Bohem Intrigued By Taken
eslie Bohem, writer and executive producer of the SCI FI Channel's upcoming original miniseries Steven Spielberg Presents Taken, told SCI FI Wire that he hopes the show will encourage people to ponder questions about the possibility of aliens and alien abductions.
"I'm extremely fascinated by this entire phenomenon," Bohem said in an interview. "Ultimately, I'd find it more fascinating if it's not true, if there are no aliens and have never been any alien abductions."
Bohem added, "What's been a little disappointing to me in the literature that's been reported as fact is that people seem satisfied that if there were aliens, that would be the answer to all of our problems. To me, if in fact there is life somewhere else in the universe, that just means that God has more explaining to do. That just makes the canvas bigger. But it doesn't answer a lot of reasonable questions. Do aliens suffer and die on their planet? Why are they interested in our planet? I saw Taken as an opportunity to suggest that maybe we weren't alone in asking the questions, but that we were all asking them together. And I really hope that people get the sense of there's nothing futile about asking questions, even if you're never going to get the answers." Taken premieres on SCI FI at 9 p.m. ET/PT Dec. 2.
Close Encounters Taken
ric Close, who plays John in the SCI FI Channel's upcoming original miniseries Steven Spielberg Presents Taken, told SCI FI Wire that he doesn't necessarily believe in aliens.
Taken tells the story of three families against the backdrop of 50 years of alien-abduction lore. "I don't disbelieve, and I don't believe," Close said in an interview. "I'm just one of those people who, if I saw
something, then I might [believe]."
The former Dark Skies star added, "But I've got to tell you, I've heard some pretty convincing stories. That's what I love about [SF]. I think that's what we love about it. That's why people continue to make science-fiction movies
and why people continue to go and watch them, because there is that mystery, there is that unknown. We love make-believe. We love to pretend. We love to imagine. It really draws out our imaginations and allows us to become kids
again and go into that world. So if that's all it is, that's good enough for me. And I think it's wonderful that people can do that." Taken premieres on SCI FI at 9 p.m. ET/PT Dec. 2.
Fanning A Fan Of Taken
akota Fanning, who stars in the pivotal role of Allie in the SCI FI Channel's upcoming original miniseries Steven Spielberg Presents Taken, told SCI FI Wire that the show presents a fresh variation on alien-abduction stories.
The 8-year-old actress appears as Allie in four of the 10 episodes and narrates the entire 20-hour miniseries.
"I just think Taken is so not like anything that anybody has ever seen before, because all the [characters] have different takes on the aliens," Fanning said in an interview. "For instance, the Clarke family thinks they're good, and
the Keys family thinks they're not good. ... And then the Crawford family doesn't really know what to think. They just kind of think, 'Well, maybe they're good, but maybe they're not good. They're trying
to take people, but maybe that's a good thing. Maybe you can have a better life. I don't know.'"
Asked what she hoped the audience would take away from watching Taken, Fanning responded, "I think the idea is that aliens really aren't as different as you might think." Taken premieres on SCI FI at 9 p.m. ET/PT Dec. 2.
Benz Goes '40s For Taken
ulie Benz, who co-stars as Kate in the SCI FI Channel's upcoming original miniseries Steven Spielberg Presents Taken, told SCI FI Wire that it was a real challenge to play a woman from the 1940s.
"I did a lot of research," Benz said in an interview. "Also, having had the gift of playing Darla on Angel [and Buffy the Vampire Slayer] and having played a character that
spanned 400 years, it helped me tackle this period."
Benz added, "I understood what I needed to do and the type of research I needed to do. I researched the clothes and the hair and maybe the look. It was also finding what it meant to be a woman at that time, what the ideals were, what the values were, especially in the Midwest. [Kate] is such a specific type of a woman that existed at that time in the Midwest. There weren't many options available as to what you could do or be as a woman. Her life was pretty tied up in marrying the man [Steve Burton] of her dreams and living in the perfect house with the perfect family. That was important to her, and it's destroyed before it even really started. So it was researching what it meant to be a woman during the '40s in middle America, not in New York and not in California." Taken premieres on SCI FI at 9 p.m. ET/PT Dec. 2.
Record Audience Sees Roswell
he SCI FI Channel's night of UFO-themed documentaries, led by The Roswell Crash: Startling New Evidence, made the channel the number-one adult-targeted cable network from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Nov. 22, SCI FI announced.
SCI FI drew a 1.7 rating and viewership of about 1.34 million households.
An average of 2.4 million viewers tuned in for The Roswell Crash: Startling New Evidence, hosted by Bryant
Gumbel. The documentary, chronicling SCI FI's scientific excavation of the 1947 crash site in Roswell, N.M., garnered a 2.0 rating and an audience of 1.56 million housholds, making it the highest-rated original special in SCI FI Channel history, the network announced. The Roswell Crash surpassed the previous record holder, the one-hour Curse of the Blair Witch special, by more than half a million households.
Following The Roswell Crash, the 10 p.m. documentary Abduction Diaries earned a strong 1.1 rating and an audience of 901,000 households, the network announced. The documentaries aired in anticipation of the SCI FI Channel's upcoming original miniseries Steven Spielberg Presents Taken, which premieres at 9 p.m. ET/PT Dec. 2.
SCI FI Has Record November
he SCI FI Channel set a prime-time ratings record for the month of November, averaging a 1.0 household rating, which places it in the top 10 of all basic cable networks, the company announced.
The results marked a 43 percent increase in ratings over November 2001, the largest ratings percentage increase of any basic cable network for the month.
SCI FI also ranked in the top 10 in both ratings and delivery of all key
demographics: men, women and persons 18-49 and 25-54, the channel reported. The channel also set a monthly average audience delivery record of 802,000 households, the highest in the channel's history.
In November, SCI FI aired three-hour Monday blocks of Stargate SG-1 episodes, which averaged a 1.3 rating, the highest average monthly rating for the time period in the Channel's history, with the exception of the December 2000 airing of the SCI FI original miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune. On Nov. 16, the SCI FI Original movie Sabretooth delivered a 2.0 household rating, the highest for any SCI FI Original movie for the year to date.
On Nov. 22, SCI FI broke a number of records with the premiere of The Roswell Crash: Startling New Evidence, the highest-rated original documentary or special to ever air on the network. The documentary aired in anticipation of the SCI FI Channel's upcoming original miniseries Steven Spielberg Presents Taken, which premieres at 9 p.m. ET/PT Dec. 2.
Nemesis Not TNG's Last?
ick Berman, executive producer of the upcoming Star Trek Nemesis film, told SCI FI Wire that it's not decided yet whether there will be more Next Generation movies after this one.
Because of events that occur in the movie, "there is some degree of finality to it," Berman said in an interview while promoting the movie. "But as to whether that means it's the last film with this cast is yet to be decided. The next film could have this cast. It could have a combination of this cast and people from other casts or a combination of this cast and new people. We just haven't decided yet."
As for the marketing slogan for Nemesis—"A generation's final journey begins"—Berman said, "That slogan is basically just that. Although, when one sees the film, one realizes that that certainly is a possibility. If you look at the original ... Kirk/Spock films, I think the last three of them were all sort of the last. I mean, in Star Trek II [The Wrath of Khan] ... Spock dies. Which felt kind of final. And what was happening there is the actors were basically saying, 'Uh-uh. I don't want to do another one.' So they kind of gave a finality to every one."
But is the Next Generation cast, led by Patrick Stewart (Capt. Picard) and Brent Spiner (Data), saying the same thing? "No," Berman said. "No. The actors are more than happy to keep going." But whether or not the Next Generation cast returns, he added, "I think there'll be Star Trek movies until we're all at the home. In a funny way the one thing that changes is how much money Paramount is willing to invest in the movies. One of the great things about making Star Trek movies for the studio is it's not a gamble. They know that it'll make somewhere between X and Y. And I think as each movie continues, however well it does dictates how much money they're going to be willing to spend on the next one." Star Trek Nemesis opens Dec. 13.
Spiner Liked Non-Trek Helmer
rent Spiner, who reprises the role of Data in the upcoming Star Trek Nemesis film, told SCI FI Wire that he found it refreshing to work with a director, Stuart Baird, who had no previous experience with the franchise.
"Working with Stuart was like working with a Monty Python character, really," Spiner said in an interview. "I'm not sure that it's not John Cleese playing Stuart. But Stuart, ... he's a wild man, he really is. And he has this enormous passion for what he's doing. And I think that's most of all what he brought to the movie. And what I most appreciated about him."
Spiner—who also came up with the film's story, along with writer John Logan and producer Rick Berman—added, "I actually really enjoyed working with him. And I think Patrick [Stewart] did, too. He's fun. He's a fun character to be around. And he is a real character. But he drove a lot of people crazy, because he was so obsessive about the film and about making a good film. And I couldn't be more in his corner on that. That's what it takes. And he dug his heels in on so many instances to try to make it a better film, and I honestly think he succeeded. I think it's a good movie."
Specifically, Spiner said that Baird "would not accept everything that was offered to him. He wanted it better. He wanted it better. 'More, more, more. Give me better everything. I'm trying to make a good movie here.' And I think he succeeded." The cast and crew, who had worked under helmer and cast member Jonathan Frakes in the last two Trek films, didn't necessarily resist Baird's direction, Spiner added. "It wasn't so much that. I think people in general hope that they get away with the least possible effort, you know? And I know I do. If you get pushed, then often, you rise above your standards." Nemesis opens Dec. 13.
Stewart: More Trek Possible
atrick Stewart, star of the upcoming Star Trek: Nemesis, told SCI FI Wire that the decision whether or not to make more Next Generation movies will come down to one simple factor: box-office results.
"Actually, it might come down to Friday night," Dec. 13, when Nemesis opens, Stewart said in an interview while promoting the film. "I would think by Saturday morning, we may know if there's going to be another movie or not."
But Stewart remains open to the possibility, despite advertising that positions Nemesis as the TNG crew's "final journey." "It is a funny old world, isn't it?" Stewart said. "I mean, ... here I am, all I wanted to do was act Shakespeare, and I end up now in these two franchises [X-Men and Star Trek]. Although, can you be in too many franchises?"
Stewart was also partly responsible for a Nemesis cameo by Bryan Singer, who directed Stewart as Professor Xavier in X-Men and its upcoming sequel, X2. The cameo "was not my idea," he said. "It was [Trek executive producer] Rick [Berman]'s idea. And it was wonderful to discover, ... and not until I was already cast in X-Men, that Bryan Singer was also an absolutely besotted fan of Next Generation and the original series, the original Star Trek.... He just asked if he could come on the set. So I mentioned it to Rick, and I said what a big fan he is, and Rick is a fan of Bryan's movies, and he said, 'Do you think he'd like to do a background shot?'"
Stewart added, "And so I asked Bryan, and his eyes lit up. And I mean, here's this guy, this A-list director. He was treated exactly as any background artist would be treated. He was at the studio at least an hour or two hours before I was. He was put through makeup in some distant trailer. He was fitted for his Starfleet uniform. They did his [sideburns], you know. And he worked all day. In fact, they wrapped me about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. And I said to Bryan, 'I really don't think you need to stay. If you want, if you've had enough now.' Because it just meant hanging around, that's all. 'We can get you out of this.' Not only did he not want to go, but he had invited scores of his friends to come and see him on the bridge of the Enterprise. And he ... was given a line of dialogue, but that didn't make it into the final cut. But these last few months, while we've been filming X-Men [2], which wrapped last week, ... continually he would say to me, 'What have you heard? Have you seen any of the movie? Do you think I'm going to be in it?' And when I came back, having seen the final cut, I said, 'Bryan, you're actually in 28 frames of the movie.' He couldn't be happier." Singer appears during a crucial battle as a crewman who steps in at one of the control consoles for a fallen comrade.
Treasure Mixes Past And Future
on Clements, who co-directed Disney's upcoming animated SF pirate film Treasure Planet, told SCI FI Wire that his original concept for the film was to combine a science-fiction adventure with traditional Disney animation.
"Science fiction on film can often be kind of cold and distancing and kind of high-tech," Clements said in an interview. "And for this movie to work we really thought it had to be the opposite of all those things. It had to be warm and inviting and really pull you into the movie. We didn't want to have that kind of chrome feel to it. So basically we decided early on to set this in a fantasy universe, one that was neither the past nor the future, but this kind of alternate world."
In adapting Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel Treasure Island, Clements and his partner, John Musker, decided on a ratio of 70 to 30, with 70 percent of the images being elements from the novel's 17th-century setting and 30 percent being futuristic and alien. "The nautical themes just seemed to translate so easily to outer space," Clements said. "The ocean can become space and the ships become spaceships and a wooden-legged pirate can become a cyborg and his pet parrot can be turned into a shape-shifting blob of protoplasm. And also this made it much more of a fantasy, which I think is better suited for animation."
Clements added, "We were propelled into that by one image that we wanted to make work, and that was sort of the three-masted galleon sailing across the sky with its sails kind of bursting and crackling with solar energy and its decks open to the breezes of this sort of etherium, where the shirts could rustle in the breeze and you would get the romance of the sea. So we needed a world where that image would kind of work and that's the direction we headed in. And we went to the 17th century for the aesthetic, the kind of hand-crafted feel of that, the warmth of that. But we wanted it to be a world where solar energy was really sort of a primary source of power, so we kind of played it as if technology had skipped a groove there. We got this fusion going basically, where you can have a world of holographic treasure maps, but one where you could have brass telescopes and tea cozies." Treasure Planet opened Nov. 27.
Treasure Features '5-D' Silver
len Keene, who supervised the creation of the alien cyborg pirate Silver in Disney's upcoming animated SF film Treasure Planet, told SCI FI Wire that combining traditional animation with computer graphics in a single character was a very difficult process.
"He's the most complex character I've ever done," Keene said in an interview. "I think he's the most complex character we've ever done at Disney. ... How we were going to [incorporate] this CG element of Silver's arm, his leg, part of his head, that's all robotic? He's a cyborg alien. The alien part was going to be drawn by hand, and that naturally would be me. I mean, I can do organic expressions and all that very easily. That's what I [do]. That just kind of flows out of me. On the other hand, I can't even operate my e-mail. And I needed somebody who really knew how to do the computer."
In order to coordinate the various elements of Silver, Keene teamed up with lead CGI artist Eric Daniels, with whom he had previously collaborated on the animated feature Tarzan. "I had interacted with Eric," Keene said. "But as Tarzan sliding down the branches. The branches were not part of Tarzan. In this case, the CG things were going to be part of the character himself: Silver's leg, Silver's arm, part of his head. And the fear was, it's going to look like it's a drawing and a perfectly symmetrical, geometric form, computer driven, locked in, and it's going to be oil and water. It's not going to match. Well, this is all illusion. It's about tricks. It's really about cheating. ... You don't really see it. It's a magic trick."
In a presentation at Disney's Feature Animation headquarters, co-director John Musker emphasized that Silver represents a major step forward in animated films and praised Keene's artistic talents. "We're the first film to have a hybrid character who featured both hand-drawn animation and CG animation," Musker said. "The hand-drawn being 2-D and the computer-generated being 3-D, in some ways we say Silver was the first 5-D character. And in order to realize that character, we needed someone who was both a consummate actor and someone who could handle the challenges of making this a seamless blend between the CG parts and the hand-drawn parts. And fortunately, in the person of the man who brought us the Beast and Ariel, the Little Mermaid and Tarzan, we found all that wrapped up into one guy." Treasure Planet, adapted from Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel Treasure Island, opened Nov. 27.
Equilibrium Not 451 Redux
urt Wimmer, writer and director of the upcoming SF film Equilibrium, told SCI FI Wire that comparisons between his film and the similarly themed Fahrenheit 451 are neither accurate nor fair.
Christian Bale stars in Equilibrium as a man responsible for ensuring that no one experiences feelings through art, literature and music, but who then sets about toppling the system. "I'm concerned that people will watch this film and say, 'Well, it's just a remake of Fahrenheit 451,'" Wimmer said in an interview. "Fahrenheit 451 was about McCarthyism, and it's a story I love very much."
Wimmer added, "However, I would never dream of retelling Fahrenheit 451, because I don't think it's an appropriate story to tell right now. I don't think there is any real censorship of ideas right now. In fact, I think there's quite an abundance of ideas, if not an overabundance of ideas. What affected me, and what I used to color the world of Equilibrium, was this idea that, today, I think there's a very, very widespread emotional repression. To me, movies are an emotional drug, and every weekend my wife and I say, 'What emotion do we want to feel? Happy? Sad? Frightened?' We intentionally do that and sort of manipulate our brain chemistry in a very purposeful way. I see the [Motion Picture Association of America], with every film that comes out, narrowing the bottleneck of the emotional bandwidth that we're allowed to feel. The R-rated films [now] are literally the PG-13-rated films of 1989, and the R-rated films of 1989 were the PG-rated films of 1979. That's important to me. It's not 100 percent obvious in Equilibrium—which I thought it would be—but all the contraband is rated EC-10, which is a not-so-subtle poke at NC-17, and it's why they're burning films when they're saying it. So I hope people will look a little deeper into the film, because it's not just a remake of Fahrenheit 451." Equilibrium opens Dec. 6.
Turok Aims For Movies
ctors Adam Beach (PBS' Skinwalkers) and Hayden Christensen (Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones) are producing a proposed film adaptation of the computer game Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, the Zap2it Web site reported.
The game is also the basis of a series of comics.
The film will be "a new Turok, where he's a college student," Beach told the site. "His uncle has died, and he learns about the responsibilities of a Turok and jumps into it when his family is threatened. A Turok is a warrior who is the protector of Earth from other dimensions. It's a place called the Lost World, and in that Lost World, they're trying to defeat the one enemy who wants to consume all of the worlds. Turok is the warrior on Earth who is fighting these people. His duty is to get these dinosaur beings ... and send them back to their own world."
X2 Wraps In Canada
rincipal photography of the X-Men sequel film, X2, has ended, producer Ralph Winter told The Comics Continuum Web site.
"We wrapped last Tuesday in a spectacular setting in the Canadian Rockies," Winter told the site. "There was much joy in finishing a long shoot and excitement about what we have accomplished. Now we jump into post-production. [Director] Bryan [Singer] is spending all his time now in the cutting room. We are all looking forward to seeing the picture complete."
Post-production on X2, which includes completing 750-800 visual-effects shots, will take about two months longer than it did on the first X-Men, Singer told the site. But, he added, "you never have enough time. A film is never finished, it is merely abandoned. At some point, we'll abandon this film for a May 2, 2003, release."
Angel Takes Birds Slot
he WB will move its vampire series Angel to Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT, taking the place of its canceled Birds of Prey, starting in January, the Reuters news service reported.
After debuting to an audience of more than 7 million, Birds has steadily lost viewers, falling to an average of about 5 million for the season, WB Entertainment president Jordan Levin told reporters.
Levin blamed the demise on Birds' poor execution. "We believe Birds proved that there was a fantasy audience and a male audience there," Levin said. "Over the course of Birds' run, that audience eroded, but those audiences came at first. Birds was not moving in the right way creatively and it didn't have the auspices [to continue]." Angel currently airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Birds Finale Likely
he WB will likely air a two-hour finale to its canceled Birds of Prey series that will wrap up many storylines and change the lives of the main characters forever, the Gotham Clock Tower Web site reported.
The site confirmed a report in The Hollywood Reporter last week suggesting that The WB would pull the plug on the struggling DC Comics adaptation.
The network currently has 13 episodes of the show for the first year, and the site speculated that the network would likely air them.
Earthsea Wins Endeavour
ales From Earthsea, by Oregon writer Ursula K. Le Guin, won the fourth annual Endeavour Award on Nov. 23, organizers announced.
The book is the first collection of stories to win the award and is Le Guin's second Endeavour win. The award, honoring distinguished science fiction or fantasy books by a writer from the Pacific Northwest, comes with a grant of $1,000 and an engraved glass plaque.
The award was announced during a reception at OryCon, Oregon's annual science-fiction convention.
Conan 3 Derailed
he IGN FilmForce is reporting a rumor that the proposed sequel film King Conan: Crown of Iron has derailed.
Citing anonymous sources, the site reported that Conan Properties Inc., which owns the rights to the Conan franchise, has not renewed the film option held by Warner Brothers and producers Larry and Andy Wachowski. Warner and the Wachowskis (The Matrix) were developing the film with writer/director John Milius and star Arnold Schwarzenegger.
But, according to the sources, the site reported that Conan Properties was
frustrated with the film's slow development process. The Wachowskis were reportedly not going to start work on the film until after they've completed the upcoming two sequels to The Matrix.
With Milius and Schwarzenegger no longer involved, Conan Properties wants to set up Conan at another studio, with the hopes of casting a younger star and producing a cheaper film, the site reported.
Disaster Inspired Intacto
panish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, director of the upcoming supernatural film Intacto, told SCI FI Wire that his first full-length feature film was inspired by a catastrophic plane crash in his hometown of Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
"When I was 9 years old, I watched, not directly, but I was witness to an air crash," Fresnadillo said in an interview. "[It was] the biggest ever. Five hundred seventy-six people died in that air crash. And that afternoon I was with my family, and the car broke down in the airport just in the moment of the crash. And that thing probably impressed in my mind the story about survivors and about the people who take the plane and the people that didn't take the plane."
The Spanish-language Intacto follows five characters whom Fresnadillo refers to as "luck vampires." These individuals possess the ability to steal people's luck just by touching them. They then go about testing their borrowed fortune in a series of bizarre underground games. The idea for the contests, Fresnadillo said, stemmed from his country's fascination with gambling. "Spain is a country really obsessed with luck," he said. "Because a lot of people play in the lottery, a lot of people play in bets on sports, and it's a kind of obsession."
In the film, the theme of luck is intertwined with the recurring emotions of guilt and loss, but most important for the filmmaker, it's connected to love. "We discovered in the [writing] process that relation between love and luck," he said. "Both things probably you can't control, but if you follow your heart, maybe it's a key to open luck's gate. So I think that Intacto is about that, about honesty or truth or your heart, things that probably could manage to get you luck, to get a good fortune." Fernadillo added, "Intacto means 'intact.' That's when somebody [survives an] air crash without any wounds, without any scars. And at the same time, it means that nobody [can] touch you. You're pure." Intacto opens in New York on Dec. 13 and is scheduled for limited release on Jan. 3, 2003.
Cusack Moves To Stepford
oan Cusack has joined the cast of Paramount Pictures' remake of The Stepford Wives, produced by Scott Rudin, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Frank Oz is directing the remake of the 1975 SF thriller, with Nicole Kidman taking on the starring role originally played by Katharine Ross. The new Stepford, which is being recast as a black comedy, is set to begin production in June.
Cusack will play Bobbie Markowitz, a hostile, sarcastic, cranky woman who is out of shape and enjoys drinking, but ends up being transformed into a robot. Paul Rudnick wrote the update to Stepford, which is based on Ira Levin's novel of the same name.
McMahon Leaving Charmed
ulian McMahon, who has played Phoebe's husband, Cole, on The WB's Charmed, is leaving the series, TV Guide Online reported.
"The 100th episode [airing Jan. 19, 2003,] is Julian's last episode," executive producer Brad Kern told the site. "It's time to free up Alyssa Milano's [Phoebe] character, and Julian has expressed interest in exploring other creative opportunities. I'll miss him terribly, personally and professionally."
"It is bittersweet to celebrate the fact that I'm dying!" McMahon told the site with a laugh. "But I need to push my boundaries a bit creatively, so I called up Brad and asked if I could get off the show. He's been wonderful in regard to everything with the exit and demise of my character."
Kern added that he expects the supernatural series will be renewed for a sixth season. Charmed airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
WB Orders More Sabrina
he WB has ordered three more original episodes of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, completing a full 22-episode order for the show's seventh season, Variety reported.
The network had previously ordered six episodes over the original 13, the trade paper reported.
The full-season pickup puts to rest for now rumors that the network would cancel the show in the middle of the current season. Sabrina posted its best ratings of the season on Nov. 8, the trade paper reported.
Spyglass Eyes Invisible
pyglass Entertainment is developing an English-language remake of the Swedish supernatural thriller film The Invisible, to be written by Mick Davis, Variety reported.
Davis wrote the original film in English, which was then translated into Swedish and directed by Joel Bergvall and Simon Sandquist. No director is yet attached to the remake, the trade paper reported.
The Invisible tells the story of two teenagers who are invisible to others, literally and figuratively, the trade paper reported. The producers are Neal Edelstein and Mike Macari (The Ring).
Briefly Noted
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A Los Angeles judge has refused to throw out a lawsuit brought last year by the writer and director of The Exorcist, who allege they were denied profits from a 2000 reissue of the 1973 hit horror film, Variety reported. The lawsuit, filed by writer William Peter Blatty and director William Friedkin, accuses Warner Brothers Turner Network Television and Turner Broadcasting System of hiding revenue to avoid paying them a full share.
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The SyFy Portal Web site reported that NBC has dropped plans for a new TV movie based on the 1960s SF series Lost in Space.
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Thomas E. Fuller, SF writer and dramatist, died Nov. 21 of a heart attack in Duluth, Ga., at the age of 54, the Locus Online Web site reported. Fuller was the head writer for the Atlanta Radio Theatre Co., and among his fiction were 14 young-adult novels co-written with Brad Strickland, including eight in the Wishbone mystery series.
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The official Web site for The Lord of the Rings has been updated with a new poster for The Two Towers and a feature on visual effects. A second Rings film, The Two Towers opens Dec. 18.
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Ethan Hawke has signed on for a one-episode guest shot on ABC's Alias, expected to air in January, Variety reported. Hawke will play an undercover CIA agent who finds himself in need of rescue by star Jennifer Garner's Sydney when his cover is blown.
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Monsters, Inc. won the award for best feature film at this year's BAFTA Children's Film and Television Awards, held at London's Park Lane Hilton Nov. 24, Variety reported.
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Online magazine scifidimensions announced that Galaxy Press, publisher of the fiction works of Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, has signed on to sponsor the Southeastern Science Fiction Achievement Award. Galaxy joins fellow sponsors Biting Dog Press and Atlanta-based Classic Comics.
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Artisan is developing a second Veggie Tales animated movie, The Bob and Larry Movie, to be produced by Big Idea and dealing with the adventures of Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber, Variety reported. The sequel is aimed at a 2005 theatrical release.
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Patrick Stewart, star of the upcoming Star Trek: Nemesis movie, will host a "Villain" marathon of Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes on TNN, Dec. 10-13, from 8 p.m to midnight ET/PT.
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MGM has posted a new trailer for its upcoming supernatural martial-arts film Bulletproof Monk, the Comics2Film Web site reported.
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Showtime has ordered the supernatural comedy series Dead Like Me for next year, the Zap2it Web site reported. The show is a dark comedy about a young woman nicknamed George (Ellen Muth) who dies when she's hit on the head by a piece of debris from the MIR space station and discovers that she has a job after death as a reaper, someone who escorts souls into the afterlife.
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Kate Beckinsale is joining Hugh Jackman in the cast of the upcoming vampire movie Van Helsing, to be directed by Stephen Sommers (The Mummy), Variety reported. Beckinsale will play Anna, daughter of a family committed to the pursuit of Dracula.
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