Yoda Stolen He Is
thief stole a 170-pound bronze statue of Star Wars' Jedi master Yoda from the back of a truck in Pasadena, Calif., on Jan. 17, the Zap2it Web site reported.
Four of the 36 Lucasfilm-commissioned statues were bolted down to a flatbed truck for transport to Los Angeles to be sold. The truck's drivers, who had stopped at a Westway Inn, found the statue missing the next morning.
Lawrence Noble, the artist who created the mold for the statues, valued the limited-edition piece at $15,000 to $20,000, the Web site reported. A reward of $1,000 is being offered for information leading to its recovery.
McGregor: Episode III Ends It All
wan McGregor, who plays Obi-Wan Kenobi in the upcoming last prequel film Star Wars: Episode III, told Scotland Today that the movie ties things up.
"I hope, I think what it does nicely is it ties up all the ends, all the loose ends, and it meets Episode IV, with Alec Guinness and the crew, very nicely, I think," McGregor told the site.
McGregor reprises his role, which was originated by Guinness in the original Star Wars movie, in the third prequel in George Lucas' epic saga. This one sees the final transition of Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) into Darth Vader.
"I don't think there's anything left unsolved, and there's a huge but enormous fight at the end of it," McGregor added. "Enormous. I've never been more exhausted in my life. We spent weeks and weeks shooting this fight!" Episode III, which is now in post-production, is slated to debut in 2005.
Darabont: Indy IV Script Done
rank Darabont told Variety that he has completed the screenplay for the long-awaited Indiana Jones 4, which may shoot this year with Harrison Ford starring, Steven Spielberg directing and George Lucas executive producing.
Paramount is hoping to distribute the film in 2005, the trade paper reported.
"I've finished my work, so now it's in the hands of God, or Spielberg and Lucas, if you prefer," Darabont told the trade paper.
Writer-director Darabont, whose Darkwoods Productions just signed a three-year first-look production deal at Paramount Pictures, is also developing the action-adventure film Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze, based on the 1930s pulp novel series.
King Leads Oscar Nods
he Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King led the Academy Awards race on Jan. 27, with 11 nominations, including best picture and director, the Associated Press reported.
Return of the King also earned nominations for best original score and song, visual effects, film editing and adapted screenplay, for Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens' script based on J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy trilogy of books.
Return of the King led last weekend's Golden Globes, with four wins, including best dramatic picture and director, the AP reported.
Among the other nominations were Johnny Depp for best actor for his performance as a wily buccaneer in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, the news service reported.
Contenders for supporting actor included Alec Baldwin as a sleazy casino owner in The Cooler.
Finding Nemo was nominated for animated feature film, along with Brother Bear and the French film The Triplets of Belleville, the AP reported. Nemo also got a nod for best original screenplay.
The nominees in most categories are chosen by specific branches of the 5,700-member Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, such as actors, directors and writers. All academy members are allowed to vote for best-picture nominees. The full academy also is eligible to vote in all categories for the awards themselves. ABC will broadcast the Oscars on Feb. 29 live from Hollywood's Kodak Theatre, the AP reported.
King Conquers Globes
n a sweep that prefigures its chances at the Oscars, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King on Jan. 25 won all four Golden Globe awards for which it was nominated, including best film drama, the Reuters news service reported.
Director Peter Jackson also won the award for best director in ceremonies broadcast from Beverly Hills, Calif.
Rings also earned Golden Globe awards from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for best original film score (by Howard Shore) and for favorite song ("Into the West," as performed by Annie Lennox).
Jackson and Lord of the Rings gained the driver's seat in what had been a wide-open Oscar race, because winners here often go on to claim Oscars and because Rings and Jackson have figured prominently in early critical and industry honors, the news service reported.
Berry Hospitalized Briefly
atwoman star Halle Berry was taken to a Vancouver, B.C., hospital on Jan. 24 after being involved in a minor accident on the movie's set, Warner Brothers announced.
She was treated and released for an undisclosed injury and resumed work on the movie on Jan. 26, as scheduled, the studio reported. A Warner spokesman told SCI FI Wire that Berry was "slightly bumped" and "roughed up a little," but was otherwise fine.
The statement came in the wake of reports in the Vancouver Province newspaper and the Hollywood North Report Web site that Berry had been taken to Vancouver's St. Paul's Hospital after she was struck in the head by a lighting prop. The Oscar-winning star reportedly fell to the ground and remained prone while being administered oxygen by first-aid attendants, then got up and walked off the set at the Centre for the Performing Arts, where Catwoman was filming, the Province reported.
Berry was driven to St. Paul's Hospital at about 8 p.m. and remained there for tests until about 3 a.m. before being returned to her downtown hotel, the paper reported.
Berry has a history of on-set injuries. She broke her arm on the set of Gothika last year when co-star Robert Downey Jr. wrestled her onto a bed. Earlier, while shooting Die Another Day, she suffered a minor eye injury when an explosion blew material into her eye.
French Author Sues Over Nemo
French judge will examine a claim by children's author Franck Le Calvez that Disney plagiarized his book Pierrot the Clownfish in its film Finding Nemo, Variety reported.
Le Calvez, who filed suit against the studio in December, claimed the story and characters are too close to his own to be coincidence, the trade paper reported.
In 1995, Le Calvez said he made the rounds at production companies with his script for an animated film based on his character, Pierrot, to no avail. He published the story as a book in November 2002 under his own banner Flaven Scene, which he created after failing to find a taker for Pierrot, the trade paper reported. The author copyrighted the story in 1995 and the design of his clownfish last February.
While a date for the trial has yet to be set, Le Calvez will ask at the hearing in Paris that Disney be banned from promoting the film using Nemo's image or selling any merchandise that reproduces the clownfish, the trade paper reported.
Disney has denied copyright infringement.
Fox Orders Point Pleasant
ox has ordered a pilot for the supernatural series Point Pleasant, a drama from former Buffy the Vampire Slayer executive producer Marti Noxon and 20th Century Fox TV, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
A co-production with 20th TV-based Original TV, Point Pleasant is described as Peyton Place meets The Omen, the trade paper reported.
The pilot centers on a quiet beachside community that is turned upside down when a mysterious girl washes ashore, the trade paper reported. John McLaughlin (A&E's The Great Gatsby) wrote the original script for the show. He is executive producing with Noxon and Original's Neal Moritz, Marty Adelstein and Dawn Parouse.
Stars Bone Up For Potter IV
he stars of the Harry Potter films told SCI FI Wire that they are committed to reprising their characters in the upcoming fourth film, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, to be directed by Mike Newell, which is now in preproduction.
"Yeah, we're all on board for the fourth one," Emma Watson (Hermione) said in an interview during a break in filming on the set of the third film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, in London last fall.
Added Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), "Definitely. After that, we haven't finished the third yet [Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which is in post-production], so we're kind of like, one step at a time." Rupert Grint (Ron) is also on board.
Radcliffe added that he's already researching Newell's films in preparation. "Basically, if you're going to work with any director, I think it's quite important to know kind of what stuff they've done before," he said. "Like Mike Newell. I'm working my way through all of Mike Newell's films at the moment, which I liked. I watched Donnie Brasco a couple days ago. I still think it's quite important." Newell is also best known for Four Weddings and a Funeral and Enchanted April and has also directed installments of the Young Indiana Jones TV series.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, based on the third of J.K. Rowling's best-selling novels, is due in theaters June 4.
Coltrane Up For Potter IV
obbie Coltrane, who reprises the role of Hagrid in the upcoming third Harry Potter movie, told SCI FI Wire that he's committed to a fourth movie, but unsure about any more.
"I'll certainly do four," Coltrane said in an interview during a break in filming last fall on the set in England. "I'm contracted through four. ... Beyond that, I don't know. Never say never again, as they say."
In the third film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Coltrane's character finds himself teaching a class at Hogwarts. "Yes, he's a professor, which is quite funny," Coltrane said. "We had a lot of fun with that, because the kids are kind of enjoying the fact that Hagrid doesn't quite know what he's doing because he hasn't done it before. So there's a lot of things like, 'How am I doing?' And 'You'd better do better.' He's not really quite sure what to do."
Coltrane added that he has had conversations with Potter author J.K. Rowling about Hagrid. "I know all sorts of things about his past that haven't been discussed so far, which will be important," Coltrane said. "I mean, that's all Jo told me. I said, 'Well you can tell me everything about his past, which is important, even if it's not expressed to everyone but me. Even if it's irrelevant to everyone but me, because I think it is relevant if you're going to be a character.' So that's all I know. I know stuff about his past that isn't revealed. But I don't know anything of the plot. I don't want to, either. You know what I mean? I want the fun of finding out as much as anyone." Azkaban, which is now in post-production, is slated for release June 4.
Newell Thrills At Potter
ike Newell, director of the upcoming fourth Harry Potter movie, told Empire magazine that he's studying classic thriller movies for pointers.
"It's a classic paranoid thriller, in a way," Newell told the magazine. "I've spent Christmas watching things like The Parallax View and The Insider and Three Days of the Condor."
Newell sees Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as a thriller in its own right. "What you have is a story at the beginning of which the powers of evil have a plan, which is absolutely not revealed to your hero," he said. "The kid just wanders into another year at school, then this huge notion of the competition surprises him. But there is, of course, a malign intelligence which is manipulating things. And so he gets more and more suspicious until there is a shootout between him and the bad guy. That's a really good, strong thriller shape." Goblet of Fire is slated to begin shooting later this year.
Warburton Game For UPN
atrick Warburton, who voices a character in UPN's upcoming series Game Over, told SCI FI Wire that the show is the first computer-animated series in prime time.
"It's really creative, it's a lot of fun," Warburton said in an interview at the network's winter press preview in Hollywood. "I think that if you're into video games, if you're a video junkie, you're going to get it a lot more. I think my kids actually probably picked up on some of the jokes that I wasn't getting."
In Game Over, Warburton voices Rip Smashenburn, a race-car driver from a Grand Prix video game and the patriarch of a family of video-game characters. The show's premise is that the Smashenburns live in an alternate video-game universe comprising game characters, and the show focuses on what they do in their off time. "Where do these people go when they're not in the games?" Warburton said. "You've got Raquel [Rip's wife, voiced by Lucy Liu]. She's a Lara Croft [-type] character. ... We've got sick humor. Speaking of sick humor, the greatest character, the best character in this show, is Turbo, voiced by Artie Lang, who works with [shock jock Howard] Stern in the mornings. I think that's the character everybody's going to want to tune in to see."
Warburton added, "It's not really a dog. It's like a 250-pound rat dog. We don't know what it is. It's great." Game Over also features the voices of Rachel Dratch and E.G. Daily.
Ironically, Warburton (Men in Black II) confessed that he's not a big fan of video games himself. "Not really," he said. "I hop upstairs to play the kids. I'm kind of old school. ... Ms. Pac-Man was my game. I like to play Frogger with my daughter. She's very, very good at Frogger. She usually beats me." UPN has ordered six episodes of Game Over, which is slated for midseason.
Game Debuts, Trek Moves
PN set a March 10 premiere date for its new computer-animated series Game Over, which will air Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT in Star Trek: Enterprise's old timeslot.
Enterprise will move to a new timeslot, 9 p.m. on Wednesdays. UPN will air The Mullets from 8:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Game Over, which the network describes as the first CGI series in prime time, follows the Smashenburn family in an alternate video-game universe of action heroes, monsters and cartoon characters inspired by popular video games. Voice stars include Patrick Warburton, Lucy Liu, E.G. Daily and Rachel Dratch.
Carsey-Werner-Mandabach produces Game Over, which was created by David Sacks (The Simpsons) and developed by David Goetsch (3rd Rock From the Sun), Sacks, Jason Venokur and Ross Venokur.
Trek Changes Due?
inescape Online is reporting a rumor that an overhaul may be in the works for UPN's lackluster Star Trek: Enterprise.
Citing an anonymous source, the site reported that Paramount Television Productions president Garry Hart may make changes to the show's production staff after February sweeps, including the possible replacement of longtime executive producer Rick Berman.
UPN recently announced that it was moving Enterprise to a later timeslot, 9 p.m. Wednesdays, from its current 8 p.m., starting in March.
Pynchon Voices Simpsons Cameo
stute SF literary fans caught the surprise appearance of reclusive SF author Thomas Pynchon on the Jan. 25 episode of Fox's The Simpsons, voicing an animated version of himself.
Pynchon, the author of V and Gravity's Rainbow, hasn't been seen publicly in decades and eschews the usual round of press and publicity for his acclaimed books.
But he's apparently a fan of the animated show and recorded a brief cameo in Sunday's episode, in which Marge writes a romance novel. His animated likeness wore a paper bag over his head, but stood in front of a house with a large neon sign and wore a sandwich board with his name on it.
Pynchon wasn't the only guest voice. He shared the episode with twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen and with fellow author Tom Clancy.
Van Helsing Monsters Only Human
tephen Sommers, director of the upcoming Universal monster-fest Van Helsing, told SCI FI Wire that he views the film's central creatures as simply misunderstood people.
"It has a very different tone to it" compared with his two Mummy films, Sommers said in an interview on the movie's Los Angeles set last May. "It's a very different story. I just love the characters. I went into this thing saying, 'There are no monsters, just people with really bad problems.'"
Van Helsing stars Hugh Jackman as monster-slayer Gabriel Van Helsing and Kate Beckinsale as the gypsy princess Anna. As they journey through 19th-century Europe, they encounter famous movie creatures, including Frankenstein's monster, the Wolf Man, Dracula and a few others.
"Van Helsing has some bad problems," Sommers said. "Princess Anna has some bad problems. I mean, this guy, Frankenstein, he has real bad problems. The Wolf Man, he's like a wreck. ... But they're all humans, everybody in the movie. There are no monsters. Even Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. They're all people. Frankenstein's a man. He's seven men, but he's still human. ... There are no aliens in the movie."
Unlike The Mummy, Sommers added, Van Helsing has a more serious tone. "I think this still has a lot of fun, but it's more, I'd say, more dramatic," he said. "Dracula and Frankenstein and the Wolf Man, ... I took them seriously as characters, and I thought, 'Oh, these are guys with really bad problems, so you can't be tongue in cheek and you can't be winking.' It's just inherently more dramatic." Van Helsing opens May 7. Universal is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Cast Set For Hitchhiker
artin Freeman (The Office), Zooey Deschanel and Mos Def top the cast of Spyglass Entertainment/Walt Disney Pictures' feature version of Douglas Adams' beloved SF satire The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Variety reported.
Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith (aka Hammer & Tongs) will direct the movie, which starts shooting April 19 in London, the trade paper reported.
Adams, who adapted his own book prior to his death in 2001, will have a posthumous producing credit, the trade paper reported.
The story centers on Arthur Dent (Freeman), who is whisked off the planet by Ford Prefect (Def), an undercover alien researching The Hitchhiker's Guide just before Earth is destroyed to create a new hyperspace freeway. Deschanel will play Trillian, girlfriend of Zaphod Beeblebrox, a two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and current president of the galaxy. That role has still to be cast, the trade paper reported.
Russell Back In Escape Mode
urt Russell told SCIFI Wire that his iconic Snake Plissken character, from the films Escape From New York and Escape From L.A., is alive and well in other media, including a new game.
"There's some stuff going on with the whole Snake Plissken world, with a video game and an anime full-length motion picture out of Japan and some comic books," Russell said in an interview while promoting his latest feature, Miracle.
Plissken is currently back in action in the bimonthly Hurricane Entertainment comic John Carpenter's Snake Plissken Chronicles. Meanwhile, Namco Hometek recently sealed a deal with Russell, Escape director Carpenter and producer Debra Hill to create Plissken-oriented video games, with the first due out around Christmas 2005. And a Japanese anime Escape film is in the works.
"I love that character, so I love to see him living again in that world, in those different worlds," Russell said. "I think it's where Snake should be. I get to be with John and Debra. We sat down recently in talking about the video game. It was a laugh. It was fun. I'm going to do the voice for the video game and probably for the anime as well."
Though there was talk at one point about a third live-action feature, perhaps Escape From Earth, Russell now doesn't believe that will come to pass. "No, I don't think so," he said. "I doubt that. It won't happen unless we decide we're going to spend an awful lot of money on post-production cleaning up."
Reynolds Dons Spacesuit
scar-nominated writer David Reynolds (Finding Nemo) has closed a deal to adapt Robert A. Heinlein's SF classic Have Spacesuit, Will Travel for Warner Brothers, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
David Heyman is producing the live-action film through his Heydey Productions company.
Originally published in 1958, Spacesuit tells the story of Kip, a high school senior who wins a real spacesuit in a contest, playfully calls out on the radio and unexpectedly contacts a passing spaceship. The adventure that follows finds the very fate of Earth in his hands, the trade paper reported.
New Highlander Rising?
ighlander TV series writer-producer David Abramowitz told the British Impact magazine that he has been asked to write a four-hour miniseries that resurrects the franchise, according to a report on the Dark Horizons Web site.
The new miniseries, tentatively titled Archangel, is slated to start filming in April for an air date in late 2004, the site reported.
The lead role won't be a MacLeod, but rather a Mackenzie, though the appearance of familiar faces isn't ruled out, the site reported. "It's a perfect vehicle for me to write," Abramowitz told the magazine. "I like writing action-adventure. I like sword and sorcery, and it gives me a vehicle to do various kinds of talmudic discussions in a good storytelling way, and there's nothing else on television that I could do it with. I have a 34-page outline. The grand theme of the piece is ... is redemption truly possible?"
Helmer Had Punisher Issues
onathan Hensleigh, writer-director of the upcoming film The Punisher, told SCI FI Wire that he doesn't condone the brand of vigilantism on view in the Marvel comic book on which his film is based.
"It sort of runs counter to my politics," Hensleigh, a former lawyer, said in an interview. "I believe that if you're aggrieved that you should call law enforcement and have the person arrested and prosecuted."
Frank Castle (Thomas Jane), the central character in The Punisher, takes matters into his own hands when his family is murdered. He transforms himself into The Punisher, a gun-toting judge, jury and executioner who sets his sights on a particularly formidable villain, Howard Saint (John Travolta). Hensleigh, best known for writing The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Jumanji and Armageddon, makes his directorial debut with The Punisher, which hews closely to Garth Ennis' "Welcome Back, Frank" comic series.
"I had to ask myself intellectual questions like, 'To what extent do crimes against a person become so unconscionable, so heinous, that even a person who does not believe in vigilantism can resort to vigilantism in a more just way?'" Hensleigh said. "That was the equation for me. I told Marvel that I didn't just want to do a revenge story, that I wanted to do the mother of all revenge stories. I wanted to ramp everything up. I can't really go further without doing spoilers here. The underlying events that give rise to Frank Castle's vigilantism are not from the comic. I invented a lot of that. I made it a lot worse."
Ultimately, Hensleigh acknowledged, The Punisher is a revenge picture. "There's no way around that," he said. "That is the way that The Punisher was originally created by Marvel, and this is certainly part of the DNA of Garth Ennis' treatment of The Punisher. If you are going to be in any way faithful to the underlying material you have to go down that road, and you have to embrace it." The Punisher will be released on April 16.
Grudge Starts Up
olumbia Pictures announced the start of production this month on its upcoming supernatural horror film The Grudge in Tokyo.
The movie, based on the hit Japanese horror franchise Ju-On, stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jason Behr, KaDee Strickland, Clea DuVall, William Mapother and Bill Pullman, and some of the original Ju-On stars will reprise their roles, including Takako Fuji as Kayoko and Yuya Ozeki as Toshio.
Filming will take place at various locations in Tokyo and at Toho Studios. The shoot continues through mid-March.
Ju-On director Takashi Shimizu returns, and Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert and Taka Ichise (Ringu) are producing. The Grudge is the curse of one who dies in the grip of a powerful rage, which gathers and affects the places in which that person lived, the studio said. Those who encounter the murderous supernatural curse die, and a new curse is born, passed like a virus from victim to victim.
Grudge Cast Fills Out
ill Pullman, Clea DuVall and William Mapother have joined Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jason Behr and KaDee Strickland in director Takashi Shimizu's The Grudge, the English-language remake of the Japanese supernatural thriller film Ju-on, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures is producing for Columbia Pictures; shooting starts in Tokyo later this month, the trade paper reported.
The film centers on a curse that befalls someone who dies in the grip of a powerful rage, the trade paper reported. DuVall (TV's Carnivale) and Mapother (Swordfish) will play a husband and wife living in Tokyo who unwittingly encounter the violent curse of their home's previous owner. Pullman (Independence Day) plays an English professor.
Shimizu directed the Japanese-language original, released in 2000. The remake shoot in Japan continues through mid-March, with some of the original Japanese actors from Ju-on reprising their roles, including Takako Fuji and Yuya Ozeki.
Ghost House's Raimi and Rob Tapert and Japanese producer Taka Ichise are producing with Roy Lee, Doug Davison, Joe Drake and Nathan Kahane serving as executive producers, the trade paper reported. Ghost House—a joint venture between Raimi, Tapert and Senator International—is also producing Boogeyman.
Wilson Sleeps Until 3001
uke Wilson is set to star in Mike Judge's comedy 3001 for 20th Century Fox, playing a man who goes to sleep only to wake up 1,000 years in the future, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Shooting is scheduled to start in mid-April.
Judge and Etan Cohen wrote the movie, which centers on Joe Bowers (Wilson), an average American who is selected for a top-secret hibernation program that finds him waking up and living among a society 10 centuries in the future. He finds that civilization is so dumbed-down that he is the most intelligent person alive, the trade paper reported.
Judge is producing, along with former Fox production executive Elysa Koplovitz. Judge, the creator of Beavis and Butt-head and King of the Hill, most recently directed 1999's Office Space.
Petrie Pushes His Luck
onald Petrie will direct the fantasy-tinged romantic comedy Lady Luck for New Regency and 20th Century Fox, with plans to begin production this spring, Variety reported.
Originally written by Jonathan Bernstein, James Greer and Mark Blackwell and rewritten by I. Marlene King, the movie tells the story of the luckiest girl in the world, who finds her continual good fortune swapped with that of a chronically unlucky man, the trade paper reported.
The film is produced through Arnold Rifkin and Bruce Willis' Cheyenne Enterprises, the trade paper reported.
Norrath Ships Feb. 11
ony Online Entertainment announced that Champions of Norrath, an online role-playing game set in the EverQuest universe, will ship to U.S. and Canadian retail stores on Feb. 11 for the PlayStation 2.
The game features five playable characters, randomly generated dungeons and online and offline cooperative multiplayer adventuring, the company said.
Champions of Norrath also features thousands of items, weapons and spells, character customization and a detailed 3-D engine with multiple camera angles.
Set several hundred years before the timeline of the current EverQuest PC game, Champions of Norrath allows gamers to journey from the city of Faydwer into the wilds of Norrath to save the land from a gathering army of evil orcs and goblins.
Senator Picks Up Strip
enator International will handle worldwide sales rights to French artist Jean "Moebius" Giraud's SF fantasy adventure movie Thru the Moebius Strip, Variety reported.
The computer-animated Strip is being produced by China-based animation studio GDC Productions, a subsidiary of GDC Holdings, the trade paper reported.
Set in the distant future, the SF family adventure written by Jim Cox and Paul Gertz concerns a boy who travels to a magical, alien world of giants to find his long-lost father and realize his own destiny, the trade paper reported.
Preproduction began in Los Angeles in 2000 with a team of artists led by Giraud; further preproduction and the entire CGI production moved to China in 2001. Now in post-production, Strip will be completed this year.
Rodriguez Eyes Mars?
ark Horizons reported a rumor that Robert Rodriguez (Spy Kids) was in talks to direct a film version of Edgar Rice Burroughs' beloved John Carter of Mars books.
Citing an anonymous source, the site added that producers are eyeing Josh Duhamel (Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!) as the title character.
Burroughs' 11 Mars books center on Capt. John Carter of the Confederate army, who is whisked to Mars and discovers a dying world of dry ocean beds, four-armed barbarians, crumbling cities, strange beasts and savage combat.
Newman Revs Up Cars
ong-time racing enthusiast Paul Newman will lend his voice to Pixar Animation Studios' upcoming computer-animated film Cars, helmed by John Lasseter (Toy Story), Variety reported.
Newman will voice the lead car in the movie, which also features Bonnie Hunt, Owen Wilson, Dan Whitney and NASCAR vet Richard Petty, the trade paper reported.
Cars deals with a variety of autos as characters who get their kicks on Route 66, the trade paper reported. The movie is eyeing a 2005 holiday release. Darla K. Anderson (A Bug's Life) is producing.
As part of Newman's participation, Disney and Pixar also will sponsor the actor's Porsche as he races in the Rolex 24 at Daytona on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, attempting to break his own record at the age of 79 as the oldest man ever to win a professionally sanctioned race, the trade paper reported.
Despereaux Wins Newbery
ate DiCamillo won the Newbery Medal for her fantasy children's book The Tale of Despereaux, USA Today reported.
The American Library Association called her at home in Minneapolis on Jan. 26 to give her the news, the newspaper reported. DiCamillo is the 83rd children's writer to win the prestigious award since 1922.
Despereaux tells the story of a mouse who falls in love with a princess and must rescue her, the newspaper reported. DiCamillo writes: "Quest. Say it, reader. Say the word 'quest' out loud. It is an extraordinary word, isn't it? So small and yet so full of wonder, so full of hope."
The book's dedication is to "Luke, who asked for the story of an unlikely hero." Sixth-grader Luke Bailey of Orlando, Fla., is the son of her childhood best friend, Tracey, the newspaper reported.
UPN Green-Lights Silver
PN has ordered a pilot for Silver Lake, a supernatural drama series from producer Aaron Spelling (Beverly Hills 90210), Variety reported.
Justin Tanner (Gilmore Girls) will write and executive produce the pilot with Spelling and E. Duke Vincent, the trade paper reported.
The drama revolves around a record-store owner who uses his psychic abilities to communicate with the dead and help them resolve issues they left behind, the trade paper reported.
Kali Heads For Film
creenwriter Lucas Sussman will adapt Dan Simmons' novel Song of Kali for Darren Aronofsky's New Regency-based Protozoa Pictures, Variety reported.
Aronofsky and Eric Watson are set to produce the movie, which follows an American poet who travels with his Indian wife and their baby to Calcutta, where he finds that another poet has disappeared under mysterious circumstances involving a cult that worships the evil goddess Kali, the trade paper reported.
Sussman, a former Clinton speechwriter, previously collaborated with Aronofsky on the David Twohy-helmed submarine thriller Below, which Dimension released last year, the trade paper reported. Sussman also recently completed the SF western Silver for Firm Films, which is also based at Fox.
Astro Boy Games Due
ega of America announced it will publish a video game based on the venerable Astro Boy comic and TV franchise, which was also resurrected on Jan. 17 as a new TV series on The WB.
In partnership with Sony Pictures Consumer Products, Sega will bring Tezuka Productions' Astro Boy to the PlayStation 2 and GameBoy Advance.
The console version of Astro Boy is currently in development at Sonic Team under the direction of Yuji Naka, the creator of Sega's Sonic The Hedgehog series. The Game Boy Advance release, entitled Astro Boy: Omega Factor, is currently in development at Sega's Hitmaker studios, in cooperation with Japanese developer Treasure.
Tezuka created the Astro Boy character more than 50 years ago.
Nispel Takes His Turn
arcus Nispel (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) will direct Turn, a remake of yet another hit Japanese supernatural thriller film, for Radar Pictures at Paramount, Variety reported.
Turn deals with a woman who slips into a coma and finds upon waking that she is in a parallel reality, a completely empty city, where she is forced to relive the same day over and over again, the trade paper reported.
Roy Lee and Radar owner Ted Field will executive produce, along with Doug Davison and Brooklyn Weaver, the trade paper reported.
The Japanese Turn is more of a love story than a thriller, but Fernley Phillips' screenplay ups the horror ante, which is what attracted Nispel to the project, the trade paper reported.
Sarsgaard Stars In Skeleton
est supporting actor Golden Globe nominee Peter Sarsgaard is in final talks to star in a lead role opposite Kate Hudson in The Skeleton Key for Universal Pictures, sources told The Hollywood Reporter.
Shooting is scheduled to start in April, with Iain Softley at the helm.
Penned by Ehren Kruger (The Ring), the New Orleans-set story follows a young woman (Hudson) who begins to experience spooky things in the home of the elderly couple for whom she's caring, the trade paper reported. Sarsgaard plays the love interest of Hudson's character. Sarsgaard was nominated for a Golden Globe for his turn as Chuck Lane in Lions Gate Films' Shattered Glass.
Universal is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Southpaw Readies Children
outhpaw Entertainment's Richard Lewis has set director Kelly Asbury (Shrek 2) to write and direct Imaginary Children, a live-action/computer-animated fantasy movie, Variety reported.
The movie centers on a cartoonist whose creations inhabit his house and cause an estrangement from his son, who can't measure up to them, the trade paper reported.
Lewis is also partnered with Nicolas Cage and Norm Golightly's Saturn Films on the SF thriller The Volunteer, a potential vehicle for Cage, the trade paper reported. They've hired Frailty writer Brent Handley to rewrite a script by Sam Egan.
Greenfield Shapes Destiny
uke Greenfield has launched his new production company with The Untitled Destiny Project, a supernatural fantasy movie, Variety reported.
New Regency will release the movie.
The movie centers on an anxious young man who faces a near-death experience that gives him the power to see and remember his future, the trade paper reported. New Regency is looking for a writer to work from Greenfield's story.
Greenfield will direct and produce. His producing partner, Juan Castro, is a co-producer with Chris Sheridan, the trade paper reported.
Roth Toplines Dark Water
im Roth is set to join Jennifer Connelly, Pete Postlethwaite and John C. Reilly in Dark Water, the remake of the hit supernatural Japanese film, to be directed by Walter Salles, Variety reported.
Bill Mechanic's Pandemonium will produce for Disney, the trade paper reported.
Dark Water centers on a mother and daughter who escape a custody battle by retreating to a run-down apartment building, where they are haunted by the ghost of a former resident, the trade paper reported. Roth will play the mother's attorney, an odd lawyer who works out of his car.
The original was directed by Hideo Nakata. Rafael Yglesias wrote the script. Mechanic produces with Roy Lee and Doug Davison.
McGee Journeys To Oz
ideo-game creator American McGee (Alice) will turn his imagination to The Wizard of Oz, whose movie rights have been optioned by Jerry Bruckheimer Films and Walt Disney Pictures, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
There's no time frame for the first film of what will be a trilogy, McGee told the trade paper, but screenwriters Kevin and Dan Hageman are attached.
McGee said games, books and other projects featuring his unique vision of Oz also are being developed. Carbon6, the interactive entertainment franchise properties company co-founded by McGee and Anthony Jacobson, owns the intellectual property rights, the trade paper reported.
According to McGee, the movies will tell an original story of what happened in Oz before Dorothy landed and explain where the various characters came from. A series of events will occur over the span of the film, and by the end, Oz will be left at the point where L. Frank Baum's original novels begin, the trade paper reported.
Baum wrote 13 original Wizard of Oz books, starting in 1900, and several are in the public domain.
Epps Guns For Apocalypse
ike Epps told SCI FI Wire that he plays a good guy in the upcoming horror sequel movie Resident Evil: Apocalypse.
"It's been so great, man," Epps said in an interview. "I get to hold some guns and shoot them without going to jail."
Epps, best known for his comedic performances in Next Friday and The Fighting Temptations, added, "It was hard for a guy like me, because I don't have the training to be this actor that can just go to these places," he said. "I'm not saying I can't do it, but for this film I had to come to grips with myself and say, 'You know what? Don't take this too seriously. They hired you for the comedy relief. Be the comedy relief.' I still crack a joke [even during intense scenes, because] I don't want to find myself out there now all of sudden [trying to be] this great actor."
Resident Evil: Apocalypse, based on the popular video-game franchise, brings back original Resident Evil star Milla Jovovich as the zombie killer Alice. This time, the now-genetically altered Alice must take on assorted old zombies and new creatures in ravaged Raccoon City, including a freshly minted Umbrella Corp. foe called Nemesis. Alice is joined on her desperate mission by a small band of allies that includes Epps' character, L.J.
"This is the first horror movie where a black man didn't die," Epps joked. "Ain't that amazing? Usually, we die in the first five minutes. We're making a big move up in horror movies." Resident Evil: Apocalypse is slated for an October release.
Sundance Honors SF Primer
rimer, an ultra-low-budget film about two guys who invent a time-travel machine that alters their lives, won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for best film drama at the Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 24, the Reuters news service reported.
Sundance, the top U.S. film festival for independent movies, is held annually in Park City, Utah, and movies that gain attention here will top the marquees at art-house cinemas throughout 2004, the news service reported.
Primer was produced by writer/director Shane Carruth for a mere $7,000. He was so surprised at his victory, he had no words to describe it. "I don't know what to do," he told Reuters. "I'm glad they liked it."
Felti Haunts Boo
. Steven Felti, who plays the villainous spirit Jacob in the supernatural horror film Boo, told SCI FI Wire that the film relies on basic scares rather than hi-tech digital work.
"We've got some in-camera things," Felti said in an interview. "Mostly we've got some great stuff that's just lighting. Just the lighting, [where] I'm in a corner, almost invisible, and this light just shoots across me. I'm standing there and the kids don't notice me. Stuff like that, which really hearkens back to some of your early ghost stories, the real basics of the scare. You're walking in a dark hallway in a deserted building, you have your flashlight, and you [notice something]: What the hell was that?"
In the film, Jacob is a deceased pedophile who haunts a hospital where four teens decide to party on Halloween night. Felti approaches the role with humor. "Great character to play, huh?" he said. "Mom's going to love that. 'Hey mom, I'm in a movie, and I'm a pedophile.' I am not a method actor." Graveyard Filmworks plans to screen Boo at Comic-Con International in San Diego in July, then release it theatrically.
U.K. SF Artist Lawrence Dies
on Lawrence, a British science fiction illustrator and cartoonist, died on Dec. 29 in a hospital near his home in Jevington, East Sussex, England, the New York Times reported.
He was 75. The cause was pneumonia and emphysema.
Lawrence was overlooked in his home country, but was celebrated throughout Europe for his richly colored, highly detailed visions of fantastic worlds, flying galleons and voluptuous warrior maidens, the Times reported. He was especially popular in the Netherlands and Germany for the graphics he did for Storm, a 23-volume Dutch novel that has sold more than two million copies in translation worldwide. He was knighted by Holland last year.
For 11 years starting in the mid-1960s, Lawrence drew nearly 1,000 pages for The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire, a fantasy by Mike Butterworth, about the warrior Trigo on the planet Elekton, the newspaper reported.
Lawrence was born in London in 1928. He studied figurative art at Borough Polytechnic (now South Bank University) in London, the newspaper reported.
In addition to his second wife, Lis, he is survived by two sons and three daughters from his first marriage and a stepson from his second.
SCI FI OKs Anonymous
CI FI Channel has green-lighted a two-hour TV movie and backdoor pilot for Anonymous Rex, based on Eric Garcia's series of books, and has commissioned two more scripts from the Fox TV Studios-produced project, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Julian Jarrold will direct the pilot from a script by Joe Menosky (Star Trek: Voyager). Production is slated to begin in March.
Garcia's Rex comedic mystery novels center on Vincent Rubio, a high-tech private investigator who, along with hundreds of others on Earth, are in fact dinosaurs, the trade paper reported. In the books, dinosaurs evolved into 6-foot beings and have integrated themselves into modern society by disguising themselves as humans, the trade paper reported.
Menosky has based the pilot on the second book in the series, Casual Rex, which is a prequel.
SCI FI January Is Best Ever
CI FI Channel announced that it delivered a 1.1 prime-time rating in January, making it the best January in the network's history and the second highest-rated month ever.
The 1.1 household rating was second only to December 2002, which drew a 1.65 rating partly as a result of the premiere of the Emmy-Award-winning miniseries Steven Spielberg Presents Taken.
Overall, SCI FI ranked 10th among all non-news, advertising-supported cable networks. The Channel's 1.1 prime-time rating (951,000 households or 1.4 million viewers) was 10 percent higher than the previous January.
SCI FI's Jan. 9 winter premiere of new Stargate SG-1 episodes drew a 2.2 rating, the highest for an original SCI FI episode of SG-1 to date. With 2. 66 million viewers, the episode was the most-watched original segment of the show in the series' cable run and delivered more viewers than any episode of any original series in SCI FI Channel history.
SCI FI's Saturday Action Original Dragon Storm was the most-watched original movie in the channel's history, with 3.03 million total viewers and a 2.3 household rating, tying Epoch as the network's highest-rated original movie ever. Dragon Storm aired again Jan. 29 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Briefly Noted
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The 31st Annual Annie Awards, presented by ASIFA-Hollywood, the International Animated Film Society, takes place Feb. 7 in Glendale, Calif., Zap2it reported.
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Dark Horizons threw water on rumors that Johnny Depp and Beyonce Knowles were up for roles in the upcoming Superman movie.
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Alias star Jennifer Garner will host the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Scientific and Technical Awards gala on Feb. 14 at the Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel in Pasadena, Calif., Variety reported. The event precedes the overall Oscar ceremony on Feb. 29.
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Shrek 2 has been selected for the main competition at this year's Cannes Film Festival, which runs May 12-23. DreamWorks is planning to screen the movie on May 15 at 7:30 p.m. local time; Shrek 2 premieres in North America on May 21.
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Catwoman production spokesman Joe Everett denied to the Associated Press any reports that star Halle Berry was hit in the head with a microphone or that she spent six hours in a hospital waiting room after her on-set accident on Jan. 24. Rather, he said, Berry collided with a piece of set equipment while filming a running scene and was taken to the hospital, treated and released.
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Naomi Watts confirmed to E! News Daily previous reports that she will star in Peter Jackson's upcoming King Kong remake. Watts added that she'll start filming in August for a Dec. 14, 2005, release.
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Disney will develop an as-yet-untitled romantic superhero comedy movie from French actor-director-producer Alain Chabat, Variety reported. Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger will write the script for the movie, about a woman who dumps her superhero but commitment-phobic boyfriend in favor of a regular guy.
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The French production company Les Armateurs (The Triplets of Belleville) is preparing another episode of the surprise French animated hit film Kirikou and the Sorceress, Variety reported.
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Creative Light Entertainment chief executive Scott Zakarin will helm a contemporary feature retelling of Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, set to begin principal photography in Los Angeles this week, Variety reported. Jekyll stars Matt Keeslar, Jonathan Silverman, Siena Goines, Desmond Askew, Abigail Spencer and John Rubenstein.
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Ellen Burstyn told Joan Rivers during the Golden Globes arrivals show on E! that her next project would be writer/director Darren Aronofsky's long-delayed SF epic movie The Fountain, with filming to begin this fall, accoding to a report on the ComingSoon.net Web site.
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The Cat in the Hat got eight nominations for Golden Raspberry or Razzie awards for 2003, the tongue-in-cheek prizes that recognize the worst films of the year, the Reuters news service reported.
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