King To Quit. Really.
orrormeister Stephen King told Entertainment Weekly magazine that he will indeed hang up his pen for good after he completes several more books, repeating an assertion he's been making for a while now.
First, his new novel about a troop of Pennsylvania state policemen and their relationship with a possessed vintage car, From a Buick 8, will come out, the magazine reported.
After that, King said he will finish the final three installments of his projected seven-volume fantasy series The Dark Tower. And that's it. "People are going to say a year and a half from now that the talk of retirement was ridiculous, because those will come out, but after that ... ," he told the magazine. "I'd never stop writing, because I don't know what I'd do between nine and one every day. But I'd stop publishing. I don't need the money."
King added that he'd just as soon file the manuscripts in a drawer. "Why not?" he asked. "What's wrong with that? J.D. Salinger's been doing it for years! There's a story I heard about this lady who works in a bank in New Hampshire, where Salinger has a safety deposit box. And every year he'd go in with a wrapped box. And if you've ever worked in publishing, you know what an 8-by-10 box is—it's a manuscript. So she said, 'Are those books you're putting away?' And he said yes. And she said, 'Are you ever going to publish them?' And he looked down his nose at her and said, 'What for?' And it's one of those stories where you gotta say, 'If it ain't true, it oughta be.'"
Buffy Season 8 Mulled
arti Noxon, executive producer of UPN's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, told SCI FI Wire that producers are already mulling options for how to continue the show beyond the upcoming seventh season, with or without star Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Among the possibilities: a show centered on Buffy's little sister Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg) or one centered on wayward slayer Faith (Eliza Dushku), Noxon said in an interview. Gellar's contract expires at the end of the new season, and she has previously expressed doubts about returning full-time.
An eighth season of Buffy "is a discussion that we've begun to start having ... with both [producing studio] Fox and UPN," Noxon said. "But it's really ... stages. I think the main thing that [creator] Joss [Whedon] feels, and I also feel, is that we wouldn't continue if we didn't feel that we had something exciting to bring to the table. If it felt like we were desperately trying to keep the franchise alive, that's not something that I think interests him. I think it's much more about, can we come up with a concept that might be either Sarah-free or Sarah-light that feels, you know, like a show worth doing? And if we're all excited about doing it and have the same level of passion, then gung ho, you know? But if we don't, I think nobody sort of wants to see a pale imitation of what was. It's a tough call. It's a tough thing. We'll see. But we do have some ideas. And Joss has some great ideas. And we're kicking those all around. And we don't know. Sarah has not said definitively no, but I think it's pretty likely that she'd at least want to scale her involvement back."
In the upcoming seventh-season premiere, viewers will see a much more active Dawn. Is that setting the stage for Trachtenberg to take up Gellar's stake and cross? "We don't really have a firm plan," Noxon said. "I mean, that's obviously one of the possibilities. But we haven't settled on that at all. ... I think it was just time to grow Dawn up a little bit. And it's just sort of a natural thing that she would want to sort of follow in Buffy's footsteps. So it's much more about story. And if at the end of that process, we're like, 'Wow, she's a natural replacement,' then that might happen. But it's not a foregone conclusion at all."
Noxon confirmed that Faith will return toward the end of the seventh season. But whether or not she's poised to replace Buffy "depends entirely on [Dushku]," who has an active film career, Noxon said. "But it's definitely a very interesting possibility. I know some fans ... are pretty excited about that. So we'll see. I mean, I can really see that show. I know what that show is. And so that's nice, you know? She's such a good character. And Eliza's very charismatic. So I can see what that show would be. But again, many, many hurdles. And I don't even know if Eliza's interested." Buffy kicked off its new season on Sept. 24 in its regular 8 p.m. ET/PT Tuesday time slot.
Noxon Sings About Buffy
arti Noxon, executive producer of UPN's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, confirmed a few season-seven spoilers to SCI FI Wire—including one that she will reprise her singing role of the "parking ticket lady" from last season's critically acclaimed all-musical episode.
"I actually will," Noxon said in an interview. "I cannot say [when]. The parking ticket lady will be singing. How funny is that? I'm going to make a small career of singing on Buffy and Angel."
Noxon, who recently gave birth to a son, also revealed that she will write a couple of episodes this year and direct one. "I'm going to be doing episode 10 and episode 21 of Buffy and also directing episode 21," she said. "I'm really excited. I've done a couple before. But this is my first big action one, so I'm really psyched about that. And then, you know, given my other responsibilities, that's pretty much what I'll get to do this year."
As for the coming season, which returns Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and the Scooby Gang to Sunnydale High School, Noxon offered these hints.
•Willow (Alyson Hannigan), who turned evil at the end of last season, will have a slow road back. "It's going to be something we have to earn," Noxon said. "The main thing is it's not going to be done in an episode, you know? It's not, like, 'Oops, sorry, guys!' She's not just going to send them a card."
•Anya (Emma Caulfield) will sing in an upcoming flashback. "Just stay tuned," Noxon said. "The fun of it is, you don't know when it's going to happen."
•Amber Benson, whose character, Tara, died at the end of last year, will return—but not as Tara.
•Xander (Nicholas Brendon) may try to patch things up with Anya. "There's a possibility," Noxon said. "I mean, they're dealing with the wreckage of their past. And we've no foregone conclusions."
Buffy kicked off its seventh season on Sept. 24. The CD soundtrack of last season's musical episode, "Once More With Feeling," hits stores that day as well.
Doe Goes, Fly Slow
ox's John Doe garnered good ratings for the network and won its time slot in its Sept. 20 debut, but the much-anticipated Firefly took off much slower, coming in third place in its time slot an hour earlier, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Debuting at 9 p.m. Friday, John Doe averaged 9.6 million viewers and a 4.3 rating/14 share in the adults 18-49 demographic, the trade paper reported. Viewership grew throughout the hour from an average of 9.2 million viewers in the first half to 10 million from 9:30-10 p.m., the trade paper added.
But Firefly was slower out of the gate at 8 p.m., averaging 6.3 million viewers and a 3.0/11 in adults 18-49. The action-drama beat Fox's 2001-'02 season average in the time slot by 11 percent in adults 18-49, but it also took a dip at the half-hour mark in total viewers and some key demographics, the trade paper reported.
OED Adopts Trek Words
he Star Trek words "Klingon" and "warp drive" are among 3,500 new entries formally accepted as part of the English language in the new edition of the authoritative Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, which appeared Sept. 26, the Reuters news service reported.
The words join the Star Wars term "Jedi" in a science-fiction-inspired lexicon that has become so common it could not be ignored, Reuters reported.
"Generally, a word has to be used five times in five different places over five years, although something like 'text messaging' got in quicker, because it became so widely used so quickly," dictionary spokeswoman Claire Turner told the news service.
Crichton Robbed, But OK
F author Michael Crichton was robbed at gunpoint and tied up by two men who ransacked his home, but he wasn't harmed, his publicist told a newspaper.
The author of Jurassic Park and Timeline and creator of the television series ER was robbed shortly before 5 a.m. on Sept. 23. Police wouldn't confirm that Crichton was the victim, but said the crime was committed at a home believed to be owned by the author, the Associated Press reported.
"An incident did occur, but everybody is fine, and that's all I can say, because a kid is involved," publicist Joseph Marich told the Santa Monica (Calif.) Daily Press. Crichton, 59, has a daughter in her early teens, the AP reported. Police said some items were taken from the house, but the value was not immediately determined.
Sega, Crichton Partner Up
ega of America announced that it has partnered with best-selling SF author Michael Crichton (Timeline) to develop a new video game based on an original concept.
Sega game developers and Crichton will collaborate on a new game scheduled for release in 2004, the company announced. No details were released about the game or its concept.
Crichton has written best-selling SF books and developed successful TV shows (ER) and films (Jurassic Park), but the venture marks his first foray into gaming. "Partnering with Sega, who has an extraordinary track record in the interactive entertainment industry, is an opportunity to create an amazing video game from the ground up," Crichton said in a statement. "I look forward to working with Sega's first-rate creative team."
A film based on Crichton's time-travel novel Timeline is currently in production.
Fuqua Tries On Jacket
irector Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) is in talks to helm Paramount's The Jacket, an SF movie about a falsely imprisoned man who learns how to see into the future and tries to change his fate, Variety reported.
Mandalay Films and Section Eight partners George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh are producing.
Fuqua is also attached to the Robert Ludlum adaptation The Sigma Protocol for producer Paul L. Sandberg, the trade paper reported.
Superman Helmer Signed
s expected, Brett Ratner (Red Dragon) has signed to direct the fifth Superman movie for Warner Brothers, the studio announced.
Last week, SCI FI Wire first reported that Ratner had signed on to direct the film, stepping in for McG, who left the project to helm Charlie's Angels 2: Halo.
The studio described the fifth installment of the blockbuster franchise as "a re-imagining of the Superman legend," originally created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
As previously reported, Ratner told Variety that he would direct the new Superman installment before he tackled the sequel film Rush Hour 3. Negotiations for Ratner to direct began nearly a month ago. His commitment to Superman, which will require more than 20 weeks of preproduction, means a delay for New Line Cinema's third Rush Hour installment, the trade paper reported.
Jon Peters will produce and Alias creator J.J. Abrams has written the script. "It's been a dream since I was a child to do this movie," Ratner told Variety. "I was born to make this movie. It's the perfect time to make this movie, as everyone is looking for someone to save the world, and who better than Superman?"
Smallville Flies High
he Sept. 24 second-season premiere of Smallville gave The WB all-time network record ratings and topped all but NBC for its hour in key demographics, Variety reported.
But UPN's new supernatural series Haunted, which debuted opposite Smallville, came out of the gate slowly, the trade paper reported.
Smallville averaged 8.66 million viewers and delivered the best ratings for any WB series on any night in adults 18-34 (5.2/14) and key male demographics, the trade paper reported. It topped its series premiere last fall by 16 percent and placed first or second in its hour in all key under-50 demographics. For the night, The WB led among persons 12-34, the trade paper reported.
Haunted, meanwhile, averaged 3.14 million viewers and retained only 63 percent of its Buffy the Vampire Slayer lead-in among adults 18-34 (1.7/5 vs. 2.7/8), the trade paper reported. Buffy airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT; Smallville and Haunted air at 9 p.m.
Smallville Flies Again
l Gough, executive producer of The WB's Smallville, told the Comics Continuum Web site that the second-season opener will help establish the tone for the entire season.
"Vortex," co-written by Gough and executive producer Miles Millar, resolves last season's cliffhangers.
"We were very happy with 'Vortex,'" Gough told the Continuum. "We felt that even though the tornado was over after the teaser, the story stayed interesting throughout, and we were able to set the table for season two. This is particularly true with the Lana/Clark [Kristin Kreuk/Tom Welling] dynamic and the Lex/Lionel [Michael Rosenbaum/John Glover] dynamic. I hope what you will see this season is an even greater variety in the storytelling and a deeper study of all of the characters and their relationships, ... as well as some kick-ass action and, yes, ... some kryptonite."
Smallville's second season kicks off in its regular 9 p.m. ET/PT Tuesday timeslot on Sept. 24.
Rhysling Winners Named
rganizers announced the winners of the 2002 Rhysling Awards, for works of SF and fantasy poetry, Locus Online reported.
The awards, for works published during the calendar year for which they are being given, are selected by the membership of the Science Fiction Poetry Association.
Long Poem
•"How to Make a Human" by Lawrence Schimel
Short Poem
•"We Die as Angels" by William John Watkins
Genre TV Wins Tech Emmys
enre programming fared poorly in the 54th annual prime-time Emmy Awards on Sept. 22, with genre series taking home mainly technical awards.
The awards were broadcast on NBC. A list of genre winners follows.
Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour)
•Futurama, "Roswell That Ends Well"
Art Direction for a Single-Camera Series
•Alias, "Truth Be Told (Pilot)," Scott Chambliss, production designer; Cece Destefano, art director; Karen Manthey, set decorator
Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series
•Alias, "Truth Be Told (Pilot)," Michael Bonvillain, director of photography
Hairstyling for a Series
•Enterprise, "Two Days and Two Nights," Michael Moore, designer; Gloria Pasqua Casny, hairstylist; Roma Goddard, hairstylist; Laura Connolly, hairstylist; Cheri Ruff, hairstylist
Hairstyling for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special
•Anne Rice's The Feast of All Saints, Part 1, Regan Noble, hairstylist
Makeup for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (Non-Prosthetic)
•The Mists of Avalon, Part 1, Polly Earnshaw, chief makeup
Makeup for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (Prosthetic)
•Jim Henson's Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story, Part 2, Daniel Auber, prosthetic makeup artist; Stephan Bettles, prosthetic makeup artist; John Cormican, prosthetic makeup artist; Chris Fitzgerald, prosthetic makeup artist
Sound Editing for a Series
•Smallville, "Pilot," Michael E. Lawshé, supervising sound editor; Timothy A. Cleveland, sound editor; Paul J. Diller, sound editor; Adam Johnston, sound editor; Otis Van Osten, sound editor; Andrew Somers, sound editor; Karyn Foster, sound editor; Jessica Dickson, sound editor; Karen Spangenberg, sound editor; Chris McGeary, music editor; Casey Crabtree, foley artist; Mike Crabtree, foley artist
Special Visual Effects for a Series
•Enterprise, "Broken Bow (Pilot)," Dan Curry, visual effects producer; Ronald B. Moore, visual effects supervisor; Arthur Codron, visual effects coordinator; Elizabeth Castro, visual effects coordinator; Paul Hill, compositing editor; Steven Fong, compositing editor; Gregory Rainoff, visual effects animator; Robert Bonchune, computer animation supervisor; David Morton, computer animation supervisor
Special Visual Effects for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special
•Dinotopia, Part 3, Mike McGee, visual effects supervisor; Tim Webber, visual effects supervisor; Pedro Sabrosa, lead visual effects compositor; Michael Eames, lead CGI artist/animation director; Alec Knox, lead CGI artist/supervising technical director; Craig Lyn, lead CGI artist/lead technical director; Ben Morris, lead CGI artist/lead technical director; Quentin Miles, lead CGI artist; Dadi Einarsonn, lead animator
British Fantasy Winners Named
he 2002 British Fantasy Awards were announced on Sept. 21 at the British Fantasy Convention in London.
The awards honor works published in 2001. A full list of winners follows.
Best Novel (The August Derleth Fantasy Award)
•The Night of the Triffids by Simon Clark
Best Anthology
•The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror: Volume 12, Stephen Jones, ed.
Best Collection
•Aftershocks by Paul Finch
Best Short Fiction
•"Goblin City Lights" by Simon Clark
Best Artist
•Jim Burns
Best Small Press
•PS Publishing
Special Award (The Karl Edward Wagner Award)
•No award
Chan Fell For Tuxedo
ction star Jackie Chan, who plays an ordinary chauffeur-turned-secret agent in The Tuxedo, told SCI FI Wire that the gravity-defying stunts he performs in the film were much easier than they look on the screen.
"A lot of people really misunderstand," he said in an interview while promoting the film. "They think stunts are very difficult. Stunts are easy. Really, really easy. Like sliding 120 feet down a silo. It's dangerous, yeah, but you can do it."
In the film, Chan's character, Jimmy Tong, is endowed with superhuman fighting abilities when he puts on his incapacitated employer's high-tech tuxedo. During the initial fight sequence, Jimmy takes a fall from the top of a 120-foot cement silo and lands on his feet, with the help of the expensive garment. Chan compared the stunt to the common pastime of bungee jumping. "Scary, but safe," he said. "Most of the time, safe."
What was not so easy, Chan said, are the choreographed fight scenes he's become internationally famous for. "The difficult things for me, I always get hurt, is going under the table, flip, turn it over, flip the chair. Ow. I hurt my ankle. Those kinds of things hurt the most. Those kinds of things, under the table, flip over, come up, boom, one take. Those kinds of things are 10 times more difficult than doing a stunt like sliding down the silo. Jump in the silo, driving, that's easy. Those things, everybody can do it. When I show you, you can do it. Scary, yes, but I push, you go. Wow, fun."
The Tuxedo represents the first big visual-effects-based film for Chan, who accepted the project before the script had even been written. "I don't need the script, because it's Spielberg. DreamWorks. That's all. And besides, I want to try something new. That's the first step for me. So many years, so many companies send me scripts about Back to the Future things, about so many special-effects movies. I don't want to do it. I don't have the confidence. DreamWorks, yes. Now I do it. I don't know if the audience like it or not. I'll have to wait." The Tuxedo opened Sept. 27.
Hewitt Kicks It In Tuxedo
ennifer Love Hewitt—who stars alongside Jackie Chan in the upcoming action comedy The Tuxedo—told SCI FI Wire that Chan devised the final fight sequence to compensate for an ankle injury she'd suffered during an earlier stunt on the set.
"I was in a cast for two weeks," Hewitt said in an interview. "I hurt my ankle kicking a guy in the head. Kicking Ritchie [Coster, who plays the villain,] in the head, actually. ... So I couldn't do a lot of running around at that point, and we had to very quickly sort of come up with a way around it."
In the film, a megalomaniacal water tycoon plans to poison the world's water supply using bacteria-infected insects. During the film's climactic fight scene, Hewitt's secret-agent character is rendered immobile when the queen insect becomes trapped in a cup on her face. "Jackie came up with the fact that it lands on my nose, which makes me unable to move at that point. So I just kind of have to turn back and forth," she said.
Chan said in an interview that he designed the scene specifically to focus the audience's attention on Hewitt's predicament. "She don't have to do nothing," he said. "Because she already cracked her ankle, she cannot move anymore. So that's why I come up with the idea [to] use the cup. She [was] just standing there. I do the action sequence. And also, at that moment, no matter how good I am, the audience, they won't concentrate on me. They will concentrate on her."
For the rest of the film's choreographed fight scenes, Hewitt said that Chan worked around her strengths as much as her weaknesses. "Jackie, every single day, would be like, 'Hey, throw a kick.' Or, 'Hey, box with my hand,' or whatever," she said. "And I could never really figure out what he was doing. Finally, what I realized is, by the time we got to the action sequences, what he'd done the whole movie while we were shooting dialogue and stuff ... is find out what I did best and what I was best at. And he incorporated that into all of the fight scenes. I was a really strong person at kicking, so I kick a lot in the movie. ... He kind of took everything that we had sort of play-practiced without me knowing during the movie and incorporated it in my scenes." The Tuxedo opened Sept. 27.
Company Pushes SF&F Films
reated By—literary agent Ralph Vicinanza's producing company for his list of SF and fantasy authors—has signed a first-look deal with DreamWorks, Variety columnist Michael Fleming reported.
Vicinanza represents works by authors that include Stephen King, Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov.
Vicinanza and his Hollywood-based counterpart Vince Gerardis have set the Jerry Pournelle novel Birth of Fire with James Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment and, subject to a studio deal, have Ron Bass ready to adapt the Robin Hobb trilogy Liveship Traders, Fleming reported. Vicinanza has also enlisted Blade writer David Goyer onto three book projects, including Robert Sawyer's A Flash Forward, which Goyer hopes to produce and direct.
Created By is fueled by a library of more than 10,000 SF&F titles dating back 60 years. Vicinanza founded and funded Created By because he was so frustrated with the treatment those authors got from Hollywood, Fleming reported.
The firm is behind the deal with Shrek co-director Andrew Adamson and co-writer Joe Stillman to develop a computer-animated film based on Terry Pratchett's Truckers, Diggers & Wings for DreamWorks' Jeffrey Katzenberg. The company also brought in Black Hawk Down writer Ken Nolan to write a lengthy "scripment" for the Greg Bear novel Forge of God for Warner Brothers.
Paradox Buys Conan Stake
he Swedish company Paradox Entertainment has acquired a 20 percent interest in Conan Sales Co., giving it an option to buy all game, movie and book rights to the Conan the Barbarian franchise, the GameSpot Web site reported.
Conan Sales holds all the rights to the franchise.
Under the deal, Paradox will play a part in any ongoing licensing partnerships, including a film deal with Warner Brothers, a game license for TDK and a book-publishing agreement with Tor, the site reported.
"The potential in the Conan character, stories and fan base is huge," Theodore Bergquist, chief executive officer of Paradox, said in a statement. "We plan to increase licensing activities immediately in all media, including newly written books, comics and computer games."
Cage Reboots In Back Up
icolas Cage will star in Back Up, an SF thriller film for Castle Rock Pictures, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Cage will play a cop who is brought back to life to investigate his own murder, the trade paper reported.
Back Up is set in the near future, when technology allows for the resuscitation of humans and the "backing up" of their memories onto a computer. Cage plays a cop who gets "backed up" and wakes up 90 days later, with a gap in his memory.
The Jacobson Co.'s Tom Jacobson and Jim Wedaa are producing in conjunction with Saturn Films' Cage and Norm Golightly. Tom Vaughan wrote the spec script, based on a story by him and Wedaa, the trade paper reported.
Paramount Eyes Bad Guy
aramount is prepping The Bad Guy, an alternative superhero movie based on a cult comic series, to be written by David Hayter (X-Men, The Hulk), Variety reported.
The studio is in talks to buy rights for the comic book, which is to be developed as a feature by Barry Josephson (Men in Black) under his Josephson Entertainment banner, the trade paper reported.
The Bad Guy is set in a universe in which genetically engineered superheroes have eliminated crime and become arrogant and bored, leaving a lone mortal to take them on. The comic's creators, Jason Harris and Zack Morrissette, will pen the first draft under Hayter's supervision, the trade paper reported.
Xbox Dark Alliance To Ship
lack Isle Studios, the role-playing game division of Interplay Entertainment, announced that the Xbox version of the best-selling Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance video game will be ready to ship to stores in November.
The PlayStation 2 version of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, developed by Snowblind Studios, shipped more than 500,000 units worldwide, the companies announced.
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance blends action and adventure in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting of the Dungeons & Dragons universe.
Stahl Talks T3
ick Stahl, who takes over the role of John Connor in the upcoming Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, told SCI FI Wire that the character is now 10 years older and has become a loner.
"His whole sort of domestic life has changed," Stahl said in a conference-call interview. "He lives on his own, kind of outside conventional means, like a house. He kind of lives off the grid. And sort of keeps to himself and is very private, and ... the memories of what's happened 10 years ago are still very fresh. So he's very guarded and wary of technology."
Stahl added that the character—originally played by Edward Furlong in 1991's Terminator 2: Judgment Day—still hasn't evolved into the rebel leader glimpsed in T2. "He's not [the great military leader]," Stahl said. "In his mind, he's really no more of a leader than he was 10 years ago."
Stahl, who is best known for his critically acclaimed role in last year's In the Bedroom, said it was challenging taking on a role in a big-budget Hollywood movie. "The one thing about this type of movie I discovered is that you shoot something 100 different ways, so every time you do anything physical, you're going to do it over and over again," he said. "That can get somewhat taxing if you're not prepared for it, but there was a little physical training involved beforehand. I was trying to be very physically prepared for the role a couple months previously and did some training with weapons that I was going to be using in the movie—different hand-guns and things like that—so it was all really fun, actually. It was all really new for me, but I just had fun with it. It wasn't that tough at the end of the day." Stahl co-stars with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Claire Danes in Terminator 3, which recently wrapped principal photography and is slated for a July 2, 2003, release.
Warner Mulls Doom Film
arner Brothers is in final talks to pick up the feature-film rights to id Software's first-person shooter video game Doom, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Under the deal, the project would go in front of the cameras in 15 months, or the rights would revert back to the software company, the trade paper reported.
Studio-based John Wells Productions will produce Doom with recently departed worldwide production president-turned-producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, the trade paper reported.
Once the deal is in place, a writer will be hired. Although the video game was controversial because of its violence when it was originally released, the feature-film version will aim for a PG-13 rating, the trade paper added.
The feature film's storyline will most resemble the third Doom game, which is set in the future at a paramilitary base on Mars, where a scientific experiment goes awry and accidentally opens a portal to hell.
Hanks Takes Polar Express
om Hanks will star in Robert Zemeckis' upcoming fantasy film Polar Express, Variety reported.
Hanks and his Playtone partner Gary Goetzman have been developing the computer-animated adaptation of Chris Van Allsburg's children's picture book Polar Express, about a boy whose belief in Santa Claus results in a fantasy trip to the North Pole aboard a magical train, the trade paper reported.
Director Zemeckis has been working on the script with William Broyles (Cast Away), and the film is nearly set for a February start date, the trade paper reported. The film is eyeing a holiday 2004 release.
X-Men Team Reunites
lassic Marvel Comics writer Chris Claremont and illustrator Paul Smith will reteam on a new X-Men story for the first time in nearly 20 years, with X-Men Unlimited No. 39, an issue that spotlights Storm, the Comics Continuum reported.
The duo will be one of three creative teams who will tell three separate stories about three different periods of the Windrider's life, the site reported.
Claremont and Smith will create an adventure that reveals what happened between Uncanny X-Men No. 173 and 174 and will deal with Storm's transformation into a leather-clad, mohawked punk rocker. X-Men Unlimited No. 39 will have a cover by Chris Bachalo and will go on sale Nov. 27.
Clarke Laments Space Progress
egendary SF author Arthur C. Clarke lamented the lack of progress in planetary exploration in a telephone address from his Sri Lanka home to an audience at Rice University in Houston, the Associated Press reported.
Clarke's remarks were part of a 40th-anniversary commemoration of the speech in which President John F. Kennedy set forth his goal of landing on the moon, the AP reported. "We're lucky to get to Mars in 2020," he said.
Clarke added, "The end of the Cold War removed one of the main motivations for the space race. We've reached the stage where not one nation, not even the United States, can do it alone. [Space exploration] should be a global enterprise."
I-Man Visible In Zone
ormer Invisible Man star Vincent Ventresca told SCI FI Wire that he welcomed the chance to appear in an upcoming episode of UPN's new Twilight Zone series.
"The premise is ... sort of classic," Ventresca said in an interview. "It's a white guy who's on his way home from work at the end of a long day, and a black guy asks him for help, and I don't help him. And then I learn that, because I didn't help him, he dies. ... As the story goes on, I become him. I'm still me, but I become black. And I am put literally in another man's skin."
For Ventresca, who is no stranger to SF and genre TV, the part allowed him to be part of a genuine TV phenomenon. "I did a couple of episodes of Friends, so I was familiar with what it was like to be part of something that has taken on its own life," he said. "And I think Twilight Zone is obviously the same sort of thing. It's big, and people sort of know about it worldwide. As an actor, I always feel lucky to get any job. When they asked if I wanted to do this, it was like, absolutely. I remember all those actors, like William Shatner and Cliff Robertson, who did the great [episodes of the classic Twilight Zone series]. ... I love the idea of these people being put in these situations and them really reacting to it. ... It's not like doing a guest spot on West Wing. ... It's a very different thing, and there's not a lot of opportunities to play those kind of characters where the stakes are so freaking high, you know?"
Ventresca appears in "Shades of Guilt," one of two stories in the hour-long Sept. 25 Twilight Zone episode, which aired at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Curtis Gets Freaky
amie Lee Curtis is stepping in for Annette Bening as the mom in Disney's remake of the supernatural comedy film Freaky Friday, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Bening—who was to play a mother who swaps personalities with her teenage daughter—dropped out of the movie last week for undisclosed reasons, the trade paper reported.
Meanwhile, Mark Harmon is in talks to join the cast of the film, which will be directed by Mark S. Waters, the trade paper reported. Harmon would play the fiancé of Curtis' character.
Lindsay Lohan will play the teen, a role first assayed by Jodie Foster in the original 1976 movie.
More Psychics Due On TV?
ox Television Studios will develop a North American version of the Danish hit TV series Sensing Murder, in which professional clairvoyants aid police in investigating unsolved murders, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Fox Alternative Productions and producer Thom Beers are working on the proposed show.
Fox signed a deal with Nordisk Film TV and its distribution partner, Straight Forward Media, to produce a version of the series for the United States and Canada, the trade paper reported. Twentieth Century Fox TV Distribution will distribute it worldwide. The project is being shopped to networks. Fox will produce the show in association with Beers' Original Productions, with Beers as executive producer.
Partners To Put On A Show
aramount Pictures and studio-based Alphaville are teaming up to develop The Greatest Show in the Universe, an SF movie based on an original idea by Tab Murphy (Atlantis: The Lost Empire), according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The plot is said to be an action-adventure set in space, the trade paper reported.
Alphaville principals Sean Daniels and Jim Jacks are producing. Paramount and Alphaville are also developing A Princess of Mars, a feature film based on the first book of Edgar Rice Burroughs' 11-book SF series John Carter of Mars, the trade paper reported.
New Rings Games Coming
ivendi Universal Publishing's game division announced the development of several new Lord of the Rings video games under an agreement with Tolkien Enterprises.
The new titles include The Lord of the Rings: Middle-earth Online, an online massively multiplayer role-playing game; The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Ring, a real-time strategy game; and additional PC and console titles based on J.R.R. Tolkien's Rings books, The Two Towers and The Return of the King. The new titles will be developed by VU Games' Black Label Games studio.
The new titles join VU Games' previously announced Tolkien lineup, which includes the Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring titles, due this fall from Black Label Games, and The Hobbit, from Sierra Entertainment, due for release in 2003.
Vivendi Universal Publishing is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Forward Dead At 70
hysicist and SF author Robert L. Forward died Sept. 21 at his home in Southern California of brain cancer, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Web site reported.
He was 70.
In addition to over 200 papers and articles, Forward published 11 hard SF novels. His first book, Dragon's Egg, expanded upon Frank Drake's idea of tiny fast-living creatures living on the surface of a neutron star, the site reported. Before his retirement in 1987, Forward worked for 31 years at the Hughes Aircraft Co. Corporate Research Laboratories in Malibu, Calif.
From the time of his retirement, Forward was a consultant for the Air Force and NASA on advanced space propulsion concepts.
Briefly Noted
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New Line Cinema premiered the new trailer for its upcoming sequel film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on America Online at 12:01 a.m. Sept. 30. The trailer will then move to the official Web site. Two Towers opens Dec. 18.
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British actress Keira Knightley, who appeared briefly in Star Wars: Episode I as Sabé, Queen Amidala's handmaiden, has been cast as Elizabeth Swann, the female lead in the upcoming Disney theme-ride-inspired Pirates of the Caribbean movie, opposite Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom, the IGN FilmForce Web site reported.
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A new trailer has gone live for the upcoming supernatural horror film The Ring, which opens Oct. 18.
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Mummy star Brendan Fraser and his wife, Afton, welcomed their first child, son Griffin Arthur Fraser, on Sept. 17, TV Guide Online reported.
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Warner Brothers announced that Jina Jay is the new casting director for the upcoming sequel film Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, replacing Karen Lindsay Stewart, who cast Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Jay is based in Watford, England, U.K.
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Marvel's Kevin Feige told the Comics2Film Web site that Jonathan Hensleigh has turned in a draft of a script for a proposed new Punisher movie. Feige said the new script is "spectacular" and that there should be some announcements on the project soon.
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ABC, Fox and Turner have struck a $30 million deal with Sony to share the broadcast window of summer blockbuster Men in Black II, Variety reported. Under the pact, Fox gets the first run of Men in Black II, followed by two airings at ABC, then one more for Fox before Turner takes it over for four years, the trade paper reported.
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The premiere of UPN's new Twilight Zone series held virtually all of the audience from its lead-in series, Enterprise, retaining 94 percent from hour to hour (4.59 million vs. 4.87 million), the network reported. The audience flowed from Enterprise and The Twilight Zone in all key adults, male and female demographics, retaining more than 80 percent in all categories.
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The Coming Attractions Web site has posted what it calls a behind-the-scenes account of the chaotic decision-making process leading to the development of a proposed fifth Superman film.
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The official Web site has been updated for Mike Mignola's Hellboy comic series and the proposed feature film based on the series.
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The Dark Horizons Web site reported that Timeline, the time-travel movie based on Michael Crichton's best-selling novel, is slated for an April 11, 2003, release.
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The new trailer for the upcoming Star Trek: Nemesis film is now online. Nemesis opens Dec. 13.
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Freakylinks star Ethan Embry will appear in "Time Lapse," an upcoming episode of UPN's new Twilight Zone series, playing a young man who finds himself an unwitting figure in a Byzantine assassination plot. The episode airs Oct. 9.
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Twentieth Century Fox is lining up a list of promotional partners to support Bryan Singer's upcoming X-Men sequel film, X2, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The studio's partners include Mazda, Dr Pepper, Baskin-Robbins, Radio Shack and Kraft.
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The Film Society of Lincoln Center will host the New York premiere of Gore Verbinski's supernatural horror film The Ring, which will kick off the group's "Scary Movies" festival Oct. 17-31, Variety reported. The Ring opens wide on Oct. 18.
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Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling announced that she is pregnant and that she and her second husband, Neil Murray, would be having a baby next spring, the Reuters news service reported.
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