Feore Suffered For Riddick
olm Feore, who plays the villainous Lord Marshal in the upcoming SF movie The Chronicles of Riddick, told SCI FI Wire that it was a challenge performing in a complete suit of armor.
"The armor ... was very cool," Feore said in an interview. "I'm fundamentally of the belief that it's not how you feel, but how you look. And if you look cool, then everything else doesn't matter. But it sucked. I mean, it was ... pinching me here. It was knocking me out. It was metal, titanium. [The] hat, the gloves, were unbelievable."
The Lord Marshal is the general of a "legion vast" of Necromongers, armored warriors who travel in immense ships and lay waste to entire planets. As such, he appears in the movie encased in what appears to be heavy metal armor (but which was made out of a combination of metal and rubber). "The craftsmanship in this outfit was fabulous," Feore said. "But it doesn't do you any good when someone says, 'But we made this especially for you,' as they hammer it onto your head. You go, 'You know what? I'm not feeling the love here. It's still metal, and it still hurts, so could you go a little bit easier?'"
But Feore said that he was able to understand his character's motivation in forcibly converting entire races of people to his cause, the Necromonger faith. "What is the Necromonger selling? 'We'll take away your pain.' The pain of choices of living, of getting up every day and saying, 'What am I worth? What's my point? What is my purpose?' I say to you, 'Forget all that. Join the holy half-dead, and I'll give you a purpose. You're working for me now.'" The Chronicles of Riddick, starring Vin Diesel, opens June 11. Riddick is being released by Universal Pictures, which is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Twohy: Chronicles 2, 3 Planned
avid Twohy, writer/director of the upcoming SF movie The Chronicles of Riddick, told SCI FI Wire that the film was envisioned as the first of three movies, but that it's still not a sure thing when or if the next films will get made.
"They didn't sign me to do three," Twohy said in an interview. "They didn't sign [the actors] to do three. ... What we have said—[producer and star] Vin [Diesel] and I— ... is that we have thought about the characters and plotted the characters for three Chronicles. ... And so we know in our heads where we are going. And we've talked to the other [actors] about where their characters would be going in future installments of the film. Universal [Pictures, which is distributing the movie,] has ... been consistent with their wanting to see how this opening weekend [box office] did, and the second weekend, because the second weekend is a key to them to gauge drop off."
Twohy added that a second Chronicles of Riddick movie will pick up the story "the minute after this one ends. And I'll tell you how we sold it to the studio, how we got them enamored of the idea of three films, because at first they weren't. ... When I turned in the first draft of the script, I had leather binders made up that said The Chronicles of Riddick. ... And I put the executive's name stamped in gold down in the right hand corner, and I put a lock on it. And a week before I turned in the script I sent them the key. And the key said, 'This is the key that will open the doors to untold myth and riches' or something like that."
Twohy went on: "And so they had the key for a week. ... 'What the hell does this go to?' And then I sent them the covers, and they got it on the weekend. They had to stick their key in, turn the key, open up the script. And then in the first story meeting I had other volumes made for C2 and C3. And I just sat them down on the desk. And they were talking about the first script, and they're looking at it. 'Boy, can we read those?' I said, 'Nope. No key. You don't have the key.'" The Chronicles of Riddick opens June 11. Universal Pictures is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Twohy Cut Riddick Scene
avid Twohy, writer and director of the upcoming SF movie The Chronicles of Riddick, told SCI FI Wire that he reluctantly cut a key scene featuring actress Kristin Lehman as a character named Shirah.
In the scene, Shirah appears to the film's protagonist, the antihero Riddick (Vin Diesel), with information about his mysterious past and his role in an epic battle raging in the universe.
"There was a concern that, ... between the Judi Dench character, [Aereon,] who was a little mystical herself, and the Shirah character, played by Kristin, that there was just a little too much mysticism going on, and that it didn't allow the audience to get grounded as much as we needed them to be to go forth and enjoy the movie," Twohy said in an interview. "I'd be interested in putting [it] back in the film [in a director's cut on DVD.] ... [She] helps tell him what it is to be a Furyan and helps introduce the notion that your origin is with a race called the Furyans."
The scene is the main cut—but not the only one—that may find its way back into a director's edit at some point, Twohy said. "[The] first version of the movie is ... two hours and 50 minutes long, and [the final cut is] two hours," he said. "So 50 minutes of footage fell by the wayside between the first cut and the last cut. But, ... guys, that is not that unusual in the business. I mean, very few movies can say 'We lost one scene, and that's it.' It's been my history where I will shoot a lot more than we use. ... But I must say that the version we have out now has a lot of drive. It has a lot of energy, and it feels like a good pace for a summer film. ... But, ... to finish your question, yeah, it feels like certainly the director's version would be longer by about 15 minutes." The Chronicles of Riddick opens June 11. Riddick is being released by Universal Pictures, which is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Diesel Frets Over Riddick
in Diesel, who reprises his most famous character in the upcoming SF epic movie The Chronicles of Riddick, told SCI FI Wire that he's nervous about the movie's debut, but not because he worries about whether it will revive his career.
"Well, for some reason, I was more nervous last night [at the premiere] than I have ever been on any premiere," Diesel said in an interview a day after the film's gala June 3 world premiere. "I was nervous, because it was something that I had been working on for five years that is so close [to me], [that has] been such a labor of love, and that made me anxious for some reason last night. I don't know why I'm more nervous at this than I've ever been."
But Diesel repeated that he's not concerned about the film's effect on his career, which some observers have said has waned since his big success in films such as 2001's The Fast and the Furious and Riddick's predecessor movie, 2000's Pitch Black. "Having said that, the second I finished my first day of shooting with [Riddick co-star] Judi Dench, I won," Diesel said. "I had accomplished a real goal. ... The second the studio green-lit this epic that didn't spawn from a book that was in existence for 50 years [like The Lord of the Rings] [or] that didn't come from a comic-book character [like Spider-Man], [that] was completely an original project, I felt like I was satisfied."
In an earlier interview, Diesel told SCI FI Wire that he wasn't worried about whether the movie would revive his career. "No, [that's] not a concern," Diesel said. "It's not about that. If that was a concern, I would have done all the sequels [such as 2 Fast, 2 Furious], and I wouldn't have kind of lost myself in the creativity and the fun of The Chronicles of Riddick. Films like The Chronicles of Riddick take a lot more time than a studio-manufactured sequel. ... The idea isn't about maintaining someone's idea of whatever. It's got to be about making stuff that you're proud of, and if that takes a little bit more time to do, then you've got to take that time out. ... The fun for me is making the movie. ... It's about the character." The Chronicles of Riddick opens June 11. The movie is distributed by Universal Pictures, which is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Twohy Readies Kyra Pilot
avid Twohy, writer/director of the upcoming SF movie The Chronicles of Riddick, told SCI FI Wire that he's also writing the script for a two-hour SCI FI Channel movie centered on the Riddick character of Kyra, which would be the pilot for a spinoff series.
"They want to do a sort of Kyra, The Lost Years," Twohy said in an interview. "I'll be writing the story for that, just so that the expanding universe has a creative continuity to it, and it doesn't get too corporate and there are too many hands in the [project]."
Kyra, played by Alexa Davalos in The Chronicles of Riddick, is a young woman who first appeared in Riddick's predecessor film, Pitch Black, as Jack, the girl who masqueraded as a boy and befriended the mass murderer and antihero Richard B. Riddick, played by Vin Diesel. The proposed Kyra SCI FI Channel project "will be a two-hour pilot, followed by a series, based on the Jack/Kyra character and how she went in search for Riddick and trouble befell her along the way," Twohy said. The series would fill in the five years between the end of Pitch Black and the beginning of The Chronicles of Riddick.
Twohy added that Davalos would likely not star in the pilot, "because, A, she wants to pursue a film career, not a cable career, and, [B], it might deal with a slightly younger version [of Kyra]. Because [Riddick takes place] five years later, she's playing 18, 19, 20. I think this character would be 15, 16, 17."
The Chronicles of Riddick opens June 11. It is being distributed by Universal Pictures, which is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns the SCI FI Channel and SCIFI.COM.
Angel's Hallett Hospitalized
ndy Hallett, who played the green-skinned demon Lorne on The WB's canceled Angel, told fans on his official Web site that he's been hospitalized
for an undisclosed viral ailment after having to miss a scheduled convention appearance.
"I wish I had better news for you at the moment; however, I am having a bit of a rough time right now, medically speaking," Hallett wrote his fans. "As you know, it would take a lot for me to miss a scheduled event (ya know what a ham I am ... ) but I'm unable to fly or travel at the moment. Last week I was hospitalized due to a minor viral infection that was complicated by exhaustion. This minor problem turned 'not so minor' quite quickly and was causing major problems with my lungs and breathing."
Hallett added that he was in the intensive care unit in Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinair Medical Center for five days. But he added that his doctors expect a "speedy recovery." "I just have to rest, rest, rest, rest, rest, rest," Hallett said.
Serkis Apes King Kong
s expected, King Kong director Peter Jackson has cast Lord of the Rings actor Andy Serkis as the title computer-generated ape, Variety reported.
Serkis will also play a live-action character named Lumpy, the cook on tramp steamer The Venture, which sails to Skull Island and captures the ape, the trade paper reported.
That's a lot more live-action screen time than Serkis got in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, where he provided the voice and movements for the computer-animated Gollum and was seen only briefly in the finale as Smeagol. Serkis will return to New Zealand, where Jackson will shoot the film for Universal Pictures, the trade paper reported.
King Kong also stars Naomi Watts, Jack Black and Adrien Brody. Jackson wrote the script with his Rings co-writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, the trade paper reported.
More Clone Wars Coming
artoon Network is developing an expanded version of its Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series, Variety reported.
The network and Lucasfilm will create five new 12-minute Clone Wars segments, expanding on the original three-minute toons, the trade paper reported.
The new segments will air the week of March 21, 2005. The premiere precedes the May 19, 2005, theatrical debut of Lucasfilm's upcoming prequel movie Star Wars: Episode III, the trade paper reported.
Genndy Tartakovsky, who produced the original Clone Wars segments for Cartoon Network, is on board to write, direct and executive produce the new ones, the trade paper reported. The series picks up the saga where the second prequel film, Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones, left off.
Harlin: Exorcist Not About Gore
enny Harlin, who directed a second version of the upcoming prequel film Exorcist: The Beginning, told SCI FI Wire that he didn't set out to make a movie with more gore and violence than the first version of the movie, which was directed by Paul Schrader and shelved by Morgan Creek, the production company.
"What I've seen somewhere in the press ... or the Internet comment [says] Morgan Creek just wanted to have more gore or something like that," Harlin said in an interview. "That is absolutely not true."
Harlin added, "The key is that they wanted to make sure that the movie would be faithful to the original 1973 film [The Exorcist], and because it is the most famous horror film in the world, they wanted to make sure that this film was suspenseful and offered the kind of experience that the original film had. So I guess that they didn't feel that the script that they had had or the film [Schrader had] shot, for whatever reason, ... quite [gave] that experience. ... They first considered just doing some reshoots and doing some additions. But [they] then came to the conclusion that the movie had a certain structure and certain style and certain nature, and they wanted a different kind of a film. So that's what we tried to do."
Exorcist: The Beginning, the fourth film in the supernatural franchise, takes the story back to its roots, following a young Father Lancaster Merrin (Stellan Skarsgard) in his first encounter with evil in post-World-War-II Africa. Schrader (Auto Focus) was the first director to shoot the film and completed it last year. He turned in his cut to Morgan Creek, who eventually fired Schrader, shelved the movie and hired Harlin to shoot a completely new movie, with a new script and several new actors.
"[We] follow the same type of themes and ideas and maybe solve some of the questions and mysteries that were established in [the original Exorcist]," Harlin said. "Because this is a prequel, we really, really have the chance to set up some of the things that are not explained in the 1973 film, and at the same time I think that they felt that it was very important that the audience would experience the same kind of discomfort and fear and unsettling emotions [as in] the first film. ... They really were concerned that ... there would be a certain similarity in the genre and make sure that the film, while a character study and the study of the battle between good and evil, was scary and suspenseful like the original, and didn't rely on any kind of wild special effects that wouldn't really make sense. ... In a way, this film feels like it could have taken place before the 1973 film, so it's definitely ... not about gore. It's not about flying monsters and special effects at all." Exorcist: The Beginning opens Aug. 20.
Oz Talks Stepford Science
rank Oz, director of the upcoming SF satiric movie The Stepford Wives, told SCI FI Wire that the film's science-fiction elements had to take a back seat to characterizations—even if it leaves moviegoers scratching their heads.
"What we decided was that, hopefully, the audience was just going to be taken [with the story and the characters] and that if we got into more and more and more detail, it would just open a whole can of worms," Oz said during a press conference. "And it wasn't about technology."
In The Stepford Wives—as in the original 1975 movie, based on Ira Levin's SF novel—the women of an affluent Connecticut suburb are transformed into subservient robots. But, Oz said, "we didn't really get into the details of it, because that's not where I wanted the audience to go. I didn't want to go into the technological details of robots. I wanted to go into the feeling aspects. So, wrong or right, we didn't explain it, because we didn't want to get deep into it. It would take away from the feeling more than anything else. It takes away from the story, because all of a sudden you have a side thing going on here that you address with your mind and not your heart."
For his part, star Matthew Broderick said, "It doesn't come out so well if you think about it too much. Are we destroying their bodies? It's ugly to get too close to it." The Stepford Wives opens June 11.
Stepford Made Kidman Over
icole Kidman, star of the upcoming SF remake The Stepford Wives, told SCI FI Wire that she's not at all like the hard-driving, take-charge television executive she plays.
"In the beginning, when I'm running the network?" she asked during a press conference. "No, but I wanted her to be very extreme."
In the film, Kidman portrays Joanna Eberhart, who relocates to Stepford, Conn., with her husband, Walter (Matthew Broderick), after she's fired from her high-profile job and suffers a nervous breakdown. In Stepford, Joanna is shocked by the local women, who are disturbingly subservient to the men. Joanna soon teams with feisty author Bobbie Markowitz (Bette Midler) and gay architect Roger (Roger Bannister), and together they discover that the men of Stepford have transformed the women into robots programmed to please. And Bobbie, Roger and Joanna could be next.
"I kept fighting, actually, for more extremes in her kind of nature and at the beginning, so that you want her to fall in a way, because I think that that's interesting," Kidman said. "It's someone who seems so out of control and power-hungry and obsessed and completely imbalanced, and therefore [there's] the desire to see them actually fall down and get their comeuppance, in a way. Then when she's taken to the other extreme, it's like, 'No, this is too much.' So that's what appealed to me about the character. Am I like that? The beginning woman? No. I have a lot more insecurities." The Stepford Wives opens June 11.
Oz Avoided Stepford Cameos
rank Oz, director of the upcoming remake of The Stepford Wives, told SCI FI Wire that he resisted the idea of creating cameo roles for Katharine Ross or Paula Prentiss, stars of the 1975 film version of Ira Levin's SF novel.
"No," he said during a press conference. "I never thought about it."
Oz added, "I'll tell you what cameos do. As opposed to strictly comedic high-comedy movies—[where they] can work, and I've done those also, and I've had a lot of cameos in those—with a movie like this you're invested in Matthew [Broderick] and Nic [Nicole Kidman], [and] there's an emotional core. Any cameo is just going to take you out of the movie. You'll be saying, 'Hey, that's such and such,' when I'm going for the honesty of this relationship. And so that's the reason I didn't do any."
Ross told SCI FI Wire at the recent Saturn Awards that she would have been happy to make a cameo appearance, but confirmed that she was never asked.
But Oz said that no one involved with the production—neither the producers nor the studio—pressured him to include cameos for Ross and Prentiss. "Nobody, nobody," he said. "Nobody made any suggestions to me." Oz's The Stepford Wives, a satiric take on the original story, opens June 11.
Oz Confirms Stepford Change
rank Oz, director of the upcoming remake of The Stepford Wives, confirmed to SCI FI Wire that an effective ending to the film proved elusive.
"We had a couple of different endings," Oz said during a press conference. "I reshot one for What About Bob? I reshot Little Shop of Horrors' ending. You know, it's all normal."
The New York Times on June 6 reported that the film's production was troubled, that it went over schedule by two months and that it underwent a protracted series of test screenings interspersed with editing-room surgeries. A month before the film's scheduled June 11 opening, Oz and producer Scott Rudin were shooting new scenes, including inserts and an epilogue, in New York, the newspaper reported.
But Oz downplayed the importance of the reshoots. "It's always confusing when people ask that question, as if we shouldn't have done it," he said. "In the old days they always budgeted in reshoot time, an additional shoot time, because, unlike [journalists], where you can take a piece of paper and throw it away or can type something [new] or erase something, we only have one shot. That's it. We can't do 10 drafts for an article. We can only do one attempt. So we had the opportunity to look at it and say, 'Oh, jeez, you know, maybe this is better. Let's do a rewrite on this.' And that's what we did."
Oz also denied reports that negative reaction to a test screening led to the changes. "It wasn't that," he said. "It wasn't satisfying. It wasn't that they didn't like it. It wasn't satisfying. You can kind of feel when something's an appetizer and something's a full entrČe. It just wasn't a [full] plate."
Broderick Talks Stepford Battles
atthew Broderick, who stars in the upcoming remake of The Stepford Wives, admitted to SCI FI Wire that tempers sometimes flared on the set of the SF movie, a satiric take on Ira Levin's novel and the original 1975 film.
But Broderick added that he did not witness the reported battles between director Frank Oz and co-stars Bette Midler, Nicole Kidman and Christopher Walken. "I didn't notice," Broderick said. "I honestly wasn't there. I know there were some moments of disagreement, but I really wasn't there."
The New York Times on June 6 reported that the production "was plagued by contention between Mr. Oz and the actors." But, Broderick added, "I wasn't there in the scenes that [the fights] would have happened in. Everybody who has been in this business for a long time [knows] you can't do a movie and not have a disagreement every now and then. Comparing it to other movies, I would say this was rather on the low end of tension. Most of the time I found that everybody got along very, very well." The Stepford Wives opens June 11.
Chan Kicks It In 80 Days
ackie Chan, who plays Passepartout in the upcoming new film version of Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days, told SCI FI Wire that he didn't spend a lot of time comparing his film with a 1956 movie of the same name.
"After I know I'm making that movie again, I see it again," Chan said in an interview. "But I would see it very fast, on fast-forward. I wanted to see the whole look, but I don't want to get into it. I want to forget everything. I want it totally new."
Chan said that the new film's screenplay—by David Titcher, David Benullo and David Goldstein—played to his strengths. (In the earlier movie, Mexican actor Cantinflas played Passepartout to David Niven's Phileas Fogg.) "I think the writer was very clever for the new character," Chan said. "So I didn't have to copy somebody else. Just be me. It's more easy for me."
Chan said that choreographing his own 80 Days fight scenes, as he has in other films for years, made it easier for him to play the action hero, as he could adjust each scene to fit his abilities. "I know how far I can go, and there are so many tricks to help me," Chan said. "Right now, I probably cannot do the jumping turning kick. But you push me back, and then I can take two steps and do the jumping kick. But you don't know on the screen. I have to use those kinds of things to do a lot of action things, but I love action. Because I don't think the audience likes to see Jackie Chan slow motion on the beach kissing Sharon Stone. They don't like that. So I do action/comedy." Around the World in 80 Days, which is being released by Walt Disney pictures, opens June 16.
Madagascar Mixes Styles
en Stiller, who voices a lion in DreamWorks' upcoming computer-animated film Madagascar, told SCI FI Wire that animators are mixing 2-D and 3-D effects in the movie.
"They're giving ... a feel to the [character] animation that is sort of 2-D, even though [the background] is 3-D computer-generated," Stiller said in an interview. "It's like a 2-D slip-'n'-slide in which the animals are a little more cartoon-like."
Madagascar features the voices of Stiller, David Schwimmer, Chris Rock and Jada Pinkett Smith in a story about New York zoo animals who suddenly find themselves in Africa. Stiller said that he has seen only one completed sequence since recording his voice tracks in September 2001. He added that he still cannot wrap his mind around the process of animating, revising and animating more.
"It's like they've made the movie over and over again by the time they get to the final version," Stiller said. "You talk to them, and they seem like normal people. And then they go off and create these things. It boggles your mind how much work they have to do with it. But I'm looking forward to it, because my daughter will be 3 by the time it comes out, and she was not even born before we started working on it." Madagascar is scheduled for a 2005 release.
Spyglass In A Spin
pyglass has bought a movie pitch based on the yet-to-be-published online fantasy comic strip Spin, created by Rob Liefeld, Variety reported.
Kara Holden is writing the script.
The fantasy comedy concerns a successful single woman whose life is uprooted when a curse is put on her, the trade paper reported.
Spyglass partners Gary Barber, Roger Birnaum and Jonathan Glickman are producing. Brooklyn Weaver, who manages both Liefeld and Holden, is an executive producer. Comic creator Liefeld is the co-founder of Image Comics, the third largest publisher in the genre, after DC and Marvel.
Lee Leaves Housewives
heryl Lee has left ABC's upcoming supernatural-tinged drama series Desperate Housewives, in which she was to have played a dead woman who narrates the show, Zap2it reported.
Lee's part, Mary Alice Scott, has been recast, ABC told he site.
No reason was given for Lee's departure, which will force some scenes in the series pilot to be reshot. Desperate Housewives also stars Felicity Huffman, Teri Hatcher, Marcia Cross and Eva Longoria as residents of a suburban cul-de-sac whose outwardly normal lives mask some troubles behind closed doors.
Shark Voices Will Change
he voice of an animated fish in DreamWorks' upcoming Shark Tale movie will differ for U.S. audiences and those in Australia, Variety reported.
The character of "Katie Current," a TV journalist, will be voiced by the character's inspiration, NBC Today show host Katie Couric, in the United States.
But in Australia, Aussie morning host Tracy Grimshaw will voice the character, the trade paper reported. It is unclear whether DreamWorks will use other TV journalist voices for other release location, the trade paper added.
Shark Tale, a mafia story set in the world of fish, features the voices of Robert De Niro, Will Smith and Angelina Jolie. The movie is slated to open Oct. 1 in the United States and Sept. 30 in Australia.
Jetsons To Take Off?
roducer Denise Di Novi (Catwoman) told the IGN FilmForce Web site that she's moving ahead with a live-action movie adaptation of The Jetsons, the 1960s animated TV series, which she's producing with Hanna-Barbera Productions.
Di Novi told the site that the most recent draft of the screenplay was penned by Sam Harper (Cheaper by the Dozen).
Adam Shankman (Bringing Down the House) will reportedly direct the Warner Brothers movie.
Anderson Talks New SG-1
ichard Dean Anderson, the star and an executive producer of SCI FI Channel's original series Stargate SG-1, told SCI FI Wire that he has reduced his shooting schedule in the upcoming eighth season, but not necessarily his appearances in the show's episodes.
Speaking in an interview on the show's Vancouver, B.C., set, Anderson (Jack O'Neill) said that he has reduced the number of days he shoots in Canada to allow him to spend more time at his home in Southern California, where he cares for a 5-year-old daughter.
"We worked out a schedule that has me working essentially three weeks out of the month and then having a week off," Anderson said. "And even, like, three or four days per week that I'm working, and then that one week off. So I have weekends with my daughter, and then I'll have some time in midweek. ... So it became very workable and acceptable."
Anderson added that he appreciated that the show's cast and crew have accommodated his schedule "by creating nothing but hardship for themselves, primarily." Among other things, producers schedule scenes featuring Anderson's character from several episodes on the days when he's in Vancouver and work around him on other days. That allows O'Neill to appear in almost all of the episodes.
Anderson also discussed a few spoilers for the upcoming two-hour season premiere. By the episode's end, O'Neill wins a promotion and a new job. "The cliche that I reference in talking about the character now in his current position is that of a fish out of water," Anderson said. "O'Neill, on paper, really doesn't belong in [that] position. ... But he's, you know, embraced it as much as he can. ... [But] in so many ways [he] would rather be on the front lines. He'd rather be a man of action than a man of great thought or great organization. ... But ... we've made the adjustment, I think, and accommodated the character quirks that I've developed over the years, and to a great degree I think that it's been successful. People are pretty happy. The writers were having a ball in the beginning, because they all know me well enough to know that I'd be putting a certain twist to it. But I still wanted to be respectful to the Air Force." Stargate SG-1 returns with a two-hour episode at 9 p.m. ET/PT July 9.
Raimi Sees Spidey Stars Mature
am Raimi, director of the upcoming sequel film Spider-Man 2, told SCI FI Wire that stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst have matured both as people and as actors since the first installment.
"They're still young, or relatively young compared to me," Raimi said in an interview. "And so they're growing as human beings."
Maguire again plays Peter Parker/Spider-Man, and Dunst plays his on-again, off-again love interest, Mary Jane Watson. "I see Tobey as even more of a sensitive and mature young man than he was when I first met him," Raimi said. "He was always grounded, but he seems to have more of a presence of mind now than when I first knew him. And Kirsten is somehow blossoming from a teen, both in the movie and as a person, from a great teen actress into a real powerful 20-something actress who is now a young woman."
In Spider-Man 2, which takes place two years after the events of the first Spider-Man, Mary Jane has become a successful actress and, though she still loves Peter, is engaged to astronaut John Jameson (Daniel Gillies). Peter feels he can't be with her and juggle his responsibilities as his heroic alter ego, Spider-Man.
"The character that Kirsten plays reflects a lot of these changes and her new concerns and her maturity," Raimi said. "She seems to be more a mature person. She was always very professional on the set, and I'm now referring to the character. The character of Mary Jane has grown, [too]. She no longer seems to be just chasing the cute guy or the guy with a lot of money, but now it's really fun trying to find a deeper sense of fulfillment in her relationships. In that way I think she's matured." Spider-Man 2 opens June 30.
Spidey Helmer Praises Doc Ock
am Raimi, director of the upcoming superhero sequel film Spider-Man 2, told SCI FI Wire that Alfred Molina delivers a "great performance" as Dr. Otto Octavius, aka Doctor Octopus.
"Once you have an actor of Tobey Maguire's caliber and Kirsten Dunst's caliber, you really want someone that can rise up to that level and perform across from them," Raimi said in an interview. "And Fred is a great actor."
Molina plays the villainous Doc Ock opposite Maguire's Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Dunst's Mary Jane Watson. Raimi said that Molina is "very real in his performances. He's not cartoonish in any way. He's very serious about the job, which is not to say that he doesn't have a great sense of humor on set. He does. But he also has a physical presence that I need, because this is a Spider-Man film, and it's got to be someone that can face down Spider-Man and have you believe that maybe he could take him. And Fred's got that ability. He's got the presence physically and spiritually, some heft to his performance, that makes him a formidable adversary when he wants to be. But he also has the sensitivity that makes it believable that Peter Parker [Maguire] could connect with him on a real and personal level [as Dr. Octavius]." Spider-Man 2 opens June 30.
Green Hornet Stalled?
ark Horizons reported that Kevin Smith's film adaptation of the Green Hornet radio serial may be stalled.
An anonymous source told the site that Smith himself may have pulled out of directing the movie and may instead simply write the script. Smith reportedly made the remarks during a question-and-answer session in a theater in London.
Smith added that he may set his sights on a small independent movie as his next project.
New Line Boards Final 3
ew Line Cinema has signed up for Final Destination 3, reuniting the studio with franchise creators Glen Morgan and James Wong, Variety reported.
Wong directed the original movie, which he wrote with Morgan and Jeffrey Reddick, in 2000. The second installment, which was directed by David R. Ellis and written by J. Mackye Gruber and Eric Bress, featured sole survivor Ali Larter.
The 2000 movie earned more than $90 million worldwide; the sequel, around $70 million, the trade paper reported.
Sidewise Finalists Named
udges announced the finalists for the 2003 Sidewise Awards for Alternate History, honoring works of speculative fiction.
Winners will be announced at Noreascon 4, the 62nd World Science Fiction Convention in Boston, Sept. 4-5. A list of finalists follows.
Finalists for Best Short-Form Alternate History
•"The Day We Went Through the
Transition" ("El dĢa que hicimos la TransitiŪn") by Ricard De la Casa and Pedro Jorge Romero, translated from the Spanish by Yolanda Molina-Gavil·n.
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"The Eyes of America" by Geoffrey Landis
•"The Cuban Missile Crisis: Second Holocaust" by Robert L. O'Connell
•"O One" by Chris Roberson
•"The Reign of Terror" by Robert Silverberg
Finalists for Best Long-Form Alternate History
•Collaborator by Murray Davies
•Disturbance of Fate by Mitchell Freedman
•Liverpool Fantasy by Larry Kirwan
•Conquistador by S.M. Stirling
Disney Has Deja Vu
isney and Jerry Bruckheimer Films have purchased Terry Rossio and Bill Marsilii's romantic time-travel spec script Deja Vu for several million dollars, Variety reported.
Deja Vu is described as a contemporary time-travel thriller and love story, the trade paper reported.
Deja Vu follows an FBI agent who has the ability to travel back in time and falls in love with a woman as her murder approaches, the trade paper reported.
Rossio and his Shrek and Pirates of the Caribbean writing partner Ted Elliott will executive produce, with Jerry Bruckheimer Films. A director and cast will be chosen later; Disney is eyeing a fall shoot, the trade paper reported.
Underworld 2 In The Works
nderworld writer Danny McBride told the Trades Web site that he's at work on a sequel to the vampire-vs.-werewolf movie.
McBride told the site that shooting will begin in the fall for a 2005 release.
Stars Kate Beckinsale and Scott Speedman have signed on to reprise their Underworld roles, McBride added. He is currently preparing the outline for the second draft of the sequel, and the production team is in the middle of the development stages, the site reported. "The new film will carry the story further as well as incorporate a few prequel sequences, which should be extremely cool," McBride said. "Patrick Tatopoulos [the creature designer] has, par for [the] course, created some fantastic new designs for the film. [Director] Len [Wiseman] has been busy storyboarding and is gearing up for location scouting." Wiseman is Beckinsale's real-life husband.
Cast Raises The Dead
onathan LaPaglia and Kathleen Quinlan will star opposite Anne Heche in CBS' original movie The Dead Will Tell, a supernatural thriller inspired by readings of self-styled psychic James Van Praagh, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Stephen Kay will direct the telefilm, about a woman (Heche) who starts to have visions of a beautiful young woman shortly after her fiance (LaPaglia) gives her an antique engagement ring, the trade paper reported. Quinlan will play the fiance's mother.
Barbara Lieberman and Van Praagh are executive producing the project for Barbara Lieberman Productions and Robert Greenwald Productions. LaPaglia, younger brother of Anthony LaPaglia, starred in TV's Seven Days.
King Rules MTV Awards
he Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King took home the MTV Movie Award for best film in ceremonies in Los Angeles on June 5, the Reuters news service reported.
The third installment in Peter Jackson's Rings trilogy also won statuettes for best action sequence, for the Battle of Pelennor Fields, the wire service reported.
Johnny Depp, meanwhile, won best male performer for his role as Capt. Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. He accepted the award with a drink in his hand, the news service reported.
Breakthrough female performer went to the show's host, Lindsay Lohan, for Freaky Friday. And breakthrough male went to Shawn Ashmore for X2. The MTV awards show will air on the music network at 9 p.m. ET on June 10.
Stoker Winners Announced
he Horror Writers' Association announced winners of its 2003 Bram Stoker Awards for Superior Achievement, named in honor of the author of Dracula and honoring outstanding work in the horror field.
The award is an 8-inch replica of a haunted house. A list of winners follows.
Novel
•lost boy lost girl by Peter Straub
First Novel
•The Rising by Brian Keene
Long Fiction
•"Closing Time" by Jack Ketchum
Short Fiction
•"Duty" by Gary A. Braunbeck
Fiction Collection
•Peaceable Kingdom by Jack Ketchum
Anthology
•Borderlands 5, Elizabeth and Thomas Monteleone, eds.
Nonfiction
•The Mothers and Fathers Italian Association by Thomas F. Monteleone
Illustrated Narrative
•The Sandman: Endless Nights by Neil Gaiman
Screenplay
•Bubba Ho-Tep by Don Coscarelli
Work for Young Readers
•Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
Poetry Collection
•Pitchblende by Bruce Boston
Alternative Forms
•The Goreletter (e-mail newsletter) by Michael Arnzen
Lifetime Achievement Award
•Martin H. Greenberg
•Anne Rice
Sturgeon Finalists Named
wo SCI Fiction short stories, by Jeffrey Ford and John Kessel, were among the finalists for this year's Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, organizers announced.
The juried award, named for the famed SF author, recognizes the best short science fiction of the year. The winner will be announced at the Campbell Conference in Lawrence, Kan., July 8-11. A full list of finalists follows.
•"Bernardo's House" by James Patrick Kelly
•"Dead Worlds" by Jack Skillingstead
•"Dry Bones" by William Sanders
•"The Empire of Ice Cream" by Jeffrey Ford
•"The Empress of Mars" by Kage Baker
•"The Fluted Girl" by Paolo Bacigalupi
•"It's All True" by John Kessel
•"Looking Through Lace" by Ruth Nestvold
•"Off on a Starship" by William Barton
•"Only Partly Here" by Lucius Shepard
•"The Tale of the Golden Eagle" by David D. Levine
•"The Tangled Strings of Marionettes" by Adam-Troy Castro
Galactica Fans Reach Ad Goal
ans of the original Battlestar Galactica TV series announced that they have raised $10,000 to buy national advertisements urging series creator Glen A. Larson and X-Men producer Tom DeSanto to develop a theatrical feature film that picks up the story where the 1970s TV series left off.
The fan campaign, organized by The Colonial Fan Force, is a reaction to the SCI FI Channel's upcoming original series Battlestar Galactica, which picks up the story from the Galactica miniseries that aired last December, reimagining the show with a new cast and new premise.
The campaign plans to buy ads in the September issue of Cinescape magazine and the Sept. 17 edition of Daily Variety. The campaign also urges fans to write letters.
SCI FI's Battlestar Galactica, starring Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell, is currently in production in Vancouver, B.C., and is expected to premiere in January 2005.
Matrix Online Beta Starts
ega and Monolith have announced that the start of their closed beta test for The Matrix Online, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game set in the universe of the Matrix movie trilogy, the GameSpot Web site reported.
The beta kicked off June 1, and new beta accounts will be sent out in stages over the next few weeks, the site reported.
The Matrix Online picks up where The Matrix Revolutions, the third and last movie in the trilogy, left off, the site reported. Set in a massive city inside the Matrix, the game lets players join one of three factions: Zion, the machines or the Merovingian's group, who are all battling for control of the Matrix with martial arts and automatic weapons.
The Matrix Online's storylines are being developed by Monolith and Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment, with the help of the Wachowski brothers, the writers and directors of the films, the site reported. Sega will distribute the game; Warner will support it online.
Clarke Wins Heinlein Award
egendary SF author Arthur C. Clarke will take home the 2004 Robert A. Heinlein Award, for outstanding published work in hard science fiction or technical writing inspiring the human exploration of space, the Heinlein Society announced.
Clarke will receive the award at the society's annual dinner, coinciding with the World Science Fiction Convention, or Noreascon 4, Sept. 2-6 in Boston. Clarke, who lives in Sri Lanka, is expected to attend if possible via real-time video, the society said.
This is the second year for the award, named for the SF writer. Last year's inaugural recipients were Virginia Heinlein and Michael Flynn. Clarke is considered a literary giant of so-called hard science fiction, which is based in real science.
Briefly Noted
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Paramount and Nickelodeon have tapped Mark Waters to direct the family-adventure film Arthur Spiderwick's Guide to the Fantastic World Around You, Variety reported. Spiderwick is a story about twin boys and their older teen sister, who find an alternate world of fairies and goblins in their great-uncle's rundown house.
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MTV.com has posted the first trailer for Warner Brothers' upcoming prequel film Exorcist: The Beginning, which opens Aug. 20.
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All 45 episodes of Pee Wee's Playhouse, including six "lost" shows, will arrive on DVD this fall, TV Guide Online reported. A collector's set will include commentary and bonus material from star Paul Reubens.
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The ComingSoon.net Web site reported that director Darren Aronofsky's epic SF movie The Fountain will start filming Nov. 1 in Montreal. Hugh Jackman stars in the movie, about a quest for immortality via a "tree of life" found in Central America.
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Mel Gibson's Icon Distribution has sued Regal Entertainment Group, which owns movie theaters, for more than $40 million, claiming that the Knoxville, Tenn.-based exhibitor has withheld significant box-office dollars from Icon's The Passion of the Christ, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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A new Web site has gone live for the upcoming supernatural horror film Exorcist: The Beginning, the fourth installment in the venerable franchise, which opens Aug. 20.
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Anthony Michael Hall, star of USA Network's supernatural series The Dead Zone, was on hand at the National Trail Raceway in Hebron, Ohio, to unveil Lions Gate Home Entertainment's NHRA The Dead Zone Nitro Funnycar on June 12 as a promotion for the series' June 8 second-season DVD release. The Dead Zone just began its third season on USA Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT; USA Network is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
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Frances McDormand will co-star with Charlize Theron in Paramount Pictures' live-action feature-film adaptation of MTV's animated Aeon Flux SF series, Variety reported. McDormand will portray the Handler.
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Box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations Co. raised the final June 4 weekend tally in North America for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by $1 million, to $93.7 million, the Reuters news service reported.
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David Kelly has nabbed the role of Grandpa Joe in Tim Burton's fantasy film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for Warner Brothers, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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