Carpenter Eyes Wonder Woman
harisma Carpenter, who played Cordelia on The WB's Angel, told TV Guide Online that she's actively pursuing the lead role in a proposed Wonder Woman movie.
"I am actively putting it out there that I want to do Lynda Carter," Carpenter told the site. "It's my mission to be Wonder Woman!"
Carpenter, who wrapped her Angel character's role in the Feb. 4 episode, added, "My agent hasn't seen a script, but some studio needs to do it. She's beautiful, she fights, and I like the concept of an empowerment role. I've always been so passive on Angel, where they usually wouldn't let Cordelia do martial-arts stunts. Charisma wants to kick ass and bust heads!"
A Wonder Woman movie, based on the DC Comics series, has been in development for some time, with various actresses rumored to be in line for the part.
Carpenter added that she's casting about for family-friendly jobs. "I can tell you what my goals are," she said. "I have a son now, so I want the half-hour sitcom lifestyle, where you can have a family and work. And then, during summer hiatus, I'd like to do a Kill Bill or Wonder Woman or some movie like that."
Carpenter Cries For Angel
harisma Carpenter, who returns to The WB's Angel for the show's Feb. 4 100th episode, told the network's official
Web site that shooting the segment was an emotional experience.
"We've been crying for the last two days," Carpenter said in an interview taped during the episode's production last December. "I'm so phyically drained."
In the episode, "You're Welcome," Carpenter reprises the character of Cordelia Chase, who awakens from her coma of last season to help Angel (David Boreanaz) and the gang get back on track.
"David and I have been in a room talking and talking and talking for a couple of days," said Carpenter, who left the regular cast at the end of last season. "The director was crying. The crew was crying. We were crying. It's sad. ... It's going to be a really good episode. ... Because it's really ... like goodbye. Personally. Professionally. Storywise. So what a humdinger for the 100th episode." Angel airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Weaver Wants Watchmen?
inescape Online reported a rumor that Sigourney Weaver is being eyed for a role in a proposed film adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' seminal superhero graphic novel Watchmen.
According to an anonymous source, the site reported that Weaver would play Silk Spectre.
The site added that Daniel Craig (Lara Croft Tomb Raider) is up for the role of Rorschach.
Kate Burned For Van Helsing
ritish actress Kate Beckinsale, who co-stars in the upcoming monster movie Van Helsing, told SCI FI Wire that she got hung from wires, dangled from a tree and accidentally set on fire while shooting the action-heavy movie.
"I was standing a bit close to a sparking, melted metal thing," Beckinsale said in an interview during a break in filming in Los Angeles last May. "Sadly it [wasn't] a wig. It may be by the end of the movie."
Fortunately, Beckinsale suffered no injury or damage from the brief conflagration. "I didn't know it was happening," she said. "It was only a tiny bit. But, yes, I suddenly found this big burly camera assistant rushing at me. I thought, 'My God, what did I do?' And he just beat me on the back."
For the movie, which pairs Beckinsale's gypsy princess character with Hugh Jackman's vampire slayer, the actress performed several stunts, including one in which she is pulled into the air on wires. "It was so fun," she said. "It was really fun. Some of [the stunts] aren't fun. The tree thing wasn't that fun, because I was upside down in it, and I have to kind of hook my legs around the wire. And for some reason being outside feels much more dangerous than being on the set. I don't know why, it just does. And just as we were about to shoot, my crucifix broke and fell 30 feet, and I thought, 'Oh God, it's high.' I really hated that. The other one was really fun. We weren't really high up. It was like just being on a really big, fun swing." Van Helsing, from Universal Pictures, opens May 7. Universal is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Sky Captain Gets Retro
on Avnet, producer of the upcoming live-action/computer-generated SF movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, told SCI FI Wire that the retro-flavored film takes its cues from old movie serials.
"The serials of the past were an enormous influence," Avnet said of the film, directed by newcomer Kerry Conran. "This is sort of Buck Rogers meets Raiders of the Lost Ark. The serials had cliffhangers, and that's what this is."
In Sky Captain, Gwyneth Paltrow plays newspaper reporter Polly Perkins, who hooks up with Jude Law's aviator hero in 1930s New York to uncover the mystery behind an invasion of giant robots, a squadron of destructive flying wings and the disappearance of the world's most prominent scientists.
Paltrow, Law and co-star Angelina Jolie shot their scenes against green screens in London last year. Now, in a nondescript light industrial building in Van Nuys, Calif., a platoon of computer animators sitting at Apple computers is layering in the movie's sets, backgrounds, vehicles, creatures and action sequences in painstaking 3-D animation.
"We're finishing 2,000 CGI shots, basically," Avnet said in an interview at the film's office. "We've finished a bunch of them. We've got a lot more to go, and there's a lot of pressure. And by the way, it's not atypical for this kind of film. It's just [that] they're all CGI, so there's just a tremendous amount of shots. Tremendous amount of pressure. And basically what you don't want to do is you don't want to compromise." Sky Captain opens June 11.
Comics Influenced Sky Captain
evin Conran, the production designer for the upcoming live-action/computer-animated movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, told SCI FI Wire that he relied on everything from comics and old cartoons to mid-20th-century industrial designers for the retro look and feel of the SF movie.
Conran, an illustrator and brother of Sky Captain's novice director, Kerry Conran, is designing a lot of the movie's costumes, vehicles, buildings, sets and creatures himself.
As for his influences, Kevin Conran said in an interview, "Oh, boy. I mean, there are many. And the first one, of course, everybody picks up on, which I'm glad about, are the old Fleischer Brothers Superman cartoons. But from there, as far as me personally, it's a laundry list of people." They include comics illustrator Alex Raymond, industrial designer Raymond Loewy, famed SF artist Chesley Bonestell and architectural illustrator Hugh Ferris. "There's a million of them," Conran said. "I'm just touching the surface."
Kevin's office is lined floor to ceiling and wall to wall with drawings of airplanes, robots, buildings, logos and characters in costumes. One logo, for Sky Captain's (Jude Law) Flying Legion, features a lion in clouds on a globe with the Latin motto "Ille caelium fremitus": The heavens roar. On Kevn's bookshelf: Posters of the WPA, Noir Style and Wonders of the World, a photo book of exotic locations around the globe.
The movie is set in a fantastical 1930s New York and features giant robots, flying wings and art-deco inspired buildings, as well as computer-generated locations from Manhattan to Nepal. "I would say actually Kerry and I, having grown up together and liking the same things, we have a little bit of a mind meld, so we didn't have to talk about it a lot," Kevin said. "The difference is, Kerry's definitely a lot more film driven, and I'm more of a comic-book guy. So we're sort of attacking it from different angles in that regard. But we both know enough about the other's thing that referencing these things were kind of easy." Sky Captain, which is in post-production, is slated for release on June 11.
Rockwell Hitches Onto Guide
am Rockwell has signed to play Zaphod Beeblebrox in the upcoming film version of Douglas Adams' beloved SF satire The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Rockwell (Galaxy Quest) will play the two-headed president of the galaxy opposite Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel and Martin Freeman. Spyglass Entertainment and Walt Disney Co. are producing.
Galaxy begins shooting in April in London, with Garth Jennings at the helm. Adams adapted his own novel for the screen. After Adams' death, Karey Kirkpatrick came aboard for a rewrite. Hitchhiker's Guide began as a radio series and launched a book series, television series and video game, the trade paper reported.
Hellboy Stunt Broke Rib
on Perlman, who plays the title role in the upcoming comic adaptation Hellboy, told SCI FI Wire that he injured himself performing one of the film's elaborate stunts.
"I broke a rib jumping onto a train that was coming towards me," Perlman said in an interview. "It was going about 45 [mph]."
Perlman admitted that he was a bit surprised that the movie's stunt coordinators allowed him to do the gag himself. "They took a shot," Perlman joked. Seriously, Perlman said, he's always open to doing stunt work. "I do [stunts whenever] somebody says, 'This is safe, Ron, I think you can do this.'"
Perlman plays the lead character in Guillermo del Toro's adaptation of Mike Mignola's comic series—a giant, red demon who battles evil on behalf of a mysterious government agency. Perlman added it was no problem doing stunts in red makeup. "Working with [makeup artist] Rick Baker, it's kind of made to order," he said. "It's made for you and no one else, and it really fits and works. It's made for you to move in."
Hellboy opens April 2.
Greer Does 13 Going On 30
udy Greer, who plays Lucy in the fantasy comedy 13 Going on 30, told SCI FI Wire that her character is the best friend of Jenna Rink (Jennifer Garner), a 13-year-old girl who awakes one day to discover she's aged 17 years.
"I help her remember who she is by reminding her of all the things we used to do," Greer said in an interview. Lucy's motivations may not be entirely sincere. "[I] take advantage of her a little bit."
Greer said the premise recalls the similarly themed Tom Hanks movie Big, but with a difference. In 13, the whole world ages with Rink, she said. "Big stays in the same time frame and we jump ahead."
A younger actress plays Lucy as a 13-year-old, and Greer based her performance in part on the girl. "She's excellent," she said. "We did not work together too often, but I watched her before I started shooting. I watched her performance that had already been shot, so it kind of helped me. I cheated." 13 Going on 30 opens April 23.
Indy IV On Hold Again
he long-proposed Indiana Jones IV is on hold again as executive producer George Lucas has rejected Frank Darabont's script and a new script draft is commissioned, Variety reported.
The trade paper based its report on anonymous sources. The report throws into doubt Paramount's plan to begin production in 2004 for a 2005 release.
Darabont (The Green Mile) had been brought in to script a concept liked by Lucas, director Steven Spielberg and star Harrison Ford. But sources close to the production told the trade paper that Lucas was unhappy with the draft, and the trio will now bring aboard another screenwriter to hone Darabont's script.
Spielberg had no comment on his plans. Spielberg, Lucas and Ford have been trying for nearly a decade to mount one last Indiana Jones adventure, on the condition that all three had to love the concept and script before proceeding, the trade paper reported.
Finding an availability window for Spielberg, Ford and Lucas is daunting, and it is now looking like a 2005 production start at the earliest.
Stewart: X-Men 3 Due In 2005
-Men star Patrick Stewart (Professor X) told the Bradenton (Fla.) Herald newspaper that he expects a third installment in the hit franchise next year.
"X-Men 3 should come out in 2005," Stewart told the newspaper.
Stewart also told an audience at the Sarasota Film Festival that he hoped the franchise continues for several more films, the newspaper reported.
As for his other venerable franchise? "I think Star Trek is over," Stewart told the audience. "And that ain't such a bad thing. The last movie [Star Trek Nemesis] didn't do well. ... But I'm sure all you saw it."
ILM Cranks On Episode III F/X
ndustrial Light & Magic, which is doing the visual effects for Star Wars: Episode III, will have to complete a whopping 32 shots per week for the next 14 months in order to finish the prequel's 2,000 F/X shots in time, the official Homing Beacon newsletter reported.
As of Feb. 4, ILM had finished only 37, with 1,963 left to go before the movie's May 2005 release date.
The newsletter added that the first scene of the prequel's epic space battle opening sequence, from the crawl to the first cut, will take up 3,768 frames, or about 2.6 minutes of screen time.
Star Wars Fan Films Sought
he official Star Wars Web site announced that it is accepting entries in the third Star Wars Fan Film Awards, with a deadline of June 15.
Winners will be named at a special ceremony at Comic-Con International in San Diego on July 22.
The top prize, the George Lucas Selects Award, will be selected by Lucas himself. Other awards and prizes will be announced in coming months and include $2,000 cash and a golden droid trophy. The finalists will be screened on the Official Star Wars Fan Film site hosted by AtomFilms.
Galactica Options Picked Up
CI FI Channel has officially confirmed to SCI FI Wire that the network picked up the options for the cast of its original miniseries Battlestar Galactica before they expired on Jan. 31.
But the pickup did not signal any official decision about the fate of a possible Galactica series, despite rumors on the Internet to the contrary.
SCI FI said that no decision has come from the network on whether a series will be given the green light.
The Battlestar Galactica miniseries, which premiered in December, was one of the channel's highest-rated programs. Galactica, based on the original 1970s TV show, starred Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Jamie Bamber, Katee Sackhoff, Tricia Helfer and James Callis.
Horror Guild Nominees Named
he International Horror Guild announced its nominations for its 2004 awards, recognizing outstanding achievements in the field of horror and dark fantasy.
The guild also named best-selling horror writer Stephen King and editor and critic Everett F. Bleiler as recipients of its annual Living Legend Award and announced a special award for Jack Cady, the onetime truck driver who became an acclaimed author and creative writing teacher, who died Jan. 14.
No date or venue were announced for the guild's annual awards ceremony. A full list of nominees follows.
Novel
•The Good House by Tananarive Due
•The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King
•The Night Country by Stewart O'Nan
•Crawlers by John Shirley
•lostboy lostgirl by Peter Straub
•The Book of Days by Steve Rasnic Tem
First Novel
•The Etched City by K.J. Bishop
•Jinn by Matthew B.J. Delaney
•Tropic of Night by Michael Gruber
•The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl
•Echo & Narcissus by Mark Siegal
•Veniss Underground by Jeff VanderMeer
Collection
•Told by the Dead by Ramsey Campbell
•Bibliomancy by Elizabeth Hand
•The Two Sams: Ghost Stories by Glen Hirshberg
•GRRM: A RRetrospective by George R.R. Martin
•The Dreams of Cardinal Vittorini by Reggie Oliver
•More Tomorrow & Other Stories by Michael Marshall Smith
Anthology
•Gathering the Bones, edited by Ramsey Campbell, Jack Dann and Dennis Etchison
•Southern Blood: New Australian Tales of the Supernatural, edited by Bill Congreve
•The Dark: New Ghost Stories, edited by Ellen Datlow
•By Moonlight Only, edited by Stephen Jones
•Borderlands 5, edited by Elizabeth and Thomas Monteleone
•The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases, edited by Jeff VanderMeer and Mark Roberts
Long Fiction
•"The Time That Time Forgot" by Jack Cady
•"Rape: A Love Story" by Joyce Carol Oates
•"Rock Breaks Scissors Cut" by David Schow
•"Louisiana Breakdown" by Lucius Shepard
•"Floater" by Lucius Shepard
Medium Fiction
•"The Census Taker" by Dale Bailey
•"Dancing Men" by Glen Hirshberg
•"Vandoise and the Bone Monster" by Alex Irvine
•"The Last Horror Show" by David Prill
•"La Sentinelle" by Lucy Sussex
Short Fiction
•"Old Virginia" by Laird Barron
•"The Trentino Kid" by Jeffery Ford
•"With Acknowledgments to Sun Tzu" by Brian Hodge
•"Cell Call" by Marc Laidlaw
•"The Bereavement Photographer" by Steve Rasnic Tem
•"The Goddess of Cruelty" by Thomas Tessier
•"The Mezzotint" by Lisa Tuttle
Periodical
•All Hallows: The Journal of the Ghost Story Society
•Cemetery Dance
•The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
•The Third Alternative
•Video Watchdog
Illustrated Narrative
•Endless Nights: The Sandman, Book 11
•The Wolves in the Walls
•The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II
•Dark Days
•The Goon, Issues 1-4
Nonfiction
•H.P. Lovecraft: Selected Letters to Alfred Galpin, edited by S.T. Joshi and David E. Schultz
•The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson
•Hollywood's Stephen King by Tony Magistrale
•Heroes & Monsters: The Unofficial Companion to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Jess Nevins
•The Selected Letters of Clark Ashton Smith, edited by David E. Schultz and Scott Connors
Art
•Caniglia
•Dave McKean
•"Edward Miller" (aka Les Edwards)
•Todd Schorr
•Bernie Wrightson
Film
•28 Days Later
•Bubba Ho-Tep
•Identity
•Monster
•Mystic River
•Spider
Television
•Angel
•Carnivale
•Dead Like Me
•Six Feet Under
•The Dead Zone
Clarke Nominees Named
rganizers announced the 2004 shortlist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, given annually to the best science-fiction novel that received its first British publication during the previous calendar year.
Established with a grant from the legendary author for whom it is named, the award is designed to encourage science fiction in Britain. The award is administered by the British Science Fiction Association, the Science Fiction Foundation and the Science Museum.
The award consists of an inscribed plaque in the form of a bookend and a prize that matches the year. In 2004, it will be £2,004 ($3,681). A list of the nominees follows.
•Coalescent by Stephen Baxter
•Darwin's Children by Greg Bear
•Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
•Midnight Lamp by Gwyneth Jones
•Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
•Maul by Tricia Sullivan
BSFA Nominees Announced
he British Science Fiction Association on Feb. 1 announced the shortlists for the 2003 BSFA awards.
The awards will be presented on April 11 during the British national science fiction convention, Concourse, at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, U.K.
The shortlists for the awards were compiled from nominations submitted by members of the BSFA; they will be voted on by BSFA members and by attending members of the convention. A list of nominees follows.
Best Novel
•Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
•Felaheen by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
•Midnight Lamp by Gwyneth Jones
•Absolution Gap by Alastair Reynolds
•Natural History by Justina Robson
•Maul by Tricia Sullivan
Best Short Fiction
•"Dear Abbey" by Terry Bisson
•"The Wolves in the Walls" by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean
•"Entangled Eyes Are Smiling" by John Meaney
•"Birth Days" by Geoff Ryman
•"Nightfall" by Charles Stross
Best Artwork
•Cover of John Clute's collection Scores: Reviews 1993-2003 by Judith Clute
•Cover of Philip Reeve's novel Predator's Gold by David Frankland
•Cover of Tricia Sullivan's novel Maul by Lee Gibbons
•Cover of The True Knowledge of Ken MacLeod by Colin Odell
•Cover of Justina Robson's novel Natural History by Steve Stone
Best Nonfiction
•Nothing Is Written: Politics, Ideology and the Burden of History in the Fall Revolution Quartet by John H. Arnold and Andy Wood
•The Profession of Science Fiction #58: Mapping the Territory by Mike Ashley
•Reading Science Fiction by Farah Mendlesohn
•A Sick Mind by Cheryl Morgan
•Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams by M.J. Simpson
Gibson Cuts Passion Scene
el Gibson, responding to focus groups as much as to protests by Jewish critics, has decided to delete a controversial scene about Jews from his film, The Passion of the Christ, a close associate told The New York Times.
A scene in the film, in which the Jewish high priest Caiaphas calls down a kind of curse on the Jewish people by declaring of the Crucifixion, "His blood be on us and on our children," will not be in the movie's final version, the Gibson associate, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the newspaper.
The passage had been included in some versions of the film that were shown before select groups, mostly of priests and ministers, the Times reported. "It didn't work in the focus screenings," the associate said. "Maybe it was thought to be too hurtful, or taken not in the way it was intended. It has been used terribly over the years."
Jewish leaders had warned that the passage from Matthew 27:25 was the historic source for many of the charges of deicide and Jews' collective guilt in the death of Jesus, the newspaper reported. The Passion has been the subject of fears by Jewish groups that it might incite anti-Semitism. The Passion is slated to open Feb. 25, Ash Wednesday.
Passion's Gibson, ADL Correspond
el Gibson and the Anti-Defamation League, the most vociferous critic of his upcoming The Passion of the Christ, exchanged letters about the ADL's fears the movie will stoke anti-Semitism, Variety reported.
ADL chief Abraham Foxman, who screened Passion in Orlando two weeks ago, renewed his request for a meeting with Gibson "to discuss our fears concerning the unintended consequences that might be unleashed when your film is presented to the public," the trade paper reported.
"We understand that many faithful Christians will come away from viewing your film with the thought that Jesus died for all people's sins; but history has borne out the fact that many come away using the Passion as the very basis of hatred toward Jews," Foxman reportedly wrote.
In a response, Gibson didn't agree to the meeting, but praised Foxman's "most lucid and eloquent style." "You are a man of integrity and a man of faith, and I do not take your concerns lightly," Gibson wrote. "I hope and I pray that you will join me in setting an example for all of our brethren; that the truest path to follow, the only path, is that of respect and, most importantly, that of love for each other despite our differences," he added.
Foxman responded, "Unfortunately, your letter does not address any of the issues we raised in our most recent correspondence and the concerns we have been raising all along since we first reached out to you in March 2003." Passion will open on 2,000 screens on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 25.
Arquette Eyes Medium
atricia Arquette is in talks to star in a supernatural-themed NBC drama pilot, Medium, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Glenn Gordon Caron and Paramount Network TV will produce.
Medium centers on a suburban mom (Arquette) who uses her psychic powers to solve crimes, the trade paper reported. The pilot is a co-production with Paramount-based Grammnet Productions and Picturemaker Productions. Caron, Kelsey Grammer and Steve Stark are executive producing.
EA, Marvel Strike Game Deal
lectronic Arts and Marvel Enterprises announced today that they have struck a deal under which EA will develop a new generation of fighting video games pitting superheroes from the Marvel universe against a new, original set of EA heroes.
Under the multiyear agreement, EA will develop and distribute games featuring the Marvel Comics characters, while Marvel gets exclusive rights for all consumer products and media licensing for the new EA heroes. Marvel will publish new comic books introducing the EA characters.
The Marvel and EA superhero-based games are currently under development for multiple game platforms at EA's studio, EAC, in British Columbia. The license grants EA the rights to develop game titles for all current and next-generation video-game consoles, handheld platforms and PCs.
THQ To Adapt Incredibles
HQ, which published a Finding Nemo video game, will also publish a game based on Pixar/Disney's next computer-animated movie, The Incredibles, GameSpot reported.
No developer has been named for the Incredibles game; Traveller's Tales developed the Nemo title.
Representatives for the publisher confirmed for the site that the Incredibles game will be released concurrently with the film, which premieres Nov. 5.
The film deals with a family of once-famous superheroes forced into the Witness Protection Program after they are sued by the victims they have saved, the site reported.
Kidman Noses Into Bewitched
nding a month of speculation, Nicole Kidman has made a deal to star with Will Ferrell in Bewitched, a movie based on the 1960s supernatural TV sitcom, Variety reported.
Nora Ephron will direct her own script for Columbia Pictures, the trade paper reported.
Kidman will take on the role of Samantha Stevens, a suburban witch who marries a mortal (Ferrell). Samantha was originally played by Elizabeth Montgomery. Shooting will start this summer.
Weaver Talks The Village
igourney Weaver told Empire Online that she plays an elder in M. Night Shyamalan's upcoming supernatural thriller film The Village.
"I play Alice Hunt, who's a widow," Weaver told the site. "She's one of a group called The Elders of the village. It's a kind of a communal village, and there's a group of people who run things very democratically. I'm Joaquin Phoenix's mother, and he plays a very extraordinary, shy young man who's also very brave."
The plot of the latest movie from Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense) is veiled in secrecy, but Weaver offered a few hints. "It's a fabulous story on a lot of levels, not just scary, but very interesting," she said. "I had nightmares for two weeks just reading it, so I think it's going to be very scary."
Uru Live Canceled
bisoft confirmed to the GameSpot Web site that it has canceled Uru Live, the proposed online component of its Uru: Ages Beyond Myst video game for the PC.
The publisher told the site that it made the decision because there were not enough projected subscribers to support the online service.
The online portion of the game would have allowed players to explore the game's various areas, known as "ages," as well as to build virtual neighborhoods, the site reported.
Ubisoft and Cyan will continue to support Uru and intend to release an additional free age for download in the coming weeks to add to the original single-player adventure game. The content for this additional age will come from the now-defunct online component of the game, and other content from Uru Live will be used to develop an all-new single-player expansion pack for Uru, which Ubisoft and Cyan hope to release by the end of the year, the site reported.
Sunshine Blasts Off
irector Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland (28 Days Later) are developing Sunshine, an SF thriller film, for U.K.-based DNA Films and Fox Searchlight, Variety reported.
Sunshine is described as a space-based movie similar to Henri-Georges Clouzot's 1953 movie The Wages of Fear, in which men transport an urgently needed shipment of high explosives without safe equipment, the trade paper reported.
Fox Searchlight confirmed to the trade paper that the movie will likely be in production by year's end in Europe.
Walden Adapting More Kid Lit
alden Media is fast-tracking movie adaptations of three children's books: Katherine Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia, Australian author Wendy Orr's Nim's Island and Antz co-writer Todd Alcott's The Giver, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Walden previously adapted Holes and Around the World in 80 Days.
Published in 1977 by HarperCollins, the Newbery Award-winning Bridge follows the story of an 11-year-old boy and girl who create the world of Terabithia, an imaginary kingdom filled with giants, trolls and other magical beings, the trade paper reported. Gabor Csupo will direct Bridge as his first live-action endeavor, and Lauren Levine will produce with the author's son, David Paterson.
Nim's Island is described as an adventure that chronicles the exploits of Nim, a young girl living a high-tech Robinson Crusoe existence on an unspoiled tropical island with her scientist father and her three best friends, a motherly sea lion, a rambunctious iguana and a sea turtle. Random House published Island in 2001. Paula Mazur will produce and also will write the screenplay with Joe Kwong, the trade paper reported.
Giver is being produced by Walden, along with Jeff Bridges and his AsIs Productions and RCN Entertainment. The film follows Jonas, a 12-year-old boy living in an idyllic future society, where all memory of human history has been erased, the trade paper reported.
Rodriguez Returns To 3-D
obert Rodriguez, director of Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, told SCI FI Wire that he is developing a second 3-D film with a new collaborator—his 5-year-old son, Racer.
"There was a story my son and I had been working on just for fun, and we'd been doing drawings just to encourage storytelling," Rodriguez said while promoting the DVD release of Spy Kids 3-D. "I said, 'Hey, guess what, we're selling this.'"
Though Dimension Films was at first resistant when Rodriguez proposed the 3-D format for the third installment of his Spy Kids franchise, the film's success prompted the distributor to approach him for a second film using the same technology. "They actually called me and said, 'Do you want to do another 3-D movie?' I said, 'Yeah, that was a lot of fun. I think we'd do pretty well. Sure.'"
Rodriguez is currently writing the script, which he describes as a family-oriented fantasy, along with his son. He expects to be shooting it later this year. "It's really out there, because it came mostly from my son," Rodriguez said. "I told him, 'We just sold that idea. That's the first idea you've sold.' It's going to say, 'From the creator of Spy Kids and Racer Rodriguez.' He looked at me and went, 'That sounds good.'" Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over will be released on DVD, complete with 3-D glasses, Feb. 24.
Cox Talks Alien Lockdown
im Cox, director of the upcoming SCI FI Pictures original movie Alien Lockdown, told SCI FI Wire that the story puts a contemporary spin on the classic SF genre themes of the 1950s.
"In the 1950s, anything nuclear would react to a species or a substance and turn that species or substance into a threat," Cox said in an interview. "Nuclear power at the time was something we were deathly afraid of, and we didn't quite know what to do with it. Now, in the 21st century, genetic engineering is our nuclear fear factor."
In Alien Lockdown, John Savage (Dark Angel) plays a geneticist, Dr. Woodman, who takes alien DNA and uses it to create a weapon that can wipe out humanity, Cox said. "He feels that wiping out humanity is just the next evolutionary step for the planet," he added. When Woodman's experiment goes awry and the alien creature begins a murderous rampage, Woodman and his assistant (James Marshall) lock down their secret government lab and call in covert military forces, commanded by Rita Talon (Michelle Goh), to find and kill the alien.
Cox previously wrote and directed The Man With No Eyes. His work on the short film, which aired as part of SCI FI's series Exposure, earned him the opportunity to make his feature debut with Alien Lockdown. "It's fun, because it's my first time out," said Cox, who's already at work on Larva, another SCI FI Picture. "You make mistakes, and you learn from those mistakes. But all in all I'm really proud of it. It's a fun ride. The main thing I'd want people to walk away feeling is that they are entertained for the hour and a half that they're watching it." Alien Lockdown debuts Feb. 7 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
SG-1 Hits Milestone Ep
CI FI Channel's highest-rated original series, Stargate SG-1, hits a milestone in February with its 150th episode, a key segment in which tragedy befalls a member of the team.
The milestone episode is the conclusion of a two-part episode, "Heroes." Part 1 premieres at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Feb. 13; Part 2 debuts at the same time on Feb. 20.
In Part 1, the president (William Devane) and the Department of Defense send a small crew to film standard operational procedures at Cheyenne Mountain, the Stargate Command base. Gen. Hammond (Don S. Davis) warns Bregman (Saul Rubinek), the seemingly flippant civilian in charge of the filming, that his presence is highly unorthodox and interference with staff safety or mission security will not be tolerated.
In Part 2, Bregman hounds SG-1 in an attempt to capture "the humans behind the soldiers," sensing that his "classified" film will eventually become public. As disaster unfolds, however, and a key member of the SGC is killed in action, Bregman and his crew get more authentic footage than they bargained for.
Duo To Reimagine Bride
hari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini (American Splendor) are in talks to rewrite and direct a remake of Bride of Frankenstein, Variety reported.
Imagine Entertainment's Brian Grazer will produce for Universal Pictures, the trade paper reported.
Bride would be the duo's first deal since they were Oscar-nominated last week for adapted screenplay for Splendor.
Berman and Pulcini join the project with a mandate to re-imagine the 1935 SF horror movie, originally helmed by James Whale and starring Boris Karloff and Elsa Lanchester.
Berman and Pulcini are expected to start from scratch and write a character-driven horror film more akin to Rosemary's Baby, the trade paper reported. Their concept for Bride is set in contemporary New York, centered on a young woman who is haunted by someone else's memories and gradually discovers that she had died and was brought back from the dead.
Bride will have no connection to the studio's upcoming 19th-century-set Van Helsing, due out May 7, which also features the character of Frankenstein's monster.
Universal is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Half-Life 2 Aims At Summer
he long-awaited sequel video game Half-Life 2 is now targeting a summer completion date, Doug Lombardi, director of marketing for Valve Software, told the CNN/Money Web site.
The game, which is expected to help revive the PC gaming industry, was delayed after Valve founder Gabe Newell confirmed last October that hackers had wormed their way into the developer's network and stolen the source code to Half-Life 2, the site reported. The game was originally slated for a Sept. 30, 2003, release.
Valve does not plan to reveal any additional information about the game until the time surrounding the upcoming Electronic Entertainment Expo gaming trade show in Los Angeles, where the game will once again be shown this year, the site reported. E3 will take place May 12-14.
Halo 2 Delay Confirmed
icrosoft Corp. has confirmed earlier reports that its upcoming sequel game Halo 2 will ship in the fall, dashing hopes that the game would be out sooner, the Reuters news service reported.
Industry observers and fans had expected Halo 2 to ship as early as the spring, possibly in March or April, and retailers had been counting on a June release date, the news service reported.
But a spokeswoman confirmed for Reuters that Halo 2 is set for the later part of the year, though a firm launch date was not available. The release could come in Microsoft's next fiscal year, which starts in July, the spokeswoman said.
Earlier, Bungie, the Microsoft-owned developer of the original Halo, posted a note about the timing of Halo 2 on its Web site.
Gnomeo Talent Lining Up
on Hahn, producer of Disney's computer animated SF film Gnomeo and Juliet, told SCI FI Wire that Elton John and Tim Rice have written songs for the upcoming animated movie.
Hahn added that Ewan McGregor (Star Wars: Episode III) remains attached to voice the lead character in the computer-animated tale about star-crossed love between ceramic gnomes.
"[We have] great songs by Elton John and Tim Rice," Hahn said in an interview. "Early on, Ewan McGregor was attached to it [to voice Gnomeo] and still is, so I think as with any movie, it's about story and trying to get the story on its feet. So we're trying to keep our ducks in a row and do that first before we bring in the big guns."
Hahn added, "The writers have it, and they're trying to launch it to see if we can get a solid story before we take off and make it." The film has been in development for two years.
Jaume Reopens House Of Wax
ommercial director Jaume will helm Dark Castle Entertainment's upcoming horror film House of Wax, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis and Susan Levin will produce the movie for Warner Brothers/Village Roadshow Pictures, the trade paper reported.
Jaume—a native of Barcelona, Spain, whose full name is Jaume Collet-Serra—is known for commercials filled with black humor. A 7UP spot featured a mermaid who recovered a bottle of the soft drink for a fisherman, who then captures her and puts her on display. An anti-tobacco commercial for the Arizona Department of Health Services was set in a macabre funhouse that had a youth getting a hole drilled in his throat. He also helmed spots for PlayStation, Budweiser and MasterCard, the trade paper reported.
Wax is a remake of the 1953 classic horror film House of Wax 3-D, which starred Vincent Price and was directed by Andre de Toth. That Warners picture centered on a mad professor who used human bodies covered with wax in his wax museum. The new version, to be filmed in 2-D, will be a marked departure from the original, but will retain the gruesome "human bodies in wax" element. The screenplay is by Chad and Carey Hayes, the trade paper reported. The studio is eyeing a November release and will quickly cast the picture.
NBC Green-Lights Carol
BC gave the green light to a musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol, from executive producer Robert Halmi Sr. and starring Kelsey Grammer, Variety reported.
Based on the Madison Square Garden stage production of the Dickens classic, Carol is slated to bow in November. Halmi's Hallmark Entertainment is producing the TV movie, which will include music by Alan Menken (Aladdin), the trade paper reported.
News of the NBC movie comes in the wake of CBS' announcement that it was developing a three-hour adaptation of the similarly themed Scrooge, with composer-screenwriter Leslie Bricusse, who was behind the 1970 feature film starring Albert Finney, the trade paper reported. NBC's Carol will be shot in Budapest this summer.
Cartoon Buys Atomic Betty
reakthrough Animation, the new division of Breakthrough Films & Television, has sold its SF comedy-adventure animated series Atomic Betty to the Cartoon Network, Variety reported.
The series will air in the U.S. and Canada in September, the trade paper reported.
Atomic Betty follows the adventures of a little girl who zips across the galaxy on daring and valiant missions, the trade paper reported. The show is produced by Toronto-based Breakthrough Animation and Atomic Cartoons of Vancouver, B.C., with Tele-Images Kids from France.
The series has already sold to the Cartoon Network in the United Kingdom, Australia, Italy, Southeast Asia, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, as well as Teletoon in Canada and France, M6 in France and ABC in Australia, the trade paper reported.
Hall Directs The Dead Zone
nthony Michael Hall, star of USA Network's
The Dead Zone, told SCI FI Wire that he directs the first episode of the SF series' upcoming third season, which features guest star Richard Lewis.
"That was really fun," Hall said in a telephone interview from the show's Vancouver, B.C., set. "[It's] called 'Cold Hard Truth.' And we really lucked out, because we were fortunate enough to get Richard Lewis to guest star."
In the episode, Lewis plays Jack Jericho, an obnoxious radio personality who loves to harrass Hall's Johnny Smith on the air. But Johnny "must become the guy's new best friend when he sees that the DJ has a death wish prompted by the guilt over his son's accidental death," Hall said.
It was Hall's first stint behind the camera since 1994, when he directed the Showtime comedy film Hail Caesar. Wearing several hats—producer, director and star—Hall said he got very little sleep. "By the time I get home and I do my homework for the next day, I have very little time to myself," he said. "And then when you're directing, yeah, you're fraught with details. You're kind of thinking about everything. But it's great. It really is. It's a real gas. ... It was kind of being in third gear ... and having to downshift to first to actually act in the episode. I just got so into just directing the other actors and setting the shots and working with the crew on that level."
The Dead Zone starts its third season in late June. USA Networks is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
New Line Develops Shazam!
he screenwriting team of Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow have been tapped by New Line Cinema to adapt the DC Comics series Shazam! for the movies, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Shazam! is the story of Billy Batson, a boy who becomes Captain Marvel, the world's mightiest mortal, when he says the magic word "Shazam!" The DC comic ran in the 1970s and was actually a revival of the 1940s Fawcett Comics strip, the trade paper reported.
William Goldman was previously working on the script. Shazam! is being executive produced by Batman executive producer Michael Uslan and is being overseen at New Line by production executives Chris Godsick and Mark Kaufman, the trade paper reported.
Punisher Stabs Nash
ro-wrestler-turned-actor Kevin Nash, who stars as the Russian in the upcoming Punisher movie, suffered a stab injury from star Thomas Jane while shooting a fight scene, the IGN.com Web site reported.
Citing anonymous reports from the set, the site reported that Nash was accidentally stabbed during the shooting of a knife fight.
The site added that the WWE star, who performs his own stunts, was so pumped up for the performance that he didn't even realize that he had actually been stabbed.
DreamWorks Buys Island
ollowing a heated bidding war with Paramount, DreamWorks bought Caspian Tredwell-Owen's SF spec script The Island for $1 million against $1.5 million, Variety reported.
Michael Bay is circling the project to direct, the trade paper reported.
Similar in theme to Logan's Run, The Island centers on a "harvested being" who becomes self-aware and must escape the utopian facility where he and others are being kept, the trade paper reported.
The Island is similar in theme to Spares, an SF novel by Michael Marshall Smith that Paramount is adapting. Sources say the studio was interested in combining the two projects and attaching Tom Cruise, whose production company C/W has a deal at the studio, which is what drove the bidding numbers so high, the trade paper reported.
In an added twist, Spares was originally optioned by DreamWorks in 1997. Although the project languished in development and DreamWorks' rights ultimately expired, at one point Steven Spielberg was looking to direct the film with Cruise as its star, the trade paper reported.
PKD, Fantasy Books Optioned
ale Rosenbloom's Utopia Pictures & Television has acquired several SF&F books, including three novels by Philip K. Dick, to be adapted into movies, Variety reported.
The novels are Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said; Valis; and Radio Free Albemuth. All will be produced with John Alan Simon, the trade paper reported.
Flow My Tears is the story of a TV celebrity who finds he has no identity. Valis is a detective story in which the protagonist searches for God, and Radio Free Albemuth is the posthumously published alternative history of the United States.
The company also acquired Paul Fenimore Cooper's children's book, Tal: His Marvelous Adventures With Noom-Zor-Noom, which details the adventures of an orphan in a fantasy world, the trade paper reported. Scott Glosserman will co-produce.
The company also optioned Roderick Townley's The Great Good Thing, a young adult novel in which 12-year-old Princess Sylvie is a literary heroine who breaks free from the confines of the book where she lives, the trade paper reported.
Men In Black Suit Filed
omic publisher Marvel Enterprises filed suit against Sony, claiming it used deceptive accounting tactics to deny Marvel royalties on merchandising related to the Men in Black films, the Reuters news service reported.
Marvel, which earlier filed two suits against Sony over the merchandising of the Spider-Man movie, filed the new suit on Jan. 29 in Los Angeles Superior Court against Sony Pictures Entertainment and Columbia Pictures, the wire service reported.
The suit claims that Sony breached a licensing agreement by failing properly to report revenue, especially for merchandising, showing in statements that the two Men in Black films lost money despite hundreds of millions of dollars in box-office and ancillary sales, the news service reported. The suit seeks damages of at least $6 million, an accounting of the movies' earnings and an injunction against further unfair practices.
A spokeswoman for Sony Pictures and Columbia told Reuters they had not yet seen the suit and could not comment.
Del Rey Signs Albion
el Rey Books has signed former Buffy the Vampire Slayer actor Amber Benson and author Christopher Golden to write a series of original novels based upon their BBCi animated online series Ghosts of Albion.
Writer, actor and filmmaker Benson is best known for playing Tara on Buffy; Golden is a Bram Stoker Award-winning writer best known for his novels The Boys Are Back in Town, The Ferryman, Strangewood and The Gathering Dark.
Set in 19th-century London, Ghosts of Albion revolves around William and Tamara Swift, siblings who must use their family legacy of supernatural powers to protect England from an ancient evil that threatens to destroy the world, Del Rey said. Benson and Golden created the Web-based series, which launched last March with the first of several 12-minute animated shorts starring Emma Samms and Anthony Daniels. The first Albion novel is slated for the fall of 2005.
Halo 2 Due In Fall
evelopers of the sequel video game Halo 2 told fans on a bulletin board that the game will ship in the fall.
The post added that game details and announcements will follow over the next few months, with more news at the upcoming Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles in May.
The Bungie.net site also posted screenshots from the sequel to the Halo Xbox title.
Briefly Noted
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Newcomer Adrianne Palicki has been cast as Judy Robinson in The WB's upcoming new Lost in Space pilot, Variety reported.
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The official Shrek 2 Web site has been updated with new Valentine's Day e-cards, downloads and other features. The computer-animated sequel film opens May 21.
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Aladdin will debut on DVD on Oct. 5, 10 years after it premiered in theaters, Variety reported.
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The official Web site for the upcoming monster movie Van Helsing has posted a behind-the-scenes featurette on the making of the film, which opens May 7.
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The Superhero Hype Web site reported a rumor that Bruce Willis might be up for the role of Lex Luthor in a proposed new Superman movie.
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The American Cinematheque will honor legendary SF editor and booster Forrest J. Ackerman with a tribute at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 11 at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, Calif. Guests will include filmmakers John Landis, Curtis Harrington, Joe Dante and Frank Darabont.
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The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King picked up awards for best film, best British actor (Andy Serkis) and best movie scene (the "Ride of the Rohirrim") at the annual British Empire magazine awards on Feb. 4 in London, the Reuters news service reported.
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Sarah Wynter (24) will join the cast of USA Network's The Dead Zone in a recurring role, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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Producer/director Uwe Boll, founder and head of Boll KG, told the GameSpot Web site that screenwriter David Freeman has been picked to write the screenplay for a movie adaptation of the popular Dungeon Siege role-playing game.
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Cedric the Entertainer told the Latino Review Web site that he's joined the cast of the fantasy movie Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.
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Odd Lot Entertainment has acquired Irving Belateche's spec script The Reckoning to produce and finance, with A Band Apart on board to produce, Variety reported. Set in New Orleans, The Reckoning is a supernatural thriller about a woman who suffers visions from her childhood that foretell her daughter's doom.
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DreamWorks has set filmmaker John Ridley to write his first animated feature, The Unprofessionals, about three hapless monkeys sent on a quest, Variety reported.
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The official Web site for the upcoming monster movie Van Helsing has been updated with new features, including the TV ad that aired during the Super Bowl. Van Helsing opens May 7.
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Emmett/Furla Films has acquired a novel by best-selling young adult author Ellen Conford, Genie With the Light Blue Hair, Variety reported.
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Lucasfilm has sent cease-and-desist letters to Web sites that posted footage from the upcoming prequel Star Wars: Episode III, which will be released in May of 2005, Variety reported. The sites subsequently removed the footage, which featured actors Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor, among others, performing stunts and acting in front of green screens.
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Box-office earnings for New Line's SF drama The Butterfly Effect fell 42 percent from the previous weekend to ring up $10 million in ticket sales, ranking in third place for the Jan. 30 weekend, Variety reported.
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