Star Relieved At Angel's End
avid Boreanaz, star of The WB's Angel, told CNN Headline News that he's relieved that the show is finally coming to an end after five seasons, and that there would have to be a good reason for him to put Angel's black trenchcoat back on for the reported Angel TV movies-of-the-week under consideration for next year.
"There's been talk about films, board games—let me see—video games," Boreanaz told the news network. "Everything, across the board. These characters that [executive producer] Joss [Whedon] has created will live forever."
Angel is ending May 19, though reports have suggested that The WB may be considering one or more TV movies to extend the show's story next year. But, Boreanaz said, "I think whenever they want to revisit that character and bring it to a higher plateau, I would only be interested if the bar was [raised] a lot higher."
Boreanaz, who originated the role of the vampire with a soul in the first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer before spinning off in his own series, said that he's currently entertaining three offers for post-Angel projects.
Boreanaz added that he is in talks to appear in September in the London stage production of When Harry Met Sally, a play that also marked the West End stage debut of Alyson Hannigan—a Buffy co-star and the real-life wife of Angel co-star Alexis Denisof. The play has yet another Buffy connection: It currently co-stars Luke Perry, who played opposite Kristy Swanson in the original 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer feature film.
Whedon: Angel Telefilms Unsure
oss Whedon, co-creator of The WB's vampire series Angel, discounted the network's reported plans to spin off a series of TV movies next year based on the show, which ends its five-year run on May 19.
"The rumored movies are so far just rumors," Whedon said in an interview at the Saturn Awards in Los Angeles. "There are no definite plans to do anything with Angel besides finish out the season as well and as hard as we can."
Whedon is currently prepping to direct Serenity, a feature film based on his canceled Fox TV series Firefly. "I started Buffy [the Vampire Slayer] partially because nobody would hire me as a director," he said, tongue in cheek. "I thought, 'I'll create a show, and I'll hire me.' So after eight years of what I consider to be publicly broadcast film school, I'm finally making a film."
For her part, Angel co-star Amy Acker (Fred) said she'd be willing to return for any movie projects. "I heard that they wanted to do it, and then I heard it may not happen," she said. "But ask Joss and then tell me, and tell him to do ones that are all about me," she said with a laugh. Acker added that last month's final day of shooting on the show "was very sad. It was actually an all-night shoot in the rain, so it was very sad. It leaves it pretty open. I mean, some things really come to an end, but ... I think you'll be happy with the ending." Angel airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Serenity Takes Off Soon
oss Whedon—who is directing Serenity, a movie version of his SF western TV series Firefly—told SCI FI Wire that he will begin production in three weeks, with all of the original cast members in place, led by Nathan Fillion.
Compared with the Fox series, the movie will be "bigger, faster, stronger," Whedon said in an interview at the Saturn Awards in Los Angeles. "The show plays on a very small, personal level. And while I want that to work in the movie, the movie has an epic quality and a resolve that you simply can't afford in a TV show. Because if you have the epic quality, you run out of money, and if you have the resolve, you run out of ideas. ... The movie is really like, if you took a giant hit of the show all at once. It's very big. Perhaps I should use different imagery."
Whedon added that the movie will wrap up story points left dangling when Fox unceremoniously canceled the show in the middle of its first season. "It won't wrap up all the storylines," he said. "It's not a miniseries. It's a movie. But it does deal with some of the outstanding questions of the show. Like River [Summer Glau]. River is a very important question in the show."
Whedon added that the movie will be shot in Los Angeles on all-new sets. "They're a little grander in scale," he said. "They're a little more movie-like. ... Everything outside of Serenity is a place we haven't visited and people we've not seen, but it is the world that was from the show." Serenity is aiming at a 2005 release.
Whedon Previews X-Men Arcs
oss Whedon, who will write The Astonishing X-Men comic for Marvel, told SCI FI Wire that he will deal with the "mutant question" in his series, which is set to come out monthly starting May 26.
"It's basically the mutant question and are the mutants taking over the earth, and all of that stuff has been dealt with for so long that I thought I'd talk about it more and try to put a fresh spin on it," Whedon said in an interview at the Saturn Awards in Los Angeles. "I can tell you that, you know, my idea is basically to ... bring up something that will really divide the X-Men amongst themselves. Really bring out what's great and what's weak in every character and really let them play off each other."
Whedon will pen two six-issue arcs. "I have more ideas beyond that, but I'm not making any promises," he said. "If I can get all 12 out, delivered on time, well, anybody who knows me will know that that's an achievement." Whedon was referring to his previous comic series, Fray, which had lengthy delays owing to Whedon's TV commitments running Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly at the time.
X-Men 3 To Shoot In 2005
-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner told SCI FI Wire that a third movie in the Marvel Comics franchise is slated to begin filming in Vancouver, B.C., in June 2005, with a release date of May 2, 2006.
"I just had a conversation with [director] Bryan [Singer] today," Shuler Donner said in an interview at the Saturn Awards in Los Angeles on May 5. "We just started to talk about what the possibilities are. We're pretty sure Wolverine's going to come back."
Shuler Donner added that she's going to push to add the new mutants Gambit and Beast this time around. "I'm dying to put Beast in," Shuler Donner said. "I tried to get Beast in the first one and the second one, but it was always too expensive. So, yeah, I'm really dying to get Beast in, and I'd love to get Gambit in, because he's such a cool guy. And there's some really good casting ideas for Gambit." She declined to say who was up for the role.
As for Halle Berry—the Oscar-winning actress who has said she's reluctant to return unless her character, Storm, has a lot more to do—Shuler Donner said, "I certainly hope so, because I love working with her. ... We would only write a big huge role for her, so she's right in that respect, and we would make sure that that would happen."
And Shuler Donner confirmed that the third movie will deal, at least in part, with the Dark Phoenix storyline that was planted in the second X-Men movie, X2. "We will follow it through in some respect, absolutely, yes," she said. "And we love Famke [Janssen] anyway, so, yeah. Well, she's Dark Phoenix. She's Jean Grey." The producer added that Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris, who wrote the second film, will pen the third installment.
Stewart: X-Men 3 Stirs
atrick Stewart told syndicated columnists Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith that a third X-Men movie is gearing up.
"There are stirrings at Fox now in connection with X-Men 3," Stewart (Professor X) told the columnists.
Stewart added that it's likely he'll return in his role as the psychic paterfamilias of the mutant superheroes. Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation), meanwhile, is readying for the launch of his new version of The Lion in Winter, which debuts on Showtime May 23.
King Rules Saturns
he Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was the big winner at the 30th annual Saturn Awards, taking home eight statuettes in ceremonies May 5 at the Universal Sheraton in Los Angeles.
King copped awards for best fantasy film, best actor (Elijah Wood), best supporting actor (Sean Astin), best director (Peter Jackson), best writing (Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens) and best music (Howard Shore), among others.
No other film came close, though Kill Bill, Vol. 1 took home two awards, for best action/adventure/thriller film and best actress (Uma Thurman), as did Finding Nemo, for best animated film and best supporting actress (Ellen DeGeneres). X2 won the award for best SF film, and 28 Days Later took home the Saturn for best horror film.
Among the TV winners: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation tied with Angel for best network TV series,
Stargate SG-1 won for best syndicated/cable TV series, and Battlestar Galactica took home the honor for best television presentation. Angel's David Boreanaz won the best actor on TV award, while Joan of Arcadia's Amber Tamblyn copped the Saturn for best actress on TV. Angel co-stars James Marsters and Amy Acker also won awards.
Director James Cameron was on hand to receive the 2003 Dr. Donald A. Reed Award, for special achievement, which he was awarded last year, but couldn't collect because he was shooting his documentary Ghosts of the Abyss. Producer Gale Anne Hurd (The Hulk) accepted this year's Reed Award.
Simmons Ready For Spidey 3
.K. Simmons, who reprises his role as J. Jonah Jameson in the upcoming Spider-Man 2, told SCI FI Wire that he's already on board for Spider-Man 3.
"I am absolutely signed up and ready, willing and able and excited about doing Spider-Man 3," Simmons said in an interview. "I think the original plan was to do them every other year, but then [Spider-Man 2] ended up getting a little bit delayed, so we're doing a late June release instead of May. They like that Memorial Day slot, so I think that's the reason for doing a [May 4] 2007 release."
Simmons joked that he'd be happy to play the blustery Jameson every other year for the rest of his life. So far as developing the character, the actor explained that he actually didn't want to know too much more about Jameson. "You have to stay within the confines of what the character's relationships are," Simmons said. "Certainly, the comic books took him to some interesting places over the years. I don't see Triple-J ever being the focus of a Spider-Man movie. I'm not campaigning for that. I don't think that's the function the character serves. Having said that, it's always fun to have a little more to do and a little more screen time and to get to interact with more characters. But in this world I'm very happy to be one of the guys in the background helping to keep the thing afloat." Spider-Man 2 opens June 30.
Quaid Snowed By Day
ennis Quaid, star of the upcoming SF disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow, told SCI FI Wire that the movie promises to be the biggest disaster movie of all time.
"This movie has everything," Quaid said. "It really is the mother of all disaster movies."
Quaid spoke at the unveiling of a one-of-a-kind "weatherized" billboard for the movie on historic Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, Calif., which will spew real rain and snow on actors—a peculiar sight, given the unseasonably warm weather in Southern California.
Quaid added that appearing in the movie allowed him to continue the tradition of disaster epics he enjoyed as a young man. "I've been a fan of disaster movies since Earthquake, in the '70s," he said. "This film is the mother of all disaster movies, rolled into one. We have tornadoes that rip Los Angeles, a massive snowstorm that takes out New Delhi, hail the size of grapefruit that batters Tokyo, and New York, well, there's tidal waves, there's the mother of all ice storms, it's non-stop."
Quaid added that the film also has potent emotional weight and compelling characters to anchor the abundant special effects. "It's also filled with human drama," he said. "Jake Gyllenhaal and myself are in the film. We play father and son, and I'm a paleoclimatologist in the film. I had to learn how to say that, but it's basically someone who studies old weather, and I'm the first one to see [the disaster] coming." The Day After Tomorrow is being released by 20th Century Fox on May 28.
Punisher 2 Eyes Fall 2005
arvel Studios' Avi Arad told the Comics Continuum Web site that he hopes to have a sequel to The Punisher ready by fall 2005.
Star Thomas Jane, who has signed on for three films, and writer/director Jonathan Hensleigh will both be back, the site reported.
Arad also spoke about other Marvel Comics film adaptations, including Elektra and Fantastic Four, both of which are envisioned as PG-13 movies. Elektra began production on May 3 for a Feb. 18, 2005 release; Fantastic Four starts in August for a July 2, 2005, release. Preproduction, meanwhile, has started on Ghost Rider, the site reported.
Helsing Avoids Campy Dracula
ichard Roxburgh, who plays the legendary Count Dracula in Universal's
monster-filled Van Helsing, told SCI FI Wire that he tried to find the man behind the vampire.
"There were some human qualities I wanted to find," the Australian actor said in an interview. "It was a matter of trying to find things that I could to tap into, that I understood, that made sense to me, like the nature of frustration at finding yourself in a position of living forever."
Roxburgh admitted that he took cues from Bela Lugosi's classic portrayal of Dracula, not only because he "absolutely loved Legosi as the count," but also "because [writer-director] Steve [Sommers] was interested in pursuing a sense of the old Universal films," from which Van Helsing drew many of its iconic monsters.
Roxburgh, who has played villains in hit films such as Mission: Impossible II and Moulin Rouge, acknowledged the risk of a character like Dracula verging into camp. "It's a fine line, and Steve's films tread that line, always," he said. "It's fun to experiment with it. But I always felt that I wanted to anchor the character in the sense of an actual human being, a person who feels that frustration and is terribly tired of the situation that he finds himself in, three wonderful brides notwithstanding."
Roxburgh added, "One thing that's always interesting to bear in mind is that, in the great history of [Dracula movies], I think almost without exception, their releases have been surrounded by controversy and at times disdain. Certainly Bela Legosi's Count Dracula, at the time, was regarded as essentially a kind of B-movie piece of junk, whereas now it has real luster and appeal to people."
Van Helsing, from Universal Pictures, opens May 7. Universal is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Campbell: Bubba II Possible
ruce Campbell told SCI FI Wire that a sequel to his cult 2002 independent movie Bubba Ho-tep is a distinct possibility.
The horror comedy, based on Joe R. Lansdale's short story, told the story of an aged Elvis Presley (Campbell) and President Kennedy (Ossie Davis) battling a soul-sucking mummy at an old folks' home in Texas. It is about to arrive on DVD.
"At the end of the movie we make a joke that he's coming back as Bubba Nosferatu," Campbell said in an interview. "I honestly think that the odds of a Bubba sequel are as good as the DVD release is wide. If we get on the DVD charts and stay there for a few weeks, you might see another one. But Joe Lansdale is not a big fan of sequels. He may or may not go for it, and I respect that."
Tapping into his inner Elvis was easy, Campbell said. "Everyone's done Elvis," he said. "All men have done Elvis in the shower at some point. Everyone says, 'Thank you. Thank you very much.' But the trick was to play him as a 70-year-old man with no Memphis Mafia, with no hot and cold running babes, without any good health and with some nasty stuff on his penis. So the only thing I had to do was capture him as a bitter old man in a rest home who happens to be Elvis."
MGM Home Entertainment will release a collector's edition Bubba Ho-tep DVD on May 25, which will include deleted scenes, a photo gallery, Lansdale reading from his story and commentary from both Campbell and writer-director Don Coscarelli (the Phantasm film series). The movie grossed more than $1 million at the box office last year. "Bubba was well into profit well before it even got to DVD," Campbell said. "And that's the whole game. With a film this inexpensive, this is all gravy as far as I'm concerned. The real victory was getting Bubba in theaters all across this country, and we managed to do that. So far as avoiding the straight-to-DVD curse, we're miles ahead."
Bana Denies Bond Rumors
ric Bana (The Hulk) denied rumors that he was under consideration to take over the role of James Bond from Pierce Brosnan or that he would take it if offered the part, the Zap2it Web site reported.
"Someone told me that yesterday," he told the site with a laugh. "That's not something I've ever really contemplated. No, I wouldn't be a Bond, no." Bana denied that he'd been offered the coveted role.
Since Sony placed a bid for MGM in mid-April, the future of the Bond franchise may be put on hold until the studio's future is more secure, the site reported.
Vosloo Wrapped Up In Mummy 3
rnold Vosloo, who played the title monster in The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, told SCI FI Wire that he wants to reprise his role and thinks a third installment could happen soon.
"I think we'll do a third one maybe in two more years or so," Vosloo said in an interview. "We'll do a third Mummy, and we expect to be doing more of them."
In a separate interview, Mummy writer/director Stephen Sommers said that he has not thought as far ahead as Vosloo. "I haven't had time to think about it," Sommers said. "I've been working on [Van Helsing] for two years."
Vosloo joked that his character is tougher than any that Hugh Jackman's Van Helsing character faces in the new film. "We'll have the mummy come back and kick Van Helsing's ass in two years' time," Vosloo said.
Lee To Fight Elektra
ill Yun Lee (Die Another Day, Witchblade) is set to star as the main villain in Elektra, the Daredevil spinoff movie starring Jennifer Garner, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Shooting starts this month in Vancouver, with Rob Bowman at the helm, the trade paper reported.
Garner plays Elektra Natchios, a beautiful but deadly assassin who was trained by the Hand, a clan of mystical ninjas. When she turns her back on them, they want her dead. Lee will play the head of the Hand, the trade paper reported.
Goran Visnjic (ER) stars as Garner's love interest, with Terence Stamp rounding out the cast.
Seinfeld And Superman On NBC?
BC has said it will air The Adventures of Seinfeld & Superman from 8:44-9 p.m. on May 20, Variety reported.
Insiders told the trade paper that the network has partnered with American Express to air a special based on Jerry Seinfeld's current Amex Web series, in which the comedian pals around with the Man of Steel. The NBC special will mix original Seinfeld-Superman footage with elements from the Internet shorts, Variety reported.
There's no word yet on whether Amex is paying for the airtime, or if NBC simply views it as a way to get Seinfeld back on NBC, the trade paper reported.
Bird Helming Daughter
ntonia Bird has been attached to direct Abraham's Daughter, a supernatural horror film from Raw Nerve, the genre division of GreeneStreet Films, Variety reported.
Boaz Yakin and Edward Ricourt wrote the script, about a recently widowed woman who begins having horrifying visions of murdered children, prompting her to dig into the past of her small town to discover a gruesome conspiracy, the trade paper reported.
Lauren Moews will produce with Raw Nerve principals Yakin, Eli Roth and Scott Spiegel. Moews previously produced the Lions Gate horror hit Cabin Fever, which Roth directed.
Polar Due In Imax 3-D
arner Brothers has struck a deal with Imax to release a 3-D version of its upcoming computer-animated fantasy film The Polar Express on Imax screens on Nov. 19, the same day the movie makes its premiere in traditional theaters, Variety reported.
The Polar Express will be the sixth film that Warner has released on Imax screens. The two companies also partnered on the Matrix sequels and NASCAR 3D, the trade paper reported. This summer, they will also jointly distribute Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Catwoman.
Tom Hanks stars in The Polar Express, which was directed by Robert Zemeckis, the trade paper reported.
Cameron Readies SF Movies
irector James Cameron told SCI FI Wire that he will begin shooting his ambitious, as-yet-untitled SF movie as soon as this November with the 3-D high-definition video cameras he developed for his Titanic documentary Ghosts of the Abyss.
"I'm writing it," Cameron said in an interview at the Saturn Awards ceremony in Los Angeles. "It's very futuristic; [it] takes place in a distant future, and [there's] lots of wild action and amazing characters and, hopefully, a very emotional journey as well. We're setting that up for release ... about this time of the year in 2006, Memorial Day or somewhere around that."
Cameron also reported that he and writer Dario Scardapane (Posse) are refining the script for a proposed remake of the 1966 SF movie Fantastic Voyage. "We have a pretty good script, [but it] still needs to go another iteration," Cameron said. He added that he will find a director for it, but hasn't decided whether it will go forward or not. And he left open the possibility that it, too, could be shot in 3-D, though likely not.
The movie will update the original Raquel Welch SF thriller, about scientists who shrink themselves and are inserted into the bloodstream of an ailing spy. "How do you sell that concept to people?" Cameron said. "For me, the thing in cracking the script, which we've done, was figuring out the social context. Because ... the first film was made in the mid '60s, I think it was '66, and it was a Cold-War-era thriller. And it was about a battle between two superpowers. We're projecting into an age where we're looking at information totalitarianism, where in the pursuit of security in a world of terrorism, people have given up their freedom to an information state. And so, in ours, there are no good guys and bad guys. There are, you know, these two vast blocs: The Coalition and The Alliance. But really, the government is the enemy. So it's a whole different kind of spy thriller than the one in '66."
Cameron added, "The writer is Dario Scardapane. He and I have been working together on that for about a year now. We're not quite there yet. It was a tough nut to crack."
Emmerich Nixes ID4 Sequel
oland Emmerich, director, co-writer and co-producer of Independence Day, told SCI FI Wire that a sequel to the 1996 SF blockbuster is not in the cards.
"[Independence Day co-writer and co-producer] Dean [Devlin] and I met two or three times to figure out a way how to continue the story and we couldn't," Emmerich said while promoting his latest doomsday epic, the upcoming The Day After Tomorrow.
Emmerich added, "Everything sounded like a repeat, and we don't want to do repeats. At least, I don't want to. We went to Fox, who'd already given us money. We said to them, 'Guys, we have to give you your money back.' It's probably the first time that's happened. We're very, very disappointed, but what can you do?" The Day After Tomorrow opens May 28.
Shadows In The Wings
ame publisher Eidos announced today that Thief: Deadly Shadows had already gone gold and that the third installment in the stealth action franchise would ship for PC on May 25, according to the GameSpot web site.
The site added that an Xbox version of the game is set to ship later this year.
The game, developed by Ion Storm, enables players to assume the role of Garrett, a master thief who steals from the rich and keeps any bounties for himself. His routine is thrown for a loop when the Keepers, the secret society that taught him everything he knows, request his help in forestalling a prophesied Dark Age that threatens The City. However, in his effort to do so, Garrett raises an ancient hidden evil and discovers that he somehow figures into the prophecy. Thief: Deadly Shadows is rated "M" for Mature.
Fish Big On DVD
ig Fish ranked atop the DVD sales chart in its first week of release, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The trade paper noted that Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment sold almost 2 million units to consumers and rental stores in five days.
Based on the book by Daniel Wallace and directed by Tim Burton, Big Fish related the story of a young man (Billy Crudup) trying to reconnect with his dying father (Albert Finney in the present day, Ewan McGregor in flashbacks), a man who'd spent his life telling larger-than-life tales that may or may not have been true. According to Hollywood Reporter, the DVD was also the best-renting title and generated an estimated $13.5 million in gross rental revenue for the week ending May 2.
A Bangle Sells An Exorcism
evolution Studios has optioned the comedy script Exorcism for Dummies by first-time writers Susanna Hoffs Roach, Brian Stampnitsky and Charley Stickney, Variety reported.
The comedy centers on a slacker posing as an exorcist who is shocked to discover he actually has the gift and must recapture the nasty spirits he has accidentally unleashed on the world, the trade paper reported.
Roach, Stampnitsky and Stickney will rewrite the project, which is still early in development. No director or cast has been attached, the trade paper reported.
Roach is best known for being the lead singer of the popular '80s band the Bangles, the trade paper reported.
Ju-On Coming To U.S.
ions Gate will release Takashi Shimizu's original Japanese supernatural horror film Ju-On (The Grudge) in Los Angeles and New York on July 23, before expanding its limited release to other American cities, the Creature Corner Web site reported.
Sony is currently producing an American version of the movie, also directed by Shimizu. That film, titled The Grudge, is currently in post-production and stars Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jason Behr, but it won't hit theaters until the fall.
After its initial opening, Lions Gate, in conjunction with Vitagraph Films (Bubba Ho-tep), will expand Ju-On to Chicago, San Francisco, San Diego and Seattle, the Web site reported.
Ju-On was a hit in its original Japanese release, prompting Sam Raimi's Ghost House Productions to mount the American remake, which was shot in Tokyo this past winter. It deals with a curse that befalls a house in a Tokyo, instilling a murderous rage.
Germany Declines M:I 3 Shoot
ermany has turned down a request by Tom Cruise to shoot scenes for the upcoming Mission: Impossible 3 in the famous Reichstag parliament building's giant glass-and-steel dome, a parliamentary spokesman told the Reuters news service.
Cruise, 41, co-producer and star of M:I 3, was in the German capital last month to scout locations for the sequel, due to start filming later this year, the wire service reported.
One of his favorite locations was the 130-foot-diameter dome on the top of the parliament building. But the German parliament turned down the request to film there, Reuters reported. "The building is not available as a film location, and we refuse point-blank every request to use it as such," said a spokesman for Parliament President Wolfgang Thierse. "It is about maintaining the dignity of the parliament."
Munsters Creep To DVD
DVD set of the first season of the classic 1960s monster sitcom The Munsters is headed for DVD on Aug. 24, in time for its 40th anniversary, Universal Home Entertainment announced.
The show, starring Fred Gwynne and Yvonne De Carlo, aired from 1964 to '66 on CBS and dealt with a family of wacky monsters and their seemingly normal niece. The DVD set will carry a suggested retail price of $59.98 and includes the previously unaired pilot episode, plus all 38 episodes from show's first season.
The company will also release a DVD set of the first season of Rod Serling's 1970 supernatural horror anthology series, Night Gallery, which includes a segment directed by a young Steven Spielberg. The set features 20 stories hosted by Serling.
Universal Home Entertainment is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Sith Lords Announced
ucasArts announced the development of Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, the follow-up title to last year’s award-winning role-playing game.
The announcement was part of the company's official 2004 Electronic Entertainment Expo lineup. The Sith Lords will be officially unveiled at E3 2004 in Los Angeles this month and will be released for the Xbox and the PC in February 2005.
Beginning approximately five years after the events of the first Knights of the Old Republic, The Sith Lords takes players on a new journey as they assume the role of what is believed to be the last Jedi in the galaxy. The game features a cast of memorable returning characters and sinister new villains, the company said.
The Sith Lords is published by LucasArts and developed by Obsidian Entertainment Inc.
Star Wars Galaxies Fest On Tap
ucasArts will present the first ever Star Wars Galaxies Fan Fest June 4 and 5 in Anaheim, Calif., for players of the online game.
The Fan Fest, at the Anaheim Hilton, is designed for fans of Star Wars Galaxies to get together in person with the personalities they've been playing with for almost a year, the company said.
Fans will also have a chance to meet and chat with the development team of An Empire Divided, including Haden Blackman (producer, LucasArts) and Rich Vogel (executive producer, Sony Online Entertainment), as well as many producers and lead game designers. Fan Fest attendees can also participate in panels and forums, play in both in-game and live events, win prizes and buy Star Wars Galaxies merchandise and other Star Wars items.
Scanner Cast Fills Out
inona Ryder, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson and Rory Cochran will join Keanu Reeves in A Scanner Darkly, the Warner Independent Pictures movie based on a Philip K. Dick novel, Variety reported.
Richard Linklater will direct and wrote the adaptation.
Linklater will shoot the actors in scenes that will later be turned into animation, much as he did with Waking Life, the trade paper reported.
Section 8 partners George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh are producing, along with Jonah Smith and Palmer West, whose company Thousand Words is co-financing the film with WIP, the trade paper reported. Tommy Pallotta and Anne Walker McBay are also producing. Bob Sabiston is animation director, a job he held on Waking Life.
Reeves plays an undercover drug officer in the future who becomes addicted and develops a split personality.
Schneider Is Fearless
ob Schneider will star in and produce Fearless, an SF comedy based on an original pitch by Travis Mann and Bob Kosberg, for Revolution Studios, Variety reported.
Fearless is the story of a meek soldier who is transformed into a fearless fighting machine when he becomes the subject of a top-secret experiment, the trade paper reported.
Josh Lieb (The Simpsons) is writing the script. Schneider, his brother and producing partner, John Schneider, and Michael Chinich will produce through their From Out of Nowhere production company, the trade paper reported. Mann also will produce, while Kosberg will executive produce.
WB Close To Jack Pickup
he WB is close to picking up Jack & Bobby, a drama pilot about two brothers, one of whom is set to be elected president of the United States in 2040, Variety reported.
Christine Lahti stars as their single mother, a hard-nosed college professor who's reluctant to let her oldest son take on the job of shaping his younger brother, the trade paper reported.
WBTV is producing, along with former West Wing helmer Thomas Schlamme's Shoe Money Productions and Everwood creator Greg Berlanti's Berlanti-Liddell company, the trade paper reported. Schlamme and Berlanti are executive producers, as are Vanessa Taylor and Mickey Liddell. Brad Meltzer and Steve "Scoop" Cohen have been part of the project since its inception two years ago, the trade paper reported. The WB makes its official schedule announcement on May 18 in New York.
V Series Comes To DVD
arner Home Video will release on July 27 a three-disc DVD set for V: The Complete Series, featuring all 19 episodes of the 1984 alien-invasion TV series that originally aired on NBC, the company said.
The series, based on an earlier miniseries, dealt with an invasion by reptilian aliens disguised as humans and its aftermath.
V: The Complete Series stars Marc Singer, Lane Smith, Robert Englund, Michael Ironside, Faye Grant, Jennifer Cooke, Michael Wright, Jane Badler and Jeff Yagher.
Matrix Online Testers Sought
arner Brothers is signing up potential beta testers for The Matrix Online, its upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game, based on the SF film trilogy.
The company will choose several thousand applicants to take part in the beta test.
Applicants must live in the United States or Canada, meet minimum system requirements, have an active Internet connection and agree to the terms of the test. Testers will be selected starting this month.
The Matrix Online continues the story of the Matrix movie trilogy. Players will inhabit an enormous urban sprawl, which spreads for miles in all directions, where a secret war is being waged for the survival of humanity and machines alike.
Troll Snatches Prize
roll: A Love Story, a fantasy novel by Finnish author Johanna Sinisalo, was the dark-horse winner of the Finlandia Prize, which is awarded each year for the best novel published in Finland, USA Today reported.
The newspaper described the book as "a punk version of The Hobbit," featuring a gay photographer, his gay consorts and a small, catlike creature in the title role. The book has been translated into English and is now available in North America.
In Troll, Sinisalo taps into the Finnish mythology about trolls in her story about a photographer, Angel, who rescues a baby troll from a gang of thugs. Angel names him Pessi and hides him. But a mail-order bride from the Philippines who lives one floor down figures out his secret, as does the predatory Dr. Spiderman, a vet who helps him bring the troll back to good health, the newspaper reported.
To promote the book, its American publisher, Grove Atlantic, has put up a faux Web site for Evorg Citnalta, the Finnish Institute of Arctic Zoology. "Evorg Citnalta" is Grove Atlantic spelled backwards.
Phoenix Adapting Pariah
hoenix Pictures has acquired feature rights to Graham Masterton's supernatural horror novel The Pariah and tapped Brian Carr to adapt, Variety reported.
The story focuses on a man haunted by his dead wife, whose return and the town's ghostly sightings are linked to a long-forgotten shipwreck off the New England coast. Tor Books published the novel in 1984, the trade paper reported.
Phoenix will produce the project with Underground Films' Nick Osborne. Trevor Engelson will co-produce, the trade paper reported.
Silver Screams To TV
oel Silver's Silver Pictures (The Matrix) and Orchid Ventures have partnered to form Scream, a 24-hour cable TV network dedicated to horror, suspense and thriller-oriented entertainment, Variety reported.
The channel is slated for a January launch, the trade paper reported.
Silver and Robert Zemeckis' Dark Castle Entertainment (Gothika) is on board to create and develop original content for the channel, the trade paper reported.
Scream will feature a branded Dark Castle Presents night, which will highlight top-tier genre programming, including hit Dark Castle films such as Ghost Ship, Thirteen Ghosts and House on Haunted Hill, the trade paper reported. In addition, the network is in final talks with two studios to license libraries of film titles related to the horror and suspense genres.
Helmer Leaves Talisman
irector Vadim Perelman (House of Sand and Fog) has left DreamWorks' supernatural horror film The Talisman, Variety reported.
"The decision was mutual to part ways on the project," a DreamWorks spokeswoman told the trade paper. "The studio remains committed to finding the best team for a film of this scope."
Perelman's publicist told the trade paper that, to his knowledge, the helmer was never fully contracted to direct Talisman, which is based on a horror novel by Stephen King and Peter Straub. "I don't think it was ever firm," he said.
Like the novel, the movie deals with a 12-year-old boy who goes on a supernatural journey to find the talisman that can save his mother, who is dying from lung cancer, the trade paper reported. Steven Spielberg is executive producing, with Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Colin Wilson producing.
Evil 2 Regenerates Ad
he upcoming zombie sequel movie Resident Evil: Apocalypse, which is directed by Alexander Witt, will feature a faux TV commercial for a beauty product called "Regenerate" that was originally a teaser trailer for the first Resident Evil, Variety reported.
Marcus Nispel directed the "Regenerate" commercial, an apparent ad by the Umbrella Co., the company behind the zombie infestation, the trade paper reported.
It is unlikely that Nispel, an ad helmer who has become a feature-film director in his own right, will get a directing credit in the upcoming sequel film, which is slated to open in September, the trade paper reported.
No Lucius Malfoy In Azkaban
ritish actor Jason Isaacs told the British Sun tabloid newspaper that he won't appear as the villainous Lucius Malfoy in the upcoming Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban film, but would show up in the proposed fourth film in the series.
"I make a tiny cameo appearance in the fourth film [The Goblet of Fire], to remind people that I still exist, as I have a bit more to do in the fifth one [The Order of the Phoenix]," Isaacs told the newspaper.
Isaacs added, "To be honest, I thought I wouldn't get to be in the fourth film at all, but it will be nice to get the wig out of mothballs and start the slow warm-up for number five, where I have some rather juicy and lovely stuff. I'm looking forward to it, as long as everyone else agrees to do it. For all I know the kids could be married with children by then."
Prisoner of Azkaban, based on the third of J.K. Rowling's best-selling fantasy novels, is due in theaters June 4.
Citizen Zero In Works
icro Forté confirmed that it is developing Citizen Zero, a massively multiplayer online game, for the PC and Xbox.
The SF title combines an action shooter with a role-playing game, the company said.
Citizen Zero is set in the future on the penal planet of Typhron, which has lost contact with Earth, trapping the inhabitants in a few enclaves. Players are prisoners whose memories have been wiped, but who have broken free of their behavioral inhibitor chips.
Gamers can play solo or work as a team, deploying hundreds of special class abilities, combo attacks and multistage takedowns.
Briefly Noted
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Sony has scrapped plans to put Spider-Man 2 logos on infield bases in 15 Major League Baseball ballparks during the weekend of June 11-13 after fans protested, Variety reported.
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Game publisher Square Enix will release Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, a direct-to-DVD sequel to its 1997 game Final Fantasy VII, according to Variety. The game will ship in 2005.
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DreamWorks has moved up the release date of its highly anticipated computer-animated sequel film Shrek 2 two days, to May 19 from May 21, the ComingSoon.net Web site reported.
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Superhero Hype! reported that Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment will release a two-disc special edition Hellboy DVD on July 27.
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Steve Niles, creator of the vampire comic series 30 Days of Night, told the Comics Continuum Web site that writer Stuart Beattie (Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl) has been brought aboard to do a rewrite on his screenplay for a movie version of the comic.
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Writer Jeff Melvoin (Line of Fire) has signed on as executive producer and show runner for the fourth season of ABC's Alias, Variety reported. He replaces John Eisendrath, who is leaving the show after three seasons.
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A new, full trailer has gone live for the upcoming SF disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow, which opens May 28.
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Warner Brothers officially denied a rumor that actor John Malkovich will play Lord Voldemort in the upcoming fourth Harry Potter film, The Goblet of Fire, the BBC Web site reported.
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Music video and commercials director Andrew Douglas will make his feature-film directing debut on MGM and Dimension Films' remake of The Amityville Horror, which is expected to begin production in July and is slated for release Jan. 14, 2005, Variety reported.
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Warner Brothers has posted new images of Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne and the caped crusader from the upcoming Batman Begins on its official
Web site.
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Eileen Atkins and Justin Kirk have been added to the cast of Paramount's Mission: Impossible 3, starring Tom Cruise, Variety reported.
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