Serenity Star Ready For Film
athan Fillion, who stars as Capt. Mal Reynolds in the upcoming SF movie Serenity, told SCI FI Wire that he doesn't feel a lot of pressure in his first major feature-film lead role, based on his character from Fox's canceled TV series Firefly.
"I don't feel a lot of that pressure," Fillion said in an interview during a break in filming at Universal Studios in Los Angeles last summer. "My schedule is much the same as it was on the series: I'm here a lot. But I get to perform with everybody in the cast. I get to have great scenes with all of these great characters that I fell in love with. I don't feel a great deal of pressure. You know what? I'm starting to feel the thing, now that it's wrapping up, [where] I just really hope people enjoy this movie. I really hope they do. I hope folks that aren't fans—that weren't fans of the series—will catch this and maybe go get the DVD collection and [see] what [they were] missing."
Serenity picks up the story of the short-lived Firefly, about the ragtag crew of a transport spaceship 500 years in the future as they eke out a living in the wake of a galactic civil war. Fillion's Reynolds is the captain of the ship and a war-weary veteran of the losing side in the civil war. "I'm here having a great time with some very talented actors, with a very talented director [Firefly creator Joss Whedon], who are all my good friends. I'm in a very safe place here. I don't come to work feeling, 'There's a lot of pressure on me.' I come to work saying, 'What do we get to do today? Who am I going to get to hang out with today? Who's on the guest list, the call sheet, today that I get to hang out with?'"
Fillion added, "Joss has told me he's under a little more pressure. But you know what? I don't see it. I think when we were doing the series, I saw him working on three series [Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly]. We didn't see him near as often as we would have liked, because he's great to have around. He's a real warm presence on a set. His presence on set is calming. He's very specific in what he wants. He's very confident in his choices, and it's nice to have him around." Serenity is slated for release in April 2005. Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Serenity Gets Darker
athan Fillion—who stars in the upcoming SF movie Serenity, based on Fox's canceled series Firefly—told SCI FI Wire that his character, Capt. Mal Reynolds, will be a little darker than he was allowed to be in the TV show.
"I think he's still on that same vein," Fillion said in an interview during a break in filming at Universal Studios in Los Angeles last August. "I think if anything, I think he's a little darker than he was before. I think he's a little more empty than he was before. He, too, has had the rug pulled out from under him a couple of times since we've known him in the series. And I also think that, because we're in a film, another difference versus television is we can be allowed to be darker. ... We don't have a ... TV producer saying, 'Make him more likable and funny.'"
Fillion plays the captain of a small transport ship 500 years in the future, leading a ragtag crew of survivors from a galactic civil war. The film will feature the series' creepy cannibalistic renegades, the Reavers, and also give Reynolds a love interest, Fillion said. As for making the film, he added, "It's a little different. We had eight days to put on a one-hour show. Now we've got the better part of three months to put out a two-hour show. So the timing is a little different. But certainly I can tell that the quality is also extremely different."
As for his acting style, Fillion said, "I haven't made any drastic changes or anything. I have noticed that my nose is a lot bigger on screen. It's like, there are times when if you could put your arms up, that's about how wide my nostrils are. I've always known I have big nostrils, but now I could park a Buick in them." Serenity is slated for an April 2005 release. Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Serenity Surprises Whedon
oss Whedon, writer and director of the upcoming SF movie Serenity, told SCI FI Wire that shooting the feature-film version of his Fox TV series Firefly is every bit as stressful as churning out an hour of TV drama every week.
"It's been as stressful, and I thought it'd be less stressful," Whedon said in an interview during a break in filming last summer at Universal Studios in Los Angeles. "I thought I'd be, you know, golfing in between takes and writing sonnets."
Whedon makes his feature-film directorial debut with Serenity after having created and run TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly, many of whose episodes he both wrote and directed. With Serenity, he said, "two things have not worked in my favor. One is, although I don't have three shows to run—and believe me, nothing will ever be as hard as that was—the movie takes up your attention in the way that three shows do. All of the creative energy that you're usually pouring into telling 20 to 40 stories a year, you're pouring into one, and you find you need it. You find you wake up in the middle of the night and go, 'His pants are too baggy.' And it's important. You have to watch everything so carefully, because every mistake that you make is going to be 40 feet high. Whenever you think, 'Well, maybe that's good enough,' I just say to myself: 'Cineramadome.'"
Still, Whedon said, he's finding the filmmaking process surprising, even after having produced 13 hours of Firefly. "You really are surprised by what you do in a way that you're not so much with TV," he said. "Because, even though I know these guys—even though [we're] on Serenity, which are known quantities to me—I'm still surprised, more than I ever have been in TV. I'll do, you know, 10 takes and watch [them] and go,
'Boy, this first one was better than the one with all my notes in it. Remind myself not to tell him that.' ... [The movie] talks back to you, and it does it while you're still making it. In TV, it doesn't do that 'til you're done, which is what's different about it." Serenity, starring Nathan Fillion, is in post-production with an eye to an April 22, 2005, release. Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Singer Reveals Superman Hints
ryan Singer, who is directing the upcoming new Superman movie, told Los Angeles radio station KROQ that the movie will center more on a Superman "several years after he's arrived and done many heroic deeds," with only a vague history sketched out in flashbacks, according to a report on Zap2it.com.
Production is scheduled to begin in February, with a summer 2006 release planned, the site reported.
Singer added that he settled on unknown actor Brandon Routh to play the Man of Steel to introduce an actor whose acting history wouldn't interfere with creating an indelible Superman image. Singer said he considered Tom Welling, who plays Clark Kent on The WB's Smallville, but said that the budget and the direction of the film weren't right to make what would seem like a Smallville feature. "Even though he's existing and carrying the torch through a certain point of the character's life," the new Superman will be a "separate entity," Singer said.
Dawson Gets Small In Sin City
osario Dawson, co-star of the upcoming comic-book film adaptation Sin City, told SCI FI Wire that her intimate experience on the Robert Rodriguez movie contrasted in every way with her previous work in Oliver Stone's epic Alexander.
"On [Alexander] we were actually in Morocco looking out at these mountains, and there are elephants and camels and all of these other things," Dawson said in an interview. "When you go to Sin City, it's, like, [condensed]."
In Sin City, adapted from Frank Miller's graphic novel, Dawson plays Gail, an ex-prostitute inhabitant of the troubled town. She said that she shot the majority of her scenes in director Rodriguez's hometown of Austin, Texas. "You're all in this tiny little room, and all of this amazing stuff is going to come out of it," Dawson said. "Everything was shot in there. If you were doing a shot that's over the shoulder, we had to turn around, not the cameras, in order to get the other shot. It was a totally different way of shooting and working."
But Dawson said that Rodriguez resembled Stone in having a singular vision. "With both there is the implicit trust that you have in your director that it's going to work out in the end, whether it's skittish animals or one prop and an outfit and going, 'Where the hell is everything else?'" Dawson said. "It was really amazing, and they both have created something for themselves. Oliver has so much control making what he wants to, and it's the same thing with Robert. He's almost created his own studio in Austin, which is unheard of, and here he is making this big movie and doing it all in his little room." Sin City opens in theaters April 1, 2005.
Tambor Eager For Hellboy 2
effrey Tambor, who played BPRD agent Dr. Tom Manning in this year's hit Hellboy movie, told SCI FI Wire that he is signed for a sequel and is eager to return.
"I am signed," Tambor said in an interview. "Whether they pick that up, I think they will, thank God I'm alive. Some people didn't make it, you know what I mean? Thank God there was that last little thing they filmed [where I'm] going, 'Hello? Hello?'" Tambor's character was left trapped deep inside a mountain at the end of the first Hellboy movie, but apparently survived.
In Guillermo del Toro's adaptation of Mike Mignola's supernatural graphic novel series, Tambor played a surly agent who was the nemesis of fellow BPRD agent Hellboy, a demon rescued from hell during World War II and trained as a federal investigator of the paranormal. Revolution Studios has already announced plans for a sequel, which is in development, with del Toro again at the helm and Ron Perlman again starring as Hellboy.
"I hope it works out in terms of scheduling," Tambor said. Tambor is currently a regular on the Fox TV series Arrested Development and will next appear as the voice of King Neptune in the upcoming animated SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. "I don't know where they are, but it was so much fun," he said. "I'm sort of that way. It's just interesting just talking about it."
New Matrix DVDs Add Rants
ric Matthies, who produced the upcoming Ultimate Matrix Collection DVD box set, told SCI FI Wire that Matrix creators Andy and Larry Wachowski came up with the notion of including two new commentary tracks, in which philosophers analyze all three films and critics explain why they panned them.
"The idea was given birth by Andy and Larry Wachowski," Matthies said in an interview. "The studio kind of balked at it originally, because it was a pretty controversial idea, what they wanted to do and actually succeeded in doing. ... The studio was never going to go for an idea like that: people criticizing the film on the disc. So that was a major thing there that they were involved in. They actually wrote an explanatory introduction to it that's included."
One commentary features well-known scholars Cornel West and Ken Wilbur, who explore the significance of the films and their underlying philosophy. "The two of them watched all three movies and really picked them apart in terms of what some of the meanings could be interpreted from it," Matthies said. "They don't give definitive answers, they show you ways to look at the film." (West also has a role in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions as one of the Zion council elders.)
On another track, viewers can hear the dissenting opinions of film critics Todd McCarthy (Variety), John Powers (L.A. Weekly) and David Thomson (Salon.com), all of whom gave the original film a negative review. "The controversial part is that we have what Andy and Larry sort of saw as the opposite perspective," Matthies said. "We went out and got three critics who really didn't like the movie and had written bad reviews. So those three critics composed the other commentary track on all three films. And you can bounce between them, I understand. So you'll be able to sort of get both sides."
The 10-disc collection combines previously released material such as The Matrix Revisited, a documentary about the making of the film, and The Animatrix, a series of nine animated short films, with 35 hours of all-new interviews and behind-the-scenes footage. Matthies, who has been working with the Wachowskis on the Matrix DVDs since 1997, said that the intent this time was to stay away from the kind of publicity-oriented extras that were offered on the previous releases and offer a more in-depth perspective on the production process.
"It's not just watching people run around with Steadicams and wires," Matthies said. "We feel everybody's seen all the publicity stuff. We don't need to sell this movie. We don't need to hype anything. What we're really trying to do is collect the incredible amount of effort and personal sacrifice. There were over a thousand people that worked on this thing. We were part of that family by being there all the time. So we kind of made it as a yearbook for our peers, in a way, but also for the fans, always thinking, 'What would people be interested in? What would people want to know more about?'" The Ultimate Matrix Collection DVD set will be available Dec. 7.
Blade Spinoff Possible
lade: Trinity writer/director David Goyer told SCI FI Wire that he's contemplating a spinoff movie centering on the Nightstalker characters of Abby Whistler (Jessica Biel) and Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds) if Trinity does well.
"When New Line read the script, they said, 'Wow, these characters are really great. We love these characters. We'd love to see them again for sure,'" Goyer said in an interview. "And then when we cast Ryan and Jessica, they just said, 'Well, ... should they be successful, let's put something in place. Let's put a deal in place just in case.'"
In Trinity, Reynolds (Van Wilder) plays King, a former vampire who now hunts them with Biel's Abby, the daughter of Kris Kristofferson's Whistler character, and the duo hook up with Blade (Wesley Snipes) to tackle a group of ruthless bloodsuckers who have resurrected Dracula. Both Reynolds and Biel have signed contracts to appear in a spinoff film. "I loved working with Ryan and Jessica, would work with them again in a heartbeat," Goyer said. "And so if the will of the people dictates it—if [Blade: Trinity]'s successful, and people really respond to the characters—then we'll try a movie with them. It wouldn't involve vampires, though. It would be something else."
But Goyer was less sanguine about a possible fourth Blade movie. Trinity is "probably the last Blade film," he said. "You never know. Sean Connery said he'd never do another Bond movie, [but did] Never Say Never Again. But I'd be hard pressed to come up with a fourth Blade story I wanted to tell. But you never know. They're trying to do a fourth Indiana Jones."
As for Snipes, Goyer said, "I don't know. ... When we finished Blade II, he told me, 'I only have one more of these in me.' We said 'OK.' And then when Wizard magazine was up, he did an interview on the set, and he said, 'Yeah, I think this is the last one.' And then recently he's been saying that maybe he would want to do another one. I don't know. I mean, they're hard movies for him to do, and they're hard movies to do, period." Blade: Trinity opens Dec. 8.
Goyer Talks Film Projects
lade: Trinity writer/director David Goyer updated SCI FI Wire on the various projects he has in the works as a producer, writer and director, including Murder Mysteries, an adaptation of a Neil Gaiman short story.
"It was in Smoke and Mirrors," Goyer said in an interview. "I think it's the best script I've ever written. And it's currently without a studio home, and it's hopefully something I'm going to direct one day."
Goyer wrote the previous two Blade films, as well as Dark City for director Alex Proyas. About Murder Mysteries, he said, "I call it my Dark City. It's my more idiosyncratic film, and ... as a director, [I need] a blockbuster before I'll have the clout to be able to pull it off, and I'm hoping Blade Trinity will be the one."
Goyer added: "It's a tricky story. It's sort of a story within a story within a story. ... It really plays with the audience's expectations, and it's one of those stories, kind of like in Usual Suspects, it turns in the very last moments and everything you thought the movie is about is not what it's about at all. It's a great story."
Goyer will also produce, write or direct several other films, which he detailed for SCI FI Wire:
•The Invisible. "A remake of a Swedish film that I'm developing with Spyglass for DreamWorks. I'm not writing it. It's a supernatural thriller and kind of a love story. It's quite good. It doesn't involve any visual effects, but the original film is a really beautiful movie." The Swedish film was based on an English-language script by Scottish writer Mick Davis, which was translated into Swedish. "That writer then did a new version in English that we're hoping to make here."
•Y: The Last Man. "A project based on the comic book by Brian K. Vaughan. I'm one of the producers on it, along with the guys at Benderspink, and Jeff Vintar, who wrote I, Robot, is adapting it. We just got our first draft in. It's very good, and he's embarking on a rewrite." Goyer would likely not direct.
•The Descent, based on Jeff Long's novel. "[It's] about a group of people that discover a series of caverns. They kind of riddle the underworld. And that there's an offshoot of humanity that's been evolving down there for millions of years." The project is in limbo. "It was developed with Dreamworks. Really cool book, I'm really happy with the script, and when [former production president] Mike De Luca left DreamWorks, it kind of lost its champion, so we'll see. I'd love to do something with it at some point."
•Alone. "A project I'm producing at New Line. It was originally written by Kevin Taft, and Josh Olson, who wrote the script for History of Violence, is rewriting it right now. And it's about ... a high school girl who's agoraphobic, can't leave her house. She becomes convinced that her house is haunted, and that the ghost is trying to kill her. It's a haunted-house movie. ... We're awaiting a rewrite." Goyer would likely not direct.
•Unique. Set up at Disney, "it's loosely based on a graphic novel. And Michael Cooney, [who] wrote Identity, has just started writing a script for it, so that's a long ways off. It's about parallel worlds." Goyer would direct.
Soylent Picks Up Story
lade: Trinity writer/director David Goyer told SCI FI Wire that his proposed remake and update of the classic 1973 SF movie Soylent Green will pick up where the original film left off: with the well-known revelation that "Soylent Green is people!"
"I will say that the reveal at the end of the first movie happened at the end of our first act," Goyer said in an interview. "So the first movie is kind of the first act of our film, and then it's about what happens afterwards."
The first movie, set in a dystopian future, centers on a cop (Charlton Heston) who investigates a murder, leading to the gruesome discovery about the principal food source of the overburdened population. The film's surprise ending is by now familiar to audiences, "of course, which is why you can't have that be the punch line anymore," Goyer said.
Goyer added that he won't write or direct the remake, but will instead act as producer under his just-signed one-year first-look deal with Warner Brothers. Goyer also wrote the script for the upcoming Batman Begins for Warner, which Christopher Nolan is directing. Blade: Trinity, the third movie in the vampire franchise, is being released by Warner's sister company, New Line, on Dec. 8.
Goyer Crosses Threshold
lade: Trinity writer/director David Goyer told SCI FI Wire that his upcoming drama pilot for CBS, Threshold, is "a science fiction show for people who don't like science fiction."
"Threshold is a TV pilot that I'm developing," Goyer said in an interview. "I'm not writing it. A young writer named Bragi Schut is writing it. ... It has to do with alien invasions, although people will never really see the aliens involved. And it's meant to be filmed in a more low-tech way, like 28 Days Later or something like that: ... a way of telling a very big story in a kind of microcosmic arena."
Goyer said that he and CBS are still waiting on a script for the pilot, which he may also direct. "We have to see how it comes in," he said.
Threshold is one of several projects Goyer is contemplating, including several SF&F movies. Blade: Trinity, the third film in the vampire franchise Goyer has written and the first he's directed, hits theaters on Dec. 8.
Lehman Talks Riddick Edits
ristin Lehman, who played an enigmatic character named Shirah in The Chronicles of Riddick, told SCI FI Wire that she discovered that her scenes had been cut out of the movie only about a week before the film's premiere.
Director David Twohy broke the news about the scenes cut from the theatrical release version of the film, which have been restored in the upcoming DVD release. "There was a lot he and the studio wanted to impart and accomplish, but Shirah's involvement in Riddick's [Vin Diesel] development wasn't clear enough to test audiences," Lehman said in an interview. "I really loved playing Shirah, but I trusted David when he told me the reasons my character had to go."
Lehman added, "I trusted it wasn't because of performance. And I was OK about it. My role role was highly visual, but very small in terms of the scope of such an ambitious film."
Twohy has edited Lehman's scenes back into The Chronicles of Riddick for the upcoming unrated director's-cut DVD. Now, Lehman said, viewers can decide for themselves if their interpretation of the character matches the one she and Twohy tried to impart. "I can tell you she was intended to awaken Riddick to his true identity, power and birthright: Furyan," Lehman said. "She was essentially the keeper of the Furyan legacy, a warrior who served as a beacon to bring Furyans back." The Chronicles of Riddick: The Unrated Director's Cut will be available on Nov. 16 from Universal Studios Home Video. Universal Studios Home Video is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Twohy Talks Riddick 2
avid Twohy, director of The Chronicles of Riddick, told Now Playing Magazine that further installments of the proposed Riddick trilogy of films will depend in part on the performance of the upcoming Riddick director's-cut DVD, which hits stores next week.
The first Chronicles of Riddick film didn't fare well at the box office in its premiere this year.
Sequels are "still a possibility, but many eyes are watching this DVD release very closely," Twohy told the new magazine. "Remember that we were saying all along that we knew where the story goes from this point forward, but we hopefully didn't have so much hubris to say that we were definitely making a trilogy out of this. What we were saying was, 'We know what the macro arc is, and if we were fortunate enough to be successful in this one, we knew where we would pick up in the next one.' We had it in our minds, and there are certain setups in The Chronicles of Riddick for future films, including the Shirah character [played by Kristin Lehman], who now appears in the [director's-cut DVD], a character who did not make it into the theatrical version at all."
If a sequel is made, Lehman's character, a Furyan who appears to Vin Diesel's Riddick in a vision, will play a more prominent role, Twohy said. The mythology of the Riddick universe will also be further fleshed out, Twohy said. "We would talk a lot about the Underverse, this being the sort of collision of heaven and hell for the Necromonger empire, and what that all is, and we'd venture across it," he said. "We know the Lord Marshal character [Colm Feore] gained some powers there by stepping in, having one foot in this land of the Necromonger dead. And he came back with this power of soul separation. So it's a very interesting place, and thought to be a physical place, and if we had the opportunity to continue the story we would surely like to go there." The Chronicles of Riddick: The Unrated Director's Cut will be available on Nov. 16 from Universal Studios Home Video. Universal Studios Home Video is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Now Playing Magazine, a spinoff of Computer Games Magazine, launches as a stand-alone publication in February.
Cage Takes On PKD Next
icolas Cage will star in and Lee Tamahori will direct the SF action thriller Next, based on the short story "The Golden Man" by Philip K. Dick, Variety reported.
Cage will also produce the film for Revolution Studios. Gary Goldman, who adapted the Dick story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" into 1990's Total Recall, wrote the script for Next, the trade paper reported. Tamahori directed Die Another Day.
Cage will play a man who can see the future and change events before they happen. Eventually, he is forced to choose between saving the world and saving himself, the trade paper reported. Next is expected to start shooting next summer, the trade paper reported.
Cage will produce, along with his Saturn Films partner Norm Golightly. Goldman will be an executive producer, along with Jason Koornick, who holds the rights to Dick's short story.
Cage: Ghost Not Definite
icolas Cage told reporters that his involvement in a long-gestating Ghost Rider movie is not set in stone, despite his being attached to the comic-book project for years, according to a report on the Latino Review Web site.
"I'm very curious about that," Cage said at a news conference for his next film, National Treasure. "However, I'm still in talks about that particular movie. It's not a definite at this point."
The holdup? "It's really just a matter of the vision of the movie and how it will be portrayed," Cage said. "It's talks about script and things like that. It's true that I was involved with Ghost Rider over three years ago and was trying to develop it with another filmmaker. These things are very sensitive. It's a bullseye, and you really have to hit it. Otherwise, it may not work. So it's best for everyone to be cautious and make sure it's got the right auspices."
Ghost Rider is based on the Marvel Comics series, about a motorcycle stunt performer who becomes an avenging hell spirit. Cage said that if things don't work out with Ghost Rider, he'll abandon comic-book roles entirely. "I think if this doesn't work, that's pretty much it," said Cage, a longtime comic-book fan who took his stage name from the comic character Luke Cage. "I've never made a comic-book film, and I'll just sort of enjoy my nostalgic memories as a boy. I don't read them anymore. It's something that really came from the past."
Kilborn, Glover Go To Dog
raig Kilborn is in final talks and Danny Glover is set to join the cast of Disney's upcoming remake of The Shaggy Dog, which Brian Robbins is directing, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Tim Allen stars as a man who occasionally changes into a sheepdog in the movie, which is scheduled to head into production Nov. 14, the trade paper reported.
Glover (SCI FI Channel's upcoming original miniseries Earthsea) will play Allen's boss, a district attorney. Talk-show host Kilborn would play Allen's neighbor. Kristin Davis already is on board as Allen's wife, the trade paper reported.
Earthsea, a four-hour miniseries based on Ursula K. Le Guin's fantasy books, premieres at 9 p.m. ET/PT Dec. 13.
Gamers Get Half-Life 2 Early
everal copies of the highly anticipated sequel video game Half-Life 2 have made their way into a few gamers' hands days before the official Nov. 16 release date, the GameSpot Web site reported.
Photos from the game have appeared on the Internet, with the anonymous owners eagerly showing off the game and its box, the site reported.
Still, gamers will have to wait until the official release date to play online, as they have to register with Steam, game developer Valve's online download service, the site reported.
Half-Life 2 is the sequel to the hit 1998 game, in which players again pick up the crowbar of research scientist Gordon Freeman, who finds himself on an alien-infested Earth. Half-Life 2 will be available for the PC and is released by Vivendi Universal Games, which is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.
Halo 2 Ships And Hits Big
icrosoft's Bungie Studios is releasing the highly anticipated video game Halo 2 on Nov. 9 for the Xbox, and customers have already reserved 1.5 million copies of the game, an industry record, the Seattle Times reported.
Microsoft is turning the game's release into an event, with launch parties at Seattle's Experience Music Project and in Times Square in New York City, as well as a massive marketing campaign to promote the game in movie theaters and on television, the newspaper reported.
By 12 a.m. Nov. 9, about 7,000 toy, video-game and electronics stores around the country opened their doors and welcomed thousands of eager customers, CNNmoney.com reported. In New York, about 1,500 people wrapped around the block waiting for a copy of the game at the Toys R Us store in Times Square, and another line had formed by the time the store opened Tuesday morning, the site reported.
Halo 2 centers on the adventure of supersoldier Master Chief, who returns to Earth to save the planet from dangerous aliens. The game carries a retail price of about $50; a limited collector's edition in a metal box will sell for about $55.
SpongeBob Gets Intimate
ill Fagerbakke, who voices the character of Patrick Star in the upcoming animated SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, told SCI FI Wire that creator/director Stephen Hillenburg was intimately involved in the production—to the point of sitting in the recording booth with the voice actors.
"Steve isn't the man behind the glass," Fagerbakke said in an interview. "He actually has a little table there in the booth with us, and he sits there and doodles, and he has ... a little microphone, too, and sometimes he'll pitch in with the group recordings and stuff. But he likes to be present with us."
Tom Kenny, who voices the title character of SpongeBob, said such an arrangement is unusual. "I've done a lot of cartoons and animation, and he's the only person who sits on the same side of the glass as the actors, instead of the other side of the window," Kenny said in his own interview. "He's in there with you, and ... he'll occasionally ruin takes by laughing. ... [The] engineer will go, 'Steve, you can't laugh. You've been doing this for five years, come on.'"
Hillenburg also created the hit children's animated series SpongeBob Squarepants, on which the movie is based. The movie takes SpongeBob and Patrick on a perilous quest to retrieve King Neptune's crown and save the undersea village of Bikini Bottom. Kenny said the transition to a feature film meant the actors got more time to perfect their performances. "Scenes could be longer, recordings were longer," he said. "Instead of recording an 11-minute episode in a four-hour session, we would do one scene for a four-hour session, then come back a couple of days later and do that scene again. ... In TV animation, you do it three, four times, and there's no going [back]. You're done. You can't go back. ... It was nice to have that luxury to be able to [go back], to massage the rhythms a little bit. Half the time you do the show, and then you're driving home, and you're like, 'Oh, God, why didn't I blah blah blah blah blah? Why didn't I do that a different way? ... And it's going to be on TV forever, and I didn't do it [right].' It's maddening. And on this [movie], I really felt ... like we got to do that a little bit." The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie opens Nov. 19.
Allen Zooms To Zoom
im Allen told SCI FI Wire that he'll begin work on his next movie, the SF comedy Zoom's Academy, after he completes work on a remake of The Shaggy Dog.
Based on Jason Lethcoe's comic book, Zoom's Academy is "about an aging superhero [Allen] who has lost his powers and is forced to mentor a group of very gifted young people," Allen said in an interview. "He has to encourage their handicaps, which are, in a sense, super powers. But on the surface they're handicaps."
Allen added, "He tells them that all super powers are that, handicaps on the surface. And by this resurrection of his caring spirit and a big, huge villain, I get my very powerful powers [back], and we save the world."
Lethcoe's comic is targeted at young adults, and Allen said that the story blends elements of X-Men, The Incredibles and the Spy Kids adventures. "I told them when I signed on, ... 'I don't want it as dark as the X-Men or as fanciful as Spy Kids,'" Allen said. "It's in between there. These aren't mutants. These are handicapped children, but the handicaps are special abilities. Of course, I'm from the '50s in the movie, and I say things like, 'And we just have to irradiate them!' I just want to bombard them with gamma rays. And they go, 'No, we don't do that anymore!' That's how I got my powers, but it also made me very sick. It's just terrific. It's so warm and different. I love science fiction. It's in the vein of [the Allen hit] Galaxy Quest, and that's another reason why I signed on. We're going to start in March, the week after I wrap The Shaggy Dog." Peter Hewitt (The Borrowers, Garfield: The Movie) is set to direct Zoom's Academy, which will be released in 2006, with its title possibly shortened to Zoom.
Tambor Dives Into SpongeBob
effrey Tambor, who voices the character of King Neptune in Nickelodeon/Paramount's upcoming animated The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, told SCI FI Wire that creator/director Stephen Hillenburg broke with tradition and had the voice cast work together in the same studio, instead of recording their parts individually at different times.
"Steve was quite brilliant," Tambor said in an interview. "He put us in this big, ... gorgeous studio, and there was [SpongeBob's] Tom [Kenny] over in his booth and Scarlett [Johansson, who voices Princess Mindy], and I was out on the floor, and Patrick [Bill Fagerbakke] and the different characters were all around, so we could all see each other and kind of sense each other's presence."
Tambor added, "Although you don't play it eye to eye, ... we sort of play off each other's presence. It makes it a lot easier. It's a lot of fun. The sections are very fast and furious, and as an actor I really enjoy them, because it's a little different."
Tambor guest-stars as the undersea monarch, who enlists SpongeBob and Patrick to go on a quest to retrieve his crown, or else he will punish Mr. Krabs and destroy Bikini Bottom. Guest star Johansson plays Neptune's daughter, who helps SpongeBob and Patrick on their quest. Tambor had nothing but praise for Hillenburg, a marine scientist who created the hit Nickelodeon TV series on which the film is based. "Steve is on point," Tambor said. "He knows exactly what he wants. I was the new kid on the block, so the learning curve was real fast, and I would watch what they would do. I think the only problem with this kind of work is that ... it's a little bigger than you [may be used to]. You have to sort of leap off a cliff. And once you do that, you're fine. And you're in great hands." The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, which also features Alec Baldwin and David Hasselhoff, opens Nov. 19.
Ghost Marathon Coming
CI FI Channel will air a marathon of its hit original reality series Ghost Hunters on Nov. 24, the day before Thanksgiving, starting at 7 p.m. ET.
SCI FI will air the first six episodes of the one-hour series, which centers on Jason and Grant, plumbers by day and ghost hunters by night.
New episodes of Ghost Hunters air Wednesdays at 9 p.m.
10th Odyssey Workshop Announced
rganizers announced the 10th annual Odyssey Summer Writing Workshop, aimed at writers of fantasy, science fiction and horror, which takes place June 13-July 22, 2005, at Saint Anselm College in
Manchester, N.H.
This summer's workshop will feature writers-in-residence Melanie Tem and Steve Rasnic Tem. Guest lecturers will include Elizabeth Hand, Allen M. Steele, P.D.
Cacek, James Morrow, John Clute and Sheila Williams.
Classes meet for three and a half hours in the morning, five days a week, and students use the afternoons and evenings to write and critique each other's work. Tuition is $1,500, and housing on campus runs $625 for the six weeks; some financial aid is available. The application deadline is April 15, 2005.
Allen Open To Toy 3
im Allen, who voiced Buzz Lightyear in the two Toy Story movies, told SCI FI Wire that he'd be open to reprising the role in a proposed third film.
Allen made his comments upon hearing a recent statement from his Toy Story and Toy Story 2 co-star Tom Hanks, who said he's not yet committed to voicing Woody in a third installment. Hanks added that he doesn't know if he'll ever do another one, but wouldn't rule out participating just because Disney might make the film on its own, without the participation of Pixar. Pixar produced the first two films as part of its deal with Disney, but the deal is about to expire, and Disney would retain Toy Story sequel rights in the event Pixar does align itself with another studio.
"You couldn't have worded it better than Tom Hanks just worded it," Allen said in an interview while promoting his new movie, the upcoming holiday comedy Christmas With the Kranks. "I'm not sure that I'm in. ... I'm probably more interested based on that comment alone than he is, because I loved those movies. I love those movies. I didn't like the work at all. It's really tedious, and it's really hard, and it's really lonely, because you work by yourself. I didn't like it at all. [But] the result of it has paid me back in spades."
Allen added: "I got so much joy out of being in those movies, and it delighted young kids. You can't put that in words. Buzz and Woody have become part of American kid lore, and they deserve a third one. They deserve a fourth one. I love these two buddies that care about each other. I like that project so much. I ended up becoming friends with Hanks over it, and that alone is worth it. He's a sweet, wonderful guy. So it's tough work. It's not fun. But I've been suggesting to all parties that they should put whatever their problems are behind them and get on with this. I don't think [Toy Story] belongs to Disney or Pixar. I think it belongs to children and families. It's a great story, and it's not abusive or abrasive or questionable at all. It's about love and caring. I can't oversell how much that story has meant to me, and I think it deserves [a third film]."
Farrell: No 007, Please
rish actor Colin Farrell told the Reuters news service that he is not interested in becoming the next James Bond.
Farrell, 28, was asked about a suggestion by the outgoing James Bond, Pierce Brosnan, last week that he get the job because "he'll eat the head off them all."
But Farrell feigned outrage at the thought of becoming the sixth James Bond in the series, joking he was shocked by Brosnan's suggestion and adding that, if he got the job, he just might employ an Irish accent to confuse fans of the suave British agent, Reuters reported. "The idea of me playing James Bond got into the press, but it is not true," Farrell told the news service. "I would not like to do it. ... They should find someone the audience has no history with."
Finding a successor to Brosnan as agent 007, the character who has sold nearly $4 billion in tickets since Dr. No hit the screens 42 years ago, has been the subject of intense speculation for months, the news service reported.
Campbell GoldenEyes Bond 21
artin Campbell (GoldenEye) is in talks to direct another James Bond movie, the 21st installment in MGM's spy series, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
MGM recently said the Bond film will not arrive in theaters next November, as originally scheduled, but the project would be on track to meet a 2006 release date should Campbell come aboard, the trade paper reported.
Campbell is filming the sequel Legend of Zorro for Columbia Pictures and introduced Pierce Brosnan to audiences as James Bond in GoldenEye. Brosnan has said that he will not be returning as Bond, so Campbell could find himself introducing yet another actor in the role. Neither MGM nor producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson have commented on casting plans for the new installment, the trade paper reported. Recently, Julian McMahon and Colin Farrell have said they don't want to play 007; other rumored candidates for the role include Hugh Jackman.
The as-yet-untitled Bond 21 is written by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, the duo who contributed to both Die Another Day and The World Is Not Enough. It is said to contain more of the elements of earlier Bond films than the more recent effects-packed pictures, the trade paper reported.
McMahon Passes On 007?
he Australian Sunday Herald Sun newspaper reported a rumor that Nip/Tuck star Julian McMahon has turned down the role of James Bond because the 007 movies would conflict with his TV schedule, according to a report on the Moviehole Web site.
Herald Sun columnist Fiona Byrne quoted McMahon's mother, Lady Sonia McMahon, who reportedly spoke openly about her son's plans to guests at the Melbourne Cup's Moet & Chandon marquee.
Sonia McMahon revealed that Julian had "been sounded out about taking on the role. Unfortunately, he had to decline the offer, having recently signed a long-term deal with his hit [F/X] TV drama series Nip/Tuck," the newspaper reported.
Alba Toplines Sonic
essica Alba will get $3 million to star in and produce the Regency Enterprises SF drama Sonic, written by newcomer Kirsten Elms, Variety reported.
Sonic is set in the not-too-distant future and follows a young waitress who dies suddenly, but is brought back to life by her lover, the trade paper reported.
Alba (Fantastic Four) and her Thruline Entertainment manager Chris Henze have been developing the project with producers John Davis and Wyck Godfrey after reading it as a writing sample for another project earlier this year, the trade paper reported. Alba and Henze will executive produce, while Davis and Godfrey will produce.
The former Dark Angel star recently completed the 2005 releases Sin City for director Robert Rodriguez at Dimension Films and Into the Blue for director John Stockwell at MGM, the trade paper reported. Fantastic Four is currently in production.
Leven To Write Steel
reamWorks has tapped Jeremy Leven (The Notebook) to write the robot-boxing movie Real Steel and is in talks with Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines) to direct, Variety reported.
DreamWorks launched the project last year when it bought Dan Gilroy's spec script for Robert Zemeckis' ImageMovers company to produce. DreamWorks-based ImageMovers, Don Murphy and Rick Benatar are producing, the trade paper reported.
Real Steel takes place in a future in which 2,000-pound robots resembling humans battle in a boxing ring. The story revolves around a promoter who takes his fighter to the championships, the trade paper reported.
EverQuest II Ships
ony Online Entertainment announced that EverQuest II, its massively multiplayer online role-playing game sequel, has shipped to North American retail stores.
EverQuest II is the highly anticipated follow-up to EverQuest, the longest-running 3-D MMORPG in North America.
More than 100,000 people have already pre-ordered EverQuest II, the company said. The CD and DVD versions of the game carry a suggested retail price of $49.99 and include the game, an in-game item and an exclusive in-box item. Limited quantities of the EverQuest II collector's edition DVD are available at $89.99.
Briefly Noted
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Moviehole reported that Derek Jacobi (Gosford Park) has been cast as the main villain in Screen Gems' upcoming vampire sequel film Underworld 2, to be directed by Len Wiseman and coming to theaters on Nov. 23, 2005. Jacobi will reportedly play Marcus.
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Yahoo! Movies has posted a new trailer for Jennifer Garner's upcoming comic-book movie Elektra, which opens Jan. 14, 2005.
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Comedy Central has ordered a second season of Drawn Together, its animated "reality" series in which cartoon archetypes make sport of reality television, Zap2it reported. The new season, consisting of 15 episodes, will premiere next year.
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Pixar chief executive Steve Jobs told investors that the studio is considering moving its future animated movie releases to summer from the holidays after comparing Finding Nemo's success with that of Monsters, Inc., Variety reported.
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The official Star Wars Web site has posted the first official image of the villainous General Grievous from the upcoming Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith, which opens May 19, 2005.
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Animation icon Don Bluth, Walt Disney's model for Alice in Wonderland and a Courage, the Cowardly Dog voice actor have been tapped to receive top honors at the 32nd annual Annie Awards, to be presented Jan. 30, 2005, by ASIFA-Hollywood, the International Animated Film Society, at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, Calif., according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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CBS' Joan of Arcadia has lost more than a quarter of its audience of 18- to 49-year-old viewers, the demographic most prized by advertisers, possibly because the series' storylines have turned darker this season, TV Guide Online reported.
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Retailer Target will launch a humorous TV commercial featuring Star Wars villain Darth Vader and supermodel Heidi Klum, and The Force.net has posted a preview.
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Actor Jim Belushi has filed a $1 million lawsuit against his next-door neighbor, former Batman Catwoman Julie Newmar, charging that she spied on him, destroyed his property and called him names behind his back, the Reuters news service reported.
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The Dark Horizons Web site has posted an image of the teaser poster for Tim Burton's upcoming Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, featuring Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka. The film opens in July 2005.
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Ain't It Cool News reported a rumor that director Francis Lawrence (Constantine) will helm I Am Legend, the long-proposed movie written by The Cell's Mark Protosevich and based on Richard Matheson's beloved SF novel.
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Shrek 2 sold a record 12.1 million DVD/VHS copies during its first three days of release, adding roughly $185 million to DreamWorks, TV Guide Online reported.
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The Polar Express director Robert Zemeckis was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Nov. 5, Variety reported.
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