King Rules At Oscars
he Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King lorded over the Academy Awards on Sunday night, setting a record by winning all 11 Oscars for which it was nominated. The film, the final installment in New Line Cinema and writer-producer-director Peter Jackson's epic trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings saga, took home the statuettes for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Song, Best Musical Score, Best Visual Effects, Best Editing, Best Makeup, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design and Best Sound Mixing.
Backstage after the ceremony, Jackson told the press he was pleased that the Academy recognized the efforts of all involved in the Rings trilogy. "I think the fact that we had goblins and trolls and wizards and everything else made it hard for people to take it seriously," Jackson said. "I appreciate that the Academy and voters tonight have seen through all that." The Return of the King recently cracked the $1 billion mark in worldwide grosses.
King Crew Joins Kong
eter Jackson, who is directing a remake of King Kong, told The Hollywood Reporter that he will be using veterans of his Lord of the Rings movies on the crew, but that it's too soon to say whether any Rings actors will come aboard.
"It's too early to say about cast, apart from Naomi Watts, who's now confirmed," Jackson told the trade paper. "We need to write for a few more weeks to establish exactly what type of other characters we are looking for. I'm hoping there will be suitable roles for one or two LOTR actors."
But as far as the crew, King Kong will feature Rings producers Jan Blenkin and Caro Cunningham, director of photography Andrew Lesnie, composer Howard Shore, production designer Grant Major and supervising art director Dan Hennah. In addition, both Weta Workshop, led by Richard Taylor, and Weta Digital have been at work on Kong for some months now, Jackson said. "We are talking to all other crew at the moment and imagine the majority will be LOTR veterans," he said.
King Breaks $1 Billion
he Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King became the second film (after Titanic) to break the $1 billion worldwide box-office mark, the Reuters news service reported.
New Line Cinema, which distributed the movie, also reported that King reached the mark in record time.
Return of the King now ranks as the second-highest-grossing film of all time, after 1997's Titanic, which rang up $1.8 billion in global receipts. But King crossed the 10-figure threshold in less time, getting there in fewer than 10 weeks from its Dec. 17 opening, compared with Titanic, which hit the billion-dollar mark at the start of its 11th week of release, Reuters reported.
Through Feb. 22, King had accumulated a worldwide total of $1,005,380,412 in ticket sales, New Line said. More than $361 million of that sum was generated at U.S. and Canadian box office, the news service reported.
All three Lord of the Rings films have now racked up combined receipts totaling nearly $2.8 billion globally, Reuters reported.
King Wins SAG Award
he Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King took home the Actor award for best ensemble in a motion picture at the 10th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards Feb. 22 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, Variety reported.
Johnny Depp took home the trophy for best actor for his role as Capt. Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, the trade paper reported.
Depp, who lives in France, didn't attend the ceremony. But King's Sean Astin (Sam) said, "I'm worried about the labor movement in our country." He exhorted the union membership "to pay attention to our union when it's not the awards show. There is internecine strife, there is controversy. Some of us make a lot more money than others of us, but I think we need to be involved, or the union will not endure." (Astin is the son of past SAG president Patty Duke, the trade paper reported.)
Fifth Film Is Batman Begins
arner Brothers will call its upcoming fifth caped crusader movie Batman Begins, not Batman: Intimidation Game, as has been widely rumored, Variety reported.
The fifth installment in the franchise returns the story to its origins, about billionaire Bruce Wayne and how he puts on the cowl and cape to face his first foes in Gotham City, the trade paper reported.
The studio has been using the title Intimidation Game as a code name to thwart fans from following the project's development, but never intended on using it as the film's title, the trade paper reported.
Batman Begins, starring Christian Bale, starts shooting next month in Iceland and London, with Christopher Nolan at the helm.
Watanabe Cast In Batman
arner Brothers officially announced the casting of Oscar-nominated actor Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai) in director Christopher Nolan's upcoming film about the origins of the Batman.
Watanabe will play the villanous Ra's Al Ghul, the studio confirmed.
Warner also confirmed the casting of Liam Neeson as Bruce Wayne's mentor, Henri Ducard, and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, a former board member and sidelined employee of Wayne Enterprises.
Watanabe joins the previously-cast Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Michael Caine as Alfred and Katie Holmes as a childhood friend of Wayne's, the studio said.
Nolan directs from a screenplay by David Goyer. Emma Thomas, Charles Roven and Larry Franco produce. Ben Melniker and Michael Uslan executive produce.
The project starts production in London in March. The film explores the origins of the Batman legend and the Dark Knight's emergence as a force for good in Gotham, the studio said. It will be released in 2005.
Cinescape Online, meanwhile, reported that Dennis Quaid is close to being signed for the part of Jim Gordon, the Gotham City beat cop who will one day become commissioner of police.
Goyer Stoked For Batman
avid Goyer, who wrote the script for the upcoming new Batman movie, told SCI FI Wire that it is the film that the avowed comic-book geek has wanted to be part of since he was a kid.
"Batman, it doesn't get any bigger than that," Goyer said in an interview during a break while editing his next movie, Blade: Trinity, at the Henson Studios lot in Hollywood, Calif.
Goyer said the movie, directed by Christopher Nolan, will be a more realistic version of the classic superhero story than the last few installments, which were directed by Joel Schumacher. Christian Bale was chosen to be the caped crusader, beating out Jake Gyllenhaal, who was also under consideration, Goyer said. He added that the filmmakers will honor the franchise's core backstory.
"[With] Batman, you have to be much more careful about [it]," Goyer said. "Chris and I went to DC and spent two days with [DC Comics president] Paul Levitz and the editorial staff of Batman and told them what we were proposing and said, 'Is there anything we're doing that you think [we should change]?' I mean, we did stuff in Batman that has never been told before, but we didn't contradict anything."
Goyer remained circumspect about details of the movie, even going so far as to decline to confirm or deny whether the movie will be called Batman: Intimidation Game or something else. But he said of the new batsuit, "People will like it. No nipples. No codpieces." Batman begins filming this week in Iceland before moving to the environs around London.
Goyer Offers Trinity Preview
avid Goyer, writer and director of the upcoming sequel film Blade: Trinity, told SCI FI Wire that the movie is a month ahead of schedule and is going well enough that he's contemplating a future spinoff based on characters introduced in the film.
Goyer, who wrote screenplays for the previous two movies in the franchise, also steps behind the camera for the third installment, which brings back stars Wesley Snipes (Blade) and Kris Kristofferson (Whistler) and puts them with a crop of young new actors.
Goyer said that Blade: Trinity deals in part with Blade's teamup with a new breed of vampire hunters, called the Nightstalkers, played by Jessica Biel (Whistler's daughter, Abigail), Ryan Reynolds (Hannibal King), Natasha Lyonne and Patton Oswalt. "Blade is extremely resistant to [them]," Goyer said in an interview. "There's a whole generational thing, because they're younger and their methods are very different from Blade. So he's very antagonistic towards them, and they are antagonistic to him, but they are forced to team up. And Jessica Biel and Ryan Reynolds and Patton Oswalt and Natasha Lyonne and a couple of others, there are about six them, are the Nightstalkers. And if it's
successful, we made a deal with all of them to do a Nightstalker spinoff as well."
The vampire hunters must fight a vampiress named Danica—played in an unlikely bit of casting by indie darling Parker Posey—and her gang, which includes pro-wrestler-turned-actor Triple H, otherwise known as Paul Michael Levesque. And there's a dangerous new villain, played by former John Doe star Dominic Purcell, called Drake, which is short for Dracula. "The vampires ... [have] been looking for the sort of progenitor of the vampire race, who's Dracula, but he's seven, eight thousand years old," Goyer said. "The whole idea is that Drake, Dracula, was also like the genesis of the Dagon, the Sumerian god, stuff like that. ... He's sort of like the patient zero of evil. ... The vampires are looking for him, because he's dormant and he's a daywalker" and the potential source of something that will allow all bloodsuckers to bear the light of day.
Meanwhile, vampires have convinced the FBI and local police that Blade and Whistler are menaces to society, Goyer added. That's where the Nightstalkers come in. "It becomes apparent that Blade and
Whistler are forced to go on the defensive so much that they need reinforcements," he said. "And the reinforcements are the Nightstalkers, which is sort of Whistler's contingency plan, as he's been training, on the side, this group of vampire hunters, with his daughter." Goyer is currently in post-production at Henson Studios in Hollywood, Calif., on Blade: Trinity, which hits theaters Aug. 13.
Blade Adds Scenes
avid Goyer, who steps behind the camera to direct Blade: Trinity after writing the scripts for the first two Blade movies, told SCI FI Wire that he is putting things in this sequel that were left out of the previous two installments.
"One of the things I did was I put scenes in this movie that were ... cut out from the first two films," Goyer said in an interview while editing the movie at Henson Studios in Hollywood.
In 1998's original Blade, the villainous Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff) was supposed to show Karen Jensen (N'Bushe Wright) a lab in which humans are kept in comas and farmed for their blood. The scene was shot, but cut out of the movie, and Goyer said he recreated it and enhanced it for Blade: Trinity. "I decided to do that scene, but like a hundred times bigger," he said. "There were only four bodies or something like that [the first time around], and so we kind of did that version of the movie, but there's literally thousands and thousands of bodies. Its just really big."
Goyer also initially scripted a scene featuring Blade racing his black 1968 Dodge Charger, but it wasn't filmed for budgetary reasons and because the production moved to Prague. "We never really used the Charger in any real kind of action sequences, and I always loved that sequence," Goyer said. So "I literally took that nine-, 10-page sequence and made it the beginning of this movie. It was its own thing, and so it would work in either [film]. ... This whole long extended car chase scene, where Blade is in the Charger, there are vampires in cars and on motorcycles with machine guns, it's just mayhem, and the cars are rolling over and exploding, and he's running vampires down. ... I'm a big fan of the car chases in The French Connection and Bullitt, so it was done very old-school. I like it. It's got this kind of '70s feel to it. It's decidedly not Michael Bay."
Overall, Goyer said, he liked the "offbeat humor" in director Stephen Norrington's first Blade movie and missed it in Guillermo del Toro's Blade II. "Not to take anything away from Guillermo, who's a dear friend of mine, [but] I felt it was something that we missed a little bit of in the second film," Goyer said. "So that sort of dark, f--ked-up sense of humor is in this movie." Blade: Trinity opens Aug. 13.
Blade Stars Bulked Up
avid Goyer, writer/director of the upcoming sequel film Blade: Trinity, told SCI FI Wire that fans of former TV stars Jessica Biel and Ryan Reynolds won't recognize them in their new, pumped-up physiques in the movie.
Biel (7th Heaven) and Reynolds (Two Guys and a Gal) play members of an elite squad of vampire hunters called the Nightstalkers, and they trained heavily to bulk up and appear convincing as proficient warriors, Goyer said in an interview.
"Ryan, when I first with him, I thought he was funny, but he needed to be credible as sort of an action star," Goyer said during a break from editing Blade: Trinity at Henson Studios in Hollywood. "They both trained for about six months—I'm not joking—six days a week, three hours a day, lifting weights and fighting. And I know everyone always says they do their own stunts in this film, but
the only stunts that both of them didn't do were when we threw them through glass."
Biel and Reynolds underwent a dietary and physical training regimen to get in shape to do all of their own hand-to-hand combat against a host of vampires in the movie, the third installment in the franchise based on the Marvel Comics series. "Every single ounce of fighting in the film, they did," Goyer said. "When people see it, they're just not going to even question that it will be credible. Ryan put on 24 pounds of muscle. You'll see. He's unrecognizable. And Jessie lost weight and basically looks like Linda Hamilton in [Terminator 2: Judgment Day]. They were both amazing. And Dominic Purcell, who plays this king vampire, trained for this sword fight at the end of the film, and it's all him." Blade: Trinity, which stars Wesley Snipes and Kris Kristofferson, opens Aug. 13.
Bell Recounts Angel Staking
eff Bell, co-executive producer of The
WB's canceled vampire series Angel, told SCI FI Wire that the cast and crew responded in
different ways when he, co-creator Joss Whedon and other writer-producers arrived on the
Paramount Pictures lot to break the news.
"Most of our people deal with pain through humor," Bell said in an interview. "So there were a
lot of horrible jokes, there were some tears and there was also a feeling of 'What are you
going to do? The writing's been on the wall. We've escaped it the last couple of years and now
it's finally caught up with us.'"
Bell added, "So the reaction is all
over the place. There's loss. When I first heard the news from Joss I thought, 'Oh, that's too
bad.' Then, when we went over to tell the crew, I found myself profoundly sad. It really didn't
hit until we were over there on the set. That day, Friday, was a bust. We came in on Monday to
work and there was a really strange sense of humor in the office because we were all still
reeling."
Though Whedon is making what Bell
referred to as "courtesy calls" to UPN and other possible outlets, Bell doubts that Angel
will carry on as a weekly series. "I think it's a long shot," he said. "If it happens,
fantastic. I think we're all treating it like 'OK, this is it,' in terms of how you have to
deal with the emotional reality of it. If there's a reprieve, we'll turn around. But right now I
think we're all feeling like it's over."
Angel Fate Seems Grim
avid Fury, executive producer of The WB's canceled vampire series Angel, told SCI FI Wire that he was doubtful the show will migrate to UPN next year, though he confirmed that talks are underway.
"There were and are conversations going on with UPN," Fury said in an interview at the Wolfram & Hart Annual Revue fan charity ball on Feb. 21.
Fury added, "But in all likelihood they don't have the financial wherewithal to continue the series. It's less expensive than Buffy was for them, but trying to bring a show that's ... going to be going into its sixth season, it's not really financially responsible for them to pick up a show that doesn't really have much of a future beyond one more season." UPN picked up two more seasons of Angel's predecessor series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, after The WB canceled it.
Fury added that he wasn't optimistic about future Angel movies of the week, which The WB has held out as a possible continuing venue for the show's mythology. "I think there's some time [that] would have to pass before we'd seriously start considering it," Fury said. Angel co-creator Joss Whedon will soon be heavily involved in a proposed feature film based on his canceled SF western series Firefly, Fury added. "Joss' response to that offer was, 'Who's going to make [an Angel movie] for you?' Because he's going to be off doing a motion picture, Firefly, and he'll be consumed with that for some time. And presumably everybody else on the show will have moved on to other projects, although we'd love to continue to work together, and we will try to, I'm sure, in our various capacities. But as far as the movies go, I don't expect you'll hear anything announced about that for another year. And by that time, again, everybody will have moved on, actors and writers. And it just may be a hard thing to actually realize."
As for Angel's series-ending story arc, Fury said, he doubted that Buffy star Sarah Michelle Gellar will be making a guest appearance. "Well, that's entirely up to Sarah, and frankly, I think she's out of the country [in Japan] doing a movie [The Grudge], ... so I'm very doubtful that she's going to be able to come back. And the problem with her coming back anyway is that it sort of invites closure for Spike and/or Angel, which I'm not sure we ever want to do. I think it's better never to quite know. ... Whatever it is, it's not going to be satisfying to somebody. So I think I prefer the idea that both men are still holding out hope and maybe it's something for an Angel movie someday, or a Buffy movie." Angel airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Angel Fans Aid Charity
ans of The WB's Angel donated $15,000 to charity on Feb. 21 at the fan-organized Wolfram & Hart Annual Revue ball in Los Angeles.
Proceeds from a raffle and auction of Angel costumes, props and memorabilia went to the Al Wooten Jr. Heritage Center, a neighborhood nonprofit group aimed at helping disadvantaged children. Angel cast and crew members also made individual donations, including star Alexis Denisof and his wife, Alyson Hannigan, and former Firefly star Nathan Fillion.
About 250 fans of the canceled vampire series gathered Saturday night at the Century Plaza Hotel in L.A., joining Angel cast and crew, including actors Andy Hallett, Sarah Thompson, Julie Benz and Jonathan M. Woodward, as well as writers and producers David Fury, Jeffrey Bell, Tim Minear, Drew Goddard and Steven S. DeKnight.
"We want to express the gratitude and love we feel for all of you guys," Fury told a cheering crowd. "I want to say in my seven years working in [series co-creator Joss Whedon's] universe I've never worked with a greater staff of writers, which is really to diss everybody at Buffy. No, this has been the most fun I've ever had."
Ron Glass—who starred in Whedon's last series, Firefly—accepted the charitable donation on behalf of the Wooten Center, of which he is chairman of the board of directors. "We are beyond ecstatically happy tonight, given that ... you set out to give us $10,000, and you've given us $15,000," Glass told the fans. Angel is in its fifth and last season.
Lillard OK With Scooby
atthew Lillard, who reprises the role of Shaggy in the upcoming sequel film Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, told SCI FI Wire that it was easier this time around to work with a dog that wasn't really there.
"It is, because the leap of faith isn't as great, because the first time it was like you were just jumping into the abyss and you were like, 'I have no idea how this is going to turn out,'" Lillard said in an interview last summer on the film's Vancouver, B.C., set.
Lillard, who plays many of his scenes with the title dog, often had to act against nothing, or with shiny balls that stood in for Scooby, who was added in later with computer animation. "This time, it is easier, because you have an idea what's on the other side," Lillard said. "And I also have faith that what's on the other side is going to upstage me 99 percent of the time. And that's not an easy thing to do."
Lillard added that the sequel remains a challenge physically. "This one's four months, but the first movie was six months, and every day you're running for your life," Lillard said. "And [in Shaggy voice] every day you're talking like 'Ahh.' The anxiety level is up here, and that's a physical commitment and an emotional commitment that's kind of tough to maintain. Still, I'm trying to get to sleep early. I know it sounds stupid, but I'm trying to go to home and go to bed. I'm trying to eat well." Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr. and Linda Cardellini, opens March 26.
Scooby 2 More Balanced
aja Gosnell, director of the upcoming sequel film Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, told SCI FI Wire that he brings a surer hand to the film franchise after learning things from the first one.
"I think we learned a lot on the first movie, and we learned where our strike zones are," Gosnell said in an interview. "And it seemed like the nostalgic stuff worked the best, when the gang was together doing what the gang does. So we designed this movie around the classic monsters, bringing the classic monsters back, bringing them alive."
In Scooby 2, the Mystery Inc. gang finds themselves fighting some of the old ghosts and creatures from the classic animated TV series. That's a marked contrast to the first movie, in which the gang found itself splintered and at odds, Gosnell said. "[It] seemed like when the gang was fighting in the first movie, it was not necessarily how it wanted to be. So it feels better in this movie. The gang's all working together. They have their own personal issues they have to deal with, but they're still a gang, it's a mystery, we're going to solve this thing. And it just generally has a more positive tone, I'd say, than the first movie."
At the same time, Scooby 2 has found its balance, unlike the first one, which seemed at times to struggle between straight homage and tongue-in-cheek satirization. "I would say that was again one of our big learning curves on the first movie, and I think that we've found just the right balance in this movie," Gosnell said. "I think there's enough of that to satisfy the hard-core Scooby fans. There are some winks. There is some innuendo. But overall, the tone of the movie is much more of a mainstream, all-audience type of a movie. I'd say there's been a tonal shift, but there's still those little nuggets in there that we tried to save for fans." Scooby-Doo 2, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., Linda Cardellini and Matthew Lillard, opens March 26.
Scooby 2 Easier For Gellar
arah Michelle Gellar, who reprises the role of Daphne in the upcoming sequel film Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, told SCI FI Wire that it's much easier playing the character this time around.
"The first one was difficult, because I was commuting between Australia and Los Angeles," Gellar said in an interview on the Vancouver, B.C., set last summer. "So from the get-go the sequel is easier. Everything about a sequel is easier."
In Monsters Unleashed, Daphne and the Mystery Inc. gang find themselves facing off against some of their old nemeses, including ghosts familiar to viewers of the animated TV series on which the movie is based. For her part, Daphne undergoes changes in the sequel, Gellar added. "I think the first story sort of revolved around Daphne finding her place," she said. "Because everything to her was, she was the pretty one. She never really fit in. And this one is more about public image. In the beginning, you find Daphne, and she is confident. She's confident, because she's deriving her strength from what other people think, the press and the fans, and it's all about public image. And what she soon realizes is that the public image can change, it's fickle, and that you have to find your strength from within before you worry about how everyone else perceives you."
But Gellar added that fans should like the sequel as much as 2002's original hit Scooby-Doo film. "With movies based on previous material, you spend the first 45 minutes to an hour of the first movie setting everything up," she said. "I think what's happening with sequels, again specifically in this genre of material based on previous material, now it's like when you jump right in, you know where your story is. It's less complicated. I think also, we weren't exactly sure what our niche was the first time. Were we a movie for kids? Were we going to be a little more esoteric and go for a little bit of an older, more satirical audience? And we shot everything both ways, and it was really put together in the edit and really made for a family film. Now, coming in, you know we're coming in to make a family film. We know our characters, the story is set, and it makes it much easier to just jump into a story." Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed opens March 26.
Fountain On Track Again?
arren Aronofsky's SF epic film The Fountain is being resurrected two years after it stalled, with a leaner budget and Hugh Jackman potentially stepping in for Brad Pitt as the star, Variety reported.
Jackman is being courted for the lead role in the movie, whose budget has dropped to between $35 million and $40 million from its original $75 million, the trade paper reported. The movie will be a co-production between Warner Brothers and New Regency.
Pitt quit the movie in 2002, just before it was set to film. That was only the latest problem to bedevil The Fountain: It had already stalled once before for a year when co-star Cate Blanchett got pregnant, the trade paper reported. There were also budget battles at the studio and a change in co-financier, from Village Roadshow to New Regency.
Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream) has reportedly been working to shave costly set pieces from his script, which spanned 500 years at one point. Other than that, little is known about the story, which originally followed its main character on a psychological journey set in the present, but with a plotline reaching centuries into both the past and the future, the trade paper reported.
Theron Stars As Aeon Flux
harlize Theron will star in Aeon Flux, an SF movie based on the MTV animated series, Variety reported.
Lakeshore Entertainment and Paramount Pictures are financing the movie, with MTV Films and Gale Anne Hurd's Valhalla Productions producing, the trade paper reported.
The film will shoot near Berlin in July. Karyn Kusama (Girlfight) is directing a script by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, the trade paper reported.
In Aeon Flux, Theron will play an acrobatic superheroine assigned to kill the government leader 400 years in the future, in a world where humans live under a protective bubble after a virus has wiped out most of humankind. The animated series was created by Peter Chung, the trade paper reported.
SF Honors Harrison, Aldiss
F authors Harry Harrison and Brian Aldiss were inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Web site reported.
The inductions honored their continued excellence and longtime contribution to the science fiction and fantasy field. Both Aldiss and Harrison will attend an induction ceremony during the Campbell Conference in Lawrence, Kan., on July 9.
Harrison and Aldiss were joined by posthumous inductees E.E. "Doc" Smith and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. After this year’s ceremony, the Hall of Fame will be renamed the Science Fiction Hall of Fame and incorporated into the Experience Science Fiction museum, opening in Seattle in June, the site reported.
Whedon, Singer Pen X-Men
ilmmakers Joss Whedon and Bryan Singer are in final negotiations to write X-Men comics for Marvel Comics, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Confirming earlier reports, the trade paper said that Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Whedon will author Astonishing X-Men, with the first of 12 issues slated to hit stores in May, with John Cassaday on art. Whedon previously wrote the Dark Horse title Fray.
"There are three reasons why I'm doing this," Whedon told the trade paper. "One, I get to write the X-Men, a comic I grew up reading. It's probably the biggest influence on my work there is. Two, I want to personalize things and figure who these characters are to me now. And three, [the character] Kitty Pryde. She was not a small influence on Buffy. I get to use her, and that sealed the deal."
Singer, who helmed the two X-Men movies, is teaming up with X2 writers Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris to write for an existing title, Ultimate X-Men, the trade paper reported. Singer's role will be more as an overseer, though he will write some issues, and the title of the book will include the words "Bryan Singer Presents."
More Marvel Films Coming
he Punisher won't hit theaters until spring, but Lions Gate Entertainment has already struck a deal with Marvel Comics for a sequel, Punisher II, and is also developing two more Marvel films, based on the characters Iron Fist and Black Widow, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The first Punisher movie stars Thomas Jane, John Travolta and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos.
Iron Fist combines superheroes with martial arts and centers on Danny Rand, who was raised by monks and taught the ancient technique of the Iron Fist, which grants its users the power to level a building with a single blow and gives them complete control over their minds, bodies and spirits, the trade paper reported.
Black Widow centers on the adventures of former KGB agent Natasha Romanov, who must find her place in the world once the Soviet Union collapses, the trade paper reported.
New Kombat Kicks It
idway Games announced the development of Mortal Kombat: Deception, the latest title in the fantasy fighting game franchise.
Deception is scheduled to ship in the fall for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox.
Described as "shocking and evil," Mortal Kombat: Deception pushes the franchise to new heights with a new fighting system and intense action, the company said. The game features hand-to-hand and special-weapons combat, secret and returning characters and moves and combinations with new death-dealing battles and fatalities.
Galactica Gets Deeper
dward James Olmos, who will reprise the role of Cmdr. Adama in SCI FI Channel's upcoming Battlestar Galactica series, told SCI FI Wire that he looks forward to deepening the character introduced in the Galactica miniseries that aired last December.
"I'd like to see the complexity of what we've gotten ourselves into come about and really be able to understand it for what it is," Olmos said in an interview. "You've got to remember what happens when people are pushed to a level of unexpected changes. ... We can go to some places where the characters have never gone before."
Olmos said that he has had several conversations with Galactica executive producer Ronald D. Moore about the direction he'd like to see his character take. "Space opera has always been plot-driven," Olmos said. "And in this case, if we can now, with a strong plot line, switch to character, you might have a way of exploring the human psyche in a way that we haven't seen."
Olmos said that he believes a new Galactica may also have something to say about the times we live in. "Certainly, yeah," he said. "Because we're going to have to deal with problems that make the problems that we're looking at today on the planet look like [nothing]." The characters in Galactica will try "to hold onto their humanity as it is completely taken away from them. If any indication was given to us as to where we're going in respect to the [series], I must tell you, it's going to be very explosive." Battlestar Galactica will begin production of 13 episodes in Vancouver, B.C., shortly.
SCI FI Develops Blackwater
CI FI Channel is developing Blackwater, a four-hour supernatural miniseries based on six serial novels of the same name by the late Michael McDowell (Beetlejuice), according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Sony Pictures Television, Mandalay Television and the Orphanage are producing, the trade paper reported.
Blackwater is a Southern Gothic epic centering on a feud between two
matriarchs in a small Alabama town beset by a catastrophic flood in
1919, the trade paper reported. A woman who is mysteriously recovered from a submerged hotel room goes on to insinuate herself into a prominent local family, where she rises to power and conflict. No casting or director has been set.
Vote For Best Smallville
mallville fans are being given a chance to vote on which of their favorite episodes will air as reruns over the next five weeks, The WB announced.
The show's creators, Al Gough and Miles Millar, picked their 10 favorite episodes from the show's first two seasons, and viewers can select their top five at TheWB.com through March 9. The winning episodes will be announced March 10.
The 10 episodes up for fan voting are "Pilot," "X-Ray," "Hourglass,"
"Rogue," "Zero," "Nicodemus," "Stray," "Red," "Lineage" and "Rosetta."
The top five picks will air at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Wednesdays while Angel, which normally airs in that timeslot, goes on hiatus before beginning its final run of episodes later in the spring.
Raiders Fan Story Sold
cott Rudin has purchased the life rights of the trio of filmmakers who constructed the ultimate tribute movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation, Variety reported.
Rudin obtained the rights from Chris Strompolos, Eric Zala and Jayson Lamb, who as adolescents in Mississippi launched a shot-by-shot remake of Raiders in Zala's backyard while on summer vacation in 1982. They finished seven years later at a cost of $5,000 to $8,000, the trade paper reported.
Strompolos, who starred as Indiana Jones, came up with the idea when he was 10 and told his friend Zala, who was 11, about it as they rode the bus to school. Zala eventually storyboarded the 649 scenes in the film; Lamb, who was a fan of horror movies and Rick Baker special effects, shot on a VHS camcorder, the trade paper reported.
After the film was completed, it remained largely unknown until it was discovered two years ago by filmmaker Eli Roth, who submitted it for a showing at the fourth annual Butt-Numb-a-Thon Festival organized by Harry Knowles in Austin, Texas, in December 2002, the trade paper reported. That led to a letter of endorsement from director Steven Spielberg, the trio's story being pitched in Hollywood and a "Raiders of the Lost Backyard" story in the current issue of Vanity Fair.
Rodriguez Directing Sin City
obert Rodriguez is already at work
directing a big-screen version of Frank Miller's black-and-white comic-book series Sin
City, according to Variety.
The trade paper reported that Josh Hartnett [The Faculty] and Marley Shelton
[Valentine] are starring in the film and have shot the opening sequence in advance of a
full shoot slated to begin in March, with Miller on board as co-director.
Sin City is a noir-ish crime
saga about Marv, an ex-con out to avenge the death of Goldie, the beauty who was murdered
following the couple's one and only night together. Rodriguez, whose previous genre credits
include From Dusk Till Dawn, The Faculty and the Spy Kids trilogy, told
Variety that he'd been a fan of Sin City since the debut of the first graphic
novel in 1991. "I always felt that when you walked into a comic-book store, it jumps off the
shelf at you," Rodriguez said. "After doing the Spy Kids movies I was looking to do
something that would offer lighting and special effects challenges. I decided that I didn't want
to adapt Frank's book, but rather translate it to the screen with the same visual flourishes
that Frank used so well."
Rodriguez will shoot Sin City in
Austin, Texas, home to his production entity Troublemaker Studios, Variety added. Additional
casting is underway and Dimension Films will release Sin City upon its
completion.
Ubisoft Exits Matrix Online
ame publisher Ubisoft announced that
it was pulling out of its deal to co-publish The Matrix Online with Warner Brothers
Interactive Entertainment, according to the GameSpot Web site.
GameSpot cited the lackluster response to last year's films The Matrix Reloaded
and The Matrix Revolutions as well as the overcrowding of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game genre as the likely
reasons for Ubisoft's decision. Word of Ubisoft's move comes just a few weeks after the company
announced that it would no longer be involved with the online component of Uru: Ages Beyond
Myst.
However, in an interview with GameSpot,
Jason Hall, senior vice president of Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment, explained that the
Matrix Online is still in the works despite the amicable split with Ubisoft. "Development
of the Matrix Online is still being handled by Monolith Productions," Hall said. "We are
on schedule for our November release and are moving towards our planned open beta this
spring."
Six Million Gets Funny
odd Phillips, who is writing a new script for the upcoming Six Million Dollar Man film, told SCI FI Wire that star Jim Carrey approached him with the idea of playing a funny version of Steve Austin.
Phillips, who also wrote and directed the upcoming Starsky and Hutch movie, intends to give a comic spin to the classic 1970s SF TV show. "I don't have this goal as a filmmaker to make '70s shows into movies, but my plan was always to work with great comic actors," Phillips said in an interview. "Jim Carrey obviously is another."
Phillips added that action will be a minor aspect of the film. "It's not comedians as action heroes," Phillips said. "It's comedies with a little action in them. I'm more interested in the comedy aspect of these things. Certainly if you have me and Jim Carrey doing it, we're going to set out to make something funny."
Though other writers have attempted drafts of The Six Million Dollar Man, Phillips and Carrey are starting from scratch. "We've actually started it entirely on our own," Phillips said. "I haven't looked at other drafts that existed."
Underworld 2 Going Forward
creen Gems and Lakeshore Entertainment will partner on a sequel to last year's Underworld and have set a fall start for the production, Variety reported.
The sequel to the vampires-versus-werwolves movie brings back Kate Beckinsale as Selene, the blood-sucking heroine who found herself in a loving relationship with a werewolf, the trade paper reported.
Scott Speedman, who played the werewolf, is also expected to return. Len Wiseman will be back as director. Danny McBride will have the script ready by early April, the trade paper reported.
New Line Signs Inkheart
ew Line Cinema has acquired the film rights to German children's author Cornelia Funke's fantasy novel Inkheart as the start to a potential film franchise, Variety reported.
Inkheart joins His Dark Materials, based on Philip Pullman's novels, as potential franchises for the studio now that its Lord of the Rings films have run their course, the trade paper reported.
The deal also covers the subsequent two volumes in Funke's planned trilogy. Inkheart is an adventure story about a young girl whose father has the power to bring characters from books to life.
Inkheart was published in the United States last fall and has spent 19 weeks on the New York Times Children's Chapter best-seller list, the trade paper reported. The second part of the trilogy, Inkblood, recently was delivered for English translation and will be published worldwide next year. Funke has not yet completed the final installment, the trade paper reported.
Primer Gets Deal
hinkFilms has acquired North American distribution rights to Primer, the low-budget SF movie that suprised observers by winning the Grand Jury Prize at last month's Sundance Film Festival, Variety reported.
Dallas-based Shane Carruth wrote, directed, produced and stars in the movie, his first feature film, the trade paper reported.
Primer also won the festival's Alfred P. Sloan Prize, a $20,000 cash award for features that push the boundaries of science and technology, the trade paper reported.
Set on the industrial fringes of an unnamed contemporary city, Primer focuses on two engineers who make a startling discovery while conducting extracurricular experiments, enabling them to do and have almost anything, the trade paper reported.
Miller Helming Sparrow
eorge Miller is in talks to direct The Sparrow, an SF movie and one of two Warner Brothers Pictures projects that Michael Seitzman has been tapped to write, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The Sparrow, an adaptation of the acclaimed novel by Mary Doria Russell, is set in the near future and tells the story of a Jesuit priest who leads a mission to a newly discovered extraterrestrial culture, with disastrous results, the trade paper reported.
Industry Entertainment's Nick Wechsler and Brillstein-Grey Entertainment's Cynthia Pett Dante are producing. An additional producing credit yet to be determined will be one of Plan B's principals, who are Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston and Brad Grey, the trade paper reported.
Miller directed the popular Mad Max movies, as well as The Witches of Eastwick and Babe: Pig in the City, the trade paper reported.
Jak, Ratchet Sequels Due
ony Computer Entertainment America announced that it will publish sequels to Naughty Dog's Jak and Daxter and Insomniac Games' Ratchet & Clank in the fall, the GameSpot Web site reported.
The games are due exclusively for the PlayStation 2, the site reported.
Combined, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy and its sequel, Jak II, have sold 1 million copies worldwide, the site reported. Similarly, Ratchet & Clank and its sequel, Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando, have moved more than 1 million units internationally.
Lost Cast Found
he WB has set the cast for The Robinsons: Lost in Space, its upcoming pilot updating the classic 1960s SF series, Variety reported.
Brad Johnson (Left Behind: The Movie) has joined as John Robinson; Ryan Malgarini (Freaky Friday) will play Will Robinson. The duo join cast members Jayne Brooke, Mike Erwin and Adrianne Palicki, the trade paper reported.
Fox, meanwhile, gave a green light to the pilot Spellbound, which had originally been set up at NBC, the trade paper reported. Rob Greenberg and Suzanne Martin will write and executive produce the sitcom, about a male witch who falls in love with a mortal woman. Andy Ackerman will direct and also executive produce, the trade paper reported.
Reeves Fits Constantine
rancis Lawrence, who is directing the upcoming comic-book film Constantine, told SCI FI Wire that star Keanu Reeves is the perfect actor to play the troubled supernatural detective John Constantine.
"Well, I don't want to get into anything sort of personal, but, I mean, Keanu is kind of a haunted guy, and he's sort of elusive and he's kind of mysterious," Lawrence said in an interview on the set in Compton, Calif., last December. "He's had some sort of tragic things happen to him, and I think [he] ... lives that life a little bit. He's also, I would say, a little self-destructive, which I think Constantine is, you know?"
Reeves plays Constantine, a man who straddles the realms of good and evil while fighting terminal cancer, based on the DC/Vertigo comic series Hellblazer. Lawrence also defended the decision to move the comic story to Los Angeles from London and to make Constantine an American, instead of an Englishman, as he is in the comic.
"Interesting question," Lawrence said. "What I think first attracted me to this project was just the character himself. Not the fact that he was English, not the fact that he had blond hair and not the fact that he wore an olive-colored trench coat. It was sort of what made him who he was. And I think we've maintained that."
What is that, exactly? "I think it's the whole idea of an antihero," Lawrence said. "This guy that sort of understands the world to be a place that normal people don't know exists. I think that he's sort of a supernatural, hard-boiled detective. He reminds me of the Sam Spades and characters from the classic film noirs." Constantine is set to open in September.
New Exorcist Wraps
enny Harlin's reshoot of Exorcist: The Beginning wrapped Feb. 22 after 13 weeks on Rome's Cinecitta Studios backlot, where word is that not a single frame of the footage shot by Paul Schrader will be included in the bedeviled prequel's new cut, Variety reported.
Harlin's 13-week effort equals the amount of time spent by Schrader on his original shoot, the trade paper reported.
Schrader quit the Morgan Creek production last year due to creative differences. Still, his name is reportedly meant to stay on the prequel film.
Three original key cast members—Clara Bellar, Gabriel Mann and pop star Billy Crawford—are not likely to appear in the final version, since they didn't return for reshooting, the trade paper added. A new writer, Alexi Hawley (Grimm), was brought in to rewrite the William Wisher and Caleb Carr script, and a new editor is working only with Harlin's material for the recut, sources told the trade paper. Stellan Skarsgard still stars as a younger Father Merrin.
Exorcist: The Beginning is still slated for release this year.
Smith Offers Hornet Details
riter/director Kevin Smith told fans on his own View Askew Web site that he has already completed 50 pages of the script for The Green Hornet, his upcoming superhero movie based on the long-running radio and TV franchise.
Smith, posting on the site's bulletin board, added that he is going to remain true to the characters and backstory. "Very, very true," he said. "The story spans a few decades, though. ... It's serious. Granted, there will be some humor in it. But we're still playing it straight on this one."
Smith (Dogma) added that the movie will be budgeted at around $70 million, that it is eyeing an August 2005 release and that offers have already gone out for the lead role of Britt Reid, the millionaire newspaper publisher who moonlights as the masked Hornet. "Yes, some offers went out to actors this week," Smith said. "I'm meeting with the guy we all want for Britt Reid Monday night. If actors start accepting offers, I'll let you know."
Smith said that he hopes also to hire The Matrix' kung-fu coordinator Woo-ping Yuen for The Green Hornet. "Christ, yes," he said. "We're working on this now."
Runelords Heads For Film
ranchise Pictures will adapt David Farland's The Runelords fantasy novels for the big screen, the Dark Horizons Web site reported.
Warner Brothers will distribute the movie version of Farland's four-book SF/fantasy series. The $80 million first movie in a potential trilogy will start filming early this summer in and around Prague and the Czech Republic, the site reported.
The Runelords deals with a society with an economy based on "endowments," characteristics of strength, stamina, wit and grace that are used as currency. A Runelord is someone who has hundreds of such endowments and who holds those from whom he has taken such qualities under the lord's care, the site reported.
Casting on the ensemble project has begun and all the names are tipped to be announced by late March, with a director to be named later this week, the site reported.
24 Star Up For Wax
lisha Cuthbert (TV's 24) is in final talks to appear in Dark Castle Entertainment's upcoming horror remake House of Wax for Warner Brothers/Village Roadshow Pictures, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis and Susan Levin are producing, with commercial helmer Jaume Collet-Serra making his feature directorial debut, 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.
The new version, written by Chad and Carey Hayes, will focus on a group of teens who fall prey to demented killers who have a penchant for encasing their victims in wax. Cuthbert plays one of the teens, joining the already-cast Chad Michael Murray, the trade paper reported.
Mission, Star Slated For 2004
quare Enix announced the 2004 release of Front Mission 4, a mech-based strategy video game, and Star Ocean Till the End of Time, an SF adventure role-playing game, both for the PlayStation 2.
Front Mission 4 debuts in June. Star Ocean Till the End of Time will be released in August.
Front Mission 4, the latest chapter in the best-selling series, will deal with political intrigue and a military conspiracy, the company said. Players can fully customize their wanzers, or mech units, with a variety of powerful weaponry and parts.
Star Ocean Till the End of Time, the first PlayStation 2 installment in the science-fiction RPG series, features a director's-cut version that is considered the culmination of
the developer's true vision, the company said. The game centers on Fayt Leingod, whose vacation with his family and childhood friend, Sophia Esteed, turns into a nightmare when the planet Hida is attacked by an unknown space military.
Briefly Noted
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Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling joined Forbes magazine's list of world billionaires, the Reuters news service reported. Once an unemployed single mother, Rowling saw her wealth rise to $1 billion after the publication of the latest Harry Potter novel and the success of the movie franchise, the magazine said.
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Critical Mass Interactive announced the development of Sword of Dracula, a first-person shooter video game based on the Image Comics series of the same name, the GameSpot Web site reported. No release date or platforms for the game were confirmed.
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Inspector Gadget Saves the Day ... Maybe, a new computer-animated movie, is scheduled for release as a TV special and a 65-minute DVD movie in the second half of 2005, Lions Gate's home entertainment division told Variety.
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Armada Pictures has come onboard to finance and co-produce the supernatural horror film Tamara with City Lights Pictures, Variety reported. Sarah Thompson (Angel) stars, with David Sporn (Final Destination) directing from Jeffrey Reddick's script. Shooting begins in May.
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Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ grossed nearly $26.6 million in its first day of release on Feb. 25 and appeared headed for a five-day total of more than $60 million, Hollywood trade papers reported.
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A Kansas moviegoer collapsed and died as a result of a heart attack suffered at a screening of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, during the graphically violent crucifixion scene, Variety reported. Reported to be in her 50s and in good health before the incident, the woman, Peggy Law, was attending the first morning showing of The Passion in Wichita.
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Cinescape Online reported rumors about what may be in the upcoming third X-Men movie.
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Lord of the Rings star Sean Astin (Sam) told the Ain't It Cool News Web site that he's pushing to direct a proposed movie based on Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four series. Astin said that he met with Stan Lee recently to talk about it.
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Viggo Mortensen confirmed to SCI FI Wire that there was interest in bringing him on to the upcoming fifth Batman movie (as previously reported in SCI FI Wire), but that nothing ever came of it. "I guess there was interest from them, but at the moment I'm not available," Mortensen said in an interview.
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Finding Nemo will be recognized by The Humane Society of the United States at its annual Genesis Awards promoting animal protection issues, Zap2it reported.
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The official Universal Pictures Web site has added Serenity, the movie version of TV's canceled SF western series Firefly, to its "Coming Soon" section. Universal is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
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Ngila Dickson took home a trophy for her work in both The Last Samurai and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King when the films tied in the excellence in film, period/fantasy category, at the sixth annual Costume Designers Guild Awards ceremonies on Feb. 21, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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Hyde Park Entertainment hired Adam Shankman to direct Bill Kelly's supernatural thriller film Premonition, Variety reported. The movie revolves around a Midwest housewife whose husband dies in a car crash, only to appear alive the next day.
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