Bradbury Birthday Wishes Sought
he Planetary Society is asking fans of legendary SF author Ray Bradbury to send greetings from around the world to the writer on the occasion of his 83rd birthday, Aug. 22.
The Planetary Society will collect names and birthday greetings through Aug. 20.
The society will present what it hopes is "the world's largest birthday card" to Bradbury, one of the society's advisory council members. The society says that Bradbury, author of such books as The Martian Chronicles, "has contributed so much to the world of science fiction."
Arnold Says He'll Run
erminator 3 star Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, announced on Aug. 6 that he will run for governor of California in the upcoming recall election of Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat.
Schwarzenegger made the announcement during a taping of The Tonight Show With Jay Leno and later in a press conference outside the NBC studios in Burbank, Calif. The recall election is slated for Oct. 7.
"California is being run as a special interest," Schwarzenegger told reporters. "The politicians are no longer working for the people, but for the special interests." He added, "I will go to Sacramento and clean house." Schwarzenegger ended his news conference by quipping, "I'll be back."
It's unclear what effect Schwarzenegger's gubernatorial run will have on his movie career; he is currently slated to star in Warner Brothers' upcoming SF movie Westworld, among other projects.
Kingsley Flies To T-birds
en Kingsley—who plays the villainous Hood in the upcoming Thunderbirds—told SCI FI Wire that the movie adaptation of the '60s TV show warrants first-rate talent.
"We've making a film of quality," Kingsley said at a press conference during production at Pinewood Studios near London. "So it's not an out-of-kilter thought to bring the best possible cast together to tell this pure story of the struggle for a boy's soul, and to present this tale to children in the brightest, clearest and most fantastic way possible."
Kingsley plays a villain who wants to undermine the Tracy family International Rescue team by infiltrating their island home to steal their high-tech rescue vehicles, the Thunderbirds. The task of saving the family and the Thunderbirds falls to the youngest son, Alan Tracy, played by Brady Corbet.
"I think we're dealing very much with the rite of passage of a 14-year-old boy, who is damned and blessed with heroic parents, one of whom is dead, and one of whom is a world hero," Kingsley said. "It's pure, mythological, rich stuff."
Kingsley added that his own family influenced his decision to join the Thunderbirds cast. "I have three sons," he said. "My 14-year-old son, I said to him, 'I have been offered the role of Hood in Thunderbirds,' and he said, 'Dad, you're going to have to do it.' He has a Thunderbirds alarm clock." Kingsley described the countdown recognized by all Thunderbirds fans. "When the alarm goes off, it's 'Five, four, three, two, one ... .'" Thunderbirds are "go" in summer 2004.
Paxton Praises Thunderbirds
ill Paxton—who portrays Jeff Tracy, the patriarch of the Tracy family International Rescue team in the upcoming feature film Thunderbirds—told SCI FI Wire that the big-screen version of the '60s British TV series is much more than a live-action makeover.
"I think this is ultimately going to become this kind of great, quintessential British import to the world," Paxton said at a press conference during a break in filming at Pinewood Studios near London. "It's going to celebrate the style, the charm, of England in the '60s—but it's not your parents' Thunderbirds."
The TV series, which used a puppetry technique called "supermarionation," has garnered worldwide cult status. The series and the feature film tell the story of Tracy and his five sons, who rely on the Thunderbirds, a fleet of high-tech rescue vehicles, to respond to calls for help around the globe.
Although updated for today's audiences, the film still carries a 1960s influence, Paxton said. "I think it would be a complete fiasco if you try to go out for an Austin Powers kind of thing," he said. "It's more than that. When I grew up in the '60s, it was about vocation. It wasn't about making money. It was about doing things for other people, finding something you wanted to do. There's a message of integrity and ethics all through this thing. It celebrates technology as benefiting mankind, using these machines to try to actually help people, instead of decimating them. I feel that's what's going to make it great: It goes beyond this campy '60s puppet show." The Working Title film, directed by Jonathan Frakes, is slated for a summer 2004 release.
Urban Rides Again In King
arl Urban—who reprises the character of Éomer in the upcoming third Lord of the Rings film, The Return of the King—told SCI FI Wire that his character plays an important role in the finale.
"He aids the Fellowship to achieving their goal of distracting ... Sauron," Urban said in an interview. He added, "It's just going to be epic. We've got the battle of Pelennor Fields. We've got Shelob. We've got the assault on Mordor, you know? It's just going to be absolutely massive."
Urban added that his character will appear throughout the film, unlike the last installment. "In The Two Towers, I was in the first 30 minutes, and then I sort of ride in and bring the cavalry. But in this film, I'm sort of sprinkled in ... throughout the film. ... Lots of fighting. Lots of tension. And you know, Éomer being at that point convinced to doing the job, to following the orders of the King [Viggo Mortensen]. ... For Éomer, the sort of climax ... of his character is really an emotional one, when he finds [his sister] Éowyn [Miranda Otto] on the battlefield, and she's not supposed to be there." Return of the King opens Dec. 17.
Astin Nailed Rings Role
ean Astin—who plays Sam in the upcoming third Lord of the Rings film, The Return of the King—told SCI FI Wire that his climactic scenes with co-star Elijah Wood (Frodo) were intensely satisfying as an actor.
"I'd say the most sacred acting experience I ever had was at the top of Mt. Ruepahu, with Elijah Wood in my arms," Astin said in an interview at the recent Comic-Con International, referring to the New Zealand volcano that doubled as J.R.R. Tolkien's Mt. Doom. "It wasn't acting anymore. It was one of the most moving [experiences]. [Director] Peter [Jackson] was just sobbing."
Astin added, "I just remember this floodgate of emotion came through in the performance at that moment, when we did the scene. And Peter was crying, and I was crying. And afterwards, I was running around in the parking lot ... on this active volcano, like, yelling and cheering and like so excited. I was so, like, I had done it. I had nailed it. I had reached a point as an actor of emotional openness that I had hithertofore never been able to achieve. And that felt wonderful. So I'm so proud."
Astin said that he and Wood were helped by the "poetry" of the script. "My little brother [Mackenzie] is an actor, too," Astin said. "When we were on the train yesterday, they're like, 'So, what do you do?' And he's like, 'I'm an emotional engineer.' So I felt like I got my Ph.D. as an emotional engineer on Return of the King." King opens Dec. 17.
Horrors! King Pens Column
orrormeister Stephen King is writing a column in Entertainment Weekly magazine, the first time he has written a regular column since his university days in the 1960s, the Associated Press reported.
King will pen a monthly piece called "The Pop of King," which debuted in the Aug. 8 issue, the wire service reported.
King will offer his opinions on books, movies, television, music and more. In the introduction to his first column, the 55-year-old novelist writes that he reviewed Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for the magazine a few months ago, and editors came back to him because they either liked the review or the fact that it was written in longhand, the AP reported.
King also writes that he loved the third Terminator movie ("Arnold is still the perfect machine," he says) and slams Celine Dion.
Finding Underworld's Uniqueness
en Wiseman, director of the upcoming supernatural movie Underworld, told SCI FI Wire that the film started out as a straight werewolf project.
"I got together with a friend of mine, Kevin [Grevioux], and we started just hashing out these ideas of what could we do that's new," Wiseman said in an interview at the recent Comic-Con International. "We didn't want it to be just the local sheriff in a small town goes around the woods, finds these killings and this and that, and the silver bullets and all that. So we just wanted something to feel different."
Wiseman, Grevioux and writer Danny McBride devised a scenario in which vampires and werewolves clash. "We actually gave the werewolves an equal enemy," said Wiseman, a music-video helmer who makes his feature-directorial debut with Underworld. "It's funny, because a lot of the talk has been that it seems like a very simple concept, and why hasn't this been done before? ... We thought, 'Well, that's great, but it's been done. Of course it's been done.' And we talked to our agents, we went on the Internet, we looked at everything. And outside of, like, the ... late '50s or something, it just hasn't been done. And it was kind of shocking to us."
But Wiseman was reluctant at first to characterize the movie as a vampire-werewolf Romeo and Juliet. "At first I thought, that's the lamest idea I've ever heard in my life," he said. "[But] when the whole Romeo and Juliet thing came into play, it was really just to set up the state of the two races. Instead of Montagues and Capulets, they're werewolves and vampires. Just kind of that tension. The forbidden nature of them being together. That was much more of the thrust of the Romeo and Juliet idea than ... just the all-out love story. ... Things like a love story in a driving action film I always have a hard time with. ... Our love story was always a bit more, I guess, like Aliens than Romeo and Juliet. ... Ripley and Hicks. ... Dangerous and on the run."
Underworld, starring Scott Speedman and Wiseman's real-life fiancee, Kate Beckinsale, opens Sept. 19.
Why Freddy's Jason Is New
ean Cunningham—who created the Friday the 13th film franchise and returns as producer of the upcoming Freddy vs. Jason—told SCI FI Wire that the filmmakers weren't unhappy with longtime Jason actor Kane Hodder when they opted to go with a new actor, Ken Kirzinger, in the film.
"Not at all," Cunningham said in an interview at the recent Comic-Con International. "I'm a big fan of Kane, and Kane would have been just fine. This was just something else that we did. Ken had, in fact, understudied him, or stunt doubled for him."
Kirzinger, a stunt man and actor, is no stranger to masked or genre roles, having appeared as a werewolf in Bad Moon, Bigfoot in MacGyver and as stunt coordinator on The X-Files.
Cunningham said New Line wanted to introduce Jason to a new audience, as well as to please fans of the Friday the 13th franchise. "I think that we felt that the mission of Freddy vs. Jason ... is you're targeting three basic audiences: the audiences that grew up with these movies initially, audiences like myself who saw the later movies in the theater, and then the audiences that discover these now," Cunningham said. "I think we all sort of felt that we wanted to ... really take the Jason archetype— ... that clean hockey mask from parts like III and IV—with the zombie-fied Jason from Jason Lives and sort of go that route. ... Ken's Jason is probably an amalgamation of what has come before. Really, I think, he has made a quintessential take on the character, and it's actually the angriest you've ever seen Jason, and it plays really well."
Kirzinger's stature—he's 6-foot-5—also played a part in his inheriting the role. Filmmakers wanted to "draw almost a David-and-Goliath sort of visual imagery between Jason and Freddy," Cunningham said. "When they're up next to each other, Freddy [Robert Englund] is up to his chest, and Jason looks about as badass as he's ever looked." Freddy vs. Jason opens Aug. 15.
F vs. J Ends Only Once
obert Englund, who plays Freddy in the upcoming horror film Freddy vs. Jason, told SCI FI Wire that the movie will only have one ending, though earlier drafts toyed with the idea of multiple ones.
"The so-called Rob Bottin script, when we were trying to do this movie by summer 2000, ... had two endings," Englund said in an interview at the recent Comic-Con International. "Jason [Ken Kirzinger] wins one. Freddy wins one."
The idea, Englund said, was to switch the last reel for different screenings. "So no matter which octoplex ... you're at, you can switch the thing, so you never know what ending it is," he said. But, he added, "that gimmick was decided against. I kind of like it, actually. I thought it was a great kind of William Castle, you know, kind of concept."
Instead, Englund said, "We just shot one ending. But they were tweaking the final reel a lot. Building and building and building. ... We have many encounters in the movie. ... One of the sound editors ... said it reminded him of Popeye vs. Bluto. ... They're not as much scary as they are Freddy vs. Jason, as opposed to Jason vs. the kids and Freddy vs. the kids. That's the real horror." Freddy vs. Jason opens Aug. 15.
Borg Trek To Vegas
new Borg-themed 3-D attraction will open at the Las Vegas Hilton's Star Trek Experience in the gambling capital in spring 2004, the official StarTrek.com Web site reported.
Paramount Parks announced the new Borg Invasion 4D ride on Aug. 1.
The immersive entertainment will feature stars from Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: First Contact, as well as sensory effects choreographed with a 3-D film, including "atmospheric and hydraulic effects, physical probes, pneumatic actuators and an array of audio transducers," the site reported.
The Star Trek Experience will remain open during construction of the new Borg attraction.
UPN Reviving Trek Name?
he SyFy Portal Web site reported a rumor that UPN will add the words Star Trek to the title of Enterprise when that series returns in the fall.
Citing an anonymous source, the site reported that the network will add the franchise moniker back in gradually.
"It's not something anyone is going to see abruptly," the source told the site. "We've been calling it Enterprise and have been avoiding calling it Star Trek, but it's time [we] go back to the name." The site speculated that UPN was making the move to bolster Enterprise against The WB's Smallville, which goes head-to-head with the show next season.
A promotional spot for Enterprise, which ran during a rerun of the series this week on UPN, used the full title Star Trek: Enterprise. The show returns on Sept. 10.
Valenti Blesses Passion
ack Valenti, the outgoing head of the film industry's Washington lobbying group, told Variety that Mel Gibson's upcoming Jesus film The Passion is not anti-Semitic, as some critics fear.
"You can quote me—Mel Gibson's The Passion is not anti-Semitic," Valenti told the trade paper. "I did not see any anti-Semitism in it. The villains are the Roman soldiers."
Valenti said that Gibson "asked me to show it in my theater [at the Motion Picture Association of America in Washington]. He showed it to about 20-30 people." Valenti said he viewed the film with subtitles (it was shot in Latin and Aramaic) and "not a lot of dialogue. I found it genuinely moving, serious, a compelling tale of the last days of Christ. I thought it was a good movie."
In a July 30 editorial in Daily Variety, editor-in-chief Peter Bart wrote, "Those who know Gibson well describe him as a quirky, tormented soul with deep Catholic beliefs who is devoid of anti-Semitism. Upon viewing, his film is also without anti-Semitic overtones." Gibson said he plans a spring release, the trade paper reported.
Fantasy Nominees Named
ominations have been announced for this year's World Fantasy Awards, for works published in 2002, Locus Online reported.
The winners will be named on Nov. 2 at the World Fantasy Convention 2003 in Washington. A life achievement award, whose nominees are not released in advance, will also be announced at the convention. A full list of nominees follows.
Novel
•The Facts of Life by Graham Joyce
•Fitcher's Brides by Gregory Frost
•Ombria in Shadow by Patricia A. McKillip
•The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque by Jeffrey Ford
•The Scar by China Miéville
Novella
•"Coraline" by Neil Gaiman
•"The Least Trumps" by Elizabeth Hand
•"The Library" by Zoran Zivkovic
•"Seven Wild Sisters" by Charles de Lint
•"A Year in the Linear City" by Paul Di Filippo
Short Story
•"Creation" by Jeffrey Ford
•"The Essayist in the Wilderness" by William Browning Spencer
•"Little Dead Girl Singing" by Stephen Gallagher
•"October in the Chair" by Neil Gaiman
•"The Weight of Words" by Jeffrey Ford
Anthology
•The American Fantasy Tradition, Brian M. Thomsen, ed.
•Conjunctions 39: The New Wave Fabulists, Peter Straub, ed.
•The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, eds.
•Leviathan 3, Jeff VanderMeer and Forrest Aguirre, eds.
•The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Fifteenth Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, eds.
Collection
•City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff VanderMeer
•The Fantasy Writer's Assistant and Other Stories by Jeffrey Ford
•Figures in Rain by Chet Williamson
•The Ogre's Wife by Richard Parks
•Waifs and Strays by Charles de Lint
•Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits by Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson
Artist
•Kinuko Y. Craft
•Tom Kidd
•Gary Lippincott
•Dave McKean
•John Jude Palencar
•Charles Vess
Special Award, Professional
•Paul Barnett (for Paper Tiger art books)
•Ellen Datlow (for editing)
•William K. Schafer (for Subterranean Press)
•Gary Turner & Marty Halpern (for Golden Gryphon Press)
•Gordon Van Gelder (for F&SF)
•Terri Windling (for editing)
Special Award, Non-Professional
•Peter Crowther (for PS Publishing)
•Gavin Grant & Kelly Link (for Small Beer Press)
•Sean Wallace (for Prime Books)
•Michael Walsh (for Old Earth Books)
•Jason Williams, Jeremy Lassen and Benjamin Cossel (for Night Shade Books)
Hyperion Films In Works?
he Ain't It Cool News Web site reported a rumor that Dan Simmons' Hyperion cycle of SF novels may be in development as a feature film.
The site based its report on an anonymous poster who said he heard it from Simmons, who spoke at the University Bookstore in Seattle.
The site reported that Simmons said that film rights to the Hyperion saga have been sold to "a major studio" and that a "major star and major director" are in talks to shoot a trilogy of movies based on the books. Simmons reportedly added that nothing is definite.
Ain't It Cool News also reported that Simmons offered hints as to who may be pushing the film, and the site wondered if the director might be Martin Scorsese and the star might be Leonardo DiCaprio.
The Hyperion books are set on the eve of Armageddon, with the entire galaxy at war, and center on seven pilgrims who set forth on a voyage to Hyperion to find answers to the unsolved riddles of their lives, according to a description on Amazon.com.
Dominik Develops Demolished
ustralian director Andrew Dominik (Chopper) will develop and direct Paramount's The Demolished Man, based on SF author Alfred Bester's best-selling book of the same name, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The book tells the story of a future society in which telepaths are used to detect crimes before they happen, the trade paper reported.
No writers or producers are attached to the project yet, the trade paper reported. Dominik will oversee the development of the script.
Mrs. Seuss OKs Cat's Fanning
akota Fanning, who plays Sally in the film adaptation of Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat, told SCI FI Wire that the late author's wife, Audrey Geisel, approved of her casting.
"She was so nice to us," the 9-year-old actress said in an interview. "It was such an honor to meet her, and I talked to her for about 15 minutes."
Fanning also had good things to say about her co-star Mike Myers, who plays the Cat. In every scene, she said, "he'd either take something out or add something in or use a different prop or something." Behind the scenes, Myers could transform himself into the Cat at the drop of a hat, she added. "He's pretty much the normal Mike in between takes," she said. "That's what was so amazing. He's the normal Mike in between takes, and then he snaps back into the Cat."
Fanning added that she was struck by the film's color scheme. "The whole thing is purple, green, orange, yellow, blue and pink," she said. "And the sidewalks are even painted lavender." The Cat in the Hat opens Nov. 21.
Blair Blazes In Hellboy
elma Blair, who plays pyrokinetic government agent Liz Sherman in the upcoming Dark Horse Comics film adaptation Hellboy, told SCI FI Wire that her character's storyline was expanded for the movie.
"Liz doesn't figure very prominently in the comic," she said in an interview during a day off from shooting in Prague. "And [creator Mike Mignola] would kind of joke around like, 'Well, I don't know how to draw pretty girls. I draw monsters. I nearly killed you off.' ... I don't think there was too much of a pre-conceived notion of what Liz was, so I had a little bit of freedom. She's more in the movie than in the book."
The film will deal more with Liz's struggle to gain control of her powerful fire-starting abilities. Blair said that all of the fire effects in the film will be added digitally in post-production, a process that presented both advantages and disadvantages during filming. "There's not too much danger for me," she said. "But I feel like a complete drip on set acting like I'm on fire, and there's nothing there. It's funny. I kind of thought, 'God, I'd really like there to be some effects on set, because I feel very self-conscious, acting as if I'm burning up the world.'"
Blair said she is excited about what she has seen of the film so far and is looking forward to seeing the finished product when it's all put together. "It will be really impressive," she said. "I've seen the mock-ups. They showed me what it's going to look like, so I know what'll be there. You kind of have to know what page everyone's on so you can make it come to life. It'll be gorgeous. I have no doubt." Hellboy opens April 2, 2004.
Hellboy Moved Up
evolution Studios has moved up the release of Hellboy to a less-competitive April 2, 2004, from Memorial Day weekend, Variety reported.
The supernatural action film, based on Mike Mignola's cult comic series, is being directed by Guillermo del Toro (Blade II) and was originally set to open against DreamWorks' Shrek 2, the trade paper reported.
The two weekends before Memorial Day have Universal's Van Helsing, Warner Brothers' Troy and Paramount's The World of Tomorrow, while the weekend after the holiday has Fox's The Day After Tomorrow, the trade paper reported.
Punisher Meets Press
onathan Hensleigh, writer and director of the upcoming film adaptation of Marvel's Punisher comic series, told a Florida press conference that the movie will be "an intense urban drama, and it's violent," according to a report on the ComiX-Fan Web site.
"It's a story of revenge and redemption," Hensleigh told reporters at an Aug. 4 press conference in Tampa to mark the start of production on the previous Saturday. Lead actor Thomas Jane joined Hensleigh and Marvel Studios executive Ari Arad, producer Gale Anne Hurd and others.
Hensleigh also discussed how much of the comic series' source material has made its way into the script. "Some years after [the Punisher] line of comics started, they did this little insert series called 'Year One' that was at the end of '94 and beginning of '95," Hensleigh said. "There were a whole number of elements [used from] there. Then, specifically, [writer] Garth Ennis supercharged the series in recent years, starting with a series called 'Welcome Back Frank.' It was a bound book Marvel had sent to me. I read it in about 45 minutes and called Avi Arad within a half an hour and commited to the project."
For his part, Jane said that both he and Hensleigh were "really influenced" by artist Tim Bradstreet's covers for The Punisher, to which Hensleigh responded, "Thomas is dead right. There was a visual stamp that Bradstreet put on it that was electrifying."
Comic Informs Hedge Film
im Johnson, director of DreamWorks' upcoming movie Over the Hedge, told SCI FI Wire that makers of the computer-animated feature worked closely with the creators of the irreverent newspaper comic strip on which it is based.
Creators Michael Fry and T. Lewis are "both involved," Johnson said in an interview recently at DreamWorks' Glendale, Calif., headquarters. "Mike Fry and T. Lewis are pretty excited, obviously, with this kind of stuff. And they're both involved. So they're getting script pages and giving us notes, and they'll come to early screenings of the picture."
Like the strip, the movie will center on a group of woodland animals who find themselves on the edge of suburbia. Jim Carrey stars as the voice of the con-artist raccoon R.J., while Garry Shandling voices the sensitive turtle Verne. The cast includes Gene Wilder as the voice of Norbert the Owl.
"Our goal is to make, not really a negative comment on the consumer culture we live in, although we will be having a little fun at the expense of us humans, but to really show us how much we take for granted," Johnson said while previewing the film. "We have it pretty darn good in this world, don't we? Especially in this country. And so to actually take a look from an animal's point of view, ... to be thrust into the 21st century in front of big-screen TVs and Cheetos, they're having a pretty good time. And hopefully so will all of us when we see it in theaters in a mere two and a half years." Hedge, which is now in production, is aiming for a Thanksgiving 2005 release, directed by Johnson (Antz) and co-directed by Ash Brannon (Toy Story).
Dracula's Demeter Sets Sail
hoenix Pictures has signed Robert Schwentke to direct The Last Voyage of the Demeter, which he will rewrite with Mitch Brian, Variety reported.
Based on the original screenplay by Bragi Schut, Demeter expands upon the captain's log chapter of Bram Stoker's Dracula, in which a ship carried the vampire's coffin to England from Transylvania and arrived at port with no survivors aboard, the trade paper reported.
Phoenix will produce, with J.C Spink and Chris Bender of Benderspink acting as executive producers.
Lohan Studied For Friday
indsay Lohan—who plays a teenage rock-star wannabe who swaps bodies with her mother in Freaky Friday—told SCI FI Wire that she and co-star Jamie Lee Curtis switched roles in rehearsal so they could better imitate each other's mannerisms.
"[Director Mark Waters] said, 'I think it'd be a great idea for you guys if Lindsay did her role throughout the whole script and Jamie did hers,'" she said in an interview while promoting the film. "'And watch them back so that you can see how she would act in all these scenes, and you can take elements from what she does and gestures and little things.' And that's what we did, and it worked out really well to our benefit."
For the role, Lohan had to learn to control her posture and speaking voice to appear more mature, but imitating the youthful Curtis came naturally. "It wasn't hard to be Jamie herself, because we're very similar," she said. "As opposed to being Tess, because Jamie's very different from Tess. But I don't think of it as hard as much as fun."
Although Friday has some similarities to Lohan's last film, the Disney remake The Parent Trap, she said she took the role because of its differences. "It is very ironic, because it's playing dual roles again, and it's my first movie back, so people remember me as doing that," the 17-year-old actress said. "It's the perfect role to come back for after Parent Trap, [because] I get to play a teenager, which is good for kids my age, but then I can also play an adult, which is a little more serious, and it's a little more challenging." Freaky Friday opened in theaters Aug. 6.
Curtis De-Freaked Friday
amie Lee Curtis—who stars in Disney's body-switching movie remake Freaky Friday—told SCI FI Wire that the script was much wackier before she joined the cast.
"Weirdly enough, I actually would say what I brought to it was a little bit of ground," Curtis said in an interview while promoting the film. "I actually thought it was kind of zany."
Curtis said that the tone of the earlier script was closer to that of the original 1976 movie, but that she felt a more realistic approach was necessary for the updated version. "If you're playing a farce, like the first movie was, ... you can't ground that movie, ever. That's got to be just like a helium balloon flying around and being really silly with people with helium voices. But if you're doing a fable, which is what I think we made, then you have to have touchstones all the way through the movie of reality."
In the film, Curtis plays Tess, a psychologist who doesn't understand her teenage daughter until the two of them magically swap bodies. Curtis took the role at the 11th hour, after Annette Bening, who was originally cast, dropped out. Though she had little time to prepare before the start of filming, Curtis said she was more worried about playing the adult Tess than the teenager trapped in her body. "I am a youthful adult, and because I don't have a day job that requires me to dress a certain way at all, the line is blurred," she said. "Even though I'm actually a very serious adult, and I read a lot, and I'm not frivolous, and I don't dress inappropriately, still, the line is so blurred that ultimately I was just concerned that I could pull off looking like an adult woman who is a professional woman, who works all day long, a more conservative professional woman than myself."
Among her many contributions to the film, Curtis is most proud of one line of dialogue in particular, in which her character gives advice that Curtis has often passed on to own teenage daughter. "The best contribution I made was, 'Make good choices,'" she said. "It's my mantra. I'll be wearing the T-shirt at the Teen Choice Awards. I'll be putting a bumper sticker on my car." Freaky Friday opened in theaters Aug. 6.
Keith Feels Deep Shock
avid Keith—who stars in the SCI FI Channel original picture Deep Shock—told SCIFI Wire that the film is a straightforward SF action adventure.
"It's leaning to the right and leaning to the left as the ship shakes," Keith said in an interview. "And God knows what's coming out of the crevices of the bowels of the Earth."
Keith (Daredevil and the upcoming Fox TV series Still Life) plays Navy Capt. Andy Raines, who joins an effort to avert disaster when the United Nations considers nuking a trench deep beneath the North Pole that serves as home to electric-eel aliens. Deep Shock also stars Simmone Jade MacKinnon (SCI FI Pictures' Pythons 2), Sean Whalen (TV's defunct Special Unit 2) and Mark Sheppard (Firefly).
"My character works with a woman, a scientist [MacKinnon] he was once married to," Keith said. "Things didn't work out, but they're working together again. So that colors everything he does. He's a guy who takes care of business in whatever situation he's in, and he's usually hampered by the people around him, who are more concerned about red tape than they are about doing what needs to be done."
Raines spends a good deal of time dealing with the electric eels, aka
Electrophorous electricus, but Keith admitted that he can't make the same claim. "The eels were all CGI," he said. "I haven't seen one yet. I have no idea what they look like. I've done quite a bit of blue screen, actually. Indian in the Cupboard was six months of nothing but blue screen. So I'm kind of an old hand at blue screen." Deep Shock premiered Aug. 9 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on SCI FI.
Dimension Wakes The Dead
month after discovering it at Comic-Con International, Dimension Films has picked up the film rights to Wake the Dead, a comic by
Steve Niles, Variety reported.
The supernatural series retells the Frankenstein story in the style of cult favorites The Crow and Darkman, the trade paper reported.
The five-part series is published by IDW Publishing. IDW president Ted Adams will executive produce, along with Niles.
Niles' 30 Days of Night comic is currently set up at Sony for Sam Raimi (Spider-Man) to produce with Dark Horse Entertainment, the trade paper reported.
DVD Stitch Game Due
uena Vista Home Entertainment plans to release a DVD-based board game themed around the recent Disney animated movie Lilo & Stitch, Variety reported.
Created by the company's DVD production unit, Lilo & Stitch's Island of Adventure is a family-targeted game designed to be played on a standard living-room DVD player, the trade paper reported.
Play involves the standard board-game paradigm, with such traditional components as the spinner and cards replaced by interactive menu components on the DVD, the trade paper reported.
Content from the upcoming DVD premiere movie sequel Stitch! The Movie, as well as computer animation created specifically for the game, is blended together to form the game's multimedia elements, the trade paper reported. The game will hit stores Nov. 11, with a suggested retail price of $29.99.
Fish Takes On Mansion
im Burton's fantasy family film Big Fish will take on Eddie Murphy's Haunted Mansion movie this Thanksgiving, Variety reported.
Columbia Pictures will premiere the tale of an Alabama braggart on Nov. 26. The adaptation of a novel by Daniel Wallace follows a son retelling the fantastical experiences his father claimed to have lived, including one involving the titular big fish, the trade paper reported.
Disney will be going after a similar family audience for Mansion, its latest Disneyland-ride-inspired film, the trade paper reported.
Ragnarok Hacked Again
he popular PC massively multiplayer online role-playing game
Ragnarok Online was hacked again, with attackers gaining game-master privileges in the international servers, the GameSpot Web site reported.
The incident began on Aug. 3, when a message disguised as that of a game master announced a number of false new implementations in the game on the international servers, the site reported.
Another message was sent on Aug. 4 that clearly didn't come from an employee of Gravity Corp. On the same day, a number of rare items were produced with game-master privileges and leaked throughout one of the two main game servers. Gravity also suffered from a number of user account losses, but it is unknown if the losses were connected to the hackings, the site reported.
In response, Gravity announced that it will not be rolling back the game server's data, but in order to sustain the game balance, a number of rare items on the server will be deleted, regardless of whether they were created with game-master privileges or not, GameSpot reported.
Gravity currently operates its Ragnarok Online services both directly and through representative companies in Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and a number of other Asian countries. The international service is operated directly by Gravity's U.S. branch, but it has been a target of criticism among its consumers for the lack of security and updates, compared to the services in other countries. The international service of Ragnarok Online is currently eight months behind the Asian service in terms of updates, the GameSpot site reported.
Silent Hill 3 Ships
ilent Hill 3, the third title in Konami's survival-horror video-game series, has shipped to stores, the GameSpot Web site reported.
The PlayStation 2 title will appear at North American retailers.
In the game, players guide Heather Morris through a series of eerie environments that are overrun by dozens of nasty creatures, from split-headed zombie dogs to horribly mutated humanoids, the site reported.
Silent Hill 3 will include a bonus soundtrack CD. A PC version is scheduled to ship in the fall.
Thomas Helming Ghosts
etty Thomas is set to helm Disney's supernatural comedy film Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, with Ben Affleck attached to star, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Ghosts centers on a bachelor who goes to his younger brother's wedding, where he is visited by the ghosts of his past girlfriends, the trade paper reported.
John Lucas and Scott Moore wrote the script. A fall production start date is planned, the trade paper reported.
Intruders Developing
ocus Features is developing The Intruders, a fact-based movie about a San Francisco TV talkshow star whose life is ruined when she moves into an apartment house built upon a former hanging ground and cemetery, Variety reported.
Universal-based Focus has acquired Pat Montandon's 1975 book The Intruders and set Gary Lennon to write the script, the trade paper reported.
Montandon was the toast of Bay Area society and hosted a top-rated TV show when she moved into 1000 Lombard, where bad things started happening after a tarot card reader put a curse on her, the trade paper reported.
Universal is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Cursed Put On Hold
imension Films has put Wes Craven's Cursed on an extended hiatus, with four weeks left to shoot on the upcoming werewolf movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Citing anonymous sources, the trade paper reported that the studio ordered the hiatus last month.
A Dimension spokesperson told the trade paper that the hiatus was planned and concerned the addition of special effects, because the filmmakers brought in more effects than originally planned as the film shot.
But sources told the paper that top executives at the Miramax Films genre arm weren't happy with the film's ending or how the special effects were progressing, specifically the look of the film's lead lycanthrope, the trade paper reported. The project was then reportedly put back into a "development phase," during which all parties could agree on the final outcome, sources said.
Cursed began production in March. A source told the trade paper that the kinks have now been worked out and that a September restart is being eyed. The film stars Christina Ricci, Skeet Ulrich, Shannon Elizabeth, Omar Epps and Scott Foley and was originally scheduled for a release this month.
Bay Goes Gently
irector Michael Bay (Armageddon) is developing Do Not Go Gently, a Revolution Studios movie about a scientist from the Smithsonian who fulfills a lifelong dream to travel in space, Variety reported.
Do Not Go Gently is described as an adventure film with a gentle tone, the trade paper reported.
Bay has not yet chosen his next directing vehicle, and it was unclear how quickly Do Not Go Gently would be ready to go, the trade paper reported. Revolution has set Neil Tolkin to rewrite the script.
Rebel Bonus Offered
ucasArts will give away a special bonus disc to those who pre-order its upcoming sequel video game Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike, the GameSpot Web site reported.
The disc will contain a playable demo of Rebel Strike (the Hoth level), a trailer for Gladius, a trailer for Rebel Strike and a port of the 1982 vector graphics Star Wars arcade game, the site reported.
Rebel Strike follows events that transpired in the original Star Wars movies, taking players from the planet Hoth to the forests of Endor. Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike is scheduled for release on Oct. 14. The bonus disc will be available sometime in September, the site reported.
Faison Dogs It In Boy
onald Faison, who provides the voice for an alien canine in the upcoming movie Good Boy!, told SCI FI Wire that the movie offers up a fantasy backstory for dogs.
"It's about dogs' coming from outer space a long time ago to take over the world, and somewhere along the line, they messed up real bad," Faison (TV's Scrubs) said in an interview. "I think some dude said, 'Sit,' and the dog [sat]. Ever since then, they were considered man's best friend."
Faison's character is Wilson, "a boxer who's very loud and loves cookies," he said. "He has two dads. He doesn't have a mom, but he has two dads." The film combines live action with computer-generated animation to make the dogs speak. But Faison said that the movie differs from 2001's similarly themed Cats & Dogs. "Cats & Dogs was really exaggerated mouth movement," he said. "Not this. It still looks like the dog is saying something, but a dog can't go, 'You.' It's not possible with their jaw structure." Good Boy!, directed by John Robert Hoffman, opens Oct. 10.
Friedkin Helms Skulls
aramount has tapped William Friedkin (The Exorcist) to direct The Book of Skulls, a supernatural thriller film based on SF author Robert Silverberg's novel, Variety reported.
Alphaville will produce Skulls, with co-chiefs Sean Daniel and Jim Jacks shepherding, the trade paper reported.
The film centers on a quartet of collegians who discover an ancient book containing the secret to eternal life and the high cost attached, the site reported. Jeff Davis has been signed to script.
Lost World Fans Convene
ans of the syndicated television series Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World will sponsor a fan convention to raise money for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation in Long Beach, Calif., Aug. 22-24.
Guests include Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, executive creative consultants; Jeffrey Hayes of Coote/Hayes Productions; and stars Jennifer O’Dell (Veronica Leyton), Will Snow (Lord John Roxton) and David Orth (Ned Malone).
The convention will also feature an auction of autographed scripts, costumes and other items, as well as a raffle for a costume worn by Rachel Blakely and a signed script. Tickets are available at the door for $35 per day.
Briefly Noted
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Jenna Stern has joined the cast of The WB's upcoming Tarzan series as John's (Travis Fimmel) aunt and Richard's (Mitch Pileggi) sister, Katherine Clayton, the TarzanTheSeries.com fan Web site reported.
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Paramount Home Entertainment has moved up the release date of its long-awaited DVD set of the Adventures of Indiana Jones to Oct. 21 from Nov. 4, avoiding head-to-head competition with the DVD of Finding Nemo, as well as DVDs of The Matrix Reloaded and The Lion King, which also come out around that time, Variety reported.
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The official Lord of the Rings movie Web site has posted a new interview with Bernard Hill, who plays Theoden, King of Rohan, in the upcoming third installment, The Return of the King, which opens Dec. 17.
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Dark Horizons reported that the fantasy comedy film 13 Going on 30, starring Jennifer Garner, will open May 28, 2004.
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Shia LaBeouf (Holes) has joined the cast of Fox's I, Robot, opposite Will Smith, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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A new teaser trailer has gone live for John Woo's upcoming SF thriller film Paycheck, based on a short story by Philip K. Dick. Paycheck, starring Ben Affleck, is slated for a Christmas release.
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American Cinematheque Presents/Vitagraph Films announced the theatrical release of Bubba Ho-Tep, a supernatural horror comedy starring Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis, in New York on Sept. 26, in Los Angeles Oct. 3 and nationally in October. Campbell plays a geriatric Elvis, who teams up with a fellow nursing-home resident who thinks that he is John F. Kennedy (Davis) to battle an evil Egyptian mummy.
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The cast of the upcoming supernatural horror sequel film Jeepers Creepers 2 hit the road for a nationwide bus tour to promote the film, starting in Columbus, Ohio, on Aug. 4 and continuing through Aug. 24, with stops in Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Washington, Detroit, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Phoenix. The movie opens Aug. 29.
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Rutger Hauer will appear next season in a two-episode arc of The WB's Smallville, playing an underworld kingpin, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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Princess Anne-Droid (aka Cindy Freeling) accepted the Pioneer Award on behalf of the cult classic parody film Hardware Wars from Lucasfilm at the recent Comic-Con International in San Diego.
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Twin brothers Chad and Carey Hayes have been hired to pen the remake of Dark Castle Entertainment's House of Wax for Warner Brothers Pictures/Village Roadshow Pictures, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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A new trailer has gone live for the upcoming genre film spoof Scary Movie 3, which opens Oct. 3.
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Maverick Films and Cosmic Entertainment have teamed to produce the supernatural movie Invisible, about a woman who feels ignored and literally becomes invisible, discovering a whole society of likewise transparent souls, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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