Alias' Sloane To Get Busy
on Rifkin, who plays Arvin Sloane on ABC's spy series Alias, told SCI FI Wire that viewers will soon see a more romantic side to his character.
"I get to have sex with someone," Rifkin said in an interview at ABC's recent winter press preview in Hollywood. "That's all I'm going to say."
Rifkin, whose character has morphed from evil to ambiguously good in Alias' three-year run, lost his beloved wife last season. Rifkin added that Sloane may have more to do with the nefarious Sark, played by David Anders. "His character gets to have sex also," Rifkin said playfully. Alias airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
DVD Recuts Daredevil
arvel Studios' Kevin Feige told the
Comics Continuum Web site that the upcoming new Daredevil DVD will be a "whole new experience."
The DVD will be a director's cut, with many new scenes, and will be rated R. It is being targeted for a spring release, the site reported.
"I hope the people who loved the first one will love this one even more," Feige told the site. "And I think the people who had other opinions will be won over by this new version. More so than many director's cuts that you'll see, it's really a different experience. Not only are there other subplots and things in it, there are turns in his character, darker turns, and more interesting turns that he takes in this version."
Buffy Lives In Comics
uffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon told SCI FI Wire that he hopes to keep the franchise alive—in comics, including a follow-up to his Fray series.
"I'm still doing [Dark Horse's] Tales of the Vampires," Whedon said in an interview. "And after that I'd like to do another Fray book [about a Slayer in the future]. But I keep taking things on, and my wife is still smiling, but I don't know how long that's going to last."
Earlier, avowed comics fan Whedon confirmed to SCI FI Wire that he may be writing a series of X-Men comics for Marvel. "I can't answer that question at all, because I'm really not officially doing it," he said. "It sort of leaked out that I wanted to do it. I'd say the same thing I say about the show, I really like the characters, and so I want to put them in pain."
Angel Network Goes Dark
berproducer John Wells (The West Wing, ER) is developing a new version of the 1960s vampire soap opera Dark Shadows for The WB, network officials announced.
But WB honcho Jordan Levin told reporters that he doesn't believe the supernatural series will conflict with The WB's other vampire show, Angel. "I don't think the two shows will be competing against one another," Levin said at the network's winter press tour in Hollywood.
Levin added, "We haven't seen Dark Shadows yet. What was interesting about that is that anytime John Wells walks in the door and says he's excited about wanting to do something differently—in this case, a gothic soap opera, you know, based on Dark Shadows—I think that's something you're obviously going to pay attention to. I think that two shows could co-exist. One is an action-adventure franchise, and one is a very gothic soap opera franchise."
Angel co-creator Joss Whedon, meanwhile, expressed surprise when informed that another bloodsucker series was in the frog network's docket. "I was not aware of that," he said, with typical tongue in cheek. "I quit." He added seriously, "You know, clearly, I'm the 97th guy to use the vampire metaphor to tell stories. I have no problem with there being a 98th. ... But at least it's not an important, successful producer."
Angel Looks Ahead
oss Whedon, co-creator of The WB's Angel, told SCI FI Wire that the show's upcoming fifth-season finale will wrap up the current storyline but leave open the possibility of returning for a sixth season.
No word has come yet on whether the show, which recently shot its 100th episode, will be picked up for another year.
Capping the current season while setting up the next is "what I usually do, and I didn't do it last year, because I didn't know we were in danger of getting canceled," Whedon said in an interview. "And I didn't do it the year before, because I knew we weren't going to be [canceled]. But usually, my philosophy has always been, do an episode that ties up everything, but opens up some other things. And this season is no different. It's very much a good way to go out, and a good way to start a completely new season."
Reaching the 100-episode milestone was a chance to look back on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff's accomplishments, he added. "To take stock, that's really what a 100th episode is for," he said. "To go back and say, 'Here was the mission statement. If we made 100 of these, there's a reason we were talking about this. So let's talk about it some more.'" Angel airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Minear To Adapt Moon
enre TV producer Tim Minear (Angel, Wonderfalls) told SCI FI Wire that he has been hired to write a screenplay adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's 1966 SF novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress.
The novel deals with a 2076 rebellion on a former penal colony on the moon and has been read as an allegory about libertarianism and its costs.
"I'm going to write the script," Minear, an avowed Heinlein fan, said in an interview. "My take on the story is to try to stay as close to Heinlein's politics and Heinlein's vision of the future that I can, while still taking the story and trying to make it into a movie. You know, that book is not a movie. There's a lot of very interesting talk about cells and sort of the anatomy of a revolution, which is not that interesting in a movie. But there are other elements."
Minear got hired to adapt the book when he set out to discover who held the rights to Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. That turned out to be producer David Heyman (the Harry Potter movies). Heyman and producer Mike Medavoy eventually hired Minear to adapt the other Heinlein work, Minear said.
Minear said that he wants to follow the example of Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, who adapted J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings for the screen. "Those are magnificently adapted screenplays," he said. "Things are moved around. Things are changed. Just like you would have to when you're adapting something that extensive. But really, really an impressive job of staying so close to ... Tolkien. ... Like, it smells the same as the novels."
Wonder Rises From Dead
ryan Fuller, creator of Fox's upcoming fantasy series Wonderfalls, told SCI FI Wire that he hopes to be able to do things in the new show that he wasn't able to do in his last series, Showtime's Dead Like Me, which he left shortly after it premiered.
"Yes, and I think a lot of that goes toward the financial support that Fox and 20th [Century Television] have given this show," Fuller said in an interview at Fox's recent winter press tour in Hollywood.
Fuller left Dead Like Me in part because he disagreed with Showtime's level of support and partly because of a difference of opinion about the show's creative direction, he said. "They wanted something that was a little more like Touched by an Angel, where George [Ellen Muth] is helping a client of the week every week," he said. "And I wanted to tell a story of a girl who made mistakes every week and learned from those as opposed to helping somebody and learning from that."
With Wonderfalls, Fuller (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) admitted that he's returning to similar territory. The show centers on a young Niagara Falls souvenir-shop clerk (Caroline Dhavernas) who suddenly begins hearing voices from inanimate objects. "I think everybody starts out one way or another at odds with the universe," he said. "And it's only a matter of time and experience where you figure out how to set yourself up and stop struggling." Like Dead, Wonderfalls features a lot of quirky humor, which Fuller acknowledged reflects his own personality. "I would say it's very accurate that I'm a weird guy," he said with a laugh. "That's definitely true. ... I think it's just more fun to write, as opposed to staying true to traditional drama. It's a blast to kind of take license and have a little fun." Wonderfalls premieres March 12 and will air Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Wonderfalls Nearly Here
aroline Dhavernas, star of Fox's upcoming fantasy series Wonderfalls, told SCI FI Wire that the show has nearly finished shooting its first 13 episodes, though the much-delayed series doesn't premiere until March.
Fox announced over the weekend that it will premiere Wonderfalls on March 12 and will give it a seven-week tryout in Boston Public's 9 p.m. Friday timeslot.
"We've been working like crazy," Dhavernas (pronounced da-VERNA) said in an interview at the network's winter press tour in Hollywood. "Nonstop since July. And it's ... difficult not to know what's going to happen for so long. Most shows go for a month or two, then they're on the air for a while, so they know right away. But we've done the whole thing without knowing what the audience is going to feel."
The show—about Jaye (Dhavernas), a Niagara Falls souvenir-shop clerk to whom inanimate objects begin speaking—draws comparisons to Joan of Arcadia, which airs an hour earlier on CBS. "Of course, everyone compares us to that show," Dhavernas said. "And I think they're doing a great job, that it's a good show. ... But I still think we're very different. Much funnier and quirkier than their show is, much more dynamic. And she's talking to God. We don't know who I'm talking to, and they're inanimate objects. They're not people. So it's much more absurd than Joan of Arcadia."
Wonderfall, created by Malcolm in the Middle's Todd Holland and Bryan Fuller, also begs comparisons with Fuller's earlier Showtime series Dead Like Me. Dhavernas said she's never seen Dead, but admitted there may be similarities. "I think it's such a fun thing to play, because you see a lot of teenagers who are girls be all fun and happy, and it's so fun to play a character who's so laid back and doesn't want to have to deal with people around her and has different layers to her as well, you know?" she said. "Sometimes she'll think she's completely crazy, and she'll go from being annoyed to being helpful. ... So it's fun to play all that."
Wachowskis Quit Conan?
GN FilmForce reported a rumor that writer/director brothers Larry and Andy Wachowski (The Matrix) have quit the proposed sequel movie King Conan: Crown of Iron, the third movie featuring Robert E. Howard's barbarian hero.
The Wachowski brothers were to have produced King Conan, with John Milius writing and directing. Original Conan the Barbarian star Arnold Schwarzenegger is unavailable for the next few years now that he is governor of California.
Anonymous sources told IGN FilmForce that the Wachowskis, who had reportedly clashed with Milius over the tone and direction of the film, left of their own volition. The project had remained stalled in development while the Wachowskis completed the Matrix trilogy, the site reported. The future of King Conan is now up in the air.
King Wins Zanuck Award
he Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won the highest honor for a film given by the Producers Guild of America on Jan. 17, the Reuters news service reported.
The film won the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Theatrical Motion Picture, often seen as a bellwether for the best picture Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Oscars will be presented on Feb. 29.
The third and final installment of Peter Jackson's adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic fantasy has won several major critics awards so far this year, including best film award from the New York City film critics and a best director award for Jackson from the Los Angeles critics, Reuters reported.
Simmons Talks Spidey 2
.K. Simmons, who reprises the role of J. Jonah Jameson in the upcoming sequel film Spider-Man 2, told SCI FI Wire that he gets a bit more to do in the second movie based on Marvel Comics' most famous superhero.
"A little more than the first one, I think," Simmons said in an interview. "At least we shot a little more. ... More fun wacky stuff in the office, and I actually even get to step out of the office a couple of times in this one. ... And there's at least one very fun twist involving my character."
As in the first Spidey movie, Simmons plays the irritable flat-topped editor of the Daily Bugle and the only man in New York who thinks Spider-Man is a menace to society. "[I] yell. Scream. Belittle people," Simmons said. "Be generally curmudgeonly and unpleasant, although, as always, with a heart of gold, really, underneath it all. There's a lot of very funny stuff like we did with the first one. We had a good script to start with, but we also came up with a lot of it on our own, [director] Sam [Raimi] and [star] Tobey [Maguire] and I and the rest of the cast."
But Simmons remained coy about the sequel's top-secret story, which takes place a few years after the events of the first movie and introduces a new villain, Doctor Octopus, played by Alfred Molina. "He's the new bad guy, and he's great," Simmons said. "[And] Peter Parker's love life gets a little complicated." Spider-Man 2 opens July 2.
Kutcher Learns On Butterfly
shton Kutcher, star and executive producer of the time-travel film The Butterfly Effect, told SCI FI Wire that he got an education in all aspects of filmmaking during the production.
"It was a great learning experience for me," he said in an interview while promoting the film. "Sitting in the editing room and seeing how things get cut together, which I'd done before and I do on my television shows. And I thought I could help a little bit with that. And it was just learning how the movie gets made."
Kutcher, best known for his role as a goofy teen on Fox's That '70s Show and as real-life practical joker in MTV's hidden-camera show Punk'd, said he appreciated the film's darker elements. "I don't think that there is anything that's in our movie that hasn't happened in real life, other than possibly time travel," Kutcher said. "I think that as a society in general we're closing our eyes to these things that happen. There are kids that are being molested. It happens. It's real. These kinds of things go on. And in the same way that my character blocks out these moments, we as a society in many ways block out that this stuff actually happens." Butterfly Effect opened Jan. 23.
Smart Morphs In Butterfly
my Smart, who co-stars in the SF film The Butterfly Effect, told SCI FI Wire that her character goes through four different permutations, all with a distinct look and personality.
"I definitely approached her with the intent of her being the same person at the core, but of four different realities that happened to her," she said in an interview while promoting the film. "So I did a lot of work with my acting coach and research. And I didn't approach it as if I'm doing four different movies, by any means, because that's not what was going on. It was like the same girl, but obviously four different realities."
The film centers on a young psychology student (Ashton Kutcher) who discovers he can go back in time and change history in an effort to save his childhood sweetheart, played by Smart. Kutcher's character soon discovers, however, that every time he changes one event in the past, the present changes drastically as a result.
In one of the various realities, Smart's character becomes a heroin-addicted prostitute. For that version of the character, the actress said she underwent an extensive physical transformation. "We had gone, actually, to this little spot in Vancouver [where the movie was filmed] that's just packed full of different junkies and prostitutes, a lot of people on heroin," Smart said. "You could just see the way their skin was and the way their hair was and the way their body language was. So during the makeup test it took about 2 1/2 hours because of the detail, the splotchiness and then the nasty, ratty wig that I had. But for me, I was so excited to go there, that I was, like, the more the merrier. I really wanted to just go for it and make me look as gross or crazy [as possible]." Butterfly Effect opened Jan. 23.
Cameron Returning To SF?
irector James Cameron said he will end a self-imposed six-year hiatus from studio moviemaking by preparing a new SF film he hopes to shoot for 20th Century Fox later this year with high-definition 3-D video cameras, Variety reported.
Cameron announced his plans Jan. 20 at an appearance at the ArcLight Hollywood theater after a screening of Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
Cameron remained tight-lipped about the title and concept during a Q&A session after the movie, but described the feature as a "big-budget science-fiction film with a pile of special effects," the trade paper reported.
"When I see a movie like the Lord of the Rings films and I see what's possible with digital effects now, I can't resist," Cameron said. "I've got to come and play, because there are some really cool images that I was never able to do before that I want to do now."
Cameron said the movie will be shot using the Reality Camera System, the patented 3-D camera rig he used for Ghosts of the Abyss, his Imax documentary about the Titanic.
Gilliam Talks Grimm
irector Terry Gilliam told Empire Online that he's starting post-production on his upcoming fantasy film The Brothers Grimm.
"Well we've finished shooting," he told the site. "Now we're editing it. I actually saw the first assembly today for the first time, and, well, it's going to be busy for the next few months. There's hundreds of special-effects shots. Part of it is editing in the dark, because you're trying to imagine extraordinary things."
The film stars Matt Damon and Heath Ledger as con men traveling around 18th century Europe, pretending to rid villages of mythical creatures, who must face a forest plagued by real enchantment, the site reported.
"Well these are very different from their normal characters," Gilliam said. "They're cast completely against type, which is always a gamble, but when it pays off I love it. The actors love it, and the audience likes waking up and discovering the world is different every day."
Potter Stars Talk Cuarón
he young stars of the upcoming Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban movie told SCI FI Wire that it's been different, but good, working with new director Alfonso Cuarón, who steps in for Chris Columbus.
"Especially for me, as someone who hadn't acted in anything else before, it was great working with a new director and doing something different, seeing different techniques, different ideas, all that kind of stuff," said Emma Watson (Hermione) during a break in filming on the film's London set. "It's also been really good fun."
Mexican director Cuarón (A Little Princess, Y tu mamá también) takes over the franchise from Columbus, who helmed the first two installments. "I think there's definitely a difference in style by just looking at the two," Watson said. "I've only seen a few clips of this third one that's coming out, but Alfonso's done some amazing things with camera angles and camera shots. And this one is much more flowy. I don't know. You can just tell the difference. Especially with the director, a lot of himself goes into what he's doing and you can definitely tell the difference. It's great. It's really good."
Watson and co-stars Daniel Radcliffe (Harry) and Rupert Grint (Ron) agreed that Cuarón is bringing out the teenager in the characters. "Chris always had this fantastically energetic approach to doing the scenes, which suited the first two films absolutely perfectly," Radcliffe said. "And he made two absolutely fantastic films. With the third one, Alfonso has a much more kind of laid back, kind emotional, intense way of directing."
Watson added, "Yeah, and he wanted a lot of our input in the characters and a lot more he kind of said, 'Well, how would you do it? What would you do it like?' And 'No, I'm not going to tell you how to do it. It's got to come from what you think and from your own experiences and stuff.'" Prisoner of Azkaban, based on the third of author J.K. Rowling's best-selling Potter novels, is slated for release on June 4.
Lehman Reveals Riddick Hints
ristin Lehman, who co-stars with Vin Diesel in the upcoming SF movie The Chronicles of Riddick, told SCI FI Wire that her character will share a bond with Diesel's antihero.
"I play the only other Furyan in the film," Lehman (TV's Strange World) said in an interview. "Vin is, as we know, a Furyan. And this, of course, is the odyssey for him, to realize who he is, what he comes from, what his odyssey is. And I am the Furyan who brings that out in him. I come to him."
In Riddick, the follow-up film to 2000's Pitch Black, viewers discover that Furyans are a mysterious and vanished race of people who stand as the universe's only countermeasure to the rapacious Necromongers, who are sweeping through the galaxy. "You've got to see the movie to see what a Furyan is," the Canadian-born Lehman said. "That's the planet that they come from, Furya. And the movie is all about [Riddick's] finding out—and us finding out—what a Furyan is. And as you know, [the Chronicles of Riddick is envisioned as the first of] three films, so hopefully this one will be spectacular, and they'll want to make more and more, and we'll get to delve more and more into the culture and the people and the characters."
Lehman said she originally auditioned unsuccessfully for a role in Pitch Black. "I had read with [Diesel] originally for Pitch Black, so I was familiar with him," she said. "He's one of the executive producers on this, so he has a real strong personal stake in it. It was great. ... He's incredibly creative. He's an incredibly rich, creative man. And this film, I think, is a testament to how invested he is with telling stories."
Lehman added that Riddick will expand greatly on the universe introduced in the first movie. "[It's] entirely different," she said. "It's vast, it's epic. ... Tremendous in scope and tremendous in special effects." Riddick, from writer/director David Twohy, opens June 11.
Begley Back As MD In Hospital
netime St. Elsewhere doctor Ed Begley Jr. puts on a lab coat again as a physician in ABC's upcoming limited series Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital, and the actor told SCI FI Wire that the new role brings things full circle.
"St. Elsewhere was a pretty bizarre hospital when you think about it," Begley said in an interview at ABC's winter press preview. "The final episode it was decided the whole hospital was a dream in the mind of an autistic child. So this is probably a little weirder than that."
Begley plays Dr. Jesse James, whom he describes as "the chief administrator of the hospital, a highly ineffectual man. His idea of medicine is to paint the walls a bright color and put little happy buttons on people and make them feel better that way. I don't think he's the best doctor around." The cast also includes Andrew McCarthy, Diane Ladd and Bruce Davison in a story about a haunted hospital. Begley added that the story reflects King's own bad experiences with the health-care system following his near-fatal accident in 1999, in which he was struck by a van as he walked on a road near his Maine home.
"Yes, he had a bad time, as you know, with the accident and, he might argue, the care that followed," Begley said. "But the fact is, he's alive, so I'm sure he has a certain amount of gratitude for that. Medicine, like any field, has good people and not-so-good people. Sadly, this hospital is not a very good hospital. But there's some good people that reside there. Andrew McCarthy is a very good doctor. Having said that, there's a few good nurses and people, but there's a lot of people there who are not very good doctors. They're not very enlightened in the field of medicine. But it's a very good show, ... and I'm just very happy to work on this insane hour show." The 15-hour, 13-part Kingdom Hospital, based in part on a Danish TV series from director Lars von Trier, premieres on ABC at 9 p.m. ET/PT on March 3 and will subsequently air on Wednesdays at 10 p.m.
Hospital's Coleman Plays King
ack Coleman, who plays a character based on author Stephen King in the upcoming ABC limited series Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital, told SCI FI Wire that his character is the victim of an automobile accident similar to the one that nearly killed the horror author in 1999.
"Hopefully this will get it out of his system, because I don't know that he could ever write it closer to what happened," Coleman said during ABC's winter press tour in Hollywood. "People who certainly know anything about what happened to Stephen King are going to go, 'Oh my God, that's what happened to Stephen King.' But from there, it's now the fiction. It's no longer Stephen King's story."
King began writing the series just after leaving the hospital and before a deal was in place for the show. Coleman plays a famous artist who taps into the paranormal forces within a Maine hospital while recovering from the accident. He said that the crash sequence was filmed as realistically as possible, a challenging process for the actor at times. "I had some excruciating experiences of my own that were not otherworldly," Coleman said. "Just the rigors of shooting the crash and being in a ditch and lying in there for days in the rain and the cold [were hard]. ... It was quite painstaking. Craig Baxley, the director, has been amazing. He shot it like a feature. That much care and time was taken. It's going to be an extraordinary sequence."
According to Coleman, King found watching the finished scene a cathartic experience. "He found it very harrowing, but also very rewarding," Coleman said. "Because I think to go through it and then to write it and then to see it, I think he feels very happy with how it was realized." The 15-hour, 13-part Hospital, based in part on a Danish TV series from director Lars von Trier, premieres on ABC at 9 p.m. ET/PT on March 3 and will subsequently air on Wednesdays at 10 p.m.
Furst Helms Dragon Storm
ctor/director Stephen Furst told SCI FI Wire that he's proud of Dragon Storm, an SCI FI Pictures movie.
"I just think it's a purely fun movie," Furst said in an interview. "It's great escapism. I can't even tell you how much fun I had doing this film. [The Bulgarian crew] turned out to be just wonderful. In Bulgaria, they'll say, 'We'll go 15 hours, no problem. We'll catch ourselves on fire another four times.'"
Dragon Storm is set in medieval times, with two enemy kingdoms reluctantly joining forces in order to defeat fire-breathing alien dragons. Furst, the former Babylon 5 star, directed a cast that included John Rhys-Davies (The Lord of the Rings), Maxwell Caulfield (Oblivion 2), Angel Boris (SCI FI's Epoch: Evolution) and Tony Amendola (Stargate SG-1).
"I'd give John a joke, and he'd expound on it, and then Tony would get in on it," Furst said. "I think you're going to see a tremendous chemistry between John and Tony. Angel was very nice. Max is known as Michelle Pfeiffer's sidekick in Grease 2, but he's a very, very underrated actor." Dragon Storm premiered Jan. 24 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Shrek 3 Gears Up
reamWorks is fast-tracking production on the computer-animated sequel film Shrek 3, even though Shrek 2 doesn't hit theaters until May 21, Variety reported.
The third installment in the franchise will see the green ogre (voiced by Mike Myers) tackle the legend of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table, the trade paper reported.
The first order of business appears to be hiring a second set of writers to work with Shrek 2 scribes David Stem, Joe Stillman and David N. Weiss, the trade paper reported.
DreamWorks is also reportedly at work on Shark Tale 2, even though the first Shark Tale movie won't debut until Oct. 1. Shark Tale, featuring the voice of Will Smith, tells the story of a fish who becomes a hero when he takes credit for the demise of a nasty shark.
Gibson Hopeful About Passion
el Gibson is hoping for a good reaction to his upcoming controversial movie The Passion of the Christ, but is expecting the worst, the Reuters news service reported.
"I anticipate the worst is yet to come," the Australian actor told 4,500 evangelical Christian pastors at a showing in Orlando, Fla., Reuters reported. "I hope I'm wrong. I hope I'm wrong."
Gibson made the film to show in gruesome detail how Jesus died to redeem mankind, a central tenet of Christian belief, the news service reported. But the Passion—from the Latin word for suffering—could also be seen as the story of how Jews plotted to kill him.
Jewish leaders have been saying for months that any film based on the Gospel accounts of Jesus' life and death risked depicting Jews as Christ-killers and stirring up anti-Semitism, Reuters reported.
Pope Didn't Endorse Passion?
ope John Paul II's closest aide has denied reports the pontiff had praised the Biblical accuracy of Mel Gibson's upcoming controversial movie The Passion of the Christ, Reuters reported.
Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, the pope's long-time private secretary, told the Catholic News Service: "The Holy Father told no one of his opinion of this film."
Church sources have previously told various news organizations that the pope liked the film and that he told aides that it was an accurate portrayal of Biblical accounts of Christ's final hours, Reuters reported.
But Dziwisz told Catholic News Service: "The Holy Father saw the film privately in his apartment, but gave no declaration to anyone. He does not make judgments on art of this kind. He leaves that to others, to experts."
The Passion of the Christ is based on Gospel narratives and contains dialogue only in Latin, Hebrew and Aramaic. It opens on Feb. 25.
Roth Directs The Box
amelot Pictures will finance and produce the supernatural horror movie The Box, to be directed by Eli Roth (Cabin Fever), Variety reported.
Roth and Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko) adapted the screenplay from the Richard Matheson short story "Button, Button," which also served as the basis of a 1986 episode of The Twilight Zone that aired on CBS, the trade paper reported.
The Box tells the story of an unhappy married couple who receive a small wooden box on their doorstep. At the push of a button, the box brings its bearer instant wealth—and instantly kills someone the bearer doesn't know, the trade paper reported.
Kelly, who optioned the story last year, will also produce with his Darko Entertainment partner Sean McKittrick and Camelot's Gary Gilbert and Dan Halsted, the trade paper reported.
Invaders Coming Again
mpire Interactive will publish Space Invaders Anniversary for the PlayStation 2 and Space Invaders '95 for the PC later this year, the GameSpot Web site reported.
Space Invaders Anniversary is currently scheduled for release sometime in the next few months, while Space Invaders '95 will ship to stores later in the year.
The release of Space Invaders Anniversary will coincide with the 25th anniversary of the original Space Invaders arcade game and the 50th anniversary of the Taito Corp., which created it, the site reported.
Pooh Ruling Sets Disney Back
federal appeals court has denied an appeal by the granddaughter of British author A.A. Milne to claim rights to Winnie the Pooh, a setback to the ally of the Walt Disney Co., the Reuters news service reported.
The denial of the appeal by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was a victory for the Slesinger family, which owns the U.S. merchandising rights to the lucrative Pooh franchise and has been locked in a decade-long legal dispute with Disney, the news service reported.
A spokesman for the Slesinger family told Reuters that Disney had manipulated Milne and that the Jan. 15 decision paved the way for a trial on their claim that Disney owes them hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid royalties. A spokesman for Disney was not immediately available for comment.
Disney joined Milne in her original suit in November 2002 and had struck a deal with her to continue marketing Pooh merchandise if she recaptured the rights to the honey-loving bear, Reuters reported. Milne had sought to recapture the rights under a 1998 change in U.S. copyright law. Her grandfather had sold the U.S. marketing rights to the Slesinger family in 1930, the news service reported. The Slesinger family in turn assigned the rights to Disney in 1961.
Muniz Banks On Cody Again
rankie Muniz told SCI FI Wire that he'll be back in action as the titular teen CIA operative in the upcoming Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London.
"The villain, Diaz [Keith Allen], has stolen a mind-control software device that he can control by remote, and it's Cody's fault that he got away," Muniz said during an interview. "So I say, 'You have to let me go and get him. I made the mistake. Let me fix it.'"
To do so, Agent Banks flies off to London and poses as a young musical prodigy from America. "So I'm spying around, and there are going to be a lot of fight scenes and a lot of action," Muniz said. "Anthony Anderson is taking over from Angie Harmon as my handler, Derek. His story is that he's stuck in London and is kind of forgotten, because he worked for the CIA and blew his cover. I don't really know how to explain the character, but Anthony's here to bring some comedy to the movie. And we've also got Hannah Spearitt [a popular British singer who was in the group S Club 7]. I can't call her the love interest, because she's not. She's the girl in the movie [and Banks' British Secret Service counterpart]. Cody doesn't go for her at all, which was kind of disappointing." Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London opens nationwide March 12.
Love Blooms On Enterprise?
onnor Trinneer, who plays Cmdr. Tucker on UPN's Star Trek: Enterprise, told SCI FI Wire to expect more surprises in the budding relationship between his character and the Vulcan T'Pol (Jolene Blalock).
"Whatever's going on now in that relationship, I think that relationship is going to have so many different levels," Trinneer said in an interview at UPN's recent winter press preview in Hollywood. "I think that relationship is going to go all over the place."
In the current third season, Tucker and T'Pol have grown close as they spend evenings engaged in Vulcan touch therapy. "There's a relationship there that, again, will change," Trinneer said. "They kind of, I think, just throw s--t at us, because it's like, 'Hey, maybe she's in love with the captain, that's great. Wait, let's see what they do. See what happens.'"
Beyond possible romance, Trinneer said that the new season's storyline, which puts Enterprise on a mission to prevent the Earth's destruction, has reinvigorated the series. "You can just feel it," he said. "I think it starts with story. You get a consistency in the stories being of high quality, and you get one and then another and another, and you start to feel like you're building momentum. And it's also helpful to have an arc that you're doing for the whole year, which helps you, I think, build momentum in that. So you start from a place and hopefully build up steam to tell that story and its climax. And I think we're doing that. I think we're doing that very well, actually. I think we're building to a climax of this season that I think will be really cool." Enterprise airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Trek's Phlox Bares All
tar Trek: Enterprise star John Billingsley told SCI FI Wire that his character, Dr. Phlox, takes center stage in the upcoming Feb. 18 episode "Doctor's Orders"—and that he does so in the buff.
"We have to traverse a very dangerous part of space if we're to get to the Xindi weapon in time," Billingsley said in an interview at UPN's winter press tour in Hollywood. "And in that amazing way I have of somehow knowing this s--t, I say, 'Well, if we do this, all of the humans are going to be driven mad. I as a Dinobulan won't be driven mad.' So my solution is let's put everyone in a comatose state, and I'll run the ship by myself. And I do that."
Billingsley added that viewers will see a new side to the doctor. "I have to run the whole ship," he said. "And I walk around naked—sweeps week, baby!—and it turns out I was a little optimistic, and this weird section of space is actually kind of driving me mad, too. So now I'm mad, all by myself, on the ship. Mad, naked and all by myself on the ship."
A UPN spokesman told SCI FI Wire that Billingsley ended up shooting the episode in his birthday suit in part because producers called his bluff. For his part, Billingsley said that he had ideas for his character's alien anatomy. "In the nude scene, I was hoping ... you know, it would be like, I walk in the room, and a flower pot gets knocked over all the way [on the other side]. ... They didn't go for that, darn it [laughs]." Enterprise airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Century Eyes Near Future
aul Attanasio, executive producer of CBS' upcoming SF drama series Century City, told reporters that the futuristic legal show will use science-fiction storylines to deal with current-day issues.
Century City, about a law firm in 2030 Los Angeles, will air for six weeks on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT, starting March 16, CBS Entertainment president Nancy Tellem told reporters over the weekend at the television critics' winter press tour in Hollywood.
"The core idea here is ... to use the future as a way to comment on things that are happening right now and things that are just ... around the corner," Attanasio (Homicide: Life on the Streets) said. The show extrapolates current technologies and issues to create stories about cloning, about whether a man with a bionic eye will be allowed to play baseball, whether parents can sue over their genetically engineered offspring's inadvertent homosexuality or whether a father has the right to erase his son's memories of an abusive mother, among other things.
"The future we're trying to portray is the preferred future, the future where problems have been solved, but the solutions bring new problems in terms of us as a society, looking at our lives and saying, 'Who do we want to be? What does it mean to live in 2030?'" Attanasio said. "And those are questions that are answered by society through the law. So that's where we end up with a law show."
Century City stars Hector Elizondo, Ioan Gruffudd, Nestor Carbonell, Kristin Lehman, Viola Davis and Eric Shaeffer.
Glover, Reeve Together Again
mallville star John Glover (Lionel Luthor) told SCI FI Wire that his scene with guest star Christopher Reeve, who reprises the role of Dr. Swann in the April 14 episode, isn't the first time the two actors have shared a stage.
"I worked with Chris in 1979 at the Williamstown theater festival," Glover said in an interview. "We were in a production of The Cherry Orchard, and Blythe Danner and Chris and I were a love triangle."
Glover was scheduled to shoot his scenes with Reeve in New York this week. "I've not seen him since his accident," which left the original Superman star paralyzed, Glover said. "But what he's doing publicly for his organization [The Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Resource Center] and for people who are paralyzed, just for their spirits and things, is amazing. And the advances with science that he'll be responsible for, he's an amazing man."
Glover added that he's looking forward to having Lionel spar with Dr. Swann. "What's so exciting, too, is the fact that always before you've seen Lionel with people that he's five steps ahead of," Glover said. "And now you'll see him with somebody who has more knowledge, more power. So it'll be interesting to see Lionel in a relationship with somebody like that." Smallville airs on The WB Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
USA Raises Frankenstein
artin Scorsese and author Dean Koontz are teaming up with director Marcus Nispel and producer Tony Krantz to resurrect Dr. Frankenstein and his monster as a weekly series for USA Network, Variety reported.
The cable network has given a green light to production on an update of Mary Shelley's classic SF novel Frankenstein, giving it a contemporary twist, the trade paper reported. The network has ordered a two-hour pilot and four scripts.
USA won't formally green-light production on the four episodes until after filming of the pilot starts, though all involved are proceeding as if Frankenstein will launch as an event series, most likely this fall, the trade paper reported.
Scorsese, Koontz and Krantz (24) will executive produce Frankenstein, which Nispel (the recent Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake) will direct. In a rare move, Koontz actually wrote the pilot on spec before pitching it to networks. He and Krantz both wanted to maintain as much independence during the development process as possible, the trade paper reported. Scorsese then came on board. Casting will start next week for a mid-April production start date, the trade paper reported.
The series picks up in present-day Seattle, where doctor Victor Frankenstein and his creature reside, having survived the past two centuries through the doctor's genetic tinkering. Their story is augmented with that of a female cop and her partner, who, through a seemingly standard homicide investigation, unravel the myth of Frankenstein, the trade paper reported.
USA Network is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Kruger Adapts Blood
creenwriter Ehren Kruger (The Ring) has come aboard MGM's werewolf movie Blood and Chocolate as writer and executive producer, Variety reported.
Sanji Senaka makes his feature-film directorial debut on the movie, based on Annette Curtis Klause's popular teen horror novel.
Blood and Chocolate deals with a secret society of werewolves living in modern society. Kruger will rework the story, about the difficult romance between a young woman werewolf and a human boy, the trade paper reported. Blood is being readied for a summer start.
Kruger also wrote the sequel film The Ring 2, which is slated to start filming in spring, and The Talisman, adapted from the Stephen King novel and produced by Steven Spielberg, the trade paper reported. Talisman is set to shoot this summer.
Ferrante Goes Boo
inescape editor Anthony C. Ferrante makes his feature-film directing debut with the haunted-hospital movie Boo.
Ferrante told SCI FI Wire that the idea came to him when he worked on a movie shooting in the abandoned Linda Vista Hospital in downtown Los Angeles. "We got so bored one night, we went down and we rigged this wheelchair downstairs and had someone hiding behind [with] fishing line," Ferrante said in an interview on the set. "And we would bring people down there periodically and go, 'Oh my God, we saw a ghost down here.' And then they'd come down, it would move and we'd have people bolting up the stairs."
In Boo, Ferrante tells the story of teenagers who get stuck in a hospital and are chased by ghosts who want to possess them so they can escape. "The basic hook is, if Scream is about who the serial killer is, in this movie it's about who could possibly be the ghost," he said. "At a certain point, they can possess you, and we don't really reveal exactly how that happens and what happens to you to get you to that point. Then of course we start eliminating some of our cast."
Boo is produced by Graveyard Filmworks. Ferrante plans to finish the film in time to screen it at San Diego's Comic-Con International in July.
Tamblyns Bicker On Joan
mber Tamblyn, star of CBS' hit supernatural series Joan of Arcadia, told SCI FI Wire that she just finished shooting a scene with her real-life father, actor Russ Tamblyn, and some family dynamics spilled over.
"I think everybody was really excited, because they were like, 'What's the scene going to be like?'" Tamblyn said in an interview at CBS' recent winter press preview. "And I stepped on a couple of his lines, and he, like, yelled at me, like he does at home. Like, 'No, you wait!' And we totally started bickering at each other. The first [assistant director] was like, 'OK, no family feuding on the set. Let's just take a breather. Calm down,'" she added with a laugh.
In an episode to air in February, the elder Tamblyn appears as God in the form of a hippie dog walker, Amber said. "He actually grew his beard out so that he could look scruffy, like a hippie," she said. "It was a lot of fun. He was walking six dogs, these big dogs, and they started wrapping around us and tying us up together. It's going to be a really funny scene."
Off the set, Amber said that longtime actor Russ (West Side Story) doesn't have much advice for the rapidly rising young star, who was just nominated for a Golden Globe Award. "My dad is terribly way too laid back for me," she said. "Like, when I start stressing over something, he's so laid back. ... He just says, especially for things like award shows and things like that, he's, like, 'Look at it as a three-ring circus. Just have fun. Look at how fun and funny people are and just enjoy yourself.'"
Will Russ Tamblyn be back on Joan? "It was just one day," Amber said. "It was short. But it's my dad. They'll probably bring him back for something else." Joan of Arcadia airs Fridays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Ritter Found Solace In Joan
oan of Arcadia star Jason Ritter told SCI FI Wire that the hit CBS series' spiritual storylines helped him deal with his grief over the sudden death of his father, actor John Ritter, in September.
CBS announced over the weekend that Joan of Arcadia has been renewed for a full second season; Jason Ritter plays Kevin Girardi, the disabled brother of Joan Girardi (Amber Tamblyn).
"The first script I received of Joan of Arcadia after my dad died [on Sept. 11] was this episode called 'Death Be Not Whatever,' which is all about death," Jason Ritter said in an interview at the networks' winter press tour in Hollywood. "And one of the quotes in it ... came from one of the other characters [who] was talking to Mary Steenburgen's character about the loss of Kevin's legs, and how it's sort of like a death. ... And he said, ... 'The philosopher Kierkegaard said, "The most painful state of being is remembering the future, particularly one you can never have."' And I read that, and ... that was all I had been doing."
Ritter added, "To realize that that was what I was sort of doing allowed me to move forward and just go, 'This is my life now.' And whatever happens after you die, I don't know. I don't know where my dad is. I don't know. But I just know that if he was still alive, what he would want me to do, and that is not crawl into a cave and wither away. Which is, you know, that's one thing that you feel. But instead to take life and just squeeze the last drop out of it, and never let a moment go unseized."
Earlier, co-star Mary Steenburgen (Helen Girardi), who is a friend of the Ritter family, told reporters that the entire cast and crew reached out to Jason Ritter when his father died. "The commitment was, 'Whatever he needs, we're there,'" she said. Joan of Arcadia airs Fridays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Fans Rally For Jake 2.0
ans of UPN's just-canceled SF series Jake 2.0 are organizing a
campaign to save the series.
UPN announced over the weekend that it has halted production on the show, which stars Christopher Gorham, and that the show won't return to the schedule unless ratings improve dramatically.
Word of the cancellation came as a shock to fans, as the network had earlier ordered a full season of episodes of the series, about a young spy who gains super powers through nanobots. Jake 2.0 is on hiatus and hasn't aired in January, and it's unclear when or if the series' remaining original episodes will hit the air.
Briefly Noted
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Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson garnered a nomination for best adapted screenplay from the Writers Guild for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Variety reported. Winners will be announced Feb. 21 at the WGA's 56th annual awards gala at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.
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David E. Allen, chairman and chief executive of Kismet Entertainment Group, told SCI FI Wire that the company has launched Graveyard Filmworks to produce horror movies to build on the success of its werewolf film, Dog Soldiers. The company's first film is Boo, directed by Cinescape editor Anthony C. Ferrante.
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The accolades continue to pile up for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: The Chicago Film Critics Association has chosen King the best picture of 2003.
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New Hampshire Gov. Craig Benson has appointed award-winning science fiction writer James Patrick Kelly of Nottingham to serve as Chairman of the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts. Kelly replaces M. Christine Dwye, who had served as chairwoman of the council for six years.
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Angel star David Boreanaz made his directorial debut with the Jan. 21 episode of The WB vampire series. Boreanaz spoke with SCI FI Wire last week about his first stint behind the camera for the episode "Soul Purpose," which airs at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
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The WB has picked up the witch series Charmed for a seventh season, Dark Horizons reported.
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Tribune Entertainment has renewed the syndicated SF series Mutant X for a fourth season, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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The Zap2it Web site is reporting that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire will hold the title of "most expensive movie ever made," according to British news sources. Warner Brothers will reportedly pony up about $309 million for the film, $9 million more than the budget for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
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Entertainment Weekly features Halle Berry as Catwoman on the cover of its Jan. 23 issue, as well as images of several upcoming movies inside, including Spider-Man 2.
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The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King got 12 nominations for this year's British Academy Film Awards, Variety reported.
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The 28th annual Williamson Lectureship takes place March 11 at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, N.M, with the theme "Space Opera: Then and Now." Jack Williamson will be joined by Robert Silverberg and Frederik Pohl.
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