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A Weekly Digest Of Sci Fi Wire

RECENT NEWS

November 10, 2003

October 6, 2003

Saruman Not In King

eter Jackson, director of the upcoming third Lord of the Rings film, The Return of the King, told the Ain't It Cool News Web site that he reluctantly excised Saruman (Christopher Lee) from the last film in the trilogy. "We have decided to save the Saruman sequence for the DVD," Jackson told the site.

Jackson added, "The problem is that the sequence was originally shot for The Two Towers, as it is in the book. Since The Two Towers couldn't sustain a seven-minute 'wrap' after Helm's Deep, we thought it would be a good idea to save it for the beginning of the Return of the King. The trouble is, when we viewed various ROTK cuts over the last few weeks, it feels like the first scenes are wrapping last year's movie, instead of starting the new one. We felt it got ROTK off to an uncertain beginning, since Saruman plays no role in the events of ROTK. ...

"We reluctantly made the decision to save this sequence for the DVD," Jackson said. "The choice was made on the basis that most people will assume that Saruman was vanquished by the Helm's Deep events and Ent attack. We can now crack straight into setting up the narrative tension of ROTK, which features Sauron as the villian." Return of the King opens Dec. 17.

Timeline Actor Remains Skeptic

illy Connolly, the Scottish actor and comedian who co-stars in the upcoming SF movie Timeline, told SCI FI Wire that he plays a time-traveling archaeologist in the movie, but doesn't really believe in time travel himself. "It's one of those things like cold fusion that is mathematically possible and physically impossible," Connolly said in an interview. "I think it's only possible in the mind. You may be able to do it spiritually, out of body. And I don't think we're good enough human beings yet to do it."

In Timeline, Connolly plays Professor Johnston, a 21st-century archaeologist who finds himself trapped in 14th-century France. The movie is based on Michael Crichton's best-selling novel of the same name, which Connolly admitted that he hadn't read. "I've never read Michael Crichton in my life, and I haven't read Timeline," he said. "If I'm making a movie of a book, I don't read the book. I read the script, because a movie isn't a photograph of a book. It's the difference between a painting and a photograph. And I like to stick to the script." Timeline, directed by Richard Donner, opens Nov. 26.

Timeline Alters Book

ichard Donner, director of the upcoming time-travel movie Timeline, told SCI FI Wire that the film changes Michael Crichton's original novel to make the story more cinematic and believable. "I hoped it would feel the same [as the book]," Donner said in an interview. "[But] there were changes."

In both book and movie, a team of archaeology students travels back to 14th-century France to rescue its professor. But the film alters the book's story in many ways. Among the changes: Chris (Paul Walker) is now the son of Prof. Johnston (Billy Connolly); Andre Marek (Gerard Butler) is no longer proficient in medieval arms; time travel is an accident; and the Middle Ages are depicted without the use of medieval languages.

"You've got to size characters down into one and shorten exposition," Donner said. "We wanted to treat it like a reality." He added, "Other characters we changed just to make things work. I mean, we wanted the relationship between Paul and Billy Connolly to be stronger than just a young student who is dedicated to his professor. We felt the family ties were much more binding."

In the book, Marek is able to fight the medieval knights on their own terms. In the film, Donner said, Marek discovers that many of the things he thought he knew about the period were wrong. "It's like taking somebody and putting them on an NFL football field and saying, 'Go through that line.' It doesn't happen," Donner said. "And even Gerry, when he gets into his fight in the end, ... he's not a swordsman. He's [holding the sword like] a baseball bat in his hand, and he's smashing that guy as if it's just street fighting." Timeline opens Nov. 26.

Walker Fought For Timeline

aul Walker, who stars in the upcoming film version of Michael Crichton's time-travel novel Timeline, told SCI FI Wire that he helped choreograph his fight scenes in the movie. "Typically in movies, I don't like the big exchange with the big punches and everything wide and outside," Walker said in an interview. "So I always choreograph the fight sequences."

In particular, Walker had a lot to say about a climactic struggle with Michael Sheen's Lord Oliver, a 14th-century English knight. "I was supposed to tackle him, and then it was supposed to be this hand-to-hand struggle, and we were supposed to be rolling around," Walker said. "I said, 'You know what? If he's just going up like this [raises his arms], and I can run in and just do a sweep and take his legs out from underneath him and roll away and scramble back like a cat caught in a corner or whatever, and then just grab a broken halberd and stick him, I think that'd be a lot cooler.' And they looked at me like I was crazy. But that's what we ended up doing. And I liked it, because I just thought it was much more simple and much more real."

Walker plays the son of a modern-day archaeologist who travels back in time to the Middle Ages to rescue his father. Timeline, directed by Richard Donner, opens Nov. 26.

Donner Talks Constantine

auren Shuler Donner, who is producing the upcoming comic-book film adaptation Constantine, told SCI FI Wire that the movie is based on the DC Comics Hellblazer series, but won't be an origin story. "It's not an origin story of the character," played by Keanu Reeves, Donner said in an interview while promoting her next movie, Timeline. "It's 'Dangerous Habits,' if you know the Hellblazer [series]."

"Dangerous Habits," the 1994 graphic novel by Irish writer Garth Ennis, focuses on John Constantine, a magician faced with death from lung cancer, who finds himself straddling the line between life and death, heaven and hell. "We're filming," Donner said. "We're about a third into it. It's come along great. And it'll be out next year, probably, well, at the moment, September."

Donner added, "We're shooting in L.A. A lot at Warner Brothers. A lot downtown. Two weeks we're in Long Beach. And we're trying to stay as true to the comic as we can, though it's an obscure comic. Not many people know Hellblazer. And it's coming along well. We have a new director named Francis Lawrence, who's just doing a great job. We're very lucky, because he understands actors and understands the importance of telling a story, and not just the visuals. And yet it's going to be very stylish."

Gothika's Berry Bonds With Cruz

alle Berry, who stars with Penelope Cruz in the upcoming horror movie Gothika, told SCI FI Wire that she had an instant rapport with her co-star. "The minute we met each other, we knew that we'd be girlfriends after this movie," Berry said in an interview. "And she was so good as Chloe, and she was stretching further than I think I've ever really seen her stretch, even though the part was small."

Berry, who plays a criminal psychologist, had several intense scenes with Cruz, who plays a mental patient. "She got to do something that I don't think people thought she could do," Berry said. "And I was really supportive of her and always encouraging her, you know, 'Go further, go further, just go, go, go.' It was good."

Berry also had praise for co-star Robert Downey Jr. "He was intense, and I think he's one of the best actors of our generation," she said. "And even though he goes through all of his personal issues, he's still able to work and always have a level of a high standard for himself. It comes through his work time and time again. He was really good to work with." Gothika opens Nov. 21.

Gothika Aims Higher

alle Berry, who stars in the upcoming supernatural horror movie Gothika, told SCI FI Wire that the movie rises above the level of the usual Dark Castle material. Produced by Joel Silver and Robert Zemeckis, Gothika is the latest production from the company that usually turns out low-budget scarefests at Halloween, including Ghost Ship and House on Haunted Hill.

But with Gothika, Dark Castle set out to make a more sophisticated film, bringing in Berry, Robert Downey Jr. and Penelope Cruz under French director Mathieu Kassovitz. "When Robert signed on, and Penelope signed on, and we got Matthieu to sign on, we sat in a room and we realized, 'Wow, we have some good people here. Let's elevate this material, which was a Dark Castle horror movie,'" Berry said in an interview.

In Gothika, Berry plays a criminal psychologist who awakes to find herself a prisoner in her own institution. The filming was intense. "Really intense," she said. "I mean, we're in these really dark, spooky, sort of cold, ominous buildings. ... The buildings were a character all in their own. [And] it rained a lot. When it's raining, people are a little more down, more depressed, a little more agitated. So yeah, ... by the nature of what we're doing and what we're saying and what we're dealing with, every one of these actors really surrendered themselves to the work in a way. So it did get a little funky at times." Gothika opens Nov. 21.

Robinson Talks Callahan Future

pider Robinson—author of the Mike Callahan series of SF novels, about the strange goings-on at a Long Island bar and its even stranger clientele—told SCI FI Wire it will be a while before he gets around to writing an 11th story. But the author admitted that he does have ideas bouncing around his head. "For one thing, I'd like to continue something I've been doing for the last few Callahan books, quietly ramping up the degree of female participation," Robinson said in an e-mail interview. "The Place began in 1972 as a largely male bastion, simply because it was an Irish bar, and it was 1972, but I've been dialing up the female point of view ever since."

Callahan's Con, the most recent Callahan novel, was released in July and was almost entirely about the adventures of Jake and Zoey's daughter, Erin. Its predecessor, Callahan's Key, was roughly half about Erin. "I'm toying with the idea of making Erin the narrator next time around," Robinson said. "As events in Con reminded us, Jake isn't going to live forever. Well see."

Robinson added, "I'm also aware that it's getting time for me to explain exactly what Mike Callahan has been doing for the last few books, off somewhere else in the universe. The only way you can get away with writing 10 or a dozen books set in the same tavern without it becoming claustrophobic is if the place is a wormhole that connects it to a vaster cosmos. I've been waiting first for cosmologists' picture of the universe to settle down and stabilize a bit, for at least a while, but it's looking less and less like that's going to happen, so I may have to simply fake it. Sigh."

Heinlein's First Offers Insights

F writer Spider Robinson told SCI FI Wire that the discovery of Robert A. Heinlein's soon-to-be-published first novel, For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs, offers a glimpse at the legendary writer's earliest thought processes. Robinson wrote the introduction to the book, which will be released in January 2004 by Scribner.

"It predates any previously known attempts at writing by Heinlein, so it's our very first look at the functioning of the mind that would go on to invent modern science fiction, put men on the moon and teach an entire generation the three irreducible requirements of a civilized mind," Robinson said in an e-mail interview. "[And the three requirements are] make up your own mind always, but first, think it through, but first get the facts, to as many decimal places as possible."

Heinlein wrote For Us, The Living between 1938 and 1939, and the story revolves around Naval Airman Perry Nelson, who awakens in 2086 following a car accident in 1939. Robinson said that For Us, The Living is interesting for several reasons. "For one thing, it is our only sustained look at Heinlein's picture of the world before he met the most important person in his life, his third wife, Virginia Gerstenfeld Heinlein, and thus our only way to accurately assess the magnitude of her contribution to his thought and his art, which turns out to be enormous," Robinson said. "At the time he composed For Us, The Living at age 32, he was, for example, basically a radical left-wing Democrat who subscribed to the economic theories of Upton Sinclair's EPIC party. At one point in this book, he comes perilously close to calling for a cradle-to-grave welfare state! That was soon to change, and drastically."

Robinson added, "Equally interesting are the opinions and attitudes that would persist for his lifetime, some of them most startling for that time. A delicious minor pleasure is a detailed, ingeniously worked out 'future history,' bridging 1939 and 2086, which omits World War II!"

Henriksen Leaks AvP Hints

ance Henriksen, who plays a key role in the upcoming Alien vs. Predator movie, revealed to Fangoria magazine that his character will have a link with the original Alien movie franchise. In the second film, James Cameron's Aliens, Henriksen played the android named Bishop—and his casting in the new movie is no coincidence.

"I don't play Bishop in this movie," Henriksen told the magazine. "I play the man who created him. He's a billionaire and is responsible for taking this expedition to Antarctica, where everything takes place. It's a pretty cool character."

Henriksen plays a character named Weyland, which, as any Alien fan knows, is one of the names on the nefarious Weyland-Yutani Corp., the future conglomerate that is behind the trouble in the first three Alien films. "I can't tell you guys anything else," Henriksen added. "They made me sign not to tell. The thing is, they keep sending me new versions of [the script]. It's going to be a very, very exciting movie. I promise you that. I hope it turns out as good as Aliens."

In the film, which is set to begin production in Prague, a team of scientists discovers an ancient pyramid in Antarctica and also find two heretofore unknown extraterrestrial species. Ultimately, they find themselves trapped in a war between the two species.

Olin Turns Down Alias

ena Olin has turned down a deal to reprise the role of Jennifer Garner's nefarious mom, Irina Derevko, on ABC's spy drama Alias, TV Guide Online reported. That's despite the fact that, as a source close to the negotiations told the site, "every single one of her demands were met by ABC and the producers."

Olin reportedly asked for "Sharon Stone-type money," referring to the unprecedented $100,000-per-episode salary Stone pulled in for her recent Practice guest appearance, the source told TV Guide Online. ABC declined to comment, as did Olin's representatives.

Alias executive producer J.J. Abrams is holding out hope that Olin will be back. "[Irina] remains a critical piece of the puzzle," he told the site.

Jackson: Episode III Answers All

amuel L. Jackson, who reprises the role of Jedi knight Mace Windu in the upcoming Star Wars: Episode III, told Spanish TV reporter Ricardo Elorza that the final prequel will answer all questions, according to a report on the Force.net Web site. "I think in Episode III [director George Lucas] definitely answered a lot of the questions that people had over the years, about how this particular thing happened or why this person is this way," Jackson told Elorza. "But I think he's also done what a lot of people have asked and probably gone a little further, in that people were so angry about the first episode, because they thought it was just a kiddie movie, and the second episode ... didn't answer all the things we need."

Jackson added, "So now, he has put all these things together and tied it up. It's very dark and Shakespearean ... and adult and more violent than a Star Wars movie used to be. Hopefully they'll be satisfied with this particular episode." Episode III is in post-production for a 2005 release.

PC Knights To Ship Soon

ucasArts announced that the PC version of its best-selling Xbox video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is ready for manufacture and will hit retailers on Nov. 18. The game is set 4,000 years before the events in the Star Wars movies.

Players assume the role of Jedis who must contend with the ruthless Sith in an epic struggle to save the galaxy. The PC version will feature some new story elements. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic will carry a suggested retail price of $49.99.

Kingsley Animates T-birds

en Kingsley, who plays The Hood in the upcoming live-action Thunderbirds film, told SCI FI Wire to expect a highly animated villain. "I do enjoy playing an out-and-out pantomime villain," Kingsley said in an interview. "There is absolutely no subtlety to my performance whatsoever. If you find any of it, let me know. He actually has a backstory to him. I made him obsessive and neurotic and a control freak, and all those I enjoy playing."

Based on the 1960s BBC marionette TV show, Thunderbirds maintains the core elements of the series, Kingsley said. "[It's] the same version of good and bad, of rescuing and combating naughty people," he said. "It's a wonderful film for children." Thunderbirds opens Aug. 6, 2004.

Kingsley Hears Sound

en Kingsley, who co-stars in the film version of Ray Bradbury's classic SF short story "A Sound of Thunder," told SCI FI Wire that he plays a villain with a lighter side. "It's one of my comedy performances, I hope," Kingsley said in an interview. "I play a corrupt businessman who runs a theme park in which you can travel back in time and hunt prehistoric animals."

Edward Burns stars as a man who travels back in time to the prehistoric era. Kingsley added that he was able to avoid action and special-effects scenes. "I run the theme park, but I don't actually take the ride, so the other actors did that," he said. "I didn't do any blue-screen stuff." Warner Brothers plans to release A Sound of Thunder in April 2004.

Rings, Potter Parody Due

GM is developing Henry Bates and the Sorcerer's Balls, a film spoof of the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings franchises, Variety reported. Written by David Morgasen, James R. Stein and Timothy Stack (Son of the Beach), Bates will be produced by Ricky Strauss under his Ricochet Films banner, the trade paper reported.

In the parody, the wizard Gandolfini battles the evil wizard Enron, with the help of Henry Bates, the rightful king of the land of Middlefinger, the trade paper reported.

MGM bought the script days ago and has already engaged the writers for a two-week polish, indicating the studio plans to move quickly.

Ang Up For Potter Role

ew Zealand actress Michelle Ang is the favorite to play Harry Potter's love interest, Cho Chang, in the upcoming fourth Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the Australian Daily Telegraph newspaper reported. The actress reportedly quit the role of Lori Lee on the Australian soap opera Neighbours and auditioned for the role, the newspaper reported.

Other actors up for the coveted part include Korean pop star Kwan Boa and British-born Californian model Jennifer Nguyen, the newspaper reported.

Ang, 19, also appeared in the last two episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess, the newspaper reported.

Iron Man Still Scripting?

GN FilmForce reported a rumor that the proposed movie version of Marvel Comics' Iron Man series is still in its scripting stages, with Smallville creators Miles Millar and Alfred Gough working on a second draft. Filming on the New Line project is expected to begin sometime in the new year, the site reported, citing anonymous sources.

Other sources told the site that director Mark Steven Johnson is in the "final stages" of finishing his screenplay draft for a proposed Ghost Rider movie. Casting and shooting dates depend on Sony's reaction to Johnson's script, the site reported. Nicolas Cage is "solid" to star as the title character, the site added.

As for rumors that Oscar winner Jon Voight might be involved with Ghost Rider, a source told the site that "he was cast in a supporting role back when Ghost Rider was at Dimension Films," but there have been no "substantive conversations" since then.

Passion Critics Attacked

wo scholars who have criticized Mel Gibson's film The Passion of Christ told the Associated Press that they have received hate mail in response to their comments. Sister Mary Boys, a professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York, told the wire service that she has received harassing phone calls and hate mail and has saved about 85 e-mails from Gibson supporters.

Paula Fredriksen, a Boston University professor, told the AP that she had also been targeted, calling the missives "drive-by e-mail."

The women made the comments at a panel discussion about The Passion of Christ at a national meeting of the Anti-Defamation League. The organization's national director, Abraham Foxman, has been among the most vocal critics of the film, which is scheduled to be released on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2004, the wire service reported. Gibson's spokesman, Alan Nierob, did not return a call for comment.

Nemo Is Video Big Fish

inding Nemo is well on its way to becoming the top-selling DVD of all time, with consumers spending nearly $300 million buying and renting the Disney/Pixar movie on DVD and VHS during its first week in stores, Variety reported. Consumers purchased 17 million copies of the movie (an estimated 13.5 million on DVD) during the week of Nov. 4-10, industry sources told the trade paper. They spent another $10.8 million renting Nemo on DVD and VHS, according to Rentrak Home Video Essentials.

The movie is all but guaranteed to be the top-selling DVD of all time by early next week, surpassing Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment's Spider-Man and New Line's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, which have each sold an estimated 14 million DVDs since their release in November 2002, the trade paper reported.

Fraser Has Multiple Tunes Roles

rendan Fraser, who stars in Looney Tunes: Back in Action, told SCI FI Wire that his character, an aspiring stuntman, has a run-in with a fictionalized version of himself. "If you can't make fun of yourself, no one else can laugh at what you do," Fraser said in an interview while promoting the film. "I play Brendan Fraser's stuntman, who's moonlighting as a security guard on the Warner Brothers lot because he's had this altercation with Brendan about his manhood being challenged."

In addition to the dual roles, Fraser also provided the voice—consisting mainly of spits and grunts—for the classic Warner Brothers character Tasmanian Devil. "I used to get thrown out of the classroom for doing that," he said. "I was doing it one day, and [animation director] Eric Goldberg was like, 'Who did that?' They got me on a soundstage, and he said, 'Do it again.' So I did. I feel like I've got uber-bragging rights now. The squeezy toy, I think, even has my [voice]."

Fraser, a lifelong fan of the Looney Tunes characters, said that he learned about comic timing from watching Warner Brothers cartoons as a child. "I was in my pajamas every Saturday morning with a bowl of cereal that probably had too much sugar in it and was laughing my head off," he said. "And unbeknownst to me at the time, was probably being given an education in ... comedy, in pace, timing, rhythm, setup. It's all there." Looney Tunes: Back in Action opened Nov. 14.

Disney Believes In Gods

he Walt Disney Co. has acquired the fantasy movie pitch King of the Gods from screenwriter Sid Quashie for Mayhem Pictures to produce, Variety reported. Independent producer A.J. Marcantonio, who developed the idea with Quashie, will also produce with Mayhem's Gordon Gray and Mark Ciardi, the trade paper reported.

The movie will deal with the young god Zeus, who discovers his destiny to overthrow his father and become ruler of the Earth and heavens, the trade paper reported. Gray and Ciardi conceive of the movie as a natural trilogy that incorporates the different parts of Greek mythology.

Stars Cast In German Ring

ristanna Loken (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines), Benno Furmann (The Order) and Alicia Witt will star in the $23 million movie The Ring, inspired by Teutonic myth and Richard Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung cycle of operas, Variety reported. Furmann stars as Siegfried, with Loken playing Brunhilde, and Witt as Kriemhild, the trade paper reported. Julian Sands and Max von Sydow also star.

Rola Bauer and Tim Halkin of Munich-based Tandem Communications are executive producing the project, with financial backing from fellow Munich financier VIP Media Funds, the trade paper reported. The Ring is set to start shooting Nov. 17 in Cape Town, South Africa.

Uli Edel is directing, from a screenplay by Diane Duane and Peter Morwood, in cooperation with Edel, from a story by Robert Cochran.

Fifth Highlander Scribe Hired?

he Moviehole.net Web site reported a rumor that Dimension Films has hired writer Joel Soisson to draft a new screenplay for a proposed fifth Highlander movie, called Highlander: The Source. Citing anonymous sources, the site reported that Soisson was hired because he got an earlier job to write and direct the forthcoming Prophecy sequels for the studio.

Original Highlander star Christopher Lambert will not be back for this new chapter, which takes things into a new, fresh direction, the site reported. In Highlander: The Source, four new charismatic immortals quest to locate the Holy Grail of their world.

Trek's Takei Recalls Internment

tar Trek actor George Takei (Sulu) returned on Nov. 9 for the first time since he left to the Rohwer Relocation Center in Arkansas, where he and more than 8,500 other Japanese-Americans lived as internees during World War II, the Associated Press reported. Takei, 64, returned to Rohwer in part to bring awareness to an effort to preserve the history of the Arkansas camps by the Little Rock-based Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the Japanese-American National Museum, of which Takei is chairman, the wire service reported.

Takei was four when he, his parents and two younger siblings were ordered from their Los Angeles home and taken by railroad under armed guard to Arkansas after Pearl Harbor, the AP reported. The Takeis spent a year at the Arkansas camp and were later sent to a higher-security camp at Tule Lake, Calif. More than 120,000 Japanese-Americans were sent from the West Coast and Hawaii to 10 internment camps during the war.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, the actor drew on his history and celebrity to fight discrimination against Arab-Americans by helping organize a candlelight vigil at the museum and a public radio forum, the AP reported.

Shanghai Disneyland Coming?

hina's commercial hub of Shanghai said that it is aiming to open a new Disney theme park in 2010, if talks and the approval process go smoothly, the Reuters news service reported. The Shanghai park, which would be located in the financial district of Pudong, would be Walt Disney Co.'s third in Asia, after a theme park under construction in Hong Kong and Tokyo Disneyland, which opened in 1983, the wire service reported.

Disney executives were not immediately available for comment. Many people in Hong Kong fear the $1.8 billion theme park being built there will have too much regional competition after it is ready in early 2006, the trade paper reported.

ESPionage Now Psi-Ops

idway Games announced that it has changed the name of its upcoming ESPionage paranormal video game to Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy and slated a summer 2004 release for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Psi-Ops is an original action game set in a near-future environment.

Players take on the role of Nick Scryer, an elite American Psi-Operative soldier, who must combat The Movement, a fierce terrorist organization set to overthrow world order. Scryer must fight a deadly horde of brainwashed supersoldiers by using his Psionic powers, including telekinesis, pyrokinesis, mind control and others.

Kecksburg Update Airing

CI FI Channel will air an updated documentary special on the alleged UFO crash in Kecksburg, Pa., which will include exclusive new footage as well as the results of an online SCIFI.COM poll. The special-edition update, Kecksburg UFO: New Evidence, is hosted by Bryant Gumbel and will premiere Nov. 21 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

The documentary examines the Dec. 9, 1965, crash of an unidentified object near Kecksburg, Pa. The special features new witness accounts and information from 36 pages of NASA documents released in response to the first Kecksburg special, which aired in October and called for complete disclosure from the government. The documents have never been seen on TV before.

In the poll, visitors to SCIFI.COM will be able to express their opinions on a wide range of issues surrounding the Kecksburg crash and UFOs in general.

NBC Readies Apocalypse Series

BC is partnering with writer David Seltzer (The Omen) and producer Gavin Polone to develop a six-to-eight-hour limited series based on the apocalypse as foretold in the Book of Revelation, Variety reported. NBC hopes to roll out the series right after its broadcast of the Athens Olympics in late August, airing an hour a week as an event designed to create momentum for the fall season, the trade paper reported.

Set just before the start of Armageddon, the series will follow two central characters, a physicist and a nun, who are racing against the clock to see if the apocalypse can be averted. It's possible the limited series could include an Antichrist character, sources told the trade paper. The series is as yet untitled.

T3 Game Features Arnold

alifornia governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger makes his first-ever video game appearance in Atari's Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, which hit store shelves on Nov. 11 for next-generation game consoles, Atari announced. The video game will include an exclusive making-of-the-video-game documentary, with interviews with Schwarzenegger and the entire cast, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the game.

The Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines will also feature a never-before-seen five-minute segment created exclusively for the game, featuring Schwarzenegger, that sheds new light on the mythology behind the origins of the Terminator. Developed for Atari by Black Ops Entertainment, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is available for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameBoy Advance.

Biblionauts Acquired

alden Media has acquired the movie rights to Adam Mortimer's as-yet-unpublished comic-book proposal Biblionauts, Variety reported. Walden is working with Susan Montford and Don Murphy of Angry Films to turn the property into a series of motion pictures, the trade paper reported.

The story center on two kids who stumble upon a device invented by an eccentric scientist that enables them to be transported into great works of fiction, the trade paper reported.

Eternity Changes Likely

riter Keith Gordon, whom producers Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner have hired to adapt Isaac Asimov's The End of Eternity for the screen, told SCI FI Wire to expect major changes to the novel. "This is an early novel of his," Gordon said in an interview. "It is a great story, but it's definitely become dated in certain ways. I think people will be forgiving of that. I hope they will. I'm not too worried about that going in."

Gordon added, "I don't have a big ego about my writing, which means I don't feel obligated to start changing things. If it's a good piece of source material, I'm going to steal everything from the book I possibly can. I'm only going to change things where I go, 'Ewww, this doesn't work cinematically.' Or, 'Oh, he wrote this in 1955, and it's about society. Those rules are different now, and we've got to deal with that.'"

As both a screenwriter and director, Gordon has adapted other works in the past, including Kurt Vonnegut's Mother Night and Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective. "I felt a different situation with Potter," Gordon said. "Potter was a dramatist who was writing already in the [film] medium, so to rewrite him was a whole other thing. To take a book, you're already starting to change things. That was one of the things that Vonnegut used to say to [screenwriter] Bob Weide and [me] on [Mother Night]. He'd say, 'You're not making my book. You are making a movie. You have to make a good movie. Even if there are things in my book that are great, if they don't make a good movie, you should get rid of them.'" No director has been set for Eternity.

Perelman Takes On Talisman

ussian-born director Vadim Perelman, who will helm the film version of Stephen King and Peter Straub's best-seller The Talisman, told SCI FI Wire that DreamWorks honcho Steven Spielberg personally asked him to take the project based on Perelman's first film, House of Sand and Fog. "He called me after he saw the movie for the first time," Perelman said in an interview. "I felt very honored."

Perelman said that he is currently working on the screenplay adaptation of the novel, about a boy who searches through a parallel universe to find a talisman that can save his mother from cancer. "I find an emotional way in," Perelman said of the story. "I have to. It's about this boy that's saving his mother's life. It's my emotional door into the story, and then I'll make it my own."

The Talisman begins production next year for a 2005 release.

McDonnell Eager For Galactica

ary McDonnell, who co-stars in SCI FI Channel's upcoming original miniseries Battlestar Galactica, told SCI FI Wire that she's eager to act with Edward James Olmos (Cmdr. Adama) again should the show become a series. "I've seen a rough cut, and I think it's coming together beautifully," McDonnell said in an interview. "Even though I'm in it, I was able to get completely absorbed in the story. This cast is very strong. The younger actors are so gorgeous, and they're such good actors, and Eddie Olmos is just a miracle."

Oscar-nominated McDonnell (Dances With Wolves) plays President Roslin, who is responsible for the well-being of the 50,000 people aboard Galactica once the Cylons destroy their planet. Roslin butts heads with Cmdr. Adama, the ship's military leader.

McDonnell is committed to reprising her role on a weekly basis, in part because she'd like to explore the relationship between Roslin and Adama. "I think Eddie and I have something very powerful together, and it would behoove anybody to create a situation where we can navigate it and see what it's about," McDonnell said. "What's going to be interesting about Roslin and Adama is the issue of who's in charge. On one hand, he has all the power on the vessel that will keep us alive. On the other hand, he works for me, and in Roslin's opinion he has become a little blindsided as a warrior.

"Everything has been taken away, and Roslin has nothing to lose, so she sees an opportunity to create a new civilization that has humanitarian and progressive, life-affirming qualities," McDonnell added. "She can see things Adama is blind to, so she learns about her own power just through her encounters with him, because she has to come up against him at times. I think, if we go to series, that there are going to be some fireworks." Battlestar Galactica debuts Dec. 8 on SCI FI.

WB Raises Dark Shadows

he WB has ordered a pilot for a new incarnation of the classic ABC vampire soap opera Dark Shadows, Variety reported. Dan Curtis, the original series' producer, will team up with John Wells (The West Wing, ER) to executive produce the new Shadows, the trade paper reported. Warner Brothers TV and John Wells Productions will produce the pilot, aimed at a 2004-'05 prime-time drama slot.

Mark Verheiden (the Timecop TV pilot), who now serves as co-executive producer of The WB's Smallville, is set to write the Dark Shadows script, the trade paper reported.

Dark Shadows was previously resurrected as an NBC miniseries in the winter of 1991, with Ben Cross playing vampire Barnabas Collins, a role originated by Jonathan Frid in the 1966-'71 soap opera.

Rings Writing Contest Set

elect high schools and middle schools in four U.S. cities are set to join New Line Cinema in a creative writing contest leading up to the Dec. 17 release of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, the studio announced. Anchored in New York by PENCIL (Public Education Needs Civic Involvement in Learning); by the Board of Education, Office of Language and Education, in Chicago; Turning the Page in Washington; and the San Francisco School Volunteers, the contest is designed not only to inspire reading and creative writing, but also to earn schools cash grants, books and early screenings of the film, the studio said.

Children will be asked to write a 200-word essay on the theme of Gandalf's quote from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: "All you have to do is decide what to do with the time that is given to you."

Five finalist essays will be chosen by contest organizers in each city, with New Line selecting one winner out of each group of five. Four grand-prize winners will receive promotional merchandising packages tied to the film, along with a private screening for the student's friends and family. The prizes for all schools that participate include a $10,000 grant per city, applied to the purchase of new books for the school library, as well as a complete set of the Lord of the Rings book series, tie-in guides donated by publisher Houghton Mifflin and screenings of the movie.

Wolverine Film In Works

auren Shuler Donner, who is producing a proposed third X-Men movie, told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper that she's also planning a fourth film centering on Hugh Jackman's Wolverine character. "The ideal thing will be to do Wolverine after X-Men 3, and that's what we plan to do," Donner told the newspaper.

Donner added, "We'll probably develop Wolverine at the same time, but we'll do X3, then we'll do Wolverine."

Jackman is currently on view in the Broadway production of The Boy From Oz, a musical about the life of fellow Australian Peter Allen.

Hayek Voices Sian Ka'An

alma Hayek has joined the cast of the animated movie Sian Ka'an, set to start production this month, Variety reported. Alfred Molina and Michelle Rodriguez will also lend their voices.

The three join Cheech Marin and Placido Domingo in a bilingual cast that will be able to record the Spanish- and English-language versions of the movie, a toon first, the trade paper reported.

Puerto Rico-based Muvi Films is producing the movie, which will be set on the eastern coast of Mexico in a nature preserve by the same name, an ancient Mayan word meaning "Origin of the Sky," the trade paper reported.

Hayek will voice Maria, a young girl who sets out to save a special golden snail upon whose survival hangs the fate of all living species on Earth. Rodriguez will be the voice of the secretary of the prime minister of extinct species, while Molina will be the villain, the trade paper reported. Spanish director Raul Garcia will helm.

SCI FI Wire Adds RSS Feed

CI FI Wire has added an RSS (Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) feed for readers who want another way to access the news and interviews on the site. An RSS newsreader will let you read all your favorite online journals or Weblogs (aka blogs) in one place, instead of having to go to each one individually.

If you have an RSS newsreader, you can add SCI FI Wire to it by subscribing here.

Banderas Purrs Over Shrek 2

ntonio Banderas, who voices Puss in Boots in the upcoming computer-animated sequel film Shrek 2, told USA Today that he was happy to join the project. "I loved the first Shrek," Banderas told the newspaper, adding that he watches the original with daughter Stella, 7, every chance he gets.

As for his fairy-tale character, Banderas called Puss "a manipulator" who comes between Shrek (Mike Myers) and his sidekick, Donkey (Eddie Murphy). "He tries to break up the relationship between the two guys," Banderas said, adding that he drew upon his own three cats for inspiration. "Shrek thinks he's cute. Donkey feels threatened. He doesn't want to be replaced by this idiot." Shrek 2 is slated for a June 2004 release.

Dungeon Siege Film Due

oll KG will develop a movie based on Gas Powered Games' best-selling Dungeon Siege video game, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Uwe Boll will executive produce and direct the $50 million film with Shawn Williams of Brightlight Pictures, the trade paper reported.

Boll told the trade paper that the script will be finished by June 2004 and the project will be filmed in Canada and Eastern Europe in fall 2004, for a winter 2005 release.

Dungeon Siege follows the epic adventures of a farm girl who becomes a hero. The Microsoft Game Studios action fantasy role-playing game franchise debuted on PC in April 2002, the trade paper reported.

Briefly Noted

Miramax Films has bought the film rights to Laurence Yep's The Tiger's Apprentice, a children's fantasy novel that was published earlier this year, Variety reported. Yep's story is about a San Francisco eighth grader who discovers that Chinese magic and myths are very real.

The BBCi Web site has begun posting new episodes of an animated Web-only Doctor Who series, Scream of the Shalka, featuring the voices of Richard E. Grant as the Doctor and Derek Jacobi as the Master.

To celebrate the Nov. 18 DVD and VHS release of the special extended edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, New York will transform the Times Square-Grand Central Shuttle into the "Middle-earth Shuttle," with Rings creatures, vines, moss and stones, from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. There will also be a Middle-earth-themed subway station, with Gollum and 12-foot-high Ents.

Lord of the Rings star Ian McKellen (Gandalf) told fans on his official Web site that he entered a sound studio as late as last month to record last bits of dialogue for the upcoming third film, The Return of the King, which opens Dec. 17. "I had to deliver at full throttle 20 instructions to the troops of Minas Tirith," McKellen said.

A teaser trailer has gone live on the official Web site for the upcoming third Harry Potter movie, The Prisoner of Azkaban, which opens June 4, 2004.

Brett Matthews has come aboard to write a proposed feature film that will be the third installment in the Bionicle movie franchise, which is being co-produced by toy giant Lego and Miramax Films, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The first two installments, Bionicle: Mask of Light and Bionicle 2, were made as direct-to-DVD releases.

A special screening of Looney Tunes: Back in Action will benefit children of the Martin Luther King/Drew Medical Center's High Risk Infant Program in Los Angeles, Warner Brothers announced. The screening takes place in Baldwin Hills, Calif., on Nov. 15.

MTV.com has posted a sneak look at the upcoming sequel film Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, which opens March 26, 2004.

Dark Horizons reported that shooting is scheduled to start in January 2004 on Mission: Impossible III, based on a script by Dean Georgaris and Robert Towne and starring Tom Cruise, Kelly Brook, Marc Blucas and Ving Rhames.

A new teaser trailer has gone up for the upcoming holiday fantasy movie Polar Express, starring Tom Hanks, which opens November 2004.

TV writer-producers Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts (Roswell) have signed a two-year overall development deal with 20th Century Fox Television, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The duo will continue on Wonderfalls, a 20th TV/Regency midseason drama for Fox.

New Line Cinema will team with Neiman Marcus starting Nov. 24 on window exhibits that will feature props, costumes and set decorations from the Lord of the Rings movies at its Beverly Hills, Calif., store, Variety reported.

Namco Hometek announced that its upcoming video game Spawn: Armageddon will feature the Marilyn Manson song "Use Your Fist and Not Your Mouth." The game ships this month for the GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox.

Guillermo Del Toro, director of the film adaptation of Mike Mignola's Hellboy comic series, told fans on the official movie Web site message board that David Hyde-Pierce (Osmosis Jones) has been hired to voice the character of Abe Sapien, the amphibious fish-man played by Doug Jones.

Egypt has banned the fantasy film Bruce Almighty, saying that it infringes on God's sacredness, the Associated Press reported. In June, Egyptian censors banned The Matrix Reloaded on religious grounds, claiming it challenged the ideas of existence and creation.

Universal Home Entertainment Productions, in conjunction with Imagine and PBS affiliate WGBH Boston, is developing an animated preschool television series based on the Curious George character for release next year, with Will Ferrell voicing the character of the Man With the Yellow Hat, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Universal is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.

Luis Guzman and Craig Ferguson have joined the cast of director Brad Silberling's Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, based on the best-selling children's book series, according to The Hollywood Reporter. They join Jim Carrey, Meryl Streep, Jude Law and Jennifer Coolidge in the film.

Len Wiseman, director of this year's hit vampire movie Underworld, told the Moviehole Web site that he hasn't decided yet whether to direct Black Chapter, a ghost story based on his own script. "It could be my next project, [but] I don't know yet," he said.

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