Chong Sues Matrix Makers
atrix actor Marcus Chong (Tank) sued the filmmakers for allegedly reneging on a promise to recast him in the sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, the Reuters news service reported.
The lawsuit, filed on May 16 in Los Angeles Superior Court, accused Warner Brothers and parent company AOL Time Warner, as well as the film's producers, of breaching a 1998 oral agreement and a 2000 contract to revive his character in the two sequels and of slandering him, the news service reported.
Chong, 35, accused the filmmakers of "intentionally publishing numerous false statements ... that he was a terrorist" and of conspiring to blackball him in Hollywood, the suit alleges.
A bail receipt document posted on a fan Web site shows that Chong was arrested on Oct. 18, 2000, for allegedly making threats, five days after his salary negotiations with the studio collapsed, Reuters reported. Film industry sources told Reuters that the actor made repeated phone calls of a harassing nature to the filmmakers after his salary demands were not met. Tank was subsequently written out of the sequels and replaced with a character named Link, played by Harold Perrineau Jr.
A Warner spokesman and a spokeswoman for writer/directors Andy and Larry Wachowski declined to comment to Reuters on the pending litigation. The Matrix Reloaded is currently in theaters.
Reloaded Is Number One
he Matrix Reloaded took the top spot at the box-office in its first weekend of release, taking in an estimated $135.8 million in the period starting May 14 and $93.3 million from Friday through Sunday, a record for an R-rated film, the Hollywood trade papers reported.
The three-day total also ranked as the second-highest premiere ever, just behind last year's Spider-Man, which racked up $115 million in its debut, the trade papers reported.
The Matrix Reloaded opened with preview screenings on May 14, which figured into the film's total take.
The sequel took four days to earn what its 1999 predecessor, The Matrix, grossed in five weeks, Dan Fellman, president of distribution at Warner Brothers, told the Reuters news service. The original Matrix earned $171 million total domestically.
X2 slipped to number three at the box office, with $17.1 million for the weekend and a 17-day total of $174 million, the trades reported.
Matrix Game Tops Sales
nter the Matrix, the Atari video game that parallels the current sequel film The Matrix Reloaded, is the top-selling title worldwide, have sold more than 1 million units in North America and Europe in its first week of availability, the company announced.
The game hit stores May 15, in conjunction with the release of The Matrix Reloaded, for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube and PC.
Online and traditional retailers reported that Enter the Matrix is outselling its closest competitors on PlayStation 2 by two to one and on Xbox by four to one, the company announced. Enter the Matrix carries an estimated retail price of $49.99.
Constantine Lures Reeves
eanu Reeves told MTV.com that the main character's passion attracted him to star in the comic-book adaptation Constantine, based on the DC/Vertigo Hellblazer series.
"[It's] his anger," Reeves told the site about the role of John Constantine. "He's angry, but he's got a good heart."
In the comic, Constantine is an Englishman with occult powers who is both a liar and a cheat and yet does the right thing, the site reported. Reeves will play the part to which Nicolas Cage was once attached.
Reeves said that he hopes Constantine begins production as soon as September. The film will mark the feature-film debut of video director Francis Lawrence. Reeves is currently on view as Neo in The Matrix Reloaded, now in theaters.
Caulfield Wept At Buffy's End
mma Caulfield, who plays demon-turned-human Anya on UPN's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, told SCI FI Wire that she was surprised to find herself tearing up after filming her last scene in the series finale.
"It was very bittersweet," Caulfield said in an interview at the 29th annual Saturn Awards, where she was recognized as Female Face of the Future. "I wasn't prepared for how it was going to affect me. I mean, I was pretty fine all day. I was fine. It was like, 'Oh wow. I'm never going to see that again.' And then as soon as they announced me as a show wrap, I just burst into tears."
Although the actress said she has no interest in appearing on the Buffy spinoff Angel, Caulfield had nothing but praise for her fellow Buffy cast and crew members. "It was a great group of people and the best ensemble cast I've ever worked with and probably ever will work with," she said. "They're the best there ever was. They're amazing. I was lucky."
Former Firefly star Nathan Fillion, meanwhile, told SCI FI Wire that he relished the chance to appear as this season's villainous Caleb. "My first chance to play a villain," he said. "No one would hire me to play a villain in town. ... [Buffy creator] Joss [Whedon] was the first to hire me to play the villain. ... And I really enjoyed the kind of villain that Caleb was, being that he was pleasant and sweet, but at the same time ... he was not all right in his head. His sensibilities were all out of whack, and then he was inhumanly powerful, so he couldn't be stopped. And that's got to play on his ego a little bit. ... I really enjoyed that." The series finale of Buffy aired May 20 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Chaos Expands Buffyverse
reg Goodrich, vice president and executive producer of Vivendi Universal Games' upcoming Buffy the Vampire Slayer video game, Chaos Bleeds, told SCI FI Wire that the sequel serves as a lost episode of the show's seventh and final season.
"We're trying to stay as consistent with what's going on in the final few episodes," Goodrich said in an interview at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.
Goodrich added, "Even though we [haven't] really kept that much in the loop with what was happening, we are making adjustments as [the show] is going on. There are a few things that are needed to destroy The First that we have in the game that may not accurately follow exactly what's going to happen, but we're pretty darn close."
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds features the voices of not only the majority of the show's cast, but also that of creator Joss Whedon. But star Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy) wasn't available to voice her character. "In Chaos Bleeds, you not only play as Buffy, you [also] play as Willow, and you can play as Xander, Spike, Faith and Sid the dummy, who is a fan favorite from the first season," Goodrich said. "He is actually a demon-possessed ventriloquist's wooden puppet."
Chaos Bleeds offers both single-player and multiplayer battle modes, including one-on-one combat, last-man-standing, team-survival, domination and "Bunny-Catcher" modes—the latter a reference to Buffy character Anya's well-known fear of rabbits. "There's 24 unlockable characters, both good and evil," Goodrich said. As for Whedon, he will have the ability of every character in the game, both good and evil, he added. "He can do magic. He can do Slayer moves. And let me tell you, it's pretty funny seeing him do a roundhouse kick." Goodrich also said that players will see the return of Tara (Amber Benson) as an evil vampire with whom Willow must do battle.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds is published by Sierra Entertainment and developed by Eurocom. The game is scheduled to be in stores Aug. 26 for PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube.
Vivendi Universal Games is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Levin Talks Spike On Angel
ordan Levin, president of The WB, told the Zap2it Web site that he's confident Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon will figure out a way to bring Spike (James Marsters) over to the network's spinoff series, Angel, next season.
Fans who watched Buffy's series finale on May 20 learned what happened to the peroxided vampire with a soul.
"We're awaiting word from [Whedon] on that as well," Levin told the site. "He's obviously a very creative person, and he hasn't let us down in the past. I'm sure he'll figure out a way."
Levin also confirmed that other Buffy characters are scheduled to make appearances on Angel next season, but that Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia) won't return. As Marsters and other Buffy cast members migrate to Angel, so might some of the series' behind-the-camera talent, and Whedon will devote more time to his sole remaining show next season, the site reported.
Acker Ponders Angel Future
my Acker, who plays Fred on the recently renewed WB series Angel, told SCI FI Wire to expect visits from old Buffy the Vampire Slayer cast members next season.
"I know that they're going to be bringing ... hopefully some of the girls from Buffy, like maybe Alyson" Hannigan, who played Willow, Acker said at the Saturn Awards ceremony on May 18. "We're all hoping that she'll come do a couple of episodes at least. We figure [Angel cast member and Hannigan fiance] Alexis [Denisof] has a pretty strong pull. We're working that angle."
But asked about the reason for the reported departure of Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia) as a regular cast member, Acker said, "I haven't even heard that officially. I guess it's official, but I'm not sure. ... Probably, she's been doing it for a long time, and now she has the baby, and she's a mom. So she has two jobs now."
Firefly Film, DVDs Due?
athan Fillion, star of Fox's defunct SF western series Firefly, told SCI FI Wire that the show could rise again, both as a movie and as a DVD set.
"Right now, our hopes and dreams are pinned on a Firefly movie, which TV can't cancel us out of," Fillion said in an interview at the May 18 Saturn Awards, where he was honored with Cinescape's Face of the Future Award. "We're talking silver screen, wide release, big old deal. So everything's looking very positive, so we're going to keep our fingers crossed."
Series creator Joss Whedon would write and direct the movie, Fillion added.
Meanwhile, Fillion—who played Capt. Mal Reynolds—said that he is completing audio commentaries for a complete DVD set of the Fox series' 15 produced episodes, including three that never aired. "I just finished commentary with Alan Tudyk [Wash] on 'War Stories,' an episode where he and I got tortured. ... And then, Monday, I go in to do audio commentary with Joss Whedon for 'Serenity,' the two-hour pilot."
The DVD will also include on-camera interviews and maybe even some of Fillion's own behind-the-scenes home video and photos. As for the unaired episodes, Fillion said, "My naked ass is in them. In the very last episode. I'll let you know that much. They called me Capt. Tight Pants for some time. And now it's going to be Capt. No Pants for sure." Fillion did not know when the DVD set would come out.
Dushku Answers Tru Calling
liza Dushku, star of Fox's upcoming supernatural TV series Tru Calling, told SCI FI Wire that her character is not a superhero like Faith, her role on UPN's Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
"She's just this normal girl who's trying to help, but she's only human," Dushku said in an interview.
Dushku plays Tru Davies, a young woman working the graveyard shift at a morgue. She finds herself reliving the days in which her cadavers died. "It's like Groundhog Day," Dushku said. "Her day is starting over. That person dies at 10 o'clock that night, and now it's the day repeating itself. She has to find out who that person is, and she has X amount of hours to keep them from dying."
So far, Dushku has only shot the pilot, which was directed by film director Phillip Noyce, whom she considered "awesome." "He experiments with different shots and different angles and taught me a lot about looking at film, looking at a frame and filling up the foreground as well as the middle and the background and just trying different angles and lighting styles and emotions," Dushku said.
Though busy in her film career, Dushku had no qualms about returning to series TV. "A lot of actors are doing both [films and television], and I understand why, because television affects people just as much as film. People can turn you on in their living rooms, in their bedrooms, and follow you, watch your stories and be impacted and affected in the same way." Tru Calling will air Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT, starting in the fall.
Starbuck Won't Romance Apollo
atee Sackhoff, who plays a female Starbuck in the SCI FI Channel's upcoming original miniseries Battlestar Galactica, told SCI FI Wire that her character won't romance fellow viper pilot Apollo (Jamie Bamber).
Rather, their relationship will remain purely platonic, Sackhoff said in an interview on the miniseries' Vancouver, B.C., soundstage. "I think that there's a very tight friendship there that's gone on for a number of years, because of the fact that [Starbuck] was engaged to [Apollo's] brother."
But Sackhoff admitted that, should the miniseries be picked up as a series, anything could happen. "They'll build on it," she said. "We don't know where it's going to go." SCI FI's Battlestar Galactica will debut in December.
Starbuck's Still The Same
atee Sackhoff, who plays a female Starbuck in the SCI FI Channel's upcoming original miniseries Battlestar Galactica, told SCI FI Wire that fans shouldn't worry that the character is no longer a man.
"Even though it's a woman, it's the same person," Sackhoff said in an interview on the miniseries' Vancouver, B.C., soundstage. "Extremely sarcastic and smoking cigars all the time, really doesn't care, but is an amazing pilot. And that's what Starbuck was. So it really doesn't matter if it's a girl or a guy, it's still Starbuck."
A female Starbuck brings the story more up to date, Sackhoff added. "I think it's very realistic of the times, of what's going on right now in the world. ... I think that it's about time that we show that women can do just as much as the guys can, if not do it better."
Asked if she would like to meet Dirk Benedict, who played Starbuck on the original ABC television series, Sackhoff said, "I'd be interested to see what he thinks. He had longer hair [then] than I do now." SCI FI's Battlestar Galactica will debut in December.
Game Based On First Galactica
ohn Mamais, associate producer of Vivendi Universal Games' upcoming Battlestar Galactica video game, told SCI FI Wire that developers used the classic 1970s TV series as a visual reference, not the SCI FI Channel's upcoming new Galactica miniseries.
"The reason we did that is because the new series basically is still in production, and they won't be done for a while," Mamais said in an interview at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. "So we're basically ahead of them. Since [the game is set] 40 years before the original series, we took some creative license. ... [But] our game sort of fits into the historical context of the new series."
The Battlestar Galactica game will feature 15 levels, most of which are third-person flight-simulator dogfights. "We're trying to take more of a 'sim' approach, rather than a shooter approach," Mamais said. "Although it's going to be easy to pick up, it's going to be sort of hard to master. You're going to have to sort of think tactically in the levels, rather than just shoot randomly."
Though decades separate the period of the game from that of the upcoming miniseries, "we're thinking about doing some 'unlockables,' so if you watch the new series you can actually potentially unlock things in the game," Mamais said. "So the game will come out, you'll watch the series, and then you go back and play the game again, or play it for the first time. And you can unlock stuff if you pick up certain codes. But that's not confirmed yet."
The Battlestar Galactica game is scheduled for a fall release for the Xbox and PlayStation 2, in conjunction with the home-video and DVD release of the original series. SCI FI's Battlestar Galactica will debut in December.
Vivendi Universal Games is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Potter V Pre-Orders Huge
mazon.com announced that the upcoming fifth Harry Potter novel, The Order of the Phoenix, will be the company's largest new product release, the Reuters news service reported.
The Seattle-based company said that more than 500,000 copies of Phoenix were ordered in just four months, and the site added that it has received more than 875,000 orders for the book on all of its Web sites worldwide.
Meanwhile, Borders Group Inc., the nation's second-largest bookseller behind Barnes & Noble Inc., said that it has more than 500,000 pre-orders, company spokeswoman Emily Swann told the news service. Swann added that the retailer will at least be able to meet the pre-order demand on June 21, the day the book comes out.
Judy Corman—spokeswoman for New York-based Scholastic, which publishes the Potter books in the United States—said that there will be 6.8 million copies of the Harry Potter book on opening day, with another 1.7 million within the following two weeks, Reuters reported.
Shyamalan Enters The Woods
riter-director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Signs) will make a supernatural thriller film, The Woods, for Disney, the first film in a new two-picture deal, Variety reported.
The Woods stars Ashton Kutcher, Joaquin Phoenix and Kirsten Dunst. Scott Rudin and Sam Mercer will produce, and shooting will begin in October in Philadelphia for a summer 2004 release.
Set in 1897, The Woods tells the story of a close-knit community with a mythical race of creatures residing in the woods around them, the trade paper reported.
Arnold Up For T4
rnold Schwarzenegger, who reprises his most famous role in the upcoming Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, told the Australian Age newspaper that he might be back a fourth time.
Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival, the 56-year-old actor said, "Is this my last Terminator? No. I've so many more years left."
Schwarzenegger added, "I'm totally full of energy, and thanks to my weight training and cardiovascular training, I'm in great shape. I consider this the middle term of my career." Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines opens July 2.
Hulk Game Has Two Sides
ave Jordan, a spokesperson for Vivendi Universal Games' upcoming The Hulk video game, told SCI FI Wire that the game will offer players a chance to experience both sides of the upcoming film's troubled protagonist.
"We've got two different play modes," Jordan said while demonstrating the title at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. "One is as the Hulk. The other is as Bruce Banner. The Bruce Banner levels are a little bit different in that you are trying to avoid becoming the Hulk. So they're a lot more of a sneak level."
The Hulk is a third-person action/adventure game, based on the upcoming Ang Lee movie and the Marvel Comics series. The game is set a year after the events in the movie, but Jordan said that the game will not give anything away. The Hulk will be available for the GameCube, GameBoy Advance, PC, Xbox and PlayStation 2 platforms and is slated for release on May 27. The Hulk film opens June 20.
Vivendi Universal Games is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Lee Learned Fast On Hulk
ng Lee, director of the upcoming The Hulk, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he had no idea what he was getting himself into when he set out to create the computer-animated green giant.
"In some ways my innocence helped bring freshness [to the movie]," Lee told the newspaper. "I think it's good I wasn't scared that the movie relied on [computer-generated] characters. I didn't know enough to be scared."
Unlike the creature in the Hulk comics or TV show, the movie Hulk is more than twice the height of a normal human. The computer-generated Hulk wasn't created until principal photography was finished and Lee settled into an office across the street from Industrial Light & Magic in San Rafael, Calif.
"This is the best part of making the movie, I think: making the movie at ILM," Lee said. "It was pretty much a contrast to what I expected it to be. They call it Industrial Light & Magic, but there's no feeling of industry. It feels totally handcraft. Every individual artist who works on the shots, it's very hands on."
Colin Brady, an animation director at ILM, told the paper that much of the finished product for the character came from Lee's own movements. "There's a lot of Ang in the Hulk," Brady said. "Ang would have no problem getting up and acting out exactly what he was looking for. It's a wonderful contrast to see this very soft-spoken guy launch into this very broad action. Next thing you know, he's biting my arm or getting me in a headlock or something." The Hulk opens June 20.
Enterprise Sets New Course
ick Berman, executive producer of UPN's Enterprise, told SCI FI Wire that the second-season finale sent the show off in a "startling" new direction.
"What we've decided to take on here in our third season, which is more than hinted on in this final episode, is that for the first time a Star Trek television series is taking on a specific mission other than just exploring space. And because this mission is preceded by a very heinous act of destruction on Earth, the series is going to be far more action-packed."
The finale, "The Expanse," which was written by Berman and Brannon Braga, begins with a terrible attack on the Earth that leads to the Enterprise's being recalled home. Berman admits to seeing parallels in the episode with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But he added that they weren't apparent when he and Braga began to work on the story.
"We were literally way into the scripting stages before we started to see the parallel," Berman said. "I think one of the things that motivated us is in analyzing the 10 existing Star Trek movies, we were looking for something that would help torque up our series and add a little dimension to get a little added excitement towards the end of the season. We did a little analysis of our own, and we saw that two of the most popular movies ... were Star Trek IV [The Voyage Home], which was the one about whales, and Star Trek VIII, which was First Contact. These were both films that had to do with the future of Earth being at stake. And we decided that that would be a great place to start. ... It wasn't literally for a long time that we suddenly realized [the parallel]. But the idea of aliens coming to destroy Earth has been around a lot longer than 9/11."
Berman said that "The Expanse" will set in motion a series of events that will play out in an arc next season, involving the Enterprise's journey into a dangerous Bermuda-Triangle-type area of space to search for those responsible for the attack. "The Expanse" airs at 8 p.m. ET/PT May 21.
Anderson Hosts Charity Auction
he official Gillian Anderson Web site is again hosting a charity auction to benefit Neurofibromatosis, Inc., which is dedicated to combating the genetic nervous system disease.
The Seventh Annual Gillian Anderson Online Auction, featuring memorabilia and items autographed by the former X-Files star, begins on June 1.
Over the past six years, the annual auction has raised more than $600,000 for the charity. Anderson's brother is afflicted with the disorder.
Scully, Mulder Resist Or Serve
en Borth, associate producer of Vivendi Universal Games' upcoming video game The X-Files: Resist or Serve, told SCI FI Wire that the third-person survival/horror title will feature both the likenesses and voices of The X-Files stars David Duchovny (Mulder) and Gillian Anderson (Scully).
The game also marks the first time that gamers will have the opportunity to play as the characters, Borth said in an interview at the Electronics Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.
"The gameplay is quite different [from the TV series] in that Mulder is more action-oriented," Borth said. "He'll fight more of the bosses, [and] he sees a lot more of the paranormal stuff that's going on in the town." The game's Scully, by contrast, is more of a puzzle solver. "She can do autopsies," Borth said. "She can create antidotes and make toxins that they can use against the creatures and the ghouls that they find."
The X-Files: Resist or Serve fits into the season-seven continuity of the venerable Fox TV show, Borth said. "This [comes] right after the first two episodes of season seven," he said. He added that the TV show's composer, Mark Snow, provides the game's music.
The X-Files: Resist or Serve, developed by Black Ops and published by Sierra Entertainment, is slated for release in November for the Xbox and PlayStation 2 gaming systems.
Vivendi Universal Games is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Sparx Gears Up Robota
rench animation and digital-effects studio Sparx is putting together financing on the $50 million SF movie Robota, currently being developed with Star Wars art director Doug Chiang, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The movie will combine live action and digital animation in a film that is part Shakespearean love story, part thriller, the trade paper reported.
Robota is set in a world that has fallen under the control of machines and will incorporate regular 3-D animation with rotomotion, a more sophisticated version of motion capture that was used for the Gollum character in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the trade paper reported. Production is expected to start in 2005.
Serkis Still Filming Gollum
ndy Serkis—who again plays the computer-generated creature Gollum in the upcoming third Lord of the Rings film, The Return of the King—told SCI FI Wire that he's still filming the role.
Though principal photography ended two years ago, Serkis is still shooting motion-capture and doing additional voice recording for the CGI creation, the actor said in an interview at the Saturn Awards on May 18, where he was honored as best supporting actor in a film.
"I've been really kind of [working] longer than a lot of the other actors, because every single scene I do on set during principal photography I then have to repeat in the motion-capture studio," Serkis said. "I've been really backwards and forwards for the last three and a half years ... to New Zealand."
Serkis added that he flew from New Zealand to Los Angeles for the Saturn Awards and has been fitting his Rings shooting in between filming a role in another movie, the fantasy comedy 13 Going on 30 with Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo. "I'm playing a fashion magazine editor-in-chief, who's very stressed," Serkis said. "Their magazine is on the slide, and he's trying to keep all the plates spinning. ... [It's] quite weird, because I've still got Gollum in my head. All two of them, you know." Serkis expects to be finished with Gollum in late summer or early fall. Return of the King opens Dec. 17.
Minority Wins Top Saturn
inority Report won the Saturn Award for best science-fiction film at the 29th awards ceremony of the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films and Cinescape Magazine on May 18 in Hollywood.
Minority Report director Steven Spielberg took home the award for best director and was on hand to accept the award personally at the gala ceremony at the Hollywood Renaissance hotel.
Report actress Samantha Morton was named best supporting actress.
Spielberg and executive producer Leslie Bohem also received the award for best single TV program presentation for the SCI FI Channel's original miniseries Steven Spielberg Presents Taken.
Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers won two awards, for best fantasy film and for best supporting actor (Andy Serkis as Gollum). Serkis was on hand to accept the award.
Spirited Away took the honor for best animated film. The Ring won the award for best horror film, and star Naomi Watts received the award for best actress.
Tyler Hoechlin accepted the award for best younger actor for his role in Road to Perdition, which was also named best action-adventure thriller film.
Additional film honors went to Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones for best special effects and to Robin Williams for best actor (One Hour Photo).
In the television category, ABC's Alias was named best network television series, and the SCI FI Channel's original series Farscape was honored as best syndicated/cable TV series. Alias star Jennifer Garner was named best actress, and Angel star David Boreanaz was tapped for best actor.
Alias' Victor Garber took the honor for best supporting actor, while Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Alyson Hannigan won the award for best supporting actress.
Cinescape's Faces of the Future Awards went to Buffy's Emma Caulfield and Firefly's Nathan Fillion.
Home entertainment was also recognized this year, with the award for best DVD television release going to Star Trek: The Next Generation; best DVD classic release going to E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial; best DVD special-edition release going to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring; and best DVD release going to the cult horror hit Dog Soldiers.
The Filmmakers' Showcase Award went to Bill Paxton for his directorial debut, Frailty, and the Donald A. Reed Award, the Academy's highest honor, went to James Cameron for his innovation in the motion-picture field. Sid and Marty Krofft received the Life Career Award for their contributions to the culture.
Horror Guild Winners Named
he 2003 International Horror Guild announced the winners of its annual awards, recognizing outstanding achievements in the field of horror and dark fantasy from the previous year.
Charles L. Grant was previously named this year's Living Legend at the World Horror Convention on April 19. A full list of winners follows.
Novel
•A Winter Haunting by Dan Simmons
First Novel
•A Scattering of Jades by Alexander Irvine
Long Form
•"My Work Is Not Yet Done" by Thomas Ligotti
Intermediate Form (Tie)
•"Death and Suffrage" by Dale Bailey
•"Pavane for a Prince of the Air" by Elizabeth Hand
Short Form
•"Prospect Cards" by Don Tumasonis
Collection
•Figures in Rain by Chet Williamson
Anthology
•Dark Terrors 6, Stephen Jones and David Sutton, eds.
Nonfiction
•Ramsey Campbell, Probably by Ramsey Campbell
Graphic Narrative
•Abarat by Clive Barker
Periodical
•The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
Art
•Jason Van Hollander
Film
•Frailty
Television
•Six Feet Under
Priest Wins Clarke Award
he 2002 Arthur C. Clarke Award went to Christopher Priest for his book The Separation, according to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America news site.
The award was presented at the Science Museum in London on May 17.
The Clarke Award, named for the legendary SF author, is awarded every year to the best science-fiction novel that received its first British publication during the previous calendar year. The award is chosen by jury and consists of an inscribed plaque in the form of a bookend and a monetary prize matching the award year: in this case, £2003 ($3,284).
Mythopoeic Finalists Named
rganizers announced the finalists for the 2003 Mythopoeic Awards, honoring fantasy literature published in 2002.
Winners will be announced at Mythcon XXXIV, to be held in Nashville, Tenn., July 25-28. A full list of finalists follows.
Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, Adult Literature
•Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
•A Fistful of Sky by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
•The Fall of the Kings by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman
•Ombria in Shadow by Patricia A. McKillip
Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, Children's Literature
•Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale by Holly Black
•Summerland by Michael Chabon
•House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
•Coraline by Neil Gaiman
•Heir Apparent by Vivian Vande Velde
Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inklings Studies
•J.R.R. Tolkien and His Literary Resonances, George Clark and Daniel Timmons, eds.
•Beowulf and the Critics by J.R.R. Tolkien, Michael D.C. Drout, ed.
•C.S. Lewis, Poet: The Legacy of His Poetic Impulse by Don W. King
•Imagination and the Arts in C.S. Lewis: Journeying to Narnia and Other Worlds by Peter J. Schakel
Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Myth and Fantasy Studies
•Fairytale in the Ancient World by Graham Anderson
•A Charmed Life: The Spirituality of Potterworld by Francis Bridger
•The Christian Imagination: G.K. Chesterton on the Arts by Thomas C. Peters
•Vast Alchemies: The Life and Work of Mervyn Peake by G. Peter Winnington
New Fantasy Titles Due
yoko Yamashita, a spokesman for Square Enix, developers of the best-selling Final Fantasy video games, told SCI FI Wire that the company will be launching four new games in the franchise over the course of 2003.
Each title will offer a new and different story and game mechanics, Yamashita said in an interview at the recent Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. "I think the biggest thing about Final Fantasy is that, unlike other series or franchises out there, I really can't think of any one that comes with a brand new story, a brand new environment [and] world, set of characters and maybe even a [new] battle system. With each new installment, it's completely redone."
Final Fantasy XI marks the franchise's first massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Available for PlayStation 2 and PC, the game will offer players 40-60 hours of play. Because the game takes place in real time, the game's world changes and other players advance, whether one is playing or not. Beta testing for the PlayStation 2 version will begin in June, while the PC beta begins in July, Yamashita said.
Final Fantasy X-2, for the PS 2, will be the first sequel of the franchise. X-2 will play off of the events in Final Fantasy X. And while the story and characters may be familiar, Final Fantasy X-2 will offer a completely different and revamped battle system, as well as the franchise's first female lead character.
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles changes up traditional gameplay by allowing players to link their GameBoy Advance systems to their GameCubes. This option offers players two separate screens for viewing: one projected by a TV screen for all players and a second on the GameBoy Advance for each individual. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles supports up to four players and will be published by Nintendo. The title will be released later this year.
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, also from Nintendo for the GameBoy Advance, will feature an "open-ended job class creation system" and the same storyline as the original PlayStation title Final Fantasy Tactics, Yamashita said. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is due in late 2003.
SCI FI Enters The Triangle
he SCI FI Channel announced that it will develop The Triangle, an epic eight-hour original miniseries from filmmakers Dean Devlin (Independence Day, Stargate) and Bryan Singer (X-Men, X2), set against the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle.
The Triangle will focus on a disparate group of people who are haunted by their experiences within the Bermuda Triangle.
Singer and Devlin, in their first-ever collaboration, will executive produce the miniseries, as well as develop the scripts from their original story. They may also each direct some of the four two-hour episodes. The Triangle is slated to air in early 2005.
"We are thrilled to be working with Dean and Bryan," SCI FI Channel President Bonnie Hammer said in a statement. "It is exciting to provide a forum for this mind-meld between two of entertainment's best and brightest sci-fi creatives."
"Bryan and I have been friends for many years and we've always wanted to collaborate on a project that appeals to our shared passion for the science-fiction genre," Devlin said in a statement. "We're excited that the SCI FI Channel has created such a wonderful platform wherein we can tell a story with the breadth and scope that would not be possible within the limitations of a two-hour feature film."
The Triangle is only the latest of SCI FI's several miniseries projects, including the recent Emmy Award-winning Frank Herbert's Dune, the 10-night alien adventure
Steven Spielberg Presents Taken and the critically acclaimed Children of Dune.
Other projects currently in development at SCI FI include The Thing, 6 Days 'til Sunday, Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars, A Tale of Two Cities, MYST, The Forever War and Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea trilogy series and literary classic Left Hand of Darkness.
Burton Melting For Chocolate
arner Brothers is enlisting Tim Burton to direct Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the second live-action film adaptation of the Roald Dahl classic children's novel, Variety reported.
Burton is also signed next to helm the stop-motion animation feature film The Corpse Bride for the studio, the trade paper reported.
Charlie has long been considered one of Warner's most promising properties, one that executives hope will lead to a Broadway musical, the trade paper reported.
The Dahl estate has already approved Burton. In the next few days, he will meet with the family in London, where he's putting the finishing touches on the Columbia film Big Fish. A deal will reportedly follow.
Dahl didn't like the first screen adaptation, the 1971 Gene Wilder movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the trade paper reported.
Nintendo Scares Up Geist
intendo announced that it has teamed up with n-Space to develop Geist, a new supernatural game for the GameCube platform.
The companies demonstrated the game at the recent Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.
The game offers a twist on the first-person adventure genre, allowing players to take on the role of an incorporeal ghost, the companies said. Players will not only be able to attack by firing ethereal energy bolts and "soul charges," but they will also be provided with the ability to take possession of more than a dozen different characters, from soldiers to mice. Geist will also feature four-player death matches that will make use of both traditional first-person combat and the "unique ghost and possession mechanics," the companies said. No release date has been set.
Tomorrow Trilogy Eyed
eteran Italian producer Aurelio De Laurentiis plans to turn his upcoming SF epic film World of Tomorrow into the first movie in a proposed trilogy, Variety reported.
Tomorrow, which stars Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie, is directed by first-timer Kerry Conran.
The movie just finished shooting in London and is eyeing a 52-week post-production schedule for release in fall 2004.
Fox Develops Knowing
ox Searchlight will develop Escape Artists' Knowing, a supernatural thriller film to be directed by Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko), according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Knowing is the story of a man who unearths a 1950s-era time capsule with a child's drawing that accurately predicted several horrible events that have come to pass and one that has not yet occurred, the trade paper reported.
Ryne Pearson wrote the original draft, which was rewritten by Kelly. Escape Artists partners Steve Tisch, Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal and David Alper are producing the project, the trade paper reported.
VH1 Conjures Witchcraft
.S. production company Keller Entertainment has picked up North American TV distribution rights for Witchcraft, Scandinavian company Mastiff Media's reality show centered on the occult and paranormal, which will air on VH1, Variety reported.
Witchcraft brings together 12 people who feel they have extraordinary talents, then teaches them all aspects of witchcraft, the trade paper reported. One person is eliminated each week, until the most promising takes home the prize: a cauldron of cash to be used on witchcraft studies.
Co-creator of Witchcraft and Mastiff head of development Markus Sterky said the school will be led by practicing witches, specialists in the field of witchcraft tradition, guest lecturers and consultants, the trade paper reported.
Warner Floats Helium
arner Brothers has hired George Wing to write the romantic comedy film Helium for director David Dobkin and Warner-based producer David Heyman, Variety reported.
Inspired by U.K. novelist Tim Earnshaw's 1997 novel of the same name, Helium is only loosely based on the premise of that book, the trade paper reported.
The movie centers on a man who becomes lighter than air when he falls in love, and who therefore avoids romance at all costs.
Reshoots Bolstered Timeline
aul Walker, who stars in the upcoming SF movie Timeline, told SCI FI Wire that director Richard Donner ordered reshoots to beef up the relationships among characters before they travel in time back to the Middle Ages.
"The relationships in the movie are what's really important for you to really feel and care about the people when they're stuck in medieval France," Walker said in an interview.
Donner's original cut of the movie breezed through the time-travel setup that takes the characters back to medieval France. "Dick didn't want to focus on the science fiction end of it," Walker said. "He's like, 'I just want to race through that and get back to medieval France, because to me, that's when the fun really begins.' But as a result [of rushing the opening], a lot of the character dynamics—what was really going on and what you're feeling for the characters—[was missing]. It's important to have that established before we got back, because as soon as we get back, then we're running the whole time ... for our lives."
Walker said that Paramount liked the original cut, but Donner insisted on fleshing it out. "They're not going to tell him no," Walker said.
Walker is part of a cast that includes seasoned veterans Billy Connolly, Frances O'Connor, Gerard Butler and David Thewlis. "You work with people that are better than you, and it just ups the bar," Walker said. Timeline, based on Michael Crichton's novel, opens Nov. 26.
Sabato Swats Bugs
ntonio Sabato Jr., who stars in the upcoming original SCI FI Picture Bugs, told SCI FI Wire that the low-budget TV movie focused its funds on the special effects.
"All the money was spent right," Sabato said in an interview. "SCI FI Channel has [produced] eight movies this year, and they're doing really well, so I think they spend their money very well. What I've seen so far looks really exciting."
The film tells the story of swarm of dormant giant prehistoric bugs that are accidentally awakened by subway construction. FBI agent Matt Pollack (Sabato) must hunt them down with a plucky entomologist (Angie Everhart) before they multiply. "Kind of like Aliens," Sabato said.
Sabato added that director Joseph Conti, who makes his feature-film directing debut after a career in visual effects, planned the computer-animated insects early on. "He's been working on CGI all his life, so he created the stuff and showed it to me before I started," Sabato said. "It looked amazing. These bugs are going to be crawling, and there's going to be thousands of them." Bugs premieres on the SCI FI Channel in the late summer.
Boyle Joins Scooby Cast
eter Boyle is set to play the role of Old Man Wickles in Warner Brothers' tentatively titled sequel film Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Variety reported.
Shooting has begun in Vancouver, B.C., with Raja Gosnell directing, the trade paper reported.
The Wickles character is one of the better-known villains of the Scooby TV franchise, having appeared in the first episode of the show as a museum curator who posed as the mysterious Black Knight in order to avoid being revealed as an art thief, the trade paper reported.
Scooby stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., Matthew Lillard, Linda Cardellini, Seth Green and Alicia Silverstone.
Onimusha Movie In Works
amuel Hadida's production label, Davis Films, has struck a deal with Gaga Productions to make a $50 million live-action adventure fantasy movie, Onimusha, adapted from Capcom's best-selling video game of the same name, Variety reported.
Like the game, the movie will pit samurai against demons, the trade paper reported.
The film is set in 16th-century Japan, where warlords are using the forces of darkness to rule the country. Keiji Inafune created the PlayStation 2 game, which has sold more than 4 million units worldwide. A third installment of the game is due out soon, the trade paper reported.
Gershon Heads Tripping Cast
ina Gershon, Stephen Root and "Stuttering" John Melendez will voice the SCI FI Channel's first-ever animated series, Tripping the Rift, which is currently in production.
The upcoming half-hour weekly series is produced by CineGroupe (Galidor: Defenders of the
Outer Dimension), in association with Film Roman (The Simpsons). Tripping is slated to debut in January 2004.
Based on an award-winning Web short film of the same name, Tripping the Rift is a humorous and sexy send-up of all things SF, the network said. The series follows the adventures of The Free Enterprise, a smuggling vessel led by a stumpy purple alien named Chode (Root) who, along with his colorful group of misfit shipmates, battles archenemies and new obstacles in space each week.
Chode's crew includes Six (Gershon), a sexy cyborg who happens to be
the most advanced android ever created; Gus (Maurice LaMarche, who voiced Brain in Pinky & The Brain), Chode's sexually confused and verbally abused robot slave; T'Nuk (Gayle Garfinkle), the ship's aesthetically challenged pilot; and Whip (Rick Jones), Chode's teenage slacker nephew. "Stuttering" John Melendez provides the voice of Spaceship Bob, the fastest ship in the galaxy.
Fans Influence Tiger Game
rank Hom, producer of Ubi Soft Entertainment's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon video game, told SCI FI Wire that feedback from fans and critics alike made a difference in the game's production.
Hom said the game's creators solicited feedback at last year's Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. "We got a lot of positive reaction and a little bit of negative reaction," Hom said in an interview at this year's E3. "We listened to the users. ... We decided to go ahead with it. We decided to include everything that people wanted and refined it [and] redid it over and over again until we got it right."
The third-person action game, based on the hit 2000 movie of the same name, offers players the ability to play one of the film's three main characters: Jen (Zhang Ziyi), Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) and Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-Fat). "The main thing we tried to do was recreate the combat in the game," Hom said. "It's kind of hard in the video-game world to recreate the love story."
Hom added, "We also developed a unique blocking system. Usually, in most games, you just block. But we felt that in Crouching Tiger, especially with the martial-arts moves, that you should have a more elaborate blocking system to show off the kind of back-and-forth motions that you normally associate with martial-arts films."
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is both published and developed by Ubi Soft Entertainment and will be available for the Xbox and PlayStation 2 in the fall.
New Line Adapting Y
ew Line is adapting the DC/Vertigo comic series Y: The Last Man for the movies, Variety reported.
Co-created by Brian K. Vaughn and Pia Guerra, Y deals with a plague that kills nearly all the world's male mammals, except for a magician named Yorick and his pet monkey.
New Line-based Benderspink principals Chris Bender and J.C. Spink, Mason Novick and writer David Goyer (Blade) are producing. Goyer also is adapting DC's Batman for Warner Brothers, the trade paper reported. No writer is attached to Y, but Goyer said he may adapt the comic.
New Line also is developing DC Comics' Shazam series, with screenwriter William Goldman penning the adaptation, the trade paper reported.
Griffin Voicing Bunyan
ddie Griffin has signed a deal with Exodus Film Group to voice the company's upcoming live-action/computer-animated fantasy film Paul Bunyan, directed by Michael Nickles, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The $10 million project aims to go into production by year's end, the trade paper reported.
Nickles and Julia Wall wrote Bunyan, based loosely on the folklore of the Paul Bunyan character and set in modern times. The story follows two children, exiled to their grandparents' farm in Minnesota, who stumble upon a secret underworld where Paul Bunyan has resided in solitude with Babe the Blue Ox since their disappearance decades earlier, the trade paper reported.
The producers are reportedly in talks with Heather Graham to take on a role.
Briefly Noted
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TV Guide Online has posted what it says are spoilers that resolve season-ending cliffhangers for Alias, Buffy/Angel, Charmed and other TV series.
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Producers of the new Indiana Jones movie and the upcoming Star Wars: Episode III had considered Morocco as a location for filming, but observers said the recent terrorist attacks in Casablanca could have them seeking alternatives, CNN.com reported. Previous Star Wars films have shot in neighboring Tunisia, which doubled for Tatooine.
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A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has frozen the business assets of Larry Wachowski, co-director of The Matrix Reloaded, in a divorce fight between the filmmaker and his estranged wife, Thea Bloom, who claimed he was concealing funds from her, according to newly disclosed court documents, the Reuters news service reported.
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The May 20 finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer drew 4.9 million viewers to UPN, the biggest audience for the show since October 2002 and well above Buffy's season average of 3.8 million viewers, Zap2it reported.
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The official Web site has opened for the vampire/werewolf movie Underworld, which opens Sept. 19.
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Zinc Entertainment, a division of Joel Silver's Silver Pictures, will produce Dungeons & Dragons: The Sequel for an early 2004 release, Variety reported. Zinc will produce with Marching Band Productions and Sweetpea Entertainment.
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The Matrix: Reloaded earned writer/directors Andy and Larry Wachowski $16 million upfront and untold millions thereafter, according to details that have come to light in the ongoing divorce proceedings between Larry Wachowski and his estranged wife, Thea Bloom, the smokinggun.com Web site reported.
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The Matrix Reloaded took in $151.9 million in its first six days of domestic release, setting a new one-week record and surpassing the previous first-week record, Spider-Man's $151.6 million, Variety reported.
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A judge on May 20 granted a request by Sony Pictures Entertainment to send its legal dispute with Marvel Enterprises Inc. over last year's blockbuster film Spider-Man to a court-appointed referee, the Reuters news service reported. Marvel, which sued the studio in February, had asked for a jury trial.
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A live-action movie is in the works based on the hit Japanese animated TV series Neon Genesis Evangelion, Variety reported. The project is a collaboration between ADV Films, Gainax and Peter Jackson's Weta Workshop (The Lord of the Rings).
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Dark Horizons retracted a rumor that Casper Van Dien would co-star with Michael Shanks in the SF movie Sumuru.
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Shooting is set to start in Fiji on Anaconda 2: The Black Orchid the sequel to the 1997 giant-snake movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Australian actress Maria Theodorakis is tipped for a role.
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MGM is developing the film Living in Neon Dreams, a modern-day take on Alice in Wonderland from 22-year-old English writer-director Jeremy Tarr, Variety reported. The film is set to shoot next month at the Babelsberg studios with stars A.J. Cook, Nastassja Kinski, John Rhys-Davies and Thomas Kretschmann.
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A fan of The Matrix Reloaded has posted a transcript of the spoiler-filled final conversation between Neo (Keanu Reeves) and the Architect (Helmut Bakaitis). Reloaded is now in theaters.
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A "Gathering of the Fellowship," a charity event for Lord of the Rings fans, will take place Dec. 15-17 at the Sheraton Center in Toronto, organizers announced. Proceeds from the event, which coincides with the release of the third Rings film, The Return of the King, will benefit ProLiteracy WorldWide.
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Joss Whedon, creator of UPN's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, told TV Guide Online that he kept one major prop from the series finale, airing on May 20. "The scythe that appeared at the end of the last episode, episode 20. Buffy finds a scythe, and it happens to be the scythe that Melaka Fray uses in the comic book [Fray] that I wrote, so we decided to bring that to life."
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Spanish actress Elena Anaya (Talk to Her) has been cast as Dracula bride Aleera in Stephen Sommers' upcoming supernatural film Van Helsing, Variety reported.
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A new trailer has gone live for the upcoming sequel film Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines, which opens July 2.
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New Line has posted 26 new images from the upcoming third Lord of the Rings film, The Return of the King, on its official Web site. King opens Dec. 17.
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