Angel's Gone, But Not Whedon
he final episode of The WB's Angel has aired, but series co-creator Joss Whedon told Zap1it that the show's finale doesn't mark the end of the "Buffyverse," referring to the universe created in Angel's predecessor series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Whedon told the site that he's talking with Dark Horse Comics about reviving the Buffy comic-book series and making that a place where the two shows' mythology lives on.
Whedon added that he's also had a few discussions about an Angel TV movie or another spinoff, which he says he'd do only if a cogent idea comes to him and he can assemble enough of the cast and crew to execute it properly, the site reported. "I'd rather stop now than do anything by halves," he told the site. But, he added, "I just don't believe that the Buffyverse is dead."
The end of Angel also marks the first season in eight years that viewers won't have a new Whedon show on the air. His previous shows, UPN's Buffy and Fox's short-lived Firefly, ended last year. But that likely won't last long, as Whedon has a development deal with 20th Century Fox TV and says he still wants to develop new shows (nothing is planned for the coming season), the site reported. Whedon's next gig is to direct Serenity, a feature film based on Firefly, which begins shooting later this month.
Day Has A Big Message
oland Emmerich, director of the upcoming environmental disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow, told SCI FI Wire that he had sworn off disaster movies, but returned to the genre in part because he felt compelled to deal with the movie's message about the consequences of global warming.
"I hope it creates a discussion," Emmerich (Independence Day) said in an interview. "[It's] already create a discussion, you know what I mean? ... It doesn't really matter if this movie's a success or not, because it's already out there."
Environmentalists have seized upon Day to renew arguments for stricter controls on greenhouse-gas emissions and other measures, while others are taking issue with the film's dire scenario. In Day, Emmerich depicts a world beset by massive storms as a result of shifts in the global climate. He said that he was inspired to make the movie in part after reading Art Bell's nonfiction book The Coming Global Superstorm. "After Independence Day, I didn't want to do [disaster movies] again," Emmerich said. "I didn't want to repeat myself. But I also thought, 'You know, I think like this movie's like very different than Independence Day. ... It's like ... when you find something that you can give people [a] message, but still make it an exciting movie, ... you kind of get very, very, kind of excited about something. Then you probably like work harder than you normally do."
Day also features a president and vice president who resemble, at least superficially, the current occupants of the White House, which Emmerich said was intended in part as a critique of the current regime's policies. "When you make a movie about global warming causing an ice age in America, you have to kind of portray a government," he said. "And if you want to make it real, you have to portray somewhat the political government which is in place right now. And it's a fact that they kind of don't do anything about the environment. They're going to think that it's all a big hoax." The Day After Tomorrow opens May 28.
Star Likes New Darko
ake Gyllenhaal, star of the cult 2001 SF film Donnie Darko, told SCI FI Wire that he's pleased about the upcoming re-release of the film in a new, extended director's cut.
"I know that [writer/director] Richard [Kelly] is sort of recutting it from ... [the] perspective [of] what he thinks it should have been after three years," Gyllenhaal said in an interview.
Gyllenhaal added, "It'll be 20 more minutes. ... I'm really interested to see if it's just kind of going to stay this thing that people want to be underground and in the shadows, or if people are really going to want to see it like that. I'm not so sure. I don't think it really matters to me, but I'm just happy, because things like that don't get a second chance that often."
Newmarket Films will unveil the director's cut with new visual effects and music at the Seattle Film Festival on May 29 as a test for a wider re-release later in the summer.
Gyllenhaal added with tongue in cheek that he and Kelly could have done a commentary for the new release. "We were joking the other day, my friend and I, like, that the new version would be, like, me and Richard doing a commentary over it," he said with a laugh. "People walk into the theater, it'll be like, 'That was such a fun day. I know.' People [would be] like, 'This is the new version? Like, this sucks!'"
Rossum Sings About Phantom
mmy Rossum, the 17-year-old actress who plays the lead role of opera singer Christine Daae in the upcoming Phantom of the Opera, told SCI FI Wire that the part allows her to combine her love of singing with her love of acting.
A classically trained opera singer since the age of 7, Rossum has appeared in 20 different operas at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, singing in five languages, and has acted in films from 2000's Songcatcher to the upcoming SF epic movie Day After Tomorrow.
In director Joel Schumacher's Phantom, based on the hit Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, Rossum plays the young singer seduced by the Phantom (played by Gerard Butler) and sang as well. "I got to fulfill my dream of being a big opera star, because I just did it for eight months in a film," Rossum said in an interview. "And, you know, so much of the method came into that that I really felt that I was living that. So it was really wonderful." She added, "I think it was kind of full circle for me, because I'd always as a kid dreamed of being an opera singer. I never dreamed of being an actress. I kind of fell into this. And it's become so much of a passion of mine. But I never anticipated it happening like this."
Rossum had high praise for director Schumacher. "It's a huge production, and it's got amazing sets and fantastic costumes, and I think that Joel is an amazing choice for a director for this, because he's got such an eye for detail in terms of sets and costumes and the little beading on a bodice, down to the character's complexity and why she's saying what she's saying," she said.
As for her character, "The opportunity to sing and act, which are my two passions, within the same film was just fantastic. But the opportunity to play a character who's so complex and, you know, conflicted. ... There's so many opportunities to show such an emotional range, between the fact that she's needy and vulnerable and wounded and manipulated because of that, and loving and sexy and compassionate. I mean, there are so many things to cope with with this character." The Phantom of the Opera, which is currently in post-production, is slated to open in December.
Shrek 2 Sets One Day Record
hrek 2 debuted May 21 to a record $11.8 million at the domestic box office, marking the best performance by an animated film opening at midweek ever, the Reuters news service reported.
The first Shrek raked in $267 million at North American box offices and a total of around $455 million worldwide, the news service reported. Privately held DreamWorks has high hopes that the sequel, which has earned solid reviews, can perform at least as well, Reuters reported.
The previous best one-day debut at midweek by an animated movie was Pokemon the First Movie, which opened in 1999 on a Wednesday to $10.1 million at the domestic box office, according to Los Angeles box office tracker Exhibitor Relations Inc.
Shrek 2, Directors Three
elly Asbury and Conrad Vernon, two of Shrek 2's three directors, told SCI FI Wire that helming an animated film not only benefits from having multiple directors, it also requires them.
"We are sort of the keepers of the visions of the movie, and it's a big collaboration," Asbury said in an interview. "We have to make sure the vision that is put together from all of these committees is made correctly, so we stick with it, and we stay with it. Sometimes it's very helpful to have collaborators. I actually have found that to do it alone would be a huge task, and it's possible, but animation takes a long time and a lot of years."
Asbury said that the three-person team allowed the creative process to move much more quickly. "It's a relay race, and you hand off the baton to each other at different times," Asbury said. "Conrad and I were up north in Northern California working with the animators and the lighters and the surfacing department and the effects artists. Andy [Adamson, the third director,] wrote the script and a lot of the outline, and when he had to peel off and start working on The Chronicles of Narnia, Conrad and I took the baton and went up north. Andrew would be here sometimes to work with the actors in the studio. Sometimes I would direct the actors in the studio at various times. Wherever you are and whatever's needed, you do it."
Vernon also said that working with other directors on the various responsibilities on an animated movie made the daily grind more bearable. "It's not necessarily grueling, but over time, it gets repetitive if you're doing the exact same thing every single day," Vernon said in a separate interview. "You're seeing different stuff, and you're always entertained by that. But at 10 a.m. every single day, we were at the animators'. At 5 p.m., we were at the animators' again. This happened every single day for a year and a half. If you don't feel very well, too bad. If you've got a doctor's appointment, if you get a flat tire, you've got to be in there, because there's no one else. There's been plenty of times when Kelly and I would switch off, and that's what the benefit of having more than one director is." Shrek 2 opens nationwide May 19.
Directors Expand Shrek 2 World
onrad Vernon and Kelly Asbury, two of the directors of the upcoming animated sequel Shrek 2, told SCI FI Wire that their goal was to expand the first movie's fairy-tale world.
"I'm not quite sure we were necessarily looking to better it, but to logically take it to the next place emotionally and character-wise," Asbury said in an interview. "We weren't looking to repeat what we had done on the first one."
Asbury said that the real challenge with the sequel was coming up with a story that extended the characters' lives past the tidy conclusions each one arrived at by the end of the original Shrek. "In the first film, our villain was eaten by a dragon," Asbury said. "Our hero and heroine rode off into the sunset to live their happily ever after. The story ended, and the only jump off point that felt logical was, 'Well, one thing we didn't see in the first film: How would Fiona's parents react to her decision to marry this ogre, and that her curse is not reversed?' Now she's an ogress all of the time. That presented a whole new story to go on and a whole new place to go."
Vernon added that their goal was not merely to repeat the rhythms of the original. "Based on what the characters learned in the first film about themselves, make sure they don't make the same mistakes," he said. Asbury added that the process required them to play on the expectations of the first film's audience. "The first film is a quest. We go a to 'B' and you kind of get to know the characters, who they are, what their fears are, etc. With the second film, we kind of wanted to mix up the story a little bit, make it a little bit more twisty and turny, give you a few surprises and see how these characters that we know react to these new situations." Shrek 2 opens May 19.
Fans Helped Renew Enterprise
awn Ostroff, UPN's president of entertainment, said that fan clamor was party responsible for the network's renewing Star Trek: Enterprise for a fourth season in a new timeslot, 9 p.m. ET/PT Fridays.
"By the amount of mail and calls that we've received from loyal Star Trek fans, we have every reason to believe that the viewers will follow Enterprise to its new night and time," Ostroff told advertisers May 20 at the network's "upfront" presentation. "After all, this is a show that recently topped a USA Today poll, with 70 percent of the respondents voting for Enterprise to come back next season."
The new timeslot "is the same night and time where X-Files found its following and thrived for years," Ostroff added.
UPN officially picked up the ratings-challenged Enterprise, which had been "on the bubble" for weeks, meaning that its fate was uncertain. The network said that the new season will be "more action-packed, with spectacular special effects," and "will take Star Trek: Enterprise into further uncharted territory, while advancing last season's critically acclaimed storylines, including Vulcan Sub Commander T'Pol's (Jolene Blalock) blossoming relationship with Chief Engineer Charles 'Trip' Tucker III (Connor Trinneer) and mysterious twists in the familiar timeline." The third-season finale of Enterprise, "Zero Hour," airs May 26 at 8 p.m.
UPN: Enterprise Lives
PN renewed its ratings-challenged Star Trek: Enterprise for a fourth season, though it's likely to move to Fridays from Wednesdays next season, Variety reported.
UPN is expected to make the formal announcement as part of its prime-time schedule in its "upfront" presentation to advertisers on May 20.
The fate of Enterprise, the last remaining active enterprise in the once-robust Trek franchise, has been in doubt all year, as ratings have stagnated despite what was regarded as a creative turnaround in the show's storylines. A season-long arc, focused on the Xindi alien threat to Earth, resolves in the third-season finale, "Countdown," which airs at 8 p.m. ET/PT on May 19.
Doohan Bids Fans Farewell
ames Doohan, who played Scotty in the original Star Trek, will make what is being billed as his last convention appearance, Aug. 28-30, in Hollywood, Calif., the official Trek Web site reported.
Planet Xpo is sponsoring the convention, called "Beam Me Up Scotty ... One Last Time," at the Rennaisance Hollywood Hotel.
Doohan will be joined by the entire remaining cast of Star Trek on Sunday afternoon, including William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig, Majel Barrett Roddenberry and Grace Lee Whitney, plus dozens of guest stars from the classic Trek series and movies, the site reported.
On the previous Friday, Aug. 27, Doohan is scheduled to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, though the star has not been formally announced by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.
Alias Gone Until January
BC announced that the fourth season of its cult hit spy show Alias will air without repeats next year, but that it won't begin until January, the Zap2it Web site reported.
ABC made the announcement May 18 during its so-called "upfront" presentation to advertisers in New York.
Alias' location-heavy shooting schedule has made it difficult to deliver a large number of consecutive episodes, network executives said.
Stephen McPherson, ABC's president of prime-time entertainment, said that Alias creator J.J. Abrams came to him at the end of this season and said he wanted to "get back to some of the stuff that first inspired [Abrams] about the show," the site reported. "I think he saw [Alias star Jennifer Garner] in 13 Going on 30, and there was such joy and happiness in her face," McPherson said. "I think we really want to get some of that infused back into the show, and we want to have a good running start to be able to do that." The third-season finale of Alias, "Resurrection," will air May 23.
NBC Slates Supernatural Shows
BC has put two supernatural shows on its fall 2004 schedule, Variety reported. NBC will air Revelations, an eight-episode limited series that could serve as a sweeps tentpole, the trade paper reported.
Revelations, from executive producers David Seltzer and Gavin Polone, is an end-of-days thriller.
NBC has also ordered an eight-episode run of the supernatural-tinged Medium, with five backup scripts ordered as well, the trade paper reported. From Paramount and Kelsey Grammer's Grammnet, Medium stars Patricia Arquette as a housewife who's also psychic. Glenn Gordon Caron, Grammer and Steve Stark executive produce, the trade paper reported.
NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
WB Light On SF&F Fare
he WB's 2004-'05 prime-time schedule, unveiled May 18 in New York City, surprised SF&F fans with the absence of expected shows, including the previously reported Dark Shadows update, a rumored Lost in Space remake and TV movies based on its canceled Angel vampire series.
Instead, the network that was once home to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Roswell, Tarzan and Birds of Prey announced only the return of Charmed and Smallville for fans of science fiction and fantasy. Charmed will retain its current timeslot, Sundays at 8 p.m. PT/ET. Smallville will stay on Wednesdays at 8 p.m.
The WB did announce that production was to begin this summer on Global Frequency, a midseason replacement action/conspiracy series based on the Warren Ellis/DC Comics graphic novel of the same name. John Rodgers (Catwoman, The Core) is writing and producing, with Survivor impresario Mark Burnett co-producing. Nelson McCormick (Alias, Sheena) will direct.
The network also announced that it will air the network television premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in November. And The WB revealed that it is developing a new version of Stephen King's It, but did not elaborate as to whether it would be a series, miniseries or made-for-television movie.
Tru Gets Pickup
ox renewed Tru Calling, the supernatural series starring Eliza Dushku, for a second season, Variety reported.
The series has struggled in the ratings and was considered "on the bubble," meaning its fate was in doubt.
Tru Calling centers on a woman (Dushku) who relives days at the request of dead people who seek her help. Fox will make its full schedule presentation to advertisers on May 20.
Pride Takes Frasier Slot
BC announced that Father of the Pride, a new computer-animated series, will take the coveted Frasier timeslot, 9 p.m. Tuesdays, starting in the fall.
The DreamWorks series, featuring the voices of John Goodman and Cheryl Hines, centers on a family of talking lions who perform in Siegfried and Roy's Las Vegas magic act.
NBC's new apocalyptic show Revelations, meanwhile, will fill in for The West Wing, 9 p.m. Wednesdays, starting midseason, the network announced.
NBC also announced that it will air a two-hour movie musical based on A Christmas Carol, starring Kelsey Grammer, and an epic, four-hour miniseries version of Hercules, both produced by Emmy Award-winning Robert Halmi.
NBC is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Tarantino Sets Eye On 007
irector Quentin Tarantino told the Reuters news service at the Cannes Film Festival that he wants to tackle a James Bond movie.
Once Tarantino finishes worldwide promotion for his Kill Bill Volume 2, he plans to approach the producers of the big-budget Bond series, the wire service reported.
"I've always wanted to do it," Tarantino reportedly said. "I bumped into Pierce Brosnan, and we talked about it. He liked the idea." Tarantino is a lifelong fan of the British spy saga, now starring the Irish actor Brosnan. "I would like to do the original book Casino Royale and do it more or less the way the Ian Fleming book is," Tarantino told Reuters in an interview in Cannes, where he is president of this year's film festival jury. Casino Royale was made in 1967 as an ill-fated spoof starring David Niven as an aging 007. "I don't know if they're going to go for it or not, but I'm letting them know I'm interested," he said.
THX 1138 Gets New Release
irector George Lucas' dark 1971 SF movie THX 1138 will be re-released in theaters on Sept. 10 in a new director's cut, followed on Sept. 14 by a two-disc collector's-edition DVD from Warner Home Video, the company confirmed.
The theatrical release will occur in 20 cities, including Ann Arbor, Mich.; Austin, Texas; Boston; Chicago; Los Angeles; Minneapolis; New York; Philadelphia; San Francisco; Seattle; Portland and others, the company said.
Francis Ford Coppola produced the film, a dystopian nightmare starring Robert Duvall. The DVD release of THX 1138: The George Lucas Director's Cut offers two new documentaries, including A Legacy of Filmmakers: The Early Years of American Zoetrope, a chronicle of Coppola's independent studio. In addition, Lucas and co-writer and sound designer Walter Murch both provide audio commentary on the film, and the DVD includes Electronic Labyrinth THX 1138 4EB, the original, award-winning short film Lucas made while a student at the University of Southern California, which inspired the theatrical movie. Other bonus features on the DVD set include Theatre of Noise, an isolated sound-effects track, and branching video that showcases the film's pioneering sound design, as well as the film's original theatrical trailer.
The collector's-edition DVD will carry a suggested retail price of $26.99. THX 1138 will also be available in a single-disc version with limited special features for $19.97.
Episode III Hints In Battlefront
an Pettit, producer for the PC version of LucasArts' Star Wars Battlefront game, told SCI FI Wire that the title will feature glimpses of the upcoming third Star Wars prequel movie, Episode III.
"There are maps from all six movies. I'll leave it at that," Pettit said in an interview at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. He added that fans will see planets and environments in the game that are "probably from the movie they haven't seen yet."
The action shooter is scheduled to be in stores Sept. 21 for the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and PC, in conjunction with the Lucasfilm DVD release of the original Star Wars film trilogy. The trilogy DVD will feature a playable Xbox demo of the game. (Episode III is due in theaters May 2005.) "You will be able to go watch the classic battles in Star Wars and stick [the game] in your systems and go play them," Pettit said. "This is the ultimate play-anything, be-anybody-you-want-in-the-Star-Wars-universe [game]."
Star Wars Battlefront allows the gamer to toggle between first- and third-person views. The game spans more than 10 planets, with 16 maps, four playable armies and more than 30 vehicles from the films, including speeder bikes, AT-STs, X-wings and snow speeders. "A buddy can jump in [your snow speeder], and you can go and take out the AT-ATs with the tow cables," as in the Battle of Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back, Pettit said. "We took the best missions from all the movies, and we let you out there, and you go play them."
Episode III Pickups Slated
dditional photography is scheduled in August for Star Wars: Episode III, and a small second unit will also shoot in Sydney, Australia, for a scene of background Wookiees, played by towering Australian locals, the official Star Wars Web site reported.
Also scheduled for this shoot are individual elements of Temuera Morrison in his clone commander role.
The movie is otherwise heavy into post-production exactly a year before the May 19, 2005, release date, the site reported. The edit is undergoing daily changes. And "there are notable holes to fill in," the site reported.
Later in the week, intercontinental audio recording sessions will be held at Skywalker Ranch in northern California. A high-speed tie-line will connect director George Lucas to a studio in Australia as Morrison records his dialogue, the site reported. Actor Bruce Spence is also scheduled for dialogue recording in his role as the helpful alien, Tion Meddon, the site reported.
Industrial Light & Magic, meanwhile, is working on more than 2,000 effects shots. ILM has equaled the number of completed shots for Episode II at this same point of production, a year prior to premiere, the site said.
Episode III Title Revealed?
he British tabloid newspaper The Sun reported a rumor that the upcoming third and last Star Wars prequel will be called Episode III—Birth of the Empire.
Citing anonymous "insiders," the tabloid added that the movie will climax with a lightsaber duel between Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) while surfing on lava.
A Hollywood source told the tabloid, "Anakin and Obi-Wan fight on platforms on the lava. They control these like surfboards."The source added, “There's going to be a big announcement soon. They've tried lots of titles, but the most popular is Birth of the Empire." The movie is in post-production, with an eye to a May 2005 release.
Hitchhiker On Its Way
arth Jennings, director of the upcoming film version of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and his producer, Nick Goldsmith, told fans on the movie's official Web site that the movie is already well underway.
"Just a quick note to say, 'Don't panic,'" the filmmakers wrote. "We are in our fourth week of shooting, and with the first 15 minutes of the film in the can, we are now on the Heart of Gold set! Everyone involved, from cast to crew, have been an incredible help getting us to this point. We will keep you updated with our progress."
Based on Adams' well-loved BBC radio serial and the books it spawned, the film version of Hitchhiker includes several major new additions to the plot that Adams himself introduced in scripts penned shortly before he died in 2001, the site said. The movie will star Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent, Sam Rockwell as Zaphod Beeblebrox, Zooey Deschanel as Trillian and Mos Def as Ford Prefect.
Cosmic Reaches Milestone
eter Olotka, one of designers of the Web-based Cosmic Encounter Online game, told SCI FI Wire that the update of the classic 1977 science fiction board game will celebrate its one-year anniversary May 28.
"We made it to year one with Cosmic Encounter Online and in the context of Cosmic, it feels like more of a continuum than a significant marker, since we have been working on various iterations of Cosmic Encounter for three decades," Olotka said in an interview. "But we have made a lot of design goals in this first year by expanding the number of aliens from 19 to 27, adding brand new, online-only aliens that did not exist in the board game and building a great Cosmic community of players." Gamers can expect to see a total of 30 aliens by the game's anniversary, if not shortly thereafter, he added.
The board game was first introduced at the World SF Convention in 1977. On the day of its debut, Olotka gave out free copies of the game on the condition that whoever received one would play it in the lobby of the convention that same night. The next day, the game was sold out. The board game version-has since been licensed to Hasbro, which markets it under the Avalon Hill brand, via Wizards of the Coast. Currently, there are no plans to release the board game again, according to Olotka.
Since its launch, Cosmic Encounter Online has had more than 21,000 people register for free screen names, Olotka said. He added that the basic idea for Cosmic Encounter could be applied to just about any genre, not just science fiction. But "sci-fi has limitless possibilities," he said. "You can do anything. There are no rules.
"The goal for Cosmic Encounter Online is to have it continually evolve with new features, both in the game and in the Cosmic community," Olotka said. He added: "The online medium is the perfect place for Cosmic to evolve."
Extras Highlight Hellboy DVD
he upcoming two-disc DVD release of Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy movie will include some unusual features, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Del Toro had documentary camera crews on hand during the entire length of filming, and he also worked closely with Mignola on the look of the film and the subsequent DVD. In the Hellboy: Seeds of Creation documentary on Disc 2 of the DVD, the viewer can witness the blossoming of the relationship between [Hellboy creator Mike Mignola] and del Toro and how everyone worked to make sure that the film was true to the comic-book version, the trade paper reported.
On Disc 1, viewers can choose to watch the movie in the "Right Hand of Doom" or "Branching DVD Comics" options. For the first, when an icon appears onscreen during the film, viewers can select it for behind-the-scenes footage of that particular scene. In the "Branching DVD Comics" viewing option, whenever a new character is introduced into the film, an icon appears onscreen that leads to animations drawn by Mignola especially for the DVD, which allows viewers to see more of the backstory of each character, the trade paper reported. The Hellboy DVD set is slated for release July 27, with a suggested retail price of $28.96.
Rosenbaum Feeling Cursed
mallville co-star Michael Rosenbaum told SCI FI Wire that he recently completed work on Wes Craven's upcoming werewolf thriller Cursed.
The actor said that he was not part of the original shoot, but joined the ensemble cast when Craven re-shot the problem-plagued film. "I'm one of the newcomers," Rosenbaum said in an interview. "I play this character who is infatuated with Christina Ricci."
Rosenbaum revealed that Craven contacted him through his manager. "My manager sent me a letter from Wes," he said. "It just said, 'Michael, I enjoy your work. I hope you'll be interested in playing this role.' And I said, 'I'll do it.' My manager said, 'Would you like to read the script?' I said, 'No. Wes Craven just asked me to do a role. I'm going to do it.' It was great. He's great."
Craven, the actor said, enjoyed his many impressions of famous actors so much that he wanted to hear them at surprising times. "Everyone always asks me to do Chris Walken and John Malkovich impressions, and I like doing them, because I'm a ham," Rosenbaum added. "That's all there is to it. But we were doing a serious scene, and I'm looking at Christina Ricci, and I'm very intense. I say, 'Come on, we need to get out of here.' And Wes goes, 'Now do it as Christopher Walken doing the role.' So I go [in spot-on Walken voice], 'Come on, we need to get out of here.' Everybody started laughing. It was fun. It keeps the set light." Cursed will be unleashed on Oct. 1.
Aliens For Breakfast Optioned
aramount has bought film rights to the trilogy of SF children's books Aliens for Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, Variety reported.
Steve Carpenter will adapt the first book in the series, Aliens for Breakfast, which was written by Jonathan Etra and Stephanie Spinner, the trade paper reported.
The story revolves around a curmudgeonly alien space cop sent to Earth to find an escaped alien convict, who lands in the apartment of an unsuspecting junior-high-school principal. The duo are forced to become partners and capture the convict alien, the trade paper reported.
Kerner Entertainment production head Paul Neesan will executive produce and supervise development.
Discworld Goes Postal
ritish science fiction and fantasy author Terry Pratchett told Locus Magazine that his next Discworld book deals with a sadly all-too-common modern phenomenon.
"The next adult Discworld book, Going Postal, will be published close to the 21st anniversary of the first Discworld book, so I have to make certain it's good!" Pratchett told the magazine. "People in the U.K. are familiar with the title concept, though it isn't quite the same here. Because a beneficent government has seen to it that only criminals can have guns in the U.K., it's not so easy to get hold of a pump-action shotgun and walk into work with it. But there seems to be an international habit of postmen, when the stress gets too much, to stash undelivered mail everywhere, like mad hamsters storing food. When the investigators reach their house, there's room after room of mail sacks. They haven't been destroyed—Oh no, because that would be wrong. Folk myth believes there's something about working for the post office that drives people around the bend."
Discworld has become a phenomenon, with its own dedicated conventions and spinoffs that include computer games, guides, diaries, cookbooks, quiz books and a cartoon series, Locus reported. "I still pay at least some lip service to the idea that new Discworld books should be stand-alone," Pratchett said. He added: "But we're now more than 30 books in. I'm guided by Star Trek. No one now feels too much of a need to explain what Vulcans are. Everyone understands that this is a series, and you can't explain every little background detail for people who've just got on the bus. I think it is possible to write books that can be read as stand-alones, but continue the 'meta-stories' of the series as a whole. I know each Discworld book sells more than the one before, so whatever I'm doing appears to be working. But I cannot possibly give you an infodump of everything about the background of a character or a place in a single book."
Pratchett said that he enjoys meeting fans of the venerable series. "I went to my first SF convention in 1963, and here I am, still going and enjoying them, 40 years later," he said. "SF fandom seems to have an aging core group, but Discworld fandom seems to be all ages. Discworld is nearly 21 years old, and people who were young when they started reading it can be grandparents now. So you get families of Discworld fans in the queues at signings. That is very nice. I've got maybe a million readers in the U.K., but probably fewer than 5,000 are the 'buy-the-T-shirt, go-to-the-convention, hunt-first-editions' sort. Lots of people out there read and enjoy lots of SF, lots of fantasy, and never think of themselves as fans in the participatory sense. At the first U.K. Discworld convention, in 1996, there were almost a thousand people, and fewer than 10 percent had ever been to a science fiction or fantasy convention of any sort before. Not many of them knew about fandom at all. It's quite strange to think of a purely Discworld fandom." Going Postal will hit store shelves in North America on Oct. 1.
Sommers Won't Helm Mummy 3
tephen Sommers, director of the first two Mummy films, told SCI FI Wire that he will not be returning to the franchise should Universal Pictures decide to make another movie. "I've done my Mummys," Sommers said in an interview.
"There may be a third Mummy, but I need to do a small movie about two girls chatting on a beach." Sommers just completed the big summer action film Van Helsing, which is now in theaters.
Sommers—who was on hand at the unveiling of a Van Helsing-themed haunted-house attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood theme park in Los Angeles—added that working on follow-ups to either of the series was the furthest thing from his mind right now. "A lot of people have been talking about sequels, but what they forget is that I'm the one who has to make it," he said. "I'm just tired right now. As soon as I finish this, I'm going to go to the beach. I've been working 16 hours a day, seven days a week, for two years. This is my last event for a while."
Stars of the previous Mummy movies have said they'd be interested in returning for a third installment. But describing the rigamarole of work he's endured in the past months preparing Van Helsing for theatrical release, Sommers said, "We finished the movie three weeks ago. I finished it on a Monday, and Tuesday I flew to New York to do the press junket, came back, had the premiere, opened the movie, did small press, and today is it."
Universal Pictures and the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park are owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Mummy Ride Promises Thrills
ohn Murdy, creative director of Universal Studios Hollywood and its upcoming Revenge of the Mummy: The Ride, told SCI FI Wire that he was granted an almost unprecedented amount of access to collaborate with the filmmakers while designing the roller coaster.
"We're very lucky to have filmmakers who are so into this and want to collaborate with us," he said in an interview. "I've actually heard [Mummy director] Stephen [Sommers] say a couple of times, 'Now I can tell my mom I've made it in Hollywood, because I have a ride based on my movie.'"
Murdy also said that a key actor was called in to lend his voice to the ride. "We also worked with Arnold Vosloo, who played the Mummy in the movie," Murdy said. "Arnold is the voice of the Mummy throughout the experience. We worked really closely with one of the world's foremost experts in Egyptology, who helped us translate some hieroglyphs into ancient Egyptian, and we had Mr. Vosloo read that in Egyptian."
Murdy said that the contributions of Sommers, as well as a number of key production staff members, helped enhance the experience of the ride. "We've had Allan Cameron, who did the production design on both Mummy movies and also Van Helsing, help us with all of the architecture and all of the sets," Murdy said. "Something that was very important to them was accuracy: that every single hieroglyph in this experience actually means something. If you read hieroglyphs, you could actually come in here and read the walls."
In the attraction, riders are led into the "Tomb of Imhotep," which is actually an indoor roller coaster that takes them on a ride forward and backward through a series of twists and turns that are augmented by computer-generated and live special effects. Murdy said that the work may go largely unnoticed by the majority of the guests who enjoy the ride, but the effort is worth the end result for those who do. "These are all details that 99 percent of your guests will never get," he said. "But if you're going to do it, you might as well be accurate." The Revenge of the Mummy: The Ride opens at the theme park in Los Angeles on June 25. Universal Studios Hollywood is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Rosenbaum Ponders Luthor's Future
ichael Rosenbaum, who plays Lex Luthor in The WB's Smallville, told SCI FI Wire that he still enjoys playing the bald genius and added that he is eager to develop the villain-in-waiting further next fall, when the show returns for its fourth season.
"The great part is that fans embrace the character," Rosenbaum said in an interview. "He's not just going from good to bad right away. It's the journey to try and prevent the inevitable."
Rosenbaum, however, went on to confirm rumors that Lex will head down a darker path next season and that fissures in the friendship between Lex and Clark Kent (Tom Welling) will begin to reveal themselves. "Lex is just trying to stay focused and do the right thing," Rosenbaum said. "But he keeps going and drifting off. The powers that be—one of them being his father [John Glover as Lionel Luthor]—just push him further and further to the dark side. That's where they're heading. People always say, 'Oh, what's going to happen with Lex? We saw a little sparkle in his eye.' There's always that, and there's always finding out the truth. I think the finale is very important." Smallville's third-season finale, "Covenant," airs May 19.
Chenoweth Flies To Bewitched
ony winner Kristin Chenoweth (the Broadway show Wicked) is in talks to play opposite Nicole Kidman in Columbia Pictures' feature-film adaptation of the popular TV series Bewitched, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Chenoweth will play Kidman's nosy next-door neighbor, Marie, in the production, which co-stars Shirley MacLaine, Michael Caine and Will Ferrell, the trade paper reported.
Kidman stars as the witch who remedies her marital problems through magic. No stranger to witches, Chenoweth is nominated for a Tony for her performance as Glinda, the good witch of the north, in Wicked, the trade paper reported.
Smith Updates Hornet Film
evin Smith, who is directing a new film version of the classic Green Hornet, told fans on his ViewAskew Web site that he's deep into writing the script.
"It's coming," Smith posted. "[I] was 50 pages in. Then, I s--t-canned everything and started over. Now I'm 60 pages in and digging it much more. I'm figuring the first draft's going to come in at around 180 pages."
Smith is tackling an update of the franchise, which began as a 1930s radio serial, about millionaire newspaper publisher Britt Reid, who leads a secret life as the masked crimefighter the Green Hornet, backed up by his kung-fu master chauffeur, Kato.
Smith said the writing is "a bit harder. [I] spent a long time second-guessing myself, trying to write a mainstream flick. Then I realized that s--t's for the birds, and I should just write it as if it were a comic book. Since then, it's been much easier."
Smith added that he will shoot Green Hornet after completing a smaller movie.
Stephenson Wins Clarke Award
he 2004 Arthur C. Clarke award, honoring the best science fiction novel that received its first British publication during the previous calendar year, was presented to Neal Stephenson for Quicksilver, organizers announced.
The award, named for the legendary SF author, was presented in ceremonies at the English Heritage Lecture Theatre in London on May 12.
The award consists of an inscribed plaque in the form of a bookend and a cash prize equal to the year, in this case £2,004 ($3,552). The winner of the award was selected by five judges.
Ling Suffered For Sky Captain
ai Ling, who plays the black-clad, martial-arts-fighting "Mysterious Woman" in the upcoming Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, told SCI FI Wire that her costume was so tight that she couldn't move.
The crew tailored Ling's ultra-sleek costume to eliminate all wrinkles, rendering her virtually immobile, she said in an interview at the Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention. When they were done, she tried to move. "I couldn't. ... The leather wouldn't [move]. So they had to remake it and make it bigger, ... but still in the end, [it was] very tight." After spending a day in the costume, Ling said, "I felt like a wild animal, like a caged animal. ... [I was] really suffering in the suit."
For Sky Captain, which combines live actors with computer-generated environments, Ling and the rest of the cast—including leads Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie—shot for six weeks in front of a blue screen on a London soundstage.
In a separate interview, visual effects supervisor Darin Hollings described to SCI FI Wire the production process. "Every single shot had a storyboard, and from that storyboard we went into Maya and built a quick 3-D animatic [animated storyboard]. ... So we had the entire movie done with computer animatics before we shot in London. So when we were going to shoot the shot we would show it to the actors and let them know where they were in the world."
Because of the ability to control the sets, director Kerry Conran and crew could allow the actors some freedom in their blocking, Hollings said. "If we don't like part of the room we end up looking at, we just move the room around a bit or move the buildings around a bit," he said. "[The film] had a lot of creative freedom on the back end."
Writer-director Conran and his brother, production designer Kevin Conran, were inspired by classic serials, Fleischer brothers cartoons and classic art-deco designers, including Raymond Loewy and Norman Bel Geddes for the retro-'30s SF movie. "Inside that big, blue room we went to New York City. We went to Nepal. We went on top of the Empire State Building. We went to Shangri-la. We went to mysterious islands. We flew through the clouds, without ever leaving one stage." Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow opens Sept. 17.
Moore Tops Half Light
emi Moore will star in Craig Rosenberg's supernatural thriller film Half Light, Variety reported.
Based on Rosenberg's original screenplay, the movie centers on Rachel Carlson (Moore), a successful mystery novelist whose life falls apart when her 5-year-old son drowns at her country home. A year later, in an effort to heal her wounds and help her to start writing again, her best friend rents her a secluded cottage in a remote fishing village, where events unfold that rock the tranquil village and cause Rachel to fear for her sanity and her life, the trade paper reported.
Rosenberg will also direct the movie, which will be produced by Joel B. Michaels.
Elfman Tunes Up For Charlie
ilm composer Danny Elfman told SCI FI Wire that, while he's finishing the score for Spider-Man 2, he's doing preliminary work on Tim Burton's upcoming fantasy film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
"As soon as I'm done with Spider-Man 2, I jump right into both Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and another animated Tim Burton film called The Corpse Bride," Elfman said in an interview.
Elfman, who previously composed the music for such Burton films as Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow and Big Fish, sounded particularly excited about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. "It just looks like it's going to be tons of fun," he said. "The first attempt at writing a first idea for a song [was] so whacked out. I just sat there writing this crazy thing in the middle of the night and put 20 voices on it myself as a demo. I sent it out there, and Tim liked it."
Elfman added, "[The film] is going to be really great. It seems like really fertile ground. The script is good. I like Johnny Depp a lot. So I think doing an adaptation from the book could be great. I know it's always dangerous doing a remake of something that's much loved. I've been down this road before. I just hope it gets a shot at being its own thing." Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, based on the Roald Dahl children's book, is in preproduction now with an eye toward a July 2005 release.
Matrix Online Continues Saga
rannon Boren, one of the designers of the upcoming game The Matrix Online, told SCI FI Wire that the massively multiplayer online game picks up the story where the last of the Matrix films, The Matrix Revolutions, left off.
The Matrix Online will feature plotlines by the creators of the films and "Matrix-style" character customization that allows players to live a virtual life and learn martial arts analogous to the "wire fu" featured in the films, Boren said in an interview at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. "The idea is to continue the story," he said. "We want people to feel that they are in the Matrix while they are playing the game. It's a very daunting task, but we lived up to the challenge."
While it is known that characters from the films will be seen in the game, designers were tight-lipped when it came to the question of which, if any, of the actors will have their voices featured in the game.
The Matrix Online is due for the PC in November and is being developed by Monolith Productions. Sega and Warner Brothers announced on May 10 that they would co-publish the game.
Korea Inspired Troopers 2
dward Neumeier, writer of the upcoming straight-to-video sequel Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation, told SCI FI Wire that, if the first movie drew inspiration from World War II propaganda movies, the sequel draws from the Korean conflict.
"We were also really talking about the Korean War of Korean War movies, Sam Fuller movies," Neumeier said in an interview at the Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention. "In those movies the people look older. They weren't a bunch of kids. They were crabby old men sometimes. And my knowledge of the Korean war was, you know, the clothing wasn't very good. The environments were very harsh. It was sort of a desperate thing."
Starship Troopers 2 takes place seven years after the events in the first film, which Neumeier also wrote and which was directed by Paul Verhoeven. Phil Tippett, the visual-effects artist on the first movie, makes his film directorial debut with Troopers 2. Neumeier said he used the creative war motif to give the sense that "the war had been grinding on so long and people were getting killed and people starting to think differently about whether this was a winnable war. ... There is sort of an underlying grimness to this picture." Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation is slated for a June 1 release.
Troopers 2 Goes For Horror
hil Tippett, director of the upcoming straight-to-video sequel film Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation, told SCI FI Wire that he aimed more for horror than spectacle in the follow-up to Paul Verhoeven's 1997 original theatrical movie.
"There was no way ... to achieve the spectacle of Paul Verhoeven's picture," Tippett said in an interview at the Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention. "They had close to $100 million, and we had [less]. So we took an old approach, which was going to [a] horror gulag. ... More psychological horror."
Tippett, who created the visual effects for the original Starship Troopers, makes his directorial debut with Troopers 2. He added that he recycled some of the original bugs for the sequel, but also create two new bugs: the parasite and the spy bugs. "The bugs have come up with another plan to infiltrate the humans," he said. "They have designed a kind of bug that is essentially a saboteur or hijacker, and they live inside of you and take you over. So we have the parasite bug, which is a bug that grows in people's heads, and then off of that ... are the babies or spy bugs. ... They're more conventional, spider-arachnid."
Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation is due for release June 1, bundled with the original film in a DVD set.
Paramount Remaking Crazies
aramount Pictures is developing The Crazies, a remake of George Romero's 1972 SF horror-thriller film, with Michael Aguilar and Dean Georgaris to produce at their Penn Station company, Variety reported.
The film will update the storyline of the original, in which inhabitants of a small Pennsylvania town are beset by death and insanity after a plane crash lets loose a secret biological weapon into the water supply, the trade paper reported.
Romero, who directed and co-wrote the original movie with Paul McCollough, is executive producing.
Briefly Noted
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Benicio Del Toro and Clive Owen have joined the cast of Robert Rodriguez's Sin City movie, based on the graphic novel series by Frank Miller, Variety reported.
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A replica 1930s Curtiss Helldiver airplane being built for Peter Jackson's King Kong movie will be used as part of a static display at a new $3 million aviation museum in Blenheim, New Zealand, when filming finishes next March, the New zealand Herald newspaper reported.
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In time for the June 11 release of The Chronicles of Riddick, the predecessor movie, Pitch Black, hits DVD on June 1. The DVD of the 2000 Vin Diesel SF thriller will include commentaries by Diesel and director David Twohy, among others, plus a host of bonus features.
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Warner Brothers and ImageMovers have purchased Measle and the Wrathmonk, the first of what will be a three-book series by Ian Ogilvy, for adaptation as an animated movie, Variety reported. The first book will be published in Great Britain this June by Oxford University Press, with HarperCollins following with a U.S. launch in August.
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Warner Brothers has bought the film rights to Piers Anthony's fantasy novel series Xanth, to be produced by Wolfgang Petersen and David Benioff, Variety reported. A Spell for Chameleon is the first book in the series, which will see its 30th installment published next year.
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Fox unveiled a promotional T-shirt with a video screen that plays a trailer for its upcoming SF movie I, Robot at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles last week, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Fox is the first business of any kind to use the video T-shirt marketing tactic developed by San Francisco-based Brand Marketers.
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Gwyneth Paltrow (Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow) has given birth to her first child, a daughter called Apple, the Reuters news service reported. Paltrow, 31, and her British husband Chris Martin, 27, lead singer of the band Coldplay, said they were "ecstatic" after the baby was delivered on May 14 in London.
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British actor James McAvoy has been cast as Mr. Tumnus the faun in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Variety reported. The Walden Media/Disney co-production, based on the first book in the classic C.S. Lewis series of children's novels, is due to shoot this summer in New Zealand, directed by Andrew Adamson.
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The official Web site for the upcoming Disney/Pixar computer-animated film The Incredibles has posted a new trailer for the movie, which opens Nov. 5.
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