Marsden Has Eye On Cyclops
ames Marsden, who returns as Cyclops in the upcoming X-Men sequel film, X2, told SCI FI Wire that he gets a new, smaller visor and sunglasses in this movie, but that it's still a challenge acting with his eyes covered.
"Yeah, there's not any way of getting around it," he said in an interview. "I really felt it on the first film."
Marsden said that on the first X-Men, he would nail his performance in rehearsal with Famke Janssen, who plays Jean Grey, and Hugh Jackman, who plays Wolverine. "And I'd put the glasses on, and it was like, 'What changed?' So it was definitely a handicap and kind of trying to figure out tricks around it, acting tricks. On this film I think I kind of got it down. It really comes down to really just believing in the dialogue and acting as if you weren't handicapped at all by the glasses. And I think that works. A lot of jaw clenching, too." X2 opens May 2.
Singer: X2 Is X-Men Squared
ryan Singer, director of the upcoming X-Men sequel, X2, told SCI FI Wire that this is the movie he really wanted to make the first time around, but couldn't.
"It is," he said in an interview. "I think the first time around, there was a learning curve for myself, for the characters, for the actors and in the process."
Singer added, "There were limitations, financial limitations, scheduling limitations. And yet I couldn't have made X2 without having made the first X-Men picture. So this is definitely the movie that I would have, could have, should have made. Yet it does take off from where the other one left off, and I don't think it could have been made had I not had the first experience."
X2 reunites the original cast of mutants and adds several new ones in a complex story with a new villain, William Stryker (Brian Cox). Singer admitted that the sequel also contains the seeds of a possible third film.
"I would say it is early, but then, like making the first film, there are these things one thinks about and layers into the story that breed evolution, and there are several things [planted]," Singer said. He added, "There's something happening with Jean [Grey, played by Famke Janssen]. In the comic it tells one story. If you really watch the first movie ... you'll see a moment when ... the light effect [from Magneto's machine] passes across everyone. When it finally dissipates, the first image you see is Jean, and she just looks [at] her body [as though] something's happened. It's just little things." X2 opens May 2.
Jackman: Wolverine Gets Dark
ugh Jackman, who returns as Wolverine in the upcoming X-Men sequel, X2, told SCI FI Wire to expect more of Wolverine's dark side this time around.
"That stuff in the mansion, I loved all that stuff," Jackman said in an interview, referring to a scene at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. "I like the whole idea of Wolverine being the babysitter reluctantly and having 50 people coming. In this one there was more of an example of his berserker rage, which was one thing I think was missing from the first."
X2 reunites the original cast of mutants and adds several new ones in a complex story with a new villain, William Stryker (Brian Cox). Jackman added that he has a couple of intense scenes involving nightmares of his past, as well as a few emotional ones with Jean Grey (Famke Janssen). Then there are the elaborate fights, particularly involving a new character played by Kelly Hu. "I got a bit of a concussion on one thing, but she's a pro, man," he said. "If she'd hit me, it would just touch me. It would look like she'd whacked me, but she's a black belt, so she knew how to do it."
Not so himself, Jackman added. In one scene, he's on the ground while Hu runs up to him. He's supposed to turn and punch her in the stomach. "She kept saying, 'Harder, harder, harder, harder. I can take it,'" he said. "I said, 'Just do me a favor. Will you wear a pad there?' ... So she put a black pad on there, and I turned around and bang, I hit her straight in the [breast]. Four takes without the pad I'd gotten right perfectly, and as soon as she gave me the target, bang. And I said, 'Did I get you ... ?' And she goes [grimacing], 'Yep. Just a little lower. Thanks, Hugh.' That was the only time she didn't ask for it harder." X2 opens May 2.
Jackman Stakes Out Van Helsing
ugh Jackman, who stars in Universal's upcoming vampire-hunter film Van Helsing, told SCI FI Wire that he wields weapons, rides horses and does 19th-century martial arts in the movie, which is currently shooting in Prague and Los Angeles.
"I've got so many weapons in Van Helsing, I've lost count," Jackman said in an interview while promoting his upcoming X-Men sequel, X2. "I'm almost like one of those watch salesmen. I have this huge overcoat [mimes opening his coat]. It almost becomes a joke by the end. My ... sidekick is going, 'Well, what else do you got in there?' I pull out this crossbow, and I got this and a mace, and you name it."
Jackman stars as a younger version of the monster slayer from Bram Stoker's original Dracula novel, and the Australian actor compared the role favorably with his most famous character, X-Men's Wolverine. "It's probably more physical," he said. "It's just a little more action. ... There's horse riding and wire work, because I get lifted up. And there's fight sequences on a huge scale. Wolverine is pretty intense. ... [But] some of the [stunts] in Van Helsing [are] going to be way up in the sky, flying around, so it's a lot of fun."
Jackman added, "The whole tone of the movie is different. ... And he's [got] a little more of a glint in the eye." Jackman showed up wearing long hair, which he had to grow for the role and which will be extended with hairpieces, he said. "It's considerably longer," he said, adding: "Charlie's Angels long."
Van Helsing, from Mummy director Stephen Sommers, moves production to L.A. this week, Jackman said, and is slated for a May 21, 2004, release. Universal is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Hu: Hurd Polishing Jade
elly Hu, star of the upcoming vampire film Jade, told SCI FI Wire that a script is being written for producer Gale Anne Hurd (The Hulk), based on the Chaos! Comics series.
"The comic is actually about a [4,000-year-old] vampire who lives in China, and she has incredible martial-arts skills," Hu said in an interview. "She has a really interesting sidekick, a woman named Silence, who doesn't speak. And, like, a little goblin who follows her around as well."
Hu added that the film has no production start date yet. "I don't know exactly how it's going to be written, because a lot of this stuff changes when it comes to script," she added. "It's being written now. All of this stuff is real, real preliminary."
Ronny Yu (Freddy vs. Jason) is still attached to direct, Hu added. "I think so," she said. "I'm not sure. I think he's still planning on doing it, as far as I know." Hu next appears as Lady Deathstrike in the upcoming X-Men sequel, X2, which opens May 2.
Spidey 2 Cast Grows
ylan Baker and Donna Murphy have joined the cast of the upcoming sequel film The Amazing Spider-Man, the Superhero Hype Web site reported.
Baker will reportedly play Dr. Curt Connors, the human who eventually becomes the villainous Lizard, the site reported.
Murphy (Star Trek: Insurrection) will play Rosalie Octavius, wife of Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina), who becomes the evil Doctor Octopus, the site reported.
Paper Looks At Spidey Flap
ariety is reporting what it says is the behind-the-scenes truth behind The Amazing Spider-Man star Tobey Maguire's back issues, which theatened to have him pulled out of the sequel film.
Maguire and crew began shooting the Spider-Man sequel over the April 11 weekend.
According to the trade paper, Maguire was unhappy with his treatment in the wake of the first film's success and used his reported back problems as a threat during talks on a series of demands. The studio reportedly balked and threatened in turn to remove Maguire from the film, going so far as to make an offer to Jake Gyllenhaal, the trade paper said.
At that point, Maguire's representatives stepped in, as did Ron Meyer, president and chief operating officer of Vivendi Universal, founding partner of CAA and father of Jennifer Meyer, who is currently dating Maguire, the trade paper reported. They all assured the studio that Maguire would behave, as would his back. As a result, Maguire is now shopping for new representation, though he has not yet fired his current agency, Gersh, the trade paper reported.
Vivendi Universal owns SCIFI.COM. Sony's Columbia Pictures is producing The Amazing Spider-Man.
Pitof Talks Catwoman
irector Pitof, who is helming the upcoming Catwoman movie, told French magazine Allocine that the Halle Berry movie will have little to do with previous incarnations of the DC Comics character, according to a translation posted on the Superhero Hype Web site.
"It's always difficult when you have such an icon or symbol, but everything is going to be different," he said.
Pitof added, "There will be no direct link with Batman, nor will there be Batman-esque imagery, and it won't be set in Gotham City. The story will be different, and the costume will be different. We aren't keeping anything from Catwoman except the original idea: the character. The idea is to begin her story from scratch, and possibly begin a franchise."
Pitof said that the movie is still in development. "We have Halle Berry interested in starring," he said. "Things are moving ahead, but I really can't tell you much more. The script isn't finished yet, and things are still a bit crazy. We hope to start filming in fall 2003 for a summer 2004 opening at least."
Gilliam Moves To Grimm
roducer Charles Roven told SCI FI Wire that director Terry Gilliam will leave Good Omens, which he was previously directing for Roven, to helm The Brothers Grimm.
"I think Terry will unofficially detach, at least for the time being, from Good Omens and let Renaissance try to make that movie with another creative team," Roven said in an interview.
Grimm mixes fantasy and history to tell the story of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the famous fairy-tale brothers. The script was drafted by Ehren Kruger, but Roven said Gilliam would add his own perspective to the film. "He will definitely give it the Gilliam-esque spin, and I think it'll be a feast visually," he said. "It's a terrific story and definitely underscores how important believing in miracles—believing in fairy tales— ... is to everyday life."
Gilliam's last film, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, fell apart weeks into production. But Roven is confident he can bounce back with Grimm. "I think this one is sort of on the downhill leg of at least getting into production," he said. Roven added that he hopes to begin production in June.
Good Omens is based on the fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
Elektra Writers Hired
ew Regency and Fox have hired Stu Zicherman and Raven Metzner to write Elektra, the proposed Daredevil spinoff film, Variety reported.
The film is eyeing a 2004 start to fit star Jennifer Garner's Alias hiatus, the trade paper reported.
The writers were hired based on their strong draft of Deathlok, a Paramount-based adaptation of another Marvel Comics title, about a man who is transformed into a machine, the trade paper reported.
The scribes pitched their take to Garner. The actress, who's also starring in the upcoming fantasy film 13 Going on 30, sparked to the story and is onboard, the trade reported. The film will be produced by the Daredevil trio of Horseshoe Bay partners Mark Steven Johnson and Gary Foster and Marvel's Avi Arad, the trade paper reported.
The spinoff will rely heavily on Frank Miller's The Elektra Saga, and a central character will be a martial-arts trainer named Stick, a venerable figure from the Marvel series.
A director will have to be hired once the script is completed; Daredevil helmer Johnson just committed to direct yet another Marvel franchise, the Columbia-based Ghost Rider, starring Nicolas Cage, the trade paper reported.
Problems Plague SF Movies
ost-production problems are plaguing upcoming summer genre films, including The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and The Matrix Reloaded, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The problems may add cost and effort to the films, the trade paper reported.
Fox's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was budgeted at well over $100 million, but saved money by shooting nonunion in Prague. When the production returned to Los Angeles to shoot its second-unit models and miniature work, producers discovered that mishaps with inexperienced international and local second-unit crews required days of costly reshoots, the trade paper reported. None of the reshoots involved actors, sources told the trade paper.
Warner Brothers and Village Roadshow's upcoming sequels The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, meanwhile, have seen their fair share of glitches, the trade paper reported. Visual-effects producer Ed Jones, who was on staff at ESC in Alameda, Calif., was let go in the middle of production. Post-production executives Mark Solomon and Amy Harrington were shuffled into less high-profile roles, while Chris DeFaria (Looney Toons: Back in Action) was brought on to oversee the remainder of the sequels' complex and voluminous effects work, the trade paper reported.
Further glitches arose when Centropolis Effects closed its doors midway through production, the trade paper reported. Centropolis' shots were reallocated to Sony Pictures Imageworks for what sources told the trade paper is a sum well beyond Centropolis' original cost.
Hugo Nominations Announced
ominees were announced for the 50th annual Hugo Awards, which will be awarded at Torcon 3, the 61st World Science Fiction Convention, to be held Aug. 28-Sept. 1 in Toronto.
The award is named for editor Hugo Gernsback, described as "the father of magazine science fiction," and honors works from the previous year.
Also known as the Science Fiction Achievement Award, the Hugo Award is given annually by the World Science Fiction Society. The year 2003 marks the 50th anniversary of the first Hugo Awards presentation in 1953 at the 11th Worldcon, popularly known as Philcon II, in Philadelphia. A full list of nominees follows.
Best Novel
•Bones of the Earth by Michael Swanwick
•Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer
•Kiln People by David Brin
•The Scar by China Mieville
•The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
Best Novella
•"A Year in the Linear City" by Paul Di Filippo
•"Breathmoss" by Ian R. MacLeod
•"Bronte's Egg" by Richard Chwedyk
•"Coraline" by Neil Gaiman
•"In Spirit" by Pat Forde
•"The Political Officer" by Charles Coleman Finlay
Best Novelette
•"Halo" by Charles Stross
•"Madonna of the Maquiladora" by Gregory Frost
•"Presence" by Maureen F. McHugh
•"Slow Life" by Michael Swanwick
•"The Wild Girls" by Ursula K. Le Guin
Best Short Story
•"Creation" by Jeffrey Ford
•"Falling Onto Mars" by Geoffrey A. Landis
•"'Hello,' Said the Stick" by Michael Swanwick
•"Lambing Season" by Molly Gloss
•"The Little Cat Laughed to See Such Sport" by Michael Swanwick
Best Related Book
•The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction by Justine Larbalestier
•Better to Have Loved: The Life of Judith Merril by Judith Merril and Emily Pohl-Weary
•Dragonhenge by Bob Eggleton and John Grant
•Ray Bradbury: An Illustrated Life by Jerry Weist
•Spectrum 9: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, Cathy Fenner and Arnie Fenner, eds.
Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
•Enterprise, "A Night in Sickbay"
•Enterprise, "Carbon Creek"
•Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Conversations With Dead People"
•Firefly, "Serenity"
•Angel, "Waiting in the Wings"
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
•Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
•The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
•Minority Report
•Spider-Man
•Spirited Away
Best Professional Editor
•Ellen Datlow
•Gardner Dozois
•David G. Hartwell
•Stanley Schmidt
•Gordon Van Gelder
Best Professional Artist
•Jim Burns
•David A. Cherry
•Bob Eggleton
•Frank Kelly Freas
•Donato Giancola
Best Semiprozine
•Ansible, edited by Dave Langford
•Interzone, edited by David Pringle
•Locus, edited by Charles N. Brown, Jennifer A. Hall
and Kirsten Gong-Wong
•The New York Review of Science Fiction, edited by
Kathryn Cramer, David G. Hartwell and Kevin Maroney
•Speculations, edited by Kent Brewster
Best Fanzine
•Challenger, edited by Guy H. Lillian III
•Emerald City, edited by Cheryl Morgan
•File 770, edited by Mike Glyer
•Mimosa, edited by Rich and Nicki Lynch
•Plokta, edited by Alison Scott, Steve Davies and Mike Scott
Best Fan Writer
•Bob Devney
•John L. Flynn
•Mike Glyer
•Dave Langford
•Steven H. Silver
Best Fan Artist
•Brad W. Foster
•Teddy Harvia
•Sue Mason
•Steve Stiles
•Frank Wu
John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer
•Charles Coleman Finlay
•David D. Levine
•Karin Lowachee
•Wen Spencer
•Ken Wharton
Towers, Spidey Top MTV Nods
he Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Spider-Man lead the nominees for the 2003 MTV Movie Awards, with five nods each, the network announced.
The 12th annual awards ceremony will be taped May 31 at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium for broadcast June 5 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, MTV announced.
Both films won nominations for best male performance (Tobey Maguire for Spider-Man and Viggo Mortensen for Towers) and best movie. Towers also picked up nominations for best action sequence (the battle for Helm's Deep) and best on-screen team (Elijah Wood, Sean Astin and Gollum), while Spider-Man got nods for best female performance (Kirsten Dunst's Mary Jane Watson) and best villain (Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin).
Nominees were chosen by MTV and MTV2 viewers via a national poll. A full list of SF&F and genre nominees follows.
Best Movie
•The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
•Spider-Man
•The Ring
Best Male Performance
•Tobey Maguire, Spider-Man
•Viggo Mortensen, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Best Female Performance
•Kirsten Dunst, Spider-Man
•Halle Berry, Die Another Day
Best On-Screen Team
•Elijah Wood, Sean Astin and Gollum, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Best Villain
•Mike Myers, Austin Powers in Goldmember
•Willem Dafoe, Spider-Man
•Colin Farrell, Daredevil
•Daveigh Chase, The Ring
Breakthrough Female
•Beyoncé Knowles, Austin Powers in Goldmember
•Jennifer Garner, Daredevil
Best Kiss
•Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, Spider-Man
•Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, Daredevil
Best Fight
•Yoda vs. Christopher Lee, Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones
Best Action Sequence
•Collision on Highway 23, Final Destination 2
•The battle for Helm's Deep, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
•The escape, Minority Report
•The arena conflict, Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones
Best Virtual Performance
•Yoda, Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones
•Gollum, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
•Dobby, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
•Scooby-Doo, Scooby-Doo
Prometheus Finalists Named
inalists for this year's Prometheus Awards, given by the Libertarian Futurist Society, have been released, Locus Online reported.
The awards were created in 1979 by SF writer L. Neil Smith to honor libertarian fiction. Winners will be announced over the Labor Day weekend in Toronto in an awards ceremony at the World Science Fiction Convention, Torcon 3. A full list of finalists follows.
Novel
•Dark Light by Ken MacLeod
•Escape From Heaven by J. Neil Schulman
•The Haunted Air by F. Paul Wilson
•Night Watch by Terry Pratchett
•Schild's Ladder by Greg Egan
Hall of Fame
•A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
•It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis
•The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
•"Requiem" by Robert A. Heinlein
•That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis
Finale To Alter Enterprise
ick Berman, producer of UPN's Enterprise, offered SCI FI Wire several spoilers for the upcoming second-season finale, called "The Expanse," which he said will set the show on a new course.
"For the first time on a Star Trek series, we're going to be dealing with a mission to save Earth," Berman said in an interview. "We'll be dealing with a different group of aliens, [and] we're going to be dealing with some new, non-Starfleet people coming on the ship to add a little muscle for the potentially violent situations our crew will be coming up against."
Berman added, "One of our characters is going to lose someone back on Earth during this devastating blow. There's going to be a major change to T'Pol [Jolene Blalock], based on whether or not she'll join the crew in going into" a Bermuda Triangle-like region of space.
Berman said the finale will change the direction of the show. "It's exciting for us because, in a way, it gives us a new show to write. It will still be Star Trek, and it will still be Enterprise, and we'll still have all of our characters with us. But it will be
a real course [correction]. We're excited about it, and it does all get set up in the final episode of the season." "The Expanse" will air at 8 p.m. ET/PT May 21.
Episode III Script Almost Done
tar Wars: Episode III producer Rick McCallum told the official Homing Beacon newsletter that director George Lucas is nearly finished with his screenplay.
"We get our preliminary first draft of the script next week, which we're very excited about," McCallum told the site from Fox Studios in Sydney, where he is preparing the production. "In just over two months, the stages of the motion picture facility will be used for shooting Episode III."
Production begins on or around June 30, finishing sometime in September, and things are on track, McCallum said. "Already, the crew down under has enough information from George Lucas to begin construction of environments, props and costumes. After that, George will be rewriting to a more formal first draft and will keep revising right up until the start of shooting."
McCallum added that the story will fit with Episode IV "in some very cool and unexpected ways."
Actors will begin arriving in Australia sometime in the summer (or winter in Australia). But stunt coordinator Nick Gillard has met briefly with both Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor in the United States, McCallum said. "Hayden is coming shortly to begin massive rehearsals, stunt rehearsals," he said. "We expect Ewan in the next four to five weeks. He's starting to work on all the fight sequences in the movie, which I think will be extraordinary."
Prinze Ready For Scooby Two
reddie Prinze Jr. told the Zap2it Web site that he and his wife, Sarah Michelle Gellar, will head to Vancouver, B.C., to begin shooting the Scooby-Doo sequel as soon as Gellar wraps production on Buffy the Vampire Slayer later this month.
UPN's Buffy is winding up a seven-year run.
"A lot of people owe Sarah a lot for doing that show," Prinze told the site. "And she doesn't always get the credit she deserves. She's a very strong woman, because she deals with a lot of nonsense, and instead of that nonsense, she should be thanked. And she's not. That's the reason she won't be coming back."
Prinze added, "Sarah's the most appreciative person in the world, and if that environment would have remained the way it [was] six years ago, she would go back, because she's loyal. But things change, and people's egos get in the way sometimes. They make poor decisions."
Chamber Sales Are Magic
he video and DVD version of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets sold more than 6 million combined units nationwide in its first day in release, several sources told the Reuters news service.
Warner Home Video executives declined comment on sales of the latest Potter release, which came out simultaneously in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Spain and Scandinavia.
This was the first Friday release for a Potter title, making logistics at retail more complicated than the industry standard of a typical Tuesday release date, the news service reported.
The home video release of the second Potter movie, which earned $260 million at the box office, topped both Nielsen VideoScan's First Alert DVD and VHS sales charts during its first three days in release and came in at number three on Video Store magazine's weekly rental chart, earning an estimated $7.96 million in gross domestic rental revenue during its first three days on rental shelves, Reuters reported.
Nolan To Helm Prestige
irector Chris Nolan (Memento) will helm The Prestige, a film adaptation of Christopher Priest's novel about the world of magicians, Variety reported.
Disney and Warner Brothers are in negotiations to split distribution rights, the trade paper reported.
Jonathan Nolan, Chris' brother, wrote the script. Jonathan also wrote the story that formed the basis for Memento.
The Prestige begins in 1878, as a seance hatches a bitter rivalry between two young stage magicians.
Nolan is also expected to direct Batman, a franchise he is in the process of resurrecting at Warner with Blade screenwriter David Goyer. The scripting has begun, but The Prestige could step in front of it, the trade paper reported.
Allen To Fund Seattle SF Museum
aul G. Allen, the billionaire businessman and co-founder of Microsoft, is planning to invest $10 million to $20 million to build a "cultural project" in Seattle that will seek to draw visitors into the science-fiction experience, the New York Times reported.
Preliminary plans suggest that if it comes to fruition, it would be part museum, part amusement park and part little boy's fantasy, the newspaper reported.
Tentatively called SFX: The Science Fiction Experience, the project is to fill 13,000 square feet of exhibit space that has been part of the Experience Music Project. The science-fiction project is scheduled to open in the summer of 2004.
According to promotional material, SFX will explore our culture through the broad, historic and compelling lens of science fiction. The material promises models of bug-eyed monsters and exhibits that illustrate science fiction's alternate realities, the newspaper reported.
Plans call for a hall of fame for science-fiction heroes, another hall shaped like the interior of a spaceship and a third that would commemorate terrifying aliens and other evil creatures. SFX's advisory board includes the science-fiction writers Greg Bear, Ray Bradbury, Octavia Butler and Arthur C. Clarke, the Times reported.
Evil 2 Gears Up To Shoot
esident Evil—Apocalypse, sequel to the video-game-inspired 2002 zombie movie, is gearing up for production, the FilmJerk Web site reported.
Sources told the site that the casting process has begun, in anticipation of a three-month shoot, beginning in late July.
Milla Jovovich (Alice) and Eric Mabius (Matt Addison) return, joined by new characters from the Resident Evil games: Jill Valentine, Carlos Olivera, Maj. Cain, Sherry Morales and others.
Resident Evil director Paul W.S. Anderson has not committed to directing, though he will produce and is writing the script, the site reported. Constantin Films remains the production company for the sequel, which is aiming for a 2004 release.
Millennium Buys Aftermath
illennium Films has acquired Aftermath, an SF script by J.D. Zeik (Ronin) that will be directed by Alexander Witt, the Daredevil second-unit director making his feature-film directing bow, Variety reported.
Aftermath is a futuristic story about a soldier who returns from a war, only to find another battle waiting for him as he tries to settle back into a peaceful life, the trade paper reported.
Witt has been the second-unit director on Black Hawk Down, Gladiator, The Bourne Identity and the upcoming The Italian Job, the trade paper reported. Shooting begins in late summer in Europe.
Lords of EverQuest Develops
ony Online Entertainment producer James S. Parker told fans that the company is developing Lords of EverQuest, a real-time strategy game inspired by the venerable online game.
"Lords of EverQuest represents the next generation of real-time strategy gaming, adding many new concepts to the genre, while improving on proven gameplay standards," Parker said in a letter on the game's official Web site. "Inspired by the lore of the online gaming phenomenon EverQuest, Lords of EverQuest features an enthralling storyline that draws you into the world of Norrath to change the fate of the world."
Gamers will take on the role of one of 15 lords from the dawn of Norrath and lead an army of hundreds against enemies in a race to claim a lost artifact, Parker said.
Dutton Signs Onto Gothika
harles S. Dutton will star in Dark Castle Entertainment's supernatural thriller Gothika, opposite Halle Berry, for director Mathieu Kassovitz, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Production began last week in Montreal, with Warner Brothers Pictures distributing domestically and Columbia Pictures taking on international territories, the trade paper reported.
Written by Sebastian Gutierrez, Gothika stars Berry as a criminal psychologist who awakens to find herself a patient in her own mental institution, with no memory of the murder she apparently has committed. As she struggles to reclaim her sanity, she finds herself the pawn of a vengeful spirit. Dutton will play Berry's husband, the trade paper reported.
The cast also includes Penelope Cruz as Chloe, a fellow inmate, and Robert Downey Jr. as a psychiatrist colleague of Berry's character. An October release date is planned.
Cameron Up For Alien 5
liens director James Cameron told Empire Online that's he interested in developing—but not helming—a fifth film in the popular SF franchise.
"We're definitely looking at another Alien film, but that wouldn't be something I'd be directing," he told the site. "I'm just going to be writing and producing that one."
Cameron added that he's interested in developing a movie adaptation of Anne Rice's supernatural novel Ramses The Damned (also titled The Mummy), the site reported. Cameron would not direct this film either and said he's waiting for the right time. "We've been holding off, because of the two Mummy films that Universal did," he said. "Although they're very different tonally, they are very much in the same area code in terms of the imagery you'd see."
Thompson Adapting Lionboy
riter Caroline Thompson (Edward Scissorhands) has been hired to adapt the children's story Lionboy for DreamWorks and studio-based producers Team Todd, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The novel, written by Louisa Young and her daughter, Isabelle, is set in London in the near future and centers on a boy named Charlie Ashanti who can communicate with cats.
Lionboy, which has drawn comparisons to the Harry Potter franchise, is the first of three books in a series and is expected to launch a franchise for the studio, the trade paper reported. The latter two books have yet to be published and are still untitled.
Canada Funds Sawyer TV Series
he Canadian government's Canadian Television Fund on April 14 awarded
$2.3 million Canadian (U.S. $1.58 million) to help fund production of Charlie Jade, an hourlong SF film-noir detective series.
Executive producers are Robert Wertheimer (Due South) and SF novelist Robert J. Sawyer. Sawyer will also serve as head
writer.
The series is in preproduction for Canada's Space: The Imagination Station, with a September 2004 target air date.
Bebop Due On DVD
owboy Bebop: The Movie, based on the Japanese anime television show from Shinichiro Watanabe, will premiere June 24 in a special-edition DVD from Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment, following its national theatrical release, the studio announced.
The special-edition DVD will feature bonus materials including behind-the-scenes featurettes, character profiles, music
videos, storyboard comparisons, conceptual art galleries and more. The DVD carries a suggested retail price of $26.95.
The movie is set in the year 2071 A.D. and centers on the spaceship Bebop and Spike Spiegel and his crew of intergalactic
bounty hunters as they try to find the parties behind a deadly Martian attack.
Winston Adapting Apocalypse
tan Winston has optioned the film and action-figure rights to The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the upcoming 3DO video-game franchise, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The visual-effects maven will develop the movie through his Stan Winston Productions and will bring Apocalypse action figures to retail this Halloween through his Stan Winston Creatures unit, the trade paper reported.
The game puts players in the role of Abaddon (voiced by Lance Henriksen), a fallen angel sent to Earth to stop the four horsemen of the apocalypse from destroying the world.
3DO has invested $8 million in the development of Apocalypse and plans to expand the franchise beyond interactive entertainment, the trade paper reported. The first in the expected line of video games will ship in the fall across all next-generation platforms.
Winston worked on character designs for the game, in collaboration with comic-book legend Simon Bisley (Heavy Metal), the trade paper reported.
Classic SF Props Auctioned
rofiles in History will conduct The Ultimate Sci-Fi Auction of several high-profile props, costumes, set pieces and sketches from classic SF movies and TV shows on April 26 on eBay.
The auction will feature dozens of items from The Empire Strikes Back, Aliens, Back to the Future, The Day the Earth Stood Still, the original Star Trek TV series, several Trek films and the original Lost in Space show, among others.
Items include the B-9 Robot from Lost in Space (expected to fetch $150,000 to $200,000), the U.S.S. Enterprise's helm console from the original Star Trek ($80,000 to $100,000), Darth Vader's helmet from Empire ($40,000 to $60,000) and the spaceship from The Day the Earth Stood Still ($40,000 to $60,000).
Punisher In Distribution Deal
he Punisher, a movie based on the Marvel Comics series, will be the first production to be represented under a renewed international distribution deal between Artisan Pictures and Summit Entertainment, Variety reported.
Starring Thomas Jane (Dreamcatcher), the film is slated for release next summer.
Artisan is developing another Marvel vehicle, Iron Fist, to start filming this fall, the trade paper reported.
Chow Kicks Butt In Monk
how Yun-Fat—the Hong Kong star who headlines the supernatural martial-arts movie Bulletproof Monk—told SCI FI Wire that he doesn't really like the physical part of such roles.
"Not really," he said. "But when you have the wire on, and they fly you in the air, it can be a lot of fun. It depends on the difficulty of the wire work. For me, I'm not fascinated about all the wire works or martial-art things. I'm more dedicated to the drama and the romance."
In Bulletproof, Chow—who has appeared in both contemporary action films and historical martial-arts dramas such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon—plays a monk entrusted with a mystical scroll. He teams up with American Pie star Seann William Scott and Pearl Harbor actress Jaime King.
"I'd rather have a girl than a wire or two guns, but I'm glad that we have a lot of young actors in this movie," Chow said. "They give the movie a lot of energy and also a lot of inspiration for the new generation. I am already a veteran in this industry, more than 30 years, so more or less we need some new faces. They taught me a lot about how to be a young actor. I'm still young in Hollywood, you know." Bulletproof opened April 16.
Hauer Bites Into Salem
utger Hauer will play Kurt Barlow, an antiques dealer and vampire, in TNT's upcoming adaptation of Stephen King's novel Salem's Lot, the Zap2it Web site reported.
It's not the first time the Dutch-born actor has played a bloodsucker; he has played vampires several times in movies and TV, mostly famously as Lothos in the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie, the site reported.
Salem's Lot will also star Rob Lowe, Andre Braugher, James Cromwell and Samantha Mathis. Peter Filardi (Flatliners) wrote the script.
NBC Shows Pride
BC has ordered 13 episodes of a computer-animated series from DreamWorks TV about the lives of the family of lions who perform in Siegfried & Roy's Las Vegas magic show, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Father of the Pride is a half-hour family comedy targeted to debut in fall 2004, the trade paper reported.
Peter Mehlman (Seinfeld) and Jonathan Groff (Late Night With Conan O'Brien) will write the pilot episode. The project is the brainchild of DreamWorks SKG principal Jeffrey Katzenberg, who originally conceived it as a feature about 18 months ago, the trade paper reported.
New Writers To Pen Knight
evolution Studios has hired first-time writers David Elliott and Paul Lovett to pen the script for its big-screen adaptation of the 1980s TV show Knight Rider, Variety reported.
The feature film is being planned as an action comedy, the trade paper reported.
The TV series ran on NBC from 1982 to 1986 and centered on Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff) and his talking car K.I.T.T., a Pontiac Trans Am. Hasselhoff will executive produce the film, while Disney-based Mayhem Pictures' Mark Ciardi and Gordon Gray will produce with Glen A. Larson, who created the TV show, the trade paper reported.
Fantasy XI Beta Announced
quare Enix U.S.A. announced that it is now accepting applications for the public beta test program for Final Fantasy XI, the latest installment in the best-selling series and the first massively multiplayer online role-playing game in the franchise.
The game will be available in North America for the PlayStation 2 and for the PC.
Starting April 14, players can apply for the beta at the game's official Web site. The company will select an undisclosed number of players and notify them of their acceptance.
Final Fantasy XI will have new and familiar features from the series, the company said. Players will enter the world of "Vana'diel," where they can personalize their characters, play at their own pace, form parties with other players and embark on multiple adventures through vast environments.
SF Authors Protest Patriot Act
F authors and editors joined protesters on April 12 in Portland, Ore., to object to the USA Patriot Act.
The authors and editors read poems and stories and speeches in protest and to promote free speech, organizers said.
Marchers stopped at the Multnomah County Central Library and took a list of supposed "subversive" books—such as the Koran, the Anarchist Cookbook and Teach Yourself French—and checked the books out en masse. The protesters later joined a larger antiwar protest in the city.
The authors and editors included Ursula K. Le Guin; R.V. Branham, editor of Gobshite Quarterly; Eileen Gunn, editor of the Internet magazine Infinite Matrix; and L. Timmel Duchamp, author of "The Forbidden Words of Margaret A.", as well as members of the Independent Publishing Resource Center, the "'zine" cooperative Reading Frenzy and members of the Portland Bill of Rights Defense Committee.
Briefly Noted
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German director Oliver Hirschbiegel, who was once under consideration to helm Blade III, is attached to a conflicting project, Variety reported. Hirschbiegel will instead helm Der Untergang—Hitler und das Ende des 3. Reichs (The Downfall—Hitler and the End of the Third Reich) for Constantin Films.
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IGN FilmForce has posted an image of the teaser poster for the upcoming sequel film Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, which opens July 25.
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Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings films, told the BBC Online that he will add 43 minutes of deleted scenes to the upcoming DVD release of The Two Towers. The extended-version DVD of The Fellowship of the Ring had an extra 32 minutes.
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Val Kilmer, Eric Idle and Michael Clarke Duncan have joined the voice cast for Fathom Studios' Delgo, an independently produced computer-animated feature film, set in a divided land where a troubled youth (Delgo) and some unlikely friends must save the world from itself, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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Smallville producers Mike Tollin and Brian Robbins have moved their TV company to Touchstone Television, sealing a rich, overall deal with the Disney-owned studio, Variety reported. At Touchstone, Tollin/Robbins Productions will develop, executive produce and direct new projects over the next two years, with an option to extend the pact for another two years beyond that.
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Dimension Films has cast Leslie Nielsen in the upcoming SF spoof movie Scary Movie 3, currently shooting in Vancouver, Variety reported. The Practice star Camryn Manheim also joined the cast of the comedy sequel, which is slated for domestic release Oct. 3.
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SF critic, editor and academic Willis E. McNelly died in Fullerton, Calif., on April 7 at the age of 82, Locus Online reported. McNelly was best known for compiling the Hugo-nominated Dune Encyclopedia (1984), and he also co-edited several anthologies.
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IGN FilmForce reported a rumor that Hugh Jackman is no longer
attached to star as late Superman star George Reeves in Focus Features' biographical film Truth, Justice & the American Way. The picture, which is still searching for a director, had been set for a June start.
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Dark Horizons and The Z Review reported a rumor that basketball player Dennis Rodman is in talks to star in a sequel film to 1987's The Running Man, with production to begin in Vancouver, B.C., in August.
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Reproductions of paintings by fantasy artist Rowena Morrill have been discovered in a Baghdad home apparently used by Saddam Hussein, as seen in news stories from CNN, USA Today, the San Francisco Chronicle and Locus Online. The paintings are identified as King Dragon and The Guardian Serpent.
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Angel star David Boreanaz told an audience of Los Angeles college students to expect several character deaths and the introduction of new characters as the WB series winds up its fourth season, according to a report on Dark Horizons.
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LucasArts and Sony Online announced that Dantooine will be one of several planets that players get to visit in Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided, the upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game, GameSpot reported.
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The Zap2it Web site is running a sweepstakes for a chance to attend the Los Angeles premiere of The Matrix Reloaded. The sweepstakes runs through April 30.
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The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer, a prequel to Stephen King's TV miniseries Rose Red, will air on ABC at 9 p.m. ET/PT on May 12. The telefilm is based on the book by Ridley Pearson and is directed by Craig Baxley.
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Stan Winston told Box Office magazine that he's already begun brainstorming with Steven Spielberg about a fourth Jurassic Park movie, the Dark Horizons Web site reported. "Expect to see many new dinosaurs, as well as some old favorites from the last three movies," Winston said.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger will present Cinescape magazine's Dr. Donald A. Reed Award to helmer James Cameron in recognition of his contributions to SF filmmaking at the Academy of Sci Fi, Horror and Fantasy's annual Saturn Awards, May 18 at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel, Variety reported.
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