Morpheus Rises In Reloaded
aurence Fishburne, who reprises the role of Morpheus in the upcoming Matrix Reloaded, told SCI FI Wire that his character is revealed as a military leader in the Real World.
In one scene, Morpheus delivers a rousing speech to about 1,500 extras crowded into an underground cavern set, representing the last human settlement of Zion.
"I can tell you that the speech in Zion was like being on stage," Fishburne said. "I was playing to 1,500 people. ... It was wonderful. Oh, it was fun."
Fishburne added that he got to interact with several new characters. "It was great to have some new energy," he said. "It was great to have all those new people. Anthony Wong and Jada Pinkett Smith and ... the Rayment twins, Harry Lennix, Lambert Wilson, Monica Bellucci, everybody. It was nice to have more people." The Matrix Reloaded opens May 15.
Reeves: Reloaded Has More
eanu Reeves, who reprises the role of Neo in the upcoming sequel film The Matrix Reloaded, told SCI FI Wire that the new movie is more ambitious than 1999's original Matrix.
"It fractures out," Reeves said in an interview. "It splinters out, and there's many more ... stories being told. There's a lot of new characters."
The first Matrix has a straighter narrative, Reeves said. But "I don't know if the ideas are so straight-ahead in terms of dual realities and what is reality? And what is truth? And what is fate? And dealing with man and technology ... and the whole aspect of trying to find an authentic life," he added.
As for the physical demands of the role, Reeves said, "it took a lot of training. The usual four or five months before, and then just training while [shooting]. I would have a fight, do some acting, the choreographer would come in, and then the training with that. I mean, it's demanding, but it's also one of my favorite parts of the piece." But Reeves added that his experience on the first Matrix helped. "I was a lot better, more proficient at the wire work, and also it seemed that I was able to catch on to the choreography much quicker."
In a key scene, in which Reeves' Neo battles 100 Agent Smiths, played by Hugo Weaving, Reeves said, "I got to work with 12 of the stunt men. So for three weeks we just did that, the fight. The other thing was just trying to learn the weapons. There was a lot of different weapons: the scythes and the swords and the stick ... and the long staff. There was a lot to learn." The Matrix Reloaded opens May 15.
Moss Plugs Into Matrix Love
arrie-Anne Moss, who again plays Trinity in the upcoming sequel film The Matrix Reloaded, told SCI FI Wire that she got a chance to do a steamy love scene with co-star Keanu Reeves (Neo).
"I was pretty nervous about it," she said in an interview. "And then, in the end, Keanu's a good friend of mine. I trust him. I respect him. I like him. The brothers [directors Andy and Larry Wachowski] were right there telling us what they wanted."
Moss added, "It was important to execute the scene as I would any other scene, to give it the truth of what it needed to have. The relationship between Neo and Trinity, their love is important to me, that that is there in the film. I thought it turned out beautiful and tasteful."
Moss and Reeves performed the love scene with very little clothing, requiring makeup artists to create "plugs" on their bodies, left over from Trinity and Neo's lives plugged into the machine world. "That was hours of prosthetics before we would shoot every day," Moss said. "It's kind of erotic in a way, too, because you're kind of like, 'What is that? What did I just see?' You're not seeing any body parts, but you're seeing these plugs." The Matrix Reloaded opens May 15.
Moss Overcame Reloaded Injury
arrie-Anne Moss, who reprises the role of Trinity in the upcoming sequel film The Matrix Reloaded, told SCI FI Wire that she broke her leg in the first week of training for the movie.
"I broke my leg right away," she said in an interview. "Week one. I broke my leg on a wire."
Moss said that the injury sidelined her for six weeks during the six-month training period before production started on Reloaded and the third Matrix film, Revolutions. "But I came to work every day and watched them train and did what I could," she said. "It was a challenge to overcome right off the bat, because I came in really gung-ho and really ready to do it, and then I got an obstacle given to me right in the very beginning. But I'm all for obstacles to overcome."
Even so, Moss added, she enjoyed making the two sequel films more than the first film. "It was even more fun," she said. "It just was harder, just because I knew what to expect. The first time, I didn't know what to expect, so it was sort of that ignorance-is-bliss kind of thing. But no, it was incredible. It was the greatest experience." The Matrix Reloaded opens May 15.
Animatrix To Screen In Asia
ll nine Animatrix short films, set in Larry and Andy Wachowski's Matrix universe, will get a theatrical release in Australia, New Zealand and Japan, a Warner Brothers spokesperson confirmed for SCI FI Wire.
The animated short films will hit theaters in Oz and New Zealand on May 9 and in Japan on May 16.
There are no plans for all of the films to be released theatrically in North America, although one, The Final Flight of the Osiris, has already screened in theaters attached to prints of Dreamcatcher. Warner will release The Animatrix on VHS and DVD on June 3. Four of the shorts are also available on the official Web site.
The Animatrix series was conceived by the Wachowskis, who also wrote four of the nine episodes, including Osiris, which acts as a prelude to the upcoming sequel film The Matrix Reloaded. Reloaded opens May 15.
Temple Parses The Matrix
hiladelphia's Temple University will host "Mapping the Matrix," a symposium on the SF movie and its upcoming sequels, on May 17, two days after the premiere of The Matrix Reloaded.
The event is free and open to the public. The symposium will include a multimedia critique of the imagery in The Matrix, showing how the movie has been influenced by many previous dystopian and science fiction films, the university said.
Symposium organizer Barry Vacker, an assistant professor of broadcasting, telecommunications and mass media, will be joined by William Irwin, editor of The Matrix and Philosophy and an associate professor of philosophy at King’s College, and Read Mercer Schuchardt, author of the introductory chapter in Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy and Religion in The Matrix, who teaches media studies at Marymount Manhattan College in New York.
The symposium is jointly sponsored by the department of broadcasting, telecommunications and mass media and the new media interdisciplinary concentration, both in the School of Communications and Theater at Temple.
Atari To Ship 4M Matrices
nfogrames unit Atari will ship more than 4 million orders worldwide of Enter the Matrix, the upcoming video game based on the Matrix film trilogy, on May 15, Variety reported.
If all those orders sell through, as is widely expected, it will mark a retail take of roughly $200 million, the trade paper reported. The game will retail for $49.99.
The game is timed to come out on the same day as the highly anticipated Matrix sequel film The Matrix Reloaded. The movie's writer-directors, Larry and Andy Wachowski, also are credited as the game's writers and directors. They filmed cutscenes and video for the game simultaneously with shooting of Reloaded and the upcoming third film, The Matrix Revolutions, using many of the same effects, facial- and motion-capture and other technologies used in the movies, the trade paper reported.
Bellucci Defends Passion
onica Bellucci, who stars in Mel Gibson's upcoming Passion, downplayed to SCI FI Wire reports that the movie about Jesus Christ's last days would cast Jews in a bad light.
Controversy has swirled around Gibson's pet project, which some fear may resurrect the canard that Jews killed Christ—a position formally denounced by the Catholic church. Gibson has previously taken issue with some of the church's more recent policies.
"It's so funny for me that everybody's talking about it being so controversial, and nobody's seen the movie," Bellucci said in an interview while promoting her upcoming sequel film The Matrix Reloaded. "Visually it's going to be something beautiful and strong, but ... everybody [already] knows the story. So I don't understand what can be so controversial." She added: "It's not the Jews. I mean, it was the political situation. It was the Romans who killed Jesus. They put Jesus on the cross, not the Jews."
But Bellucci acknowledged that she had not yet seen a finished version of Gibson's movie, which stars Jim Caviezel and was reportedly shot in ancient languages, such as Latin and Aramaic, with no subtitles. "We just finished about two months ago," she said. As for the controversy, she said, "It's good for us. It's good to be controversial. ... I have nothing against controversy." Passion is tentatively slated for an April 2004 release.
X2 Earns $155.2M
X2 earned a whopping $155.2 million worldwide in its May 2 opening weekend, the fourth-biggest premiere in movie history, the Hollywood trade papers reported.
With $85.9 million in North America alone, the debut trailed only last year's $114.8 million debut by Spider-Man and the premieres of the two Harry Potter movies, the trade papers reported.
X2 opened in 93 foreign territories in the biggest "day-and-date" release in history, meaning that it opened simultaneously in theaters across the globe, the trade papers reported.
The robust premiere exceeded the first X-Men film's July 2000 opening of $54.5 million.
Berry Out Of X-Men 3?
alle Berry is out, and director Bryan Singer remains noncommittal about returning to helm a third X-Men movie, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Cindy Pearlman reported. "It depends on the circumstances," Singer told Pearlman.
"I know I love this cast, and I love the experiences I have on these movies. I feel great affection and proprietorship when it comes to this franchise, so I would probably want to be involved in a third film."
As for Oscar winner Berry, Pearlman said she has dropped out. But Singer hedged his bets. "You know, it depends," he said. "I think a lot depends on the evolution of her character, Storm."
Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) insisted that he'd love to return, but wouldn't commit to it, Pearlman said. Meanwhile, E! Online columnist Anderson Jones reported that a third X-Men film is already a lock, and that X2 stars Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Alan Cumming and ex-footballer Daniel Cudmore (Colossus) are signed up for the next movie.
X2 came in first in weekend box-office rankings in its May 2 premiere, grossing nearly $86 million in North America.
McKellen Offers X2 Prizes
2 star Ian McKellen is offering fans a chance to win prizes in a drawing on his official Web site.
The drawing will take place on May 15, and winners will be notified by e-mail and, if possible, by phone.
The prizes include an autographed title page to the guide to the city of Vancouver, B.C., where X2 was filmed. Prizes also include signed photos of Ian McKellen as Magneto.
X2 Wolverine In Stores
ctivision has released X2 Wolverine's Revenge, inspired by the X-Men sequel film, X2, for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, PC and GameBoy Advance.
The PS2, Xbox and GameCube versions carry a suggested retail price of $49.99; the PC and GameBoy versions are $29.99.
Written by comics legend Larry Hama, X2 Wolverine's Revenge pits Wolverine against foes from Marvel Comics' X-Men series, including X2's Lady Deathstrike and Magneto. Players will travel to the Weapon X lab and play Wolverine, who has 48 hours to defuse a viral time bomb in his body.
Whedon: Buffy Grew Up Fast
oss Whedon, creator of UPN's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, told SCI FI Wire that the series has exceeded his expectations as it winds up its seventh and final season.
"It's been very close to what I envisioned, except that it grew up a lot more," Whedon said in a conference call interview with reporters. "When I started the show, I didn't know its full potential, because I just sort of had the basic notion of 'It's tough to make it in high school, and it'll be funny and evolving and scary and really hit on things that people can relate to.'"
Whedon added that he was pleasantly surprised by his cast, including star Sarah Michelle Gellar. "I didn't know how good my actors would be," he said. "I didn't know how long we'd go and how much they'd grow and change and how far we could go with the medium and how much the network would let us do. Or networks, I should say. So did I know I was going to make a musical? Or did I know even that Buffy was going to sleep with Angel, and he would go bad? No. It just kept growing."
Even as the show enters its home stretch, it remains true to its roots, Whedon said. "The basic idea that I think we're very true to, especially in the last episode, of the empowerment of girls and the toughness of this life, was always there, but it grew beyond my best imagining." The final episode of Buffy airs at 8 p.m. ET/PT on May 20.
Boreanaz Crows About Prayer
avid Boreanaz, who plays the villainous Luc Crash in the upcoming sequel film The Crow: Wicked Prayer, told SCI FI Wire that his character is the foil for Edward Furlong's vengeful spirit.
The script, by director Lance Mungia and Crow franchise producer Jeff Most, is "just loaded with material you can have fun with," Boreanaz said in an interview at a comic convention in Los Angeles.
Boreanaz (The WB's Angel) plays Crash, a biker gang leader who has a history with Furlong's character, Jimmy Cuervo. "They're two buddies that grew up together, but fell apart somewhere, because of a love triangle around this girl, Lily [Emmanuelle Chriqui], who was an Indian," Boreanaz said. "So there are a lot of racial elements to it. There's a lot of angst between miners and Indians and casinos. It brings together so much vulnerability and conflict."
Crash is "a Bible-Belt kind of victim in prison," Boreanaz said. "He has this gang of four—the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. ... Tara Reid plays my love interest as far as my relationship is concerned with the gang members." Dennis Hopper plays El Nino, "the guy who pretty much turned me into Satan," Boreanaz added.
Boreanaz said that he's "really looking forward" to working with Hopper and Mungia (Six-String Samurai). Now that Angel is wrapping up its fourth season, Boreanaz won't have much down time before starting Wicked Prayer. "We start shooting in June," he said. "We're shooting in Utah."
Museum Gets Mulder's Office
ox Mulder's X-Files office set has been transported to the Hollywood Entertainment Museum in Los Angeles, where it is on permanent loan from Fox Television.
The set, familiar to fans of Fox's long-running SF series, has been reconstructed with all of its original set dressing.
Since opening in 1996, the Hollywood Entertainment Museum has been the home for the original sets of the command deck from Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as the bar from Cheers. The museum is located at 7021 Hollywood Blvd.
Reed Talks Fantastic Four
eyton Reed, director of the proposed Fantastic Four movie, told SCI FI Wire that he hopes to tell a different kind of superhero story.
"I didn't want to do a giant superhero movie, because there are a million of them now," Reed said in an interview. "Those Marvel properties all inherently have similar thematic stuff going on."
Reed said that he believes he and screenwriter Mark Frost have tapped into something that would make Fantastic Four "interesting and worth doing," but added that he was not at liberty to discuss specifics. "We're still so early on," Reed said. "We have to get the script done."
Reed (Bring It On) said that he doubted that his adaptation of the long-running Marvel comic will suffer from the same problems that plagued an earlier film version of The Fantastic Four, a Roger Corman-produced cheapie that went virtually unreleased after its completion in 1994. Most genre fans saw only bootleg copies of the film.
"That was just so hamstrung by budget," Reed said. "It cost, I think, $1 million. It was a pretty decent poster. You can't blame them for trying. To make that movie for $1 million, it's just a battle that's unwinnable."
As for his movie, Reed said that "there are people we're thinking about" for key characters such as Invisible Girl and Human Torch. But he added that no offers will be made until Frost completes his script. "It's just too early," Reed said.
Williams Talks Episode III Music
tar Wars composer John Williams told CNN.com to expect echoes of the music from the first film in the upcoming prequel Episode III, which wraps up the saga.
Williams said he hopes to use hints of some of the musical themes from Episode IV: A New Hope to link the three prequel movies with the original trilogy.
"I think working backwards, some musical hints like that will be appropriate," Williams told the site. "I am looking forward to bringing all those thematic fragments together in the final episode of Star Wars and to pick up what opportunities it'll have for new material, also to sort of round out a whole corpus of musical themes that are all interrelated and connected." Episode III is set to begin production this year, with a 2005 release date.
Smallville's Clark To Stay Pure
mallville executive producer Al Gough told TV Guide Online that Clark Kent will remain a virgin for the foreseeable future.
"Yes, Clark is a virgin ... and will remain so," Gough told the site. "The show is about romance, not about sex, like Dawson's Creek, where they just hop into bed with each other."
Clark (Tom Welling) is in a love triangle with Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk) and Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack). But, Gough said, "once you cross that line [of sex], then you forever change the character and the series. It's not something we want to do at this stage of the game. It'll definitely be down the road."
John, Taupin Bite Into Rice
lton John and Bernie Taupin announced that they are collaborating for a Broadway show based on Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles books, tentatively titled The Vampire Lestat, the Reuters news service reported.
The pop star and his lyricist partner are eyeing a 2005 theatrical release.
John and Taupin told the wire service that the production will have a classical feel and not resemble a rock opera. Warner Brothers will produce, the studio's first project in Broadway theater, the wire service reported. Linda Woolverton (The Lion King) wrote the script, and Robert Jess Roth (Beauty and the Beast) will direct.
The Vampire Lestat, the second book in Rice's series, was published in 1985, nine years after Interview with the Vampire, which was made into a 1994 movie starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. Her 1988 Queen of the Damned was made into a film last year.
Hensons Buy Back Muppets
iling German media company EM.TV & Merchandising AG has agreed to sell Jim Henson Co., the producer of the Muppets and Farscape, to the children of Muppets creator Jim Henson for $89 million, the Reuters news service reported.
The deal ends a nearly two-year hunt for a buyer. Among the suitors were Walt Disney Co., children's programming magnate Haim Saban and former TV executive Dean Valentine, the news service reported.
EM.TV bought Henson from the family for $680 million at the peak of the stock market bubble in 2000. It has since sold off pieces of the company, including the Sesame Street characters and its stake in children's network Noggin, Reuters reported.
Five Henson siblings would be on the 45-year-old company's board. Two of them, Brian and Lisa Henson, would help manage Henson. EM.TV said the Henson family would pay $78 million in cash for the characters, the TV and motion picture production companies and the special-effects unit known as the Creature Shop, the news service reported. EM.TV would keep Henson Co.'s current liquid assets of $11 million.
New Wonder Writer Hired
omics2Film/CBR News reported that Warner Brothers has hired Philip Levens (The WB's Smallville) to write a new draft for its proposed Wonder Woman movie.
The site based its report on anonymous sources.
Levens scripted the Smallville season-one finale, "Tempest," and the season-two opener, "Vortex." Levens is bowing out of season three of the show to focus on his feature-film work, the site reported.
Previously, writers Todd Alcott (Thirteen Ghosts), Jon Cohen (Minority Report) and Becky Johnston (Price of Tides) have all taken a pass at adapting DC Comics' classic superhero saga. Joel Silver (The Matrix) is producing the movie.
Kennedy Mulls The Mask
amie Kennedy, who is connected with the upcoming sequel film Son of the Mask, told SCI FI Wire he hasn't completely committed to play the lead role.
Kennedy said in an interview that a lot depends on his schedule. "I'm working on my TV show [The WB's The Jamie Kennedy Experiment], but if I can work that out, I'm going to do it," Kennedy said. "I'm talking to the producers right now. I'm very close to making it happen."
Kennedy added that the sequel would expand the plot of the 1994 original film The Mask, which starred Jim Carrey in a story about a supernatural mask. "You can't follow in Jim's footsteps, so it would be a [story] where the mask is a very powerful entity," he said. "But it goes through different people, so it wouldn't just be me." Lawrence Guterman (Cats & Dogs) is reportedly directing the film, which is aiming for a 2004 release.
Cumming Eyes Son Of Mask
2 star Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler) is in early talks to take on a villainous role in New Line Cinema's upcoming Son of the Mask, the second installment of the Mask franchise, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Jamie Kennedy stars in Son of the Mask, which picks up the premise of a character-altering mask.
The new movie focuses on an aspiring cartoonist (Kennedy) who is not ready for fatherhood, but finds himself raising a baby endowed with the powers of the mask of Loki (Cumming), the trade paper reported.
The film is scheduled for a summer production start. Larry Guterman directs, from a script by Lance Khazei, Rob McKittrick and the team of Tom Gammill and Max Pross.
Contest Conjures Potter Essays
arry Potter's U.S. publisher, Scholastic, has invited young readers to write essays about the series in a
contest whose grand prize is a trip to England to hear author J.K. Rowling.
Ten winners and their chaperones will be the guests of Scholastic for an all-expenses-paid trip to London to hear Rowling answer questions and read from the upcoming fifth Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, on June 26.
To enter, fans are asked to write a 300-word essay answering the question "If you could have one special power taught at Hogwarts, what would it be and why?" Entries will be judged based on originality and clarity. Entrants must be residents of the United States and not older than 18 as of May 21.
Arrests Made In Potter Thefts
ritish police investigating the alleged theft of advance copies of the eagerly awaited fifth Harry Potter book told the Reuters news service that they have arrested four people.
Copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, to be published on June 21, were found earlier this week dumped in a field, the news service reported.
Police said in a statement that two 16-year-old boys and two men aged 18 and 44 were held in raids in Suffolk in eastern England late on May 7. They were due to question the four, all from Suffolk, on suspicion of theft and trying to obtain property by deception, Reuters said.
Two copies of the fifth installment of the boy wizard's adventures were handed to the Sun newspaper earlier this week, Reuters reported.
Gordon To Rewrite Snicket
aramount and DreamWorks have set Robert Gordon to rewrite Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, the film adaptation of Daniel Handler's book series, Variety reported.
Jim Carrey will star in the film for director Brad Silberling, the trade paper reported.
The sole screenwriter to this point has been Handler, the trade paper reported.
Gordon's screen credits include Galaxy Quest and Men in Black II. The studios hope to get the film ready to shoot in late fall in Los Angeles, the trade paper reported.
Sony Toons Up Film Slate
ony Pictures Animation has hired a raft of seasoned talent to create a slate of new computer-animated feature films, Variety reported.
The company's goal is to produce movies on a par with Shrek, Ice Age and Toy Story, the trade paper reported. Among the projects under development:
•Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Jules Feiffer is writing This Enchanted Forest, a fantasy comedy featuring his sardonic sensibility.
•The Lion King director Roger Allers and Brenda Chapman, who served as that film's story supervisor, will direct Tam Lin, loosely based on the Celtic folk ballad. Created by husband-and-wife artists Brian and Wendy Froud, the script will be written by Neil Gaiman (the English translation of Princess Mononoke).
•Jill Culton will direct and Anthony Stacchi will co-direct the comedy adventure Open Season, based on the work of cartoonist Steve Moore. Nat Mauldin (Doctor Dolittle) is writing the script, about wild animals who try to turn the tables on hunters.
•Twin brothers Paul and Gaetan Brizzi (Fantasia 2000) will direct Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, based on the children's book by Judi and Ron Barrett. Wayne Rice (Dude, Where's My Car?) will write the screenplay, about a land where food falls from the sky.
Coulter Handles The Truth
opranos director Allen Coulter has come aboard to direct Focus Features' Truth, Justice and the American Way, the film about the mysterious 1959 death of TV Superman George Reeves, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The film aims to go into production in late summer or early fall.
Paul Bernbaum wrote Truth. Bernbaum will do a rewrite of the script under Coulter's supervision.
Truth most recently was set up at Miramax Films, with Michael and Mark Polish attached to direct, the trade paper reported.
Donner Details Time Lag
ichard Donner, director of the upcoming SF film Timeline, told SCI FI Wire that world events, production delays and reshoots were responsible for pushing the adaptation of Michael Crichton's time-travel novel to an expected Nov. 26 release date.
Timeline was originally slated to come out April 11.
Donner said in an interview that he is now mixing sound and scoring the film and expects to deliver a negative to the studio at the end of June. Donner added that he could have had the film ready for a Labor Day release, but Paramount decided on Thanksgiving.
Timeline suffered two years of production delays even before principal photography began, Donner said. After settling on Wales for medieval locations during preproduction in March 2000, filmmakers came up against the United Kingdom's foot-and-mouth disease outbreak. "Everything was in quarantine, so we were shut down," Donner said. The quarantine lasted six months.
The production then eyed a Berlin shoot. But a potential actor's strike in early 2001 spooked Paramount, which asked Donner to grant a six-day-a-week production schedule—something Donner was not willing to concede. "I only shoot a five-day week," he said. As a result, the studio shut down the film until the threat of a strike was over.
In the fall of 2001, Timeline was gearing up to go to Berlin when the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks occurred. That raised the issue of security for an overseas shoot. "Even the studio felt it was safer to shoot in the States," Donner said. Donner eventually settled on a farmyard 90 minutes outside of Montreal, where production finally started in April 2002 and wrapped the following September.
Later, Donner had to undertake five days of reshoots to add scenes clarifying the movie's time travel in response to test audience confusion. "It seems to have made a big difference," Donner said.
Lords Gets Evil In Deathlands
ormer First Wave star Traci Elizabeth Lords told SCI FI Wire that she turns evil in the upcoming SCI FI Channel original movie Deathlands: Homeward Bound, based on James Axler's popular post-apocalyptic Deathlands books.
"It's about the end of the world," Lords said in an interview. "It's timely. Visually, with the red-tinting, it's pretty interesting."
Lords said that she's a big fan of SF. "I liked the character," she said. "Lady Rachel Cawdor is basically the queen of the underworld or, actually, the queen of the New World. I think she's deliciously evil." Lords added that director Joshua Butler (SCI FI's Clive Barker Presents Saint Sinner) gave her a lot of latitude in the role. "He just nodded and smiled a lot," she said.
Deathlands: Homeward Bound, which co-stars Vincent Spano, debuts at 9 p.m. ET on May 17.
Runelords Film Optioned
tory Island Entertainment, Origin Entertainment and Entertainment Business Group have acquired the feature-film and game rights to the best-selling fantasy novel series The Runelords by David Wolverton, writing as David Farland, Variety reported.
Terry Kahn will write the film script; the film will be produced by Wolverton, David McBrayer and Richard Shaw at Origin and EBG's Rob Holt and John J. Lee Jr., the trade paper reported.
The first Runelords novel was published in 1997, followed by Brotherhood of the Wolf and Wizardborn. This fall the fourth installment in the series, Lair of Bones, will be released by Tor, a division of St. Martin's Press, the trade paper reported.
The film is being readied for a fall 2004 theatrical release, with the first role-playing video game intended to hit retail shelves in time for the 2004 holiday season, the trade paper reported.
Radar Unveils Genre Slate
adar Pictures has teamed with New Line Cinema on the supernatural thriller film Superstition, Variety reported.
Superstition is based on David Ambrose's book and is the next project for Radar's Platinum Dunes joint venture with director Michael Bay, the trade paper reported.
Alex Sokoloff and Kimball Greenough are adapting Superstition, a thriller about a college psychology experiment that goes awry when students' superstitions accidentally create a ghost, the trade paper reported.
Radar is also in preproduction with New Line on Son of the Mask, which is set for a July 21 start.
And Radar is in preproduction on The Chronicles of Riddick, the SF follow-up to Pitch Black. It will star Vin Diesel and Dame Judi Dench.
New Wolfenstein Ships
ctivision announced that it has shipped id Software's Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War for the Xbox to retail outlets nationwide.
The video game, the latest installment in the World War II supernatural franchise, features multiplayer gaming, including squad-based warfare over Xbox Live or System Link, the company said. The game also has single-player and two-player modes.
Set against the backdrop of WWII, Tides of War takes players into a game filled with action, espionage and covert operations. Players take on the role of Army Ranger B.J. Blazkowicz, infiltrating Nazi Germany to stop the darkest plans of the Third Reich. Developed by Nerve Software, Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War carries a suggested retail price of $49.99.
World Sale Aids Charity
ans of the syndicated TV series The Lost World will be auctioning a prop from the show to benefit the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.
The fan-run Lost World Convention is selling an "Oscillation Overthruster," a prop from the 1984 film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, which also appeared in the Lost World episode "Legacy."
Lost World executive consultants Judy and Garfield Reeves-Stevens donated the prop to the fans. The Overthruster will come with a certificate from the Banzai Institute, with a technical certification signed by "Buckaroo Banzai" and the film's director, W.D. Richter, with added certification identifying the item as the standby prop for "Legacy," signed by the Reeves-Stevenses.
McGregor Baits Big Fish
wan McGregor told SCI FI Wire that his next film, Tim Burton's Big Fish, is a father-and-son story with a fantasy twist.
"Albert Finney and myself play the father," McGregor said in an interview. "I play him as a young man, not surprisingly, and Albert Finney plays him as an older man."
McGregor (Star Wars: Episode III) said that the film tells the story of a father and son (Billy Crudup) whose relationship has severed and becomes reconciled. "The father has always been and still is a great storyteller, solely about his own life," McGregor said. "He tells these rather exaggerated and fantastical stories about his own experiences, which I then get to play out. It's patently Tim Burton. It's not fantasy, it's not fairy tale, but it's just somehow fantastical."
Big Fish, which also stars Jessica Lange, Alison Lohman, Helena Bonham Carter and Steve Buscemi, will be released in 2004.
Dimension Ready And Waiting
imension Films is developing the supernatural thriller film The Waiting with producers Wes Craven (Scream) and Marianne Maddalena through their Craven-Maddalena Films company, Variety reported.
The film tells the story of a mother haunted by her dead child. Juliet Snowden and Stiles Eliot White wrote the script.
Dimension is also developing an as-yet-untitled supernatural police drama, based on the story of a real-life New York police officer who investigates paranormal cases, the trade paper reported.
Craven is in production for Dimension on Cursed, starring Christina Ricci, Skeet Ulrich, Scott Foley, Shannon Elizabeth and Scott Baio, to be released in 2004, the trade paper reported.
Vampire Due For PC
ctivision announced that it will release the supernatural horror game Vampire: The Masquerade—Bloodlines for the PC in 2004.
Set in modern-day Los Angeles, the game combines role-playing with first-person action combat.
In Vampire: The Masquerade—Bloodlines, players become a recently embraced fledgling vampire in the service of the city's dark prince.
Vampire: The Masquerade—Bloodlines is being developed by Troika Games (Fallout), based on White Wolf's pen-and-paper Vampire: The Masquerade role-playing game series.
Warner Enters Hergatory
arner Brothers has picked up the spec fantasy screenplay Hergatory for Andrew Lazar to produce through his studio-based Mad Chance Productions, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The project was written by first-time scribe Susan Brightbill.
Hergatory is described as a romantic comedy about a 30-year-old woman whose wish to go back and re-date her old boyfriends comes true. The wish becomes a curse when she suddenly finds her exes coming back into her life one by one, but at they ages they were when she first dated them, including an 8-year-old and a 13-year-old.
Indy DVDs Finally Due
he Indiana Jones trilogy is finally slated for worldwide DVD release Nov. 4 as The Adventures of Indiana Jones—The Complete DVD Movie Collection, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The four-disc box set will include a disc specifically dedicated to bonus materials for the movies, produced by George Lucas and directed by Steven Spielberg, the trade paper added.
The bonus materials include a documentary crafted by Laurent Bouzereau, who has gone behind the scenes on Lucas projects like American Graffiti and Spielberg projects such as Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
But the discs will not feature director's commentary tracks for the films, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Available in both widescreen and full-screen versions from Paramount Home Entertainment, the collection has no suggested retail price, but is expected to be available for about $49.95 in the United States, the trade paper reported.
SCI FI Seeks Mad Lives
he SCI FI Channel is seeking five people with "alternative lifestyles" to appear in its upcoming reality series Mad Mad House.
Producers are seeking people who identify themselves as Wiccans, vampires, Trekkers, witch doctors, "modern primitives," yogi masters, etc., to live together in "Alt Manor" for a month and compete for a grand prize.
Contestants must complete a questionnaire and e-mail it to apply. Mad Mad House is slated to shoot in September. Arthur Smith and Kent Weed, from A. Smith & Co., produce the series, which will be distributed by USA Cable Entertainment, a unit of Vivendi Universal Entertainment, which also owns SCI FI and SCIFI.COM.
Butler To Leave Phantom?
he British Express newspaper reported a rumor that Scottish actor Gerard Butler may be reconsidering a starring role in Joel Schumacher's upcoming film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera musical.
Butler is reportedly up for the lead role in a movie about the life of Scots poet Robert Burns, which would conflict with Phantom.
Butler, who indicated that he wants to play Burns, has not decided whether to take the role in Phantom, the newspaper reported.
Butler will next be seen as Terry Sheridan in the upcoming sequel film Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, which opens July 25.
Browder Surfaces In CSI: Miami
ormer Farscape star Ben Browder told SCI FI Wire that he made a guest appearance on CBS's CSI: Miami on May 5, playing a nightclub bouncer.
"The storyline is about a fire in a club where a lot of people died," Browder said in an interview from his home in Los Angeles. "And at a certain point it's suspected arson. There's a murder tied to it."
Browder has moved back to Southern California from Australia, where Farscape was produced for four years. He remains philosophical about Farscape's end. "I've always been pragmatic about it," he said. He added, "Creatively, would I have wanted to do more? Yeah. But it wasn't up to me. ... I understand that decisions were made for reasons which don't have anything do to with me or the quality of the show. They have to do with a business model."
Browder added that he has spoken as recently as last week with Farscape executive producer David Kemper about a possible spinoff movie or other incarnations of the show. (SCI FI currently has no plans to bring the series back in any form.) "Yeah, I talked to David three days ago," he said. "He's had some conversations about Farscape. None of them have been the solid green-light conversation." Reruns of Farscape's four seasons air Sunday to Thursday at 12 a.m. ET/PT on SCI FI.
Deschanel Romances Elf
ooey Deschanel, co-star of the upcoming fantasy comedy film Elf, told SCI FI Wire that she plays the love interest to Will Ferrell's character.
Ferrell plays Buddy, a man who was raised from infancy by elves at the North Pole and must come to terms with the fact that he is a human.
"I play a girl who works in a [department store] like Macy's as an elf, and Will Ferrell, who really thinks he's an elf, comes to the store and falls in love with me," Deschanel said in an interview. Deschanel added that the film's director, Jon Favreau, allowed improvisation on his set. "He let us have a lot of freedom," she said.
Elf wrapped production in March and is aiming for a Nov. 7 release.
Universal Walks On St. Cloud
niversal Pictures and producer Marc Platt have acquired film rights to The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud, Ben Sherwood's fantasy novel to be published by Bantam, Variety reported.
Sherwood will executive produce the movie.
The novel tells the story of Charlie St. Cloud, a cemetery caretaker who has weekly meetings with the spirit of his deceased younger brother and who begins a romantic relationship with a woman who may or may not be an apparition on the way to the next life, the trade paper reported.
Universal Pictures is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Judge Rules Against Pooh Heir
U.S. federal judge has ruled tentatively that the granddaughter of Winnie the Pooh's creator cannot have the U.S. marketing rights to the character, delivering a blow to the Walt Disney Co. in its fight for Pooh rights, the Reuters news service reported.
If finalized, the ruling would be a major victory for Stephen Slesinger Inc., the company that currently holds the Pooh copyright and has filing lawsuits claiming that Disney owes it millions in back royalty payments, the news service reported.
Judge Florence-Marie Cooper of the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles reviewed the copyright case and will hear oral arguments on May 5. But in her initial ruling, designed to clarify the legal issues in the case, Cooper held that Clare Milne could not use a change in U.S. copyright law to reclaim the U.S. rights to Winnie the Pooh next year, her lawyer David Nimmer told Reuters. Her grandfather, British author A.A. Milne, sold the U.S. rights in 1930 to American literary agent Stephen Slesinger.
Disney, which makes about $1 billion of Pooh-related merchandise each year under the disputed contract with Slesinger, joined Milne asking the court for a judgment on her behalf, although it did not ask for assignment of the U.S. rights to itself, the wire service reported.
EA Flies With Superman
arner Brothers Consumer Products and DC Comics announced that Electronic Arts has been awarded the worldwide interactive gaming rights to its upcoming Superman movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
EA got the rights to develop, publish and distribute computer and video games based on the proposed fifth Superman film and any subsequent films distributed during the term of the agreement, the trade paper reported.
Superman is envisioned as the first in a trilogy of films, the trade paper reported. It has been beset by casting and other development problems.
The license grants EA the rights to develop game titles for all current and next-generation video-game consoles, handhelds and the PC. In addition, EA has the rights to produce games based on Superman comics and animated television programs. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, the trade paper reported.
Disney Readies 3-D Thrilla
isney is developing the zombie movie Thrilla with director Hype Williams, Variety reported.
Set in Jamaica, the movie centers on a group of young people who unwittingly awaken zombies.
Williams wrote the script for the film, which will be the studio's first all-digital feature release. It will also be shot in 3-D, with Stan Winston Studio special-effects creature master Mark "Crash" McCreery designing the zombies, the trade paper reported.
Disney Preps Joe 90
isney is readying Joe 90, a live-action feature film based on husband-and-wife team Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's cult British TV puppet series, Variety reported.
Don Murphy, whose Angryfilms production company produced The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, is teaming with British producer Susan Montford, the trade paper reported.
The series, which ran in 1968-'69, centered on the adventures of a boy agent for the World Intelligence Network, who uses a pair of electronic glasses that can imbue him with the brain patterns of the greatest experts in the world, the trade paper reported.
Gerry Anderson also produced and co-wrote the Thunderbirds series, which is being produced as a live-action movie under director Jonathan Frakes (Clockstoppers), the trade paper reported.
Briefly Noted
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Revolution Studios has optioned the film rights to the Jingle Belle graphic novels of Paul Dini, about Santa Claus' rebellious teen daughter, Variety reported. Adam Sandler and partner Jack Giarraputo will executive produce a live-action film, along with TV animation veteran Dini (Batman Beyond).
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Former 007 star Roger Moore, 75, was recovering in a hospital after collapsing during a stage performance in New York, the Associated Press reported. Moore fell on May 7 during a dance number in the second act of the comedy The Play What I Wrote and was taken to St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital.
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Ashton Kutcher's agent told IGN FilmForce that rumors about his starring in a Knight Rider movie are only that. "It's a possibility, but that's all," the agent said."He hasn't even seen a script."
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Ain't It Cool News reported a rumor that Marvel executive Avi Arad is in talks with George Clooney to take on the lead role of Reed Richards in its proposed Fantastic Four movie.
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John Kent Harrison's A Wrinkle in Time, based on Madeleine L'Engle's classic book, received top honors at the sixth Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children, Variety reported.
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Revolution Studios has bought the fantasy comedy spec script Meet Mr. Id from Chris Pappas and Mike Bernier, Variety reported. The story follows a young man and his invisible, 3-foot-tall libido.
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Marvel chief executive Avi Arad told reporters that the proposed film version of the Fantastic Four comic series is being targeted for a Nov. 4, 2004, release, Cinescape Online reported.
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The New Zealand Stuff Web site reported that the Wellington city council will spend $4.5 million to upgrade the Empire theater in the Kiwi capital to accommodate the world premiere of the third Lord of the Rings movie, The Return Of the King, in December.
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A new trailer has gone live for Fox's upcoming League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, based on Alan Moore's graphic novel series of the same name. League opens July 11.
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Variety reported that Jackie Chan's upcoming SF film Titanium Rain has been renamed Time Breaker.
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JoBlo's Movie Emporium reported that Twin Peaks writer Mark Frost has been hired to pen a new draft of a proposed Fantastic Four movie, based on the venerable Marvel Comics series.
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New Line has put up a new poster and images for its upcoming supernatural horror film Freddy vs. Jason on the official Web site. Freddy vs. Jason opens Aug. 15.
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Fans of UPN's Buffy the Vampire Slayer have created a Web site where they can post "thank yous" to cast and crew for the show's seven-year run.
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Fans of ABC's canceled Miracles placed two ads in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, urging someone to pick up the supernatural show.
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Romano Shane Productions has acquired the parody spec script Yet Another Superhero Movie, written by Frank Longo and John Wyn, Variety reported. The comedy satirizes current superhero movies.
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Chinese director Chen Kaige has teamed with producer Etchie Stroh to create a production company that will produce both Chinese- and English-language features, Variety reported. The first film is tentatively titled The Promise, a love triangle fantasy among a general, a princess and a slave.
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