Farscape Miniseries In Works
CI FI Wire has learned that production will begin Dec. 15 in Australia on a new four-hour Farscape miniseries, with stars Ben Browder, Claudia Black and others reprising their roles.
A source close to the production told the Wire that series creators Rockne O'Bannon and David Kemper are readying a script for the miniseries, which as yet has no air date and no TV distribution deal. The SCI FI Channel, which originally aired four seasons of Farscape, had no comment on the report. A spokesperson for Jim Henson Co., which produced the series, also had no comment.
The proposed miniseries will probably wrap up the events of the show, which ended with a cliffhanger. The source added, "I believe it will certainly air on television. At this point, it's in the early stages of finding that home."
Shyamalan Special Readied
CI FI Channel is preparing a special multipart program on the life and work of film director M. Night Shyamalan, best known for his supernatural thriller The Sixth Sense.
Nathaniel Kahn (My Architect) will direct, and his partner, Callum Greene (Lost in Translation), will produce. Shyamalan granted the duo unprecedented access to him, even allowing them to film on the set of Shyamalan's next movie, The Village.
No air date has been set for the as-yet-untitled documentary, which will delve into the director's personal life and his filmmaking philosophy, exploring the forces that have shaped Shyamalan's particular vision, SCI FI said.
Oscar-nominated Shyamalan's hit films include Unbreakable and Signs. The Village, now in production, is slated for release next summer.
Greene was nominated for a 2004 Independent Spirit Award, and his films Chrystal and Second Best with Joe Pantoliano have been accepted into the Sundance 2004 Film Festival.
King Not Long Enough?
amie Selkirk, editor of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, told SCI FI Wire that the final three-hour, 20-minute movie was trimmed down from an earlier cut that ran more than four and a half hours.
"It was really difficult, because we had a lot of very key stuff to actually still get in within the story," Selkirk said in an interview. "We actually had to build the emotion of the story through the battle action."
This meant balancing three vital narratives, Selkirk said. "There was obviously the Frodo story we had to push through," he said. "Then there was the whole Minas Tirith battle and action with Gandalf. And then there was Aragorn's story, ... trying to get the army of the dead. So we had to try to mingle all those stories without staying too long on any one particular. [If] you're with Frodo for too long, you forgot about what's going on down the other way. And then you got stuck into the Minas Tirith battle, which was one of those sorts of battles that was very hard to get out of once you got in there, because the momentum was pushing it along all the time. So we had to pick really good moments when we could actually cut away from that to follow the other story."
After the film's climax, there is still a 20-minute denouement, which Selkirk thought was a first for Hollywood movies. "You normally get to the end, and that's the end, and you roll the credits," he said. "But we did have to tie up a lot of loose ends, and it was really tying up the loose ends of the trilogy, really. It wasn't just for Return of the King. You had to feel you knew what had happened to those characters. We could have put a lot more in it." The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King opens Dec. 17.
Rings Animated Over Shelob
im Rygiel, visual effects supervisor on the upcoming third Lord of the Rings film, The Return of the King, told SCI FI Wire that his team used computer animation to create one of the film's most fearsome creatures.
Shelob the giant spider is "all digital," Rygiel said in an interview. "There was one shot that was turned over to us where they had the 1950s big rubber spider foot sort of crushing down," he added. "And we completely covered it up with our digital guy, because you just saw all the little bends and rivets in it. We used it as a guide for the motion, but we completely covered it up with our digital spider."
Bringing Shelob to life required special care, Rygiel said. "We were sort of confined to the space of the caves. ... When I first thought of Shelob, I thought of a more lurking, creepy spider that would just sort of come up and slowly back Frodo in. And then this was a good case where we had a really great animator on it, and she did this one movement where this thing just ... sort of skidded forward, sort of opposite what you would think this big hulking spider to do. And I was like wow, that's pretty cool." Return of the King opens Dec. 17.
Astin's Sam Anchors King
ean Astin, who reprises the role of Sam Gamgee in the third Lord of the Rings film, The Return of the King, told SCI FI Wire that the last installment brings his character to the forefront.
"Sam becomes important to the spine of the story at the end of the books, and the climax of what is the third film, because at a certain point the Ring can't go forward anymore without Sam," he said in an interview. "So to that extent I knew there was going to come a time, while shooting and while viewing the movies, where everyone's attention would be directed towards Sam. So you just want to be equal to the moment."
Astin added that he and star Elijah Wood shot their emotionally charged scenes over months, with some scenes separated by several years of production. "We were filming one of those scenes—the scene on the ledge of Cirith Ungol, where Frodo sends Sam away—we filmed my closeups of that in November of '99. And then we filmed Elijah's closeups, the reverses of those, in August of 2000. ... It was a quirk of production logistics."
Astin said the scenes were intense. "You're only seeing, like, a hundredth of the emotion that we did," he said. "We filmed so many crying scenes, so many more crying scenes than ended up in the movie. ... It was kind of like [a] tidal [wave] of emotion." Return of the King opens Dec. 17.
Jackson Talks Rings End
eter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings films, told SCI FI Wire that the upcoming third installment, The Return of the King, is why he made the trilogy in the first place.
"The trilogy's all about the third film, really. What's the point of doing any of the others? ... [Return of the King is] the one that defines the previous two and puts them in context."
King, based on J.R.R. Tolkien's book, wraps up the story of Middle-earth and the War of the Ring, not to mention Jackson's own seven-year quest to write and direct the movies. "It has a strong sense of closure," Jackson said. "It's tough for the actors as well, because they're feeling emotional seeing the movie, because the movie's
emotional. The movie finishes it off, and it sort of represents the ending of all of our journeys. We've all become friends on this project. It's all finishing at the same time, both onscreen and offscreen. It's everything I hoped it would be. I hoped it would be sad, that it would capture something of that sadness of the book. But sadness in a way that's not a downer. It's just sad, but you're happy that they achieved what they set out to do. But there was a price to be paid."
In a way, Jackson is talking about his own journey with the films, which raised him from a relatively obscure filmmaker to one of the highest-paid helmers in Hollywood, a possible contender for an Academy Award and a national hero in his native New Zealand, where the films were shot. "It's becoming increasingly difficult to have a normal life there, for sure," Jackson said. "I haven't had a life, really, for two [or] three years, because I've been so busy. I've literally been sleeping, getting up, driving to work, working, going home and sleeping. ... I'm probably at a point where it's tough to go out shopping and go to the movies and do normal things now, because I have people coming up to me all the time, always very pleasant, always nice and supportive, but you can't walk 100 yards. It takes you an hour to get anywhere you want to go. ... It just means I stay at home a lot more. I don't know what my life's going to be like in the future. But it's getting a bit tough." Return of the King opens Dec. 17.
McKellen Eager For X-Men 3
an McKellen told SCI FI Wire that he's planning to reprise the role of Magneto in a proposed third X-Men movie—mainly because he just saw the second film, X2, on DVD and liked it more than he expected.
"I'm going to talk about it tonight to [director] Bryan Singer," McKellen said before the Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King premiere in Los Angeles on Dec. 3. "I've only just seen [X2] on DVD, because I was fearful that I wasn't going to enjoy it as much as the first, and I enjoyed it more."
McKellen added, "I e-mailed [Singer] and said, 'Are you making number three, and am I going to be in it?' And I sent the same thing off to the writers [Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris and David Hayter]. And positive replies came back. So I've made sure Bryan's got a ticket for tonight, and Michael Dougherty's got a ticket for tonight. So I'm doing my best. Here I am in Hollywood, I'm working the system."
McKellen will be on view as Gandalf in The Return of the King, the upcoming third Rings film, which opens Dec. 17.
Serkis Gets Blessed
ord of the Rings co-star Andy Serkis (Gollum) told SCI FI Wire that he will play a priest in the upcoming independent supernatural thriller film Blessed, an update of 1968's Rosemary's Baby.
"There are elements of [it]," Serkis said in an interview. "It's grounded in this notion of an [in vitro fertilization] clinic and the community that surrounds that, and the medical world. So it's less satanic and more supernatural."
Serkis said that he plays a priest hunting down supernaturally possessed mothers. "You're not quite sure if he's a religious freak who goes around murdering pregnant women because he believes that they're carrying the spawn of Satan, or whether he's onto something for real," he said. Blessed, a working title, is shooting in Romania under director Simon Fellows.
Murphy Flies With Batman
illian Murphy (28 Days Later) has landed the role of one of the caped crusader's villains in the upcoming fifth installment of Warner Brothers' Batman movie franchise, Variety reported.
The Irish actor would become the fourth actor cast in the Christopher Nolan-helmed project, which stars Christian Bale in the title role.
Michael Caine has also joined the cast to play Batman's butler, Alfred, and producers are eyeing Katie Holmes to play the female lead, subject to a screen test with Nolan, the trade paper reported.
Blade writer David Goyer wrote the script, which is being kept tightly under wraps. Nolan is gearing up for a 2004 start date and a 2005 release.
Mortensen Up For Batman?
ichael Caine, who will play Alfred the butler in the upcoming new Batman film, told SCI FI Wire that director Christopher Nolan is eyeing Lord of the Rings star Viggo Mortensen to play the villain in the film, which is slated to begin production in April 2004.
In an interview, Caine wouldn't specify which villain role Mortensen (Rings' Aragorn) is up for.
Sources told The Hollywood Reporter, meanwhile, that Katie Holmes is close to being cast opposite star Christian Bale as Rachel, the love interest, contingent on a screen test.
Caine said Nolan's Batman script creates a deeper role for Alfred than previous films. "We start when Batman is a baby, so I'm more like a father," Caine said in an interview. "I'm a father who knows how to lay a table with the knives and forks in the right places."
Caine said he spoke with Nolan for three hours about his vision for the film, which included some similarities with and some variations on the previously established Batman canon. "[Nolan] said, 'We're going to have a human hero in Batman. He's powerful because he does pushups. Where does he get all his weapons? Because he's a multibillionaire, and he's in the arms business, so he gets the secret weapons instantly. Why does he wear the bloody suit? To scare the s--t out of people, because he doesn't really want to fight.'"
Kane Back In Angel
hristian Kane, who reprises the role of evil former lawyer Lindsey McDonald in The WB's Angel, told SCI FI Wire that his surprise appearance at the end of a recent episode was carefully planned.
Series co-creator Joss Whedon "had the idea of not putting my name on it, no credit, no nothing, and just like just bringing it in," Kane said in an interview on the show's set at Paramount Studios. "It was really fun. I just went to London and talked to some of the great fans that we've got out there, and supposedly I hear, like, I guess five minutes after the show aired, six message boards crashed or something. Anytime I can do that and cause havoc, that's just my style."
Kane's character, covered in mysterious tattoos, reappeared in bed with Sarah Thompson's Eve. Kane remained coy about the tats, which wrap around his body and up his arms. "They're all over me, man," Kane said. "They go all over here and wrap around the arms and everything else. ... I can't really talk about that much stuff, because I can't really tell you what they're for yet. ... [But] they're mystical, yeah. They're magic."
Kane, whose character left the series at the end of season two, said he was surprised to get the call from Whedon to return to the show. "I was in New York," he said. "I was doing a film with Queen Latifah that I'm still doing, actually, called Taxi. And he called me up, and he said, 'You know, we've got an idea for you to come back on the show. What do you think?' And without hesitation I was like, 'Absolutely.' Because I love working with him. He's one of the most brilliant writers that I've ever worked with, if not the [most brilliant]. And then, of course, I get to go and hang out with my best friend, you know, part of my family, which is [star David] Boreanaz. We've known each other for seven, seven and a half years. And it's just a coincidence that two really great friends get to work on a show together." Angel airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Boreanaz Helms Angel Ep
avid Boreanaz, star of The WB's vampire series Angel, told SCI FI Wire that he directed an upcoming episode of the show, his first foray behind the camera.
"I had an opportunity ... to step into the director's chair, and I've always been fascinated with the camera and the movement and communicating with other actors," Boreanaz said in an interview on the set of the show, which is shooting its 100th episode. "Directing is really about telling someone to put applesauce on the table. ... And some people know how to do it, and some people don't."
Boreanaz directed "Soul Purpose," an episode in which a parasite gets attached to Angel and puts him through a series of hallucinations, Boreanaz said. "It's really cool," he said. "It's got a Jacob's Ladder feel to it."
Boreanaz got high marks from his Angel co-stars, who said the fledgling helmer acted like a veteran. But will Boreanaz like to step behind the camera more often? "I don't know," he said. "Yeah, I think so. ... You're directing ... an already prescribed show. You have your limitations. You can put your mark on it, and I feel like I did that with this show that I directed. But then again, I'm not the show runner. I don't get the final cut. I will have a director's cut, and if anybody would like to see [it], it will be much longer [laughs]." "Soul Purpose" is scheduled to air Jan. 21, 2004.
HBO Ordering More Carnivale?
BO has given the green light to a second season of its supernatural series Carnivale, ordering 13 more episodes, sources told The Hollywood Reporter.
Production is expected to begin in the spring in anticipation of returning the Depression-era drama to air sometime in late 2004, the trade paper reported.
Created by Daniel Knauf, Carnivale completed its 13-episode rookie season earlier this month with an episode drawing 3.5 million total viewers, just under its season average, the trade paper reported. While HBO's more established series such as The Sopranos and Sex and the City attract much bigger audiences, Carnivale earned a respectable viewership on par with another of its critically acclaimed dramas, The Wire.
Spidey 2 Spins Web Teaser
olumbia Pictures debuted its first theatrical trailer for the upcoming sequel film Spider-Man 2 exclusively on—where else?—the Web, at 12:01 a.m. ET Dec. 15.
The studio unspooled the trailer on the Yahoo! Web site. The trailer also appeared on Yahoo!'s international Web sites simultaneously.
"This will be the first wave of our global launch for one of the most anticipated films of 2004," Geoffrey Ammer, president of worldwide marketing for the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, said in a statement. "The worldwide demand for images and materials from Spider-Man 2 is nearly insatiable and, given that such a large segment of the opening weekend audience for the first film was influenced by our interactive campaign, what better way to reward that loyalty than by sharing these exclusive images with fans around the world on the Internet?"
Following its online premiere, the new trailer will appear in U.S. theaters starting on Dec. 17, accompanying The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and other movies.
Spider-Man 2 reunites director Sam Raimi with stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst in a story that sees Peter Parker juggling his dual life as a college student and a superhuman crime fighter. The movie also features Alfred Molina as Otto Octavius, aka the nefarious Doctor Octopus.
Spidey 2 Spotlights Dunst
irsten Dunst, who reprises the role of Mary Jane Watson in the upcoming sequel film Spider-Man 2, told SCI FI Wire that her character will take more charge of her life.
"Now she has her own place in New York, and she's getting married," Dunst said in an interview. "She's working and doing her own thing. I scream a lot less in this one."
Dunst felt Mary Jane's progression in the sequel is natural, considering her conflicted background. "Look at her family and what she came from, this abusive male in the house and this mother who's an alcoholic," she said. "I don't think Mary Jane was the most secure woman to begin with, so she was a little bit more like, I guess you could say, a damsel in distress [in the first film]."
Dunst also confirmed that Mary Jane's fiance is John Jameson, son of Daily Bugle editor J. Jonah Jameson (again played by J.K. Simmons). John is played by actor Daniel Gillies. "[It's] just a different guy to kiss," Dunst said. Columbia Pictures will release Spider-Man 2 on Jul. 2, 2004.
Newell Challenged By Potter
ike Newell, who will direct the upcoming fourth Harry Potter movie, The Goblet of Fire, told SCI FI Wire that he is prepared to face the challenges of taking over the franchise.
"The thing that's most formidable will be [whether or not] the history of the previous films [will] choke me," Newell said in an interview. "And I don't know that it will or won't. There's kind of institutional pressure for it to be very much the same, [but] everybody also wants you to know that you're completely free, and it's [your vision] that we want. That's true as well. So it's a funny kind of schizophrenic thing. You're on two feet bouncing between two points of view."
Newell added that he plans to hire crew from the previous film, with whom the young actors already have relationships. "The kids get along really well with the hair and the makeup department, so you'd be as well to hire the same people again," he said. "They get on really well with the voice coach, so you'd be as well to hire [him] again."
Goblet of Fire will also be Newell's first film with digital effects, and he is counting on the computer artists to give him on-the-job training. "There are wonderful technicians who will daily take me to CG school," he said. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire begins production in April or May of 2004.
Newell Confirms Potter IV Details
ike Newell, who will direct the fourth Harry Potter film, told SCI FI Wire that he has spoken with Alfonso Cuarón, director of the upcoming third film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, to make sure his film picks up where Cuarón's leaves off.
Production of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire will begin in late April or early May, with Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Rupert Grint (Ron) and Emma Watson (Hermione) reprising their roles. "They're all actually the age they are in the story," Newell said in an interview.
"What Alfonso has done very remarkably is he's developed the films from a sunny vision of childhood into something that is much darker and blacker," Newell said. "And he's done that without taking away any of the romance of the thing. But he has transformed it into adolescence, and I must go on from what he's done. [I] can't go back."
Newell added that he is currently in preproduction, dealing with creature design. "I am currently working with dragons," he said.
Ricci: Cursed Like New
hristina Ricci, who stars in director Wes Craven's troubled werewolf movie Cursed, told SCI FI Wire that the film is being reshot as an entirely new movie after an 11-week hiatus to fix problems.
"We're essentially reshooting the whole movie, so it's sort of like going on to another movie," Ricci said in an interview. "And this time it's a lot more fun. We have a lot more action, and it seems better."
Ricci added that Craven's spirits seem lifted by the new material. "I think he's happy, because I don't think he was happy with what he was originally getting," Ricci said. "I think he's glad that he has the chance to remake it."
One of the issues of the reshoots involved changing werewolf makeup. Ultimately, Ricci is confident that Cursed can be saved. "If you scrap an entire movie and shoot it all over again, rewrite the script, then yeah, it can be saved," she said.
Woo Honors Hitch In Paycheck
ohn Woo, director of the upcoming SF movie Paycheck, told SCI FI Wire that he sprinkled the thriller with homages to legendary director Alfred Hitchcock.
"After I read the script, I thought it could be a very suspenseful, romantic and fun movie," Woo said in an interview. "Since they had so many clever designs and so many good gags and so many big surprises, and the whole story was about finding the truth, ... it made me feel ... I could make a movie [in] Alfred Hitchcock style."
Paycheck, starring Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman, is based on Philip K. Dick's 1953 short story of the same name. But for Woo, the movie was an opportunity to echo Hitchcock, particularly his films The 39 Steps and North by Northwest. "I always loved Hitchcock's movies," Woo said. "I'm a great admirer of his, and I must say that I also have learned so much from him."
In one scene, Affleck's Michael Jennings finds himself being pursued by a subway train in a darkened tunnel. Woo intentionally shot the scene to echo the famous North by Northwest sequence in which Cary Grant is pursued by a crop duster. In another scene, Thurman holds a cage of lovebirds, an image similar to one in The Birds. And there's even a shower shot, a la Psycho.
"The whole tone of the movie—the pace and the character of Michael Jennings, how he tries to ... find out what's happening—and the feel is pretty much like The 39 Steps," Woo said. "I've also learned, you know, for a Hitchcock movie, it's not only about the suspense. They also have so much ... romance, and they also have a ... great sense of humor. They're so funny." Paycheck opens Christmas Day.
Affleck Geeks Out With Woo
vowed movie geek and John Woo fan Ben Affleck, who stars in Woo's upcoming SF movie Paycheck, told SCI FI Wire that he had to beg the director to let him do one of his signature moves: pointing a pistol at the face of another man pointing one at him.
Woo relented, putting in not one, but two scenes in which Affleck pulls the gun trick.
"This ... was the high point for me, I have to admit," Affleck said with glee during an interview to promote the movie. "I was like, 'Please, John, let me do it!' I was like a little kid. ... I was begging him. [He said,] 'OK, you go like this, then.' He's forever giving me the beleaguered grunt."
In a separate interview, Woo admitted that Affleck had to plead for the scenes. "That was true," the Hong Kong action director said. "Originally, [it was] just run, run, run, you know, ... and just shoot back. ... So I just came up with the move ... in the subway tunnel, pointing the gun with [co-star] Colm Feore. And ... at the end of the movie, just using the same thing with [co-star] Aaron [Eckhart], you know?" Woo said that Affleck told him he was a fan of Woo's films Hardboiled and The Killer. "He had the posters and all. He's sometimes just like a kid, you know?"
Boston native Affleck added that Woo allowed him to change the film's original script to make his character, Michael Jennings, a Red Sox fan. "He did, he did!" Affleck said. "I love him forever. Well, I mean, I got the script, and it was the Mets. And I got family in Boston. Houses [would] be burned down." Paycheck, co-starring Uma Thurman and based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, opens Christmas Day.
Affleck Denies Career Peril
en Affleck, who stars in the upcoming SF thriller film Paycheck, made light of speculation that his career is in jeopardy as a result of the box-office failure of Gigli and Disney's recent decision to pull the plug on another film, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.
"I'm finished, is that what you mean?" he asked with a laugh in an interview with SCI FI Wire. "I think that's a little bit more operatic than the truth of the situation."
For one thing, Affleck denied that Disney's decision was based on negative publicity surrounding him and his much-talked-about relationship with singer/actress Jennifer Lopez, but rather concerned co-star Robert De Niro's decision to leave the project. Affleck also pointed out that Disney has already signed him for another film.
"There are a couple of factors," Affleck added. "I happen to know that this movie [Paycheck] works—I've been at the test screenings—and so I was always sort of thinking, 'Well, I
have Paycheck coming.' And if I knew that this was a dogs--t movie, then I'd probably be sweating it. But luckily, I know that it works. It's tested well. The reactions are good. ... So I'm pretty comfortable in that regard. But there's always a certain amount of pressure, no matter what. Every time that you do a movie, if it doesn't work, it's never a zero-sum game, but there is a certain thing where your name moves a few notches down the list, and maybe you have to hustle a little more to try and do something. And I mean, this town, in some ways, there are actors out there who haven't been in a hit movie in seven years. So I don't worry about it too much."
Affleck added that he has two other movies in the can: Jersey Girl and Surviving Christmas, both of which open next year. In Paycheck, directed by John Woo and based on a Philip K. Dick short story, Affleck plays a man whose memory is wiped and who must then reconstruct his movements for the previous three years before he is killed. Paycheck opens Christmas Day.
Affleck Downplays Daredevil II
en Affleck told SCI FI Wire that he's reluctant to reprise his superhero role in any Daredevil sequel film.
"I don't know about Daredevil II," Affleck said in an interview while promoting his upcoming SF movie Paycheck. "That may be too much work for me. I don't have any idea."
Affleck added that he'd consider it if friend, filmmaker and sometime Daredevil comic-book writer Kevin Smith took part. "I suppose that if Kevin Smith wrote it and was going to be involved, I would do it," he said.
Affleck added that he'd be willing to take up the red cowl and billy club again in the proposed Elektra movie spinoff, which would star his Daredevil leading lady Jennifer Garner. "I would do some sort of cameo in Jen's movie—she's going to do Elektra—just because she's cool, and she's my friend. But I'm not banging down the door trying to get Daredevil II made. You'll know when my career is really on the slide when I start resurrecting the franchise."
Columbia Holds Grudge
olumbia Pictures has acquired domestic distribution rights to the English-language remake of the Japanese horror thriller film Ju-On (The Grudge), according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures will produce the movie, which Senator International will finance.
The film centers on a curse that befalls someone who dies in the grip of a powerful rage. Those who encounter this murderous supernatural curse die, and a new one is born, passed like a virus from victim to victim in an endless, growing chain of horror, the trade paper reported. The remake is being written by Stephen Susco and directed by Takashi Shimizu.
Col. Austin Joins Jake 2.0
ormer Six Million Dollar Man star Lee Majors told SCI FI Wire that his upcoming guest appearance on UPN's similarly themed Jake 2.0 was like a bionic jog down memory lane.
Jake star Christopher Gorham "was full of questions, and the whole cast was very excited that I was there, which I found very flattering," Majors said in an interview. "And of course a lot of the crew brought out all their old stuff, and I think I was signing lunch boxes and coloring books and record albums and all kinds of things—some things I never knew existed. But anyway, we had a ball."
In the Dec. 17 episode, "Double Agent," Majors plays retired NSA agent Dick Fox, who's pulled out of retirement to help Gorham's Jake hunt down an ex-KGB operative planning a deadly attack on the United States. Major said he spent about 10 days last month shooting his role in Vancouver, B.C., much of it at night and in lousy weather.
But Majors said that he was pleased to be on a show in which the hero acquires superhuman powers through technology, much like his Col. Steve Austin in the 1970s series Six Million Dollar Man. "Actually the original talk was about maybe playing [Jake's] father," Majors said. "And then they came up with a wonderful idea of his becoming an agent that had been retired, being called back in for a job. And so that's the way it kind of comes about. ... You don't know at the end whether he was in this program ... where they tried to create these Six Million Dollar Men-type effective agents."
As for another shot at Jake 2.0? "They said they would love to have me back, and I guess if the show does well, they'll have me back, hopefully," Majors said. "I hope a lot of people watch it. It was fun. Chris Gorham is a super kid, and the rest of the cast, they all fit together." Jake 2.0 airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Galactica Rates Highly
CI FI Channel's original miniseries Battlestar Galactica averaged a 3.5 rating (2.9 million households) in its Dec. 8 and 9 premiere, the biggest audience for any original miniseries on cable for the year.
The four-hour miniseries also achieved SCI FI's best ratings for 2003, the network reported.
The prime-time premiere of part two of Battlestar Galactica outperformed part one, with 3.8 rating (3.16 million households). The miniseries ranked third among the highest-rated original programs in the channel's history, behind only Steven Spielberg Presents Taken and Frank Herbert's Dune.
The entire Battlestar Galactica miniseries will be rebroadcast on Dec. 14 from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET/PT.
Smithsonian Lays Aliens Egg
he Smithsonian's National Museum of American History has added an egg from James Cameron's SF film Aliens to its collection of movie memorabilia, as well as a copy of the film's screenplay and a movie poster, Cinescape Online reported.
The egg was presented in a special ceremony by the movie's star, Sigourney Weaver, who gained fame as the franchise's heroine, Ellen Ripley.
The Aliens egg stands 3 feet tall and is 2 feet in diameter and was built using plaster coated with a stabilizing glaze, the site reported. The egg was one of many constructed for the film during the scene showing Ripley discovering the alien queen's lair.
Enterprise Season Trimmed?
he TrekWeb Web site is reporting a rumor that UPN has trimmed its order for Star Trek Enterprise to 24 episodes this season from the original 26.
Citing an anonymous source at Paramount, the site mirrored other reports that the network wanted to cut the number of episodes, possibly as a prelude to the show's cancellation next year.
Another rumor, from the Mediaweek Web site, said that UPN is considering moving the struggling series to Fridays from its current berth on Wednesday nights.
Vatican Honchos Screen Passion
screening of Mel Gibson's controversial film The Passion of Christ for three highly influential Vatican congregations resulted in a strong endorsement of the film from an American official of one of the three congregations, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
But the endorsement prompted calls from the Anti-Defamation League for Gibson to make screenings available to those concerned about the film's purported anti-Semitic content, the trade paper reported.
According to the Zenit international news service, which tracks Vatican news and communications, The Passion was screened for members of the Vatican Secretariat of State, the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith this past weekend, the trade paper reported. The report did not specify who from the congregations was present for the screening, but did say that those present expressed "unanimous appreciation and approval" of the film. Also included in the Zenit report was an interview with Father Augustine Di Noia, undersecretary of the doctrinal congregation, who lauded the film as a "production of exquisite artistic and religious sensitivity."
On Dec. 9, meanwhile, ADL national director Abraham Foxman told the trade paper that he was critical of Gibson and Icon's refusal to screen the film for him. "And while I respect [the Vatican's] views on theology, I don't know if they are the best to judge it on how it will impact Jews," he said.
The Passion of Christ, about the last 12 hours in the life of Jesus, opens Feb. 25, 2004.
DVD Features Snake Comic
special edition of the Snake Plissken Chronicles comic book will be included in the two-disc collector's edition DVD of John Carpenter's Escape From New York movie, which comes out Dec. 16, the Comics Continuum Web site reported.
The set will feature a DVD-sized copy of Hurricane Entertainment's issue number one of the current Snake Plissken story arc, the site reported.
The custom comic edition contains a vellum pullout with brand new and unseen art from Snake artist Tone Rodriguez. The first vellum contains a pencil and charcoal portrait of Kurt Russell as Snake. The second vellum is Tone's personal rendition of the classic 1981 Escape movie poster, with the printed signatures of director John Carpenter, producer Debra Hill and star Kurt Russell, as well as those of Snake writer William O'Neill and artist Rodriguez, the site reported.
John Carpenter's Snake Plissken Chronicles number three reaches stores on Dec. 10; number four is scheduled for January 2004.
Group Sues For Kecksburg Docs
he Coalition for Freedom of Information, with support from SCI FI Channel, announced that it filed a lawsuit Dec. 9 against NASA, seeking release of its records concerning a 1965 incident near Kecksburg, Pa., that the group believes may have involved a UFO.
The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on the 38th anniversary of the incident.
The lawsuit against NASA is the first of several against government agencies, including the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force and the Department of Defense, which have as yet not released documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act, the group said.
On Dec. 9, 1965, witnesses in and near Kecksburg described seeing a fireball in the evening sky, a controlled landing and the systematic military recovery of an object, the group said. As reported by local radio and newspapers, U.S. military personnel cordoned off the area, investigated the site and left without ever providing a full report of the incident other than to dismiss it as a meteor. The incident was the subject of SCI FI's original documentary The New Roswell: Kecksburg Exposed.
A year ago, SCI FI Channel and the CFi initiated an effort to obtain classified and other government documents on the Kecksburg crash.
"Although NASA has released 36 pages of documents, none of those documents pertain to any investigation of the incident by NASA or to related projects within the agency that could shed light on the Kecksburg incident," Lee Helfrich of Lobel, Novins and Lamont, the Washington attorney filing the suit on behalf of the CFi, said in a statement. "Furthermore, Leslie Kean, director of investigations for CFi, clearly demonstrated that NASA has documents responsive to the specific requests she made in CFi's Freedom of Information Act request, but NASA has failed for nearly a year to produce any relevant documents."
SCI FI Channel is currently lobbying Congress to gain support for more scientific inquiry into these issues. The SCI FI Channel will also premiere a new two-hour documentary, UFO Invasion at Rendlesham, hosted by Bryant Gumbel.
Zombie, Niles Team Up
ocker Rob Zombie and author-cartoonist Steve Niles have created Creep Entertainment International, a horror-themed production company, Variety reported.
The company will begin with three comic-book projects that, down the road, are expected to be adapted for films: The Nail, with Dark Horse Comics; Bigfoot, with IDW Comics; and Lords of Salem, a combination music-comics project, the trade paper reported.
All tales were co-written by Zombie and Niles. The books will be illustrated by some established comic talents, the trade paper reported.
Zombie made his film debut writing and directing House of 1000 Corpses for New Line, and he is in preproduction on the sequel, which he will produce, the trade paper reported. Zombie's first comic venture, Spookshow International, quickly sold out after its release in October.
Niles has already started to write Nail, which is peopled with 1970s-style satanic bikers and wrestlers. Lords of Salem is based on a satanic band.
Seinfeld Buzzes About Bee
arking his first major project since he retired his top-rated NBC sitcom in 1998, Jerry Seinfeld will write, produce and star in Bee Movie, a computer-animated film for DreamWorks, Variety reported.
Seinfeld, who hatched the idea, has begun writing, and he will voice the male lead bee.
"I have always been fascinated by bee society, the world's most harmoniously run organization, and now I finally am going to be in it," Seinfeld said in a statement.
Mario Immortalized In Wax
intendo's Mario becomes the first video-game character to have a wax figure in the Hollywood Wax Museum in Los Angeles, the company announced.
A statue of the Italian trickster has been placed in the museum's lobby, replacing statues of Matrix actors Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss.
Mario has starred in 67 video games that have sold more than 170 million units, Nintendo said. He currently appears in four new games for the Nintendo GameCube and GameBoy Advance.
Barker Back In Director's Chair
live Barker will return to the director's chair after an eight-year absence to helm Universal Pictures' horror movie Tortured Souls, Variety reported.
Barker last directed 1995's Lord of Illusions, a Scott Bakula supernatural horror movie released by MGM, the trade paper reported.
Tortured Souls is based on Barker and Spawn creator Todd McFarlane's line of action figures, which debuted at the International Toy Fair in New York in February 2001. Each of the six grisly Tortured Souls—Talisac, Lucidique, Scythe-Meister, Agonistes, Mongroid and Venal Anatomica—was sold with a chapter of an original Barker-penned storyline, forming the chapters of a novella outlining the Souls' origin, the trade paper reported.
For the big-screen adaptation, Barker told the trade paper that the Souls storyline centers on a man who exchanges his wife for a demon goddess from another world, throwing her into a shadowy world of monsters from which she must escape, the trade paper reported.
Universal is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Shea Back On Mutant X
ohn Shea is returning to his role as Adam Kane for four episodes of the syndicated TV series Mutant X this season, the Comics Continuum Web site reported.
Shea is already in Toronto to begin preproduction on his episodes.
Shea appeared in every episode of the show's first two seasons, but went missing after the second-season cliffhanger, the site reported.
Tower VI Spoilers Revealed
he Lilja's Library Web site has posted spoilers for Stephen King's upcoming sixth Dark Tower novel, Song of Susannah.
The Web site also posted an image of the hardcover of the penultimate novel in King's epic fantasy series.
In Song of Susannah, Roland Deschain discovers the key to the quest that defines his life, the site reported. Susannah Dean's body is taken over by a demon-mother named Mia and has used the power of Black Thirteen to transport out of Calla Bryn Sturgis to New York City in the summer of 1999, so that she can give birth. While Jake, Father Callahan and Oy try to break Susannah's date with destiny at the Dixie Pig on Lexington Avenue and 63rd Street, Roland and Eddie use "the persistence of magic" to get to East Stoneham, Maine, in the summer of 1977, where they encounter the author of a novel called Salem's Lot, the site added.
Song of Susannah is slated for release in the summer of 2004.
Possible Writers Enchanted
ob Schooley and Mark McCorkle, executive producers of TV's animated Kim Possible series, have been hired to rewrite the live-action/computer-animated movie Enchanted for Disney and director Adam Shankman, Variety reported.
Enchanted begins as an animated tale about a peasant girl who falls for a prince, but then is banished to live-action New York by the evil queen.
Bill Kelly wrote the original Enchanted script, with rewrites by Rita Hsiao (Toy Story 2) and Todd Alcott (Antz), the trade paper reported. Barry Josephson and Barry Sonnenfeld produce the film with Shankman and Jennifer Gibgot, with Sunil Perkash as executive producer.
Kim Possible is in its second season on the Disney Channel. Schooley and McCorkle's credits include Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, the trade paper reported.
New Shazam! Writers Hired?
GN FilmForce is reporting a rumor that the writing team of Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow has been hired to rewrite the movie version of the classic comic series Shazam! for New Line Cinema.
Citing anonymous "reliable sources," the site reported that the Toy Story writers may take a lighthearted approach to the story of Captain Marvel.
New Line is eyeing a possible 2005 release for Shazam!, the site reported.
Punisher Game In Works
ame publisher THQ Inc. announced that it will release a video game based on the Punisher comic series and the upcoming movie based on the Marvel series.
The Punisher is slated for release in fall 2004 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, THQ said.
THQ's internal studio, Volition Inc., will develop the game, which will center on Frank Castle, a one-man vigilante squad who takes on the city's crime lords to avenge the death of his family. The game will make use of the grittiest storylines from more than 30 years of Punisher comic books, the company said.
The Punisher film, starring Thomas Jane, John Travolta and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, hits theaters in April 2004.
Briefly Noted
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The old Web site for the SF movie Pitch Black now features a Flash preview of its upcoming sequel film, The Chronicles of Riddick, which opens next summer. Simply click on the main page when it completes loading.
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ComingSoon.net has posted a new trailer for the upcoming live-action/computer-animated Garfield movie, starring Bill Murray and based on the comic strip, which opens June 18, 2004.
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The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson will receive this year's Modern Master Award at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, Variety reported. Jackson, who also co-wrote and produced the Rings trilogy, will accept the award at a ceremony on Jan. 31, 2004, at the Arlington Theater.
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Consumers purchased a record 11 million copies of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl during the film's first week in video stores, TV Guide Online reported.
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The 100th episode of The WB's Angel, "You're Welcome," featuring the return of former regular cast member Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia, is slated to air Feb. 4, 2004.
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Scrubs star Zach Braff will voice the title character in Disney's upcoming animated film Chicken Little for director Mark Dindal (The Emperor's New Groove), according to The Hollywood Reporter. Joan Cusack, Steve Zahn, Amy Sedaris, Don Knotts, Katie Finneran and Garry Marshall are also expected to be in the voice cast, sources told the trade paper.
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Christina Ricci told SCI FI Wire that her comic-book movie Adrenalynn was backburnered out of concern that its terrorist-themed plot was inappropriate in light of the Sept. 11 attacks, but that the movie might be revived at a later date. "It's just a matter of revisiting it, but I've been very busy and the other people involved have moved on," Ricci said in an interview.
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Isabella Rossellini will appear in an upcoming episode of ABC's Alias, playing Sydney's (Jennifer Garner) aunt and the sister of Irina (Lena Olin), who may have had an affair with Jack (Victor Garber), the Dark Horizons Web site reported.
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JoBlo.com reported that a new trailer for the upcoming SF movie The Chronicles of Riddick will hit the Internet (on the Apple trailers Web site) on Dec. 15, while the official Pitch Black Web site will be changed into a Riddick site.
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Friends star Lisa Kudrow will lend her voice to an untitled animated pilot presentation under consideration at Fox, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Kudrow will contribute to a project being created by Jonathan Katz and Tom Snyder (Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist) from Touchstone Television.
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Gotham-based specialty boutique Rialto Pictures has acquired the 1954 monster movie Godzilla, which will receive its first U.S. release in the uncut Japanese version next spring to coincide with the cult classic's 50th anniversary, Variety reported. The Japanese version does not include U.S. actor Raymond Burr, who was added to the original dubbed U.S. release.
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Actress Bridget Fonda and composer Danny Elfman (Batman, Nightmare Before Christmas) were married Thanksgiving weekend, Fonda's publicist told the Associated Press. The wedding took place near Los Angeles, with the reception at a downtown restaurant, publicist Nancy Seltzer said.
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Billy Connolly (Timeline) has joined the cast of the movie adaptation of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events for Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Connolly will play Uncle Monty in the Brad Silberling-directed film, which is based on Daniel Handler's children's book series and is set to star Jim Carrey, Meryl Streep and Jude Law.
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