Tron Lives Again
n addition to a new sequel film, Disney will boot up a new video game and a 20th-anniversary edition DVD of its groundbreaking computer movie Tron, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The sequel, Tron 2.0, is being developed by the original 1982 film's director and co-writer, Steven Lisberger, who's working on the third draft of a new screenplay, the trade paper reported. Richard Jeffries also wrote a draft.
The proposed sequel will blend live action with computer graphics. "I have several characters that will be completely digital creations, but I'm not trying to replace actors," Lisberger told the trade paper. "I'd like the sequel to retain the artistic look of the original, while employing more cutting-edge technology and introducing a new cast of characters." Lisberger has several ideas for the new film, which he believes could be revived as a new franchise for Disney. He said the light cycles will definitely be back, the trade paper added. "When we created [the character] Tron, there were no PCs. We were looking at a possible future," Lisberger said. "I'd like to bring Tron into today's world and look at how cyberspace will be 20 years from now, because it's still in its infancy." Lisberger added that since computer software is updated all the time, the actors wouldn't need to be consistent from film to film. "Tron's been updated, and he could be completely different from when we saw him before," Lisberger said.
The DVD will be on store shelves Jan. 15, 2002, and will include commentary, deleted scenes and a making-of documentary. The Tron PC video game is slated for a 2003 release, sources told the trade paper. The Tron game is also expected to appear on Microsoft's Xbox video game system.
Wahlberg Game For Apes 2
ark Wahlberg, who plays the human astronaut in Tim Burton's upcoming Planet of the Apes movie, told SCI FI Wire that he'd do a sequel--but only if Burton is attached.
"If Tim wants to, I'd love to, but it really depends on him," Wahlberg said in an interview to promote the movie.
Wahlberg is game, even though he discovered that the real chimpanzees in the movie weren't exactly cuddly creatures. "They became violent," he said of the apes. "They were very protective of me at first, they were very close, very affectionate. And then they met [co-star] Helena [Bonham Carter], and they, like, turned bad. I gave her a hug one day, saying 'Hi,' and they attacked me." Carter plays a humanist chimp in the film.
For Wahlberg, it was also easy almost to forget that some of the apes in the film were actually actors in elaborate Rick Baker makeup. "I did [forget] with Tim [Roth] and Michael [Clarke Duncan], especially because they became extremely violent, like the [real] chimps I was working with in preparing for the movie. They were relentless, they were always in character, which was fantastic for me, because I need something to cling to, to believe myself, so that way I can convey that to the audience. Yeah, there were a lot of times. Those guys in particular."
Wahlberg added, "The coolest thing about the experience was meeting Tim the person, getting to know a fantastic human being. It was a really tough shoot for me physically--I was getting beaten up for most of the movie--I still rushed to work every day just to hang out with Tim. I never had so much fun, felt so comfortable on a set or around somebody. It was really, really special." Apes opens July 27.
Burton Has Issues In Apes
im Burton, director of the upcoming remake of the classic SF film Planet of the Apes, told SCI FI Wire that his movie comments differently on issues of race, religion and our relations to other species than did the 1968 original.
"The difference, obviously, is in the times," Burton said in an interview while promoting the film. "I can look at the late '60s, and you know what the issues are of the day: ... the war, race, all of that was very out there at the time as major issues."
Burton added, "The difference, then to now, to me is globalization, instant access to media. It's like the world has gotten much more fragmented. Ask anyone now what the major issues are, and it might take people longer, because it's not so clearly defined. And I think the cool thing about Planet of the Apes is--just as a symbol and a property, just by its nature--it shows you the different side of people. So ... it just kind of touches on ... all issues: race, how we treat other cultures, how we treat people, how we treat animals in relation to ourselves. The unanswerable questions: Did we come from evolution? Are we evolving? De-evolving? Darwinism vs. religious beliefs. All of these things, kind of unanswerable things, ... are symbolized by what Planet of the Apes is, and that's the cryptic nature of it." Burton's Apes opens July 27.
This Apes Has Action
ary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, who plays the gorilla warrior Krull in Tim Burton's upcoming Planet of the Apes film, told fans that the remake differs from the original movie and the French novel by Pierre Boulle on which it was based.
Speaking to an audience at the International Comic-Con in San Diego, Tagawa said, "If there's any difference between French and American, I would say it's the difference between this book and this movie, which is that the French version is heavily philosophical. [And] for the first [film, from 1968], there's a lot of talking. ... I just remember them talking a lot and being very philosophical about things. But in this version, there is not that at all. This is like the Star Wars version of the film. It has a lot more, sort of, heavy merchandising possibilities."
Tagawa and a Fox spokesman also disputed rumors surrounding the film. The film, rumored to be delayed, is actually completed and was screened for the press last week; filmmakers did not shoot five endings for the movie; and there isn't an interspecies sex scene between stars Mark Wahlberg and Helena Bonham Carter. Otherwise, Tagawa said, "Everything that you love about Tim Burton is in this movie. I would say one thing that may be a little bit different from other Tim Burton movies: Tim's style is usually pretty dark, and the colors reflect that, you know? And this doesn't have any aspect of darkness. And it may be for the rating, too." Planet of the Apes opens July 27.
Carter Liked Apes School
elena Bonham Carter, who plays a humanist chimp in Tim Burton's upcoming Planet of the Apes film, told TV Guide that she got a lot out of the movie's "ape school," according to a report on the Associated Press.
Burton arranged for the actors to attend training sessions with Terry Notary, a former Cirque du Soleil performer who has studied simian behavior, to learn how to move like apes.
"Ape school was very illuminating," Carter told TV Guide. "At first I flunked, because I was way too hyper. But there are lots of things in finding your inner ape that can be quite useful to one's real life."
Estella Warren, who plays a human in the movie, told the magazine that it was disorienting working around costumed actors. "You work with them all day, but you don't know what they look like out of costume," Warren said. "Somebody would come over to me and start chatting, and I'd think, 'Who are you?'" Apes opens July 27.
FX To Air Buffy Reruns
X announced that it will begin airing reruns of Buffy the Vampire Slayer weekdays at 7 p.m. ET/PT, starting Sept. 24.
FX will air episodes from the show's first four seasons.
Buffy, which is produced by FX sister company 20th Century Fox Television, will begin its sixth season of original episodes on UPN Oct. 9 and will air Tuesdays at 8 p.m.
Does Xander Wed Anya?
icholas Brendon, who plays Xander on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, told SCI FI Wire why he thinks Buffy is so special: "Joss Whedon and the writers that he's hired around him," Brendon said, referring to Buffy's creator-producer-writer-director, during an interview at UPN's fall preview party.
"And the actors aren't that bad."
"I like me," Brendon added, with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek. "I think I'm pretty funny. I enjoy watching myself." On a more serious note, Brendon said, "We've done over 100 episodes now, and the fact that the show is as fresh as it is for the actors is a testament to what the show is" and what Whedon and his team have done with the writing. In the upcoming season, Xander will be attending college, dealing with the ramifications of Buffy's (Sarah Michelle Gellar) demise and possibly gearing up for a wedding, as he proposed to his love Anya (Emma Caulfield) amid all the chaos of the season-ending episode, "The Gift."
Will the wedding happen? "I don't know," Brendon teased. If he could guess? "No," he said simply. No, it won't, or no he won't guess? "No, I won't guess," he said. "I don't guess. I don't guess." Pressed for his thoughts on the matter, Brendon relented. "No," he finally said. "I don't think they'll get married." Buffy will make its UPN debut on Oct. 9, with a two-hour season premiere.
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 is 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.
Whedon Details Giles Show
uffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon offered a few more details about his proposed BBC spinoff series centered on the character of Giles, played by Anthony Stewart Head.
Speaking to fans at the International Comic-Con in San Diego, Whedon said the show would be in the tradition of "classic English ghost stories" and would play on the theme of loneliness.
"I think of it as, the people who live there, it's all very isolated, and the demons that they've brought upon themselves ... that are most important in their lives," Whedon said. "[Giles] himself has been gone for many years. He was surrounded by a ... de facto family that he no longer has. And [he is] sort of picking up his life all alone, and then getting involved in sort of the underbelly of other people's lives, and sort of finding out about them. Loneliness is what I think of. It may not be the theme so much as the emotional intent of the series, but that's what really attracts me to it the most."
Whedon added that the series has not been green-lighted, but that he is working out a deal with the BBC for a six-episode series. The pilot is scheduled to begin shooting in the spring, and he added that he was confident any such show would eventually find a venue in the United States as well.
Shaye Liked First Rings
ord of the Rings star Ian McKellen confirmed for fans on his official Web site that New Line chairman and chief executive Robert Shaye screened the first Rings movie--and that it went very well.
Shaye reportedly traveled to New Zealand to view a cut of director Peter Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring, the first of three Rings movies.
"Bob is not a man to mince words, but what could have been a nerve-wracking confrontation between producer and director passed off in mutual enthusiasm, confirming the truth that The Fellowship of the Ring is on course and on time," McKellen wrote.
Next, McKellen said, composer Howard Shore will write music for the final cut and record the music in London in August.
Rings Game Rights Sold?
he OneRing.net Web site reported that Electronic Arts has sealed a deal with New Line for rights to video games based on Peter Jackson's upcoming Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
A spokesman for EA told the site, "EA has signed an agreement to produce a series of games based on the LOTR motion picture series. Development is underway, and there will be more information available on this later in the year."
The FGN Web site, meanwhile, reported that a separate Rings game from Sierra Studios--based on J.R.R. Tolkien's books of the same name--was delayed by a lawsuit and won't come out until January 2002. Since the Rings films are considered separate work from Tolkien's books for purposes of copyright law, both EA and Sierra can produce rival games based on Rings, the site reported.
Rings Previewed At Con
onvention-goers in San Diego screened a special behind-the-scenes video preview of Peter Jackson's upcoming Lord of the Rings film trilogy, including shots of sequences not seen by the public.
"What we've all been involved in is, as I've said before, without any doubt, a landmark in the history of cinema," actor Christopher Lee (Saruman) said on the tape in a greeting aimed specifically at the audience attending the International Comic-Con in San Diego.
The behind-the-scenes footage showed director Jackson and crew on location in New Zealand, shooting scenes in a recreated Hobbiton, complete with hobbit holes, an outdoor market area and an open-air festival set up to celebrate Bilbo Baggins' birthday. These scenes included sequences in which Gandalf (Ian McKellen) rides in a horse-drawn wooden cart with Frodo (Elijah Wood) beside him.
Other footage showed a scene of the four key hobbits--played by Wood, Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd--hiding under a log to escape the notice of the Black Riders, who ride into Hobbiton seeking the Ring. The scene was the first shot of the production, Jackson said on the video. The preview also showed the process of filming the Black Riders in full gallop through the woods, tracked by a camera crew on the back of a pickup truck. There were also scenes of Liv Tyler as Arwen carrying a bundled-up Frodo on horseback, running away from the Black Riders. Behind-the-scenes footage reveals that Tyler is really astride a fake horseback being pulled by a vehicle ahead of actors on real horses. The first Rings film, The Fellowship of the Ring, opens Dec. 19.
Rings Handheld Rights Bought
innish-based Riot Entertainment has secured the exclusive handheld wireless interactive game rights for the upcoming Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Variety reported.
Riot-e will develop other interrelated wireless entertainment features throughout the movies' life cycles, the trade paper reported.
The games are expected to be available later this summer in Europe, Asia and the United States. Riot-e has a similar wireless deal for X-Men, Variety reported.
The first Rings film, The Fellowship of the Ring, opens Dec. 19.
Clothes To Change In Episode II
here will be fewer uniforms and more civilian clothing in Star Wars: Episode II than in the previous installment, costume designer Trish Biggar told the official Homing Beacon newsletter.
"I think we have less quantity in terms of uniforms," Biggar told the newsletter. "We don't have groups of soldiers. In Episode I, we had big groups of Naboo soldiers and royal palace guards. This episode, the costumes are very much more individual."
Biggar added that Episode II will offer a closer look at the galaxy's working class. "We're going from different planets, so we have Coruscant street people, and it's interesting, because they come from all over," she said. "On Naboo, we're seeing mostly people who were in and around the palace, and who are a very well-dressed middle class--just regular people who live and work on Naboo."
Padmé Amidala, who is no longer the elected queen of Naboo in Episode II, is also seeing a less institutionalized wardrobe. "She has many, many more costumes this time," Biggar said. "Hard to believe, but yes. We'll see her as more of a person this time, and less as a figurehead of a nation. She has softer clothes, which are less formal. She's also a little bit older, so she has some sexier clothes. It's nice. I think [Natalie Portman] likes them."
Episode II Nightclub Described
avin Bocquet, production designer for the upcoming Star Wars: Episode II, told the official Star Wars Web site that he combined glitz and grunge in the design of a Coruscant nightclub, a key venue in the prequel.
"Is it a very small bar? A jazz nightclub? Is it a rather grand, glitzy place? Is it a sort of a warehouse-type environment in the back streets?" Bocquet asked. Director "George [Lucas] felt it used to be a very glitzy place, but it's lost a bit of its former glory. So it's definitely going to become a much more run-down environment."
Bocquet and his crew built the set at Fox Studios in Australia. "With the nightclub, we're actually seeing environments that showcase the social life of Star Wars," Bocquet told the site. Episode II calls for a section of nightclub exterior and a nearby alleyway. "It's a big composite set for quite an exciting chase sequence that starts up in the skies of Coruscant and lands down in the bowels of the metropolis," Bocquet said. "There was a lot of discussion early on about how much of the exterior street we would have to build. Initially, we had quite a big Y-section of street, where we had the full front of the nightclub, plus a street off that where speeders land, and then another street that connected them all together at the back alley where the characters come out of the nightclub at the end."
Once the sequence was storyboarded and blocked, the amount of required construction was reduced, the site reported. The action focused on the front and rear entrances of the club, with the rest of the street scenes taken care of with stretches of flooring and blue screen. Once production began, Lucas saw another alternative, with sections of alley walls that Bocquet's crew constructed. "He decided that it might be useful to have those as the wider street," Bocquet said. "We actually picked up one side of the street and just moved it across about 20 or 30 feet, increasing the width of the floor. We then ended up with a much wider section of the street, where he did most of the chase sequences in there. I think everybody agreed--even John Knoll and [Industrial Light & Magic]--that it's much more useful at a given moment to have as much set as you can to cover most of the shots." Episode II opens in spring 2002.
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.
Enterprise Bars Fan Scripts
roducers of UPN's upcoming Star Trek series, Enterprise, are suspending the long-standing policy of accepting unsolicited scripts, the TrekWeb site reported.
Paramount, which produces the show, has suspended the open submission policy indefinitely, citing legal prohibitions.
The policy, which has been in effect since the days of The Next Generation, launched the careers of former Trek producers Ronald D. Moore and Mike Sussman, among others, the site reported. Writers who submit scripts to Enterprise without representation by an agent will now have the scripts returned to them unread.
Trek X Spoilers Revealed?
he TrekToday Web site reported what it said are major spoilers for the upcoming 10th Star Trek film, in which the Next Generation characters undergo major life changes.
Screenwriter John Logan previously told the Star Trek Communicator magazine that "these characters have ongoing lives on the ship, and we want to reflect that in Star Trek X. We want to react to what has gone on in other shows. I hope people will see advancements in a lot of relationships among the characters."
The film--rumored to be called Star Trek: Nemesis--has each of the seven major characters go through at least one major change, the site reported. Several major spoilers follow.
•Capt. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) will deal with aging.
•William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis) are finally married, with Picard serving as the best man.
•Riker accepts command of the U.S.S. Titan.
•Worf (Michael Dorn) is one of the few original officers to remain with Picard aboard the Enterprise.
•Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) leaves the Enterprise to take a position at Starfleet Medical.
•Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) gets a new girlfriend, Dr. Leah Brahms.
•Voyager's Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) makes a cameo appearance in the film as a newly promoted admiral.
Baird To Helm Trek X
ara Croft: Tomb Raider executive producer Stuart Baird has signed on to direct Star Trek X, Variety reported.
John Logan wrote the screenplay and Rick Berman will produce; Paramount has yet to give the film an official green light, the trade paper reported.
Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner will reprise their roles as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard and Lt. Cmdr. Data. The sequel still doesn't have an official name, but rumors say it will be called Star Trek: Nemesis.
Jurassic III Gets Pooped
n one of Jurassic Park III's more distasteful scenes, stars William H. Macy and Téa Leoni plunged their arms elbow-deep into spinosaurus poop.
What was it really? About 250 gallons of oatmeal, EW.com reported.
Director Joe Johnston told the site that actual dinosaur doo-doo would likely have been "thin, watery, and white," but "that didn't sound very entertaining." Macy, who shot the scene at 4 a.m. in winter, wasn't amused. "I'll never eat oatmeal again," he told EW.com. "It was cold and clammy." But Leoni said. "It was delicious. There was a little cinnamon in there, so I'd just lick it off after each take." Jurassic III is now showing.
Jurassic IV Rumors Abound
umors are circulating widely about a possible fourth installment in the Jurassic Park series of films.
Unreel Magazine reported, "Steven Spielberg's company Amblin has confirmed that a fourth installment of the dinosaur series is already in development." Jurassic Park III producer Kathleen Kennedy told the Virginian-Pilot newspaper that "Steven has something really amazing in mind for JP IV."
Sam Neill, who reprised the role of Alan Grant in the current Jurassic III, told the Zap2it.com Web site that he is "contracted to do three JP movies," but doesn't want to see his character return to an island. Neill also told the C.H.U.D. site, "I'd never say never again. I'm very happy with this movie. But my thoughts for Jurassic Park IV is that we eliminate one certain aspect of American culture that bothers me. Let the T-rex stomp on all Wal-Marts! No one would mind the dinosaurs attacking stores that brought the downfall of downtown America."
Jurassic III director Joe Johnston, meanwhile, told E! Online, "It's hard to do a sequel to your own films. It's easier to do a sequel to someone else's. I'd have to think about it." But in a separate conversation with the C.H.U.D. site, he offered this spoilerish plot idea for a fourth movie: "It would be so easy for those birds at the end of part three to just follow the helicopter with the surviving humans. They could follow them back to the mainland."
Speaking with the JPDatabase Web site, Jurassic III co-star Téa Leoni suggested this plot idea for a fourth film: "I see a phone call for Dr. Grant, and he answers the phone, and this puff of blonde hair rolls over and says, 'Who was that, honey?' and that's my character!"
Jurassic III Stomps Rivals
urassic Park III stomped the competition at the box office on the weekend of July 20, coming in at No. 1 with an estimated $50.3 million for the three-day period, the Hollywood trade papers reported.
Since its Wednesday opening, the Universal film has racked up about $80.9 million, the papers reported. By contrast 1993's Jurassic Park opened with $50.2 million in its first weekend, and The Lost World: Jurassic Park opened in 1997 with $72.1 million, the trade papers reported.
Cats & Dogs dropped two places to No. 5, with an estimated $6.8 million for the weekend and a total of about $72.4 million after three weekends. Genre releases rounding out the top 10 included No. 7 Dr. Dolittle 2, with about $4.4 million for the weekend and a total so far of about $93.2 million, and No. 9 Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, with about $3.5 million for the weekend and a total so far of about $26.7 million.
A.I. Artificial Intelligence fell out of the top 10 in its fourth weekend, dropping to No. 12 with a 24-day total of $74.4 million.
Why Was Rollerball Bumped?
arious reports suggest that MGM may have delayed its original summer release of Rollerball because of poor test screenings.
The Ain't It Cool News Web site reported that MGM wants to re-cut the movie to earn a PG-13 rating, eliminate some of the gore and nudity and change the ending.
The Zap2It.com Web site, meanwhile, reported that the violent remake of Norman Jewison's 1975 SF movie of the same name tested poorly with a New York audience and was sent back for re-shooting and re-editing.
The movie was bumped from an August release to sometime in the first part of 2002. At the time, MGM president of theatrical marketing Bob Levin told the Hollywood trade papers that he wanted "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." Rollerball stars Chris Klein, LL Cool J and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos.
Spidey Nets Big Sponsors
orporate sponsors have ponied up $40 million in tie-ins with Sony's upcoming Spider-Man movie, the Zap2it.com Web site reported.
Taco Bell and the Kellogg Co. have signed on, and it has been suggested that a deal could soon be struck with an automaker and a wireless phone company like Nokia, the site reported. A deal is also said to be in the works with Cadbury Schweppes' Dr. Pepper and a candy company.
Tricon Global Restaurants--which owns Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut--has signaled that it is not interested in sponsoring next year's Star Wars: Episode II, which also opens in the spring of 2002. The conglomerate had sponsored Episode I in 1999, which included a large-scale promotional sweepstakes that many marketing industry watchers have suggested was a failure, the site reported.
Raimi Keeps Spider-Man Real
am Raimi, director of the upcoming Spider-Man movie, told SCI FI Wire that he wanted the film to be true to the original comic-book series.
"It's not going to be like my previous pictures. It's just Spider-Man, that's all that it is," Raimi said at the International Comic-Con in San Diego. "I tried to keep it pure and unadulterated Spider-Man."
According to Raimi, the film will be less stylized than previous comic-book adaptations. "We tried to keep it very realistic, because the great thing about Stan Lee's creation of Peter Parker is that he's a real kid in the real world," Raimi said. "As much as I love Tim Burton's style for Batman, for instance, it wouldn't have been right for this picture ... because Peter's one of us, and that's one of the reasons we love him so much."
Raimi said the story will follow a teen-age Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire), who is a bit of a "loser like the rest of us," until he gets bitten by a radioactive spider while on a high school field trip. Other characters from the comic book series will include Peter's best friend, Harry Osborn (James Franco), and his love interest, Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst). "He's already become friends
with Harry Osborn. And ... although he's been admiring Mary Jane Watson for quite a while as the story begins, he's never really had a conversation with her," Raimi said. A self-proclaimed Spider-Man fan himself, Raimi acknowledged the legacy of the comic-book series and its influence on the film version. "I feel like I'm one of those great Marvel artists or illustrators or inkers or writers that have told one of the stories of Spider-Man. I can't believe it hasn't
been made into a movie until now." Spider-Man is scheduled to be released in May 2002.
Wong To Helm Iron Fist
rtisan Entertainment announced that Kirk Wong will develop and direct the feature-film version of Marvel's comic book series Iron Fist, to star X-Men's Ray Park.
Wong's credits include The Big Hit. John Turman (Buck Rogers) is writing the script. Principal photography is expected to begin in late 2001 or early 2002.
Iron Fist is the first film to come from the joint venture between Artisan and Marvel. The martial-arts-themed Iron Fist tells the story of Danny Rand, a Westerner who was raised in a secret temple in the Far East and who returns to the United States to seek revenge for his parents' murder. The character has the power to channel his "chi" into his fist and strike with the force of iron, the studio said.
Day-Lewis Up For Sub-Mariner?
he Coming Soon Web site reported a rumor that Daniel Day-Lewis is interested in the title role of the Sub-Mariner movie, based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name.
Universal Pictures is adapting the comic book, with Marvel Studios president Avi Arad and former studio production president Kevin Misher producing, the site reported.
Day-Lewis would star as Prince Namor, a half-man/half-amphibian creature from Atlantis. No official casting, writing or directing announcements have been made yet.
JLA Details Reported
haun McLaughlin, executive producer of Cartoon Network's upcoming Justice League animated series, revealed details of the show's superheros to fans at the International Comic-Con in San Diego, the Comics2Film Web site reported.
The show is based on the DC Comics Justice League of America series.
Among other things, McLaughlin said the series would use the John Stewart Green Lantern, who will play like a cross between Samuel L. Jackson's Shaft and Louis Gosset Jr.'s character in An Officer and a Gentlemen.
The Flash, meanwhile, will be "fast on his feet, fast with his mouth, fast with the ladies--or so he thinks," and will have some friction with the straight-arrow Green Lantern, McLaughlin said. The team will include Hawkgirl, not Hawkman, because "Hawkgirl's cuter." And the show's Aquaman will be a "Conan of the Sea," the site reported.
The Justice League will be headquartered in a satellite, which serves as the home to the Martian Manhunter. But unlike the comics, which depict team members traveling via transporters, the show will have them ride on a shuttle craft called the Javelin-7.
Schamus Redrafting Hulk
ames Schamus, director Ang Lee's production partner, is working on the latest draft of the Hulk movie script for Universal Picture, the Comics Continuum Web site reported.
Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) is set to direct the live-action feature-film version of the venerable Marvel Comics series.
Schamus is following David Hayter on the script, the site reported. "We're using David Hayter's draft as the structure, as the outline," Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige told the Continuum. "And Ang Lee has all sorts of themes and ideas and psychological elements to [Bruce] Banner's character and psyche that he wants to explore. And James right now is injecting those elements into the Hayter structure, giving that storyline a starting point."
Daredevil Could Lens Soon
arvel Studios executive Kevin Feige told the Comics Continuum that a feature-film version of the Daredevil comic series could begin shooting as early as this year.
Mark Steven Johnson is writing the script.
"We have one of the strongest comic scripts we've ever had, and if we can get all the ducks in a row, we're going to start doing it as soon as possible," Feige told the site. As for who will play the blind superhero, Feige said, "It's a wide-open field right now. We don't feel we need a giant star for that part. We feel we need a great actor for that part. Obviously, this is not your typical superhero part in that he's blind and, acting blind alone, you need a strong actor to pull off that part so it doesn't look bad. If we were just doing a movie about a blind lawyer named Matt Murdock, you'd need a strong actor, not necessarily a big movie star. We'd just need a strong actor. But it's Daredevil, and we need as good of an actor as we can find. There have been scattered talks. Once we move into full preproduction, all that will come together."
Possible stars include Ed Norton, Matt Damon and The Time Machine's Guy Pearce, the site reported. James Acheson, who designed the costume for Sam Raimi's upcoming Spider-Man movie, may be asked to design Daredevil's suit, Feige said. "One of the things we really want to do is to make sure it doesn't look just like Spider-Man, and Jim knows the Spider-Man suit better than anyone and can avoid falling into similar ground."
Dark Film, TV In Works
ireworks Entertainment and Goodman Rosen Productions have obtained the movie rights for the best-selling Nintendo 64 video game Perfect Dark, the Countingdown Web site reported.
The two companies have also begun development of a live-action television series based on Dark for the fall of 2002, the site reported.
The game features the character of Joanna Dark, a secret agent for an industrial conglomerate known as the Carrington Institute. Set in 2023, the game begins as an investigation of rival DataDyne Corp. and unravels into an alien plot to invade Earth.
Li Not Originally The One
len Morgan and James Wong, who co-wrote the upcoming SF action thriller film The One, told fans that the lead role played by Jet Li was originally written for pro wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
"We have the same agency that The Rock has, and our agent kept saying for a long time,
'Write a movie for this guy.' And we'd go, 'No,'" Morgan said at the International Comic-Con in San Diego. "And then my brother Darin and I started checking it out, and Jim and I said, 'Yeah, The Rock's pretty good.' So we wrote this thing."
The One is the story of a man who seeks to become ultimately powerful by traveling to parallel universes and killing alternate versions of himself. According to Morgan, the parallel universe concept grew out of an idea for a final showdown between The Rock and ... The Rock. "The best thing in a movie for The Rock to do is to ... fight himself. You can't see that on TV."
When scheduling conflicts arose and The Rock became unavailable, Revolution Studio head Joe Roth stepped in and suggested Li for the role. "[Roth] said, 'I'm going to Paris [where Li was shooting Kiss of the Dragon], and I'm going to get you Jet Li,' who is perfect," Morgan said. Wong added, "What [makes] a hero strong [is] as much the villain as anybody else, and Jet being his [own] foil is probably the best foil you could have."
While the basic plot of the film did not change with the casting of Li, the character's dialogue was reduced and certain elements were expanded. "Once Jet came on, all the action changed, because his specialty, his skills, were martial arts. When we first had The Rock in mind, none of the action was going to be martial arts. ... We thought we had to change it because of The Matrix. Once Jet came on, that made it impossible, because that's ... his forte," Wong said. As for the climactic scene in which Li fights himself, Morgan said, "I think it came out pretty cool." The One is scheduled for release on Nov. 2.
CBS Revamps Wolf Lake
BS has revamped the pilot of and recast its upcoming supernatural series Wolf Lake, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported.
A new executive producer, Alex Gansa (The X-Files), has been brought in to replace the show's creator, John Leekley (Kindred: The Embraced). The series centers on a small Northwestern town in which some inhabitants can morph into wolves.
Gansa has done some recasting--though Lou Diamond Phillips, Graham Greene and Tim Matheson still star--and instituted "substantial stylistic changes" to simplify what had been an extremely chaotic pilot, the newspaper reported. "The show has undergone a kind of shift in thinking about what it means to be a wolf and what it means to be a human being," Gansa told the paper.
Gansa added, "The pilot dealt with these two clans of wolves that were fighting for supremacy in this town. We've sort of changed that idea a little bit, and now there is one clan of wolves that shares this town with humans. And the clan of wolves itself is a tribe that has existed since ancient Egypt, and they are a tribe that was given the power to walk on two feet by some spirit or god, you know, way back thousands of years ago. And they've been persecuted over the ages and now find themselves in this town, which they founded in the middle 1800s, and they occupy all the positions of power in the town. And the humans who have since moved there sort of function as second-class citizens, and they know that something is going on with these [wolf] people, but they don't know the secret yet. And so whatever stranger you bring into this place all of a sudden becomes a threat to this secret and this gift that these people have to shapeshift. It will be very sexy. It will be violent." CBS has scheduled Wolf Lake on Wednesdays at 10 p.m.
Kirshner Morphs Into Wolf
ia Kirshner has joined the cast of CBS' upcoming supernatural series Wolf Lake, Variety reported.
Kirshner will play Ruby Kates, the missing daughter of a prominent Wolf Lake leader.
The series, starring Lou Diamond Phillips, tells the story of a small town where residents can morph into wolves. CBS has made a number of tweaks to Wolf Lake in recent weeks, such as turning Phillips' character into a law officer, the trade paper reported. The show will air Wednesdays at 10 p.m. in the fall.
Queen Evil, But Fun
op star and actress Aaliyah, who plays the titular vampire in the upcoming Queen of the Damned, told the Australian Herald Sun newspaper that her character is evil, but likeable.
"In the movie, I'm the evil one, [but] there are so many sides to Akasha that people are going to fall in love with her, even though she's such a bad, bad girl," she told the newspaper. "It was a lot of fun to play her. I'm wearing fangs, I'm vampired out, there's a lot of blood, a lot of action."
Aaliyah co-stars with Stuart Townsend, Lena Olin and Vincent Perez in the feature film, which combines events from Anne Rice's novels The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned. "The whole film is rock-inspired," Aaliyah added. "The music is amazing, mind-blowing. I might actually be singing on it."
Aaliyah will also play Zee in the second and third Matrix movies, which are due to start shooting in Sydney in January. "My character gets introduced in part two, but has quite a lot to do in part three," she said.
O'Neal Approached For T3
asketball star Shaquille O'Neal told Access Hollywood that he's been approached about a role in the proposed Terminator 3 sequel film, according to a report on the Dark Horizons Web site.
"As a matter of fact, I have the script to Terminator 3 at home right now," O'Neal told the show.
Dark Horizons reported, meanwhile, that Vin Diesel has not been approached about a part in the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, despite persistent rumors to the contrary.
Mutant X Clears Most Of U.S.
ribune Entertainment has cleared its upcoming syndicated weekly hour-long SF series Mutant X in markets representing 93 percent of the country, the Comics Continuum Web site reported.
The show will run in 146 U.S. markets, including 95 of the top 100 markets; it is scheduled to premiere the week of Oct. 1, the site reported.
Mutant X tells the story of mutants with superhuman abilities who have been bred by the government and are now the subject of a massive manhunt. According to Tribune's official description of the show, Mutant X is a core group of powerful mutants led by the brilliant and mysterious multimillionaire Adam (John Shea), who strive to help other new mutants master their abilities and protect them from those who would harm them. The Genetic Security Agency, meanwhile, is the secret intelligence service under the command of Mason Eckhart (Tom McCamus), whose mandate is to keep the existence of these anomalies and the research that produced them hidden from the public.
Destination 2 Gets Producers
roducers Warren Zide and Craig Perry (Cats & Dogs) will develop Final Destination 2, based on last year's hit supernatural thriller movie, Variety reported.
David Ellis (Homeward Bound II) will direct the sequel for New Line Cinema.
Genre specialists James Wong and Glen Morgan (The One) created the original Final Destination, which featured Devon Sawa and Ali Larter in a story about a high-school student who escapes death. Ellis has shot second unit on The Matrix Reloaded and Deep Blue Sea, among other films.
Zide/Perry Entertainment will also produce the fantasy comedy Ain't Nobody Like the One I Got, which Bruce Leddy will direct for MGM, Variety reported. The film is an urban comedy about two people who despise each, but fall victim to a curse that switches their body parts. It is slated to go into production in late fall.
Destination 2 Spoilers Leaked?
he Creature Corner Web site reported a rumor that it has a plot synopsis of the proposed sequel Final Destination 2.
The synopsis, which contains spoilers for the movie, centers on a new female lead and not the character played by Devon Sawa in the original film.
According to the site, the heroine, Kimberly, and her friends are embarking on a road trip to Daytona, Fla., to party. But like Sawa in the original movie, Kimberly has a premonition of death, and she parts company with her friends, who die horribly. From there, Kimberly and a handful of companions whom she saved face the specter of death elsewhere.
Variety reported that producers Warren Zide and Craig Perry (Cats & Dogs) will develop Final Destination 2, with David Ellis (Homeward Bound II) directing for New Line Cinema.
Bears 2 Already In Works
isney is already developing a sequel to its upcoming live-action fantasy movie The Country Bears, based on the Disneyland ride, even though the first Bears movie doesn't hit theaters until summer 2002, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The decision to make a franchise out of the film was due to "excitement at the studio" over how the project had progressed, a source told the trade paper.
Paul Rugg is writing the script for the follow-up film. The first movie, which is based on the Disney Country Bear Jamboree attraction, will star Christopher Walken, with Haley Joel Osment and Charles Dutton providing voice work. The bears will be realized on film via animatronic puppets created by the Henson Creature Shop, the trade paper reported. The first Bears film is in post-production. Disney is also reportedly developing a film based on the Disneyland Pirates of the Caribbean ride.
Lightning Strikes Potter Scar
s the scar in the right place? That's the question of the moment for fans of J.K. Rowling's best-selling Harry Potter series of children's novels.
At issue: the second trailer for Chris Columbus' feature-film version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which shows Harry's (Daniel Radcliffe) signature lightning-bolt scar over his right eye.
That is at variance with illustrations on the books' covers, which show the scar in the dead center of Harry's forehead, EW Online reported. But the site said the film's interpretation comes directly from Rowling, who reportedly never pinpointed the scar's exact location in her books. A Warner Bros. source told EW that Rowling discussed the facial blemish at length with director Columbus, requesting that it be "razor sharp, just off center." As for the books, illustrator Mary GrandPré told the site that the scar's placement was left up to her: "I guess everybody has their own interpretation."
Hallmark Premieres With Wells
he new Hallmark Channel (formerly Odyssey Network) debuts Aug. 5 with the world network premiere of The Infinite Worlds of H.G. Wells, a miniseries based on the short stories of the classic SF author.
The miniseries airs Aug. 5-7 from 9-11 p.m.
Produced by Hallmark Entertainment for the channel, the miniseries stars Tom Ward, Katy Carmichael and Eve Best and was created by Nick Willing, who selected a half-dozen of Wells' stories to be adapted for the small screen. They include "The New Accelerator," "Brownlow's Newspaper," "The Crystal Egg," "The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes," "The Stolen Bacillus" and "The Truth About Pyecraft." H.G. is the protagonist in each story. Robert Halmi Sr. (Dinotopia) executive produced the series, with producers Robert Halmi Jr., Dyson Lovell and Nick Willing. Robert Young directed.
Wells Handed Off Time
imon Wells, director of the upcoming feature film version of his great-grandfather's classic SF novel The Time Machine, told SCI FI Wire that he temporarily handed over the reins to helmer Gore Verbinski only weeks before the end of principal photography because he was too tired to continue.
"I suffered massive exhaustion, basically," Wells said in a candid interview at the International Comic-Con in San Diego. "I'd been working flat out, and never really worked on a film I cared about as much as this, and so had never worked myself so hard. Plus, I was learning kind of on the job as I was going, and this eventually took its toll. And I fell flat on my face one weekend, and realized that I couldn't get up."
Verbinski (The Mexican) stepped in to finish shooting. "A lot of the underground stuff with the Morlocks is basically Gore's work," Wells said. "I said to him, 'Look, I really appreciate the creativity and so on that you've brought to this. You really should take credit on it.' And he said, 'Oh, I'm a plumber. You've already made all the creative decisions. I am just connecting it all together for you. That's all I'm doing. I'm just doing the plumbing.' Personally, I feel he did a lot more than that, but I'm incredibly grateful to him." Wells, now recovered, has taken over post-production and editing of the film and will receive the sole directorial credit, he said.
With regard to the Morlocks, Wells said he had a different approach to the underground-dwelling creatures than either his great-grandfather or director George Pal, who shot his own version of the book in the 1960s. "I was intrigued by the idea that the Morlocks, because ... in our version of the story, they have sort of consciously chosen the role that they have in the world," Wells said. "I was intrigued by the idea of taking that a step further, and saying, 'They breed themselves to be the things that they need to be.' And ... that in a way is related to our modern world of specialization. When you think about the careers that we do, where we specialize ourselves to the point where really we are incapable of doing many of the other everyday tasks. ... And so the idea of actually breeding humanity for specific functions, it's a sort of wonderfully inhuman idea that you take your own cousins and breed them to create hunters or spies or the evil Morlocks."
To realize the creatures, the film combines live actors in suits and computer animation, with creature design by Stan Winston. The CG Morlocks will be "doing things human actors in rubber suits can't do," Wells said. "The human actors in rubber suits, for one thing, find it very difficult running any distance, and particularly running through the Morlock tunnels was a very challenging set to work in. So there's... on the order of 30-odd computer-generated shots of Morlocks doing movements that actors can't really physically do. But the hope is that that stuff will be sort of seamless, where part of the actions will be stunt work you could actually do, and then there will be places where you just sort of think, 'Wait a minute, how did they do that?' I think there's only one shot where we actually ... have a real costumed character become a computer-generated character." Time Machine opens Christmas day.
Richard Hatches Galactica Plan
ichard Hatch--Apollo on the 1970s SF series Battlestar Galactica--told SCI FI Wire that he still hopes to take part in a new version of the show, but has held no formal meetings with producers.
In an interview at the International Comic-Con in San Diego, Hatch said, "They've had contact directly and indirect contact with several of the original characters, but there's been no real sit-down meetings. There's no discussions yet. There's only been some very vague discussions about the possibility of using some of the original characters, but we don't know how much, how little, whether it's a token way or a substantial way."
Fox has ordered a new, two-hour Battlestar Galactica movie from Studios USA, which will stand as a pilot for a proposed Galactica series for the 2002-03 season that will run jointly on Fox and The SCI FI Channel. X-Men director Bryan Singer will helm and will also executive produce with Tom DeSanto, Dan Angel and Billy Brown.
For his part, Hatch continues to lobby for his own Galactica series, subtitled The Second Coming, for which he screened a trailer to fans at Comic-Con. "We do know that the polls of The SCI FI Channel were 80-90 percent to bring back the original concept and cast of the show, so the question is whether the studio will listen, whether they will find a way to build a bridge between the past and the future. We don't know."
Hatch said he would be open to bringing a new generation into the series mythology, but feels that will work only if the originals are still involved significantly, possibly showing some of the originals introducing their children to the team. "I believe if they do a spinoff with a new cast, they are running a major risk of losing the audience that's going to make that show a success," Hatch said. "It is not the new audience that's going to make it successful. It is the existing audience right now that is multigenerational, from teens up to the 40s, 50s and 60s, who have been supporting this show for 20 years, who are going to support the new show. It's not going to be the few new fans that may come in that are going to make the difference. So if they try to satisfy only new people to do a new show and lose the rest of them, then they're going to lose every opportunity they have of staying on the air long enough to bond the fans to a new group of characters. Why do that when you can build that bridge using the existing characters?"
X-Men 2 In Writing Stages
-Men 2 director Bryan Singer told the Comics2Film Web site that he faces several new challenges in coming up with a sequel to the hit superhero film X-Men.
"There's more freedom, but at the same time, it's trying to keep everyone in the story and find things for everyone to do and explore things that you didn't have the opportunity to do the first time--and also introduce new characters," Singer told the site.
As for the top-secret plot, Singer allowed, "You'll know a bit more about Wolverine. Our story is laid out, and we're now working on the screenplay. David Hayter and a writer named Zack Penn [are] working with me. I get very hands-on in the script stage, so it's very much a strange collage that I'm the funnel for." Hayter and Penn are "working on a single treatment," Singer added, dispelling rumors that they were working on separate drafts. "It's really a collaborative effort on all three of our parts. I outlined a storyline, and they worked from that. It's on odd way of working, but it's not two separate movies. It's one storyline." Shooting will begin early next year.
Sunburst Nominees Named
rganizers announced the short list of nominees for the first-ever Sunburst Award for English-language Canadian literature of the fantastic.
The juried award includes a cash prize of $1,000 and a bronze medallion and is tentatively scheduled to be presented on Sept. 28 at the Winnipeg International Writers Festival. The nominees follow.
•Before Wings by Beth Goobie
•Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson
•Lord of Emperors by Guy Gavriel Kay
•The Black Chalice by Marie Jakober
•Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson
•Galveston by Sean Stewart
Chronicle Scoops Up Ratings
he SCI FI Channel's new paranormal series The Chronicle debuted with the highest rating in the channel's Saturday, 9 p.m., timeslot so far this year.
The show, which premiered with two back-to-back episodes from 9-11 p.m. on July 14, earned a 1.6 rating, reaching about 1.12 million households.
The Chronicle's premiere scored with more men 25-54 than did baseball on TBS and FX, and more adults 25-54 than TNT, the channel reported. On a household ratings basis, The Chronicle led SCI FI to a ratings win over Discovery Channel, Comedy Central, TBS and A&E.
Stargate Star Talks Arcs
ichael Shanks, who plays archaeologist Daniel Jackson on Showtime's Stargate: SG-1, told SCI FI Wire that the goal of the fifth season's current arc remains a mystery, but offered a few details of his character's storyline.
"Right now we're in the middle of a two-parter where he's re-investigating the summit of the system wars, and he's gone undercover, so to speak, to try and get some information and see if he can kill them all," Shanks said in an interview at the International Comic-Con in San Diego.
Shanks added, "That's his biggest arrow of the season, and we've only shot one part of it, so I don't even know what's going to happen yet. There isn't a particular arc. This season is more of a series arc than a specific character arc, so I have no idea what is going to end up happening, because we haven't seen the last six scripts. So it will be interesting."
ABC Orders King Kingdom
BC has ordered The Kingdom, a weekly supernatural series about a haunted hospital, from horrormeister Stephen King for the 2002-03 season, Variety reported.
Columbia TriStar Television and Touchstone TV will produce the series; King will act as executive producer and write most of the episodes.
ABC will premiere the show with a two-hour movie, followed by at least 13 hour-long weekly episodes. The Kingdom is based on Dancer in the Dark director Lars von Trier's 1994 Danish miniseries of the same name. The central hospital is built on a haunted graveyard, resulting in unseen forces and odd goings-on, such as a phantom ambulance that visits the hospital each evening, the trade paper reported.
Tartakovsky Unveils Samurai
enndy Tartakovsky--creator of the animated Dexter's Laboratory and producer of the Powerpuff Girls series--told SCI FI Wire that his latest show, an animated SF action adventure called Samurai Jack, will differ both from his earlier efforts and from other current cartoon shows.
"It's not what you normally see, and it's not what you've seen before," Tartakovsky said in an interview. "It combines a lot of familiar elements--SF, action, mythology--into one unique and,
hopefully, very entertaining show."
The series, which the Cartoon Network will debut on Aug. 10 with a 90-minute premiere movie, follows the adventures of Samurai Jack (voiced by Futurama's Phil La Marr), a warrior determined to find a time portal that will take him back home after an evil shape-shifting wizard named Aku (voiced by Mako) sends him deep into the future. As he struggles to find the portal, Jack will encounter assorted aliens and robots, not to mention Aku himself, all of whom he'll fight tooth, nail and sword.
"Jack is a character you'll care about and sympathize with," said the Russian-born animator, who still produces Dexter and Powerpuff, and who will serve as animation director on the upcoming Powerpuff feature film. "Once you have a good character, it really doesn't matter what you do, because people want to watch a good character. So the show is really for anybody who likes good character stuff, good action, good SF and who's interested in a show
with a different point of view in terms of telling a story." New episodes of Samurai Jack will air Mondays at 7 p.m. ET, beginning Aug. 13. The Cartoon Network has committed to three 13-episode seasons of Samurai Jack.
Fehr AWOL From TV Press Tour
he boys of Roswell caused a stir at last week's Television Critics Association fall preview, not by what they said, but by saying nothing; Jason Behr and Brendan Fehr didn't show up, leaving Shiri Appleby, Katherine Heigl, Majandra Delfino and producer Jason Katims to chat up the show, which returns to the airwaves--and joins the UPN roster--on Oct. 16.
Though Behr and Fehr seemingly had good reason not to attend--Behr was shooting a movie and had studio approval to skip the affair; Fehr was filming a Canadian public service spot, but apparently didn't have studio OK to miss the press event--lawyers for 20th Century Fox, which produces Roswell, were reportedly not pleased.
According to E! Online, Fehr--and possibly the entire cast; the recipient's name was crossed out--received a dire letter from Fox lawyers that threatened legal action. "Make no mistake, such a cavalier disregard of your documented commitments to the series will not be tolerated," the document read. "We are hopeful, however, that [Fox] has either been misinformed as to your intentions or, if you actually did not intend to appear at the TCAPT, that you will reconsider your ill-advised decision and agree to honor your contractual obligations."
Fehr's manager, Jim Sheasgreen, did not sound particularly apologetic. "I think it's already been expressed that not everyone was particularly excited about going back for a third season," he told E! Online. That said, however, Sheasgreen did state that Fehr will be at Paramount and on the Roswell set when the cast reconvenes on July 23.
Briefly Noted
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TNT will show the entire first season of the Witchblade television series on Aug. 26, from noon until 11 p.m., the Comics Continuum Web site reported. Four new episodes remain in the first season.
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The Countingdown.com Web site has posted a teaser poster for the upcoming X-Men 2 sequel, from the International Comic-Con in San Diego.
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E! Online reported that Star Wars creator George Lucas is filing a federal trademark-infringement suit against a Buffalo, N.Y., medical supply company that wants to market a line of energy-beam-related medical devices as Light Sabers.
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Soundtrack Magazine reported that Dennis McCarthy has landed the assignment of scoring the two-hour opening episode of UPN's upcoming Star Trek series, Enterprise, displacing longtime Trek composer Jerry Goldsmith. There was no word on who would compose the show's theme.
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The Comics Continuum Web site reported that New Line has set a tentative March 22, 2002, release date for Blade 2.
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Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will release a DVD boxed set of all season-four episodes of The X-Files on Nov. 13.
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The Ain't It Cool News Web site has attacked Web columnist Matt Drudge for giving away the surprise ending of Tim Burton's upcoming Planet of the Apes movie, calling him a "royal ass" and offering to "bitch slap" him. Apes opens July 27.
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Cadillac is providing several custom-built prototype vehicles for use in the upcoming Matrix Reloaded movie, the sequel to 1999's hit film The Matrix, Advertising Age magazine reported. The vehicles reportedly include the CTS sedan, which won't go into production until late this year and goes on sale early in 2002. The Cadillac Escalade sport utility vehicle also plays a major role in the film.
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The Coming Attractions Web site posted spoiler details of the universe of Steven Spielberg's upcoming SF thriller movie Minority Report, based on the Philip K. Dick story of the same name.
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CBS set a Sept. 12 premiere date for its upcoming supernatural thriller series Wolf Lake, starring Lou Diamond Phillips.
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A UPN spokesman denied to SCI FI Wire a report in Entertainment Weekly magazine that the upcoming midseason replacement series The Dead Zone was in limbo. The series, based on Stephen King's novel of the same name and starring Anthony Michael Hall, is still on the network's spring schedule, the spokesman said.
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The Puppet Masters--the creators of the elaborate Internet game linked to Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence film--announced the end of the game on July 24 to members of the Cloudmakers group. The group of gamers also met with the gamemakers at a special dinner in Los Angeles June 28 and previewed the movie. The gamemakers promise to post a FAQ soon revealing the game's secrets and have set up a message board for gamers to post.
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The DreamWorks Fan Site has posted new images of the upcoming Time Machine movie's props and production from the display at the International Comic-Con in San Diego. The movie opens on Christmas day.
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The Comics Continuum Web site reported that a new trailer for Sam Raimi's upcoming Spider-Man film will appear during the holiday season.
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Warner Bros. has posted a new online trailer for its upcoming supernatural movie Hearts of Atlantis, based on Stephen King's novel of the same name. The film, directed by Scott Hicks and starring Anthony Hopkins, opens Sept. 28.
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Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon told an audience at Comic-Con in San Diego that Dark Horse Comics will come out with a new Tales of the Slayer series, which will tell stories about slayers from throughout history. The comics will be written in part by scribes from the TV show.
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