New Tolkien Book Found
new, previously unpublished book by Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien was discovered by accident in a box at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England, the News.com.au Web site reported.
The yellowing 2,000-page handwritten manuscript contains Tolkien's translation and appraisal of the epic Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, which is thought to have inspired The Lord of the Rings, the news site reported.
Michael Drout, an assistant professor of English at Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., found the Tolkien material by accident in a box of papers while researching Anglo-Saxon scholarship at the Bodleian, the news site reported. Tolkien's translation of Beowulf and his line-by-line interpretation of its meaning will be published next summer.
Le Guin Named Grand Master
rsula K. Le Guin, the legendary SF author of The Dispossessed, The Left Hand of Darkness and the Earthsea tales, was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, the SFWA official Web site announced.
The SFWA board of directors made the decision in conjunction with the living past presidents of SFWA, the site reported. Le Guin will receive her award during the Nebula Awards weekend in Philadelphia April 18-20, 2003.
Le Guin's career spans 40 years, beginning with the publication of "April in Paris" in Fantastic (1962), and includes 17 novels and numerous shorter works, as well as many poems and critical essays, the site reported. Her work has won the PEN/Malamud Award for short fiction, the James Tiptree Jr. Award and the Sturgeon, as well as multiple Nebula and Hugo awards, among others.
Le Guin is the 20th writer recognized by SFWA as a Grand Master. She joins Robert A. Heinlein (1974), Jack Williamson (1975), Clifford D. Simak (1976), L. Sprague de Camp (1978), Fritz Leiber (1981), Andre Norton (1983), Arthur C. Clarke (1985), Isaac Asimov (1986), Alfred Bester (1987), Ray Bradbury (1988), Lester del Rey (1990), Frederik Pohl (1992), Damon Knight (1994), A.E. van Vogt (1995), Jack Vance (1996), Poul Anderson (1997), Hal Clement (1998), Brian Aldiss (1999) and Philip Jose Farmer (2000).
Dune Sequel Debut Set
he SCI FI Channel announced that its upcoming original miniseries sequel Frank Herbert's Children of Dune will premiere at 9 p.m. ET/PT March 16.
The six-hour, three-night series follows up the channel's Emmy-Award-winning miniseries Frank Herbert's Dune and is based on the second and third books in Herbert's heralded Dune Chronicles books.
Children of Dune features many of the original cast and crew from the first miniseries, with Susan Sarandon joining the ensemble in her career debut as a villain, the network announced. The sequel continues the story of the Atreides family 12 years after Paul Muad'Dib (Alec Newman) freed Dune from the control of the evil House Harkonnen and brought water to the desert planet.
The cast includes Daniela Amavia, Edward Atterton, Steven Berkoff, Jessica Brooks, Julie Cox, Barbara Kodetova, Alice Krige, James McAvoy, Ian McNeice, P.H. Moriarty and Sarandon as Princess Wensicia. John Harrison wrote the miniseries, and Greg Yaitanes directed. Richard Rubinstein executive produced. Children of Dune is a New Amsterdam Entertainment Inc. production, in association with Blixa Film Produktion GmbH & Co. KG and Touchstone Television Productions.
Buffy Fans Party Again
ans of UPN's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its WB spinoff, Angel, will gather for a sixth and last time to party and raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation in Los Angeles in February.
The sixth annual Buffy the Vampire Slayer Posting Board Party takes place at the American Legion Hall in Hollywood on Feb. 15 and is expected to raise several thousand dollars for the charity, organizers said.
Organized by fans of the Buffy Internet posting board, the party has become an annual event for fans, who travel from as far away as the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Cast and crew members have attended the charity fund-raiser in the past. Since 1998, fans, sponsors, cast and crew have raised more than $50,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Greater Los Angeles.
Chabon Done With Spidey 2?
ulitzer-Prize-winning author Michael Chabon told the Countingdown.com Web site that his screenplay for the upcoming sequel film The Amazing Spider-Man has been given to another writer.
"I turned in my draft of the script to Sony," Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay) told the site. "I thought it more or less rocked."
But, Chabon added, "Alas, not everyone involved with the project, apparently, agreed with my own unbiased assessment. As far as I know it has now been handed, along with the two prior drafts, to a well-known and well-regarded script doctor, Alvin Sargent, who is married to the film's producer, Laura Ziskin. What he does with it all is a mystery that I'm as anxious as you to see revealed."
Episode III Starts Up
tar Wars: Episode III producer Rick McCallum told the Star Wars Insider magazine that preproduction on the third and final prequel film is starting, according to a report on the TheForce.net Web site.
"We have a production art department in London that's started, feverishly," McCallum told the magazine. "We have a costume department that starts next week in Sydney, and then the production art department moves to Sydney in the beginning of 2003. So all systems are go."
McCallum added, "We start our basic construction of the things that are needed in each department [in Australia]. In about two weeks, we'll have our new set director, Richard Roberts, come into Sydney to scout locations and service companies. This is just the beginning of the preproduction on the film." The producer said that the conceptual art department at Skywalker Ranch in California is in full swing, with about 20 artists at work on Episode III. As of November 2002, they'd already created 1,500 illustrations, McCallum said. "We'll reach 10,000 before we start shooting."
As for the production itself, "We won't have a completely new [digital] camera," McCallum said. "We'll have a much more sophisticated, hot-rodded camera. It's much more sophisticated now, with better resolution, better picture quality and color imagery."
Oscar Loves Lucas F/X
eorge Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound dominated the list of effects companies in contention for Oscar nominations in the areas of visual effects and sound editing, Variety reported.
ILM was responsible for four of the seven films on the Motion Picture Academy's list for best visual effects with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Men in Black II, Minority Report and Star Wars: Episode II. The films will compete in February against Spider-Man, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and XXX for three Oscar nomination slots, the trade paper reported.
Skywalker Sound received three nods in the area of sound editing for Potter, Rings and Report. Among the other selections were Spider-Man and XXX. Academy voters will choose the three finalists in both categories based on reels compiled by each film's production team. The final nominations will be announced on Feb. 11.
Hitchhiker's Picked Up?
ccording to a report posted on the Ain't It Cool Web site, Jane Belson, wife of the late Douglas Adams, told a BBC radio program that a film version of her husband's widely popular Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book series has been given the green light.
A radio listener in the U.K. told the site that Belson said screenwriter Karey Kirkpatrick (Chicken Run) was working on the script with Adams before his death and has been receiving positive reponses from producers. Belson did not confirm rumors that Austin Powers director Jay Roach is set to direct.
Oldman Mulls Potter III
ary Oldman is in talks to join the cast of the upcoming Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban sequel film for director Alfonso Cuaron and Warner Brothers, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The third installment in the studio's hit franchise, based on author J.K. Rowling's book series, will begin production Feb. 17, the trade paper reported.
Oldman would play the wizard Sirius Black, the escaped prisoner of Azkaban, who is later revealed to be Harry Potter's godfather, the trade paper reported. Adapted by Steven Kloves, Azkaban is being produced by Chris Columbus, David Heyman and Mark Radcliffe. Michael Barnathan and Callum McDougall are executive producing.
Berry, Cruz Join Gothika
scar winner Halle Berry will reunite with her Swordfish producer Joel Silver to make Warner Brothers' supernatural thriller film Gothika, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Penelope Cruz (Vanilla Sky) will also star in the movie, which will be produced under Silver and Robert Zemeckis' Dark Castle banner, the trade paper reported. No director is yet on board. Production aims to begin in March, for a fall release.
The casting of Berry and Cruz in Gothika marks the genre label's fourth and highest-profile picture to date, after Ghost Ship, 13 Ghosts and House on Haunted Hill, the trade paper reported.
Written by Sebastian Gutierrez, Gothika centers on a female psychiatrist (Berry) who wakes up as a patient in the asylum for the criminally insane where she works and finds that she is being charged with a murder she has no memory of committing. As she wrestles to regain her memory, she finds that she is the pawn of a vengeful spirit. Cruz will play Chloe, a charismatic yet deranged patient at the facility, the trade paper reported.
Superman Rewrite Done?
he Superman: Last Son of Krypton fan Web site reported that Alias creator J.J. Abrams has completed his rewrite of the script for the upcoming fifth Superman movie.
The site quoted an anonymous representative of Abrams saying "He's pretty much done with his rewrite and is the only writer on it. They are nailing down who the actor to play Superman will be."
Brett Ratner is reportedly directing the film.
Lee Settlement Ready
federal court judge will be asked next month to approve a proposed settlement of a lawsuit filed on behalf of shareholders of defunct Stan Lee Media Inc., the Associated Press reported.
People who bought shares of the company between Aug. 23, 1999, and Dec. 18, 2000, have until Feb. 3 to submit claims.
Terms of the settlement include repayment to shareholders of $1.82 million, which came from insurance. The lawsuit would also be dismissed and attorney fees paid, the wire service reported.
The suit, filed in February 2001, claimed that officers of the company, which operated an Internet site featuring comic characters created by Stan Lee, made false and misleading statements, which artificially inflated the value of the stock. Three company co-founders and a Wall Street analyst were indicted in 2001 on federal charges they manipulated the company's stock and cost investors more than $25 million. Last December, two former executives were convicted of federal fraud charges for writing checks from empty bank accounts, costing the company and two financial institutions more than $10 million. Spider-Man co-creator Lee was not charged in any of the schemes, the AP reported.
Reeve Revisits Smallville
hristopher Reeve, star of the original Superman movie, will make a guest appearance on The WB's Superman series, Smallville, on Feb. 25, Variety reported.
Reeve, who is reportedly a fan of the show, will play Dr. Swann, a scientist who offers guidance to the young Clark Kent, played by Tom Welling, the trade paper reported.
Reeve, who has been paralyzed from the neck down since a 1995 horseback-riding accident, remains best known for starring in 1978's Superman and its three sequels, the trade paper reported. Smallville producers will shoot the scene with Reeve and Welling at the end of next week in New York, to accommodate Reeve. The Warner Brothers TV/Tollin-Robbins Productions series is normally filmed in Vancouver, B.C.
Smallville executive producer Al Gough told Variety that he and fellow producer Miles Millar have been hoping to bring Reeve onto the show for some time. "When we created the show, Miles and I said the first [Superman] movie was our gold standard," Gough said. "In the back of our heads, we wanted to get Chris to do the show. We discovered he was a big fan of the show."
SCI FI Adapts Marvel Series
he SCI FI Channel is developing Brother Voodoo and 1000 Days, based on two Marvel Comics series, in a deal with production company Reveille and Marvel, the network announced.
Both projects will be executive produced by Reveille head Ben Silverman, Marvel Studios chief executive Avi Arad and Rick Ungar, president of Marvel Characters Group. Universal Television Group owns a stake in Reveille.
Brother Voodoo will be a live-action two-hour movie/backdoor pilot about the adventures of Jericho Drumm, a doctor and voodoo priest. After his brother is killed, Drumm returns to his childhood home in New Orleans, where he is drawn back into the dark subculture of black magic. Hans Rodionoff (Clive Barker's Saint Sinner) will write the screenplay.
1000 Days is based on Marvel's Strikeforce: Morituri and will be a live-action two-hour backdoor pilot movie from writers Matt Holloway and Art Marcum. Set in the near future, 1000 Days follows a group of soldiers who gain enhanced abilities, but only for a limited time: They die 1,000 days after joining the force. Holloway and Marcum will executive produce the series.
Universal Television Group and SCI FI are both owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Activision Still Marvel-ous
ctivision has announced that it has extended its agreement with Marvel Comics for exclusive rights to the X-Men, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and Iron Man properties through 2009, the GameSpot Web site reported.
The agreement also gives Activision the rights to develop games based on movies featuring characters from each property, according to the site.
An X-Men game, X2: Wolverine's Revenge, based on the upcoming X2 film, is currently in the works. Also on the development slate are games based the comic books Iron Man and Fantastic Four.
GameCube Lair Shipping
ame publisher Encore announced that it is ready to ship Dragon's Lair 3D—Return to the Lair for the Nintendo GameCube, a new update of the classic Dragon's Lair arcade game.
The game will carry a suggested retail price of about $50. PC and Xbox versions were released last year.
Dragon's Lair 3D follows the basic storyline of the arcade classic: Dirk the Daring, a goofy but courageous knight, is on a mission to rescue Princess Daphne, who has been kidnapped by the evil dragon Singe and hidden in the wizard Mordroc's castle. The game stays true to the design of the 1980s arcade classic, but is seven times the size of the original, and includes several new plot twists, the company announced.
Online Myst Sequel Due
bi Soft Entertainment and Cyan Worlds announced the development of Uru: Online Ages Beyond Myst, an online adventure game that follows up the companies' hit Myst and Riven games.
Uru will let players explore and interact with meticulously crafted environments in, around and beyond the newly discovered underground D'ni empire that predates human civilization, the companies said. Potential beta testers can apply online.
"Uru is an ancient word, the earliest word for city," Rand Miller, founder of Cyan Worlds, said in a statement. "It is rooted in the idea of a gathering of people, which is precisely what Uru will foster. We've been working for almost five years developing the cutting-edge technology, detailed design and breathtaking graphics that allow us to build real-time online worlds that go beyond Myst."
Thunderbirds Taking Off
live-action movie based on the cult 1960s British marionette TV show Thunderbirds has received a green light for production, according to a report in the British newspaper The Guardian.
Working Title's Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner are producing the film, which is envisioned as the start of a franchise, the newspaper reported.
The film is based on Gerry Anderson's series about astronaut-turned-billionaire Jeff Tracy, who runs International Rescue from a South Sea island with his sons Scott, Virgil, Alan, Gordon and John and the inventor Brains. The film has yet to be cast, though model-turned-actor Sophie Dahl is being mentioned as a possible Lady Penelope, the newspaper reported. The focus of the film will be Alan, 15, the youngest of the Tracy clan.
Star Trek veteran Jonathan Frakes will direct. The film is slated to begin production in March at Pinewood Studios in London, the newspaper reported.
Hanks Unfreezes Polar
om Hanks told Cinescape Online that his upcoming computer-animated movie, The Polar Express, will be "odder and more miraculous than miracles."
Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future) will direct the movie, which is based on Chris Van Allsburg's best-selling children's book.
"I don't know how it's going to work, exactly," Hanks told the site. "Do you know the children's book, Chris Van Allsburg, The Polar Express? The pictures are it. It's a 35-page picture book, half of that is text. It's about a quest, it's about a journey, it's about children. 'What does Christmas mean?' I will play the Conductor and maybe 19 other roles. I don't know how Bob is doing it exactly. Bob gets his teeth into something and spins around like a dervish, and we all try to hang on."
Scooby 2 Heads North?
he Coming Attractions Web site reported a rumor that a deal has been struck to film the sequel to Scooby-Doo in Vancouver, B.C., later this year.
Citing anonymous sources, the site added that the production has been having trouble finding sufficient studio space because of the influx of feature productions shooting in the city, including The Chronicles of Riddick; I, Robot; and Paycheck.
Scooby-Doo 2 will reportedly require four months of preproduction work.
Fox High On Life
ccording to the Hollywood Reporter, Fox has ordered a pilot for the posthumously narrated drama Still Life from 20th Century Fox TV.
The trade paper describes the script by Kip Koenig as a "family drama told from the point of view of a 22-year-old son who has recently died."
The project is one of the first to come out of development for the fall TV season. It will be produced by Koenig along with Neal Moritz, Marty Adelstein and Dawn Parouse.
Online Critics Love Towers
he Online Film Critics Society named The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers its choice for best picture of 2002.
The OFCS Awards for 2002 were announced on Jan. 6. The OFCS is composed of the world's premier Internet film critics. A list of the society's genre film choices follows.
Best Picture
•The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Best Director
•Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Best Supporting Actress
•Samantha Morton, Minority Report
Best Ensemble
•The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Best Visual Effects
•Jim Rygiel, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Best Editing
•D. Michael Horton and Jabez Olssen, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Best Sound
•Ethan Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Best Animated Feature
•Spirited Away
eBook Awards Announced
ictionwise announced its annual awards for the top-selling and highest-rated eBooks and authors for 2002.
Best-selling SF author Lois McMaster Bujold is Fictionwise's 2002 eBook Author of the Year. The award is based on sales and member ratings of eBooks sold at Fictionwise in 2002, the Web site announced. Authors David Weber and Mike Resnick were a close second and third respectively. Resnick was Fictionwise's 2001 Author of the Year.
Bujold's novel The Vor Game was also named eBook of the Year by the site. Bujold's works represented five of the 10 top-selling eBooks and six of the top 10 highest-rated eBooks, based on ratings submitted by members of the site.
The complete top 10 lists were as follows:
Top-Selling eBooks of 2002:
1. The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold
2. The Shiva Option by David Weber
3. The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold
4. Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
5. The Borders of Infinity by Lois McMaster Bujold
6. Robot Visions by Isaac Asimov
7. The Dream [first in the Dream Series] by Isaac Asimov
8. Robot Dreams by Isaac Asimov
9. Spaceships by Michael A. Burstein
10. Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold
Highest-Rated eBooks of 2002:
1. Emperor and Clown by Dave Duncan
2. Magic Casement [book one of A Man of His Word] by Dave Duncan
3. White Dragon [volume three of The Dragonriders of Pern] by Anne McCaffrey
4. The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
5. The Borders of Infinity by Lois McMaster Bujold
6. Dragonflight [volume one of The Dragonriders of Pern] by Anne McCaffrey
7. Brothers in Arms by Lois McMaster Bujold
8. The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold
9. Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
10. The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold
F/X Tool Gets Oscar
he Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that it will present three Oscars for scientific and technical achievement, including one for a tool used to produce visual effects for such films as Spider-Man and Ice Age, the Zap2it Web site reported.
Software developer Alias/Wavefront will receive an Oscar for Maya, a 3-D animation, modeling and rendering production tool, which allows artists to create computer-generated versions of anything from character models to sets and backdrops that are indistinguishable from live-action film footage, the site reported.
The customizable software has been used to some degree on nearly every feature using 3-D computer-generated images and was employed extensively in Spider-Man, Ice Age, Hollow Man and The Perfect Storm.
PKD Nominees Announced
ominees were announced for the 2002 Philip K. Dick Award, presented annually for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States.
The award is sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society, and the award ceremony is sponsored by the NorthWest Science Fiction Society. First prize and any special citations will be announced on April 18 at Norwescon 26 in Seattle. A list of nominees follows.
•The Mount by Carol Emshwiller
•Report to the Men's Club by Carol Emshwiller
•Maximum Ice by Kay Kenyon
•Warchild by Karin Lowachee
•The Scar by China Mieville
•Leviathan Three, Jeff VanderMeer and Forrest Aguirre, eds.
•Empire of Bones by Liz Williams
Lilo Grabs Most Annie Nods
he animated SF movie Lilo & Stitch received 10 Annie Award nominations from the ASIFA-Hollywood, the International Animated Film Society, Variety reported.
Lilo & Stitch got nods for best animated theatrical feature, directing, writing and production design, as well as multiple nominations in effects animation.
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and Monsters, Inc. racked up eight nominations apiece, including animated theatrical feature, the trade paper reported. Ice Age and Spirited Away were also nominated for best feature.
The Annie Awards honor animated feature films, TV, commercials, home video, electronic media and shorts. The awards will be presented at a black-tie awards ceremony Feb. 1 at the Alex Theater in Glendale, Calif., the trade paper reported. A full list of nominees follows.
Animated Home Video Production
•Land Before Time: Journey to Big Water
•Rolie Polie Olie: The Great Defender of Fun
•VeggieTales: The Star of Christmas
Animated Short Subject
•Night of the Living Doo
•The Groovenians
•The Tortoise and the Hare
Animated Television Commercial
•Arrow, Lugz Shoes
•Catch, AT&T
•Courage, Cartoon Network
•Don't Mess, Dodge
•Every Move You Make, Sinai Hospital
Animated Television Production
•Disney's Kim Possible
•The Flintstones on the Rocks
•Futurama
•Invader Zim
•The Simpsons
Animated Television Production Produced for Children
•Disney's Kim Possible
•The Proud Family
•Rocket Power
•Rolie Polie Olie
•Stanley
Animated Theatrical Feature
•Ice Age
•Lilo & Stitch
•Miyazaki's Spirited Away
•Monsters, Inc.
•Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
Character Animation
•John Kahrs, Monsters, Inc.
•Alex Kupershmidt, Lilo & Stitch
•Sergio Pablos, Treasure Planet
•Doug Sweetland, Monsters, Inc.
•Mike Thurmeier, Ice Age
Character Design in an Animated Feature Production
•Peter de Seve, Ice Age
•Peter de Seve, Treasure Planet
•Carlos Grangel, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
•Chris Sanders, Lilo & Stitch
•Ricky Vega Nierva, Monsters, Inc.
Character Design in an Animated Television Production
•Alex Kirwan, Time Squad, "Mission JX4435: Clown Squad"
•Dave Kupczyk, Ozzy & Drix
•Lynne Naylor-Reccardi, Samurai Jack, "Episode VI"
•Paul Rudish, Powerpuff Girls, "Members Only"
•Shannon Tindle, The Proud Family, "Forbidden Date"
Directing in an Animated Feature Production
•Ron Clements, John Musker, Treasure Planet
•Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders, Lilo & Stitch
•Pete Docter, Lee Unkrich, David Silverman, Monsters, Inc.
•Hayao Miyazaki, Miyazaki's Spirited Away
•Chris Wedge (director), Carlos Saldanha (co-director), Ice Age
Directing in an Animated Television Production
•Dave Chlystek, Static Shock, "The Big Leagues"
•Rich Moore, Futurama, "Roswell That Ends Well"
•Chris Roman, Disney's Fillmore, "To Mar a Stall"
•Bruce W. Smith, The Proud Family, "A Hero for Halloween"
•Guy Vasilovitch, Oh Yeah! Cartoons, "The Boy Who Cried Alien"
Effects Animation
•Robert Bennett, Lilo & Stitch
•Yancy Lindquist, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
•Jamie Lloyd, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
•Kee Nam Suong, Treasure Planet
•Garrett Wren, Lilo & Stitch
Music in an Animated Feature Production
•Joe Hisaishi, Miyazaki's Spirited Away
•Joel McNeely (score), Jonatha Brooke (songwriter, "I'll Try"), They Might Be Giants (song, "So To Be One of Us"), Return to Neverland
•David Newman, Ice Age
•Randy Newman, Monsters, Inc.
•Alan Silvestri, Mark Keali'i Ho'omalu (score and songwriters), Lilo & Stitch
Music in an Animated Television Production
•Guy Moon (composer), Butch Hartman and Steve Marmel (lyricists), The Fairly Odd Parents
•Van Dyke Parks, Kevin Kiner, Grant Geissman, Harold and the Purple Crayon, "Blame It on the Rain"
•James L. Venable, Samurai Jack, "Episode I"
Production Design in an Animated Feature Production
•Luc Desmarchelier, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
•Harley Jessup, Monsters, Inc.
•Brian McEntee, Ice Age
•Steven Olds, Treasure Planet
•Rick Sluiter, Lilo & Stitch
Production Design in an Animated Television Production
•Alan Bodner, Disney's Kim Possible
•Dan Krall and Scott Wills, Samurai Jack, "Episode I"
•Rosalina Tchouchev, The Zeta Project
•Dave Wasson, Time Squad, "Mission L4439: Keepin' It Real With Sitting Bull"
Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production
•Ronnie Del Carmen, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
•Larry Leker, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
•Simon Wells, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
Storyboarding in an Animated Television Production
•Bryan Andrews, Samurai Jack, "Episode VII"
•Todd Britton, Balto 2: Wolf Quest
•Seung Eun Kim, Jackie Chan Adventures, "Queen of the Shadowkhan"
Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production
•Corey Burton as the voice of Captain Hook, Disney's Return To Neverland
•Daveigh Chase as the voice of Lilo, Lilo & Stitch
•Tim Hodge as the voice of Khalil, Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie
•Brian Murray as the voice of John Silver, Treasure Planet
•Emma Thompson as the voice of Captain Amelia, Treasure Planet
•Corey Burton as the voice of Ludwig Von Drake, Disney's House of Mouse
•Mike McDonald as the voice of Rip, The Ripping Friends
Writing in an Animated Feature Production
•Michael Berg, Michael J. Wilson, Peter Ackerman, Ice Age
•Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders, Lilo & Stitch
•Hayao Miyazaki, Miyazaki's Spirited Away
•Andrew Stanton, Daniel Gerson, Monsters, Inc.
Writing in an Animated Television Production
•Kit Boss, King of the Hill, "Man Without a Country Club"
•Norm Hiscock, King of the Hill, "Bobby Goes Nuts"
•James E. West II, T. Smith III, The Proud Family, "I Had A Dream"
June Foray Award
•Gerry Miller
Winsor McCay Award
•Gene Hazelton, Floyd Norman, Robert and Richard Sherman
Special Achievement Annie
•Animated film producer Lou Scheimer
Screamfest Scares Up Entries
creamfest, a Los Angeles film festival honoring independent horror films, has announced its call for entries for 2003.
Now in its third year, the festival is currently accepting submissions in the areas of horror feature, short, super-short (under 10 minutes), comedy, documentary, animation and student films. Scripts can also be entered for consideration.
Eligible films must be completed after Jan. 1, 2003. The deadline for entry is July 15. Winners will receive a Crystal Skull award as well as prizes ranging from screenwriting software to equipment rental packages. The top films will be screened at the festival in Los Angeles from Oct. 11 to Oct. 19.
Tremors Due In March
he SCI FI Channel announced that its original show Tremors: The Series will debut at 8 p.m. ET/PT March 28 as part of the network's new SCI FI Fridays lineup.
Tremors: The Series will be followed at 9 p.m. by two half-hour, back-to-back episodes of the new original hidden-camera series Scare Tactics, hosted by Shannen Doherty.
Based on the popular Tremors movies, Tremors: The Series centers on the residents and creatures of Perfection, Nev., including survivalist Burt Gummer (Michael Gross), who keeps the town safe from Graboids, Shriekers, AssBlasters and the other monsters he's sure the government's been developing in their countless secret labs across the country. Gummer and his quirky neighbors share their sleepy desert town with El Blanco, a Graboid protected by the government as an endangered species.
Tremors: The Series is produced in association with Big Productions Inc. and Stampede Entertainment exclusively for SCI FI Channel and is distributed by USA Cable Entertainment. The show co-stars Victor Browne, Gladise Jimenez, Marcia Strassman, Lela Lee and Dean Norris. David Israel, Brent Maddock, S.S. Wilson and Nancy Roberts serve as executive producers.
It's Open Season For Sony
ony Pictures Animation has acquired the treatment Open Season from cartoonist Steve Moore and producer John Carls to turn it into a computer-animated fantasy film, Variety reported.
Open Season looks at what happens in the wild when the tables are turned and the hunters become the hunted, the trade paper reported.
Besides Open Season, Sony Pictures Animation in October bought the pitch Shangri-La from The Fast and the Furious scribe Gary Scott Thompson.
Moore created the comic strip In the Bleachers in 1985 while working as an editor at The Maui News in Hawaii. The cartoon is now distributed by Universal Press Syndicate to more than 200 newspapers across the country.
Chrome Shines For U.S.
he GameSpot Web site reported that Canadian game publisher Strategy First has signed a deal to publish Chrome, an SF first-person action PC game under development by Poland-based developer Techland, in North America.
The publishing deal also includes a number of Techland's other titles, including Xpand Rally and a group of offbeat budget kids' games such as Pet Soccer, Pet Racer and Indiana Jack, the site reported.
Chrome is set in a distant star system torn apart by a war over valuable mineral deposits. Players assume the role of Logan, an interstellar bounty hunter caught in the midst of the conflict. Chrome is expected to be the publisher's centerpiece at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles in May, the site reported.
Pirate Monk Slips Out
irated DVDs of MGM's upcoming supernatural martial-arts film Bulletproof Monk have surfaced in Hong Kong and Malaysia more than four months before the film's official release in the region, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Sources told the trade paper that the pirate DVDs are believed to have been manufactured in Malaysia and added that the film was apparently recorded illicitly during a test screening in the United States. To date, no screenings of the film have taken place in Hong Kong or Malaysia.
The recording, according to sources, is of inferior quality, with the shadows of heads in front of the camera and the sound of audience laughter and noise. A segment at the start of the movie is also believed to be missing, the trade paper reported.
Bulletproof Monk stars Chow Yun-fat and is produced by John Woo. The movie is in post-production, with some reshoots still scheduled.
Goldblum Open To Jurassic IV
eff Goldblum told the Spanish magazine Cinemania that Steven Spielberg asked him to remain open to reprising the role of Ian Malcolm in a proposed fourth Jurassic Park movie, according to a report on the Dark Horizons Web site.
"Steven gave me strict instructions to stay available, because it's not entirely impossible that the services of my character will be required," Goldblum told the magazine. "I said what any sane actor would say to Steven: 'Yes, Mr. Spielberg. The second you need me to be measured for shoe size, don't hesitate to call, I'll be there.'"
Goldblum was less committal about any proposed sequel to his hit film Independence Day. "I'd prefer to wait until I see the completed script first, but I don't know, I really don't," he said. "I liked the first one immensely, but I can't say if I'd do a sequel yet. It would depend on a number of factors. I don't kind of know what direction they plan on taking with it."
Fans Trek To Exeter
rothers and aspiring filmmakers Jimm and Joshua Johnson spent seven years and their own money to produce an Internet movie, Starship Exeter: The Savage Empire, that eerily mimics the look and feel of an episode of the original Star Trek series, according to a report on the Pulse24 Web site.
Set in the universe of the original Trek, the short film takes place on the Exeter, a Starfleet vessel commanded by Capt. John Garrovick (James Culhane), and deals with a plague, the Andorians and the Klingons.
"The reason why we went with the Star Trek thing was that we thought that with the budget we had, that would be a project that we could fulfill that might actually look decent once it was done, because we were only trying to live up to the 1960s production," Joshua Johnson told Pulse24. The brothers reportedly spent $150 a month over the seven years to make the film, which features actors and crew who donated their time.
Eugene Roddenberry, son of Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, contacted Jimm Johnson before the movie was finished, the site added. "He seemed most interested in letting us know that he supported our project, and he wanted to know if we would finish it by the date that we had planned on finishing it, and if we weren't going to be able to that, he would be able to assist us in some way in having it done by that day," Joshua said. They haven't heard from him since then.
Beyond Isn't Renewed
ribune Broadcasting stations will not order a second season of Beyond With James Van Praagh because of sluggish ratings, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The syndicated TV show from Tribune Entertainment ran for one season.
Ratings for the daytime show, in which self-styled psychic Van Praagh supposedly communed with the spirits of the departed, did not meet the stations' expectations, the trade paper reported.
North Korea Assails Die
orth Korea again assailed the new James Bond film, Die Another Day, saying that it proves the United States' hostile intentions toward the country, the Reuters news service reported.
The North Korean government quoted a little-known group called the Solidarity of Youth and Students for Implementing the June 15 South-North Joint Declaration in saying the movie insulted the insular communist nation, the wire service reported.
"The film represents the real intention of the U.S. keen on war as it considers the North as part of an 'axis of evil,' fans up division and confrontation between the South and the North and insults and makes mockery of the Korean nation," the country's official KCNA news agency quoted the group as saying, according to Reuters. "If the U.S. continues showing the movie despising the Korean nation, all the people will turn out in a fiercer anti-U.S. struggle."
The 20th Bond film, starring Pierce Brosnan, features scenes set in North Korea and a villainous North Korean officer.
DSV Co-Star Found Dead
body found in a burning Hollywood Hills mansion on New Year's Day was identified as that of veteran film and TV character actor Royce Applegate, a co-star of the SF series SeaQuest DSV, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Applegate, 64, was found dead after flames swept through the three-story home atop the Hollywood Hills, the newspaper reported. The cause was under investigation.
Applegate's entertainment career spanned more than 30 years, the newspaper reported. He played Chief Manilow Crocker in the early 1990s TV series SeaQuest DSV, which followed a crew trying to keep underwater peace as mankind colonized the oceans. He also made guest appearances on various TV shows such as Charlie's Angels, Dallas, Little House on the Prairie and Home Improvement. Applegate also appeared in films, including the fantasy Splash.
Briefly Noted
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A new Web site has gone up for the straight-to-video SF sequel film Cube 2: Hypercube, which comes out in May.
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A new trailer has gone live for the upcoming Daredevil movie, which opens Feb. 14. The Comics Continuum Web site, meanwhile, has posted new images, a soundtrack listing and details about action figures for the film.
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Dark Horizons reported that the film version of Michael Crichton's SF novel Timeline has been pushed back to late summer or fall from its original April release.
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Lucy Lawless told New Zealand radio station 91ZM that a movie is in the works based on her syndicated TV series Xena: Warrior Princess, according to a report on the FlikSpot Web site.
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Artisan will release an "ultimate edition" two-disc DVD of 1994's Stargate on Feb. 18, featuring 6.1 DTS-ES digital surround sound, never-before-seen footage and photographs, new interviews and featurettes and more. Stargate Ultimate Edition will be available for the suggested retail price of $19.98.
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The Latino Review Web site has posted some initial images from New Line Cinema's upcoming remake of the classic horror film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The film is scheduled for release on Oct. 17, 2003.
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The 2003 Nebula Awards ceremony will take place April 18 through 20 at the Radisson Plaza-Warwick Hotel in Philadelphia. This represents a change in venue from last year's event, which was held in Kansas City, Mo.
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A Teen Titans animated series will premiere on Cartoon Network at 8 p.m. ET/PT May 30, the Comics Continuum Web site reported.
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Music from last year's Spider-Man film, including Chad Kroeger and Josey Scott's theme song, "Hero," nabbed four Grammy Award nominations.
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The Comics2Film Web site has posted a new image from the upcoming League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie, which opens July 11.
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Disney has raised the one-day admission price to its Disneyland and California Adventure theme parks in California by $2 to $47, a spokesman told the Reuters news service. The company cited higher costs of new and coming attractions.
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HBO Family will air a new weekly, half-hour animated series based on the children's book and movie character Stuart Little, starting at 8 a.m. ET/PT March 1, Variety reported. Sony Pictures Television is producing the series, from executive producers Lucy Fisher and Douglas Wick, who produced the Stuart Little film.
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The Ain't It Cool News Web site has posted what it says are spoilers from a proposed script for a fifth Batman movie, entitled Batman: The Frightening.
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Steven Spielberg received the first star of 2003 on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce told the Associated Press. The star honoring the director was dedicated Jan. 10 outside the Kodak Theater, the home of the Academy Awards telecast.
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A new Web site and trailer have gone live for the upcoming supernatural sequel film Final Destination 2, which opens Jan. 31.
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The Dark Horizons
Web site has posted what it says are spoilers from a draft script for Roland Emmerich's upcoming SF disaster movie Tomorrow.
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Star Wars creator George Lucas made a cameo appearance as himself on the NBC sitcom Just Shoot Me on Jan. 7.
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Following consumer complaints about the misframing of some scenes, Universal Studios Home Video will re-press the widescreen DVD version of its Back to the Future film trilogy and offer an exchange to those who have already purchased the set, the DVDfile.com Web site reported. Consumers can call (888) 703-0010 for more information.
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Terry Pratchett, co-author with Neil Gaiman of the fantasy novel Good Omens, told fans on the alt.fan.pratchett newsgroup, "I truly believe that there is now no chance of Good Omens being made into a movie," according to a report on the Dark Horizons Web site.
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Eight Legged Freaks producer Dean Devlin is in talks for a sequel to the 2002 giant-spider movie, the Moviehole.net Web site reported. Star David Arquette would return for director Ellory Elkayem.
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