Two Towers Trailer Sneak Peeked
ew Line screened the trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers for reporters this week at an event promoting the upcoming video and DVD release of the first Rings film, The Fellowship of the Ring.
The trailer is expected to hit theaters attached to prints of Fellowship starting March 29.
The trailer begins with the last shot from Fellowship, with Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) looking over cliffs. The screen fades to black, and text promises that The Two Towers will arrive this Christmas. The trailer follows with a series of quick scenes. Troops close in on the remaining fellowship. An image of Eowyn (Miranda Otto). Gandalf (Ian McKellen) returning, wearing white.
Gandalf talks about the union between the two towers. Frodo complains that the ring is getting heavier. Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) is revealed as the lost king. The trailer concludes with shots of a village being pillaged, the heroes standing ready against monsters in the rain, Aragorn in a sword fight with Eowyn and an image of Gollum lurking by the hobbits.
New Line, meanwhile, has updated the official Rings Web site and added more information about The Two Towers, which is slated for a Dec. 18 release.
Rings Wins Four Oscars
he Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring won four Academy Awards in ceremonies March 24, but lost out to other movies in the top categories.
Rings had received 13 Oscar nominations, the most of any film in 2001, but took home statuettes only for best cinematography, best score, best makeup and best visual effects.
Shrek took home the first award for best animated feature film, beating out Monsters, Inc. and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.
The only other genre films to win awards were For the Birds, which won best animated short, and Monsters, Inc., which won the award for best song, for Randy Newman's "If I Didn't Have You." The awards were broadcast live on ABC from Los Angeles.
Expect Bigger F/X In Two Towers
scar-winning Lord of the Rings visual effects magicians told reporters that the special effects in the upcoming second Rings film, The Two Towers, will surpass those of the first one, The Fellowship of the Ring.
"It has to top the first one in both quality and quantity of effects due to its sheer epic nature," effects wrangler Jim Rygiel said backstage at last weekend's Oscar ceremony, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "There is going to be a completely [computer-generated] villain, huge battle scenes, and it's going to be much bigger. This one was sort of like a warm-up."
Rings' Oscar-winning cinematographer, Andrew Lesnie, added that he doesn't think the second Rings film will receive the 13 Oscar nominations that Fellowship did. "I expect this is a novelty this year," he said. "The second film is a little grittier." Fellowship nabbed four Oscars in technical areas. Two Towers is slated for a Dec. 18 release.
Two Rings Videos Planned
ew Line will release an extended version of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring on video five weeks before the sequel, The Two Towers, hits theaters on Dec. 18, Variety reported.
The extended version on VHS and DVD will include more than 30 minutes of extra footage that likely will generate an R rating, the trade paper reported. A four-disc DVD version of the extended edition also will include more than six hours of supplemental material, Varierty reported.
A PG-13 version of the three-hour movie will be available Aug. 6, and the DVD of that version will include a 10-minute behind-the-scenes preview teaser of Two Towers as part of two hours of supplemental material on a double-disc set, the trade paper reported.
Jackson Talks Windu's Fate
amuel L. Jackson—who reprises the role of Jedi knight Mace Windu in the upcoming Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones—revealed to the Calgary Sun newspaper his character's fate.
The character will also appear in the next installment of the saga, Episode III, Jackson told the newspaper.
In spoilers for the third prequel, Jackson said, "All the Jedi die in Episode III during the Clone Wars. I told [director] George [Lucas] I didn't mind dying, I just didn't want to go out like some punk. George said that was fine, and he'd see what he could do about a fitting death scene for Mace."
In Episode II, Mace survives the mayhem that results after an assassination attempt on the life of Naboo Senator Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman), the newspaper reported. "We're not allowed to divulge any specifics, but I can say it is a significantly bigger role this time around, as George originally promised," Jackson said. Episode II opens May 16.
Jackson Lights Up Episode II Fights
amuel L. Jackson told SCI FI Wire that his lightsaber fighting style in Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones combines kendo, samurai sword dueling, fencing and street fighting.
Jackson reprises the role of Jedi knight Mace Windu in the film.
"You do a lot of kendo training [with the choreographers], and because I'm a huge fan of Japanese samurai films, I came with this particular style of mine that I've been working on," Jackson said in an interview while promoting Changing Lanes. "I mix that with some proper fencing techniques, because I took fencing in acting school. So I combined some kendo with some fencing with some street fighting, and I have a pretty efficient and cool kind of fighting style. Mine is a no-nonsense, waste-no-time, get-out-of-my-way-quick kind of style."
Jackson said the lightsabers are made out of plastic and are digitally altered in post-production to give them that characteristic glow and hum. "If you're fighting with somebody else who has one, then it's like clack-clack-clack-clack-clack."
The biggest change for Jackson from Episode I was that "I had more to do." But the actor refused to say any more about his role out of fear of what might befall him in the next prequel. "Go see the movie. I can't talk about that. Are you trying to get me killed early in Episode III?" Episode II opens May 16.
Karvan Cut From Episode II
ustralian actress Claudia Karvan told an Oz TV show that her role as Padmé Amidala's older sister has been cut from the upcoming Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones, according to the Moviehole Web site.
Karvan was cast to play Sola Naberrie in the prequel.
"Last week they told me my scenes were on the cutting-room floor," Karvan told Australia's Channel 10. "They had to cut back. I was playing Natalie Portman's older sister. Yeah, the older one with the kids and that. It was a pretty weird scene for Star Wars anyway. Once we finished doing the scene, everyone looked at each other and wondered if that was actually Star Wars."
Karvan added, "I had some kind of hybrid American accent going on." As for whether or not she will appear in Episode III, she said, "Well, [director George Lucas] did send me a note saying 'it was such a great pleasure to work with you.'" Episode II opens May 16.
Minority: Is It Real Or Virtual?
on Frankel, pre-visualization supervisor for Steven Spielberg's upcoming SF thriller movie Minority Report, told SCI FI Wire that Spielberg used computer-animated 3-D storyboards to figure out whether to use constructed "practical" sets and effects or computer-generated virtual ones.
"There's one sequence that was about 90 percent virtual set, so the question that we were answering was, how much practical set can they get away with and how much can actually be CG?" Frankel said in an interview. "So the actors are interacting with some elements, but it's limited, and some of those elements were actually practical effects. They had to have motion in them, and they wanted to minimize it, because it's expensive. Those are the kinds of questions we were answering."
Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise and based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, is set in the future. Frankel used so-called pre-visualization to help David Fincher direct and edit two-thirds of his upcoming film Panic Room. But for Minority Report, such computer-assisted storyboarding was necessary only for certain scenes. "For Minority Report, we focused on specific sequences, rather than broad swaths of the film," Frankel said. "We really focused on specific areas and answered very specific questions about live-action vs. CG." Minority Report is slated for a June release.
Matrix Sequels Still Shooting
arrie-Anne Moss, who reprises the role of Trinity in the upcoming sequels The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, told Cinescape Online that production will continue in Australia for quite a while.
"We have four more months [shooting the two films back to back]," Moss told the site after accepting an award for her role in Memento at last weekend's Independent Spirit Awards. "It will have been two years total."
But Moss added that she doesn't mind staying Down Under for a while. "I'd love to live in Australia," she said. "They really do work to live, and we could take a lesson from the Aussies." The first of the two Matrix sequels is slated for a 2003 release.
Spider-Man Drops Lee
pider-Man co-creator Stan Lee told fans in an online chat that his cameo role in Sam Raimi's upcoming movie has been cut, according to a report on the
Comics Continuum Web site.
"I had this great cameo, and the movie ran long, and they had to cut the cameo, because they didn't have time," Lee said. "But if you look closely and don't blink, you'll see my face in a crowd scene somewhere in the movie. And if you buy the movie or rent it, hopefully you'll see the scene where I have some dialogue with Peter Parker [Tobey Maguire]."
Meanwhile, the third and final trailer for Raimi's Spider-Man movie has been posted on the official Web site. Spider-Man opens May 3.
World's Finest Film In Doubt?
he proposed Batman vs. Superman movie may be in doubt as director Wolfgang Petersen may choose to helm The Trojan War instead, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Trojan War has also caught the attention of Brad Pitt, throwing into question his participation in Darren Aronofsky's proposed SF movie The Last Man, the trade paper added.
Trojan is written by David Benioff, based on Homer's The Iliad.
Smith Cameos In Daredevil
irector Kevin Smith (Dogma) told fans on his official Web site that he'll be making a cameo appearance in Mark Steven Johnson's upcoming Daredevil movie, which began production this month in Los Angeles.
Smith—who wrote several Daredevil comics for Marvel—will shoot his scene on April 3.
"Mark Steven Johnson was goodly enough to offer a brother a cameo in the Daredevil movie," Smith wrote. "Don't want to give away any spoilers about it, but suffice it to say I don't play either DD, Bullseye, Elektra or the King Pin (though, size-wise, I thought I was a shoe-in for that role)." Smith added, "Many thanks to Mark for his kind words regarding me and Daredevil and his even kinder offer to potentially ruin his picture with my ham-handed theatrics."
Daredevil Shoots In L.A.
rincipal photography commenced March 25 in Los Angeles on the live-action Daredevil movie, Regency Enterprises and 20th Century Fox announced.
Written and directed by Mark Steven Johnson, Daredevil is slated for a Jan. 17, 2003, release, the studios said.
Based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name, Daredevil stars Ben Affleck as blind lawyer Matt Murdock, who leads a secret life as a masked vigilante. The film also stars Jennifer Garner (Alias), Michael Clarke Duncan (The Green Mile), Colin Farrell, Jon Favreau, Joe Pantoliano (The Matrix), David Keith and newcomer Scott Terra (the upcoming Eight Legged Freaks).
Hulk Production Starts
niversal Pictures said it has started principal photography on Ang Lee's The Hulk, a movie based on the Marvel Comics character.
James Schamus (Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) wrote the screenplay.
Eric Bana stars as scientist Bruce Banner, whose inner demons transform him into the Hulk in the aftermath of a catastrophic experiment, Universal said. Bana plays both the human Banner and the superhuman Hulk, through visual-effects technology by Industrial Light & Magic, the studio announced.
The film also stars Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly as Betty Ross, Banner's love interest, as well as Sam Elliott, Josh Lucas and Nick Nolte. The Hulk is slated for a June 2003 release.
Roswell Fans Raise Charity Money
ans of UPN's endangered teen-alien series Roswell have organized a new renewal campaign this year, focused on raising money for charity in support of the ill child of one of the show's writers.
Instead of sending in letters or bottles of Tabasco sauce, as in earlier successful renewal campaigns, the Passion Through Compassion Roswell Renewal Campaign is encouraging fans instead to send money to the Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy organization. Zeke Lerner, the 20-month-old son of Roswell writer/producer Garrett Lerner, has the debilitating illness, fans said.
So far, the campaign has raised $4,500, organizers said. UPN has not issued official word on the fate of Roswell, which has already wrapped production of its current third season. It is expected the show will be canceled.
Aurealis Winners Named
rganizers announced the winners of the Aurealis Awards, honoring Australian SF&F works published in 2001.
The awards were presented March 22 at a ceremony in Melbourne, Australia. A full list of winners follows.
Science Fiction Division
Short Story
•"The Weatherboard Spaceship" by Adam Browne
Novel
•The Dark Imbalance by Sean Williams and Shane Dix
Fantasy Division
Short Story
•"The Woman of Endor" by Sue Isle
Novel
•The Wounded Hawk by Sara Douglass
Horror Division
Short Story
•"Sleight of Hand" by Simon Haynes
•Honorable mentions: "Smile for Me" by Kirsten McDermot and "Ravens" by
Stephen Dedman
Novel
•Angel of Ruin by Kim Wilkins
Young Adult Division
Short Story
•"Dreamwalker" by Isobelle Carmody, illustrated by Steven Wollman
Novel
•The Other Face of Janus by Louise Katz
Children's Division
Short Story
•"Cafe on Callisto" by Jackie French
•Honorable mentions: "Movie World" by Paul Collins and "The Ark of Dreams" by Andrew Whitmore
Long fiction
•Candle Iron by Sally Odgers
•Honorable mention: Sailing to Atlantis by Janeen Webb
The Peter McNamara Convenors' Award (Joint Winners)
•Emily Rodda and Mark McBride for The Deltora Quest series and The Deltora Book of Monsters
•Peter McNamara for his outstanding contribution to Australian speculative fiction.
Biehn Sweats Clockstoppers
ichael Biehn, who plays the villainous Henry Gates in the upcoming SF family film Clockstoppers, told SCI FI Wire that it's different playing the bad guy in a film aimed at children.
"Playing a bad guy in a kids' movie is a lot of threatening, a lot of chest-pounding, a lot of sweating, a lot of frustration, a lot of resentment," Biehn said in an interview. "But you know I'm not really ever going to do anything. It's not like The Abyss, you know? I just had fun with it, really. It's a little, tiny bit over the top, a little bit smug."
Genre veteran Biehn (The Terminator) has worked on many SF films with Clockstoppers producer Gail Anne Hurd, so one might assume she brought him on the movie. But Biehn said that wasn't the case. "I liked [the script], and I actually went in and auditioned for [director Jonathan] Frakes," Biehn said. "It's not the type of movie people think of me in, because it's got this light quality to it. Not comedic. Just kind of fun. So I auditioned for it, did it a little bit over the top, and then when Jonathan liked what I did, they showed the tape to Gail, and I'm sure she got on board as far as trying to help me get the role. It was a normal audition process."
Frakes is already talking sequel, but Biehn said that he doesn't know if Henry Gates will return. "I don't have a very good record with sequels," he said with a laugh. "In The Terminator, of course, I died. I was in T2 and got cut out of that. Alien [3], they cut me out of. But as soon as they start writing the new script, I'll be calling Frakes going, 'Come on, Jon! Come on, man! Get me in. Keep me in!' you know? I think if it's possible to keep the character, they'll do it." Clockstoppers opens March 29.
Frakes Treks To Clockstoppers
onathan Frakes, director of the upcoming SF family film Clockstoppers, said his experience with the Star Trek franchise served him well in the new movie.
"Well, it's all storytelling, and I think that what happened with Clockstoppers is, we had a couple of kids who hadn't spent a lot of time doing visual effects, and it was helpful to them to have an actor as a director who had spent so many hours with the motion-control camera and the green screen, and ... I think I was able to try to explain to them ultimately what the shots would look like, even though the elements that they were shooting seemed so ridiculous."
Clockstoppers stars Jesse Bradford and Paula Garces in a story about a couple of teenagers who stumble across a watch that can slow time to a crawl. For Frakes, who helmed the last two Trek films and reprises the role of Cmdr. Riker in the upcoming Star Trek: Nemesis, it was a chance to stretch his directing muscles. "I think that I've been pigeonholed ... by virtue of having the Star Trek films and having spent so much time in front of a green screen." But he added that his association with Trek studio Paramount helped secure him the job. "The fact that Nickelodeon is part of the Paramount family didn't hurt, and I've been over there for 15 years, and they knew that I'd bring the movie in on time and on budget. So ... I don't think it was too big a leap for them. It took me a long time to get off the Enterprise, but I finally did."
The film contains a glancing reference to his old job when Garces' character says, "Make it so, Number One." "That was not my fault," Frakes said. "You have Dave Stem and Dave Weiss to blame for that, the Rugrats writers who came on board to doctor up Rob Hedden's original script. That was not my suggestion. I was a little embarrassed by it. But people insisted that it would get a smile, and I hope it does." Clockstoppers opens March 29.
Piller Revives Dead Zone
ichael Piller, producer of USA Network's upcoming supernatural series The Dead Zone, told SCI FI Wire that he thinks the Stephen King book and its 1983 feature-film interpretation will adapt well to television.
"I read the book, watched the movie and said, 'This would be a really interesting television show, because [it's] a man who suddenly re-emerges having lost everything in his life and has to figure out how to fit into life with these extraordinary powers,'" Piller said in an interview. "How the world treats him and how he adjusts to all that, I thought was a fascinating thing to look at."
Piller—who worked as a writer/producer on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager—added that it was no easy task finding an actor to play Johnny Smith, the role originated by Christopher Walken. "If you know the movie, Christopher Walken did a remarkable job," Piller said. "I thought the ultimate way we would succeed with the fans was to find someone who could really fill [his] shoes. I think Anthony Michael Hall is just going to blow you out of your chair, because you've never seen him like this. Whatever you remember Hall as, it's going to change your total opinion when you see him in this role."
Piller also hinted that the villain of the book and movie—politician Greg Stillson—may show up in the first season. "It's been our plan from the beginning to bring Stillson into the story somewhere towards the end of the first season, introduced through the Purdy character [Michael Moriarty], who is a political activist in his church work," Piller said. "It's a question of when. It will obviously be a special episode. It might end the season, I don't know." The Dead Zone premieres on USA June 16.
ID4 Duo Readies Cyber Love
roducer Dean Devlin told SCI FI Wire that he and his Independence Day partner Roland Emmerich are developing Cyber Love Story, an SF movie about online chat rooms in the future.
Oscar-winning screenwriter Ron Bass (Rain Man) pitched the movie to the duo. "We're waiting for Ron Bass' script," Devlin said in an interview. "He's still working on the script, and we're real anxious to see it. So we'll see how it goes. The story he pitched was a wonderful idea. He's an amazingly talented writer."
Emmerich has signed to direct and Devlin will produce. The pair was drawn to the computer-age tale, despite having computer skill levels at opposite ends of the spectrum. "It's an area Roland and I have touched on, but we've never really gotten to explore," Devlin said. "It's an interesting thing, too, because Roland is so not savvy with computers. Even though all his movies are super high-tech, the guy wouldn't know how to turn on a computer to save his life. And I'm a computer geek. Everything with me is computers. So it's interesting how we approach this kind of material. It's purely story and character-driven, and I'm always thinking, 'Hard drives can't do that!' 'That's not something a computer can do!'"
Devlin had also been attached to produce an action-adventure movie entitled The Murder of Tutankhamen, about the political maneuverings leading up to the killing of the fabled Egyptian boy king. Devlin said that they're "still developing that, although that one won't be in my new company. That's something Roland's working on himself."
Overton Game For Freaks
tand-up comedian and genre actor Rick Overton, who appears in the upcoming giant-spider movie Eight Legged Freaks, told SCI FI Wire that producer Dean Devlin offered him the part literally two weeks before shooting began.
Devlin knew Overton was right to improvise almost the entire role, having worked with him on The High Crusade, the comedian said in an interview. But when Overton saw that the script was about giant marauding spiders, he said that he couldn't get there fast enough. "Sign me up! Can't wait!" Overton said. "I never thought it was going to be completely serious, but I'm glad that it even took a funnier bent from there. We all had a great time on set. It was really, really fun."
In Freaks, Overton plays a cop named Deputy Pete, who just "transferred out of Tucson into a smaller town, because he wanted to escape the madness of Tucson," Overton joked. "He wanted to be able to get the medical and dental coverage, without ever having to fight crime. He's not a 'fraidy-cat, just a dopey slacker. He moves to this town where the spiders attack, and there's no help for miles. That's how you screw yourself, being Pete. But he rallies his courage towards the end and actually steps up to the plate."
Overton said there weren't a lot of "real" spiders on the set. "I'd say [there were] very little practical effects," he said. "There's one scene with the legs grabbing me through a grid, but the rest of it is like, you're looking where it should be. A lot of tennis balls, a lot of Xs of tape." As for how close he got to the spiders, Overton said, "I was close to them. I got wet. Boy, did I get wet. I got gooed a couple of times." But was the goo toxic? "I shall say no more!" Overton responded slyly.
Eight Legged Freaks opens July 12.
Freaks Title No Joke
ean Devlin, producer of the upcoming giant-spider movie Eight Legged Freaks, told SCI FI Wire that the film's title started out as a joke.
Producers changed the film's original title, Arac Attack, after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, to prevent people mistaking it for Iraq Attack. "The studio retitled the movie Attack of the Killer Spiders," Devlin said in an interview.
Devlin added, "I said, 'No, if you're going to go in that direction, you have to go much more campy. Do a title like Big Ass Spiders or Eight Legged Freaks. Something like that.' A week later, I got a call from marketing saying, 'They love your title!' 'What title?' 'Eight Legged Freaks.' 'No! I was just kidding!'" Devlin said with a laugh. But he admitted, "I really like the title now. In the beginning, I was like, 'I was kidding,' but now I like it, because not only does it represent the time, it also represents the tone of the movie. This movie is that kind of silly."
Eight Legged Freaks—a low-budget, summer monster-movie homage to films like Them and Tarantula—features a whole menagerie of arachnids, Devlin said with enthusiasm. "There's the trapdoor spiders, which come from the ground, literally out of trapdoors and yank people and animals down into the trapdoors. There are the orb weavers, and the males web up their prey and drag them to the queen. The queen then sucks it dry from the inside out, while it's in the cocoon. Then there's the spitters. Those are the ceiling crawlers, and they spit this goo. Then there's the tarantula, which is like the big-muscled tank of the group. Then there's the jumpers. The jumpers can leap. There's a sequence, [which] I think is one of the most fun sequences I've ever worked on, where you've got a bunch of dirt bikers racing for their lives from these jumpers, who are jumping at 60 miles an hour! It's just a wild, fun sequence." Eight Legged Freaks opens July 12.
Silent Hill Due On Screen?
he Konami video-game series Silent Hill may be the next franchise headed for a big-screen adaptation, according to a report on the Bloody-Disgusting.com Web site.
Dark Aura Entertainment told the site that it is in preproduction on a Silent Hill film for New Line Cinema. The film would be based on the first game, and producers are eyeing Johnny Depp as a possible lead, though no casting decisions have been made, the site reported.
New Line gave a green light to the movie, the site reported. In the vein of Resident Evil, Silent Hill puts gamers in a creepy mountain town inhabited by supernatural creatures.
Enterprise Cliffhanger Due
nterprise co-creator Brannon Braga told fans at this year's Grand Slam Star Trek convention that the upcoming season-one cliffhanger finale will deal with the temporal cold war, according to the official Star Trek Web site.
Speaking at the annual convention in Pasadena, Calif., Braga said, "The final episode will deal a lot with that, as will the first episode of next year, and you'll learn a lot more about it."
Braga added, "Over the course of the seasons, we definitely want to get into, how did [the Federation] come to be? How did this thing called the Federation happen? How did they become part of the intergalactic neighborhood? How did they earn respect? That's all going to be part of the show, for sure. We will be hinting at it early next season."
But don't expect Romulans anytime soon. "I don't think you're going to be seeing the Romulans this season," Braga said. "In the original series, it was established that no one had actually seen the Romulans. So it's tricky, because you want to see them. You don't want to just see a bunch of ships and not know what's going on. But we're thinking about ways we might do it."
Shiban Beams On Enterprise
ongtime The X-Files writer John Shiban will join the staff of UPN's Enterprise when X-Files ends its nine-year run, Variety reported.
Shiban will join Enterprise next season as a writer and co-executive producer, the trade paper reported.
Chris Black, who's been a writer and supervising producer of Enterprise during its first season, will be promoted to co-executive producer.
Shiban started his X-Files career in 1995 as a writer and was made a producer in 1997. He later worked with X-Files creator Chris Carter to create and produce Fox's ill-fated spinoff The Lone Gunmen, the trade paper reported.
Carrey Gets Almighty
im Carrey is set to star in Bruce Almighty, a fantasy comedy film for Universal that reteams him with Ace Ventura, Pet Detective director Tom Shadyac and Steve Oedekerk, who has been rewriting the script, Variety reported.
Shooting will start in July.
Steve Koren and Mark O'Keefe wrote the original script, which tells the story of a whiny guy whom God gives almighty power for 24 hours to show him how difficult it is to run the world.
JLA Novels Coming Soon
ocket Books will publish six paperback adult prose novels featuring Justice League of America superhero characters from DC Comics, the Cinescape Online Web site reported.
The first novel, Justice League of America: Batman—The Stone King, by Alan Grant, will hit comic book stores this month. Longtime comic illustrator Alex Ross will contribute covers for the entire series, the site reported.
Each book in the series will be told from the point of view of a specific Justice League member, except the last book, which will feature all heroes equally, Cinescape reported. The second book, Justice League of America: Wonder Woman—Mythos by Carol Lay, is slated for a September release.
Future books will include The Flash by Mark Schultz, Green Lantern—Hero's Quest by Dennis O'Neil, Superman by Kyle Baker and a finale by Christopher Golden.
Cameron Attached To Fantastic?
roducer Dean Devlin (Independence Day) told SCI FI Wire that he won't be developing an update of the 1966 SF movie Fantastic Voyage, but that filmmaker James Cameron will direct it for 20th Century Fox.
"Cameron is doing Fantastic Voyage now," Devlin said in an interview. "Unfortunately for us, but I think he's going to do a great job. It's one of those things, if anyone is going to do a project you wanted to do, you'd rather it be [him]. If it's Cameron, [Steven] Spielberg, [Robert] Zemeckis, you kind of go, 'OK, fine!'"
Over the years, the writing team of Glen Morgan and James Wong, Atlantis: The Lost Empire writer Tab Murphy, Ted Tannenbaum (adapter of the Dark Horse Comics title The Lords of Misrule), Roland Emmerich and Devlin have all taken a pass at a Fantastic Voyage script. At one point, a rumor floated that Emmerich and Devlin would combine the plots of Voyage and a sequel to Independence Day, with a group of scientists descending into the body of the president of the United States to root out micro-alien invaders.
Paxton Did Double Duty On Frailty
ill Paxton, star of the upcoming thriller film Frailty, told SCI FI Wire that he ultimately decided to direct the movie himself, after worrying about finding another person to helm it.
Frailty tells the story of a father claiming to be guided by supernatural forces to hunt demons.
"I thought the story was great, and the part of the father was pretty scary," Paxton said in an interview. "In the wrong hands, I was afraid a director who might be less sensitive with the material would make a more sensationalistic piece. I didn't want to play the guy if it was too brutal and too gory. I actually sent it around to a few directors, but while I was doing that, it just occurred to me this is exactly the kind of material I've been looking for."
Writer Brent Hanley, for whom Frailty is the first produced script, was impressed with Paxton's connection to the material. "When we talked, he came with a lot of Hitchcock references that he had found in the script, and that turned me on," Hanley said in an interview. "The idea that he was from Texas, we talked a lot about that. There's a lot of Texas references in the script that he understood."
The film employs some special effects for dad's visions, but Paxton did not want what he refers to as "contemporary balls-to-the-walls effects" to overpower the story. "I wanted to define the effects in the film, but I wanted to keep them pretty simple," Paxton said. "I also didn't want the audience to necessarily believe that dad was really seeing these things." Hanley wrote the script calling for only a few effects shots, to maintain the story's ambiguity. "The idea of keeping you guessing as to whether this is true or not, I didn't really want to show too many elaborate effects," Hanley said. Frailty opens April 12 from Lion's Gate.
Del Toro Goes To Hellboy
irector Guillermo del Toro told SCI FI Wire that his upcoming supernatural movie Hellboy will differ from his latest film, Blade II, though they are both based on comics.
"It's going to be a great comic-book movie, but it's going to be much more personal and very character-oriented, although it will have a big portion of action," del Toro said in an interview at the Blade II premiere.
Where Blade II has fast and furious martial-arts battles, del Toro promises a unique tone to Hellboy's action scenes. "Very different, because Hellboy is not an agile, fast guy," del Toro said. "He must weigh 650 pounds of muscle and rock because of the hand. So it's basically a completely different direction."
As for casting, del Toro said, "All I know is Hellboy is Ron Perlman." Hellboy is currently in development.
Mutant X To Get Bigger
ictor Webster, who plays Brennan Mulwray in the syndicated SF TV series Mutant X, told SCI FI Wire that the next season will take the show even farther than it's already gone.
"It's going to be a bigger, better deal, man," Webster said in an interview. "Everything's going to be bigger. Everything's going to be faster. It's going to be darker. It's going to be fun. We were cutting our teeth in the first year, finding out what worked, what didn't work. Expect more good things."
Webster added, "We're making some changes. We've got a new producer. We just want to take a great thing, which I believe we have now, and make it even better. We're going to have units devoted just to filming action, so that will be a little more intense. [We'll also have] more character-driven drama."
Webster plays Mulwray, a street-smart mutant who is able to generate electricity from his body. In real life, Webster practices a combination of eight martial arts. As to adapting his training to the show, Webster said, "You have to learn a whole new thing. You learn the basics, you learn the agility, you learn the coordination, but you didn't learn how to sell a punch and make it look real. When you're fighting in the street or a tournament, everything's tight and close. You've got to make TV big, things that are beyond reality, things that look good."
Goyer To Helm Darksiders
lade writer David Goyer has signed a deal with New Line to direct Darksiders, another vampire movie with sequel potential, Variety reported.
New Line plans to start production in the third quarter of the year.
Tracie Graham and Alison Rosenzweig will produce the film, which follows a band of vampires who are turned into special operatives for the FBI. Tom Parker and Jim Jennewein wrote the script, the trade paper reported.
Goyer is also in line to write a third Blade installment, following the success of the just-released Blade II.
Grier Gets Foxy On Pluto
am Grier, co-star of Eddie Murphy's upcoming SF comedy movie Pluto Nash, told SCI FI Wire that her character's look is part space-age style and part '70s retro.
"It's a little bit of The Jetsons meets Eddie Murphy and Foxy Brown," Grier said in an interview. "I have basically kind of a sweater with space materials and pants and stuff. I have hair that the producer and director designed for me that I would have never worn."
Grier added, "They had this look, this specific look that they wanted, and the audience will probably say, 'God, what possessed you to wear that?' But it's not my choice. They put gray in my hair, and they had a certain look, but I love to go with other people's visuals. No matter how I'm going to look, I'm going to make a fool of myself. They're going to laugh. I'm going to fall on my face. I don't mind. That's part of the work."
Grier plays Eddie Murphy's mother in the futuristic comedy, about a casino on the moon. "When [other characters] first meet me, they think we're dating, and he goes, 'Oh no, that's my mom.'"
The actress was all compliments for her collaborators. "Boy, that's going to be a beautiful movie," she said. "[Director] Ron Underwood did an excellent job, and Eddie's brilliant. Randy Quaid is the bomb. He is so good in that. Jay Mohr is brilliant. Rosario Dawson. Everybody's so good in it." Pluto Nash is currently scheduled for an Aug. 16 release from Warner Brothers.
Fox, Blue Sky Ready Robots
resh off the success of their computer-animated hit film Ice Age, Fox and Blue Sky Studios are developing Robots, a computer-animated SF movie, Variety reported.
Work so far on Robots has included extensive visual development, early animation and preliminary storyboarding, the trade paper reported.
The film will be a collaboration between Ice Age director Chris Wedge and children's book author William Joyce and will be set in a world inhabited solely by robots. Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel are writing the script.
Stahl Wins T3 Lead Role
ick Stahl (In the Bedroom) will take on the role of an adult John Connor in the upcoming sequel film Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Variety reported.
Stahl, 22, takes over the role originated by Edward Furlong, the trade paper reported. Production is slated to start April 15 in Los Angeles.
Stahl teams up with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Kristanna Loken, who will play the female TX cyborg. Jonathan Mostow will direct the movie. Tedi Sarafian wrote the script, which was rewritten by John Brancato and Michael Ferris.
Fincher To Reinvent Rama
irector David Fincher told Cinescape Online that he's thinking of reinventing Arthur C. Clarke's classic SF novel Rendezvous With Rama for the big screen.
"We're still working on the script," Fincher told the site. "It's probably one of the most pilfered books of the last 30 years."
Fincher added, "There are so many science fiction films that owe at least a narrative twist or a notion to Rendezvous With Rama. I mean, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Alien, Armageddon, Independence Day—all of these movies have plot devices and elements that are taken from it, so I don't feel you can just do the book. I think you have to reinvent it."
Fincher added that his film version of the book would require heavy digital effects. "It's basically a motion-capture movie," Fincher said. "The environment is completely synthetic. The actors are performing in real time, but you're editing the real-time component so you can introduce the weightlessness and get the performance that you want."
Forgotten Realms Due For TV
ireworks Television has bought the TV rights to the Forgotten Realms series of fantasy novels, Variety reported.
Genre author R.A. Salvatore (the Star Wars novelizations) will write the live-action TV pilot, which will also be titled Forgotten Realms, the trade paper reported.
Forgotten Realms will tell the story of a land filled with wizards and sorcerers. Wizards of the Coast, which owns the Dungeons & Dragons game property, will help Fireworks develop Forgotten Realms storylines, the trade paper reported.
Fans Petition For More Tracker
ans of the SF syndicated TV show Tracker have created a Give Tracker a Chance online petition to save the series, which is in danger of cancellation.
More than 220 fans have signed the petition, which is directed to cable and broadcast networks.
"We have signed this petition in hopes that our voices will not go unheard when we ask for another season of this delightful TV series," the petition reads. Tracker stars former Highlander star Adrian Paul as an alien bounty hunter on Earth.
Tracker Fans Campaign For Kids
ans of the syndicated SF TV series Tracker have organized a charity campaign to raise money for underprivileged children.
In honor of Tracker star Adrian Paul's birthday on May 29, the fans are creating and sending donation cards to benefit Peace Fund, a children's charity founded by Paul in 1998, fans said.
Peace Fund sponsors the School Makes a Difference program, which puts on educational workshops for inner-city children in Los Angeles, New York and Denver. Birthday donations should be sent to Peace Fund, P.O. Box 4216, Valley Village, Calif. 91617.
Briefly Noted
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Disney has posted a new trailer for its upcoming fantasy family film The Country Bears, based on the Disneyland attraction. Country Bears opens July 26.
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The Creature Corner Web site reported that casting is underway for Jeepers Creepers 2, the proposed sequel to last year's hit horror movie. None of the characters from the first film is expected to return in the sequel, with the exception of the Creeper himself.
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A new television ad has gone up on the Web for LucasArts' upcoming video game Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, designed for the PlayStation 2 gaming platform. The game centers on the new spacecraft that will debut in the upcoming Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones, which is due in theaters May 16.
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Ridley Scott and his brother, Tony Scott, will produce In Vitro, an SF movie based on Ben Ripley's spec script, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film tells the story of an infertile couple who conceive a child using in vitro fertilization and then begin to question the real origin of their child when the woman starts exhibiting strange behavior, the trade paper reported.
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A new trailer has gone live for M. Night Shyamalan's upcoming supernatural thriller film Signs, starring Mel Gibson. Signs opens Aug. 2.
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The IGN FilmForce Web site reported a rumor that Brooke Langton has joined the cast of Ang Lee's upcoming The Hulk.
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The upcoming season finale of Fox's animated SF comedy Futurama will spoof the original Star Trek and will feature voices of the original cast, the official Star Trek Web site reported. The episode, "Where No Fan Has Gone Before," will feature the voices of William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei and Walter Koenig, with a cameo by Jonathan Frakes. The episode airs April 21.
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Jeremy Piven will star in UPN's pilot for an updated Twilight Zone anthology series, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In the pilot, Piven will play an electrician who acquires the power to hear and see people's thoughts after getting struck by lightning, the trade paper reported.
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NBC will revive ALF, the furry star of its 1980s alien sitcom, as part of a 75th anniversary special this spring, TV Guide Online reported. The New York Daily News, meanwhile, reported that ALF may also host his own talk show, according to TV Guide.
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The Ain't It Cool News Web site has posted what it said is a synopsis of the proposed ABC SF pilot Astronauts.
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Tennis player Andy Roddick will play himself in a guest spot on the April 5 episode of The WB's Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.
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Andre Bormanis, a staff writer on UPN's Enterprise, will take part in a live chat on the TrekWeb fan site, at 6:30 p.m. PT March 26.
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A trailer for the upcoming sequel film Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams has been posted to the Web. Spy Kids 2 opens in August.
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R.A. Lafferty, an Oklahoma-based SF&F writer, died March 18, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Web site reported. Lafferty was a prolific short story writer in the 1960s and '70s and produced a number of acclaimed novels, including Space Chantey, The Reefs of Earth and Past Master. He won the Hugo Award in 1973 for his short story "Eurema's Dam" and a World Fantasy Life Achievement Award in 1990.
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ADV Films announced that it will release DVDs of the syndicated SF TV series Andromeda this summer.
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Planet of the Apes took the dubious honor of being named worst remake or sequel movie as part of the 22nd Annual Razzie Awards, given March 23 in recognition of Hollywood's most questionable achievements, the Reuters news service reported. Tim Burton's Apes also won Razzies for worst performances, by Charlton Heston and Estella Warren.
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