Kong-Sized Payday To Jackson
niversal will pay Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson $20 million against 20 percent of the gross to helm a remake of King Kong, one of the largest deals ever made with a director, Variety reported.
Jackson will share that fee with Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, the duo with whom he wrote the Rings films, the trade paper reported. The trio shares writing duties on King Kong, and part of the compensation goes to Walsh for producing the film with him, the trade reported.
The deal also represents a household record, as Walsh and Jackson live together in New Zealand. The $20 million advance puts Jackson in the same territory as stars like Tom Cruise and Mel Gibson, Variety reported.
King Kong has been green-lighted and is slotted for a Christmas 2005 release. Universal is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Fleck Romances Carnivale
ohn Fleck, who plays lizard boy Gecko on HBO's upcoming supernatural series Carnivale, told SCI FI Wire that his character's arc in the first five episodes is a romantic tragedy.
"The first five are establishing my relationship with this young girl played by Amanda Aday," Fleck said in an interview. "We get this friendship going, establish a friendship, and something terrible happens. There's that arc, kind of fun, fun, fun, then ooh, scary, tragic."
Fleck endures more than 10 hours of makeup to transform into Gecko, a man with a condition that leaves his skin looking like alligator hide. "On my face there's probably seven or eight pieces that they glue down," he said. "It's four hours for the face and the hands. But when I do the full body, it's 10 or 11 hours in the makeup. Then it's about another three or four hours [to take it off]. [I have] lots of 3 a.m. makeup calls."
The character embraces his odd appearance and even mutilates himself to look more like a lizard, Fleck said. "He slit his tongue, so it really gives him a lizard effect, and he clipped his ears off to give a very reptilian look," he said. Carnivale premieres Sept. 14 at 9:30 ET/PT on HBO.
Mayhew Ready For Episode III
eter Mayhew told SCI FI Wire that he's eager to reprise his role as
Chewbacca, the hairy Wookiee, in the upcoming Star Wars: Episode III.
"You've got to have a link between Episode III and Episode IV," Mayhew said in an interview. "Consequently, the older characters have got to be there. Otherwise it doesn't gel. And what better character to have, as one of the older members of the
[original trilogy's] cast, than Chewbacca to come back and connect everything together? I was very surprised and very pleased to get that phone call."
Production on Episode III is well underway in Australia, and Samuel L. Jackson, in fact, has already completed his scenes as Jedi Master Mace Windu. Mayhew, however, confirmed that he's not yet stepped before director George Lucas' camera. "I just went out there to do some publicity for it, and they said, 'Right, we'll keep in touch and let you know when we need you,'" Mayhew said. "I talked to George, and he was pleased to see us out there. When I go back [to actually shoot Chewbacca scenes] he will be even more pleased, because he'll be one
step closer to getting the movie finished."
Mayhew, who last appeared as Chewbacca on the 1997 MTV Movie Awards, added that he recently donned the Wookiee's furry hide for a couple of Episode III costume fittings. "They were very successful," Mayhew said. "Chewie looks exactly the same as he always has. It was a wonderful feeling for any actor or artist to create something that looks as good today as it did when it was new." Episode III will be released in 2005.
Episode III Crew Rigs Proposal
crew member on Star Wars: Episode III surprised his girlfriend by proposing marriage to her on one of the prequel's sets, with the assistance of R2-D2 and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels), the official Star Wars Hyperspace Web site reported.
On the Jedi Temple interior set, droid unit technician Justin Dix asked Kimberly Graham to marry him on Aug. 8, the site reported.
Dix was assisted by Artoo and Threepio, who were being photographed by Tippy Bushkin's documentary crew, stills photographer Ralph Nelson and
the Web site. On Artoo, a side panel popped open and a double-jointed arm extended, holding a white box with a ring. Taking the box from Artoo, Dix dropped to one knee and proposed. A surprised Graham accepted, to the applause of a dozen or so crew members, the site reported.
The proposal was recorded by the Episode III documentary team.
Newell Confirmed For Potter IV
ike Newell, the British director of Four Weddings and a Funeral, will direct the fourth Harry Potter movie, Warner Brothers Pictures announced officially over the weekend, the Associated Press reported.
Newell will begin work on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in April 2004, the wire service reported.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the third film in the series, is currently in production under the direction of Alfonso Cuaron, and the studio said that as the two productions will overlap, it was not feasible for him to direct both, the wire service reported.
Newell, 61, also directed Donnie Brasco and recently completed Mona Lisa Smile with Julia Roberts, the AP reported.
T4 Possible Sans Arnold
erminator 3 star Arnold Schwarzenegger may have to hang up his shotgun if he's elected governor of California, but the producers told a German newspaper that they could press on with the franchise whether the Austrian Oak comes back or not, the Reuters news service reported.
"If we come up with a good story, there will be a fourth Terminator, with or without Arnold," Moritz Bormann, chief executive of Munich-based Internationalmedia, told the German Welt am Sonntag newspaper on Aug. 9.
Bormann said he had discussed Schwarzenegger's political ambitions with him during the filming of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and had thought of alternatives should Schwarzenegger win the election, the wire service reported. Another actor could take over the role, or Schwarzenegger could make his appearances in flashback scenes.
New Writer Takes On Wonder?
he Comics2Film/CBR News Web site reported a rumor that Warner Brothers has hired writer Laeta Kalogridis to come up with a new draft for a proposed Wonder Woman movie.
Philip Levens (Smallville) is writing his own screenplay for a Wonder Woman feature film, based on the DC Comics character.
Kalogridis was a writer and executive producer on The WB's short-lived Birds of Prey TV series, which was also based on a DC Comics property. The site reported that Kalogridis will be starting Wonder Woman from scratch, writing a completely new script dealing with the origins of the character.
Perlman Became Hellboy
on Perlman, who plays the title character in the upcoming supernatural film Hellboy, told SCI FI Wire that he had no problem getting used to the heavy makeup and prosthetics required for the role of a giant red demon.
"I realized from the get-go that I didn't need to make any adjustment," Perlman said in an interview during shooting in Prague. "Because the mask absolutely mirrored everything that was going through my mind and what was going through my heart. It's just a question of playing Hellboy at that point."
In Hellboy, which is based on Mike Mignola's Dark Horse comics series, Perlman plays a superhuman paranormal investigator who works for the federal government. Perlman attributes the quality of the makeup effects to the skill of Oscar-winning designer Rick Baker and his team of artists. "They just have this way that is absolutely impossible for me to fathom of turning inanimate objects into living, breathing, three-dimensional forces of nature that have a life force of their own," he said. "The very first screen test we did when this makeup was completed, I could see what I was thinking without doing anything."
Perlman, who was the first choice for the role for both director Guillermo del Toro and Hellboy creator Mignola, said that he is very much like the character he plays. "It's the most natural extension of me that I've ever played," he said. "The main thing that [del Toro] said to me is, 'I wrote this for you, Ron. I don't want you to think about it or mess with it. When the camera rolls I just want to see you under that makeup.' And that was very liberating." Hellboy opens April 2, 2004.
Yu Options Blood
irector Ronny Yu (Freddy vs. Jason) told SCI FI Wire that he has optioned the rights to the Japanese anime film Blood: The Last Vampire for a live-action movie.
The anime tells the story of a vampire hunter on a military base in Japan. Hiroyuki Kitakubo directed the original film, which was released in 2000.
"They call it The Last Vampire Killer," Yu said in an interview. "You have this teenage girl. She never ages, and she always wears this high-school uniform. But she carries this huge samurai sword, and she has a mission to get rid of all these leftover vampires."
Yu said he would insist on casting a Japanese actress in the role, though he has no one in mind yet. Yu added that Blood's period sets it apart from another teenage vampire killer, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. "It takes place right after the Second World War, so I thought that is a very interesting era, because there's so much death after the war, all this blood created all these vampires," he said.
Yu added that he plans to expand the anime film, which is only 48 minutes long, to feature length by exploring the vampire killer's backstory. "Me and my writer, we had to go back to the origin," Yu said. "Where does she come from? What organization she's working for? And expand that, the past history. How does it make her come to this world?"
Looney's Picardo Back In Action
ormer Star Trek: Voyager star Robert Picardo told SCI FI Wire that the upcoming film Looney Tunes: Back in Action will mark "at least" his 10th collaboration with director Joe Dante.
"It started with The Howling, and I've since been in Innerspace, The 'Burbs, Gremlins 2 and several television projects," Picardo said in an interview. "In Looney Tunes: Back in Action I'm on the board of Acme Industries, and Steve Martin is the chairman of the board."
Picardo added, "If you remember from the cartoon, Wile E. Coyote was always sending away to Acme for something to attack Road Runner with. So I'm in a few scenes with Steve, who's in full wild-and-crazy-guy mode. He is hilarious. I also worked with Tasmanian Devil, but I didn't work with Brendan Fraser or Jenna Elfman or Heather Locklear."
The comedy mixes live action and animation, much like Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Picardo described one sequence in which he infuriates Martin and finds himself wrapped head to toe in plastic wrap. "I assumed that would be animated," he said. "But no. They wrapped me head to toe in plastic wrap in about 30 seconds. It's a very funny scene. I was afraid of getting suffocated and killed, but apparently that didn't happen, because here I am talking now." Looney Tunes: Back in Action is set to open nationwide on Nov. 14.
Exorcist Prequel Bedeviled?
irector Paul Schrader has handed in his cut of the upcoming prequel film Exorcist: The Beginning, and the British Independent newspaper reported rumors that Morgan Creek isn't happy with it.
Citing an anonymous source, the newspaper reported that the studio apparently expected more head-spinning and projectile vomiting, a la William Friedkin's 1973 original film.
Instead, the newspaper reported, Schrader turned in a moody, intimate movie examining faith. The newspaper added that the studio can't fire Schrader, and he won't quit, and that Morgan Creek is "loathe to give Schrader post-production money to finish his film." Exorcist: The Beginning, starring Stellan Skarsgard as a youthful Father Lankester Merrin, is slated to open Feb. 6, 2004.
Nutter Helms Darksiders
mmy-winning director David Nutter (The X-Files) has been tapped by New Line Cinema to direct the vampire thriller film Darksiders, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Penned by Tom Parker and Jim Jennewein, Darksiders revolves around a band of bloodsuckers who are turned into special operatives for the FBI, the trade paper reported.
Tracie Graham and Alison Rosenzweig are producing, with New Line production executives Kent Alterman and Michelle Weiss overseeing for the studio, the trade paper reported.
Nutter has helmed episodes of such series as Dark Angel, Smallville and The WB's upcoming Tarzan, as well as The X-Files. Nutter's last movie was the 1998 thriller Disturbing Behavior.
Begley Admitted To Hospital
d Begley Jr. (St. Elsewhere) will again play a doctor as the head of Kingdom Hospital, ABC's upcoming Stephen King supernatural horror series, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Begley joins the cast as hospital chief Dr. Jesse James in the midseason drama, the trade paper reported. The 15-hour series also stars Andrew McCarthy and Diane Ladd.
Begley earned an Emmy and a Golden Globe nomination for his role as Dr. Ehrlich in St. Elsewhere. Kingdom Hospital is slated to premiere Jan. 5, 2004.
Hammer Develops Films Again
he resurrected British horror-film company Hammer Films and Australia's Pictures in Paradise announced plans to develop and produce up to six low-budget scary films over the next five years, Variety reported.
All will be co-productions taking advantage of tax incentives and subsidies in both countries, and the majority will be shot in Oz, PIP's Chris Brown told the trade paper.
"We have been developing a couple of [potential] projects, but we're starting with a clean slate," said Brown, who is attending the Australian International Movie Convention on the Gold Coast, not far from his offices.
Some Kids Miss 3-D
any children who see Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over this summer may have a vision disorder that prevents them from seeing the three-dimensional effects, the College of Optometrists in Vision Development announced.
On the plus side, the movie presents parents with an opportunity to evaluate their children's vision before the new school year, the college said in a press release.
About five to seven percent of children cannot see 3-D at a distance, and a greater percentage struggle with seeing 3-D up close, the college said. A variety of vision problems can cause the problem, including amblyopia ("lazy eye"), strabismus ("crossed eye") and convergence insufficiency, a condition that inhibits one's ability to keep both eyes focused correctly on a close target.
Parents can visit a Web site for simple tests to see if a child can see 3-D. Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over is in theaters.
Warcraft Pack Sells 1M
lizzard Entertainment has sold more than 1 million copies of its video-game expansion pack Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne since it was released last month, the GameSpot Web site reported.
The game is Blizzard's eighth to surpass 1 million sales and has been topping PC charts in North America, Europe and Asia, the site reported.
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne is the first expansion pack for the best-selling Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos game, and it adds new heroes, monsters, magical items, merchant shops and missions.
Gnomeo Toon Develops
on Hahn, producer of the upcoming Disney computer-animated fantasy film Gnomeo and Juliet, told SCI FI Wire that the movie centers on a star-crossed romance between indoor and outdoor garden gnomes.
"It's the indoor sculptures and figures and things versus outdoor things that have been out in the rain and the sprinklers and getting hit by dogs and everything else," Hahn said in an interview.
Ewan McGregor and Kate Winslet are likely to voice the lead characters, and Elton John and Tim Rice will write the music, Hahn said. The computer animation will be done in-house at Disney.
"It's funny, because gnomes are so low-tech," Hahn said. "You're dealing with these little concrete sculptures in your backyard, little cement squirrels and mushrooms and things, so I think it's less about creating some splashy new technology and more about creating something that's really irreverent and bordering on stupid. It's a comedy."
Gnomeo and Juliet will be in production for at least three years before release.
Marvel Unveils Slate
arvel Enterprises announced its slate of upcoming projects, which includes an animated MTV series based on its Blade vampire franchise.
In its second-quarter earnings release, the company also projected release dates for several upcoming feature films based on Marvel properties, including Artisan's The Punisher (spring/summer 2004), Sony's Spider-Man 2 (July 2, 2004), New Line's Blade 3 (August 2004) and Fox's Fantastic Four (December 2004).
Other movies in development include Fox's X-Men 3, Universal's The Hulk 2, Universal's Namor, New Regency/Fox's Elektra, New Line's Iron Man, Sony's Ghost Rider and Paramount's Deathlok, the company said.
Universal is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Smith Commits To Danger
evin Smith will direct an SF adventure movie, Ranger Danger and the Danger Rangers, as part of a new deal with Miramax Films, Variety reported.
Smith described the film to the trade paper as "my stab at a comic-book/sci-fi movie. It's in the vein of Flash Gordon, something I've noodled with a couple of years. Now I feel we are mature enough filmmakers to tackle it."
Shooting will begin in fall 2004. Smith will make the movie with his longtime producing partner, Scott Mosier, the trade paper reported.
Fox Saves Underwood's Soul
ox Searchlight has acquired film rights to Tananarive Due's supernatural novel My Soul to Keep and has locked Blair Underwood to star and Rick Famuyiwa to direct, Variety reported.
Famuyiwa (The Wood) will rewrite a draft by Frank Underwood, the brother of the film's star, the trade paper reported.
The Searchlight deal comes after a five-year quest by the actor to mount the movie. It began when the author sent him the book and told him she'd written the lead character with him in mind, the trade paper reported.
The book deals with a man from an ancient Ethiopian village who has lived for five centuries and who wants to make his wife and child immortal, the trade paper reported.
Underwood originally planned to direct the book himself and shot footage in Africa for the flashback scenes of the immortal's early days. Those will be used in the movie, which Underwood will produce through his Eclectic Entertainment banner, with Tim Reid and Strange Fruit Productions partners Nia Hill and Deangela Steed, the trade paper reported.
OddParents Go Big
ickelodeon's animated TV series The Fairly OddParents is headed to the big screen, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Paramount Pictures-based Nickelodeon Movies is developing an untitled animated feature-film version with the show's creator, Butch Hartman, and producer/story editor Steve Marmel, the trade paper reported.
Hartman will direct the feature film and co-write the script with Marmel, who will produce. Hartman will executive produce, the trade paper reported.
OddParents follows the adventures of 10-year-old Timmy Turner and his bumbling fairy godparents, Cosmo and Wanda, who try to make his life better by granting his wishes, the trade paper reported.
McCanlies Rushed 80 Days
im McCanlies, one of the credited screenwriters of the Jules Verne adaptation Around the World in 80 Days, told SCI FI Wire that he wrote the script in two weeks to meet star Jackie Chan's deadline.
"Jackie Chan had an availability and was entertaining three or four offers," McCanlies said in an interview. "So I had two weeks to write a script that would hook Jackie Chan. I wrote a script in two weeks that Jackie Chan said yes to."
Part of McCanlies' assignment was to make a main character out of Passepartout, whom Chan would play, and to turn the book's lead, Phileas Fogg, into a supporting character. McCanlies then had to alter the duo's journey to accommodate the locations the production wanted to use, as well as add additional villains.
"You kind of throw the book out," McCanlies said. "We had to go through China. In the book, he goes from India via water all the way. This way, he went through China, too. so that was a handicap. They're also being chased by these Chinese military guys who are after Jackie, and also these paid Hindu assassins [who are] after them."
McCanlies is aware these changes risk putting off the Jules Verne fans. "It certainly is wacky," he said. "It's certainly a Jackie Chan movie more than it is a Jules Verne fantasy. I guess there are more Jackie Chan fans than there are Jules Verne fans now. All I know is they paid me a boatload of money to do it, and so I said, 'OK.'" Around the World in 80 Days recently lost Paramount as its distributor, so producers Walden Media are seeking a new studio and a release date.
New Pan Breaks With Past
ucy Fisher, producer of the upcoming live-action version of Peter Pan, told USA Today that the movie differs from what audiences may be used to.
"It's mysterious and dark and has so much bite and wit," Fisher told the newspaper. "It's the only story where you can go off on an adventure, be victorious over your father and then come back and climb into his lap."
As in the original play by J.M. Barrie, the new movie casts the same actor in the dual role of the father, Mr. Darling, and the pirate, Captain Hook. In this case, British actor Jason Isaacs takes on the role of Wendy's dad. "Like most people, I thought I had [known the story]," he told the newspaper. "The book is magnificent, quite violent and shocking in many ways, and works equally well for children and adults."
Isaacs added that Barrie describes Neverland as "the drawers in your mind that your mother tidies up when you're asleep."
The new Peter Pan, directed by Australian P.J. Hogan, also marks one of the few times that Pan will be played by an actual boy: U.S.-born Jeremy Sumpter, 13. Women have generally played the eternally youthful sprite. Peter Pan—from Universal Pictures, Columbia Pictures and Revolution Studios—opens Dec. 25. Universal is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
ADL Warns About Passion
fter screening Mel Gibson's The Passion for the first time, the Anti-Defamation League expressed concern on Aug. 11 that the movie will fuel anti-Semitism by reinforcing a belief that Jews were guilty for Jesus' death, the Associated Press reported.
ADL representative Rabbi Eugene Korn, head of the group's office on interfaith affairs, attended a private screening of the film—about the final hours in the life of Jesus Christ—at Houston's Museum of Fine Arts on Aug. 9. The ADL previously had not been allowed to see it, Reuters reported.
"This is not a disagreement between the Jews and Mr. Gibson," Korn reportedly said. "Many theologically informed Catholics and Protestants have expressed the same concerns regarding anti-Semitism and that this film may undermine Christian-Jewish dialogue and could turn back the clock on decades of positive progress in interfaith relations."
Abraham Foxman, the ADL's national director, said, "We are deeply concerned that the film, if released in its present form, will fuel the hatred, bigotry and anti-Semitism that many responsible churches have worked hard to repudiate."
A spokesman for Gibson, Alan Nierob, said his client's intent was to combat hatred, not fuel it, Reuters reported. "Neither he nor his film are inspired by anti-Semitism, and he will continue to do whatever he can to combat hatred and bigotry," Nierob said. "Mel Gibson, for his whole life and career, has been vehemently opposed to anti-Semitism and hatred of others."
Seattle Hosting Nebulas
eattle will be hosting its first-ever Nebula Awards weekend, April 15-17, 2004, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America announced.
The Nebula weekend will take place at the Westin Hotel in downtown Seattle.
The weekend will include a mass signing on April 16 at the Barnes & Noble bookstore in the Pacific Place shopping center, a pre-opening tour of the Science Fiction Experience museum and the 2004 banquet and Nebula Awards ceremony on April 17.
QuakeCon Returns
ctivision will once again be a featured sponsor of id Software's QuakeCon 2003, a gaming event and tournament dedicated to the multiplayer games Doom 3 and Quake.
QuakeCon 2003 takes place Aug. 14-17 in Dallas.
QuakeCon began in 1996 as a party dedicated to fans of id Software's games and has grown to include Quake, Quake II, Quake III Arena, Quake III: Team Arena and Return to Castle Wolfenstein. It was created by gamers to commune with online friends in real life, meet the makers of the games, talk shop with industry veterans and compete with some of the best players in the world, Activision said.
Keith Sits Still For Life
avid Keith, who co-stars in the upcoming Fox TV series Still Life, told SCI FI Wire that the show is a family drama seen through the eyes of the family's dead oldest son.
"Jake was the only one who really got along with everybody, and now we're each left to our own devices as a family without him," Keith said in an interview.
Bryce Johnson stars as Jake Morgan, who was shot and killed on his first day on the job as a police officer and chose to remain in the Morgan house as a spirit.
Keith (Daredevil) plays Ben, the Morgan family patriarch. "Ben is the quiet, strong type, the rock that the family leans on during the storm, yet he is shaken by the fact that he was probably the only one who was secretly happy when the older son decided to become a cop like his old man, and not a lawyer," Keith said. "He probably enjoyed that, and now he feels the most guilty."
Former Buffy the Vampire Slayer writer/producer Marti Noxon is among the show's executive producers. But Keith said that he doesn't consider Still Life a genre show. "There really aren't any supernatural overtones to it," he said. "Jake is the narrator. There's one situation where you hear Jake's spirit say he wished he'd locked a window, and the next time his sister tries to open it, it's stuck. But that's as close to supernatural as Still Life gets." Still Life is in production now as a midseason replacement.
Giamatti Cashes Paycheck
aul Giamatti, who plays Ben Affleck's partner in the upcoming SF film Paycheck, told SCI FI Wire that he improvised with Affleck to flesh out the character beyond the script.
"The character ended up being more interesting than it was on the page," Giamatti said in an interview. "[Director] John Woo wanted me to do more things, beef it up a little bit, and then Ben Affleck's actually very great at improvising things, so we came up with more. That happens a lot, particularly with those kinds of parts in action movies. They don't necessarily look like much on the page, but in the actual playing of it, you just find stuff to do that becomes more interesting."
Giamatti described his character as the comic relief. "Ben Affleck plays a brilliant computer scientist, and I'm his cohort," he said. "And I'm his agent. I help him with this mind-memory-wiping technology stuff."
A fan of Woo's Hong Kong movies, Giamatti found his style of shooting action exciting. "It's amazing, because the guy shoots that stuff, he's got a million cameras going, and he goes really fast, because he knows exactly how he wants to cut it together," he said. "So it was fun rather than tedious, as those things can be."
Giamatti's character ages three years in the film, and he grew a beard to illustrate the passage of time. "I had a big beard in that movie," he said. "Then three years are supposed to go by, so they cut it down. It's really weird, but I showed up with this huge beard, and John Woo was like, 'I like that, keep that.' It was like Cast Away. You don't see people with facial hair like this in movies that much." Paycheck, based on a Philip K. Dick story, opens Christmas Day.
Shadowbane Offered Free
bi Soft announced a trial offer that allows players to experience its online role-playing game Shadowbane for 10 days free, the GameSpot Web site reported.
Players can download the software required to take advantage of the free trial offer, which is available for both PC and Mac, from the official Web site, GameSpot reported.
Shadowbane is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game set in a fantasy world where the actions of players permanently alter the history, politics and landscape of the game. Shadowbane was released in March.
Briefly Noted
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Fox's SF animated series Futurama has blossomed into a cable and DVD hit, TV Guide Online reported. As part of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim lineup, Futurama averaged 2.2 million viewers in June. The series is scheduled to return Nov. 2.
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Alias star Jennifer Garner's spokeswoman confirmed to Us Weekly widely circulated rumors that she is dating her leading man, Michael Vartan, according to a report on TV Guide Online. Garner split from her husband and ex-Felicity co-star, Scott Foley, last April, but Us reported that she and Vartan didn't start dating until Alias resumed production two weeks ago.
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Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera celebrated its 7,000th performance on the London stage on Aug. 12, and filming is soon to start on the feature-film version of the venerable musical, the Reuters news service reported. Phantom has grossed more than $2.6 billion worldwide and played to more than 70 million people.
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Television broadcasters will likely put Arnold Schwarzenegger's movies on hold as long as he's running for California governor, lest they find themselves having to give equal air time to all gubernatorial candidates under federal rules, the Reuters news service reported.
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Eric Bross will direct the family film Project Bigfoot, a wish-fulfillment adventure set in the world of monster trucks, Variety reported. There is no start date for the movie.
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Temuera Morrison, who played bounty hunter Jango Fett in Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones, will appear in the upcoming last prequel film, Episode III, even though his character perished at the end of the last movie, the official Star Wars Web site reported. Episode III has reached the halfway mark in principal photography in Sydney.
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Dimension Films has bought the movie rights to the British supernatural horror novel Darkfall, by Stephen Laws, about a high-rise building that absorbs office workers and turns them into horrific mutants, Variety reported.
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Malaysian film censors have ruled that Bruce Almighty can play after all, despite objections from the religious affairs minister, the Reuters news service reported. The film was passed by Malaysian censors and was to have opened in cinemas on Aug. 7.
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