Episode II Still Number One
tar Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones topped the Memorial Day weekend box office, taking in $61.2 million over the four-day period, the Hollywood trade papers reported.
That raised the prequel's total above $200 million after 12 days of release.
Along with number-two Spider-Man—which took in $36.5 million for the period, pushing its total to $334.3 million after 25 days—Episode II helped push the weekend's box office take to record levels, the trade papers reported.
The animated Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron opened in fourth place, with $23 million. The only other genre film in the top 10 was The Scorpion King at number 10, with $1.9 million for the weekend.
Clones Grosses Overestimated
tar Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones grossed $110.2 million in its first four days of release, not $116 million as previously reported, according to Daily Variety.
The trade paper said that 20th Century Fox, which distributed the film, overestimated Friday and Saturday's ticket sales by almost $2 million and Sunday's results by $4.3 million.
Overly optimistic estimates aren't unusual, Variety noted, but the $6.2 million figure, or 7 percent, is a particularly large miscalculation. Fox based its estimate on the numbers generated three years earlier by The Phantom Menace. The studio assumed that the Sunday gross for Attack of the Clones would slip 11 percent, like The Phantom Menace before it. However, Attack of the Clones fell 21 percent from Saturday to Sunday. "After all, it's based only on what we think at the time," Bruce Snyder, Fox's head of distribution, told the trade paper. "When we get more information, we put out the final numbers."
Clones Wields Force Overseas, Too
he box-office assault of Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones isn't limited to North America. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film grossed an estimated $67 million in four days of release in 74 other countries.
"We are delighted; this is by far the biggest international box office weekend ever," Scott Neeson, president of international theatrical for 20th Century Fox, told the trade paper. Attack of the Clones opened day-and-date across Europe, Australia and several small Asian territories. The film will reach other foreign markets next month, following the completion of the World Cup soccer tournament.
Reeves Teases Matrix Sequels
eanu Reeves, who reprises the role of Neo in the upcoming sequel films The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, told SCI FI Wire that his newly powerful character faces stiff challenges and continues his journey of discovery in the new films.
"The brothers [writer-directors Andy and Larry Wachowski] have put up some great obstacles to test those powers, and the story kind of goes outside of the Matrix and starts to concern itself with the machines in Zion," Reeves said at a press conference at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney, where the films are currently in production.
Reeves added, "So it’s almost [that] what he can do in the Matrix is not enough. And he’s still on the path of discovery and choice. He’s told by the Oracle that ... he has some choices that he’ll have to make that will affect the survival of the human race. And there are some hardships. And all of us are trying to save the world. And the development between Neo and Trinity [Carrie-Anne Moss] is explored, and with Morpheus [Laurence Fishburne] and [Agent] Smith [Hugo Weaving]. And so I think that’s just about it. It’s the development of the hero journey for my character, which is new challenges and choices. And it’s not so much about being born. He wanted to find out where he was. Now he knows. Or he thinks he knows."
For his part, producer Joel Silver promised to reporters that the visual effects in the two sequels will outdo anything seen in movies so far. "When we made the first movie ... we didn’t have an enormous amount of money to work with, and the boys had very strict ideas about a specific visual effect that they wanted to explore, and they ended up using it four times in the picture, and ... we called it ... bullet time. And it was during the Stone Age. It was a Stone Age effect. ... And immediately when the movie opened, we saw repetitions of that. ... Television commercials came first. They were the first out. And then we began seeing it in a few movies here and there. And then every movie. And it wasn’t just the visual effects that were being stolen. ... It was the way the boys staged, shot, cut, moved the camera. It was pretty much everything they did began to be copied in every other movie."
Were the Wachowskis flattered? "For a while ... I bet they thought it was flattering," Silver said. "But after a while, they kind of got angry about it. So they decided that, in these two movies, they would create visual effects that could never be copied. So we have done visual effects for the movie that, because of the time that we took to make them and the cost, will never be seen again. So I really think that the bar has been raised so high that, you know, there is no bar. This will end the way movies have been made up to now, because they can go no further. The computer is allowing us to do things that we never dreamed we could do before. ... The [first film’s] bullet-time sequences ... were the beginning, the embryonic stage of what computers could do. It’s just now at such a level that they can do anything they want. And the great thing about it is that ... the guys have enough intellect and understand the process enough so they are able to create an arena that this stuff can exist in that could not exist anywhere else."
Both films will shoot for another two months or so. The Matrix Reloaded is eyeing a May 2003 release; Revolutions may open in the fall of 2003.
Online Matrix Game In The Works
arner Bros. will team with Monolith Productions and Eon Entertainment to create an online role-playing game based on The Matrix universe, Cinescape Online reported.
The game, the site suggested, will resemble Sony's EverQuest online game in size, scope and playability.
"The Matrix is a perfect property on which to base a massively multiplayer online game," Kevin Tsujihara, executive vice president of corporate business development and strategy for Warner Bros., said in a statement. "This project will combine the online entertainment resources and expertise of Warner Bros. and AOL Time Warner with one of the most cutting-edge game developers in the world." The Web site added that Warner Bros. gave no launch date for the game.
Infogrames To Launch Matrix Game
nfogrames announced that it would release a video game based on The Matrix in versions playable on the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube systems, as well as on PCs, IGN.com reported as part of its ongoing coverage of the E3 convention.
The game will be entitled Enter the Matrix.
"The Matrix redefined the action genre for the film industry and movie audiences, and the never-before-seen gameplay and technology behind Enter the Matrix will redefine the next-generation video games," IGN.com quoted Infogrames chairman and CEO Bruno Bonnell as saying. "There has been extensive creative crossover that has taken place in the development of the film and the game. Warner Bros., Joel Silver, the film's producer, and Larry and Andy Wachowski, the film's writers, creators and directors, have clearly shown their appreciation for the connection between the interactive world and The Matrix audiences." Infogrames will release Enter the Matrix in May 2003 to capitalize on the theatrical debut of the first big-screen Matrix sequel, The Matrix Reloaded.
Report Not Real Yet
inority Report producer Bonnie Curtis told SCI FI Wire that the concept of catching criminals before they commit crimes—the premise of the Philip K. Dick short story on which director Steven Spielberg based his upcoming film—remains a science-fiction notion ... for now.
"For me, what is fascinating about this is that there is equipment that currently exists not only in this country, but overseas, where computers follow the patterns of people's behavior and predict crimes," Curtis said in an interview. "There's a robotic camera in London that watches people; we all do pretty much have a routine and if we step out of that routine and there's a computer monitoring that, that can be a sign that something will happen."
Curtis, a longtime Spielberg associate who also co-produced A.I. Artificial Intelligence, added, "It's taking security cameras to a whole other level, connecting these cameras to computers. There's also some stuff in Washington, D.C., that they've been testing that basically studies the patterns of people's behavior. Our movie is truly based on a phenomenon. The core of what makes the [precognitive] visions possible and makes pre-crime possible is based on an outlandish SF phenomenon. It's not like an obtrusive thing that can happen right now in our country. The base of it is pure, pure SF." Minority Report will open nationwide on June 21.
Turner, ABC In The Minority
inority Report won't even hit theaters until June 21, but ABC and TNT/TBS have already sewn up the broadcast rights to Steven Spielberg's big-screen adaptation of the Philip K. Dick short story, Daily Variety reported.
ABC and TNT/TBS can begin airing the SF feature, which stars Tom Cruise, beginning in February 2005 under the five-year deal.
Industry analysts were somewhat surprised by the announcement, given that 20th Century Fox will release Minority Report theatrically and it's common practice for the domestic distributor to negotiate the sale of television rights. As a result, most insiders expected the Fox network and FX to snag the high-profile film. However, Daily Variety noted, Dreamworks is the co-financier of Minority Report and the studio has in place a deal with ABC and Turner that grants them first dibs at its films.
ABC will air Minority Report three times before passing it on to Turner. The film will play on HBO, which holds the pay-TV rights, before it airs on either ABC or TNT/TBS.
Fox Bumps Daredevil
wentieth Century Fox will release Daredevil on Friday, Feb. 14, 2003, rather than on the previously scheduled Jan. 17, Variety reported.
The trade paper added that a studio representative said the change to Valentine's Day had more to do with the opportunity to capitalize on a lucrative holiday weekend than any concerns about possible production delays on the effects-heavy film, currently in production with Ben Affleck in the title role as Marvel Comics' blind superhero with metahumanly heightened senses.
"Audiences have demonstrated a tremendous appetite for comic superheroes in the last couple of years," 20th Century Fox vice chairman Bob Harper told Variety. "We are very excited about unveiling the next big Marvel superhero on the first big holiday of the year."
Kevin Smith Writing Spider-Man
ilmmaker Kevin Smith has been tapped to write a Spider-Man limited series, Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do, for Marvel Comics, Cinescape Online reported.
Smith, whose comics forays include Marvel's Daredevil and the DC hit Green Arrow, will write the four-part series, while Terry Dodson (DC's Harley Quinn) and Rachel Dodson will handle the art.
"The mysterious disappearance of an old friend brings Felicia Hardy to the Big Apple in search of answers," Cinescape Online quoted a Marvel release as reading. "But, as luck would have it, a certain web-slinger—who also happens to be her ex-lover—is following the same trail. How long will it take before they do some catching up?" Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do No. 1 will reach stores on June 26.
Del Toro Polishes Hellboy
riter-director Guillermo Del Toro just finished polishing a draft of the Hellboy script he wrote three years ago, according to the Comics2Film Web site.
"The essence of the piece remains exactly the same as in the last draft," the Mimic and Blade 2 filmmaker told Comics2Film in an interview. Del Toro noted that he eliminated an original character he created and added some new bits of action.
Hellboy, which will star Del Toro regular Ron Perlman, is currently in pre-production. "We start conceptual design probably June the 10th," he said, adding that writer-artist Mike Mignola, the character's creator, and fellow artist Wayne Barlow are directly involved.
Fans can ultimately anticipate seeing such popular characters as Professor Bruttenholm, Dr. Tom Manning, Ilsa Hauptein, Abe Sapien and Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin realized on the big screen. "I think the perfect Rasputin would be Jean Reno or Gary Oldman," Del Toro told Comics2Film. "The perfect Professor Bruttenholm would be John Hurt."
Sony Seeks Ghost Rider Rights
ony Pictures, riding the success of the film Spider-Man, is in negotiations to purchase the rights to a fellow Marvel Comics character, Ghost Rider.
Daily Variety reports that Dimension Films, which has owned the rights to the Marvel Entertainment property, recently put its long-gestating feature Ghost Rider in turnaround. Ghost Rider is a motorcycle-riding vengeance spirit whose head is a flaming skull.
The trade added that Avi Arad, head of Marvel Entertainment and a Spider-Man executive producer, would produce Ghost Rider. Shane Salerno, one of the credited writers of Armageddon, is reportedly negotiating to write the screenplay.
"Once again, I am very happy to be in business with Sony," Arad told Daily Variety. "And I hope they are just as happy to be in business with me. This is a big, exciting story that has some spectacular visual effects. It's one of the most stunningly visual comics in our collection."
No word yet on whether actor Nicolas Cage or director Stephen Norrington, who'd both been attached to Dimension's Ghost Rider project at various stages during its bumpy road to the screen, will be involved in the Sony Pictures production.
Impulse To Bid Farewell
he DC comic book series Impulse will come to an end later this summer with Issue #89, Cinescape Online reported.
Created by Mark Waid as a Flash spinoff, Impulse follows the adventures of Bart Allen, a 30th-century speedster who found a home and a moniker in the 20th century.
The last issue will be written by Todd Dezago and will feature art by Carlo Barberi and Terry Austin. Wayne Faucher will draw the cover. DC issued a release that offered a plot summary. "Jay Garrick, the JSA's Golden Age Flash, is supposed to be Impulse's teacher and mentor," the release read. "But Jay is about to make the biggest mistake of his career, and it's up to Impulse to prevent it." DC will publish Impulse #89 on August 14.
Judd Takes Catwoman Seriously
shley Judd told SCI FI Wire that the success of Spider-Man has helped her Catwoman project's chances of taking its superhero mythology seriously.
"One of the things I loved about Spider-Man is that for the genre, they made it very real," Judd said in an interview. "They played the emotion very genuine, and even the news editor, who was the most campy sort of iconic cartoon figure, there was something really great and plausible about him. It just definitely reinforced the direction that we had been planning on taking Catwoman all along, which is why we've worked so hard on the script in order to make it more real."
Judd conceded that the Catwoman script will have to alter one inside joke, since Spider-Man already covered it. "I think our joke was a Superman joke, so we've got to find a good joke, since there was a good Superman joke in Spider-Man."
Michelle Pfeiffer, who played Catwoman in 1992's Batman Returns, previously told SCI FI Wire that Judd should make sure to have fun in the role. Judd agreed. "My first sort of internal response was it's got to be the funnest thing I've ever done in my life, or else it's not worth it, because [these films] are hard," Judd said. "It sounds so trivial, but the reality of being in that costume and doing all that stuff is just if you do it for something like four months, that can be miserable. It's got to be the funnest thing ever."
Judd has studied Pfeiffer's performance as Catwoman. "I remember watching it in spring of 2000 and just thinking, she's definitely got the devilish part of Catwoman, which is so delicious." Judd said that she has never seen the Julie Newmar Catwoman from the 1960s Batman television series. There is no start date yet for Judd's Catwoman, but Judd added that she hopes it will be this year.
Greenberg Forecasts Reign
eign of Fire screenwriter Matt Greenberg told SCI FI Wire that even though director Rob Bowman's vision differs from his own, the film is coming together well.
"Ultimately, the director decided to do some things the way he saw them, which is fine," Greenberg said in an interview. "He's the director."
Greenberg, whose previous writing credits include The Prophecy II, Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later and the SCI FI Channel's The Invisible Man series, describes the Bowman-directed film as a fantasy-adventure in which fire-breathing dragons threaten the Earth. It's up to two men (Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey) with very different points of view as to how to best deal with the dragons to put aside their differences and save the day.
"It's good," Greenberg said. "There are scenes that are just going to blow you away. My favorite scene is an aerial fight [with] parachuters jumping out of helicopters and fighting the dragons literally in freefall. It's just a spectacular sequence." Reign of Fire will open nationwide on July 12.
Maher Previews Firefly
irefly co-star Sean Maher provided a glimpse of things to come on this fall's new Fox series from Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
"It's very hard to explain," the actor said in an interview.
Maher added, "There's no more Earth. We're all colonizing other planets. There are two major ruling planets and there are also little planets. My character, who is the doctor on [the small, highly mobile spaceship] Firefly, is from one of the bigger, more privileged planets, but his sister has been used for this government experiment. So he paid all of this money to get his sister out and now he's a fugitive running from the law. He gets on the Firefly and joins up with the crew of this ship." Maher's character is named Simon Tam.
Maher reported that he only found out at the last minute that the series, from Whedon's Mutant Enemy Productions and 20th Century Fox Television, would debut in the fall; Fox had been expected to renew Dark Angel and deploy Firefly as a midseason replacement. The actor also acknowledged he's unsure if the two-hour Firefly pilot Whedon directed will air as is, be shortened to an hour or be entirely re-shot.
"I actually got back from Italy two days ago," Maher said. "I was on vacation and then I got home and heard there was all this hoopla about the show. Then I found out yesterday that we were going in the fall. I've heard a bunch of different things [about how the show will start off], but I don't know what's confirmed and what's not." Fox has tentatively slated Firefly to air Friday nights at 8 p.m. ET.
Disney Preps Greatest American Hero
isney has hired Paul Hernandez to pen the script for a big-screen version of the 1980s superhero television series The Greatest American Hero, according to Daily Variety.
The trade paper reported that Hernandez, in his second year at Disney's in-house writing program, convinced Hero producer Stephen J. Cannell to update the property by locating and bringing to the pitch session the original alien suit sported by William Katt. Like the series, the film will focus on a nerdy teacher who struggles with the superhero powers he gains after he dons a costume given to him by aliens. Daily Variety added that, as of yet, no actors or director are attached to the project.
X-Files Finale Ratings Up And Down
he Truth," the two-hour series finale of The X-Files, drew the show's largest audience since last season's closer, but it was nevertheless beaten by the Survivor: Marquesas season capper on CBS, according to The Associated Press.
The wire service said The X-Files garnered a 7.4/12 rating, which paled against Survivor's 13.2/21 rating, as well as the 11.1/18 rating NBC posted with its special, The Cosby Show: A Look Back. The X-Files, however, did beat ABC's The Practice and all of UPN and the WB's programming. In the end, a total of 13 million viewers tuned in to see Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) reunite.
Spotnitz Says More X-Files To Tell
he X-Files executive producer Frank Spotnitz told SCI FI Wire that even though the series ended its run last night with "The Truth," all has not yet been answered.
"There are things we had to take out," Spotnitz said in an interview. "We were like, 'We hate to take this out, because if we do this, then we will end the series not having explained this [whole] thing.' But you've got to do what you've got to do, [and] we had to make room for commercials," he explained. "I would expect that it will be in the DVD."
Spotnitz added, "Every year before, when we had written a finale, we thought it may be the end or it may not be the end [of the series]. And so you got shows like 'Requiem' and 'Essence' and 'Existence,' which could have served as finales, or could have served as entrees to the next year. But this episode is a finale, a culmination of nine years. We really wanted to come up with a story that would allow us to draw together into a narrative everything that's happened."
Davis Still Enjoying Stargate
targate SG-1 co-star Don S. Davis told SCI FI Wire he's pleased the show is still on the air, and expressed his hope it might continue despite the fact that the upcoming sixth season has been touted as its last.
"I really think Stargate [SG-1] is a show that could go on and on and on," Davis said in an interview.
The actor, who portrays Gen. Hammond, added, "Years ago, I did a guest spot on Columbo. Peter Falk told me that he had been given assurances that the network would buy as many Columbos as he could do, with a minimum of a certain number per year. This is when he was doing Columbo TV movies. He said, during our conversation, 'You run out of stories. There are only so many you can tell because of the nature of our show. There are only so many times Columbo can start to leave a room, turn around and surprise the antagonist.' That's not the case at all on Stargate [SG-1]. What we explore are stories based on human mythology. We can go anywhere.
"The problem," Davis noted, "is holding the interest of the key people. Any time a show goes on for a long time, people just naturally think about moving on at some point. But I live up in Vancouver, where we film the show. I love the story and I love the people. Richard Dean Anderson has more integrity, more honesty and more loyalty for his people than anyone at his level that I've ever met. As long as he wants me, I'm here."
Stargate SG-1 will begin its new season, its first on the SCI FI Channel, on June 7.
Wright: Stargate SG-1 Fits SCI FI
targate SG-1 executive producer and writer Brad Wright told SCI FI Wire that he thinks the show's jump from Showtime to the SCI FI Channel will benefit both the series and the cable network.
"SCI FI, just like Showtime, is trusting in us that we know our show, and they're letting us make it," Wright said in an interview. "I think it could be very good for them and, of course, I've got my fingers crossed that we'll give them the ratings they're hoping we'll give them."
Wright, who has been with the series since writing its pilot six years ago, added, "I think we've got a good shot. Richard Dean Anderson has a great pedigree. He's a big name. And the show is still going strong. The first three episodes of this season—and I could even say deeper than that—are huge. We're doing things in those episodes that you just don't see on a normal syndicated SF show. That is the advantage of our having been around the show long enough to figure out how to do some things and to have a crew that always wants to best themselves and go a little further and do a little better. In episode three, we are on a ship that crashes into the ocean and it floods. We are in a flooding ship. You don't see a whole hell of a lot of that on any SF television show. I'm so impressed with the way we've pulled it off, and Corin Nemec's ability to hold his breath underwater is astounding."
Stargate SG-1 will debut on the SCI FI Channel with "Redemption, Part I," set to air June 7.
Petersen To Direct Ender's Game
arner Bros. has inked a deal with Wolfgang Petersen to direct a big-screen version of Orson Scott Card's Hugo and Nebula award-winning SF novel Ender's Game, with Card himself penning the first draft of the script, Daily Variety reported.
The story centers on children who are trained by the government to play a game, with the best players ultimately tapped to battle aliens that seek to eliminate the human race.
"There is great potential for a variation of what I did with The Neverending Story," Petersen told the trade paper. Card told Daily Variety in a separate interview, "Wolfgang completely understood the book, and my children grew up on Neverending Story, so I knew he could direct performances out of young children." Card's official Web site, Hatrack River, links to a statement by the production company Fresno Pictures saying, "The upshot is that all are agreed on a fairly detailed outline of a film that combines Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow in a way that will combine the most important elements of both."
Petersen's other films include Das Boot, In the Line of Fire, Air Force One and The Perfect Storm.
Butler-Witchblade Update
roduction on the TNT series Witchblade is on hold while star Yancy Butler seeks alcohol treatment, Variety said, confirming earlier reports.
A statement released about the subject on May 23 and reported yesterday on SCI FI Wire, citing Cinescape Online, came not from TNT but the show's producers.
Variety today went on to state that "insiders close to the show" plan to resume filming in the next several weeks, hopefully with Butler back in action as Sara Pezzini. The same insiders noted that while the producers "plan to stick with Butler if at all possible, they have put feelers out for a replacement." Witchblade will kick off its second season as planned on June 16 with back-to-back airings of two of the six episodes completed before Butler's departure.
Densham Revisits The Twilight Zone
en Densham told SCI FI Wire that he's eager to start production on UPN's new version of The Twilight Zone, for which he's writing and serving as executive producer.
"I love the idea that one could create an anthology series for television in a time when everybody thinks anthology shows won't work," Densham said in an interview. The former producer of Showtime and the SCI FI Channel's updated The Outer Limits series noted that "The Twilight Zone is probably an even more extraordinary franchise than The Outer Limits because it allows you to get into the psychology of human beings."
Densham added, "You can do a story about a dream girl who's actually real. You can do stories about things that are comic or spiritual, and they're valid to the storytelling. The Twilight Zone is the kind of show you dream about because most people, when they create a show, end up being somewhat trapped by having to repeat the same characters every week and having to work within that schematic. The opportunity of something like The Twilight Zone is that you can do an entirely different show every week. You're challenging your imagination, you're staying fresh and you're breaking new ground all the time. There's also a heritage I recognize and value. The Twilight Zone is one of the treasured and hallowed pieces of American culture."
The Twilight Zone will debut this fall, following Enterprise on the Wednesday-night schedule.
Frakes Enters The Twilight Zone
onathan Frakes revealed what viewers can expect to see when UPN re-enters The Twilight Zone this fall.
"It starts off with a one-hour pilot that I directed," Frakes said in an interview. "I'm so proud of it. It's an adult television show."
Frakes added, "Jeremy Piven is the star. The episode has that great Twilight Zone cautionary-tale tone. [His character] is hit by lightning and he dies twice, essentially. Piven really went for it. He's never had a part like this. Then we've got Forest Whitaker as the host. The objective there was to get someone who does not remind you at all of Rod Serling and yet brings what Forest does, which is this promise of mystery and intelligence. So I have really high hopes for the show. I'm really proud of the way it was shot and acted. And we've got the best timeslot on UPN. There is no better spot than behind Enterprise. I'm going to be directing other episodes of the show and right now I'm working on getting the [director-executive producer] hyphenate. I'd love to keep working with [producer] Pen Densham," whose producer credits include Space Rangers and the latter-day The Outer Limits. "He's a wonderful writer and a collaborative guy to work with."
The Twilight Zone will debut on UPN in September or October.
Greenwalt May Perform Miracles
ngel co-creator and executive producer David Greenwalt and Touchstone Television are in negotiations aimed at securing Greenwalt's services as show runner for its upcoming drama Miracles, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Greenwalt, who is reportedly hammering out a one-year, seven-figure deal, would stay with Angel as a creative consultant.
Hollywood Reporter sources indicated that David Simkins would step in as show runner for Angel, which in the fall will launch its fourth season on the WB. 20th Century Fox Television, which produces Angel, had no comment. Simkins' writing and producing credits include Freakylinks, Dark Angel and Charmed.
Uni Options Man Who Grew Young
niversal Studios has optioned Daniel Quinn's graphic novel The Man Who Grew Young for Tom Shadyac's production company, The Hollywood Reporter reported.
Author and screenwriter Daniel Wallace will provide an adapted script for a proposed film to be entitled Timeless.
Published by Context Books in August 2001 and featuring art by Tim Eldred, The Man Who Grew Young follows the plight of Alan Taylor, who lives in a contracting-universe alternate Earth in which humanity lives in reverse time, rising from the dead and "aging" younger and younger, unaware it has ever been different. Taylor, however, finds that for him, time has ground to a halt. Taylor's effort to find the unknown mother all humans eventually find as they "age" takes him on a journey through time, during which he encounters seers, wizards and sorcerers.
The trade paper added that Timeless is being developed as a directing assignment for Shadyac, whose credits include Liar Liar and Dragonfly.
DreamWorks' Fatal Decision
reamWorks has purchased the rights to the Japanese horror video game Fatal Frame with an eye on transforming it into a film franchise, Variety reported.
The news was made public during the final day of the 2002 Electronic Entertainment Expo (aka E3) in Los Angeles.
Fatal Frame, released by Japanese game publisher Tecmo in March, centers on a woman who enters a haunted mansion armed only with a camera that enables her to see ghosts, and who is driven by a desire to locate her missing brother.
"We were amazed by the fantastic creative vision driving Fatal Frame," Michael De Luca, DreamWorks' head of production, was quoted by Variety as saying. "Our plan is to take the scariest video game of all time and transport that vision—complete with all the tension, fear and storyline intact—to the big screen for everyone to experience. This is an exciting new project with outstanding potential for DreamWorks." The trade paper added that no writer is yet attached to the project.
Bettis Cast As Carrie
ngela Bettis has landed the title role in Carrie, NBC's upcoming three-hour adaptation of the Stephen King novel, Daily Variety reported.
The telefilm, to be shot in Vancouver, British Columbia, beginning June 12, will serve as a backdoor pilot for a potential series.
Bettis is currently on Broadway in a revival of The Crucible and counts among her credits the film Girl, Interrupted and such genre forays as an episode of Sliders, the supernatural thriller Bless the Child and the horror film May, a modern-day variation on Frankenstein, due for release this year. Daily Variety added that Star Trek: Voyager and Deep Space Nine scribe Bryan Fuller has penned the teleplay. NBC is expected to air Carrie during the 2002-2003 television season.
Moonstone Readies Horror Pics
oonstone Entertainment and the British investment company Sefton Potter will team to produce a half-dozen horror films, Daily Variety reported.
The first film will be a remake of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, with Allan A. Goldstein (Death Wish V: The Face of Death, the upcoming Oscar Wilde adaptation Dorian) writing and directing. Production is set to commence in Europe later this summer.
The Moonstone-Potter tandem, tentatively called Curzon House of Horrors, will also produce Crime and Punishment, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Toolbox Murders and Dr. Faustus. The six films should be finished within the next year and a half.
Daily Variety added that Moonstone is also involved with a previously announced separate project entitled Planning Lawrence Fankhauser's Death, to be directed by Tobe Hooper, whose work includes the films Poltergeist and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and an edition of Steven Spielberg's upcoming SCI FI ORIGINAL miniseries Taken.
Moore Preps Galactica
creenwriter Ronald D. Moore filled in a few blanks about his plans for the SCI FI Channel's upcoming Battlestar Galactica miniseries.
"I'm in the middle of working on the script," Moore wrote in an e-mail exchange with SciFi Pulse that was reported on Cinescape Online.
Moore added, "The basis of the miniseries will be a retelling of the origin story; that is, the events that cause [the ship] Galactica and the fugitive fleet to begin their journey. There will be familiar characters from the original show, and new ones as well. I'm trying to flesh out the backstory of what led up to these cataclysmic events as well as round out many of the characters and their relationships. I can tell you that both the studio and the network are very happy with the outline and that things are going exceptionally well with this project so far."
Sorbo Addresses Andromeda Changes
ndromeda star Kevin Sorbo told SCI FI Wire that viewers should expect several major changes in the show when it returns for its third season this fall.
"The biggest difference you'll see is in the writing," the actor said in an interview. "Our new head writer is Bob Engels, and he's from Twin Peaks and SeaQuest."
Sorbo added, "Bob has a very interesting way of writing. We're doing an episode of his now. It's called 'If the Wheel Is Fixed,' and it will be the third-season premiere. He's got a very quirky, intelligent way about him, and not everything is expositional. The audience is left wondering, 'What was that?' and I think that's good. Not everything is spelled out perfectly. It's left ambiguous, which will be more interesting for the audience. It's certainly more interesting for us. I get tired when we treat the audience as stupid, and when I say 'we' I mean television as a whole. I get tired of not giving the audience the benefit of the doubt that they can figure things out. They can. We have sophisticated viewers. The show is going to take us to place we haven't seen yet in terms of the plotline.
"I don't mean to say there will be one continuous plot," Sorbo explained. "The Commonwealth is certainly still there. Each episode will have a beginning, middle and end. It's not going to be a soap opera." Andromeda airs nationally in first-run syndication.
Briefly Noted
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Ashley Judd denied to SCI FI Wire rumors that her Star Trek: The Next Generation character, Robin Lefler, would appear in the upcoming Star Trek: Nemesis film. "That's on a bio on the Internet, and I think that they have been sent a legal letter and have removed it," Judd said in an interview. "I am not in Star Trek."
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