Gibson Hot On Fahrenheit 451
el Gibson told SCI FI Wire that writer/director Frank Darabont's interest in the long-gestating new film version of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 might put the project back on the fast track.
"Frank called," Gibson said in an interview. "He said, 'You know, it's my favorite book.' I said, 'No, really?' He said, `What's happening with this?' I said, `Nothing. It's kind of on the back burner, in limbo. They've got a $160 million budget. They're scaring the hell out of everybody.'"
Gibson added, "Frank said, 'Can I take a look at it?' I said, 'Yeah, sure.' I tossed him the script. He said, 'Do you mind if I ... ?' So he's tinkering away with it. So I have another good head. He's good value, and he loves it. He's working on it as a writer, and maybe he'll direct it. I don't know. I wrote it with Terry Hayes [The Road Warrior, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and From Hell]. He was going to direct it. He just couldn't get it off the ground. There wasn't enough hot air in Hollywood. Frank came along and said, 'I think I can simplify it,' because it was real elaborate."
Gibson, who will next be seen in M. Night Shyamalan's upcoming Signs, is also aware that George Miller wants to bring Mad Max 4 to fruition. Is Gibson interested in returning to the role that rocketed him to stardom? "It would depend," he said. "I don't know if my joints are up to it."
Superman Lives Again?
irector McG (Charlie's Angels) has clinched a deal to direct the next installment of the Superman film franchise, Variety reported.
McG—whose real name is Joseph McGinty—will helm a film to be written by J.J. Abrams (Alias).
The news is the latest concerning a much-hoped-for fifth installment in the venerable Warner Brothers franchise. Between 1996-'98, Warner was developing a Superman film based on scripts by Kevin Smith, Dan Gilroy and Bill Wisher. Warner pulled the plug on preproduction for Superman Lives in April 1998 because of budget concerns, the trade paper reported. Superman Lives director Tim Burton and star Nicolas Cage are not involved in the proposed new film. Jon Peters will produce.
McG would likely direct Superman after he completes Charlie's Angels 2: Halo, which starts production this spring, Variety reported.
Oscar Mulls Rings Credits
nder new rules, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is still determining who will be named as producers of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring for purposes of its best-picture Oscar nomination, Variety reported.
New Line submitted four names as producers of the film: director Peter Jackson, Frances Walsh, Barrie M. Osborne and Tim Sanders.
But new Oscar rules allow only three producers to be listed, the trade paper reported. For now, the film is listed as "nominees to be determined." The academy's producers' branch will arbitrate and select three names to be formally listed as nominees, probably by the end of the month. Only those three will be permitted onstage to accept the statuette should Rings win, the trade paper reported.
Rings Leads Oscar Nods
he Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring received 13 Oscar nominations on Feb. 12, the most of any film in 2001.
In addition to being nominated for best picture, the first Rings film received a nod for director Peter Jackson and for supporting actor Ian McKellen (Gandalf).
Rings was among the few genre films to be honored in nominations for the annual awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Many were found in the new category for best animated feature film, whose nominees were Shrek, Monsters, Inc. and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. Other nominated genre films, mainly for technical awards, included Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and A.I. Artifical Intelligence.
The record for most nominations is held by 1950's All About Eve and 1997's Titanic, each of which received 14 nods. The Oscars will be presented on March 24 at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles and televised live on ABC. A list of other genre nominations follows.
Art Direction
•Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
•The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Cinematography
•The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Costume Design
•Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
•The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Film Editing
•The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Makeup
•The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Original Score
•John Williams, A.I. Artificial Intelligence
•Howard Shore, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
•John Williams, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
•Randy Newman, Monsters, Inc.
Original Song
•"Until," Sting, Kate & Leopold
•"May It Be," Enya, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Sound
•The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Sound Editing
•Monsters, Inc.
Visual Effects
•A.I. Artificial Intelligence
•The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Screenplay Based on Material Previously
Produced or Published
•Shrek, by Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Joe Stillman, Roger S.H. Schulman
•The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson
Favreau Not Firm For Foggy
he IGN FilmForce Web site reported a rumor that actor-director Jon Favreau has not signed to play the character of Foggy Nelson in the upcoming Daredevil movie.
Earlier reports suggested that Favreau had clinched the part.
But IGN FilmForce cited an anonymous source saying that "the deal is not sealed." Sean Astin (The Lord of the Rings) is another rumored candidate to play Foggy, the site reported. Daredevil, starring Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner and Michael Clarke Duncan, is based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name.
Digital Episode II Screenings Unlikely
he number of theaters that will screen a digital version of George Lucas' upcoming Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones will fall far short of the hoped-for 2,000 screens, Variety reported.
Only about 20 screens have converted to digital projection systems nationwide, with little prospect of adding many more by the picture's scheduled May 16 release, the trade paper reported.
The rollout of digital projection technology has been hindered by a lack of uniform engineering standards and financial problems of theater owners, the trade paper reported.
Lucas had once hoped that several hundred digital screens would be in place by the time Episode II opened. Episode II was shot entirely on digital video.
Episode II Toys Unveiled
asbro unveiled its line of toys connected to the upcoming Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones at the American International Toy Fair in New York, the official Star Wars Web site reported.
The site posted images of the upcoming toys, games and action figures.
"We have worked closely with both Lucas Licensing and retailers to develop a product line that offers exciting play features for kids, while also providing products that we are confident collectors will love," Brian Goldner, president of Hasbro's U.S. toys group, told the site. Episode II items will become available at retailers nationwide on April 23, in anticipation of the film's May 16 opening.
To commemorate Star Wars' 25th anniversary, Hasbro also created a Darth Vader figure especially for visitors to the toy fair. There are also plans to release a limited quantity of the figure through the official fan club, the site reported.
Cohen Talks Futurama Status
uturama co-creator and executive producer David X. Cohen told Cinescape Online that the animated Fox series hasn't been canceled—exactly.
"We're in what is basically an unprecedented situation in that we have so many new episodes that haven't aired yet, literally enough episodes to run the rest of this year and all of next year at the snail's pace that they run the show at," Cohen told the site. "So we're not canceled in the sense that we're still on the air. We still expect to be on the air next year. We may even have a few more episodes than ... the number necessary to run this season and next season."
A Fox spokeswoman told the Zap2it.com Web site that the network was not ordering any new episodes. "We're still on the air," Cohen said. "I'm still incredibly busy working on the episodes that people haven't seen yet. The show gets better and better. There are a lot of great episodes that are still going to be on. Obviously, they are letting us go out of production, which means we're going to lose all of our writers and probably all of our animators. In the event—which is probably a long shot, but by no means zero chance—that they do decide they do want more episodes down the line, a whole new team would have to be put together, which is a big task. It's obviously a big blow, but I hope people will remember the show is still on, and the best episodes are yet to come. So stick with it. You will be rewarded."
Futurama Has No Future?
ox won't order new episodes of its animated SF series Futurama, but the network added that the show hasn't been canceled, the Zap2it.com Web site reported.
"Fox has decided not to order more episodes at this time, but we may do so in the future," a Fox spokeswoman told the site.
Several episodes have been finished and haven't aired yet, so Futurama will remain on the air for a while, the site reported. When the current season ends in May, Fox will have about 14 additional new episodes, which it plans to air next fall.
Futurama's production company, Rough Draft, fired its animators, according to the GotFuturama? fan Web site.
The site has started an online petition to save the show, which pulled over 20,000 signatures after just 17 hours, Zap2it reported.
Trek: Bridge Ready For Debut
ctivision and Totally Games announced that their upcoming space-combat simulator PC game Star Trek: Bridge Commander has finished being programmed and is on its way to the manufacturer for a Feb. 26 release.
The game puts the player in command of Galaxy- and Sovereign-class starships to battle Romulans, align with Klingons and investigate Cardassians.
Star Trek: Bridge Commander carries a suggested retail price of $49.99.
No Complaints For Enterprise Doc
hough some Enterprise fans are grousing that John Billingsley, who plays the potential breakout character Dr. Phlox, isn't getting enough to do on UPN's freshman Star Trek series, the actor refuses to complain.
"I'm having a great time," Billingsley said in an interview with SCI FI Wire. "The people are sweet as hell. I've spent so many years doing this kind of work that, to me, just to have a regular gig is heaven."
Billingsley added, "I would like more to do, of course, but I recognize that one of the things [the producers] want to do and need to do—and I think they're wise to do this—is to establish the triangular relationship between the captain [Scott Bakula], T'Pol [Jolene Blalock] and Trip [Connor Trinneer]. I think in that way they are reflecting some of what made the original show work. I think that's very prudent. They've got the fire-in-the-belly engineer, the cool and cerebral Vulcan and the captain, who is the balance between the two. I think that's exactly what they had in the first show, and it's one of the things people like about Enterprise. McCoy is Trip. The captain is the captain, and Spock is T'Pol. That will always be the ace, and what I hope they do is find a way to give the rest of us more to do than Sulu and Chekov and Uhura got to do." Enterprise airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Stockwell Leaps To Enterprise
cott Bakula will reunite with longtime friend and former Quantum Leap co-star Dean Stockwell in an episode of Bakula's new Star Trek series, Enterprise, SCI FI Wire confirmed.
Stockwell will appear in the episode "Detained," directed by David Livingston. Stockwell will play Grat, a Tandaran colonel who deals with Capt. Archer (Bakula) and Mayweather (Anthony Montgomery) after they enter Tandaran airspace. The episode will air in April.
Stockwell was in production on the Enterprise episode at the time his older brother, actor Guy Stockwell, died. Guy Stockwell died Feb. 7 at age 69, the Associated Press reported. The actor, whose cause of death was not revealed, counted among his credits 30 movies and 250 television episodes, encompassing such genre outings as Knight Rider, Quantum Leap, It's Alive, Burned at the Stake and the cult classic horror film Santa Sangre. Guy Stockwell is survived by his wife and three children, as well as his brother.
Sorbo Savors Andromeda
evin Sorbo, star of the syndicated SF series Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, told SCI FI Wire that he's pleased that Tribune Entertainment and Fireworks Entertainment have renewed the show for two more seasons, but added that he wants to see the public embrace it more widely.
"It's pretty amazing, but I will still battle with the powers that be," Sorbo said in an interview. "I think the show should be a much higher-rated show."
Sorbo, who plays Capt. Dylan Hunt, added, "Yes, it's the No. 1 show in syndication, but I look at it and think it's a really good show. The trouble with syndication is that you're not on Tuesdays at 8 o'clock across the country. We're on at different times in different cities, pretty much Saturdays and Sundays. You don't get that [tune-in] unless people are looking in their TV Guide. People get lost looking for the show. So I'm trying to do what I can to get the studio to promote it better. That's why I'm doing a lot of promotional stuff right now in New York, Chicago and out in L.A."
Looking ahead to next season, Sorbo reported that changes are on the horizon, especially with Robert Engels stepping in to replace the recently dismissed Robert Hewitt Wolfe as show runner. "We're going to get away from the Commonwealth," Sorbo said. "We've kind of said, 'The hell with it.' Dylan's got to come to the point where he realizes that he can't save the universe on his own by restoring it to where it was, with a million member worlds. So he pretty much decides that, 'You know what? We've got this ship and a pretty good crew. Let's just go out there and help people who need our help.' That's right back to the Gene Roddenberry concept [of the series]."
Potter DVD Makes Magic
aul Hemstreet, vice president special features/DVD for Warner Brothers, told SCI FI Wire that the upcoming Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone special-edition DVD will turn the extra features into an experience that puts viewers in the world of Hogwarts.
For example, instead of just putting preproduction sketches in a menu, the viewer will find those sketches in books at the Hogwarts library. Hemstreet said in an interview that this was a logical way to present material in the context of the Harry Potter movie.
"Rather than coming right out and laying it all out, it's still within the world of Harry, in that it's a book that would be in Hogwarts' library," Hemstreet said. As another example, he said, "you can go into each one of the professors' classrooms, and there are different features in there. 'Harry Potter Throughout the World' features listening to a scene in many different world languages. The Potions Game is there, which features potions that are mentioned in the book or the film, and it's a fun experience where you have to put the combinations together right or your potion could explode and send you to the hospital."
Other locations on the DVD include Diagon Alley, Gringott's Bank and the Hogwarts Grounds, where Quidditch is played. These features are on disc two of the two-disc set, which hits stores on May 28.
NBC Unwrapping Muppet Christmas
BC Studios and the Jim Henson Co. have signed a deal to develop It's a Wonderful Muppet Christmas Movie, an original telefilm to premiere this holiday season, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The movie will incorporate parodies of classic Christmas films and feature guest shots and cameo appearances by NBC stars, the trade paper reported.
Veteran Muppet writer Jim Lewis has been tapped to write the screenplay. Jim Henson Television Group president Juliet Blake told the Reporter that the NBC deal will mark the first time the Muppets have been featured in a made-for-TV movie, though the troupe has done its share of TV specials over the years.
The Muppet Christmas Movie will also feature the first significant kiss between Kermit and Miss Piggy, the trade paper reported.
Williams Has Nose For Schnozz
hrek producer John H. Williams will develop a computer-animated feature based on Schnozz, a British cartoon about dogs, Variety reported.
The film would tell the story of a mutt and the rejected animals he meets as he follows in the footsteps of his police-dog father, the trade paper reported.
Schnozz was created by U.K. illustrator and character designer Gary Chapman and written by Jordan Katz.
Williams just produced the upcoming supernatural Jackie Chan movie The Tuxedo at DreamWorks.
Swords Slices Into Stores
ctivision Value, a subsidiary of Activision, announced that the PC version of its real-time Sega strategy game Hundred Swords has shipped to retail stores nationwide.
The game was originally designed for Sega's Dreamcast gaming platform in Japan.
Hundred Swords places gamers in one of four warring factions as they battle through a fast-paced mythical 3-D adventure, the company said. Players can choose to battle their way through 18 single-player missions as either the king or the queen, with seven complete chapters and 30 maps and mini-missions to complete. The game carries a suggested retail price of $29.99.
Belluci Enters The Matrix
talian actress Monica Bellucci (Brotherhood of the Wolf) told SCI FI Wire that she signed on for a role in the upcoming Matrix sequels because she was such a fan of the first film.
"I wanted to be part of it, because I love the first one," Bellucci said in an interview. "It was a really good movie, and it's great to work with people like [writer/directors Andy and Larry] Wachowski. ... I loved [the brothers' previous film] Bound, and for me, I'm Italian, so it's great to have the possibility to work in Italy, France and America."
Belluci's role in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions has been kept under wraps, and she declined to discuss the part or her physical preparation for it. "I'm sorry, I can't say anything about Matrix," she said. "It's a very secretive project. It's going to come out in one year, so it's too soon to talk about."
Hardwired Ready To Roll?
he Coming Attractions Web site reported a rumor that production may start this year in Australia on Hardwired, a movie based on Isaac Asimov's robot series of short stories.
Alex Proyas (Dark City) is reportedly set to direct the film at Fox's Sydney production studios, starting in September.
Jeff Vintar wrote the script for Hardwired, based on Asimov's characters and concepts. The film centers on a murder investigation in which the suspects are all self-aware machine intelligences. The site reported that the film is slated for a Christmas 2003 release.
Del Toro Possible For Willows
isney is in talks with Guillermo del Toro (Blade II) to direct the studio's big-screen version of The Wind in the Willows, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Once a deal is reached, del Toro will work to further refine a treatment for and supervise the development of the film, which is based on Kenneth Grahame's 1908 children's book.
No writer is yet attached. Willows is being envisioned as a live-action/computer-animated version of the classic animal adventure story, the trade paper reported.
King Retirement Report Dismissed
s Stephen King set to retire? Scribner publisher Susan Moldow dismissed a report in the Los Angeles Times that the horror writer was ready to hang up his bloody pen, according to EW.com.
"This story gets recycled all the time, and I put no more credence in it now than the last time," Moldow told EW.com. Scribner will release a King short-story collection, Everything's Eventual, next month and the novel From a Buick 8 in the fall.
King told the Times that he would soon be "done" with "writing books," adding that he didn't "want to finish up like Harold Robbins," who continued writing into his 80s.
Wells Soups Up Time Machine
irector Simon Wells told SCI FI Wire that his remake of The Time Machine will feature more than 400 special-effects shots, enabling him to create a visual landscape light-years beyond what George Pal was able to realize in his 1960 film version.
"There's a place in the original where the time machine gets encased with rock," Wells said in an interview. "Hundreds of years go by, and the Time Traveler is trapped inside the rock, which was basically a really clever cheat to get around showing that huge sweep of time changing."
Added the director, "We don't do that cheat. We stay out in the open. We see geological time travel. We see, literally, an ice age come and go. Right there, that's something you couldn't possibly do even five years ago."
Wells, who is the great-grandson of Time Machine author H.G. Wells, noted that his film will have one thing very much in common with the Pal version: Alan Young. The 82-year-old actor, who portrayed Filby in the first film, will pop up briefly in the remake. "We met with Alan, because we were told, `He's this wonderful old guy, and you have to meet him,'" Wells said. "We thought it would be nice to have him in the office and the studio and show him what we were doing on the new movie. When he came in, we just fell in love with him. He's such a nice guy. After he left, David Valdes, our producer, turned to me and said, `We've got to put him in the movie.' So he has a one-line cameo appearance. Aficionados of the original movie will be pleased to see him in there." The Time Machine will open nationwide on March 8.
Oscar To Surface In 6 Million Film
ichard Anderson, who played Oscar Goldman on the 1970s TV series The Six Million Dollar Man, told SCI FI Wire that preproduction of Miramax/Universal's movie version of the series is on a fast track.
Anderson added that he is under contract to appear as Oscar, and that Lee Majors may reprise his role as Steve Austin. But Anderson said filmmakers are looking for a new star—along the lines of Brad Pitt and Hugh Jackman—to play the lead, adding that it is not yet time to approach actors. "We've got to get the story straight," he said. "Story first, and then we'll go after the director."
Whatever direction the story takes, Anderson said it is important to keep some of the original actors, as did the James Bond series. "In James Bond, they always brought [Q], the fellow with the inventions, back, and he played the part until he died. So I think the studio felt there was something about bringing in some of the people from the original series."
Anderson became a producer with some of the Six Million Dollar Man TV movies and was the one to interest Universal in backing a theatrical production.
Spidey In Home Stretch
pider-Man movie producer Laura Ziskin told E! that the film is almost complete, according to a report on the Comics Continuum Web site.
"We're just at the end of post-production on Spider-Man," Ziskin told the network. "It's been a big year." Spider-Man, directed by Sam Raimi based on the Marvel Comics series, is slated for a May 3 release.
The Continuum also reported that Kellogg's will promote the movie with a Spider-Man cereal and a web-squirter promotion with such cereals as Marshmallow Froot Loops.
T3 Fembot Details Leaked
rnold Schwarzenegger told the Associated Press that the new female cyborg in his upcoming Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines will be the biggest enemy yet.
"The idea of the female terminator is great," Schwarzenegger said. "She will have additional powers that Robert Patrick in Terminator 2 did not have."
Schwarzenegger added, "She will have control over machines and over anything mechanical, therefore including myself. So you will sometimes see me as the villain and sometimes as a terminator that tried to save the world." Terminator 3 is slated for a 2003 release.
Strange World Opens Well
he SCI FI Channel issued a statement saying the network was pleased with the initial ratings for Strange World, which began a 13-week run Feb. 8 that will include 10 never-before-seen episodes.
"SCI FI is very pleased with the performance of Strange World's premiere last Friday," a network spokesman said. "Ratings were stronger than expected, despite airing against the Olympic Opening Ceremonies. And in two weeks, SCI FI will begin airing 10 weeks of never-before-seen episodes of Strange World. These are terrific episodes, which we believe will perform even more strongly."
The series, which aired only three episodes on ABC in 1999 before being canceled, is executive-produced by former X-Files producer Howard Gordon. Gordon previously told SCI FI Wire that he was thrilled that fans would finally get to see all 13 episodes of the series, which, he added, functions more as a limited-run series than a show that ends without resolution. Strange World airs Fridays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
New Amityville Film, TV Due?
he Coming Attractions Web site reported rumors that a new feature film or television series is in the works based on the Amityville Horror franchise.
Daniel Alter, the manager of screenwriter/director Daniel Farrands, confirmed to the site that Alter is talking to "several interested parties" about both the series and the film project.
"We're talking about a movie that made $86 million back in 1979," the producer told the site. "That's more than Poltergeist and The Shining each made a couple of years later. What we're going to do is make a sequel in the vein of Godfather Part II, where we go back to the book and film some of the things that never made it onto the big screen in the original, but at the same time tell a new story. There will be a contemporary setting. Same house, but with another group of people who have to go through the horror. And as they unravel the mystery, it will allow us to intercut with the flashbacks and explore the history and mythology surrounding the events that occurred." Alter also mentioned Farrands might direct the movie.
WB Options PKD's Scanner
arner Brothers has acquired the film rights to Philip K. Dick's semi-autobiographical novel A Scanner Darkly for Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney's production company, Section 8, Variety reported.
The book tells the story of Bob Arctor, a man in the grip of drug dementia whose delusions prevent him from discerning between his day job as a narcotics officer and his paranoid alter ego, Fred, who's submersed in the addict's lifestyle, the trade paper reported. No director is attached, but sources told Variety that the film is a possible candidate for either computer or traditional animation.
The proposed movie had been set up at Muse Productions, where producer Chris Hanley had attached Leonardo DiCaprio and for a time courted music-video director Chris Cunningham to develop it as his first feature, the trade paper reported. Those people are no longer involved.
Farrell Is In The Minority
olin Farrell, star of Steven Spielberg's upcoming SF thriller film Minority Report, told SCI FI Wire that it was by far the biggest production he's worked on.
The actor shares the screen with Tom Cruise, Samantha Morton and Max von Sydow in the film adaptation of Philip K. Dick's classic short story of the same name. "It was a huge set," Farrell said in an interview. "You walk into what looks like a warehouse that might have some food being stored in it, but it's got all these apartments and headquarters and LCD screens and gadgetry. It was amazing."
Minority Report tells the story of a future society where police arrest and convict murderers before they commit their crimes. "The car that Lexus designed [for the film] was this prototype thing that cost a f-cking pile of money to make, and it was electrically run. It looks like something out of Blade Runner, and I got to drive it. It was huge. It was a great experience. It was. I was going to say it was like being in the movies. The film is a little bit different from the [Dick] story. I grew up with Top Gun. I bawled my eyes out at E.T. when I was about five years old. So to work with Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg was just a gem. And I got to work with Max von Sydow. How much of a f-cking legend is that dude? And [my] character was one that didn't have to make the emotional journey of some of the other characters I've played. It wasn't as weighty and didn't have the potential to drag me down, like some of the characters I've played. So it was cool, because it came right on the heels of Hart's War. If the role had been something darker and weightier, oh God, I don't know if I would have made it." Minority Report will open nationwide on June 21.
Landes Stars In Final 2
pecial Unit 2 star Michael Landes will play the lead role in New Line's upcoming sequel to its hit 2000 film Final Destination, Variety reported.
In Final Destination 2, Landes will play a rookie cop opposite original Final Destination star Ali Larter, the trade paper reported.
J. Mackye Gruber and Eric Bress wrote the script for the sequel, which will mark the directorial debut of David R. Ellis, a former stunt coordinator who was a second unit director on Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and The Matrix Reloaded.
Prey Casting Rumors Swirl
umors are swirling regarding the casting for The WB's upcoming Birds of Prey television movie, a pilot for a series based on the DC Comics series.
The Gotham Clock Tower Web site reported that Ashley Scott (Dark Angel) will play Helena Kyle, aka the Huntress, and The Hollywood Reporter and E! Online both said that Rachel Skarsten will take on the role of Dina Lance, aka Black Canary.
But there are conflicting reports about the casting of Barbara Gordon, the former Batgirl. Gotham Clock Tower said that Dina Meyer (Star Trek: Nemesis) has been cast, but the Dark Horizons Web site reported that the role will go to Invisible Man star Brandy Ledford.
Marshall Eager For Indy IV
roducer Frank Marshall told Cinescape Online that he's eager to get the much-anticipated fourth Indiana Jones movie off the ground.
"Well, I'm very optimistic; we all want to do it," Marshall told the site, referring to star Harrison Ford and filmmakers Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. "There was a time when we felt that three movies was enough, but now Harrison, Steven, George, myself and everybody else involved feels like, 'Yeah, it'd be fun to do one more.' So, obviously, it's a complicated deal, and it's complicated to come up with a good story. We've had, like, four or five ideas that have reached the working point, but I think now that everybody has agreed to go forward and really try to flesh out a story, it's going to happen in the next three or four years."
As for Lucas, who has said he won't commence Indy IV until after he finishes Star Wars: Episode III, Marshall said, "It may happen at about the same time. Whether it's after Episode III or not, I don't know, because we all have to find the window. Steven is booked up pretty solidly, too. But Harrison keeps saying, 'You know, I'm not getting any younger.'"
Paramount Options Devil
aramount Pictures has optioned the film rights to Glen David Gold's supernatural novel Carter Beats the Devil for Tom Cruise's C/W Productions and filmmaker Robert Towne, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Published in September by Hyperion Press, the book is set in 1920s America and follows Charles Carter, aka Carter the Great, a magician who runs into a problem when he pulls a stunt involving President Warren G. Harding.
Cruise/Wagner will produce the project, and Towne may adapt the material, produce it or direct it, the trade paper reported.
Spotnitz Enters The Ether
he X-Files executive producer Frank Spotnitz will write, direct and produce Into the Ether, a supernatural feature film and the first of two movies Spotnitz will make under a deal with Dimension Films, Variety reported.
Ether tells the story of a medical resident who suspects patients in the hospital where she works are dying through unnatural means, the trade paper reported. Spotnitz will rewrite a script by Brian Carr.
Spotnitz has spent eight years with The X-Files, which ends in May, and he directed two and wrote or co-wrote more than 40 of the show's 200 episodes, including "Memento Mori," for which he shared an Emmy nomination in 1997, Variety reported. He also co-produced and co-wrote the story for The X-Files: Fight the Future, the 1998 feature based on the show.
Craven Directing Alice
cream creator Wes Craven will direct Alice, the feature film based on American McGee's twisted video game of the same name, Variety reported.
Jon and Erich Hoeber will write the script for the movie, a dark take on Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the trade paper reported.
"I can't wait to follow Alice down the rabbit hole for a completely new and nightmarish journey," Craven told the trade paper. Craven's partner, Marianne Maddalena, will produce for Dimension Films, with Collision Entertainment's Scott Faye and Paul Rosenberg and Abandon Pictures' Marcus Ticotin.
Farrell Targets Bullseye
olin Farrell told SCI FI Wire that he's eager to start filming the big-screen version of Daredevil, which will cast him as Bullseye opposite Jennifer Garner as Elektra, Michael Clarke Duncan as Kingpin and Ben Affleck as the titular blind superhero.
"I can't wait," the actor said in an interview. "I can't wait. I'm just going to enjoy that one, man. It's going
to be a good time."
Added the Irish actor, "I'm going to have a laugh doing it. He's a fairly one-dimensional character who is just bad to the bone. I had never heard of [the Marvel Daredevil comic series]. We're not as big on comic books in Ireland as you are in America. It's not [part of] the culture, and so I'd never heard of it. I'd never even heard of Spider-Man, Superman, all them boys, as comic books. I grew up with some of them—like The Incredible Hulk—but through the TV shows, not the comic books. I'm just going to get up there, be as bad as I can and enjoy it as much as possible." Daredevil will commence filming on March 25.
Fillion To Star In Firefly
athan Fillion has been cast in the lead role of Fox's upcoming SF series Firefly, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Fillion (Two Guys and a Girl) will play Capt. Malcolm (Mal) Reynolds in the series, which has a 13-episode commitment from the network.
Set almost 500 years in the future in a newly established Union of Planets, Firefly centers on Reynolds, the owner and the captain of a small "Firefly"-class transport spaceship named Serenity. The time period in the series is a version of the post-Civil War Reconstruction era, with Reynolds as a disillusioned war veteran. "He's a very dark, driven guy," Whedon told the Reporter.
The spaceship for Firefly is currently being built on the Fox lot, where the series is scheduled to begin production in early March. Firefly is set to premiere in the fall, with a two-hour pilot written and directed by Whedon. Speculation is that the show might inherit The X-Files' Sunday 9 p.m. timeslot.
Toxic 4 Tackle the Issues
roma president and film director Lloyd Kaufman told SCI FI Wire that the gory murders in his low-budget action/horror/comedy movies are inspired by current events.
His latest film, Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger Part IV mixes a zany superhero story with such controversial topics as school shootings, abortion and hate crimes.
"I didn't invent the school shootings," the outspoken Kaufman said in an interview. "That was the wonderful racist, sexist American parents who inculcate in their children this love of guns and killing of black people and hatred of women. I didn't come up with that. That's all in the newspapers."
Citizen Toxie pits the hideously deformed creature of superhuman size and strength against an evil alternate-universe version of himself and Kabukiman, another Troma character. The film premiered in Los Angeles on Feb. 8 and will open in a few more theaters before being released on home video and a comprehensive special-edition DVD set.
Disney Making History
isney will develop Unnatural History, a supernatural family drama, based on a pitch by writers Charles Segars and Jeff Phillips, who will executive produce the project through their Sparkler Productions, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Segars and Phillips came up with the idea for the story, which is set at the Smithsonian Institution and centers on a family who must navigate its way out of the museum after all of the exhibits come to life.
No writer has come on board. Disney executive Jason Reed is overseeing the project, the trade paper reported.
Segars, a former DreamWorks television executive, is also developing the SF movie No Man's Land at DreamWorks.
Madonna Sings For Bond 20
adonna will perform a song in the upcoming 20th James Bond film, but will not act in it, her publicist told the Reuters news service.
The British media had earlier reported that the pop superstar would make a cameo appearance in the as-yet-unnamed filmed, which is currently in production.
"She is doing a song for the film, but she won't be acting," Madonna's spokeswoman in London said. "We don't know if it will be the title song yet."
New Zealand-born Lee Tamahori is directing the latest Bond epic, which will star Pierce Brosnan and will open with a dramatic hovercraft chase in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, Reuters reported.
SCI FI Clarifies SG-1 Casting
n response to rumors that it was responsible for the departure of Michael Shanks from Stargate SG-1, the SCI FI Channel issued a statement saying it never requested any cast changes to the show.
"SCI FI Channel loves the series and has absolutely never requested that any cast changes be made," the network said. "We're very excited to add Stargate SG-1 to our original programming line-up, and although we regret the loss of Michael Shanks, we think that Corin Nemec will be a great new presence in the cast."
Nemec (Parker Lewis Can't Lose) will join the cast when the series begins its sixth season on SCI FI in June. Shanks, who played Daniel Jackson, will leave the show at the end of the current season, which is running on Showtime.
Stargate started out on Showtime, which will air original episodes through the end of season five. An all-new sixth season of the show will debut on SCI FI in June, and SCI FI will also rerun the first five seasons in order, beginning in the fourth quarter of 2002. Reruns of the series also air in various syndicated markets.
Dinotopia Game Developing
DK Mediactive is developing a video game based on ABC's upcoming Dinotopia minseries, based on James Gurney's best-selling series of children's books.
The six-hour Hallmark Entertainment miniseries debuts in May, to be followed by a regular TV series on ABC.
The Dinotopia game will be made available for the GameBoy Advance gaming system and will feature left-to-right, side-scrolling action-adventure game play, TDK announced. Dinotopia is being developed by the same team that made Lady Sia for the GameBoy Advance and will feature a similar 3-D background.
Briefly Noted
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Cinescape Online reported that Adam Baldwin (The X-Files) and Jewel Staite (7 Days) have been cast in Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon's upcoming SF television series Firefly for Fox. Baldwin will play Jayne, a rough-and-tumble member of Fillion's crew, and Staite will portray the ship's mechanic.
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The 13th Street Web site has posted a deleted scene from the upcoming vampire movie Queen of the Damned, featuring a song by the Lestat character.
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Twentieth Century Fox has partnered with Burger King, Ralphs supermarkets, Langers juice, Valpak and the Newspaper Association of America to promote its upcoming computer-animated film Ice Age, which opens March 15, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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The Dark Horizons Web site reported that a teaser trailer for Daredevil will come with prints of Steven Spielberg's upcoming SF thriller film Minority Report, which opens June 21.
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A teaser Web site has opened for the upcoming DVD release of Back to the Future. The site contains only an introductory page at the moment.
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Warner Brothers and
Extratv.com have posted sneak peeks at deleted scenes from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which will be included on the upcoming DVD release of the film.
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TV Guide Online reported that former James Bond Roger Moore will guest star on ABC's spy drama Alias, playing a director of SD-6 in an episode airing March 10.
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The British tabloid paper The Sun reported a rumor that Scooby-Doo star Sarah Michelle Gellar used a body double in a key scene that requires her character, Daphne, to flash her bottom. Gellar is embarrassed by her own derriere, the tabloid reported.
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Sony has added games and downloads to the official Web site for its upcoming sequel film Men in Black II. MIB II opens July 3.
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Anna Faris (Scary Movie) will star opposite Rob Schneider in Disney's The Hot Chick, about a popular yet mean-spirited teen-age girl who wakes up one day to find herself turned into a man in his 30s (Schneider), Variety reported.
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Coming Attractions reported that Miramax has decided not to develop a movie based on Orson Scott Card's SF novel Ender's Game.
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The Gore Zone Web site reported a rumor that George A. Romero's proposed fourth Living Dead film will be titled Dead Reckoning and will take place 30 years after the events of Night of the Living Dead.
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The WB will bump its vampire series Angel from the schedule from March 11 through April 15 to make way for episodes of Glory Days, Mondays at 9 p.m., the Zap2it Web site reported. Original episodes of Angel are scheduled for Feb. 18 and 25 and March 4, after which it will go on hiatus for five weeks.
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Burt Reynolds will play God on an upcoming episode of Fox's The X-Files, the Internet Movie Database reported. The site offered no additional information on the episode or when it might air.
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Benno Furmann (Princess and the Warrior) has replaced Vincent Cassel (Brotherhood of the Wolf) in the title role of the supernatural thriller film The Sin Eater, the Zentertainment Web site reported. Brian Helgeland directs the film, which stars Heath Ledger as a young priest investigating a man who gives people absolution by literally eating their sins.
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Angelina Jolie received the dubious distinction of being nominated for a "worst actress" Razzie award for her performance in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, the Reuters news service reported. The 22nd annual Razzie award nominations—voted on by about 500 members of the Golden Raspberry Foundation, industry figures and entertainment journalists—were announced on Feb. 11; Razzie recipients will be announced on March 23, a day before the Oscars.
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Warner Brothers will re-release The Matrix Revisted, its making-of documentary, with a new teaser trailer for Terminator 3, Premiere magazine reported. The magazine had no release date for the revised release.
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