Fox Nixes John Doe
ore genre TV shows hit the dust as the Fox broadcast network officially canceled John Doe after only one season, Variety reported.
The network also formally dumped Futurama, though that show's demise has been expected since production ceased before the beginning of last season. Last year, the network burned off the remaining original episodes.
Fox also officially acknowledged the death of Firefly, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon. That show went on permanent hiatus in the middle of last season.
Matrix Loads Record Take
he Matrix Reloaded grossed a record $42.5 million on its opening day May 15, said Dick Parsons, chief executive of AOL Time Warner, which owns Warner Brothers, Reuters reported.
"That's the largest one-day opening in the history of movies," Parsons told the company's annual meeting.
The one-day start puts Reloaded well on its way to breaking the box-office records for an opening weekend, the news service reported. Last year's Spider-Man holds the record for a best three-day opening, with $114.8 million in ticket sales, Reuters reported.
The movie made its nationwide debut on May 15, playing in a little over 3,600 theaters and on 8,500 movie screens.
Matrix Game Like Mini-Movie
ave Perry, president of Shiny Entertainment and developer of the Enter the Matrix video game, told SCI FI Wire that the extra hour's worth of film footage written and directed by the Wachowski brothers exclusively for the game is nothing short of a movie in itself.
In an interview during the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, Perry said, "This wasn't like us picking pieces up off of the floor and trying to make a video game out of it or something like that. They actually directed this from the very beginning as another movie. So this is a third movie. It happens to run parallel to [The Matrix] Reloaded."
Starring the cast of Reloaded, Enter the Matrix features a scene in which Niobe (Jada Pinkett-Smith) and Persephone (Monica Bellucci) kiss, as well as additional footage that weaves in and out of the movie and offers players a deeper look into the film's storyline. "This has changed the way Hollywood works our industry," Perry said, adding, "I can't see how we can go back. ... By them actually working on the game and having all of the actors, all of the crew and everyone working [on] the game, that for me is kind of like the Holy Grail."
Players can assume the role of either Ghost (Anthony Wong) or Niobe and can toggle between first or third-person gameplay. Players can also choose to use the games "focus" feature to slow down gameplay while in "The Matrix," recreating the film's trademark "bullet time" and other recognizable effects.
Published by Atari and available for PC, Xbox, GameCube and PlayStation 2, Enter the Matrix entered stores May 15 in conjunction with the theatrical release of the film, The Matrix Reloaded.
Reloaded Stars Do Cannes
he stars of the sequel film The Matrix Reloaded made the trip to the Cannes Film Festival on May 15 to unveil their new movie, the Reuters news service reported.
Stars Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne, Hugo Weaving, Monica Belluci and Jada Pinkett Smith made the trip, along with producer Joel Silver.
But brothers Andy and Larry Wachowksi, who wrote and directed The Matrix Reloaded, passed on the festival as they worked to complete the third Matrix film, The Matrix Revolutions, which is due in November, the news service reported.
Reloaded F/X Match Neo's Power
ohn Gaeta, visual effect supervisor on The Matrix Reloaded, told SCI FI Wire that the sequel contains more elaborate effects to match the development of Neo (Keanu Reeves).
Writer/directors Larry and Andy Wachowski "expanded and extended [them], because the character Neo ... now self-actualizes into the true sense of a superhuman mind-over-Matrix," Gaeta said in an interview.
Gaeta added, "He now is capable of doing things with his will. So we obviously needed to support depictions of events that were going to be far more elaborate than the first bullet time, because the character was now going to engage in ways that we've never seen."
Among other things, the sequel shows Neo flying at breathtaking speeds throught the Matrix and fighting dozens of Agent Smiths (Hugo Weaving). In each case, Gaeta said, "the special effects are serving the story, rather than [having] effects for the sake of effects."
Other elaborate sequences include a 14-minute freeway chase involving trucks, a motorcycle, dozens of auto crashes and a truck-top sword fight. When asked why preview audiences found themselves applauding certain sequences, Gaeta said, "They were probably brought to a peak of excitement, which is the whole point." The Matrix Reloaded opens May 15.
Reloaded Role Suits Smith
ada Pinkett Smith, who stars as Niobe in the sequel film The Matrix Reloaded, told SCI FI Wire that writer/directors Larry and Andy Wachowski wrote the part specifically for her.
"They did, actually," she said in an interview. "I met the Wachowskis for the first Matrix. ... So when two and three came around, they basically said, 'We have this character that we created for you, Niobe. Only problem is that you're nine months pregnant.' So they worked it out so that it could work for me, which I'll be forever grateful for."
Smith plays the captain of the hovercraft Logos, who plays a key role in the sequel and the third movie, The Matrix Revolutions. Niobe is also the central character in the video game, Enter the Matrix. Smith said she was in Australia shooting footage for the two movies and the video game for nearly a year. Niobe appears in a few scenes in Reloaded and plays a larger role in Revolutions.
"I'm getting kind of a better gauge after seeing [Reloaded]," Smith said. "There are some things that I thought were in this movie that weren't, and some things that I thought weren't going to be in this movie that were in this movie. I'm not clear. I've got to see the video-game movie. Because you have to understand, we have three different scripts going on, so I'm not sure where they're putting stuff. They're spreading stuff around." Reloaded opens on May 15.
Bellucci Kisses Keanu. Again.
onica Bellucci, who plays the new character Persephone in the Matrix Reloaded, told SCI FI Wire that a key scene required her to buss star Keanu Reeves (Neo).
It marked a reunion of sorts for Belucci and Reeves, who also shared a sensual scene in 1992's Bram Stoker's Dracula.
"I met Keanu a long time ago, eight, nine years ago, when I did Dracula, and I was still a model at the time," the Italian actress said in an interview. "And also at the time I had to kiss him. So it's incredible. Each time I meet him, I'll be kissing him."
In Reloaded, Bellucci plays a role named after a character in Greek mythology. The original Persephone "was the daughter of the king of the gods and the goddess of fertility, Demeter. And she was kidnapped by the king of the underworld, Hades, to be his queen. And she was allowed to come back into the living world just part of the year." The myth informs her Matrix role, in which she plays the companion of an important and villainous character. She's "like a woman who is between two worlds in some ways," Bellucci said. "There is something really tragic, really sad about her, because she doesn't have any feelings." The Matrix Reloaded opens May 15.
The Kid Stays In The Matrix
layton Watson, who plays a character called simply "The Kid" in both Matrix sequels, told SCI FI Wire that his character gets to drive a mechanical armed "walker suit" in the third film, The Matrix Revolutions.
The futuristic battle suit appears briefly in the sequel, The Matrix Reloaded, and in the Revolutions teaser trailer tagged at the end. "They built one full prototype," Watson said in an interview. "The rest is [computer-animated]."
Watson said that shooting in the large metal walker gave him whiplash. "The thing threw me around," he said. "It was actually 10 times faster and more loaded than any theme park ride." In the films, the suit is employed to fight the robotic Sentinels that are attacking the last human settlement, Zion.
Watson's character is actually introduced in the Animatrix short film "The Kid," which will be one of nine short films to be released in June. In The Matrix Reloaded, The Kid appears as an admirer of Neo (Keanu Reeves) in Zion. Reloaded opens May 15; Revolutions opens Nov. 5.
Matrix Online Coming
arner Brothers and Ubi Soft Entertainment announced a 2004 release for The Matrix Online, a massively multiplayer online game that puts players inside the world of the Matrix films, Cinescape Online reported.
Larry and Andy Wachowski, writers/directors of the Matrix movies, are behind the game, which will be overseen by Warner, while Ubi Soft distributes and manages the game operations, the site reported.
The Matrix Online takes place in the time period directly after the conclusion of the third film, The Matrix Revolutions, which is due in November. Players will be able to wander city streets, cross freeways, enter nightclubs and skyscrapers and use martial arts to battle adversaries, as in the films, the site reported.
Monolith Productions and EON Entertainment, the Wachowskis' company, are developing the PC-based game.
Arnold, Mostow Talk T3 Game
onathan Mostow, director of the upcoming sequel film Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, told SCI FI Wire that he shot extra footage exclusively for the video game of the same name.
In an interview during the May 12 premiere party for the game, Mostow added that he saw no difference between that footage and the movie itself. "I'm built like a movie maker, so I make it like a movie, and I leave it to the video game people to figure out how to work it into a video game," he said.
The T3 game, which is slated for release in the fall, features five minutes of new film that weaves in and out of the movie's story. The game also features the voices and likenesses of the movie's stars, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl and Claire Danes. "What's great about technology nowadays is scanning," Mostow said. "They can scan our actors. They can scan our sets. So you're really playing the actors in their wardrobes, on the sets that we shot and constructed."
Developed by Black Ops and published by Atari for multiple next-generation consoles, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is a first-person styled game in which players will be able to assume the identity of Schwarzenegger's character, the T-800.
In a separate interview, Schwarzenegger told SCI FI Wire that he was "really excited about [the game], because my kids are so much looking forward to this video game to come out. They're asking more about the video game than about the movie, so, you know, that's really the exciting thing. I love the way the images look and the motions and all that stuff."
The Terminator 3 movie hits theaters July 2. "The kinds of movies that I love, and hopefully the movie we made with T3, is a movie where you just don't know what's going to happen next," Mostow told an audience at the game's premiere. "And you sit there, clutching your armrests, because you're caught up in the suspense of the movie. And I think that's also what a great game is. ... It's not predictable, and it's cool."
Winston Game For T3
tan Winston, who designed the cyborgs in the upcoming sequel film Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, told SCI FI Wire that his new TX terminator robot that will also be featured in the upcoming video game based on the movie.
Speaking in an interview at the May 12 premiere party for the game in Hollywood, Winston said, "It’s amazing to me that we had to wait ... three movies to realize that the baddest of all [terminators] was going to be a female. This time, it’s a very, very sexy, mean, very powerful robot."
Designs from Winston's studio were the foundation from which game develop Black Ops modeled the robots in the game, including the new T-1 and Arnold Schwarzenegger's character, the original T-800 terminator.
The movie, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, is headed for theaters July 2. But fans will have to wait until fall to get their hands on the video game, which contains at least five minutes of exclusive footage filmed at the same time as the movie. The game is said to shed some light on the history and mythology of the T-800, Winston said. "The Arnold character, the T-800, is as strong as it ever was, and he’s truly back, and he’s back in a powerful way," he said.
Claire Danes, who plays Kate Miller, also took part in the additional filming for the video game. She told SCI FI Wire that working on both the game and the movie "was a surprisingly fulfilling experience." Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is being published by Atari and will be available for play on all of the next-generation consoles.
Galactica Set Impresses Olmos
dward James Olmos, who takes on the role of Cmdr. Adama in the SCI FI Channel's upcoming original miniseries Battlestar Galactica, told SCI FI Wire that the scale of the massive battlestar set helps him get into his role.
"It makes the authenticity and the ability to sink inside of it much easier, because you're inside the whole, all-encompassing space," Olmos said in an interview from the miniseries' Vancouver, B.C., soundstages. "It's not just a facade or just three walls. It's an entire spaceship. It makes the reality stronger for the people working in it, for the crew, everybody."
Olmos plays the role originated by Lorne Greene in the 1970s TV series on which the miniseries is based. On a recent day, Olmos took his place on Galactica's "Combat Information Center" set, which acts as the bridge: a gigantic, 360-degree set with multiple levels, a dozen or more control stations and rooms bursting with high-tech equipment. Adama has no captain's chair; rather, he stays mobile, going from station to station and consulting with his crew.
SCI FI's "reimagined" Battlestar Galactica was written by Ronald D. Moore (Roswell, Star Trek: First Contact) and directed by Michael Rymer (Queen of the Damned), with David Eick (American Gothic) and Moore serving as executive producers.
"Ron Moore did an excellent job," Olmos said. "He's had, like, nine years of working on Star Trek [The Next Generation], and ... he applied all of his knowledge of all that he had done, and basically it became a very strong piece of work." SCI FI's Battlestar Galactica will debut in December.
Galactica Game Develops
ivendi Universal Games announced the development of a video game based on the classic SF TV series Battlestar Galactica for the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox video game systems.
The Battlestar Galactica game is slated for a fall release, marking the 25th anniversary of the original series.
The game will be a story-driven space action-adventure that takes place at the end of the Cylon-Colonial Wars, 40 years prior to the setting of the original TV series. In the game, players will assume the role of Ensign William Adama in his critical first assignment, as a pilot aboard the warship Battlestar Galactica.
The original series will be released later this year on home video and DVD. In addition, a new Battlestar Galactica miniseries will debut on the SCI FI Channel in December. Currently in production, the miniseries is written by Ronald D. Moore (Roswell, Star Trek: First Contact) and directed by Michael Rymer (Queen of the Damned), with David Eick (Hercules: The Legendary Journeys) and Moore serving as executive producers.
Vivendi Universal Games is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Klingon Linguists Not Needed
fficials in Multnomah County, Ore., have rescinded a call for Klingon language experts after news reports revealed the plan to hire interpreters for county mental health patients, the Associated Press reported.
The office that treats county mental health patients had included Klingon—the fictional Star Trek alien tongue—on a list of 55 languages that could be spoken by incoming patients.
But the county has rescinded its call, stressing that it hasn't spent a penny of public money on Klingon interpretation, the AP reported. Multnomah County Chair Diane Linn told the wire service that the inclusion of Klingon was "a mistake, and a result of an overzealous attempt to ensure that our safety net systems can respond to all customers and clients."
Lucas Creates Toon Unit
tar Wars creator George Lucas has added an animation division to his special-effects company Industrial Light & Magic, in an effort gain a corner of the fast-developing digital-animation business, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Lucasfilm Animation will give more independence to a small, existing animation department within the company, the trade paper reported.
The division's staff currently includes only nine people, headed by senior vice president Patty Blau, but is expected to grow, the trade paper reported. The venture comes after Lucas spent nearly six years trying unsuccessfully to break into the feature-animation business working on studio-controlled projects.
Taken DVD Due Oct. 21
reamWorks Home Video has announced the DVD release of the SCI FI Channel's original miniseries Steven Spielberg Presents Taken on Oct. 21.
The six-disc boxed set will feature the episodes in their original aspect ratios and will include 5.1 Dolby digital soundtracks in English and French. Each disc will carry two episodes of the 20-hour miniseries, with the sixth devoted to bonus features.
Suggested retail price for the set is $119.99, with a minimum advertised price of $89.95.
Berry Breaks Arm Doing Gothika
alle Berry broke her right arm on the Montreal set of her upcoming supernatural film, Gothika, but will be back on the job next week, a Warner Brothers spokesman told the Reuters news service on May 15.
The Oscar-winning actress, who plays a criminal psychologist in the movie, was injured on May 14, while shooting a physically demanding scene, spokesman Joe Everett told the news service.
Several of Berry's co-stars, who include Robert Downey Jr., Penelope Cruz and Lord of the Rings actor Bernard Hill, were on set at the time, but it's not clear who else was in the scene with her. "It wasn't a stunt scene. It was just one of the physical scenes in a movie," Everett said. "Her arm didn't go the way it was supposed to."
Berry, 32, was taken by ambulance to a Montreal hospital, where she was treated for a broken ulna and released, Everett said. The producers, Robert Zemeckis and Joel Silver, shut down filming until May 20 and were determining how to shoot around Berry's arm cast, Reuters reported. About four weeks of filming remains in the nine-week production schedule. Gothika is due out in October.
Dushku's Aim Is Tru
he Fox broadcast network has ordered a new supernatural drama, Tru Calling, starring Buffy the Vampire Slayer alumna Eliza Dushku as a young woman with psychic powers.
Tru Calling will air at 8 p.m. ET/PT Thursdays, starting in the fall.
Dushku will play Tru Davies, a graduate student who can relive whole days in order to prevent tragedies. Jon Feldman (Roswell) is the writer and executive producer. The pilot was directed by Phillip Noyce (The Quiet American).
The network has also ordered Wonderfalls, a fantasy series, which will air at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Mondays, starting in midseason. Set against the backdrop of Niagara Falls, the series centers on Jaye Tyler (Caroline Dhavernas), a souvenir-shop worker who hears inanimate animal figures speaking to her in cryptic messages about people in need. Bryan Fuller (Star Trek: Voyager) and Todd Holland (Malcolm in the Middle) created the series.
TV Cast Voices Alias Game
eff Blattner, producer of Buena Vista Interactive's upcoming Alias video game, told SCI FI Wire that the developers, Acclaim, are working closely with the cast and crew of the ABC TV show on which the game is based.
"We landed all the major cast members from the show for the game," Blattner said in an interview at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. "We had voice-over checks with Jennifer Garner and most of the major cast members. All the costumes that Sidney wears in the game are costumes that Jennifer has worn in the show."
The third-person spy game premiered at E3 and is slated for release in the fall for the Xbox, PC and PlayStation 2.
Darclight Readies Last Sign
ustralian company Arclight Films has created a new label, Darclight, to specialize in action, fantasy and horror films, with the supernatural thriller The Last Sign as its first title, Variety reported.
Darclight is looking to fund, produce, distribute and finance up to five films a year, the trade paper reported.
The Last Sign, directed by Douglas Law, stars Andie MacDowell, Bruce Greenwood and Samuel Le Bihan (Brotherhood of the Wolf). The film tells the story of a woman trying to come to terms with the death of her alcoholic husband.
Other Darclight titles include Possession, a modern-day Don't Look Now, which rolls in October, directed by Peter Flinth, the trade paper reported.
Stars Get Behind Stargate
obert Cooper, executive producer of the SCI FI Channel original series Stargate SG-1, told SCI FI Wire that the show's seventh season will showcase the talents of stars Christopher Judge, Amanda Tapping and Michael Shanks both behind and in front of the camera.
"The actors are
getting more involved creatively this year," Cooper said in an interview. "Chris has written an episode. Michael will be writing one for later in the season. Amanda is going to direct an episode in the second half, and Corin Nemec is returning for an episode that will play in the second half and is based on a story Corin pitched."
Cooper said that his Stargate mandate is to "have fun," as he considers the series a "vehicle for entertainment." The executive producer and newly installed show runner also discussed Richard Dean Anderson's reduced role as Col. Jack O'Neill this year.
"[Anderson] is still going to be the leader of SG-1, and he's going to be present in almost every episode. But there's going to be a lot more focus put on the other three characters and their relationships," Cooper said. "We'll have stories that are very much about Teal'c [Judge], Daniel [Shanks] and Carter [Tapping]. So, if anything, this is the year of the other three, and I think and hope that fans can appreciate that."
New episodes of Stargate SG-1 begin with the two-hour seventh-season premiere on June 13, following a season-premiere special, Stargate: The Lowdown, at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Shanks: Stargate Changes Due
ichael Shanks—who returns as Dr. Daniel Jackson in the upcoming seventh season of the SCI FI Channel original series Stargate SG-1—told SCI FI Wire that the sixth-season finale's climactic events set the stage for major changes.
"They seemed to kill a lot of characters, end a lot of races and eliminate a lot of our potential allies, so everything would be in place for a big, climactic two-hour movie," Shanks said in an interview. "Then, when they realized we were going [for a seventh season], they said, 'Oh boy, we killed everyone. We eliminated all our threats, and now we have to start all over again.'"
Season seven will feature new cultures and the return of old friends, including Jackson, Shanks said in an interview. The SG-1 team will also continue on their journey to find the lost city mentioned in "Full Circle," the sixth-season finale. "There are going to be ramifications from Daniel's de-ascension," Shanks said. "There's a great episode called 'Space Race,' which will feature probably some of the best spaceship visual effects that we've had. There's a great episode called 'Lifeboat' that's all about different personalities being put into Daniel's head. We're only on episode eight right now, so there's still a lot to be discovered."
New episodes of Stargate SG-1 begin with the two-hour seventh-season premiere on June 13, following a season-premiere special, Stargate: The Lowdown, at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Shanks Stars In Sumuru
targate SG-1 star Michael Shanks told SCI FI Wire that he plays space adventurer Adam Wade in Sumuru, a low-budget film based on Sax Rohmer's novel series.
"Way off into the future, my character lands on a planet and expects to find the last remnants of Earth's civilization," Shanks said in an interview. "But he finds that, almost in a Planet of the Apes kind of way, the culture has completely rearranged itself."
Women are the dominant gender, while men work in the planet's mines and are used to propagate the species. "It's sort of that Amazon Women on the Moon concept, with action and whatnot," Shanks said. "So the character becomes, hopefully, the voice of the audience."
Shanks filmed Sumuru during his time away from Stargate and considered the job "a paid vacation" in South Africa. "We don't take ourselves too seriously, because we know that this is sketchy material at best," he said.
Sumuru will likely air this fall on German television, as a German station partially financed the film, Shanks said. The producers will then shop the film to distributors in the United States and abroad.
Shanks Returns To Andromeda
targate SG-1 star Michael Shanks told SCI FI Wire that he will make another appearance in the syndicated TV series Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, playing opposite his real-life girlfriend, Lexa Doig, who is a series regular.
Shanks will guest-star in the episode "Day of Judgment, Day of Wrath."
"My girlfriend and I got to beat the crap out of each other, and what better way to spend time with your significant other when you're just back from a long shoot somewhere?" Shanks asked in an interview. "[Stargate co-star] Christopher Judge [Teal'c] is in it as well, and we play opposing Avatars, which are physical embodiments of the ship's A.I. system."
Shanks added that he and Judge are playing "different generations" of android characters they introduced in previous Andromeda episodes. Shanks portrayed Gabriel in the first-season episode "Star-Crossed." Judge played the Achilles Avatar in "The Knight, Death and the Devil." "Basically, their core systems come from the same place, but they're not exactly the same physical bodies," Shanks said. "Of course, Andromeda [Doig] is the same."
Shanks likened shooting of the episode to sitting around in a living room with friends and loved ones, except that they were gathered on a set. "There's some great wire work that they do on that show, and so we had a lot of fun with the action stuff," Shanks said. "I've seen a cut of it, and I think that it turned out well." "Day of Judgment, Day of Wrath" airs this week in first-run syndication. New episodes of Stargate SG-1, featuring the return of Shanks' character, Dr. Daniel Jackson, begin with the seventh-season premiere on the SCI FI Channel June 13.
WB Renews Angel
he WB has renewed its vampire series Angel for a full fifth season, with former Buffy the Vampire Slayer cast member James Marsters joining the show as Spike, Variety reported.
But cast member Charisma Carpenter, who plays Cordelia, is not expected to return as a series regular, the trade paper reported.
The Joss Whedon series will air on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT, with relocated hit Smallville as its lead-in, the trade paper reported. The WB also has an option for a sixth season.
Other Buffy regulars may also make guest appearances next season, while Whedon has vowed to write several scripts and direct episodes of the show, the trade paper reported. Jeffrey Bell and Tim Minear will be executive producers/show runners.
UPN: Jake Yes, Zone No
PN has ordered the SF series Jake 2.0 from executive producer Silvio Horta for the fall, but has canceled The Twilight Zone after only one season, Variety reported.
David Greenwalt (Angel, Miracles) will serve as show runner of the one-hour drama Jake 2.0, the trade paper reported.
Gina Matthews and Grant Scharbo are also executive producers on the series, which comes from Viacom and Roundtable Entertainment, the trade paper reported.
Jake 2.0 centers on a National Security Agency agent who's implanted with computer chips.
Questor Resurrected
tar Trek: The Next Generation writer Herbert Wright has secured the rights to Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's proposed Questor TV series, about an android living among humans as a guardian angel, the official Trek Web site reported.
The project was turned into a 1974 TV movie, The Questor Tapes, but never developed as a series.
Wright obtained the rights from the Roddenberry family and is currently engaged in reconceptualizing and contemporizing the project, based on Roddenberry's original notes and the original pilot script written by him and Gene L. Coon, the site reported. Wright is eyeing a possible fall production start. No distributor has been signed yet.
In the meantime, Wright is seeking Questor-related materials that fans may have in their collections, including unproduced scripts or story outlines.
The Questor Tapes aired on NBC in 1974, starring Robert Foxworth as the android Questor and Mike Farrell as his human confidant, Jerry Robinson, the site reported.
Potter Suspect Pleads
printing plant worker pleaded guilty May 14 to stealing pages from the forthcoming Harry Potter novel, the Associated Press reported.
Donald Parfitt, a forklift operator at Clays Ltd. in Bungay, eastern England, claims he found the pages in the parking lot as he was leaving work May 5, the news service reported.
Parfitt, 44, was arrested two days later after the Sun newspaper told police it had received a call from "a shifty-sounding man" offering three chapters of the book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, for $40,000, the AP reported. Parfitt is due to be sentenced June 4 at Lowestoft Magistrates Court. Three teenagers arrested with him have been charged with receiving stolen goods.
The fifth book in J.K. Rowling's series about a boy wizard is set for a June 21 release.
Travolta Joins Punisher
rtisan Pictures and Marvel Studios have set John Travolta to play the lead villain opposite Thomas Jane in The Punisher, based on the Marvel Comics series, Variety reported.
Jonathan Hensleigh is directing from his own script, starting in July for a summer 2004 release.
The Punisher is the tale of an FBI undercover agent who sees his family slaughtered and seeks revenge. Travolta plays Howard Saint, a former underworld figure who goes straight, but returns to old habits after his son is slain.
Five Children Developing
apitol Films is teaming with Jim Henson's Creature Shop to produce Five Children and It, a family fantasy movie based on Edith Nesbit's classic 1902 novel, Variety reported.
Kenneth Branagh, Eddie Izzard and Freddie Highmore (Peter Pan in J.M. Barrie's Neverland) will star in the $20 million movie, to be directed by Creature Shop head John Stephenson, the trade paper reported.
The movie tells the story of five siblings who are sent to stay with their uncle (Branagh) in a strange house by the sea and who dig up an ill-tempered 8,000-year-old Psammead, or sand fairy, voiced by Izzard, who grants them one wish a day.
Fragile Eyes Cannes
arcelona-based Filmax Entertainment will use the Cannes Film Festival to unveil the supernatural movie Fragile, to be directed by Spanish director Jaume Balaguero, Variety reported.
The English-language movie with an international cast is aiming to shoot in spring 2004 in Spain, the trade paper reported.
Balaguero (The Nameless) is working on the first draft of the screenplay, a contemporary ghost story set in a Victorian hospital on the Isle of Man, off the coast of England.
Garland Talks 28 Days
lex Garland, writer of the upcoming apocalyptic SF movie 28 Days Later, told SCI FI Wire that he got the idea from classic British literature, including John Wyndham's Day of the Triffids and the books of J.G. Ballard.
"And also post-apocalyptic films, and actually there's loads of post-apocalyptic literature as well," Garland said in an interview from his home in London. "I suppose I'm really thinking of things like Dawn of the Dead and Night of the Living Dead and Omega Man, stuff like that."
The independent British film begins in an eerily abandoned London, which has been devastated by a mysterious plague. Danny Boyle directs the story of cycle courier Jim (Cillian Murphy), who awakes from a coma in the apparently deserted city, only to find it inhabited by murderous zombie-like people.
"There's always been something about post-apocalyptic story that I got a big kick out of," Garland said. "Britain at the time was ... very paranoid. It was this paranoid island, and it's more paranoid now. But two and a half years ago, when I started working, it was still paranoid back then. And the thing about the books and films I was just talking about was that I think they were responsive to paranoid times as well."
Boyle was interested in a story that commented on what he perceived to be a growing trend of social rage, Garland added. "According to an argument of Danny's, I think you could say it's getting worse," Garland said. "I suppose that I was thinking, as well as just about our sort of generalized intolerance, that there is ... a kind of misperception of how other people are that makes people afraid of other people." 28 Days Later opens in select U.S. cities on June 27.
Everquest Projects Unveiled
ony has announced four new projects under development for the Everquest gaming franchise, Cinescape Online reported.
Some are sequels to the popular online fantasy world, while others are bundle packs or ports to new platforms, the site reported.
Lords of Everquest is a real-time strategy game due out this fall for the PC.
Everquest II is the sequel to the world's most popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game, set 500 years after the first game and featuring 16 races and 48 classes to choose from. The game hits store shelves in the winter.
Everquest Online Adventures: Frontiers for the PlayStation 2 expands the world of Norrath by adding new items, spells, lands, creatures and a new playable race, Ogres. It is due out in the fall.
Everquest: Evolution provides a starting point for players new to the franchise. The title includes the original Everquest, along with the first five expansions (The Ruins of Karnak, The Scars of Velious, The Shadows of Luclin, The Planes of Power and The Legacy of Ykesha). It's out in the fall.
Alias Stars Voice Game
cclaim Entertainment announced that it has hired the entire cast of ABC's spy series Alias to voice characters in its upcoming video game based on the show.
The Alias game will feature the voices of series stars Jennifer Garner, Michael Vartan, Victor Garber, Ron Rifkin, Carl Lumbly, Kevin Weisman and David Anders.
Series creator J.J. Abrams and the Alias writing team have been collaborating with Acclaim and the design studio on the game's storyline. The game is due in the fall for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC.
Italia Winners Named
he 2003 Italia Awards for best SF published in Italy
were presented on May 3 at ITALCON 29/Saga 2003 in the Republic of San Marino.
Winners were chosen by a jury of fans and members of World
SF Italia. A full list of winners follows.
Best Novel
•Nessuna giustificazione by Enrica Zunic
Best International Novel
•Komarr by Lois McMaster Bujold
Best Artist
•Giuseppe Festino
Best Editor
•Giuseppe Lippi
Best Translator
•Vittorio Curtoni
Best Short Story
•"La musica è finita" by Vittorio Catani
Best Essay
•"Enciclopedia della Fantascienza in TV 1" by Aleksandar Mickovic, Marcello Rossi and Nicola Vianello
Best Short Essay
•"La fantascienza italiana alla ricerca della sua identità" by Vittorio Catani
Best Book Collection
•Urania
Best Magazine
•NOVA SF
Best Fanzine
•Avatar
Best Fan Short Story
•"L'obelisco di sangue" by Vittorio Catani
Best Fan Short Essay
•"La fantascienza e il vecchio continente" by A. Jarok and L. Kremo
Voight Mulls Ghost Role
on Voight told SCI FI Wire that he is in talks to play a villain in Ghost Rider, the upcoming film adaptation of the Marvel Comics series.
"If you're going to play a strong character in these pieces, and you're not the leading man, you're usually going to get cast in the [villain's] role," Voight said in an interview. Voight declined to say which of the comic series' many villains he will play.
Crystal Sky Communications, the production company in which Voight is a partner, is co-producing the film with Marvel Entertainment and Sony's Columbia Pictures. Voight said his Crystal Sky connection led the producers to consider casting him. Mark Steven Johnson (Daredevil) is writing and directing Ghost Rider, with Nicolas Cage in the title role. No start date has been announced.
Dead Rises Again
ing Rhames and Sarah Polley are in final talks to star in Universal Pictures/Strike Entertainment's horror film Dawn of the Dead for director Zack Snyder, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The film "reinvents" the classic 1978 horror film of the same name and goes into production next month, the trade paper reported.
Written by James Gunn, Dead deals with a mysterious plague that causes the newly dead to rise from their graves and eat the living. A group of survivors takes refuge in a shopping mall, including a nurse (Polley), a cop (Rhames), a mall employee, a gangbanger and his pregnant Russian girlfriend, the trade paper reported. Richard P. Rubenstein, who holds the rights to the title, will be one of the producers.
Universal is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Crake Coincides With SARS
argaret Atwood, author of the Booker-Prize-winning apocalyptic novel Oryx and Crake, told the Reuters news service that the story of a deadly virus wiping out civilization just happened to coincide with the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in her hometown of Toronto.
"It's completely eerie, but it is a coincidence," Atwood said with a laugh in an interview with Reuters. "Can I see the future? No. Nobody can. There are too many variables."
But Atwood added that her novel and the outbreak of SARS should serve as a wake-up call. "Diseases roam the world," she said. "We've been lucky here. Toronto used to have malaria and yellow fever. ... We had it here, and we eliminated it. Now we have something new."
Oryx and Crake opens with a character named Snowman, who is the last human inhabitant of the planet. While struggling to survive in an unfriendly climate where intelligent bio-engineered animals hunt on a harsh wasteland, Snowman dutifully watches over a a group of experimental humans known as the children of Crake, the news service reported.
Briefly Noted
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Dark Horizons reported that Casper Van Dien is slated to co-star with Michael Shanks in a film adaptation of Sax Rohmer's SF novel Sumuru.
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The Z Review reported a rumor that British comedian Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) is being considered to play Lord Voldemort in a proposed fourth Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
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The Dark Horizons Web site reported rumors from the Cannes Film Festival that Darren Aronofsky will direct a film adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's SF novel Cat's Cradle and that Warner Brothers is developing a fourth Terminator movie.
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EA has opened a new Web site for its upcoming Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King video game, featuring images from the upcoming third Rings movie, which opens in December. The game is due in November.
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Spanish production and sales company Dolores Pictures has sold North American rights to the SF movie Stranded to DEJ Productions, Blockbuster's film acquisition/distribution unit, Variety reported. The drama, set on Mars, is directed by Spanish actress-helmer Luna and stars Vincent Gallo, Maria de Madeiros and Joaquim de Almeida.
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Disney has updated the official Web site for its upcoming movie Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, which opens July 9.
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Production has begun on Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks' SF thriller film Paycheck, directed by John Woo and starring Ben Affleck, Aaron Eckhart and Uma Thurman. Based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, Paycheck is being shot in Vancouver, B.C.
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The official Web site for Guillermo del Toro's upcoming Hellboy movie has posted the first photo image of star Ron Perlman in full Hellboy makeup. Hellboy is currently in production for a summer 2004 release.
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As expected, UPN renewed Enterprise for another season and will keep it in its 8 p.m. ET/PT Wednesday time slot, leading into its new SF drama Jake 2.0.
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The WB will keep Charmed in its 8 p.m. ET/PT Sunday timeslot next season, the network announced at its upfront presentation to advertisers on May 13.
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Warner Brothers loaded about 3,603 theaters with a record 8,517 prints of The Matrix Reloaded and sneak-peeked the movie in early showings, starting at 10 p.m. on May 14 at 2,750 of those venues, Variety reported. The wide release is the highest ever for an R-rated movie and trails only the record 3,741-theater launch of X2 earlier this month.
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Alias star Jennifer Garner has filed for divorce from her husband, Scott Foley, according to court papers obtained by the Reuters news service. In a divorce petition entered in Los Angeles Superior Court on May 9, Garner, 31, cited irreconcilable differences in seeking to end her 2 1/2-year marriage to Foley, 30.
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Newcomer Alexa Davalos has joined the cast of The Chronicles of Riddick for writer-director David Twohy, Radar Pictures and One Race Productions, according to The Hollywood Reporter Production begins June 9 in Vancouver, B.C., on the follow-up to Pitch Black.
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The WB will air the first of two season-ending Smallville episodes at 9 p.m. ET/PT May 13, featuring the voice of Superman's Kryptonian father, Jor-El, executive producer Al Gough told TV Guide Online. Gough hinted that an actor from the Superman films (but not Marlon Brando) will supply the voice.
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Keira Knightley (Pirates of the Caribbean) told the IGN FilmForce Web site that she will play Guinevere in producer Jerry Bruckheimer's upcoming King Arthur film, opposite Clive Owen (Arthur) and Stephen Dillane (Merlin).
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As expected, The WB announced the fall return of its vampire series Angel to Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT, following Smallville, which moves to Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
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Neal Stephenson's best-selling SF novel Cryptonomicon is now available as an eBook at the Fictionwise Web site, offered at a 50 percent rebate when purchased by credit card through May 15.
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A federal judge has ruled that the granddaughter of Winnie the Pooh author A.A. Milne cannot use recent changes in federal copyright law to reclaim the Pooh licensing rights so they can be granted exclusively to Walt Disney Co., according to The Hollywood Reporter. The ruling issued May 9 by Judge Florence-Marie Cooper marked a setback for Disney and a victory for the current rights holders, Stephen Slesinger Inc., which has been battling Disney for more than 12 years over claims of alleged underpaid royalties.
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During a taping for Extra's Hollywood & Highland TV segment, Enterprise star Jolene Blalock revealed to Jon Kelley that she married her longtime boyfriend, Clear Channel Entertainment executive Michael Rapino, last week in a private ceremony in Jamaica.
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Enterprise executive producer Brannon Braga's official Web site is seeking congratulations on the 100th episode of television that for which he is credited with writing or providing a story.
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