Lost Ed Wood Film Unearthed
ecromania, the long-lost final movie of Ed Wood, considered the worst filmmaker of all time, has been rediscovered, the Reuters news service reported.
The 1971 movie is a porn film documenting the sexual enlightenment of a young couple at the hands of a coven of witches, the news service reported.
Wood, who created Bride of the Monster and Plan 9 From Outer Space, was the subject of Tim Burton's 1994 film, which starred Johnny Depp as the maligned moviemaker.
Necromania was filmed over two or three days with a budget of no more than $7,000, and the only copies went missing soon after it was made, Reuters reported. Rudolph Grey, author of a biography of the director, and a fellow Ed Wood enthusiast, movie distributor Alexander Kogan, unearthed Necromania in a warehouse in Los Angeles after more than 15 years of detective work. A year ago they contacted the editors of a pornography Web site called Fleshbot, which this week will start selling the DVD by mail order for $19.99. The DVD will feature two versions of the film, one soft-core, the other more explicit, Reuters reported.
Garner: Elektra Is Dark
ennifer Garner, who plays the title role in the upcoming comic-book movie Elektra, told SCI FI Wire that her character goes to a dark place in the film, the follow-up to 2003's Daredevil.
"Elektra is lethal," Garner said in an interview during a break in filming last June. "In Daredevil, [she] was somebody who was on the verge of being lethal who was surprised to find herself vulnerable to someone. [But] once her father's killed—and this is true in the comic books, and it is in the films as well—once her father is killed, there is no light for her in the world anymore."
Elektra picks up the story years after the events in Daredevil. Elektra has become the world's most dangerous assassin, working for a nefarious criminal organization called The Hand. She has come to this dark point in her life after losing her dad, falling out with her one true love, Matt Murdock, and being rejected by her mentor and martial-arts instructor, the blind and inscrutable Stick (Terence Stamp).
Elektra begins to doubt her choices when she takes on a new assignment: killing a young girl, Abby (Canadian newcomer Kirsten Prout), who lives with her father, Mark (ER's Goran Visnjic). Sensing a kindred spirit in young Abby, Elektra makes the fateful decision to protect the pair. That puts her in The Hand's crosshairs, and the trio must run from the group's most lethal ninja killers, led by the mystical Kirigi (Die Another Day's Will Yun Lee) and the supernatural Typhoid Mary (Natassia Malthe).
Garner said the movie is about Elektra's need for redemption. "It comes up and smacks her in the face, much like falling for Matt Murdock did," she said. "Except I think this is much more of a surprise, and it's more of a twist, and it's something she fights a lot harder than she fought falling for Matt."
The scary thing about Elektra, Garner admitted, is playing the lead role in a big action movie. "I've really missed hiding behind a big, red devil," she said, referring to Ben Affleck's character in Daredevil. Elektra, based on the Marvel Comics series, opens Jan. 14, 2005.
Life Inspired Incredibles
rad Bird, the writer and director of Disney/Pixar's upcoming computer-animated movie The Incredibles, told SCI FI Wire that the story was inspired by a combination of fantasy and real life.
"This is a sort of gumbo of all the adventure movies and spy movies and comedies and TV shows and comic-book things that I liked as a kid," Bird said in an interview. "They are kind of stirred together with my own personal family stuff, both the family that I grew up in and the family that I have now with my wife and sons. It's supposed to feel like a lot of things and nothing."
The Incredibles centers on a family of retired superheroes, led by Mr. Incredible (voiced by Craig T. Nelson) and Elastigirl (Holly Hunter), who are called back into action by the return of an old villain. Bird said that he intentionally avoided a self-referential or ironic approach to the superhero genre. "I think we have fun with it, but I never intended to wink at the audience," Bird said. "I think there's a tendency with some filmmakers to act like they're above the material, and I think they're limiting what a film can be, because they're always saying, 'I don't really believe any of this, and you shouldn't either.' I wanted people to care about these characters and believe in this world."
Bird acknowledged that the material is well-traversed territory, but he said he was interested in drawing a genuine emotional reaction from the audience. "I'm hip to the fact that this is kind of silly," Bird said. "I wanted to make something that had fun with that world, but was sincere about it, and I wanted people to worry about the characters. I don't think you can do that if you're always winking and nudging the audience. I think to a certain extent that is patronizing, unless you're doing an all-out comedy, like Young Frankenstein. Then wink and nudge away; I'm right with you." The Incredibles opens Nov. 5.
Cruise Shooting War
om Cruise revealed to fans at UCLA that he has already begun shooting scenes for the upcoming film adaptation of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds, directed by Steven Spielberg, Zap2It reported.
In a three-hour "Conversation with Tom Cruise," sponsored by the American Film Institute and run by DreamWorks, Cruise said that he has already shot an emotional scene as Justin Chatwin, an estranged father in the middle of a Martian invasion of Earth, the site reported.
"As I was looking at a photograph I found of my son in the scene, Steven told me to think of the good times I had with my own son, and to get into the mood that way," Cruise reportedly said. "Things like that really help."
Cruise starts shooting Mission: Impossible III in Europe next, the site reported.
Whedon Denies X-Men Rumor
uffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon told fans at a John Kerry fund-raising event in Los Angeles Oct. 24 that he won't be writing or directing the third X-Men movie, despite persistent rumors to the contrary.
"I did promise I would say whether or not I'm going to be directing the third X-Men movie, and the answer is, I'm sorry to say, no," Whedon told fans gather for a "High Stakes 2004" event in Hollywood. "Quite frankly, I thought about it for a long time, I looked into my heart, and I realized that Fox didn't ask me to," he added, with tongue in cheek.
Whedon was one of several Buffy-related guests who appeared at the fan event, organized to raise money for the Kerry presidential campaign, which drew more than 250 fans who paid a minimum of $50 each to attend. Whedon was joined by Buffy and Angel cast members Alyson Hannigan; her real-life husband, Alexis Denisof; Nicholas Brendon; Danny Strong; Adam Busch; Amber Benson; Amy Acker and J. August Richards and Firefly star Nathan Fillion, who also stars in Whedon's upcoming Firefly movie, Serenity. Whedon also spoke via conference call to 41 other similarly themed fan parties across the country, from Alaska to Washington state to New York.
With regard to the X-Men projects, Whedon added, "Ultimately, the fact that I'm writing the X-Men every month in the Astonishing X-Men [Marvel comic] and that I have the best artists in comic books working with me is getting my 'X' fix on just fine. I'm writing a screenplay of my own right now, and it'll be nice to work on something that wasn't created by me or anybody else many years ago."
World Fantasy Winners Named
he 2004 World Fantasy Award Winners for works from 2003 were announced at the World Fantasy Convention in Tempe, Ariz., over the Halloween weekend.
The judges included John Clute, Sherwood Smith, Michael Stackpole, Alain Nevant and Scott Wyatt; the awards administrator was Peter Dennis Pautz. A list of winners follows.
Life Achievement
•Stephen King
•Gahan Wilson
Novel
•Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton
Novella
•"A Crowd of Bone" by Greer Gilman
Short Fiction
•"Don Ysidro" by Bruce Holland Rogers
Anthology
•Strange Tales, Rosalie Parker, ed.
Collection
•Bibliomancy by Elizabeth Hand
Artist
•Donato Giancola
•Jason Van Hollander
Special Award: Professional
•Peter Crowther for PS Publishing
Special Award: Non-Professional
•Ray Russell/Rosalie Parker for Tartarus Press
The Blob Oozes Again
aramount Pictures and producer Scott Rudin will remake The Blob, the 1958 camp SF movie that launched the career of Steve McQueen, Variety reported.
The movie centers on a jelly-like substance that crashes from space and grows as it consumes every human in its path. Paramount is picking the project up from Warner Brothers, where the film's original producer, Jack Harris, set it up, the trade paper reported.
No writer has yet been set for the remake, which will be updated. The original movie launched several spinoffs and was remade in 1988, when Frank Darabont wrote the script with Chuck Russell, who directed, the trade paper reported.
Episode III Trailer Due
he teaser trailer for Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith premieres Nov. 4 on the Star Wars Hyperspace Web site, which requires a subscription fee, the official Homing Beacon newsletter reported.
The following day, Nov. 5, the teaser will screen in movie theaters, attached to prints of Disney/Pixar's The Incredibles, in the United States and Canada.
The trailer will then be posted to the free portion of the official StarWars.com Web site on Nov. 8. Episode III opens May 19, 2005.
Meanwhile, the official Star Wars Web site revealed the teaser poster image for the prequel.
Dawn DVD Restores Scenes
ack Snyder, director of the horror remake Dawn of the Dead, told SCI FI Wire that the DVD release will restore several scenes that were cut from the theatrical version.
"The scenes are what we probably screened the first time for the studio before we cut the movie down," Snyder said. "[The cuts] had a lot to [do] with the length and the running time. They always wanted the movie shorter. We went back, and they were like, 'You're going to get to do a director's cut. What do you want to put back in the movie?'"
The unrated director's-cut DVD includes additional scenes with the group as they enter the mall, as well as an extra sequence in which a rescue team explodes a propane tank to escape Andy's gun shop. Snyder said that recutting the movie was more than a matter of simply restoring excised moments from several scenes. "I hoped that the movie as a whole would be a little bit more cohesive," Snyder said. "It was more of a matter of reassembling the movie. I ended up with the movie that they got into theaters, and that's why I put back in [scenes like] leaving Andy's. It was just stuff that I felt needed to be in the movie."
The Universal Studios Home Video DVD also includes extended versions of scenes that involve cameo performances from cast members of the original Dawn of the Dead. Snyder said it was important to restore their appearances for the director's cut. "When you're talking about what can go to make the movie shorter, [the studio] calls them extra, but I think they're important," Snyder said. "You're talking about the meat of the movie, but they're like, 'OK, what if we cut from here?' Those things aren't as important to them as they are to our fans or me." Dawn of the Dead: The Unrated Director's Cut DVD hit stores on Oct. 26. Universal Studios Home Video is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Dawn DVD Includes Cut Scenes
ack Snyder, director of the horror remake Dawn of the Dead, told SCI FI Wire that the current DVD includes deleted scenes, featurettes and commentary from Snyder and producer Eric Newman.
Snyder said that the excised scenes were not re-inserted into the film for his director's cut because they slowed down the pacing of the film.
"It's like an aesthetic thing, like what you think works and what doesn't work," Snyder said in an interview. "If you listen to the commentary, I talk about why I don't think these particular scenes would go in [the movie]. A lot of those scenes were pushed on me in the writing. The producers were like, 'We need another scene that puts Sarah and Jake together more.' I was like, 'I think we're going to be OK if I just make this scene longer.' I shot a lot of that stuff, but I don't know if necessarily those scenes in particular needed to be in the movie."
Snyder added that his extended cut required additional computer and practical effects to blend them into the original film. "They had to go back and work on all of those guys," Snyder said. "I think there was a guy in the truck that [they added], and there's a couple of extra zombies. It cost Universal, but they wanted to do it." But Snyder said that he is extremely happy with the finished product. "I looked at all of that stuff, and I think it's cool and well done," he said. "To me, I've never seen it, so it's a treat for me, too. To their credit, they know how to make a DVD." Dawn of the Dead is now in stores. It is being distributed by Universal Studios Home Video, which is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Snyder Ready For Dawn 2
irector Zack Snyder told SCI FI Wire that Universal Pictures has already approached him to make a follow-up to his hit zombie remake Dawn of the Dead, but that the movie won't be a remake of George Romero's own sequel, Day of the Dead.
"It's fascinating, because it's the sequel to our movie," Snyder said in an interview. "I was like, 'We should do a sequel to Day,' but they [weren't interested]."
Snyder helmed the remake of Romero's Dawn , which is now on DVD. Snyder said that he and screenwriter James Gunn diverged from the rules Romero created for the original Dawn, which rendered it difficult to continue remaking Romero's movies. "Inadvertently we created a whole different world," Snyder said. "We went off, and in a lot of ways the rules that George created don't apply at the end of this Dawn."
Snyder said that his original idea for the remake may have made subsequent films harder to develop. "I always wanted to make a movie where the zombies won from the beginning," he said. "I think I demonstrated that in the first 10 minutes. It doesn't take long for them to really kind of win. It's more about, like, you're [in] an air bubble."
Snyder said that talks have begun with Universal, but the project does not have a definite start date. "We kicked around some ideas, but I don't know what we're going to do with it," he said. "We've talked about it. I met with James. I met with the producers. The heat comes on and off of that. I think Universal wants it bad." Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Chabon Falls For Snow
ulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon will write Snow and the Seven, a martial-arts retelling of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, for Walt Disney Pictures, Variety reported.
Yuen Wo Ping, the choreographer of groundbreaking action films The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, will direct the live-action movie.
Previously known as Snow White and the Seven Shao Lin, the movie will mark Yuen's English-language directorial debut. The original draft of the script was written by Josh Harman and Scott Elder; this version will be a retelling of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with a martial-arts/Chinese fantasy twist, the trade paper reported.
New Chapbook Series Announced
queduct Press announced the first three of its new series of chapbooks, called Conversation Pieces, including works by Nicola Griffith, Nancy Jane Moore and L. Timmel Duchamp, to be published this month.
The Conversation Pieces series—featuring small collections of fiction, poetry and nonfiction—aims both "to document and facilitate the grand conversation of feminist SF," the publisher said. Each book will be perfect-bound and priced at $8, available through the publisher's Web site and at bookstores.
The first volume, The Grand Conversation, collects four essays by L. Timmel Duchamp that explore her conceptualization of feminist SF as a conversation.
The second volume, With Her Body, presents three pieces of short fiction by the Nebula-, Lambda- and Tiptree-award-winning Nicola Griffith. Griffith, who has multiple sclerosis and is a member of the board of the Multiple Sclerosis Association of King County in Washington state, will donate all royalties to the Rehab Services of the MSA.
The third volume, Changeling, is an original novella by Nancy Jane Moore.
SF Under Glazer's Skin
onathan Glazer (Birth) told SCI FI Wire that he plans to direct a big-screen version of Michael Faber's SF novel Under the Skin.
"It's a book I read a few years ago, and I think it has a very powerful point to make," Glazer said in an interview. "It's a very political piece."
Set in Scotland, Under the Skin tells the story of an alien living on Earth in human female form, who plucks hunky male hitchhikers from the road, fattens them up, kills them and then ships them to her home planet to be served as a delicacy for the upper class. "The heart of the story is really about the fact that we're not necessarily the top of the food chain," Glazer said. "That's the prose of the piece, but the poetry of the piece is everything that spins from that. For us, it's about the little man versus the corporation. It's about the fact that the pursuit of money is a universal thing, and that in our search for light we find the dark."
Glazer added, "I think it's a very powerful political piece, actually, and I'm very excited about it. I'm very excited about it. It's set in the present. So what's science fiction about it? There are aliens."
Glazer said that Under the Skin is in the earliest stages of development and that he's not yet finalized a script, selected a cast or envisioned the look of the aliens. "I'm thinking hard about that, actually," Glazer said. "That's a very difficult question to answer. The aliens are the hardest thing to do, because we want to do them in a way that's never been seen before." If all goes according to plan, Glazer hopes to roll camera on Under the Skin in November 2005.
Glazer made his directing debut with the acclaimed drama Sexy Beast. Birth is his upcoming drama, in which Nicole Kidman comes to believe that her late husband has been reincarnated as a 10-year-old boy; it opened Oct. 29.
Zemeckis All Over Polar
teve Starkey, longtime producer of director Robert Zemeckis' movies, told SCI FI Wire that Zemeckis directed, co-wrote and guided the look of their latest collaboration, the upcoming computer-animated holiday movie The Polar Express.
The script is based on the Chris Van Allsburg children's book, about a boy (Tom Hanks) who rediscovers his belief in Santa Claus following a wild ride to the North Pole aboard the film's titular train.
Starkey has produced such Zemeckis films as Forrest Gump, What Lies Beneath, Contact, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and Death Becomes Her. "The difference was that since Bob was developing the screenplay, simultaneously he was developing the artistic look of the film," Starkey said in an interview. "And also we were trying to figure out how to do it. Most of the time we did have a vague idea how we were going to do [other] movies before we started. In this particular case, [the decision to utilize CGI and motion-capture photography] evolved out of the process of developing the screenplay and developing the artwork."
In Polar Express, Hanks plays five different roles. In addition to providing their voices, Hanks performed each part, and his performance was captured in computers and used as the basis for the computer animation of his characters. Starkey said he and Zemeckis worked closely. "Normally, I would start at the point when Bob received the script or worked on the script, and then I would launch into it with him. In this case we were immersed in that process with Bob, so that's how this was different than the projects before." The Polar Express opens Nov. 10.
Hanks Takes Five In Express
om Hanks told SCI FI Wire that he voiced five characters in the upcoming Robert Zemeckis-directed computer-animated holiday fantasy film The Polar Express.
"When Bob explained it enough to me so that I could understand the process we were doing would make it possible for grown-ups to play the kids—that Nona [Gaye] could play the girl, and I could play the boy, and Eddie Deezen and Peter Scolari could come along with it [and play youthful characters]—that opened up a lot of opportunities for one aspect of it," Hanks said during a press conference.
In the film, based on the Chris Van Allsburg illustrated children's book, Hero Boy (Hanks) heads off to the North Pole for an adventure that will rekindle his belief in Santa Claus. Hanks voices not only Hero Boy, but also Hero Boy's father, a hobo, the Conductor and Santa.
"What the [adults] are, in my sensibilities, is they're all the caregivers," Hanks said. "They're all the authorities in this boy's life, and he imagines them as variations on himself and variations on his uncles and variations on his father. As well, [there's] the great mystery of how he would have imagined Santa Claus needed to be himself. Santa Claus to this boy was not this roly-poly accountant that came down the chimney every day. He was this huge, muscular man that had to lift up this massive package, this sack of presents. He had to be a big, strong guy."
It was Zemeckis who suggested that Hanks play multiple roles. "Bob at one point said, 'I think you should play every role in this movie, because then we could do it. You could play every role!'" Hanks said. "But I said, 'Well, wait a minute. There's girls in this movie. I'm going to play every elf?' He said, 'Yeah, it'll be great.'"
A day of tests, Hanks went on to recall, made him realize he could only take on so much. "I played five or six or seven roles in the course of that day, and I said, 'Bob, I'm exhausted here.' So in my mind I had a track on the five characters that I played. I could understand the differences between them all, and I understood how they related to the boy, and I understood what the boy's perceptions of them were. And it was just a circumstance where it was doable," Hanks said. "It was possible without having to do it in the way, like say, for example, Jerry Lewis made The Family Jewels or something like that." The Polar Express opens Nov. 10.
Hanks, Gaye Talk Express
om Hanks and Nona Gaye told SCI FI Wire that voicing the main characters in the upcoming computer-animated holiday film The Polar Express posed acting challenges they had never before encountered.
Hanks and Gaye acted in digitally captured live performances and then provided the voices of their respective characters. "I found, and Nona might agree, that it is actually a return to a type of acting that acting in films does not allow you to do," Hanks said during a New York City press conference also attended by Gaye. "It was exactly like rehearsing a play in the round."
Hanks added, "You don't have to worry about lights, angles, rails, cameras, over-the-shoulder coverage. We essentially did a great series of 10- or 15-minute plays in which we did it ... all in real time, and when we were done, [director] Bob [Zemeckis] had everything that he needed. So as far as being an actor goes, it was a blast."
The film, based on the Chris Van Allsburg illustrated children's book, follows Hero Boy (Hanks), a youngster who begins to doubt the existence of Santa and embarks on a Christmas Eve train ride to the North Pole that will forever change his thinking. Hanks plays several other characters as well, including a hobo, the Conductor and Santa.
Gaye, best known for The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, portrays Hero Girl, a brave and bright child who befriends Hero Boy and accompanies him on the ensuing adventure. "It was incredible, because we were done so quickly," Gaye said. "We'd do a few takes, and Bob would figure out which one was right, and it was done. I was not used to that at all. Usually there's lighting and there's trying to fix things and change things and set up for the next scene, and we didn't have to do that. So it was a lot of fun. We had a great time doing it." The Polar Express opens on Nov. 10.
Live-Action Express Impossible?
obert Zemeckis—writer-producer-director of The Polar Express, the upcoming computer-animated movie based on Chris Van Allsburg's holiday-themed book—told SCI FI Wire that it would not have been reasonable to realize the film as a live-action production.
"One of the first things I said to Tom when he said 'What do you think?' was 'I don't think this would make a very good live-action movie,'" Zemeckis said in an interview, referring to Tom Hanks, who co-executive produced the film and voices five characters. "That was for a couple of reasons."
Zemeckis added, "One, I thought it would be impossible. Or, nothing is impossible, but it would cost billions of dollars. You could do it with enough money. And two, you would be throwing away what I thought was the essence of the book, which were those paintings. The paintings are where the emotion comes from, in my opinion, and without those paintings you're throwing half the book away."
Van Allsburg's book, which is 29 pages long and illustrated with paintings, tells the story of a boy (Hanks) on the verge of losing his belief in Santa Claus. But his faith is restored by a Christmas Eve ride to the North Pole and encounters with like-minded children, a Hobo (Hanks), a Conductor (Hanks) and Santa himself (Hanks).
Zemeckis, who previously directed such technically challenging films as Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and Forrest Gump, said that a third concern had he shot The Polar Express as a live-action film would have been finding a young actor to play the central character, referred to as Hero Boy. "You'd have to go around the world and try to find him and hope that you get a great one," Zemeckis said. "It's always the problem with these movies with these young actors. You've got to hope you've got the next Haley Joel Osment, because the whole movie hangs on him." The Polar Express rolls into theaters on Nov. 10.
The Fog Rolls Again
evolution Studios has acquired rights to remake John Carpenter's 1980 horror film The Fog, Variety reported.
Cooper Layne (The Core) will write the script. Debra Hill and Carpenter, who wrote the original, will produce the remake with David Foster, the trade paper reported.
The Fog centered on a Northern California town and its inhabitants, who bear some responsibility for a shipwreck 100 years earlier, and the spirits of the drowned seamen, who return in a mysterious fog to wreak vengeance.
The Fog was originally released under the Rank/Avco Embassy banner. The Fog is slated for a February production start, the trade paper reported.
Desperation Begins In AZ
esperation, ABC's upcoming three-hour movie based on Stephen King's horror novel, is slated to begin production in Bisbee, Ariz., on Halloween, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
A Herculean effort by Desperation's executive producer Mark Sennet and director Mick Garris kept the $12 million film in the United States, with the help of Arizona Sen. John McCain and Gov. Janet Napolitano, as well as local businesses and Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the trade paper reported.
Cliff Robertson, Tom Skerritt, Annabeth Gish, Ron Perlman and Steven Weber lead the cast of Desperation, which chronicles the ordeals of a group of travelers thrown together in the nearly deserted spooky Nevada mining town of Desperation, complete with an enormous haunted mine pit and an abandoned movie theater, the trade paper reported.
Garris told the trade paper that the film will faithfully adapt the book. "I see it as a desert noir—or blanc, because it's bright and sun-drenched in the desert—as Norman Rockwell goes to hell," Garris said.
Xbox Doom 3 Due In March?
ctivision said that it will release the Xbox version of its anticipated Doom 3 first-person-shooter video game in March 2005, the GameSpot Web site reported.
Id Software had previously said that the console version of the best-selling PC shooter won't be coming this year at all. Although Vicarious Visions is developing the Xbox Doom 3, id is overseeing the process and has final approval.
March is also the date that Activision is tentatively planning to ship Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil, the expansion pack for the PC version of Doom 3, but Activision president Ron Doornink told financial analysts that the dates were "for planning purposes only," the site reported.
Marvel Reports Lower Profit
omic-book publisher Marvel Enterprises Inc. on Oct. 28 posted a lower quarterly profit due to the effect of taxes, but revenue rose 60 percent on licensing of such characters as Spider-Man, the Reuters news service reported.
Third-quarter net profit fell to $34.4 million, or 30 cents per share, from $63.2 million, or 57 cents per share, in the year-earlier period, when it had a tax benefit of $24.3 million. Revenue rose to $135 million from $84.5 million, Reuters reported.
The company said profit margins fell to 46 percent in the 2004 quarter from 51 percent in the 2003 period due to a higher mix of toy segment sales.
Kidman Bewitched By Bewitched
icole Kidman told SCI FI Wire that she can already sense the excitement surrounding her upcoming film, Bewitched, a fantasy-comedy based on the 1960s television series.
In the film, Kidman plays Samantha Stephens, a witch married to a mortal, Will Ferrell's Darrin. "Everybody is obsessed with Bewitched," Kidman said during an interview while promoting her upcoming drama, Birth. "I get asked so many questions about it."
Kidman, who most recently appeared in the Stepford Wives remake, added, "I'm glad. It's fun. It's a lot of fun. Will Ferrell is just a sweetheart."
The Australian actress went on to acknowledge that she feels as if she's stepping into a bit of American cultural history by starring in Bewitched, which also features Shirley MacLaine as Endora. "In a weird way, yeah," Kidman said. "It's got a life that's far more than I knew about. They have little Bewitched dolls. Really, it's huge. I loved the show. I grew up watching the show; that's why I wanted to do it. [It was on in Australia at] 6 o'clock every weeknight for many, many years. I've seen almost every episode." Bewitched will cast its spell beginning July 8, 2005.
Bright Lights Up Ultraviolet
ameron Bright told SCI FI Wire that he just wrapped production on the upcoming SF-horror-adventure movie Ultraviolet, in which the 11-year-old actor co-stars with Milla Jovovich (Resident Evil).
"I play a boy—a petri-dish boy—who was created in a lab," Bright said in an interview while promoting his latest film, the controversial drama Birth. "And in my blood I hold the antigens that can destroy the human race. Milla is Ultraviolet, and she's trying to save me, trying to protect me."
Bright is best known to genre audiences for his performance as the title character in Godsend, as well as for The Butterfly Effect and his roles in such television shows as Dark Angel and Night Visions. He and Jovovich filmed Ultraviolet in Shanghai and Hong Kong in China.
"It was fun," Bright said. "The director [Equilibrium's Kurt Wimmer] wrote the screenplay. It was lots and lots of green screens. Because it's an action movie, there was a lot of that type of stuff. I did a lot of wire work myself, and Milla did a lot of wire work. I had a harness underneath my wardrobe, and they cut holes in it so the wires could go in there. There were [also] a lot of guns shooting and explosives." Ultraviolet will be released in August 2005.
New Indy IV Writer Hired
eorge Lucas and Steven Spielberg have hired Jeff Nathanson (Catch Me If You Can) to pen a new draft of a proposed fourth Indiana Jones movie, Variety reported.
Nathanson has a track record with Spielberg, having written Catch and co-written The Terminal.
If Lucas, Spielberg and star Harrison Ford approve of the draft, Spielberg would still have to make the film a priority to get it into production anytime soon, the trade paper reported.
The Indiana Jones project seemed all but dead in February, when Paramount Pictures called off a summer production start because a script turned in by Frank Darabont didn't get a unanimous thumbs-up from Lucas, Spielberg and Ford, the trade paper reported. The trio has worked toward a fourth Indy film for a decade, with the understanding that each had to approve the script or they wouldn't go forward.
Boyd Is Seed Of Chucky
illy Boyd, who co-stars in the upcoming horror-comedy film Seed of Chucky, told SCI FI Wire that he provides the voice of Glen, the gentle son of killer dolls Chucky (Brad Dourif) and Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly).
In the latest of the Child's Play movies, Glen resurrects his late parents, only to look on in disgust as they embark on a new murder spree—in Hollywood.
"For the Chucky fans, all the Chucky stuff is there," Boyd (The Lord of the Rings) said in an interview. "And just because it's set in Hollywood, it has a whole other slant as well. There's a real lovely, funny take on how movies are made in Hollywood. It's a real weird story, and I think it will make people laugh, and I think it will make people s--t themselves. That's what Chucky movies are supposed to do."
Despite his best intentions, Boyd said that he never actually made it to the Seed set in order to watch the Glen, Tiffany and Chucky dolls in action. Instead, he recorded his dialogue at a recording studio in London, guided by Child's Play creator Don Mancini, who makes his feature directing debut with Seed.
"The idea was to go on set and see what they were doing," Boyd said. "But I was busy, and I never actually made it out at all. So the first meeting we had and the first recording we did was done completely from photos. The [Glen] puppet hadn't even been made then. So it was all done through computer graphics."
Boyd added, "Then, when I went back again later on, the puppet had been made, and I could watch footage of it that they'd shot, and I could see how he moved. Once we saw that, we started to rework the voice a little, because his movements and facial expressions made Glen even more of a character for me." Seed of Chucky opens Nov. 12. Seed of Chucky is produced by Rogue Pictures, which is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
New Shows Are People's Choice
BC's new SF series Lost, its freshman dramedy Desperate Housewives and The WB's Jack & Bobby were among the nominees for favorite new TV drama in the 31st annual People's Choice Awards, which were announced Oct. 26, Variety reported.
Fans can vote for their favorites on the awards' official Web site; the winners will be announced in a Jan. 9 broadcast on CBS. Lost's Matthew Fox also got a nomination for favorite male TV star.
NBC's Father of the Pride was among the nominees for favorite new TV comedy. ABC's Alias took a nod for favorite TV drama, and its star, Jennifer Garner, got a nomination for favorite female TV star.
Heyman Begins Odyssey
arry Potter producer David Heyman has set up The Odyssey, based on Homer's epic, at Regency Enterprises, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
British screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce will adapt the epic poem for the screen.
The Odyssey centers on Odysseus and his 10-year journey home after the Trojan War, during which he is confronted by natural and supernatural threats, including shipwrecks, battles, monsters and the sea god Poseidon, the trade paper reported. Heyman wants to tell the story from the point of view of
Telemachus, Odysseus' son.
Raimi Company Opens Box
am Raimi's Ghost House Pictures, which has a hit with this week's The Grudge, will develop Dibbuk Box, a supernatural horror thriller film, Variety reported.
Ghost House, the joint venture of Raimi, Rob Tapert and Senator International, is also developing the vampire comic-book adaptation 30 Days of Night, the trade paper reported.
Grudge writer Stephen Susco will draft Dibbuk Box, a fictional retelling of Los Angeles Times reporter Leslie Gornstein's story "Jinx in a Box," about an antique wooden box purchased on eBay that contained an evil spirit and was brought to America by a Holocaust survivor after World War II, the trade paper reported.
The Grudge, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, took in $40 million in its opening weekend.
EverQuest II Due Next Month
ony Online Entertainment announced that the highly anticipated sequel game EverQuest II will ship simultaneously to North American and European retailers on Nov. 8.
EverQuest II is the follow-up to Sony's EverQuest, the popular 3-D massively multiplayer online role-playing fantasy game.
Sony said that EverQuest II will feature realistic 3-D graphics and more than 70,000 lines of spoken dialogue. The game will come in three versions, all of which include a 30-day subscription to the game's online world. The CD and DVD versions of the game carry a suggested retail price of $49.99. The EverQuest II Collector's Edition DVD will carry a price of $89.99.
EverQuest II carries a monthly subscription fee of $14.99 for continuing access to the game world.
Jane Gets Green Light
CI FI Channel has given a green light for the production of a two-hour pilot Painkiller Jane, based on Joe Quesada and Jim Palmiotti's female-centered superhero comic.
NBC Universal TV Studios will produce in association with MGM TV.
The Event Comic series centers on Jane, a young Marine who is exposed to a biochemical weapon that endows her with self-healing powers and who subsequently fights crime while eluding the military.
The series will be written and executive produced by John Harrison (Frank Herbert's Dune), Don Opper and Greg Gold. Production is expected to begin before the end of the year.
NBC Universal TV Studios and SCI FI are both owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Platinum Seeks Comic Ideas
latinum Studios, which just signed a $200 million deal with Gold Circle Films to develop 10 movies, is seeking submissions from creators of comic books to develop into films.
Platinum is seeking suspense, thriller and horror ideas, high-concept comedies and high-concept, real-world action stories.
Platinum said that it is willing to option existing comic-book properties or finance new graphic novels and miniseries, which it will distribute through Image/Top Cow or other publishers. The entertainment company said it will also subsidize independent publishers if it thinks a property can work in other media.
Platinum and Gold Circle entered into its multi-project agreement to develop 10 movies based on characters from Platinum Studios' library and from other sources. The $200 million deal represents the largest deal in history between studios, financiers and comic-book producers.
Founded by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg in 1997, Platinum Studios is known for comic-to-film adaptations and currently has motion pictures in development with Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Studios, Miramax Films and DreamWorks. Rosenberg's Malibu Comics has the Men in Black franchise at Sony.
Batman Begins Game Announced
arner Brothers Interactive Entertainment, DC Comics and Electronic Arts announced the development of a video game based on the upcoming Batman Begins movie, ComingSoon.net reported.
The game is due in 2005, coinciding with the film's release, for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox, GameCube and GameBoy Advance, the site reported.
Warner and EA are overseeing all development and production aspects of the game. EA will handle distribution. The companies will lead joint marketing campaigns. The game is being developed by U.K.-based Eurocom for the consoles and by Vicarious Visions for the handhelds, the site reported.
Batman Begins, the fifth movie in the comic-book franchise, stars Christian Bale in a story that explores the origins of the Batman myth.
New Kombat Develops
idway Games announced that Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, the latest installment in the martial-arts video-game franchise, is in development for release in the fall of 2005.
Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks is being designed for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox.
Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks will be an action/adventure game that expands the Mortal Kombat universe beyond the fighting genre, the company said. The sequel will be the first of several planned sequels, which will debut every year.
Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks will resemble the previous Mortal Kombat: Deception, with background interactions, multiple new fatalities and action-based puzzles, the company said.
Cast Joins Exorcism Film
ampbell Scott, Shohreh Aghdashloo and Jennifer Carpenter are joining the cast of Screen Gems and Lakeshore Entertainment's untitled exorcism movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Scott Derrickson is directing the horror thriller that was formerly known as The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel, the trade paper reported.
The movie is based on true events involving the Catholic Church's officially recognizing the demonic possession of an 18-year-old German college freshman. The young woman died during her exorcism, and a priest stood trial for causing her death, the trade paper reported. The script, written by Derrickson and Paul Harris Boardman, unfolds Rashomon-style, with different points of view recounting the events.
Scott has been cast as a district attorney, while Aghdashloo is a doctor. Carpenter plays the possessed freshman. Laura Linney and Tom Wilkinson have already been cast, the trade paper reported. The movie is scheduled to shoot Nov. 16 in Vancouver, B.C.
Second Sight Due On PC
odemasters announced that it will port its psychic shooter video game Second Sight to the PC in November, the GameSpot Web site reported.
Second Sight will be the first PC title from Free Radical Design, which developed the GameCube, Xbox and PlayStation 2 versions of the game, the site reported.
Second Sight lets players get inside the head of John Vattic, a commando who wakes from a coma inside a top-secret U.S. military medical facility. Though he has no memories, Vattic does have telekinetic powers, which he uses to track down those responsible for his predicament, the site reported.
Briefly Noted
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Jane Seymour kicks off a five-episode guest appearance on The WB's Smallville on Nov. 17, playing the sinister mother of Lana's new boyfriend (Jensen Ackles), TV Guide Online reported.
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Shark Tale star Robert De Niro was named the greatest living movie star over age 50 in a survey of 10,000 readers by Empire magazine.
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Sony Pictures Imageworks has been tapped to provide the visual effects for director Bryan Singer's 2006 release Superman Returns, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Filming is expected to begin in Australia early next year on the Warner Brothers film.
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Revolution Studios and Wes Anderson will turn Roald Dahl's animal story The Fantastic Mr. Fox into a stop-motion animated movie, Variety reported. The book tells the story of a fox who finds himself and his family targeted by three farmers.
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Spider-Man 2's success drove Sony Pictures' third-quarter revenues up by 9 percent, to $1.73 billion, Variety reported. Sony Pictures' net income for the quarter was $247 million, compared to a $42 million loss last year.
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TV Land has tapped former sitcom star Gordon Shumway to headline his own late-night talk show, ALF's Hit Talk Show, beginning Nov. 5, TV Guide Online reported. Ed McMahon will serve as the co-host.
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Warner Brothers has posted a new trailer for Joel Schumacher's upcoming film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical The Phantom of the Opera, which opens Dec. 22.
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DreamWorks plans to begin selling shares of its animation unit as DWA on the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 28, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The company timed its initial public offering to coincide with the recent success of its Shark Tale and the Nov. 5 DVD release of Shrek 2.
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DreamWorks is developing the adventure movie Argonauts, to be written by Michael Cooney and produced by Stephen Sommers, about a group of treasure hunters on the eve of World War II, who think they've figured out the location of the fabled sunken ship of Jason and the Argonauts, Variety reported.
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Writer Carl Ellsworth and DreamWorks will develop the SF movie Sleepless Knights for producer Don Murphy, based on the comic book by Grant Morrision, about a time-travel experiment that gets the world stuck in Halloween night, Variety reported.
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Etchie Stroh's Moonstone and director Tobe Hooper have launched TH Nightmare, a venture that will produce, market and distribute horror and thriller genre films, Variety reported.
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Eliza Dushku and Shawn Reaves told fans at a London convention that their Fox series Tru Calling has been canceled, Dark Horizons reported. The news comes after Fox scaled back its second-season order for the show, then bumped its premiere date from the fall.
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The official Web site for Joel Schumacher's upcoming movie version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera has posted a preview clip of the title song. The movie, starring Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum, opens Dec. 22.
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Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon has ended his TV production deal with 20th Century Fox TV, effectively shuttering his Mutant Enemy production company and putting a close to his TV plans for now, Variety reported.
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The DVD of Van Helsing is a hit, having sold more than 4 million copies in North America in its first six days of release, taking in about $65 million, or more than half of the $120 million the movie earned at the domestic box office in its theatrical release, Variety reported.
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Angel alumna Amy Acker told a fan at an Oct. 24 fund-raiser for the Kerry presidential campaign in Los Angeles that, contrary to Internet rumors, she has never auditioned for the role of Lois Lane in Bryan Singer's upcoming Superman movie, but added that she's open to it. Acker, who played Fred/Illyria on the WB's canceled vampire series, is currently seven months pregnant.
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The Motion Picture Sound Editors will present its inaugural filmmaker's award to Star Wars creator George Lucas for contributions to the art of sound at the 52nd annual Golden Reel Awards, Feb. 26, 2005, at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, Variety reported.
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