Calif. "And when you went too science fiction, you lost a lot of the emotion. So hopefully this year, with the UPN support, we'll be able to combine the two strengths, and the show will actually be able to blossom this year. The first season was great, but it was a lot of work, because it was only love story, which means it was me and Jason [Behr] working so many hours per day. And then second season, it was just the science fiction. So you were, like, wanting the emotion, versus in first season you were wanting more of a break from it, because it was so emotional and it took so much out of you. And so I think this year [executive producer] Jason [Katims] is really focusing on, like, giving the audience both of it, so they can get involved in the craziness of it, but still feel for the characters."
Appleby said that it troubled her that the show shifted its focus from Liz and Max, played by Behr. "It bothered me to some degree, but at the same time, you acknowledge the fact that you're part of an ensemble show, and ... there's so many great characters and so many great actors, that it was wonderful for the audience to get a little bit of a taste of everything. And the show started off that way. And it came and went. ... It was sort of nice to have a break. But ... I think this season is going to be focused on Max and Liz getting back together, and their trials and tribulations, and the Isabel romance. I think there will be a lot of things going on, but I think the focal point will be the love between the two of them, finally." Roswell premieres on UPN at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Oct. 16.
The Tick Is Only Human
atrick Warburton, star of Fox's upcoming superhero satire The Tick, told SCI FI Wire that the show will put the man back in the superman.
"In the Tick's world, the superheroes are all very very human, very vulnerable," Warburton said in an interview at Fox's preview for the Television Critics Association. "And so I think it's fun exploring that. It makes them much more accessible. ... I think folks can watch, and anybody could say, 'I could be that guy.' ... It's a very ordinary world, and at the same time, very surreal."
The Tick, a live-action series based on Ben Edlund's animated show and comic book series of the same name, lampoons superhero conventions as a way of looking at the foibles of regular folks. "I think because of all the parallels that go on, you can take the superhero challenges of the day and their stories and their interactions with each other, at the end of the day, there could be parallels between saving someone from Apocalypse Cow to some telemarketing that you did this day," Warburton said. "It's like, 'The same thing happened to me today, except I was telemarketing, and he was fighting a 50-foot, fire-shooting-out-of-its-teats cow.' In the writing, when they can do that, make it all accessible, it's fun. ... The possibilities are endless. That's why the one thing we want is just for the show to see the light of day and for people to give it a shot." The Tick--from producers Edlund, Barry Sonnenfeld, Barry Josephson, Larry Charles and David Sacks--bows on Fox on Nov. 1.
Janssen Out, Boyle In MIB 2
ara Flynn Boyle will step in for X-Men actress Famke Janssen as the lead villain in Barry Sonnenfeld's upcoming Men in Black 2, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Janssen dropped out after only one day of shooting because of an illness in the family, the trade paper reported.
Boyle will play Serleena, a villainous bombshell, according to the Reporter. She joins original Men in Black cast members Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones and newcomers Johnny Knoxville (as a two-headed alien) and Rosario Dawson (as Smith's love interest, Rita).
Grant Denies Potter Role
ugh Grant has not been cast, as rumored, in the feature-film version of J.K. Rowling's second Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the Popcorn U.K. Web site reported.
The MovieHeadlines.net site reported the rumor that Grant had been confirmed to play Prof. Gilderoy Lockhart in the second Potter film.
But Grant's spokesperson, Karin Smith, told Popcorn, "It's the first I've heard about it." Smith added that Grant hasn't even spoken with Warner Bros. about the film.
Steve Kloves is currently adapting Chamber of Secrets for the big screen. The first Potter film, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, is due in theaters Nov. 16.
Fantasy X Hits Japan
inal Fantasy X, the latest installment in the venerable Square video game series, hit retails stores in Japan on July 19, with hundreds of crazed fans gathering for the launch, the FGN Web site reported.
Square held a Final Fantasy X countdown with retailer Tsutaya at its Shibuya location, which saw hundreds of fans counting down the seconds until the stores opened for business at 7 a.m., the site reported.
Final Fantasy X, for the PlayStation 2 gaming platform, debuts in the United States in the first quarter of 2002.
Family Values Inform Smallville
he cast and crew of The WB's upcoming Superman series, Smallville, told reporters that the show deals with a different kind of family dynamic--in effect, viewing the teen superhero as a "special-needs child."
The series, which will air Tuesdays at 9 p.m. this fall, chronicles the young Clark Kent's exploration of his super powers.
Series co-creator Miles Millar said, "For us, what distinguishes the show is that the only person Clark can talk to are his parents. It's the parents that guard his secret--unlike other shows where the kids have a secret, and they're in the clubhouse and the parents are in the dark. Here--by the nature of the fact that when Clark goes to Metropolis, his parents are the only ones who know--Clark actually talks about his problems with his parents. This, for us, makes it a unique show in terms of a cross-generational discussion about events and problems."
Added John Schneider, who plays father Jonathan Kent, "I think it's clear in the pilot ... that we're not dealing with Superman as a teen-ager. We are really, in effect, dealing with a special-needs child. It really bothers young Clark, because he says he doesn't want to go through his entire high school life as a loser. He doesn't look at it and say, 'Wow, I've got these super powers, isn't this great?' He looks at it by saying, 'I'm really strange. There's something wrong with me. What is it?' So we come to grips with that. As fantastic as it sounds, as odd as it sounds, it comes off being very, very real. We have a child that has some very severe differences from other children. How are we going to deal with that? How are we going to steer them into an area where they can actually help him and those around him, rather than be hurtful to him and those around him?"
By contrast, the developing Lex Luthor is guided by the negative influence of his father, co-creator Alfred Gough said. "His father has exiled him to basically run a sh-t factory in Smallville," he said. "He thought he was going to take his rightful place in the Luthor Corp. in Metropolis, so throughout the series, you're going to see the relationship between Lex and his father and see how twisted it is."
Smallville Has High-Flying Plans
lfred Gough, co-creator of The WB's upcoming Superman series, Smallville, told SCI FI Wire that he wants to add wirework martial arts, crossovers with other DC Comics superheroes and cameos from other Superman actors to the show if it succeeds in its first 13-episode run.
But don't expect ever to see Clark Kent (Tom Welling) fly.
"He never started out flying," Gough said in an interview during The WB's fall preview for the Television Critics Association. "He could leap quarter miles. I think the world of wirework and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and The Matrix--there are interesting things that you can do that in a way are cooler than flying. But you'll never see him go like this [raising his arms in front]. That's not going to happen."
As for bringing other superheroes into the series, Gough said, "I'd love to see Bruce Wayne come to Smallville. Maybe he went to boarding school with Lex Luthor. I don't know. I'm just saying it would be fun to have him come to Smallville. The DC universe is so great, and a lot of that comes down to their confidence in the show, but honestly it's about money and licensing more than anything."
Gough also has the ambitious goal of inviting the most famous Superman actor of all to appear on the show. "We'd love to have Christopher Reeve come and do a cameo, maybe play one of Clark's teachers. That stuff is great, and that's the stuff that's really fun, to use people from the different Superman incarnations and bring them into the show." Gough is even open to inviting hopeful Superman Reborn writer Kevin Smith to participate in the show, but doubts Smith will be available. "He's got like 50 million feature projects, but it would be great to talk to him about it."
Smallville Alters Superman Mythos
lfred Gough, creator of The WB's upcoming Superman series Smallville, told reporters that the show will take creative license with the well-known comic superhero's mythology.
"The whole series is being done with the blessing and consultation of DC Comics," Gough said during The WB's fall preview for the Television Critics Association. "I think the great thing about Superman is that it's always been sort of reinterpreted for every generation throughout the decades. DC will be the first to tell you that the mythology in Smallville has been squishy at best. There was one version--I think it was Superboy--where Lex and Clark were in high school, and something happens in the lab, and Lex looses his hair and hates him for life. Then, I think in the version that was out 15 years ago, Lex is much older than Clark."
Smallville tells the story of young Clark Kent growing up and learning about his super powers, but the pilot makes it evident that the timeline of events may not strictly adhere to the Superman comic books, movies or previous TV series. For starters, Lex Luthor becomes bald in the same meteor shower during which Clark arrives in Smallville.
Similarly, the actors are approaching their characters without referencing other portrayals of them. Tom Welling, who plays Clark, said, "There's really no comparison. It's really looking at these characters, showing you them at an age where you've never seen them before."
Kristen Kreuk, who plays Lana Lang, added, "My plan would be to do it from what I see of the character written." Even though she has access to Anette O'Toole, who played Lana in Superman III, Kreuk said they have not discussed the portrayal of the character. O'Toole plays Martha Kent in the series.
Michael Rosenbaum, who plays Lex Luthor, not only avoided other Luthor portrayals, but also decided to act on the perspective that young Lex does not know who Superman is yet. "Everybody was like, 'You should read this and you should do this.' I'm like, 'No, maybe I'll just play him the way I would if I didn't know he was a superhero.' I take it day by day and learn along the way, as does the character."
The show will also add some new characters to the Superman universe, including a conspiracy theorist named Chloe, played by Alison Mack, and her partner in paranoia, Pete, played by Sam Jones III. Mack said, "The conspiracy theory pulls it down to reality out of the fantasy world. There's weird stuff going on, and people are ignoring it, but two of us need to figure this out. The conspiracy theory kind of explains everything to the audience, because we go, 'Here's what's going on. He's Superman, he's Lex Luthor, etc.'" Smallville will air Tuesdays at 9 on The WB.
WB Talks McGowan And Charmed
xecutives offered hints as to the role to be played by Rose McGowan in the upcoming fourth season of The WB's Charmed, when she replaces departing co-star Shannen Doherty.
At The WB's fall preview for the Television Critics Association, president of entertainment Jordan Levin said, "There's a history in the mythology that there could be another sister. We're still sort of nailing that [down], and we haven't heard the whole pitch, but we were looking to bring in someone who could provide some conflict to the group and someone who could bring a younger audience to the show."
Though Doherty's departure reportedly resulted from on-set conflicts with other actors, Levin told the skeptical reporters that plans for the change were in effect for some time and that Doherty's departure was not a drastic shock. "We knew last year that there were some decisions that would have to be made in the best interest of Aaron [Spelling] and his company, our company and Shannen," Levin said. "Everybody made the decision they felt was mutually beneficial for all parties involved."
Dead Last Rocks Ghost Genre
atrick O'Neill, executive producer of The WB's upcoming supernatural series Dead Last, said that series blends music and ghost stories.
Dead Last will chronicle a rock band that has the ability to see ghosts and must help the unsettled spirits settle their earthly conflicts in between gigs; it debuts in the summer and will air on Tuesdays at 9 p.m.
Speaking to reporters at The WB's fall preview to the Television Critics Association, O'Neill said a rock band gave the show the comic edge he and co-creator D.V. DeVincentis were seeking. "A big part of the [reason for the] main characters being a rock band was coming from a place of who would be most annoyed by having to deal with this burden, whereas in other shows the characters take on being the vampire killer or whatever," O'Neill said.
DeVincentis added that despite the supernatural theme, Dead Last will not rely on special effects, even though they had a healthy budget. "If anything, I think people are always willing to throw money at special effects, because it's sort of a slam-dunk in a lot of ways, whereas actually letting the ghosts hang out and do stuff with these guys is a little bit more risky," DeVincentis said. "So it's really not a function of budget. We had access to a special-effects budget that was about the GNP of Paraguay. The sort of angle that we came at it in terms of ghosts was that anybody who hasn't moved on to whatever afterlife you may have in your mind, they're still on Earth because they're sort of neurotically unresolved," he added. "So most of the time spent with them is not watching them explode or disappear or transmogrify into something else. It's watching them have some sort of ridiculous problem that these guys have to deal with."
Zellweger Going On 30
enee Zellweger is in talks to star in the fantasy film 13 Going on 30, about a girl who envisions what she'll be like at age 30, Variety reported.
No director has been attached to the project, which is set up at Sony-based Revolution Studios, the trade paper reported.
Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa, who wrote last year's Mel Gibson fantasy film What Women Want, penned 13.
Gray To Helm Mage
irector F. Gary Gray (Friday) has signed on to helm the feature-film version of Matt Wagner's Mage comic series, about a reluctant superhero, Variety reported.
Spyglass Entertainment, the Disney-based studio behind The Sixth Sense, is behind the movie, the trade paper reported.
Mage tells the story of an average guy who discovers that he is a major player in the struggle against dark forces.
Pocket Reviving Banzai Book
ocket Books announced that it would publish a new paperback edition of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai by Earl Mac Rauch, based on Rauch's movie of the same name, on Dec. 4.
Banzai has been out of print for years.
The new edition will be published in large-format paperback and will feature a new introduction by the author and a full-color insert of images from the film. It will retail for a suggested price of $12.95.
MGM Home Video, meanwhile, will release a widescreen collectors'-edition DVD and video of the movie later this year. The DVD will feature deleted scenes and other extras.
Stine Offers New Nightmare
hildren's horror author R.L. Stine told reporters that his upcoming Kids WB anthology series The Nightmare Room will differ from his popular Goosebumps books.
Speaking at The WB's fall preview for the Television Critics Association, Stine said, "I wrote 87 Goosebumps books, and I thought I needed a change, something that would give me different kinds of stories. I remembered how much I loved Rod Serling and The Twilight Zone when I was younger, and so I decided to try to do a Twilight Zone for kids, where normal kids in average situations walk into a room they've been to a thousand times before, go to school or go into their classroom, and suddenly everything is different. Everything has changed, and they realize they've stepped into a nightmare."
Produced by Mike Tollin and Brian Robbins (Varsity Blues, Keenan and Kel), the show received Stine's personal stamp of approval for the 13 currently produced episodes. "I got to read all the scripts and make a lot of comments and make sure that the balance between humor and horror was right," Stine said. "Luckily, my job was really easy, because these guys did a wonderful job and just really translated the books wonderfully and a lot of extra shows that aren't based on books that were done specially for the series." Guest stars for the first run of shows include such horror staples as Robert Englund and Tippi Hedren, as well as current young stars such as Frankie Muniz.
Cameron Still Aims At Mars
ames Cameron told SCI FI Wire that he still intends to create a television miniseries and related projects centered on a fictional account of the first human exploration of Mars.
"This is a project that I've been working on for a long time," Cameron said in an interview while promoting his Fox TV show Dark Angel to the Television Critics Association. "It's currently in a dormant phase while I'm doing some other things, but it's one that I absolutely intend to do. And I'm still working on the writing side of that."
Cameron had originally intended to adapt Kim Stanley Robinson's trilogy of Mars books; instead, The SCI FI Channel is developing Robinson's trilogy as Red Mars, an original miniseries. Now, Cameron said, he is writing his own script and wants to deal with the subject matter in several venues at once. "It's the same story told in different media," he said. "There's a five-hour miniseries [and] a 45-minute 3-D Imax film--using the same sets, props, actors and different scripts, but telling the sort of rough story-- ... and a novel. If you were telling an event in history from two different perspectives--if you're doing it as a miniseries, or you're doing it as Imax film--they would look very different. They'd be valid separate expressions of that same event."
Cameron added, "It's about the first human landing on Mars and the subsequent surface expedition, told in extremely realistic terms. Like, really to the point where, like in Apollo 13, there are times when you don't even know what the actors are saying--it's all just NASA acronyms. But it'll look like the footage they shot of themselves on a real mission, cut together." The miniseries, which is code-named The Mars Project, will eventually air on Fox, he added.
Dark Angel Goes Biopunk
he creators of Fox's SF series Dark Angel said that big changes are in store for the show as it enters its second season.
In addition to moving to a new 8 p.m. Friday timeslot, the show will broaden its story beyond its genetically enhanced heroine, Max, played by Jessica Alba, show executives told reporters at Fox's fall preview for the Television Critics Association in Pasadena, Calif.
"What we want to do is expand the Dark Angel universe slightly, but stay very consistent and true to the themes and the style that we created for the first season," co-creator James Cameron told reporters. He described the changes as "turbocharging" the science fiction elements, playing up a theme of "biopunk" and introducing a host of new, genetically altered characters called "trans-humans." "We're going to stay very focused on the world of Dark Angel, which is our world, 20 years in the future, going through a transformative period, [with] the transformation caused by the manipulation of the stuff of life, the DNA that we're all made of. And [with] people who are human beings, except not quite human beings. ... We're going to see people who don't necessarily look completely human, where the changes in their gene sequences are expressing in forms where clearly they couldn't walk into a 7-Eleven without creating a fuss."
Added co-creator Charles H. Eglee, "Last year, we sat up here and told you all that the character of Max was really a Frankenstein, but the stitches were microscopic. And having explored the mythology of Manticore and the mythology of Max's past and her character, we looked at each other ... and [asked], 'What would happen this year [if] the stitches were macroscopic?' In other words, everything that was internal in Max was externalized in some of these other characters that were coming along. ... Some of the denizens of Manticore have now come into the world."
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine alumna Nana Visitor, who played a sinister figure late in Dark Angel's first season, will return, Cameron added. Moreover, the public will become more aware of Max and other genetically altered humans, a la X-Men. "She becomes part of a persecuted minority, and as a result of that, she becomes very self-conscious about people finding out who and what she is and she has to guard her secret even more closely, and that becomes a microcosm for anybody that feels persecuted or alienated or misjudged in our society or in any society," Cameron said. "So I think that playing out those themes will be very interesting. All these ideas, I think, give the show a kind of conceptual and dramatic size that goes beyond the idea of a run-and-jump action show, which has never really inspired me, even though we take pride in our action." Dark Angel starts its new season on Sept. 21.
Alba Psyched For Year Two
ark Angel star Jessica Alba told SCI FI Wire that she's looking forward to the changes her character, Max, will go through in the upcoming second season on Fox.
"I think she was a lot more naïve with other human beings" in the first season, Alba said in an interview. "She never allowed herself to get close to anybody, and this season, she did. She's just grown into a woman. ... It's going to be a whole new set of challenges and everything. So I'm just looking forward to doing my job."
Alba--who also announced her engagement to series co-star Michael Weatherly--added that the stunts on the show grow ever more challenging. "They're terrifying, some of them," she said. "I've done it all. Name it, I've done it. ... Running and jumping off a trampoline into the air and landing on my back, sometimes it knocks the breath out of me, and I'm like, 'Oh God, thank God it's over! Because I don't know how many more of those I can do.' ... It'll always be challenging. Honestly, at two in the morning, when you have to run, sprint, from one side of an alley to the next, and then do, like, a five-combination tae kwon do thing with a guy who is three times your size. It'll be just as challenging, and probably more challenging in a couple years." Dark Angel starts its second season on Sept. 21.
Tyler Discusses Elves, Romance
iv Tyler found portraying an elf in Peter Jackson's upcoming Lord of the
Rings film trilogy "nearly impossible.".
"They are just so otherworldly," the Armageddon star told SCI FI Wire during an interview.
"It was fun but very difficult to become that because they are kind of like
perfect beings" Tyler said, referring to her character Arwen, the elf so
desperately in love with the mortal Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen). "They're
perceptive. They're beyond us. They're also incredibly poised, and they move
in a certain way and walk in a certain way. All of that was incredibly
important and also kind of exhausting. There wasn't a moment where I could
rest on one leg or shrug a shoulder. We always had to be perfectly
contained."
Tyler politely declined to disclose the details of Arwen's romance in the
film, but she can't hide her satisfaction with the way it was handled. "For
me as a girl, in that girly way, one of the main things that really
attracted me to this was the power and the beauty of the love story," the
actress said. "If you go back to the book, to the appendix, one of the
chapters [is called 'Arwen and Aragorn'] and it's the most dreamy, classic
and beautiful love story. They're faced with a lot of classic struggles and
decisions."
The Fellowship of the Ring opens in theaters this December, followed by The Two
Towers in 2002 and The Return of the King in 2003.
Briefly Noted
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Warner Bros. has opened the official Web site for its upcoming SF movie Osmosis Jones, which opens Aug. 10.
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Jurassic Park III took in a dino-sized $19 million at the box office on its opening day July 18, the second-biggest Wednesday gross in history after Star Wars: Episode I, according to the Hollywood trade papers.
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A full-day workshop "Developing the Young Reader" for teachers, librarians and parents takes place Sept. 1 at the 59th World Science Fiction Convention, or Millennium Philcon. The workshop looks at using science fiction to broaden student horizons.
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The Comics Continuum Web site reported that renewal news for TNT's Witchblade series may come within the next month.
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Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans have been waiting for one plot development for nearly two years: resolution of the fate of witch Amy Madison, played by Elizabeth Anne Allen, who was turned into a rat in season three. This week, Buffy creator Joss Whedon revealed this spoiler to SCI FI Wire for the show's upcoming sixth season: "Amy will be de-ratted. She will be de-ratted, I promise."
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Pendragon Pictures announced that its independently financed feature-film version of H.G. Wells' SF novel War of the Worlds will premiere on Halloween 2002 instead of summer 2003, as originally planned.
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The Ain't It Cool News Web site reported a further rumor that Vin Diesel would play the nemesis in the upcoming Terminator 3 movie, based on a report on a British radio station.
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James Cameron, co-creator of Fox's Dark Angel, told SCI FI Wire that he's eager to see the series translated onto the big screen. "If we have continued success with the series, I think there is a good possibility we might want to make a film from it, absolutely," Cameron said in an interview. "I think we've got to see where the series goes. If we grow our fan base and stay at least where we are and/or grow from where we are, I'd think, yeah, that'd be a very good possibility."
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The Fox network will air Planet of the Apes: Rule the Planet, a half-hour behind-the-scenes special on the making of Tim Burton's upcoming movie, at 8 p.m. July 25. Apes star Estella Warren will host the special.
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The Fox network will present the world television premiere of Star Wars: Episode I from 7-10 p.m. ET/PT on Nov. 25, the network announced.
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TNT's original miniseries The Mists of Avalon scored an impressive 5.6 rating in its debut on July 15, but saw ratings drop precipitously (27 percent) for part two on July 16, Variety reported. The Sunday rating made Avalon one of basic cable's highest-rated shows of the week, and it won more viewers than any other miniseries premiere in TNT's history.
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MTV Films has partnered with L-Squared Entertainment to produce a computer-animated SF feature film, Enigma 2013, Variety reported. The 35-40-minute film will combine music, technology and dance via computer graphics and large-format 3-D/2-D technology, the trade paper reported. Computer animator Glenn Grillo (Spawn) will make his directorial debut with the film.
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