Superman Reeve Is Dead
uperman film star Christopher Reeve, who became a vocal advocate for spinal-cord research after a disabling horse-riding accident nine years ago, died Oct. 10 of complications from an infection caused by a bedsore, the Associated Press reported.
He was 52.
Reeve won worldwide fame as the Man of Steel in four Superman films from 1978 to 1987. In May 1995, a riding accident left him without the use of his arms or legs. During his recovery, Reeve used his Hollywood fame to win attention and funding for scientific study of disabilities like his and to lobby for looser restrictions on stem-cell research, the AP reported.
Maggie Goldberg, spokeswoman for the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, told the AP, "Christopher took his celebrity and turned it into a legacy."
Recently, Reeve made several guest appearances on The WB's Smallville, playing Dr. Swann, a scientist who gave the teenage Clark Kent (Tom Welling) insight into his future as Superman.
Reeve is survived by his wife, Dana; their son, Will, 12; two children from a relationship with Gae Exton, Matthew, 25, and Alexandra, 21; his mother, Barbara Johnson; his father, Franklin Reeve; and a brother, Benjamin Reeve, the AP reported.
Woo Takes On He-Man
ohn Woo (Paycheck) is set to produce and direct He-Man, a new live-action film based on Mattel's Masters of the Universe toys and the animated series they inspired, Variety reported.
Adam Rifkin (Small Soldiers) will adapt the screenplay.
The Fox 2000 film will be the second featuring the character of He-Man. Dolph Lundgren starred as the half-human, half-Eternian warrior in the 1987 film Masters of the Universe, which also featured Frank Langella as He-Man's evil nemesis, Skeletor. The cast has not yet been announced for the upcoming film.
Potter Character To Die
arry Potter author J.K. Rowling told fans on her official Web site that one of her characters will not survive the next book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the Associated Press reported.
Asked whether she planned to kill off any more characters, Rowling replied, "Yes, sorry." But she refused to identify that character, the AP reported.
Potter himself is safe, at least for now. Rowling has previously said her teenage hero will survive until the seventh and final book in the series, but has refused to say whether he will reach adulthood. The sixth book in the series is due to be published next year.
Gellar Heads To Southland
arah Michelle Gellar told SCI FI Wire that her next film looks likely to be Southland Tales, which was written and will be directed by Donnie Darko auteur Richard Kelly.
"I had seen Donnie Darko, and I thought Richard Kelly was pretty much a genius," Gellar said in an interview while promoting her upcoming horror film, The Grudge. "We met and he told me this idea he had for his follow-up film."
Gellar added that she took the role based on the original ideas in the script. "I pretty much would have said yes blindly, but it was just such a great character, and he just had so many great ideas that it was something I was definitely interested in doing. It's impossible to explain, really. If someone hadn't seen Donnie Darko, or didn't know anything about it, could you imagine trying to describe it? 'OK, it's about a boy and this imaginary bunny?' Richard Kelly's movies are so abstract that they're somewhat difficult to pigeonhole. But Southland Tales is basically [set] over a Fourth of July weekend during an election year, and it's about the chaos in the future [in 2008], and what happens to Hollywood. It's sort of a biting comment on our tabloid society. Does that work?"
Gellar said that the film doesn't have the same kind of SF and fantasy elements as Donnie Darko, but it's still a work in progress. "Not as much as Donnie Darko. There are no imaginary talking bunnies, at least not yet. There may be talking bunnies by the time we film it." Southland Tales will be released in 2005.
Gellar Animated About Happily
arah Michelle Gellar told SCI FI Wire that providing the voice of the lead character in the upcoming animated feature Happily N'Ever After was a dream come true.
"That's sort of a little love project that I've been working on for a couple of years," Gellar said in an interview while promoting her upcoming supernatural thriller, The Grudge. "I love children's stories. I collect children's books."
Gellar will provide the voice of Cinderella in a twist on the traditional fairy tale. Gellar's husband, Freddie Prinze Jr., will also voice a role in the film. "It's basically what happens when all the children's stories sort of get combined and get messed up," she said. "I play Cinderella, and every little girl wants to be Cinderella. So I've finally gotten my chance. Freddie is also doing a voice for it. We recorded a little bit one day together, but most of it we recorded separately."
In addition to Gellar and Prinze, those providing voices for Happily N'Ever After include Sigourney Weaver, George Carlin, Andy Dick, Wallace Shawn and Patrick Warbuton. The film, which is still in production, will be released in 2005.
Benioff Writing Wolverine
avid Benioff, best known for writing the screenplay for this year's Homeric adaptation Troy, has been hired to write the script for an upcoming film focusing on the X-Men character Wolverine, Variety reported.
Hugh Jackman is likely to reprise the role of the adamantium-clawed hero, which he played in the two previous X-Men films, though he hasn't signed a deal yet.
The production is not expected to affect plans for a third X-Men film, which is still in the works. X-Men producers Lauren Shuler Donner and Avi Arad are in talks to produce.
Fantastic Gets Animated
arvel Enterprises has made a deal with French producer Antefilms Productions to produce an animated television series based on the Marvel comic book Fantastic Four, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The deal, announced Oct. 5 at the MIPCOM international convention in Cannes, will include 26 half-hour episodes targeted for premiere in the United States and other territories in late 2006, the trade paper reported.
The new animated series will be part of the elaborate campaign to revive Marvel's Fantastic Four franchise, beginning with the release of the live-action feature film now in production for 20th Century Fox, the trade paper said. There are also plans for DVD releases and a video game developed by Activision in conjunction with the film's opening.
Enterprise Raises Khan
anny Coto, writer and executive producer of UPN's Star Trek: Enterprise, told SCI FI Wire that Brent Spiner's upcoming guest appearance will take place in a four-episode arc dealing with the Eugenics Wars, first mentioned in the original Star Trek episode "Space Seed" and its movie sequel, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
"Originally for this season I wanted there to be an arc that involved the Eugenics Wars," Coto said in an interview at a screening of the fourth-season premiere in Los Angeles. "They were my favorite part of the Star Trek lore, and I always loved Star Trek II, and I really wanted to do something about the Eugenics Wars and the Eugenics warriors. The U.S. government has a repository of virulent diseases, and I thought, 'What if Starfleet has something similar, where they kept diseases, but on top of that they kept embryos from the Eugenics Wars?' These were like baby Khans [Ricardo Montalban] essentially, and what if someone got ahold of them and tried to resurrect them?"
Spiner (Star Trek: The Next Generation's Data) will play a criminal ancestor of Noonien Soong, the scientist who created Data. Coto, who joined the production team of Enterprise last season, said that he originally intended the arc's nemesis to be Col. Green, a despotic character from the original series episode "The Savage Curtain," but rewrote the character for Spiner when he expressed interest in appearing on Enterprise. "Originally it was going to be Col. Green, who was briefly mentioned in the original series, but when I heard that Brent Spiner was interested I tailored it towards him," Coto said. "We made him into a scientist who believed in genetic engineering, and he believed that this was the great future of mankind. He conceived this plan to steal the embryos and raise them to adulthood. But what happens is they get away from him. They go on basically a rampage, and they're like mini Khan Noonien Singhs. They're wreaking havoc in this place called the Borderland, which is near the Klingon Empire, and he's threatening to start a war with the Empire."
Spiner got involved with Enterprise through his friendship with executive producer Rick Berman, who co-created The Next Generation. "Brent and Rick are good friends, and Rick threw out the idea that maybe [Spiner] wanted to be on Enterprise," Coto said. "At the beginning of the season I was developing this whole augment story, and Rick came in and said, 'You know, guys, we've got Brent wants to do some Enterprise.' I said, 'Great.' So I basically moved Col. Green out and put Brent in as the character." Season four of Enterprise premiered Oct. 8 in its new Friday 8 p.m. ET/PT timeslot.
Dramatic Trek Stories Sought
ugene "Rod" Roddenberry Jr., son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, told SCI FI Wire that he's seeking Trek fans with dramatic personal stories for Trek Nation, a proposed documentary on Trek fandom.
"I want to find people out there who are not just stereotypical fans," Roddenberry said in an interview. "People who are NFL football players, high-profile celebrities, politicians, religious leaders, Harley-Davidson bikers and rap artists. I want to show that Star Trek has a positive influence on people. We want to meet these individuals and hear from them."
Roddenberry is very specific about the type of fans and stories that he's looking for, which will distinguish his film from Roger Nygard's two previous films on Trek fandom, Trekkies and Trekkies 2. "For the purposes of this documentary, I can't really put in how Star Trek inspired a person to be a better person and get through grade school. That's a wonderful story, but the stories I'm looking for are the dramatic stories, like Vietnam veterans or those who sneaked Star Trek tapes over the Berlin wall, which was a crime punishable by death. I know Vietnam veterans who put guns to heads every day, but [were] convinced by Star Trek that tomorrow would be a better day. I am looking for the powerful stories. It sounds inconsiderate of me, but I am looking for those who were in abusive relationships or [who] considered suicide [or] were at the end of their ropes, and Star Trek told them to not give up, that tomorrow will be a better day. Keep fighting for the good. Those are the stories that I am looking for right now."
Roddenberry said that he is filming the documentary now and estimates that he'll have a finished product by fall 2005. "We're trying to do a theatrical release, but in the worst-case scenario, it will be a DVD release," he said. Roddenberry's Web site also contains a prelminary trailer for his project.
Enterprise Gets Epic
anny Coto, writer and executive producer of UPN's Star Trek: Enterprise, told SCI FI Wire that the fourth season of the show will feature several self-contained storylines instead of one that spans the entire season.
"This season is like a series of mini-24s," Coto said in an interview at a screening of the season-four premiere. "We have three-episode arcs and four-episode arcs, and what I think is that it gives you the best of both worlds. I didn't want to do one season just on one subject. The [premiere] episode is a two-episode arc, but the other ones are both three-parters, and they really have a kind of great, epic feel. It will be fun to watch on DVD to see from beginning to end."
Coto, who joined the production team during last season, said that he is eager to unleash his ideas for the series and won't be holding back storylines for future seasons. "I wanted to be able to do stories on eugenic supermen [and] on Vulcan, and what this has allowed us to do is create long, epic movies that play out over a series of three episodes," Coto said. "We aren't really doing it thinking what the ratings are going to be, frankly. People will either tune in, or they won't. And if they don't, we won't be around next year. But we'll have a great season this year. With this season approaching, what we're doing is what would we love to do, as fans and as people who love Star Trek. We're just throwing out ideas as they come up."
Coto said that executive producer Rick Berman gave him and the writing staff carte blanche to come up with concepts that play upon material from other Star Trek series. "I've been given this great opportunity where Rick has said, 'Go do whatever you want to do with the old series,'" he said. "Now we're working on this terrific story about the Andorians. It's a three-episode arc that finally incorporates Col. Green, the Andorians, a race of Andorians that we previously had never heard of and the Tellorites."
Coto also said that the disparate plots and characters will lay the groundwork that brings the series up to the beginning of the original Star Trek series. "All of these meetings with the various races evolved from the Tellorites, and the Andorians are going to be taking us to the end of the season, where we will weave this together for the beginnings of what we will know as the Federation." Season four of Enterprise premiered Oct. 8 in its new timeslot, Fridays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Enterprise Ends Cold War
anny Coto, writer and executive producer of UPN's Star Trek: Enterprise, told SCI FI Wire that he found a real challenge bringing the series into its fourth season after the third's cliffhanger ending.
"It was a difficult episode to write, because there was a wild twist at the end of season three," Coto said in an interview at a screening of the season-four premiere. "It necessitated a lot of elements that had to be woven together and tell the end of the Temporal Cold War, and kind of launch the stories for season four." Last season's Xindi war story arc ended back on Earth during World War II, with an alien in a Nazi uniform.
Coto, who joined the series last season after serving two years as writer and creator of the Showtime series Odyssey 5, said that his goal for season four of Enterprise was to reveal some of the origins of character developments and storylines from the original Star Trek series. "I think by now people know I'm a big fan of the old series, and I think what's going to be fun is that we'll be seeing a lot of touchstones from the old series, starting with the Orion slave girls," Coto said. "What's most exciting for me is this story that takes place on Vulcan, which I've nicknamed 'Vulcans of Arabia.' It's a sweeping tale that kind of expands and deepens the Vulcan mythology, and what season four will be is kind of exploring and illuminating parts of the Star Trek universe that perhaps we haven't seen so clearly in the past, in older incarnations and new incarnations."
Coto said that the illustrious history of the series puts enormous pressure on him, as does his previous success with season three. "It's a huge responsibility, and it's a terrific show," he said. "The responsibility is to make it as good as last season, which was tremendous, and to make season four even better. That's what's most scary. Trying to write stories that live up to that and take advantage of that is very challenging." Season four of Enterprise premiered Oct. 8 in the show's new 8 p.m. ET/PT Friday timeslot.
Trek Stars Join Fan Series
arBara Luna and Malachi Throne, who appeared in the original Star Trek series, will guest-star on an upcoming episode of the fan-produced short-film series Star Trek: New Voyages, producer Cow Creek Films announced.
The show picks up the Starship Enterprise in the fourth year of its famous five-year mission, with new actors cast in the roles of the ship's crew, the company said in a press release.
Luna, who originally appeared in the episode "Mirror, Mirror," will play a role in the upcoming episode titled "In Harm's Way." Malachi Throne is best known for playing Commodore Mendez in the original two-part episode "The Menagerie." He has been cast in the new series as a Klingon commander.
Executive producer and director Jack Marshall hinted that more cameos may be forthcoming, but didn't reveal any further details. "If you download our preview trailers from NewVoyages.com, you'll get an idea of the storyline," Marshall said in a statement. "And we've got some other Star Trek guest stars that we're keeping under wraps until the episode is released. We're confident the audience will love it." The first episode of Star Trek: New Voyages is available for download from the New Voyages Web site.
Ghost Scares Up Ratings
he Oct. 6 debut of SCI FI Channel's original alternative reality series Ghost Hunters was SCI FI's most-watched Wednesday night program since January 2003, earning a 1.4 household rating and nearly 1.7 million viewers, the network announced.
The series also ranked in the top 10 of the channel's best-ever Wednesday telecasts, excluding miniseries.
Ghost Hunters trails Jason and Grant, two ordinary guys who are plumbers by day and ghost hunters by night. It airs at 9 p.m. ET/PT Wednesdays as part of SCI FI's new Wednesday block, which also features Proof Positive Evidence of the Paranormal, with host Amanda Tapping, at 8 p.m. and Scare Tactics, with new host Stephen Baldwin, at 10 p.m.
The premiere of Proof Positive Evidence of the Paranormal scored a 1.0 household rating, a 43 percent improvement over ratings in the timeslot in the third quarter of 2004. Scare Tactics, similarly, rang up a 1.0 rating, a 25 percent bump. Encores of the premiere episodes of Ghost Hunters and Proof Positive Evidence of the Paranormal will air starting at 11 p.m. on Oct. 9.
Vardalos Joins Neon Dreams
ia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) is joining Alan Cumming, Marilyn Manson, Daryl Hannah and Jonathan Pryce in the cast of the independent fantasy film Living in Neon Dreams, the first feature by writer-director Jeremy Tarr, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The film is described as a modern-day retelling of Alice in Wonderland, in which a girl enters a fantasy land after a car accident puts her into a coma. The actors will play multiple roles, appearing in both the real world and the fantasy world, the trade paper reported.
Vardalos will play an aunt and the Duchess. Cumming, who next appears in The Son of the Mask, will play the King of Hearts. Producing are Michael and Dale Tarr, Hy Smith and Brigitte Pietz. Shooting is expected to begin this month in Cape Town, South Africa, the trade paper reported.
Delpy In Talks For Keyes
ulie Delpy is in final talks to star in Moody Street Pictures' supernatural thriller film The Legend of Lucy Keyes, written and to be directed by John Stimpson, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Lucy Keyes is inspired by a legend in central Massachusetts about a family that moves into a rural home where a girl went missing in the woods 250 years earlier.
"A lot of people from this region know about the legend," Massachusetts-based Stimpson told the trade paper. "There have been unusual experiences involving what people claim to be the ghost of a young girl and her mother. The most amazing and truly chilling aspect of the legend is that local historical records revealing the truth of what happened to little Lucy Keyes were eventually discovered. The unnerving fate of Lucy Keyes and the thought of history repeating itself result in a very suspenseful and gripping story."
The movie will be produced by Moody Street Pictures' Mark Donadio and Miriam Marcus, as well as J. Todd Harris, president of production at Los Angeles-based Intellectual Properties Worldwide, the trade paper reported.
Deal Breaker Bought
aramount has bought Deal Breaker, a fantasy comedy film from Samantha Goodman and Andrew Stern, about a troubled PR executive who's failed to keep his promises and is given a final shot at redemption with the condition that he'll have to relive his broken promises if he doesn't make good on them, Variety reported.
Peter Segal (The Longest Yard) will direct and produce with partner Michael Ewing, along with Peter Principato and Paul Young, the trade paper reported.
Goodman and Stern previously teamed on the MGM romantic comedy Return to Me and sold A Private's Life to Warner Brothers, with John Wells producing, the trade paper reported.
Segal's credits include Anger Management, 50 First Dates and the upcoming remake of The Longest Yard.
SF Films Earn Hollywood Honors
pider-Man 2, Shrek 2, Hero and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind were among the ten films nominated for the Hollywood Movie of the Year award by the board of advisers of the Hollywood Film Festival, organizers announced.
Nominees were also announced for the Hollywood World Awards and the Hollywood European Awards. The awards, presented by ETOnline.com and Yahoo! Movies, honor the public's favorite films of the year. The awards will be given out as part of the Hollywood Awards gala ceremony on Oct. 18 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
The favorite movie of the year will be selected by the public at large at the Yahoo! Movies and ETOnline.com Web sites, and the two winners for the World and European awards will be selected from the ten nominees for each award. A blue ribbon selection committee of judges from around the world selected the nominated films. Honors for achievement will also be awarded to individuals including actress Keira Knightley (King Arthur), screenwriter John Logan (Star Trek: Nemesis), composer Thomas Newman (Angels in America), visual-effects artist John Dykstra (Spider-Man 2), production designer Stuart Craig (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) and makeup artist Ve Neill (The Chronicles of Riddick).
Toy Story Sequels Coming
ichael Eisner announced that Disney is moving forward on a third and fourth film in the Toy Story series without the involvement of former animation partner Pixar, New York Newsday reported.
"We're doing two Toy Stories at once," Eisner said during a Goldman Sachs investment conference in New York on Oct. 5. A spokeswoman for the company confirmed that there are two story ideas being developed.
Toy Story was the first feature collaboration between Disney and Pixar and became a box-office hit in 1995. Toy Story 2, originally planed as a direct-to-video project, achieved similar success in 1999. Though Disney's partnership with Pixar dissolved last year, the studio retains the rights to make sequels to the films on its own. At the conference, Eisner outlined the studio's plans for additional computer-animated films, including Chicken Little, which he said will cost half as much as competitors spend on such films, the newspaper reported.
Robotech: Invasion Incoming
lobal Star announced that Robotech: Invasion, the latest video game based on the popular Japanese anime franchise, has shipped to retail stores for the Xbox and PlayStation2, the Game Spot Web site reported.
Developed by Vicious Cycle, the game feature an original story that takes place in the world of the animated television series Robotech: The New Generation.
Invasion focuses on the guerilla war undertaken by humans after the invasion of Earth by the insect-like Invid. It features 15 single-player missions with third-person and first-person modes, as well as online support for both consoles. Robotech: Invasion is rated T for teens and older, and carries a suggested retail price of $39.99, the Web site reported.
Ubisoft Gets 'Cold Fear'
bisoft announced that it will publish Cold Fear, an action-horror title from Darkworks, developers of Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare, the Game Spot Web site reported.
Slated for release in March 2005 on the Xbox, PlayStation2 and PC game systems, the title will be the first Darkworks release in nearly four years, the site said.
The game follows the adventures of Tom Hansen, a U.S. Coast Guard officer who must explore and investigate a series of dark and stormy locations, including a seemingly abandoned Russian whaling ship and a mysterious oil rig. Ubisoft and Darkworks revealed few specific details about the game, but said that there will be both human and non-human enemies, the Web site reported.
De Bont Bites Into Meg
an De Bont has signed on to direct the feature adaptation of Steve Alten's prehistoric-shark novel Meg, Variety reported.
Guillermo del Toro, Larry Gordon and Lloyd Levin—whose last collaboration was the comic-book adaptation Hellboy—will produce along with Nick Nunziata of CHUD.com and Ken Atchity.
The novel follows the story of one man's hunt for a Carcharodon megalodon, a massive ancestor to the great white shark that could resurface and wreak havoc in the ocean. A preliminary trailer is already posted on the author's official Web site.
Chatwin Enlisted For War
ewcomer Justin Chatwin is in talks to star opposite Tom Cruise in Steven Spielberg's upcoming adaptation of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds, Variety reported.
Chatwin beat out several young actors for the role of Cruise's son, whose strained relationship with his father is a significant plot point in the film, the trade paper said.
The film also stars Dakota Fanning (Taken) as Chatwin's sister and Miranda Otto (Lord of the Rings), who will play his mother and Cruise's wife. Tim Robbins (Mystic River) was also recently added to the cast. Chatwin previously appeared in the USA miniseries Traffic and the feature film Taking Lives. He will next be seen in the upcoming drama The Chumscrubber alongside Ralph Fiennes, Glenn Close, Allison Janney and Carrie-Anne Moss.
Team MPAA Rates America R
ollywood's film ratings board has given an R rating to the marionette action spoof Team America: World Police, the Reuters news service reported.
The Motion Picture Association of America revised the rating from an NC-17, which would prohibit admission for anyone 17 or younger, after producers made several changes, including the editing of graphic sex scenes between the film's puppet characters, the news service said.
Producer Scott Rudin told the Los Angeles Times that at least nine variations of the scene in question were submitted, each one progressively less explicit, before the MPAA ultimately relented and approved an R rating. The revision comes just four days before the film, from South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, is scheduled to open in 800 theaters nationwide.
Gaylactic Awards Presented
rganizers announced the winners of the Gaylactic Spectrum Awards, created by the Gaylactic Network, an organization for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender fans of SF, fantasy and horror.
The awards honor works that deal positively with gay characters, themes and issues.
The Gaylactic Spectrum Awards Foundation was created in 2002 to manage and further the mission of the awards to educate and raise awareness of such content in SF&F. Awards were presented in three categories for works originally released in 2003.
The 2004 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards were presented at the World Science Fiction Convention in Boston on Sept. 5. A list of winners follows.
Best Novel
• The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson
Best Short Fiction
• "Lark Till Dawn, Princess" by Barth Anderson
Best Other Work
• Angels in America, by Tony Kushner, HBO, et al.
• Gotham Central: Half a Life (issues 6-10), by Greg Rucka and Michael Lark
Atari Goes Retro
tari is bringing back some of its classic early video games from the 1980s in the upcoming release Atari Anthology for the Playstation2 and Xbox systems, the company announced.
The anthology includes 80 games originally produced for the Atari 2600 and 7800 systems, plus five new bonus games.
Among the games in the collection are the arcade classics Asteroids and Missile Command, the castle-and-dragon game Adventure and the space-themed games Yar's Revenge and Space War. Atari Anthology will be available in November for a retail price of $19.99.
Housewives A Hit For ABC
BC has found its second hit of the new television season with Desperate Housewives, which drew 21.3 million viewers for its premiere on Oct. 3, the Associated Press reported.
It follows the success of another new ABC drama, Lost, which also earned high ratings for the network in its first two weeks.
The suburban drama, in which a deceased woman comments on her neighbors from beyond the grave, drew more viewers for a season premiere than any ABC series since Spin City eight years ago. It was the best debut of any non-spinoff series on any network since the 2001 premiere of Inside Schwartz, the trade paper reported. Desperate Housewives airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Dreamtective In The Works
creenwriter Nick Pustay has been hired to adapt the young-adult novel Dreamtective by Elizabeth Swados into a feature film, Variety reported.
David Permut of Fortress Entertainment will produce.
The novel, first published in 1988, centers around a teenage girl who solves mysteries by entering people's dreams. Pustay previously adapted the popular young-adult novel Star Girl for Paramount and Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal for Mission Entertainment, the trade paper reported.
Dimension Imports Ghost
imension Films has acquired the rights to an English-language remake of the Korean horror film Ryeong (The Ghost), according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The film is being produced by Roy Lee, Doug Davison and Sonny Mallhi of Vertigo entertainment, which was involved in the recent remakes The Ring and The Grudge. Both were based on Japanese horror films.
Ryeong is the story of a teenage girl who suffers from amnesia and has a connection to a group of people being killed off one by one by a vengeful ghost. The film, directed by Tae-Kyeong Kim, was a box-office success this summer in Korea.
Paizo Makes Masthead Changes
aizo Publishing has named Erik Mona editor-in-chief of Dragon magazine, the company announced in a press release.
Mona, currently editor-in-chief of Dungeon magazine, will now oversee both publications simultaneously. Former editor-in-chief Matthew Sernett left the company for a position at Wizards of the Coast.
The company also named Jason Bulmahn, former campaign coordinator for the Dungeons & Dragons organization Living Greyhawk, associate editor of Dragon magazine.
Irrational Seeks Heroes
rrational Games, publisher of the upcoming superhero video game Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich, has launched a contest for the creation of the best original comic-book hero, the company announced.
Entries will be judged on the hero's name, powers, description and origin.
The winning entry will be included in the upcoming game, and the name of the winner will appear in the game's end credits. Five runners-up will receive a free copy of the game. A complete list of official rules is available at the company's Web site.
Midway Ships New Kombat
idway announced that it has shipped the latest installment in the popular Mortal Kombat video-game franchise for the PlayStation2 and Xbox systems.
Mortal Kombat: Deception will be the first three-dimensional fighting game to be playable online via both the PlayStation 2 and Xbox Live, the company said.
Building on the success of the 2002 release Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, which has reached nearly 3 million units in sales, the new game features an innovative fighting system, new weapons combat maneuvers, secret and returning characters and multiple new fatalities per character.
Robbins, Otto Join War
im Robbins and Miranda Otto have been added to the cast of Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Robbins will play an astronomer named Ogilvy, while Otto (Lord of the Rings) will play the wife of the main character, to be played by Tom Cruise. Dakota Fanning (Taken) is also set to appear as their daughter, the trade paper reported.
The Paramount and DreamWorks co-production is the latest adaptation of the classic H.G. Wells novel of the same name, which deals with an alien invasion of Earth. The film is scheduled to begin filming in mid-November for release in 2005.
Eternal Finds Distributor
ere! Films, a subsidiary of Regent Entertainment, has acquired U.S. distribution rights to the supernatural thriller Eternal from Horizon Entertainment, Variety reported.
The film, which opened last week in Canada, will be released in the U.S. in early 2005.
Eternal is based on the story of a 16th-century Hungarian countess who reportedly seduced and murdered 650 women in order to bathe in their blood for eternal life. The film, which was produced by Montreal-based WildKoast Entertainment, is set in the present day and centers around a mysterious woman who may be the immortal countess or a demonic killer in disguise, the trade paper reported.
New Star Wars Comics Due
ark Horse comics in November will release the first issues of Star Wars: Obsession, a five-issue limited series that recounts Obi-Wan Kenobi's brush with the dark side of the Force as he embarks on a special mission, the publisher announced.
While Anakin Skywalker enjoys a brief respite from the Clone Wars (and a reunion with his secret wife, Padmé Amidala), Obi-Wan embarks on a personal mission to the swamp world of Trigalis, where he fights a small army of bounty hunters, duels with a crime lord who has ties to Count Dooku and obtains undercover help from fellow Jedi Aayla Secura.
Obsession is written by Haden Blackman and fits with the continuity of the Star Wars prequel films, including the upcoming Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith. "We're tying up loose ends before Episode III, but we're also setting up a few characters for the post-Episode III era, which is really exciting," Blackman said in a statement. "Obsession also fits into Obi-Wan's overall character arc in that it allows him to understand the dangers of emotion for a Jedi and teaches him that when you look into the abyss, the abyss looks back. There's a danger that, in his well-intentioned efforts to save another from the dark side, Obi-Wan could slide to the dark side himself." Brian Ching drew Star Wars: Obsession, the first issue of which goes on sale Nov. 17 with a suggested retail price of $2.99.
Star Wars Controllers Due
ntec announced that it has struck a deal with Lucasfilm to release a range of Star Wars-branded video-game accessories, the IGN Web site reported.
The game controllers will feature new technologies designed with specific Star Wars games in mind, the company said.
The first controllers will be available for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox this holiday season, with additional controllers planned for future LucasArts titles, including the upcoming game based on Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith, scheduled for release in May 2005, IGN reported.
Myst IV Ships
bisoft announced that it has shipped Myst IV Revelation, the latest sequel to the groundbreaking PC game Myst, to retailers.
The PC/Mac hybrid DVD-ROM is available now at the manufacturer's suggested retail price of $39.99, the company said. It carries a rating of "T" for players 13 and older.
The game, developed by Ubisoft's Montreal studio, combines photo-realistic graphics with video footage and real-time animation sequences. It features a soundtrack by award-winning composer Jack Wall and a song written and performed by Peter Gabriel, who also lends his voice to the game. The story involves the disappearance of a little girl and the possible involvement of her two older brothers. Players will attempt to solve the mystery and discover the fate of Sirrus and Achenar, the two villainous brothers at the center of the Myst world.
Briefly Noted
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The Oct. 8 fourth-season premiere of UPN's Star Trek: Enterprise delivered double-digit year-to-year ratings growth in the time period in several demographics, the network reported. The show premiered in a new Friday 8 p.m. ET/PT timeslot.
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ABC's Lost again led its timeslot on Oct. 6, with 16.6 million viewers, and it was the top program in the 18-49 demographic, Variety reported.
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Comedian Michael "Bully" Herbig will star in a movie adaptation of the German children's book Hui Buh—Das Schlossgespenst (Hui Buh—The Castle Ghost) for Constantin Film subsidiary Rat Pack, Variety reported. Shooting under helmer Sebastian Niemann is set to begin in February.
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Dimension Films has set Agnes Bruckner, Method Man, Bijou Phillips, D.J. Cotrona and Jonathan Jackson to star in Backwater, a voodoo horror movie set in Louisiana, Variety reported. Shooting recently began in New Orleans.
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Warner Brothers will co-finance DreamWorks' upcoming SF movie The Island, directed by Michael Bay and starring Scarlett Johansson and Ewan McGregor, Variety reported. A start date has been set for Oct. 25, with plans for a summer 2005 release.
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Cinescape.com has posted a series of images from the upcoming computer-animated holiday film The Polar Express, starring Tom Hanks and directed by Robert Zemeckis.
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Paizo Publishing has named Jeff Berkwits editor-in-chief of Amazing Magazine, the company announced.
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Universal Citywalk in Universal City, Calif., will host a free public tribute to Lon Chaney, the "man of a thousand faces," on Oct. 16. The event will include a makeup effects demonstration by some of the industry's top artists and an appearance by several of Chaney's most famous characters.
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Capcom has released a trailer for the upcoming horror video game Resident Evil 4 on its official Web site. Visitors can also view footage of the game being played by director Shinji Mikami.
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Lions Gate Films has created a new Web site advertising the fictional "Zoe chip" implant featured in the upcoming SF film The Final Cut, starring Robin Williams, Mira Sorvino and Jim Caviezel.
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A trailer for the upcoming fantasy film MirrorMask, written by Neil Gaiman and directed by Dave McKean, is now available at the film's official Web site.
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The Latino Review Web site has a first look at the new teaser poster for the upcoming film Elektra, starring Jennifer Garner.
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A Houston movie theater showing the giant-snake sequel Anacondas 2: Search for the Blood Orchid was temporarily shut down after a maintenance worker spotted a live eight-foot snake inside the building, the Associated Press reported.
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